Eating Them Clean!

His five right fingers suddenly curled, his knuckles bulging as they formed the shape of a dragon claw. Golden True Qi poured madly into his fingertips like molten gold, hissing as it forced out half-foot-long sharp gleams, cold and dazzling.

In a flash, the golden claw lunged straight at Wang Xuan's face with the force of thunder. Its claw wind was as sharp as blades, rippling even the air. If this strike landed solidly, not only would his entire face be torn apart—half his skull might be ripped off alive!

Facing this lethal strike, Wang Xuan did not retreat even half a step. His expression remained unchanged; instead, blazing battle intent ignited in his eyes.

With a shake of his left arm, his sleeve flapped wildly as he thrust his hand directly toward the golden dragon claw and pressed forward!

True Qi surged in his palm, faint dark radiance flowing within it. Before the golden claw could touch his skin, two utterly different forces collided in midair with a muffled blast, throwing the surrounding airflow into complete chaos.

"Energy Absorption Technique!" Wang Xuan shouted.

Before his palm even touched the other man's fingertips, an irresistible suction force erupted. Like Taotie swallowing the sea, it swept outward, dragging the air into rapid spirals that howled mournfully.

The dragon claw, packed with golden True Qi, was caught off guard and yanked by the suction force. Its direction veered half an inch, barely grazing past Wang Xuan's ear. The fierce wind it carried scorched the skin behind his ear, while several strands of hair were sliced off by the Qi and drifted to the ground.

But the force wrapped around that dragon claw was simply too fierce. The Energy Absorption Technique could only barely deflect it; it could not stop its forward momentum at all!

The five gleaming golden fingers suddenly closed in. With a crisp "crack," they clamped down on Wang Xuan's wrist like iron-forged pincers, their knuckles turning bluish white from exertion.

The fingers tightened wildly, their force like the crushing weight of a thousand tons. The half-foot-long sharp golden True Qi at the fingertips pierced straight through Wang Xuan's skin without obstruction, stabbing viciously into his flesh and burrowing through his meridians toward the gaps between his bones.

Piercing agony shot up his arm and straight into his mind. Veins bulged at Wang Xuan's temples, and a muffled grunt escaped his throat, yet he still clenched his palm tightly. The suction of the Energy Absorption Technique did not weaken in the slightest as True Qi and golden light tangled and collided violently around his wrist, hissing continuously.

Even with his wrist tightly clamped and agony drilling into his bones, Wang Xuan's expression did not change in the slightest. The battle intent in his eyes only burned fiercer, without a trace of panic.

His right hand moved like lightning, brushing across his waist so swiftly that it left only an afterimage.

"Clang!"

A clear, impassioned sound of a blade leaving its sheath shook the surroundings. It was like a dragon's roar splitting the heavens, like clashing gold and iron—piercing, yet bright.

A long blade glowing with a faint blood-red hue abruptly left its sheath. Its blade was snowy white and gleaming, yet an almost imperceptible halo of blood-colored light lingered around it. The instant its edge appeared, the world around them seemed to brighten, while a chill pierced straight to the bone.

The blade light was unimaginably fast, like lightning that could not be caught. It was so swift that its shape could not be seen; there was only a blur before the eyes, and that snowy flash descended like the Heavenly River pouring down from above, cleaving straight toward the opponent's gleaming golden forehead!

Divine Blade Slash!

The blade wind wailed like ghosts, carrying the ruthless resolve to perish together as it chopped down. It sought to split that golden head in two with One Blade Splits All. There was no buffer, no retreat. Once the blade was drawn, there could be no regret—such was the true essence of Divine Blade Slash!

"Clang!"

A tremendous crash exploded, making their eardrums buzz. It was like a thousand-ton hammer striking a massive bronze bell, dull and tyrannical, its echoes lingering throughout the area.

The Blood Blade, carrying the force of a thousand tons, slashed viciously onto the opponent's gleaming golden head. The instant its edge touched the scalp, an immense force violently bounced it away. Wang Xuan's blade-wielding arm was flung backward, and the web between his thumb and forefinger went numb.

Wang Xuan's pupils contracted slightly. With eagle-sharp eyes, he clearly saw that the blade had forcibly cut a wound over an inch long into that golden scalp. A thread of crimson blood slowly seeped out and ran down the man's cheek, forming a glaring contrast with his golden skin.

Who could have expected the unstoppable Divine Blade Slash to do no more than barely cut through the opponent's scalp?

When the Blood Blade struck his skull, it did not meet the smooth, effortless resistance Wang Xuan had imagined. Instead, an ear-piercing scraping sound rang out. The sensation was astonishingly hard, comparable to ten-thousand-year black iron. The blade trembled and could not advance even another inch. A rebounding force rushed up the blade and into Wang Xuan's arm, numbing his fingers and nearly making him lose his grip on the Blood Blade.

The Grandmaster Player opposite him still wore the same dull expression, as though it was not his own head that had been struck. Yet the pupils in those once-numb eyes suddenly contracted. Divine Blade Slash had been too fast—so fast that he had not even had time for the instinctive thought of dodging.

Although his skull, hard as black iron, had blocked the blade, the fierce blade intent and tremendous force of Divine Blade Slash still traveled through it and shook his brain. Intense dizziness instantly swept through his body. His consciousness became a muddled mess, Chaos itself, and even the scene before him began to blur. He could no longer maintain complete awareness.

Yet his body completely disregarded his disordered consciousness and moved uncontrollably. It was the contract's power forcibly driving him. Even though his brain had nearly shut down from the blow, even though his mind was muddled, the golden dragon claw gripping Wang Xuan's wrist suddenly tightened. The golden True Qi at its fingertips surged again, stabbing viciously deeper through the wound. At the same time, his other free hand instinctively formed a dragon claw and struck straight for Wang Xuan's chest with fierce force.

Wang Xuan's right hand still gripped the Blood Blade tightly. The blade that had just been knocked back by the rebounding force had yet to retract, and the numb swelling in his wrist spread up his arm, scattering all his strength. He had no time to withdraw his blade and block this sudden attack.

At the critical moment, he simply stopped forcing it. His wrist loosened, and the Blood Blade slipped from his hand, crashing heavily onto the ground with a "clang," scattering fragments of stone.

Then his five right fingers suddenly spread, his palm facing forward. Without the slightest hesitation, he pressed it directly toward the howling golden dragon claw.

"Bang!"

Palm and dragon claw collided violently, and a muffled explosion erupted. Two completely different forces raged and clashed madly at the point of impact. Violent airwaves swept in every direction, whipping up dust and making clothes flap fiercely.

A savage, tyrannical force surged from the opponent's dragon claw like rushing thunder through his arm. Wang Xuan's entire arm went sore and numb, his muscles twitching beyond his control, while even his bones gave off faint, dull creaks of strain.

He gritted his teeth and held the golden dragon claw back with his right hand. His fingertips suddenly exerted force, and his five fingers clamped viciously around the opponent's wrist in return. His knuckles turned white, and his grip was so powerful that it nearly sank into the other man's flesh.

The characteristics of the Throat-Locking Grappling Hand erupted at once. A thread of bone-chilling True Qi overflowed from his palm and slithered inward along the opponent's fingers like a venomous snake, attempting to penetrate his meridians.

But the opponent's gleaming golden skin was thick as armor and indestructible. No matter how the frigid True Qi drilled and pierced, it was firmly blocked outside. It could not find even the slightest crack and could only roam futilely over the skin's surface, making faint hissing sounds.

Instead, the opponent's fingers tightened further, their force piling up like rolling boulders. The sharp golden True Qi at his fingertips was like countless fine needles, drilling viciously through Wang Xuan's wound and into the gaps between his bones. Every inch deeper brought an additional measure of piercing pain, stabbing straight into his marrow.

"Creak, creak—"

A teeth-grinding sound of bones rubbing together suddenly came from Wang Xuan's left hand.

The Lesser Vajra Indestructible Body he had activated held on for less than three breaths before the bones in his left hand began to twist and deform. His five fingers were squeezed tightly together by the opponent's dragon claw. Beneath the skin, broken bone fragments scraped and crushed against one another, producing fine cracking sounds. The sharp True Qi seized the chance to burrow even deeper, making veins bulge at his temples as cold sweat slid down from his sideburns.

Wave after wave of excruciating pain surged into his mind like a tide, every pulse carrying a tearing agony.

A thought suddenly struck him. Though the Energy Absorption Technique could absorb power from a distance, the closer the distance and the larger the area of contact, the stronger its suction became, allowing its output to reach its peak.

The tighter the opponent gripped him now, the more closely they were in contact—and the greater his absorption efficiency would be!

An enormous suction force erupted from his left wrist and poured fiercely inward through the dragon claw gripping him.

Then an unbelievably pure stream of True Qi, mixed with scalding blood essence, surged continuously through the opponent's fingers and palm into Wang Xuan's body like floodwaters released from a dam.

At the same time, fragmented martial insights separated from that blood essence. Like scattered pieces, they slowly assembled in his mind, gradually forming the outline of a Divine Arts method.

"Hah... hah!"

His blood essence and True Qi were forcibly drained away. Though he had long since fallen into deep unconsciousness under the immense force and blade intent of Divine Blade Slash, his brain completely shut down, his body still could not help releasing unconscious groans of pain.

During the brief, lightning-fast exchange between the two, the five Brocade Guards who had been flung away by the battle's shockwaves met entirely different fates.

Three of them had no room to cushion themselves and slammed directly into the tavern's wooden walls. With a "boom," they smashed three holes through them and flew out like kites with broken strings, crashing heavily onto the street outside. Their landing produced dull thuds, and their bodies stiffened without moving again. They were clearly dead.

The other two were luckier. They were not thrown out of the tavern but instead crashed heavily into the load-bearing pillars on the second floor. After a muffled "bang," both spat out large mouthfuls of crimson blood that splattered across the weathered wooden columns in a shocking display.

One of them went limp, his head tilting aside and his eyes rolling white. He fainted on the spot without even a groan.

The other barely managed to stay upright. One hand clutched his chest tightly as blood seeped continuously between his fingers. His face was pale as paper, his lips bluish, and even his breathing trembled. With difficulty, he raised his head and swept his gaze over Wang Xuan and the Grandmaster Player, who were locked in a fierce, unresolved battle nearby. The force around the two men raged like two rampaging beasts, their momentum terrifying.

He staggered toward one of the holes smashed through the wall, trembling as he pulled a cylindrical object from his robes. Without the slightest hesitation, he yanked hard on the fuse at its top.

The instant the fuse was pulled, a dazzling flare erupted and shot straight into the sky with a shrill scream, tearing through the air above the tavern.

The flare exploded high in the air with a thunderous blast that shook the clouds. It could be clearly heard from every corner of Yuhang City. Pedestrians on the streets and distant vendors were instantly startled by the sudden explosion, stopping to look up.

The blast also startled Wang Xuan, who was fully focused on absorbing power. He had been using the Energy Absorption Technique to devour the opponent's True Qi and blood essence while concentrating on sorting through the power swelling inside him, afraid that one misstep would cause the enormous energy to backlash against him. The sudden thunderous sound and firelight overhead made his eyes turn sharp.

There was no time for delicate work anymore.

Energy Absorption Technique, maximum output!

Terrifying suction erupted wildly from the points where both of his hands touched the opponent, like two bottomless invisible vortexes spinning faster and faster. He no longer deliberately sorted through anything, instead violently draining everything from the opponent's body—True Qi, blood essence, life force, and even those incomplete fragments of martial insight—all of it poured into Wang Xuan at once, unstoppable and without pause.

At that moment, the Grandmaster Player, whose brain had shut down in deep unconsciousness, slowly regained light in his eyes. His formerly blank, unconscious gaze gradually cleared. The agony of his True Qi and life force being crazily drained forcibly scattered the unconsciousness caused by Divine Blade Slash, allowing him to barely break free from his shut-down state.

"Energy Absorption Technique... paired with the Indestructible Diamond Divine Skill... very good!"

He spoke with difficulty. His voice was still hoarse, but clearer than the unconscious breathy sounds from before. Every word seemed to be squeezed through clenched teeth, carrying indescribable strain. His chest heaved violently, showing that he was enduring extreme pain.

"Unfortunately... I... cannot tell you..."

A trace of urgency flashed in his eyes. He frowned deeply, as though there was critically important information he wanted to tell Wang Xuan. His lips moved rapidly, but when the words reached his mouth, the contract prevented him from saying anything.

Wang Xuan looked at him and nodded.

"I understand."

The golden radiance around the Grandmaster Player visibly dimmed, shifting from blinding gold to dark gold, then pale gold. Fine cracks began appearing on the golden right claw gripping Wang Xuan's left hand. Crack, crack. More and more fissures spread across it like porcelain about to shatter, while the golden sharpness on his left dragon claw also crumbled away inch by inch.

In contrast, Wang Xuan's left hand, which had been crushed out of shape and suffered shattered bones, began to recover rapidly under the nourishment of the surging blood essence pouring into him. The bruising beneath his skin faded, and the broken bones were wrapped in blood essence. A numb, itching sensation spread through them as they healed.

As one declined, the other rose.

The suction of the Energy Absorption Technique drained away the opponent's final thread of True Qi. His golden skin completely dimmed and returned to ordinary flesh color. Then it began to shrivel and lose its luster. As the last traces of True Qi and blood essence vanished, his entire body began to crumble inch by inch, turning into a pile of ash.

"The maximum realm of the Energy Absorption Technique was indeed tyrannical. Draining marrow and sucking bones was not enough to describe it. It was simply... eating people!"