Eight-Armed Demon Subduing Stance

"Good timing."

The burly monk charging straight at him had one half of his black face darken even further.

The other half, white as it was, seemed to glow.

He suddenly raised his head, dragged the Crescent Moon Monk's Spade behind him, then swung it up from his back with a whoosh, smashing the air into a crackling uproar.

[Drunkenly Assaulting the Heavenly Gate Stance]

This man was clearly exceedingly experienced in battle.

At a glance, he saw that Lu Wu-bing's attacks were incredibly fast.

Against an opponent who relied on swift swordsmanship to win, the best method was to control them, prevent them from closing in, and use strength to overcome finesse.

As his staff came crashing down, the leaves, dirt, and stones flying through the air all burst into dust, spreading like clouds and mist to envelop the seven feet directly before him.

At the same time, his charging footwork suddenly changed. His left foot stepped right, his right foot stepped left, his shoulders and hips twisted, and before the downward-swinging monk's spade could land, it had already transformed into the [Dragon Stirring the Sea Stance].

The enormous Crescent Moon Monk's Spade, as thick as a child's arm, was somehow swung into layer upon layer of afterimages, one staff becoming eight...

It whipped up a vicious gale, seeking to grind Lu Wu-bing's charging body into pieces.

"It's the Eight-Armed Demon Subduing Staff Technique. You can't block it head-on."

Back when Ouyang Lan was on the mountain, although she had not been particularly diligent in her cultivation,

she had a lively nature and loved pestering her father and mother to tell stories. She knew a great deal about the martial world of north and south, its various extinction arts, and the experts of every school.

Yin-Yang Monk, ranked seventy-ninth on the Black List, was known by the saying, [Upon Seeing the Yin-Yang Face, Life and Death Are No Longer Yours to Command]. He was the most crazed in his actions.

His cultivation was not especially high, merely Fourth Rank. Among the underworld experts of the Hengduan Mountains, he was not considered top-tier.

Ordinarily, he could not have earned such a great reputation, much less reached as high as seventy-ninth on the Black List.

But this man's temperament was far too twisted and mad.

He was several degrees more vicious than others.

Born with a yin-yang face, he could not bear the strange looks of others.

As long as anyone looked at him one glance too many, he would kill them.

And he would not merely kill one or two. Anyone who fled, begged for mercy, flattered him, or angrily rebuked him—all of them had to die.

In his eyes, all those people were mocking him.

For this reason,

ordinary decent families would rather encounter a ferocious expert of the demonic sects than run into this madman.

Experts of the demonic sects, at the very least, acted with some restraint. They would not kill poor commoners at the bottom rung simply because they had nothing better to do.

At most, they regarded them as ants. If they accidentally stepped on one, then so be it.

If they were truly a little farther away, they would not deliberately go and step on it.

But this Yin-Yang Monk would seek them out to crush them dead, then piss on the anthill too. He would not be satisfied until they were dead.

By rights, a person like this should long since have been eliminated by some righteous hero who could not stand the sight of him.

Yet his strength was extraordinarily formidable.

Not only had he cultivated Mingwang Temple's [Eight-Armed Vajra Method], forging Diamond Force that united inner and outer strength, making his frontal killing power exceptionally strong,

he was also highly skilled in a set of [Three-Bodies Demon Subduing Staff Technique], practicing it until wind could not penetrate it and rain could not soak it, wielding the massive staff as though embroidering flowers...

Even against an ordinary Third Rank expert, he could exchange a few moves.

Especially since, though he was vicious, he was not brainless.

Whenever he encountered someone with backing, he never provoked them.

And if he accidentally did provoke one, he would immediately flee...

As a result, after all these years, his vicious reputation grew ever greater, yet he still lived freely and happily.

Ouyang Lan remembered that whenever her father and mother spoke of him, their faces were filled with disgust.

Trash like this was a cockroach crawling over the instep—one flick, and it vanished.

There was no need to go deliberately looking for it.

Yet if you did not seek it out, it still left an unpleasant feeling in your heart.

That was the kind of thing he was—hard to deal with.

That was simply how matters stood.

Upper Third Rank experts all possessed extraordinary status and standing. None of them had the leisure to specifically search for a cockroach like this just to crush it to death.

Besides, in the eyes of Upper Third Rank experts, he was not anything remarkable. They could simply kill him if they encountered him.

But for disciples like them, who had yet to leave their masters, he was an evil tiger blocking the road, a threshold they could not cross.

"Dragon Stirring the Sea Stance?"

Lu Wu-bing's mind was now filled with frenzied, violent killing intent. For a moment, it had clouded his thoughts. Even as he was secretly shocked, he was also somewhat anxious.

He had always known that this inherited divine sword art, [Primal Spirit Swordplay], had powerful side effects, but he had never expected them to be this severe.

When he had suddenly erupted just now, empowered by that strange fluctuation within his body that pierced through his spirit, he had thrust his sword through the head of Song Zhong, the [Peaceful Axe].

An incomparably exhilarating thrill had actually arisen in his heart.

And without control, he had opened his mouth and inhaled, drawing in that invisible fluctuation within the bloody mist.

As the fluctuation entered his mind, his spirit felt ever more vigorous. The blazing flame of violence was like hot oil poured onto fire.

With a boom, it burned until his mind grew muddled...

Even his gaze upon the surrounding scenery became hazy and indistinct.

At the same time, heat surged through his entire body, through every limb and bone, and even his blood began to boil.

The light and shadows before his eyes changed again.

It was as if heaven and earth were no longer normal. These people, these scenes, were all abstract images.

The three clusters of light and shadow that fell into his eyes were three steaming meat buns.

"Hungry!"

A groan rose from the depths of his heart.

Relying only on his remaining rationality, Lu Wu-bing still understood that he should charge toward the plumpest, most succulent meat bun.

He completely ignored the opponent's fierce, unstoppable monk's spade attack.

The eight staff shadows whipped up a gale, yet in his eyes, they seemed to contain many openings.

Lu Wu-bing's body flickered. With another step, he had already passed through the staff shadows. His sword flashed like a rainbow, already stabbing toward Yin-Yang Monk's throat from three inches away.

The blade shook the air into a faint rumble of thunder.

"Eh!"

Yin-Yang Monk Deng Yuan's savage eyes widened. His charging steps shifted lightly outward, his body half-twisted into the [Looking Back at the Moon] stance...

The monk's spade that had just lashed out like a scorpion's tail moved with the turning of his body.

Using the horizontal sweep, he flipped the staff upward and struck directly at Lu Wu-bing's lower body.

After all, he was strong and powerfully built, while the monk's spade was a heavy weapon. No matter where it hit, it would inflict a fatal, grievous wound, so there was no need to aim for a vital point.

At the same time, Deng Yuan drew a deep breath, his throat suddenly swelling as a half-foot blaze of vital energy surged wildly and blasted outward.

He was throwing himself into the trap.

He had spotted Lu Wu-bing's weakness: his cultivation was not high, and his inner force was not strong.

So long as he could block this unbelievably fast thrusting sword strike for even a moment, he could kill his enemy in a single blow.

"It's very hard to break through."

Lu Wu-bing forcibly suppressed his madness, only letting the killing intent run free as he attacked by instinct.

When his sword stabbed into that half-foot blaze of light, it was like piercing into a surging, roaring flood.

The sword tip trembled and bounced, numbing his palm until he could barely hold the hilt.

The blade-like gale had already sliced toward his lower abdomen and Dantian.

Before the opponent's attack had even landed, his spiritual senses were already warning him that in the next instant, the crescent blade of the monk's spade might cut him in two from bottom to top.

"Attack what the enemy must save."

As that thought flashed through his mind, Lu Wu-bing's body retreated a step like a ghost.

Skimming past the howling crescent blade, he darted diagonally forward. With a hiss, his sword stabbed again at Yin-Yang Monk's left eye.

Staff shadows rose around him like mountains.

Yet his body came and went like lightning.

There was only one sword, thrusting back and forth in swift succession.

The thunderous cry of the sword rang out in a chaotic, rhythmless clamor.

Looking again at Yin-Yang Monk, only a tiny, nearly invisible streak of blood remained on his neck.

Several pale marks had also been cut across his face. They looked dangerous, but had in truth only grazed the skin.

The reason was simple.

Whenever Lu Wu-bing's swift sword struck, the half-foot [Diamond Force] erupting through Deng Yuan's body would intercept and batter it away first.

Either it knocked the sword tip off course, or it jolted the blade crooked.

Thus, Lu Wu-bing's fierce [White Rainbow Pierces the Sun], once it neared its target, would slow by half, greatly reducing its actual threat.

Senior Sister Xiaolan was right. When facing a Fourth Rank expert, even breaking through the opponent's protective energy is difficult, much less instantly killing them.

Once I'm dragged into a contest of cultivation and techniques, having trained only this one thrusting sword move leaves me stretched thin. Especially now that he has seen through my sword path and is dodging more and more easily.

On the contrary, Lu Wu-bing also discovered

that the opponent's staff shadows had begun weaving a net.

Several times, the Crescent Moon Monk's Spade swept past right against his skin.

The clothes on his body had already been torn apart by the force of the wind, scraps of cloth fluttering through the air.