In the firelight, everyone finally saw the true face of the "Dog Demon Leader."
It stood nearly twice a man's height, its body covered in steel-needle-like gray-black bristles. Its muscles bulged with explosive power.
Its head was neither quite dog nor quite human, with a jutting muzzle and bared fangs. Drool dripped constantly from its mouth, smoking as it ate into the ground.
A pair of emerald-green demon eyes, huge as copper bells, fixed on the Patrol Bureau party and Yang Ning at their head.
Its eyes brimmed with cruelty, greed, and a trace of... cunning intelligence, as though it had shed its beastly nature and become a demon.
A suffocating, bloody Demon Qi swirled around it.
Its Qi and blood surged, and it made no effort to hide its powerful strength.
Yang Ning sized it up in secret, using the Secret Artifact to peer at it.
The beast was no match for Wang Han, much less Gong Tian. But it had unmistakably reached the threshold of Bone Forging, having just broken into Hidden Force! It was far stronger than ordinary Tendon Changing martial artists!
Behind it, two or three slightly smaller Dog Demons emerged slowly. They were leaner and tougher than the ones they had encountered earlier, baring their teeth and growling a low warning.
"So they really were here. Those beasts."
Yang Ning's eyes narrowed, and his hand slowly settled on the hilt of Storm Blade.
Tiger Demon Force surged quietly through his body, rumbling low.
"It's been so long since I encountered so many martial artists with Qi-Blood Mutation.
The blood and qi of human martial artists still smell as fragrant as ever..."
The voice came from the Dog Demon Leader, hoarse and distorted, like sand scraping against stone.
It could already force out a few human words! Its intelligence was indeed no small thing.
"Are you the 'Dog Demon Chief' who's been eating people and taking lives?"
Yang Ning took a step forward, his voice cold and emotionless behind the White Jade Mask.
"So what if I am? I didn't come looking for you, yet here you are, delivering yourselves to my door.
Just as well. Just as well.
This doesn't break my agreement with them. If meat comes right to my door, you can't blame me for taking a bite.
Gong Tian isn't here. You're all food!"
The Dog Demon Leader's emerald eyes blazed with vicious light. As the final word left its mouth, its enormous body suddenly sprang into motion!
Without warning, it was as fast as a black bolt of lightning!
It immediately locked onto Yang Ning, the strongest presence. Growling, it drove off the ground with its hind legs and pounced, its speed astonishing, claws reaching straight for Yang Ning's heart!
It moved so fast that an afterimage lingered where it had stood!
At the same time, the elite Dog Demons behind it roared and pounced on Qian Zhong, Liu Qian, and the others, aiming to keep them occupied and prevent them from helping.
"Just what I wanted!"
"Loose!"
Yang Ning let out a clear, ringing shout.
Almost at the same moment, bowstrings twanged several times in the darkness on either side!
Seven or eight specially made armor-piercing crossbow bolts tore through the air, peppering the Spirit Monster's head, chest, and other vital spots!
The Spirit Monster clearly hadn't expected an ambush. With a roar, it swatted two bolts away, but four or five still sank deep into its flesh!
One shot by Wang Biao struck it squarely in the shoulder, piercing several inches deep!
Yet its ferocity remained undiminished, and it kept charging straight for Yang Ning.
Yang Ning moved forward instead of retreating. His left foot slammed into the ground, hairline cracks splitting the paving stones. His waist and hips twisted, his spine cracking like a dragon's joints as his stored power erupted.
He didn't draw his blade. Instead, he drew his right fist back to his waist. Dark-red Tiger Demon Force wrapped around his knuckles, forming the faint, sinister shape of a tiger's head. He punched!
The killing move of Tiger Soul Fist—Tiger Demon Mountain Crushing!
Fist and claw collided!
"BOOM!!!"
A thunderous crash exploded through the narrow alley!
A violent wave of air swept out from the two of them, making the torches flicker and sending dust billowing.
Yang Ning swayed slightly, fine cracks appearing in the bluestone beneath his feet.
The Dog Demon Leader, however, staggered two steps back, pain shooting through its claws.
A flicker of astonishment crossed its emerald eyes. It clearly hadn't expected this human martial artist's strength and power to be so domineering and savage!
"Am I the demon beast, or is he? How can he be even stronger than me?"
It couldn't help wondering aloud.
But it didn't know that Yang Ning's physical strength had grown in step with his cultivation. Under the Destiny System, he had become more and more terrifying.
This was growth that couldn't be shown in numbers. Yang Ning's Martial Saint Body was growing ever more mature.
"Roar!"
Fury and shock surging through it, the Dog Demon Leader unleashed its Demon Qi, Hidden Force churning.
Its claws swept through the air, trailing black Baleful Intent winds. Layer upon layer of claw shadows closed in on Yang Ning's vital points.
Yang Ning's figure drifted like willow fluff in the wind, darting and dodging through the endless claw shadows with nimble, uncanny steps.
The White Jade Mask kept him perfectly calm. Every strike from the Dog Demon Leader—the path of each claw, shifts in force, fluctuations in its Demon Qi—was reflected clearly in his mind.
At the same time, his left hand quietly brushed a string of unremarkable wooden beads around his right wrist.
The Secret Artifact, Ghost Abacus!
A glimmer flashed, and a cool sensation flowed into his mind.
The Dog Demon Leader's seemingly frenzied, chaotic attacks became clearer and slower in his eyes.
Those apparently haphazard attacks were rapidly being analyzed in Yang Ning's mind.
Soon, Yang Ning had figured out the Dog Demon's attack patterns.
Its strikes seemed chaotic, but there was a pattern to them. Every so often, tiny "nodes" and "gaps" appeared as its power shifted.
Those were the moments when its Hidden Force weakened—the moments to strike a killing blow.
Now!
A sharp glint flashed in Yang Ning's eyes. At last, Storm Blade, which had remained sheathed until then, rang out with a clear dragon's cry!
"Shing—!"
There was no flourish. With the force of the Howling Wind Blade Technique behind it, the blade slipped with pinpoint precision into a "node" where the flow of Qi and blood had momentarily slowed.
Following the weakest path calculated by Ghost Abacus, it sliced straight toward the Dog Demon Leader's wrist!
Wind Howling Blade Technique—Wind Splitting Style!
His great Blade Intent stirred. The air shrieked wherever the blade passed!
"Splurt!"
Black blood sprayed!
The Dog Demon Leader howled in agony. One of its forelegs was nearly severed at the wrist, left attached by only a strip of flesh!
The slash, infused with Tiger Demon Force and the wind-blade energy of the Wind Howling Blade Technique, drove into the wound and ravaged its demonic body!
"Damn you! Damn the Patrol Bureau!"
The pain fully unleashed its savagery, and Demon Qi poured from it in a frenzy.
It opened its gaping maw and spat a concentrated stream of foul-smelling, murky dark-green liquid straight at Yang Ning's face!
This was its trump-card demonic art!
The stench made people dizzy even before the poison arrived.
An ordinary person would have been poisoned and lost the ability to fight in an instant.
But Yang Ning had the White Jade Mask!
A cool breath instantly shielded his nose, mouth, and spiritual platform. The poisonous, baleful energy couldn't penetrate at all.
He shifted sideways like a phantom, narrowly avoiding the poison. It grazed past him and ate a gaping hole through an earthen wall behind him, hissing as it corroded the dirt.
"This ends now."
Yang Ning spoke softly. The Dog Demon Leader's Demon Qi had briefly ebbed after it spat its poison. Its old strength was spent, and its new strength had yet to rise. Seizing the moment, he unleashed every last bit of Tiger Demon Force within him!
His spine rose like a great dragon lifting its head. His Qi, blood, and strength twisted together, pouring in their entirety into Storm Blade.
The gray-blue blade hummed and trembled as if it had come alive. Dark-red Tiger Demon Force intertwined with the razor-sharp wind-blade energy, faintly forming the shape of a roaring, ferocious tiger!
The Secret Artifact's enhancement. His power unleashed without reserve.
This strike gathered all of his current cultivation and techniques.
"Wind Howling Blade Technique—Wind Splitting Style!"
The blade's energy descended without a sound. Only a thin line, woven from gray and blue, streaked across the night sky.
It flashed past the Dog Demon Leader's horrified emerald eyes, past its neck as its frantically swelling Demon Qi rose to defend it...
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