Azure Wood Body's Margin for Error!

Scarface's long blade came at a tricky angle, aimed straight for Lu Heng's lower body. Scorpion's broadsword, meanwhile, came down heavily from above.

Lu Heng shifted his footing and barely avoided Scorpion's blade, but Scarface's attack followed a beat later.

Rip!

A slash tore open the outer thigh of Lu Heng's trousers, leaving a bloody mark on his skin.

A sharp pain shot through him, but Lu Heng had no time to cry out. He spun and punched at Scarface's face.

"Too slow!"

Scarface gave a vicious grin, tilted his head aside to evade, and drove his knee hard into Lu Heng's abdomen.

Bang!

The knee strike landed squarely in Lu Heng's stomach.

Lu Heng let out a muffled grunt. His stomach churned violently as he staggered backward.

"Haha! I told you, he's a greenhorn! He's got all that Dou Qi but doesn't even know how to fight!"

Scorpion laughed and pressed his advantage without mercy. His broadsword swept across in a wide arc toward Lu Heng's waist.

Yet the scene of Lu Heng being cut in half never came.

Though Lu Heng had been knocked back, he steadied himself after only a few steps.

He rubbed his stomach, an odd expression appearing on his face.

"Doesn't seem to hurt that much."

The Azure Wood Body granted him tremendous vitality and resilience. The strength of his physical body had long surpassed that of ordinary Dou Zhes at the same level.

That knee strike, enough to leave an ordinary Dou Zhe unable to fight, felt to him like being bumped by a brat.

"Again!"

Excitement flashed through Lu Heng's eyes.

Over the next several dozen seconds, dull sounds of hand-to-hand combat rang through the woods.

Lu Heng was like a monster evolving at high speed.

At first, he could only take the blows passively, getting hit seven times out of every ten exchanges.

But gradually, he began to see the trajectories of the two men's movements.

Before Scorpion swung his blade, his shoulder would dip slightly.

Scarface liked to attack low.

So that's how it is...

Lu Heng's movements grew increasingly fluid. Though he still lacked any real technique, his monstrous reaction speed and strength allowed him to start fighting back.

"Damn it, what kind of monster is this kid? Why is his hide so damn tough?"

The longer Scarface fought, the more alarmed he became. It felt as though he wasn't cutting a person, but a magical beast wearing human skin.

Then, in the instant Scarface lost focus.

Lu Heng keenly caught that opening.

This time, he did not dodge.

Facing Scorpion's descending broadsword, Lu Heng merely turned slightly and used the muscles in his shoulder to take a heavy blow from the flat of the blade.

Crack. A faint sound of bone slipping out of place.

Lu Heng did not even frown. Borrowing that force, he slammed into Scarface's chest like a cannonball.

The index finger of his right hand glowed crimson as blood.

That terrifying heat appeared once more.

Blazing Sun Finger!

At such close range, Scarface could even see his own terrified face reflected in Lu Heng's pupils.

Pfft!

A streak of red light pierced in through Scarface's jaw and shot straight through the top of his skull.

His brain was instantly boiled by the heat.

Scarface did not even have time to groan. His body went limp at once, collapsing to the ground like a puddle of mud.

"Second Brother!"

Scorpion's eyes nearly split apart, his roar shaking the leaves until they rustled loudly.

In just a few minutes, the original three-man hunting party had been reduced to him alone.

Clutching his shoulder, Lu Heng quickly leaped several meters back to widen the distance.

He panted heavily. A burning pain came from his shoulder, the price of taking Scorpion's strike head-on.

However, the Azure Wood Dou Qi within him was circulating at high speed. A numb, itching sensation spread from the wound as it rapidly healed.

"Good. Very good!"

Scorpion stared at Lu Heng, all contempt gone from his eyes, replaced by the madness of a desperate outlaw.

"After hunting geese all my life, I got my eyes pecked out by one today."

Scorpion suddenly put away his broadsword, reached into his clothes, and pulled out an exquisite little jade bottle.

The instant Lu Heng saw that jade bottle, he nearly burst out laughing.

That familiar bottle, that familiar wooden stopper...

Isn't this the damn Beast Power Pill sold by the Miteer Auction House?

"Kid, think you're a good fighter?"

Scorpion painfully poured out a dark-red pill, gritting his teeth as he said,

"I spent several thousand gold coins buying this treasure at a steep price on the black market! I was saving it to keep myself alive, but today, I'll use you as its first offering!"

With that, Scorpion tipped back his head and swallowed the Beast Power Pill in one gulp.

Boom!

After only two breaths, the muscles all over Scorpion's body began to wriggle and expand strangely. His already burly frame swelled by a full size, while his skin took on a gray-black sheen like stone.

His eyes became bloodshot, and a beastlike growl rumbled from his throat.

"Power... endless power!"

Scorpion clenched his fists, feeling the violent energy within his body. A savage, ecstatic grin spread across his face.

"Right now, I'm invincible among Dou Masters! Kid, I'm going to crush every bone in your body, one by one!"

When a nine-star Dou Zhe consumed a Beast Power Pill, his strength and defense did indeed become infinitely close to those of a high-level Dou Master.

Looking at the menacing Scorpion, Lu Heng helplessly shook his head.

Lu Heng reached out and took a small bottle from his Storage Ring as well.

"What a coincidence. I've got this stuff too."

Lu Heng poured out a Beast Power Pill and tossed it into his mouth like a piece of candy.

Then he took out a Qi Recovery Pill and tossed that into his mouth as well.

Crunch. He chewed them to pieces.

"You..."

Scorpion's charging steps abruptly halted, and his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

"How do you have one? The Miteer Auction House sold those in limited quantities! I fought like hell just to buy a single pill!"

Lu Heng did not answer, because the medicinal effects had already begun to kick in.

That familiar burning heat swept through his entire body, while his heart pounded like a war drum.

His skin began to harden as well, taking on a metallic sheen. Though his body had not swollen as absurdly as Scorpion's, the condensed ferocity radiating from him was no weaker than his opponent's.

"Not only do I have them, mine are specially made."

The corners of Lu Heng's lips curved upward.

"And I forgot to tell you—I am an alchemist. I refined these pills."

"Bullshit!"

Scorpion felt deeply insulted. With an enraged roar, he stomped down hard, charging forward like a heavy war chariot.

"Die!"

Scorpion threw a punch, and the air itself seemed to explode.

Lu Heng neither dodged nor retreated, throwing a punch of his own.

"Going head-to-head? I'm invincible among Dou Masters now!" Scorpion's eyes blazed with fury.

Bang!!!

The two iron fists collided violently in midair.

The immense recoil force instantly cracked the ground beneath their feet.

The vicious grin on Scorpion's face froze.

He felt a strange force, one that did not belong to the realm of mere "strength," burrow into him through Lu Heng's fist.

That was...

Azure Wood Seal—Azure Wood Force.

Lu Heng shouted coldly in his heart.

This punch contained not only the physical power enhanced by the Beast Power Pill, but also the tyrannical Wither and Flourish Dou Qi of the Azure Wood Seal!

Crack!

A crisp crack rang out from Scorpion's wrist. Then that withering Dou Qi surged wildly up through his meridians. His arm, thick and sturdy as rock, visibly shriveled and lost its color.

"Ah!!!"