Flesh-and-Blood Battle with Magical Beasts

"Ahhh!!!"

Scorpion let out a shrill scream. The terror of feeling his life force drain away was far more frightening than pain.

"How is this possible... My hand..."

Before he could react, Lu Heng's second punch had already arrived.

This time, it went straight for his chest.

There were no fancy moves.

It was simply fast! Precise! Ruthless!

"Pfft!"

Scorpion's chest, strengthened by the Beast Power Pill, caved in like paper before Lu Heng's punch.

The withering and flourishing power of Azure Wood Force erupted.

Scorpion was sent flying, crashing into a large tree before sliding down like a lump of trash.

He opened his mouth, trying to breathe, but could only spit out a mouthful of blood. His skin, once as hard as rock, had turned gray and shriveled, as though he had aged decades in an instant.

"You... your Dou Technique has..."

Scorpion stared wide-eyed, dying with his eyes still open.

Lu Heng dispersed his Dou Qi, and the swollen sense of power slowly faded, replaced by a deep wave of exhaustion.

Although the Beast Power Pill had no side effects, the exhaustion after its power wore off was very real.

Lu Heng walked over to Scorpion's corpse and nudged it with the tip of his foot.

Only after confirming there was no movement at all did he crouch down and begin looting the body.

Three money pouches, containing roughly three thousand Gold Coins in total. Several low-grade medicinal herbs. And a few bottles of unidentified healing medicine.

"Broke bastard."

Lu Heng grumbled, but his hands moved swiftly. No matter how small, meat was still meat.

Only after finishing all that did the surroundings return to silence.

Lu Heng dropped onto the ground and looked at the three corpses around him.

His first time killing people, and he had killed three in a row.

He neither vomited nor felt afraid.

Only his still-pounding heart reminded Lu Heng of what he had just experienced.

Lu Heng raised his hand and looked at his bloodstained fingertips trembling slightly beneath the sunlight.

It was excitement.

"I thought I'd be scared."

Lu Heng laughed at himself, took out a flask of water from his Storage Ring, and poured it over his head.

The icy stream ran down his cheeks, washing away the heat and slowly cooling him down from that excited state.

"In this world, if you don't kill people, people will kill you."

"Since I chose this path, I can only keep winning."

"Win until the very end!"

With that, Lu Heng stood up, roughly cleaned away the traces on the ground, then turned and disappeared into the depths of the dense forest.

Three days later.

Deep in the outer region of the Magical Beast Mountain Range, inside a hidden cave.

"Phew..."

Lu Heng sat cross-legged atop a large bluestone and slowly exhaled a breath of stale air.

After three days of recuperation, the minor injuries from the previous battle had fully healed. In truth, they had healed overnight. After all, his opponents had only been three Dou Zhes.

However, perhaps due to the stimulation of battle, Lu Heng sensed that the Dou Qi Whirlpool within him had become a little more solid. There were faint signs that he was about to break through to Seven-Star Dou Zhe.

"As expected, real combat is the best teacher."

Lu Heng clenched his fists, feeling the surging strength within his body.

Over the past three days, he had not been idle.

After sorting through the spoils, he had chosen this easily defended, difficult-to-attack cave as a temporary base.

During the day, he roamed the forest in search of solitary peak Rank One Magical Beasts to practice against—not to hone his Dou Techniques, but to train in close combat.

From being initially flustered and overwhelmed, he could now kill a peak Rank One Magical Beast, a Wind Blade Wolf, barehanded with nothing but his fists and feet, without using any Dou Techniques.

If the mercenaries outside learned of such progress, their jaws would probably drop.

But Lu Heng was not satisfied.

"Rank One Magical Beasts are too weak, and they aren't smart enough either. They basically attack on instinct."

Lu Heng stood and stretched his limbs, his joints crackling loudly. "Besides, their attack patterns are too simple. They can no longer improve me much."

He walked to the cave entrance and looked toward the deeper forest.

That was the territory of Rank Two Magical Beasts.

Rank Two Magical Beasts were equivalent to human Dou Master experts. Even early Rank Two Magical Beasts were already comparable to Two-Star or Three-Star Dou Masters, not the One-Star Dou Masters that human cultivators had just entered.

Rank Two Magical Beasts possessed a qualitative leap in strength, speed, and defense. This gradual progression was perfectly suited to training.

Lu Heng was in no hurry to visit the cliffside cave that held the Fragmented Map of the Purifying Demonic Lotus Flame and the flying Dou Technique.

The treasure would stay there. It was not going anywhere.

Compared to that, the feeling of an impending breakthrough lingered in Lu Heng's mind, so breaking through to Seven-Star Dou Zhe was more important.

Having made up his mind, Lu Heng began searching for a suitable Rank Two Magical Beast.

Before long, a pitch-black leopard appeared before him. Its body was nearly three meters long, and its tail swung like a steel whip, leaving deep white marks in the rocks every time it struck.

Most eye-catching was the tuft of silver fur on its forehead, glinting coldly in the dim forest.

A Rank Two Magical Beast, the Silver-Fronted Shadow Leopard.

This magical beast was incredibly fast, and its claws carried the cutting force of the Wind Attribute. Even a Two-Star Dou Master could be disemboweled by it with the slightest carelessness.

"Early Rank Two, with combat strength equivalent to a human Two-Star or even Three-Star Dou Master." This was precisely the training opponent Lu Heng needed.

The Azure Wood Body granted him monstrous recovery and endurance, while the Li Fire Body gave him explosive power.

Combined with the bug-level Five Spirits Chaos Art, his current physical strength was comparable to that of a Rank Two Magical Beast.

What Lu Heng lacked was battle instinct.

"Phew..."

Lu Heng slowly exhaled a breath of stale air without using any Dou Techniques. He hunched his back, every muscle in his body taut like a fully drawn bow.

The next second.

"Whoosh!"

Lu Heng shot forward like an arrow released from a bow, charging straight at the Shadow Leopard by the stream.

The Shadow Leopard's reaction was terrifyingly quick.

Almost the moment Lu Heng rushed out, its dark green beast eyes locked onto him.

"Roar!"

With a low growl, the Shadow Leopard kicked off with its hind legs. Its body became a black bolt of lightning. Rather than retreating, it charged forward, its gleaming claws tearing through the air with a shriek as they clawed at Lu Heng's crown.

"Good!"

Lu Heng shouted, not dodging.

At the instant before they collided, he stomped hard against the ground, forcibly shifting his body half a foot sideways in midair.

"Rip!"

The leopard's claws grazed his shoulder. His clothes were instantly shredded, and three bloody gashes split open as blood sprayed out.

Lu Heng's shoulder burned with pain!

Yet he did not even furrow his brow. Using the chance created as they passed each other, he wrapped his right fist in crimson Dou Qi and smashed it viciously into the Shadow Leopard's soft abdomen.

"Bang!"

The punch landed squarely.

The Shadow Leopard let out a miserable cry, its massive body sent flying sideways as it crashed through a small tree as thick as a bowl.