Azure Wood Ignites Fire: Explosive Flame Seal!

In the distance, Xiao Yi Xian, who had already run to a safe distance, stopped and stared back at the scene.

The boy's back was neither broad nor sturdy—if anything, it looked somewhat thin—but before that terrifying beast, he stood exceptionally tall.

"Who is that?" Xiao Yi Xian murmured softly.

"No idea. I've never seen such a gutsy young man." The mercenaries protecting Xiao Yi Xian and the other pharmacists were equally dumbfounded.

He looked barely over ten years old, yet he dared to face a Magic Beast head-on. It was utterly shocking.

By then, the enraged Bloodthirsty Demon Ape had recovered.

Its eyes were bloodshot as it fixed Lu Heng in a deadly stare. Its chest heaved violently; it had clearly been thoroughly provoked.

It pounded its fists against its chest with thunderous booms, then dropped onto all fours and charged forward like a massive wagon.

The ground trembled beneath it.

"You all fall back."

Lu Heng took a deep breath as the two-colored Qi Vortex within him spun madly.

Azure Dou Qi surged through his limbs and bones like a tide, tightening his muscles to their limit.

Red Dou Qi roared through his meridians like magma, ready to erupt at any moment.

"Come on!"

Rather than retreat, Lu Heng charged straight at the Magic Ape!

The large and small figures collided fiercely amid the crowd's cries of alarm.

Boom!

Airwaves billowed outward, uprooting the surrounding bushes.

Lu Heng moved with incredible agility, darting and weaving around the Magic Ape's enormous body.

He did not contend with the Magic Ape in brute strength. Instead, he used his absurd speed and reflexes to target its joints and weak points.

Every clash ended the instant it began.

Yet every strike he made left a wound on the Magic Ape's body.

Sometimes it was a charred finger hole, left behind by the fire poison of the Blazing Sun Finger; sometimes it was a patch of gray, withered flesh, the result of the Wither and Flourish power of the Azure Wood Seal.

The more the Magic Ape fought, the more stifled it became.

It clearly possessed crushing strength, yet its attacks kept striking empty air.

This little monkey before it was so slippery that it drove it mad, and those bizarre attacks made it feel utterly miserable.

Especially that azure energy. It did not hurt when it struck its body, but the sensation of its life force being drained away made it grow weaker and weaker.

Roar!

The Magic Ape finally lost its patience. It suddenly opened its huge mouth and blasted a bloody-red energy wave toward Lu Heng.

This was its innate Dou Skill, Bloodthirsty Roar!

It was an area attack. There was no dodging it!

"Watch out!" Xiao Yi Xian cried out in alarm from afar.

Lu Heng's pupils shrank slightly.

He could not dodge it.

Then he would take it head-on!

"Azure Wood Seal!"

Lu Heng abruptly halted, his hands rapidly forming seals as an intensely dense azure glow condensed before him into a glowing hand seal.

Rumble!

The red energy wave slammed viciously into the azure hand seal.

Lu Heng felt as if he had been struck head-on by a train. Sweetness rose in his throat, and he nearly spat out a mouthful of blood.

His feet plowed two deep trenches into the ground as he slid backward for more than ten meters before finally stopping.

The Azure Wood Seal shattered.

Lu Heng's clothes had also been reduced to ragged strips, exposing his lean, muscular upper body.

But Lu Heng smiled.

Because he had seen the instant of stiffness after the Magic Ape unleashed its ultimate move.

Now!

"Die!"

Two pits exploded beneath Lu Heng's feet, and he shot forward like a cannonball.

This time, he no longer held back.

The Li Fire Body within him erupted in full force. His skin instantly turned crimson, and wisps of white smoke even rose from it.

He leaped high into the air, rising to the same height as the Magic Ape's head.

His right hand formed a palm, while his left became a finger.

Azure and red Dou Qi intertwined madly before him, forming an extremely unstable vortex of energy.

"Have a taste of this—my newly developed combination skill."

Lu Heng grinned. To the Magic Ape, that smile looked like a demon's.

"Azure Wood Ignites Fire: Explosive Flame Seal!"

This palm strike was not a simple slap.

It wrapped the extreme piercing power of the Blazing Sun Finger within the heavy palm force of the Azure Wood Seal.

Wood fueled fire, and fire borrowed the force of wood!

Smack!

The palm struck squarely against the Magic Ape's crown.

First came a dull, heavy thud.

Then came a bone-cracking sound that made everyone's teeth ache.

Finally came a muffled explosion!

Bang!

The Magic Ape's incomparably hard skull crumpled inward like a watermelon smashed by an iron hammer.

A crimson burst of fire force drilled through the wound into its brain, ravaging it wildly.

The Magic Ape's massive body froze.

The red glow in its eyes swiftly faded.

Rumble!

The four-meter-tall beast crashed heavily to the ground like a toppled mountain, kicking up clouds of dust.

The entire area fell silent.

Only the rustling of wind through the treetops could be heard.

Lu Heng landed lightly atop the Magic Ape's corpse, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and turned toward the stunned Mad Blade and the others.

"So, the Magic Core is mine, and the corpse materials are yours. No objections, right?"

Mad Blade stood there with his mouth agape, his jaw nearly hitting the ground.

He looked at the late second-tier Magic Ape, dead beyond doubt, then at the boy who had suffered nothing more than torn clothes and a little blood at the corner of his mouth.

The hell? You call that a Dou Zhe? Since when could a Dou Zhe solo-kill a late second-tier Magic Beast?

What kind of monster was this?

"N-No objections..." Mad Blade stammered. "Y-You can have it all if you want..."

"That won't be necessary. We believe in fair deals."

Lu Heng crouched down skillfully and began extracting the Magic Core.

"Oh, right. Consider that Purple Heart Grass from your Ten Thousand Medicine Pavilion payment for saving you this time. That fight took some effort, and I need to replenish myself."

Xiao Yi Xian finally came to her senses in the distance. As she looked at the boy crouched atop the corpse, negotiating terms, a strange light flashed in her eyes.

She straightened her skirt and quickly walked over, her voice crisp and pleasant.

"Young hero, thank you for saving us today.

These are all three Purple Heart Grasses. I am Xiao Yi Xian of the Ten Thousand Medicine Pavilion. May I ask your honored name?

If you do not mind, would you be willing to return to town with us? We would also like the chance to show you some hospitality."

Lu Heng toyed with the newly extracted earth-yellow Magic Core in his hand and looked up at the young woman known in the original story as the Heavenly Poison Maiden. The corners of his lips rose slightly.

"My name is Lu Heng."

Lu Heng rose to his feet and dusted off his hands.

"Since a beauty has invited me, I'll mooch a meal. I'm hungry anyway."

Green Mountain Town, inner hall of the Ten Thousand Medicine Pavilion.

The meal was exceptionally lavish.

When Mr. Yao learned that Lu Heng had single-handedly killed a late second-tier Magic Ape, his kindly face bloomed like a chrysanthemum.

Though he was a merchant, he was also a Dou Master. Mr. Yao knew that he himself was incapable of killing a late second-tier Magic Beast.

The boy looked young, but his skills and ruthlessness were certainly not something an ordinary family could have cultivated.

Either he was a young disciple undergoing training from a great clan, or he had an exceptionally formidable master.

People like him could only be befriended, never offended.