Whoosh—
In an instant, the pair of steel whips became like Sun Wukong's Golden Cudgel, abruptly extending from three feet nine inches to nine feet nine inches and lifting Li Hai bodily into the air, a hundred feet above the ground.
At that very moment, Li Hai suddenly unleashed a strange move from Angry Flood Dragon Whip. Terrifying strength surged through his arms as he swung both whips behind him, striking the air.
"Flood Dragon Overturns Water, Quake!"
Boom!
It was as if a hundred-pound bomb had exploded in midair. The entire training ground below shuddered without end, while layers of violent sound waves and air currents swept in every direction. Li Hai shot straight into the sky, a ring of gray-white sonic boom clouds trailing behind him as he hurtled into the depths of the dim tunnel above.
That was right—he planned to keep whipping the air apart all the way through the tunnel and back to the surface.
That single strike sent Li Hai flying a full seven or eight hundred yards before his speed finally began to dwindle and he started to fall.
So he tightened his grip on the steel whips once more, channeled his true force, and twisted around to strike the air behind him with the force of Flood Dragon Overturns Water.
Boom!
The dark tunnel suddenly roared with an explosion. Countless stones flew in every direction as torrents of air bellowed and howled. Li Hai reversed his fall and shot toward the distant depths above once more.
By now, dusk had fallen over Ox-Horn Town. Yet the streets and alleys surrounding Tea Hall were packed with a sea of people, shoulder to shoulder, all of them wearing black headscarves and carrying blades, their faces vicious and ugly.
The area closest to Tea Hall was especially crowded, with circle after circle of menacing figures holding bows at the ready or gripping spears with cold expressions.
All those arrowheads and spearpoints were aimed at one place—the entrance to Tea Hall.
These men were none other than the bandits of the Black Wolf Bandits.
They had come to Ox-Horn Town to surround and kill Li Hai, the man who had slaughtered the entire Zhou Family.
The man leading this band of outlaws was a member of the Zhou Clan—Second Master of the Black Wolf Bandits, Zhou Hu.
At that moment, he sat in a tiger-skin chair on a raised wooden platform three hundred yards away, gripping a long-handled saber and staring at Tea Hall with murderous intent.
"Second Master, there's something I don't understand."
A bandit with a face full of fat and a body as stout as a pig asked Zhou Hu, "Why won't you let the brothers charge straight into the teahouse and butcher that Li fellow? Why wait outside for him to come out?"
"We can't." Zhou Hu clenched his teeth and spoke one word at a time. "Tea Hall belongs to the Demon-Slaying Division. If we provoke them recklessly, we'll bring disaster upon ourselves."
"The Demon-Slaying Division?" The fat bandit looked utterly bewildered. He clearly had no idea what that meant.
Zhou Hu had no intention of explaining. He kept his eyes on Tea Hall, ready to strike at any moment.
The air was heavy with tension, and the fat bandit beside him didn't dare say another word. Silence fell over the platform.
Boom—
Just then, a deep, heart-shaking rumble erupted from inside Tea Hall and swept through the surrounding streets. Hundreds and thousands of Black Wolf Bandits bared their teeth and grimaced in discomfort.
"What was that?"
Zhou Hu, who was farther away, had heard the rumble too, but he had no idea what it meant. A sudden panic rose from somewhere deep within him.
It was as if a great calamity would strike at any moment.
"The sound was muffled. It seems to have come from beneath the teahouse," the fat bandit mused. "Feels like something's about to burst out."
Zhou Hu's expression remained cold, and he said nothing. Yet a trace of worry flickered in his murderous eyes.
Could something go wrong?
No. Li Hai... you'll die today!
Boom—
Suddenly, another rumble burst from Tea Hall, sending dust and grit billowing in every direction. The surrounding Black Wolf Bandits were shaken back several steps.
This time, the disturbance was clearly far worse than before. Some of the less skilled bandits nearby doubled over and began vomiting.
Zhou Hu heard it from the distant platform as well, and the unease deep within him grew a little stronger.
But beneath his fury, which felt as if it might burst his guts, he couldn't spare even a moment for such a small worry.
At that moment, Zhou Hu wanted nothing more than to hack Li Hai into eight pieces and eat him alive.
While he was seething, Tea Hall let out another tremendous rumble. Hundreds of Black Wolf Bandits all around it were knocked off their feet, their screams filling the air.
"What in the world is causing trouble underground?!" Zhou Hu shot to his feet.
The fat bandit beside him looked terrified. "Could it be... a monster trying to dig its way out of the earth?"
Smack!
Zhou Hu slapped him to the ground and barked, "What nonsense are you spouting? Say something like that again and I'll kill you!"
The fat bandit sat on the ground, nodding timidly and not daring to speak. But Zhou Hu, who had struck him, couldn't help feeling a little unsettled himself.
Could there really be a monster?
Zhou Hu knew of the Demon-Slaying Division, but not much about it. He couldn't help wondering, What exactly is hidden beneath this Tea Hall?
Just as his unease mounted, Tea Hall, three hundred yards away, erupted into another huge disturbance.
But this time, it wasn't a rumble. It was... an explosion.
Boom!!!
Under the watchful gazes of hundreds and thousands of bandits—some wary, some doubtful, some afraid—the Tea Hall surrounded on all sides by the packed Black Wolf Bandits was suddenly blasted apart from below. A force of outrageous violence burst straight through it, reducing the whole building to rubble. With a furious roar of sound and a savage shock wave, the explosion swept over everything around it.
In an instant, dozens, hundreds, even several hundred of the bandits closest to the blast were battered by the storm of debris erupting from Tea Hall. Wails filled the air, and bodies littered the ground. No one knew how many had died.
"Ahhh! I can't see! My eyes!" cried one bandit, his eyes blown out by the flying debris.
"Where's my hand? Has anyone seen my hand?!" cried a bandit whose arm had been sliced off.
"Waaah! My legs are broken! Both my legs are gone!" cried a bandit whose legs had been crushed.
"Mom! Help me! My guts are spilling out! Mom! Aaaah!" cried a bandit whose belly had been ripped open.
But there were far more dead bandits than injured ones, and they hadn't even had time to scream.
Their mangled corpses lay scattered here and there, mixed with dust and rubble like discarded trash no one cared about.
"A monster! A monster really came out!" the fat bandit shouted from the distant platform. "Second Master! We have to run! The monster's going to eat people—"
Slash—
A flash of saber light streaked by, and the fat bandit's head hit the ground.
"Shut your damn mouth!"
Zhou Hu lowered his saber and stared fixedly at the figure in the distance, who had burst through Tea Hall and soared high into the sky. Gritting his teeth, he growled, "You... what kind of monster are you?!"
At that moment, the monster he spoke of—Li Hai—had burst out from underground and soared a hundred feet into the air. He spotted the thousands of bandits below, packed tightly across the surrounding streets and alleys.
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