Formless Sealing Art

BANG!

As the steel whip in his hand shattered ten feet of earth, Li Hai utilized the recoil to launch himself into the sky, soaring hundreds of zhang high in the blink of an eye.

Following the vague guidance of his Level 3 Wildness intuition, he turned toward the southeast, his pupils narrowing to pinpricks as he peered ten miles into the distance.

There, a blurred figure was fleeing frantically away from him at a speed of several dozen zhang per second.

That panicked, scurrying figure was undoubtedly Zhou Hu.

"Heh, you're quite fast, running so far in such a short time, but... it's meaningless."

With a sneer, Li Hai swung his arm and manipulated the whip, unleashing Flood Dragon Overturns Water once more.

BOOM!

Accompanied by a violent sonic boom and rolling shockwaves, he shot forward like a sharp arrow in the direction of Zhou Hu's escape.

"Faster, faster, faster!"

Zhou Hu's eyes bulged as he gritted his teeth and sprinted, not daring to look back even once, terrified that the slightest hesitation would cost him his life.

"Thousand-Army Defying, that is definitely Thousand-Army Defying! Such fierce and tyrannical momentum can only be achieved by a Thousand-Army level martial artist! But that... that is a realm only my master has reached!"

He roared in his heart while running for his life, "Li Hai... he is so young, how could he possibly have cultivated to such a terrifying realm! I must, I must reach my master quickly. Only he... can deal with that man surnamed Li!"

Whoosh—

Just as Zhou Hu was fleeing, a long, crimson steel whip shot through the air from behind with extreme speed, piercing through his steel-hard back and abdomen in a flash, pinning him firmly to the ground.

"Ahhhhh, Li Hai!"

Fixed to the long steel whip like a pathetic grasshopper, Zhou Hu struggled to move his now-numb legs, twisting his head to glare at the man approaching from behind, snarling, "You're ruthless, Li Hai! You crippled half my body the moment you arrived. Just you wait, my master will avenge me!"

"Your master?"

Li Hai, who was strolling over leisurely, said with composure, "Judging by your tone, he seems quite formidable."

As he spoke, he raised his eyes to look at Zhou Hu's personal interface—

Character Name: Zhou Hu

Level/Rank: Orthodox Martial Arts → Steel Tendons and Iron Bones

Skills: Four Directions Fist, Poison-Embedded Finger, Mystic Turtle Precious Body, Formless Sealing Art, Spring and Autumn Blade Technique

Trait Entries: [Soul Strengthening Level 2], [Physical Strength Level 2], [Toxicity Level 1], [Iron Body Level 2], [Technique Level 1]

Stronger Fragment: None

Zhou Hu had learned quite a few techniques, but the only ones with real value were Mystic Turtle Precious Body and Formless Sealing Art.

The former was somewhat similar to Iron Barrel Bell-Coiling Manual, a technique focused on defense, but it was more profound and had progressed further along the path of martial arts. If cultivated to its peak, it could even reach the Thousand-Army Defying realm that Li Hai currently occupied.

As for the latter, it was a technique that boosted neither attack, defense, nor agility.

This technique was built on the concept of the formless against the formed, the void against the solid, and the formless against the colored. It had one, and only one, effect.

That is, when engaging in combat, the practitioner could use the collision of fists, feet, or weapons to forcibly disrupt the circulation of the opponent's internal energy, causing the enemy's energy flow to become chaotic and disordered, leading to a massive drop in combat power, or in severe cases, even a regression in cultivation realm.

It is worth noting that once this secret martial art is cultivated to its peak, it can also reach the Thousand-Army Defying realm.

Since Zhou Hu possessed these two Thousand-Army level techniques but had not yet reached that level himself, it could be inferred that the person who taught him these skills was the master he spoke of.

"Pah!"

Zhou Hu spat fiercely and sneered, "Little thief Li, do you think I'd tell you? Just wait to be beaten to death by my master."

Upon hearing this, Li Hai crossed the dozen-zhang distance in an instant, arrived before Zhou Hu, and slapped him hard across the face before laughing coldly:

"Zhou Hu, oh Zhou Hu, you're in such a sorry state and you're still acting tough? Who are you trying to scare?"

With half his face swollen, Zhou Hu spat out half his teeth and let out a sinister laugh:

"Hehehe~ I've been tough for half my life, that's more than enough. Kill me or beat me as you please; if I even frown, I'll take your damn surname."

"Fine, you've got guts!"

Li Hai gave him a thumbs-up and grinned, "But I've always been magnanimous, so I'll give you a chance. Tell me everything about Zhou Ruigen, and I'll spare your life."

"You want to know about that old thing?"

Zhou Hu was stunned for a moment before sneering, "Heh, don't waste your breath. Even though we aren't on good terms, I wouldn't help an outsider. Go eat shit!"

"Fine, fine, fine. So you don't want the last path to survival."

Li Hai's smile vanished, and he said chillingly, "Then I shall 'entertain' you in my own way."

Hearing this, a sense of dread rose in Zhou Hu's heart for no reason.

It felt as if something truly terrifying was about to happen to him.

"First, I have to cripple your cultivation."

As he spoke, Li Hai slowly raised his right hand in front of Zhou Hu, curling his fingers and twisting his palm into a seal that Zhou Hu found hauntingly familiar, while a mysterious, extreme vibration began to emanate from it.

"Formless Sealing Art! How is this possible?!"

Zhou Hu shouted in shock, "This is my master's ultimate technique; only he and I have learned it in this world. Where did a petty thief like you learn it from?!"

"Where else could it be?"

Li Hai laughed with candid ease, "Naturally, I learned it from you. I just mastered it a moment ago. As long as someone appears before me, I can learn all their ultimate techniques at a single glance."

"Impossible!" Zhou Hu roared, his eyes splitting at the corners, "What nonsense are you spouting?! What kind of ghost talk is this!"

"It's generous enough that I'm even telling you this much."

Li Hai chuckled, "As for the rest, go ahead and guess."

With that, he pressed a palm onto the other man's shoulder.

Hum—

In an instant, Zhou Hu felt a cold, eerie power burrow into his body. In the blink of an eye, it pierced through his fascia, muscles, and bones, shattering and severing the streams of internal energy circulating through those regions, reducing them into scattered, disconnected clumps like piles of coal in an underground burrow.

From this, a catastrophic chain reaction, akin to falling dominoes, immediately spread throughout Zhou Hu's body.

In a heartbeat, Zhou Hu suffered a grievous injury.

"Ugh!"

Vomiting a large mouthful of nearly boiling blood, Zhou Hu stared at Li Hai with bloodshot eyes and roared in disbelief:

"You... with a single strike, you completely sealed my martial foundation?! This... this is the miraculous ability only attainable at the highest realm of the Formless Sealing Art. Only my master has reached such a level. You, you say you just learned it... how is this possible?!"

His mind was in complete disarray.