Blade Shattered! Seal Unbound! Torn Apart Alive!

Blade Shattered! Seal Unbound! Torn Apart Alive! Heart-Sync Life-Substitute was an exceptionally rare Demon Blood Spell among the Calamity-Heart Fox Demon clan.

Only Calamity-Heart Fox Demons with sufficiently pure bloodlines and extraordinary luck could possibly awaken this Demon Blood Spell.

Once awakened, it allowed an extra heart to grow within the body whenever one's strength broke through.

The extra heart itself did not possess the effect of substituting for one's life. But if it was swapped with the heart of someone completely bewitched into a puppet by the Calamity-Heart Art, it could achieve the effect of Heart-Sync Life-Substitute.

Furthermore, when Heart-Sync Life-Substitute was paired with the Calamity-Heart Art, it could transform a completely bewitched person into a puppet that retained one hundred percent of their original strength and obeyed absolutely.

Now that Hu Xin had reached Third-Rank Perfection, she not only possessed three extra hearts, but also three Calamity-Heart Puppets with strength at Third-Rank Perfection.

In other words, Mu Yang's slash had not only cost her one life, but also one Third-Rank puppet she could wield with perfect ease.

It was equivalent to permanently reducing her combat strength by a quarter.

That was why Hu Xin was so enraged. She wanted nothing more than to devour his flesh, chew his bones, and tear his corpse into ten thousand pieces.

"Another trick for cheating death?"

Mu Yang glanced at the head on the table, now transformed into that of an unfamiliar man, and murmured softly.

Demons truly were cunning. She had even hidden such a life-substitution trick.

He just wondered how many of his blows this Demon Blood Spell, with its death-substitution effect, could withstand.

"Hu Wanshan, kill him for me!!"

As Mu Yang analyzed the situation inwardly, Hu Xin, already furious beyond measure, let out a shriek.

As her voice fell, Hu Wanshan, who had been sitting in the seat of honor like a clay statue or wooden carving, reacted at once.

His eyes, squeezed into slits by fat, suddenly glimmered crimson, and his bloated body, like a small mountain, rose with a boom.

The luxurious brocade robe rippled in waves as the fat beneath it trembled.

"Kill, kill, kill!!!"

Hu Wanshan growled as though speaking to himself.

To Mu Yang's astonishment, Hu Wanshan's massively bloated body erupted with shocking speed. Like a siege catapult, he lunged forward.

An arm thicker than Mu Yang's thigh whipped up a gale, and a palm the size of a fan came crashing down over his head.

Mu Yang's gaze sharpened as the Feather-Command Broadblade in his hand slashed diagonally outward.

"Pfft~~"

The blade struck Hu Wanshan's arm solidly, yet the expected sight of an arm flying away never came.

That soft fat was like the finest rubber, instantly sinking three inches and shedding most of the force behind the blade.

High-Grade Martial Arts—Swine-Elephant Technique!

This was a supreme High-Grade Martial Art passed down through the Hu Family, one that only successive family heads and their heirs were permitted to learn.

Its practitioner had to consume and digest massive quantities of meat every day with an absurd, inhuman appetite, converting it into fat and storing it throughout the body.

At first, that fat was no different from an ordinary person's fat—heavy and sagging. But over time, tempered by Blood Qi, it would grow ever thicker and tougher, eventually becoming a resilient hide armor with astonishing defense and elasticity.

This was—Swine-Skin!

"Interesting."

Mu Yang did not know what martial art Hu Wanshan cultivated. He was simply amazed that Hu Wanshan's fat could have such an effect.

Even the Third-Rank Feather-Command Broadblade could not cut through it.

"Kill!!!"

Just then, Hu Wanshan continued pressing forward, his other thick arm sweeping in with a howling gale.

At the same time, Hu Xin in the distance joined the battle.

Her cherry-sized red lips stretched into an exaggerated arc, and an ear-piercing shriek suddenly burst from her mouth.

"Eee—!!!"

The sound was shrill and piercing, like countless steel needles stabbing toward Mu Yang's eardrums.

Mu Yang frowned slightly. With a tap of his foot, he flashed aside from Hu Wanshan's attack while circulating Blood Qi into the meridians around his ears.

This was no martial arts technique. He was merely imitating the ability of the Keen Sense of Smell trait, granting his ears a measure of protection for a short time.

At that very instant, another black shadow shot abruptly from the shadows at the corner of the courtyard wall like a concealed sleeve arrow.

It was a gaunt middle-aged man whose hands gleamed with a dark golden sheen.

His ten fingers curved like eagle claws, his nails flashing coldly as they went straight for the Feather-Command Broadblade in Mu Yang's hand.

This man was Zhao Kui, Hu Xin's only remaining puppet, possessing Blood-Marrow Realm Perfection strength at the Third Rank.

He cultivated both the body-tempering Iron-Body Technique and the finger technique Eagle-Claw Technique, two High-Grade Martial Arts.

With the support of both martial arts, his pair of iron claws had reached perfection. Splitting steles and shattering rocks, tearing refined iron apart with bare hands—none of it was difficult. Ordinary Third-Rank weapons were like sheets of paper beneath his claws.

If Hu Wanshan was the sturdiest shield beneath Hu Xin's command, then Zhao Kui was the sharpest spear in her hand.

"Clang—!"

The sound of metal striking metal exploded through the courtyard.

Holding his blade one-handed, Mu Yang struck after Zhao Kui but arrived first, blocking those eagle claws.

"Crack!!"

To Mu Yang's surprise, the Feather-Command Broadblade that had slain multiple Third-Rank demons actually chipped apart.

Zhao Kui's palms, on the other hand, bore only slightly deep white marks.

As Zhao Kui suddenly exerted force, the cracks began spreading. Several more sharp cracks rang out, and the blade tip snapped off, shattering across the ground.

"Hahahahaha!!!"

Seeing the long blade in Mu Yang's hand completely shattered, Hu Xin laughed wildly and triumphantly.

"Mu Yang, you destroyed my heart, so I'll shatter your blade! Now that you've lost your weapon and stand empty-handed, what will you use to fight me?!"

"Zhao Kui, move! Tear off his limbs for me!!"

Hu Xin immediately gave the order.

A vicious gleam flared in Zhao Kui's crimson eyes. The razor-sharp claws that had crushed the Feather-Command Broadblade swept out in a storm of afterimages, striking directly at Mu Yang's limbs and vital points.

Yet Mu Yang merely raised a hand slightly.

"Ding ding ding ding~~~~"

A sound like hammering iron rang from Zhao Kui's hands. Those attacks capable of tearing through steel landed on Mu Yang's palms without achieving anything at all.

Forget flesh and blood flying—there was not even a trace of broken skin.

Hu Xin: ???

Zhao Kui, turned into a puppet, naturally showed no confused expression. But Hu Xin, as his controller, had far richer expressions on her face.

From furious resentment, to smug laughter, to her current baffled disbelief.

Her face changed faster than the turning of a page.

"I may indeed have lost my weapon..."

Mu Yang paid no heed to Hu Xin's astonishment. He grabbed Zhao Kui's hands, clamping them tightly as though welding them in place with iron pincers.

"But so what?"

Mu Yang sneered as more than sixty thousand jin of tremendous force surged through his arms into Zhao Kui's hands.

The Feather-Command Broadblade had certainly been useful.

But limited by its material, it simply could not bear Mu Yang's full strength.

After all, his strength was simply too great.

"Crack—!!"

Before Hu Xin's wide, bulging eyes, Zhao Kui's Eagle-Claw Hands, capable of tearing apart Third-Rank weapons, shattered inch by inch like brittle deadwood, turning into minced flesh.

There were no flashy techniques in that blow, only the purest, most absolute crushing force.

Then Mu Yang, a delighted smile on his face, spread his arms and exerted force once more.

A majestic force like dragons and elephants pulled Zhao Kui's arms taut.

"Riiip~~!!"

That powerful body tempered by the Iron-Body Technique was torn apart down the middle as though it were a paper kite.

His organs ruptured, and flesh and blood flew everywhere.

Blood sprayed through the air and splashed onto Hu Xin's face.

Though it was warm to the touch, it made every hair on her body stand on end, sending a chill through her entire frame.

An absurd thought rose uncontrollably from the depths of her heart.

Was this guy in front of her even human, or was he a demon?!