"Ahhh!"
Zhang Wenxuan staggered backward. Both his hands had been crippled, and he howled and screamed in agony as cold sweat poured down his body. His eyes were filled with shock and fear as he looked at Su Hao.
"How... could this happen?"
The fat man and Kuang Fei stared blankly at the scene before them.
Zhang Wenxuan was an elite of the Flying Cloud Gang, a martial artist who had reached the First Refinement realm. He was a figure of some standing within the gang, and dealing with a young man from a small town should have been child's play. Yet against Su Hao, he had been grievously injured in the blink of an eye!
Su Hao had just used Tiger Gallant Force. Its defining traits were unmatched ferocity and the ability to smash through anything. It was like comparing a fist of flesh to an iron hammer: even with the same force behind them, the hammer's destructive power far surpassed that of a bare fist. For Zhang Wenxuan to meet Su Hao head-on was like an egg striking a rock!
After crippling Zhang Wenxuan with ease, Su Hao turned to the two remaining men. A trace of coldness entered his voice. "Since you refuse to talk nicely, I'll make you suffer a little!"
Su Hao intended to capture all three and learn what they knew about Su Yu. At the same time, fighting spirit surged within him. For a martial artist, real combat was one of the paths to improvement!
The instant he finished speaking, Su Hao's figure flashed forward, graceful and agile, closing in on the fat man.
"Damn it!"
The fat man had witnessed Zhang Wenxuan's fate with his own eyes. With Su Hao now fixed on him, his hair stood on end. He let out a furious roar and, not daring to show the slightest carelessness, unleashed his Blood Energy without hesitation. His body, like a small hill of flesh, instantly turned crimson. His fat tightened as if it had become muscle, and his strength surged!
The fat man was born with an unusual physique. Though he looked like he was all fat, he could store more Blood Energy, unleashing it with greater force than ordinary people. At full strength, he was even a notch above Zhang Wenxuan!
Boom!
With his Blood Energy unleashed to the fullest, the fat man swung a fan-sized hand down at Su Hao. Before that enormous palm even fell, it already exerted a crushing pressure. Even a solid stone statue would have been smashed to pieces by such a mighty blow.
Most martial artists of the same realm would have chosen to avoid the brunt of such a powerful strike. Su Hao, however, neither dodged nor retreated. He raised an arm to brace against it.
Thud!
The palm slammed down with the weight of a thousand catties. But the fat man was astonished to feel Su Hao's body give like flowing water. The force of his blow had been guided along Su Hao's body and discharged into the ground beneath his feet.
Crack, crack, crack!
A dense web of fissures spread across the ground under Su Hao's feet, yet he himself was completely unharmed. This was an exceptionally skillful technique for redirecting force, a move from Deer Form Fist!
As the fat man's old strength ran out and his new strength had yet to rise, Su Hao clenched his left fist and instantly drove a fast, accurate, and vicious punch into the fat man's lower abdomen. The force of that single blow was enough to shatter a man's internal organs!
Pfft!
Su Hao was slightly surprised. When his punch landed on the fat man's belly, it felt as soft as cotton batting, yet incredibly resilient. It absorbed and dispersed the force. Half of Su Hao's fist sank into it, but the blow hadn't caused the fat man much harm.
"Got you!"
A triumphant, savage grin spread across the fat man's face. He seized Su Hao's shoulders with both hands and pressed close, intending to restrain him in a bear hug and give his companion a chance to kill him.
But before the fat man could finish locking him down, Su Hao's fist withdrew half a foot from his belly. Then his waist and hips, shoulders and neck, and wrist all drove forward in sequence, streams of force converging at his fingertips in an instant. His body barely moved, yet within that tiny space, his fist—its fingers pressed together like a crane's beak—shot out in a flash, like an arrow or a spear launched from its bow!
Pfft!
The fat man felt a sharp pain in his abdomen, as if a spear had pierced him. A bloody hole tore through his belly, and his internal organs were shattered by the impact. The powerful force sent his small-hill-like body stumbling backward several steps.
"Cough, cough... you..." The fat man clutched his abdomen in agony, coughing violently as blood spilled from his mouth. The body that could withstand all kinds of heavy blows was as fragile as thin paper before Su Hao!
This was Crane Form Fist's Crane Cry Force. Its defining trait was inch force: it could unleash tremendous destructive power within the smallest space!
Whoosh!
Just as Su Hao finished off the fat man, a faint gust of wind sounded behind him. It was Kuang Fei. He had no intention of observing the rules of the martial world with Su Hao. While Su Hao fought the fat man, Kuang Fei had quietly circled into the blind spot behind him and suddenly struck, chopping at the back of Su Hao's neck with his hand.
Earlier, Kuang Fei had planned to capture Su Hao as bait and try to lure out the missing Su Yu. But Su Hao's strength had been so astonishing that it defied all understanding. Two First Refinement martial artists had been defeated before him in an instant.
Now Kuang Fei had no intention of taking him alive. He would hold nothing back—though it was anyone's guess who would end up dead!
Whoosh!
The vicious, sharp hand strike cut into the back of Su Hao's neck, only to pass straight through him. It had struck nothing but Su Hao's afterimage. Just before the blow landed, Su Hao's body had grown light as a flying crane taking to the sky, slipping beyond Kuang Fei's reach in the space of a few inches and leaving the strike to miss.
Su Hao drifted down to the ground. The torchlight illuminated the two figures facing off in the cave, their shadows flickering.
"What incredible footwork!"
Kuang Fei was secretly astonished.
In the darkness, Su Hao's eyes shone brilliantly as he fixed his gaze on Kuang Fei. His voice seemed to drift through the air. "Give it everything you've got. I hope you can surprise me."
The fat man and Zhang Wenxuan had both been at the First Refinement realm, but in Su Hao's eyes, their strength had been limited. Defeating them had been neither difficult nor taxing.
"Why, you little bastard! Still acting like you're above me? You think you're stronger than I am?"
Kuang Fei flew into a rage. The veins on his forehead bulged. As one of the Flying Cloud Gang's prominent figures, he held a high position and considered himself an important man. Yet this young upstart was looking down on him. He would show this ignorant brat what a true powerhouse was!
Boom!
Kuang Fei's heart began to pound heavily, driving the Blood Energy throughout his body at tremendous speed. His rich, powerful Blood Energy burst forth. But unlike the fat man and Zhang Wenxuan, his Blood Energy was far more abundant than theirs. Strands of it even seeped from his skin and pores, seemingly turning into a layer of mist, like a gauzy robe covering his entire body!
"Hm? Is this... Blood Veil?"
Su Hao couldn't help feeling curious and surprised at the sight.
Martial arts in this world revolved chiefly around nurturing Blood Energy and tempering the body. Blood Energy was the very foundation of a martial artist.
As Su Hao understood it, Blood Energy was divided into ranks according to its strength. When it first emerged, as with Su Hu and the others, one could channel it to briefly push the body's capabilities beyond their limits. But that was only the earliest manifestation of Blood Energy.
A further breakthrough came when Blood Energy transformed. When fully unleashed, it could be projected outside the body, revealing an apparition like a thin, blood-red mist or gauzy robe. That was the realm of the Blood Veil.
It was said that if Blood Energy continued to be tempered and strengthened, it could reach the realms of Blood Qi Like Smoke, Blood Qi Like a Dragon, and Blood Qi Like a Furnace, each displaying even more wondrous transformations!
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