Volcano

Distance—distance!

The key to victory lay in the distance between them.

Lu Bai excelled at close-quarters combat, while Lin Haixian specialized in swordplay at short to medium range.

Lu Bai couldn't get too close, or he would be vulnerable to Lin Haixian's uncanny swordsmanship.

But he couldn't stay away, either. Otherwise, he would never seize his chance to win.

Lu Bai had repeatedly interrupted Lin Haixian's attacks, wasting the distance at which Lin Haixian held the advantage and creating opportunities to close in.

But he hadn't expected Lin Haixian to act so decisively, destroying the roof and changing its structure, widening the gap they had just managed to close.

Now was Lin Haixian's chance to unleash his power.

The water sword mixed with lime powder had become a high-temperature cement sword.

Its form shifted unpredictably. Under Lin Haixian's control, it kept extending. At this moment, its nimble blade was less a sword than a water whip.

The water whip lashed through the air, its sharp force sweeping toward Lu Bai.

Before the blade even touched him, the front of his shirt had already been sliced away.

The sword's gleam appeared once more. Lu Bai could even feel a faint chill creeping into his body.

But even now, Lu Bai remained calm.

Lu Bai was no mediocrity. There were certainly areas where he fell short, such as technical skill and the realm of the mind.

But in other areas, such as combat, he had never been inferior to anyone.

He couldn't cultivate this world's Martial Path, but he could still put some of its principles to use.

Lu Bai had traveled with Luo Chuan, visiting famous mountains and great rivers across the land.

Their main destination had actually been an active volcano.

There were a few active volcanoes in the Three Eastern Provinces.

For various reasons, Lu Bai had no way to control the Internal Force that arose within his body. He could only let it crash around inside him, gaining a boost to his physical abilities in the process.

At most, it gave him a little protection against the corrosive effects of other people's Internal Force.

It was an enormous waste.

When others used life-risking techniques, they were martial artists themselves. Their Internal Force might be violent, but they could still make use of some of it.

Lu Bai was different. The limitations of his Earthling nature meant he couldn't control it directly—not without the relevant modules.

So Lu Bai tried another approach. If he couldn't control it, then he simply wouldn't.

Like a volcanic eruption, he would unleash all that power from his body in one overwhelming burst.

The [Reliance] module he had obtained from Flower Face's father gave Lu Bai an idea. Paired with the [Mind Movement] control module, it could serve as a link for transferring energy.

The [Blood Burning Technique] now had two stages. The first was much like the version he had configured before, with only a few minor adjustments to make the Blood Burn flow more smoothly.

Then he connected [Reliance] and [Mind Movement] to the [Flesh and Blood] module at the end of the original Blood Burning Technique. After that, he added [Conversion] and the [Mountain] module from the Elemental Module. The skill gained a second-stage effect.

The violent Internal Force converted by the Blood Burning Technique was continuously transformed by the modules into a state associated with [Mountain].

But Lu Bai's modules were incomplete. He didn't have a complete set of modules to release the effect properly.

The result of letting all that converted energy build up was...

"Volcano!" Lu Bai's voice carried a frenzied edge. The bloody aura around him grew denser, then burst apart in a violent eruption.

Lu Bai couldn't use the parts of the Luo Family's Mountain and River Fist that required him to control Internal Force, but the rest posed no problem. That included its dynamic movements.

He used those movements to unfold the "mountain's force."

A visible crimson aura burst from Lu Bai and spread around him, like a scarlet mist or flickering red flames.

When Lin Haixian's water sword met the crimson aura, its course was disrupted.

Within the red mist, vast amounts of violent Internal Force surged, carrying with them a trace of the "mountain's force"—the power to suppress everything with one's own body.

The water sword, stable until now, disintegrated in large part.

Faced with the crumbling water sword, Lu Bai neither dodged nor retreated. He charged straight at Lin Haixian, letting the blade carve a wound into his body.

The moment that wound opened, blood like molten lava gushed out.

Lin Haixian turned his head to dodge, but the splashing blood still grazed him, tearing a gash across his face. There even seemed to be a trace of a burn, though in truth the damage came from the tearing force of the violent Internal Force.

"Heretic! Traitor!" The Luo Family Head, watching from a distance, cursed furiously.

He could see that Lu Bai was using the Luo Family's Mountain and River Fist. But the proper way to use it was to accumulate the mountain's force and fill it with Internal Force, giving every punch and kick the power to suppress.

Lu Bai, on the other hand, was using it to unleash a volcanic eruption. He lacked the core of the orthodox Mountain and River Fist—the burden of responsibility it demanded.

Despite his curses, the Luo Family Head never once took his eyes off Lu Bai.

Punch, punch, punch!

With the second stage of his skill activated and the Volcano state engaged, Lu Bai had become a wildly destructive machine.

Even his injuries could be turned into weapons: his spraying blood lashed out at his opponent.

For the first time, Lin Haixian's feet carried him backward.

Lu Bai wasn't defending himself at all—and he didn't need to. The crimson mist surging from his body was the most violent form of Internal Force.

Any attack that reached Lu Bai was torn apart by this layer of Internal Force, which was much like protective energy.

And that was only because it was him. A weaker martial artist would probably end up with a battered hand after throwing a single punch.

But Lu Bai couldn't maintain this state for long.

Even without being attacked, he was already suffering extensive burns. Techniques this violent always harmed the user before they harmed anyone else.

I only need to hold out a little longer, and I'll win. That thought made Lin Haixian retreat.

But when his eyes met Lu Bai's, his backward steps came to a halt.

"Shouldn't that be your thought instead?" Just as Lu Bai had first surmised, Lin Haixian was in poor condition.

Stalling and wearing down his opponent before defeating him should have been the strategy of a young man like Lu Bai.

Lu Bai should have chosen that approach. Yet now he had cast it aside completely.

"If that's the case, then I should see this through with you!"

Instead of retreating, Lin Haixian advanced. The extended water sword in his hand retracted, and its blade overlapped with the sword's gleam.

He abandoned his advantage in distance and set aside all tactical considerations, seeking only the most powerful attack.

Fists and sword clashed as both men moved in earnest.

The distance between the blade and a vital point. The distance between a fist and a life.

The slightest difference could cost someone their life.

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