The Gap Between a Warrior and a Cultivator

What?

When the others witnessed this scene, their souls nearly fled their bodies, their courage and livers splitting apart!

At that moment, only one thought remained in their minds.

Run!

The remaining six, including Shi Xiao, along with Brother Leopard, turned without the slightest hesitation and fled for their lives in different directions!

"Not one of you is leaving."

The Black-Skirted Maiden gave a cold snort and patted a delicate cloth pouch embroidered with cloud patterns at her waist with her slender, jade-white hand.

In an instant, two yellow talismans shot out, ignited in the wind, and transformed into seven blazing arrows of flame. With shrill sounds of tearing air, they shot precisely toward the seven fleeing figures!

Puff, puff, puff...

Not a single arrow missed. Every one of them stabbed viciously into the roots of their thighs, and the powerful impact carried their bodies along, pinning them firmly to the ground. Miserable screams instantly sliced through the night sky.

Only Brother Leopard, the instant the arrow reached his body, twisted and spun sharply. Pouring all his blood and qi into the battle saber in his hand, he hacked out with all his strength!

Clang!

With an explosive ring of clashing metal, the battle saber snapped on impact. Brother Leopard was also shaken into a stagger, retreating five or six steps before he barely managed to steady himself, the webbing between his thumb and forefinger split open, blood dripping freely.

But in the end, he had forcefully blocked the strike with his ninth level of Body Tempering cultivation, and that lifted his spirits.

"I am at the ninth level of Body Tempering! Even if you're an immortal cultivator, you're only at the sixth level of Qi Refining. I refuse to believe that with my martial body, tempered through a thousand hammers and a hundred refinements, I can't take down one little yellow-haired girl like you!"

Brother Leopard let out a beastlike growl. The bones all over his body crackled and popped, and the blood and qi within him were driven to their limit, surging madly toward his fists, turning them crimson as blood, like branding irons.

"Blood Leopard Dragon-Fighting Fist!"

His legs stamped hard against the ground, shattering the bricks beneath him. His figure became like a true savage leopard pouncing on prey, carrying a tragic, ferocious momentum as he charged straight at the Black-Skirted Maiden on the eaves.

"A cornered beast still fights!"

The maiden's gaze was cold and clear, without the slightest ripple. She lightly patted her storage pouch again, and a delicate little knife, only the length of a palm and pitch-black from hilt to tip, flew out.

The instant the little knife left her hand, it grew in the wind, abruptly transforming into a black battle saber over a meter long. Dark flames burned fiercely along the blade, and the temperature of the surrounding space climbed sharply, waves of heat pressing in.

"Go!"

The maiden pointed with a bent finger and shouted coldly.

The long saber wreathed in black flame gave a hum, transformed into a streak of black lightning, tore through the air, and chopped straight at Brother Leopard!

The next instant!

"Ah—!"

A scream so shrill it twisted out of shape rang out!

Brother Leopard's body flew backward more than ten meters like a torn sack, then smashed heavily to the ground.

One of his arms had already vanished without a trace. The severed stump was charred black, and across his chest there was now a terrifying wound over a foot long, flesh curling back as the smell of scorching spread.

At this moment, the ferocity that had filled Brother Leopard's eyes earlier had long since been replaced by boundless shock and terror.

He finally understood, with piercing clarity, that ultimate truth passed down among martial men.

Immortal and mortal were different. Immortal masters could not be resisted!

A martial man's Body Tempering realm and an immortal cultivator's Qi Refining realm were, in theory, corresponding first major realms, but their battle power was as far apart as clouds and mud!

He was at the ninth level of Body Tempering. He had nourished his blood and qi, trained his sinews and muscles, forged his bones, and made his martial body as mighty as vajra. Yet before the other party's strange magical artifact, he was actually as fragile as paper!

And the other party was only at the sixth level of Qi Refining!

It filled him with despair.

The Black-Skirted Maiden seemed rather dissatisfied that her one strike had failed to achieve full success. Her fine brows furrowed slightly, and with a cold snort, she once again urged the long saber of black flame forward, about to end Brother Leopard's life completely.

Just then...

Whoosh!

A silver-bright flying sword pierced through the air and arrived, intercepting the black long saber with precision. It gave a crisp clang and knocked it aside.

"Mm?" The Black-Skirted Maiden's expression turned cold, and her sharp gaze swept toward the alley entrance on the right.

A figure wearing a black bamboo hat drifted into view. The silver flying sword made a nimble turn and hovered around him, sword light pulsing in and out as it guarded him on either side.

"So there was an immortal cultivator hidden behind the scenes. No wonder you had such dog courage." The Black-Skirted Maiden's voice was icy. "A rat who hides his head and shows his tail—I'd like to see which immortal sect's prized disciple you are, or... whether you're merely some Rogue Cultivator who cannot bear the light of day!"

Her hands swiftly formed hand seals, and the spiritual power in her body poured continuously into the black long saber. The saber's black flames surged, and amid a buzzing hum, a gigantic black saber radiance over ten meters long broke free from the blade, carrying a destructive aura as it slashed fiercely toward the Bamboo-Hat Man.

The Bamboo-Hat Man did not dare be careless and drove the silver flying sword with all his strength to meet the attack.

In an instant, the two magical artifacts clashed fiercely in midair. Sword light and saber radiance collided and strangled each other madly, while the scattered force carved the surrounding walls and ground into a complete mess.

"Why aren't you leaving!" the Bamboo-Hat Man barked in a low voice, seizing an opening.

Brother Leopard heard him and, enduring the severe pain, struggled to his feet. He staggered toward the depths of the darkness without caring about anything else, vanishing from sight in the blink of an eye.

The Black-Skirted Maiden's gaze sharpened. She waved her hand, wanting to send out another talisman to block him, but it was intercepted halfway by a talisman the Bamboo-Hat Man likewise sacrificed.

The two immortal cultivators held nothing back, launching into an all-out battle.

And amid that chaos, from within the pile of "ruined walls and broken rubble," a figure leaped up without a sound. Like the nimblest civet cat, he used the cover of the shadows and gave swift chase in the direction Brother Leopard had fled.

Brother Leopard fled for his life, not daring to pass through any bustling streets. He chose only remote, dark, tangled alleys to slip through.

Forcing up a breath of vital energy, he desperately squeezed out the last of the potential in his ninth-level Body Tempering martial body. Only after sprinting madly through six streets and alleys in a row did he dare press his back against a wall, panting in great gulps. His face was pale as paper, and blood kept seeping from the stump of his severed arm and the wound on his chest.

Trembling, he fished out some golden wound medicine from his robes and scattered it messily over his wounds. Just as he was about to tear off a strip of his clothes to bandage them, he abruptly went on alert. Like an injured beast, his sharp gaze swept toward the alley diagonally ahead.

"Who's there?! Come out!"

"Boss... it's... it's me... one of our own..." From the darkness came a hoarse and weak voice, as if its owner had also been wounded.

The next moment, a figure suddenly lunged out from the darkness. Yet the helping hand Brother Leopard expected never came. What greeted him instead was a faceful of dust mixed with sand and dirt.

Under such grievous injuries, Brother Leopard's reactions were nowhere near their usual speed, and this underhanded trick struck him squarely in the face.

A mass of sand and grit instantly invaded both eyes. The sharp pain and darkness made him let out a terrified roar, and his remaining arm flailed wildly forward.

Such chaotic defense was no defense at all before Lu Lin. He easily avoided the wild swings of that lone arm, and his fist, gathering the nearly two thousand seven hundred catties of strength in his entire body, shot out like a cannonball from its barrel, smashing viciously into the wound on Brother Leopard's chest.

Bang!

Crack!

A dull impact rang out together with the sound of bones splitting.

If he had been at his peak, Brother Leopard's steel sinews and iron bones would naturally have feared nothing. But now he was badly wounded and weak, and with his wound struck hard again, how could he possibly endure it? His entire body was smashed flying backward once more, slamming heavily into the wall behind him before sliding limply to the ground. Blood gushed wildly from his mouth, and he was already on his last breath.

"You... just who... are you..." Brother Leopard's bloodshot eyes bulged wide as he stared fixedly at Lu Lin walking out from the shadows, letting out an unwilling snarl.

Lu Lin's eyes were ice-cold. Without a single word of nonsense, he stepped forward and kicked viciously into the wound on Brother Leopard's chest, cutting off his scream and turning it into a pained whimper.

Immediately after, another precise, ruthless heavy punch smashed his throat bone to pieces.

Brother Leopard's body convulsed violently several times. The light in his eyes rapidly dimmed, and in the end, he fell completely silent.

Lu Lin wasted no time. He quickly removed the two bundles from Brother Leopard's back and opened the box lids. A rich medicinal fragrance spread out once again. Inside were indeed the packed two hundred Blood Qi Pills, one hundred Tendon Refining Pills, and that extraordinary Blood Flame Deer antler.

Take!

With a thought, all the pills and the antler inside the three boxes vanished instantly, transferred in full into the inner space of his Martial Dao Melting Furnace.

As for the wooden boxes outside, space was limited, so they could only be abandoned.

After dealing with all this, Lu Lin's figure flashed, and he swiftly left the scene, returning by the original route at top speed to the alley where he had been ambushed earlier.

"No, still a little short."

Lu Lin suddenly stopped. His right hand clenched into a fist and pressed against his chest. His blood qi erupted violently, striking into his chest.

Crack!

One rib in his chest broke, and a mouthful of blood flowed from the corner of his lips.

That was about right.

By the time he silently slipped back, the battle between the two immortal cultivators was already nearing its end.

The Black-Skirted Maiden's strength far exceeded the Bamboo-Hat Man's estimate. Her methods were fierce, sharp, and unpredictable, and she had actually beaten the higher-cultivated Bamboo-Hat Man back step by step, leaving him only able to parry.

The Bamboo-Hat Man was both shocked and furious. They were both in the Qi Refining stage, yet he had been completely suppressed by a junior two levels lower than him. This girl was absolutely no ordinary disciple within the Blood Baleful Demon Sect.

Gritting his teeth, he spared no cost and consecutively activated several precious talismans, temporarily forcing the Black-Skirted Maiden back, then turned to flee.

However, several figures had already swept out from the surrounding darkness, their auras incomparably deep and solid. They were all, astonishingly, tenth-level Body Tempering Demon Sect stewards. In an instant, they formed a battle formation and sealed off his escape route completely. How could the Black-Skirted Maiden let such an opportunity pass? That black-flame long blade was summoned again, transforming into a black streak of death that easily chopped off the Bamboo-Hat Man's head!

While everyone's attention was drawn to the Bamboo-Hat Man, Lu Lin was like a slippery loach, once again silently slipping back into the pile of ruins. He lay down in his original spot, restrained every trace of his aura, and remained utterly still.

"Greetings, Immortal Master!" Several tenth-level Body Tempering stewards respectfully saluted the Black-Skirted Maiden.

The girl's cold, clear gaze swept over the wrecked scene, her voice carrying not the slightest emotion. "A thief has fled with our sect's pills. Send people after him at once. If he lives, I want him brought back alive; if he dies, I want to see the corpse."

She paused, then added, "Also, examine them carefully. See whether any of these martial artists of my Demon Sect are still alive."