Blade Cry Echoes!

Riiip!

His ten fingers were hooked like claws, flesh translucent, finger bones like blades.

Several searing wounds were raked across Li Fang's chest. Flesh peeled back, blood streamed down, and his writhing organs were faintly visible beneath the rising steam.

"Useless, useless! Hahaha!" Li Fang laughed wildly. The pain in his body only drove his mind deeper into madness. "This is the power I pursued. Do you see it? Undying and indestructible—no one can do anything to me!"

Wu Feng drew his breath down into his abdomen, reining in his increasingly erratic heartbeat and reducing the expenditure of his vital energy and blood to the lowest possible level to sustain this intense battle.

"In the end, neither man nor monster!"

Wu Feng focused his gaze and shouted at the abnormal Li Fang.

"Heh heh, what can other people's idle gossip do to me?"

Li Fang's chest and abdomen slowly healed once more. He glanced toward the other battlefield in the distance, where the commotion was as grand as a demolition crew's work. There, Chu He was being ganged up on and hammered down, and the smile on Li Fang's lips climbed madly upward.

"You cannot understand ten years of effort. Today, the two of you will become the stepping stones to my success. With such an achievement, your trip through this mortal world will not have been in vain." Li Fang wore an expression of certain victory.

And in truth, it was indeed as he said.

The strength of two people was ultimately limited. How could a temporary defense compare to ten years of secret planning? Even if Hong Shou came, he might not be able to stop it.

More importantly, Wu Feng's side was still manageable. Even if he could not kill the village chief, he could at least hold him back. But Chu He's side was far more dangerous.

Crack!

The long blade shattered. Chu He's arm trembled violently as numbness flooded through his body. The strange female corpse's neck had been slashed open by more than half, but in the blink of an eye, hair-like threads spread across the wound, stitching the ghastly gash shut.

At the sight, irritation surged in Chu He's heart and veins bulged across his face. Yet at that moment, a gale rose behind him. A golden fist seal struck his back, sending wild ripples across the golden membrane covering his body. His mighty, river-like vital energy and blood suddenly weakened!

Damn it!

Chu He cursed inwardly. He leveled his long blade, twisted at the waist, and swept it out. His left hand clenched into a fist, bloodlines crawling over it as he smashed it toward the female corpse lunging at him with clawed hands.

Fist and blade struck out fiercely. The blade shrieked, and the fist boomed.

Caught between them, Chu He's body was battered by two different forces. Golden light flashed frantically over his body as force leaked inward, as if he were caught in raging waves. Blood seeped uncontrollably from the corner of his mouth.

It was still too much of a stretch!

Either one of these two could have fought him for a long time. If this continued, his vital energy and blood would be exhausted, and he would be left for others to slaughter.

While he still had some strength left, he should flee...

"Junior Brother, tell me your method for growing stronger. Your Senior Brother will spare your life and let you leave. Believe me!"

Blade and fist collided, neither able to overpower the other.

Han Zhong spoke again, attempting to tempt him. "In the current situation, escaping is no longer realistic. This is your only chance to live!"

"Hee hee hee..."

The teasing laughter of the female corpse came from beside his right ear.

The laughter was frivolous, as though echoing Han Zhong's words, yet also as though mocking Chu He's fate. For no reason at all, it made him restless and irritated.

"Trust your Senior Brother. Though we stand on different sides now, you should know what sort of person I am. Once I give my word, even four horses cannot pull it back."

"Did you kill the strange creature in Li Xiang's home?"

Chu He abruptly threw out the question without warning.

Han Zhong froze at those words, then answered without hesitation, "Yes!"

"Your mother!"

The corners of Chu He's eyes split open. His vital energy and blood blazed like burning firewood, growing ever fiercer. He suddenly withdrew the fist clashing against the female corpse and smashed it toward Han Zhong!

Flee? There was no way he was fleeing!

Today, he had to beat this bastard to death beneath his fists!

Bang!

Golden light collided head-on. Powerful rippling sound waves spread outward, and dirt and stones shot through the air. The already ruined Land God Temple finally collapsed with a thunderous crash.

Dust surged into the sky, swallowing everyone present within it.

Whoosh—

A figure was blasted out of the dust cloud, trailing long wisps of dust as it crashed into a house outside the Land God Temple and was buried beneath broken tiles, stones, and collapsed walls.

On the other side, Chu He was not faring much better either.

Pulling back his right hand and launching everything he had at Han Zhong meant completely abandoning the defenses around the right side of his chest and abdomen to the strange female corpse.

Naturally, the female corpse would not let such an opportunity pass. Hair wrapped around her sharp claws as they struck Chu He's ribs and waist without the slightest obstruction.

Feeling the thunderous force in her claws, Chu He's expression shifted slightly. Golden light flickered around him as the force poured through, and with a crack, his waistbone bent inward.

His ribs were broken!

Thud, thud, thud—

He staggered back several steps, each one blasting a pit into the ground. Red and white alternated across Chu He's face as his organs churned. His vital energy and blood surged, sweetness suddenly welled up in his throat, and he spat out a mouthful of old blood that splattered across the ground.

"Cough, cough, cough..."

Chu He spat blood and gave the female corpse a deep look, but did not entangle himself with her. Twisting his feet and turning his body, he charged at Han Zhong again at incredible speed.

Han Zhong had only just crawled out of the ruins when he saw Chu He rushing toward him.

He suddenly recalled Chu He's earlier abnormal behavior.

"Junior Brother, you're that mysterious person from Li Xiang's home?"

Clang, clang, clang—

Han Zhong's only answer was a series of blade-edged whistles tearing through the air!

The blade had already shattered into a jagged, dog-chewed shape, but under Chu He's tremendous strength, it remained incomparably sharp. Like a battle-axe, it hacked down toward Han Zhong.

"You refuse to listen and insist on coming here to die!"

Han Zhong finally revealed a ferocious expression. The vital energy and blood throughout his body erupted, golden light bursting from his flesh and forming an enormous golden bell. A huge wave of sound pushed forward.

Bell-Tolling Crimson Ground!

A crimson ground, several degrees weaker than Chu He's, spread out from the earth.

This move consumed an enormous amount of vital energy and blood. Over the course of one battle, it could be used at most once. Using it consecutively would result in insufficient vital energy and blood supply.

Once that vital energy and blood faltered, it would become a fatal opening!

Scorching heat rose beneath his feet, while the clear ring of a bell echoed beside his ears, stabbing pain into Chu He's eardrums. Two drops of blood slid down from his earlobes.

Chu He no longer defended himself. Even standing within the crimson ground, his entire body being scorched by the blazing heat, it could not shake his determination to cleave Han Zhong in two with a single slash.

Even as a skyful of black hair swept in behind him, even as the female corpse's claws reached for his heart and were about to pierce through his back, his resolve did not waver in the slightest.

If he was not going to flee and wanted to restore balance to the situation, there was only one way: kill one first, then fight the other. And Han Zhong, with his mortal flesh, became Chu He's sole target.

The high heat melted away Chu He's shirt. The broad blade in his hand had been three inches wide, but was burned down to only one inch. Yet the majestic, terrifying power coiling around it seemed capable of tearing space apart as it chopped down toward Han Zhong's head.

A sense of deadly danger surged in his heart. Seeing that he could not evade it and had nowhere left to go, Han Zhong finally showed terror. He raised both fists before himself and cursed loudly.

"Are you insane?!"

What sort of grudge was this? What sort of hatred?

He was willing to risk being pierced through and killed by the female corpse just to slash Han Zhong to death. Han Zhong remembered that he had never seemed to offend Chu He much before.

"If you don't die, my heart will never be at peace!"

Blood vessels burst in Chu He's eyes as the blade came whistling down.

"You can't kill me!" Han Zhong completely lost his composure and hurriedly ordered the female corpse, "Quickly, use your hair to bind him! Bind his blade!"

Yet the female corpse, who had always obeyed every command, ignored Han Zhong's words. Her clawed hands slowly pierced through the Golden Bell Shield covering Chu He's back.

"Li Fang! What are you doing?!"

Han Zhong abruptly turned his head, his eyes splitting with rage.

But everything was already too late. The blade had fallen.

The sound of flesh tearing suddenly rang out. The golden light membrane shattered like dry wood and rotten branches. One blade severed both of his hands and chopped down toward his neck.

"Die for me!!"

Chu He's eyes were blood-red as he violently pulled the hilt downward!

But the heart-piercing pain in his back told him that the female corpse behind him had already pierced his body's Golden Bell Shield and was striking straight for his heart.

He was still a few seconds too late...

Despair filled Chu He's heart as he prepared to use his final trump card.

Whoosh—

Suddenly, an intense sound of something tearing through the air came from overhead, drawing near from afar. In the blink of an eye, a streak of golden light slashed into the female corpse behind Chu He.