Toward Death

After becoming a half-paper man, Xu Zhenshan was far stronger than he had been in life.

Martial arts used force, which was really the power of the human body itself, only transformed by martial arts into explosive might.

But this half-paper man used something cold and sinister. When it struck the human body, it actually produced an effect similar to flash-freezing.

Honestly, this was already genuine supernatural power, similar to internal force. And not ordinary internal force, either, but powerful attribute-based internal force like icy true qi. That was why the caught-off-guard Lin Heier had been brought down in a single exchange.

Otherwise, if Xu Zhenshan had still been alive, Lin Heier could have easily beaten him senseless.

At that moment, Wu Pifu charged straight in, unleashing a clash with the Lotus-Seated Force he had not yet fully mastered. The instant their hands met, his heart sank. An indescribably icy aura traveled down through their palms, nearly freezing the meridians and blood vessels in his hand in an instant.

But Wu Pifu was using the Lotus-Seated Force now, or rather, an incomplete version of it. Though it had yet to become simulated Dan force, it had still gathered half the qi and blood in his body. Its concentration far surpassed the level of hidden force. As it erupted, it blasted away the cold energy and surged up along the half-paper man's palm.

A loud bang erupted between their palms. The half-paper man's fleshy palm was blasted apart, and that power, half hidden force and half simulated Dan force, continued upward, blowing apart half its arm before stopping at the elbow. At the same time, the half-paper man was blasted back nearly ten meters, straight to the edge of the fireline.

Wu Pifu himself did not feel good either. His qi and blood had instantly condensed and erupted, leaving every part of his body faintly aching.

But this was where the benefits of a strong body and vigorous qi and blood showed. Though Wu Pifu ached all over, it had not injured his foundation. Within a few breaths, qi and blood gradually filled his body again, and the aching vanished.

In terms of pure physique, Wu Pifu was even stronger than Yamadai, a Third War veteran who had undergone genetic correction. He was practically at the peak of normal human physical fitness. Though he was barely over 1.8 meters tall, his strength, endurance, qi and blood, and overall robustness surpassed even the top athletes of the twenty-first century. On a basketball court, in a physical clash, he could even send Shaquille O'Neal in his prime flying.

After being hit once and having an arm blown off, the half-paper man actually revealed shock.

That was right. The half-paper man should have been ignorant and mindless, yet Xu Zhenshan's head showed an expression of shock. But it vanished in an instant, and his face returned to that grim, terrifying dead man's expression.

"Who... goes... there?" Xu Zhenshan's head asked in an extremely "strained" voice.

Wu Pifu was surprised, but he still rose from his crouch. He looked around, and when he saw Lin Heier slowly getting to her feet, he breathed a sigh of relief. Then he clasped his fists toward Xu Zhenshan. "Tiger Demon Art... Wu Pifu!"

It was a matter of following local customs. Wu Pifu did not understand many of this era's formalities, but after speaking with Xu Rongyu and Lin Heier these past days, he had roughly learned some of the rules of exchange among martial artists.

For example, when two martial artists were strangers and fought for the first time, they would either state their sect, such as "Wudang So-and-so" or "Shaolin So-and-so," or name their region, such as "Foshan So-and-so" or "Guangdong So-and-so." If neither applied, then either you were not well known in your area, or your sect was gone or could not be openly named. In that case, you named your martial art, such as "Taiji So-and-so" or "Xingyi So-and-so."

Upon hearing this, the half-paper man also made a fist-clasping salute with one hand in an extremely "strained" manner. Then it continued in that same "strained" voice, "Stele-Slamming Hand... Xu... Zhen... shan!"

Wu Pifu's thoughts raced, and an unbelievable guess rose in his mind.

Could it be that Xu Zhenshan's self-awareness had not yet been completely extinguished?

Was it trying to use the last of its consciousness to fight one battle as a martial artist?

Just as Wu Pifu was speculating in confusion, the half-paper man suddenly reached out and violently grabbed a paper man drifting past it, yanking it into its palm. The paper man struggled and shrieked frantically, its cry sharp as a needle, but the half-paper man was wholly unaffected. It raised the paper man and stuffed it into its mouth.

It looked like it was made of paper, but once it entered its mouth, it was bitten into flesh, bones, and gore. Dark red blood, rotten meat, and shattered bones poured from its mouth. Xu Zhenshan's head nearly deformed completely, its mouth tearing wide enough to swallow a basketball in one bite. It gulped down the entire paper man, then a long, thin tongue swept over the bloody scraps beneath its jaw.

In only a few seconds, the half-paper man devoured a paper man. Then its damaged arm began healing at a visible rate. Strands of paper-like thread extended from the severed arm, intertwining and winding together to shape a new limb. The arm then transformed from paper into flesh, and the half-paper man was whole again.

"Come!" The half-paper man extended one hand downward with the weightlessness of lifting something heavy, while the other raised upward with the heaviness of lifting something light. Having assumed this stance, it strode toward Wu Pifu.

Since Wu Pifu had stepped forward now, he naturally had no intention of retreating. Perhaps he had not yet fully mastered the Lotus-Seated Force, and perhaps Yamadai had not yet finished the equipment, but the arrow was already on the string. A man could not be held to death by his own urine. He advanced to meet the half-paper man.

The half-paper man used a different martial art with each arm. One hand lifted the heavy as though it were light, moving like a long whip, every palm strike cracking through the air. The other lifted the light as though it were heavy, as if supporting a thousand pounds in its palm. One strike carried the might to split mountains and shatter walls.

The moment they exchanged blows, Wu Pifu's extended tiger claw was pressed down by that braid-like palm, unable to advance even an inch. At the same time, another Stele-Slamming Hand struck toward his chest from the side. Before the palm even arrived, the wind was vicious, and Wu Pifu felt a dull pain in his chest. Just as the blow was about to hit him, his body flashed, and he flipped completely upside down.

Wu Pifu planted both hands on the ground, his legs pointing skyward, and met the Stele-Slamming Hand head-on with a flying kick.

With a muffled bang, the Stele-Slamming Hand, seemingly carrying the weight of a thousand pounds, was forcibly kicked aside. Wu Pifu's palms moved swiftly as he surged upright, nearly closing in on the half-paper man. His hands changed into claws, and with a leap and pounce, he tore a huge chunk of flesh from one of its arms, exposing even the bone.

"Good... move!"

The half-paper man laboriously shouted praise, then grabbed another paper man and chewed it up on the spot. Its arm returned to normal once more.

The half-paper man's bloody maw opened wide, and its long, thin tongue licked over the bloodstains. Yet it did not attack immediately. Instead, Xu Zhenshan's head stared intently at Wu Pifu. Then its stance changed again. Its palms formed a circle, its feet stepped in some mysterious pattern, and it advanced toward Wu Pifu one deliberate step at a time.

"Furnace Millstone Palm!" Xu Rongyu lay weakly on the ground. Xu Shilan was guarding him with two torches, threatening the paper men drifting in.

The moment Xu Rongyu saw the move, he shouted, "The human heart is iron, the law of officials is a furnace, heaven and earth are a millstone... My father had never mastered this move. They say it leads directly to the grandmaster realm of transformed force. He often lamented that he had obtained it too late. How could this monster possibly use it!?"

Wu Pifu remained silent.

In terms of techniques, the Tiger Demon Art might not have been particularly wondrous, but he had developed a trace of Sleepless Spirit-Sense. In an actual fight, though his mind was full of stray thoughts, demonic thoughts, and evil thoughts, when life and death truly hung in the balance, Sleepless Spirit-Sense responded instinctively. Just as when the Stele-Slamming Hand had nearly struck him, he had suddenly spun his body one hundred and eighty degrees and kicked at it.

This move was called the Returning Body Tail in the Tiger Demon Art. But a normal Returning Body Tail involved leaning the body backward until it was straight, then kicking out with one leg, rather than flipping upside down and kicking out with both feet.

After all, the power of the human legs was twice that of the arms. This ingenious move had allowed him to easily break through the Stele-Slamming Hand.

The half-paper man closed in again, palms forming a circle as if it were holding a round millstone. Wu Pifu still met it head-on, tiger claws tearing toward the half-paper man's neck. But halfway through extending his arms, he immediately felt a twisting force emanate from between the half-paper man's arms.

One palm of the half-paper man rotated clockwise in a spiral, while the other rotated counterclockwise. Between the rotating palms, a cold and sinister force burst forth, dragging Wu Pifu's tiger claw into the rotation as well.

In that instant, Wu Pifu felt as though his tiger claw had plunged into incomparably viscous liquid mercury. The dragging force rapidly expanded, reaching his forearm, elbow, chest, and upper body. In less than a second, he felt as though he had been frozen solid, unable to move even a finger.

At that moment, the half-paper man brought its palms together. The spiraling force exploded violently, easily grinding apart Wu Pifu's tiger claws without losing momentum. Its force penetrated his body, and in that lightning-fast instant, both palms struck deeply into Wu Pifu's chest.

With a thunderous boom, Wu Pifu was sent flying more than ten meters away. He crashed into the outer wall of a building, smashed through it, and tumbled into the building's interior.

"Transformed force!?" Lin Heier had already risen to her feet. She did not even bother wiping the icy blood from the corner of her mouth as she cried out in shock.

"Ha, hahaha, hahaha..."

The half-paper man threw back its head and laughed jerkily. Still wearing that dead man's face, it spoke as if in immense delight. "I have... attained the Dao. Blessed by the Old Mother, trans... transformed... force is nothing. My son, now I will let you attain the Dao with me."

Whenever the half-paper man spoke words belonging to the martial artist Xu Zhenshan, its voice stuttered and hesitated. But whenever it spoke of attaining the Dao, the Old Mother, and such things, it became completely fluent.

Everyone could see that the half-paper man—or rather, the remnants of the original Xu Zhenshan's will—still seemed to exist. But there was probably very little left.

Xu Rongyu wept in grief and pain, shouting at the same time, "Father, if you still have any consciousness left, resist this monster's influence!!"

The half-paper man said nothing. It stepped toward Xu Rongyu, while the drifting paper men flew toward Lin Heier, Xu Shilan, and Yamadai, who was carrying out the final corrections.

Everyone's life and death would be decided in this very moment!

Then, all at once, the half-paper man stopped. Every paper man ceased its swirling flight, and even the thin mist was forced back by an invisible power.

Within the half-collapsed building wall, a pair of blood-red pupils suddenly flew open!