[Name Beyond Life and Death]

A brief flicker of panic crossed Hou Ming's face, but the next second, he clenched his right fist and smashed it viciously down at the frozen Gu Feng.

His right arm underwent a startling transformation in an instant. Dense white fur burst out from beneath his skin, swiftly covering the entire arm. His muscles swelled at a visible rate, and his once lean arm became as thick as a pillar in the blink of an eye, veins bulging with explosive strength.

"Boom!"

The massive arm crashed down like heavy artillery, carrying terrifying force.

Gu Feng's Scavenger Fourth Rank body, frozen solid in ice, was directly pulverized by that blow.

Shattered flesh, bones, and ice crystals sprayed in all directions like a blooming blood flower. The Baleful Chill Fork wreathed in frost was also sent flying by the tremendous impact, hurtling backward into the distant woods.

"Where did you hide?"

Hou Ming vigilantly swept his gaze around, a trace of surprise flashing through his eyes.

He had assumed that the ambusher would reveal himself immediately after killing Gu Feng, yet the surroundings remained utterly silent, as though that lethal strike had never happened.

The next moment, a distorted blur of light suddenly entered the corner of his vision. It was incredibly fast, arriving before Hou Ming almost instantly and stabbing toward his wide-open chest.

Rather than panicking, Hou Ming's face lit up with delight as he shouted sharply:

"Got you, little thief!"

His originally frail human body began to expand at high speed, white fur surging from beneath his skin like a tide and covering his entire body.

Powerful muscles burst through his clothes, fabric tearing one after another. In the blink of an eye, Hou Ming transformed from a gaunt middle-aged man into a white giant ape standing a full three meters tall.

His agile ape arm reached for that blur of light at an utterly twisted angle that completely defied the structure of the human body.

Bloodthirsty light gleamed in his eyes, as though he could already see his prey being torn apart.

But the next second, piercing pain shot through Hou Ming's palm.

What he had grabbed was not a physical body at all, but a concealed mass of wind and sand!

Those rapidly spinning grains of sand were like a meat grinder, instantly shredding the tough fur on the white ape's palm and cutting deep into flesh.

At the same time, the real Yellow Wind Little Sage emerged from Gu Feng's shattered corpse.

His palm-sized body had been hidden among the scattered chunks of flesh and ice crystals. He was so inconspicuous that Hou Ming had completely overlooked him.

Yellow Wind Little Sage gave Hou Ming no time to react. He blew out a long breath, which transformed into wind and sand that swept forth across the sky in an instant.

Wind Arts: Flying Sand and Rolling Stones!

This time, Yellow Wind Little Sage held nothing back. True Samadhi Resonance fused into it, and every grain of dust became a sharp blade, howling and spinning through the air as it continuously carved apart Hou Ming's body.

The entire space was engulfed by a yellow storm, reducing visibility to almost zero. The roar of the gale was deafening, mixed with the piercing shrieks produced by sand grains grinding against one another at high speed.

Trapped within the wind and sand, Hou Ming desperately tried to break out. But the howling gale had thrown off his sense of direction, and he could not tell where the exit lay.

Layer after layer of flesh was continually stripped from his body by the wind and sand. Those grains infused with True Samadhi Resonance cut through his skin, ripped apart his muscles, and even began grinding against his bones.

In just a few seconds, Hou Ming had already suffered grave injuries.

But at that moment, a sudden change occurred.

Knowing there was no hope of breaking free, Hou Ming threw back his head and let out a long howl. It was shrill and piercing as a dim, shadowy radiance surged from within him, enveloping the entire white ape body.

Under that radiance, the flesh that had nearly been torn apart by Flying Sand and Rolling Stones began healing at high speed.

Severed muscles reconnected, broken skin rapidly grew back, and even the cracks in his bones mended at a visible rate.

The wind and sand continued to wear away at his body, yet they could not keep up with his recovery!

Feeling his injuries rapidly healing, Hou Ming calmed somewhat and shouted a threat from within the storm:

"The White Ape Chart may not be a mainstream Mythic System Diagram of the Investigation Bureau, but I still chose it because I accidentally obtained a strand of fur from the Undying Divine Monkey of Flower Fruit Mountain from mythological legend in my early years.

"This is Mythic Material at the level of Incense Residue. It bestowed upon me the power of immortality. You absolutely cannot kill me today."

"The Investigation Bureau's reinforcements will be here soon. If you know what's good for you, leave at once. Otherwise, once the reinforcements arrive, it will be your day of death!"

After witnessing Hou Ming's terrifying recovery speed and hearing of the "fur of Flower Fruit Mountain's Undying Divine Monkey," Yellow Wind Little Sage was instinctively startled, even entertaining the thought of turning around and fleeing.

The monkeys of Flower Fruit Mountain were famously renowned. Even setting aside Sun Wukong, the Great Sage, Flower Fruit Mountain also had the Long-Armed Ape and the Red-Buttocked Monkey among the Four Spiritual Monkeys.

If Hou Ming had obtained Mythic Material from any of those great spiritual monkeys, his foundation absolutely could not be underestimated.

Moreover, Flying Sand and Rolling Stones had never been a killing art. Yellow Wind Little Sage had previously relied entirely on the superior rank of True Samadhi Resonance to suppress his enemies, and even the complete great divine ability of Samadhi Divine Wind was not known for slaughter.

Once Flying Sand and Rolling Stones enhanced by Inner Threefold Samadhi failed to take down his opponent, Yellow Wind Little Sage would be at the end of his tether.

Yet when he heard Hou Ming's later claim that the fur of the so-called Undying Divine Monkey was merely at the level of Incense Residue, Yellow Wind Little Sage's expression suddenly became strange.

Incense Residue was of higher quality than Spiritual Dust and could indeed be considered extraordinary, but the rank of the Four Spiritual Monkeys should have been far beyond the level of Incense Residue.

Yellow Wind Little Sage steadied himself and carefully examined Hou Ming within the storm, suddenly discovering something amiss.

Although Hou Ming repeatedly claimed to possess immortality, he still instinctively protected vital areas such as his head and heart against the violent wind and sand.

If he truly possessed an immortal body, why would he care about such things?

More importantly, after being continually worn down for some time, although the flesh on Hou Ming's body was still regenerating, the recovery speed had clearly slowed.

That dim radiance was no longer as bright as it had been at first, but had instead faded somewhat.

"If you don't leave now, you really won't be able to leave!" Hou Ming's threatening voice came again, but there was now a hint of bluster beneath the bravado.

"The Investigation Bureau will be here any moment! When that happens, you won't be able to escape even if you want to!"

Hearing this, Yellow Wind Little Sage became even more certain of his judgment.

Yellow Wind Little Sage instinctively muttered, "What kind of immortality is this? And this ability definitely doesn't measure up to the Four Spiritual Monkeys. Could it be some other monkey from Flower Fruit Mountain?"

Suddenly, a strange thought flashed through Yellow Wind Little Sage's mind.

"The Undying Divine Monkey he mentioned..." Yellow Wind Little Sage's eyes lit up. "Could it be those monkeys of Flower Fruit Mountain whose names Sun Wukong erased from the Book of Life and Death when he caused havoc in the Underworld?"

Once that thought arose, the more Yellow Wind Little Sage considered it, the more reasonable it seemed.

Back then, because the Netherworld Bureaucracy had summoned Sun Wukong's soul, he wreaked havoc in the Underworld and fought his way all the way to Yama Hall.

There, he forcibly altered the Book of Life and Death, striking his own name from it. Not only that, he also erased the names of every monkey on Flower Fruit Mountain while he was at it.

From then on, the monkeys of Flower Fruit Mountain were indeed no longer under the jurisdiction of the Underworld. In a sense, they had gained the ability of "immortality."

Of course, this "immortality" was not true eternal life or indestructibility. It meant only that after death, their souls would not enter reincarnation and could only wander the mortal world.

For ordinary mundane creatures, such a state could barely be called "immortality."

And if the Mythic Material left behind after those monkeys died was fused by someone else, that person would naturally inherit part of this trait.

If they truly were the monkeys of Flower Fruit Mountain whose names were absent from the Book of Life and Death, then wearing down their Mythic Trait through Wind Arts alone did indeed offer a chance of killing Hou Ming—or at least killing his physical body.

But the people from the Yinshan Investigation Branch could return at any moment. The longer Yellow Wind Little Sage spent here, the more easily he would fall into danger.

"I have to finish Hou Ming quickly!"

Yellow Wind Little Sage's thoughts raced, and suddenly, a flash of insight crossed his mind.

"The monkeys of Flower Fruit Mountain are immortal because their names were erased from the Book of Life and Death. Since it's a loophole created by the Underworld, it should be handled by Underworld deities."

With that thought, Yellow Wind Little Sage opened Greedy Mouth and took out White Impermanence's Edict.

The instant the edict of an Ancient Underworld deity appeared within the Yin Mountain Realm, the entire Northern Yin Mountain Temple blazed with brilliant light.

An anomaly manifested outside the mountain temple. Dao resonance flowed across the steps, immortal light blossomed from the carved railings on both sides, and the entire mountain temple immediately transformed from its original ancient simplicity into a divine hall.

Hou Ming, standing at the center of the storm, suddenly let out a miserable scream. It was shrill and despairing, as though he were suffering the most horrifying torture in the world.

Yellow Wind Little Sage clearly saw a strand of dim spiritual light detach from Hou Ming's white ape body.

Immediately afterward, the white ape body that had been endlessly repairing itself began to collapse, as though it had already decayed through countless years, and in an instant, it was completely worn away by the yellow sand.

In a daze, Yellow Wind Little Sage grabbed the spiritual light flying toward him, and a panel flashed past his eyes.

[Name Beyond Life and Death]