Ominous Red Hair

With a light press from Su Qingyang, Bai Wei instantly froze in place!

Only his remaining eye

suddenly began to tremble and spin wildly, beyond his control.

Roar—!

Bai Wei suddenly let out a howl that sounded inhuman. Black and scarlet intertwined in his lone eye, as though a devil had opened its eyes, staring straight at Su Qingyang.

Boom!

A terrifying aura burst forth, laid bare beneath heaven and earth.

Bai Wei's entire body brimmed with powerful qi and blood. In an instant, billowing white vapor rose from the gaps in his heavy armor like erupting steam!

The armor immediately let out a deep hum, like a steel behemoth suddenly awakening!

As Bai Wei abruptly straightened his body, the earth began to tremble, and a towering, vicious, ominous aura exploded outward.

Su Qingyang narrowed his eyes.

At this moment, countless strange black hairs were wildly forcing their way out through the gaps in Bai Wei's heavy armor, covering his entire body in mere moments.

Before long, they had completely turned him into a terrifying monster.

Most of the long hair was black as ink. Only a small patch atop his head, where Su Qingyang's finger had pressed,

had grown a tuft of red hair.

It was vivid as fresh blood, exuding an intense sense of ill omen.

"Parasitism?!"

"Doesn't seem like it!"

"He's already lost his reason!"

Su Qingyang did not appear surprised. He merely muttered to himself.

Roar!!

A roar shook the mountain forest. The monster Bai Wei had become began to swell, growing from eight chi tall to three meters.

Long black hair hung down, trailing through the air and whipping wildly in the wind.

Its aura rose steadily, forcibly smashing through the shackles of Houtian and stepping into the Innate Realm.

Even among Innate Warriors, it would have counted as a formidable one.

"Die, die... Kill you... You all die!!"

Whoosh!

The monster charged forward. With one step, the entire ground split apart, dirt spraying into the air. Its terrifying momentum crashed forward like mountains collapsing and seas overturning.

Su Qingyang stepped forward and raised a hand to block it.

With a thunderous boom, the two exchanged blows. In an instant, they had traded seven or eight moves, their speed reaching the extreme.

Every movement sent terrifying qi and blood surging, blasting the surrounding air into explosive cracks as shockwaves rolled outward layer upon layer like waves.

This was a monster forged of steel, yet when it collided with Su Qingyang's flesh-and-blood body, it could not shake him in the slightest.

"Its physical strength has risen considerably, almost reaching the level of a Third Qi-Blood Breakthrough...

"But it has lost its reason. It only knows how to fight with its fleshly body, with no method or form to its attacks. It cannot even use internal force."

Su Qingyang silently assessed it as he blocked with one hand.

He quickly reached a rough conclusion. The monster Bai Wei had become was using its life as kindling, madly burning its vitality to squeeze out a brief burst of power.

In the instant Su Qingyang was distracted in thought, the monster, which had been suppressed by one of his hands, suddenly sprang into action.

In the flash of lightning, it struck like a bolt of thunder, smashing a fist fiercely toward Su Qingyang's head.

The punch was terrifying. Its massive fist swept forward, the airflow exploding with a rumbling roar that could be heard across all of Spirit Peak Mountain.

"Cheeky!"

Facing the monster's attack, Su Qingyang smiled faintly and lightly raised his right foot.

Tear...

The monster, which had been charging forward unstoppably, suddenly stiffened as though struck by lightning.

The next instant, a vast scarlet mist of blood exploded from its back. Powerful qi-and-blood force pierced through its flesh, and its thick, pale-white spine snapped inch by inch, ripping through its skin and jutting out.

It struggled to lift its head and glanced at Su Qingyang.

Then its huge head drooped. Swaying unsteadily, it lost all signs of life.

Su Qingyang had kicked it to death!

Not long after, under Su Qingyang's watchful gaze,

the long black hair covering Bai Wei's body began to rapidly recede. Before long, all that remained was an emaciated corpse.

Looking at this corpse, it was difficult to imagine that this person had once possessed such a burly and imposing figure.

Su Qingyang narrowed his eyes. He had just reached out, intending to take a strand of the scarlet hair, but failed, grasping only empty air.

"This world hides quite a few secrets. It seems it isn't merely a world of martial arts."

Su Qingyang sighed softly and looked up at Spirit Peak Mountain before him.

Things like the strange red hair and black hair, or monsters like Lin Muqian, were discoveries Su Qingyang had stumbled upon after breaking through to the Grandmaster Realm.

Back when he had forcibly attempted to break through to become a Martial Dao Grandmaster, he had once caught glimpses of scattered, strange phantoms.

At the time, he had thought that his lack of Spirituality and his forced breakthrough had caused him to suffer deviation, giving rise to illusory visions.

But now, even after becoming a Blood Refining Grandmaster and attaining a transcendent body, he could still see these things.

Then he understood...

Perhaps these things were the other side of this world.

Only those who crossed beyond mortal limits and became Transcendent Grandmasters could glimpse the world's hidden side.

Before long, Su Qingyang withdrew his gaze.

However, he did not turn to leave. Instead, he looked toward a spot within the forest.

"All right, stop hiding. You've followed me for so long; it would be rude to keep hiding."

It was a patch of shadow beneath the trees, dimly lit, with the wind occasionally whistling through. There was no movement at all.

Yet after a moment, a slender figure emerged from those shadows, silently appearing not far from Su Qingyang. She lowered her head and bowed.

"My apologies for the offense. I did not mean to spy on you. I merely heard the disturbance on the mountain and followed the sounds here."

The newcomer was Liu Qingni. Even beneath her veil, the panic on her face could not be concealed. It seemed she had discovered something extraordinary.

"You saw it all?"

Su Qingyang raised a brow, a barely perceptible smile curling at his lips.

Lying before a Grandmaster was not a pleasant thing.

Liu Qingni fell silent. Under the young man's calm gaze, fine beads of cold sweat formed on her forehead, and unease churned in her heart.

After hesitating for a long while, she nodded lightly.

Then she hurriedly shook her head again.

With her head lowered, her heart rose and fell as she had no idea what fate awaited her.

Just as her nerves tightened to the limit, Su Qingyang suddenly chuckled beside her, and the stagnant, oppressive atmosphere instantly eased.

"All right, look how nervous you are. You're making it seem as though I'm going to eat someone." Su Qingyang smiled, not taking her secret spying to heart.

Su Qingyang looked over the place where the bandits had died, rubbing his chin as he asked thoughtfully,

"The commotion just now was so great, and these scattered soldiers even dragged out cannons and military equipment. Did something happen in Great Jin?"

Spirit Peak County, and even the entirety of Northern Province, appeared calm and peaceful on the surface.

Yet according to these defeated remnants, they had clearly suffered a defeat before fleeing here in panic.

Liu Qingni looked toward the terrifying chasm Su Qingyang had blasted out with a punch and stood there in a daze.

Even though she had witnessed it firsthand, facing this horrifying scar at close range still left her heart surging in shock at the power of a Blood Refining Grandmaster.

Transcendent Grandmasters truly were unfathomable, impossible to measure in the slightest.