Spirit-Absorption Realm, Perfected: Yellow Great Immortal

Gao Fei heard Second Uncle shouting from the city wall and glanced at the two tallest dog demons ahead.

They were mingling among the ranks, slowly drawing closer.

One of the dog demons suddenly opened its mouth and spat out a translucent blade of light.

"Gos Dog!"

With a slight lift of his spear, he struck with its tip and scattered the wind blade.

His hand trembled slightly. It was fast, but not very powerful; Gao Fei felt he could withstand it with his bare body.

This time, he did not dare throw his spear. If a dog demon picked it up and used it against him, that would be feeding the dog.

One of the dog demons, seemingly at the Spirit-Absorption Realm, appeared at Gao Fei's side.

The moment Gao Fei thrust his spear, it suddenly accelerated and darted inside the spear's range. A trace of a smile could be seen on its dog face.

Gao Fei had noticed it long ago. He turned sideways and punched its chest, Dark Force erupting forth.

This time, he went all out. The Spirit-Absorption Realm dog demon's front remained intact, but a conical hole burst open through its back.

Its heart shattered into pieces and sprayed out through the hole.

Spotting the dog demon that had spat the flying blade, Gao Fei became one with his spear. Ignoring the fists, kicks, clubs, and staffs of the other dog demons around him, he charged straight at it.

After it dodged his direct thrust, he withdrew the spear and brought it down with Mount Tai Crashes Down, the spear tip smashing viciously into the dog's head.

He used tremendous force. The gust of force sent the surrounding dog demons staggering back a step, while it collapsed to the ground on the spot.

There were still around fifty Minor Monsters that had retreated. A large group of them possessed Unawakened Intelligence, and not many had died.

Yet they had lost the courage to keep fighting. They slowly backed away, then turned and ran.

Cheers of victory erupted from atop the city wall.

People had already begun running down from the wall, shouting, "Open the city gates!"

Gao Fei did not pursue the demons, nor did he heed the cheers from the wall. He dug out the two Beast Cores and put them away.

He walked to Zhang Constable's corpse, gently lifted him into his arms, and headed into the city.

"You really died for nothing!"

The people who had been cheering gradually quieted down at the sight.

The protagonist of the event did not accept their cheers.

By the time he reached the city gate, it had already been opened.

Second Uncle's family was waiting there.

Lu Xiaoliu hurried over with several people and took Zhang Constable away.

Everyone around him wore smiling faces and asked after his well-being, completely lacking the disgust that had once made them avoid him.

"Ever since he was running around in crotchless pants, I knew this boy was no ordinary one. Looks like I was right."

"Right, right. It does not matter if he never repays the money he owes me."

"He owes me money too!"

"And me..."

"The dog demons are back!"

"No, there are rat demons too."

Screams of fleeing people rang out.

Gao Fei turned around. The dog demons that had just fled were fleeing back once more.

Behind them came rat demons, along with a yellow weasel seated in an uncovered sedan chair carried by them.

There were more than half fewer rat demons than when Gao Fei had encountered them last time.

"Yellow Great Immortal at Spirit-Absorption Realm, Perfected. Go, get into the city!"

Gao Linyue recognized the demon sitting in the sedan chair. He grabbed Gao Fei and pulled him toward the city.

Only after they had entered the crowd did he continue, "The city wall cannot stop it. Get back into the city and hide."

Gao Linyue put away his spear, looked outside, and began urging his family to run.

Gao Fei did not stop them. He had long tested fighting little things like rat demons—unless he could not break their defenses, a saber was more useful than a spear.

And fists and kicks with Dark Force were even more useful than a saber.

He looked at his remaining Merit Points: 525. In his hand, he held two dog demon Demon Cores.

He could not sit around waiting to die. He would use them first. Merit Points could still be earned, but he only had one life; there was no need to take such a risk.

"System, add 525 Merit Points to the Golden Body Art."

...

In the first hundred years, you tempered your body with the resonance tempering method as though there were no limit.

Your physical strength and reaction speed more than doubled, yet the panel still showed First Transformation, Beginner.

In the three-hundredth year, you began to wonder whether you had practiced incorrectly or whether the system had malfunctioned. Your physical strength increased again, as did your flexibility and toughness. Yet the system panel still showed the Golden Body Art as First Transformation, Beginner.

In the four-hundred-and-twentieth year, the spiritual energy in the Demon Core was exhausted. You persisted in absorbing external spiritual energy to temper yourself, and the system panel finally changed. The Golden Body Art entered First Transformation, Initial Stage.

...

In the five-hundred-and-twenty-fifth year, your physical body underwent a tremendous increase.

...

The group walked ahead of him.

When Gao Fei's consciousness returned, he hurriedly followed them. If my physical strength had not kept increasing, I might have given up long ago.

He casually tossed away the Beast Cores in his hand, which had been completely drained.

They were still inside the gate passage and had only just emerged.

Before Gao Linyue could react, Gao Fei had already drawn his saber and slashed forward.

Clang!

The metallic scrape of the saber leaving its sheath and the sound of metal striking metal rang out almost simultaneously.

The largest Yellow Great Immortal had already exchanged a blow with Gao Fei.

Both were knocked back by the rebounding force.

Gao Fei could use the ground to bleed off the force, retreating three steps. Yellow Great Immortal, suspended in the air with nothing to brace against, was pushed back a full zhang before swiftly charging back in.

When the two tangled together again, there was no sound of a saber colliding with a short blade.

Only the sounds of cloth being sliced and flesh being cut could be heard.

Clang!

When they paused after another exchange, a thin layer of protective spiritual energy had appeared over Yellow Great Immortal's body.

Gao Fei's clothes were covered in blade cuts, exposing the golden skin beneath.

More than a dozen cuts had opened across his body, skin and flesh torn apart. He manipulated the muscles, tendons, bones, and blood vessels around the wounds to contract, yet still could not completely stop the blood from flowing.

Only after the blood had soaked patches of cloth the size of palms did it slowly stop.

When Yellow Great Immortal's short blade had come upon him, Gao Fei had thought he was surely dead. He had not expected his physical body to be so strong; the wounds were not deep.

Every one of the opponent's strikes carried spiritual power upon the blade.

This physical body had been worth every Merit Point spent on it. The problem was that the opponent's movements were completely unpredictable, and it dodged so quickly that he kept getting cut.

This could not continue. He did not have that much blood to lose.

Seeing one man and one demon fighting, Gao Linyue exchanged looks with the people around him.

He had the others move deeper into the city together. They did not dare make too much noise, afraid of alerting Yellow Great Immortal and having it intercept and kill them.

Yellow Great Immortal was equally shocked. He had heard from the Fox Demon that some members of the Demon Race were born with exceptionally powerful bodies. Could this man be the descendant of some demon king and a human?

He had never heard of a human possessing such a formidable physical body.

"Where did you, human-demon, come from? Can you name your clan?"

Gao Fei looked at the Tang Saber in his hand, covered in chips.

Then at the crowd secretly fleeing in the distance, the villagers who had not yet left the city gate passage.

Gao Fei did not get angry at being called a human-demon. In his impression, rhinoceroses had extremely good defenses.

After thinking it over, he placed both hands against his forehead and spread his palms. A single horn rapidly grew from his forehead. Once he made sure Yellow Great Immortal had seen it, he drew it back in.

After mastering the Golden Body Art, Gao Fei could manipulate his body to transform into any person or animal no larger than half his own size.

"Archaic Rhinoceros Hybrid..."

The moment the other side called out the name, Gao Fei made a shushing gesture. He stepped several paces closer, as though he were about to whisper a secret.

He had arrived precisely at the optimal range for fists and kicks.

"You insult me, then want to cozy up to me!"

He stepped half a pace forward at close range, his rear leg violently kicking off the ground as he unleashed all his force. Tiger-Leopard Thunder Roar boomed from his abdomen.

Half-Step Collapse Fist.

His right fist shot straight for Yellow Great Immortal's chest.

The unexpected sneak attack left it with no way to dodge.

Protective spiritual power emerged, a thin membrane covering Yellow Great Immortal's body.

Gao Fei's fist struck the protective spiritual power, and Dark Force surged out, passing through it and striking directly at the body beneath.

Yellow Great Immortal was instantly blasted away, flying backward and punching through the wall. The hole was so deep that its bottom could not be seen.

He had seen the attack very clearly. It had not struck the body, and he had not seen the system award any Merit Points.

Seeing Gao Linyue still wanting to come help, he hurriedly shouted, "Go first. I'll catch up shortly."