Chen Mu did not dare show his head. He held Liu Qingluo down and kept her hidden as they watched the battle in secret.
Among the Rakshasa Gate disciples, the black-robed elder controlling the dark-golden-scaled Corpse King spoke.
"Liu Qingcang, have you truly made up your mind to fight my Rakshasa Gate to the death?"
"Have you no regard for those disciples you left behind in the village? Do you really think your second disciple can stop the elders of my sect?"
His voice was hoarse, yet wrapped in immense inner force, overwhelming even the roar of the waterfall.
"Hmph..."
Liu Qingcang said nothing more. He merely walked forward, one step at a time.
With every step, the Blood Essence around him steamed out through his pores, spreading three feet beyond his body in a hazy mist.
The crimson mist roiled and gathered behind him, gradually forming a dragon-shaped shadow of blood, claws bared and fangs exposed.
Chen Mu's heart lurched at the sight of this strange phenomenon.
What kind of method was this?
Meridian Opening martial artists could gather their qi into Astral Force, but Astral Force was no more than a thin layer clinging to the body. It was nowhere near as imposing as this.
At his side, Liu Qingluo had stopped struggling.
Staring at the blood shadow, she murmured in a trembling voice:
"True Blood taking form... Foster Father's old wounds have not healed. How can he use his Innate Realm cultivation..."
She seemed to know something.
Chen Mu caught a few clues and was secretly alarmed.
Liu Qingcang had old injuries?
No wonder...
Everyone outside said he had stalled at Great Completion of Meridian Opening. Who would have thought he was actually a hidden Innate Realm expert!
At Great Completion of Meridian Opening, one could sense Primordial One Qi. At this stage, one could only be called Half-Step Innate Realm.
Only by using Primordial One Qi to temper martial True Blood within the body could one step into the Blood Exchange Realm!
And only after completing the first round of True Blood tempering among the nine transformations of Blood Exchange could one forge an Innate body!
Chen Mu had once heard a storyteller speak of Innate Realm experts who had reached three Blood Exchange transformations or above, their bodies brimming with True Blood.
With a thought, they could stir their Blood Essence three feet beyond their bodies and shape it to strike their enemies.
It might manifest as the force of a fist, or become Sword Qi leaving the body. With every move, killing intent could lock down everything within a hundred meters.
The tales of flying swords killing from a hundred paces away, slaying without visible form, were precisely the methods of experts at this realm!
The moment Liu Qingcang summoned this True Blood dragon shadow, even the air within a hundred paces grew heavy. Chen Mu could barely breathe.
The black-robed figures across the pool were equally shaken. Their leader shouted furiously:
"You have old injuries, yet you still dare forcefully activate True Blood taking form!"
"Liu Qingcang, do you truly not care for your life?! Let us leave today, and we can still speak civilly when we meet again."
In those brief moments, Liu Qingcang's muscles and bones abruptly grew three inches taller. Beneath his martial robes, his muscles bulged and churned.
The blood dragon coiled behind him, truly magnificent and awe-inspiring.
"I originally did not wish to fight you all to the death either."
"Unfortunately, you should never have killed my seventh son! Now there is nothing left to say. Die!"
As the final word fell, the ground beneath his feet shook violently, and he stomped out a deep crater.
Chen Mu only saw Liu Qingcang lean forward. In the next instant, he vanished completely.
When he reappeared, he had already crashed into the center of the black-robed figures' formation and thrown a punch!
The circling blood dragon descended with his fist.
The ground exploded into a deep pit. Mud and stones flew everywhere, and water mist rolled backward.
Before two black-robed figures could even scream, they were smashed apart on the spot. Severed limbs and chunks of flesh shot more than a hundred paces away.
"Bastard! Scatter!"
The leading black-robed man shrieked sharply as he shot backward, repeatedly waving the black banner in his hand.
Several Corpse Kings pounced forward at once.
Liu Qingcang neither dodged nor avoided them. The dragon-shaped blood shadow spun around his body.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The three Purple-Scaled Corpse Kings that lunged before him struck what seemed like a bronze wall and were sent flying back together, crashing into the pile of boulders and kicking up clouds of dust.
"Since you forced me to reveal my methods, none of you will leave alive!"
Liu Qingcang roared. His body wound forward like a swimming dragon, and he hurled a savage punch through the air!
Before one Corpse King could rise, its purple scales burst apart. Its head was smashed straight into its chest cavity.
Chen Mu's blood boiled at the sight. What terrifying strength was this?
If he could learn this fist technique, how domineering would he become?!
No one noticed Chen Mu's wild wish in that instant. The battle had already escalated completely, and thunderous explosions rang out without end.
Having gained the advantage with one strike, killing intent surged in Liu Qingcang's eyes.
The blood dragon coiled around him as he threw punch after punch, killing two more Corpse Kings and blasting them into a rain of flesh!
"This old bastard has gone mad! Retreat! Let the silver corpses cover our retreat!"
The Rakshasa Gate disciples were all terrified. Each waved a black banner as they retreated at high speed.
"You still want to leave?"
Liu Qingcang stepped into the air, drawing back his arm like a bow before striking horizontally with a punch!
The blood dragon instantly threw back its head and hissed toward the heavens, then spiraled down in a blazing dive. It flew thirty feet, its enormous Blood Essence sweeping out like a flood and scouring all directions.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
More than a dozen Rakshasa Gate disciples were caught in the blood dragon's sweep. Their bodies exploded on the spot, and they died where they stood.
The earth was blasted into a crater three meters deep by that strike, and even the waterfall by the cliff seemed to stop flowing for an instant.
The two Silver-Scaled Corpse Kings had originally intended to counterattack.
But the moment they leaped into the air, they were smashed into the crater by that fierce and tyrannical strike, howling without end.
The surviving Rakshasa Gate disciples were thrown into chaos, frightened out of their wits.
"Gate Master! Let the golden corpse stop him!"
Everyone cried out, but the old man before the golden corpse did not move.
Liu Qingcang's gaze sharpened. He snorted coldly and shot down like lightning, his two fists striking in opposite directions.
Several more Rakshasa Gate disciples were beaten to death by him. In the blink of an eye, corpses carpeted the ground.
Stimulated by the Blood Essence, the two silver corpses roared and tried to rise. Liu Qingcang bellowed and sprang up, then slammed his massive palm down.
Boom! Boom!
The two Silver-Scaled Corpse Kings had their heads seized by Liu Qingcang. He slammed them together, crushing their skulls alive and pressing them dead on the spot!
"You went to such painstaking lengths to lure me here. What other methods do you have? Use them all..."
Casually tossing aside the two silver corpses, Liu Qingcang, the blood dragon wrapped around him, stepped toward the Rakshasa Gate Master guarded by the golden corpse.
The black-robed figures around him had already scattered in defeat. Only the Rakshasa Gate Master remained standing with his banner.
Chen Mu saw clearly that there seemed to be an invisible barrier around the old ghost.
Just now, Liu Qingcang's overwhelming attack had sent flying stones shooting out like a rain of bullets. Some had even struck the forest where Chen Mu was hiding, nearly slicing his face.
Yet the old ghost stood by the pool without moving an inch. All shattered stones and force that reached within three steps of him vanished invisibly.
"Is that fellow the Rakshasa Gate Master? Where did he come from?" Chen Mu quietly asked Liu Qingluo.
Liu Qingluo clutched the short sword in her arms tightly, pursed her lips, and shook her head. Her eyes shimmered with tears as she looked at Liu Qingcang, appearing deeply worried.
Chen Mu understood upon seeing this.
Liu Qingcang probably could not hold on much longer. Fighting with such full force would inevitably aggravate his old injuries.
If his momentum faltered, whether they lived or died tonight would still be uncertain.
The Rakshasa Gate Master in the field seemed to be waiting for precisely that chance. He said darkly:
"Liu Qingcang, do you truly think Innate Realm cultivation lets you run rampant without restraint?"
"Have you forgotten how you fell from your realm back then?"
Liu Qingcang did not pause in the slightest upon hearing this. He sneered. "Your Rakshasa Gate is nothing but crooked ways and evil paths. Are you worthy of discussing realms with me?"
"Die!"
He shot forward once more, the muscles in his arm knotting like dragons. Wrapped in the blood dragon shadow, he pressed down from above, determined to crush the old ghost to death in one strike.
But the Rakshasa Gate Master seemed to have expected this. He suddenly kicked off the ground and rose into the air, drifting backward like a wisp of ghostly soul as he shook the black banner in his hand.
"Golden corpse! Stop him!"
The three-meter-tall golden corpse stood like a small mountain, blocking Liu Qingcang's fist.
"Overestimating yourself!"
Liu Qingcang's fist, wrapped in the blood dragon, crashed out and met the huge fist shadow descending from the golden corpse head-on.
Boom!!
The collision of the two fists erupted into a blazing white burst of air. The entire pool surged with waves thirty feet high.
Chen Mu felt a violent gale carrying water mist sweep over the rocks. When it struck his body, it felt like fine needles pricking his face.
Liu Qingluo staggered from the blast. Chen Mu reached out and pressed a hand onto her shoulder, and the two of them crouched behind the rocks.
When the dust settled, Chen Mu focused his eyes and immediately felt his pupils constrict.
That golden corpse had not died!
Liu Qingcang's attack had actually been blocked head-on!