Just then, the third brother laughed wildly. "You little bitch, can't hold out anymore, can you? Let's see you do anything but surrender this time!"
As he spoke, the third brother and the eldest brother stepped forward together. They were now close enough to seize the Black-Clad Woman with a mere reach of their hands.
At that very moment, the Black-Clad Woman parted her cherry-red lips, and a glittering golden orb suddenly shot out of her mouth. Pale golden light surged forth, sweeping toward the eldest and third brothers like a tidal wave.
The eldest and third brothers cried out in alarm and hurled themselves backward. The third brother shouted in terror, "You little bitch, have you gone mad? You actually dare detonate your inner core? Aren't you afraid your soul will be scattered-"
The third brother never finished those words. Fast as he and the eldest brother retreated, the golden light had already engulfed them.
Liu Xing stood several dozen meters from the battle. Besides the dazzling golden light ahead, he heard an enormous blast of air. The currents around him whipped into a frenzy, nearly sweeping him off his feet and into the air.
That force was no weaker than a tornado, and this was what he felt from several dozen meters away. How terrifying must it have been at the center of that golden light?
Was this the power of cultivators!!??
Without realizing it, Liu Xing had clenched both hands into fists, his palms covered in fine beads of sweat. To keep the air currents from sweeping him away, he secretly exerted his strength and drove his feet ankle-deep into the ground. Only then did he manage to stand firm.
He had no idea how much time passed before the golden light finally faded. As the swirling dust gradually settled, the scene became clear.
The Black-Clad Woman who had unleashed that strike lay slumped on the ground, her face as deathly pale as snow. Her eyes were tightly shut, and there was no telling whether she still breathed.
The third brother lay a little over ten meters from the Black-Clad Woman. His upper body had vanished entirely, leaving only his waist and two legs. Clearly, he could not have been any deader.
Two or three meters behind the third brother, the eldest brother stood half bent over with both hands clasped around his head. Hideous wounds covered his entire body, as though he had been hacked with a flurry of blades. There was scarcely a single intact patch left.
Still, the eldest brother remained standing. Though gravely wounded, he had evidently managed to preserve his life.
The eldest brother slowly lowered his hands. The cloth masking his face had long since been blown somewhere out of sight, revealing a blood-drenched face mangled beyond recognition.
That face was as horrifying as a skull with half its flesh stripped away. Apart from a pair of eyes that could still dart about, glinting with cold light, he looked little different from a fiend out of hell.
The eldest brother gave two low chuckles. His half-exposed, ghastly white teeth snapped together twice as he spoke with utter hatred. "You little bitch, all five of us Five Friends of Meng Mountain have met our ruin at your hands today. You lunatic! You haven't even reached the golden core stage, yet you dared detonate your cinnabar field and blow up your inner core? So what if you wounded me? Your own primordial spirit has dispersed, and you're doomed to sink into the Cycle of Reincarnation forever! You little bitch, it's all thanks to you that my brothers and I have ended up like this. Even if your primordial spirit is destroyed, I'll still have my fun defiling this shell of yours."
Judging by his earlier words and actions, the eldest brother should have been a composed man. Yet now he had become so savage. Clearly, after narrowly escaping death, he desperately needed to vent the fear in his heart.
After delivering those vicious words, the eldest brother began walking toward the Black-Clad Woman, paying no heed to the blood still dripping from his face. His injuries were extremely severe, however, and he moved so slowly that even a decrepit old man would have outpaced him.
The Black-Clad Woman remained slumped on the ground with her eyes tightly closed. There was no telling whether, as the eldest brother claimed, her primordial spirit had dispersed and left nothing but an empty shell.
When the eldest brother was only five or six meters from the Black-Clad Woman, his body swayed twice. Then he slowly lowered himself and sat cross-legged on the ground.
From the look of him, hatred alone had kept him going until now, but he could no longer hold out.
Liu Xing saw all of this. He was weighing whether the eldest brother still had the strength to fight despite his grave injuries, and whether he had a chance to beat this drowning dog.
Before Liu Xing could reach a conclusion, the eldest brother flicked up his hand. A streak of black light suddenly shot across several dozen meters and landed right in front of Liu Xing.
With a sharp hiss, a fissure over a meter long was sliced into the ground beside Liu Xing's feet. Its depths were pitch-black, and he could not tell how far down it went.
Liu Xing's heart tightened. Earlier, when the Five Uglies of Meng Mountain fought the Black-Clad Woman, light had danced wildly with every attack from both sides, making it hard to judge their terrifying power. Now, despite his grave wounds, the eldest brother could unleash such might with a casual strike. This showed just how frightening cultivators were.
The eldest brother stared straight at Liu Xing's hiding place and barked, "You brat hiding over there, get out here and behave yourself! Otherwise, the next time I strike, it'll be your head I take!"
Liu Xing gave an inward, bitter chuckle. These cultivators really are formidable. Fierce as their battle was, I still couldn't escape their eyes and ears by hiding off to one side.
Given the power of the eldest brother's last attack, Liu Xing had no confidence that he could dodge a strike. With no other choice, he put on an honest, simple-minded expression and slowly rose from behind the large rock where he had been hiding.
"Y-you can fly in the sky. Are you i-immortals? Those... those fireworks you set off just now were really... really pretty," Liu Xing asked, deliberately stammering with a look of astonishment.
That tone and expression, coupled with Liu Xing's clothing as a barbarian from beyond civilized lands, made him look as rustic as rustic could be.
Of course, Liu Xing had a reason for putting on this act. He could not be certain whether the eldest brother would kill him to silence him. Presenting himself as such a country bumpkin would naturally lower the other man's guard, and if anything unexpected happened, it would be easier to react in time.
Though Liu Xing lacked experience dealing with the outside world, the old man's instruction and the tempering of a harsh life had taught him a little of how to play the pig to eat the tiger.
PS: I'm still counting on all you brothers and sisters for your wholehearted support. Clicks, recommendations, bookmarks-I need them all!!!
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