Hu Xiaotian dared not meet it head-on. After all, this Long-Life Buddha was something the Old Emperor cared about; if it were damaged, he would have trouble explaining himself. He caught the statue with both hands, visibly bending his arms the instant his palms touched it to cushion its momentum.
A masked man in black darted out of the cavern and struck the statue's back with both palms. This move was called Mountain-Splitting Bull Strike. Though it appeared to strike the statue directly, the point where its force erupted was Hu Xiaotian on the other side.
Hu Xiaotian felt a surge of force coming through the statue. This is bad, he thought. If the uninvited intruder in the cavern was Unenlightened, he was no match for him. The man's force had already passed through the statue into Hu Xiaotian's palms, yet it did him no harm.
Both men kept their palms against the statue, holding it motionless between their opposing forces. The masked man secretly circulated his inner breath, then expelled it in a fierce burst, intending to blast Hu Xiaotian away with his internal power through Mountain-Splitting Bull Strike. Yet once released, his internal power sank like a stone into the sea, stirring not a single ripple, much less harming Hu Xiaotian.
The masked man frowned and tried to withdraw his hands to draw the long saber at his waist. But both palms were stuck to the statue, and he felt his internal power pouring into it without end. Terror appeared in his eyes. He struggled desperately to break free, but the harder he struggled, the faster his internal power drained away. He had no idea why this statue was so strange.
Hu Xiaotian, however, knew that the statue had nothing to do with it. For the past six