Beaten Apart Alive

The group had barely raced more than ten li when a whistling sound suddenly came from ahead.

"Whoosh, whoosh..."

Seven or eight sharp arrows shot toward them, their tips glinting coldly.

"Enemy attack!"

Li Yunhua roared and chopped apart the arrow before him, his killing intent fixed on the forest ahead.

At that moment, seven or eight martial artists clad in fitted outfits emerged from the woods.

The leader was a tall man with bulging temples, clearly possessed of considerable martial skill.

When Lu Changsheng saw the man at the front, his pupils contracted.

He had seen this man once in the city—back when he had gone to take the Demon Suppression Department examination. He was the leader of the Scent Worship Cult.

Could these Wicked Spirits be connected to the Scent Worship Cult? And who was the Venerable Master that the Wicked Spirit we killed just now spoke of?

A cloud of doubts shrouded Lu Changsheng's heart, making him all the more vigilant.

"Kill..."

With a sweep of his hand, the Scent Worship Cult leader led his men charging toward Lu Changsheng and the others.

"Rustle, rustle..."

Their robes swept through the forest, producing bursts of piercing whistles.

"The enemy came prepared. Split up and retreat!"

Li Yunhua shouted. He had no intention whatsoever of leading them in resistance.

He turned and fled straight back.

With each kick of his legs, he crossed several meters. In the blink of an eye, he vanished from sight.

The others also scattered and fled, racing wildly down the mountain paths.

Lu Changsheng activated the perfected movement technique, Fleeting Light and Shadow, and sped eastward.

With every shift of his feet, he covered more than a zhang in a single kick. His speed was astonishing.

The forest around him rushed backward.

He did not forget to watch the pursuers behind him. Each person had two pursuers following them, while he alone had only one.

It was a middle-aged man, staring at Lu Changsheng with fierce eyes.

After racing nonstop for more than half an hour,

Lu Changsheng stopped atop a small hill, clasped his hands behind his back, turned around, and quietly looked ahead.

"Kid, why did you stop running? Have you decided how you want to die?"

The middle-aged man smiled cruelly.

He slowly approached Lu Changsheng, his face full of mockery.

Without wasting words, Lu Changsheng raised the Pig-Slaughtering Blade in his hand and slashed forward.

"Whoosh..."

Even the air gave off bursts of shrill tearing sounds. The blade gleamed, dazzling to the eye.

This slash came down from above. With the perfected Five Tigers Severing Gate Blade technique, his own immense strength of eight thousand jin, and the treasured blade in his hand, its power was terrifying.

"Not good."

Seeing the terrifying force before him, the man's face filled with fear.

Even with his perfected Skin Refining strength, he felt unable to withstand it.

He had never imagined that the soft persimmon he had casually chosen was actually a sleeping tiger.

Now that he had awakened it, panic flooded his heart.

He hurriedly drew his blade and held it horizontally before him to block.

"Crack..."

With a soft sound, the long blade in the man's hand snapped cleanly in two.

Then, without losing any momentum, Lu Changsheng's Pig-Slaughtering Blade cleaved toward the man's head.

"Ah..."

The man was split in half from head to toe. Blood gushed forth, staining the surrounding ground red.

Lu Changsheng quickly walked over, reached down, and rummaged around for a moment. He pulled out a manual and several banknotes, then turned and left.

After killing the pursuer, Lu Changsheng made his way toward the county town at an unhurried pace.

At noon.

Lu Changsheng walked along a mountain path with his hands behind his back, looking thoroughly at ease.

More than an hour had passed since he had killed the Scent Worship Cult pursuer.

He had no intention of lingering outside the county town and had chosen to return by the original route.

When Lu Changsheng reached a small hill, his gaze turned cold.

"Come out."

He stared into the forest to one side, his face frosty.

Before long, a sinister-looking young man emerged from the distant woods.

It was none other than Li Yunhua.

"Kid, you ran pretty fast. You made me search all over for you."

Li Yunhua looked at Lu Changsheng with a mocking expression.

With his perfected Skin Refining strength, killing an ordinary civilian martial artist would take less effort than blowing away dust.

And he could earn a reward besides—a single move, many gains.

As a member of the Li Family, his cultivation resources were limited. They could not all be spent on him.

As for camaraderie between colleagues, what was that?

He had never cared about it.

"This place has fine scenery. It suits you very well."

Lu Changsheng smiled calmly.

Li Yunhua was left dumbfounded by those words. He wondered whether Lu Changsheng had begun hallucinating with death so close at hand.

"Die!"

Killing intent blazed in Li Yunhua's eyes as he suddenly drew his blade and slashed forward.

The blade light was brilliant, carrying the crushing momentum of Mount Tai bearing down overhead.

"Die."

Lu Changsheng likewise slashed out, but his strike seemed light and unremarkable.

In an instant, the two attacks collided.

"Boom, boom, boom..."

Violent impacts resounded through the forest. Lu Changsheng's Pig-Slaughtering Blade directly cut through the other man's blade, then continued toward his head.

"Impossible! Who are you? How can you possess such strength?"

Li Yunhua's face was full of terror, as though he had seen a ghost.

The harmless Lu Changsheng had transformed directly into a savage dragon.

The moment they clashed, Li Yunhua felt an overwhelmingly powerful force crush down upon him. It was impossible to resist, and shock surged through his heart.

Such a gap in strength could only appear when the difference between them was immense.

He was already at the peak of Skin Refining. That meant Lu Changsheng had to possess Muscle Refining strength.

"Spare me... I am a direct descendant of the Li Family..."

Li Yunhua hurriedly cried out. He was still young, and his future in martial arts held limitless possibilities. He did not want to perish in this wilderness.

But all that greeted him was a cold steel blade.

"Ah..."

Blood sprayed across the sky, leaving only a scream hanging in the air.

As his consciousness neared extinction, Li Yunhua was filled with extreme regret. He should not have provoked someone he could not afford to provoke over a moment of greed and wounded pride.

After killing Li Yunhua, Lu Changsheng put away the Pig-Slaughtering Blade.

The result of this strike was exactly as he had expected.

With his eight thousand jin of immense strength, killing Skin Refining martial artists was simply a blow from a higher realm.

The other man had at most two thousand jin of strength. The gap between them was enormous, so naturally he could not block even one move.

Not to mention that Lu Changsheng also held a Sharp Weapon-grade treasured blade.

With Lu Changsheng's current strength, even if a Muscle Refining expert personally made a move, he could still fight them.

This was one of the benefits of breaking through Skin Refining perfectly—his combat power was astonishing.

Lu Changsheng then walked to the corpse, reached down, and found another manual and several banknotes.

He quickly tucked them into his pocket, then took out a bottle of corpse-dissolving powder and poured it over the body.

"Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle..."

After a burst of white smoke, only a charred black mark remained on the ground. Even the clothes had been corroded away completely.

Thus, Li Yunhua was utterly reduced to ash.

Lu Changsheng killed, looted the corpse, and destroyed the evidence in one smooth motion, as though he had practiced it countless times.

Then he continued toward the county town.

Several hours later.

Lu Changsheng returned to Changping County. After reporting to the Demon Suppression Department, he went back to his own courtyard.

In just a few days, once the Demon Suppression Department completed its verification, a minor merit would be credited to him. It was very convenient.

He entered his bedroom and began tallying his gains.

Several dozen banknotes lay on the bedside table. Each was worth ten taels and had been issued by the imperial merchants of Great Zhou, exchangeable anywhere.

He counted them. There were five hundred taels in total, enough to last him a long time.

Then he turned his attention to the two manuals.

"Frenzied Wind Shadow Blade" and "Great Strength Ox Demon Fist" were emblazoned across their covers.

At a glance, he knew that these two manuals were quite good, far beyond the common goods found everywhere.

Moreover, the Great Strength Ox Demon Fist was a Muscle Refining cultivation method. It detailed the gradual progression from Skin Refining to Muscle Refining, and even included various medicinal bath formulas.

Without further hesitation, Lu Changsheng began reading through the two manuals.

Before long, a crisp notification sounded in his mind.

"Great Strength Ox Demon Fist discovered. Record it?"

"Frenzied Wind Shadow Blade technique discovered. Record it?"

"Record."

Lu Changsheng nodded inwardly.

Seeing the two manuals appear on the panel, he did not intend to begin cultivating them immediately.

His most urgent task was to deduce the subsequent Iron Cloth Shirt cultivation method and quickly break through to Muscle Refining.

The situation was becoming increasingly bewildering. Even cultists like the Scent Worship Cult dared to openly ambush and kill them. The other side likely harbored an enormous conspiracy, and there were many hidden forces lurking in the dark. A sense of urgency weighed heavily on him. He had to break through as soon as possible.

There was also the threat posed by the Three Rivers Gang.

Furthermore, the matter of the Li Family would be exposed sooner or later, though for now, he could still use the Scent Worship Cult to mislead them for some time.

Only after stepping into the Muscle Refining realm would he no longer count as weak in all of Changping County.

Some gang protectors, Yellow-rank Demon Suppressors, and many veteran escorts were all at this level.

Among the vast number of martial artists, they were the backbone.

Moreover, having broken through Skin Refining perfectly, his strength would rank among the upper tier even within Muscle Refining.