"Don't rush. There's still one last step."
After forcing himself to calm down, Xu Taiping turned his gaze to the jars of strong liquor beside his bed.
Ignoring the Tiger Wraith's incessant taunts and provocations outside, he carried the jars into the front courtyard and approached the trap he had dug in its center.
"As long as I can force your yin soul out of your body, these jars will be your last drink before execution."
Xu Taiping glanced at the courtyard gate ahead, then hung the jars of liquor above the trap.
Late that night.
Bang! Bang!
Sensing that the barrier had weakened further, the Tiger Wraith began driving the three Demon Wolves to ram the gate of the Green Bamboo Abode again and again.
By then, Xu Taiping was already standing in the middle of the courtyard.
He drew his bowstring into a full moon. The arrow, coated in crimson dawn true qi, had turned entirely into an Ice Arrow and was giving off a steady chill.
Bang!
Under the three Demon Wolves' repeated assaults, the last trace of spiritual energy sustaining the Green Bamboo Abode's barrier was exhausted, and one of the wolves smashed straight through the gate.
Roar!
Having already caught Xu Taiping's scent inside the courtyard, the Demon Wolves roared and lunged at him together like three gusts of wind, while the cautious Tiger Wraith followed close behind.
Whoosh!
Xu Taiping released his fingers. The arrow he had readied tore through the air and pierced the neck of the leading Demon Wolf. The crimson dawn true qi wrapped around it instantly turned into ice crystals, freezing the entire wolf solid.
The Tiger Wraith was startled by the sight. In their previous encounters, he had never seen Xu Taiping use this move.
Clack!
In that brief moment of distraction, Xu Taiping had already thrown aside his bow and rolled forward, narrowly evading the second Demon Wolf's pounce as though he had calculated it all in advance.
Swish!
Without the slightest hesitation, Xu Taiping drew the Fine Steel Saber at his waist the instant he rolled to his feet, channeled his crimson dawn true qi, and slashed downward.
Having never learned any saber techniques, Xu Taiping's slash was terribly clumsy. Normally, the Demon Wolf could have dodged it with a simple twist, but this was the one with the injured hind leg. It failed to evade the blow, and one of its legs was severed outright.
In the blink of an eye, two of the three Demon Wolves were out of the fight. Only the one beneath the Tiger Wraith remained.
Tap, tap, tap!
After killing the two Demon Wolves, Xu Taiping did not pause for an instant. His small figure shot toward the mounted Tiger Wraith as swiftly as the wind.
"You're courting death!"
Shocked and furious, the Tiger Wraith swung his sword at Xu Taiping from atop the Demon Wolf while they were still ten to twenty feet apart.
Boom!
Before the sword arrived, its Sword Qi struck.
A streak of black Sword Qi over ten feet long swept toward Xu Taiping with savage sharpness, like an enormous, keen-edged scythe.
Yet Xu Taiping did not dodge the Tiger Wraith's sword strike. Instead, he leaped straight into the vicious Sword Qi, seemingly heedless of his life, and drove his fist toward the Tiger Wraith ahead.
Bang!
A thunderous crash rang out.
The Sword Qi shattered the protective crimson dawn true qi around Xu Taiping into a cloud of ice shards. Yet he himself remained completely unscathed, still soaring high as he punched toward the Tiger Wraith astride the Demon Wolf.
How is this possible? How could he withstand my sword strike?
The Tiger Wraith had assumed that even if his strike could not kill Xu Taiping, it would at least leave him gravely wounded on the ground-or, failing that, halt his advance. He had never imagined that Xu Taiping's protective crimson dawn true qi could withstand it head-on.
Boom!
While the Tiger Wraith was still bewildered, Xu Taiping's fist came crashing down.
With no time to swing his sword again, the Tiger Wraith could only gather the ghost qi around him and use his arm as a shield.
Bang!
To the Tiger Wraith's renewed horror, Xu Taiping's punch was far more powerful than he had imagined. It knocked him clean off the Demon Wolf's back.
Could this brat have been hiding his strength? Damn it! If I'd known, I would have put everything into that sword strike!
The instant he hit the ground, the Tiger Wraith came to his senses.
But after landing his first blow, Xu Taiping clearly had no intention of giving him a chance to catch his breath.
"Ox Horn Crashes the Mountain!"
As though rallying his own courage, Xu Taiping roared in his still somewhat boyish voice. A cloud of frosty cold burst from his body, then instantly gathered into an enormous blue ox's head. Following his descending fist, it slammed heavily into the Tiger Wraith.
Bang!
Another thunderous crash rang out. Xu Taiping's Ox Horn Crashes the Mountain scattered the dense yin energy coiling around the Tiger Wraith, and his Corpse Wraith Body slammed heavily onto the ground.
"Charging Ox Breaks the Formation!"
Before the Tiger Wraith could rise, an ice-coated fist had already landed on him.
Bang, bang, bang...
The most distinctive feature of Charging Ox Breaks the Formation was that, as long as its user had enough true qi, the Fist Force would never stop. The power of the punches would also keep building. Unless the opponent possessed overwhelmingly superior cultivation, there was no way to interrupt it.
Moreover, Xu Taiping was using crimson dawn true qi to execute the technique. Each punch that struck also coated his opponent in another layer of ice crystals. After just four or five blows, the Tiger Wraith's Corpse Wraith Body had become a massive block of ice.
Of course, the technique's drawback was equally clear. Once the user stopped punching, he would need a long time to recover his true qi, leaving him exceedingly weak in the meantime.
"Brat... no matter how fierce your Fist Force is, there will... there will come a time when your true qi runs dry... Stop now, and I... might still consider giving you a quick death!"
Clearly, the Tiger Wraith had also spotted the flaw in Xu Taiping's technique. Enduring the excruciating pain, he began threatening him.
Bang, bang, bang!
Xu Taiping did not even glance at him. He kept hammering down with alternating fists, never so much as blinking, even when the skin of both fists split open.
But after more than twenty consecutive punches, his fists had clearly grown heavy, and his blows began to slow.
"Come on! Keep punching! The moment you slacken, even for an instant, I'll cut you down with one stroke!"
Seeing Xu Taiping's Fist Force weaken, the Tiger Wraith immediately roared with a savage grin.
Bang!
Just then, after Xu Taiping drove his right fist down in another heavy blow, his left hand failed to rise.
"Ha ha! Your true qi really has run dry..."
At the sight, the Tiger Wraith burst into wild laughter and prepared to send his yin soul out of his body. But his laughter soon stopped short.
Bang!
With a tremendous crash, the ground beneath the Tiger Wraith suddenly collapsed. His ice-sculpture-like body dropped straight into the pit Xu Taiping had prepared long before.
Indeed, Xu Taiping had gone to such lengths to unleash Charging Ox Breaks the Formation precisely to force the Tiger Wraith into this pit, some ten feet deep.
Before you continue