The atmosphere in Stone Village's clearing grew unbearably oppressive.
Snotbug took two steps forward.
He was only six this year. Standing in the arena, he did not even reach the waist of the Thunder Clan youth sent out to face him.
The youth was named Lei Kun. He had a sturdy build, and specially crafted copper rings that conducted lightning wound around his arms. They were secret implements the Thunder Clan used to amplify their treasured arts.
Shi Hao crouched beside Shi Hou, his eyes sparkling, and asked quietly, "Brother Skinny Monkey, can Snotbug do it?"
"Just watch." Shi Hou tossed a fragment of spirit stone into his mouth and crunched it noisily.
In the arena, Lei Kun moved.
The Thunder Clan prized speed and ferocity. Lightning sprang beneath his feet, and the copper rings on his arms vibrated violently, giving off piercing hums. This was the Thunder Clan's signature Thunderclap Palm, which sought to crush the enemy in a single strike.
"Die!" Lei Kun roared. A streak of blue lightning erupted from his palm, shooting straight at Snotbug's face.
Snotbug remained where he stood. Even as the lightning reached him, he still had time to raise a hand and wipe his nose.
Then Snotbug moved.
Following the "swatting flies" stance Shi Hou usually taught them, he swung his arm in a full, powerful arc.
Boom!
That swing of Snotbug's hand actually whipped up a visible wave of white air.
It was a vacuum wave formed when strength reached a critical threshold and forcibly pushed the air aside.
The strength he displayed at that moment was far beyond ten thousand jin!
The instant the arrogant Lei Kun felt that immense force, his face went from ashen to white, then from white to red. The blue lightning he had released was blown apart the moment it touched the wind from Snotbug's fist!
Bang!
Snotbug's little fist struck Lei Kun's palm.
With a sharp crack, the copper rings on Lei Kun's arms shattered into pieces.
Then an irresistible force surged through his arms and spread throughout his body.
Lei Kun screamed and flew more than a dozen meters through the air. Only after crashing into an ancient tree so thick it took both arms to encircle it did he slide limply to the ground.
The trunk shook violently, scattering leaves all over the ground.
Snotbug sniffled and glanced back at Shi Hou sheepishly. "Brother Skinny Monkey, I used too much strength. He doesn't seem to be able to take much of a beating."
Laughter erupted from Stone Village's side again, loud enough to topple mountains and split the earth.
"That makes two rounds."
The old chief, Shi Yunfeng, narrowed his eyes. "Everyone, according to our wager, these things now belong to Stone Village."
The Thunder Clan elder and the people from the Purple Mountain Marquis Estate looked ashen.
No matter how they tried, they could not understand how a little village in the remote wilderness could produce one monstrous prodigy after another who defied all common sense.
A born supreme being who grasped the mysteries of lightning was one thing, but this little charcoal lump possessed boundless strength, and now even a snot-nosed child had ten thousand jin of divine might?
Just what kind of blessed land was this?
"Something's wrong!"
The Golden Wolf Tribe's leader stared fixedly at Shi Hou. "It's that pot! And that suanni meat!"
He pointed at the huge pot behind Shi Hou, his voice sharpening with greed. "These children must have eaten top-grade spirit food and exhausted their potential in a short time. The great clans have methods like this too! That strength was bought with their lives!"
"Stone Village, you're ruthless! How could you ruin these children with such evil arts?"
Shi Hou chuckled at those words. He stood up and dusted the dirt off his backside.
"Think whatever you like. Now get out of Stone Village. Don't make me get rough." Shi Hou's voice turned cold.
The five hundred and fifty thousand units of blood energy in his body were resonating faintly. That oppressive presence spread outward from him like an invisible ripple.
"Fine, fine, fine!" The Thunder Clan elder laughed in his fury. As he looked at the thunder source stones and broken treasured implements on the ground, a vicious gleam flashed through his eyes.
This was no longer about a single suanni. The value of that pot, combined with this village's secret for raising geniuses, was enough to drive anyone mad.
"You in Stone Village cannot hold on to these things. We can leave, certainly. But before that, I would like to personally seek instruction in Stone Village's teaching methods!"
Before his words had faded, the Thunder Clan elder cast aside all regard for his standing and attacked.
He was a genuine Spirit Transformation Realm expert, on an entirely different plane from those children in the Blood Moving Realm.
His withered hand shot forward, forming a purple lightning war spear. A radiance more than a zhang long flared from it, a sign of runes condensed to their utmost limit. Wherever it passed, space itself seemed to twist beneath its scorching heat.
The strike locked directly onto Shi Hou.
Shi Hou instantly felt a stinging pain all over his body, and every hair stood on end.
This was not something strength could solve. It was the suppression of a higher realm, a qualitative transformation in rune energy.
"Despicable!" Shi Linhu roared, trying to rush forward to help.
"How dare you hurt my son!"
Shi Shoushan's eyes nearly split with rage. He had been standing slightly behind Shi Hou to one side.
At this moment when a thousand jin hung by a single hair, he had no time to think. His body's instincts outran every thought.
Shi Shoushan lunged forward and planted himself in front of Shi Hou in just two steps.
He was only at the peak of the Blood Moving Realm. Blocking a Spirit Transformation Realm strike was no different from seeking his own death.
"Husband!" Lin Yun let out a piercing scream from afar.
Shi Shoushan stood with his back to Shi Hou, his profile looking especially resolute in the lightning's glow.
He glanced back at Shi Hou. There was no fear in his eyes, only a father's deep tenderness.
At that moment, he was already prepared to die. Even if the lightning spear pierced him through, he would buy Shi Hou even a single second to dodge.
"Go! Skinny Monkey!" A low roar tore from Shi Shoushan's throat like that of a cornered beast.
A buzzing explosion went off in Shi Hou's mind.
The cold loneliness of being betrayed by his brothers and stabbed in the back by his girlfriend in his previous life was utterly torn apart by that broad, solid back before him. A fury unlike anything he had ever felt erupted in his chest.
In an instant, it turned blood-red.
"Move! I don't need you to block it!"
A roar tore from Shi Hou's throat.
He stamped both feet down with all his strength.
Boom!
The ground within a ten-meter radius instantly collapsed into a massive crater. Shattered stones flew, and the blast of air knocked everyone nearby off their feet.
Shi Hou became a streak of black-and-red lightning, reaching out to grab the back of Shi Shoushan's collar.
Fast. I have to be fast.
But the Spirit Transformation Realm strike was faster. The purple lightning spear had already reached Shi Shoushan's chest, its sharp pressure slicing open his beast-hide clothing.
Shi Hou's heart clenched violently.
"Old man!"
At that instant between life and death, an unfathomably deep black light suddenly flashed behind Shi Hou.
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