Fury

The target of that blood-red force was not Lu Changfeng, but Yue Tao, who lay wailing beneath his feet!

"Watch out!" Qing Dai cried. She could sense the terrifying poison and destructive power contained within it.

Lu Changfeng reacted instantly, shifting his feet and darting diagonally backward.

Squelch!

The blood-red force struck Yue Tao with deadly precision. Rather than simply piercing him, it corroded and melted most of his body in an instant, like concentrated acid!

Yue Tao's body dissolved into a pool of foul-smelling blood, leaving no intact corpse!

Murder to silence him!

It was Lu Changfeng's first time witnessing such terrifying power firsthand, and the shock shook him to his core!

Then a masked old man in gray stepped silently out of the shadows. Within thirty feet of him, the air seemed to warp, suffused with dark-red, poisonous baleful true qi. He was Gao Lu, the household elder of the Gao Brothers' Manor!

"Blood Rainbow Hand..."

Qing Dai's expression turned deathly grave, and she warned urgently, "His palm is poisonous!"

Gao Lu's gaze was sinister as a venomous snake's. Giving Lu Changfeng no chance to catch his breath, he mustered his internal power and roared, his voice shaking the alley:

"Maitreya Descends!"

With that roar, he spread the five fingers of his right hand. Dark-red blood rainbow true qi surged out, instantly forming a massive blood-red palm thirty feet across, as solid as a physical object. Trailing a foul wind that could corrode everything, it crashed down on Lu Changfeng like a mountain!

Before the giant palm even reached him, its terrifying pressure made every bone in Lu Changfeng's body creak and left him barely able to move!

The Xiantian Realm allowed true qi to be projected outside the body.

In the Initial Realm, true qi condensed into hardened force, forming a three-foot wall of qi! In the Middle Realm, true qi took shape and extended ten feet! In the Upper Realm, it returned to its source and condensed, reaching thirty feet!

The man before him was unmistakably a Xiantian Upper Realm expert.

This was absolute suppression through cultivation!

Seeing the household elder personally take action, the other false cultists shouted "Maitreya Descends!" and surged forward with brandished weapons, concentrating on tying down Qing Dai!

"Sir!"

Qing Dai grew frantic. Dazzling sword light burst from her flexible sword as she desperately tried to break through their blockade.

Facing that blood-red palm that blotted out the sky, Lu Changfeng's pupils contracted sharply. Knowing he absolutely could not take it head-on, he acted without hesitation. Shennong qi raced along a particular route inside him, and his body seemed to lose all its bones in an instant. With an uncanny movement that defied reason, like a gliding spirit snake or a tumbling wildcat, he shot diagonally backward, hugging the ground!

Boom!

The blood-red palm slammed down, blasting a charred crater roughly ten feet across where he had stood. Poisonous fumes spread through the air.

Elder Gao Lu let out a quiet "Oh?" Clearly, he had not expected such bizarre footwork from Lu Changfeng. He sneered, "You insignificant ant. Is scurrying away with your head covered all you can do?"

Before his words had faded, he pointed his left index finger through the air. A concentrated Blood Rainbow Finger Arrow shot toward the center of Lu Changfeng's back like a venomous snake darting from its hole, striking from a vicious angle at astonishing speed!

Lu Changfeng's previous momentum had just run out, and he had yet to generate fresh force. He was about to be pierced through!

At that critical moment, faint cracking sounds came from every bone in his body. In the narrowest sliver of time, his entire body abruptly contracted as though boneless, shrinking a full size. The vicious Blood Rainbow Finger Arrow skimmed past the clothing beneath his ribs and corroded a deep hole in the wall behind him!

"Hmm?!"

This time, Gao Lu was truly surprised. Having two successive attacks evaded in such uncanny fashion by a junior in the Houtian Realm left him unable to save face. Humiliation turned to rage. "Let's see how long you can keep dodging!"

He lunged forward, closing the distance in an instant. Blood rainbow true qi surged through his right hand. Abandoning ranged attacks, he drove his palm straight toward Lu Changfeng's chest!

The strike covered thirty feet in every direction, its palm wind thick with viscous, corrosive force. Every avenue of escape was sealed!

There was nowhere to dodge!

A flicker of resolve crossed Lu Changfeng's eyes. He drew a deep breath and crossed his arms over his chest. The exquisitely pure Shennong qi inside him surged as he unleashed the defensive art from the Nine Yin Manual: Golden Bell Shield! A heavy, ancient-looking dark-gold sheen instantly spread over his body, and a bell-shaped qi barrier faintly appeared around him!

Clang-

It sounded like a mighty bronze bell being struck!

Elder Gao Lu's blood rainbow palm landed squarely on Lu Changfeng's crossed arms!

"Pfft!"

Lu Changfeng felt as though lightning had struck him. The dark-gold sheen around him flickered violently. A metallic sweetness rose in his throat, and he finally spat out a mouthful of blood. His entire body flew backward like a kite with its string severed and slammed hard into the wall.

Although the Golden Bell Shield had not been completely breached, the tremendous palm force and sinister corrosive power had already injured his internal organs!

"Golden Bell Shield? And you've cultivated it to this level?!"

Gao Lu's expression changed completely, his shock beyond measure!

This brat is only at the peak of Houtian. Not only is his footwork bizarre, but he's even cultivated an external hardening art like this to such an extraordinary level of indestructibility? What monstrous martial talent is this?

No wonder the eldest young master insists on killing him!

He truly cannot be allowed to live!

His killing intent soaring, Gao Lu was about to step forward and deliver the finishing blow when his true qi suddenly stalled. The blood rainbow true qi he normally controlled at will seemed to sink into a mire, and his vision darkened slightly.

The Sorrowful Softening Breeze had finally taken full effect inside him!

The death warriors around him had long since collapsed in heaps, limp on the ground and utterly incapable of fighting.

"Damn it! Poison!"

Knowing the situation had turned dangerous, Gao Lu immediately tried to retreat.

"Where do you think you're going!"

Seeing Lu Changfeng severely wounded on the ground, Qing Dai was overwhelmed with grief and fury. Her flexible sword erupted with unprecedentedly fierce sword light, like the Milky Way pouring down to earth. In an instant, she pierced the throats of the death warriors whose movements had slowed from the poison!

Then her figure flashed, and she was already blocking Elder Gao Lu's path. Her sword pointed straight at him, her phoenix eyes filled with murderous fury. "You hurt him, and now you think you can leave?!"

Her speed increased severalfold, and her aura became ethereal yet razor-sharp, like a night-blooming flower suddenly opening beneath the moon. She had unleashed her last-resort secret art-the Ephemeral Blossom Art!

This art could awaken the full potential of the body in an instant, multiplying speed, strength, and reaction. Like a blossom that opened at dawn and withered by dusk, it was brilliant but fleeting!

Together with the Ephemeral Blossom Art, her flexible sword became streaks of light too swift to follow as she unleashed an exquisitely refined assassination sword art-the Twelve Fragrant Blossom Swords!

Sword light bloomed like a profusion of flowers, seeming both real and illusory as it stabbed toward Gao Lu's vital points from impossible angles!

Hiss, hiss, hiss!

The blade sliced through the air. Despite Gao Lu's profound cultivation, the potent poison slowed his movements by half a beat. This sudden assault, fierce as a tempest, threw him into a fluster. His protective blood rainbow true qi flickered beneath the slashing blows, several cuts opened in his sleeves in an instant, and one thrust nearly pierced his throat!

"You little brat, you're courting death!"

Gao Lu was both shocked and furious. He knew the Inner Guard was formidable, but Qing Dai was only in the Middle Realm, after all. The higher one's cultivation, the wider the gap became. Even a single minor realm could take years of bitter training to bridge. He had never expected her to possess such ferocious explosive power!

Forcing his true qi into motion, Gao Lu unleashed one Blood Rainbow Hand strike after another. Dark-red palm shadows clashed violently with brilliant sword light, sending force flying in every direction!

Yet, true to the Ephemeral Blossom Art's name, that explosive power could not last.

After a dozen exchanges, Qing Dai's sword assault inevitably began to weaken. Her speed slowed slightly, and her breathing grew hurried. Ultimately, her cultivation was insufficient, and she was relying entirely on the secret art. Her lack of staying power began to show.

As a seasoned Xiantian expert, Gao Lu immediately seized upon that hint of exhaustion!

A vicious gleam flashed through his eyes. Ignoring the poison eating away at him, he forcibly gathered seventy percent of his power into his right palm. A condensed blood rainbow palm imprint knocked her flexible sword aside, while his left palm shot forth like a venomous dragon leaving its lair, aiming straight at Qing Dai's exposed chest!

Knock her down first!

"Down you go!"

Gao Lu's face twisted savagely as his palm force was about to erupt!

At that moment, when everything hung by a thread.

A bloodstained hand, like a ghostly claw reaching out of hell, suddenly seized Gao Lu's left ankle-the leg supporting his body as he prepared to lunge forward!

Lu Changfeng!

Qing Dai's relentless assault had driven Gao Lu to the wall-right beside Lu Changfeng.

Lu Changfeng abruptly opened his eyes. Though blood seeped from the corner of his mouth and his face was pale, those eyes burned with a cold, furious fire!

"Old dog... your opponent is me!"

He growled, and the five fingers of his right hand clamped around Gao Lu's ankle instantly turned black and sharp. The vicious force of the Nine Yin White Bone Claw poured into him without restraint!

Crack!

Another crisp sound of breaking bone rang out. Gao Lu's left ankle was crushed outright!

"Aaargh-"

The piercing agony wrung a shrill scream from Gao Lu. The force gathered in his palm instantly dispersed, and he staggered.

In the next instant, Lu Changfeng sprang up as though pouring out all his pent-up frustration, fury, and killing intent. Astonishing strength erupted from his arms. Relying on the powerful physique granted by his fully mastered external art, Golden Bell Shield, he swung the stooped Gao Lu into the air and smashed him viciously into the ground!

Crack-

The sound of shattering bones exploded through the alley!

Under that tremendous force, Gao Lu's entire body bent into a grotesque bow, and blood sprayed from his throat!

The instant his back struck the bluestone ground, spiderweb cracks raced outward at terrifying speed!

A three-foot-square stone slab collapsed with a crash, sending shards of stone and droplets of blood flying in all directions!

Qing Dai knelt on one knee, gasping violently. Even she was stunned by the sight, staring openmouthed. "Sir..."

It was as though he had become a completely different person.

"An insignificant ant?! Huh?!"

Lu Changfeng swung the body up and smashed it down again!

Boom!

Amid the deafening crash, blood gushed from Gao Lu's mouth. His right shoulder blade pierced straight through flesh and skin, and the broken bone stabbed into the ground!

At that moment, Gao Lu still possessed his Xiantian Upper Realm cultivation, but under the poison, the shattered ankle, and this sudden, frenzied beating, he had no strength left to resist.

"All I can do is scurry away?!"

Boom!

On Lu Changfeng's third swing, Gao Lu's waist and abdomen struck the bluestone with the muffled bursting sound of a ripe melon. His internal organs ruptured.

"You think being Xiantian makes you so great?!"

Boom!

Before the fourth blow even landed, Gao Lu's entire spine gave a teeth-grating series of dislocating cracks.

"Fuck you!!"

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Gripping Gao Lu by the foot, Lu Changfeng slammed him back and forth against the ground like a sandbag! Bricks and stone burst apart, shards flying wildly with every blow!

Soon, the bluestone bricks paving a hundred-foot radius looked as though they had been plowed by the claws of a giant beast.

When Lu Changfeng finally smashed that human-shaped sack of blood into the ground, the bluestone slab exploded into powder. A rain of blood mixed with bone fragments pattered over the ruined walls, reflecting an eerie dark red beneath the moonlight.

Gao Lu had become a heap of pulped flesh, breathing out but drawing no breath in. Yet Lu Changfeng had deliberately measured his blows, leaving him clinging to one final breath.

The entire alley was silent as death.

Just then, several swift sounds of figures cutting through the air approached!

"What's wrong?"

"What happened?!"

Jinghong, Zi Zhi, and the others had dealt with the trouble on their side. Hearing the commotion here, they rushed over in burning anxiety.

But when they charged into the alley and saw the scene before them, everyone froze as though struck by an immobilizing spell. Their pupils contracted sharply, their faces filled with incredulous shock!

Beneath the moonlight, the alley looked as though a primordial beast had ravaged it. Wreckage covered the ground, shattered stone mixed with blood and flesh.

Lu Changfeng stood alone in the center of the ruins, his blue robes stained with blood. Blood lingered at the corner of his mouth, and his face was pale, yet he stood perfectly straight.

He still held Gao Lu's twisted, mangled ankle in his hand. Gao Lu himself no longer looked human; only the faint rise and fall of his chest proved he was still alive.

Director of Medicine Lu, normally so gentle and refined, so accomplished in the healing arts, now looked like a god of slaughter returned from purgatory. A chilling aura of savage violence radiated from him!

"Lu... Lu Changfeng! What... what have you done?!"

Gao Jian had followed them over as well. He had thought there had been enough time, never imagining things would turn out like this! He recognized those clothes at a glance, his voice growing shrill with overwhelming shock and panic. He could scarcely believe his own eyes!

Elder Gao Lu, the Xiantian Upper Realm expert he relied on as his right arm, had actually been beaten into this state by a medical officer in the Houtian Realm?!

Lu Changfeng paid no heed to everyone's shock.

He slowly turned his head, his gaze passing over the others and fixing firmly on Gao Jian. Dragging the dying Gao Lu half a step forward like a piece of garbage, he said quietly, "Pavilion Commander Gao, you've come at just the right time. This 'remnant of the Great Vehicle Sect' fought desperately and kept shouting 'Maitreya Descends'... I guessed he was an old dog that had strayed from your household, so I couldn't bear to kill him straightaway."

His gaze stabbed into Gao Jian's heart like a blade as he enunciated each word. "Now I'm returning him to his rightful owner. Pavilion Commander Gao, why don't you take a careful look? Do you still... recognize him?"