The slaughter continued.
As time passed, the soldiers of the Falling Cloud Tribe gradually sank into despair.
They discovered that their attacks were utterly useless against the man before them. Their sharp blades could not harm so much as a hair on his body.
Conversely, a casual slash from him could take a whole swath of their lives.
Before long, no one wanted to approach this terrifying enemy.
But what left the soldiers at the front speechless and on the verge of collapse was that those behind them could not see what was happening and kept shoving them toward the enemy.
As a result, even the soldiers unwilling to risk their lives had no choice but to fight for them.
"Stop pushing! He's coming this way!"
"Kill him!"
"Stop trying! This bastard can't be killed!"
"Kill him!"
"Kill your fucking mother! Get the hell away from me!"
"Kill him!"
"..."
In the end, that soldier died beneath a casual slash from Li Dao.
When the soldier who had been shouting himself hoarse finally squeezed his way in front of Li Dao, the corpses and blood strewn across the ground made him understand why the other man had kept blocking his path.
At that moment, he desperately wanted to bring the man who had blocked him back to life.
But all that awaited him was the keen edge of the Black Iron Saber.
After all, Li Dao had already descended into a killing frenzy.
It might not have been an army of ten thousand, but he was still moving through a thousand soldiers as though no one stood in his way.
Ordinary soldiers could do nothing but await his merciless slaughter.
This was one advantage a powerful physique had over a martial artist who relied on true qi.
If a martial artist kept using true qi, it would eventually run dry, leaving him little more than an ordinary person who was slightly stronger than most.
If the soldiers swarmed him, they really might bury him beneath sheer numbers.
But Li Dao was different. Although he had no true qi, his endurance far surpassed that of ordinary men.
Simply swinging his saber barely drained his energy.
Instead, the more he killed, the more freely his heart seemed to flow.
Especially when he watched the attributes in his status display climb higher and higher, the saber in his hand only swung faster.
Pleasant system notifications kept chiming in Li Dao's ears, and he never tired of hearing them.
[Four enemies killed. Attributes gained: 0.65] [Six enemies killed. Attributes gained: 1.13] [Five enemies killed. Attributes gained: 0.96] [Enemies killed...]
Although each payout was small, the rewards came thick and fast.
Suddenly, a different notification sounded in his mind.
[One hundred consecutive kills completed. Attribute reward: 5]
Huh?
One hundred consecutive kills?
The system had a reward mechanism like this too?
He suddenly remembered receiving an extra attribute point when he had made his first kill.
For a long time afterward, he had only gained attributes from killing enemies, with no additional system rewards, so he had assumed there would be nothing beyond that first-kill reward.
He had never expected that completing one hundred consecutive kills would earn him another system reward.
He wondered whether this reward was only available once, whether there would be no more afterward, or whether he needed to reach a higher consecutive kill count to earn another.
In any case, those five attribute points were a welcome windfall.
The unexpected reward made Li Dao's bloodlust surge even higher.
If slaughter were a job, this sudden overtime bonus would greatly boost the enthusiasm of a diligent employee like Li Dao.
Meanwhile.
Outside the encirclement, Jinhua and Jinsha grew increasingly uneasy as they waited.
"What's going on? Why is it still going?"
Jinhua's expression darkened.
Forget thirty or forty seconds-several minutes had passed, and the battle was still continuing.
He could even faintly hear his own soldiers screaming.
"Something's wrong. I'm going to take a look."
Unable to restrain himself any longer, Jinhua left those words behind and rushed off.
When he drew close enough to see the battlefield, the sight stopped him in his tracks.
His men's flesh and blood flew through the air as a lone figure slaughtered them with abandon.
"Bastard!"
Jinhua's eyes instantly reddened. With an enraged roar, he charged into the crowd.
At the same time, he shouted, "Everyone, fall back!"
Their surprise attack on Changgu Town and capture of Wei Yun, a Grand Commander of Great Qian, should have been a tremendous victory for the Falling Cloud Tribe.
But this man's slaughter had sent their casualty rate soaring. How could he stand idly by?
Li Dao took several more lives with another slash, then suddenly sensed a chill behind him.
He turned and saw one of the enemy's Xiantian Martial Artists charging toward him.
"Just in time!"
Li Dao glanced at his status panel.
[Master: Li Dao] [Physique: 51.72] [Available attributes: 25.78]
His initial slaughter, combined with the five-point system reward, had brought his unused attributes to an astonishing total of nearly twenty-six-more than half his current Physique.
"That should be enough."
Facing an opponent who might be able to kill him, Li Dao, who valued his life, naturally intended to give it everything he had.
"System, allocate my points."
The next instant, the panel changed.
[Master: Li Dao] [Physique: 77.50] [Available attributes: 0]
As those twenty-odd attribute points were added to his Physique, a tremendous wave of heat arose within him and swiftly coursed throughout his body.
With every inch it traveled, his physique grew stronger.
Within moments, his entire skin took on a reddish flush.
Even when he breathed, faint wisps of white vapor streamed from his nostrils.
At that moment, Li Dao's killing intent surged along with his physique.
As the enemy Xiantian Martial Artist drew closer, he decided to test his strength, and the benchmark stood right before him.
"Kill!"
With a deep roar, Li Dao raised the Black Iron Saber and charged toward Jinhua.
On the other side.
Jinhua was considering how to capture the man before him and torture him to death when he suddenly heard a furious roar. To his surprise, the man charged straight at him.
Courting death!
That was the judgment he passed on the man at the sight.
As far as he could tell, his opponent was, at most, a rather peculiar Houtian Martial Artist.
After all, the man could not even project true qi outside his body, so he could not possibly be a Xiantian Martial Artist.
"Divine Eagle Claw!"
Jinhua curled one hand into a claw, and keen true qi appeared at his fingertips.
Facing the oncoming blade, his hand flashed swiftly, easily evading its edge before his right hand clamped down hard on Li Dao's arm.
A flicker of surprise appeared in Li Dao's eyes.
Judging by his opponent's movements, this was a nimble Xiantian Martial Artist who specialized in unarmed combat.
"I'll cripple one of your arms first."
With his right hand already on his opponent's arm, a confident smile appeared on Jinhua's face.
The next instant, true qi burst through his fingertips as he clawed down viciously.
Riiip!
The sleeve tore apart, accompanied by a flash of blood.
But when Jinhua withdrew his hand, he froze at the strips of cloth and blood-streaked scraps of skin clinging to his fingertips.
Impossible!
Absolutely impossible!
How could it have done so little damage?
In his mind, that claw should have torn away a great chunk of flesh, not merely these scraps of skin.
Opposite him, Li Dao looked down at the three bloody scratches on his arm and raised an eyebrow.
He could not help saying, "A Xiantian Martial Artist? Why are all your moves a woman's tricks?"
He remembered how, back in his school days in his previous life, the girls he angered would leave scratches like these on him.
Back then, wounds like that would scab over in less than an hour.
But now!
Li Dao looked down. The marks had been fresh a moment ago, yet they had already scabbed over completely.
He shook his arm, shattering the scabs and revealing perfectly intact skin underneath, without a single scar.
A woman's tricks?
The corner of Jinhua's eye twitched. When had anyone ever described his Divine Eagle Claw that way?
Furious, he attacked again. He refused to believe it.
After another exchange, he managed to land his claw on Li Dao's arm again.
No longer underestimating his opponent, he immediately drove the innate true qi at his fingertips to its utmost and clawed down hard.
This time, he clearly felt his innate true qi momentarily blocked by that layer of flesh and skin, unable to pierce through it.
Only when he dragged his fingers across it did his innate true qi barely manage to break the skin.
Yet the incredibly dense muscles beneath it once again barred his innate true qi's path.
Riiip!
After withdrawing his hand, Jinhua looked at the tiny scraps of flesh beneath his fingernails, his expression turning even uglier.
He had never imagined that his Divine Eagle Claw, capable of piercing metal and shattering stone, would one day be thwarted by a body of flesh and blood.
"Are you a man or a ghost?!"
If there was nothing wrong with him, then the problem could only lie with the man before him.
He could not begin to imagine how a human being could possess such a terrifying body.
Li Dao glanced at the slowly healing wound and smiled faintly. "Flesh and blood. What else could I be but human?"
As soon as he finished speaking, he decisively attacked the Xiantian Martial Artist before him.
Their earlier exchanges had already shown him that his physique, now over seventy times that of an ordinary person, combined with his transformed skin, made him exceedingly difficult to kill.
Next, he would test the upper limit of his attacks.
"Nameless Slash!"
Li Dao's Black Iron Saber swept straight toward Jinhua's neck.
Coming out of his shock, Jinhua hurriedly darted aside.
But Li Dao's strike was far faster than he had expected. Even with his excellent movement skills, he only barely dodged it.
Riiip!
Jinhua suddenly discovered that although he had clearly evaded the blade, his outer clothes had still been sliced open.
Yet he could clearly see that there was no true qi on his opponent's blade.
Could it be...
A terrifying thought entered his mind.
Could sheer brute strength have produced that cutting edge?
For an instant, Jinhua began to question everything he knew.
What kind of freak was this?!
Around them, the Falling Cloud Tribe's soldiers quickly retreated when they saw their commander engage the enemy.
They had assumed their commander would easily dispose of him, only to discover that it was their commander who had fallen into the disadvantage.
Against Jinhua, a Xiantian Martial Artist, Li Dao currently had only one approach.
He exploited his opponent's inability to hurt him and struck back with everything he had.
As a result, Jinhua fought timidly from start to finish, fearful at every turn.
Even without a trace of true qi, any casual slash backed by that terrifying brute strength could seriously wound him.
Elsewhere.
Hanging from the flag, Wei Yun watched Li Dao overwhelm Jinhua, his mouth agape the entire time.
They had thought that however strong Nine Five Two Seven was, he could only handle someone at the half-step Innate stage. They had never expected him to be able to take on a Xiantian Martial Artist as well.
Meanwhile.
As the Falling Cloud soldiers scattered, Jinsha, not far away, also caught sight of Jinhua and Li Dao fighting.
"Hm!"
Seeing Jinhua on the back foot, Jinsha instantly straightened up, but soon relaxed again.
"He actually still has the leisure to fool around."
Jinsha let out a cold snort.
From his perspective, the enemy kept attacking while Jinhua kept dodging.
Knowing Jinhua's strength, he believed Jinhua had countless opportunities to counterattack, yet he only kept dodging. What was that if not fooling around? So he felt no concern and continued watching, leaning against a nearby wooden post.
Little did he know that Jinhua was walking a tightrope ten thousand feet in the air, his life hanging by a thread with every step.
Every slash from Li Dao was ferocious, and he seemed utterly tireless. Each strike was swift and precise, almost always targeting the best possible opening.
As a result, even with Jinhua's excellent footwork, every dodge left him drenched in cold sweat.
At that moment, all he could do was curse inwardly: Monster!
After all, how could a human possibly withstand attacks at this frequency?
He had originally planned to exploit his superior footwork to exhaust his opponent's stamina. But after all these exchanges, his opponent's stamina showed no sign of running out, while his own True Qi was almost depleted.
At that thought, he could not help shouting, "Jinsha, get over here and help me!"
Not far away, Jinsha paid no heed to Jinhua's cry for help and merely called back, "Have your fun. I'll just watch."
Jinhua thought, *@#￥%*!*
He called this fooling around?
He was clearly about to die!
Li Dao gave Jinhua no chance to speak, his attacks growing increasingly fierce.
On the surface, his attacks seemed to maintain the same frequency.
But in his mind, the figure of the Xiantian Martial Artist before him kept flashing past.
Every enhancement to his Physique had strengthened his mind as well.
With more than seventy times an ordinary person's mental capacity, he could easily split his attention between two tasks, constructing and analyzing a person's movements in his mind.
Once he had fully modeled someone's movements in his mind, he would soon see right through them unless they made some major change.
Finally, after several more exchanges, Li Dao had completely simulated Jinhua's every movement in his mind.
Left!
Li Dao's gaze sharpened, and the blade he had just swung suddenly shifted to the left.
Jinhua was habitually dodging left when he suddenly saw the blade coming straight at him.
"I..."
Riiip!
His voice cut off abruptly.
This time, Li Dao's blade no longer struck clothing. It landed precisely on Jinhua's throat.
No matter how powerful your True Qi was, flesh and blood could hardly withstand the sharpness of black iron.
Eyes wide open, Jinhua clutched his neck and spat blood, staring fixedly at Li Dao. He could not understand how the blade's trajectory had reversed along such a strange path.
Little did he know that Li Dao had already replicated his every movement in his mind. Based on his previous behavior, Li Dao had determined with ninety percent certainty that he would dodge left. All Li Dao needed to do was send his blade there at the right moment.
[One enemy killed. Attributes gained: 10.31]
After Jinhua breathed his last, the system notification sounded.
Hm!
When Li Dao saw the attributes he had gained from killing a Xiantian Martial Artist, he froze.
More than ten points?
Converted back, a Xiantian Martial Artist's total attributes were over a hundred times those of an ordinary person, even exceeding his own overall Physique. Should he say that a Xiantian Martial Artist truly lived up to the name?
Judging by their earlier exchanges, this Innate-stage opponent's body alone had only a little over ten times an ordinary person's Physique. In other words, the True Qi attribute accounted for more than eighty percent of a Xiantian Martial Artist's total attributes.
What a terrifying proportion.
Meanwhile.
With Jinhua's death, the air around Li Dao suddenly grew exceptionally quiet.
He looked up and saw all the Falling Cloud soldiers staring blankly at Jinhua's corpse.
One soldier came to his senses and instinctively began backing away.
And that was only the beginning. Once there was a first, there was a second.
All the soldiers began retreating, distancing themselves from Li Dao.
Even their immensely powerful commander was dead. Charging into battle now would accomplish nothing except offering up their heads.
Not far away, Jinsha, who had just been teasing Jinhua, also stood frozen in place.
Even now, he did not understand why Jinhua had died so suddenly.
Hadn't he been fooling around?
How had he managed to throw away his life doing that?
If Jinhua had still been conscious and knew what Jinsha was thinking, he would certainly have unleashed a torrent of curses.
"I'll..."
Coming to his senses, Jinsha was just about to avenge Jinhua when a sudden jolt in his mind brought him back to reason.
His strength was not much different from Jinhua's.
If Jinhua had not gotten himself killed by fooling around, but had genuinely been outmatched and slain, could Jinsha win if he attacked?
From Jinhua's earlier cry for help, it seemed that he had wanted to escape but could not.
That meant his opponent's strength had left Jinhua nowhere to run, forcing him to call for help.
This...
Jinsha's feet stayed rooted to the spot.
He now had two choices. The first was to avenge Jinhua, in which case he might also die at his opponent's hands, allowing that one man to wipe out their entire force.
The second was to flee. As long as the green hills remained, there would be no shortage of firewood. He could avenge Jinhua once he grew stronger.
After killing the Xiantian Martial Artist before him, Li Dao's gaze naturally settled on the other Xiantian Martial Artist not far away.
"Only one left. Then..."
He was just about to move when he saw the distant Xiantian Martial Artist suddenly swing himself onto a horse.
He had thought the man would charge at him. To his surprise, the man turned around and rode off in the opposite direction.
At the same time, he left behind a shout: "Everyone, retreat!"
That shout seemed to release the Falling Cloud soldiers from their restraints.
The Falling Cloud soldiers, who had been backing away slowly, suddenly raced toward the camp as though they had been injected with chicken blood.
They had only one thought: mount up and follow their remaining commander.
Li Dao: "???"
The sight left him stunned as well.
This wasn't how he had imagined it.
Shouldn't they all be throwing themselves at him, risking their lives to avenge that Xiantian Martial Artist? What was this running away business?
He did not know whether he had reacted too slowly or they had fled too quickly.
By the time Li Dao came to his senses, even the last Falling Cloud soldier had mounted a horse and ridden more than a hundred meters away.
Before you continue