Leave It to Me

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom-

In the blink of an eye, another fierce exchange erupted.

When the red light faded, Huang Dahu's broken body lay on the ground, faceup. His eyes were empty, and his once-imposing tiger face bore a forlorn expression.

A great hole gaped in his chest, wounds covered his limbs, and the pool of blood beneath him slowly spread.

"So I couldn't do it after all..." he murmured. "I still couldn't avenge you."

"You burned, killed, and plundered in human cities. You wiped out entire households several times over. Surely you have nothing to complain about after dying in a city yourselves? You merely paid the price for the people you killed." Zhao Xing'er put away her copper staff and stared coldly at him. "You lost. Accept it."

"Ah-" Huang Dahu let out an agonized howl. "In the end, I couldn't bring greater glory to the tiger demons of Old Bald Summit Gully. To die without seeing my family flourish... I can't accept it!"

With that roar, the light gradually left his eyes.

Huang Dahu, the great underworld demon, died in a howl of defiance, his body charred, his meridians severed, his flesh covered in wounds, and his eyes filled with hatred...

His death was incomparably peaceful.

While Zhao Xing'er settled matters with her staff, Yue Wen had been far from idle.

The moment he pushed Zhao Xing'er away, the muntjac brothers caught up. Their crimson eyes bulged as they charged recklessly, their bodies hard as steel and their strength terrifying.

Facing them as an enemy certainly put him under tremendous pressure.

Yue Wen maneuvered around them for a few steps using the footwork of the Wandering Dragon Hand. Seeing them closing in from both sides and leaving him little room to dodge, he sent another Shadow Talisman flying.

As long as the muntjac demons dodged it, he could instantly shift behind them and attack again.

To his surprise, Big Muntjac didn't dodge at all. It merely raised an arm to block, letting the Shadow Talisman strike its left arm and embed itself with a clang. During their earlier fighting, it had already realized that the Shadow Talisman served as the anchor for Yue Wen's movements.

"Quick!" it shouted. "He can't teleport now! Use that move!"

Second Muntjac leaped into the air and spun, whirling countless times like a drill as it hurtled toward Yue Wen!

It was the muntjac brothers' secret signature technique: Golden Headbutt!

This was their most powerful attack, but it also came at a steep cost. Once unleashed, it couldn't be canceled, so they rarely used it.

Against formidable enemies like Yue Wen and Zhao Xing'er, they finally stopped holding back. Big Muntjac sacrificed its own arm to give Second Muntjac this opening!

A trace of alarm appeared in Yue Wen's eyes as the headbutt spun toward him like a tornado. He hadn't expected these two wounded muntjacs to launch such a powerful attack.

Boom-

The Golden Headbutt slammed into the ground in an instant, throwing up a towering column of dust.

"Heh heh heh." Big Muntjac laughed triumphantly. "Stupid human. Now you're surely dead..."

Before it finished speaking, a crescent of light swept in from the side.

Zhao Xing'er, who had just killed the tiger demon with her staff, heard the commotion. Seeing Big Muntjac grinning viciously at the column of dust, she thought Yue Wen had fallen victim to them. Her brows immediately drew together, and red light flared once more.

"Boss!" she shouted angrily, flying over with the Eyebrow-Level Copper Staff sweeping out like a crescent moon!

Seeing that Huang Dahu hadn't lasted even a moment, Big Muntjac looked horrified and desperately tried to block the staff.

But a shout from above stopped the blow.

A streak of sword light descended from overhead as Yue Wen shouted, "Leave it to me!"

Zhao Xing'er paused in surprise and stopped where she stood.

Big Muntjac's attention was fixed on the charging Zhao Xing'er, so it never noticed the silver light dropping from high overhead! Without intending to, they had pulled off a feint from the front and a strike from behind.

Shhk-

The Sword-Controlling Technique pierced its skull in an instant!

Yue Wen descended from the sky, completely unscathed, and landed before it.

"How is that possible..." Big Muntjac clutched the Shadow Talisman in its arm. "But I clearly..."

Yue Wen held up another Shadow Talisman. "I never said I only had one."

He had only used one Shadow Talisman at first because this was his first real battle with them. He didn't want to use several and risk splitting himself apart if he mishandled the technique.

The demonstration's little black figure splitting into five had left him rather frightened.

Only after Big Muntjac trapped his first Shadow Talisman by injuring itself did he throw a second one into the sky, easily avoiding Second Muntjac's headbutt.

A divine ability like the Shadow-Shifting Talisman Art really was overkill against the muntjac brothers.

He was simply toying with them.

With a thud, Big Muntjac breathed its last, and its corpse toppled backward.

Yue Wen stepped forward and retrieved his Shadow Talisman, then turned to look. The dust had just cleared, revealing Second Muntjac.

Its head and upper body were buried completely in the rocky ground. Only its two legs remained above, kicking wildly upside down, while its short arms struggled to pull itself free.

That was the drawback of the Golden Headbutt. Using it could easily leave the user stuck with no way to get out.

It was still muttering something, its muffled voice rising from underground. "Big brother, I definitely smashed that brat to death! Come pull me out. Oh, you must be busy. You've got to help Huang Dahu gang up on that woman! Once I get my head out, the three of us can take her together. We'll kill her! I won't stop until we've planted her head in the ground... Heave-ho!"

With a crack, it finally hauled its upper body free after exerting the strength of nine oxen and two muntjacs.

Then it looked up to see Yue Wen and Zhao Xing'er standing nearby, two pairs of bright eyes watching it with amusement.

Meanwhile, Huang Dahu and its own elder brother lay on the ground off to one side, plainly dead.

For a moment, grief, confusion, shock... all those tangled emotions mingled in Second Muntjac's smooth cerebral cortex, and its brain froze.

"Whose head did you want to plant in the ground?" Zhao Xing'er asked with a cold smile.

"My own, of course," Second Muntjac answered tearfully, turning to crawl back into the hole.

The hole was a little dark, but at least it couldn't see anything down there. That was better than looking up at two terrifying monsters.

"Your life is mine!" Zhao Xing'er sprang forward, swinging her Eyebrow-Level Copper Staff to finish it off.

"Xing'er, calm down!" Yue Wen caught her around the waist and moved her aside despite her legs kicking in midair. "Leave this muntjac demon to me."

"Why?" Zhao Xing'er asked in

confusion.

Because you already killed Huang Dahu, and you nearly killed Big Muntjac just now. If I don't get a move on, I'll come away from all this fighting without a single coin of Evil-Suppressing Money.

Do you think I fight evil spirits for fun?

But he certainly couldn't admit that he wanted to steal the kill. After a moment's thought, Yue Wen said, "Weren't you hurt earlier? Don't aggravate your injury."

During her fierce battle with Huang Dahu, Zhao Xing'er had taken a heavy punch. Even with the Martial Spirit Red Light protecting and healing her, her vitality was no longer as strong as before.

"But..." Zhao Xing'er said. "You're hurt too."

Yue Wen had taken a hit earlier, and he did look somewhat weakened.

"I'm fine. Just listen to me." Yue Wen patted her shoulder and walked forward, leaving her looking at his back. Sensing that she still wanted to help, he added, "If you help me, I'll dock your pay."

Zhao Xing'er frowned. The target of the copper staff in her hands instantly shifted from Second Muntjac to the back of Yue Wen's head. She rubbed and turned the staff, seemingly debating whether to strike.

While they were talking, Second Muntjac had already run away.

Yue Wen and Zhao Xing'er might have been injured, but Second Muntjac was hurt far worse. It had taken a hammer blow from Zhao Xing'er and a sword strike from Yue Wen, then left itself dizzy and disoriented after smashing down with its own headbutt.

Knowing that staying meant certain death at the hands of these two terrifying humans, it turned and tiptoed away while they talked. After a few steps, it broke into a mad sprint!

That woman couldn't catch me earlier. Surely she won't catch me this time either?

That was what it thought.

But just as it was about to dart into the dense forest ahead, it suddenly spotted a talisman shaped like a curved blade embedded in a tree trunk.

A Shadow Talisman.

Second Muntjac started. Isn't that...

A purple-black shadow flickered, and Yue Wen instantly appeared beside the Shadow Talisman.

"Where do you think you're going?" he shouted, unleashing his Flying Sword.

"Roar-" Second Muntjac bellowed and raised its hammer again. With its life hanging in the balance, it unleashed every last bit of its strength.

I spent so long tempering my body in the Wasteland Zone, fighting countless battles. Every part of me is harder than steel.

You think you can stop me?

Shhk.

A streak of silver light instantly pierced Second Muntjac's throat!

Yue Wen calmly lowered his two fingers and raised his wrist. A streak of light returned, transforming into a bracelet that wrapped around it once more, a wisp of white spiritual energy drifting from the sword's tail.

The muntjac brothers, those elite assassins, met their end.

The instant Second Muntjac fell, a wisp of golden smoke flowed into Yue Wen's body. Between them, the brothers had earned him eighty-two coins of Evil-Suppressing Money!

Individually, they really were the strongest evil spirits he had ever slain.

All he could say was that Huang Dahu had come to assassinate him with bad intentions, but had delivered excellent results.

It was a shame Black Tiger had escaped, but even with several more decades of cultivation, it wouldn't amount to much. He wasn't worried about it coming back for revenge.

Yue Wen looked at Zhao Xing'er and reminded her, "When the company people ask later, don't mention the details of this fight. Just say they were a few ordinary evil spirits. The Tiger Head Gang's revenge should be over now. Bringing up how they sneaked in would only affect the livestream... and get in the way of us making money."

"All right." Zhao Xing'er nodded, then asked, "Why do I feel like you've gotten stronger again?"

It wasn't just Huang Dahu, his enemy, who had felt that way. Zhao Xing'er, his companion, felt it just as strongly.

When they had fought those tiger demons in the basement a few days earlier, Yue Wen hadn't displayed this much strength, nor had he possessed this ability to shift from place to place.

The Yue Wen before her now felt unfamiliar.

"Heh." Yue Wen smiled faintly. "I made a small breakthrough after yesterday's arena matches."

"Huh?" Zhao Xing'er looked surprised.

In fact, this was indeed something people said about Unity Realm cultivators.

The reason these Immortal Sects generally sent their disciples out to gain experience in the Third Realm was that cultivation in the Unity Realm involved uniting essence, qi, and spirit. Battle was a way to accelerate that fusion.

After several fierce battles over this period, Yue Wen felt that his essence, qi, and spirit had fused completely and harmoniously, without the slightest flaw remaining.

This state was generally known as complete mastery of the Unity Realm.

That was how the saying went, but reality was hardly so simple. Bringing essence, qi, and spirit into harmony required repeated battles, tempering, and exploration. Sometimes, reaching perfection was like those apps that asked you to help slash a price: you seemed to get closer and closer, yet an ever-smaller gap always remained, requiring a long time to comprehend and overcome.

Zhao Xing'er, at least, had spent several months anticipating a breakthrough in the Third Realm. She had also fought several battles recently, yet her progress hadn't been obvious.

Seeing Yue Wen casually reach complete mastery after just a few fights left her struggling to believe it.

Are you kidding me?

If breaking through is that easy, which one of us has an immortal physique-you or me?

Could it be... I'm dumber than the boss?

Impossible.

Absolutely impossible!