Power

"No!"

Two brothers who had fought beside him for over a decade had died in the blink of an eye. The sudden upheaval drew a furious roar from Blood Eagle.

"Li Xian! I'll kill you!"

The next moment, blood and qi erupted throughout his body!

The blood inside him seemed to have been set ablaze!

He unleashed a secret art similar to the Blood Jade Art, but seemingly even more savage in its explosive power!

With that violent eruption of blood and qi, he clenched his fingers into a fist and lunged in for the kill. The power of his blood and qi seemed to be grasped into substance, becoming blood and qi true astral as he savagely reached to seize and kill Li Xian.

Sensing the blazing pressure of Blood Eagle's blood and qi, Li Xian's eyes suddenly lit up.

"Good!"

He abruptly hurled the sharp sword he had been gripping.

Like an arrow loosed from a bowstring, it instantly pierced through some Eagle or other at viscera great accomplishment dozens of meters away.

As for who he was, or what exactly his title was...

It didn't matter.

"Let me see just how far your control of blood and qi has reached!"

Having thrown his sword, he stepped forward and boldly met the attack. As he circulated his force, he felt faint sounds coming from all over his body.

It seemed the Limit-Breaking State was squeezing out power beyond what his flesh could endure.

Having likewise abandoned his sword, he used almost the same means of unleashing his blood and qi, gathering his force into primordial unity as he met Blood Eagle head-on, whose secret art had nearly transformed his blood and qi into true astral. Neither attack held any flourishes. They crashed straight into each other.

Bang!

Fist force slammed against fist force, blood and qi collided!

The ground beneath their feet seemed to be blasted into collapse by the violent force, cracking as they stamped out a shattered patch nearly a meter across.

The force scattering outward even kicked up visible dust, which exploded in every direction with the two men at its center.

The violent force of blood and qi traveled up Li Xian's arm in waves, instantly shredding his sleeve before charging onward unabated into his body, driving him back four steps.

But...

This force of blood and qi did not have the sharpness Li Xian had expected, concentrated into a single stream that would smash through his blood, qi, and force like splitting bamboo. All it possessed was the sweeping, surging violence of a flood!

It was as though an enormous "quantity" had been hurled out all at once.

As for a controllable "quality," there wasn't the slightest trace.

This Blood and Qi Force...

Li Xian was somewhat disappointed.

His whole body shuddered as he straightened. The core force gathered into a ball inside him abruptly exploded, resonating with the great core of the human body and surging like a tide through his limbs and bones, frantically crushing and routing the Blood and Qi Force that had invaded him.

Core force guarded his body, its power sweeping throughout him!

Limitless Golden Bell!

His arm gave another sharp shake.

Before long, all the force of blood and qi transmitted into his hand had been neutralized.

In the distance, Vulture, the fourth brother, was leading the other members of the Thirteen Eagles of Luoyang, along with Zhao Tianming, Bai Yup an, and the others, in surrounding and attacking Zhou Juechen. Seeing this, profound terror welled up in his eyes.

"How can he be so strong?!"

He wasn't alone. At that moment, almost everyone present had the same question spring unbidden into their minds.

Li Xian...

How could he be this powerful?!

Even Zhou Juechen was no exception.

Not only had he advanced to impervious body at an unbelievable speed, becoming a first-rate expert in Jiangzhou's martial world, but in a life-and-death struggle with a long-established first-rate expert like Blood Eagle, he had actually beaten him to this extent?!

Especially when Gray Eagle and Sparrowhawk had joined Blood Eagle in attacking him, they had still failed to affect him at all. Instead, he had suddenly erupted and instantly killed both blood exchange and marrow washing martial masters!

The power he had displayed...

Had already exceeded everyone's understanding and imagination!

"Still not enough!"

Li Xian looked toward Blood Eagle, who had likewise retreated three steps, but whose entire arm now seemed to hang limp.

"Perhaps you need a little pressure!"

He abruptly advanced again, taking great strides.

In his Limit-Breaking State, he ignored the pain left by the force traveling through his arm just now and easily squeezed power from his body beyond the limits he should have possessed.

Both hands shot out, shifting endlessly between fists, fingers, sword fingers, and palms.

In the few steps it took him to close in for the kill, he had already switched effortlessly through more than a dozen attacking moves.

Every move made Blood Eagle feel a hair-raising pressure of death.

It seemed that if any one of those shifting moves landed and he failed to block it, it would put him in mortal danger.

But...

"Impossible!"

How could anyone, at twenty-two, have cultivated fist techniques, finger techniques, sword fingers, and palm techniques alike to the very pinnacle, to a level worthy of a martial grandmaster?!

"No such monster can exist in this world!"

Blood Eagle growled in shock and fury, spreading his feet into a bow stance, like a mounted warrior holding his saber crosswise with his body turned sideways.

Facing Li Xian's endlessly shifting assault, he neither dodged nor evaded. His feet gripped the ground, his force gathered into primordial unity, and he simply blasted out a punch.

"Break!"

One punch to shatter ten thousand arts!

Yet the instant that heavy, powerful punch, like a flood dragon surging out of the sea, met Li Xian's ever-changing moves, his entire arm seemed to be caught in a python's coils.

Especially at the instant his arm was entangled, a spinning, rolling force violently collided with the force of his Primordial Unity strike, actually dissipating more than half his fist force as it rotated.

By the time he realized the danger, Li Xian's arm had already wrapped around his in an almost S-shaped coil, while Li Xian's five fingers, like a lock of refined steel, clamped savagely onto his shoulder blade!

Golden Snake Entwining Silk!

No!

Blood Eagle's expression changed drastically, and he immediately tried to wrench his arm free with all his strength.

But...

As force coursed through Li Xian's nearly S-shaped arm and it tautened, his arm abruptly straightened under the rotating force of primordial unity!

Force was mutual.

After dispersing Blood Eagle's fist force, his originally S-shaped arm needed to straighten. Naturally, something else would have to bend.

Blood Eagle's arm!

Bzzz!

The instant Li Xian's arm snapped straight, the arm Blood Eagle had thrust out in a straight punch was violently turned and twisted. Once that turning, twisting angle grew past a certain point...

Crack!

His entire arm twisted like a braided dough twist. His ulna and radius instantly shifted out of place and split, while his humerus snapped on the spot with Li Xian's grip on his shoulder blade serving as a fulcrum.

The agony of his bones being wrung apart made Blood Eagle's eyes widen and his face turn deathly pale.

He twisted his body, exerting his muscles and bones to wrench himself free of the five fingers clamped onto his shoulder blade by Li Xian. At the same time, he shot backward, trying to put distance between them!

But Li Xian pursued him with lethal intent, as though he knew neither pain nor fatigue.

"Is this your limit?"

As that nightmare-like voice rang out, a palm rapidly enlarged before his eyes, striking toward his face.

When he strained with all his might to twist aside and dodge, he discovered that the palm strike was only a feint.

The real killing move was the punch that followed!

Bang!

A heavy, powerful punch smashed viciously into Blood Eagle's waist, right over his liver!

Fist force erupted!

The searing pain piercing through his body felt as though it would tear his entire liver apart!

No!

It already had!

The punch made Blood Eagle involuntarily double over slightly, and its force sent him flying several meters sideways. The moment he landed, his legs went weak, and he dropped sideways to one knee. His vision darkened, and he nearly fainted.

Through the haze, he seemed to hear Vulture's terrified cry.

"Boss!"

He raised his head with difficulty. The next second, Li Xian's not particularly tall frame loomed over him like the shadow cast by a nightmare, enveloping him completely.

I'm going to die!

At that moment, Blood Eagle finally realized something!

He...

Was going to die!

Because they never provoked anyone they couldn't afford to offend, the thirteen brothers had run roughshod over the Luoyang region without restraint.

Whatever they wanted, they took or seized as they pleased!

Beauties, fine horses, treasured sabers, cultivation arts-it was the same for all of them.

The Xu Family's Blood Jade Art was the best example.

He had never expected that today, his boat would capsize in a gutter.

A viscera martial master who supposedly possessed only the combat strength of blood exchange and marrow washing had not only suddenly leaped to become a first-rate expert with an impervious body, but in actual combat far surpassed even those at Leakless Realm Great Accomplishment!

Regret, resentment, and terror surged into his heart all at once.

"Spare me..."

Blood Eagle had only managed those two words when he saw a blast of fist force rush straight toward his face. The instant he raised his head and spoke, it struck his neck.

Just as, thirteen days earlier at the Wave-Viewing Tower, Li Xian had formed his fingers into a sword and shattered Luo Teng's throat with a single strike.

The difference was that this time, Li Xian used a fist.

Fist force whose explosive power was fiercer than finger force.

Bang!

The force punched through!

Blood Eagle's Adam's apple shattered, and his cervical spine snapped.

His head first pitched forward with the momentum. The next second, he fell backward with his face up, carried several meters back by the fist force that had pierced his cervical spine, before his body finally slammed heavily into the ground.

His nerves destroyed, his body twitched.

In less than a breath, this leader of the Thirteen Eagles of Luoyang, a first-rate expert of the martial world who had attained an impervious body, had ceased all movement.

(End of chapter)