Lian Youming pressed his palm against Song Huaizhen's chest. In their earlier exchange of killing moves, each had taken a strike of Striking Force Across the Air. They looked unharmed on the outside, but their tendons had already snapped and their bones fractured within.
With the meridians severed and blood flow blocked, their protective inner strength had weakened.
As that palm pressed down, terror filled Song Huaizhen's face. His lone eye widened, veins bulged at his temples, and his face flushed crimson with blood in an instant, yet his cheeks remained puffed as he struggled to hold on.
Lian Youming struck with his right palm while forming a sword with the fingers of his left hand. He jabbed swiftly at Song Huaizhen's right elbow joint, sending force through flesh and skin straight into the great tendon. The instant he dispersed the strength there, he shifted aside and broke free of the grip on his neck.
"Mm... glug!"
Faced with this sudden turn, Song Huaizhen was both shocked and furious. His lone eye fixed on Lian Youming, he drew up his breath in anger, swiftly planted his feet, and pressed both palms down through the air. With a muffled toad croak, a nearly solid ring of dusty ripples surged around his body, while the dust beneath his feet swept outward like billowing clouds, rolling in every direction.
Lian Youming gave him no chance to catch his breath. His right palm settled, then, before the ripples could subside, he turned his wrist and rolled his palm into a Phoenix-Eye Fist, tapping lightly like a dragonfly touching water.
The seemingly casual punch struck his chest, yet the flesh on Song Huaizhen's back immediately quivered. An invisible thread of force seemed to pass through his chest and strike the dust behind him, sending out