One move.
That was all it took to leave the strongest fighter of Nanhe County's Demon Suppression Bureau with his life hanging in the balance.
After swatting Lin Xiao away, the red-haired monster slowly turned, aiming its gaping, blood-filled maw at Su Yu, who stood amid the ruins.
To the monster's senses, the dark-gold Qi and blood radiating from Su Yu's body were the most delectable of tonics.
Black slime dripped faster as the monster moved its thick legs.
Boom.
With every step, the ground shuddered violently, and crushing pressure bore down on Su Yu.
Su Yu stood motionless, his mind utterly calm as a thought flashed through it.
["System, use 100 Slaughter Points to extrapolate Wandering Dragon Steps!"]
[100 Slaughter Points consumed. Beginning extrapolation...] [Extrapolation complete. Wandering Dragon Steps has reached subtlety level. Ultimate-realm killing move comprehended: Dragon Concealment.]
A synthesized mechanical voice sounded in Su Yu's mind.
Whoosh!
An enormous red-haired claw tore through the air, bringing a foul-smelling gale as it smashed toward Su Yu's head.
Su Yu drove his feet into the ground, shattering the flagstones.
He pushed Subtlety-Level Wandering Dragon Steps to its limit, leaving an afterimage where he had stood as his body skimmed along the ground more than thirty feet away.
Bang!
The giant claw struck where Su Yu had just been standing, collapsing the ground into an enormous pit three feet deep.
The violent blast of air flung all the broken bricks nearby away. Using his sliding momentum, Su Yu planted one hand on the ground.
He forcibly twisted his body, touching his saber tip to the ground. His sea of consciousness churned violently as his newly awakened divine sense rapidly gathered together.
It compressed into an invisible blade!
With a thought, the invisible blade crossed more than ten meters and sank into the monster's enormous head.
"Aaargh!"
The monster let out an earth-shaking scream, its huge body briefly stiffening.
It clutched its head with both hands and pounded the ground madly. The puppet's mind was incomplete, its sea of consciousness dilapidated.
This exceedingly weak strike had hit its most vulnerable blind spot.
Su Yu seized the opportunity. The muscles in both his legs tensed completely as dark-gold Prison-Suppressing Spiritual Qi flooded into them.
Unleashing Subtlety-Level Wandering Dragon Steps, he shot forward, targeting the monster's exposed left armpit.
No scarlet hair covered that spot, only a grayish layer of keratin.
Wind Falls Silent, Leaving No Trace.
The black-and-gold saber traced a half arc through the air, its edge slicing through without the slightest sound.
Extreme compression created a brief pressure differential around the blade.
Squelch.
The saber sank to the hilt into the monster's left armpit, scorching Spiritual Qi pouring furiously into it along the blade.
"Roar!"
The monster roared even more violently and swung its left arm.
Bang!
The tremendous recoil flung Su Yu and his saber away. He tumbled repeatedly through the air.
After landing on both feet, he slid backward more than ten meters before stopping.
The immense force plowed two long white marks into the flagstones.
"Urgh!"
A trace of metallic sweetness surged into his throat, but he forcibly swallowed it.
In the distance.
Tang Shan watched that saber cut through the monster's flesh.
His heart pounded violently, his breathing nearly stopping.
This Demon Suppression Guard, who had only just been promoted to squad leader, had dodged a fatal blow and successfully wounded a Spirit Realm fifth-level creature.
Green blood streamed from the monster's armpit. His assessment of Su Yu's fighting strength was utterly shattered and rebuilt.
This was the true monster, the monstrous prodigy.
Several Demon Suppression Guards who had been about to slit their own throats all stopped what they were doing at that moment.
That tall, straight figure was reflected once more in their deathly still eyes.
As long as that man had not fallen, their line had not collapsed.
"Roar!"
The red-haired monster went completely berserk. The wound in its left armpit had roused all its ferocity.
Abandoning all defense, it dropped onto all fours and charged wildly at Su Yu.
The monster hurtled forward. On all fours.
The ground shook violently beneath its tremendous weight. Shattered flagstones flew in all directions.
A foul-smelling gale rushed straight at him. It was only fifty feet from Su Yu.
The spiritual power in Su Yu's body had completely run dry. A parched, stabbing pain came from his meridians. His Minute Subtlety Realm Prison-Suppressing Qi and Blood was also rapidly fading.
With ultimate-realm martial arts and a Mortal Realm body alone, he could not possibly break through the hide of a Spirit Realm fifth-level demon.
The wound in its left armpit had already begun healing. That grayish layer of keratin was rapidly growing back.
"Run?"
If he turned and used Wandering Dragon Steps, his current speed gave him an eighty percent chance of escaping Nanhe County alive.
But that meant abandoning the hundred-plus Demon Suppression Guards and Lin Xiao behind him.
Such a cowardly act of desertion in battle would tear an irreparable rift in his martial heart.
If he feared even a mindless stitched corpse, what would he use to suppress all the horrors under heaven in the future?
Panel data appeared in his field of vision.
[Current Slaughter Points: 220]
These Slaughter Points were enough for one breakthrough in his Spirit Refining Realm cultivation.
The demon's physical body was invincible, but as a puppet, this monster had an innately incomplete mind and a sea of consciousness riddled with holes.
That was the only opening.
He was just about to contact the system with his mind.
Hum!
Suddenly, the air overhead distorted with extreme violence, and a force of pure psychic power descended from the sky.
The invisible force formed a solid wall in midair and crashed into the red-haired monster's back.
Boom.
The charging monster was forcibly pinned flat on the spot by that immense power.
The tremendous impact sent it plowing a deep trench thirty feet long through the ground, black slime mixing with broken bricks.
The next instant, a black-clad figure vaulted over the courtyard wall and landed lightly atop a broken stone pillar.
The newcomer wore a pure-white cat mask, leaving only a straight nose and tightly pressed lips exposed.
In an instant, an immensely powerful psychic fluctuation swept over the entire ruin without restraint.
Spirit refining, Spirit Realm third level.
Tang Shan sat slumped on the ground. The edge of the saber in his hand had long since curled.
He stared blankly at the white-masked figure atop the stone pillar.
In a remote backwater like Nanhe County, one ordinarily could not even catch sight of a Spirit Realm expert.
Tonight, he had not only seen a Body Refinement maniac at Spirit Realm second level, but now a mysterious Spirit Refinement expert at Spirit Realm third level had even appeared.
The path of Spirit Refinement was exceedingly rare to begin with, and its combat strength utterly overwhelmed ordinary martial artists at the same level.
Why would such an important figure appear here?
"Get moving!"
A cool female voice came from beneath the mask.
She raised both hands, her fingers rapidly forming a strange seal in midair.
The invisible psychic shackles tightened once more, locking firmly around the monster's thick limbs.
"This thing's body is too tough. My divine sense can only restrain it for ten breaths. I can't kill it. Take your people and retreat, now!"
Retreat?
Hearing this, Su Yu remained where he stood. The toes of his right foot pressed firmly against the ground.
Once they retreated and this monster regained its ability to move, it would certainly massacre the town. Then all of Nanhe County would become a purgatory.
That last strike had already enraged it completely.
Leaving it alive would bring endless trouble.
These ten breaths were his last bargaining chip for turning the tables.
"Slaughter Points delivered right to my door-I have to take them!"