On the deserted street, the night wind wailed through the empty lanes.
Lu Guan collected himself. The last traces of bewilderment faded from his eyes, replaced by a chill.
It seemed... he would have to use this panel with caution from now on.
Or find some way to improve his aptitude and shorten the panel's simulation time.
After all, this was only the Gang Condensation Realm. If he later deduced cultivation methods for higher realms, receiving a thousand years of cultivation at a time-he dared not imagine it.
That would no longer be a matter of being reduced to an idiot.
He feared the immense torrent of information would instantly crush his soul, leaving him dead beyond all doubt.
Just then, his brows drew together slightly, and he looked toward the end of the long street.
A dark figure slowly approached.
Yuan Guanshan dragged the coffin with his remaining hand. It scraped against the flagstones, making a piercing noise in the silent night.
He raised his head, his cloudy eyes locking onto the youth before him, brutality and surprise churning in their depths.
This brat... how did he still dare face me of his own accord?
Anger at being belittled flared in Yuan Guanshan's heart.
The next instant, accompanied by an inexplicable stirring, invisible waves of air spread from beneath his feet in every direction, sweeping across the entire street.
Tiles rattled on the eaves to either side, and window frames banged.
Inside their homes, the townsfolk trembled with unease.
His hoarse, shrill howl suddenly rang out:
"A life... for a life!"
A coffin shoved in his face; no rest until one of them was dead.
Lu Guan frowned deeply at the old ape's twisted face. His lips moved, and he merely muttered two words:
"Fucking idiot."
"..."
Yuan Guanshan froze. Even the towering killing intent he had spent so long building was scattered by more than half by those two lightly spoken words.
As a demon from the Fruitless cave abode who had read extensively from the books of sages, when had he ever suffered such abuse?
Vulgar! Filthy! Unfit for the ears!
Yuan Guanshan's face flushed red, his entire body shaking with rage.
With Sun Ying having just severed one of his arms, the fury in his chest now threatened to explode.
"Insolent brat! Insolent brat!"
"First you killed a disciple of my cave, and now you spout such outrageous words and insult me!"
"You simply... simply could not atone for your crime even with ten thousand deaths!"
Lu Guan shook his head, finding it amusing instead.
He discovered that these ape demons from Fruitless Cave really were interesting.
They were clearly demons, yet insisted on imitating humans, turning themselves into neither fish nor fowl.
Did reading a few volumes of the sages' books and wearing a few wide-sleeved robes really make them think they were human?
And they were even reading books from the previous dynasty!
The previous dynasty had fallen. Why didn't you follow it into the grave?!
On Sun Ying's behalf, he voiced the words Sun Ying had always wanted to say but never spoken:
"You demon, are you even human? And you demand a life for a life?"
Without another word, Lu Guan lunged forward, striking viciously at his opponent with terrifying force!
His figure tore through the night like a savage beast springing from the mountain woods.
Lu Guan had noticed immediately that the old ape had lost an arm and was bleeding incessantly, greatly diminishing his fighting strength.
In that case, strike while he was sick and take his life!
Nine Heavens Dragon-Elephant Secret Record!
For a fleeting moment, the old ape seemed to see a dragon and an elephant lending their might to the youth.
The dragon was a five-clawed golden dragon that rose from his left arm, its scales gleaming gold in the moonlight, its claws gripping the youth's shoulder.
The elephant was a six-tusked white elephant that stepped from his right leg, its body like a mountain, its trunk wrapping around the youth's waist and hips.
With dragon and elephant upon him and golden light blazing, he looked like a divine being descending into the darkened world.
An intense golden sheen appeared across Lu Guan's skin, flowing through the night like molten gold and illuminating the three feet around him.
The old ape grinned. "So you're a body-refining warrior."
Yet he paid it no mind whatsoever.
Boom!
He casually dropped the coffin to the ground, then extended his sole remaining arm, spreading his fingers slightly.
Just like that, he effortlessly pressed down Lu Guan's desperate, all-out strike.
Then he abruptly raised his head and drove a savage kick into Lu Guan!
Boundless force poured into it.
Bang-
A muffled impact thundered out.
In the darkness, beneath the moonlight, a figure hurtled backward and crashed heavily to the ground.
Lu Guan's body bounced twice, plowing a long furrow through the ground and spattering him with broken stones and dust.
"Pfft."
He spat out a great mouthful of foul blood mixed with fragments of his organs.
His face was deathly pale. He felt as though all his internal organs had nearly been knocked out of place.
At least three ribs had broken in his chest. The broken bones pierced his lungs, bringing heart-piercing agony with every breath.
"You... you've got to be kidding."
The old ape's strength was far more terrifying than he had expected.
He had practically no power to resist.
It was just like that day in the ruined temple, when he had faced the White Bone Demon.
No, it was even more hopeless than then.
Because the old ape had relied purely on the strength of his demonic flesh, without even using that strange power capable of sealing off an entire city.
Expression cold, Yuan Guanshan picked up the coffin again and slowly approached Lu Guan at an unhurried pace.
The coffin scraped along the ground with a creaking noise, like a countdown to death.
"The perfected Gang Condensation Realm, with body refinement perfected as well. A talent indeed."
He looked down at the youth on the ground, a trace of jealousy hidden beneath the brutality in his eyes.
"But you don't seem to understand the gulf between us."
"I am in the Inner Landscape Realm-a true cultivator! You are merely an ant with a little talent. How could you possibly contend with me?"
He extended his lone arm and spread his fingers, aiming his palm at Lu Guan's face.
He did not even need to touch him.
The pressure of heaven and earth alone made every bone in Lu Guan's body creak, as though they were about to be crushed.
"One hand is all I need to crush you to death!"
Yuan Guanshan practically roared those final words.
He was an old ape who had barely managed to break through to the Inner Landscape Realm just as his lamp was running out of oil, thereby gaining more lifespan to continue his demonic path.
Yuan Guanshan's heart had long since become twisted. He envied every genius who achieved success in youth equally.
And judging by Lu Guan's performance, he undoubtedly belonged among them.
Eighteen years old, at the perfected Gang Condensation Realm, with his concurrent body refinement also perfected.
He had thought he was merely avenging a junior who, like himself, had languished with his ambitions unfulfilled. He had not expected an additional windfall.
Geniuses... torturing geniuses to death was his greatest delight.
Watching those geniuses die in despair filled his heart with incomparable pleasure.
That pleasure was ten times greater than eating people.
"I want you to die in despair."
Black Qi surged around Yuan Guanshan, making him look like a fiend from hell.
The invisible forces of heaven and earth swarmed in, pressing viciously down on Lu Guan and crushing his body bit by bit.
It was as though an enormous invisible hand were gripping him, intent on squeezing him into pulp.
"Damn it."
Lu Guan gritted his teeth as tremendous pain engulfed his entire body.
He could feel another two ribs breaking, the broken bones stabbing deeper.
His mouth was full of the taste of blood, and his vision kept darkening.
Yet an unquenchable flame shone in his eyes.
I haven't lost yet. There's still a chance.
At that thought, he turned his gaze toward the martial art on the panel that he had never used.
Gang Condensation · Four Symbols Heaven's Will Saber (beginner)
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