Inside the Heavenly Dragon Temple, Xu Xiao's sudden attack had thrown the scene into chaos.
Figures darted about the grounds, one of them dodging left and right like a swimming dragon.
Several black specks invisible to the naked eye moved swiftly around him, their presence betrayed only by a piercing hum.
Jiumozhi truly deserved his place among the Four Great Masters of Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils. His martial arts were first-rate.
Duan Yanqing had once chosen to retreat after merely seeing the iron pieces change course at will in midair.
But Jiumozhi was different. He chose to fight back!
His abundant Internal Energy surged as he employed the Shadow-Following Leg Technique, one of Shaolin's Seventy-Two Supreme Arts, darting back and forth across the temple grounds.
The iron pieces Xu Xiao controlled with Telekinesis had long since broken the sound barrier, making them difficult to perceive with the naked eye.
Yet the great monk relied on his keen senses and combat experience to dodge and weave, holding out through ten constantly shifting lines of attack from the iron pieces.
"Well, well, big monk, you've got a few more tricks than Duan Yanqing! Looks like I'll have to spice things up for you."
Xu Xiao had thought he would win easily, but Jiumozhi had proved to have some skill after all.
Of course, that merely gave him a little more room to play.
With a slight turn of his thoughts, the iron pieces sped up further, attacking Jiumozhi's vital points directly.
Xu Xiao had not spent all this time cultivating only the Northern Darkness Divine Art. Every day, he had set aside time to practice controlling his Telekinesis.
As his body grew healthier under the nourishment of Internal Energy, the Telekinesis in his mind grew stronger, and Xu Xiao had to make sure he could keep that power under control at all times.
At the moment, he was using only half his strength to practice, but that was enough to give his opponent a bitter dose.
Hearing that his opponent was going to get serious, Jiumozhi broke out in a cold sweat. He could not help roaring in anger:
"How dare you!"
Oh? Was that a threat? Let's see if I dare! Xu Xiao's face tightened, and he increased the output of his Telekinesis another notch.
The iron pieces sped up again, their attacks no longer something that footwork and movement techniques could evade. They had become black shadows the naked eye could not make out.
Whistling with piercing sonic booms, the iron pieces followed utterly unpredictable paths, aiming straight for Jiumozhi's vital points.
Danger closed in from every side. Jiumozhi's heart shook, and the terror of death lurking all around him began to gnaw at it.
This won't do! This martial art is too mysterious. If I keep doing nothing but dodge, I'll surely meet my end here today. I have to stop it!
After dodging left and right, Jiumozhi still found himself caught between two iron pieces. He summoned all the Internal Energy in his body and chose another path.
He extended his left hand slightly, gently bringing his thumb and forefinger together as if holding a flower, and flicked out a stream of soft, yin finger force.
He clenched and drew back his right hand, then struck with a fist wrapped in vigorous Internal Energy.
The Flower-Plucking Finger in his left hand, the Great Vajra Fist in his right.
One yin and one yang, one hard and one soft, the two martial arts met the iron pieces that had trapped him with no way out.
The soft, yin force of the Flower-Plucking Finger coiled around the iron piece Xu Xiao controlled with Telekinesis, nudging its trajectory slightly aside and changing the angle of its flight.
It grazed the edge of Jiumozhi's yellow monk's robe, cutting away only a small piece of cloth.
That move had barely managed to counter Xu Xiao's iron piece, but before Jiumozhi could be glad, his right fist met a far worse fate.
The fierce and forceful Great Vajra Fist had no such soft power to redirect an attack. It was a move that met force with force.
His fist, wrapped in abundant Internal Energy as a barrier, collided with the iron piece shooting toward him.
He had expected to knock the iron piece away or deflect it with one blow, but after resisting for only a second, it cut straight through.
The Qi wall formed by Jiumozhi's abundant Internal Energy did not hold it back for even the blink of an eye.
"Oh no!!!"
Jiumozhi's eyes nearly split with rage. The Internal Energy Qi wall had failed to stop it, so next he would have to withstand it with his own flesh and blood.
He tried desperately to turn his arm aside and dodge the blow, but how could a man react faster than an iron piece controlled by Telekinesis?
The next second, a piercing scream rang out.
"Aah~!"
A mist of blood sprayed through the air, and scraps of flesh and cloth scattered across the ground.
After slicing through the Internal Energy Qi wall, the iron piece Xu Xiao controlled with Telekinesis slammed straight into Jiumozhi's right hand.
In that single instant, everything from his fist to his forearm was sliced apart by the speeding iron piece, scattering into a spray of flesh and blood.
"Hmph! You little punk, you actually thought you could take it head-on. You really don't know your own measure." Xu Xiao snorted coldly.
The remaining iron pieces did not stop attacking because Jiumozhi was injured. Instead, they swarmed forward, precisely severing the major tendons in all four of his limbs in an instant.
With all four limbs crippled, he was no threat at all, no matter how much Internal Energy he had.
"This... this..."
The scene had taken everyone by surprise.
From Xu Xiao's sudden attack to Jiumozhi's defeat, it took a long time to describe, but only twenty breaths had passed.
In a mere twenty breaths, one of the martial world's foremost experts had been defeated just like that.
The Ben-generation monks around them, who had been about to rebuke Xu Xiao for not understanding the rules of the martial world, wisely shut their mouths.
Even Master Kurong, whose composure was usually as still as an ancient well and who carried himself as though above worldly affairs, stared wide-eyed at the scene, at a loss for words.
"All right, don't just stand there gaping. Does anyone have wound medicine or something to stop the bleeding? Help him stanch his wounds first. I don't want him dead yet."
Xu Xiao spoke calmly, and only then did the flying iron pieces return one by one to his pouch.
Setting aside his memorable appearance and listening only to his tone, he sounded as natural as a guest visiting the Heavenly Dragon Temple to take in the sights.
"Amitabha! Rest assured, Mr. Xu, we will treat the national preceptor of Tubo. Such divine skill as yours is something this old monk has never seen in his life!"
Master Kurong invoked the Buddha's name and looked at Xu Xiao with a complicated expression.
It turned out that Jiumozhi, whom they had regarded as a formidable enemy, was nothing more than an insect Xu Xiao could casually crush.
The outside help the Dali Duan Clan had found this time had utterly overturned his view of the world.
How was this martial arts? Even the legendary immortal arts of Daoists, with flying swords that took men's heads, could have been no more impressive.
For a time, Master Kurong could only stare fixedly at him, unsure what to do.
The old monk's stare made Xu Xiao feel a little odd. He turned his head and saw that the Ben-generation monks had already taken hemostatic powder from their robes and treated Jiumozhi's wounds.
With his goal achieved, Xu Xiao did not want to stay any longer. He stepped forward and waved them away.
"All right, all right, stop fussing. As long as he won't die, that's enough."
Hearing this, the eminent Ben-generation monks, who had been about to take out a couple of pills for Jiumozhi to swallow to treat his external injuries, stopped and tactfully stepped aside.
Xu Xiao walked over and saw Jiumozhi staring at him with wide eyes.
"What are you staring at? The victor becomes king, the loser an outlaw. You came to Dali with impure intentions, so you deserve this fate."
"You... how did you know?!"
Jiumozhi was filled with hatred. He had come to hunt a little bird, only to have an eagle from the heavens claw out his eyes.
"I know plenty. I'll tell you on the way."
Xu Xiao did not dwell on it any further. He lifted Jiumozhi's body with Telekinesis and sent him floating away, then rose into the air after him.
"Tell Emperor Baoding that I, Xu, take my leave here. Oh, and keep that boy Duan Yu in check. He isn't suited to the martial world, so don't let him wander around outside."
Xu Xiao's voice came from the sky, and the two figures soon vanished from everyone's sight.
"Master, he's no ordinary man!"
The people of the Heavenly Dragon Temple could not calm down for a long time. Only when Master Kurong finally spoke did they leave one by one.
Xu Xiao and Jiumozhi's clash that day had utterly shattered everyone's expectations.
Compared with Xu Xiao's almost immortal methods, were the martial arts they had practiced for decades not a joke?
That night, many people were destined to lie awake.