A Healer's Way of Killing

Hee-haw!

When the tree came crashing down, even Shopkeeper Ma, standing farther away, felt as though dark clouds were gathering over his head and disaster was upon him. He could not help shrinking back.

The donkey pulling the cart bent all four legs and toppled straight onto the ground.

The front of the cart hit the ground as a result, and Cai Shanjun nearly lost his seat.

In every direction, it seemed as though everything had been shaken at that moment.

It forced people to act in a state of tension and confusion.

Jump up? Definitely not.

Rush in from the side?

That crown was too much of an obstacle. If the trunk rolled or shifted even slightly, the crown could sweep across again and block his view.

So Chu Tianshu went down!

He slid one foot forward, and his whole body dropped abruptly.

It was a classic hip-opening, leg-stretching movement from Taiji Fist, found even in its simplified forms.

In the foundational forms of the thirteen postures of Taiji, it was also called Lower Posture.

Normally, once both feet were set in position, the waist and hips sank, the front leg stretched almost straight, and the calf pressed against the ground.

The weight then shifted from back to front, and the body rose into a bow stance.

But when Chu Tianshu performed it with his present strength,

his front foot slid out and his back foot pushed off. As his body dropped, his momentum carried him forward, and he shot along the ground as if surfing.

Before the crown struck him, he had passed through the gap between it and the ground.

The movement was so smooth that he scarcely seemed human, more like a surge of seawater.

Like a wave, he went from high to low, then high again!

Chu Tianshu abruptly straightened into a bow stance and drove his right shoulder directly against the trunk.

Boom!!

He had not intended to attack Commander Xu while crouched low. Getting too close in that position would have left him certain to take a crushing kick from Commander Xu.

Instead, suddenly rising to brace against the trunk was a stroke of genius.

The tree was more than four meters long, and the front of its crown was plunging down violently.

Chu Tianshu was now only about a meter from Commander Xu, with his own shoulder serving as a fulcrum.

With the leverage, the momentum of the tree's front end nearly pried Commander Xu, who was holding the tree, off the ground.

That was when Chu Tianshu released his silver needles.

Two streaks of silver shot straight at Commander Xu's eyes.

With both feet off the ground and unable to move easily, Commander Xu could only raise a hand to block them.

The silver needles pierced his uniform, but could not pierce his skin.

Chu Tianshu's foot sprang up and kicked him in the lower abdomen.

Both feet were off the ground, and one hand was blocking the needles.

With only one hand on the tree, Commander Xu could not hold on at all and was sent flying backward.

Chu Tianshu dipped slightly, pulled his shoulder away from the trunk, and pursued at full speed.

The tree's crown had already hit the ground, but its trunk was still in the air.

Chu Tianshu had already caught up to Commander Xu, punching as bursts of air crackled wildly around his fists.

Because of the difference in their heights, the chaotic afterimages all struck upward at Commander Xu's face.

Commander Xu staggered backward, his hands failing to block every blow. A fingernail on a whipping hand swept across his eyelids, leaving both eyes unbearably sore and filling them with tears.

"Hah!!"

He suddenly roared and deliberately jerked his head to one side.

Chu Tianshu's fist struck his neck.

Muscles stretched taut from Xu Youjiang's head to his shoulders. As he tensed his neck, it was not shaped like a pillar, but more like a small hill, broad and squat.

The moment Chu Tianshu's fist landed, he could even feel a tough, resilient force rebounding through that blue-black skin.

It was as if his punch had landed on some thick, solid spring mattress.

Far from breaking the cervical vertebrae, the punch had not even let him feel the other man's Adam's apple or windpipe.

The hard skills forged by pounding and striking in Weituo Hard Training had already reached this fearsome level, even though he had yet to fully master the second half.

A punch strong enough to shatter an ordinary stone stele had failed to damage his opponent's neck.

The strange sensation made Chu Tianshu's fist falter slightly, and another large hand came down over his forearm.

Xu Youjiang's eyes were already bloodshot, but he still forced them wide open. He had deliberately met the punch with his neck so he could seize his opponent's arm.

The sleeve on Chu Tianshu's right arm had been intact, but the moment the other man's palm landed on it, it was crushed to pieces.

The thick, coarse cloth was like a sheet of rotted paper beneath his palm.

But Chu Tianshu immediately grunted and shook his right arm, transmitting force into the object wrapped around it.

The Iron Curse Copper Rope wound around his right forearm was sturdy and tightly bound, making it ideal for transmitting force.

Xu Youjiang now felt as though his hand had grabbed a railway track.

A track a train had just passed over, with the rails still vibrating.

Chu Tianshu took the chance to draw back his forearm. The instant the back of his hand touched the other man's palm, he suddenly turned it over and grabbed his index and middle fingers, intending to snap them both.

Commander Xu's fingers hurt. As those two fingers resisted, his arm twisted to redirect the force, moving with it as his other hand smashed straight toward Chu Tianshu's chest.

Bang, bang, bang!!

Chu Tianshu raised his left hand, meeting the other man's blows three times with his fist and forearm. Fighting force with force, he was startled to find his bones growing somewhat numb.

Normally, even when drawing on Dragon Coils Around the Body, the body still had an instinct for self-preservation and could not use every bit of its strength.

But Xu Youjiang, who had also brought Guanyin Bone to seventy percent mastery, punched and swung his arms without restraint.

Facing the fourth punch, Chu Tianshu had to slap it with his left palm, diverting the fist into his own right hand.

All four hands met in one place.

The two fingers trapped in Chu Tianshu's right hand took the chance to break free.

Four arms shook, pulled back, grabbed, tore, pressed, and twisted.

At arm's length, the two men actually began contesting their grappling skills.

Xu Youjiang's bones were hard enough that he could hold out for a while even with two fingers caught, but Chu Tianshu's bones had not reached that level.

Commander Xu had seen that his hard training gave him the advantage in close grappling.

His palm, as large as a palm-leaf fan, even reached for Chu Tianshu's neck, intending to seize and snap it.

Chu Tianshu swayed backward. Though he dodged the grab, the fingers grazed his neck, leaving it burning with pain.

"You are younger..."

A savage grin spread across Xu Youjiang's face as he shouted, "But your skills are no match for mine!!"

Though he had been sent flying and suffered a setback at the start, he could turn the situation around now.

This risky gamble would still end in victory!

So what if he had slept with so many women? He would win anyway.

So what if this brat was young? Being young meant he had spent less time practicing martial arts, and the smell of milk had yet to leave his mouth.

"Hah!!"

Xu Youjiang used the vocal striking technique of Weituo Hard Training again. The instant he made the sound, his jaw and neck muscles all trembled.

The muscles in his shoulders and arms were immediately set in motion as well.

His two great hands came down like a pair of iron discs driven by machinery, impossibly fast.

Air streamed through the gaps between his broad fingers, producing faint white lines visible to the naked eye.

Unable to dodge in time, Chu Tianshu let out a fierce cry from his belly and clamped his mouth and nose shut. His face turned red, and in an instant, both arms swept forward.

It was the same move he had used to defeat Meng Daizong.

The special technique of using Palm Thunder inside his body.

Xu Youjiang's arms were closing in, while Chu Tianshu's swept outward.

The four arms crossed and collided in midair with a teeth-grating crash.

It was like two damp wooden piles smashing together, making one wonder whether that shattering collision had already filled the wood with cracks.

After that heart-stopping collision,

Commander Xu's hands could still turn over swiftly, his palms pressing down to seize both of Chu Tianshu's forearms.

Their eyes met in the space of a lightning flash.

Chu Tianshu's pupils were contracting, and the pinprick of light in each seemed to be shrinking still further.

The blood vessels in Xu Youjiang's eyes, however, were spreading outward, revealing a smile and victory.

In an instant, he drove his head toward Chu Tianshu!

The killing headbutt would strike Chu Tianshu's head before his arms could break free.

And Chu Tianshu could never withstand such an impact.

But just as Xu Youjiang lowered his head, a sudden pain shot through his foot.

He saw that Chu Tianshu had stomped on his military boot.

Commander Xu's hard training gave him the advantage in grappling.

But why had Chu Tianshu insisted on grappling with him at close quarters too, without trying to fire his silver needles and seize a chance to escape the fight?

Because he had deliberately drawn all of the man surnamed Xu's attention to the struggle between their upper bodies, making his sore eyes even less aware of what was happening below.

All so he could land this stomp!

Hard training, too, inevitably had a few inherent vital points.

The areas around the groin could be protected by drawing the genitals into the abdomen and clenching the muscles.

The eyes, ears, and other vital points on the head were places a person naturally guarded closely, making them hard to reach.

But there was another flaw that was not a flaw, on the foot.

The top and sole of a person's foot, the heel, and even the toes could all be trained to be extremely tough, but there was one spot that was exceptionally hard to train.

The place where the big toe joined the top of the foot.

A very prominent blue vein ran through it.

The tips of the toes could be trained to be very hard. Poking Foot kicks struck with the tips, breaking wood and shattering stone.

But no one would deliberately use that tiny spot where the big toe joined the top of the foot to kick someone.

Nor could anyone develop some extraordinary art of "retracting and shifting the sinews" for that spot.

Through the military boot, Chu Tianshu's kick could not crush the top of a foot belonging to someone who had mastered hard training.

It could not even crush the bones in Commander Xu's toes.

But he had concentrated all his force in his heel, intending from the start to attack a single point.

To snap that sinew!

The blue sinew snapped, and the blood vessel burst.

The nerve signals in the foot were all controlled by the fourth and fifth lumbar nerves, and pain in the foot could cause pain in the lower back.

The instant the sinew and blood vessel suddenly ruptured,

the agony reached Xu Youjiang's brain, making him feel as though a sharp-edged battle-axe had also chopped into his lower back.

With his back and leg both in pain, the force behind his headbutt fell by more than half, and his speed plummeted.

Before his head could reach its target, Chu Tianshu sent one leg shooting skyward and kicked him in the chin.

Boom!!

Xu Youjiang's body soared into the air like a great fish leaping out of the water.

Struck by a kick like that, his neck had somehow not broken, but the tremendous force against his chin left his mind in a muddle, unable to make sense of anything.

Suddenly, he heard a rush of wind pouring violently into his ears.

It was so violent. He had never imagined the feeling of a gale rushing into his ears could be so vivid.

As he flew into the air, Chu Tianshu had grabbed his leg, sprinted three or four steps, and swung his long arm with all his might, smashing his head toward a massive boulder in the mountains.

Boom!!!

Stone split apart, and blood burst into the air.

Commander Xu had no time to scream, and there was no way to tell what expression he wore at the moment of death.

"I've only studied martial arts for two months..."

Chu Tianshu drew a breath, swung the corpse around twice, and hurled it toward the battlefield where the man surnamed Zhou was fighting, shouting,

"But I've studied medicine for twenty years!!"