Battle against Tiger-Taming

"What manner of fiend are you?" Tiger-Taming could not help demanding when he saw the red armor appear before him.

But the longer he looked, the more familiar it seemed.

Wasn't this the one he had found in Gray Monkey's memories?

"Good, good, good! So you ran off here." Tiger-Taming's clone froze for a moment, then burst into wild laughter.

The two shared their memories, so even as a clone split off from the original, he knew exactly what had happened at Flower-Fruit Mountain.

Coming to his senses, Tiger-Taming attacked without the slightest hesitation.

Jiang Zhe hesitated no longer either. With the Flame Saber in his hand, he cleaved clean through the scholar Joyful Boy had transformed into!

Under the fierce flames, Joyful Boy, with no magic power to sustain him, was burned to ashes.

At the same time, Tiger-Taming launched a sudden attack, striking Jiang Zhe in the chest with his palm. Blinding sparks burst out, and Jiang Zhe staggered back again and again.

But his eyes shone brighter than ever.

Sure enough, the one before him was Tiger-Taming's clone.

In that case, the reward was his!

Rubbing his struck chest, Jiang Zhe slowly stood up, holding the saber in one hand. At some point, a black pendant bearing a mark had appeared on the tip of the Flame Saber.

It was the very thing Tiger-Taming's clone had personally handed to Joyful Boy.

Jiang Zhe did not know what the thing was.

But!

Recycling it had yielded a full 5,000 merit points!

Not to mention the quest that had just been triggered.

With a thought, Jiang Zhe first recycled the pendant hanging from the Flame Saber, then fixed his gaze on Tiger-Taming before him.

[Detected: Tiger-Taming's clone is making a deal with Joyful Boy's reincarnation! The item in this deal will cause indelible harm to the human Liu Family Village! Host, please stop them: kill Tiger-Taming's clone and Joyful Boy's reincarnation. Quest completion rewards: 10,000 merit points! Offensive divine ability: Five Thunder Method]

Jiang Zhe had originally intended to watch and see what the two were plotting, but the quest's appearance startled him.

After all, this was the first time a reward had offered 10,000 merit points! It even came with the offensive divine ability Five Thunder Method.

Jiang Zhe's presence leaked out, and Tiger-Taming instantly detected him. But thanks to the quest, Jiang Zhe also knew that the Tiger-Taming before him was Tiger-Taming Arhat's clone.

So he had nothing to fear. The instant Tiger-Taming attacked, he used a thought to transform into the Flame Dragon Armor.

Empowered by the armor, he burst forward at tremendous speed and reached Joyful Boy in an instant.

If this had been the real Joyful Boy, his strength was probably not much inferior to Tiger-Taming Arhat's. But this was his reincarnation, who had yet to cultivate and was merely an ordinary mortal.

So what the hell did Jiang Zhe have to fear? Had he not deliberately restrained the flames radiating from the Flame Dragon Armor, the flames naturally enveloping the armor would have been enough to burn Joyful Boy's reincarnation to ashes as soon as he got close.

"Fiend! What skill is there in putting on a magic treasure? And you even bully a mortal! Hurry up and hand over the magic treasure, then return with me to Spirit Mountain to answer for your crimes," Tiger-Taming's clone shouted.

He looked compassionate yet arrogant.

To Jiang Zhe, his words sounded like a gracious gift.

Hearing such shameless words, Jiang Zhe was dumbfounded. Good grief, did he really think he could lay down the butcher's knife and become a Buddha on the spot wherever he went?

And he wanted me to hand my magic treasure over to him?

Just how thick was his face?

Jiang Zhe was so angry he laughed.

The next second, however, Tiger-Taming saw the Soul-Fixing Jade hanging from the Flame Saber vanish. His formerly compassionate, placid expression changed, and he flew into a rage.

The Soul-Fixing Jade was tied to the task Dingguang Joyful Buddha had assigned him.

Although Dingguang Joyful Buddha was not particularly strong among the many Buddhas, he was exceedingly petty.

If Tiger-Taming failed to complete the task he had been given, who knew what small shoes Dingguang Joyful Buddha might make him wear in the future?

"I want you dead!" Furious beyond measure, Tiger-Taming unleashed his powerful presence in full.

Though he was merely Tiger-Taming Arhat's clone and possessed only a fraction of his strength, dealing with a mere Heavenly Immortal was still as easy as catching one in his hand.

Even with Samadhi True Fire, he was nothing special.

"Demon-Subduing Fist!" Golden light shone from Tiger-Taming's body as he drove a heavy punch at Jiang Zhe. Though they were a hundred meters apart, the instant he threw the punch, it transformed into an enormous golden tiger.

The tiger roared as it pounced, swinging its massive claws and biting viciously at Jiang Zhe.

Not to be outdone, Jiang Zhe turned the knob on the Heaven and Earth Belt. A Demon-Sealing Card bearing the character for fire appeared, radiating extreme heat.

Samadhi True Fire blazed around Jiang Zhe. The instant his fist passed through the Demon-Sealing Card, the fire wrapped around it.

Then, with Jiang Zhe's fist, it crashed heavily into the phantom of the pouncing tiger.

The flames on his fist erupted in full, surging forward in a fan-shaped shock wave that almost completely engulfed and burned the tiger formed from Buddha light.

Seeing this, Tiger-Taming Arhat's expression grew grave. Though this clone possessed only one percent of his power, strictly speaking, its strength was almost comparable to a True Immortal's.

The human before him, however, was only around the Heavenly Immortal realm and had not even passed through one of the three calamities. By all rights, he should have been no match for him.

Why...

Could it be all because of the magic treasure he wore?

Watching the Samadhi True Fire engulf his Buddha light, Tiger-Taming Arhat felt his conviction begin to waver.

With a single magic treasure, a Heavenly Immortal could trade blows with his clone.

Then what if that magic treasure fell into his hands? How much strength could he bring to bear?

Could this magic treasure be an Innate Numinous Treasure?

At the thought, Tiger-Taming Arhat's heart trembled, and even his true body, which was healing its injuries, could not help growing excited.

Without the slightest hesitation, Tiger-Taming Arhat took one step, crossed the hundred meters, and came face-to-face with Jiang Zhe.

His fists poured down like a torrential rain, and Jiang Zhe immediately raised the Flame Saber in his hand.

Fierce flames erupted ceaselessly along the blade.

Each collision marked another of Tiger-Taming's punches landing on the Flame Saber.

Under the relentless assault, Jiang Zhe could only retreat step by step, but even as he fell back, he did not remain idle.

He watched for an opening, and the moment Tiger-Taming threw a punch-

Jiang Zhe thrust his hand forward. In midair, he clenched it into a fist, leaving two fingers extended together.

"Second Finger Shatters Mountains and Rivers."

The Great Desolation Prisoner Heavenly Finger, mastered by Martial Ancestor Lin Dong from the myriad worlds,

had killed a yaksha in an instant with its first finger, while the second finger drew out nearly a fifth of the magic power in Jiang Zhe's body.

It condensed into a sword-finger a full hundred meters long!

The joined fingers were like a real giant sword, descending from the sky and crashing down toward Tiger-Taming's head.