Half-Demon

Lu Feng sensed the danger the instant Zhu Ren transformed, but Liu Yong had charged too fast and was too close to Zhu Ren. Even if Lu Feng intervened, he would be too late.

"Half-Demon!"

Zhu Lin's voice trembled.

Luo Fang's face also turned deathly pale. Both hands gripped her saber hilt tightly as she stared at Zhu Ren without blinking.

Lu Feng looked at Zhu Lin. "What's a Half-Demon?"

Zhu Lin took a deep breath and spoke rapidly. "There are records in the Demon-Slaying Bureau's archives. Some evil cultivators refine the essence blood of demonic beasts and fuse its demonic power into themselves, allowing them to undergo Demon Transformation."

"After Demon Transformation, their strength soars, and they can even cross a major realm."

"More terrifying still, some evil cultivators can wield the abilities of multiple demonic beasts at once. For every additional kind of essence blood they refine, they gain another Demon Transformation form."

"What's the drawback?"

Lu Feng pressed. Since it was an evil art, there had to be a price. Otherwise, everyone would practice it.

"The drawback is that each Demon Transformation makes them look more like a demonic beast, until they end up neither human nor ghost, looking like that."

"And every Demon Transformation burns away their lifespan. One transformation costs them three years of life."

"Ha! Ha! Ha!"

Hearing this from a distance, Zhu Ren did not pursue them. Instead, he threw back his head and laughed.

"Only people like you from the Demon-Slaying Bureau care about appearances and lifespan!"

His tone was full of mockery, but beneath it lay a trace of indescribable bitterness.

"Zhu Ren!" Luo Fang shouted. "To cultivate demonic arts, you colluded with demonic beasts and slaughtered your fellow disciples, and you even dared to kill a Demon Slayer! Every one of those is a capital crime!"

"Spare this old man your grand words."

Zhu Ren's smile faded. All four of his hands clenched into fists, his knuckles cracking like bursting firecrackers.

"You all die today. I'll let you see the true power of Demon Transformation with your own eyes!"

Without another word, he drove off with his legs, his massive body hurtling toward the three of them like a blood-colored meteor.

Zhu Lin and Luo Fang did not retreat.

They knew Zhu Ren was too fast after his Demon Transformation. There was no escaping him.

If they fled in different directions, they would only be picked off one by one. Their only sliver of hope was to join forces, meet him head-on, and hold out until his Demon Transformation ended.

Both circulated their Nei Jin and raised their sabers to meet him.

Lu Feng likewise activated Golden Bell Shield and unleashed Gale Saber Art with all his strength, attacking from the side.

"Boom!"

Four attacks collided in midair, erupting with a muffled crash.

Lu Feng felt an overwhelming force surge through his saber, like mountains toppling and seas overturning. He slid backward several meters against his will, his feet plowing two deep furrows into the stone floor.

He steadied himself, his arm tingling with numbness.

Third tier.

The force of that blow was absolutely beyond what a second-tier demonic beast could possess.

He turned to look.

Zhu Lin and Luo Fang lay motionless on the ground.

Neither had been able to withstand even one blow, and it was impossible to tell whether they were alive or dead.

Zhu Ren stood where he was, slowly drawing back his four arms.

"Huh?"

A flicker of surprise crossed his eyes.

As he saw it, even if that blow had not killed Lu Feng, it should have left him too badly injured to rise.

He had not expected Lu Feng to be knocked back only a few steps, without even a significant wound on him.

"You actually weren't hurt."

Lu Feng did not answer.

His expression grew more grave than ever.

Although he had not been injured by that blow, its force had passed through Golden Bell Shield and left his entire arm tingling.

The physical strength of a third-tier Half-Demon completely overwhelmed his Nei Jin attacks.

Lu Feng could no longer hold back.

He took a deep breath, circulated his Nei Jin at full strength, and held the Six Harmonies Saber across his body.

"Gale Slash."

A perfection-level saber technique.

Man and saber became a streak of light, moving too fast to leave even an afterimage.

The blade tore through the air with a piercing shriek.

Zhu Ren did not dodge. All four of his arms struck at once, dark red palm shadows blotting out the sky as they came to meet him.

"Clang!"

Blade struck flesh, yet sparks flew as though metal had clashed against metal.

Lu Feng was sent flying backward. After landing, he staggered back several more steps before regaining his balance.

His arm was so numb he could barely feel it, and traces of blood seeped from the webbing between his thumb and forefinger.

Zhu Ren also took two steps back.

He lowered his head and looked at his arms.

Of his four arms, the right forearm now bore a shallow saber cut. It had sliced through the skin, and several drops of dark red blood seeped out.

"Not bad." He raised his head, a savage grin spreading across his pig face. "You actually managed to wound this old man."

He shook the drops of blood from his arm.

"But a special move like that must consume a great deal of strength. Let's see how many more times you can use it."

Before he finished speaking, his massive body lunged at Lu Feng again.

Lu Feng used Carefree Steps, weaving between Zhu Ren's four arms like a swimming fish.

He dared not use Gale Slash again lightly. Zhu Ren was right: the saber technique consumed an enormous amount of Nei Jin. At his current cultivation, he could unleash at most three or four slashes in succession before exhausting himself.

Flashes of saber light and palm shadows clashed incessantly in the cavern, the ringing of metal never ceasing.

The two fought from the center of the cavern hall to its edge, then back to the center. Cracks left by palm strikes and deep gouges carved by the saber blade covered the stone walls.

After several rounds of combat, Lu Feng's fitted clothes had been torn in several places, and his exposed skin was covered in bruises.

Zhu Ren was no better off. More than a dozen saber cuts of varying depths marked his four arms, and dark red blood dripped from his fingertips.

But neither had suffered a fatal wound.

After another exchange, both retreated, putting distance between them.

Zhu Ren suddenly stopped pursuing him.

The two extra arms on his back slowly rose, their ten fingers moving through one bizarre hand seal after another.

His lips moved as he muttered an incantation.

The layer of pale red Yao Qi surrounding him began to gather in the palms of the two arms on his back, condensing into two fist-sized spheres of blood-red light.

The spheres swelled rapidly. Fist-sized. Bowl-sized. Head-sized. Their color deepened from blood red to dark red, and finally to a deep purple that was nearly black.

He was charging up power. This move was sure to be far more powerful than any of his previous attacks.

Seeing this, Lu Feng did not hesitate.

With a thought, he opened the system panel before his eyes.

[Demon Points: 224000;]

"System, raise Innate Primordial Qi to perfection."

[Ding! Spend 10200 Demon Points to raise "Innate Primordial Qi" to perfection?]

"Yes."

The moment he confirmed, a vast surge of pure Nei Jin, almost violent in its intensity, exploded from deep within his dantian. Like a flood released from a dam, it swept into his limbs and bones with unstoppable force.

His meridians swelled with a dull ache, and every inch of his flesh and blood devoured the power, growing stronger, becoming more refined, and transforming.

"Boom!"

A tremendous boom rang out within his body.

The barrier that had held him back for so long offered no resistance before the flood.

The presence around Lu Feng surged.

[Ding! Congratulations, host, on successfully breaking through to Hua Jin.]

[The progress of your primary cultivation art, "Innate Primordial Qi," has reached 100%. Spend 100000 Demon Points to evolve it into a Hua Jin cultivation art?]

The system notifications rang in his mind, but Lu Feng had no time to examine them.

Because Zhu Ren was already upon him.