Chapter 109: A Strange Misunderstanding, Little Li's Ferocious Might

The youth in leather armor finally met his end at the hands of Lu Qing, his head severed from his body with a single strike of the blade.

As the head flew through the air, Ma Gu's heart was filled with both shock and complexity. He was shocked at Lu Qing's newfound strength, which had grown to such an extent that he could easily slay even a powerful opponent like the youth.

The complexity arose as he watched the once formidable foe, who had pushed him to the brink, now lay dead before him. It evoked a sense of sorrow within Ma Gu.

However, before Ma Gu could ponder further, a mournful roar echoed through the valley, shaking the forest.

"Brother!"

A figure leaped down from the top of the valley, using the cliff walls to propel himself downward until he landed in the valley. The force of his descent created two large pits in the ground, and the surging aura of his blood essence made Ma Gu's heart tremble.

This newcomer was a burly middle-aged man with disheveled hair and a brutish appearance.

"Internal Organs Realm?" Lu Qing's expression turned solemn as he activated his ability to appraise the intruder.

Soon, a faint red light appeared on the man's body.

[Wang QingShan: Disciple of the Northern Border Heavenly Cyan Sect. Adopted son of Wang CangYi, a Natural Realm warrior. Known for his domineering, protective, cruel, and ruthless nature.]



[Cultivation: Initial Success in the Internal Organs Realm. Possesses an explosive secret art that temporarily doubles his combat strength.]



[Due to Tong CangLang's deliberate flattery and praise, Wang QingShan holds him in high regard and considers him a close brother.]



Internal Organs Realm! Lu Qing's heart grew heavy as he realized the extent of the newcomer's cultivation.

Such an opponent was beyond his ability to handle. Even with his exceptional knife skills, the gap in their cultivations was simply too vast.

When strength differed greatly, technique became irrelevant.

However...

Lu Qing's gaze fell on another piece of information.

It seemed that the Northern Border Heavenly Cyan Sect was not a righteous sect. Every disciple he had encountered from this sect was cruel and bloodthirsty.

If these were the disciples they produced, then Wang CangYi, a Natural Realm warrior, was likely not a benevolent person either.

"Brother!" The burly middle-aged man's eyes filled with grief as he looked at the head on the ground. Upon confirming that it was indeed his respectful brother lying there, a boundless murderous aura rose within him.

"You dared to kill my brother?" The man's eyes turned red with rage as he glared at Lu Qing.

"You're dead! There's no one in this world who can save you now. I will break your limbs, flay your skin, and torture you for seven days before your brother's grave. You will beg for death, but it will not come, and your suffering will appease my brother's spirit!" The cruel and hateful words sent shivers down Ma Gu's spine.

"It's over..." Ma Gu's heart once again sank into despair.

He had never imagined that after killing the youth in leather armor, an even more powerful brother would appear.

Ma Gu could sense the terrifying blood essence emanating from the middle-aged man, and he knew they were facing an insurmountable foe.

"As you sow, so shall you reap. If your brother chose to attack me, he should have been prepared for the consequences. Didn't your master teach you this lesson?" Lu Qing remained unfazed by the man's murderous intent, his voice calm and steady.

"Well said. Since that's the case, are you prepared to be tortured to death by me?" The middle-aged man's lips curled into a sinister smile, and his eyes flashed with malice. His blood essence surged, causing the air to tremble as he lunged at Lu Qing.

With a fan-sized palm, he unleashed a fierce wind that reached for Lu Qing's neck.

The middle-aged man's attack was astonishingly fierce, like a ferocious tiger unleashed from its cage. The sheer brutality of his aura caused Ma Gu to stumble backward repeatedly.

"Excellent!" Lu Qing showed no fear in the face of the man's aggressive advance; instead, his eyes shone with excitement.

The power that had been building within him since the man's appearance erupted fully.

His blood essence surged, stimulating the major acupoints throughout his body.

Burst Art, activate!

Lu Qing's strength surged several folds, enhancing his body.

He lowered his body, relaxed his shoulders, and assumed the starting stance of the Four Directions Knife Technique.

His tendons and bones resonated in harmony, emitting crackling sounds.

In the next moment, a dazzling blade of light appeared, slicing through the air in front of Lu Qing and striking towards the middle-aged man!

Hmm? The middle-aged man's fierce eyes widened in surprise.

He felt as if Lu Qing's knife had sealed off all his paths of retreat, and no matter which direction he moved in, he would collide with the knife's edge.

Chapter: Surpassing Expectations

The young man's knife technique was actually so exquisite?

The burly middle-aged man was taken aback by this unexpected development.

But so what if his knife technique was exquisite?

After his initial surprise, the middle-aged man's eyes once again gleamed with ferocity.

In the face of Lu Qing's exquisite knife technique, he showed no signs of backing down. The hand that had been reaching for Lu Qing's neck now arced through the air, aiming to slap the side of Lu Qing's battle knife.

With the middle-aged man's strength, if this slap landed, even a finely forged battle knife would surely shatter.

However, Lu Qing's knife technique had already reached the realm of harmony between hardness and softness, a delicate and subtle realm. He was not so easily deterred.

At this critical moment, Lu Qing slightly twisted his wrist, reversing the blade to meet the middle-aged man's palm.

What?!

Surprise flashed in the middle-aged man's eyes once more.

Lu Qing's change in technique had, again, caught him off guard.

He had not expected Lu Qing's control over his strength to be so masterful, allowing him to change direction in such a confined space.

The middle-aged man realized that if he didn't dodge, his palm would be sliced off.

After all, even at the Internal Organs Realm, one's body was still mortal and vulnerable to blades.

Reluctantly, the middle-aged man curved his fingers and struck the spine of the knife, avoiding the sharp edge as he backed away.

This brief exchange ended with the middle-aged man retreating, much to Ma Gu's astonishment.

Ma Gu's eyes widened as he witnessed this scene. What had he just seen? Lu Qing had actually forced the burly middle-aged man back with a single knife strike? What had just happened?!

The exchange between Lu Qing and the middle-aged man had been too swift and subtle for Ma Gu to follow, despite his own status as a Bone and Sinew Realm cultivator.

Nevertheless, he was deeply shaken by what he had just witnessed.

He couldn't believe that Lu Qing, at the Bone and Sinew Realm, had managed to force a peak warrior at the Internal Organs Realm to retreat.

"I never expected that, at such a young age, you would have cultivated your knife technique to such a high level."

After regaining his stance, the middle-aged man looked at Lu Qing with a mixture of surprise and respect.

While Lu Qing's cultivation level was insignificant in his eyes, the knife technique he had just displayed demanded his attention.

At the same time, he was filled with shock.

Knife Technique Master!

This young man before him had already reached the level of a master in his understanding of the knife, achieving the realm of harmony between hardness and softness, a subtle and profound understanding. To think that even he, having entered the small success stage of the Internal Organs Realm, had not attained such a level with his own martial arts techniques.

Just how had this young man before him cultivated?!

Only now did the middle-aged man understand how his junior brother had been defeated by Lu Qing, who had only recently entered the Bone and Sinew Realm.

Knife Technique Master.

Faced with such a freakish talent, his junior brother had stood no chance.

"Boy, who exactly are you?"

Unknowingly, the middle-aged man's expression turned solemn.

To have achieved such a high level of mastery in knife techniques at such a young age was unprecedented.

He had never heard of such a talented martial artist, not even among the major martial arts sects.

If he had to guess, only the mysterious and reclusive sects might produce such an exceptional disciple.

Could it be that this young man before him was a disciple from one of those mysterious sects, out on a training journey? The middle-aged man's heart skipped a beat at the thought.

Rumors had it that the disciples from those mysterious sects were abnormal and beyond the realm of common sense.

Often, they were accompanied by hidden powerful guardians.

If Lu Qing was indeed a disciple from one of those sects, then there might be a hidden martial arts master nearby.

The middle-aged man began to scan the surroundings, searching for any signs of a hidden powerful guardian.

Lu Qing, unaware of the middle-aged man's misconceptions, was quietly circulating his blood essence, soothing the numbness in his arms.

At the same time, he marveled at the power of the Internal Organs Realm cultivator.

With just a slight bend of his fingers, he had managed to shake his arms.

If he hadn't used the Burst Art, his battle knife might have been knocked out of his hand.

As he had thought, trying to rely solely on knife techniques against an Internal Organs Realm cultivator was a bit too ambitious.

Without the support of cultivation, even the highest realm was but an empty shell.

After circulating his blood essence for a while and feeling that his arms were no longer numb, Lu Qing finally responded to the middle-aged man.

"I'm just an ordinary country boy, not worth mentioning."

"Hmph! I never expected a disciple from a mysterious sect to be so secretive, even refusing to acknowledge your own lineage."

The middle-aged man scoffed, not believing Lu Qing's words for a second.

Chapter: Surpassing Expectations

"However, even if you are a disciple from one of those mysterious lands, killing my junior disciple without reason is still wrong. I will take you down and bring you back to the sect to give our Heavenly Cyan Sect some explanation!"

The middle-aged burly man had finally thought things through.

His junior brother was already dead, and he himself had just attacked Lu Qing.

The feud had been established, and it would not be easy to resolve it.

It would be better to take the initiative and capture Lu Qing first, then figure things out back at his sect.

Furthermore, he could also test whether Lu Qing truly had a hidden powerful guardian by his side.

After speaking, the middle-aged man reached for a pair of steel claw gloves from his waist and put them on.

Lu Qing's knife techniques were too fearsome. Even for him, it would not be an easy task to capture Lu Qing with his bare hands.

If he was not careful, he might even end up at a disadvantage.

So, the middle-aged man decided to go all out and capture Lu Qing as quickly as possible.

As long as he captured Lu Qing, even if the hidden guardian appeared, he would have a bargaining chip.

As a core disciple of the Heavenly Cyan Sect, the middle-aged man had some understanding of the rules of those mysterious lands.

The disciples who came out from there for training, although they had hidden guardians, could only receive help when their own disciples were in life-threatening danger.

As long as he did not intend to kill Lu Qing, those hidden guardians might not intervene.

Even if they did, he was not worried.

The rule prohibiting pre-heavenly realm warriors from attacking those below them was established by the Sacred Mountain.

Even those mysterious lands had to abide by it.

If the hidden guardian was at the pre-heavenly realm, they would naturally not dare to kill him.

And if they were at the post-heavenly realm, even at the peak, he still had a chance to escape.

With this in mind, the middle-aged man shook his arms and lunged at Lu Qing again.

Although he did not understand why Lu Qing's attitude had changed from seeking his life to merely wanting to capture him, he saw that Lu Qing had drawn his weapon, so he naturally did not want to fight him.

Seeing the man pouncing at him, Lu Qing took a light step back and retreated.

He called out softly, "Little Departure."

These incomprehensible words startled the middle-aged man for a moment, but immediately afterward, he felt a surge of chill emanating from his heart.

He was instantly alarmed and no longer dared to try to capture Lu Qing.

He quickly crossed his hands in front of his chest to block.

The next moment, a cold light flashed, and a white claw reached out from the empty space in front of the middle-aged man, aiming for his heart!

What the hell is this?!

This sudden change was so unexpected and bizarre that the middle-aged man had never imagined it.

But he was, after all, an Inner Organs Realm cultivator, and his years of hard work paid off in this critical moment.

His instinctive reaction was to transform his palm into a claw and grab at the strange little claw!

Swipe!

He thought he could block this bizarre little claw, but what happened next terrified him even more.

The steel claw gloves, refined a hundred times over, were completely unable to block the white claw and were easily sliced through like tofu.

His palm was also sliced off in the process.

"Hmph!"

As half of his palm fell to the ground, the middle-aged man couldn't help but let out a muffled hum.

The pain of losing a palm was unbearable, even for an Inner Organs Realm cultivator.

However, what frightened the middle-aged man even more than the pain was the fact that the white claw disappeared after severely injuring him, as if it had never existed.

He watched helplessly as the claw retracted into the void.

Such a bizarre scene sent chills down the middle-aged man's spine.

He felt the lingering chill in his heart, indicating that the owner of the claw that had just injured him was still nearby.

But no matter how he sensed his surroundings, he couldn't detect any traces of the attacker.

"Wait a moment!"

The middle-aged man hurriedly shouted.

However, before he could finish his sentence, he felt another surge of chill in his heart, and the white claw reappeared from the void, reaching for him once more.

This time, its target was still his heart!

The white claw moved with astonishing speed, faster than even the middle-aged man, a cultivator at the Inner Organs Realm. He had no chance to dodge.

Desperate, he could only use his remaining hand to block.

Swipe! Another flash of cold light, and this time, the middle-aged man was not so lucky.

The white claw sliced through his wrist, severing his entire hand.

Even the tendons and bones of an Inner Organs Realm cultivator could not withstand this attack.

In an instant, the middle-aged man had lost both his hands.

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end