Chapter 236 - 230: Weapon Control, Battle Dharma, Uncanny Power

Chapter 236: Chapter 230: Weapon Control, Battle Dharma, Uncanny Power

The steel-reinforced Black Heavy Spear tore through the air, leaving a piercing vacuum trail in its wake.

Atop the specially polished, razor-sharp spearhead gathered all of Fu Juemin’s Vitality, which had swelled to its absolute peak after he activated Five Phases United and let the Black Flower bloom.

Under his exquisitely precise control, this tyrannical Vitality actually condensed at the spear’s tip into a tangible, ceaselessly leaping ball of pitch-black flame!

The Martial Dao... Fu Juemin had practiced it for years. Although he usually relied on allocating points for his advancements, his strength had grown so immense that he naturally developed a powerful self-confidence—one that dared to challenge even heaven and earth.

From the time he first saw a Demon and stood frozen, not daring to fire a single shot, to now, where he dared to charge forward even when facing two great Demon Fiends, the transformation was immense.

As he thrust his spear, though it had yet to strike its target, Fu Juemin felt his spirit and momentum suddenly ascend to a whole new realm. It was a lucid joy, as if he had broken free from his shackles and could now advance without anything holding him back.

It was a natural culmination; the final barrier was effortlessly broken through.

Fu Juemin felt a slight tremor within his body. The Innate Primordial Qi Liquid in his Dantian grew quietly larger and more solid. Immediately, the world before him seemed to slow down, every detail rendered in perfect clarity.

’A breakthrough?!’

Even Fu Juemin himself was taken aback.

He had followed the Heart Cultivation Method from the Spirit and Body Cultivation Book, diving deep into the heart of the Huangling River countless times to cultivate where the undercurrents were strongest. Yet every time, he had been just shy of breaking through to the Gratitude Sensing Realm.

’I thought it would take more patient grinding. I never expected... to suddenly break through right now?!’

Having crossed the final hurdle of the Tongxuan Realm to ascend to Gratitude, Fu Juemin’s originally straightforward thrust instantly became far more nimble.

All of this happened in the blink of an eye.

The terrifying physical might granted by his Demon Body, combined with the highly condensed Demon Killing Qi, plus the new nimbleness and precision from his sudden ascent to Gratitude... The might of this thrust was unprecedented, like a black meteor piercing the sun, aimed straight for the Water Ape’s brow!

The moment Fu Juemin attacked, a ferocious light flared in the Water Ape’s blood-red eyes. It showed no intention of retreating.

As Fu Juemin leaped, the water monkey let out a piercing shriek. The long black-and-white fur covering its body stood on end like steel needles, stirring without a breeze. It stomped its bare feet on the giant turtle’s carapace, launching itself into the air like a cannonball.

Its seemingly weak ape-like arms bizarrely stretched and thickened as it raised them. Claws as black as tempered steel shot from its fingertips, and with a bone-chilling, fetid wind, it fearlessly swiped at the spearhead!

CLANG—!!!!

The sound of metal on metal rang out across the Du Mountain Reservoir, shaking the water’s surface into a frenzy of ripples.

Where the spear tip met the claw, a blinding shower of sparks erupted!

The water monkey’s grotesque fingers then snapped shut, crushing the highly condensed black flame of Vitality on the spear tip!

BOOM!

With a massive bang, the shockwave slammed through the air like an invisible sledgehammer.

Fu Juemin shot backward!

The water monkey’s monstrous strength was terrifying, but it wasn’t enough to defeat Fu Juemin in a single clash.

’The main issue is... I can’t fly.’

Although his momentum was that of a man taking on two foes at once, it would be strategically foolish to force a direct confrontation. His first priority was to split the battlefield and lure this hate-filled Water Ape onto land, where he had the advantage.

Fu Juemin’s retreat allowed him to narrowly dodge a second snow-white Water Arrow, launched silently from beneath the surface by the Old Turtle Spirit.

The Water Arrow grazed past him, exploding into a cold mist that pattered down.

The moment his feet touched the ground, Fu Juemin used a Body Technique to retreat without pausing. As expected, a shriek filled with venomous hatred drew close as the gray-and-white figure gave chase, sticking to him like a shadow.

The reservoir’s edge was a jumble of rocks, with small, dead trees from the winter growing between the crevices. Fu Juemin retreated about sixty or seventy meters before he stopped and slowly turned around.

"HUFF... HUFF..."

The water monkey landed on a massive boulder, incandescent white air puffing from its mouth and nose. A visible, bone-chilling vapor steamed off its body, and its blood-soaked eyes were locked onto Fu Juemin.

’God knows why this thing hates me so much. Is it just because I stole its "bride" that one time?’

Behind them, a violent splashing came from the reservoir. The Old Turtle Spirit poked its head out, looking as if it intended to climb onto the shore.

"Do it."

Fu Juemin stood his ground and calmly uttered two words.

The wind beside the reservoir carried his voice away. The words were meant for his subordinates.

Upon hearing the command, Xu Hengjiang and the other remnants of the Ghost Camp grew solemn. They immediately scattered and ran down toward the dam as planned.

BANG!

With an explosive crack, the water monkey on the boulder shrieked and lunged at Fu Juemin, crossing the ten-meter distance in the time it took to draw a breath.

A sharp light flared in Fu Juemin’s eyes as he raised his spear and met the charge head-on!

"SCREEECH—"

The blur of claws and the glint of the spear clashed again, erupting in an even more ear-piercing screech of scraping metal and a ceaseless shower of sparks!

In an instant, the man and the Demon became little more than two blurred afterimages.

Fu Juemin had never formally studied any Spear Technique. But with his Five Beasts Skill at the Great Success level and having entered the realm of Integration, his mastery of the Five Beasts Five Forms Dynamic Skills was already near perfection.

Unbound by rigid forms, he used the spear as an extension of his own arm, executing the Eight Deer Forms from the Five Beasts Qigong: Drinking from the Spring, Combing the Antlers, Returning to the Forest, Antler Toss, Deer Plucking Grass...

His movements were incredibly fluid, without the slightest hesitation, as if he were a grandmaster who had practiced the Spear Technique for decades.

The phantoms of the spear and the gusts from the claws clashed wildly in mid-air, creating an unending series of explosions. Terrifying shockwaves plowed deep furrows into the earth, snapping the dead trees between the rocks and pulverizing the stones themselves!

Fu Juemin’s newly attained Gratitude Sensing Realm hadn’t significantly increased his strength or speed, but his reaction time was a level above what it was before. Combined with using a long weapon to perform his Great Success Five Beasts Skill while in his Demon Body state... for a moment, he actually managed to suppress the monstrously strong water monkey’s ferocious assault!

But this advantage only lasted for a moment.

"AWOOO—!!!"

The water monkey suddenly opened its mouth and let out a bizarre shriek utterly different from its previous cries. At the same time, its eyes erupted with an eerie red light.

Fu Juemin’s arms suddenly felt heavy. He realized the Black Heavy Spear in his grasp was vibrating and humming, as if it had come alive. It thrashed like a frenzied flood dragon, and he found it difficult to control. A strange, invisible power was trying to seize control of the weapon!

Fu Juemin’s brow furrowed. He fought against the bizarre force with a powerful twist! With a KRR-CRACK of tortured metal, the solid steel spear, forged with heavy machinery from the Western World, was wrenched by his sheer force into a twisted braid.

He then hurled the ruined weapon. The twisted shaft shot out like a cannonball and, with a BOOM, embedded itself deep into the ground some distance away, blasting open a shocking crater.

Almost at the same instant he threw the spear—

A ghostly shadow closed the distance, and a claw shot out!

The strike was silent, yet so fast it defied the eye!

"ROAR—"

A bizarre ripping sound tore through the air.

"BANG!"

With a dull thud, like a fist hitting leather, Fu Juemin’s body shuddered violently. He stumbled back several steps—THUD, THUD, THUD—leaving a trail of deep footprints in the hard ground.

By the time he had completely dissipated the immense force of the blow and steadied himself, he slowly looked up.

He looked at the water monkey not far away, its chest heaving and its eyes sinister. For the first time, an expression of unconcealable shock and astonishment crossed Fu Juemin’s face.

"Dragon Elephant... Prajna?"

A wild gust of wind swept across the slope, rustling the water monkey’s long fur.

Only then did Fu Juemin realize that from the start of the fight until now, the amount of white fur on the water monkey’s body had increased significantly. It was as if its mixed black-and-white coat was evolving toward pure snow-white. The demonic, fiendish aura it exuded had also grown much denser.

’It seems to be growing and transforming at an incredible rate during our battle!’

Of course, that wasn’t what truly shook him. It was the way the water monkey had generated force in the surprise attack just now. It seemed to hold a trace of the essence belonging to the Dragon Elephant Seal Technique!

’It can use the Dragon Elephant Seal Technique?’

’Who did it learn from? Li Tong?’

’Did it learn the technique just from watching Li Tong use the Infinite Seal Technique a few times during our battle at the ferry crossing?’

’And what was that bizarre ability it used to affect my weapon from a distance, nearly wresting it from my grasp?’

’In my initial assessment, the water monkey was just a River Demon with astonishing strength and speed, a mastery of the water, and maybe some minor water-control abilities.’

’That’s a major reason why I deliberately pulled the fight onto the shore.’

’Even if it had conjured a few water balls out of thin air to throw at me, I wouldn’t be this shocked!’

’During the six months I was in Shenghai, what on earth did this water monkey go through? What did it gain?’

Looking at the water monkey before him, Fu Juemin’s gaze flickered. For a moment, he was at a loss for how to describe what he was feeling.

「Just then.」

"BOOM! RUMBLE! RUMMMBLE—!!!"

A series of terrifying, earth-shaking explosions suddenly erupted from the direction of the reservoir dam below!

The ground trembled violently. Boulders tumbled down the slope, and spiderweb-like cracks spread rapidly across the earth....

Fu Juemin didn’t turn his head. He knew Xu Hengjiang and the others had acted, successfully detonating the preset explosives. The dam of the Du Mountain Reservoir was about to collapse.

He gave the water monkey before him one last deep look, then turned without a word and sprinted toward the reservoir’s spillway.

The water monkey let out a low growl and gave chase once more, completely ignoring the chaos.

One chased and one fled. Before long, the water monkey caught up to Fu Juemin.

In terms of raw speed and strength, even in his "Three Souls in One Body" Demon Body state, he was no match for the water monkey as it was now.

With the Vitality boost from the Black Flower, the two of them were, at best, evenly matched.