Chapter 190 - 125: Demon Martial vs. Martial Cultivator

Chapter 190: Chapter 125: Demon Martial vs. Martial Cultivator

Seeing that Lu Jing’an, far from retreating, was instead stepping forward to meet him.

A savage grin split across Bai Hu’s tiger-striped face.

His stark white teeth flashed coldly in the dim, murky fog.

"Courting death!"

A low growl rumbled in Bai Hu’s throat, and his entire frame gave a sudden, violent shudder.

"CRACK! CRACK-CRACK—!"

A series of cracks, like soybeans popping over a fire, exploded from within him.

The sound wasn’t human. It was more like the chilling noise of a fierce tiger in the deep, old forests, sharpening its fangs and claws.

Accompanied by this grating sound, Bai Hu’s body, already over two meters tall, swelled once more.

The muscles across his shoulders and back bulged like hillocks, his spine elongating vertebra by vertebra.

In the blink of an eye, he shot up nearly half a meter, transforming into a terrifying behemoth well over two and a half meters tall.

And that wasn’t all.

"RRRIP—!"

The fabric on Bai Hu’s back suddenly ripped apart.

One by one, bone spikes—ghastly white with grayish-brown striations—tore through his skin.

They formed a menacing ridge along his spine, like the plates on a stegosaurus.

Next, his elbow joints, knuckles, knees...

All the joints that could serve as deadly weapons in a fight.

Sprouted sharp, foot-long bone spikes.

The edges of those bone spikes had a cold, hard, metallic sheen.

The tips even collected tiny beads of condensation from the fog, like tears silently shed by the grim reaper.

"ROAR—!!!"

Bai Hu threw his head back and let out a tiger’s roar that shook the entire street, the sound waves rolling through the air.

It was powerful enough to tear an opening in the dense surrounding fog.

Bai Hu no longer maintained an upright human posture, instead dropping to all fours.

Just like a fierce, white-furred tiger about to pounce on its prey, he charged madly toward Lu Jing’an on all fours.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

With every step, the bluestone pavement cracked and splintered.

Bai Hu’s massive body brutally smashed through the barrier of fog, creating a backdraft in his wake.

He carved a temporary vacuum tunnel through the dense fog.

Although the members of the Water Patrol Bureau had been prepared.

But to witness a living man transform into this demonic, half-human, half-tiger creature still sent a profound shock through their hearts.

The palms gripping their guns grew slick with cold sweat.

In their time following Minister Lu, they had seen their fair share of strange things.

Catfish demons in the River churning up waves, Piggy Dragons tearing ships apart, Water Monkeys dragging people under, massive black snakes lying in wait...

But those, in the end, were actual demons.

The figure before them, however, had clearly once been human, only to twist into this monstrous thing in an instant.

The impact wasn’t merely visual.

It struck at a deeper boundary within their hearts—the traditional concept of what it means to be human.

"Hold your ground!" Director Liu yelled hoarsely. "Don’t let that human wall push past us!"

The men snapped back to their senses, their gun muzzles locked firmly on the silent, stationary wall of gray-clothed figures.

Bullets sparked as they ricocheted off their raised arms and torsos.

These men had obviously undergone some sort of modification, their flesh and skin tougher than normal.

But the Water Patrol Bureau’s concentrated firepower kept them suppressed, preventing them from making any rash moves.

Behind the wall of gray-clothed men, Bai Ting still leaned back lazily in his Grandmaster’s Chair.

His fingertips tapped lightly on the armrest, as if he were enjoying a choreographed performance.

Bai Ting watched as Lu Jing’an, without flinching or dodging, advanced to meet Bai Hu head-on.

The mocking smile on his lips grew more pronounced.

’There are always some Martial Cultivators who cling to that outdated "Copper Skin and Iron Bones" and think they can walk all over everyone.’

Bai Ting muttered to himself, his voice too low for anyone else to hear.

’Little do they know, the times have changed.’

’The entire skeleton of a Ghost Level Tiger Demon, scraped clean of its Demon Marrow.’

’Soak it in Secret Medicine for three years, and then implant it into a human. Not one in ten thousand survives.’

The scene from a month ago seemed to flash before Bai Ting’s eyes:

A Martial Cultivator who had achieved Bone Training Perfection and was known as the "Iron Arhat."

Confident in the strength of his Tendons and Bones, he charged Bai Hu head-on.

With a single blow, the man shattered like a porcelain doll.

Stark white shards of broken bone jutted from his flesh, and he hadn’t even had time to scream.

"BOOM—!!!"

In the middle of the street, the two figures finally collided with savage force.

In that instant, with the two of them as the epicenter,

a visible, circular shockwave of white energy exploded outward!

The surrounding fog was violently expelled, as if clenched and thrown aside by an invisible giant hand.

It cleared a circular area with a radius of over a hundred feet!

Where the shockwave passed, the wooden doors of the Yuelai Inn exploded, sending splinters flying like rain.

Several of the gray-clothed men standing too close were caught by the aftershock.

They stumbled backward, one of them even crashing into the back of Bai Ting’s chair.

"Forgive me, Commander..." the gray-clothed man stammered, twisting his head to apologize.

"Get away!"

Bai Ting’s expression darkened, and with a flick of his sleeve,

he sent the man flying twenty feet away. The man slammed hard onto the ground, coughing up blood.

Yet the gray-clothed man made no sound. He struggled to his feet and silently returned to his original position in the human wall.

But Bai Ting paid him no mind.

He leaned forward, his gaze locked on the scene.

Where the fog had dispersed, the scene was piercingly clear.

Lu Jing’an and Bai Hu were locked in a stalemate.

Bai Hu’s two-and-a-half-meter-tall demonized body was a mass of knotted muscle and menacing bone spikes.

He looked like a Fierce Beast that had burst forth from a primordial wasteland.

Across from him, Lu Jing’an was of an ordinary build, about six feet tall.

In his blue robes and cloth shoes, he even looked somewhat frail standing before Bai Hu.

And yet, it was this seemingly ordinary body.

that had blocked Bai Hu’s massive, bone-covered fist—a fist the size of a clay pot—with a single punch of its own.

"CRACK... CRUNCH!"

The crisp sound of cracking bone rang out.

The sound wasn’t coming from Lu Jing’an, but from Bai Hu!

On Bai Hu’s right fist, where it had collided with Lu Jing’an’s,

the stark white bone spikes were snapping one after another, sending shards flying.

A distinct indentation was visible on the face of the fist.

The skin was split and the flesh torn, with dark red Demon Blood gushing out.

His entire arm was bent at an unnatural angle; the bone was clearly damaged.

Bai Ting’s pupils contracted sharply.

’Is Lu Jing’an a Demon Martial Artist, too?’

The thought flashed through his mind, but he quickly dismissed it.

Lu Jing’an’s vital energy was masculine and pure, and when he channeled it, there was a faint sound of wind and thunder.

That was clearly the way of an orthodox Martial Cultivator, nothing like the tainted power of a demonized body.