Chapter 192 - 126: Killing Bai Hu with a Punch

Chapter 192: Chapter 126: Killing Bai Hu with a Punch

The street shuddered with the roar of their colliding fists.

A series of explosive cracks echoed as the bluestone pavers shattered, the figures of Lu Jing’an and Bai Hu clashing back and forth along the long street.

Every exchange sent out a visible shockwave.

The Power of the Six Harmonies Fist flowed like a dragon across Lu Jing’an’s knuckles, while beneath his skin, his tendons and bones hummed like taut steel cables.

His Purity of Skin glowed with a jade-like luster, the vital energy and blood surging through his flesh as hot as fire.

With every impact, his bones rang with the sharp sound of metal striking stone.

Even facing Bai Hu, who had become a monster of steel, Lu Jing’an did not yield an inch.

CLANG—!

His fist clashed hard against the steel body, sending sparks flying.

The Iron Armor covering Bai Hu’s body was dented and warped, branded one after another by Lu Jing’an’s Fist Seals.

It was like a blacksmith hammering a red-hot iron blank with a sledgehammer.

With every punch he threw, a section of the bluestone pavers beneath his feet would spiderweb with cracks.

Every time he redirected a blow, his body would twist, his robes cracking in the wind like a taut banner.

On both sides of the street, the Republic-era-style storefront signs swayed violently in the powerful winds.

The plaque for the Desheng Silk Store hung crookedly, half-detached, while the carved wooden windows of the Fulong Tea House had long since been shattered to dust.

The cloth shoes and bamboo baskets dropped by the fleeing civilians had now been reduced to splinters by the aftershocks of their fists.

Lu Jing’an seemed to grow stronger the longer he fought.

His fist techniques shifted from hard to soft in a flash.

His Mountain-Breaking Style crashed down like a sledgehammer cleaving a mountain; his Flowing Cloud Style swept by like soft water flowing around a stone.

He wielded the four types of Power from the Six Harmonies Fist with perfect control.

One moment, he used Drilling Force to pierce armor; the next, he used Binding Force to entangle and lock his opponent.

He redirected Bai Hu’s incoming iron fists, sending them crashing into a brick wall and causing half of it to collapse.

All the while, Bai Ting remained seated behind a human wall twenty paces away.

Seated in the Grandmaster’s Chair, his fingers tapped lightly on the armrest, the crimson light in his eyes growing brighter with every punch Lu Jing’an threw.

His gaze wasn’t that of a spectator at a life-and-death battle, but of a connoisseur appreciating a peerless weapon as it slowly revealed its true form.

It was greedy, fervent, and filled with an almost fanatical anticipation.

"Such fine sinews of steel and bones of iron..." Bai Ting murmured, his tongue darting out to lick his lips.

"A Flesh Body like this... it was meant for me."

The long street had been plowed into a ruin.

The two had fought all the way from the front of the Yuelai Inn to the end of the street, and in their wake...

...not a single bluestone paver remained intact, and the exterior walls of the buildings on both sides were covered in a web of cracks.

A few of the timber-framed shops had even begun to tilt, emitting a sickening groan.

Smoke and dust filled the air like a fog, churning in the afternoon sunlight.

Interspersed were the sounds of deforming steel, the muffled thud of bone, and the crash of collapsing masonry, all interweaving into a symphony of violence.

Finally, beneath the last standing streetlamp at the end of the road, the two figures suddenly broke apart.

Lu Jing’an landed lightly, his feet barely leaving a mark on the shattered bricks.

White vapor billowed from his body like a cloud—it was the hot mist that escaped the body when one’s vital energy and blood circulated to their absolute limit.

Lu Jing’an’s breathing was long and steady, the rhythm of his rising and falling chest was still stable. He clearly had yet to reach his limit.

Bai Hu, on the other hand, was a different story. His nearly ten-foot-tall steel frame was covered in dents, and the two wounds on his chest and abdomen were especially gruesome.

In one place, his ribs were bent outward, a mangled mess of Iron Armor and flesh.

In the other, one could even see his internal organs squirming as dark red blood mixed with a rust-colored ooze seeped out.

Bai Hu was unsteady on his feet, his body swaying like a candle in the wind.

Every gasp he took was squeezed from deep in his throat, a ragged wheeze like a broken bellows.

"HUFF... HUFF..."

Bai Hu raised an iron claw to wipe his face.

The iron mask covering it had been shattered on one side, revealing half a twisted human face and a single, bloodshot tiger’s eye.

Bai Hu stared intently at Lu Jing’an, his eye filled with incredulous horror.

’I’m a Demon Martial Artist who Devoured Demon Blood and replaced my own skeleton with Demon Bone!’

’My body is steel and iron, with strength surpassing ten thousand pounds.’

’What’s more, I’m protected by the Evil Qi of a Demon Tiger. An ordinary Martial Artist of the Inner Breath Realm would have all their bones shattered by a single swipe of my claws.’

’But this boy... this boy clearly hasn’t even achieved Inner Breath, yet he’s pushed me to this desperate state with nothing but his mortal body?’

Lu Jing’an was no Demon Martial Artist, of course. But he had his entries.

Although Lu Jing’an hadn’t used the active attack abilities of his entries...

...their passive, protective effects were still in place.

For instance, the red entry, [Ghost Shadow Instant Kill], possessed the Absolute Defense Break ability.

Every single one of Lu Jing’an’s attacks inflicted an absolute Defense Break on his opponent.

Under such circumstances, it was no surprise that Lu Jing’an had beaten him to this extent.

"ROAR—!!"

Indignation and fury transformed into a tiger’s roar that shot toward the heavens.

The soundwave made the remaining window lattices buzz and sent ripples spreading across the puddles in the street.

But Lu Jing’an smiled.

The corners of his mouth lifted into a cold arc.

"Don’t think you’re the only one who can roar."

Before the words had even left his lips, his chest abruptly swelled, and the tendons and bones in his throat vibrated in unison!

"ROOOOAR!!!"

This tiger’s roar was completely different!

If Bai Hu’s roar was savage intimidation, then Lu Jing’an’s was a dagger given solid form.

The soundwave condensed without dispersing, transforming into an invisible blade that shot forward twenty paces, precisely piercing into Bai Hu’s sea of consciousness!

The green entry, [Tiger Roar in the Forest], activated!

"Argh!"

Bai Hu clutched his head and screamed in agony, feeling as though steel needles were churning in his brain. The world spun, and his vision went black.

His Spirit, already weak from overexertion, completely collapsed, and he fell into a daze.

An opening!

Lu Jing’an’s eyes turned sharp. The shattered bricks beneath his feet exploded!

His figure shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow, his waist twisting in mid-air.

He drew back both fists, gathering power like a full moon. His left hand formed a Mountain-Breaking Fist, its edge glowing with an earthen-yellow Gang Qi, as heavy as a collapsing mountain range.

His right hand formed a Flowing Cloud Fist, its Power as soft as winding silk, its trajectory as erratic as a cloud drifting in the wind.

The two fists, one hard and one soft, shot out at the same time, smashing into both of Bai Hu’s temples!

"BANG! BANG!"

Two muffled thuds exploded almost simultaneously.

The Mountain-Breaking Force struck first, caving in Bai Hu’s skull.

The Flowing Cloud Force followed right behind, slipping into his cranium like a venomous snake through a crack.

It carried the first wave of Power with it, sending it swirling violently through his brain matter!

"PFFT!"

Blood spurted from all seven of Bai Hu’s facial orifices at once. The bloody mist he spat out was mixed with yellowish-white brain matter.

The light vanished from his eyes. His Iron Armor-clad body convulsed twice, and then...

"THUD!"

He smashed to his knees.

"CRASH..."

The ten-foot-tall steel body pitched forward, crushing the last intact patch of flagstones to dust.

Dust billowed up, and then there was silence.

[A repairable/refinable Divine Soul has been detected. Would you like to collect it?]

A prompt flashed in Lu Jing’an’s mind.

Lu Jing’an slowly relaxed his stance, the white vapor steaming from his fists gradually dissipating.

Looking at the motionless steel corpse, Lu Jing’an thought to himself:

’Collect.’

An invisible wave swept past, and a cold, violent strand of Energy was extracted and drawn into the Zhengqi Furnace.

Having done this, Lu Jing’an turned and walked back across the ruins.

His footsteps echoed clearly on the silent street.

Twenty paces away, Bai Ting was still seated behind the human wall.

However, the shield wall of flesh and blood, formed by nineteen burly men, was now covered in wounds.

Although the rifle bullets had failed to pierce their bodies, which had been enhanced by a Secret Skill...

...they had still left their flesh pitted with countless bloody craters, some deep enough to reveal bone.

The smell of gunpowder mixed with the stench of blood hung in the air.

"CLICK! CLACK! CLICK!"

The gunmen mechanically reloaded and fired, shell casings raining down onto the bluestone pavers with a metallic clatter.

Bullets splattered against the human wall, sending up blossoms of blood, but not one of them retreated a single step.

Their eyes were vacant and numb, as if they were nothing more than puppets following orders.

Behind this bloody barrier, Bai Ting began to clap softly.

"Clap... clap... clap."

The applause was slow and deliberate, carrying a mocking rhythm.

He rose slowly, the Grandmaster’s Chair letting out a soft creak.

The hem of his white robe brushed across the shell-strewn ground as he strolled to a gap in the human wall.

He peered through the gap, his gaze cutting through the mist of blood to land on Lu Jing’an.

The greed in his eyes was now completely undisguised.

"Lu Jing’an," Bai Ting began, his voice as smooth as jade striking jade, yet every word dripped with ice.

"Your performance... was truly a sight to behold."

Bai Ting tilted his head slightly, as if admiring a rare treasure.

"So young, not even having reached the Inner Breath Realm, yet able to slay a Demon Martial Artist who has.

Such talent... such a physique.

Even in the Jiangnan Martial Arts Association, you would be enough to shock all those old fossils."

Lu Jing’an stopped five paces away, his eyes narrowing.

"Don’t give Bai Hu so much credit," Lu Jing’an sneered.

"Swallowing a Demon Core and cloaking himself in Iron Bone makes him Inner Breath Realm?

Your understanding of Martial Arts is laughably shallow."

Bai Ting wasn’t angered. On the contrary, his smile only widened.

His crimson pupils contracted to pinpricks in the sunlight.

"If you don’t think so, then it isn’t so," Bai Ting said dismissively, but then his tone turned sharp.

"However..."

As he drew out the word, a sudden change occurred!

In an instant, Bai Ting’s white robe turned blood red.

The robe billowed without any wind, and the strange runes embroidered on it suddenly flared with bloody light!

In a flash, Bai Ting himself dissolved into a thick cloud of blood-red mist.

His form was indistinct, with only a pair of crimson eyes flickering within the mist like ghost flames.

Blood Cultivation Secret Technique: Blood Escape!

"Your impressive performance ends here."

The voice seemed to come from all directions at once, making its source impossible to pinpoint.

In the next instant, the blood mist shot forward!

It moved so fast it left an afterimage, and the air shrieked in its wake like a wailing ghost.

It was a speed far beyond what the naked eye could follow, a signature assassination technique of the Blood Cultivator lineage.

It crossed the twenty-pace distance in the span of a single breath!

Yet in that life-or-death instant, Lu Jing’an smiled.

This was the exact moment Lu Jing’an had been waiting for.

[Ghost Shadow Instant Kill], activated!

The power of the red entry exploded within his body.

The world seemed to slow to a crawl. Flying debris froze in mid-air.

Drifting dust and smoke hung frozen as if in a painting. Even the trajectory of the incoming blood mist became crystal clear.

And then, Lu Jing’an moved.

His speed exploded, multiplying fivefold!

He left a faint afterimage in his place as his real body became a blurry streak of light.

He didn’t dodge or evade, but met the blood mist head-on!

Black Evil Qi swirled around his fist.

It was the inherent "Absolute Defense Break" trait of [Ghost Shadow Instant Kill].

No matter if it was a protective blood mist or the blessing of a Secret Skill—before this fist, it was all as flimsy as paper!

"Break!"

Lu Jing’an roared as he exhaled, his fist striking like a dragon!

"BOOM!!!"

The moment the fist collided with the blood mist, a piercing, shattering sound exploded!

The crimson light shielding the blood mist shattered on impact, exploding into a shower of blood-colored crystal fragments.

A muffled grunt came from within the mist. Bai Ting’s wide, shocked eyes were vaguely visible.

’How is this possible?!’

But the only answer he received was a heavy fist, carrying 160 points of Attack Power, smashing solidly into his chest!

"PFFT!"

The blood mist recoiled, and Bai Ting’s figure was sent flying backward out of it, crashing into the human wall like a kite with a broken string!

"CRACK!"

The Grandmaster’s Chair was shattered by the shockwave even before he crashed into it, sending splinters of wood flying everywhere.

The human wall of nineteen burly men was sent staggering by the immense force, their formation instantly collapsing.

Bai Ting smashed heavily onto the bluestone pavers, rolling several times before he came to a stop.

His crimson robe was stained with dust and blood, and a clear indentation was visible on his chest.

Bai Ting propped himself up, a trickle of fresh blood leaking from the corner of his mouth.

The look he gave Lu Jing’an had finally lost its composure, replaced by a grim killing intent.

Across the ruins of the long street, the two stared at each other from a distance.

The dust and smoke slowly settled. Sunlight pierced through the gaps in the broken tiles, illuminating the widespread destruction.

Round two had just begun.