“What’s the use of having great strength if you don’t have true Qi? Without it, you’re just a beast,” Jin Sheng mocked as he continued to swing his blade at Xu Hu. Using the true Qi in his body, he relentlessly suppressed the uniquely gifted Xu Hu with each strike, adding insults with every slash, as if trying to prove something.
The Little Madman, perched on Xu Hu’s shoulder, watched as the wounds on Xu Hu grew more numerous. Suddenly, in a fit of rage, he screamed and lunged directly at Jin Sheng.
“You’re just a small animal!” he shouted.
Jin Sheng swung his long blade, creating a three-inch blade aura that sliced directly toward the Little Madman.
With a scream, the Little Madman was sent flying.
“Hmph!” Jin Sheng sneered as he watched.
“Guard Captain is mighty!” the surrounding guards, who had been bullied by Xu Hu and the Little Madman, suddenly shouted in unison.
Jin Sheng felt a surge of pride at their cheers.
Prince Luoyun, watching the scene, nodded in satisfaction.
Suddenly, he twisted his waist and frowned, speaking to a nearby guard, “Go get me some underwear, and bring me a chair. Today, I want to see how these assassins die.”
After the Little Madman was knocked away, Xu Hu stood frozen in place, as flashes of memories appeared before his eyes.
He saw his adoptive mother, a tiger, lying in a pool of blood. Surrounding the tiger were many humans, laughing, just like now.
In the end, he saw someone draping the skin of the tiger over themselves and laughing aloud.
As the memories deepened, Xu Hu’s eyes reddened, and the wild aura around him grew stronger.
If anyone could look inside Xu Hu’s body at that moment, they would see the unnamed true Qi within him running wildly.
Bang!
Suddenly, a surge of energy erupted from Xu Hu, kicking up a cloud of dust on the ground.
This immediately caught Jin Sheng’s attention.
“Is this… a breakthrough?” Jin Sheng thought, stunned.
However, it wasn’t over yet.
Xu Hu stood still, and another wave of energy burst forth.
His wild aura intensified even further.
Anyone watching closely would notice Xu Hu’s already imposing figure slowly and steadily increasing in size.
With each burst of energy, Xu Hu’s aura exploded three times before it gradually subsided.
At this moment, the smug expression on Jin Sheng’s face had completely vanished, replaced by shock.
He had never seen anyone break through three times in a row.
He also couldn’t understand why someone who had true Qi wouldn’t use it.
Finally, Xu Hu reached his limit. When his energy peaked, he suddenly moved.
“Die!” Xu Hu roared, ignoring his injuries, charging directly at Jin Sheng.
“What’s a breakthrough to me? Today, you must die,” Jin Sheng growled. His killing intent intensified because he was envious of Xu Hu’s talent. If he had that talent, he wouldn’t have been stuck as an acquired martial artist for so long.
But even if he couldn’t become a congenital martial artist, it would still be worth it to kill such a prodigy.
“Three Absolutes of the Dominant Blade!” Jin Sheng’s aura surged, and a blade of black light slashed toward Xu Hu.
Xu Hu, undaunted, threw a punch.
In that instant, a phantom of a tiger’s claw appeared on his right fist.
Boom!
The blade and the fist collided, sending violent shockwaves.
As the smoke cleared, Xu Hu had blocked the strike.
Seeing this, Jin Sheng’s eyes turned cold, and without hesitation, he raised his blade again.
“Three Absolutes of the Dominant Blade—Second Absolute!”
Xu Hu didn’t hesitate to take the blow head-on.
After a violent clash, Xu Hu withstood the attack once again.
As he held the blow, blood began to pour from his earlier wounds, gushing like a fountain.
Seeing this, Jin Sheng chuckled mockingly. “Did you really think a blade wound with Qi would be so simple? Now, the blood vessels under your wounds have been shattered by my Qi. You’ll bleed to death sooner or later.”
Looking at the blade in his hand, he sneered. “Thank me later, I’ll take you out with the third strike.”
With that, Jin Sheng swung his long blade.
“Three Absolutes of the Dominant Blade—Third Absolute!”
This final strike was even more powerful than the previous ones, heading straight for Xu Hu’s face. If it landed, no matter how tough Xu Hu was, it would be over.
However, having lost so much blood, even this powerful and muscular man was growing weaker and could only wait for death.
“Die!” Jin Sheng shouted, already imagining the genius falling under his blade, feeling a sense of triumph.
“None of you are easy to deal with,” a voice suddenly sounded beside Jin Sheng and Xu Hu.
In the next instant, Jin Sheng blinked, and Xu Hu was gone.
Bang!
His third strike missed, landing on the ground with a long, thin scar.
“Who?!” Jin Sheng raised his head in fury.
He immediately saw a young man standing not far from him.
The young man had a sword at his waist, and with his left hand, he was lifting a small figure—none other than the assassin who had been knocked away by Jin Sheng’s blade not long ago.
His right hand was holding his original target, indicating that the three of them were clearly together.
“Hiss…”
Seeing Xu Hu was saved, the Little Madman weakly hissed from Li Dao’s hand. Though he was still incomprehensible, it was clear he seemed somewhat pleased.
“Alright, you should take care of yourself first.”
The Little Madman had also taken a heavy blow, but luckily, as a cursed child, his body was as tough as copper and iron. Otherwise, he might have died on the spot.
“Hiss…”
In response to Li Dao’s words, the Little Madman weakly hissed again, then struggled to move and climbed onto Xu Hu’s shoulder, resting peacefully.
When Xu Hu saw that the Little Madman was still alive, the madness in his eyes faded by half, replaced by a simple smile.
Li Dao was quite surprised by this scene, not expecting that Xu Hu and the Little Madman had grown so close.
Seeing the three of them together and still able to communicate with each other, Jin Sheng felt humiliated. He immediately ordered the surrounding guards, “What are you staring at? These three assassins have already crippled two of our men, yet you’re still not charging in to kill them?”
“One assassin’s head, a reward of a hundred gold!”
To Jin Sheng, the two strongest among the three had already lost the ability to resist. The remaining one would be like a fish in a barrel.
A hundred gold?
Hearing this, the guards’ eyes lit up, and their greed started to stir.
It wasn’t hard to understand their greed, as a hundred gold was a substantial amount.
Even in the prosperous Great Qian, one gold was worth a hundred taels of silver, and one tael of silver equaled one hundred wen.
An ordinary person made about twenty wen a day, so one tael of silver was the equivalent of five days of work. One gold was five hundred days’ worth, and a hundred gold could provide a family of three with enough to live for fifty thousand days, or nearly a hundred years.
The temptation of a hundred gold was clear.
“Kill!”
Finally, one of the guards couldn’t hold back any longer and charged toward Li Dao and his companions with his blade.
Soon, the other guards followed suit, drawing their blades and surrounding them.
But what they didn’t notice was that some of the guards in the crowd hadn’t moved at all. Instead, they were carefully retreating.
When the guards closed in, Xu Hu tried to move, but his legs weakened.
“Leave it to me.”
If it were just Li Dao alone, he could defend himself against such a large number of attackers. However, with Xu Hu and the Little Madman added to the mix, things were a bit more difficult.
But, who made him cheat?
Li Dao opened the system panel with a thought.
[Owner: Li Dao]
[Physical Strength: 9.38]
[Available Attributes: 8.69]
“System, add points!”
The next second, the system panel changed.
[Owner: Li Dao]
[Physical Strength: 18.07 (Can Evolve)]
[Available Attributes: 0]
Hmm?
At this moment, Li Dao noticed a new change in the “Physical Strength” section.
Can evolve?
What did that mean?
But he didn’t have time to think about it now because the surge of heat from his increased physical strength was already making itself known.
This time, the heat was even more intense and rapid than before, and there was a greater quantity of it.
In an instant, a red hue appeared on Li Dao’s skin, and a terrifying sense of power surged through his body.
At the same time, his mind felt a rush of coolness.
In this state, he felt as if everything around him had slowed down, as if time itself had been stretched.
“This head is mine.”
A guard swung his blade toward Li Dao.
Because Li Dao looked the most like a normal person, he became the guards’ primary target.
In Li Dao’s eyes, the guard’s blade was moving very slowly, so slow that he was starting to feel impatient.
Whoosh!
Li Dao slapped the blade with his palm.
Crack!
The next second, the blade shattered into over a dozen pieces.
Due to Li Dao’s enhanced strength, the broken iron shards shot out like hidden weapons, speeding toward the surrounding guards.
“Ah!”
“What is this!”
“What’s happening!”
Some of the guards didn’t react in time and were struck by the shattered pieces of the blade.
One unlucky guard was hit in the eye by a shard, and it went straight through his skull, killing him instantly.
[Enemy killed, gained attribute: 0.18]
At this moment, the remaining guards rushed forward.
Since Xu Hu and the Little Madman were to Li Dao’s right, the guards’ targets were those two.
The heat inside Li Dao’s body came quickly and left just as fast, and soon, his physical strength was fully enhanced.
How powerful is a body with eighteen times the strength of an ordinary person?
Li Dao soon perfectly showcased his enhanced physique.
He swiftly pulled Xu Hu and the Little Madman to his left, and then, facing the guards on the right, he raised his leg and kicked.
With that kick, the first leading guard’s eyes bulged, and his body snapped 180 degrees at the waist.
He then turned into a cannonball and flew backward, with the guards behind him being injured by the terrifying force, spitting blood as they were thrown aside.
This kick knocked down dozens of guards.
After this round of enhancement, Li Dao’s body became even more agile.
Imagine the strength that exceeds Xu Hu’s, combined with the agility that surpasses the Little Madman’s. The result was terrifying.
In the crowd, Li Dao continued to circle around with Xu Hu and the Little Madman, handling the surrounding guards effortlessly.
Yet, not a single guard could get close to the three of them.
Usually, anyone who received Li Dao’s first attack would die on the spot, without exception.
In just a dozen or so exchanges, over a hundred guards had already fallen around Li Dao—some seriously injured, some dying, and a few dead.
It should be noted that Prince Luoyun had only brought a little over three hundred guards. Previously, Li Dao and his companions had already taken out more than a hundred guards.
That meant, among the remaining two hundred or so guards, half of them had already fallen.
With those guards too scared to attack Li Dao, there were almost no enemies left.
This scene finally snapped Jin Sheng back to reality.
Another monster!
And even more powerful than the previous two!
He also noticed that this monster wasn’t using any true qi, relying entirely on physical strength in battle. Yet, he couldn’t fathom how a human could possess such terrifying strength.
But soon, his mind surged with excitement.
Killing someone with such talent would give him an even stronger sense of accomplishment.
“Get out of the way!”
Hearing Jin Sheng’s command, the guards seemed to hear a call from their savior and quickly retreated from Li Dao without hesitation, as if even pausing for a second would disrespect their captain.
Jin Sheng stepped forward and said, “Although I don’t know who sent you here, I must first thank your backers.”
“Because whoever they are, losing talents like you must be painful, right?”
Painful?
They were prisoners from the death row camp.
But Jin Sheng couldn’t be bothered to explain any further and instead turned his gaze to the person standing behind the guards.
Among the dozen or so guards, there stood a young man dressed in resplendent clothes.
This was likely the so-called Third Prince of Luoyun.
Reaping attributes was his goal, but eliminating the Third Prince of Luoyun was just as much of an objective.
Seeing that the monster had focused on him, the Third Prince of Luoyun immediately stopped watching and ordered without hesitation, “Captain Jin Sheng, kill these three assassins immediately, right now!”
“Yes!”
Without hesitation, Jin Sheng accepted the order, as it aligned with his own desires.
“Today, all of you assassins will be buried here.”
Jin Sheng made his move without hesitation, swinging his long knife with a blade aura straight toward Li Dao’s face.
As for the skilled opponent, Li Dao gave him the respect he deserved. He placed Xu Hu and the Little Madman on the ground and decisively drew the black iron knife at his waist.
“Dominating Blade Three Absolutes!”
“Whirlwind Blade Technique!”
In an instant, the blade, mixed with blade aura, collided with the powerful force of Jin Sheng’s strike.
Boom!
The next second, a figure flew backward.
The figure twisted in mid-air and landed steadily on the ground.
“How is this possible!”
Jin Sheng looked at his trembling hand in shock.
Just now, when the two blades collided, a terrifying force came from the opponent’s blade, forcing him to retreat and dissipate the power. Even now, his hand was still trembling from the overwhelming strength.
He had guessed that the opponent’s physique was extraordinary, but he hadn’t expected this. He had underestimated it; the power was beyond what the opponent’s body could handle.
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