Lucian looked around. They were severely outnumbered.
He was confident he could kill the ordinary cultists, but the real threat was the disfigured elder in the shadows and the young man with the strange blood-red aura.
"Why is Tang So-So not here?"
The disfigured old man stepped out. The moment the prodigies saw his face, their expressions twisted in horror.
"Poison Demon? Don’t tell me, the Demonic Cult is also cooperating with the blood cult!" Do-won yelled in fury.
"I asked a question," said Poison Demon.
A needle made of dark purple qi shot from his fingertips, aiming straight for Do-won’s throat. Lucian waved his hand, raising three dense elemental barriers of Earth Qi in front of the Wudang disciple.
The poisonous needle pierced through two layers before the energy finally shattered and dissolved.
"Supreme Peak? Well, I will get my answer after I kill you."
The Poison Demon lunged forward. He wore dark iron claws that dripped with corrosive venom, slashing straight toward Lucian’s chest.
BOOM!
The Heaven Slaying Star gave a silent wave of his hand.
The remaining fifty cultists charged. The First Grade and Peak fighters swarmed the five prodigies, leaving the Poison Demon to deal with Lucian alone.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Lucian moved with Nine Heavens Cloudstep. Even with his movement art active, keeping pace with the elder required full concentration.
’His energy is even able to affect my skin.’
Lucian glanced down at his forearms. Black rot was creeping along his wrists, but he circulated pure Fire Qi to burn the toxin away, followed immediately by Wood Qi to heal the flesh.
The Poison Demon used agile footwork, unleashing several flying serpents woven from condensed poison qi straight at Lucian’s head.
Poof!
Lucian’s ancient sword cut through the serpents with ease, dispelling the venom into mist.
"You use some strange martial arts," the Poison Demon commented, narrowing his cold eyes at the blade.
’That sword is a treasure,’ the elder thought greedily.
Deciding to end the fight, the Poison Demon threw down a dozen dark pellets.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Thick, multi-colored clouds of poison smoke burst across the clearing, blinding everyone in the area.
Using Ghost’s Footwork, the Poison Demon left afterimages through the haze without disturbing the mist. He struck Lucian from every conceivable angle, his claws whistling through the air.
’Attack on acupoints, using rotational force with energy, intent to kill, accurately trying to predict the next movements on instinct... is this how martial artists fight? And that precise energy compression, is that his Martial Will?’
Lucian analyzed every blow as they traded rapid strikes.
The Poison Demon possessed less raw energy than Lucian, yet he fought on equal footing by channeling his entire life’s philosophy as his martial arts.
’How beautiful yet deadly.’
Lucian realized he lacked this kind of macro-precision. He did not yet know how to infuse his personal will into his qi to achieve complete body-mind unity.
’So this is the true Supreme Peak, understanding and controlling oneself to achieve body-mind unity? Then what about the Heavenly Realm?’
A sudden spark of martial epiphany bloomed in Lucian’s mind.
Still, he knew he had to finish this fight quickly.
’Those five would definitely die.’
"You bastard, how dare you be distracted?!" the Poison Demon yelled, infuriated by the calm look on Lucian’s face.
His claw speed doubled. He unleashed the Bone Melting Poison, coating his claws in sticky black sludge, but the corrosive effect on Lucian remained completely negligible.
"How about I send you peacefully, I learned a thing from you so this is the least I can do, and also don’t blame yourself, we are just a bad match-up," Lucian said calmly.
There was simply no way the elder’s venom could dissolve the Eternal Jade-Bone Method. He had such confidence in his body refinement.
The Poison Demon’s disfigured face turned even uglier. His lifetime of poisonous arts was proving entirely useless against this strange young man.
Lucian channeled the core principles of the Dual Internal Energy Art.
He drew in the ambient poison smoke from the surrounding air, and released the entire compressed energy in a massive, concussive shockwave.
BOOM!
The surroundings were blown apart. The Poison Demon was blasted backward through a tree trunk, his face turning completely ashen as he tasted defeat.
Desperate, the elder ground his teeth and used a forbidden technique: the Soul Extinguishing Art.
A terrifying surge of power flooded the old man’s veins. For a fleeting second, his aura stepped into the legendary Heavenly Realm.
"!!!"
Lucian’s eyes widened.
A wave of ethereal poison bypassed his physical flesh, striking directly at his soul. A sharp chill gripped his head, but the Eternal Profound Scripture flared to life, instantly cleansing the spiritual corruption.
"DIE!" the Poison Demon yelled.
His claws condensed dense balls of black soul-poison, launching them in a rapid barrage that tore through the air.
Lucian didn’t hold back. He gathered all his Fire Qi along his blade, and swung a massive fiery slash straight through the dark projectiles.
BOOM!
The collision sent them both flying.
Lucian landed on his feet, but the Poison Demon crashed hard against the dirt. A smoking hole was torn clean through his chest, and thick blood gushed from the wound.
’This should delay him.’
Lucian turned away and bolted toward the five prodigies.
The geniuses were barely holding on. Their inner energy was heavily suppressed by the lingering cave poison. Aside from Hyeon Gwang who stood firm with his staff, the others were covered in deep wounds.
Lucian drew his sword and pointed it forward: Micro-Point Piercing Light.
Dozens of needle-thin beams of pure white light flashed across the grass. In an instant, every First Grade cultist was dropped with clean holes through their foreheads, pushing the remaining Peak fighters back and giving the five prodigies room to breathe.
Clap! Clap! Clap!
Slow, mocking applause echoed.
"Impressive, as expected of an unknown master, even nearly killing Poison Demon, but will you kill the Poison Demon who can chase you in future or will you save your companions?"
The Heaven Slaying Star stepped forward with a cruel smile.
He tossed a blood-red medicinal pill into the dying Poison Demon’s mouth to stabilize him. Then, he raised his hand, gathering the fresh blood pooling from the fallen cultists into the air.
With a flick of his fingers, the floating blood drew an intricate, glowing magic circle on the grass.
A dark pillar of light erupted from the array.
– KWAOOO!
A massive, four-winged bat creature with six hands tore through the portal, covering out the sun and plunging the surroundings into pitch-black night in broad daylight.
’What the hell is that thing doing in a martial arts world?’
Lucian frowned at the abominable beast. It looked like something straight out of a dark fantasy novel, not a world of martial arts.
"Retreat far away, I will meet with you all soon," Lucian said.
The five injured prodigies nodded heavily. They knew their qi was suppressed, and staying behind would only make them a burden. They turned and fled into the dark trees.
Lucian leaped straight toward the floating monster.
All six of the creature’s hands glowed with glowing red magic circles. In the next instant, a barrage of blood-red light rained down on the clearing.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Lucian dodged the incoming bombardment with Nine Heavens Cloudstep. He closed the distance to strike, but suddenly, his limbs locked up.
– KWEEYEEEE!
The creature released a deafening, high-pitched screech.
The sound was a vicious mental attack that made Lucian’s skull ache, while the blood inside his veins literally froze in place.
The Eternal Profound Scripture flared up and cleared the mental attack, but the physical freeze halted his momentum mid-air.
In that split second, the bat flapped its four wings. The hardened, blade-like wingtips thrust forward, aiming straight for Lucian’s chest.
Clank!
A loud, metallic screech rang through the dark.
The wingtips barely broke the skin of Lucian’s Eternal Jade-Bone Method, but the sheer force bruised his ribs and drew blood.
Before he could recover, the creature’s six heavy fists rained down with brutal momentum.
Using softness to overcome hardness, Lucian moved his palms in flowing, circular arcs. He redirected four heavy punches away, took two direct blows to the chest, and grabbed hold of the creature’s leathery appendages.
With pure physical strength, he tore all four wings clean off its back.
– KYYAAAA!
The creature shrieked in agony as dark blood sprayed across the grass.
Yet within seconds, fleshy red tendrils sprouted from its back, regenerating the wings at visible speed.
Lucian didn’t give it another chance. He retrieved his ancient sword from the ground and lunged upward to decapitate the monster.
The moment he drew near, his danger senses screamed.
BOOM!
A thick, scarlet beam of concentrated energy erupted from the creature’s maw. The blast engulfed Lucian completely, slamming him into the dirt with a heavy thud that pulverized the surrounding stone.
"Cough! Damn, it’s so strong!"
Lucian coughed up a mouthful of blood, pushing himself out of the crater.
A few dozen paces away, the Heaven Slaying Star watched the exchange in shock.
’This blast should have normally killed even a Supreme Peak master. Does he have the legendary Heavenly Martial Body? Just how much inner energy does he have?’
The Heaven Slaying Star’s eyes shone with greedy desire.
’And this bastard is growing stronger with each passing second. At first, he was just a hollow fighter. How can someone improve this fast?’
He turned toward his remaining subordinates.
"Take the Poison Demon and treat him safely, that guy is an unexpected variable and we still need the Poison Demon."
The Peak Masters bowed, picked up the unconscious elder, and vanished into the shadows. They didn’t even question why their leader had allowed the five orthodox prodigies to escape.
The Heaven Slaying Star drew a blood-red dagger from his waist.
"I guess I should intervene now..."
Meanwhile, Lucian was still locked in combat with the bat creature. He analyzed its movements closely; the beast possessed regenerative abilities remarkably similar to a vampire. Having seen enough, Lucian stepped in close and struck with Five Elemental Palm.
His palm slammed into the creature’s chest, blasting a fist-sized hole clean through its torso.
The monster shrieked in pain, but it showed no signs of stopping.
Lucian used Qi Sense Breath to map the beast’s skeletal structure. He had assumed the heart was its vital core, but the organ was entirely hollow. To make matters worse, the creature was constantly sending out unseen mental attacks, and even interfering with his internal blood flow even from a distance.
’Let’s just blow his head.’
Lucian channeled pure spiritual energy into his sword and unleashed Micro-Point Piercing Light.
A needle-sharp beam of blinding white light detonated against the creature’s skull, completely obliterating its head into red mist.
Lucian immediately used Five Elements Harmonizing Art channeling Earth Qi.
The ground opened up, swallowing the headless torso and limbs into separate stone prisons beneath the bedrock. Even buried deep beneath the dirt, the severed parts wriggled desperately to reconnect.
Lucian let out a slow, steady breath.
STAB!
A freezing dagger pierced straight through his back, punching through his ribs and impaling his heart from behind.
Dark blood welled up and spilled past Lucian’s lips.
His eyes widened in shock because he had not even registered that man’s presence. He turned his head slightly toward the person behind him.
"You..."