PAT.

CRACK!

But just then,

the sound of cracking green bricks rang out.

It was as if a giant beast of steel was taking heavy steps.

A ferocious, baleful aura, carrying a boiling, scorching Yang Qi, caused the frosted grass and trees in the courtyard to rapidly thaw and wither.

The temperature of the entire courtyard began to rise. It grew searingly hot, as if the whole place had been plunged into a furnace.

TSSSSSS~

The searing Yang Qi from his Qi and Blood collided with the frigid Yin energy released by the strange young man, sending plumes of white mist into the air.

SWISH!

Inside the patient’s room, the blood-red shadow that had been on the verge of merging with Chen Ergou abruptly pulled back.

Outside, the strange young man who had been kowtowing snapped his head around like a startled beast.

Reflected in his cavernous, blood-tear-gushing eyes was the figure at the door—a man like a tyrannosaur from the Primordial Chaos.

At the door,

Wu Dao’s towering physique stood tall in the darkness. The magnificent, chiseled muscles covering his body, exuding a violent beauty, began to glow red and heat up, turning him into a living furnace.

Tiny, flickering red flames erupted from his every pore, and visible heat waves radiated from his body.

’A little on the skinny side, but...’

Wu Dao’s eyes, red as steel ball bearings, scanned the strange young man’s scrawny frame.

Finally,

His gaze fixed on the First-Layer Black Yin Lotus blooming between the young man’s brows. He couldn’t help but break into a wide grin, greedily licking his two rows of red-hot Fine Steel Shark Teeth.

TSS... TSS... TSS...

The saliva dripping from the corners of his mouth instantly evaporated into mist in the intense heat, making Wu Dao look like an Evil Ghost wreathed in smoke.

’A Fierce Gu with a First-Layer Black Lotus. Equivalent to a Martial Artist who’s undergone one Rebirth, or a five-hundred-year-old Transformed Demon Species. Barely qualifies as a decent late-night snack.’

"ROAR!!"

The moment the kowtowing gu saw Wu Dao, it was like a wild wolf encountering a tiger. Putting on a brave front, it opened its cavernous mouth and let out a piercing shriek.

Along with this roar, 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

A sinister, bone-chilling psychic storm, like a thousand steel needles, swept through the courtyard. On his sickbed, Chen Ergou passed out without a sound, blood gushing from his nose and mouth.

In the courtyard, every small creature—ants, insects, frogs, cicadas—all dropped dead on the spot as the psychic storm hit, their souls extinguished.

A First-Layer Black Lotus Fierce Gu.

Its ghostly power was already strong enough to control and influence any being that hadn’t experienced Breaking the Cocoon, and it could even weave all sorts of captivating illusions.

Even a Martial Artist who had undergone a single Rebirth could fall into its trap if careless.

That was why Wu Dao had cleared out the martial arts hall, leaving only Chen Ergou as bait. He didn’t want to fight one battle only to become a general with no soldiers.

WHOOSH~

A surging tide of frigid Yin energy crashed over Wu Dao on a spiritual level.

But Wu Dao stood like a stone pillar in a raging tempest, utterly unmoved no matter how fiercely the waves crashed against him.

After reaching Heroic Great Success,

the thickness of his Spirit Armor had reached five centimeters!

It formed a thick layer around his entire body.

No matter how hard the kowtowing gu shrieked, it only managed to stir invisible ripples across the protective ward, unable to affect him in the slightest.

The kowtowing gu realized its psychic shriek was useless against the inhuman Demon before it.

So, after its shriek, it showed no intention of fighting. With a quick transformation, it turned into a gust of Yin wind and shot toward the sky, attempting to flee.

All Deceitful Species...

...possess the ability to fly and burrow, with their maximum altitude depending on their power.

Low-level White Lotus Wandering Souls can only float about ten meters above the ground, while a Black Lotus can fly at altitudes of tens of meters.

The reason for these limitations...

...is that this World contains formless Clear Gang Qi in the heavens and formless Earth Evil Qi in the ground.

These two formless energies, accumulated over countless eons from the world’s righteous Yang essence and the aura of slaughter and death, have little effect on creatures of flesh and blood that don’t venture too deep. However, they are immensely destructive to all things Yin and evil!

The Earth Evil Qi is especially potent.

A First-Layer Black Lotus Fierce Gu would suffer the ceaseless agony of a thousand cuts if it burrowed even three or four meters underground.

Therefore,

the strange young man’s first instinct was to escape into the sky.

Compared to the Earth Evil Qi, the Clear Gang Qi at low altitudes was much thinner.

Heh...

Seeing the strange young man take flight,

Wu Dao showed no sign of panic. He simply flashed a savage grin, crouched slightly, and tensed the red-hot, steel-like muscles of his legs, concentrating an immense and terrifying power within them.

Then...

BOOM!!

The ground beneath him exploded and collapsed under the immense pressure as a tsunami of Power was unleashed.

The surrounding courtyard and its buildings, for dozens of meters, shook as if struck by a massive earthquake. The ground buckled, dust and smoke plumed into the sky, and houses collapsed with a deafening crash.

The closest patient’s room was completely obliterated, burying Chen Ergou on the spot under a pile of beams and rubble.

However,

’The Life Force of someone in the Divine Power Realm is exceptionally tenacious. He won’t be crushed to death that easily. It’s a minor issue.’

RUMBLE—

The instant he launched himself from the ground,

a violent sonic boom erupted. The sound shook the entire area, echoing throughout the Inner City of Tan County.

From a distance, one could see a humanoid, red-hot meteor trailing a shockwave, rocketing up from the ground with a deafening shriek of sound.

In less than the blink of an eye,

propelled by the terrifying recoil, the fiery red meteor appeared tens of meters high in the sky, its crimson light illuminating a vast swath of the night.

"Die!!"

High in the sky,

Wu Dao, who had launched second but arrived first, was wreathed in the shockwave created by air friction. His murderous roar was like a clap of thunder, booming across the heavens.

The next instant!

BOOM!!

His red-hot, steel giant of a fist, encased in Spirit Armor, executed a Hammer Whale Technique in mid-air, smashing down with the force of a thunderbolt onto the Yin wind that was the strange young man!

"Aaaah!!"

A bloodcurdling scream echoed through the air.

The previously formless, shadowless kowtowing gu once again experienced the intense ’pain’ of a brutal, physical blow—a sensation from its life before death.

A bombardment from an ultimate, killing Spiritual Will!

Overwhelming physical might!

A strike combining both physical and spiritual attacks!

The kowtowing gu could no longer maintain its form as Yin wind. It exploded in mid-air into a blurry black shadow, drifting rapidly toward the ground like a cloud of ink.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH~

How heavy is a body made of fine steel?

Having lost his upward momentum, Wu Dao’s red-hot, tyrannical steel body plummeted toward the ground with the sound of rushing wind.

He landed with a heavy THUD, sending a plume of dust and debris from the ruins into the sky.

He glanced up at the inky cloud drifting rapidly down from the sky.

Haaa~

He exhaled a stream of scorching-hot air.

THUMP THUMP THUMP!

The drumming of Wu Dao’s heart accelerated once more. His Qi and Blood, fierce as magma, coursed through him at incredible speed. His body, a human furnace, burned so intensely it became almost transparent. The temperature skyrocketed, and wild heat waves billowed out!

Within a five-meter radius around him, the core of the furnace—the area of highest temperature—transformed into a Yang Prison.

The terrifying heat instantly charred the rubble within the prison, caused splintered wood to spontaneously combust, and warped the very air, making it seem as if the Red Sun Demon King had descended upon the world!

This was the Heroic Great Success Domain, achieved after Body Refinement with the Sixth Layer of the Giant Whale Skill. With his Qi and Blood Power fully unleashed, he had stepped through the second gate of this world’s Transcendent Refining Path—

Qi and Blood Burning Prison!

All who enter my prison shall have their bodies immolated and their souls incinerated!

"Aaaah!!"

A bloodcurdling psychic shriek resounded.

The dark, inky cloud that the kowtowing gu had become was captured by Wu Dao’s Qi and Blood Burning Prison the moment it drifted down from the sky. Yang Qi, as potent as the great sun itself, began to roast it relentlessly.

The heat seared it, forcing it to condense into a single mass. It shot around inside the prison like a rubber ball, desperately trying to escape, but it could not break free from the Burning Prison’s confines.

SWOOSH~

Wu Dao’s red-hot steel hand, wrapped in Spirit Armor and trailing streaks of blood-colored fire, shot out and grabbed it.

He seized the ricocheting black ball in his hand. The even more terrifying temperature seared it, causing it to sizzle and continuously emit black smoke.

"You dare to struggle?!"

Feeling its intense struggle in his palm,

Wu Dao tightened his grip. Looking like a Fierce God, he let out a thunderous roar, spitting streams of blood-colored fire from his mouth.

These abnormalities, these ’gu’...

...are nothing more than conglomerations of spirit and Yin souls.

They have no flesh or blood, no such thing as vital organs.

If he were to just kill it instantly with brute force,

it would be completely annihilated, and he would gain nothing.

He had to restrain it first, then refine it!

Or...

...swallow it whole!

However,

Wu Dao wasn’t in a hurry. He still had a question.

"Speak. What is the Stone God?"

Wisps of crimson flame flickered in Wu Dao’s eyes. He squeezed the neck of the kowtowing gu, which had reverted to its true form, and violently yanked it close. He stared into its hollow, terrifying eyes and roared.

This kowtowing gu was just a small fry, a grunt.

His real target was the big fish behind it—the so-called Stone God!

"Hehe... I guarantee... you... will find out... very soon..."

The kowtowing gu’s form was already flickering and indistinct from being burned by the Yang Fire. Its suffering was worse than death; it was misery incarnate.

But at the mention of the Stone God,

its mouth instantly split into a horrific smile reaching from ear to ear. Its hollow, bleeding eyes filled with derision, and its voice, as grating as a handsaw, rasped as if it were looking at a dead man.

"Hah! Well, I guarantee you’ll be reunited with it soon enough. As for where you’ll be reunited..."

Wu Dao laughed, too.

His laugh was even more terrifying than the creature’s. He grinned, baring those two rows of glowing-hot, terrifying shark teeth.