Chapter 204: Chapter 203: Demonic Ape Beats the Drum

Ahead, Su Yu’s peripheral vision caught the two men in hot pursuit. His face was as cold as ice, showing no hint of emotion.

He was deliberately suppressing his Qi and Blood. Letting them catch up was all part of his plan, but they were still too close to the Water Snake Gang’s treasure ship.

It was still uncertain if Qian Qinghong had managed to escape unscathed. If Hong Lei, that expert at the Perfection stage of the Muscle Forging Realm, were to return, staying here would make him a sitting duck. If he was going to kill someone, he would never choose a spot this close.

The next moment, Su Yu stopped treading water. With a sudden leap, he was like a black dragon, plunging with silky smoothness into the dark river below.

As soon as he hit the water, empowered by the Bibo Fish Dragon Skill, Su Yu’s speed instantly skyrocketed. The Black Water River was incredibly deep, making it impossible to track his movements from the surface.

On the surface, Luo Yuan’s expression changed as he saw Su Yu dive into the water to escape. "Cunning brat! Brother Cao, he’s trying to escape through the water! We can’t let him get away! After him!"

Cao Yuanshan knew this was a kill-or-be-killed situation; how could he let his quarry escape? Without a moment’s hesitation, they both dove into the water with two loud SPLASHES, pursuing him as relentlessly as a shadow.

Although they hadn’t trained in any specialized underwater Cultivation Techniques, the sheer explosive power of their Flesh Refining Realm bodies was undeniable. Their speed as they propelled themselves through the water was still astonishingly fast.

In the dark water, Su Yu’s body swerved with incredible agility to avoid an underwater reef. He could clearly sense the two men latched onto his trail through the vibrations in the current, and he made no effort to pull further away.

「A quarter of an hour later.」

A floating island overgrown with wild grass appeared in the mist ahead. Su Yu kicked his legs powerfully, his body shooting toward the surface like an arrow.

SPLASH!

The moment he broke the surface, a Cyan-Scaled Sea-Exploring Swallow descended and landed on him.

"Nice work!"

Su Yu gently stroked the little creature’s feathers. This perfect, isolated island was precisely what his little companion had scouted from high above. Shrouded in mist and utterly deserted, it was the graveyard Su Yu had meticulously chosen for his two pursuers!

SPLASH!

SPLASH!

The water behind him exploded as Luo Yuan and Cao Yuanshan leaped out onto the floating island. The Qi and Blood surging around their bodies burned like a furnace, steaming their soaking wet clothes dry in an instant and sending up wisps of white vapor.

"Run, Su Yu! Why’d you stop playing river turtle? What’s the matter, is your Qi and Blood depleted? Can’t take it anymore?"

Luo Yuan flicked the water from his arms, a cruel smile on his face like a predator toying with its prey. He cracked his neck, and a series of grating pops echoed from his bones and sinews.

Cao Yuanshan, meanwhile, clasped his hands behind his back. He sized Su Yu up with a sinister, vulture-like gaze, as if looking at a corpse. "Su Yu, the number one genius of the younger generation in Black Stone City’s Outer City... For my adopted son, Cao Bin, to have died by your hand, I suppose it wasn’t entirely an unfair end!"

"But today, even a genius like you will meet your bitter end under my fists! To be able to personally crush a so-called genius inch by inch... that will be a truly glorious mark on my life’s record of battle! Hahaha!"

Faced with their arrogance, Su Yu remained expressionless. Using his Five Senses Divine, he once again gauged the strength of their Qi and Blood.

’Luo Yuan, initial-stage Flesh Refining Realm. His Qi and Blood is weak and unfocused, obviously the kind of trash who recently forced a breakthrough with pills.’

’Cao Yuanshan, Mid-stage of Flesh Refining. His Qi and Blood is potent and restrained, his muscles and bones are dense.’

’They’re worth a fight. A good chance to test my current combat strength!’ Su Yu thought. Outwardly, however, he put on a look of dread, as if he were hopelessly cornered.

He sighed, reached into his robes, and pulled out a thick stack of silver notes. Holding them out, he said in a trembling voice, "Sirs, I am willing to hand over all my wealth and precious medicines. Could you please show mercy and spare my life?"

Luo Yuan burst out laughing, looking at Su Yu with a mocking expression. "Hahahaha! You brat, you sure know what’s good for you! Fine. For the money’s sake, I’ll go a little easy on you. I’ll be sure to leave your corpse in one piece!"

The instant the words left his mouth, a savage glint exploded in Luo Yuan’s eyes, and he launched a sneak attack completely devoid of any martial honor!

He stomped his foot, his body instantly tearing through the air to appear right before Su Yu. His heavily calloused right fist shot out, aimed savagely at his face!

CRACK!

Before the fist even made contact, a crisp sonic boom from his Ming Jin exploded through the air, sharp enough to make one’s eardrums ache! He held nothing back in this strike; if it were to land on a Skin Tempering Realm Martial Artist, it would undoubtedly shatter their skull like a watermelon!

In Luo Yuan’s feverish eyes, he could already envision the gruesome scene: Su Yu’s face caving in from the punch, his body sent flying backward like a dead dog.

’So what if he’s a genius of the younger generation? Hah, he’s still about to be slaughtered by me, a master of the Flesh Refining Realm!’

However, faced with this thunderous blow, not only did Su Yu show no sign of dodging, but the corner of his mouth on his supposedly terrified face curled into a slight grin.

BOOM!

In the next instant, the immense Qi and Blood Su Yu had been suppressing erupted from within him like a bursting dam. He neither dodged nor evaded. The massive tendons in his right arm coiled like a furious dragon as he threw an equally ferocious punch to meet the attack!

’Hah, what an idiot! Does he really think he can block a punch from a Flesh Refining Realm expert?’

When Luo Yuan saw that Su Yu wasn’t dodging and even dared to meet his blow head-on, a sneer spread across his face.

But in the next moment, the smile vanished.

BANG!

The two fists collided head-on with brutal simplicity.

Luo Yuan felt an unimaginable force, like a rampaging Ancient Fierce Beast, savagely crash through Su Yu’s fist and into his own arm! His pride and joy, the Ming Jin of the Flesh Refining Realm, was like an ant trying to shake a tree in the face of an even more tyrannical Ming Jin—it was instantly pulverized!

CRACK!

The brutal force surged onward. Luo Yuan’s fist instantly buckled, the bones in his fingers shattering one by one! His skin tore open, and the bones in his right forearm were completely shattered by the terrifying Penetration Power. Ghastly white shards of bone pierced through his flesh, exposed to the open air!

"AHH! My hand!"

A blood-curdling shriek of agony shattered the dead silence of the floating island.

"What!"

Standing several yards away, ready to enjoy the show, Cao Yuanshan’s pupils instantly shrank to pinpoints as a storm of shock raged in his heart.

He had considered that Su Yu, as a top-tier genius, might be able to fight above his level and barely withstand a move or two from Luo Yuan. But he never, ever imagined that in a single head-on clash, Luo Yuan’s entire arm would be crippled by one punch!

’No, that’s not right! That hard, crisp sound from their clash... that was Ming Jin!’

"This is bad! The little bastard has broken through to the Flesh Refining Realm!"

Cao Yuanshan’s reaction was lightning-fast, alarm bells screaming in his mind. He stomped his foot—BOOM—blasting a crater in the ground as he lunged toward Su Yu like an enraged lion, attempting to save Luo Yuan.

But it was too late!

After crippling Luo Yuan with a single punch, Su Yu didn’t pause for even a millisecond. His tendons snapped, and his second killing blow followed like a shadow!

"White Ape Asks the Way!"

The punch was so fast it reached the absolute limit, leaving only a faint afterimage in the air. Luo Yuan couldn’t even see what was happening; his vision just blurred for an instant.

CRACK!

The fatal blow struck Luo Yuan’s throat with unerring accuracy!

With another, even more terrifying burst of Ming Jin, Luo Yuan’s larynx was instantly shattered, and the nerves and blood vessels in his neck were twisted into a pulpy, bloody mess.

"Urgh... gurgle..."

Luo Yuan clutched desperately at his gushing neck, his eyes bulging. His bloodshot gaze was filled with utter terror and disbelief. The potent life force of the Flesh Refining Realm kept him from dying on the spot, but he could only make a sound like air leaking from a bellows as he collapsed like a pile of mud at Su Yu’s feet, clinging to his last breath.

"You little bastard! You dare!"

Cao Yuanshan’s furious roar exploded like thunder as he closed in.

Seeing Luo Yuan killed in the space of a single breath, Cao Yuanshan was not only horrified, but a deep, bone-chilling cold also washed over him.

’This little bastard didn’t just break through—his cunning is terrifying! He deliberately feigned weakness and offered money just to trick Luo Yuan into letting his guard down, allowing him to score a kill in the instant before I could intervene! If we had surrounded him together from the very beginning, we would have never given him such an easy chance to pick one of us off!’

"Die!"

Seething with rage, Cao Yuanshan pushed the Qi and Blood of his Mid-stage of Flesh Refining to its absolute limit. He threw a heavy, unstoppable punch that crashed down toward Su Yu’s head like a collapsing mountain.

Faced with this furious blow, Su Yu’s eyes remained perfectly calm.

"Collapsing Thunder Flash!"

With footwork as fast as a flash of lightning, Su Yu abruptly shifted several feet to the side. Cao Yuanshan’s ferocious punch only brushed past the afterimage he left behind.

CRACK!

The force of the missed punch blasted the air, carving a half-foot-deep trench in the sand.

"Slippery little eel! Let’s see you dodge this!"

His first strike having missed, Cao Yuanshan’s killing intent only intensified. With a series of rapid steps, he once again closed in on Su Yu like a shadow.

"Black Python Overwhelms the Sea!"

In the next instant, Cao Yuanshan unleashed dozens of ferocious, heavy punches. Each one carried a suffocating Ming Jin, the force of the blows making the air around Su Yu CRACKLE and pop. He held nothing back in this offensive flurry, determined to use his superior realm to crush Su Yu and pummel him into a bloody paste!

However, facing this overwhelming onslaught that crashed down like a tsunami, Su Yu, who had been in constant retreat, suddenly broke into another grin.

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

A violent thumping like a colossal heartbeat rang out as the Qi and Blood in Su Yu’s body roared to life, now completely unrestrained.

Although he was only at the initial stage of the Flesh Refining Realm, his innate talent was top-tier, and he was empowered by various Martial Arts and Traits. He was long past being ordinary; he was even slightly stronger than a typical cultivator at the Mid-stage of Flesh Refining.

Most importantly, at this moment, a Trait on his status panel began to spin up wildly!

[Ape Shadow Gale]: For a short period, doubles your punching speed!

"Demonic Ape Beats the Drum!"

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM...

A terrifying series of explosions, like a violent tempest or a deafening drumroll, resounded fiercely above the floating island!

In Cao Yuanshan’s horrified gaze, the Su Yu before him seemed to instantly transform into an ancient demonic ape sprouting dozens of arms! This was because Su Yu’s punching speed was simply too fast—so fast that it exceeded the limits of persistence of vision, creating innumerable afterimages of his arms in front of him!

BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG!

A direct clash! Fist met fist, flesh met flesh!

The black fist-aura of the Mystic Python collided violently with the furious shadows of the Demonic Ape’s fists! The air, compressed by their terrifying exchange, blasted outwards, forming sharp gales that neatly sheared through all the surrounding wild grass.

However, in this incredibly ferocious exchange, Cao Yuanshan managed to hold on for less than three seconds before realizing in despair that his Black Python Overwhelms the Sea could not keep up with his opponent’s tempo!

For every one punch he threw, Su Yu could land two, or even three!

Su Yu’s storm of heavy punches, with completely unreasonable brutality, forcibly tore through his unending Black Water Fist Stance and rained down like a dense barrage of sledgehammers onto his chest, shoulders, and abdomen!

CRACK! CRACK!

Even with the tough hide of a Mid-stage of Flesh Refining cultivator for protection, the excruciating pain of cracking bones flooded Cao Yuanshan’s mind like a tidal wave.

"Damn it! Get away from me!"

Cao Yuanshan was horrified beyond belief. ’What kind of monstrous move is this?’

’Such heaven-defying speed! Such domineering force! It’s exactly like a fierce ape beating a war drum! The ultimate martial art of the Water Snake Gang, which I’ve painstakingly practiced for more than a decade, is being utterly crushed by this storm of fists!’

Faced with a furious barrage of fists that threatened to beat him apart, Cao Yuanshan’s vaunted offensive was utterly shattered.

His eyes nearly splitting from the strain, he had no choice but to retract his fists, forced to switch from attack to defense.

"Mystic Python Coils in Formation!"

Like a turtle pulling into its shell, Cao Yuanshan crossed his arms tightly in front of his face and chest. He channeled his Qi and Blood to protect the vital points of his arms, desperately trying to withstand the barrage of heavy blows.

The sweet, coppery taste of blood filled his mouth, and only a single thought remained in his mind: ’I have to block this volley! This kind of extreme punching drains Qi and Blood; there’s no way this brat can keep it up for more than ten seconds! The moment his energy falters will be my chance to turn the tables and kill him!’