Xu Yang had thought his attacker was a Bone Marrow Cleansing Master, but it turned out the man was only at Qi Gathering Perfection. ’It’s probably because he yelled at me in the black market and I didn’t respond. That, and the fact I traded for Qi Replenishing Pills, must have made him think I was an easy target.’

"What a Palm Technique!"

His eyes glinted sharply. A Martial Artist at Qi Gathering Minor Achievement could project their True Qi to strike enemies, but few ever did. Once True Qi left the body, its power was greatly diminished.

At a greater distance, the True Qi might dissipate completely before even striking its target.

Yet, with the Palm Technique this man employed, the True Qi showed no signs of dissipating. In an instant, the Palm Force crossed a distance of ten feet and was right upon him.

Xu Yang didn’t try to dodge. Against this man’s speed and Palm Technique, evasion would only put him at a disadvantage.

In that instant, a series of sharp cracks erupted from his body. His great tendons hummed, the dragon of his spine awakened, and Force shot up from his tailbone.

’I need to end this fast!’

He had no intention of slowly appreciating this exquisite Palm Technique. The Vajra Skill activated with explosive force, his True Qi spreading like a net throughout his body, and his skin took on a faint silver sheen.

Formidable power roared within him, surging to converge in his fist.

Thunder Shock Fist, Force stacking!

BANG! BANG...

In a single moment, the Force was stacked eightfold.

With his Thunder Shock Fist, Xu Yang could already stack his Force ninefold during practice. In actual combat, however, he couldn’t yet achieve a ninefold stack in a single instant.

BOOM!

A fierce wind howled. His fist shot out like a great spear, shattering the incoming Palm Force in an instant.

With a thunderous sound, countless fallen leaves in the vicinity were instantly pulverized by the Force, kicking up a towering cloud of dust.

True Qi erupted from the soles of his feet. Xu Yang vanished, shooting through the dust cloud like an arrow loosed from a bow, his fist aimed squarely at the incoming palm.

’This is bad!’

The violent aura, like a raging tempest, caused the shadowy figure to pale. He knew he had provoked a true master.

This newcomer, who looked like a first-timer at the black market, wasn’t some weakling—he was a slumbering beast.

Those eight consecutive cracks were clearly from the Thunder Shock Fist—hailed as the strongest Fist Technique among the Purple Sun Sect Outer Disciples—cultivated to the point where this man could stack his Force eightfold in an instant.

He wanted to dodge, but it was too late. In that split second, all he could do was pour every last bit of his True Qi into his hand.

BANG!

CRACK!

Fist met palm. This was arguably the strongest punch Xu Yang had ever thrown, and its lethality was terrifying.

The first sound was the clash of fist and palm, the sound of their colliding Forces shattering.

The second was the sound of shattering bone.

The shadowy figure felt an irresistible power surge from the opposing fist. It tore through his Palm Force—the culmination of all his True Qi—as if it were rotten wood. Then, like a blade, that tyrannical and pure True Qi sliced through his Protective True Qi and blasted into his meridians.

His opponent’s fist was as hard as cast iron, like a Vajra Indestructible Body. His own Palm Force, containing all his True Qi, couldn’t budge it in the slightest. It was like striking an arm of steel; he felt that even without the man’s terrifying power, he couldn’t have injured him at all.

Before he could even register the pain, the terrifying True Qi detonated within his meridians, blasting his palm to pieces. Bloody fingers flew in every direction.

In a flash, his arm shattered into several segments, a shard of white bone piercing through the flesh of his shoulder.

PTUI! 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

A mouthful of blood sprayed from his lips, knocking the mask from his face to reveal a young, yet sinister, countenance.

"Ah... Senior Brother, spare my life!"

A pained scream echoed as he roared, his face a mask of terror and supplication. ’Such combat prowess... even someone at the Qi Cultivation Gang stage might not be this powerful.’

He had never imagined that with his cultivation at Qi Gathering Perfection, he would be so utterly crushed by someone in the same realm. It felt as if he weren’t facing a Qi Gathering Martial Artist at all, but a master who had already reached the Qi Cultivation Gang.

The only answer he received was a fist brimming with immense power, thrusting toward him like a great spear. Before it even landed, the sheer force of the wind it generated made him feel as if he were suffocating.

CRACK!

Xu Yang’s second fist smashed into the man’s throat. With a sickening crack, bone fragments shot out from the back of his neck. Inertia folded his head backward, causing it to slam heavily against his own shattered arm.

With a howl of displaced air, the corpse flew backward until it slammed into a tree, sending a shower of leaves to the ground.

Xu Yang strode over and bent down to search the body. He quickly found several silver banknotes, a Medicine Bottle, five contribution points, and an Identity Token.

’So he really was a disciple of the Purple Sun Sect.’ Xu Yang had assumed he was a Martial Artist from Cyan Cloud City.

Xu Yang took everything except for the Identity Token.

Then, he lifted his foot and stomped the man’s arm and neck into a bloody pulp, concealing any telltale signs of the Thunder Shock Fist.

Once he was finished, he activated his Flying Swallow Skill, taking to the air like a great bird and vanishing after a few bounds.

"How ruthless!"

A short while later, several figures landed in the same spot. Seeing the neck and arm stomped into a gory mess, they all drew a sharp breath.

"There’s no telling what Martial Arts were used to kill him. But judging by his physique, he was likely only at Qi Gathering Perfection. His killer must have been a Bone Marrow Cleansing Master; otherwise, it would be impossible to kill him so utterly and completely."

One of them stepped forward to inspect the body but found nothing. All traces of the Martial Arts used had been completely wiped away.

"What an idiot. A Qi Gathering Martial Artist trying to ambush a Bone Marrow Cleansing Master," one of them tsk-tsked in amazement. "How unlucky do you have to be to run into a Marrow Cleansing expert who enjoys playing the wolf in sheep’s clothing?"

"The killer was too vicious. He has none of the bearing of a Bone Marrow Cleansing Master. A simple lesson would have sufficed. Why go so far as to kill a fellow sect member?" someone said coldly.

"Bullshit! The guy was trying to rob and kill him, and you’re talking about ’fellow sect members’? If the tables were turned and the winner’s cultivation was weaker, do you think this dead man would have shown him any mercy out of ’sect-brotherly love’?"