Terrible Yinghou

Ying Hou's lips curled into a sneer, filled with mockery and indifference. With a wave of his veins-bulging palm, the long sword in his hand slashed through the Void Realm, creating a curtain of light as it descended.

"Boom!"

The terrifying power caused the valley to tremble, sending waves of air surging like a shattering dawn and a boiling ocean.

Long Chen's body suddenly shook, as if he had been struck by a massive mountain. He flew backward, blood spraying from his mouth.

After rolling for several dozen yards, he spat out another mouthful of blood. His internal organs felt as if they were on fire, and Long Chen's face was filled with shock.

Ying Hou hadn't been bluffing earlier; what he said was true. When Qi and strength were combined, that kind of power was simply despair-inducing.

"Bastard!"

Just as Long Chen rolled to a stop, A-Man roared and followed up with an axe strike. Ying Hou flicked his long sword, striking A-Man's axe like a bolt of lightning.

A-Man was instantly sent flying like a boulder launched from a catapult, tumbling several times in the air before crashing heavily to the ground.

Although A-Man appeared to have flown further than Long Chen, he didn't vomit blood, which surprised even Ying Hou.

"Now you should believe me, right? In the face of absolute power, all struggles are futile. Give up." Ying Hou did not pursue, standing there like an emperor looking down on commoners, speaking coldly.

Long Chen stood up, leaning on his broadsword. Wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, he shook his head and said, "Giving up halfway is not my style. I haven't taken your head yet."

Ying Hou stared coldly at Long Chen, then suddenly laughed in extreme anger. "Good, you truly are Long Tianxiao's son. You have a tough backbone."

"I hope that when I crush your bones one by one, you can still be this stubborn. Kid, go to Hell and regret it."

After finishing, Ying Hou moved, leaving behind a blur. He was unbelievably fast, arriving in front of Long Chen in the blink of an eye and slashing down with his sword.

Seeing Ying Hou's sword descend, Long Chen ignored it and slashed out with his own sword as well—another suicidal tactic.

This was the only way; in terms of speed, Long Chen could not compare to Ying Hou, and in terms of strength, he was no match either.

Now, he relied on the length of his broadsword to fight Ying Hou with a hooligan's tactics. Although it was extremely dangerous, it could buy some time.

As expected, Ying Hou, confident in his victory, would not fight him head-on. Seeing Long Chen's move, he withdrew his long sword to look for the next angle of attack.

"Boom!"

At this moment, A-Man also charged over, hacking down with his axe. It was as if the previous strike hadn't caused him any substantial damage; his physique was terrifyingly strong.

What gratified Long Chen was that A-Man had suddenly become smart. He had learned from Long Chen, ignoring Ying Hou's long sword and fighting desperately with every move.

"Boom, boom, boom!"

Continuous impacts echoed in the valley. The entire valley trembled incessantly, the momentum extremely shocking.

Under the combined desperate efforts of Long Chen and A-Man, Ying Hou, despite having all his skills, couldn't utilize them and was firmly held back by the two.

He had an absolute advantage in strength and speed, but Long Chen and A-Man's attacks were simply shameless. No matter what move he used, they would block with their bodies while simultaneously delivering desperate attacks.

Ying Hou was so angry his face turned blue. Several times he had the urge to risk mutual destruction to kill them both, but he held back.

First, Long Chen and A-Man's strength was too great and posed a fatal threat to him. If something went wrong, it wouldn't be mutual destruction, but rather dying together with the enemy.

Second, he held the absolute advantage; finishing off the two was just a matter of time. There was no need to take that risk.

It was precisely because Long Chen saw through Ying Hou's thoughts that he was fighting so desperately. This was the only way; if they didn't fight for their lives, they would lose them immediately.

Weapons flashed. In the blink of an eye, half an hour passed. Long Chen felt a shock in his heart; he realized his stamina was beginning to lag, and the broadsword in his hand felt heavier and heavier.

A-Man was no better off; his axe strikes were not as swift as before. Clearly, he had also reached his limit.

Seeing the sneer on Ying Hou's lips, Long Chen's heart went cold. Ying Hou wanted to capture them alive, to exhaust them until they were spent, and then torture him to his heart's content.

Long Chen narrowed his eyes. 'You want my life, Long Chen? Fine, let's see if you have the qualifications to take it.'

Seeing Long Chen and A-Man's strength waning and their attacks slowing down, Ying Hou couldn't help but feel secretly pleased.

Suddenly, Long Chen's sword slashed down, but lacking follow-through power, he stumbled forward a step. This step instantly exposed Long Chen's guard.

Almost reflexively, without thinking, Ying Hou dodged A-Man's axe and struck downward with his long sword, aiming directly at Long Chen's waist. Clearly, Long Chen's guess was correct; he wanted to keep a live captive, otherwise that sword would have been aimed at his heart.

A cold glint appeared in Long Chen's eyes. Suddenly, he activated his Fengfu Star with full force, pouring all his power into his Dantian like seawater rushing backward.

The twelve hundred-foot-diameter Qi cyclones in his Dantian instantly expanded tenfold, rotating rapidly like windmills. The Spiritual Qi within a hundred-mile radius was instantly drained.

"Whether this succeeds or not depends on this one shot."

Long Chen prayed silently. The twelve cyclones operated simultaneously, condensing all the Spiritual Qi into a single strand, pouring it directly from the Liyao Acupoint into the Huiming Acupoint, and finally entering the Laogong Acupoint through the Quchi Acupoint.

When the Spiritual Qi rushed into the first acupoint, it acted like a sluice gate being forced open. However, when the Spiritual Qi entered the opening, its flow rate was increased, rushing into the next acupoint with even greater force.

When the Spiritual Qi, after multiple layers of accumulation, entered the Laogong Acupoint in his palm, Long Chen suddenly felt excruciating pain in the Laogong Acupoint.

"Bad, the meridians can't take it!"

Long Chen felt that the meridians around his Laogong Acupoint could not withstand the impact of the Spiritual Qi and were starting to slowly shatter.

"Hold on for me!"

Long Chen roared in his heart. He couldn't care about anything else anymore, even though only a sliver of energy leaked out through the Laogong Acupoint.

Without thinking, he injected that sliver of energy into the broadsword in his hand. The broadsword instantly shook, emitting a boom.

Just as Ying Hou's long sword was about to pierce Long Chen's waist, his heart suddenly jumped wildly, and the hair on his body stood up. Relying on years of combat experience, he instinctively abandoned the attack and hurriedly retreated.

But just as he retreated, Long Chen had already raised his broadsword. The seven-foot-long broadsword radiated a strange luster, as if carrying an endless Aura of death, and slashed down at Ying Hou.

"Heaven Opening!"

Ying Hou watched the sword in Long Chen's hand with terror. That sword had actually locked onto him.

A mere rookie in the Qi Gathering realm could actually use his Qi to lock onto an expert in the Yi Jin realm who was two ranks higher than him. This was simply unheard of.

Locking on usually happened when a strong person locked onto someone weaker than themselves. When strength was similar, it was generally hard to lock on. For a small Qi Gathering realm cultivator to lock onto an Yi Jin realm expert—if said out loud, people would only scoff.

Yet such a thing was happening right in front of Ying Hou. However, Ying Hou quickly recovered from the shock, because an extremely thick Aura of death had awakened him.

The long sword in Long Chen's hand, carrying a strange luster like the blade of a Heavenly God, had already slashed down mercilessly.

"Wave Breaking Slash!"

There was no time to be shocked at how Long Chen had locked onto him. Seeing Long Chen's sword slash down, Ying Hou shouted loudly, his veins bulging all over his body as if covered by vines. His Aura rose by another large margin, and he slashed out with his sword.

The blade was like water, waves surging, radiating over a range of dozens of yards. This earth-shattering strike was one of Ying Hou's trump card techniques, an Earth Rank martial skill.

"Boom!"

The moment Long Chen's broadsword collided with Ying Hou's long sword, the world seemed to go silent for a moment, followed by a sound that shook the wind and clouds.

Three figures were simultaneously sent flying. The terrifying power shattered the place where they had been fighting, leaving a large crater nearly ten yards in diameter on the ground.

Long Chen felt as if all his bones had fallen apart, and his right hand was in unbearable pain. Theoretically, with the current width of his meridians, he shouldn't have been able to execute Heaven Opening.

Having forcibly executed it just now, he had already shattered the meridians around his Laogong Acupoint, and he finally witnessed the terror of Heaven Opening.

Fortunately, at the last moment, he realized something was wrong and only used a sliver of Heaven Opening's power, not daring to trigger the rest.

Even so, the meridians in his palm were still shattered. If he had executed it with full force, his entire meridians would likely have been shattered, turning him into a genuine cripple.

While feeling lingering fear, Long Chen was also excited. With such terrifying power, what level of martial skill was this Heaven Opening?

"Truly worthy of being Long Tianxiao's son. Good, very good, very good, hahaha!"

A burst of laughter came. The dust slowly dissipated, and a figure slowly emerged. That person was none other than Ying Hou.

However, Ying Hou was currently extremely disheveled. His originally neat robe had become tattered, and a large gash on his chest was slowly oozing blood.

The long sword in his hand was reduced to just the hilt; that last strike had shattered his precious sword.

Long Chen's pupils constricted. He discovered that although Ying Hou was disheveled, his Aura had not dropped by much, which meant Ying Hou still possessed extremely powerful combat strength.

"Rip!"

Reaching out to tear away a piece of his damaged clothes, he revealed the wound inside, and also revealed a piece of soft armor.

That soft armor was golden yellow and looked very flexible, but at this moment, that soft armor had also been ripped open with a long gash, which was exactly what Long Chen's sword had slashed out.

"What a fierce martial skill. If it weren't for this gold-threaded soft armor, I might have lost my life." Ying Hou looked at the wound on his chest and said coldly:

"Now I give you a chance. If you hand over the martial skill, I can give you a quick death. How about it?"

Long Chen handed the broadsword to his left hand, because his right hand was half-crippled and couldn't hold the broadsword firmly. Barely standing up, he sneered, "Not how about it."

"Long Chen, you had better think clearly. Death is not terrible; living a life worse than death is the most painful. And I happen to have quite a bit of experience in this regard. I advise you not to regret it." Ying Hou said coldly.

"I, Long Chen, never do things I regret." Long Chen glanced at A-Man beside him and secretly gave him a wink.

Long Chen dared not make it too obvious. After winking, Long Chen slowly raised the sword in his left hand and sneered, "Ying Hou, that move just now was merely a test. Next—I'll take your dog life."

After saying this, Long Chen slashed his sword onto the ground, and a terrifying wave of air exploded, kicking up a sky full of dust.

"Hmph, let me see how much ability you have." Ying Hou sneered, swiped his ring, and another long sword appeared in his hand, pointing forward.

However, when the dust dissipated, Ying Hou, who was on full alert, discovered that Long Chen had vanished from in front of him, leaving only the dazed A-Man standing there.

Ying Hou's expression changed. He hurriedly looked up, only to see that Long Chen had already run hundreds of yards away, heading straight into the mountains.