Their legs collided—her white, slender legs beneath a pink skirt against his thick, muscular legs wrapped in beast-hide shorts. Though Senior Sister Qing's legs were slim and graceful, the power behind them was astonishing, every kick like a blade cleaving stone. Qin Mu's legs were sturdier, yet his movements felt light and effortless, as though they carried no weight at all.
Bang! Bang! Bang!A rapid series of explosive impacts rang out. In the span of a heartbeat, Senior Sister Qing's legs were struck by an uncountable number of kicks—Qin Mu's leg technique was simply too fast, far beyond her ability to react.
Her terrifying leg strength amounted to nothing; every time she launched a powerful strike, Qin Mu's flurry of dazzling kicks landed and dissolved her force as if his legs were devouring her power.
"Not good…"
Her legs turned weak. Qin Mu's kicks poured down on her like a storm beating banana leaves—slamming into her waist, chest, throat—and then a barrage of rough, calloused feet cracked loudly across her face.
Qin Mu twisted in midair, spinning into a back kick. This strike was unlike his earlier ones—those had been all speed with little force. This one, however, carried frightening, crushing power.
Senior Sister Qing's face caved in; her delicate nose flattened into her cheek, her chin shattered, and her mouth filled with fragments that didn't belong. Her head flew forward while her feet trailed behind, her body shooting backward like an arrow loosed from the string, hurtling into the ruins.
Qin Mu confirmed one thing:The Cripple's Stealing-Heaven Divine Legs were truly number one.
Maybe not the best in the whole world—but definitely the best in the village, without question.
Despite the ferocity and dominance of Senior Sister Qing's leg techniques, she hadn't touched him even once before being utterly destroyed.
Qin Mu couldn't use even a trace of vital qi; he relied purely on physical strength. Senior Sister Qing, on the other hand, had infused her legs with qi to enhance both power and speed—yet even so, she was defeated in a single exchange.
Just as he kicked her away, every hair on Qin Mu's body stood on end—a wave of deadly danger surged up his spine. Without turning back, he lunged forward.
Behind him, Senior Brother Qu had crept silently close, ready to strike a killing blow. He had expected a guaranteed hit, but had not anticipated Qin Mu's sharp instincts.
Both raced across the beasts' backs, leaping from one creature to another. Senior Brother Qu moved with blinding speed, striking ruthlessly at Qin Mu's back, while Qin Mu sprinted forward, his hands flashing as he deflected every attack.
Thunderous Eight Techniques — Thousand-Handed Buddha!
Senior Brother Qu was shocked. Qin Mu didn't even turn around, yet somehow blocked every strike, as though he had grown countless arms. He had never heard of such a technique!
Though Qin Mu's Thousand-Handed Buddha was far from Old Ma's mastery—where each movement summoned rolling thunder—it was still swift as wind, sharp as lightning. Even while running on moving beast backs and fighting blind, he defended with unyielding, overwhelming force, giving Senior Brother Qu not the slightest advantage.
Clang—!
A sudden sword cry cut the air. Qin Mu's scalp tightened—blood spurted from his arm as a sharp blade grazed him.
He rolled off the beast's back, sprinting beneath the belly of a giant beast. Senior Brother Qu dropped down after him. His hands were empty, yet a silver sword circled around his body, rising and falling in a deadly dance.
Qin Mu's pupils shrank. Senior Brother Qu's sword control far surpassed Senior Sister Qing's.She could send her sword tens of yards away to kill from afar.But his sword never left his side—hovering within three feet, deadly and precise.
This was terrifying—exceedingly dangerous.Controlling a sword to kill in close combat risked self-injury at the slightest mistake, demanding exquisite control. It spoke volumes of his formidable swordsmanship and absolute confidence in his skills!Only those with meticulous mastery of vital energy dared wield a sword this way!
"Grandpa Tu and the others never taught me how to channel vital energy, and Grandpa Village Chief never explained how to use the Overlord Body's energy. In this situation, I'm afraid I'll be at a disadvantage."
His foot suddenly kicked a broken branch—trampled by the herd, no doubt. Without thinking, Qin Mu tapped it with his toe, snatching it up: a willow branch six or seven feet long, as thick as his thumb.
Gripping the branch, the boy moved with lightning speed, his gaze fixed intently on Senior Brother Qu's sword tip, ignoring his hands entirely.
He tried to channel his vital energy into the willow branch—but beyond a foot and three inches, he lost all sense of control over it.A foot and three inches was far too short to counter the flying sword; the risk was immense.
Senior Brother Qu charged, his sword swirling around him—thrusting, slashing, smearing, lifting, hacking, shaking, cutting—as if wielded by an invisible swordsman, striking at Qin Mu from every devious angle.
Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle—the willow branch in Qin Mu's hand was reduced to a foot and three inches. The sword hacked down again, colliding with the branch with a clear "ding," as if striking steel.
Seeing his vital energy-infused branch block the sword, Qin Mu relaxed completely. His eyes locked only on the sword tip, and he wielded the foot-long willow branch like a pig-slaughtering knife, unleashing the blade technique the Butcher had taught him upon it!
Night Battle Amidst City-wide Wind and Rain!
Qin Mu's mind was utterly focused, pouring the Butcher's blade technique into the small willow branch without restraint.
Fast! Fast! Fast!
The Butcher called it the Pig-Slaughtering Blade Technique, with a single secret: speed!Speed like fleeting light and shadow, speed to sever a pig's head with one stroke!
Qin Mu threw himself into swinging the "blade," striking with unrestrained abandon. Clang, clang, clang—the sound of collisions echoed endlessly. The two moved at breakneck speed beneath the running herd, fighting from beneath one giant beast's belly to another's. The beasts' massive legs crashed down like pillars hurled from the sky; a single misstep would mean being crushed to powder!
Their steps seemed chaotic, yet followed a mysterious rhythm—always evading the beasts' stomps at the last moment.
Senior Brother Qu was both enraged and shocked: he was being beaten!He, a cultivated warrior, was being pummeled by this "little demon spawn" with a stick!Qin Mu's willow branch was barely a foot long—was it not just a stick?
His own sword was five feet seven inches long. He refined his qi into threads to control the sword, a skill passed down by the Five Elders of Lijiang—powerhouses who had broken the Heavenly Human Barrier and opened the Heavenly Human Divine Treasury. How exquisite was their sword control art!
The technique he wielded with his hands was a fist divine power created by the Five Elders: the Lijiang Formula. Channeling this fist art, his vital energy surged like a great river, crashing against the shores with overwhelming force.
Though he had not yet mastered it to the level of a divine power, its might was already extraordinary—capable of smashing steles, shattering rocks to dust with ease.
Yet these two supreme arts were full of flaws against the "little demon spawn's" stick, their defenses breached repeatedly. The stick rained down on his face, neck, collarbone, elbow joints, wrists, finger bones, ribs, back, waist, hips, back of knees, and ankles!
In mere moments, Senior Brother Qu was covered in bumps and bruises. How could he not be furious?
But fear weighed heavier on his heart.If Qin Mu had wielded a real blade instead of a stick…The consequences were unthinkable!
He was terrifying. This boy was at most eleven or twelve, barely reaching his chest. Even if he had trained from the womb, how could he have mastered such a fearsome skill?
Senior Brother Qu soon detected Qin Mu's weakness and calmed down: "His vital energy cultivation is pitifully weak. His moves are exquisite, but his power is negligible. Or perhaps… he is not a Spiritual Body at all—just an ordinary person…"
He finally grasped the key: Qin Mu was an ordinary mortal, not a Spiritual Body, and had not opened the Spiritual Embryo Divine Treasury. He had likely cultivated basic guiding techniques, granting him a modicum of vital energy.
But vital energy cultivated by ordinary mortals had no attributes and could unleash no power. Thus, even though Qin Mu's attacks far outmatched his own, they lacked lethal force and posed little threat.
"This little demon's blade technique must be a divine power—he simply cannot unleash its full potential. If I could obtain this divine power…"
Greed stirred in Senior Brother Qu's heart. Qin Mu could not harness the technique's power, but he could—if he wielded it, its might would be terrifying!
He could see clearly: Qin Mu's technique was a battle technique.
Battle techniques differed from divine powers like sword control. Sword control freed the hands, allowing the sword to fly and kill independently, making swordsmanship more flexible while enabling hand-to-hand attacks—far more versatile.
Battle techniques, however, took a primal path: they required the hands to wield weapons, channeling vital energy into the blade to maximize the power of each move and amplify divine power effects!
In truth, the superiority of battle techniques versus sword control had long been settled. Centuries ago, both coexisted, their practitioners constantly clashing to prove dominance—until a prodigy emerged from the sword control school, slaying, crippling, or driving off all top battle technique masters.
That prodigy was none other than the National Preceptor of Yankang Kingdom, hailed today as the strongest under the gods!
By now, there were only a handful of people left who still practiced combat arts. The superior divine abilities of the combat-technique lineage had been lost one after another. With no inheritors, only low-level techniques survived to the present day.
But true high-grade combat arts were still immensely powerful—and Senior Brother Qu was convinced that the little devil before him was using a genuine upper-level battle technique!
"I must obtain this technique! Capture him! No matter the method, I have to force him to hand over the cultivation method for this battle skill!"
Qin Mu's small wooden stick continued raining blows down on Senior Brother Qu. Though Qu fought desperately to defend himself, he simply couldn't block every strike; in just a short span, he was struck hundreds of times.
His head and face grew more swollen with each hit, his body aching all over. Panic began creeping into his heart. And the more flustered he became, the more chaotic his defense grew—allowing the wooden stick to land even more frequently.
Though it was only a small wooden stick, not very powerful on its own, paired with Qin Mu's strength and the relentless barrage of strikes, the accumulated damage was far from insignificant.
"He's going to beat me to death!" Senior Brother Qu felt a chill crawl up his spine.