Chapter 145: The Black Shadow, The Might of the Immortal Horn

The young man's speed surged as he lunged at Lu Yan. The two tongues protruding from his neck rapidly extended, spitting out streams of black water that emitted a pungent, foul stench.

Highly toxic.

Lu Yan retreated swiftly.

The youth slammed his tail heavily against the ground, his speed increasing explosively. In an instant, he closed the distance on Lu Yan, brandishing his saber in a fierce downward slash.

Simultaneously, the two snake heads continued to spew black water.

Lu Yan held a deep wariness toward the black water.

Ever since he learned of the virulent poison known as the Peach Blossom Charm, he had never dared to underestimate toxic substances.

Although his resistance to poison was formidable, he knew he could not withstand a venom capable of corroding his internal organs.

Lu Yan struck out continuously with his left palm, unleashing fierce gusts of wind that blew the black water aside, while his right hand wielded his saber to parry the opponent's strike.

Clang!

Lu Yan felt a slight numbness in his arm and took two steps back.

The opponent's strength had grown yet again.

Swish!

The youth's serpentine tail lashed out at Lu Yan like a steel whip.

Lu Yan leaped into the air, planted his foot lightly on the enemy's tail, and glided backward several dozen meters.

Leveraging the momentum of his snake tail, the youth lunged at Lu Yan once more.

However, Lu Yan was well-prepared. Utilizing the Cloud-Treading Step to evade, he flicked his movement twice and materialized directly behind his opponent.

The youth continued his frantic charges, while Lu Yan continued to dodge with ease.

After a dozen or so exchanges in this manner, the youth's momentum visibly began to wane.

Ceaseless lunging consumed a tremendous amount of bone-strength.

Bizarre and monstrous though a Martial Spirit might be, it was ultimately grounded in the realm of a Martial Marquis, meaning the primary energy consumed remained bone-strength.

Seizing the opportunity, Lu Yan merged his body with his saber, pushing his speed to its absolute limit. He surged forward in a flash and slashed across the opponent's chest, nearly cleaving him in half diagonally.

The moment his blade struck home, Lu Yan swiftly widened the distance between them.

The youth let out a嘶吼 (shriek/roar), his expression turning even more ferocious as he resumed his onslaught.

Relying on the propulsion of his snake tail, the youth unleashed his full explosive power. While his linear speed was terrifyingly fast, it lacked Lu Yan's agility and versatility. As long as Lu Yan maintained his focus, the creature simply could not land a hit.

After a few more passes, Lu Yan slashed out once again.

This time, his blade struck the two snakes on the youth's neck. Two severed snake bodies flew through the air and landed on the ground, writhing incessantly.

The youth shrieked in agony as the remaining flesh on his neck rapidly elongated, spawning brand-new snake heads.

"What in the world is this monstrosity?"

Lu Yan felt his scalp tingle, yet he acutely perceived that the opponent's aura had weakened noticeably.

Severing the newly regenerated snake heads inflicted far more damage than cutting the youth's physical body.

In that case, what about the tail?

Continuing to circle and engage the creature in combat, Lu Yan waited for an opening and struck again. This time, he aimed for the snake tail, cleanly slicing the two-meter-long appendage off entirely.

The youth seemed to suffer excruciating pain, emitting a miserable howl. As his body squirmed, a new snake tail grew back in its place, but his aura dwindled significantly further.

"He can still be dealt with; he isn't truly immortal."

Lu Yan's heart settled slightly.

This was his first time engaging a Martial Spirit in direct combat.

Such experience was invaluable to him.

Thud! Thud!

As one waxed and the other waned, every fraction of a percent the opponent weakened increased Lu Yan's advantage, making it progressively easier to land attacks.

In the span of a mere tea-brewing ritual, Lu Yan had successfully cleaved the youth seven times.

Each strike had either severed the twin snake heads or the serpentine tail, with the latter strikes targeting vital areas such as the head.

"Die—"

Though the youth's aura grew fainter, his appearance turned increasingly grotesque. Finally, a thick black smoke enveloped his body, and a shadowy phantom emerged from within him.

The moment this shadow materialized, Lu Yan felt every hair on his body stand on end, his scalp prickling as an icy chill flooded his heart.

Danger.

Extreme, overwhelming danger.

Lu Yan had a visceral intuition that if he did not leave immediately, he would surely die here today.

Therefore, without the slightest hesitation, he wheeled around and bolted.

"You won't escape!"

The youth shrieked, giving chase to Lu Yan with frenzied speed. His straight-line velocity was astonishing, proving to be not a whit slower than Lu Yan.

Lu Yan immediately altered his trajectory, hurtling toward the fortress situated on the blood-vein terrain.

That place housed two Grandmasters; surely this Martial Spirit would not dare to approach.

Both of them moved at blinding speeds, rapidly nearing the fortress.

Boom!

The fortress shook with a violent roar as its thick, heavy walls shattered continuously. A figure was violently hurled outward—none other than the female phantom monster.

At this moment, the female phantom was utterly weakened, her form growing translucent and dim like a fading mirage, on the verge of shattering completely.

Boom! Boom!

Two figures burst forth from within the fortress, soaring dozens of meters into the air before diving toward the female phantom.

Behind them, the black shadow enveloping the youth rapidly retracted, and the snake heads on his neck along with the tail at his spine shrank back into his body. He then whirled around and fled.

In the blink of an eye, he vanished without a trace.

"I finally managed to scare that thing off. A Martial Spirit truly lives up to its name; a martial artist of the same rank cannot hope to rival it, and even those of a higher cultivation realm cannot prevail against one."

Lu Yan thought to himself, harboring a profound dread toward Martial Spirits.

Back then, the Martial Spirit in Backing Mountain Village had only just completed the demonic possession ritual and had yet to fully step into the Martial Marquis realm, yet it could engage two Liu family Martial Marquises in a fierce battle. The Liu family Marquises could do nothing to stop them, and it ultimately required the intervention of the Liu family's ancestor to slay that Martial Spirit.

When martial artists embarked on the path of the Martial Spirit, they could inherit its legacy and experience explosive breakthroughs in martial arts.

Lu Yan was not overly concerned about this aspect.

The primary issue was that Martial Spirits possessed bizarre, special energies and an overwhelmingly tenacious vitality that made them exceptionally difficult to kill. If not for Lu Yan's bountiful bone-strength, anyone else would have been worn down and exhausted to death.

Furthermore, when weakened, that terrifying black shadow would manifest.

That shadow was unquestionably lethal.

"Martial artists communicate with Martial Spirits through special sacrificial rituals. Could that shadow be the Martial Spirit itself?"

"What on earth is a Martial Spirit? What kind of existence is it?"

Lu Yan pondered inwardly.

At the same time, he quietly retreated, taking a wide detour to descend the mountain from a completely different direction of the blood-vein terrain.

Yet, the enigma of the Martial Spirit continued to linger heavily in his mind.

"From the incident involving the Liu family ancestor, we know Martial Spirits can be killed; they are simply difficult to slay. When it comes down to it, my bone-strength lacks sufficient lethality. If I possessed the destructive power of inner-strength, killing a Martial Spirit probably wouldn't be so hard."

"Still, an inner-strength Grandmaster encountering an inner-strength Martial Spirit would likely find them equally troublesome."

"I wonder if mastering enough first-rate martial arts will allow me to fuse them into a supreme martial art."

Lu Yan mused.

During his three months of reading at the Li residence, Lu Yan had come to understand that in this world, martial arts were as numerous and boundless as the sea.

First-rate martial arts were not the peak; above them lay supreme martial arts, which were far more profound and powerful than first-rate ones.

It was simply that the six counties of Lingdong possessed no supreme martial arts whatsoever.

The bone-strength cultivated through a supreme martial art would undoubtedly be much stronger, yielding a far more astonishing destructive output.

If he could fuse first-rate martial arts into a supreme martial art and cause his bone-strength to undergo a qualitative transformation, his lethality against Martial Spirits should increase exponentially.

"The road is long and fraught with challenges," Lu Yan sighed inwardly, while remaining puzzled as to why a Martial Spirit had appeared in this location.

Could the fiendish ghosts and monsters be connected to Martial Spirits in some way?

Before long, Lu Yan reached the base of the mountain and headed toward the Northern District.

The female phantom monster had previously declared that the Monster King was leading a full-scale assault on the city with all its forces.

Lu Yan wanted to go and observe the battlefield situation.

If things took a turn for the worse, he would have to make a run for it immediately.

If the situation turned favorable, perhaps he could pick up some scraps, hunt down a few monsters, and earn military merits.

Although he had already successfully mastered the Heart-Tempering Art, Lu Yan still harbored an insatiable craving for the collection of first-rate martial arts amassed by the Zhao family.

With sufficient military merits, those techniques could indeed be redeemed.

Meanwhile, the fierce battle outside the Northern District had reached its white-hot climax.

The Monster King was immensely powerful. Zhao Tiansheng, fighting in unison with three other Zhao family Grandmasters, had exchanged hundreds of blows with the beast, yet they had failed to subdue it, resulting in a stalemate.

Furthermore, the rest of the human Grandmasters were gradually being pushed onto the defensive.

While the combat prowess of human Grandmasters was no weaker than monsters of the same rank, the monsters possessed formidable physical bodies with astonishing defensive capabilities, coupled with a complete recklessness concerning death.

Conversely, human Grandmasters—particularly those who had come merely to provide reinforcements—were reluctant to risk their lives.

"Everyone, fall back and regroup with me!"

Zhao Tiansheng's voice rang out.

The various Grandmasters fought while retreating, converging toward Zhao Tiansheng.

Meanwhile, the Grandmaster-tier monsters formed a fan-shaped formation, closing in to surround the human Grandmasters.

This scene played out before the eyes of the human martial artists manning the city walls, turning their faces pale and filling their hearts with terror.

If the human Grandmasters fell, the city of Lingwang would inevitably be breached.

And if that happened, death awaited them all.

What should they do?

Should they flee right now?

If they escaped prematurely, they might stand a chance at surviving. Once the Grandmasters were defeated, thinking of running would be far too late.

Just as a myriad of turbulent thoughts churned through the minds of the numerous martial artists, Zhao Tiansheng let out a low shout: "Now is the time! Immortal Horn, arise!"

A white, jade-like horn appeared in Zhao Tiansheng's hand. Measuring over a foot long, it resembled the horn of a rhinoceros.

Gripping the horn tightly, Zhao Tiansheng poured his inner-strength into it frantically, causing the object to radiate a dazzling white brilliance.

Roar!

The Monster King seemed intensely wary of the white light, roaring a few times as it instinctively stepped backward.

Seizing the opportunity, the other three Zhao family Grandmasters stepped forward as well, channeling their inner-strength into the horn.

The next moment, the horn miraculously hovered in mid-air, its brilliant white glow intensifying before transforming into a long, spear-like sword of light that pierced toward the Monster King like a blazing white rainbow.

Alarmed, the Monster King lashed out with a sharp claw, attempting to swat the horn away.

However, the instant it collided with the horn, its razor-sharp, artifact-grade claw—previously deemed indestructible—was instantly shattered into powder. Unstoppable, the horn pierced straight through the Monster King's chest and burst out from its back.

The Monster King shrieked in agony, rolling backward several times before struggling to its feet and fleeing headlong.

Terror gripped its heart.

The energy radiating from that horn was its absolute nemesis.

Its rich, turbid miasma encountered the white light upon the horn like snow meeting a blazing fire, melting away rapidly and proving completely incapable of defense.

"Do not let the Monster King escape! Kill it today to eliminate any future trouble!"

Zhao Tiansheng roared, leaping into the air to retake possession of the horn as he poured his inner-strength into it with frenzied abandon.

Upon landing, the three Zhao family Grandmasters caught up, channeling all their remaining inner-strength into the artifact.

Swish!

For the second time, the horn soared into the air, blazing with dazzling light as it locked onto the Monster King and lunged downward in a lethal thrust.

The Monster King emitted a shriek of sheer terror.

It had already been gravely wounded by the previous blow; surviving that had been sheer luck. If it took another hit like this, death was certain.

At that very moment, a figure sprinted forward like a bolt of lightning, leaped into the air, and swung a broadsword down directly onto the horn.

Clang!

A deafening shockwave reverberated across the entire battlefield as the horn was forcefully deflected.

The figure tumbled backward several dozen meters before landing.

It was a middle-aged man, appearing to be in his fifties with a three-inch beard. He possessed a scholarly, refined demeanor, yet his gaze flashed with piercing brilliance, exuding a natural authority that brooked no defiance.

"Who are you? Why are you aiding a monster?"

Zhao Tiansheng shouted in disbelief, finding it incomprehensible that a fellow human would step forward to protect the Monster King.

The middle-aged man chuckled softly, standing like a monolith before Zhao Tiansheng and his group while the Monster King capitalized on the moment to flee at top speed.