Wuxia: Starting Off With 60 Years of Inner Strength

The man who was supposed to die narrowly escaped. With a flick of his hand, a hissing sound was heard as wisps of fine, white thread wrapped around his attacker’s neck. He gave a sudden, forceful tug.

With a SWISH, a head went flying.

As the head flew off, a centipede that had been trying to burrow into the man’s brain was revealed at the stump of the neck, writhing and twisting.

The scene was horrifying, yet the heretical practitioner was ecstatic.

He knew Lady Wu had arrived.

He immediately opened his mouth to call out. But as he did, the centipede suddenly launched itself into his open mouth and burrowed straight into his stomach.

"Ah!?"

The man was stunned. He coughed and gagged violently, but he couldn’t spit it out.

He couldn’t help but curse:

"Lady Wu, what are you doing?!"

No one answered from the shadows.

Others witnessed this, and someone roared in anger:

"What vile cur dares use such insidious tricks?"

But the surroundings remained utterly still.

The man who had shouted gave a cold laugh.

"Did you think I couldn’t find you just because you’re hiding? Everyone, be careful! There’s an expert in controlling venomous creatures prowling nearby.

"Watch out for insects burrowing into your body, or you’ll die without even knowing how."

At this, he suddenly leaped into the air, landed on a tree branch, and sat cross-legged. His ears, as if fitted with some strange mechanism, began to flap like wings.

"The Search Divine Great Art!"

Someone shouted, "Protect him!"

Instantly, four figures flew to the base of the tree he was perched in, forming a protective square as they faced outward, awaiting an enemy attack.

Jiang Ran’s brow furrowed. He pulled Ye Jingshuang close with one hand and placed the other on Liu Wenshan’s shoulder.

He circulated the Creation and Rectification Sutra, shielding them both with his Inner Strength.

Just then, the man on the branch stopped flapping his ears. He looked toward a specific tree and shouted:

"Found you!"

He leaped into the air, flew behind the tree, and thrust out his hand. A fair, slender hand reached out from behind the trunk to meet his.

The moment their palms met, a shockwave of Inner Strength and Gang Qi erupted, making the trees sway and the foliage bend low.

Even a good portion of the surrounding mist was blown away.

The man landed lightly, while Lady Wu staggered back more than a dozen steps. Once she regained her footing, she violently spat out a mouthful of blood.

"The Search Divine Great Art... and the Reversed Soul Devouring Palm!

"You’re a remnant of the Search Divine Sect! You’re Liao Chengfeng of the Ghost Sect!"

"Impressive. I’ve been absent from the martial world for thirteen years. I never thought someone would still remember me."

Liao Chengfeng roared with laughter.

"It’s just a pity that today..."

He trailed off, his brow suddenly furrowing. He glanced down at his palm and saw it was pitch-black. This blackness was creeping up the meridians of his arm, forming a sinister, web-like pattern.

"Your palm was poisoned?"

Hearing this, Lady Wu gave a bewitching smile.

"The Ghost Sect has quite the reputation. I wonder if my humble Seven Poisons Soul-Scattering Palm is enough to scatter that ghostly aura of yours!"

At her words, Liao Chengfeng suddenly retreated and shouted:

"Old Scoundrel!"

"Coming, I’m coming."

A man covered in clanking bottles and jars walked over. As he walked, he peeled a human-skin mask from his face, revealing the aged features beneath.

"What are you shouting for? It’s just a bit of poison, you’re not dead. With me here, even if you were dead... well, then you’d be dead."

"Stop your nonsense and hurry up."

Liao Chengfeng’s brow was knitted in concentration. Lady Wu’s poison palm had entered through the Shaofu acupoint and was traveling along the Hand-Shaoyin Heart Meridian. He was using his Inner Strength to fight its ascent, barely managing to halt the poison at the Shaohai acupoint.

The man known as the "Old Scoundrel" had now reached his side.

He took one look at Liao Chengfeng’s palm and nodded.

"The potent venoms of seven different creatures, refined and merged into one’s Inner Strength. No wonder they call it the Seven Poisons Soul-Scattering Palm.

"What’s impressive is that these seven poisons also incorporate the principles of yin-yang and the five elements. They generate and counteract one another in a seemingly endless cycle.

"But the balance is fragile... Here, Old Liao, I’m going to feed you a poison pill."

"..."

Liao Chengfeng shot the Old Scoundrel a glare.

The Old Scoundrel paid him no mind, taking a turquoise pill from his robes. He said to Liao Chengfeng:

"Open your mouth."

Without a moment’s hesitation, Liao Chengfeng opened his mouth.

"Don’t you dare!"

Lady Wu’s expression changed drastically.

In just a few sentences, the Old Scoundrel had completely deciphered her Seven Poisons Soul-Scattering Palm.

She knew instantly that the Old Scoundrel was giving Liao Chengfeng the poison pill to break the delicate balance between the seven venoms.

Once that balance was gone, it would be child’s play for someone with Liao Chengfeng’s Inner Strength to expel seven venoms that were no longer working in concert.

She stomped her foot. RUSTLE RUSTLE RUSTLE! Countless snakes, insects, and other vermin began to swarm out from beneath the fallen leaves.

She shot forward, a blur cutting through the air, but before she could reach them, a resonant voice boomed:

"You’re the one who shouldn’t dare!"

Just as the words were spoken, a burly figure appeared before her.

Lady Wu roared in fury:

"Get out of my way!"

She brought her palm down in a sweeping strike, but the man stood firm, not moving an inch. He suddenly clasped his hands together and bellowed:

"Amitabha!"

BOOM!

A deep thud echoed out as a spectral image, like that of a Vajra protector, materialized around the burly man’s body.

Lady Wu’s palm strike landed on the spectral image, yet failed to move it in the slightest.

Her face paled in shock.

"The Great Brahman Vajra Skill!?"

The burly man’s face took on a compassionate expression. He clenched a fist, and with a HUM, the very air seemed to be sucked into his grasp. He then threw a punch. As he did, the Vajra projection behind him moved in perfect sync, its glowing golden fist merging with his own massive, clay-pot-sized fist as it descended.