Volume 1, Chapter 281 – Deadly Struggle

A brutal killing intent spread out in all directions, dragging everything nearby into a vision of mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

“You…”

A look of shock flashed uncontrollably through the burly man’s eyes. A martial artist’s six senses were extremely sharp, and that piercing killing intent enveloping his whole body felt as if it were freezing and shattering his flesh.

Death was within arm’s reach. With his life hanging by a thread, a trace of madness flashed through the burly man’s eyes. He stopped trying to pull back his strength and struck with everything he had. His huge fist drove a howling wind before it, full of overwhelming force.

Shi Lan took a moment to adjust to Ning An’s body, then sprang up, slow in appearance but fast in truth. Facing the man charging straight at her, she not only did not retreat, but advanced instead. Her sinews and bones stretched, giving off a sound like rolling thunder.

Her fair hand clenched abruptly. Her arm whipped out. She threw a punch.

Buzz.

Crack!

As the fist-shadow swept past, a shrill tearing sound split the air.

The two fist-shadows crossed. The burly man’s right arm exploded on the spot, and he flew backward even faster than he had come, almost smashing through the brick wall of the alley.

Boom!

The burly man crashed to the ground and spat out a mouthful of blood. His bones were shattered, and drifting dust and brick powder covered him from head to toe.

Ning An’s body was no martial genius. Shi Lan had only been in this world for two months. No matter how diligent she had been, practicing martial arts every day without the slightest slackness, her cultivation could not possibly be that high.

But after leaving the Lingyang Realm, the Jade Tempering Art and the Vajra Divine Fist seemed to have shed some kind of shackle. At this moment, Shi Lan was only at the first stage of the Body Tempering Realm, barely having stepped into the level where sinews and bones resonated as one, yet the strength in her body was already no less than a thousand jin.

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Compared with herself at the same cultivation level in the Lingyang Realm, her strength had nearly increased tenfold and could rival a martial artist at the ninth stage of the Body Tempering Realm.

If that kind of strength landed on a human body, merely tearing sinews and breaking bones would be the least of it.

The young man who had backed away saw his pupils contract. This sort of power had already gone beyond the scope of the Force-Tempering Realm. He had only just begun Bone Tempering and was not necessarily a match for this woman. After weighing things in his mind, he clasped his fists in salute and identified himself.

“My name is Zhao Ye, a disciple of the Wuji Sect. Today I failed to recognize greatness and offended a true dragon. May I ask what sect or school you belong to? Perhaps this is all a misunderstanding.”

Shi Lan unclenched her fist and flexed her fingers slightly. She had not really paid attention to what the young man was saying. What she cared about were the group of people hiding in the distance.

After cultivating the Secret Canon of Spirit Refinement, her senses had far surpassed those of ordinary people. Nothing within a hundred meters could escape her eyes and ears. Every word spoken by those people hiding far away had reached her clearly.

Lin Mo. Protagonist. Plot development. New arrivals…

The amount of information contained in those words was enormous.

Seeing that the woman before him showed no reaction at all, Zhao Ye frowned tightly. After glancing at the burly man lying not far away, he began to think about retreating and slowly stepped back.

“I ask, you answer. No lies, and you live.”

Shi Lan kept it brief and stopped Zhao Ye in his tracks.

She had no intention of wasting time playing word games with him. She had not planned to act at first and had wanted to see how the people in the distance would react.

But after hearing the words “Ning An has to die here today,” she gave up on the idea of watching from the sidelines.

Did he really think he had her completely figured out?

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Hearing Shi Lan’s words, Zhao Ye could not help showing a trace of anger in his eyes, but in the end he suppressed it.

That chilling killing intent forced him to be wary.

“Please ask.”

“Who is that person, and what were you looking for just now?”

Shi Lan jerked her chin toward the person embedded in the middle of the dumpster, neither clearly alive nor dead.

“I have a bit of a private grudge with him…”

Zhao Ye’s eyes flickered as he started to explain, but Shi Lan cut him off.

“If you won’t say it, then die.”

These people were obviously no decent sort to begin with. Shi Lan had already formed the intent to kill, and one look at Zhao Ye’s expression told her he was not speaking honestly. The little patience she had left was gone. Once she dealt with the people in front of her, she still had to go find the ones skulking in the dark.

“How arrogant!”

Even a clay figure had a bit of temper, much less Zhao Ye, who had never been anything close to kind. The utter disdain in the other side’s words twisted his face with a trace of savagery.

Shi Lan was not arrogant. In truth, from beginning to end, she had never really regarded this world seriously at all.

The bright lights and glamour of this world had indeed stirred a trace of long-lost homesickness in her, but compared with the world she had once lived in, she now preferred that vast heaven and earth, along with the shimmering scenery her eyes could no longer take in whole.

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The road ahead was still long…

Zhao Ye said no more. He strode forward, his sinews and bones stretching, and in the span of a finger snap he crossed more than ten meters to arrive before Shi Lan. Then he twisted his body and lashed out with a sweeping kick.

Like a flood-dragon whipping its tail, the air split apart with crackling bursts. Even before the leg arrived, the violent gale it carried had already blown Shi Lan’s long hair apart.

Zhao Ye was not weak. In terms of raw strength alone, he was at least not far behind Shi Lan as she was now.

Shi Lan narrowed her eyes slightly. Unmoving as a mountain, she sank her body down. The fist posture in her hands changed slightly, and she reached out in a claw, locking onto Zhao Ye’s thunderous leg as it came crashing in.

Vajra Dragon-Capture.

Bang!

The enormous force shoved Shi Lan back four or five meters, carving two deep furrows into the ground.

Zhao Ye’s gaze tightened. Just as he was about to withdraw his leg and switch moves, he discovered that his right leg had already been locked fast in place, unable to move in the slightest. The strength in this woman’s hands was astonishing, clamping him down completely.

Vajra Dragon-Capture was only an ordinary move within the Vajra Divine Fist. But if it were used by a true Vajra of the Chan sect, even a true dragon of the Nine Heavens would be little more than a toy in his palm.

Naturally, Shi Lan could not compare with a Vajra of the Chan sect at this moment, but Zhao Ye was even less of a true dragon.

Zhao Ye clearly had abundant experience in close combat. Seeing that he could neither wrench free nor drag her off balance, he twisted his body again and swept his left leg toward Shi Lan’s head. Hidden within it was thunderous force, crashing down like Mount Tai pressing from above.

A vast blast of air came down from overhead. Shi Lan ducked low to evade it, both hands still locked on Zhao Ye’s right leg, then suddenly combined the power of her waist and arms and hurled him away.

Boom!

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That terrifying force flung Zhao Ye sideways in an instant and smashed him through the alley’s brick wall. The violent impact almost shook all the bones in his body loose.

Fortunately, this was an area awaiting development and the residents had already moved out, so the huge commotion did not draw anyone else’s attention.

Zhao Ye could not stop coughing. Curling in on himself, he retreated into the pitch-black shadows.

After only that hurried exchange, Zhao Ye already understood the gap in strength between himself and the woman before him. Their actual strength might not differ by much, but the level of the martial arts they practiced was worlds apart.

He could not understand this woman’s fist art at all.

Shi Lan did not waste a single word. She strode after him, clenched her fist seal tight, and threw another punch. The tyrannical force of the blow blasted forward like a shell leaving the barrel, instantly punching the air before her into a vacuum.

Smack!

Zhao Ye’s eyes turned bloodshot. He suddenly bent backward, his bones giving off a series of soft cracks, and his upper body twisted into an impossible angle, barely evading the strike.

The violent wind of the punch grazed Zhao Ye’s chest, instantly tearing apart his upper garment. The skin on his chest split inch by inch, spraying blood everywhere.

Shi Lan turned, drew back her fist, then raised her leg and chopped downward in one flowing motion.

Her long right leg seemed to turn into a blade, slicing through the air and striking straight for Zhao Ye’s heart.

Bang! Bang!

Just as Zhao Ye was about to die, a string of crisp gunshots suddenly exploded beside Shi Lan’s ear.