The heavy rain continued to fall.
Even though the 【Black Armor Battalion】’s martial aura had momentarily torn through the dark clouds, it hadn’t changed the overall situation. At this moment, Longxing County remained shrouded under the curtain of rain.
Wang Ping walked through it with a leisurely expression.
The raindrops landed on him, but all smoothly rolled off. The moisture was shaken away by an invisible vibrating force, preventing his clothes from getting wet.
His aura, meanwhile, had been suppressed to the absolute limit. His heartbeat, breathing, and footsteps were entirely inaudible. Rather than a person, he seemed more like a piece of rotting wood. As a result, he was ignored by everyone, and Wu Xintai failed to sense him as he casually walked out of the military formation.
I didn’t expect the 【Thief of Life】 to have such miraculous effects.
Since this immortal method bore the name “Thief,” there was naturally a reason for it. Right now, what Wang Ping was executing was the secret technique to conceal his life force and primal qi.
In this state, he could almost only be distinguished by the naked eye.
Spiritual sense couldn’t detect him, and divine intent couldn’t perceive him. He was like a non-existent ghost, wandering through the curtain of rain, quietly observing his prey.
Trying to leave?
His gaze locked onto Xu Bingzheng and Li Yiran in the distance. Without stopping, he rapidly approached them at a phantom-like speed.
…
“Outrageous… simply outrageous!”
Dropping down from the sky once again, seeing the gates of Longxing County right before him and the 【Black Armor Battalion】 left far behind, Xu Bingzheng finally breathed a sigh of relief.
With this relaxation, he immediately recalled the wealth he had to leave behind because he fled in too much of a hurry. The “filial piety” payments he had collected during his years as Magistrate—summer gift, winter gift, parting gift, festival gift, elegant bribes… an entire study full of it! And now, it was all going to fall into the hands of those ill-mannered grunts.
Is there any justice left in this world?
At this thought, Xu Bingzheng’s heart bled. Looking back now, it felt as if ever since Chen Haoyan died, nothing he did went smoothly.
Alas, he was still fleeing for his life.
No matter how reluctant he was, he could only cut his losses at a time like this. Xu Bingzheng swallowed his humiliation, silently swearing in his heart that he would definitely return to settle the score completely…
Soon, the two finally arrived at the city gates.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Just then, vibrations echoed from the distance. Li Yiran reacted first, a look of joy instantly appearing on his face: “It’s cavalry, the 【Scout Battalion】 is here!”
Hearing this, Xu Bingzheng was also overjoyed.
After all, his martial arts were far inferior to Li Yiran’s. While the 【Black Armor Battalion】 couldn’t kill Li Yiran, killing him would be easy. This had left him constantly feeling insecure.
But with the protection of the 【Scout Battalion】, he no longer had to worry.
Thinking of this, his anxious heart finally settled…
Yet in that exact fraction of a second, a loud thud abruptly rang in his ears. It was his heartbeat; the originally steady rhythm had suddenly fallen out of sync.
What was going on?
Wait!
In a split second, Xu Bingzheng realized what was happening—a divine intent warning! His intuition as a Titled Martial Master was telling him that a crisis was imminent!
Instantly, Xu Bingzheng pushed his divine intent to the absolute limit. The world in his eyes slowed down countless times as he rapidly formulated a counter-strategy. But in the next second, his vision suddenly darkened. In the supposedly frozen world, a fist had appeared, slowly smashing down toward his head.
“Courting death…”
After brief surprise, Xu Bingzheng immediately regained his composure, sneering inwardly: Don’t you know that Titled Martial Masters have divine intent protecting their bodies and aren’t afraid of sneak attacks?
Looking at this fist, it seems it doesn’t even have internal force?
An external martial artist?
Xu Bingzheng’s expression grew even more contemptuous. However, recalling the crisis he had just sensed, out of caution, he probed deeper.
Hmm, he has practiced quite a few martial arts.
But they’re all unorthodox techniques. So what if they’re cultivated to perfection? He’s not even wielding a weapon. How much power can a bare fist have…
Brimming with confidence, Xu Bingzheng spread open the 【Immortal Thread】.
And then his expression changed.
That fist smashed straight into the invisible net spread by the 【Immortal Thread】 without the slightest pause, its speed undiminished.
No techniques, no divine intent.
It was just a simple punch, yet it carried the courage of certain death and the determination of absolute victory. Backed by these convictions, the fist was invincible and unstoppable.
“Ah?”
Xu Bingzheng’s eyes widened in horror as he watched his 【Immortal Thread】, a Renowned Treasure-grade weapon, be effortlessly pierced open by that fist.
Then it struck his chest.
For an instant, he couldn’t even feel that he had been punched. His heart, internal organs, bones… the sensation of his entire body vanished from his perception.
His physical body remained standing in place, not blown away, because not a single trace of the force poured into that punch was wasted. It was entirely dumped into his body. Like a ruptured sandbag, blood surged frantically from his seven orifices, and his soul felt as if it had detached from his body, drifting into the air.
What happened?
Where was my 【Gold-Thread Soft-Spike Armor】? Where were my 【Myriad-Thread Dust-Repelling Robes】? Where was my 【Heavenly Roc Capturing the Dragon Force】? Where was my physique, tempered through a thousand trials?
Why couldn’t I block it!?
His thoughts came to a screeching halt.
Because that fist, after tearing through his 【Immortal Thread】 and successively shattering all his protective weapons, finally landed softly on his head.
In a daze, Xu Bingzheng saw it.
He saw the owner of the fist, recognizing him as the young martial general who stood beside Wu Xintai, and finally understanding why he found the man familiar earlier.
“It’s you!?”
That young constable who dared to forcefully break into the county office all alone, whose corpse mysteriously vanished after dying in battle… He didn’t die? He came back to exact revenge?
No, impossible.
He was merely an Internal Force Master. How could he possibly possess this kind of strength? It was illogical… It’s fake! It must be fake! It’s a hallucination created by divine intent!
Xu Bingzheng frantically circulated his divine intent, desperately trying to see through the “hallucination” before his eyes.
Yet no matter how hard he tried, the fist before him remained undeniably real. The only thing he could see were the 【Signature techniques】 wrapped around that fist.
A bronze head and an iron forehead, arms capable of lifting thousands of pounds, standing firm like a Vajra, a hundred-step divine fist, splitting monuments and cracking stones, stepping on land and piercing through steel, elbows heavy as mountains, knees like copper walls, a belly hard as armor, fingers piercing metal and stone, a throat locking steel blades, the golden spear never falling, bones of iron and sinews of steel, Indestructible Vajra Body… In an instant, brilliant light filled his pupils.
Bang!
A soft sound, as if a scorching hot steel blade had sliced through a block of tofu. Immediately after, only a tattered, headless corpse remained on the spot.
Completely different leagues. Wang Ping casually flicked his hand.
With the 【Thirteen Grand Protectors Body-Tempering Art】 perfected, supported by fourteen signature techniques, and combined with three cultivation traits, killing is simply too easy.
In the immortal sect world, someone of his level could only be considered to have just stepped onto the path of cultivation. He couldn’t even enter the outer sect and was completely unfit for the grand stage. Yet upon returning to the Great Shun imperial court, he could easily kill a Titled Martial Master ranked within the top 360 on the Weapon Register. What an immense disparity this was!
Thinking of this, Wang Ping couldn’t help but sigh:
“As expected… bullying noobs is still the most fun!”
However, right at that moment, Wang Ping’s vision abruptly turned black. His spiritual sense activated subconsciously, and a feeling of being observed surged into his heart.
“This is…?”
At this moment, his vision seemed to be pulled infinitely far away, cast toward the edge of the horizon. He actually saw an incredibly majestic and spectacular city of mountains.
Passing through countless streets, pavilions, and terraces…
Finally, his perspective stopped on a towering platform reaching into the sky. He saw a chart suspended there, inscribed with hundreds of names.
One of those names was exactly 【Xu Bingzheng】. Yet at this moment, it was gradually fading. As the light on the chart flickered continuously, the name 【Xu Bingzheng】 was erased out of thin air, turning into nothingness. In its place, an entirely new name leaped onto the chart in an inconceivable manner.
【Rank 37, Wang Ping.】
(End of Chapter)
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