Xue Tian crawled out of the endless yellow sands of the desert, spat out two mouthfuls of sand, and flung the half-broken Iaijutsu sword in his hand, chasing after them.
"Ten kilometers..." "Nine kilometers..." "Eight point five kilometers..." "Seven kilometers..."
Zuo Dongting was seven kilometers from Lin Ling when he saw the sky-obscuring yellow sand rising on the path ahead! The sand resembled a reversed Lushan Waterfall, like an erupting Mount Shan, or perhaps a rain of yellow dust descending from the heavens.
Ahead of the sky-blotting sand stood a figure! His crimson eyes blazed with endless hatred. Behind him, a colossal angelic wing—one pure white, one inky black—flared out on either side as pure energy constructs. With every step he took, thunder cracked spontaneously, and the sand beneath him surged skyward the moment he lifted his foot.
Qin Fen! Zuo Dongting halted his Wukong Shu, his feet rooting deep into the sand. He took a deep breath, his face instantly flushing crimson. The Da Ri Qian Yang Gong, an art he uniquely forged by fusing the Nine Yang Divine Skill, the Purple Cloud Divine Skill, and the Blazing Fire Technique, churned wildly within him. Two strange currents of Zhenqi aggressively forced their way outward, slowly drawing the toxins clinging to him like maggots to bone.
Pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft... Black blood jetted from between Zuo Dongting’s fingers as the lion-shaped mobile armor chasing him split open on its underside, revealing the terrifying sharpness of a great spear.
The great spear! It was nearly four meters long, the cold edge of the spearhead easily the length of a bull's neck. One thrust was enough to pierce several men—an absolute weapon of slaughter.
As the spear shot out from the armor’s core, Zuo Dongting, without turning his head, snatched it from the void. His right foot twisted violently; as he kicked up a spray of sand, a fierce stream of Zhenqi shot backward, appearing like a giant python surging through the sand behind him! At that instant, he also launched his charge toward Qin Fen!
A thousand meters, a hundred-meter sprint at maximum velocity!
During the assault, the great spear in Zuo Dongting’s hand spun like a top, the spiraling air pressure generated by the tip emitting a loud whoosh, making one think of the rotor sound of a helicopter.
The spear, the Lion's Fang, which had carried Zuo Dongting across countless battlefields—it could pierce clean through not just a man standing in the way, but even a massive block forged from raw iron!
Zang Tian, in pursuit, leaped high, brandishing his half-finished saber. A single downward slash cleaved the airborne lion-shaped mobile armor perfectly in two.
A mobile armor was just that—an armor. Despite its imposing appearance, it possessed no real defensive capability. To Zuo Dongting, it was more a symbol of status or merely a means of conserving stamina for travel.
A missile briefly halted Zang Tian’s pursuit, and a long spear was deflected. The lion-shaped mobile armor had already served its purpose; Zuo Dongting cared nothing for what use this unarmored vehicle could still serve.
He didn't look back once, utterly unconcerned with the falling armor. His eyes were fixed only on Qin Fen! If he could just pierce Qin Fen, he could then rush the annoying sniper, kill him! Then kill Xue Tian, and the remaining young man—that would be enough!
Target locked, his mind utterly clear of distractions, Zuo Dongting poured his entire being into this fight. Watching Qin Fen charge toward him, less than a hundred meters away, he could not only feel the flow of every grain of sand beneath his feet but could also sense Qin Fen’s emotions—that mixture of killing intent and rage, and... that vast, overwhelming momentum!
In an instant, the sky-obscuring sand was no longer merely a side effect of Qin Fen’s high-speed run.
That boiling sand, the sand that remained calm, and even the air under the scorching Sahara sun began to rapidly converge upon Qin Fen!
Qin Fen’s fists, which could hardly be called graceful, radiated a heavy, imposing aura! Zuo Dongting felt that at this moment, he wasn't facing a single man, but this entire world! Even the sand rooted beneath his feet seemed to shift, offering him not a shred of assistance!
Facing a scene that looked like the stampede of a million wild oxen and rhinoceroses, Qin Fen’s arm, which suddenly shone with a blinding light, cut a perfect arc through the air. Zuo Dongting felt as if the sky had collapsed, his face struck violently by a mountain, his nose aching.
With less than a hundred meters remaining, Zuo Dongting felt as if that heavy fist had truly shattered his nose. This illusion stemmed entirely from that one punch! Grand, heavy, infused with the very soul of the Sahara, charged with rage and killing intent—that was the effect of the blow.
Though it was an illusion, Zuo Dongting clearly realized that if Qin Fen’s real punch connected with his head, even a skull made of starship material would be pulverized in three hits.
Even a slight graze from the fist would guarantee a comminuted fracture of the nose! Any protective divine art would be useless! Though both utilized Ren Gang Zhenqi, one at the seventeen-star level and the other at eighteen, Zuo Dongting held no advantage. The earlier penetration of Zhenqi and poison, though expelled, did not mean there was no damage to his vital energy.
The two strikes Xue Tian landed before the toxins and Zhenqi were expelled were certainly not ineffective attacks! While the bio-beast could restore the body, it could not restore vital energy! In a sense, Zuo Dongting was injured, and while these wounds would be meaningless normally, this time was different.
If he failed to withstand Qin Fen’s punch, Xue Tian, hovering high above, constantly locking onto him and yet holding back his attack, would join the assault. When that moment arrived... coupled with the third, unpredictable spear strike that had yet to materialize—the outcome would become uncertain.
Zuo Dongting's greatest miscalculation wasn't the martial prowess of Xue Tian and Qin Fen, but rather his failure to anticipate that spear could inflict wounds! Facing Qin Fen's fierce charge with the Shen Bang, Zuo Dongting roared a lion’s cry that echoed in all directions, the sound wave visibly distorting the surrounding air currents for ten meters! He thrust his great spear upward, aiming for Qin Fen’s throat!
Qin Fen moved his left hand in a "moon-scooping" motion, stepped diagonally aside, and dodged the stabbing spear with perfect precision! Zuo Dongting sneered, twisted his wrist, and swept the spear horizontally to cleave Qin Fen’s waist. His left hand, still in the "moon-scooping" posture, had already gripped the shaft of the spinning spear.
Zuo Dongting’s sneer deepened. His spiraling thrust—never mind a seventeen-star martial artist, even the Snake King could not withstand it...
Smack! The strength of Three Dragons and Ten Elephants erupted suddenly. The instant Qin Fen grasped the spear shaft, a visible white haze drifted from his palm—the result of high-speed rotation being forcibly arrested.
Zuo Dongting’s wrists vibrated painfully! Pure, brute force! While it might take a nineteen-star martial artist or one using Di Gang Zhenqi to halt the rotation of an eighteen-star warrior’s spear using Zhenqi power, Qin Fen possessed another ability: sheer might! This savage act brought intense pain from the friction against his palms!
But Qin Fen felt no pain, or rather, the pain of his rage far outweighed any superficial sting!
“Give me the spear... I said, give it to me!”
Qin Fen roared! With the explosion of brute strength, Zuo Dongting’s hands burned painfully. Under the counterforce of raw power, he completely lost control of the spear. It instantly vanished from his grasp and flew into the air...
Qin Fen had reached Zuo Dongting in the same moment. The colossal Feng Shen Bang descended from above, aimed directly at his head.
Zuo Dongting flipped both arms upward, sinking his body slightly. However, the aura within him surged violently, like a towering mountain. His arms shoved upward forcefully, as if raising a massive peak from level ground—this was the Mount Tai Majestic Peak stance from his Five Sacred Mountains Fist style.
"Mount Tai sits below, strength rises grandly, the heavenly tower arm supports!"
Zuo Dongting’s self-created Five Sacred Mountains Fist style gathered the majesty of the Divine Land's five peaks: Mount Tai's solidity, Mount Hua’s peril, Mount Heng's elegance, Mount Hengshan's singularity, and Mount Song's mystery!
Zuo Dongting’s Mount Tai Majestic Peak lifted upward, his momentum instantly rising. Facing Qin Fen’s overwhelming punch, he dared not employ any tactic that suggested gradual buildup—that would only serve as a stepping stone to elevate his opponent’s aura. His Ren Gang Zhenqi erupted fully, his Qian Yang Da Ri Gong causing his entire body to glow red. Even the sweat spewing from his pores was red! This was not blood! It was genuine sweat mixed with scarlet Zhenqi! It erupted from him like boiling, scalding water, only its color was red.
His arms remained steady, meeting Qin Fen’s Feng Shen Bang head-on, forcibly halting the momentum of the punch.
His blood surged, and a dull ache resonated in his chest. His arms felt as if they were being pierced by millions of steel needles!
The Feng Shen Bang was blocked, but the immense power could not be entirely neutralized. Zuo Dongting suspected that had it not been for the interruption of the spear attack slightly disrupting Qin Fen’s flow, he might have spat out a mouthful of blood right there. Though his throat felt sweet now, he hadn't actually coughed blood.
Rage churned in Zuo Dongting’s heart! A dignified eighteen-star martial artist—if he had faced the current Qin Fen under normal circumstances, while blocking the punch might have left his limbs numb, he certainly wouldn’t be struggling not to vomit blood. All of this was due to the cunning Xie Wu Yi, whose perfect coordination among these youngsters, combined with his prior depletion of vital energy, had allowed Qin Fen to strike him to the verge of vomiting blood.
Blocking Qin Fen’s fist, Zuo Dongting allowed no pause. Despite the pain and numbness in his arms, he stared with fiercely glowing eyes, gritting his teeth to pull together his scattered Ren Gang Zhenqi. A lion’s roar tore from his throat as he stepped forward, bringing his fist down in a chopping strike!
This downward strike carried immense, majestic momentum. Zuo Dongting’s entire body undulated like a great river. The trajectory was not a straight line; minute shifts made the final impact point incredibly tricky to predict. This close-quarters technique held a trace of lethal danger, while the slight swaying of his body hinted at deeper mysteries.
One fist, three forms! Zuo Dongting’s Five Sacred Mountains Fist—within a single blow, it contained the solidity of Mount Tai, the peril of Mount Hua, and the mystery of Mount Song!
As he unleashed the blow, Zuo Dongting felt that this world had returned to his control. He could even sense Qin Fen’s heartbeat and the speed of his blood flow.
From defense to offense, the transition time was almost imperceptible. Zuo Dongting entered his first true counterattack since the fight began! He intended to kill Qin Fen! Kill this ringleader! Before Xue Tian could descend, before that irritating sniper could lock on again!
Facing Zuo Dongting’s counter, Qin Fen seemed not to notice. The downward-pressing fist continued its descent, the elbow sweeping out in a brilliant arc as the fist pushed down—the target was Zuo Dongting’s forehead!
Mutual destruction! A fight to the death!
In Qin Fen’s hateful eyes, Zuo Dongting clearly read those words! That momentum of utterly reckless determination swept across all of Tilaha! It converged within Qin Fen, erupting in a punch imbued with the spirit of 'better to shatter than remain whole,' twisting into a suffocating torrent of overwhelming force rushing toward him.
“Die... together!”
A scream from the soul shook heaven and earth!
Zuo Dongting altered his punch’s trajectory, shifting his strike meant for Qin Fen’s head toward the elbow strike capable of splitting heaven and earth! The collision of Ren Gang energy resonated with the blast of an explosion, kicking up countless golden sands high into the air.
The two fists clashed. The sand beneath Zuo Dongting’s feet acted like boiling oil, sending him flying backward uncontrollably. In his eyes flashed disbelief. This seventeen-star punch had shattered the souls of three of his Five Mountains! He could not fathom how this young man could unleash such a resolute blow.
Thirty thousand feet high, Du Hen gasped. Qin Fen was too ferocious! Zuo Dongting was also a Ren Gang master; in terms of energy quality, he was by no means inferior to Qin Fen, and his eighteen-star power gave him a decisive quantitative advantage. How could he have been repelled?
Zuo Dongting instantly cast aside his surprise and doubt. Qin Fen’s super nano-combat suit was tearing open and automatically repairing, but it could not stop the blood gushing from his pores at the moment of rupture!
In other words, Qin Fen was injured! And it wasn't a minor wound! That momentary appearance of angelic wings suddenly vanished at this instant...
Not vanished... but absorbed... or rather, absorbed back into Qin Fen’s body.
Level Four Fusion was fully achieved, triggered by the pressure of the battle! After flying back several meters, Qin Fen was immediately back in front of Zuo Dongting, and the Feng Shen Bang smashed down again without mercy.
Zuo Dongting smiled. Qin Fen using that move after being injured—it was certainly peerless in momentum, but Zuo Dongting believed he could block it too!
The instant his Mount Tai Majestic Peak blocked the Feng Shen Bang, the smile on Zuo Dongting’s face froze. The overwhelming power suddenly vanished without a trace. Qin Fen’s arms, like great pythons, wrapped around his own arms.
“This is...”
Zuo Dongting thought of Xue Tian in the sky behind him. If a saber were to fly down right now... responding on instinct, he lifted his knees...
Qin Fen’s clinging, intertwined hands suddenly released. At extremely close range, the Lightning Step exploded. Qin Fen moved like the wind, circling behind Zuo Dongting. Spreading his limbs, he tightly ensnared the sleeping lion’s body from behind, unleashing the strength of Three Dragons and Ten Elephants once more.
Crack... crack... crack...
Flesh pressed against flesh; the impact of the Zhenqi became negligible... in an instant, it turned into a direct contest of pure strength between the two. Qin Fen’s brute force was fully realized at this moment. Zuo Dongting heard his own bones creaking, being stretched as if they were about to snap! His muscle, fascia, and bone felt as if they were being torn apart! Even his eighteen-star Ren Gang Qi could only barely hold the line.
“Zuo Dongting, do you still remember the Spear King?” Qin Fen coldly spat half a sentence into Zuo Dongting’s ear, then suddenly threw his head back and let out a world-shaking roar that seemed capable of blowing open the clouds above: “Fire the gun!”
That roar, containing accumulated emotion from several days, ignited all the blood in Qin Fen’s body, yet it struck Zuo Dongting’s bloodstream like the coldest liquid nitrogen.
"Fire the gun"—those two simple words implied mutual annihilation. Zuo Dongting knew Qin Fen would not die this time, because their heights differed, and the sniper would surely seize this opportunity.
Zuo Dongting finally understood: Qin Fen did this for one reason only—he wanted his master to personally take revenge!
“Aim... Lock... Fire!”
The bullet tore through several miles of air, spinning, piercing into the area where Zuo Dongting’s heart was located!
Puff! Blood sprayed out. The force with which Qin Fen had been pulling Zuo Dongting’s limbs suddenly transformed into the intense compression of a bear hug! The bones that were about to be pulled apart were violently crushed in that instant...
Crack... snap... snap...
Zuo Dongting’s bones audibly cracked. The intrusion of the bullet into his body ignited his final will to survive, allowing him to wrench himself free from Qin Fen’s bear hug with tremendous strength.
Blood flowed from his chest, where the heart was located. Zuo Dongting channeled immense power, shifting his vital center slightly at the critical moment. The bullet struck the heart region, but missed the organ itself.
This was the true strength of the seasoned veteran of the battlefield. He was unlike any opponent Qin Fen had faced before. Zuo Dongting possessed the iron will of a soldier, an unyielding will to survive at any moment, and endless combat experience—his tried-and-true method for repeated victory.
There was no time to breathe, no chance to rest. Qin Fen, with eyes that looked nearly possessed, was already pressing in again. His arms, once like white jade, now looked sharp as blades due to the rippling muscle movements!
The Heart-Plucking Hand! Zuo Dongting was so shocked he almost stopped breathing. Hadn't Qin Fen been injured during that bear hug just now? Did he truly need no recovery time? He had gained a slight advantage! Even if the heart could be displaced, the bullet had still damaged the organs surrounding the heart, possibly even the heart itself. Coupled with the deadly poison, he didn't need to rush back so fast; he could even ask Xue Tian for help.
Without any pause, a blood vessel in Zuo Dongting’s arm was severed! Another Heart-Plucking Hand! The freshly formed vessel was stripped away again. It took a third attempt before Zuo Dongting managed to block it.
A counterattack? The veteran general Zuo Dongting never forgot to strike back, but Qin Fen exploded again without any need for recuperation.
A furious dragon's roar erupted from Qin Fen’s lungs. Qin Fen himself seemed like a divine dragon emerging from the sea; this roar completely merged with the millions of years of the Great Sahara Desert.
Since humanity first appeared, people viewed the Sahara as an enemy, believing it encroached upon human land, occasionally attempting to traverse it as if conquering it, yet few ever bothered to understand or care for it.
Millions of years of solitude, millions of years of silent self-appreciation—the Sahara Desert possessed its own spirit. At this moment, Qin Fen truly integrated the entire soul of the desert into his body, intertwining it with his hatred and rage.
The moment the dragon’s roar burst from his lungs, the Feng Shen Bang appeared again!
The momentum of this punch truly climbed to its zenith. Zuo Dongting’s eye twitched violently. If there had been even a slight gap between them, he would have risked death to dodge.
But they were too close; he could only block! Facing this overwhelming onslaught, Zuo Dongting forgot his intent to kill Qin Fen, even forgetting the purpose of his presence here. He was completely immersed before this martial arts opponent. For years, striving against the Snake King, he had never truly managed to immerse himself; even when trying, he was still an emotional being, unable to achieve total focus.
Qin Fen’s life-or-death punch finally immersed Zuo Dongting! He sank deep, his five internal auras shifting: Elegance, Singularity, Peril, Mystery, and Majesty—the five aspects of the Five Sacred Mountains Fist. For the first time, the three-form fusion state achieved a five-form fusion.
A perfect punch! The zenith of the Five Sacred Mountains Fist, the connection of Five Auras, the unity of the Five Mountains! The most perfect defense!
Unlike Zuo Dongting’s immersion, Qin Fen’s eyes saw only hatred. The fist technique in his hand had even drifted beyond the scope of the Divine Fist Way, appearing more demonic—free, unrestrained, and acting purely on impulse.
One punch! The super defense formed by the perfect Five Sacred Mountains Fist was shattered. The fist pierced through the Five-Aura Linkage and slammed hard into Zuo Dongting’s heart.
Bang... puff...
A lifetime in the military, a life dedicated to martial arts—Zuo Dongting, with his iron willpower, known as one of the strongest martial artists among generals, the enemy of the Snake King for years, a Great Star-Level Martial Arts Master, could not withstand the punch of a possessed Qin Fen.
The punch struck the heart. A basin-sized hole blasted open on Zuo Dongting’s back. All his internal organs were pulverized, exploding outward mixed with blood. His body was sent flying high into the sky... gazing up at the endless firmament....
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