And so, after the inheritance, every single expert from the foreign races conducted an in-depth and meticulous analysis of all the Heaven's Punishment tribes, studying them from different angles to find targeted weaknesses and prepare for battle.
This was, in essence, a highly brilliant move, truly a case of being prepared for any eventuality—a timeless maxim! Yet, no one could have ever imagined that the highly specialized techniques they had spent countless efforts researching to counter the Heaven's Punishment Ferocious Beasts—some of which were battle strategies devised by their own ancestors over millennia—would, in today’s crucial engagement, actually become a trap!
A fatal trap!
However, regarding this lethal snare, even the assembled Heaven's Punishment Mysterious Beasts were quite bewildered. They had no idea when exactly they had managed to spring this trap on the foreign races.
The answer, in truth, was simple: when Jun Moxie first entered Heaven's Punishment and became acquainted with the Beast Kings, his singular impression of the attack patterns possessed by the Heaven's Punishment Ferocious Beasts was that their combat style was far too monotonous! They relied solely on innate talent, on the sheer instinct of the beast! How could this possibly suffice?
The "Fierce Tiger Three Extremes"—a pounce, a brace, and a tail sweep—was undoubtedly sharp, but even the most formidable technique, once repeated multiple times, would inevitably see its threat level drastically reduced, making its flaws far easier for an opponent to discern. If they relied on targeted strategies, almost every beast would simply be walking into a death sentence. In such a scenario, the deployment of the Heaven's Punishment Beasts would cease to be an advance and become a procession to the slaughterhouse!
Young Master Jun naturally did not wish for his brothers-in-law to be so deficient in offensive skill. Before, lacking the means, monotony was inevitable, but now, Young Master Jun, having lived two lifetimes, possessed a mind brimming with worldly knowledge. Coupled with the vast knowledge resources of the Hongjun Pagoda and the Grand Creation Art, all his deficiencies, whether in technique or theory, had been perfectly compensated for!
Thus, under the vigorous promotion by Jun Moxie, the martial arts and combat skills possessed by every single tribe within the entire Heaven's Punishment Forbidden Land were entirely revitalized! They were now completely different from their previous, monotonous traditional fighting methods!
And this "deviation..." for the foreign races, whose understanding of the Heaven's Punishment Forbidden Land was deeply ingrained, meant that virtually any random move they executed was a potentially fatal trap!
To put it as an example: the "Fierce Tiger Pounces on the Sheep" is a forceful downward strike. When an opponent unleashes this move, they naturally and subconsciously prepare the corresponding counter-move.
But when the counter-move is unleashed, one unexpectedly discovers... that the initial move only possessed the outward appearance of a "Fierce Tiger Pounces on the Sheep"; deep down, it was actually the supremely yielding "Spirit Snake Flicking its Tongue," and the deeper killing move had transformed into an impossible-to-predict "Monkey Steals the Olive"...
What kind of feeling would that evoke?
Heaven bears witness, Earth holds conscience; when Jun Moxie first imparted the concepts and foundational methods for these techniques, he truly hadn't considered things reaching this far. The foreign races having the misfortune to partake in this unexpected consequence was purely down to coincidence and sheer luck!
It truly was not something Young Master Jun had intended!
Because these bizarre and unorthodox techniques were originally prepared by Jun Moxie for the masters of the Three Great Sacred Lands.
And now, the ones suffering the consequences were, ironically, the foreign races...
Fate plays cruel games; Heaven's will is inscrutable!
Therefore, Xiong Kaishan's current move, "One Sword Slashes the Heavenly Scion," had its foundation in the Xiong Clan's revered sword technique, "King's Sword Nine Heavens"; but after Jun Moxie altered it, everything shifted in meaning.
Seeing Xiong Kaishan leap up, Qiang Shang Nuju immediately recognized the notorious, ultimate killing move: "King's Sword Nine Heavens"—this was the Xiong Clan's signature technique! However, over the years, the foreign races had already developed targeted countermeasures sufficient to break this move.
So, Qiang Shang Nuju stood ready, confident and full of conviction, waiting for Xiong Kaishan to step into the death trap, ready to deliver the fatal blow and end everything!
But Qiang Shang Nuju never could have anticipated that the move, which was so intimately familiar—the "King's Sword Nine Heavens"—would suddenly transform halfway through its execution into this completely unfamiliar technique, "One Sword Slashes the Heavenly Scion"! Rendering all his pre-planned sequences obsolete!
At that moment, surely no one could fully comprehend the complexity of Qiang Shang Nuju’s feelings.
Only one thing was certain.
Given Qiang Shang Nuju’s strength, if he had recognized from the start that this was not the supposed "King's Sword Nine Heavens," then no matter how powerful the "One Sword Slashes the Heavenly Scion" might be, it absolutely could not have killed him. At worst, it would only have inflicted grievous injury.
But when more than half the momentum of the sword technique had been unleashed, and impact was imminent, Qiang Shang Nuju tragically realized the discrepancy: Damn it! This isn't the King's Sword Nine Heavens! I've been tricked?
Consequently, Qiang Shang Nuju panicked instantly.
When one's life is threatened, who wouldn't panic?
In truth, considering Qiang Shang Nuju's cultivation level, if he hadn't panicked, while he would certainly have been put at a disadvantage, he would not have died. Even if severe injuries were unavoidable in the end, the Xiong King would surely have had to pay with his life!
With his mind unsettled and his momentum severely damaged, it was clearly too late to dodge now. The grand power of the "One Sword Slashes the Heavenly Scion" had locked onto him. At this juncture, if he dared to forcibly activate his Hidden Kill Art, it would be equivalent to completely abandoning his own defense, leading only to a faster death!
Thus, in desperation, seeking a chance to survive, Qiang Shang Nuju resolutely launched a frenzied counter-assault!
Unfortunately, his decisive action was a fraction of a second too late!
In high-level combat, a hair's breadth of difference leads to a vast divergence; the slightest error dictates life or death!
"One Sword Slashes the Heavenly Scion" was no ordinary technique; it was a supreme move tailor-made by Young Master Jun for the Fourth Brother-in-law Xiong. Once truly executed, this technique could boost Xiong Kaishan's ferocious attack power by more than double!
The sharpness of the Xiong King Sword, combined with the immense power of the "One Sword Slashes the Heavenly Scion" technique, and further enhanced by Xiong Kaishan's Saint Emperor Profound Qi and his brute strength, finally cleaved Qiang Shang Nuju into two pieces!
But what ultimately rewrote the outcome of this battle was the third miscalculation: the Xiong King was actually carrying that heaven-defying immortal medicine capable of bringing the dead back to life! This was the most unjustly infuriating aspect of Qiang Shang Nuju's death!
His overall strength clearly surpassed his opponent by a wide margin, almost twofold, yet in the end, he fought the opponent to a mutual destruction. This alone had already left Qiang Shang Nuju, the Mad Blade Earth Ninja, so frustrated he almost wanted to die again. But in the blink of an eye, he watched the opponent casually swallow a pill and instantly spring back to life, completely unscathed...
It could be said that Qiang Shang Nuju was ultimately enraged to death!
With his profound cultivation, he might have lingered for perhaps half a day longer. But being hit by this string of absurd accidents—the anger, the shame, the disbelief, the sheer incomprehensibility—he immediately passed away...
Such a humiliating death, for a master warrior, was an injustice as clear as snow falling in mid-June!
Xiong Kaishan, restored to full strength, stood there majestically, hands planted on his hips, roaring with laughter, pointing his fingers—as thick as radishes—at the lineup of foreign races opposite him, arrogantly picking them out one by one: "You, you, you, you, you! Come out! Let your old daddy slay you and have a proper thrill..."
Come out and let your old daddy slay you for a good thrill!
What kind of outrageous nonsense was that? Did they travel all this way just to entertain him?
Prior to this moment, the Xiong King's words would absolutely have elicited torrents of curses from at least ten thousand people. But at this instant, not a single person responded! All the foreign races displayed expressions of sheer panic, retreating a step in unison, their eyes revealing undisguised terror and dread.
Especially Xia Chuan Pao Gua, who had just been fighting Xiong Kaishan, nearly fainted.
Damn it, this bear was hiding his true power so deeply! Fortunately, I didn't press him too hard earlier, and I retreated as soon as I sensed something was wrong. Otherwise...
Glancing at the corpse of Qiang Shang Nuju, now split in two, Xia Chuan Pao Gua felt a chill run down his spine, his whole body shuddering. Both faces on his dual heads turned deathly pale: Otherwise, the one lying there in two pieces right now would be me...
Even that might have been understandable; accidents happen on the battlefield, and victories of the weak over the strong were not unheard of. But, truthfully, damn it, that black bear had clearly suffered two fatal wounds just now, his heart had been ripped out, and his body cleaved in two, yet now he was miraculously recovered! He was alive and kicking! What point was there in fighting this bear if he possessed medicine that allowed him to cheat death by eating it? Fighting him further would only be courting death, wouldn't it?
"My King is mighty! My King is invincible..." Three thousand Xiong Clan warriors roared in unison.
Amidst this mixture of anxiety and jubilant acclaim, the Eagle King was frowning up at the sky.
They could hold the line for now, but since their Eagle-Xiong coalition landed, they had already fought three battles in less than an hour! The second wave of reinforcements was still at least three more hours away!
Yet, in this span of less than an hour, the opposition had already revealed nearly two hundred Netherworld Ghost Ninjas and one supreme master at the Mad Blade Earth Ninja level. Fortunately, the Fourth Brother had managed to strike down the strongest expert on the opposing side, temporarily stabilizing the situation.
But... who knew how many more monstrous figures might emerge in the next three hours? This location was right on a major thoroughfare; the sides were evenly matched. If the enemy truly managed to bring more masters here, discerned the true state of their formation, and launched an all-out, no-holds-barred assault, he and Xiong Kaishan might genuinely be unable to withstand it!
The Eagle King took a deep breath and glanced back at the eight figures behind his own troops. He felt a measure of certainty: perhaps with eight Saint Venerable seniors and Saint Kings here, holding out for three hours should be manageable...
But just then, thunderous sounds began to echo from the distance, growing more intense and vast until the clamor surpassed even the roar of the distant volcanic eruption.
Simultaneously, a sound so strange it was indescribable rose from all directions—a sequence of short and long chirps, like ghostly wails. In an instant, the entire world seemed saturated with a chilling, spectral aura.
This chilling spiritual energy, however, was vastly different from the bone-chilling aura of the Fourteen Lords of Nine Nethers. The aura of the Fourteen Lords emphasized the word "cold"; this pervasive ghostly energy was saturated with the atmosphere of a spectral realm. (Uh... while I was on leave for my surgery, someone commented: It’s just such a small operation, you don't even need to take time off—what are you asking leave for? Are you trying to trick us? And when I took leave because I was drunk, someone commented: You just had such a major surgery! And you still dared to drink? Are you trying to trick us? Never mind that it has been over twenty days since my surgery, nor the size of the operation. Everyone already knows this part. Indeed, the surgery wasn't major...) But what was interesting... was that I suddenly realized both posts were made by the same person, leaving me momentarily speechless. Then, I suddenly calmed down...