Chapter 373 Vanquishing
That scene was rather unbelievable.
As the crown prince who had been shielded by many experts saw Li Mu swing a punch in Yingshan Snow-eagle’s face, he gasped in terror and felt his brain ache, as if that punch had landed in his face.
The eyeballs of those experts of the Western Qin, including Yan Ruyun, almost jumped out of their sockets.
That was not what they expected.
The one Li Mu was dueling with was Yingshan Snow-eagle, the notoriously brutal Emperor’s Broadsword. Even if some people still did not know who the shaking old eunuch with white hair and beard was at the beginning of the attack against the Yue Mountain Faction, by the time, the sight of Yingshan Snow-eagle would send a chill down the spines of all the Imperial Executives and experts from various sects.
He was the god of killing who had murdered nearly a million people!
In a normal case, shouldn’t Li Mu be teased, subdued, and killed by Yingshan Snow-eagle as easily as playing a game?
But now?
Yingshan Snow-eagle was knocked to the sky like a wooden stake.
As Li Mu’s profile kept flashing, he quickly disappeared and reappeared around Yingshan Snow-eagle nonstop. One punch after another, he was having Yingshan Snow-eagle clobbered. Fists landed on the old eunuch as if he was just a punching bag.
“Humph…” Yingshan Snow-eagle flailed with outrage.
He snorted like he usually did and thrashed around desperately. Finally, he pulled himself free from Li Mu’s endless punches.
Then, he rapidly backed away.
But Li Mu started a hot pursuit in the nick of time like a raging dragon.
With his clothes battered, his face swollen and bleeding, and his skin bearing the punch bruises, Yingshan Snow-eagle galloped to the camp of the imperial army. Jets of blood mist squirted from his body, which reached out like tentacles and wrapped themselves around those imperial soldiers…
“Ah…”
“No! Mercy me!”
“Help!”
Shrilling howls and noises of jostling were heard.
Then, the tentacles of blood mist closed around the bodies of those imperial soldiers. Instantly, they shrank to dried forms, for all their flesh, essence, and strength had been sucked away.
Yingshan Snow-eagle was extracting those men’s vigor of life!
After that, the skin of the old eunuch rapidly grew supple and smooth. His white brows and hair became black and sleek. He looked much younger then, as though a stalwart, middle-aged man.
“Well, Li Mu, I will teach you what real power is, and what…” Yingshan Snow-eagle remarked with a cold smile.
But before he could finish his words—
A jet of light flashed. Next, Li Mu shot toward him and threw him another punch, which landed on his lips and tossed him to the air again.
Teeth fluttered everywhere.
“Fu*king your power…” Li Mu’s eyes were burning red. He had entered a weird explosive state. The energy summoned by the Zhenwu Boxing was raging across his muscles, bones, and organs like huge rivers. Roars of dragons and tigers sounded from his spine.
Yingshan Snow-eagle was struck dumb by that punch.
He had returned to his prime time, but how come…
“I want you to beg me for a quick death!” Yingshan Snow-eagle snarled. More shots of blood mist fanned out, covering most of the military camp. Numerous howls and screams of the soldiers sounded.
Down the way the blood mist blew, all the vigor of life was gone.
Dried corpses lay on the ground. Even the spiritual power in those armors was drained. Even at the end of their life, those imperial soldiers still could not believe that they fell in the hands of an ally. All their faces, though already dead, told others their fury and despair.
Yingshan Snow-eagle was wolfing down the flesh and essence of those men.
It was indeed a kind of horrifying and sinister witchcraft.
Yingshan Snow-eagle’s appearance continued to change. Shortly, he became a young man in his 20s. Long hair billowed at his back like a cascade. His back stood straight and upright, his facial features exquisite and dangerously enchanting. Sure enough, he used to be a rare handsome man.
“You made me! Li Mu, I will…” He jeered wickedly as he furtively plucked up his strength.
However—
Swoosh!
A stream of light zoomed past.
Boom!
Yingshan Snow-eagle was blown to the air again.
All of his teeth were knocked off, and his cheeks were smashed.
His distorted face was written with outright shock and disbelief.
“Why have I… been hit again?”
“I sure have… returned to the state full of blood and qi. I…”
Bang!
Another punch arrived.
Yingshan Snow-eagle’s body burst open right off.
Blood mist rose to the sky. Pieces of white bones splashed everywhere.
Nonetheless, being a Sage, he recollected the blood mist and the broken bones with his Cultivation Method running in motion and reassembled them. Soon, his body recovered, only that the marks of the punches were distinct and the corners of his mouth were still bleeding.
Black blood dribbled down his chin.
“This can’t be. Did you conceal your power on purpose?” Yingshan Snow-eagle truly started losing his nerve.
He had cast all his skills and techniques. He had even resorted to the forbidding art like the Strength-restoring Dark Method and engulfed more than 10,000 lives, souls, and flesh of the soldiers. But he failed to fend Li Mu off all the same?
“How could that bastard get so strong?”
“Have he really obtained the treasure hidden in the Yue Mountain Faction?”
“It was left by that man ages ago.”
Pieces of vague and remote, distinct but scary memories surged up despite him. Then, he was drowned by a flood of terror.
“If he did inherit that man’s power…”
Yingshan Snow-eagle abruptly let out an odd squeak and turned tail.
He decided to flee!
After a moment of daze, Li Mu slightly lowered his shoulders and did a forward somersault. Thanks to the Somersault Cloud, he caught up to Yingshan Snow-eagle in a trice.
Boom!
The power roaring inside him shot up through his spine, his arm, and his fist before bursting out.
“Ow…” Yingshan Snow-eagle was sent flying backward.
Like a shooting star, he caught fire in the air and then clashed right with the body of one of the other two Flying Whale Shuttles. Deafening explosions sounded. As if being hit by a huge bomb, that massive Flying Whale Shuttle quaked before cracking…
All sorts of star tactical deployments in and out of the Flying Whale Shuttle blasted, too.
On the deck and in the cabin, the experts and the armored soldiers were all shrieking and trying to jump off the shuttle. Some people opened a gear similar to a parachute and slid downward.
Like a fired bomb, Li Mu shot straight into the center of the explosion.
Boom!
The fist had hammered into something.
Then, Yingshan Snow-eagle’s badly damaged body was catapulted out of the explosion range and once again hit the last Flying Whale Shuttle, crushing countless floors.
The third Flying Whale Shuttle also exploded and fell apart.
With the Somersault Cloud, Li Mu suddenly appeared in front of Yingshan Snow-eagle and punched him backward.
By that point of the battle, all that left was a one-sided assault.
Regarding the three Flying Whale Shuttles the Western Qin Empire sent there, the leading shuttle had been gravely damaged, and the other two had been destroyed completely. And the destruction was done in a way outrageously brutal.
Clusters of “flowers” bloomed in the sky.
Those were the parachute those imperial soldiers opened when jumping off the shuttles.
Clearly, it was not the first time the imperial army met such a situation. In previous wars, some of their Flying Whale Shuttles had been shot off. Thus, the alchemists in the Western Qin developed the equipment that could help the practitioners who could not fly have a safe touch down.
Meanwhile, the cavalry of the Flying Eagle Battalion circled the shuttles on the back of the eagles to rescue their falling colleagues.
In midair, Yingshan Snow-eagle was struggling desperately, attempting to fight back.
Being a Sage, his body housed accumulated Taoist Principles. When his body was blasted by the Emperors’ Fire, half of his Taoist Principles was ruined. But those Taoist Principles could recover on their own accord. That was why his body healed itself after every blow. During those long ages, Yingshan Snow-eagle had broken into numerous factions, killed countless practitioners, and gained loads of secret skills. Yet, no matter what kind of secret skills he cast at the moment, they were all immediately shattered and cracked Li Mu’s fists.
That irked Yingshan Snow-eagle even more.
None of his secret skills could withstand a single punch Li Mu launched.
He vaguely saw the Great Way contained in Li Mu’s punching method— his fists could frustrate any strike.
Eventually, Yingshan Snow-eagle came to the end of his wits.
His essence, Taoist Principles, and the vigor of life he extracted from more than 10,000 imperial soldiers were almost exhausted. He never knew one day he could come down to that level— being too severely beaten to fight back or take a flight. All he could do was take the blows.
Li Mu’s profile was still flashing in the air.
Yingshan Snow-eagle was being dribbled like a ball.
“Run! Run fast…” Cried the crown prince. He was shivering from head to foot. His heart pounded in fear. Although he was quite a talent and had acquired the necessary ability to keep calm when facing danger after having been cultivated by the royal force for years, at that precise moment, the years’ worth of education and training already lost its stride.
Li Mu’s fierce madness scared all of them out of their wits.
“Retreat! Beat a retreat!” Yan Ruyun shouted. “Get an eagle here to take His Highness away.”
“Away? Go where?” A frosty voice was heard.
To Yan Ruyun and the crown prince’s trepidation, the battle was already over, and Li Mu was gripping Yingshan Snow-eagle’s leg in one hand. As if hauling a dead dog, he dragged the god of killing downward before landing on the deck.
In an instant, it felt like the freezing winter had befallen the shuttle.
Yan Ruyun, the crown prince, and the other experts all froze to their spots and dared not to move an inch as Li Mu’s eyes scanned across them.
The famous Emperor’s Broadsword was still alive, though his body was mutilated and his breathing was very thin. Completely losing the strength to fight, he had to let Li Mu seize his ankle and yank him across the deck, leaving a track of black blood in his wakes.
By then, he had returned to his aged appearance— white hair, creased skin, and weak limbs. His breathing was irregular. His eyes were filled with shame, spite, resentment, and astonishment.
A thud was heard.
Li Mu flung his hand and tossed Yingshan Snow-eagle to the floor ahead.
Stamping a foot on his chest, Li Mu said, “As I’ve said, I will make them watch you die. You beast don’t deserve to live in the world. But, before I kill you, you must apologize to them.”
Li Mu kicked Yingshan Snow-eagle to face the bodies of the Ning couple.
“Get on your knees!” Li Mu bellowed.
“Humph. You… You want me to prostrate before two ants… You… are… insulting me. You…” Yingshan Snow-eagle, who was lying on the floor of the deck like a dog that got its spine snapped, gasped and sneered.