Once, twice, three times... countless times.

Memories of his arduous training in the Eight Extremes Bone Forging Skill seemed to transform into phantoms of light that overlapped with Fu Juemin’s body, rapidly fusing into his very blood and marrow.

With each phantom that merged, Fu Juemin’s body swelled, his aura growing stronger and more profound.

His eyes were half-closed as he immersed himself in the wonderful, dizzying sensation of his power soaring.

WHOOSH—

The figure in colorful clothes, who had been fluttering erratically against the red cloth, finally landed.

The man in colorful clothes had a grim expression. A dark red stain spread across his lapel, and his left arm hung at an unnatural angle. Blood dripped from his fingertips, splattering onto the stone slabs below.

He had been shot twice—once in the chest and once in the arm.

The bullets were embedded in his flesh, stopped by the bone. For a Martial Artist who had already broken through the Blood Barrier, it wasn’t a fatal wound.

What he truly found unacceptable was that he had been ruthlessly toyed with by prey he thought he could capture and handle with ease.

While playing him for a fool, his opponent had even gone so far as to shamelessly insult his appearance.

The mockery and contempt that flashed in his opponent’s eyes the moment the gun fired... were far more wounding than any bullet.

HISS—

The man in colorful clothes took a deep breath. As he did, the wounds on his body contracted, and the bleeding stopped.

He kicked off the ground, his body shooting forward like an arrow released from a bow, lunging toward the figure in the distance that he hated to his very core.

That figure was now half-bent over, head slightly lowered. Compared to before, his physique seemed to have grown a full size larger.

But the man in colorful clothes didn’t notice this. His entire attention was focused on the opponent’s right hand, which was gripping the revolver.

Seeing that the ejected cylinder was empty, his heart settled slightly.

While remaining wary of another hidden gun, his killing intent surged as he rapidly closed the distance.

"Young Master Fu, I’ll be sending you on your way now!"

The distance between the two closed rapidly.

Twenty paces, fifteen, ten...

The moment the man in colorful clothes came within five paces of Fu Juemin, the half-stooped Fu Juemin abruptly raised his head and snapped his eyes open.

An formless wind quietly rose between them.

The eyes of the man in colorful clothes were ice-cold. He shot out his right hand, his five fingers like a hook, tearing through the air straight for Fu Juemin’s throat.

Facing this attack, Fu Juemin advanced instead of retreating. He took a step forward, his arms whipping up like lashes and striking out from the left and right at an incredible speed.

But the man in colorful clothes was completely unfazed, even letting out a sneer.

"I almost forgot, Young Master Fu has also practiced martial arts... Heh heh..."

From beneath his fluttering, colorful sleeves, the man’s other hand shot out, precisely blocking Fu Juemin’s fists.

The reflexes and speed of a Blood Gate Martial Artist were not something a Martial Artist who had yet to break the Blood Barrier could compare to.

It was just like that brat with the dual blades using Tongbei earlier. Although he was also in the Blood Refining stage, in his eyes, he was still as weak as a child.

The momentum of his right claw didn’t change. In just half a second, he would grab Fu Juemin’s neck and crush it in his palm like a baby chick.

He could almost hear the beautiful sound of the man’s neck bones snapping.

’His reaction is too slow... His speed and strength are on a completely different level...’

But just as the man’s right hand was about to touch Fu Juemin, Fu Juemin’s body, as if boneless, suddenly twisted at a bizarre angle, narrowly avoiding the fatal claw!

"What?!"

The man in colorful clothes froze, stunned. Before he could react, he heard a dense series of popping sounds, like beans crackling in a hot pan, followed by the crisp sound of suit buttons bursting off.

Before his eyes, Fu Juemin’s body suddenly swelled. Muscles layered up from his waist and back; beneath his suit, it was as if a giant python was coiling its way up his spine...

The world blurred for the man in colorful clothes as Fu Juemin brutally slammed into him.

Wuling Han Yue!

BOOM!

As if struck in the chest by a ten-thousand-jin hammer, the man in colorful clothes was instantly lifted off his feet, his eyeballs bulging. Amidst a sickening series of bone-cracking sounds, he was sent flying backward like a broken kite, crashing heavily onto the ground more than ten meters away.

"You...."

The man in colorful clothes lay paralyzed on the ground, continuously spewing bloody foam from his mouth. At this moment, his face was filled with nothing but utter shock and horror.

In his vision, wisps of black energy seemed to rise from Fu Juemin’s back, gradually outlining the form of a large, shadowy black serpent. Its blood-colored serpentine eyes were coldly fixed on him.

"You... are not... human..."

The man in colorful clothes said, pointing at Fu Juemin as he coughed up blood.

"I don’t like that assessment."

Fu Juemin exhaled a breath of stale air, casually loosened his constricting collar, and walked step by step toward the man in colorful clothes.

[Eight Extremes Bone Forging Skill (Great Success: Attack +6, Defense +6)]

The Eight Extremes Bone Forging Skill at the Great Success Realm directly increased both of its bonus Attributes by 3 points.

Not only had his strength leaped to the Great Success of the Bone Forging Realm, but his [Attack] had also soared to 13 points, the strength in his arms increasing by an immeasurable amount.

’Even with this level of Attack, combined with the [Soft Bone] Talent, he still didn’t die instantly from the Wuling Han Yue technique. The resilience of a Blood Gate Martial Artist has once again broadened my horizons.’

While calming his roiling Qi Blood, Fu Juemin tore open the inner lining of his suit jacket and pulled out spare bullets from a specially sewn hidden pocket, loading them one by one into the revolver’s cylinder.

Ever since the incident with the mountain bandits, he always made sure to carry extra ammunition whenever he went out.

CLICK—

The cylinder clicked crisply back into place as Fu Juemin arrived in front of the man in colorful clothes.

He raised the gun, aimed, and, without a shred of hesitation, pulled the trigger.

BANG!

The shot rang out, kicking up a spray of stone fragments—but the man in colorful clothes was no longer there.

Fu Juemin raised his hand and fired again, but could only watch as the colorful clothes were rapidly pulled away as if by an invisible string. With a SWOOSH, the man dove under the base of the tall red cloth wall and vanished.

’This hard to kill?!’

Fu Juemin’s brow furrowed. He strode over to where the man had escaped, pressed a hand against the wire mesh on the red cloth wall, and instinctively raised his revolver. But upon seeing the masses of moving figures behind the red cloth, he lowered it again.

After a moment of thought, he put away the revolver. Beneath his suit, his muscles and bones began to ripple and flow like mercury, quietly swelling...

When the muscles in his arms had swelled to the point of nearly bursting his sleeves, Fu Juemin dug his ten fingers into the mesh like iron hooks and, with a sudden exertion of force, tore!

TWANG—

The sharp snap of breaking wire exploded in unison with a chorus of pained cries and howls!

The entire tall red cloth wall trembled violently and came crashing down.

Fu Juemin strode over the "red wall" and immediately saw seven or eight able-bodied men, some kneeling, some fallen, all wailing as they held up hands that had been flayed open and were dripping with blood from the wires.

WHOOSH—

Suddenly, a figure flew sideways through the air, crashing into a nearby section of the crowd.

Fu Juemin turned his head to see Cao Tian, dual blades in hand, tearing through layers of the human wall with a ferocious expression, charging toward him covered in blood.

"Young Master!"