This was a formidable martial art technique. Xue Wei’s eyes gleamed with excitement when he saw it.

If he could defeat this young bandit, did that not mean that he would get his hands on his items, and most likely also a martial art?

This martial art might not be a superior-grade ability, but even a high-grade weapon-based martial art could be elevated to superior-grade levels of power when combined with a weapon manifested through the profound-grade martial art Inner Might

The young bandit noticed Xue Wei’s strange gaze, and shuddered. It was as if he was a small rabbit in front of a tiger.

He snorted as he carried out the slash. The wind was howling, and the sword was swift as the wind, but Xue Wei commanded the Forbidden Rush movement technique and had the ability to merge with the wind.

When he sensed the might of this attack, Xue Wei instantly employed the movement technique and dodged to the side.

His body seemed to be one with the wind, allowing him to avoid the blade easily, but when he dodged it, he could sense how the wind turned chaotic.

Being merged with the wind, he had problems completely stabilizing himself. He was thrown helter-skelter around every spot the bandit’s sword slashed past. Although he tried to affect the wind, he could feel that the Windwolf Sword Slash was no ordinary attack.

"Stop moving, you ant!" the young expert cried out, his eyes turning red from frustration. Although he could not hit Xue Wei, Xue Wei was not comfortable either, being blow here and there and everywhere by the wind.

Xue Wei was buying time. He knew that his Seed of Mirage was going to activate soon, but he also knew that he was caught up by the winds of the Windwolf Sword Slash.

The current chaotic winds that the Windwolf Sword Slash had caused affected Xue Wei’s control over the Forbidden Rush movement technique, because this technique depended on the wind’s flow to work. As a result he was thrown here and there and everywhere by the gale that was rising from each slash of the bandit.

As the Seeds of Mirage sprouted and turned into five copies of Xue Wei, who at that moment stopped using his Forbidden Rush movement technique, but with his fastest speed moved behind the bandit, relying on the confusion of the sudden emergence of more copies.

He did not waste time. During the time he had been thrashed about by the chaotic winds created by the Windwolf Sword Slash, Xue Wei had been rotating the energy within his body, ready to attack at any moment.

It was precisely at this moment that he launched an attack.

Azure Light Finger!

A beam of azure Qi erupted from behind the young bandit, but a sudden sense of crisis made him roll to the side, only getting grazed by the beam.

Although the beam only grazed him, it managed to draw blood. A clean cut on his cheek caused blood to run down in steady streams, and the young bandit felt his heart go cold as he realized that this attack, had he not dodged it, would have killed him.

Although he was shocked, he had ample fighting experience, both against humans and Fierce Beasts, so he maintained his composure and swung his sword at Xue Wei, only to see the young man vanish from sight once more, his afterimage being split apart by the sword slash.

The young bandit gnashed his teeth in anger when he saw that his target had vanished, yet moments after his eyes widened in surprise when he noticed five identical copies of Xue Wei around him. All of them rushed at him..

At first, he was convinced that it was some sort of trick. That they were afterimages that had appeared because Xue Wei moved too fast, but his eyes turned severe when they started to execute martial arts skills.

These martial art skills were a combination of Azure Light Fingers and Shattering Mountain Palms, but they made the young bandit feel uncomfortable when coupled together.

The attacks rained down upon him. Although these attacks could not compare to Xue Wei’s actual strength, the fact that there was five different attacks caused some of them to hit him.

These attacks did not cause any serious damage, but it did cause his anger to rise to another level, clouding his judgment.

Xue Wei understood it himself. Anger could amplify his strength, but his reasoning went out the window, and this was precisely what he had been waiting for. The more agitated this young bandit became, the more excited Xue Wei became.

Xue Wei was lurking in the wind, moving back and forth, trying to make himself invisible to the naked eye. He was waiting for an opportunity, and when he saw that the young bandit was getting eaten up by his rage, a small smile played on his lips. That was when Xue Wei made his move.

He was as agile as a flood dragon, and the way he smoothly moved along the ground was like a fish in water. Within a second, he had appeared right behind the young bandit. Instantly, a dazzling azure light shone.

Arcane Fist!

The fist descended onto the bandit, catching him by surprise and causing him to stagger forward, yet this was not everything. Xue Wei spun around himself and followed up with another attack.

Kick of Forgotten Kings!

A kick descended onto the young bandit and forced him to spit out blood as he doubled over. The kick had landed right on his waist, and he had felt his bones creaking. Although none of them broke, he was in acute pain, and his organs were in utter disarray, causing him to vomit out a mouthful of blood.

Xue Wei did not stop there. He followed up with yet another attack. Shattering Mountain Palm descended onto the back of the bandit, causing him to fall to the ground.

Although the bandit was injured, he was still alive. Xue Wei was aware that when this young bandit managed to catch his breath, he would be able to retaliate even more violently than before. At this point, Xue Wei would have lost his element of surprise and the edge he has had so far.

Gritting his teeth, Xue Wei knew that he had to use some of his trump cards.

"Gou!" he called out. "We have to kill them! No one survives this!" he exclaimed. Suddenly, his arms transformed from human arms into the claws of a dragon.

Azure dragon scales broke through the skin. The claws were razor sharp, the scales indestructible.

Xue Wei rushed forward with the aid of the wind and the Forbidden Rush movement technique.

He was intent on ending the life of this young bandit, yet when he transformed, he felt the killing intent that he had always tried to suppress bubble over, his eyes turning red.

Emotions overtook him. Suddenly, the desire to kill anyone who stood in front of him, rip them apart, and make them suffer pulsed through his mind and body.

The killing intent was potent, and it was impossible to stop it from leaking from his body.

The moment it enveloped the young bandit, he felt as if he stood in front of the most frightening creature he had encountered in his life, unable to withstand and left only with the option to wait for the beast to gobble him up.

His eyes turned listless, his body started trembling, and his weapon fell from his hand.

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Xue Wei did not waste any time. He strode towards the young bandit and raised his arm. The fingers of his hand wrapped around the neck of the young bandit. His hand closed in with crushing force, causing the bandit’s throat to issue some low bone-cracking noises.

"Younger brother!" one of the older bandits called out in agony and rushed towards them, but Hei Gou intercepted him before he could reach Xue Wei, the target of his ire.

"Don’t think you can stop us, old geezer!" he exclaimed. Hei Gou’s claws swept down, leaving behind six scars on the middle-aged man’s face.

So far, Hei Gou had been fighting the two Sky Warriors of the ninth layer. He had not gained the upper hand, but the same could be said for them when they had to work around his Heavenly Warrior-level physical strength.

Hei Gou had a speed unlike any other. He had his own innate abilities, where one of them was the ability to swallow all light, resulting in a field of darkness where only he could see, but he also had another innate ability.

This second innate ability that he commanded was a movement ability. He could turn into smoke and evade attacks, his movements elusive and unpredictable.

The innate abilities of Primordial and Fierce Beasts were different from martial art techniques. Whereas the martial art techniques of humans had various ranks, the innate abilities of the Fierce and Primordial Beasts grew alongside the beast itself.

When the beast was equivalent to an Ordinary Warrior, the innate abilities were as powerful as some low-ranked and middle-ranked techniques. When they were Earth Warriors, they were comparable to middle-ranked and high-ranked martial art techniques.

A beast with a strength equivalent to a Sky Warrior had innate abilities that were similar to high-ranked and superior-ranked martial art techniques, and a Heavenly Warrior’s abilities were equal to superior-ranked and profound techniques.

The only downside for the beasts was that they could not learn a wide array of martial art techniques. Where a human could acquire as many techniques as they pleased, beasts were stuck with the innate abilities that they unlocked from their memories as they grew stronger and stronger.

Currently, Hei Gou had unlocked two innate abilities. One was the all-encompassing devouring of light which was the first ability he had acquired.

The second ability was his movement ability. This one allowed him to turn into smoke, merge with the world, and ghost around wherever he pleased. It was near impossible to hit him, as he could become smoke in an instant, making his shape obscure and impossible to catch.

These two innate abilities, coupled with his physical strength that was equivalent to a one layer Heavenly Warrior, Hei Gou was capable of fighting back against the two ninth layer Sky Warriors.

Xue Wei observed that Hei Gou’s battle was at a stalemate, but his face was severe. They could not afford to let these two humans survive, as Xue Wei had revealed his transformed arms. He had already once learned the lesson about displaying his transformed arms – never again would he allow ignorant people to misunderstand.

He still held the young bandit by the neck in his hand, but the young man had already died. The bones in his neck had been utterly crushed between Xue Wei’s fingers, and a second later he was tossed away like a bag of bones and meat that Xue Wei could no longer be bothered to look at.

Xue Wei sat down on the ground. He wished to assist Hei Gou, but he understood that he could not get close. Although he had been able to deal with this young first layer Sky Warrior, there was more than an entire realm – counting sub-stages – between himself and the two ninth layered Sky Warriors.

Since he could not help directly, Xue Wei decided to do what he could, so he rotated his remaining Qi within his body and used Inner Might to create a zither.

He started plucking the strings, sending out one soundwave after another. These soundwave lacerations were as sharp as swords. Although they could not seriously hurt the two ninth layer Sky Warriors, they were able to annoy them and cause shallow wounds, which made the small streams of blood run down their skin from the parts of their clothes that had been ripped apart. They seemed to be in quite the sorry state.

Hei Gou’s lips curled into a snicker as he, once more, wholeheartedly threw himself into the battle. It was clearly a battle of life and death; the survivors were the kings, and the losers lost everything including their lives.