Chapter 222: Fist Art

The young voice, neither loud nor soft, echoed beside the ears of the three Zheng Shangzong men.

For a moment, the three men standing midair in the pitch-black night fell utterly still, save for the slow breeze brushing past them.

The next instant, Zheng Shangzong suddenly whirled around, gazing up at the rooftop above Bai Xiang Pavilion.

What met his eyes was Li Muxian seated atop the ridge, his figure blurred in the darkness, as if also casting a glance toward the three of them.

“Who are you?”

Zheng Shangzong asked, eyes half-lidded, a flicker of wariness flashing through his murderous gaze.

At that moment, the two elders of Luoshen Peak looked up—and clearly recognized Li Muxian.

Instantly, both changed expression, their faces filled with shock and doubt:

“It’s you?”

Hearing this, Zheng Shangzong fixed his gaze on Li Muxian, quietly locking his qi signature onto him, then turned to the two elders and asked coldly:

“Do you know this man?”

Elder Shen frowned, staring at Li Muxian atop the pavilion, hesitated briefly, then explained:

“This man is one of those who deliberately caused trouble in Bai Xiang Pavilion earlier.”

Upon hearing this, Zheng Shangzong said nothing, merely continuing to observe Li Muxian in the darkness.

During their earlier clash, they had detected no one on the rooftop of Bai Xiang Pavilion the entire time; had the man not spoken up, they would never have sensed his presence.

For three Tianren experts, this was nearly unimaginable.

They were not far from Li Muxian; logically, he could never have slipped past their perception without a sound.

Yet after studying Li Muxian for a while, Zheng Shangzong detected not a trace of martial qi on him—the man seemed utterly devoid of martial cultivation.

“Was it you who killed my brother Zheng Zi?”

Zheng Shangzong’s expression grew increasingly cruel as he suppressed the fury raging within him.

Hearing this, the two elders of Luoshen Peak grew even more cautious, whispering:

“Lord Zheng, this man seems suspicious—we must not be careless.”

Meanwhile, Li Muxian sat calmly atop the pavilion’s ridge, glancing at them with composed ease:

“Correct. Are you here to avenge him?”

At these words, Zheng Shangzong was instantly enraged, his anger and brutality no longer restrained.

The next instant, he let out a sudden roar:

“Good!”

Immediately, the heavenly qi around Bai Xiang Pavilion erupted violently, surging like rivers into his arms.

In an instant, Zheng Shangzong’s fist bones rang like ten-thousand iron chains clashing; golden light flared along his arms, coalescing into a mountain-shaped phantom before him.

The air shrieked, the terrifying fist intent vibrating like war drums, twisting the surrounding air into spiral columns poised to pierce the clouds.

“Fist Calms a Hundred Peaks! Die!”

Zheng Shangzong bellowed, slamming both fists toward Li Muxian atop the pavilion—his left fist like a collapsing golden mountain, his right like a divine peak toppling.

The golden mountain phantom, forged from the intent of fists, instantly erupted in waves of molten gold, unleashing hundreds of fist patterns that interwove and whirled, slicing through the night air with divine wind as it crashed down upon Li Muxian atop Bai Xiang Pavilion.

Even the stray fist edges that fell onto the street below pierced through the paving stones, carving trenches several zhang long and sending up billowing clouds of dust.

The two elders of Luoshen Peak, seeing this, made no move to attack—instead, they immediately mobilized vast martial qi to guard Zheng Shangzong, alertly scanning all directions.

“What kind of fist art is this? Full of openings.”

Li Muxian sat calmly atop the ridge, watching the towering golden mountain phantom hurtling toward him, and frowned slightly.

Then he gently flicked his finger.

Instantly, the heavenly qi around him froze; the immense, terrifying fist intent vanished in an instant, the golden fist light and mountain phantom dissolving completely.

Around Li Muxian, darkness returned as before; the rooftop beneath his feet suffered not even a single broken tile.

The night air grew utterly silent, as if nothing had ever happened.

The two elders of Luoshen Peak guarding Zheng Shangzong instantly paled—they had never imagined such a devastating punch could be so easily undone.

Yet before they could comprehend what had just occurred, their faces twisted in sudden horror.

A glance at the corner of their vision revealed that Zheng Shangzong’s head now bore a blood hole, piercing clean through.

His life force was rapidly fading; his body, once hovering midair, now plummeted straight down from their sight into the trench below.

Through the darkness, in that instant, they could faintly make out Zheng Shangzong’s fierce expression frozen on his face—he had clearly died without ever realizing how he had died.

Instantly, the two elders of Luoshen Peak felt their souls flee their bodies; they instinctively turned their gaze upward toward Li Muxian.

But he showed no reaction, as if what had just happened were a trivial matter.

The next instant, without hesitation, they unleashed all their qi and fled with all their strength.

Yet before they could move even an inch, their skulls were pierced through instantly.

Their aged faces twisted in utter terror, but they could do nothing—life vanished in an instant, and their bodies tumbled downward.

Having done this, Li Muxian withdrew his gaze, ignoring the three corpses, and murmured thoughtfully:

“Killed the young one, the elder came; killed the elder, the old one showed up… such a clichéd plot…”

“But old as it is, it still works well—this whole bunch of gourd children…”

…

Just now, Zheng Shangzong’s Tianren-level attack had been so terrifying that everyone inside Bai Xiang Pavilion fled in panic.

Yet the terrifying fist intent appeared swiftly—and vanished even faster; within mere breaths, all around Bai Xiang Pavilion fell utterly still.

Still, no one dared approach even a step closer—until the city lord’s martial experts arrived and, in the ruined trench beside Bai Xiang Pavilion, discovered the three corpses of Zheng Shangzong and the others in stunned silence.

“Lord Zheng!”

An elderly silver-haired man crouched beside Zheng Shangzong, his face filled with shock and fury; he stared at the single finger-sized hole through Zheng Shangzong’s forehead, and an inexplicable chill crept into his heart.

The old man immediately scanned the surroundings—finding nothing unusual—and his face darkened drastically.

To annihilate three Tianren experts with such a method, the attacker’s martial strength must far surpass that of Zheng Shangzong and the others.

“Who could it be?”

The silver-haired man’s expression shifted rapidly; he immediately summoned a city lord’s expert and ordered sternly:

“Go at once to Bailian Peak and report this—there’s a high chance a Tianjin Guard expert has infiltrated Bailian City. You must personally inform the Peak Master!”

(End of Chapter)