Chapter 42: Four Blood Exchanges, a Lone Brave Hero!

Zhao Chuanxiong simply didn't want to be any kind of bait……

The risk is too great, and yet fishing…… how can you fish if the bait isn't eaten?

Even if the bait gets bitten once, it'll end up badly maimed!

「Blood Exchange…… you're actually at Blood Exchange……」

The boy's mask, under the fierce wind from the cow demon's terrifying punch, blasted apart, fragments flying and cutting.

Zhao Chuanxiong's face flushed crimson, like a wooden stake, as the cow demon's punch drove him into the ground; his knees, already kneeling, had shattered patellae and ruptured cruciate ligaments!

Meanwhile, fresh blood seeped from his chest, shards of his broken fine-steel long sword embedded in his sunken thoracic cavity, flesh rotting, organs and stark ribs nearly visible!

One move……

Just a single move!

This cow demon, he's gotten even stronger!

The first time I saw him, the cow demon had just entered Bone Tempering; facing our combined attack with the Eight Trigrams Staff, he still had to flee for his life.

The second time, though I didn't see him, the Eight Trigrams Staff had already been brutally slain, proving the cow demon's strength had reached Bone Tempering perfection……

And now, the cow demon has already reached Blood Exchange!

Every increase in his strength is a leap!

The eight-year barrier of Bone Tempering!

Many martial artists need at least eight years of Bone Tempering to qualify for Blood Exchange, and merely going from Bone Tempering perfection to Blood Exchange is famed as the "thousand-day Blood Exchange," requiring a full three years!

Even a genius couldn't achieve such a terrifying leap in just one year!

「Just who are you……」

「Who are you?! 」

Zhao Chuanxiong kept spurting fresh blood from his mouth, fiercely staring at that adorable cow-mask.

The cuter the mask, the more his heart…… grew chilled!

Couldn't recognize……

Completely unrecognizable!

If he were truly a martial artist from Fēiléichéng, such progress could not be hidden; the whole city would already be in an uproar!

Even an aristocratic clan would go mad over it!

But there is none; throughout Fēiléichéng, there is no trace of this person.

Li Che looked at Zhao Chuanxiong indifferently, without response, his cold gaze like two icy blades in winter.

The arm that had smashed Zhao Chuanxiong's chest was pulled out violently, spraying blood, ready to strike again.

With the terrifying power of a Blood Exchange martial artist, one more punch, Zhao Chuanxiong believed he would surely die!

「The fish is hooked! Save me!!! 」

Zhao Chuanxiong let out a wild roar, exhaling like thunder, as if to expel all the breath he could muster for the rest of his life!

The thunderous sound echoed all around!

Li Che's eyes beneath the mask showed no ripple.

Indeed, Zhao Chuanxiong was merely bait, a lure to hook him; Si Mubai united with the Infant Spirit Sect…… actually wanted to eliminate him most.

In this Fēiléichéng under the Infant Spirit Sect's deployment, the cow demon craving a breath of unrestrained qi.

After shouting, Zhao Chuanxiong exerted all his strength, collapsing into the snow, rolling on the spot, trying to flee.

He was afraid.

The cow demon's unblinking eyes filled Zhao Chuanxiong with fear.

He knew……

The cow demon had long known…… this was a fishing expedition aimed at him!

Yet he still intended to devour this bait of his own!

Damn it!

Zhao Chuanxiong misjudged the cow demon's resolve to kill him……

How could it be so intense?

What hatred, what grudge?

Was it only because, back in the Liu clan's small courtyard, he teamed up with the Eight Trigrams Staff to oppress him?

You cow demon have never suffered any injury, yet you can bear such a grudge?

His body is so huge and burly, yet his mind is so petty!

Li Che indifferently watched Zhao Chuanxiong tumble into the snow, his blood-stained palm suddenly raised, fingers hooking, as if the screech of chalk scraping a blackboard exploded like thunder!

In the night, the silver threads nearly impossible to trace suddenly sprang.

In the flick, the air burst, wailing like ghosts!

Pfft!

On the ground……

Scalding blood instantly spurted up three feet!

Zhao Chuanxiong's head and neck…… tore apart, his wide-open eyes still flickering with shock and bewilderment.

Why?

Why!

Even in death, Zhao Chuanxiong still harbored endless reluctance and fury!

At this moment, Zhao Chuanxiong hated only Si Mubai!

He had lain low for so long, why force him to come to his death?!

You Si Mu Bai, you damn fisherman, yet you want to use Zhao Chuanxiong's life as bait!

Resentful!

Silken threads flow soundlessly, stained with round blood droplets.

In the twitch, the blood droplets burst into a blood mist.

Thousand Spider Silk!

The burly ox demon's whole body, countless silver threads interwoven like electric currents, lash the air, tearing apart the drifting snowflakes.

His spine stands tall, like a dragon's roar, his qi and blood surge out like flood dragons from his pores, coiling around his body.

Beneath the mask, his eyes are still as water.

There, three figures wearing various expressions of child masks stand upon the roof, the slanting rain and snow drifting down, causing the air to be rolled with a thick killing intent.

And farther away.

A cold silhouette, without a mask, holds a fine iron great bow, the bow adorned with exquisite carvings, his eyes cold and sharp, head tilted, gazing at the burly ox demon's form.

In the next moment, the great bow is drawn to a full moon, the bowstring twangs, qi and blood rise like a flood dragon in the night!

His might is overwhelming!

This person…… Li Che recognized him!

He is the aide beside Si Mu Bai; Li Che had seen him when he first met Si Mu Bai in the Golden Glory Pavilion.

Si Mu Bai's capable aide, the Blood-Exchange martial warrior Guo Zhan!

Four of them!

Exactly four Blood-Exchange martial warriors!

With such a lineup, how highly they regard this!

Among them, Guo Zhan, who stands far away drawing his bow and pointing afar…… is actually a perfected Blood-Exchange martial warrior!

Merely drawing the bowstring makes the air seem to congeal, giving Li Che a feeling of horror, as if he were being stared at by an extremely ferocious beast in the wilderness!

A mere Zhao Chuanxiong, compared to these four, is truly a petty witch seeing a great witch.

"Si Mu Bai…… truly thinks highly of me."

Li Che narrowed his eyes, facing the four Blood-Exchange warriors, without fear, but rather a different kind of excitement.

Within his chest, the 【Dragon Elephant Golden Vajra】 dao fruit throbs wildly, like surging emotions; it…… seems to also crave such battle.

In the next moment, he stomped down heavily, earth mixed with white snow exploding upward, then falling like a curtain!

【Dragon Elephant Golden Vajra】 throbbed violently, driven to the extreme by him!

Now his true cultivation has reached perfected tempered bones, with the Golden Vajra transformation, he can fully exert the perfected Blood-Exchange horizontal tempering strength……

His back bulged, nine great tendons like nine angry pythons roaring, guarding like a dragon spine; his bones, tempered in the tiger bone method, become like a fierce tiger's ribs, erupting with boundless strength!

"The battlefield…… cannot be here."

Behind him is his own courtyard.

Zhang Ya still holds Xixi inside; if the battle spreads, the arrow pointed from afar by the perfected Blood-Exchange martial warrior……

Like a sweeping machine gun, too dangerous!

Li Che felt certain in his heart, his body shot out instantly, darting toward other directions of the Xu Ji estate.

"Want to leave?"

"Killed Zhao Chuanxiong, ate the bait…… still want to leave?"

Three Blood-Exchange martial warriors of the Lingyin Sect emitted sounds like crying and laughing, like anger and sorrow, echoing between the courtyard walls.

Within the Xu Ji estate, in the houses with extinguished lamps, many woodcarving artisans secretly watched, yet dared not intervene……

In the battle of Blood-Exchange martial warriors, to interfere is to die.

With the power bursting forth from unrivaled horizontal tempering, Li Che's speed explodes to the extreme, his feet stomping hard, shattering rain and snow, crushing the air!

A few leaps, and he is already far away.

Yet several Blood-Exchange martial warriors are also extraordinary, swiftly keeping up with the ox demon!

Zhao Chuanxiong is dead; they must kill the ox demon, bring its head to report, or else…… they will face the wrath of a divine constable.

A pitch‑black night where you can't see your fingers, rain mixed with snow rages!

The deep darkness makes light hard to see.

Yet there are five clusters of qi and blood, like five blood‑red lanterns, shooting and galloping in the pitch‑black night!

In the crisscrossing narrow alleys of the Xu Ji estate, you chase me, I chase you!

The scene is completely chaotic and out of control.

……

……

Outside Xu Ji Mu diao Pu.

The old man's ears twitched slightly, listening to the chaotic sounds carried on the wind from inside Xu Ji Mu diao Pu, a flash of strange color crossing his eyes.

The old man's ears twitched slightly, listening to the chaotic sounds carried on the wind from inside Xu Ji Mu diao Pu, a flash of strange color passing through his eyes.

"In this city…… a lone hero? Interesting……"

The old man smiled, revealing a mouth full of yellow teeth.

At the other end of the long street, the wind and snow sounds were suddenly overwhelmed; footsteps stepped on the stone ground, shoe soles rubbing against the bricks, approaching lightly, yet like bells and drums.

The old man's brows furrowed in displeasure.

He gently patted the child Lü Chi, whose hair was tied in Nezha braids, eyes wide as copper bells in the dark alley.

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(End of chapter)