Chapter 72

The merchant‑looking master's feet were stuck in the earth, unable to get out for a while, and Bai Lang seized that very opportunity. He powered his left hand to flip his body upward, and his right hand, following the momentum, launched a ground‑to‑sky cannon; during the maneuver his body rotated and he finally gave a kick off the ground for extra speed. The force of this punch was actually average, serving only to open a path for the subsequent attack. The motion of exerting power was not smooth; even a man like Bai Lang, who has cultivated San Shi Er Lu Chang Quan to achieve the Tiger Form True Meaning, could not make the strength of this punch flow continuously.

"Still lacking!" Bai Lang thought of that problem, but his fist had already knocked the merchant master off balance. He strained, pulling his chest in and tightening his abdomen to turn and evade, yet he could not prevent Bai Lang's punch from striking his temple. The passing fist wind made his nose crooked, and a spray of nosebleed burst out; the punch also dazed him, his body swaying uncontrollably. At this moment Bai Lang was already standing, exhaling and shouting as he used one hand to block the sword thrust from General Yuan.

This strike embodied the Internal Force of his entire horizontal‑training Golden Bell Shield, because General Yuan's sword was likewise no trivial matter; earlier the merchant's sword had pierced Bai Lang's chest, which was his doing. A frontal blow that shattered Bai Lang's Golden Bell Shield, even if Bai Lang's attention was divided by those two silver needles, was still top‑tier martial skill. This time Bai Lang gave his all, blocking the sword with a single hand, and indeed he succeeded.

The sword tip pierced Bai Lang's palm; General Yuan relaxed his grip, yet the hilt in Bai Lang's palm did not fall, instead it began to spin under the agitation of his Internal Force. "Hmm?" Bai Lang realized the blade, held up by his Internal Force, was rotating; he immediately exerted a shock to try to snap the sword free, while his other hand accelerated its attack on the hazy opponent. There was no time for claws, so he continued with fists and palms; Bai Lang's middle‑finger knuckle protruded, and a spear‑like punch force struck out.

This punch also slammed into the merchant‑looking martial master's forehead, instantly creating a red spot, while the back of his head exploded with a 'pop', tearing half of the occipital bone and spraying copious blood. "Senior Brother!" General Yuan let out a grief‑filled roar; this time he clasped his hands together, and the sword between his palms spun even faster. After Bai Lang killed the man before him, his hand instantly overlapped the hand that had been blocking.

At this moment his palm was already torn, the sword tip had pierced flesh and, while rotating, kept enlarging the wound. Bai Lang let out a tiger's roar; his Internal Force surged like the great Yangtze River, and faintly outside his body a bronze bell shape appeared—already a pinnacle level in this world. The sword could not advance another inch, and General Yuan barked a sharp command, slapping the rotating hilt with a palm; Bai Lang immediately planted his horse stance, squatting his waist, and forcibly blocked the long sword that was thrust forward from his palm.

"My technique is exhausted!" Bai Lang, despite his palm dripping with fresh blood, laughed heartily, and his fury did not diminish at all. Now he took the initiative, pressing forward against General Yuan; with a side slap and clamp of his palm, the sword snapped cleanly, forcing General Yuan to contend with him in hand‑to‑hand combat. At this moment the battlefield had just become crowded with the soldiers who had not yet fled— from the time Bai Lang was ambushed to his killing of two opponents, only a few dozen breaths had passed.

"On the battlefield, a place for corpses!" Bai Lang said in a deep voice, and casually seized a soldier who hadn't managed to flee, hurling him toward the General before him; with his strength he need not even grip tightly— a mere strike could fling the man. At this point General Yuan could no longer worry about saving his subordinates, because Bai Lang, mingled among the flying soldiers, rushed straight at him; once Bai Lang closed within three feet, disaster would be inevitable.

At this moment the old Taoist drifted in again, thrusting a single sword, but Bai Lang saw that although the man was aged and frail, his Internal Force was deep; however, his swordsmanship was slower and weaker than General Yuan's. Bai Lang felt no sympathy; his sudden tiger roar once more stunned those around, some soldiers collapsing and convulsing on the ground, and as Bai Lang lunged forward his arms crossed to block ahead, allowing General Yuan to keep thrusting his long sword.

The long sword speared out like a sudden rain; Bai Lang neither dodged nor evaded, simply using both arms to block the thrust, and the mountain‑patterned armor showed specks of cracks, yet the sword… ultimately became useless. Bai Lang flashed a grim smile, and his body moved with extremely rapid pouncing speed— a tiger is naturally an assassin, swift in close‑range strikes. Meanwhile General Yuan seemed to turn into a great snake, his arm attacks following bizarre trajectories, his body sliding like a serpent, somehow managing to evade Bai Lang's pounce.

The ensuing battle resembled a giant snake fighting a big cat, further complicated by the old Taoist's swordplay and a girl disguised as a soldier dragging her feet. As for the poison needles or toxins, the Miao girl was reluctant to use them for fear of harming her own side; besides, Bai Lang's Golden Bell Shield horizontal‑training made him impervious to ordinary poisons. This chaotic skirmish did not last long; Bai Lang's martial skill still held the advantage— because the light cavalry had already dispersed the peasant militia soldiers and began taking turns assaulting the martial masters.

At first they could not wound these people, but the disruption was enough for Bai Lang to seize the chance— it must be said that General Yuan's snake‑like martial skill combined with the old Taoist's Lightness Skill and swordsmanship could indeed stall Bai Lang, making it hard for him to focus on a single target for relentless pursuit— and Bai Lang had no interest in using a woman as a weapon, forcing a girl to kill the enemy before him. So they stalled for a while, but now they could no longer hold back.

First unlucky was the old Taoist; the elder was inevitably aged, slower in reaction and stamina than the young, especially amid such chaos, and consequently Bai Lang seized the chance, allowing General Yuan to thrust a sword behind him, literally grabbing the old man's sword‑gripping hand— also a lure, deliberately relaxing his Internal Force so the Taoist's sword could pierce his shoulder, then trapping the blade, slowing the old man's Lightness Skill by a beat.

The ferocity of the tiger claw has always been like this; when Bai Lang's two hands alternated upward, the bones they passed through were already shattered, flesh and all. The old Taoist's white beard was drenched in blood, and Bai Lang's Internal Force, like a sharp blade, pierced his internal organs, especially the lungs; the old man coughed up blood so violently his Internal Force could barely gather. Thus he died, his Heavenly Spirit Crown shattered by a palm of Bai Lang.

Bai Lang twisted his body, and a great force forcibly wrenched the long sword that had pierced his scapula out of General Yuan's hand; his Internal Force grew increasingly violent, now seeming capable of projecting outward a raging aura. After the second long sword slipped from his grasp, General Yuan truly could no longer block Bai Lang's attacks— a giant snake can never defeat a tiger…