Chapter 96: Fierce Combat

As expected, the hideous gorilla's face actually showed a somewhat human-like vicious grin, then it charged at Bai Lang, swinging its four fists and palms as it attacked. "Damn it!" Bai Lang also cursed, not dodging or hiding, he lunged straight at the gorilla. Damn it, with this build, who's afraid of whom in a brawl! You gorilla—don't even know what you are, but you're over two meters tall; Bai Lang, having trained in Black Tiger Fist and the Golden Bell Shield, feels his strength surpasses that of a fierce tiger; we're just hurting each other.

This was a hard-hitting, head-on assault; relying on the reforged Golden Bell Shield being even sturdier, Bai Lang withstood the barrage of the gorilla's four fists and palms, also striking back fiercely—due to the height difference, he aimed at the gorilla's lower three routes. Bai Lan unleashed a flurry of punches and kicks; the gorilla couldn't block, its testicles were kicked to a pulp. If it were a normal gorilla, it would be clutching its groin and rolling on the ground, but this guy just rolled his black qi and returned to normal.

"Sure enough, it's a yin thing!" Bai Lang cursed, relying on his Golden Bell Shield's power, he also hard-blocked the gorilla's four fists and palms; now the Golden Bell Shield is covered in dents everywhere, and the yin cold energy carried with each of the gorilla's punches and palms penetrates the shield, invading his body. Bai Lang repeatedly erupts the Golden Bell Shield's power to disperse the invading yin cold energy, of course consuming a lot of Internal Force as well.

His martial arts haven't reached the level where he can freely drive the White Tiger Killer Qi to devour this kind of yin cold energy; fundamentally, the White Tiger Killer Qi is merely a murderous aura born from countless killings, a mental construct, not Internal Force cultivated through training—although there are signs of it combining with the Golden Bell Shield, it's still lacking that bit. After this round of all-out attack, he concludes that the thing before him is definitely not a living creature, but a yin entity—i. e., a ghost or the like.

This thing can change form; earlier, using a giant serpent's shape was troublesome, so it shifted into a gorilla, merely leaving behind the giant serpent's desiccated bones...... Could this transformation also have a source? "Anyway, a dead gorilla doesn't care about its balls, so I'll just give you a brutal, thorough castration!" Bai Lang cursed, spreading his arms wide, dodged the gorilla's round of four punches, then his whole body blazed with golden light; the Golden Bell Shield on him became clearer than ever, his fists bearing golden tiger stripes and phantom claws, and he slammed down heavily on the gorilla.

Now Bai Lang hard-blocks the gorilla's punches coming from all angles—since he saw through that the gorilla is merely a yin entity, the monster's punching lines are no longer limited by its form. The four fists can appear from any part of its body and blast forth, but there are always only four, so there seems to be a limit. Bai Lang matches fist to fist, palm to palm, claw to claw, and besides he has elbows, knees, and legs; the gorilla's lower-body technique is inferior to Bai Lang's—at least it doesn't use knees or legs.

Regardless, his Internal Force runs wildly, turning into violent output for a frenzied assault on the gorilla, while Bai Lang himself is repeatedly breaking through his Golden Bell Shield by those punches, which smash wildly all over his body. These punches are extremely yin toxic; some seem formless and substanceless, able to directly penetrate Bai Lang's body, so he must use the Golden Bell Shield's eruptive power to dispel the large amounts of yin cold energy surging in and wildly destroying his meridians.

However, his output likewise didn't let the gorilla off easy—the gorilla's lower half, especially below the abdomen, is already a mess; Bai Lang's punching power erupts repeatedly, and that half of its body keeps exploding into clumps of black sludge and mist, but whenever it regroups, golden energy flashes appear and blast it apart again. Bai Lang's current fighting style finally shows a bit of performance befitting his present Internal Force level; I have to say, the Black Tiger Fist is indeed far stronger than whatever he figured out on his own.

After a flurry of strikes, Bai Lang himself ended up with five labors and seven injuries; his meridians were invaded by considerable yin cold energy, and his Golden Bell Shield was shattered beyond repair, like a bell smashed to pieces. Yet his Internal Force became ever purer, and it also carried a killer aura. Bai Lang's arm swelled up greatly; he used Internal Force to forcibly realign the bones, then after this fierce battle, the aftereffects appeared. The broken bones were shattered, and the muscles swelled up; this arm is now useless for the time being.

His body also had several depressions or protrusions—these were the result of broken bones or swollen muscles inside; the yin cold energy surged wildly inside Bai Lang's body, constantly eroding his Internal Force and vitality. However, the grim killer aura on Bai Lang's body grew ever fiercer—facing the gorilla, which also looked pretty miserable—its lower half had turned into a mosaic-like mass, while its relatively intact upper half would occasionally burst out a clump of golden light, often accompanied by tiger roars and bell sounds emanating from that exploding golden light.

Bai Lang drew deep breaths, regardless of whether there was still yin cold energy in the air; his dantian qi sea again surged with waves; even in this situation, Bai Lang continued to circulate the Internal Force of the Thirteen Tai Bao Golden Bell Shield, and he also needed to clear each meridian blocked by the yin cold energy. At this very moment, Bai Lang's Internal Force had dwindled to only thirty percent of what it once was; the golden bell on his body's surface had long lost its shape, and another round of such strikes would likely be too much for him to endure.

This guy kept bleeding bruises from the corners of his mouth, and his body was covered in black-and-blue marks; however, the gorilla seemed unskilled in claw techniques, so Bai Lang's body only had battered flesh, with no torn wounds. Still, it looked quite shocking—blood flowed down from Bai Lang's body, pooling at his feet. "If we don't keep going, if I let up this breath, I'll really kick the bucket today!"

Bai Lang had killed like hemp, and thus had also cultivated a killer aura and a ruthless streak; since he wasn't counting on definitely making it out alive......"Anyway, having lived two lives, though I still don't get what's going on, I seem to have already profited!" At that moment, this guy threw caution to the wind, forcibly channeling the Golden Bell Shield's Internal Force, and charged at the gorilla again.

One of Bai Lang's arms was already useless, but that's fine—he could still use it as an iron whip to strike! Worst case, he could use his head as a fist to make up for it; he still had another arm, right? Fists, palms, claws—he didn't care about the details, just pretending he was already dead. Bai Lang let out a long cry, threw his whole body into the gorilla's interior, directly pressed against its body and pounded fiercely, no longer bothering to guard against the gorilla's attacks—indeed, Bai Lang devoted all his Internal Force to offense, while relying on his own flesh to hard-block the gorilla's attacks.

The clogged meridians were forcibly cleared, heedless of whether they'd end up riddled with holes or even break afterward—those are worries for later; if he can't produce some change right now, he'll die here today!