Chapter 175: True and False Tree Men

Long Guxing wanted to break the array with brute force; to put it simply, he intended to use a Martial Artist's vigorous Blood Qi Power to exhaust Meng Yifan's Yin Spiritual Power.

Once the Yin Spirit Qi in Meng Yifan's Array Disk was exhausted, the illusion array inside the underground granary would naturally be broken.

The tall tree men that Meng Yifan was currently manifesting were also formed from gathered Yin Qi; every time Long Guxing smashed a tree man to pieces, Meng Yifan had to expend some Yin Qi.

Long Guxing really couldn't understand it; Meng Yifan manifesting these useless tree men that shattered at a single touch, wasting a massive amount of Yin Qi—wasn't this just like taking off one's pants to fart, an entirely superfluous act?

"Whoosh! Whoosh!" A tree man swung a fist over a meter high, like Mount Taishan pressing down on his head, bringing with it the whistling sound of air as it smashed fiercely toward Long Guxing.

Long Guxing continued to swing his right-hand Eight-Sided Red Copper Hammer to smash at that big fist; hitting a ball that burst at a touch several times in a row nearly made him sprain his waist, so later, when smashing the tree men, Long Guxing held back forty percent of his strength, allowing him to retract or release as he pleased.

"Clang!" The red copper hammer and the tree man's big fist collided, sounding unexpectedly like metal striking stone, sparks flying; then, the red copper hammer was actually knocked back.

That tree man's fist did not shatter like the other tree men; at the moment of impact, the fist was suddenly shrouded in a layer of gray Qi, which greatly increased the fist's power, not only knocking the red copper hammer away but also smashing toward Long Guxing's chest like a hot knife through butter, as fast as a thunderbolt.

"Pfft!" Long Guxing's chest shook violently, and he couldn't help but spit out a mouthful of fresh blood; he felt a strange, chilling energy travel through his chest into his body, making him shiver uncontrollably.

That blow just now was extremely dangerous; it was only because Long Guxing's strength was high that he survived—if it had been anyone else, being hit in the chest would have resulted in death or serious injury.

Long Guxing's True Qi was thick; when that chilling energy invaded, his True Qi protected his body, blocking the chilling energy in time.

"This is... Condensing Qi into Steel? It doesn't quite look like it." Long Guxing felt an extra chilling energy in his body, mixed with a faint Corpse Poison, trying to destroy his physical body from within, as if it wanted to turn him into a Zombie.

It was just that this Corpse Poison was very weak and was suppressed by the True Qi in Long Guxing's body, so it had very little effect; as long as he practiced his arts to heal his injuries afterward, he could force the Corpse Poison out of his body.

Long Guxing had no time to think; he flicked his hands, and with a clatter, the Mysterious Iron Chain between the two Eight-Sided Red Copper Hammers whipped around like a Strange Python Turns Body, intending to bind that unique fist.

"The other tree men are all fake; this fist must be the one Meng Yifan is throwing. Damn it, this little brat, playing this trick on me, he's truly despicable."

Long Guxing was furious; True Qi surged through his body, Condensing Qi into Steel, coating the red copper hammers so that both the two Eight-Sided Red Copper Hammers and the chain in the middle were covered in a layer of earthy yellow light, becoming as heavy as the earth itself; every strike felt like mountains collapsing and the ground splitting, unstoppable.

Long Guxing was a Third-Grade High-Level Martial Artist, only a tiny bit away from breaking through to a Fourth-Grade Martial Artist; in terms of the thickness of True Qi, Meng Yifan was definitely not his match. It was only because Meng Yifan had caught Long Guxing off guard just now that Long Guxing had been injured.

"Go to hell!" Long Guxing gripped the hammers with both hands and pulled back sharply; the chain in the middle bound the arm of that special tree man, preventing him from escaping, and then both red copper hammers struck simultaneously, smashing fiercely toward that special tree man.

"Pfft! Pfft!" The two red copper hammers smashed into the tree man, but it was as if they had hit a balloon again; that large tree man was smashed to pieces once more.

"Damn it! Meng Yifan ran away, that bastard." Long Guxing cursed loudly; five or six more tree men walked out of the woods again.

Every one of them looked exactly the same, and from the outside, one couldn't tell any difference at all, which gave Long Guxing a headache.

He now understood Meng Yifan's scheme; he must be hiding in the middle of one of the tree men to ambush him.

But which one was real and which one was fake? Long Guxing was completely at a loss.

When the fake is taken for real, the real also becomes fake; truth and falsehood are intertwined, making it impossible for Long Guxing to guard against.

Long Guxing could only heighten his vigilance, attacking with full force every time to smash any tree man that came near him.

But in this way, Long Guxing's True Qi was being consumed extremely quickly; even though he was a Third-Grade High-Level Martial Artist, he couldn't afford to waste his Steel Qi like this.

Meng Yifan was hiding in the array; he had just caught Long Guxing off guard with a strike, then immediately used Lingbo Microsteps to retreat back.

Although that strike just now had made Long Guxing vomit blood, it hadn't seriously injured him, and Meng Yifan himself had been shaken by the counter-shock force until his arm went numb.

This made Meng Yifan realize that if he went head-to-head, he was indeed no match for Long Guxing.

"What should I do?" Meng Yifan pondered, taking a handful of White Powder out of his Space Ring; after being activated by True Qi, it became colorless and odorless, silently mixing into the surrounding black mist.

This White Powder was a poison recently concocted by Liu Zhongyong, using precious Centennial Arisaema and Century-old Datura Flower; although it couldn't directly poison a Third Grade Martial Artist to death, its toxicity was still very fierce.

According to Liu Zhongyong, even a Third-Grade High-Level Martial Artist, once poisoned, would have his combat power reduced by thirty percent.

Meng Yifan waved the Triangular Command Flag in his hand, and these special black mists mixed with poison spread toward the area around Long Guxing.

Long Guxing's two red copper hammers flew up and down; the right hammer guarded his own safety, while the left hammer was like a shooting star or lightning, directly smashing any tree man that tried to approach him.

Because he didn't know which tree man Meng Yifan was disguised as, every one of Long Guxing's strikes was heavy and powerful, whistling with force.

Suddenly, Long Guxing paused; he discovered that something seemed to have been added to his meridians, causing his whole body to go numb, and the circulation of his True Qi was affected, becoming much slower than under normal circumstances.

"Damn! What is this ghost thing? How did it get into my body?" Long Guxing was dumbfounded; through internal observation, he discovered that many emerald-green sprouts had grown inside his meridians, rooting themselves into the meridians, absorbing his Blood Qi Power, and growing wildly.

These sprouts blocked the meridian channels, making it very difficult for the True Qi that originally surged through the meridians to circulate; Long Guxing's strength was instantly weakened by a large margin.

"What kind of toxin is this? It's actually so strange?" Long Guxing was terrified; he wanted to force the toxin out of his body, but he found that the toxin was like a maggot on a tarsal bone, clinging tightly to the meridian walls, as if it had grown right onto them.

If Long Guxing used too much force, he felt as if he were about to tear his meridians apart; it seemed he could only wait until the battle was over and use a slow, grinding process to clear out these toxins little by little.

"Damn it, you bastard, you little brat, you set up an illusion array and even used poison; you are truly despicable and shameless."

"Meng Yifan, if you are a hero, then disperse the illusion array and let's have a real battle face-to-face; I'll let you use one hand, do you dare to accept the challenge?" Long Guxing roared; he knew Meng Yifan was young and hot-blooded, and he was eager to use a taunt to make Meng Yifan step out and fight him.

Meng Yifan grinned; he saw through Long Guxing's low-level taunt at a glance, and naturally, he wouldn't fall for it.

On Earth, the reason Meng Yifan was able to survive in a hail of bullets was, besides being lucky, because he knew how to lay low; when one shouldn't show their head, one absolutely must not show it.

Those hotheads on the battlefield who still tried to be heroes had long since been blown into fragments by bullets.