Chapter 619: Ten Breaths

Although Xu Fu praised him, she couldn't go soft because of appreciation. There could only be one person who could walk out of the Imperial Palace today and go to the Central Plains to kill Master Monk.

Although she wanted to know how Li Miao avoided the influence of [Silent Illumination]... Xu Fu didn't want to cause more trouble. There were too many weird things about Li Miao, but to explore these, it was safer to find and ponder from Li Miao’s corpse.

*Bang!*

Xu Fu raised her palm to block Li Miao’s left fist, then led it to his right fist, stepped forward, and clamped both fists under her armpits, while her other hand slapped toward Li Miao’s chin from bottom to top.

But just as the palm edge reached Li Miao’s collarbone, a muffled sound suddenly came from the ground.

*Thud!*

Then intense pain came from her toes.

Xu Fu looked down and found that Li Miao had actually stomped on her toes. Judging from the pain coming from the soles of her feet, her five toes had clearly been stomped into minced meat by Li Miao.

She looked up, her pupils shrinking.

Li Miao’s upper body had leaned over at some point, almost pressing against her face. His eyes were still tightly closed, but even through his eyelids, one could clearly feel the surging killing intent brewing in the bottom of his eyes, which no one in the world could match.

"I was thinking about something just now, didn't have time to speak."

Li Miao’s mouth curled, spitting out cold words.

"Do you know how An Qisheng died?"

Xu Fu suddenly wanted to retreat. As soon as her figure moved, she found that Li Miao’s hands, which were clamped under her armpits, had suddenly opened at some point, hooking into her flesh like tiger claws.

"He was stronger than me, harder than me, and his realm was no lower than mine."

Li Miao’s claws hooked tighter and tighter, but until now he hadn't had any thought of running hard training or using Qi to protect his body, so while digging into Xu Fu’s flesh, his fingertips also began to shatter, his nails peeling off, revealing the pink, tender flesh underneath.

"But he thought he knew me very well."

"Just like Lady Xu just now, he thought my reliance was that I wasn't afraid of death, wasn't afraid of injury, wasn't afraid of pain, and dared to fight for my life... In a way, what they said was close."

"I’m not afraid of pain... I enjoy it."

"You are not afraid of pain, but you are not willing to be injured. Struggle is a means to you, not an end... This is my greatest reliance. I enjoy struggle, I enjoy pain, and you, you are just not afraid."

Li Miao’s eyes opened suddenly.

There was no light in them, his pupils were dilated to the limit, his focus was blurry, reflecting Xu Fu’s face.

He had never broken free from [Silent Illumination] from beginning to end.

His five senses had always been in Xu Fu’s control.

"I can’t see you, can’t hear you, can’t smell you, can’t touch you... But nature and life are cultivated together. You can affect my five senses, but you cannot affect my nature and life... So, the damage to nature and life can tell me where you are."

"The wound told me your position."

"Whichever direction my wound appears in, that’s where you are; the more wounds and the more severe the injury, the closer you are to me; lacerations, penetrating wounds, compression wounds, stab wounds, abrasions, the length, depth, and time of the wounds told me your moves."

Xu Fu realized.

She finally understood how Li Miao cracked [Silent Illumination].

Wounds.

Li Miao deliberately withdrew all defensive means, lowering his body’s strength to the minimum. For a battle of this level, any aftershock was enough to leave hideous wounds on Li Miao’s body.

Then, Li Miao, with his profound, terrifying, and near-instinctive understanding of "injury"—unprecedented and unlikely to be surpassed—inferred her movements.

"Heavenly Demon."

She spoke in a low voice.

"This is a false definition originally told to the Shinto followers. Bodhidharma, Master Jianzhen, and Zhang Zhang Sanfeng shouldn't really be matched with this name... but using it to describe you is well-deserved."

"The roots of the demon are deep."

"If Bodhidharma didn't have only a trace of nature left, if he were still clear-headed, he would never have handed his legacy to you... If you were born in any evil sect, it would be the greatest disaster for the world."