Chapter 245: Chapter 176: Bursting 2
Even his mother and grandmother, both adults, were hiding in the corner with deathly pale faces, watching the pillar of their family continuously drawing his bow and shooting arrows amidst the ruins. Two country women and a child—none had ever seen such a situation.
At this moment, Chen Ku couldn’t afford to comfort his three family members because he had already felt an intense Heart Blood Premonition rapidly closing in.
"Hide well here, and don’t make a sound!"
As the threat drew closer, Chen Ku only had time to turn his head and swiftly instruct them before drawing the Refined Iron Dragon Stick from his Storage Bag, slinging it across his back, and darting out like an arrow released from its bowstring.
Instinct alone should have told him that it might be the people from the Firewood Iron Shop about to burst in. To protect his family, his only way now was to go out and lure the enemy away or kill them directly.
With a flip of his body, having escaped the aim of two Divine Force Crossbows, Chen Ku leaped onto the wall of his courtyard. With this leap, he immediately saw a man in his thirties, dressed in black with hair as dark as ink, approaching from the direction of the sensed threat.
"Chen Ku! Found you!"
Xie Qi hadn’t expected that, rushing straight for Chen Ku, he would see his target leap out of the small courtyard before he even reached it. With his straightforward character, Xie Qi coldly shouted, removing a long-handled Refined Iron Rolling Oil Hammer from his back, "It was you who killed my disciple, Hong Yin. Today you’ll pay that blood debt with your blood. I will smash you to pulp!"
Hong Yin was one of the four talented disciples from the Firewood Iron Shop, beheaded by Chen Ku at the Dragon River Riverside.
BOOM!
As soon as Xie Qi spoke, from twenty zhang away, he swung the long-handled Big Hammer, unleashing a terrifying Qi Mechanism that enveloped Chen Ku.
A Fourth Realm Meridian-Opening Expert! Chen Ku’s heart pounded as he felt the encroaching Qi Mechanism.
Although he had already killed two Fourth Realm Experts—Li Yutang from the Fish and Dragon Association and Yao Wensu from Peace Path—they had died by his hand only because they were already critically injured and near death. He had merely seized the opportunity to claim their heads.
To truly face off against a Fourth Realm Expert...
BOOM!
But Xie Qi didn’t care what Chen Ku was thinking. With a single step, he brought the heavy hammer crashing down toward Chen Ku’s head with vicious force. His first strike was the Firewood Iron Shop’s signature Ultimate Skill, the Mountain-moving Cloak Hammer!
With that one hammer strike came the formidable Qi Power of a Fourth Realm Expert. It was like a raging river, covering the sky above the small courtyard. Before it even reached Chen Ku’s head, it had already blasted apart a large volume of air.
BOOM!
Chen Ku screamed in his mind: Fast, his speed is so fast!
This was the power of a Meridian-Opening Expert. With all meridians clear and Inner Qi flowing freely, unhindered as if on a highway, every move was unbelievably swift.
At this moment, while Chen Ku’s spirit-enhanced thoughts could still react, his physical body simply couldn’t keep up with his opponent’s speed. He saw the hammer descending, about to smash him into pulp.
BOOM!
Xie Qi’s hammer crashed down on Chen Ku. The impact instantly demolished the surrounding courtyard walls, exposing everything happening inside the small courtyard to everyone at Medicine King Hall’s Butcher Court.
"That’s Chen Ku!"
Shang Yunfang had also been hit by an arrow from the Divine Force Crossbow volley; his left arm was pierced completely through, leaving a hole the size of a child’s arm. But at this moment, he cared nothing for his wound, only staring with eyes wide in fury as the Fourth Realm Expert from the Firewood Iron Shop brought the hammer down on his beloved disciple’s head.
"Chen Ku!"
Watching Chen Ku get hit by the hammer, Shang Yunfang wanted to do something, but it was already too late.
However, Xie Qi, having swung the hammer, felt no sensation of hitting a person. His strike, combining his full power at the Fourth Realm Peak with his Great Achievement-level Hammer Technique, smashed down on Chen Ku’s crown but didn’t result in Chen Ku’s head splitting open like a watermelon as he’d imagined. Instead, it passed through eerily, as if smashing through air, hitting nothing but a shadow.
The Nine-Faced Illusion Lion’s Nine Phantom Bodies Technique.
In the next moment, nine moving figures of Chen Ku simultaneously appeared around Xie Qi.
"Magic? Illusion Technique? Movement Technique?"
Xie Qi was momentarily stunned, but then a ferocious grin spread across his face. "Futile effort! Chaotic Cloak Hammer!"
He began to whirl the Refined Iron Rolling Oil Hammer in his hands, his aura engulfing all of Chen Ku’s figures. Like a madman, he delivered hammer blow after hammer blow, his body advancing and thrusting with incredible speed, bombarding Chen Ku’s figures as if in a violent storm.
From a distance, Shang Yunfang was rushing over, roaring, "Beast! Stop!"
Although he couldn’t quite discern what footwork Chen Ku was using—it didn’t seem to be Piercing Sound Step—he could see that under the onslaught of the Fourth Realm Expert’s Hammer Technique, even if Chen Ku executed an amazing movement technique, he still couldn’t withstand it.
Unexpectedly, however, after hammering one of Chen Ku’s Illusion Bodies after another into nothingness, Xie Qi failed to hit Chen Ku’s real body nine consecutive times. Finally, after dissipating all of Chen Ku’s figures, his Qi Mechanism couldn’t help but falter slightly, and he roared furiously, "Where is he?! Chen Ku..."
However, just as his roar coincided with the faltering of his Qi Mechanism, an Illusion Body of Chen Ku materialized out of nowhere behind him, a red mark now visible between its eyebrows!
Opportunity! Chen Ku had finally used the Nine Phantom Bodies Technique to seize the instant his opponent’s Qi Mechanism wavered. Without hesitation, he activated the Erlang Transformation’s Spiritual Heavenly Eye and internally shouted: Freeze!
Instantly, an invisible spiritual force emerged from the Heavenly Eye on his forehead. Exploiting the momentary faltering of Xie Qi’s Qi Mechanism, it swiftly invaded Xie Qi’s mind!
A second ago, Xie Qi was still roaring, maintaining his hammer-swinging posture. Now, his eyes suddenly glazed over, and he froze in place, hammer still raised.
Immediately, during the two to three seconds Xie Qi was immobilized, Chen Ku leaped up, raising the Refined Iron Dragon Stick he held at the ready high above his head.
He unleashed the power of Two Dragons and Nine Elephants.
Executing the Skyward Strike from the Perfection Realm, he wielded a divine power capable of shattering a small mountain.
Fiercely!
He slammed it down!
...
"This..."
On the second floor of a small building in the distance, the Divine Hammer Guardians Qin Fang and Feng Buping both blanched and gasped in shock as they watched Chen Ku’s staff crash down fiercely from above, striking the head of the Fourth Realm Expert from the Firewood Iron Shop.
BANG!
Under their horrified gaze, the head of Xie Qi, the Fourth Realm Expert, was directly obliterated by Chen Ku’s staff.
After Qin Fang recovered from his astonishment, he heard his twelfth brother, Feng Buping, exclaim in shock beside him, "Killing a Meridian-Opening expert despite being in a lower realm! It all happened in just a few breaths!"
"This kid!" Qin Fang, equally incredulous, felt excitement gradually building in his eyes. He couldn’t help but say, "I think... he is the disciple Master came to Baojiao County to recruit. There’s no mistake; he’s more than qualified!"