Devouring Evil Martial Arts, Eliminating Demons from All Heavens

Chapter 268 Humans and Gods Clash Over Foundations

Yuan Zai!!
The Grand Chancellor!!!

Yuanzai felt as if the echoes in the woods were a hundred drumsticks pounding against his heart, his ears were closed, and his eardrums felt like they were about to bulge out of his ears and burst.

"Ah-poof—"

He just bit his tongue to extract his semen and spray it out.

Now, a warm, sweet, and metallic taste welled up from his lungs, and unable to suppress it, he spat out a mouthful of blood.

Chu Tianshu had also studied some techniques of sonic kung fu at the Southern Shaolin Temple.

Although I haven't specifically practiced the mental techniques corresponding to those sound wave techniques, using the "Heavenly Hanging Divine Skill" to activate them naturally brings a unique charm.

At this moment, Chu Tianshu shouted and unleashed his power, remembering the aura he had when he fought Yuan Zai last time, and it had a sense of being specifically targeted at him.

If the person presiding over the ritual platform becomes distracted and their mental focus becomes sluggish, at least half of the various protective measures on the platform will become ineffective.

Chu Tianshu's figure flashed out from the gap in the high wall that had just been blown up.

A three-tiered altar appeared, with three rings of golden-red protective shields flashing around it.

With the divine sword before him, a single strike pierced through it all.

Chu Tianshu moved with the sword, his feet landing on the third level of the platform.

At this moment, he didn't care about conserving energy; as soon as his feet touched the ground, a wave of energy burst forth from his entire body.

The three-tiered altar was instantly covered in cracks.

The burst of energy emanating from his hand shot out along the Three-Seven Divine Sword.

The aura, silvery white as a ribbon, shot through the air, leaving a brilliant silver mark in mid-air.

Yuan Zai blocked the attack with a mask of ghosts and gods.

Clang! !

The sword energy struck the mask, creating a shower of sparks.

The impact caused Yuan Zai to slide out of the altar area and land on the forest floor.

Just as Chu Tianshu was about to give chase, he suddenly sensed something unusual about the aura around him.

His Heavenly Hanging Divine Skill has already gone through the Undercurrent and the Sea-Sweeping Realm, and has truly reached the Heavenly Hanging Realm. His control and perception of the Qi flow have reached a new level.

The range of perception is much larger than the range of control.

The martial arts master possesses a keen sense of crisis, sharp sword intent, and excellent control over the aura.

Very few people are able to ambush him.

Even when Pear Goddess controlled Cao Ying to launch a close-range sneak attack, he still managed to react.

However, at this moment, a strange feeling suddenly arose.

In terms of stealth and abruptness alone, it seems to be no less impressive than Cao Ying's surprise attack.

choke! !

The sword flashed and, in an instant, almost became a large, shimmering silver sphere.

No one could be seen on the cracked three-tiered altar.

All I could see was a shiny silver sphere that spun once.

Something seemed to be stuck to the edge of the sphere in the surrounding air.

A moment later, the sphere vanished, and the afterimage of the longsword merged back into one.

Chu Tianshu held his sword horizontally in front of his chest, the sword covered with hundreds of needles finer than cow hair.

The needle tips were all absorbed by his internal force onto the sword, while the needle tails were still swaying and shaking.

These needles are neither entirely black nor entirely white.

It's a grayish-black color with a transparent texture.

During the late Qing Dynasty, there were vagrants in northern Anhui and Yuzhou who would make paper offerings, burn oil, and burn the paper to perform rituals. They would gather in crowds during festivals to perform these rituals, exorcising diseases and disasters for profit.

In the early days, the practice of "Nianzi" involved soliciting donations of money from villagers for incense oil to purchase oil-paper wicks. Later, it also included some acts of intimidation and extortion, bordering on theft.

The more famine and poor the harvest, the more people joined the Nian Rebellion. As the saying goes, "Those who stayed were called civilians, and those who left were called Nian rebels." The government referred to them as Nian bandits.

During the height of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, countless starving people rose up in rebellion, and the Nian Rebellion also grew rapidly, forming the Nian Army, which fought in the north and south.

Since the Nian Rebellion allied, in terms of bravery in battle and strict discipline, most of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's armies were not as good as the Nian Rebellion.

However, the Nian Army was severely damaged by Senggelinqin, Zuo Zongtang and others. Those with ambition died, and those who sought to live did not survive.

On the contrary, a group of people who specialized in assassination accepted the government's offer of amnesty and were granted official positions, which have been passed down to this day.

At the end of the Qing Dynasty, this group of people were sent to Liaodong by the Empress Dowager Xigong. They were only recruited by Cao Bokun more than half a year ago.

The Nian Rebellion's assassination techniques were unique. Those who practiced these secret methods would wash their hair with medicinal oils and water, experiencing three lives and three deaths.

When the monk's hair grew for the fourth time, it was used to make needles.

After the needles are made, they are wrapped in the leaves of poisonous plants and roasted with oil flames. Once the leaves of the poisonous plants have burned to ashes, the fine needles, as thin as cow hair, absorb all the poisonous fire.

It thus became a secret treasure capable of instantly penetrating magical defenses and shattering the martial artist's vital energy.

A martial arts master who has cultivated the skill of "food as immortality" can expel most kinds of poisons, including herbal poisons, snake venom, and mineral poisons from the body by manipulating the body's qi and blood as soon as the poisoning occurs.

However, if one's skin is scratched by such a poisonous needle, one will immediately feel weak and beyond medical help.

Moreover, when this needle is released, the warning signs that the enemy can sense are extremely slight, and they may even misjudge the direction.

But since it's a needle, it has one major drawback.

If you shoot a little further, your aim is more likely to go astray.

The great sorcerer of the Nian Rebellion honed these needles to the point that as long as they touched the human body, even through armor, they would automatically seek out the soul and enter the body to kill.

When he stood on the hillside, he could throw needles at the enemy's position from two or three hundred meters away, causing casualties. But he was never sure who he was killing.

Often, they would try to attack the Qing generals, but a group of Qing soldiers, dozens of steps away, would fall down first.

To maintain accuracy, the needle must be fired within thirty paces.

At a distance of thirty paces, the risk of being killed by a skilled martial artist is too great.

After Cao Bokun took these people under his wing, he learned of this major flaw in their tradition and sent skilled craftsmen to help them make improvements.

The poisoned needles of the Nian Rebellion were not afraid of fire.

Even if propelled by gunpowder, it will not damage its magical artifact properties.

They created a special steel tube, about a foot long and as thick as a child's arm, specifically designed to launch these poison needles.

It can maintain accuracy and penetrate iron plate targets from 100 meters away.

A needle finer than a cow's hair, it pierces the air silently and without a trace, almost imperceptible to the naked eye, with subtle and chaotic warning signs—truly a supreme weapon of destruction.

To avoid situations where the user's skill level is too low, causing others to become aware of the situation prematurely and affecting the results.

Cao Bokun selected only three Nianzi monks to follow him back to the capital.

When Chu Tianshu first chased them out, he didn't actually notice these three people.

Startled by the needles, they immediately pinpointed the location of the three people.

bass! !

Chu Tianshu spun around, and the Three-Seven Divine Sword swept across most of a circle.

The fine needles on the sword immediately spread out along this arc angle.

This sword strike should have drawn a complete circle.

But when he was halfway through the swing, another broadsword thrust at him.

The two swords clashed, and a flash of sparks appeared at the point of impact.

The shrill sound of the metallic blade was extremely piercing, agonizing to the core.

A small portion of the poison needle remained on Chu Tianshu's silver-white longsword.

Upon contact, they burst apart uncontrollably.

Under the effect of the Heaven-Slaying True Scripture, it was as if every poisoned needle had become a small bomb.

The shattered needle was naturally closer to Chu Tianshu.

The blue light in Chu Tianshu's eyes surged, his heart pounded, his anger flared, and he suddenly opened his mouth and blew.

A thick, glowing blue stream of energy blew out of his mouth.

It wasn't the breath produced by the heart and lungs, but rather a refined internal force.

A large number of broken needles were enveloped in this internal force and rushed towards Cao Bokun on the opposite side.

When these needles were intact, they were indeed extremely dangerous. Chu Tianshu also felt that his protective true energy and the skin of the Martial God could not withstand them.

However, once they shatter, these needles lose their original magical artifact properties.

Cao Bokun was also completely unprepared for this.

Some people can blow air to flip the explosive fragments back.

The Fengtian Sword was stuck to the Sanqi Sword and couldn't be lifted for a while.

Cao Bokun made a sudden decision and closed his eyes.

As soon as he closed his eyes, a large number of wrinkles appeared on his face, his nostrils closed, and his ears automatically covered his ear canals.

My entire head felt like a stone being compressed under immense pressure.

The wrinkles were so numerous that they looked grotesque and bizarre, almost like a mask, or a ghost's mask.

The power of the Five Witches manifested on his face.

The blue internal energy mixed with broken needles struck his face, creating a clattering sound.

The Three-Seven Sword suddenly moved, and the Fengtian Sword changed instantly.

The stance of the two swords crossing over suddenly changed.

A silver-white longsword thrusts straight forward, while a broad-bladed longsword parries diagonally.

The mirror-like sword tip pierced the heavy blade covered with forged steel.

hum! !

The buzzing sound spread outwards in layers.

Chu Tianshu maintained this posture, seemingly having no intention of changing his move.

He slowly and deliberately pushed the Three-Seven Sword forward.

The two found themselves in a situation akin to a contest of internal strength.

Cao Bokun felt as if the force in front of him was like a tidal wave, relentlessly pushing towards him.

Every inch of his body was oppressed by this force.

The face that had just been deliberately furrowed was now unable to relax, and the eyelids couldn't even be opened.

But this situation secretly pleased him.

If it comes to a contest of foundations, he possesses the power of the Five Witches within him, and he is rapidly adapting to this power.

The two are actually mutually restraining.

Although Liu Yanqi might catch up during this process, Yuan Zai is much closer.

(End of this chapter)