As soon as the Human Emperor Banner came out, I became the Lord of the Old Ones

Chapter 189 It’s my honor
The talisman pen did not penetrate deeply into Xiong Tieshan's flesh and did not damage his internal organs.

However, it breached his impenetrable defenses, disrupted his life magnetic field, and turned his volcanic eruption of life force into a turbulent torrent.

For a moment, both Xu Yan and "Jelly" felt much less pressure.

In a sense, they seemed to see their opponent displaying a "health bar".

This is easy to handle!
A glint flashed in Xu Yan's eyes. He abandoned the talisman brush, clenched his fists, and flicked his thumbs like daggers, aiming straight for Xiong Tieshan's temple.

Xiong Tieshan roared, and the shirt covering his head tore apart inch by inch, but he didn't have time to fight back. He could only barely hold off Xu Yan's arms.

But the next second, he regained the initiative, his ten fingers first wrapping around Xu Yan's wrist as if boneless, and then digging deep into Xu Yan's flesh like iron hooks.

The two men's four arms were intertwined like four steel cables tethering a massive ship weighing tens of thousands of tons.

Their veins and tendons bulged high, and fine blood droplets seeped from their fiery red skin, pooling together and hissing as they turned into hot steam.

Click! Click! Click!

Even the steel-wood floor beneath their feet, which Xiong Ruyue had spared no expense in installing at great cost, developed spiderweb-like cracks due to their struggle, with debris and splinters flying everywhere, reaching seven or eight meters away.

Xiong Tieshan possessed immense strength.

Even though the talisman pen had pierced a bloody hole in his abdomen, blood was still gushing out like a fire hydrant.

The power of his strangulation arms continued to increase wildly, making Xu Yan feel as if his arm bones were about to explode inch by inch.

Xu Yan, however, was young and impetuous.

Even at the risk of breaking his arm, he kept kicking, striking Xiong Tieshan's ribs with powerful knee strikes, forcing his abdominal wound to spurt out more blood.

From the very beginning, it's a battle of tactics.

Later on, it became a contest of pure strength without any fancy tricks.

Now, it's all about willpower.

Xu Yan's arms made a constant "crackling" sound as the bones snapped together.

Xiong Tieshan's abdomen and even his legs were completely stained red with his own blood.

Even the crisscrossing spiderweb-like cracks underfoot transformed into a massive, crimson, and shocking array of runes.

But their gazes were equally sharp, their expressions equally resolute, and they showed no intention of giving up.

finally--

After a half-minute standoff, Xiong Tieshan's will remained unbreakable.

But his heart couldn't withstand such intense exercise and began to contract violently.

He experienced visible muscle spasms in the left side of his chest.

His face showed pain, and regret that was ten times more intense than pain.

The force used to strangle Xu Yan's arms was also weakened by 30% compared to before.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Xu Yan delivered a flying knee strike, piercing Xiong Tieshan's abdomen and breaking free from his control.

He took the opportunity to circle around to Xiong Tieshan's side and tightly wrapped his arms around his waist.

With a thunderous battle roar, Xu Yan's chest expanded, his abdomen caved in, and his arms swelled. He exerted his strength and, with the force of uprooting a willow tree, lifted Xiong Tieshan up and slammed him down headfirst!
At the same time, "Jelly" swam over and lay down under Xiong Tieshan's head like a cushion.

"boom!"

Despite the buffer provided by the "crystal slime mold," Xiong Tieshan's fall still caused the sound of a mountain collapsing.

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

Both the victors and the vanquished lay limp on the ground like mud for over a minute, unable to utter a sound except for heavy breathing.

Another minute passed before Xu Yan regained the ability to get up with difficulty.

"Grandpa, are you alright?"

He coughed up a mouthful of foamy, bloody water and found that his chest was still aching terribly. Every word he spoke felt like someone had stabbed him in the lungs.

"His heart should be fine, but I don't know about his back."

Xiong Tieshan groaned.

The stubborn old man lay sprawled on the ground, his expression inscrutable, whether from unbearable pain or lingering satisfaction.

After catching his breath for another half a minute, he shouted like a child who had lost a game, "If I were twenty years younger, no, just ten years younger, you would definitely not be my match!"

“If you were ten years younger, I certainly wouldn’t fight you, at least not this way.”

Xu Yan saw that Xiong Tieshan's complexion gradually returned to normal, and his skin regained a slight luster, even feeling that he was better than before the fight.

It was as if the exchange just now had helped Xiong Tieshan vent all the frustration he had accumulated from being bedridden for more than half a month, and he had regained some of his former glory.

Xu Yan breathed a slight sigh of relief.

"Only an idiot would choose to engage in close combat with a master of the cardless style like you. Before I had seventeen or eighteen sealing cards on hand, I would only choose to run away when faced with your challenge."

Xu Yan said earnestly.

Xiong Tieshan laughed heartily, seemingly taking Xu Yan's words as a compliment.

He struggled to his feet, clutching the wounds on his chest and abdomen that had just stopped bleeding, and gasped for breath for a long time.

Looking down at the bruises that bulged high on his ribs, Xiong Tieshan's eyes twitched, as if he were recalling Xu Yan's ferocious knee strike.

"You little rascal, you really went all out."

He asked, "Aren't you worried that you might actually cause my heart condition to relapse, or that your 'crystal slime' might arrive a fraction of a second too late and break my neck?"

"It was an honor."

Xu Yan sighed and said, "It would be great to cooperate with the Kuang Tie Club, but facing a master of the no-card style like you, in a life-or-death struggle that burns with your life force, I cannot resist the temptation to fight you to the very end."

“If you really die in this battle, I think it is the fate you chose. I will take this honor of ‘ending you with my own hands’ and find another way to do what I want to do.”

Xiong Tieshan was moved.

"The strong from the wilderness and the buds growing in the safe zone are indeed very different."

He squinted, carefully examining Xu Yan's not-so-strong body, and hesitated, "Why do I have a feeling that you haven't used your full strength yet?"

Xu Yan smiled slightly but did not answer.

"Well, it seems I really am getting old."

Xiong Tieshan didn't dwell on it. He slowly rubbed his chest and said, "Sometimes I really envy these remnant souls from the past. They can break free from the constraints of their weak bodies and become unrestrained energy beings, freely unleashing their will to live, without having to worry about problems like heart disease."

"It's strange, really. The Era of Heroes has been around for at least ten thousand years. Especially in the past three to five thousand years of upheaval, there have been many heroes with the strength to uproot mountains, heroic martyrs, and demons who wreak havoc on the world. Yet, not a single strong person has been able to leave behind a remnant soul after death. This really doesn't make sense!"

(End of this chapter)