Achieving physical sainthood begins with the Iron Shirt technique!

In the western wilderness, on the edge of the desert, lies a nameless, decaying swamp.

Thick, yellow clouds hung low overhead, and tiny, finger-sized drops of acid rain pelted down. The raindrops landed on the shirtless men, immediately creating a pungent white puff of smoke and leaving small red marks.

Li Laosi walked barefoot in the stinking mud that reached above his calves. Behind him followed more than eighty wounded, mud-legged disabled people.

This group of people broke away from the protection of Lu Chen's physical mountain and plunged into this desolate wasteland. Without any cultivation foundation, relying solely on their courage, survival here became extremely brutal.

The group stopped on a slightly hardened mound of mud to catch their breath.

No one spoke. Their provisions had long since run out. Several men, their eyes gleaming with a green light, gripped tightly a black-shelled, hard-boned venomous snake they had pulled from the mud.

The snake's tail was still writhing wildly. A man, ignoring the venom, opened his mouth wide and bit down hard, skin and bone in one swift motion. Dark red snake blood mixed with bile dripped from the corner of his mouth.

The man next to him didn't even catch a snake. He knelt in the mud pit, frantically digging out a few black grass roots that smelled of decay. He smeared them with mud and forced them down his throat.

The crunching sound of chewing grass roots revealed a savage disregard for life.

They had drunk the extreme, desolate blood bestowed upon them by Lu Chen. This blood was too domineering.

After several days of relentless training in the harsh environment, several of the already frail civilians could no longer withstand the strain.

"ah--!"

A bloodcurdling scream erupted from the back of the group. Two emaciated men collapsed headfirst into the mud. The demonic blood within them surged wildly, tearing apart their meridians. They writhed in agony, frantically scratching their faces.

His skin was torn open by the fingernails, bleeding profusely, and even his pale cheekbones were exposed.

"I'm not going to survive! I'm not going to survive!"

One of the men's eyes bulged out, his mind completely broken. He grabbed a sharp rock from the mud and was about to plunge it into his carotid artery.

Li Laosi's face, full of fat, tensed up instantly.

He strode past the people blocking his way, and with a flying kick, sent the two cowards who were trying to slit their throats sprawling into the mud.

Li Laosi raised his palm, as big as a palm leaf fan, and slapped the man's cheeks from both sides.

"Slap! Slap! Slap!"

The slap was delivered with tremendous force, sending several bloody back teeth flying.

"Want to die? You have no right to take the life your benefactor gave you!" Li Laosi grabbed the man's hair, forcefully lifting his bloodied face, spitting all over his face. "What did you say when you were drinking blood in the cave? With bones this soft, you're not worthy of the life your benefactor bestowed upon you! Hold it in, you'd rather die standing than suffer the pain!"

The barrage of insults and beatings slapped the two men back from the brink of collapse. They lay prone in the mud, gritting their teeth and desperately resisting the backlash from their bodies.

The line continued to move forward.

Ahead lay an extremely narrow, broken mud bridge. This bridge was pieced together from rotten wood and dried mud of unknown age, and below it flowed a dark, bottomless swamp.

Li Laosi, carrying his broken machete, led the way onto the mud bridge.

Just as the group reached the center, the black water beneath their feet suddenly underwent a dramatic change. The swamp, which had been bubbling with tiny bubbles, suddenly began to surge and churn violently, like boiling water.

A thick, pungent stench of demonic blood rushed towards everyone's faces along with the rolling black waves.

The mud exploded out with a roar.

Four or five enormous black shadows suddenly burst forth from the bottom of the water.

It was over two zhang long! Its back was covered with rows of sharp, serrated bones. Its black scales gleamed with a chilling, menacing light in the dim light.

This is a first-tier peak "Deep-Water Poison Crocodile"! The crocodile king leading it is even larger, and its ferocity is almost comparable to a second-tier high-level Great Swamp Demon.

The two disabled people at the front were a beat too slow to dodge because the mud underfoot was slippery.

The giant crocodile opened its blood-red maw with a muffled "crack".

Before they could even scream, the two were cut in half at the waist.

Its upper body had fallen into the water, while its lower body was still convulsing on the bridge. The crocodile's jaws ripped violently back and forth, flinging flesh and internal organs everywhere. A large patch of glaringly bright red blood instantly stained this section of the dark mudflat.

Absolutely overwhelming the ferocious demons!

Upon witnessing such a bloody and horrific scene, the legs of the remaining people who had just stepped onto the mud bridge began to tremble uncontrollably.

For thousands of years, they served as mining slaves to the immortals, and their inherent servility—the tendency to accept fate when faced with insurmountable obstacles—was forced out in the face of death.

"Great demon! We can't defeat it!"

"Run!"

Several men at the back of the line buckled in fear, instinctively turning back to flee in disarray. If panic spread, these eighty-odd Extreme Path Seeds would fall apart on the spot.

"Screw your errands!"

Li Laosi's eyes were bloodshot, and he showed no intention of backing down.

With a flick of his wrist, he drew out a large, thick-backed cleaver made from scraps of black iron. He turned around, aimed at the rotten wooden bridge behind them, and swung the cleaver down with both hands.

"Boom!"

The wooden bridge was already dilapidated, and with this brute force, a large section in the middle collapsed and fell into the dark, foul water.

Our escape route is cut off.

Li Laosi held his dulled machete horizontally in front of his chest, like a mad black bear, and roared at the people behind him who were trying to escape.

"I'd even dare to chop up those incredibly powerful cultivators, why would I be afraid of these few turtles and snakes lurking in the muddy ditch?!"

"Anyone who dares to back even half a step, I'll chop off their legs and throw them into the mud!"

The roar, infused with the power of extreme energy, made everyone's eardrums tingle. Retreat meant death, and advancing also meant death.

Before anyone could react, a three-foot-high plume of dark red blood and qi erupted from Li Laosi's body.

He pushed off heavily with his two big feet on the remaining mud bridge and charged towards the largest crocodile king.

The crocodile king's thick, hard tail swept across with a powerful gust of wind.

Li Laosi didn't dodge, but stood tall and met the blow head-on. With a muffled thud, he was spitting out a mouthful of blood, and two of his sternum bones were broken.

But he endured the inhuman pain and, using the momentum of his tail, flipped in mid-air and pounced onto the back of the giant crocodile king.

As soon as he mounted the crocodile king, Li Laosi gripped his large machete tightly with both hands and slashed twice at the serrated bones on the crocodile king's back.

"Clang! Clang!"

A shower of sparks flew from the blade, and the greatsword instantly chipped. The demon's bone armor was too hard; even scrap metal couldn't penetrate it.

Li Laosi became furious and immediately threw his weapon into the water.

He spread his two large, fan-like hands, his ten fingers as thick as iron hooks, and pressed his body forward, stabbing hard into the soft flesh of the tiny eye slit next to the giant crocodile's eye!

Blood gushed from the corner of the crocodile king's eye.

When the leader saw the blood, the sixty-odd men behind him froze. Then, their eyes turned bloodshot, and they went completely berserk.

"Hold!"

They threw all their cowardice accumulated over thousands of years into the muddy ditch, picked up the sharpened monster bones on the ground, and carried heavy boulders, charging forward in droves without regard for their lives.

There were no fancy spells or moves, and no flashy footwork.

This is the most instinctive and brutal hand-to-hand combat of the extreme and brutal people.

Dozens of men climbed onto the bodies of the remaining giant crocodiles, using large bones to brace their mouths and smashing their scales with stones. Those without weapons simply bit and scratched at their mouths.

A giant crocodile rolled wildly, violently throwing seven or eight men off its back.

The men slammed into the muddy water, spitting out mouthfuls of blood. Then they leaped up and pounced back like madmen, biting the giant crocodile's tail and refusing to let go.

Even ants can kill an elephant. This group of reckless madmen dragged several peak-level first-tier demons into the mud to fight to the death.

In the very center of the battlefield, Li Laosi clung tightly to the back of the Crocodile King.

With his brute strength, he gouged out the giant crocodile's left eye with his two fingers.

"Awooo—!"

The giant crocodile king went completely mad, its massive body thrashing violently in the mud.

Its gaping maw snapped open. Deep within its throat, a concentrated, extremely foul-smelling jet of its own black poison suddenly materialized.

"Whoosh!"

This deadly poisoned arrow, carrying a corrosive force, shot directly towards Li Laosi's face! The distance was too close; there was no way to retreat!