Republic of China Era: Entering the Dao through Divine Strike.

More than sixty members of the Red Lotus Sect had been lying in ambush in the side rooms and corners of the courtyard, their karmic fire talismans ready to be unleashed.

Li Xin now fully understood Jin San Niang's scheme.

The other side never intended to rely on these believers to incite unrest among the people; it was a trap set from the very beginning.

This is an attempt to lure me into the range of the gunpowder explosion...

Well thought out.

By using the Karmic Fire Talisman Array to seal off all escape routes and luring them into a head-on attack, they were caught up in the excitement of the battle and had no idea that there was a deadly trap beneath their feet.

When the time is right, detonate the gunpowder and holy light bomb in the cellar, blowing everyone in the cellar to pieces.

Therefore, the killing formation will not be activated unless one enters the formation.

that is it.

Li Xin stood outside the courtyard, a golden light flashing in his eyes. He had already seen through all the schemes and also recognized the enemy's appearance.

Amidst the billowing toxic smoke, two figures slowly emerged from the cellar.

One is tall and the other is short, one is strong and the other is thin, the contrast is particularly striking.

The tall, bald man was Zhu Tianhuo.

The person was naked from the waist up, with his chest and arms covered in dense karmic fire runes.

The runes alternated between light and dark with each breath, like a red-hot iron buried under the skin.

His hands were a full size larger than average, and his palms were dark red...

The air around my palm was slightly distorted by the high temperature.

Zhu Tianhuo, an elder of the Red Lotus Sect, has already cultivated the Karmic Fire Palm to the sixth level.

Legend has it that with a single, powerful palm strike, he can burn a millstone-sized piece of bluestone into powder.

The thin, withered old man was He Canyao, whose face was covered with a linen mask made of herbs, revealing only a pair of deeply sunken eyes.

His hands were tucked into his wide sleeves, from which different colored toxic fumes occasionally drifted out.

Yellowish-green is the smoke of decaying bones, dark red is the miasma of bewitching the mind...

There was also a very faint purple mist, so faint that even Cheng Feiyan couldn't distinguish the type of poison.

He Canyao is a hidden elder of the Red Lotus Sect, extremely skilled in using poison, and his methods are ruthless.

Legend has it that he once single-handedly poisoned an entire town, killing more than 700 people overnight with blood flowing from all seven orifices, and no one was able to escape.

Li Xin climbed over the low wall and had just stepped into the courtyard when Zhu Tianhuo's scorching palm strike landed in front of Cheng Feiyan.

Zhu Tianhuo's movements were not agile; in fact, they appeared clumsy.

But with each step, the blue bricks would be branded with charred marks.

The internal energy circulated within his body, emitting a deep rumble, as if a furnace was hidden within his dantian...

With a single palm strike, a wave of heat swept over him.

The locust tree, several feet away from him, already had leaves whose edges were turning yellow and curling.

Cheng Feiyan gritted her teeth and raised her broken sword, preparing to take the blow head-on.

Just then, a hand reached out from behind her and imprinted itself on Zhu Tianhuo's right palm.

A muffled thud exploded...

The air inside the courtyard suddenly contracted and then exploded, creating a surging wave of air.

Zhu Tianhuo took five steps back in succession, each step crushing the blue bricks, and the last step cracked the wooden planks at the entrance of the cellar.

He steadied himself, looked down at his right hand, and saw that the web between his thumb and forefinger was completely split open. The blood that flowed out had not yet hit the ground when it was baked into a dark red scab by the high temperature of the palm strike.

He looked up at the motionless young man in the blue robe, his pupils suddenly contracting.

His proud Sixfold Karmic Fire Palm technique possesses the power to melt gold and scorch stone.

With just one palm strike, he was casually knocked back five steps by his opponent.

In contrast, Li Xin's palm was completely unharmed, without even a single red mark.

It seems like they didn't use much force.

Looking at the calmness in his eyes, it was as if he was training the people around him, not in a hurry to kill him at all.

How can this be?

Ignoring the shaken Zhu Tianhuo, Li Xin turned to look at Wang Jingya by the courtyard wall.

At this moment, countless karmic fire talismans attacked from all directions, and more than sixty cultists launched an attack simultaneously.

Wang Jingya moved nimbly with the Six Harmonies Steps, her goose-feather blade flashing like snowflakes, each strike precisely shattering the incoming talisman fire.

But there were too many enemies, and they surrounded us from all sides. No matter how fast the blade was, it was impossible to stop all the attacks.

A talisman of karmic fire grazed her shoulder, singeing a lock of hair at her temple.

She dodged to the side, her knife hilt snapping backward to knock down a cultist who was attacking from behind. In the midst of her struggle, she shouted to Li Xin, "There are too many enemies. We can't handle them all. We must clear out some of the ambushers first."

From the shadows on the flank, He Canyao seized the opportunity to launch a surprise attack.

Taking advantage of Zhu Tianhuo drawing attention from the front, he silently circled around to the side. Three wisps of strangely colored poisonous smoke shot out from his sleeves, heading towards Cheng Feiyan, Wang Jingya, and Lin Si, who had just rushed into the courtyard.

The rotting smoke corroded their bodies, while the mind-altering miasma disturbed their senses. The two streams of poisonous smoke intertwined in the air, forming a poisonous net that blocked all escape routes for the three.

He Canyao hid behind the poisonous smoke, his thin body gliding like a ghost, moving much faster than Zhu Tianhuo.

The ground beneath his feet was corroded by the dripping poison, and it sizzled continuously.

"Beware of deadly poison..."

Cheng Feiyan swung her knife to disperse a wisp of poisonous mist, only to find that the venom was spreading upwards along the blade.

He could only immediately discard the broken sword and hastily retreat.

"Sigh... I still need to practice more."

A sigh came from the courtyard.

Amidst the billowing poisonous smoke and rain of karmic fire talismans, a slender, fair hand gently reached out.

Three drops of pale golden true energy condensed at her fingertips, forming dewdrops that were crystal clear, like dewdrops hanging on bamboo leaves in the early morning, about to fall.

Li Xin flicked his finger lightly, and three golden dewdrops silently pierced through layers of poisonous miasma.

The first drop pierced through the poisonous smoke and precisely struck He Canyao's Yunmen acupoint on his right shoulder. With a slight popping sound, the acupoint exploded with tiny blood holes, instantly locking the true energy in his right arm, and abruptly stopping the gushing poisonous smoke from his sleeve.

The second drop immediately struck the Weizhong acupoint on He Canyao's left knee. He Canyao's legs went weak, and he collapsed heavily to the ground on one knee, his face filled with disbelief.

The third drop grazed his ear, pinning the cultist who was about to launch a sneak attack behind him to the courtyard wall, along with the talisman.

This is called the Dewdrop Finger.

This finger technique, comprehended spontaneously after breaking through the barrier of communion with the heavens, compresses true energy into a thin thread.

Acupressure can be applied remotely, silently and invisibly, with extremely strong penetrating power, making it very difficult to defend against.

Most importantly, it has a long attack range and is very energy-efficient.

He Canyao knelt on one knee, his right arm and left leg completely sealed.

A strange, cold smile suddenly flashed in his deep-set eyes.

He did not try to get up, but buried his face in the mask, letting out a low, muffled chant.

This time, all the toxic fumes stopped being released outwards and instead flowed back into his body, seeping into his veins and flesh through his pores.

This is a secret technique of poison sacrifice...

Using one's own blood and essence as a sacrifice, and integrating deadly poison into the body, one can forcibly increase combat power in a short period of time. This is a life-or-death gamble.

His withered body visibly swelled and tightened, and a layer of purplish-black poisonous patterns appeared on his skin. His figure suddenly expanded, and he looked even more robust than Zhu Tianhuo.

A purplish-black fist, carrying a strong, fishy stench, slammed straight into Li Xin's face.

The force of this punch was even greater than Zhu Tianhuo's Karmic Fire Palm. Wherever the wind from the punch swept, the ivy on the courtyard wall instantly withered and turned to ashes.

While He Canyao unleashed his poisonous fists, Zhu Tianhuo also launched another attack.

Ignoring his injured hand, he took advantage of the moment when Li Xin was dealing with the poisonous attack and launched a surprise attack from the side and rear.

All the karmic fire runes on his body lit up, and dark red flames enveloped his entire body. He unleashed both palms at the same time, and the scorching power caused the bark of the locust tree to crack continuously.

The two, one in front and one behind, worked together seamlessly, one using poison and the other fire, leaving almost no openings.

Li Xin did not turn around. He gently tapped his left index finger behind him, and a golden finger gust pierced through the scorching heat of the karmic fire, accurately striking Zhu Tianhuo's Tanzhong acupoint on his chest.

The karmic fire energy protecting his body shattered instantly, leaving a gaping hole in his chest, right in front of his heart.

Zhu Tianhuo flew backward like a kite with a broken string, crashing into half of the earthen wall of the west wing and burying himself in a pile of bricks and stones, spitting out blood, his eyes filled with disbelief.

At the same time, Li Xin lightly tapped his right index finger forward, colliding with the incoming purplish-black poison fist.

A wisp of golden true energy seeped into the fist bone from the fingertip, and advanced inward along the meridians.

Wherever the true energy passed, crackling and popping sounds rang out, and He Canyao's meridians and bones were all shattered.

The purplish-black poisonous patterns spreading across the body surface melted away quickly, like ice and snow meeting the scorching sun.

The swollen muscles quickly deflated and shrank back...

"The poison skills you've cultivated are no match for the corpse poison of the Silver Bottle Monk." Li Xin withdrew his finger and then struck him in the chest with a palm strike.

He Canyao's chest collapsed completely...

His body flew into the air and crashed heavily into the trunk of the locust tree. He slid down the trunk to the ground, gushing out a large amount of black blood.

The mask fell off, revealing a face ravaged by toxins and pitted with blemishes.

The light in his eyes faded rapidly, his pupils dilated, and he died completely.

In less than ten breaths, the two elders of the Red Lotus Sect were both killed.

Li Xin stood still, not moving an inch, just making a few casual gestures...

Two Red Lotus Sect elders, renowned throughout the martial arts world and capable of silencing even the most distraught children, died as easily as ants being crushed by a hand.

Not only Wang Jingya and Cheng Feiyan, but also others were deeply shocked.

The morale of the more than sixty cult members who had been lying in ambush in the courtyard was instantly thrown into chaos...

Some threw away the Karmic Fire Talisman and turned to run away, while others gritted their teeth and activated the talisman array in an attempt to trap Li Xin.

Some people even took out gunpowder pipes, intending to detonate them prematurely.

This time, Li Xin will not give them any chance.

The treasured sword of the Marquis of Xinting leaped into his palm.

The clear, long sound of the knife echoed throughout the courtyard.

The pale golden sword energy spread out like a wave, sweeping across the courtyard wall.

The raging fire talismans that filled the sky were extinguished at the same time, turning into ashes.

The fingers of the dozen or so followers holding the talisman were all severed at the root by the blade energy.

Before the screams could even rang out, Li Xin's figure had already weaved through the crowd, transforming into illusory, flickering lights and shadows.

The blade flashed like snowflakes, scattering in pieces.

Golden threads of light crisscrossed the area.

In the blink of an eye, forty or fifty people died.

The remaining believers were terrified and scattered in all directions. Wang Jingya, who was guarding the alley entrance, led her people to intercept them.

No one could escape this alley alive.

"I originally wanted to let you guys practice more, to hone your martial arts skills and seek the Dao, because you can't improve without fighting. But these guys are quick to drop bombs, so naturally we can't let them live."

Li Xin shook his head, feeling a deep sense of regret.

Just as the battle was over, a sharp, maniacal laugh suddenly echoed from the depths of the cellar.

"What a fine Li Yanluo!" Laughter echoed in layers, as if countless people were speaking at the same time.

A strange, sweet fragrance wafted in the air, and inhaling it could easily make one feel disoriented.