Chapter 800: Getting Serious
Whether it was the Snake-shaped Sword Energy or the Overwhelming Sky Formation, the continuous martial arts techniques were easily absorbed and broken by the Tiger Servant, whose speed became faster and faster and the power of its punches and kicks grew stronger and stronger. Each time it pounded on the cave, it caused the cave to tremble slightly.
"Damn it!"
After twisting his body to dodge the heavy punch from the Tiger Servant, Zhu Bufan's Purple Cloud slashed towards the neck of the Tiger Servant, but as expected, it only scraped a trail of sparks off its body.
The strike was futile, and the heavy palm of the Tiger Servant came at Zhu Bufan again. With a smack, Zhu Bufan was slapped by the Tiger Servant's large palm and was blasted back like a cannonball.
'Boom!'
Zhu Bufan, who had been turned into a black shadow, slammed into the cave wall, creating a deep pit, and spewed out a mouthful of blood. He immediately felt his internal organs in extreme pain as if the rivers and seas were overturning.
'Whizz!'
The black shadow converged like dark clouds. Before Zhu Bufan could catch his breath, the Tiger Servant had already killed his way over again. Its palms turned into knife-hands and slashed down at the blood-spitting Zhu Bufan, with a pair of emotionless red eyes.
"Reverse Heaven and Earth!"
At the critical moment, Zhu Bufan summoned all his Primordial Qi, and with both hands, employed Reverse Heaven and Earth to clash with the hand-knife of the Tiger Servant. With a loud 'boom', a powerful force from the clash poured into Zhu Bufan's body. Enduring the intense pain, he redirected the force into his legs and viciously kicked the chest of the Tiger Servant.
'Boom!'
Another heavy dull thud exploded as the concentrated kick, empowered by the Tiger Servant's strength, finally had an effect. Struck by Zhu Bufan's powerful blow, the Tiger Servant was pushed back, dragging two deep footmarks behind it, and a slight dent appeared on its solid iron armor, obviously from the kick.
"Ah!" Another mouthful of fresh blood spewed out. After blasting back the Tiger Servant, Zhu Bufan quickly picked up the fallen Emperor Yan's broken army saber. As soon as the Purple Cloud was summoned, Zhu Bufan felt an oppressive force rapidly approaching. The Tiger Servant had already recovered and was pouncing towards Zhu Bufan again.
"Damn it! What kind of monster is this?"
Seeing the Tiger Servant pouncing again, without even taking a moment to rest, Zhu Bufan cursed inwardly while immediately fleeing to a more open area. Otherwise, once pressured against the cave walls by the Tiger Servant, he was not confident about taking another hit without incident—even now, despite wearing the golden silk robe refined by the Demon King. No, in fact, had it not been for the golden silk robe, Zhu Bufan might have already been severely wounded and unable to move after the first strike.
"Earth Flame Vortex!"
The Blood Spirit Poison Fire suddenly erupted from underneath the Tiger Servant's feet, and the crimson flames immediately engulfed it. However, faced with the extremely high-temperature flames, the Tiger Servant did not stop at all, and the Blood Spirit Poison Fire couldn't even cause a slight injury to it.
Zhu Bufan had expected this outcome. The Tiger Servant was transformed from Emperor Yan's Wutian Black Flame. In any aspect, Wutian Black Flame was far superior to Blood Spirit Poison Fire, which was unable to harm the Tiger Servant. This was already within Zhu Bufan's predictions from the start. But from the beginning, Zhu Bufan's intention was not to harm the Tiger Servant with Blood Spirit Poison Fire; what he needed were the rocks that were sent flying due to the Earth Flame Vortex.
"Ha! Unlimited Qiankun!"
With his left hand moving swiftly, Unlimited Qiankun struck the scattered rocks, instantly turning them into powerful attacking weapons. The rocks, accompanied by the sound of tearing wind, crazily pummeled the Tiger Servant. Each stone bore the dual forces of Heaven and Earth Shock, making them extremely tough to deal with.
'Pop pop pop pop...'
The rain-like barrage of rocks hammered onto the Tiger Servant's body, momentarily causing it to falter. Seizing this instant, Zhu Bufan slashed out with a heavy sword blow toward the Tiger Servant.
"Chenjiang Duanliu Break? Breaking Flow Formation!"
The domineering Sword Qi thunderously struck the Chu Tiger Guard, but unlike before, the Chu Tiger Guard couldn't easily absorb the Sword Qi attack this time. Although the Chu Tiger Guard had dissolved a great part of the Breaking Flow Formation, the remaining force still had it retreating repeatedly.
"Just as I thought, faced with a powerful concentrated attack, its absorption resistance is weakened." Seeing the Chu Tiger Guard being repelled, Zhu Bufan immediately had a thought. However, before Zhu Bufan could think of a counterattack, the figure of the Chu Tiger Guard suddenly became ethereal. The next moment, the Chu Tiger Guard appeared behind Zhu Bufan like a ghostly specter, and a pair of iron fists violently slammed towards Zhu Bufan.
"Not good!" Feeling the gale behind him, Zhu Bufan was shocked and quickly lunged forward. With a 'boom', the Chu Tiger Guard's two iron fists collided together. If Zhu Bufan hadn't lunged out of the way, his head would have been blasted open by now. However, the forward-lunging Zhu Bufan was not to be outdone. As he surged ahead, he suddenly turned and the Purple Cloud in his hand forcefully blasted towards the empty space ahead. Then, Zhu Bufan's figure also began to turn ethereal.
"Killing Technique? Radiant Hunting Shadows! Gathering Sword Technique!"
The massive Sword Qi of the Purple Cloud blasted out towards the Chu Tiger Guard. The powerful force caused the Chu Tiger Guard to retreat repeatedly after being struck. However, Zhu Bufan, who had unleashed the Gathering Sword Technique, realized that with every half step the Chu Tiger Guard was pushed back, his energy consumption was alarmingly huge. At this rate, before he could truly harm the Chu Tiger Guard, he would exhaust his energy and die. Therefore, after only one strike with the Gathering Sword Technique, Zhu Bufan's figure reappeared.
"Take this! Evil Technique? Blood-colored Pan-Nie! Phoenix Soaring!"
The re-emerged Zhu Bufan, with the Martial King Pattern on him bursting with dazzling blood-colored light, his dark hair moving without wind, and the Purple Cloud in his hand instantly transforming into Emperor's Hatred, turned his figure into a blood-colored Sword Qi Phoenix and charged at the staggering Chu Tiger Guard hit by the Gathering Sword Technique.
The destructive power of the Phoenix Soaring was extremely strong. The blood-colored Phoenix, dragging a trail of afterimages, collided fiercely against the Chu Tiger Guard with a sound of breaking wind. The powerful force shot the Chu Tiger Guard's gigantic body into the air. Although it didn't manage to remove a significant part of the Chu Tiger Guard on the spot, being able to knock it into the air already satisfied Zhu Bufan.
"It's not over yet! Killing Technique? Radiant Hunting Shadows, Ring Sword Braking!!"
After appearing behind the Chu Tiger Guard again, Zhu Bufan unleashed another Killing Technique. Driven by the Purple Cloud, as soon as the Ring Sword Braking was used, the Chu Tiger Guard in mid-air was immediately enveloped in spiral Sword Qi and continuously sliced by the rotating cuts. Although the Sword Qi constantly collapsed and was absorbed, the continuous attacks eventually caused cracks to appear on the body of the Chu Tiger Guard.
"Roar!! Sword Thunder Strike!!"
At that moment, the spiral sword Qi encircling the Tiger Demon vanished, transforming into a lightning Giant Sword, Purple Cloud, like the so-called flying swords of immortals, it rushed towards the Tiger Demon. The powerful Thunder Sword struck the Tiger Demon, and the sheer impact forced the Tiger Demon into the cave wall. The fierce electric currents of the Sword Thunder Strike wove around the Tiger Demon's body, wreaking havoc and incessantly stripping away its once headache-inducing Dark Armor.
Seize the moment, Purple Cloud rendered the Tiger Demon embedded in the cave wall, Zhu Bufan held nothing back. Materializing once more, Zhu Bufan launched a Breaking Flow Formation at the Tiger Demon trapped in the stone, the heavy Sword Qi propelling it deeper into the wall.
"It's not over yet!! Breaking Flow Formation, combo!!" Consecutive Breaking Flow Formations bombarded without pause; the Tiger Demon, embedded within the wall, had no capacity to resist. Following the second and third sword strikes, the Tiger Demon's Black Armor fractured even more severely. Witnessing the Tiger Demon still alive after three assaults, Zhu Bufan steeled his heart, activating the Martial King Pattern to the fullest extent to absorb Spiritual Energy, his eyes glaring with intense ferocity.
"I don't care how tough you are, or who you are, all that matters is that you're going to die today!!" Shrouded with the Blood-colored Soul Shadow, Zhu Bufan's Killing Intent ascended to a new realm, and Purple Cloud morphed once more into Emperor's Hatred, Zhu Bufan's figure starting to become ethereal.
"Evil Technique? Blood-colored Pan-Nie, Phoenix Wing!!"
The wings of the Blood-colored Phoenix instantly enveloped the Tiger Demon's body; countless blood-colored sword energies fell onto the Tiger Demon like a torrential downpour, ravaging its body. Under the relentless assault of Phoenix Wing, the Tiger Demon's body broke down at a terrifying rate, incapable of absorbing any more Primordial Qi.
"It seems that the power of the Blood-colored Soul Shadow has increased because of that idiot's amplified Cultivation level. Could it also be that when controlled by Emperor's Hatred, the sword wheel that appeared behind him is another Spirit? That Sword Wheel seems to be formed by a different soul power from the Blood-colored Soul Shadow. Could it be a second fragmented soul?"
"No! Impossible! To be possessed by a fragmented soul is already exceedingly rare, let alone two. If that were the case, the immense Soul Power would likely burst the host apart. It's improbable that two fragmented souls could dwell within a single individual, but what was the deal with that Sword Wheel, then? Indeed, at that moment, I sensed a potent Soul Pressure emanating from that Sword Wheel." As the Tiger Demon crumbled, Emperor Yan plunged into deep contemplation, now feeling an unreadable sense about Zhu Bufan.
"Eh, never mind, anyway, no matter what, he's still an idiot; knowing this is enough for me." Emperor Yan shrugged, deciding to let go of the complexities, and as he gathered his thoughts once more, the Tiger Demon had already burst into a sky full of falling fragments beneath Zhu Bufan's Phoenix Wing, and then vanished as specks of Black Flames.
"Phew, finally won." After defeating the Tiger Demon, Zhu Bufan heaved a sigh of relief. Although powerful, the Tiger Demon wasn't as tough to deal with as expected. Just as Zhu Bufan was about to speak to Emperor Yan, he was startled almost to the point of fainting by Emperor Yan's unexpected words.
"Very well, it seems you have become accustomed to it. Since the practice battle is over, let's start for real this time. This time, three Tiger Demons together, be careful not to get killed." With that said, three balls of fire began to coalesce into the figures of Tiger Demons.