Volume 2 - Chapter 8: The Way of Sculpting, Carving a Sword
"Do not enter forests, do not chase cornered foes."
This is one of the greatest taboos in military strategy.
Yet, Li Hao gave chase. Li Hongzhuang wanted to stop him, but it was already too late.
Her frustration made her grit her teeth. She quickly swung her sword, aiming to slaughter all the demons in front of her before pursuing Li Hao.
She worried that if she left, these demons might destroy the cemetery. That place was where the restless souls of the Blood Fiend Army lay, including the subordinates under her third and sixth brothers.
For years, she had not been guarding a city but guarding these people.
She only hoped that Li He could either stop Li Hao in time or at least ensure his safe retreat.
...
Li Hao rushed forward at full speed. Some demons on the ground tried to block him, but they were quickly cut down by his sword.
Using the falling corpses as stepping stones, he moved even faster.
His object manipulation speed was already three times faster than that of an average cultivator at the Heaven and Man Realm. Combined with the true form of the White Phoenix Movement Technique, he was nearly as swift as two mid-tier Three Immortals-level great demons, ensuring he wouldn’t lose track of them.
After pursuing them for forty li, the two great demons were about to flee into the wilderness. Li Hao shouted loudly, "Stop right there!"
The two great demons abruptly turned around. They had long noticed the boy closely pursuing them but hadn’t stopped before out of fear that Li Hongzhuang might also be in pursuit.
However, now that they were this far, with Li Hongzhuang still back at the camp, even if she tried to come, it would be too late.
"You brat! Do you dare pursue us on your own?!"
The two demons turned to face him, their expressions savage and mocking. They had lured him here on purpose.
Li Hao’s gaze landed on the snow-white tusks of the Six-Tusked Stabbing Boar. "Those tusks of yours look nice. I happen to need a sword. Mind if I borrow them for a bit?"
"You’re courting death!"
The Six-Tusked Stabbing Boar roared in anger. For this Heaven and Man Realm "piece of meat" to covet its treasured tusks was an affront.
With a furious bellow, its body swelled, demonic energy boiling over. A massive ten-zhang-tall shadow of a beastly boar appeared behind it.
The coarse black hair covering its body turned crimson as if filled with blood, standing upright like steel needles. Its divine might surged forth as it charged straight at Li Hao.
For a typical soldier below the Heaven and Man Realm, the oppressive aura of this demonic boar alone would have been enough to shatter their courage, causing them to drop their weapons and flee.
Li Hao, however, was already at the Heaven and Man Realm. While affected by the divine might, he was not overwhelmed.
Unleashing the Tiger Pressure trait, his body emitted a tiger-like roar. At the same time, he did not evade the charge. Under the overwhelming force capable of toppling a defensive array wall, Li Hao firmly stepped forward.
His arms extended, activating the characteristic of the Coiling Mountain Diagram. His body stood as steady as a mountain, immovable and majestic.
With a resounding "boom," Li Hao clasped the boar’s tusks with both hands. The violent impact forced him to slide backward in mid-air for tens of meters.
Yet, his stance remained unchanged.
"Rise!!"
With a thunderous roar, the boy’s slender arms erupted with the force of a true dragon. He lifted the massive boar high above his head and, with a sudden turn, smashed it ferociously into the ground on the other side.
The earth trembled, accompanied by the deafening sound of impact, as a deep crater formed.
From the shadows, Li He, who had intended to intervene, froze in his tracks, his pupils contracting in shock.
While tailing Li Hao, he had sensed a master secretly protecting the boy. But apart from Li Hao's battle against Li Tiangang, he hadn’t seen him fight any other mid-tier Three Immortals-level foes.
Now, however, whether it was knocking back the Flying Peng or hurling the boar, Li Hao had displayed overwhelming strength.
Could this boy truly be just a Heaven and Man Realm cultivator?
What Heaven and Man Realm grandmaster could be this domineering?!
...
The Six-Tusked Stabbing Boar let out a miserable squeal as blood and vomit spewed from its mouth, filling the air with a putrid stench.
Though its body had reached the Indestructible Realm, with skin and flesh as tough as refined iron, unyielding to swords or blades, it had been battered senseless by Li Hao’s thirty-million-jin strength. Its internal organs were displaced, leaving it gravely injured.
"Stop this, you scoundrel!"
Seeing Li Hao about to deliver the killing blow, the King Chi-Tiger roared furiously and charged at him.
Li Hao immediately activated the trait of the Qiongqi Mountain Diagram. A spectral image of the ancient demon king Qiongqi materialized behind him, standing atop a mountain, resembling a tiger in form.
The phantom’s gaze aligned with Li Hao’s as they both coldly glanced at the charging King Chi-Tiger.
The demon's pupils contracted as an overwhelming aura of ferocity surged forth like a torrential flood, pressing down on it with suffocating force. Its blood seemed to freeze, and its body halted momentarily in terror.
In that brief pause, Li Hao's figure had already lunged forward, diving toward the Six-Tusked Stabbing Boar. His feet landed heavily on its head like a mountain descending, smashing the boar back into the ground just as it was struggling to stand.
Then, Li Hao grabbed one of the boar's snow-white, razor-sharp tusks. With a twist of his waist and the full force of his body, he yanked the two-meter-long tusk out with a sharp crack.
Blood gushed out in torrents as the boar shrieked in agony, its limbs thrashing wildly in pain.
Holding the tusk, Li Hao immediately turned and drove it straight through the boar's eye socket.
Despite being at the Indestructible Realm, the Six-Tusked Stabbing Boar had yet to reach its peak. Its eye socket, the weakest part of its body, was penetrated in an instant. The tusk sank deep, and the boar let out an earth-shaking wail, its cries echoing across the wilderness.
The King Chi-Tiger snapped out of its daze, its heart pounding in shock. In such a short span, this boy had almost killed a mid-tier Three Immortals-level great demon like the Six-Tusked Stabbing Boar!
"Stop this!!"
The King Chi-Tiger roared again, charging once more toward Li Hao.
Li Hao pulled the tusk free from the boar's skull and turned to face the incoming tiger. His eyes glinted coldly as he unleashed a self-developed, single-target sword technique: Meteor Descent.
This move, infused with the intent of meteors, was similar in spirit to the concept behind the Rage Star technique.
Using the tusk as a sword, he slashed forth. A flash of white light illuminated the darkness as the air filled with intersecting sword energy. Within it, Li Hao layered the unique traits of the "Hidden Bow" sword manual, a skill that masked the true killing intent of a strike until it landed, doubling its destructive force.
The King Chi-Tiger howled in fury, swinging its chains of divine iron to shatter the incoming sword energy. The chain whip streaked through the air like a dragon, effortlessly dispersing the attack.
Yet, before the tiger could react, a hidden blade of devastating sword energy burst forth from the shadows, piercing through its chest and erupting in a spray of blood.
The King Chi-Tiger staggered backward, fear written all over its face as it felt the shadow of death looming. In a panic, it activated its Undying Power, hastily regenerating its shattered body.
Even as its injuries mended, the King Chi-Tiger turned and fled without hesitation, taking advantage of the momentum from the impact.
In the shadows, Li He’s eyes widened in disbelief.
When Li Hao had first pursued the two demons, Li He had been skeptical. Even for him, dealing with both these great demons simultaneously would have been difficult.
Yet now, Li Hao had not only crushed one but had forced the other into retreat, and all by himself!
This boy, the legitimate son of Li Tiangang, was truly a monster beyond reason!
...
As the King Chi-Tiger fled, Li Hao’s gaze grew cold. With a flick of his hand, he hurled the wild boar's tusk. Infused with object manipulation and the traits of the "Flying Slash" sword manual, the tusk tore through the air, its range doubled by the manual’s unique properties.
Flying at incredible speed, the tusk whistled through the air toward the fleeing tiger. Startled, the King Chi-Tiger lashed out with its iron chains to intercept the tusk.
The tusk was deflected, but the true killing blow—the concealed sword energy—followed swiftly.
With a thunderous crack, the blade of energy pierced the King Chi-Tiger’s massive form, splitting it apart mid-air. The tiger’s body plummeted to the ground in two bloody halves.
Only the area near the iron chains remained intact, barely held together by residual flesh and sinew. The rest of its body had been cleaved cleanly.
Li Hao summoned the tusk back, directing it toward the tiger’s head.
A fragment of the tiger’s spirit emerged, attempting to flee its ruined body. But the tusk descended once more, shattering the spirit completely.
Great demons like these, if their spirits survived, could still parasitize other beings or even possess human hosts to continue existing. Li Hao left no such opportunity.
With the King Chi-Tiger dead, Li Hao turned his attention to the Six-Tusked Stabbing Boar, which was still thrashing on the ground. Without hesitation, he summoned the tusk back and repeated the process, driving it into the boar’s skull and pinning its head to the ground.
The cold night wind carried the stench of blood as Li Hao stood atop the massive boar’s corpse, pulling out its remaining tusks.
By the end of the battle, both Three Immortals-level great demons were dead.
To defeat two Immortal-level great demons at the Heaven and Man Realm, Li Hao’s figure stood tall in the darkness, exuding a fierce and resolute aura like a frigid spear.
...
As the adrenaline from battle wore off, Li Hao’s body relaxed, and the aftereffects of overexerting his Seven-Star Lighting Lamps and Yin-Yang Dual Meridians began to take their toll. He gasped for breath, his body wracked with exhaustion.
Unlike those at the Undying Realm, he couldn’t rely on Undying Power to instantly recover.
However, thanks to the Conceal Light and Cultivate Darkness trait, as long as he allowed his body to rest, he could gradually recover—a unique advantage over other Heaven and Man Realm cultivators.
Li Hao chose not to rush back to the camp. Instead, he sat atop the boar’s mountainous corpse to recover.
He knew that, in his current state, he could still handle lower-level demons. But if another mid-tier Three Immortals-level demon appeared, he would have to rely on the old man’s intervention.
Reflecting on the battle, Li Hao had a faint sense of his current limits, a realization that brought him satisfaction.
At the same time, he recalled his earlier battle in the city against that man. The sheer overwhelming force of his opponent, even when temporarily elevated to the mid-tier Three Immortals Realm by breaking his Heart Oath, was something Li Hao could only withstand momentarily.
Such was the power of Li Family’s true dragons and top-tier prodigies.
Li Hao clenched his fists. He wasn’t yet as strong as that man, but this was only the beginning.
His thoughts drifted to further refining his body to its peak. "My physical strength has already exceeded 100,000 jin, yet I still haven’t reached my limit. There’s more to unlock."
...
At the camp, Li Hongzhuang stood amidst the wreckage of slaughtered demons, guarding the cemetery. She breathed a sigh of relief when the remaining demons retreated, leaving only scattered minor creatures behind to impede any pursuit.
Her divine sense swept out and froze upon noticing the corpses of the two great demons far away.
The sight left her stunned. Both demons, known for terrorizing her defenses, were dead.
In the night wind, Li Hao’s figure strode back, each hand gripping a massive two-meter tusk, his expression calm.
Was this really the work of Li He? She doubted it.
Though an elder, Li He was a branch family member, with access to only a single elite technique from the Listening Rain Pavilion unless he earned significant merit.
Compared to her, Li He wasn’t much stronger, so how could he achieve such a decisive victory?
Was it really Li Hao?
She recalled Li Hao knocking back the Flying Peng earlier with a single punch. This boy, at just the Heaven and Man Realm...
Li Hongzhuang’s mind swirled with disbelief.
...
"This kid's brain... How does it work? Fourteen years old, yet where does he find the time and energy for all this? Did he start cultivating in the womb?"