Facing the exceedingly bizarre opening stance Lin Mu had assumed, the eyes hidden beneath the masked man's mask did not stir with even the slightest ripple.
As a pure assassin, he did not care in the least what strange or peculiar last words his prey might have before death.
He knew only one cold fact:
The Heal-Forbidding Gu's effect was still at work upon the wound at Lin Mu's waist. As long as he gave his opponent no chance to catch his breath, he would still hold the upper hand!
"Playing tricks with ghosts and spirits — die!"
The Primeval Essence within the masked man's aperture roared into motion. Without the slightest hesitation or pause, his whole body once again became a blurred grey shadow.
That ghastly-white bone blade, attached with the Grey Ray Gu and its surging attack range, carried a shrill air-splitting shriek as it hacked furiously down straight at Lin Mu's face!
Facing this kind of fierce killing strike.
Clang—!
A deafening clang of metal exploded thunderously through the dim dense forest.
Lin Mu gripped tightly with both hands the black staff formed from the Rank 2 Stick Insect Gu, and, most strenuously, raised it horizontally above his head, forcibly bracing against this heavy hack!
This Stick Insect Gu's body was exceedingly hard and heavy. The bone blade hacked upon it and, far from leaving the slightest mark, instead jolted the masked man's tiger's mouth numb.
But Lin Mu's side was absolutely no better off.
"Hsss—!"
The immense downward force transmitted along the shaft into Lin Mu's arms, tugging at the wound on his waist.
The searing pain made him unable to help drawing a sharp breath, his features contorting into a grimace of agony.
At first, Lin Mu's staff technique did indeed appear exceedingly clumsy.
He was, after all, no martial arts grandmaster, and could only rigidly copy the vague impressions from his past-life memories.
Coupled with the sluggishness of his movements from the unhealed wound, he was forced into retreat again and again by the masked man's blade technique, which came like a violent storm, leaving him barely able to defend on all sides.
His tattered garments, his comical, grimacing expression contorted with pain, plus the long staff in his hands — for a moment, Lin Mu's figure truly did bear some resemblance to a cornered, rowdy monkey driven to desperation.
"Is this all you've got?"
The masked man let out a hoarse, sneering laugh, his blade growing ever more vicious.
However, this one-sided suppression did not last long.
After taking several blade-cuts in succession, Lin Mu instead gradually adapted to the rhythm of the battle, and the staff in his hands was whirled with growing proficiency.
Moreover, drawing upon the exceedingly formidable physical strength that a Gu Master possessed in the Gu world, Lin Mu even began to wield those so-called techniques with a passable semblance of form.
"Get the hell out of my way!"
Lin Mu roared, and no longer defended. Swinging that heavy, powerful black staff in a backhand arc, relying on the absolute advantage of his weapon's length, he unleashed a furious barrage of horizontal sweeps and downward hacks at the masked man!
Wooo— wooo—!
The heavy black staff tore through the air, giving off a scalp-tingling roar.
Now it was the masked man's turn to suffer. That black staff was simply too heavy, and carried brute force with it.
Though his inordinately long bone blade was sharp, if he were to hard-clash and parry against such a heavy weapon head-on, there was a constant risk of it snapping!
For a time, the situation of one-sided suppression was, under Lin Mu's wild flurry of staff-swings, forcibly dragged into a stalemate quagmire.
...
Meanwhile, on that main battlefield outside the mine cave's exit, the situation was a scene of another kind entirely.
That middle-aged woman with the withered face, both hands clad in thick black iron gauntlets, was at this moment like a bloodthirsty leopardess, having brought both Lin Feng and Lin Wuxie into the range of her hunt.
However, though she was a top-tier Rank 2 peak stage assassin, her combat experience was exceedingly rich, and she harbored no thoughts of overconfidence whatsoever.
She knew well that in a life-and-death struggle at the Rank 2 level, once two cultivators of the same rank formed a pincer, then even if she held the advantage in cultivation, she could still capsize in the gutter.
Especially that Lin Wuxie, who raged like a wild beast!
"Roar!"
Lin Wuxie was drenched in blood from head to toe, that pair of eyes flashing with a savage, brutal light.
He paid no heed whatsoever to his own defense. Even at the cost of having a bloody hole smashed into his chest by that heavy iron fist, he was determined to cling close to the gauntlet woman, trying to tear a chunk of flesh from her.
This crazed fighting style of "trading wound for wound" left even the battle-hardened gauntlet woman feeling a wave of speechlessness.
Where did this mad dog come from? Truly rotten luck!
The gauntlet woman cursed inwardly, and a heavy, powerful spinning hook punch temporarily jolted Lin Wuxie back.
She knew very well that, as an assassin, the longer this dragged on, the worse it would be for them.
Once Black Blood Stockade's main force was drawn over by the commotion just now, they would be unable to escape even with wings.
She had to break this deadlock at once!
The gauntlet woman's venomous eyes swept swiftly across the field, and in the end, she locked her target directly upon Lin Feng on the other side, who was guarding the dying Lin Wan'er.
In a flash of thought, the Dark Step Gu beneath the gauntlet woman's feet erupted with a roar.
She even abandoned her pursuit of Lin Wuxie. Relying on her exceedingly terrifying burst of speed, she dragged an afterimage through midair, pouncing straight at Lin Feng's vitals.
However, Lin Feng — once the number-one seed of Black Blood Stockade — was hardly one to be trifled with.
Though he was guarding someone, out of the corner of his eye he had long since perceived the gauntlet woman's intent.
"You want to kill me? You're not worthy yet!"
Just as that wind-wrapped iron fist was about to smash into his face, Lin Feng's figure slid to the left in an exceedingly bizarre step, just barely evading this determined killing blow.
Not only that!
In the instant he evaded, a cold glint surged in the depths of Lin Feng's eyes. The longsword in his right hand, like a venomous serpent emerging from its den, lashed out in a backhand strike — an exceedingly fierce, cunning Metal Rend Sword Qi, driving straight at the exposed opening beneath the gauntlet woman's ribs, laid bare by her forward pounce!
"Hm?"
The gauntlet woman's brow furrowed slightly, secretly astonished at this Black Blood Stockade young master's combat acumen and coordination.
She was forced to break off her follow-up combo. Her waist abruptly exerting force, she forcibly twisted her body in midair in exceedingly wretched fashion, using that thick iron fist to block this fatal sword qi.
"Ding!"
Sparks scattered everywhere. Though the gauntlet woman had blocked the sword qi, she was jolted back half a step upon landing.
Now, she was thoroughly enraged.
From that pair of withered eyes, killing intent overflowed frantically, as though corporeal.
She realized that ordinary probing could no longer bring a swift, decisive end to this.
"Since you all love to save one another so much… then go and die together!"
The originally quiescent aura around the gauntlet woman, in this moment, surged violently upward like a volcano.
But this time, that pair of venomous eyes looked neither toward Lin Feng, nor toward Lin Wuxie, who had once again pounced.
Instead, with an exceedingly cruel arc, she fixed her gaze unwaveringly upon the one Lin Feng shielded before him, whose breath was faint as gossamer thread — Lin Wan'er!
At this moment Lin Wan'er, though she forcibly clung to a single breath by relying on the Life-Hanging Gu, if she suffered even the slightest sliver of external impact, or failed to receive timely treatment, would inevitably perish on the spot then and there.
"Not good!"
Lin Feng followed her gaze, and his heart abruptly sank. An exceedingly ominous premonition instantly enveloped his entire body.
Just as Lin Feng prepared to contract his defense at any cost.
Within the gauntlet woman's aperture, Primeval Essence surged violently like boiling water. The Gu worm hidden within was fiercely activated by her!
"Buzz!"
A sudden change erupted!
Within the dense shrubbery behind Lin Feng, a tall, slender figure actually surfaced — without any warning, exceedingly abruptly!
That signature bronze mask, that inordinately long bone blade radiating ghastly-white moonlight!
The masked man?!
He had actually circled around to the rear without a sound, and, raising his bone blade high, carried an air-rending shriek as he hacked ferociously straight at the dying Lin Wan'er within Lin Feng's arms!
How is this possible? When did he get here?!
Could it be… Lin Mu has already been finished off by him?!
In that instant, Lin Feng's mind sank into extreme chaos and horror.
But he had no time whatsoever to think it over.
Under the immense psychological pressure, Lin Feng reacted on instinct.
"Wan'er!"
Lin Feng roared, directly abandoning his frontal defense. He abruptly turned around, raised his longsword, and, facing that bone blade hacking toward Lin Wan'er, blocked ferociously upward!
However.
When Lin Feng's all-out sword strike, carrying an all-conquering momentum, met it head-on— there was no clash of clanging metal, nor any sensation of flesh and blood flying.
The longsword was as though it had cut through a mass of empty air, passing through without any obstruction whatsoever!
Immediately after, that "masked man" holding the bone blade actually, right before Lin Feng, like a burst soap bubble, dissolved into a patch of distorted light and shadow, vanishing without a trace into thin air!
Rank 2 — the Phantom Gu!
"Not good! It's a trap!"
In this moment, every hair on Lin Feng's body stood on end, and cold sweat instantly soaked through his inner garment.
This was not any masked man circling to the rear at all, but rather the gauntlet woman using a Gu worm to strike at what he must save, perfectly manufacturing a fatal opening!
But he had realized it far too late.
In the very instant Lin Feng lost his balance from cutting through empty air, his defenses thrown wide open.
"Take your death!"
The true killing move descended thunderously from his lower right side, carrying an all-crushing, terrifying aura!
The gauntlet woman arrived at close quarters like a phantom.
That arm clad in the thick black iron gauntlet actually swelled a full ring larger in an instant, transforming into a terrifying uppercut powerful enough to shatter a small hill, smashing exceedingly viciously toward Lin Feng's flank!
Lin Feng, in midair, had nowhere to evade. He could only clench his teeth to shattering and forcibly bring his longsword horizontally across his side, trying to take this iron fist with the blade.
"Clang— crack!!!"
An exceedingly ear-piercing sound of shattering exploded through the night sky.
Lin Feng's longsword — which cut iron like mud and had accompanied him for so long — before that iron fist covered in black scab, was actually as fragile as glass, blasted into a sky full of fragments on the spot!
"Oho, quite tough, aren't you, young man."
"Pity that this old lady has no such fortune to enjoy you."
Upon the gauntlet woman's face hung a trace of oily, cruel mockery.
With one strike landed, she gave Lin Feng no chance whatsoever to catch his breath or regroup.
Within her aperture, another hidden killing Gu worm erupted with a roar!
Rank 2 — the Shadow Split Gu!
"Swish! Swish!"
Within Lin Feng's pupils, horrified to the utmost, he saw the gauntlet woman's figure actually split bizarrely into two amid the night.
Two identical figures, from his left and his right, simultaneously carrying terrifying killing intent, closed in upon him!
A pair of fists?
No!
In Lin Feng's field of vision, there were, plain as day, four iron fists, terrifying to the utmost!
The real and the false impossible to tell apart, nowhere to evade!
Lin Feng's breathing in this moment all but froze.
He knew that of these four fists, two must be illusions, while the other two were the fatal killing blows enough to blast him into a meat paste.
Which side to bet on?!
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Lin Wan'er in the crook of his right arm.
In this life-and-death race against time.
"The right side!"
Lin Feng let out a hysterical roar, and made an exceedingly tragic, heroic choice.
He utterly abandoned his defense of the left side, and, activating his Gu worm with the last of the Primeval Essence remaining in his aperture, gathered it all, without holding anything back, upon his right arm.
He would bet — bet that the gauntlet woman's true pair of fists targeted the dying Lin Wan'er!
However.
In the very instant those four savage iron fists came smashing thunderously down upon Lin Feng.
From within Lin Feng's eyes, filled with grim resolve, there suddenly welled up an extreme incredulity.
Because.
He clearly felt…
Whether it was the iron fists smashing into his right side, which he defended with all his might, or the iron fists smashing into his left side, utterly abandoned and thrown wide open…
they all, every single one, contained utterly real, mountain-toppling, sea-overturning terrifying destructive force!
There were no illusions!
These four fists were every damn one of them real!!!
Bang—!!!
Accompanying a muffled, thunderous crash, like a burlap sack of torn cloth struck by a heavy hammer.
"Bwah!"
Lin Feng spewed a great mouthful of blood laced with fragments of viscera up toward the sky. The ribs on his left side snapped one by one in an instant, his entire chest cavity caving in horrifically.
That irresistible, immense freakish force sent his whole body flying, like a kite with its string cut, blasted ferociously away!
He carved a wretched parabola through midair, crashing heavily into a patch of shrubbery dozens of zhang away, his fate — life or death — unknown.
And due to this terrifying impact force.
Lin Wan'er, whom he had shielded with his life, was also flung from her original position as his strength gave out, tumbling onto the muddy ground like a single withered fallen leaf.
"Cough, cough…"
Blood spilled from the corner of Lin Wan'er's mouth as she despairingly opened her eyes.
What met her gaze was a thick black iron gauntlet, covered in black scab and bloodstains, slowly stepping down upon her slender waist.
The gauntlet woman looked down upon her from on high, as though gazing at a lamb awaiting slaughter, the corner of her mouth curling into a snarling grin, cruel to the utmost.