"Ergoudan? That's a person's name?" Sun Baixu, already coughing up blood, now spat it out with even greater violence. A moment ago, when Ergoudan's fist had landed on him, he had assumed he had run into the disciple of some hidden master. The mortal realm's spiritual energy might be pitifully thin, but that did not rule out the existence of certain powerful beings. Yet what kind of powerful being would give a disciple such a crap name as Ergoudan?!

"What do you mean, not a person's name? You calling me names, you coward? I'll hammer you to death!" Ergoudan was furious. He charged forward to throw another punch. The first blow had been hasty, delivered without his full strength, and even so it had beaten Sun Baixu to vomiting blood. If he now gathered his power and struck with everything he had, Sun Baixu—for all that he was a fine hand at the peak of Foundation Establishment—would likely be beaten to death on the spot.

"Coward? Hmph, you dare call me a coward?" Sun Baixu was furious now too. He had only turned cautious because of the sudden shock he had just suffered. If he did not first probe into Ergoudan's background, then even if he killed the lad today, he would never know peace of mind. Who knew what kind of formidable power stood behind this brute of a fool?

But at this point retreating was no longer an option. This fool had killed his Blood Corpse Worm, had beaten him until he coughed blood, and now had the gall to press his attack even more ferociously. Did the creature not know how the word "death" was written? Did he truly think a cultivator at the peak of Foundation Establishment was so easy to bully?

Sun Baixu gave a cold snort. With a flick of his sleeves, two pitch-black short blades abruptly appeared in his hands, whirling of their own accord through his palms with a swift shhh-shhh-shhh, so that from a distance they looked like two blurred dark blurs of blade, exuding an aura of extreme danger.

Ergoudan paid this no mind. He casually hoisted up a large tree that Sun Baixu had snapped in their earlier collision, and without a word swept it across in a wide arc.

Honest and simple as he was, he was no idiot. He knew his fighting had no finesse to speak of, and that the cardinal precondition for brute force to overcome tenfold skill was that there be at least a full tier of difference between the two parties. This man before him, by any measure, was no easy opponent; to recklessly close in would be to invite a heavy loss. So better to just swing a big tree at range.

"You fool!" Sun Baixu sneered at the sight, and rather than meet the oncoming tree head-on, he flickered his body behind the trunk, slipping out of Ergoudan's line of sight and darting up close in a few short steps. He raised his hand, and the two blades went straight for the throat to end the boy's life.

In that split instant, just when an easy kill seemed within his grasp, Sun Baixu's knees suddenly sank without the slightest warning. He found himself inexplicably dropping to his knees, stiff and straight.

"What are you doing?" Ergoudan stared, dumbfounded. With one hand he flung the tree aside, and with the other he immediately hammered down a punch. Bang! Sun Baixu was sent flying backward once more, spitting out another great mouthful of blood!

"How can this be..." Sun Baixu, blood pouring wildly from his mouth, stared at his own knees in disbelief. Why had they suddenly sunk beneath him just now, as though struck by a surge of true qi? This fool actually possessed such a stealthy, undetectable technique? But he did not look it. Could it be that this creature was no fool at all, but a master playing the pig to eat the tiger?

Ergoudan cared nothing for all that. Honest and simple he might be, but he still understood the principle of striking a man while he is down. Seeing that Sun Baixu had taken the punch and still lived, he let out another thunderous roar, hoisted up the tree, and gave chase.

"Damn it, I refuse to believe this!" Sun Baixu straightened up and met him head-on, refusing to accept it. The blow to his knees just now had filled him with dread, but he was, after all, a fine hand at the peak of Foundation Establishment—not the sort to be scared into headlong flight so easily. Most importantly, he simply did not believe he could lose to a fool. He would not accept it!

The pair of pitch-black short blades spun madly in his hands, in an instant chopping the tree Ergoudan swept at him into fragments. That last strike he had deliberately delivered from behind the tree's cover, to launch a sneak attack. The tree had blocked Ergoudan's line of sight—but it had blocked his own as well, which was why he had no idea when Ergoudan had produced that surge of true qi.

This time, however, he had learned his lesson. With his strength, dealing with a fool who had nothing but brute force required no skulking about; he could simply meet him squarely and overwhelm him. With nothing between them to block the view, he would be able to see clearly whatever little tricks the other man tried.

Everything unfolded just as Sun Baixu had envisioned. The tree in Ergoudan's hands was no match for his short blades; within moments it was stripped away clean, and the distance between the two of them was less than three paces—with nothing in between.

Ergoudan showed not the slightest sign of panic. Since the tree had been chopped to uselessness, then he would simply settle it with his fists—this, at bottom, was what he did best.

Sun Baixu stared blankly at the wholly unadorned punch. For all its momentum and weight, for all that it looked impossible to withstand, he could sense no ripple of true qi from it, no hint of any sleight of hand. It was simply a punch, nothing more.

"As simple as that?" Sun Baixu could scarcely believe it. He held back from any response until the very last instant, when he suddenly snapped to his senses, and the corner of his mouth split into a savage curve. "In that case, you may die in peace."

He was no fool. Even an idiot could see that Ergoudan's punch was no trifling matter—and after taking two blows in a row, even Sun Baixu, a fine hand at the peak of Foundation Establishment, did not dare be careless. A straight clash of strength against strength would likely win him not the slightest advantage. But who ever said killing a man required meeting him head-on?

In the final instant before Ergoudan's fist force erupted, Sun Baixu suddenly flickered, his whole body darting around behind Ergoudan like a ghost. This was his signature movement technique: Shadow Follows the Form.

At the same moment, the two wildly spinning black blades in his hands pressed instantly against the back of Ergoudan's neck. The next instant he would effortlessly reap the boy's head. Sun Baixu had done this sort of thing far too many times; the entire sequence flowed like water, without a single flaw. In terms of true strength, he was not much inferior to Xue Jianfeng, the one hailed as the foremost Foundation Establishment cultivator of the Ancient Alliance.

But just then, an unforeseen change erupted. Just as his knees had suddenly sunk a moment ago, this time it was his arms. At the final instant the two black blades deviated from their course. Sun Baixu was seized with utter horror. What in the devil's name was going on?!

Ergoudan, for his part, did not falter in the least. His punch had missed, yet he showed no sign of discomfort; following through, he drove an elbow ferociously into Sun Baixu's cheek. Sun Baixu once again hurtled backward with a wretched howl—and this time it was not merely blood: his teeth went with it... (To be continued.)