Chapter 44: Wu Eight, Red Blood

Chapter 44: Wu Ba, Red Blood

"Remnants of the Martial Dao, refusing conversion, grant them direct transcendence."

The Dharma Protector, manifesting as a Giant Buddha within the Buddhist Kingdom, spoke in a rigid, mechanical tone. Upon a visage grotesque and utterly unlike the serene countenances of men like He Cuo, not a shred of vitality could be found.

What did "Remnants of the Martial Dao" mean? Did the Martial Dao Sequence harbor a feud with the Buddhist Sequence?

Li Jun’s heart stirred; he vaguely sensed a wealth of hidden information behind those four words. But before he could ponder deeper, the towering Dharma Protector had already charged forward.

*Thud... Thud...*

The Protector’s footsteps were ponderous. With every step, the floorboards, charred brittle by raging flames, let out unbearable cracking sounds. Five fingers splayed wide, descending upon Li Jun’s face.

"Submit to judgment!"

A gale rushed his face. Li Jun’s brows twitched. Gripping his saber with both hands, he rotated his wrists and swept horizontally, slicing clean across the Buddha’s palm. A piercing shriek rang out, sparks scattering wildly.

Flesh and blood on the Protector’s palm split open, revealing the metallic skeleton beneath. Upon it, densely packed, golden Sanskrit characters the size of fly heads were inscribed.

Gu Jia’s saber—renowned for its hardness and keenness—struck it, yet managed only to leave a faint, shallow mark.

"This hard?!"

Li Jun clicked his tongue inwardly. He had chopped through no small number of mechanical prosthetics, but never had he encountered one this hard.

Even at the peak of the Soldier Nine realm, Hu Zhong’s prosthetic strength hadn't been this high.

Could the difference lie in those Sanskrit characters etched onto the mechanical bones?

The Protector afforded Li Jun no further chance to observe. Ten fingers curled into fists, unleashing a barrage of chaotic, wild blows.

The fist technique was a mess, utterly devoid of form or rhythm; it relied purely on brute force, a mindless flailing.

Against Li Jun’s Perfected Swimming Body Step, such attacks couldn't even brush the hem of his robe.

Li Jun’s figure flickered and turned, effortlessly extracting himself from the forest of fists. Internal force boiled to its zenith within him; the muscles on his saber-wielding arm bulged, knot upon knot. He swung the blade down.

*Shred!*

A saber mark appeared on the Protector’s back, running from shoulder to waist. The taut yellow monk’s robe was instantly cleaved in two.

Li Jun leaned back, bending at the waist until nearly parallel to the ground, dodging the Protector’s returning horizontal sweep. With a surge of core strength, he wrenched himself upright, driving a saber strike into the enemy’s ribs.

*Clang!*

Li Jun was unsurprised by the explosive metallic ring. His saber’s momentum didn't pause for an instant; cold light woven into a net, enveloping the Protector within.

*Clang clang clang clang...*

The hacking sounds fell like rain on plantain leaves, a cacophony of *ding-ling, clang-dang* merging into one.

In the blink of an eye, the Protector’s robe was shredded to tatters, its body riddled with saber marks, yet its figure remained immovable as a mountain. It pursued Li Jun’s darting shadow with single-minded, head-down punching.

Its expression was stiff, like a machine that knew no pain.

*Clang!*

A particularly high-pitched saber cry rang out like a fermata; the surging saber momentum halted abruptly.

Li Jun rode the recoil force traveling up the blade to pull back and create distance. Watching the Protector continue its killing charge without even a pause for breath, his expression turned uncommonly grave.

He didn't know when the web of his saber hand had split open; blood trickled slowly down the hilt.

"Limbs, throat, heart, groin—none are vital points. Then let’s try the head!"

Li Jun arched his back slightly, stomped the ground, and shot forth like a crossbow bolt. His trajectory was arrow-straight, as if deliberately crashing into the Protector’s incoming fist.

But in the instant before collision, Li Jun’s figure bizarrely froze. He sidestepped with the Swimming Step, extended his arm, and flicked the saber upward!

The Single Saber Method, Selected Form: Single Lifting Saber!

A harsh, grating friction screamed continuously. The blade entered from the Protector’s lower jaw, lifting upward along the line, nearly flaying the entire lower face.

Only when the edge reached the bridge of the nose was it finally caught dead by two massive, overlapping hands.

Seeing his saber checked, Li Jun’s tightly knit brows suddenly relaxed.

"So the vital point is the Wisdom Root at the brow center."

Li Jun grinned, revealing a mouthful of ghastly white teeth. The chilling killing intent radiating from his body surged three degrees more fierce. His right foot violently stomped the Protector’s lower jaw.

*Bang!*

The force was tremendous; the towering Protector was actually kicked off its feet, toppling backward.

The originally trapped saber broke free with the momentum, howling as it chopped down toward the brow center.

In that critical moment, the Protector barely managed to twist its face aside, taking the blow on its cheek instead of the Wisdom Root.

Blood sprayed; half a face flew outward.

Though it had saved its Wisdom Root, the massive force wrapped around the long saber slammed it to the ground.

*Crack!*

The brittle floorboards could bear such impact no longer; they shattered with a roar.

The Protector fell backward through to the floor below, arms flailing in mid-air, trying to grasp beams or pillars to arrest its descent.

At that very moment, a figure suddenly crashed out of the swirling smoke and dust above, eyes icy cold, killing intent boiling over.

Li Jun pursued in flight, his long saber aimed straight at the Protector’s brow center, thrusting down!

The Protector’s reaction was equally swift. Its right hand snapped back to guard its brow, while its left hand clenched into a fist and smashed toward Li Jun.

*Thud thud thud!*

Two entangled figures smashed through three floors, plummeting all the way down, finally crashing heavily onto the ground floor of the red-brick wooden tower. The wind pressure from the impact caused the raging inferno to momentarily stall!

Without a moment’s respite, from within the dancing fire shadows came the continuous, violent, dull thuds of fist and bone colliding!

The red-brick wooden tower, already teetering on the brink of collapse, finally gave out. With a shrill, deathly groan, it collapsed entirely.

Countless falling bricks and timbers smashed onto his back, waves of agony rising, but Li Jun had no attention to spare. A pair of eyes, reddened by smoke and fire, locked dead onto the Protector beneath him.

Another fist came swinging. Li Jun didn't dodge; with utter ferocity, he met it with his own forehead.

*Bang!*

Blood spurted from his nose; vision swam.

Li Jun, face full of savagery, roared. His knotted left fist rose high, gathering the strength of his entire body, and slammed brutally down onto the pommel of the saber.

The blade, stuck fast in the mechanical bone, suddenly lurched forward a full foot, driving deep into that fresh, dripping Wisdom Root!

*Spurt!*

The light in the Protector’s eyes dimmed at a visible speed. Its raised fist fell limp to the ground, striking a few sparks.

**[Gained 160 Proficiency Points]**

Li Jun pressed his hands on his knees and slowly stood. Before he could even catch his breath, a crimson robe appeared in his blood-blurred vision.

"You killed my attendant monk and Dharma Protector; then you shall replace them!"

"Damn it, what a hard life. Finish one, another comes. Is there no end to this?"

Li Jun shook his head with a bitter smile, raised a hand to wipe the soot and blood from his face, and his slightly curved spine straightened, inch by inch.

【Expended 2 Mastery Points; Azure Emperor Art ascends to Late-Stage Eighth Grade (0/100)】

【Expended 100 Mastery Points; Azure Emperor Art ascends to Eighth Grade Great Perfection】

Li Jun shook his head, clearing the dizziness from the lock's shattering report, lips barely parting: "Enough talk. If you're moving, then move."

"As you wish."

Red Monk Mu Cuo flung out a hand, a gore-slicked head whistling through the air on a shriek of tearing wind.

Bang!

The severed head burst apart, raining flesh and blood.

"Eighth-Grade Martial Red Blood?"

Red Monk Mu Cuo's face turned grim, his words clipped and deliberate.

Li Jun flicked the blood from his elbow, discarding the two spent martial injectors without a glance.

"Correct."