With a muffled THUD, King Guilong screamed as his dragon claw split open down the middle.

The clouds and mist roiled and flew backward.

As Hu Yuan took his final step from the surface of the water onto the ground, the electrical aura surging around him gradually dissipated. All his vitality blossomed at this moment. His pale body, hardly resembling that of a living person, began to flush with a hint of color.

He took a light breath of the moist air around him and sighed deeply.

I've come back to life...

He looked around. On two distant mountain peaks, two Purple-robed Taoists were casting spells with solemn expressions.

On another mountain peak, Wen Yan, whom he had noticed earlier, was sitting side-by-side with an Old Ghost on a grave mound... eating.

Meanwhile, King Guilong, enveloped in clouds and mist, tumbled backward.

"King Guilong, I had no intention of being your enemy, nor did I mean any disrespect to Dragon Mother. I simply wanted to use you to reconstruct my physical body," Hu Yuan declared.

"Now that I have reconstructed my body, I owe you a favor.

One day, I will personally go to Dragon Mother to apologize.

I will not kill you. Don't be ungrateful and seek your own death."

Seeing that King Guilong seemed to pay him no heed whatsoever, Hu Yuan sighed.

He took a step, and a fierce wind arose. As he moved, he was like a starving tiger pouncing on its prey—incredibly swift. In just a second or two, he reached the clouds and mist and struck out with his palm.

The vast expanse of clouds was forcibly pushed aside, and his slender palm landed directly on the dragon's head.

Technique of Slaughter.

A terrifying killing intent blossomed, and an intense murderous aura erupted.

The dragon's head instantly disappeared into the clouds. A mournful howl echoed as the roiling mist began to shrink continuously, finally plummeting into the great river below.

The surging river water, in an instant, seemed to lose all its momentum.

"With your current strength, you can withstand two of my Technique of Slaughter strikes at most. Don't seek your own demise."

"BOOM!"

A deafening clap of thunder exploded. Before the sound could be processed, a thick bolt of lightning had already struck Hu Yuan's head.

The startling thunder, carrying a blinding brilliance, instantly engulfed him.

However, when the heavenly thunder dissipated, Hu Yuan's clothes were torn, but a radiant light flowed across the surface of his body, deflecting its power.

He reached out and made a grabbing motion towards Crouching Tiger Mountain in the distance.

Crouching Tiger Mountain began to crumble. Streaks of flowing light flew out from within it and merged into him, gradually strengthening his imposing aura.

"The lightning-summoning technique of Dragon Tiger Mountain is indeed impressive. It's comparable to that of Dragon Tiger Mountain's elites back in the day," Hu Yuan remarked with appreciation.

Then, he pointed at the continuously exposed skeletal remains within the collapsing Crouching Tiger Mountain.

"A pity. Back then, I could swallow a hundred cultivators of your strength in a single gulp."

The second bolt of heavenly thunder descended. Hu Yuan, neither dodging nor evading, extended a hand that suddenly transformed into a massive tiger's claw and swatted fiercely.

With a loud BANG, the second thunderbolt was slapped aside, striking elsewhere.

The faces of the two distant Taoist priests turned grim.

"He has not only reconstructed his physical body. What he consumed back then were not ordinary people, but many of our predecessors who died in battle! He used those predecessors to maintain the last vestiges of Divine Essence in his dead flesh. Now that he has returned from death and reclaimed that former Divine Essence, his strength has likely neared its peak from his prime. We are probably no match for him..."

"Reinforcements will arrive soon," Cai Qidong's voice came through the phone.

"It's too late."

The words had barely faded when Hu Yuan had already traversed several li, appearing atop one of the mountain peaks. With overwhelming power, he directly broke through the defenses there, his hand with its long, slender fingers striking one of the Taoist priests on the forehead.

After landing the blow, Hu Yuan turned to leave without a second glance. But after a few steps, he looked back at the Taoist priest collapsed on the ground. The man was clearly unconscious, yet still breathing.

His brow furrowed slightly. My Technique of Slaughter failed to kill a Taoist, whose physical body is incomparably fragile compared to his Daoist arts. How strange.

He had initially thought the Taoist possessed some kind of treasure. However, upon closer inspection, he discovered a peculiar power protecting the man's life force, preventing it from diminishing any further beyond this point.

He sensed carefully for a moment, then rose and looked in another direction.

A peculiar Divine Skill...

He gazed at Wen Yan in the distance. No wonder I suddenly sensed that day that the Petty Martial Artist posed a great threat to me. So he truly possesses a Divine Skill capable of countering my Technique of Slaughter.

He paid no more heed to the other Taoist from Dragon Tiger Mountain. He sprinted over the mountain forest, his strides like flight, rushing towards Wen Yan at extreme speed.

"Lord Zhu, can you defeat this guy?" Wen Yan asked tentatively, watching the rapidly approaching Hu Yuan.

"I can't."

"You can't beat him, yet you still dared to come watch the spectacle?!"

"I can't beat him, but I can outrun him! Follow me, quickly! Those damned Taoists greatly underestimated Hu Yuan. Now that he has recovered his physical body and regained his Divine Essence, he's simply not someone today's Purple Robe Taoists can handle."

Lord Zhu was indeed honorable. Realizing the situation was dire, he grabbed Wen Yan and dived into the tomb.

However, just as they crawled inside, Hu Yuan's speed suddenly increased manifold.

He charged forward, instantly knocking aside the minor ghosts blocking his path. His hand, moving with near-teleportation speed, shot towards Wen Yan's back.

With a dull THUD, the cat carrier on Wen Yan's back exploded. The Sparrow Cat, still sound asleep inside, took the full force of the palm strike.

In that instant, everything seemed to freeze.

The moment Hu Yuan saw the Sparrow Cat, his pupils constricted to pinpricks. He wanted to retract his hand, but it was too late.

His Technique of Slaughter struck the Sparrow Cat.

The drowsy Sparrow Cat opened its eyes. It looked at the palm pressed against its forehead, its feline face utterly bewildered.

The patterns on its fur began to shift, resembling a chimera cat: one moment its left face orange and right face tabby, the next, left face tabby and right face orange. Then, it reverted to a solid, patternless color, like an ordinary Sparrow Cat.

The Sparrow Cat stared blankly, as if hearing someone ask:

"What kind of cat are you?"

"No, I am a sparrow."

"Oh, so you're a sparrow?"

"No, I am a cat."

"You're a cat?"

"No, I am a sparrow."

The groggy Sparrow Cat, as if possessed by a spirit of pure contrarianism, answered these questions without a second thought. It was like an instinct ingrained in its very bloodline; even if questioned for a thousand years, it would argue for a thousand years.

Moreover, it never considered itself to be contrary. At this moment, that was what it believed, and its body, its entire being, agreed.

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