Chapter 209: Tiger Falls to Pingyang and Is Bullied

“Wen Ming?”

The masked man was stunned.

The familiar face before him was none other than the young man he had met when asking for directions that day. How could this guy be here, and why had he stabbed him again?

Xu Xiaoshou felt his legs turn to jelly. He had planned for everything, but he hadn't anticipated the person on the ground doing something like this.

His eyes darted, and he reached out to grab the masked man's face. It was only fair to return the favor!

However, the masked man's movements were no longer sluggish. He directly grabbed Xu Xiaoshou's wrist, and with a flex of his fingers, he stabbed into it.

Xu Xiaoshou winced in pain and tried to pull his hand back, but he found he couldn't.

He was completely shocked. Shouldn't this guy be in a weakened state? Yet, just like last time, once he was held, he couldn't move at all. This time, he was a Grandmaster, even upgraded!

“Um… if this is all a misunderstanding…”

“Shut up!” the masked man snarled, pushing Xu Xiaoshou to a sitting position, then shoving him back down so Xu Xiaoshou lay on the ground.

The latter’s face turned red, and after a long pause, he blurted out, “I don’t like this position!”

“Cough, ugh!” The masked man choked, almost spitting out another mouthful of blood.

Xu Xiaoshou, however, quickly seized this fleeting moment and delivered a knee strike. The terrifying force generated by his Grandmaster body combined with the recoil finally sent the masked man, whose combat power fluctuated, flying high into the air.

Xu Xiaoshou roughly understood: as long as the opponent attacked, he absolutely couldn't block it. But this guy could only attack. Once he was attacked, he was like a sickly person, completely unable to defend, taking all damage head-on. In short, the masked man was like a student who had maxed out his offensive stats but had zero defense—a specialist in one area.

It even seemed his Spirit Yuan reserves were inferior to his own?

Xu Xiaoshou wasn't sure if it was his imagination, but this person seemed a bit weaker than when he last saw him. Before, he seemed to barely be at the Innate realm; this time, he looked almost like he was about to drop to the Houtian realm.

“‘Are all members of the ‘Sacred Slaves’ like this, where the lower their cultivation, the fiercer their combat power?’” Xu Xiaoshou mused inwardly.

He seized the moment they separated, quickly scrambling to his feet to leave, but he noticed that after being sent flying high into the air, the masked man didn't seem to stabilize himself quickly.

Xu Xiaoshou's expression immediately turned strange. The person in the air wobbled, looking exactly like he had during his first sword flight.

“Can’t fly?”

“Could he have really dropped to the Houtian cultivation level?”

He casually tossed out a compressed fire seed, which shot directly toward the masked man.

With a bang, the masked man was thrown back again.

“So weak…” Xu Xiaoshou stared, muttering to himself. He could hardly believe that the person before him was the one who had once crushed many powerful figures in the Spirit Palace.

“Cursed, Passive Value, 1.”

Just then, he suddenly saw his information bar refresh, and the young man’s eyes immediately lit up. The attack actually worked? If it hadn't worked, why would this guy secretly curse him?

Without thinking, Xu Xiaoshou waved his hand again, and five more fire seeds flew out.

“Wen Ming! You are…”

Boom, boom, boom! The deafening explosions directly drowned out the masked man's startled and angry cries. Mushroom clouds erupted in the night sky, leaving Xiao Qixiu, who was watching from afar, dumbfounded.

“Is that Xu Xiaoshou?”

“Did he successfully ‘sever his path’ within the Heavenly Profound Sect? How can he be so fierce?”

He was clearly fighting tooth and nail in the “Stormy Competition” just days ago, but after a few days apart, his combat power had skyrocketed? Even with drugs, there was no reason to be this strong!

Su Qianqian was equally shocked, feeling her worldview crumble. The invincible masked man was being continuously beaten, completely defenseless? Brother Xiaoshou had become so powerful in just a few days?

“Is this real?” The young girl reached out to her master, then hesitated and slapped her own cheek.

The flesh bounced back, and it hurt a little…

“It’s real!”

The more Xiao Qixiu watched, the more something felt off. He gazed at the bleeding figure being bombarded under the night sky and suddenly realized it wasn't that Xu Xiaoshou had become too strong, but that the masked man had grown weaker. A thought clicked, like a divine revelation, and he immediately understood everything that had happened.

“Was this guy just bluffing?”

Xiao Qixiu's face turned red with anger. He hadn't expected to be fooled by something Xu Xiaoshou could see through. He suddenly wanted to get up, but the decline of his Great Dao was difficult to halt.

He suddenly felt a pang of despair. If he were to be killed in a formal battle, he would have no regrets, but to die like this would be an absolute mockery!

“Is there no hope…”

He stared blankly into the distance.

A soft sound emerged—the sound of footsteps landing.

Not far, right beside him.

Xiao Qixiu's body trembled. Before he could look, a slightly withered arm reached out, holding a pill bottle.

“Vice Dean?” Su Qianqian exclaimed in surprise, her eyes welling up with tears as she looked at the pill bottle.

“Master, there’s hope!”

Elder Sang pressed down his straw hat, his eyes, like a hawk’s, fixed directly on the distant prey, his face grim.

“My apologies, I was delayed by some matters and arrived late.”

In the arena, smoke from the explosions obscured the view. However, this was largely ineffective against Xu Xiaoshou; his ‘Perception’ clearly saw the masked man's body twisted and almost shattered by the bombardment. Despite this guy's powerful attacks, without a Grandmaster body, he still found it hard to withstand such a ferocious onslaught.

“It’s still not over?” Xu Xiaoshou was a little surprised. He saw sword intent rising from the masked man's body, like lotus roots connected by threads, holding his broken body together.

“What kind of move is this?”

“A special spiritual skill? Or…” He suddenly thought of the ‘Sword Intent Possession’ in the ‘Ten-Segment Sword Finger.’ Could this be the effect? Upon closer inspection, he could indeed see a somewhat familiar power emanating from various parts of the masked man's body.

“Ordinary spiritual power?”

“No, it’s not ordinary…” This power seemed much more advanced than the spiritual power he had comprehended. At least, when his ‘Perception’ carefully observed it, it even pricked his soul.

“Advanced spiritual power?”

Xu Xiaoshou didn't bother thinking further. The masked man seemed to be just one hit away, so he picked up his small bathtub and prepared to charge forward.

“Stop!”

A somewhat weary voice rang out in his mind, instantly dousing Xu Xiaoshou's fervor.

Elder Sang?

He calmed down in an instant, watching the masked man plummeting from the sky, a chill rising from the soles of his feet.

Holy crap!

He must be crazy! Not only was he not stopping while he was ahead, but he was also planning a final strike? Did he really think he could act recklessly just because he was a Grandmaster?

If that guy got angry…

“Wen Ming!”

“You’re forcing me to act!”

With a loud boom, a white sword energy, like the rising sun, directly overshadowed the moonlight in the night sky, illuminating the entire back mountain. A huge, snow-white sword soared into the air. With a gentle tremor, the night sky was ripped apart.

“Summoned, Passive Value, 1.”

Xu Xiaoshou's face turned green. It was like his worst fears had come true. He turned and bolted, roaring hoarsely:

“Sorry, I didn’t mean it!”

“Help me—”