Chapter 358: Supplementary Strike

Gu Lianni was stunned by this second head-on clash in an instant. She even doubted if the masked man was Shi Chun, wondering how Shi Chun, with his cultivation level, could possibly withstand Jin Hao's strike. Not to mention Shi Chun, even someone at the same cultivation level wouldn't fare well taking a direct hit from an opponent. The key point was that Jin Hao's palm strike, delivered from a distance, hadn't even budged Shi Chun's body. If she hadn't genuinely spoken to Shi Chun face-to-face earlier, she would definitely be questioning the masked man's identity.

At that moment, Shi Chun didn't want to exchange palm strikes with Jin Hao. He wanted to land a solid blow directly on her body for quicker effect. He was willing to trade blows to see who would be worse off, confident with his demonic cultivation protecting him externally and his precious armor internally, making him audacious in battle. However, Jin Hao wasn't interested in a direct brawl. Shi Chun's strike speed was also slightly slower than Jin Hao's, giving Jin Hao the initiative. Since Jin Hao insisted on a palm-to-palm exchange, it was too late for him to evade at the last minute. Another explosive thud resonated.

At that instant, a flicker of surprise and doubt crossed Jin Hao's eyes. This time, she clearly felt it: her palm hadn't even touched the masked man's, yet an outward force from his palm had already dissipated the power erupting from hers. The sensation of this outward force was peculiar; it almost didn't feel like an external release of power but rather a pressurized rebound, albeit a very strong and fierce one. For a moment, she had no time to discern what was happening; it was just an instantaneous feeling. However, for a force delivered from a distance to disperse her own power was beyond what a high-level martial arts master could achieve, which made her increasingly suspect that this person was not Shi Chun. Yet, she didn't dwell on it too much. Instead, a fierce look appeared in her eyes, twisting her lips into a sinister grin. Her palm strike, slightly deflected by the explosive force, was reapplied with renewed vigor. The moment their palms truly collided, she suddenly transformed her hand into a claw. The tips of her fingers became eerily sharp, wreathed in faint black mist that the wind couldn't dispel. This was her 'Demonic Claw,' which she would never dare to use openly in good lighting. In the current visual conditions, she was confident that no one would notice this subtle change. This was, in fact, why she had insisted on a palm-to-palm exchange with Shi Chun. In a regular fight, without resorting to brutal moves, she felt she wouldn't gain much advantage from the initial exchange, so she decided to act ruthlessly, intending to cripple him with her demonic cultivation in one blow.

However, her eyes soon widened in disbelief, or rather, horror. *Bang!* As their palms met and her palm strike was transforming into a claw to seize the masked man's hand, a sudden penetrating force erupted from his palm. It was an incredibly strange penetrating force; it didn't feel particularly powerful, yet her cultivation and magic power couldn't block it. Even more terrifying, once this palm force entered her hand and flowed into her arm, it began to change in countless ways. At first, it felt like a single force, but as she tried to block it with her magic, it immediately split into two. When she blocked again, it became three. One gave birth to two, two to three, and three to countless; the more she tried to block with her magic, the more the palm force diversified. But she couldn't help but try to block it; she couldn't just let that strange attacking force directly enter her body through her arm. Yet, no matter how she tried, she couldn't stop it. She quickly activated her demonic cultivation internally to resist, but it was still useless; it was a terrifying counter-current. In that instant, she felt as if a large school of fish had surged into her body. Her resistance was like a mountain waterfall crashing down on the fish, yet these fish bravely swam upstream against the torrent, becoming more vigorous as the water grew stronger. Nothing could stop it! The terror she felt in that moment was indescribable, unimaginable to outsiders.

Shi Chun, having countered with his palm, let out a cold snort. Since mastering the 'Demonic Dissolution Palm,' no one struck by it had survived, except for Mu Lanqing. Mu Lanqing had only narrowly escaped death because she was wearing special treasured armor. The moment his Demonic Dissolution Palm landed, he knew it was over, he knew this woman was crippled, as evidenced by her wide, terror-stricken eyes.

From the onlookers' perspective, they saw Jin Hao, whose cultivation was inferior, being repelled by the masked man's palm strike in their head-on clash, sending her diagonally downwards to the ground. However, Shi Chun showed no mercy. After all, his opponent cultivated demonic arts, and he feared any unexpected comeback, so he didn't give her a chance to recover, pressing his attack. It was also convenient: the one who had intercepted him was falling diagonally backward, and he needed to move forward to kill Wu Shanshan. Thus, seizing the opportunity, he pushed off from mid-air and delivered five or six consecutive, thunderous kicks to Jin Hao's chest as she fell to the ground. Each kick was a heavy blow accompanied by an explosive sound. There was no concept of tenderness towards women; only the ruthlessness of striking to kill.

Onlookers were shocked, wondering why Jin Hao didn't dodge, instead taking multiple heavy blows to her chest. The explosive sounds of the kicks alone indicated they were severe. Those with keener eyes saw that after exchanging one palm strike with the masked man, Jin Hao had lost all ability to retaliate. If she could have fought back, no woman would use her chest to absorb a man's attacks; she must have been unable to avoid them. Many bystanders found the masked man's actions somewhat despicable. "Too brutal," Gu Lianni even unconsciously hugged her chest. As for Shi Chun, he couldn't care less about being "despicable." Coming from the Land of Exile, when it's a fight for survival, should he be expected to talk about morals? Let whoever wants to talk about them. In these fleeting moments, he would do whatever it took to quickly incapacitate his opponent with a combo, leaving no chance for them to catch their breath.

Jin Hao, her eyes forcibly wide, now had blood trickling from the corner of her mouth, her chest reverberating with explosive thuds. As she landed, she staggered backward, and from the kick she received the moment she touched the ground, she had already heard the cracking sound of her sternum. This indicated that she was in such dire straits that she could no longer use her cultivation to protect her body. She didn't want to use her body to absorb these consecutive kicks, but she had no choice. The bizarre palm force that had entered her body was threatening her life, and she was desperately mobilizing all her cultivation to survive. She truly couldn't spare the energy to execute agile movements to deal with the immediate flurry of kicks, so she could only desperately divert a fraction of her strength to her body to endure the blows. What sounds slow in description actually happened extremely quickly.

Li Hongjiu was initially startled and surprised to see the masked man launch a sneak attack. Even when the masked man repelled Jin Hao with a palm strike, Li Hongjiu didn't take it too seriously, still watching with a look of surprise. It wasn't until he witnessed the masked man's aerial flurry of kicks that his expression changed, and a look of astonishment flashed in his eyes. Aerial consecutive kicks, while seemingly simple, are actually very difficult to perform easily. It's fine to perform flashy moves in mid-air, but the crucial point was that the target of the attack was a cultivator with defensive cultivation and magic power, someone capable of fighting the masked man. The masked man was airborne, with no leverage, yet he delivered a continuous barrage of kicks without being affected by recoil, and the power of each kick remained undiminished. How was this possible? Had his cultivation already reached the Human Immortal realm, allowing him to truly fly through the air? How could someone at the Human Immortal realm enter the Divine Fire Domain? The difference between the flesh and blood body of an ordinary cultivator and the immortal body of an ascended one cannot be concealed. Could it be an elder from a prominent family who had subtly intervened? What he didn't know was that Shi Chun was wearing the 'Cloud-Treading Boots,' a magic treasure that allowed him to move in the air as if on solid ground. Not to mention performing mere consecutive kicks, even ascending to the heavens would be effortless. If there weren't significant benefits, why would Shi Chun bother to deceive Zhen'er about the shoes he wore?

Regardless, Li Hongjiu, blinking his eyes, was clearly intrigued by the masked man. The fingers of his lowered hands twitched, and his gaze flickered towards the Black Lotus, a magic treasure that had manifested in human form above the two combatants. With two fingers joined, he subtly made a gesture as if cutting through the wind.

Shi Chun, having severely injured Jin Hao with several kicks, still refused to let her go. He lunged towards Wu Shanshan, and as his figure passed over Jin Hao's head, the starlight-illuminated gleam of his saber also descended. Seeing that Jin Hao had been beaten into a motionless, unresisting state, he intended to conveniently finish her off with a single strike to the head. He had heard of the demonic path's strangeness in the Land of Exile, so he knew not to miss an opportunity to deliver a decisive blow. Meanwhile, Lin Yuefang, having regained her balance, lunged forward again. Disregarding the sword that had been knocked from her hand, she conjured another sword from thin air into her hand, whose tiger's mouth was now split open, and rushed in. During this time, she had also witnessed Jin Hao's dire situation, which greatly startled her. From her angle, she clearly saw a large bulge seemingly rise and wriggle on Jin Hao's back. At this instant, she also realized this wasn't Shi Chun. In almost a single exchange, Jin Hao had been rendered helpless. How could Shi Chun's cultivation achieve that? Even if Shi Chun could defeat opponents above his level, Jin Hao wouldn't be unable to withstand even one exchange, especially since their clash was a head-on confrontation, which truly tests one's cultivation. Even Yan Ketao, cloaked in the crowd, was stunned and began to doubt his judgment. Could this truly be Shi Chun? He suspected someone had taken Shi Chun's two magic treasures. Wu Shanshan, trapped in the Silk of Immortal Binding, turned her head and, seeing the situation, was also greatly alarmed, shouting, "Who are you?!" She, too, was now convinced this was not Shi Chun. It was true that Wu Jinliang might have hidden his strength, and the same could potentially be true for Shi Chun. But she had seen the comparison between Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang: one had made a strong comeback, while the other was severely injured by the lingering attack of the Black Tiger before even touching it. She had clearly witnessed the scene of Shi Chun being severely injured and spitting blood on the spot. No matter how good he was, he couldn't have recovered so quickly, could he? He had just been severely injured not long ago, and now he was unleashing divine power here? Of course, it was also possible that Shi Chun had faked his injury earlier, but that simply didn't make sense; was there any need to fake it at the time?

The most pressing matter now was that her own situation was also very dangerous. Under the powerful constricting force of the Silk of Immortal Binding, the tower-shaped, three-dimensional metal frame protecting her emitted a grating creak. The fine threads of the Silk of Immortal Binding were rapidly cutting into the metal frame, little by little, like a saw cutting into wood. The Silk of Immortal Binding continued to tighten incrementally. This demonstrated how powerful the constricting force of this fifth-grade magic treasure was; the triangular metal frame certainly wouldn't hold out much longer.

After a moment of stunned realization, four disciples of the Valley of Forgetfulness from the larger group also came to their senses. Others might watch the spectacle, but they couldn't stand idly by and rushed forward. Two of the women, both possessing demonic energy, each activated a magic treasure. One woman, who unfurled a silver blanket, reached out mid-air to pull back their fellow disciple who had absorbed the divine fire, pushing her away and shouting, "Go back!" The reason she had remained by her side was to protect her; that disciple's artifact refining talent was crucial to their goal of winning the competition on this trip. As she sent the disciple back, she wrapped herself in the silver, ribbon-like blanket, vanishing from everyone's sight in plain view, becoming invisible. Another woman with demonic energy conjured a bronze mirror from thin air. With a shake of her hand, a black beam of light shot directly towards Shi Chun. Lin Yuefang, who was rushing towards Shi Chun with her sword, also took out a bell. She shook it frantically, and its ringing instantly caused dizziness and disorientation, making everything spin before their eyes. Indeed, with the masked man's demonstrated strength, she knew her own power was not much superior to Jin Hao's, and she dared not advance without bringing out her magic treasures. This action caused everyone present to quickly cast spells to resist the illusory sound. Many were secretly alarmed, wondering what kind of faction this was; how could a mere Valley of Forgetfulness possess so many rare magic treasures? Were these diverse magic treasures truly all refined by the Valley of Forgetfulness itself?