Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

After saying that, Zhao Lie shut his mouth and stopped talking. He stabbed his dented machete into the ground before he took off his armor that was embedded with sharp thorns and even his leather clothes, draping them over the grip of his weapon, revealing a muscular body.

His body was like a combination of a bear, a tiger, and a leopard. His shoulders were as broad as a bear, his chest was as thick as a tiger, and his back was as tensile as a leopard. In a perfect triangle, his body was brimming with explosive strength even when he was not moving.

On his entire chest, a red, flying eagle had been painted. Its wings extended all the way to the biceps on his arms.

After a few warmup movements, the bloody wings of the eagle were flapping up and down, as if an eagle were going to rush out of his body and tear all the prey apart!

Emotionlessly, Zhao Lie slowly straightened his right arm, gesturing that he was ready.

Zhao Chong and the Iron Blood Youths behind him were exclaiming. A lot of villagers also turned on the tanks that were fully embedded with iron plates and connected the vehicles into a giant circle about twenty meters in diameter around the two of them.

It was an arena.

In the Land of Sins, the experts always had the biggest say. Resolving disagreements in a one-versus-one duel before everybody was already the most merciful and ‘peaceful’ way.

With everything coming to this point, Gu Zhengyang had nothing more to say. He called Han Te and Liu Li and reminded them of something before he waved his hands and asked them to leave the circle of tanks. Then, he tore off the armor and suit on his body, too.

There were no tattoos on his body. But the moment he tore apart the suit, his skin that had been sallow because of his disease suddenly emanated bronze colors.

His body was thinner and did not look as impressive as Zhao Lie’s, but the hundred shocking, interconnected scars on it were medals a hundred times more intimidating.

“Cough, cough. Cough, cough, cough, cough!” Gu Zhengyang coughed lightly. The many hideous scars on his body wriggled at the same time, like insects that were gnawing his flesh.

Seeing his body that was full of wounds, and recalling the contributions that he had made to the Village of Peace in the past and how he had transformed it from a tiny, struggling village to such a thriving one today with thousands of people, many villagers sighed in mixed feelings.

Even the villagers who were more inclined to Zhao Lie lowered their heads in embarrassment, wondering whether they should support Gu Zhengyang or Zhao Lie.

Even the eyes of Zhao Lie himself shuddered when Gu Zhengyang exposed so many scars.

However, the feelings in the eyes were soon frozen by brilliance that was colder and more ruthless.

Shua!

Zhao Lie took out a fully-sealed metal can from a bag that was bound to his thigh. He tossed it to Gu Zhengyang and said, “Village leader, in case somebody says that I am taking advantage of your illness, this is a battlefield exhilarant of the latest formula. It can suppress wounds and increase the sensitivity of nerves. It only fell from the sky last night. Do you want to give it a try?”

Gu Zhengyang weighed the metal can in his palm for a while before he tossed it back to Zhao Lie softly. He then raised his eyebrow and bellowed, “That will be unnecessary!”

When his voice was still echoing, the thin, sick man suddenly turned into a furious warrior. He stepped forward, covering about five meters with every step, and lunged at Zhao Lie, leaving deep footprints on the ground.

With every step he took, the metallic brightness on his body became more intense. By the time he arrived before Zhao Lie, he seemed to be entirely made of metal.

His right arm was even more intimidating. There was a transparent feeling beyond the metallic brightness, as if it were carved out of diamonds!

“Good!” Zhao Lie bulged his eyes and shrieked. Instead of picking up the metal can that Gu Zhengyang had thrown back, he simply raised his leg and kicked it back to the enemy.

When the can was still in midair, it could not withstand the spiritual energy that he had blown in. It expanded nonstop until it exploded!

Bam!

The exhilarant and the pieces of the metal can smashed into Gu Zhengyang.

Despite the metallic body that Gu Zhengyang had, his vision and his pace were somewhat disrupted by the fluids and the metal scraps that were flying everywhere.

Zhao Lie took the opportunity to breathe quickly before he uttered the roars of a steam engine.

When he breathed in the air, his entire lower abdomen collapsed deeply and was only one layer of skin away from his back, but his chest rose high as if a hundred bombs had exploded inside.

It was exactly the opposite when he breathed the air out. His abdomen became as round as a drum, whereas his chest collapsed weirdly, and his every rib was clearly visible.

He took such deep breaths three times every second. In the blink of an eye, the redness of the eagle tattoo on his chest covered his entire body.

His right arm was almost twice as large and half a foot longer. His fingers became longer with a series of cracking noises, and coldly-shining bone spurs protruded from his joints and fingertips!

Boom!

The two of them attacked and evaded almost at the same time.

A gargantuan claw appeared out of nowhere and brushed past Gu Zhengyang’s shoulder, taking away three threads of flesh from his shoulder that was as tough as iron. After it hit the ground behind him, the claw left a crater half a foot deep and more than two meters long. The mark was almost like the footprint of a dinosaur.

A golden wind mixed with purple electric arcs was also blown out of Gu Zhengyang’s fist, which narrowly passed Zhao Lie’s abdomen and blew into an iron tank behind him, raising a deafening explosion.

When the attack was still almost five meters away, the door of the tank that was made of three layers of iron plates collapsed deeply as if it had been hit by a battering ram. After a series of ear-splitting noises, the entire tank back ten meters, with dust and smoke popping up!

All the villagers were so deeply intimidated by Gu Zhengyang and Zhao Lie’s shocking attacks that they even forgot to cheer for them.

Even Li Yao felt shocked and inspired by the weirdness and aggressiveness of the arts in the Land of Sins.

Gu Zhengyang and Zhao Lie’s strength was certainly far from a super expert in the Divinity Transformation Stage.

However, the exploitation of their life and soul had reached the highest level.

To put it more simply, if Li Yao had one hundred life and soul points and could bring out 105 points of combat ability, those guys perhaps only had twenty life and soul points but could trigger thirty points of combat ability under the motivation of all kinds of extreme arts and deadly techniques!

The Immortal Cultivators who created those arts and techniques and even the entire Land of Sins were definitely unpardonable scoundrels, but they were doubtlessly evil geniuses!

Without saying anything, Li Yao perceived the flow of spiritual energy from the two experts of the Land of Sins. He learned the essence in it and was prepared to include it in his own model of spiritual energy.

“Grandpa Yao…” Han Te grabbed Li Yao’s mechanical arm.

“Don’t be hasty. Let’s wait a while longer.” Li Yao’s soul vibrated and sent the message into Han Te’s brain. “Your master is still capable of fighting.”

The center of the tanks had become an ocean of bloody claws and bright fists.

In the middle of the overwhelming dust, it could only be vaguely seen that a streak of redness and one of gold were raging, and deafening noises as if skyscrapers were falling could be heard, too. But nobody could see the process of the fight however much they craned their neck.

Out of everybody’s expectations, an enormous bloody claw extended out of the dust. Everybody thought that it was Zhao Lie’s attack that had missed the target again, but the bloody claw seemed to boast its own will. It snatched a tank that was serving as the fence, ripped off an iron plate from it in a crack, and smashed it into the dust!

Gu Zhengyang’s grunt could be heard. The bronze brilliance immediately dimmed, and bloody shadows appeared everywhere in the dust!

“Ah!”

Han Te, Liu Li, and the villagers who supported Gu Zhengyang all exclaimed in shock.

“Great!”

The villagers who supported Zhao Lie naturally cheered.

Li Yao, however, said very confidently, “The battle is over. The village leader has won!”

“What!” Han Te and Liu Li were slightly dazed. They were about to ask why he said that when an ear-splitting shriek suddenly came from the dust. The overwhelming bloody claws suddenly vanished, and a cluster of brightness made of hundreds of electric arcs was blown out of a fist and knocked a tank over, which rolled more than ten times in midair before it finally crashed into garbage!

Nothing could be heard from the dust anymore except heavy breath.

The dust gradually settled.

Everybody held their breath and bulged their eyes, looking at the dust carefully.

The first one to walk out of the dust was Gu Zhengyang.

His entire body was bleeding, and barely any part of his skin was still intact. The six interconnected bloody marks on his chest were almost cut deep into his bones.

His right arm was black and wrinkled, like a withered vine. It dangled from his shoulder, shaking. He could not have looked more devastated.

Opposite him…

Zhao Lie’s eyes were wide open. His mouth was opened to the maximum, with blood red smoke popping out nonstop. His chest with the eagle tattoo collapsed deeply and did not come back to normal after a long time. Countless metal scraps were stabbed into his body, too, which were the ‘bullets’ after the iron plate was broken.

After Gu Zhengyang tore the iron plate apart with his fist and shot them out like bullets, the pieces stabbed into Zhao Lie’s body so deeply that he could no longer hold on. He fell to one knee before Gu Zhengyang, his arms shaking. The red smoke popping out of his mouth gradually turned into thick blood.

He tried several times but could not stand. It was already the best he could do to kneel on one knee.

He did not seem to expect that he would ever lose. There was still disbelief and agony inside his eyes. He rested for a long time before he finally said, “Your strength… has recovered?”

After a brief silence, Gu Zhengyang said, “You must treat your wounds immediately.”

Zhao Lie grinned in the most miserable way. He crawled on his hands and knees to the saber that he stabbed into the ground at the beginning. Plucking the saber, he tossed it at Gu Zhengyang, and the weapon dropped to Gu Zhengyang’s feet. “I’ve lost. Do it.”

“Dad!” Zhao Chong was greatly shocked. The Iron Blood Youths and the young villagers who supported Zhao Lie were all overwhelmed, their faces pale.