Stranger Danger

Chapter 760: Three Origin Hammers

“The Dark Overlord is incredible! No wonder they call him the greatest of Spring and Autumn!”

Ye Qing, Cui Qiuyuan and Qu Langhuan were absolutely dazzled by the ensuing battle. No one here was a slouch, and everyone was giving it their all. Even so, Li Hentian still outshone all of them. He was literally beating them using whatever martial art they excelled at. He had defeated Madman Chu with a saber, Xu Xiu with a spear, Sun Sovereign with a seal, Laughing Buddha with his fingers, and Sakyamuni Myriad Shadows with a sword.

Since the start of the battle, only a dozen or so breaths had passed. During this time, Li Hentian had executed five completely different techniques. None of them overlapped with one another, and none of them were unnecessary. They were exactly what he needed to handle the threat he was facing. As if that wasn’t enough, each technique was profound and devastating in their own right.

“Li Hentian was way too arrogant for his own good, but he did possess the martial talent to back it up. He could pick up any martial technique in one try, figure out the ins and outs of any cultivation art at first glance, and grasp any Magia instantly. Even better, he could always think outside the box and innovate what he learned into something better, if not boil it all down into one singular form.”

Murong Xianxian sighed wistfully. “There are four major Dao in this world—Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, and the Dark—and he was adept in all of them. There were no weapon in the world that he couldn’t wield with impossible proficiency as well. If someone invented a martial art, he would master it and surpass the original. He was a true master of all.”

“The saber technique he used to defeat Madman Chu was the ‘Skyhiding Saber’, the signature move of the Great Skyhiding Emperor from nine hundred years ago.”

“The spear technique he used to defeat Xu Xiu was the ‘Three Strikes To Quell The Central Plain’, the signature move of the You Dynasty’s god of war, Zhao Yulong.”

“The seal technique he used to defeat the Sun Sovereign was the ‘Wind Rain Azure Yellow Seal’, the creation of the legendary ‘Old Azure Yellow’.”

“The finger technique he used to defeat Laughing Buddha was a secret technique passed down with the Lanke Temple only known as the ‘Mountain Hiding Finger’.”

“And finally, the summoning technique where he summoned a million swords with the flick of a finger was the ‘Million Swords’, the signature move of the god of swords of Mount Zu from a thousand years ago, Yue Cangqiong.”

The people Murong Xianxian mentioned—Great Skyhiding Emperor, Zhao Yulong, Old Azure Yellow, and Yue Cangwan—were all famous figures in the history of wulin. They were all former titans in their own right.

“That said, Li Hentian’s greatest martial art is undoubtedly the ‘Three Origin Hammers’, the culmination of everything he learned,” Murong Xianxian ended.

“The ‘Three Origin Hammers’?” Ye Qing asked curiously.

“You will see,” Murong Xianxian replied mysteriously.

While they were speaking, the battle between Li Hentian and the group of five had reached its climax. The sky was being ripped apart like cheap cloth, the ground was crumbling again and again until it resembled fine powder, and even space was shattered here and there like cheap glass. The natural order of this place was already thrown out of whack to begin with, and the fierce battle did not help its recovery in the slightest.

Li Hentian was strong. Terrifyingly so. His repertoire of Magia seemed endless, and every secret art he unleashed possessed unimaginable power. If this was the real Li Hentian, all five of them would have died a long time ago.

Unfortunately, this Li Hentian was just a wisp of spiritual intent the original left behind to guard the Central Wu Earth Hall. Even if he possessed the aura, knowledge and skill of a Sage, he simply lacked the power.

Li Hentian was able to beat down on the group of five at first not just because he was strong, but because the Truemen and Grandmaster weren’t united as one. But over time, as they grew more familiar with Li Hentian’s power, they began to mount a potent counterattack.

This was especially true for Madman Chu and Xu Xiu. Madman Chu was a battle maniac who could not go a single day without fighting someone, and he was a body-tempering Grandmaster. Trusting in his tenacious body, he dared to wield an iron blade and fight Li Hentian at close range no matter how many wounds he took.

Both Xu Xiu and his spear were bathing in his own blood right now. His eyes shining red like a demon, he fought Li Hentian like he was the murderer of his family and without any regard for his safety whatsoever.

With Madman Chu and Xu Xiu to keep Li Hentian busy, the Sun Sovereign, Laughing Buddha and Sakyamuni Myriad Shadows were able to unleash their Magia to their fullest potential.

The Sun Sovereign hung in the sky while holding the sun and moon in his palms. His fists shook heaven and earth, and his fire torched mountains and boiled rivers.

Laughing Buddha manifested the dharma of Maitreya and a Kingdom of Buddha. His attacks all possessed the power to bend the future to his will.

Sakyamuni Myriad Shadows split into seemingly endless copies of himself and covered the world in darkness. Lurking patiently in his shadows, he always struck when Li Hentian was at his most vulnerable like a viper.

Boom!

Li Hentian parried a spear thrust meant for his throat with nimble fingers before stepping into the man’s chest and elbowing him away.

While Li Hentian was distracted, Madman Chu swung his saber and landed a devastating strike stretching from Li Hentian’s left shoulder to his chest.

The attack would’ve gone clean through, but Li Hentian struck Madman Chu in the forehead midway and sent him flying a hundred meters across the air.

Earlier, Li Hentian had nearly cut Madman Chu in half with his knifehand strike. Now, Madman Chu had returned the favor.

Of course, Li Hentian was just a spiritual intent, so no blood leaked out of his wound. However, he looked a lot more transparent than before. Clearly, the attack was as devastating as it looked.

While Li Hentian was injured, Sun Sovereign, Laughing Buddha and Sakyamuni Myriad Shadows seized the opportunity to launch their attacks.

“Hahaha! Now we’re talking!”

Li Hentian looked up and let out an uproarious laugh. “I’m going to get serious now!”

As soon as he said this, his aura blasted through the nine heavens and shook the earth like a leaf. It was such an explosive display of power that everyone and everything around him quaked uncontrollably.

It was at this moment Murong Xianxian said, “Watch and feel closely, Joyless!”

Ye Qing didn’t understand what she was trying to say, but he still focused and stared intently at Li Hentian. At the same time, he released his demonic thought and perceived the surrounding changes as well as he could.

Li Hentian raised his fist as if to ask the world if it dared to face it.

When he asked the wind, the wind stopped.

When he asked the clouds, the clouds paused.

When he asked the sky, the sky stilled.

When he asked the earth, the earth froze.

All things came to a sudden stop when he raised his fist. Time, space, yin, yang, the four cardinal directions, the eight directions, everything.

The Sun Sovereign, Madman Chu, Xu Xiu, Laughing Buddha, and Sakyamuni Myriad Shadows froze in their tracks. Their Magia came to a complete standstill right before it would hit Li Hentian, and even their thoughts had frozen up completely.

It wasn’t just them. Three hundred meters away, Ye Qing, Cui Qiuyuan and Qu Langhuan had become as still as a puppet as well.

It was at this moment Murong Xianxian lifted a finger and tapped Ye Qing in the forehead. He immediately regained his consciousness and discovered that he could not move a muscle. It was almost as if his body wasn’t his.

After confirming that Ye Qing was awake, Murong Xianxian finally explained, “I told you that Li Hentian’s greatest martial art is the ‘Three Origin Hammers’. It is a fist art that encompasses every martial art Li Hentian has ever learned with the Guixu Everlasting Scripture at its core.”

“‘The Three Origin Hammers’ are the ‘Suppression Hammer’, ‘Break Hammer’, and ‘Annihilation Hammer’.”

It would seem that Murong Xianxian wasn’t entirely unaffected by Li Hentian’s technique, for she was speaking at a snail’s pace as well. “The technique he’s currently using is ‘Suppression Hammer’.”

“Suppression Hammer is a technique that can suppress anything and everything in the world. Time, space, yin, yang, the four cardinal directions or the eight directions, everything. When the Suppression Hammer falls, everything freezes, and it feels as if the world is about to return to one.”

Ye Qing could not move his body, but his demonic thought told him that the ambient origin qi in the air was completely still as if it was dead. Space was frozen, and even time had come infinitely close to a complete standstill.

“Unfortunately, the Li Hentian before us is just a spiritual intent, so the move did not possess even one-tenth of its true power. Otherwise, neither you nor I would be able to speak like this,” Murong Xianxian sighed.

As she spoke, Li Hentian moved back his arm, clenched his fist, and punched forward.

Buzz…

The winds vanished.

The clouds scattered.

The mountains disappeared.

The rivers ran dry.

The sky fractured.

And the earth cracked.

The frozen secret arts and Magia abruptly disappeared as if they never were.

The Strange Artifacts and astral qi covering the Sun Sovereign, Sakyamuni Myriad Shadows and Laughing Buddha ripped apart like paper.

And even their physical bodies exploded in a shower of blood and gore.

Madman Chu and Xu Xiu’s bodies were tougher and so were saved from the gorey fate. Even so, they looked like broken porcelain with cracks all over their bodies.

It was as if the punch had shattered everything and anything.