Chapter One Hundred Eleven: The Blood Mage

Niu Kun moved with remarkable agility, weaving and dodging in a way that gave Torris no chance to close the distance. Meanwhile, as he maneuvered, he silently built up power in his right arm, calmly waiting for a single, lethal opportunity to strike.

"Don't run! If you have the guts, face me one-on-one! You yellow-skinned pig! You damn animal!"

As a member of a "fighting nation," Torris had a notoriously volatile temper. Facing an opponent as slippery as Niu Kun, who refused to engage directly, he was at his wit's end.

"Yellow-skinned pig?"

Niu Kun kept his composure, shutting out all distractions. His brown eyes remained fixed on Torris's heart, a chilling murderous intent radiating from his gaze. The moment he heard the insult, he made up his mind: he would take this man's life. Today, this "yellow-skinned pig" would tear the heart and lungs out of this white-skinned "foreign master."

"Brute Bear Charge!"

After several failed attempts, Torris finally cornered Niu Kun at the edge of the ring. He gathered his strength once more, locking his sights on his opponent. Stamping his foot, he lunged, his thick arms snapping forward like crab claws to clamp onto Niu Kun’s legs. He intended to cripple the man, leaving him paralyzed in a hospital bed for the rest of his life.

The charge was blindingly fast. With Niu Kun trapped at the edge of the ring with nowhere left to retreat, it seemed he would have no choice but to take the blow head-on.

"That's it! Get him! Damn it, stop running! Just get off the stage, you coward!" Wang Kaishen roared in encouragement. Watching his own countryman being brutalized by a foreigner, he felt no pity; instead, he was overcome with perverse excitement.

"Hahaha! Rock, your lackey has nowhere to run now. He’s a dead man!" Fatty Liu, seeing Torris’s attack, assumed the outcome was sealed and began to jeer. Everyone believed Niu Kun was doomed—everyone except Lin Feng, who chuckled softly.

"So, that is the Great Sage Pi Gua."

Lin Feng’s eyes brightened; he had instantly pierced through the trajectory of Niu Kun's internal energy, deciphering the secrets of the Great Sage Pi Gua technique.

"Great Sage Hooks the Corner!"

In the face of imminent danger, Niu Kun finally broke his silence with a low growl. He channeled his internal energy, drawing his knees up to protect his chest and hooking his feet to guard his ribs. He used his shinbone as a shield to intercept the Brute Bear Charge, and by leveraging the force of the collision, he kicked off with his left foot. He vaulted into the air, spun, and landed gracefully behind Torris.

In the blink of an eye, the opponent had vanished. While Torris was still confused, a sharp, piercing pain suddenly erupted from his back.

"Argh!"

Niu Kun’s right hand, long charged with power, had struck a horizontal blow directly into Torris’s back. The impact was like a heavy hammer striking a bell; the force penetrated bone and instantly shattered Torris’s heart.

"Pfft—"

A fountain of blood erupted from Torris's mouth, mixed with fragments of his heart. His body stiffened, and he collapsed face-first onto the floor. Niu Kun stood beside the corpse, utterly composed.

The entire arena fell into a deathly silence. Wang Kaishen was so terrified he couldn't even speak. *This...* he thought. He had considered his own strength, as a champion of the Huaxia Sanda Tournament, to be at least upper-tier even in the special matches of "Wulin Feng." But now, it seemed he wouldn't even have survived the first round.

Niu Kun had used only one move, but the force of that strike had been enough to cause fatal internal trauma through the ribcage. Such a blow required at least a thousand pounds of force. A single strike with that much power? This wasn't human!

Lin Feng looked down at his phone, noting the deposit of two thousand in gambling winnings, and smiled slightly. Niu Kun, though plain in appearance, was clearly at the peak of the Internal Energy realm. That Pi Gua strike, if fully executed with the reinforcement of his internal energy, could shatter a meter of solid rock. The Russian expert, despite his judo black belt, possessed no internal energy and was at most at the Innate realm. If not for his massive, muscular physique, he would have lost long ago. Although the Martial Arts Tournament discouraged lethal force, the man had insulted the Chinese people on their own soil—he deserved his fate. Lin Feng felt no pity.

"Hahaha! Fatty Liu, you see that? That is the difference! Your Russian expert is now a dead ghost. Happy? Surprised?" Rock sneered. "According to the agreement, from today on, Qianliang Town belongs to me. Get your lackeys to get the hell out of town!"

"You..." Fatty Liu gnashed his teeth, veins bulging on his forehead.

However, Liu Ke stopped him. He turned slowly, looking at Rock with a cold, sinister gaze. "Rock, you are celebrating too early. Since that’s the case, let me let you experience what true despair is. Master of Demonic Blood, please, take the stage."

As soon as Liu Ke finished speaking, the mysterious figure in the black robe behind him stood up slowly. Wrapped entirely in dark fabric, the figure radiated an eerie, icy chill, feeling less like a living person and more like a specter.

"Taking the stage now is fine. Let’s end this boring mission early."

The black-robed figure stepped forward. He didn't stop at the edge of the ring; instead, he scattered a handful of blood from a gourd he carried. The blood transformed into a swarm of blood-red swallows that flew beneath his feet, lifting him into the air.

"This is... the Art of Void Walking!" The old man behind Young Master Huang gasped in shock, his face pale with terror. Such sorcery was only possible for a Grandmaster-level practitioner. As everyone knew, the hierarchy of practitioners was: Dao Entry, Mortal Shedding, Grandmaster, Dao Verification, and Ascension.

Although the martial arts world often compared Grandmaster-level practitioners to Martial Arts Transformation-stage experts, the unpredictable nature of sorcery made them far more formidable. In this age of declining spiritual energy, the heritage of sorcery was rare, and the requirements for talent were astronomical—you might not find one person in ten million with such an aptitude. Therefore, sorcerers were destined to be the true powerhouses of the underworld. The Five Provinces Martial Arts Tournament never banned sorcerers, simply because no one could afford to offend them.

The black-robed figure stepped on the blood swallows, soared through the air, and slowly descended onto the ring. His arrival triggered a frenzy of screams from thousands of spectators.

"My god, flying in the air? This guy is insane!"

"Insane? This is a sorcerer! They are leagues above ordinary martial artists!"

"Exactly! To think we’d see a sorcerer take the stage this year—the ticket price was worth it just for this!"

The audience, mostly composed of members of various underground factions, were well-informed. Only Wang Kaishen and Yuan Linlin stared blankly at the figure who had descended from the sky, their jaws hanging open.

"A... a god? Am I seeing a god?" Wang Kaishen stammered, unable to believe his eyes.

On the ring, the black-robed figure fixed his blood-red eyes on Niu Kun. "I’ll give you five seconds. Get off the stage, or die."

The chilling words made Niu Kun shudder, but a true martial artist’s character is to grow stronger in the face of adversity. He would not retreat.

"No need. I choose to fight!" Niu Kun straightened his back, his voice firm and resolute.

"Heh, there aren't many hot-headed fools like you left these days." The black-robed figure spoke coldly. Disregarding the referee's whistle, he launched a sudden attack. He waved his hand, and a blood-red nail shot forth. Niu Kun dodged, but the nail bypassed him and pierced the back of the neck of the dead Torris.

"Hehehe, die!"

As the nail embedded itself, the black-robed figure extended a withered right hand with half-inch long red fingernails. He formed a sword-finger gesture and traced a pattern in the air. A moment later, a hair-raising roar erupted from behind Niu Kun.

"ROAR!"

Before Niu Kun could turn, a brute force slammed into him, sending him flying ten meters back. When he shakily rose to his feet, he saw that Torris—whose heart he had shattered, and who should have been stone-cold dead—had stood back up.