Chu Li's flesh and blood were stained blue wherever it pa.s.sed; it felt numb and was itchy like ant bites, a strange sensation that went deep into his bones. Many a time Chu Li wanted to scream out but stopped himself short of doing so.
Chu Li focused on the glob of blue water and sealed away his other senses.
The glob of blue water was flowing away very slowly, he felt as if it was taking an eternity.
As it traveled along Chu Li's blood vessels, it first reached his head, making him feel completely vulnerable - as if it would melt at the slightest touch. As the strength of his mind was absorbed, the blue water started to become more profound.
It started to recede from his limbs before returning to his heart.
By the time the glob of blue water returned to Chu Li's heart, it had already shrunk to half its original size, as it had been consumed by his body.
Despite this, Chu Li had the strange feeling that it was instead purifying itself and that the other half of it that was consumed by his body was actually its impurities.
As he pondered this, Chu Li felt the ent.i.ty start to slowly cl.u.s.ter around his heart.
It continued to merge before it finally reformed into a blue orb at last. Throughout this whole period, flashes of light could be seen emitting from it from time to time.
The orb was half the size of the Heavenly Demonic Orb from before, but it was much more solid and clear. Its rays were gentle yet firm as if it would completely s.h.i.+ne through his organs; it glowed with a faint blue light, which made it look semi-dreamlike.
All this was what Chu Li saw inwardly, outsiders would not be able to see this...o...b..with its brilliant light and overflowing color if they were to look at him.
At last, the palsy that drove him crazy such that Chu Li wanted to shred his own body finally ended, leading him to breathe a long sigh of relief.
Chu Li exhaled a dense black smog which slowly floated to the floor. The moment it landed on the ground, the gra.s.s it touched immediately wilted.
Chu Li raised his brows, he did not think that the foul air was so powerful.
He checked himself out to see if there were any changes.
Chu Li's body had become leaner than before. Just like the Heavenly Demonic Orb, the impurities in his body seemed to have been cleansed away, which made his body purer. This led him to figure out that the foul air he let out earlier was, in fact, the impurities.
His flesh, blood, and bones had become much st.u.r.dier as well, and an energy that seemed to be endless was surging within his body. This was somewhat similar to when he transformed into the Heavenly Demon Body.
However, Chu Li knew that it was an illusion, so he did not abuse it. He instead looked at Zhou Lingfeng again.
Zhou Lingfeng was sitting with his legs crossed under the tree as he was channeling some spells to treat his injuries.
Chu Li shot out two Petrifying Fingers at him one after another.
Zhou Lingfeng flew away to dodge them, but unfortunately, could not dodge the Spear Finger Strike. Chu Li had managed to learn the second level of Spear Finger Strike from Fa Yuan.
Chu Li's finger force was as soft and gentle as the wind, its existence almost unnoticeable. It glided towards Zhou Lingfeng along with the gentle wind and attacked him silently.
Zhou Lingfeng trembled, his chest suddenly felt uneasy.
At that moment, Chu Li shot out another two Petrifying Fingers.
Zhou Lingfeng dodged sideways abruptly, narrowly avoiding damage from the two Petrifying Fingers.
Chu Li whistled out loud, clearly impressed, the Body of Asura was truly overbearing.
He decided to stop using his fingers. Instead, Chu Li flew towards Zhou Lingfeng and pressed onto his body with his Shura Palm.
"Bam!" Zhou Lingfeng took a few steps back and frowned as he looked at him. He felt that Chu Li had become stronger than before.
Chu Li smiled. It seemed that when the Heavenly Demonic Powers improved, his body had, in turn, become stronger too.
"Bam, bam, bam…" The two of them went head-to-head again, both of their palms colliding a countless number of times.
However, whilst Chu Li attacked with his palms, he sneakily shot out another finger force.
Since they were so close to each other, Zhou Lingfeng could not avoid it in time, causing him to suddenly freeze in place.
After that, ten more finger forces were fired at him like a machine gun.
Zhou Lingfeng's heartbeat became slower and slower until it finally stopped.
A couple of minutes later, he became stiff and did not move at all. He had died again.
Chu Li smiled. He finally managed to kill that fellow, but, in order to prevent a resurrection like before, he needed to carefully watch over him.
Should there be any movements at all, he would hit him with ten more Petrifying Fingers again. In this way, Chu Li could be certain that his opponent would stay dead!
He was only unsure of the difference between killing with the Petrifying Finger and killing with blades and swords.
From an outsider's point of view, the Petrifying Finger was much more troublesome – it took far more effort than simply ending one's life with a sword through the heart.
However, Chu Li's gut told him that this matter would not be so easily resolved.
He made a mental note to discover the truth behind his hypothesis, and if he had the chance to, he would ask Fa Yuan about it.
---
"You're all back, where's your Centurion?" Ma Kun asked in a hoa.r.s.e voice.
Ning Boyuan and the rest had already returned to the House of Secret Guardians and were now reporting to Fu Mengshan in the main hall. When Ma Kun heard the news, he immediately rushed over.
His face looked extremely ghastly and his eyes were burning with rage, he stared intensely at the Ning brothers, Dong Qifei and Yang Zongwen.
The four of them lowered their heads as they could not bear to meet his gaze.
Fu Mengshan snapped at Ma Kun with dissatisfaction, "Elder Ma, shut up and step aside!"
Ma Kun called out, "Commander, that man with the surname Chu must have lost the murderer!"
"It's none of your business to worry about that. Step aside. Don't interrupt when I'm talking, or I'll forbid you from entering the main hall for a month!" Fu Mengshan waved his hand impatiently.
"Very well, I'd like to hear how you're going to interrogate them then, Commander!" Ma Kun scoffed angrily and stared at the four men.
Fu Mengshan coughed softly. "Old Ning, tell me, what happened exactly?"
"Commander, we were investigating the case of Full Cloud Camp and found some clues, but after chasing the clues and catching up to the murderer, we realized that his martial arts were too strong; he kills as if he is slaughtering chickens. Two of our men from the Secret Guardians Hall had already been killed by his hand. He was killing a group of martial arts masters at that moment, so we ran away when we saw that something was wrong," Ning Boyuan replied.
Fu Mengshan nodded.
It was the rule of the Secret Guardians Hall to run away when things looked overly bleak. They were not allowed to die in avoidable circ.u.mstances.
"You left them to die when you saw that they were in mortal danger! When your partners are in great danger, how can you not save them?" Ma Kun growled in a low tone.
Ning Boyuan shook his head and said, "Centurion Ma, we are being falsely accused. By the time we arrived there, the two of them had already died. Moreover, if we were to attack him with our level of martial arts, we would be absolutely annihilated - there was just nothing that we could do!"
Fu Mengshan looked at them keenly and leaned forward. "After that?"
Ning Boyuan continued, "In the end, we didn't manage to escape as he soon caught up to us. However, at that moment the Centurion arrived and stopped him."
"Hmm, Chu Li must have planned this very carefully and taken every conceivable possibility into account. He must have realized that something was wrong." Fu Mengshan glanced at Ma Kun.
Ma Kun s.h.i.+fted his gaze uneasily to avoid looking at him.
By comparison, he seemed to be slightly inferior as a Centurion.
Fu Mengshan prodded the men further, "What happened next?"
"The Tempest Temple monks suddenly appeared and attempted to take the murderer away. One of the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds had even cultivated the Asura Power Technique of the Tempest Temple."
"What?" Fu Mengshan's face quickly changed.
Ma Kun's expression changed as well.
"He practiced the Asura Power Technique?" Fu Mengshan hurriedly asked.
Ning Boyuan nodded firmly. "I'm certain about this. Fa Yuan and the monks from the Tempest Temple said that he's unkillable. He can only be repressed in the Tempest Temple such that he won't be able to do evil things outside, so they wanted to bring him back."
"Hmph, the Asura Power Technique! The martial arts world will be in chaos from now onwards! … What happened after that?" Fu Mengshan frowned, then he shook his head and stared off blankly.
Ning Boyuan added, "The Centurion made us leave first, but we were curious, so we hid in the greenery to watch. Initially, the Centurion wanted to hand the fellow over to the Tempest Temple."
Fu Mengshan frowned and remained silent.
Ma Kun sneered.
Ning Boyuan continued, "I was anxious, so I added that two of our men from the Secret Guardians Hall were killed by him. After hearing this, the Centurion changed his mind and ran away with that fellow - the monk from the Tempest Temple did not manage to chase after them."
"Haha, his Light-body Technique is very powerful." Fu Mengshan smiled.
"Following this, the Centurion caught up to us and handed the corpse over to us so that we could bring him back to you, Commander, he wanted to lure the monks from the Tempest Temple away. But halfway through, that corpse resurrected; we were this close from being slaughtered by him, if it wasn't for the Centurion who managed to appear just in time, we would've lost our lives by now!" Ning Boyuan shook his head and said.
"That's the power of the Asura Power Technique. Invincible… I'm afraid that Chu Li is not aware of this information either. You are very fortunate to have survived." Fu Mengshan shook his head as he spoke with a bitter smile.
Ning Boyuan added, "The monks from the Tempest Temple wanted us to hand the man over, but the Centurion escaped together with the murderer."
"The Tempest Temple! Outrageous savagery!" Fu Mengshan slammed the handle of his armchair as he seethed through clenched teeth.
Ma Kun sneered at the story. "For all you know, Chu Li might have made a deal with the Tempest Temple and has handed that man over by now. If that was not the case, then based on his Light-body Technique, he would've returned by now!"