Chapter 12: Unrivaled Combat Technique
The two collided—one in a pink dress with fair legs, the other in beast-hide shorts with thick, powerful legs. Senior Sister Qing’s long legs were slender but possessed astonishing strength, her kicks like knife slashes and axe chops. Qin Mu’s legs were thicker, yet his movements felt ethereal and light, as if lacking power.
*Bang bang bang!* A series of explosive impacts rang out. Senior Sister Qing’s legs took countless kicks in an instant—Qin Mu’s legwork was so fast she couldn’t react in time!
Her legs’ terrifying power was rendered useless. After being hit by Qin Mu’s dazzling flurry of kicks, her strength seemed to vanish, as if “devoured” by his legs.
“Damn it…”
Senior Sister Qing’s legs went weak. His legs struck in rapid succession, like rain battering banana leaves, landing on her waist, chest, throat, and then—*smack smack smack*—heavy foot after heavy foot slammed into her face.
Qin Mu spun midair, twisted his body, and kicked backward. This kick was different from before. Earlier, his legwork prioritized speed over power, but this kick carried terrifying force.
Senior Sister Qing’s face was flattened. Her once-delicate nose was nearly pressed flat against her skin, her jaw shattered, and her mouth seemed filled with foreign objects. The girl flew headfirst like an arrow loosed from a bowstring, crashing back into the ruins!
Qin Mu confirmed one thing: the Cripple’s Heaven-Stealing Divine Leg was indeed number one.
He wouldn’t dare claim it was the best in the world, but in the village, it was unquestionably supreme.
That Senior Sister Qing’s legwork seemed fierce and domineering, but she hadn’t even touched him before being severely injured!
Qin Mu couldn’t use any primal energy—he relied solely on his physical strength. Meanwhile, Senior Sister Qing could channel her primal energy into her legs, enhancing her power, attack, and speed. Yet even so, she was crippled in a single exchange!
The moment he kicked Senior Sister Qing away, every hair on his body stood on end. An overwhelming sense of danger surged through him. Without turning around, he lunged forward.
Behind him, Senior Brother Qu had silently crept up and launched a lethal strike. He had been confident in this attack, but he hadn’t expected Qin Mu to be so alert!
The two raced across the backs of beasts, leaping from one monstrous creature to another. Senior Brother Qu moved swiftly, madly attacking Qin Mu’s back, while Qin Mu sprinted forward, his hands flying to block the onslaught.
Thunderclap Eight Forms: Thousand-Handed Buddha!
Senior Brother Qu was horrified. Qin Mu, with his back to him, was blocking every attack as if he had countless arms. He had never heard of such a technique!
Qin Mu’s Thousand-Handed Buddha couldn’t match Grandpa Ma’s ability to summon thunder with every move, but it was as fast as the wind, as swift as lightning. Even while running on beast backs with his back turned, his movements were firm and fierce, displaying raw power and dominance without giving Senior Brother Qu any advantage.
*Clang!*
Suddenly, a sword’s cry rang out. Qin Mu’s scalp tingled, and blood appeared on his arm—cut by a sharp blade.
Qin Mu rolled off the beast’s back and sprinted under a giant creature’s belly. Senior Brother Qu followed, his hands empty, but a silver sword flew around him, rising and falling.
Qin Mu’s pupils contracted. This Senior Brother Qu’s sword control far surpassed Senior Sister Qing’s. She could send her sword flying dozens of meters to kill enemies at a distance, but Senior Brother Qu kept his sword within three feet of his body.
That was terrifying and extremely dangerous.
Fighting in close quarters while controlling a sword with primal energy was risky—one mistake and you’d hurt yourself. It demanded exceptional control and showed immense confidence in one’s swordsmanship!
Without the ability to manipulate primal energy with exquisite precision, no one would dare wield a sword like this!
“Grandpa Butcher and the others never taught me how to channel primal energy, and Grandpa Village Chief never explained how to use the Overlord Body’s primal energy. In this situation, I’m at a disadvantage.”
His foot suddenly touched a branch, likely snapped by the stampeding beasts. Without thinking, Qin Mu flicked his toe, and the branch flew into his hand. It was a willow branch about six or seven feet long, as thick as a thumb.
The boy gripped the branch, moving swiftly, his eyes locked on Senior Brother Qu’s sword tip, ignoring his hands entirely.
He tried to channel his primal energy into the willow branch, but it only reached a foot and three inches before he lost contact with it.
A foot and three inches—far too short. Fighting against the flying sword at such close range was extremely dangerous.
Senior Brother Qu charged forward, his sword flying around him, stabbing, slicing, wiping, lifting, chopping, shaking, and cutting—like an invisible swordsman wielding the blade, attacking Qin Mu from every tricky angle.
*Shiiing, shiiing, shiiing!* A few soft sounds, and the willow branch in Qin Mu’s hand was reduced to a foot and three inches. The sword slashed down again, colliding with the branch with a *ding*—like striking steel.
Qin Mu realized that his primal energy infused into the branch could block the opponent’s sword. Relieved, he focused solely on the sword tip. The foot-and-three-inch willow branch became his butcher knife, and the knife techniques Grandpa Butcher had taught him came to life on that short branch!
Night Battle Through a Stormy City!
Qin Mu, undistracted, unleashed the knife techniques Grandpa Butcher had taught him with the small willow branch.
Fast! Fast! Fast!
Grandpa Butcher called his technique the Butcher Knife Art, and its only secret was speed!
Speed like a fleeting shadow, speed to chop off a pig’s head in one stroke!
Qin Mu threw himself into the act of swinging the knife, savoring every motion. *Clang clang clang!* The rapid impacts rang out as the two moved swiftly under the running beasts, darting from one giant creature’s belly to another. The beasts’ massive legs slammed down like pillars from the sky—one misstep and they’d be crushed to pulp!
Their steps seemed chaotic but followed a wonderful rhythm, always dodging just as the beasts were about to crush them.
Senior Brother Qu was both shocked and furious. He was getting beaten!
He was being thrashed by this “little demon brat” with a tiny stick!
Qin Mu’s willow branch was short—just over a foot—so it was indeed a little stick.
But Senior Brother Qu’s sword was five feet seven inches long. He refined his primal energy into threads and used those threads to control the sword. His sword control technique was taught by the Five Elders of Li River, who had broken through the Heaven-Man Barrier and opened the Heaven-Man Divine Treasury. How exquisite was their technique?
The hand techniques he used were a fist art created by the Five Elders, called the Li River Art. With both hands, his primal energy transformed into a great river, surging and crashing against the shore with astonishing force.
Although he hadn’t yet mastered the fist art to the level of a divine ability, its power was already formidable—enough to shatter steles and crush stone to powder.
Yet, against this “little demon brat’s” tiny stick, both of his supreme techniques were riddled with flaws. The stick broke through his defenses again and again, smashing into his face, neck, collarbone, elbow, wrist, knuckles, ribs, back, waist, hip, knee, and ankle!
In just a short while, Senior Brother Qu was covered in bumps and bruises, his body black and blue. How could he not be furious?
But what frightened him more was the thought: if Qin Mu had been holding a knife instead of a stick…
The consequences were unimaginable!
Too terrifying. This boy was at most eleven or twelve, not even reaching Senior Brother Qu’s chest. Even if he had trained since birth, how could he have mastered such terrifying techniques?
Senior Brother Qu soon noticed Qin Mu’s weakness and relaxed: “His primal energy cultivation is very weak. His techniques are exquisite, but his cultivation is pitiful. Or rather, he’s not a spirit body—just an ordinary person…”
He finally understood the key point: Qin Mu was an ordinary person, not a spirit body, and hadn’t opened the Fetal Spirit Divine Treasury. He had probably only practiced basic guidance techniques, giving him a small amount of primal energy.
But an ordinary person’s primal energy had no attributes and couldn’t unleash any power. So, even though Qin Mu’s attack techniques far surpassed his, without power behind them, they posed little threat.
“This little demon brat’s knife technique must be a divine ability, but he’s far from being able to unleash its true power. If I could get my hands on this technique…”
Senior Brother Qu’s heart began to race. Qin Mu couldn’t unleash the knife technique’s power, but he could—at least to some extent. If he could use it, its power would be terrifying!
He could tell that Qin Mu’s knife technique was a combat technique.
Combat techniques differed from divine abilities like sword control. Sword control freed the hands, allowing the sword to fly through the air to kill enemies, making swordplay more flexible while the hands could also attack, adding variety.
Combat techniques, on the other hand, followed a more primitive path. They required using one’s hands to wield weapons, allowing primal energy to flow into the weapon to its fullest extent, making moves more powerful and divine abilities stronger!
In fact, the debate between combat techniques and sword control had been settled long ago. Hundreds of years ago, both coexisted, and practitioners of each constantly fought to prove superiority. But then, a genius of sword control emerged, slaughtering, crippling, or driving away the strongest combat technique cultivators.
That genius was none other than the current National Teacher of Yanguo, known as the strongest under the gods!
Now, few practiced combat techniques. The superior divine abilities of the combat technique lineage had been lost, leaving only inferior ones behind.
But truly superior combat techniques were still incredibly powerful, and Senior Brother Qu was convinced that this little demon brat was using one!
“I must get my hands on this combat technique! Capture him and force him to hand over the cultivation method, no matter what!”
Qin Mu’s little stick continued to rain blows on Senior Brother Qu. He fought desperately to block, but he could never fully stop the stick. In a short time, he had been hit hundreds of times.
Senior Brother Qu’s face grew more swollen, his body more painful, and panic began to set in. The more panicked he became, the more chaotic his movements, and the more the stick landed on him.
Though it was just a little stick with little power, combined with Qin Mu’s physical strength, the repeated impacts were taking a serious toll on his body.
“He’s going to beat me to death!” A chill ran down Senior Brother Qu’s spine.