Huang Siping's eyes were cold. His other leg was bone only. Too much strain and it would snap. He had to end this fast.
He raised his blade. Qi and blood surged through the war saber, and a streak of light met Su Yan's copper pillar head-on.
Su Yan's swing kicked up a gale. Huang Siping's blade qi blazed, slicing through the copper. Where the blade passed, the cut glowed red-hot.
But the force was elephant god power. Su Yan wasn't a yao king, yet his raw strength outmatched Huang Siping's.
Huang Siping staggered back, sparing his broken leg. Su Yan drove the severed pillar forward. Huang Siping retreated, hacking down. His true yang qi and blood turned the edge white-hot, melting the copper. His blade split the pillar.
But Su Yan twisted the column. The war saber and Huang Siping's arms wrenched around.
Huang Siping roared. His body blurred, revealing his true form: a wolf-headed man-beast over ten feet tall, silver fangs and claws, yellow fur like golden needles.
He wrenched the saber free, but Su Yan was already inside his guard. His palm lashed out like an elephant's trunk, slapping the flat of the blade. The war saber bent. Huang Siping's true yang qi and blood poured into Su Yan's palm, racing up his arm.
Huang Siping was the Stone Mountain yao king. His true yang qi could melt copper.
But Su Yan's own qi and blood intercepted it. It wasn't as vast, but it was pure. In a heartbeat it blocked the true yang qi and shoved it back out.
"So young, and already this strong. No wonder you killed a grass-head god."
Huang Siping's arms went numb. The saber slipped. Instead of rage, he felt admiration. "Truly a rare breed."
His claws slashed out, true yang qi blazing.
Both men took the hit. Blood sprayed from Su Yan's mouth as he crashed backward through the doors of the Great Hall, flames erupting across his body.
Huang Siping took the brunt in the chest. His back tore open. His massive frame hit the ground with a sickening crack. His left leg bone shattered.
He rolled and transformed into a huge yellow wolf on three legs. He bolted into the forest.
"Su Yan! We are both yao kind. Your savage heart remains untamed, your human soul not yet lost. I spare you!"
Inside the Great Hall, Su Yan sprang up. He pressed both palms to the floor. The flames died.
Then his throat burned. He coughed up blood that blazed as it hit the ground. Huang Siping's true yang qi had invaded his heart and lungs.
He grunted and circulated his qi and blood, forcing the heat down. But the wound across his chest split open, ribs showing. If his elephant god battle body hadn't absorbed part of the blow, those ribs would have been sheared through.
Su Yan stabilized the injury and activated the Grand Unity Daoyin Art.
Suddenly, out in the courtyard, Wei Chu's leg twitched.
Su Yan snatched up the bent war saber and hurled it.
Wei Chu rolled aside and sprang up, laughing. "The mantis stalks the cicada, but the oriole follows behind. Su Yan, God-Slayer. After that draw with the Stone Mountain wolf, can you still fight me?"
His fleshless right leg was slowly regenerating.
Su Yan smiled. "Lord Wei is a nuo master who opened his Mud Pill treasury. Yet you played dead. By rights, nuo arts suppress yao magic. You could have taken us both on. Instead you waited for us to cripple each other. That means Mud Pill can't heal your wounds."
Wei Chu's face darkened. He had played dead because his injuries were severe. When the roar erupted from the well, he had been closest, hit hardest. The Mud Pill treasury made him hard to kill, but not impossible.
"At the time, I couldn't beat either of you. But now..." Wei Chu strode toward Su Yan, smirking. "I can kill you with ease."
Su Yan stood motionless. "Lord Wei forgot my good brother Yuan Qi. He's on the temple roof right now, waiting for you to strike."
Wei Chu's expression changed. He remembered Ding Quan's neck.
Su Yan's face turned grim. "Judicial Officer Ding Quan. Yuan Qi's venom is second under heaven. One bite, and Ding Quan dies. The Mud Pill treasury won't save him."
From outside came Ding Quan's laugh. "Last time the snake yao said his venom was fifth under heaven. How did it become second?"
Ding Quan stepped through the gate. His neck was blackened, the venom not fully cleared.
Wei Chu laughed mockingly. "What else, peasant?"
Ding Quan bowed deeply. "Thank you, Brother Wei, for purging the poison. Without your aid, I would be a ghost in the Yellow Springs."
Wei Chu waved it off. "We are colleagues. Saving you was nothing."
Ding Quan's face turned serious. "To you it was nothing. To me it was saving my life. I have studied the sages since youth. Your kindness, I will never forget."
Su Yan spoke softly, almost chanting: "The heavenly soul births the white tiger. The earthly soul breeds the azure dragon. The treasure moves within the Mud Pill. The essence rises to the upper palace. Whoever grasps this method keeps the face of youth for ten thousand years."
Wei Chu and Ding Quan both froze.
Wei Chu stepped forward, voice sharp. "Where did you get the Mud Pill Hidden Scenery Qi Refinement Method? That is the Zhou family's secret..."
He never finished. Beneath his feet, countless roots writhed like tiny serpents, burrowing into his legs. His right leg was still regenerating, giving the roots their opening. In moments they pierced his veins and invaded his heart.
Wei Chu went rigid. He turned, disbelieving, to Ding Quan.
Ding Quan's eyes brimmed with tears. "Brother Wei, he forced my hand! The moment Su Yan spoke of the Mud Pill Hidden Scenery Qi Refinement Method, I had to kill you. I didn't want the Zhou family to exterminate my clan. I have a wife, three concubines to feed..."
Wei Chu's face flushed crimson. Blood welled in his mouth. "I saved your life..."
Ding Quan wept. "I know. Once you're dead, no one will know my secret!"
Wei Chu's skin and robes burst. His flesh had become roots. Even his brain was tangled roots in the shape of a human head.
Ding Quan's face hardened. "Blame Su Yan for talking too much. Brother Wei, I'll send this peasant to join you."
He pressed his palm to the roots. Nuo arts erupted. The roots shot upward, and a great willow tree towered overhead. Near the base, a face formed, faintly resembling Wei Chu, still wearing shock.
Ding Quan stood beneath the tree, eyes vicious. "Peasant Su Yan, you killed the man who saved me. Today this official avenges Lord Wei!"
From the roof came a snickering laugh. Yuan Qi poked his head over the eaves. "You kill your own savior and blame someone else? You read the classics straight into a dog's head!"
Ding Quan's face darkened. Willow branches whipped toward Yuan Qi. "Monster, Lord Wei was my savior. Su Yan killed him. I avenge my savior!"
Yuan Qi slithered, his thirty-foot body executing the Titan-Ox Demon Fist. Qi and blood surged, forcing back the willow branches.
"Ding, people call me a venomous snake. But you're the real monster. You don't have a shred of humanity left!"
Ding Quan flew into a rage. Yuan Qi took hit after hit, desperate.
Su Yan stepped out. "Ding Quan, I studied the nuo methods in the Mud Pill Hidden Scenery Qi Refinement Method. I found plenty of flaws."
He barely manifested the elephant god battle body. "Your nuo arts aren't that hard to break. Find the right spot, and killing you is child's play."
Ding Quan sneered. "You're bluffing! I studied it for eight years."
Su Yan limped toward him. "The Mud Pill Hidden Scenery is crude. I've studied over fifty yao arts. The Zhou family never gave you anything advanced."
Ding Quan laughed. "The highest realm of yao arts is the Qi-Gathering stage. They don't deserve to carry nuo methods' shoes!"
Willow branches whipped like venomous serpents from every side. This was the Nuo Willow Sword Art.
Su Yan kept walking, limping, then shifting, slipping past the branches by a hair's breadth.
Ding Quan panicked. Does he really see my flaws? No. He's scaring me!
He changed tactics. Willow roots burst from the ground, wrapping his body, serving as muscles and tendons.
Su Yan's fist hammered forward. Ding Quan raised his arm.
But Su Yan's fist unfolded. His fingers danced, tapping across Ding Quan's root-covered arm. With every tap, Ding Quan felt his body go numb.
Su Yan slipped past, fingers flying, tapping every point. The willow roots went limp as dead snakes, falling away. The branches attacking Yuan Qi hung still.
Ding Quan stood frozen. Terror rose in him.
"Ding Quan. I said killing you would be easy."
Su Yan pressed one finger to the base of Ding Quan's skull. "See? I wasn't lying."
No wound showed on the back of Ding Quan's head. But his forehead burst open. He swayed and collapsed.
"The Mud Pill treasury originates in the brain," Su Yan said. "I knew your art's flow. Killing you was simple. You shouldn't have killed Wei Chu. I hadn't seen his art. I couldn't have broken it so fast."
Yuan Qi slithered down. "Why explain to a corpse? Dawn's breaking. We need to go!"
They had just stepped out when Huang Siping stood near the gate.
Su Yan and Yuan Qi tensed. Both were wounded.
Huang Siping seemed not to see them. "Don't head northwest. Many mountain gods and grass-head gods are waiting there. Go southwest, past Anzi Ridge and Jianshan."
He transformed into the three-legged yao wolf and lurched downslope. "At Jianshan, wash yourself. You're covered in blood. Yao gods can track by scent."
"Stone Mountain God, why spare us?"
Huang Siping glanced back. "Probably because your savage heart is untamed, but your human soul is not yet lost. I had those things once. I lost them when I joined the Nether Court."
He limped down. "If you're human, you're a freak among humans. If you're yao, you're a wonder among our kind. I look forward to seeing what you become."
Su Yan laughed. "I'm definitely human. Not yao."
The yao wolf vanished into the forest. His voice drifted back.
"Don't be so sure. The wildness in you runs deeper than mine. One day you might show your true form, and even you'll be shocked."