Su Xiuxing looked at Jiang Chen with some worry. It was not concern for his safety, but mostly anxiety over his own antidote.
But he saw Jiang Chen enveloped in violet qi, his sword flashing like a meteor as the strike fell.
He was indeed furious.
It was all in the sword.
Clang!
A bone-cleaning dagger met Jiang Chen's tip.
The Pig-Bone Mask moved with agility that defied his massive frame, blocking Jiang Chen's attack.
The little dagger was only three inches long.
Pinched in his bloated hand, it looked like an embroidery needle.
Yet it moved like a butterfly threading through flowers, nimble and brimming with killing intent.
The dagger pecked at the blade three times, but the steel remained unmarred.
The cold light swirled along the blade and advanced in a corkscrew.
Just as the opponent was about to be shredded into pulp, the Pig-Bone Mask suddenly saw a blur. A fallen leaf drifted past.
The dagger was still moving forward, but the target had vanished.
Fishing Heaven Tower's Dao art, a single leaf obscures the eyes.
The one who struck was, of course, Zhu Biqiong.
Truthfully, she was not sure why she had intervened. The Fishing Heaven Tower had elders who doted on her. Jiang Chen's promise of a single favor seemed negligible.
The Fortune and Misfortune Sphere was full of bale. Killing the Pig-Bone Mask of the Bone Path might count as a good reason to dispel that bale.
She fought with tense nerves and did not notice the other half of the Fortune and Misfortune Sphere in her embrace, where a faint red glow was seeping out.
Black on one side, red on the other. Fortune and misfortune arrive together.
All of this sounds slow in telling, yet it happened in a flash.
With the Pig-Bone Mask briefly blinded, Jiang Chen followed his sword's momentum and unleashed seven strikes in succession.
Each blow carried the full killing force of the Violet Dawn Sword Art.
His left fingers flicked like a flurry of blows.
Flamebloom.
Flamebloom.
Flamebloom.
The moment the Pig-Bone Mask broke free of the blinding illusion, he saw a forest of sword shadows.
Then blossoms bloomed across his entire field of vision.
The Dao art Flower Sea had been deployed!
With the Conch Pearl's boost, the real-world sea of blossoms was far stronger than the one in the Ethereal Realm. Though the Pig-Bone Mask possessed Peak Soaring Dragon realm cultivation, his strength was far below that of the sharp-tongued monk Jiang Chen had faced in his Blessed Land trial.
For that reason, he could not instantly see through the illusion.
But he did not need to.
He let out a low roar from his throat and his body surged in size!
He grew fully twice as large.
Veins writhed like wriggling serpents, and his flesh bulged like a monstrous beast.
He no longer resembled anything human.
Seven strikes had already cut deep, sending flesh and blood flying.
Flameblooms rushed in, searing skin black.
From afar, Su Xiuxing descended like a rainbow piercing the sun. An assassin's killing blow wrapped in a cyclone plunged straight toward the Pig-Bone Mask's neck, now swollen like a giant drum. He struck once and retreated instantly, leaving only the gleaming dagger embedded in the enemy's body.
Under Jiang Chen's deliberate control, the Flower Sea did not obstruct the vision of others.
From far away, Zhang Hai tossed a black-and-red pill that exploded against the Pig-Bone Mask.
Even Xiang Qian drew a longsword, controlling it from a distance to carve a bloody gash across the monster before withdrawing. That counted as his contribution.
The stroke was crooked and utterly shapeless. Its damage was negligible.
In a moment, every attack had landed on the Pig-Bone Mask.
Flesh cracked, bone split, blood erupted.
He had only been careless for a moment, yet under Jiang Chen's lead, he had already suffered devastating wounds!
Any one of these wounds would have been fatal on an ordinary cultivator.
Yet he still stood. Moreover, his aura was soaring.
Gulu gulu gulu gulu.
The sound of a starving stomach rumbled like thunder.
It was deafening.
Xiang Qian and Zhang Hai were the first to buckle, blood trickling from their ears. They had no choice but to cover their ears and retreat.
"It hurts..."
The Pig-Bone Mask howled. "It hurts!"
His body swelled yet again.
He stood fully thirty feet tall and thirty feet wide. A mountain of flesh and blood.
Two bulging eyes were embedded in his equally enlarged pig mask, veins spreading across the whites, making the sight especially hideous.
The wounds covering him now seemed numerous, but against his enormous form they were pitifully small.
Around his neck hung a white bone whistle.
It suddenly emitted a sharp, urgent sound.
The tone was sweet and clear, yet panicked.
"Pig Face, what are you doing? Stop! The Messenger wants you to..."
The voice cut off abruptly.
The Pig-Bone Mask ripped it away and crushed it in his hand.
Years ago, when he had practiced the Twelve Divine Bone Mask art, something had gone wrong.
It had not hampered his cultivation; in fact he had become stronger than usual. The only drawback was that his mind sometimes failed to turn, his temperament had turned violent and quick to rage, and in his frenzy he recognized no kin.
Now wounded and blinded, he had already descended into madness, deaf to any command.
"Hungry, I am hungry."
He tossed the crushed bone whistle into his mouth and swallowed it whole.
Then he used two enormous, bloated fingers to pinch the tiny dagger from his neck and put it in his mouth.
Crunch!
He bit it apart in one chomp.
"My dagger!" Su Xiuxing shrieked in agony.
Heaven pity him—it was the most miserable he had ever screamed. It nearly matched the Pig-Bone Mask's earlier cries of pain.
...
Meanwhile, the miners in the pit had long since been gathered up by Steward Hu and the pit guards, hundreds of them huddled in the farthest corner of the mine.
They looked like a flock of lambs awaiting slaughter.
Faced with danger beyond imagination, ordinary people had no power to protect themselves.
It would have been bearable if they could not see it.
But after swelling twice, the Pig-Bone Mask now loomed over the mine gate.
He was distant, yet laid bare before their eyes.
Everyone's legs trembled. Panic filled their faces.
Someone's teeth chattered. "Wh-what kind of monster is that?"
"Are we going to be eaten? I haven't even married a wife yet!"
The maids from the various courtyards sheltered with the miners.
Shuanzi was frightened too, his dark face drained of color, yet he gripped a wooden club and gritted his teeth, standing in front of Xiao Xiao.
Just then.
Rumble, rumble!
From deep within the mine shafts came a tremendous roaring.
One shaft after another collapsed.
It was as if the entire Azure Vein had come alive, churning and rolling.
Or as if some subterranean titan were locked in combat, tearing the earth apart.
Even in their terror, everyone in the pit could not help turning their gaze toward it.
Had they not escaped early, they would surely have been buried alive.
Above the shafts, green light suddenly burst forth, leaping high into the sky like a dragon or a pillar, piercing the clouds!
This was the sign of a treasure's emergence!
On the official road from Jiacheng to Qingyang Town, Xi Zichu was riding hard with a squad of elite city guards.
From afar he saw the commotion.
"Bad! It actually chose this moment! I fell for Hu Shaomeng's scheme!"
Xi Zichu sprang from his horse in an instant, abandoned his men, and surged through the air, racing toward the Hu mine.
Meanwhile, inside the pit, a miner suddenly threw off his felt hat and shot straight into the air, hurtling toward the mine shaft.
He bellowed, "The Xi family is taking over this place. The main army will arrive momentarily. No one is to act rashly! Defiance will be met with immediate execution, and your families will be implicated!"
It was none other than the Xi family's long-dormant Peak Soaring Dragon realm elder.
While Xi Zichu had been sparring with Hu Shaomeng in Jiacheng, this elder had already infiltrated the mine, waiting for this very moment to seize the prize!
But even as he shot into the air, behind him, another plainly dressed miner drifted upward soundlessly.
Only when he was close did he explode into action.
A fallen leaf drifted past the elder's eyes.
A small black awl pierced his spine.
Then a roaring water dragon surged up and swallowed him whole.
Dao art, a single leaf obscures the eyes.
The consumable artifact, the Origin-Restricting Awl.
Dao art, Water Dragon Wave.
The combination flowed like clouds and water.
The Xi family elder crashed to the ground!