Chapter 1059: Did I Give You Face? ... Xu Xiaoshou

“Hmm?”

Xukong Shi wilted, as if a larger giant had grabbed it by the throat, its roars weakening considerably.

How had this “Ban Sheng weakling” suddenly become so powerful?

Just a moment ago, he had seemed like someone whose cultivation was sealed or who was gravely injured—easy prey.

But now…

Xukong Shi felt that if this Ban Sheng wanted to, he could crush it with Saint Force alone!

Unless they followed tradition and used the rules of Xukong Island to suppress him and send him into the inner island for imprisonment, a one-on-one fight would mean it couldn’t avenge the looting of Shen Nong Yao Yuan.

“Who is calling my name?”

Jiang Buyi still strolled along casually.

After landing, he sensed that in this battle, there were only two figures present.

Besides the spirit refiner being brutally beaten in Xukong Shi’s grasp, the only one who could directly call out a saint’s name was this dark giant, Xukong Shi.

Yet, thinking back to the distant call from tens of thousands of miles away—a normal-sized human who looked strikingly similar to him, even in voice—Jiang Buyi figured there might be a hidden third person here.

A Ban Sheng?

Unlikely.

If that person were a Ban Sheng, there’d be no need to hide.

So, the only possibility left was someone who had ascended to the Wang Zuo Dao Jing and specialized in “evasion techniques,” able to hide right under a Ban Sheng’s nose even in the Taixu Realm—a true shrinking turtle!

“Speak.”

Jiang Buyi lifted his eyelids and looked toward the massive Xukong Shi, hoping to get some information.

The three-hundred-zhang-tall dark giant stood in stark contrast to the seven-foot-tall human elder.

For the moment, though, the tiny human held the upper hand in presence.

“Roar!”

Xukong Shi roared again, its voice thunderous and intimidating.

It couldn’t accept this “Ban Sheng weakling’s” absurd and arrogant attitude shift.

Clearly, just a second ago, he had to dodge its attacks back and forth…

“You’re pretending to be what?”

Xukong Shi was furious beyond measure, stomping down with another kick.

“You said, ‘This saint, Jiang Buyi,’ and ‘You know my name, what can you do about it,’ but now you’re asking me who was speaking…”

Did it really think Xukong Shi was brainless, something it could toy with?

“Crack, crack, crack—”

Space shattered under Xukong Shi’s kick, a strike brimming with overwhelming power—the very nightmare that had terrified Shuang Dai and Hong Dang.

Xukong Shi refused to believe it.

It figured the Ban Sheng, who was either heavily injured or sealed, couldn’t have recovered to his peak in such a short time.

So, this kick was its third probe, testing Jiang Buyi!

Sure enough, as the kick landed, Jiang Buyi at the impact point didn’t dare face it head-on and vanished in a flash.

Xukong Shi was instantly confident in its assumption.

This guy’s sudden change in attitude and aura was all bluff—it was fake!

But that thought didn’t last long. The next second, a low, angry rumble echoed from its chest.

“Ban Shengs are not to be defiled!”

Xukong Shi was stunned and looked down abruptly.

This time, the human Ban Sheng, Jiang Buyi, hadn’t used his incredible speed to flash behind it and keep taunting.

Instead, he soared into the air, right up to its chest, as if fearless, slowly extending his right hand…

A gentle breeze rustled his white robe, and mist veiled his form.

Jiang Buyi tilted his head slightly, not even bothering to look directly at the towering dark giant, and pressed the back of his right hand against Xukong Shi’s chest.

“Yun Yue Fu Shou.”

With a backhand strike, he parted the clouds and stirred the moon.

Vast Saint Force converged in this blow. As Xukong Shi realized something was wrong and tried to retreat, the world seemed frozen—it couldn’t move an inch.

Maybe Jiang Buyi didn’t want to overuse his power and trigger the absolute domain attributes of Qiji Zhi Sen.

Or perhaps his control over his own strength was so masterful that it wouldn’t cause the kind of massive explosions from a Wang Zuo Dao Jing spirit refiner battle.

In any case, this gentle sweep caused no explosion, and space didn’t shatter. Even Xu Xiaoshou, hidden in the air, couldn’t detect the energy involved.

It looked like a frail elder weakly fending off village children, waving his sleeve without stirring a single cloud.

But!

The next second!

“Thud.”

A muffled sound rang out in the air.

Xukong Shi’s back didn’t shatter space, but its form directly turned into specks of light, disintegrating on the spot.

“Holy shit?!”

Xu Xiaoshou clamped his dropped jaw in shock, unable to believe it.

One strike…

One sweep of the hand…

And Xukong Shi was dead?

“Shocked, passive points +1.”

The power of a Ban Sheng far exceeded Xu Xiaoshou’s imagination, but the Xukong Shi in his memory wasn’t supposed to be this fragile.

Realizing something, Xu Xiaoshou quickly turned his gaze toward the area behind Xukong Shi.

Sure enough, from a hundred li away, he spotted the real Xukong Shi’s body, hunched like a shrimp after Jiang Buyi’s “Yun Yue Fu Shou,” deeply embedded in the cracked space.

It couldn’t budge for a long time!

Only then did a three-hundred-zhang-wide black chasm slowly open between Jiang Buyi’s position and the distant Xukong Shi—space had shattered!

“Gulp.”

Xu Xiaoshou swallowed hard, his face turning pale.

The Xukong Shi he’d seen shatter was just the afterimage left from being struck too fast.

And the control of that hand sweep…

It was so precise that it didn’t let the massive Xukong Shi rampage and destroy Qiji Zhi Sen, while using space as a barrier to keep it within Xukong Island’s territory, preventing it from being blasted into spatial turbulence.

“What perfect control of power?”

Xu Xiaoshou felt his horizons expanding.

Natural space was already fragile for those in the Wang Zuo Dao Jing, let alone a Ban Sheng’s strike.

Yet, Jiang Buyi’s attack had accurately used that fragility as a blockade, shaking Xukong Shi back only a hundred li and keeping it in the fight, without eliminating it.

“In other words, Jiang Buyi put the full force of that strike… inside Xukong Shi’s body?”

The thought had barely crossed his mind when…

“Boom!”

From a hundred li away, Xukong Shi’s body suddenly erupted with thunderous explosions, its massive form splintering as black blood sprayed everywhere.

“Oh my god…”

Xu Xiaoshou’s eyes bulged, and he was speechless.

It was exactly as he’d thought—the latent force of Jiang Buyi’s strike was too much for even Xukong Shi’s body to handle. This was insane!

“The monster I was thinking of taking on was something like this?”

Xu Xiaoshou scratched his numb scalp and swore to himself: until he reached the Wang Zuo Dao Jing and mastered a divine skill beyond “Disappearance Technique” to escape a Ban Sheng, he’d never mess with one!

Storming Sheng Shen Hall suddenly felt like a distant dream…

“No!”

Xu Xiaoshou realized he was letting fear get to him.

When people are weak, the worst thing is seeing the pinnacle of power, realizing the gap, and falling into despair, losing the drive to catch up.

As soon as that idea started to form, Xu Xiaoshou crushed it.

He wasn’t ordinary—he had the passive system. Once he hit the Wang Zuo Dao Jing, Jiang Buyi’s power might be strong, but it wouldn’t be unattainable.

Ban Shengs were powerful!

But on Sheng Shen Continent, they weren’t unbeatable.

The eight venerable ones, at merely the Sword Immortal realm, had fallen into Xukong Island’s inner island—possibly not even at full strength—and still suppressed everything with their sword arts.

Didn’t that mean that, even without cheats, just by mastering ancient sword cultivation, one could crush the power Jiang Buyi was showing?

“And I have more than just ancient sword techniques…”

Xu Xiaoshou took a while to steady his nearly shattered mindset.

He felt this lesson was worth it.

Without paying tuition, he’d hidden in the shadows and closely observed a Ban Sheng in action.

Even if it wasn’t full power, it gave him a clear direction for his future efforts.

If Jiang Buyi was like this, how much weaker could those freaks on Gui Zhe Sheng Shan be?

Old Man Sang was still waiting silently in the Dead Sea. He’d already boasted about reaching the Wang Zuo Dao Jing and storming Sheng Shan—could he take it back?

“The road is long, and I will search high and low…”

Xu Xiaoshou murmured silently, his gaze firming with each reshaping of his resolve, “I will seek it from above and below!”

In the battlefield, with one sweep sending the three-hundred-zhang dark giant flying, Jiang Buyi reached out with his left hand and caught the bloodied spirit refiner that had fallen from Xukong Shi’s grasp.

Xukong Shi was stunned and wouldn’t answer.

His own kind would talk, though.

“Still alive…”

After a quick sense, Jiang Buyi confirmed the person in his hand still had breath—likely saved by that armor.

“Hmm?”

Holding the blood-soaked armor, Jiang Buyi suddenly felt a familiar aura.

“Cang Shen Jia?”

He wiped away the blood on the helmet, revealing a single eye.

This made his eyelids twitch slightly.

“Teng Shanhai?”

The head of the war department in Sheng Shen Hall—Teng Shanhai!

He couldn’t believe that the spirit refiner being thrashed by Xukong Shi was from Sheng Shen Hall.

The last person Jiang Buyi wanted to encounter right now was someone from Sheng Shen Hall.

Si Tu Yongren had already pinned that baseless accusation on him in the deep sea, and the suspicion of eyeing the Saint Emperor’s position lingered.

For a moment, Jiang Buyi felt a killing intent rise.

He didn’t want to save Teng Shanhai—a minor figure like that could die for all he cared.

But he was from Sheng Shen Hall, after all. If he died by Jiang Buyi’s hand, those on Sheng Shan might trace it back, and then he’d never clear his name.

He couldn’t kill him, yet here he was in his hands…

“Wake up.”

Jiang Buyi sighed, planning to befriend Teng Shanhai and use him to overturn the accusations from Si Tu Yongren.

But as his Saint Force probed, he immediately grasped how severe Teng Shanhai’s injuries were.

His body was completely shattered by Xukong Shi, and he was in a weakened state after consuming Saint Blood. His mental state was muddled from using forbidden techniques, devoid of reason.

“Demonic power…”

Sensing the residual force on Teng Shanhai’s exposed right arm, Jiang Buyi’s heart stirred.

This power, in terms of quality, surpassed Saint Force.

He didn’t know how Teng Shanhai obtained it, but forcing it with his current cultivation came at a cost—this was the result.

“It’s even denser demonic power than ‘Shen Mo Tong’—or rather, the power one could master after ‘Shen Mo Tong’ reaches completion…”

Jiang Buyi felt tempted and considered killing to seize it.

After all, he’d thrown out “Shen Mo Tong” as bait but hadn’t gained anything in return, and it had even dragged him to Xukong Island.

No doubt, the power on Teng Shanhai was incredibly enticing!

But he was still from Sheng Shen Hall…

“What a waste—letting a mere war department head wield this.”

Jiang Buyi shook his head with a sigh, fed Teng Shanhai a pill, and gently tapped his armor to rouse him.

“Ugh…”

Teng Shanhai woke in a daze, seeing a kind-faced elder with a warm, benevolent smile.

Memories flashed like lightning, and he suddenly understood the situation.

“Xu Xiaoshou?”

“You thief! Do you really think you can control me?”

Having consumed the divine blessing and mostly recovered, Teng Shanhai sprang up. At close range, his right arm erupted with demonic power, striking out fiercely.

With a simple upward jab, he sent the unguarded Jiang Buyi, who was radiating kindness, flying with a hit to the chin!

Just a bit more…

And Jiang Buyi’s head would have been launched into the air by that surging demonic arm!

“Stop!”

The head didn’t fly off, but a tooth arced gracefully through the air, carrying away every ounce of Jiang Buyi’s forced goodwill toward Sheng Shen Hall’s people.

The world fell silent in that instant…

Jiang Buyi: ???

Teng Shanhai:

Xu Xiaoshou, hidden in the air, nearly burst out laughing at the sight.

This was truly shocking!

“Teng Shanhai, I’d call this the peak of your life!”

Question marks swirling, Jiang Buyi glared at the defiant Teng Shanhai and snarled through gritted teeth, his voice leaking from the gap.

“You’re. Asking. For. Death!”

As the words fell, thunder cracked across the clear sky, dark clouds gathering as the heavens darkened.

Winds howled for miles, billowing Jiang Buyi’s white robe and making his grim face even more alarming.

A Ban Sheng’s fury shook the heavens!

“Heh.”

Teng Shanhai sneered.

Not bad, full of bluster, acting all high and mighty… Xu Xiaoshou!

Others might be scared, but Teng Shanhai wasn’t.

Though he had no idea why the world had changed like this or how he’d been injured and woken up, did any of that matter now?

No!

Xu Xiaoshou was what mattered!

Xu Xiaoshou had plenty of tricks for playing god, so a little thing like this wouldn’t frighten Teng Shanhai.

“How could I, Teng Shanhai, be scared of this?”

Already knowing the person before him was Xu Xiaoshou in disguise, Teng Shanhai paid no mind to the world’s minor shifts.

He spread his hands and summoned his Xiao Shen Spear from wherever it had fallen.

Then, he thrust the spear into the air, eyeing the “Ban Sheng Jiang Buyi,” who was wiping blood from his lips, backing away in shock, shame, and anger, and sneered as he issued the forbidden martial order:

“Though I don’t know why you dared to get close, I’ll give you this chance. Put on the forbidden martial order obediently and come back with me to Sheng Shan’s Dead Sea… Surrender, and I’ll spare your dog life!”