Chương 71: Manor Lord Yushen, One Battle Against Blood-Refining Divine Venerable!

"Ah!"

"Ah!" …… Just as Su Zhe felt his mind tangled in utter disorder. Within the sea of blood in the firmament, there took form a blood-hued giant vast enough to blot out heaven and sun. That crimson giant stretched forth its palm and seized toward the earth. In its hand it caught seven or eight common folk, then soared aloft and delivered them toward its mouth. Those people screamed without cease, yet what use was struggle or resistance?

"Crack! Crunch!" The sound of the blood-hued giant's chewing came forth. Bone and flesh collided; every sound caused threads of chill to rise in the hearts of all who heard it. Despair! Endless despair! Even Su Zhe felt powerlessness. Plainly this was a world of martial dao, yet all at once there had arrived a monster of the xianxia order; it was wholly not of the same dimension!

"Vile creature! Eating men before this old lady's very face—dost thou truly think this old lady hath no shame to preserve?" A long rainbow pierced the void!

"Roar!" In an instant, the sea of blood was shattered open, leaving a boundless, enormous hollow!

"Is this… is this an immortal?" The people of Lu County, who had already fallen into despair, beheld that ray of brightness in the heavens and could not help crying out in astonishment. Su Zhe furrowed his brows and looked toward the sound. Yet what he saw was…

"Roar!" A dragon's cry resounded through the clouds. An illusory barbaric dragon tore apart the blood-sea heavens and earth. And upon the head of that barbaric dragon stood a little girl of lovely countenance, holding Li Shanyun in her left hand, while in her right she gripped a great hammer taller than a man.

"Go stay off to the side for this old lady!" Yushen raised her hand and flung. Li Shanyun immediately flew toward the ruins of the Blacksmith Gang. When she drew within three zhang of the ground. Qi flowed beneath Li Shanyun's feet. Her whole person seemed like a white deer, leaping lightly and nimbly. She turned her body in the air, like an immortal maiden descending, and landed upon the ground.

"Shanyun, that is…" When Su Zhe saw Li Shanyun, he could not help stretching out his hand and pointing toward the heavens, toward that girl who had evolved the barbaric dragon. If, before this, Su Zhe had believed this world still to be one of low martial might. Then everything now had already overthrown his understanding completely. The barbaric dragon phantom, and the blood-sea demon-god giant… This was wholly and utterly of the high martial order.

At the very least, it was of the level of the wuxia drama Feng Yun from his former life. As though… The Seven Warriors Slaying the Dragon.

"That is Shishu Yushen!" Li Shanyun softly uttered a sentence. Shishu Yushen?! So this was Shishu Yushen! Su Zhe was struck dumb, eyes widening, scarcely able to believe it. Li Shanyun had once told him that Manor Lord Yushen's fleshly body was peerless, suppressing foes by strength. Even within Zhujian Mountain Villa (Sword-Casting Mountain Villa), she was nearly invincible in might. The Great Manor Lord was refined and elegant; Manor Lord Yushen was violent and fierce.

The two were like water and fire, two opposing faces. Yet because of her terrifying strength and brutal methods, Manor Lord Yushen caused the martial artists of Tang Prefecture even greater dread. One might say… Manor Lord Yushen was among the strongest few in Tang Prefecture. Su Zhe had originally thought that such a fierce personage must surely be a burly man more than two and a half meters tall, his whole body bulging with knotted muscle—in brief: Manor Lord Yushen Stallone. You could be reading stolen content.

Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. But Su Zhe had never, in ten thousand thoughts, expected this so-called Manor Lord Yushen to have the outward appearance of a girl in her teens. She looked… Even younger than Yadan, whom he had casually saved back then. This violent shock to the eye left Su Zhe somewhat dazed.

"Truly… singular beyond compare!" Su Zhe thought for a long while, yet knew not what words to use in description, and could only speak thus. Li Shanyun covered her mouth and laughed in secret. Everyone, upon first seeing Yushen, wore an expression much like Su Zhe's.

"Shishu is rather unique. Though she is a woman, she venerates strength carried to the utmost extreme."

"Only, because of certain matters in those years, something went awry with her body, and her years no longer show growth."

"In a moment, thou must by no means regard Shishu Yushen as a little girl. She… her temper is not very good… those of the jianghu have given her the sobriquet 'Child Grandmother Shura'…" Li Shanyun seemed to recall something and hurriedly opened her mouth, warning Su Zhe. Thereafter she pondered slightly, then added:"Of course, there is no need to be too restrained either. Shishu, as a person, is still very good…" Su Zhe's face darkened. He truly wished to ask: Hast thy mother perished?

Wouldst thou not listen to what thou thyself art saying? Doth this not contradict itself from front to back? …… Above the firmament, the sea of blood surged, condensing into a blood-sea giant ten zhang tall, standing opposed to Yushen. Yushen held a great hammer in hand, standing crosswise within the phantom of the barbaric dragon.

"Descendant of Zhujian Mountain Villa…"

"By reckoning… this Venerable is still thine ancestor…"

"My name is Blood-Refining Divine Venerable!" The blood-sea giant spoke faintly, while the blood sea roiled.

"This old lady also knows all that happened in those years."

"Xuelian, thou wert beguiled by a wild god, transformed thyself into a wild god, and wert suppressed beneath Lu County by the Blacksmith Ancestor. Now that thou hast escaped bondage, if thou hidest in mountains and wilds, this old lady shall spare thy dog life!"

"If not…" Upon Yushen's tender face there appeared a trace of cruelty, and she said with a savage grin:"Then speak not of mine ancestor; even were it mine own father and mother, this old lady would slay them all the same!" The final word fell. A dragon's cry shook the heavens! Those domineering words spread throughout all of Lu County. Su Zhe was struck dumb. What kind of fierce and savage speech was this? Even father and mother she would slay? Su Zhe could not help feeling some lingering fear.

This Jiaolong Method—had it been passed down by this lord? If he truly became her disciple. Next year, would his uncle and aunt be burning paper money for him to spend?

"Impudent!"

"What wild god? Even if wild, it is still a god!"

"How could ye mortals know the magnificence of a god? The Blacksmith Ancestor wronged me too greatly!"

"In those years, Shizun clearly meant to impart the Blood-Refining Method to me! He seized it by trickery and force, then slandered me as one who had become a wild god and brought calamity upon the mortal world, suppressing this Venerable for a thousand years!" When Blood-Refining Divine Venerable heard Yushen's words, it seemed he had been provoked. A pair of blood-hands flailed wildly as he roared toward the heavens, his bellow shaking all around:"This Venerable accepts it not!"

Yushen furrowed her brows, then smiled all the more brightly:"Accept it not? Good that thou acceptest it not!"

"This old lady is most skilled at reasoning. Today, with reason, I shall make thee accept it utterly and obediently!" Yushen laughed wildly. She stepped through empty air! Step by step she trod forth. With every step, there came the dragon cry of the barbaric dragon. Qi cyclones churned upon the firmament, stirring without cease!

"Boom!" The hammer struck forth. Though Yushen's figure was small and delicate, her momentum was like a rainbow. The great hammer in her hand was heavy as a mountain. Upon its body, runes flowed, and radiance shone resplendent. Above the vast firmament, wind and cloud surged, thunder roaring. The barbaric dragon roared and shook the heavens; dragon scales glittered with cold, sharp light, and as its claws swept forth, they tore the void apart.

"Impudent junior! Thou respectest neither elders nor ghosts and gods!" The sea of blood surged, and a reek of blood filled heaven and earth. Blood-Refining Divine Venerable made his move, smashing a fist toward the barbaric dragon. The little girl cried out, delicate yet fierce, and swung the great hammer; the barbaric dragon danced wildly in accord. Every blow seemed as Mount Tai pressing down from above, its force breaking a thousand jun.

The barbaric dragon pounced toward the giant like lightning; its great tail swept across, and wild winds howled. Its dragon claws seized fiercely, and the void shattered. When that great hammer moved, it was as though stars fell and mountains and rivers collapsed. Countless swathes of the blood sea scattered in vast sheets, evaporating in vast sheets. The little girl's Dragon-Form Hammer Art was fierce and unmatched; the barbaric dragon's assault came like the tide, each wave higher than the last.

"Damnable! Damnable!" Beneath this berserk assault, Blood-Refining Divine Venerable, in but an instant, began to be hard-pressed left and right, retreating step by step. The sea of blood was struck by the barbaric dragon's power until billows surged tumultuously, and it could scarcely condense. The two exchanged moves at too great a speed. Su Zhe could not see clearly how Yushen made her strikes at all. Within his sight there was only the evolution of endless strange phenomena.

"What rank of cultivation is this? Why… why…"

"Nearly as a divine being!" Su Zhe breathed out a mouthful of turbid air and sighed deeply.

"Seventh Rank! Seventh-Rank Yang Spirit. A martial artist condenses a martial-dao Yang Spirit. The Yang Spirit passes out through the body and may fight alongside the self."

"To tread upon mountains and rivers, to battle mountains, to sever the blue sea… this realm is no longer human!" Li Shanyun opened her mouth and dispelled Su Zhe's confusion. No longer human! Su Zhe was struck dumb. Aye. Not human. Simply a divine being. Thereafter, Li Shanyun explained to Su Zhe the realms after Third Rank. As Su Zhe observed the battle between Yushen and the wild god, he also comprehended Li Shanyun's teaching. All the more did he feel that he had gained a wholly new understanding of martial dao.

"Kill! Kill! Kill!" Yushen's chaotic hammer blows danced in frenzy. Beneath her assault, the blood sea diminished at a speed visible to the naked eye. Blood-Refining Divine Venerable was pressed and beaten, revealing signs of defeat. At the horizon, there abruptly appeared a ray of blood-hued divine light.

"Today, this Venerable has only just escaped bondage; incense-offerings are insufficient. Once this Venerable returns to his peak…"

"Thou, a mere Seventh-Rank martial artist, shalt be suppressed with but a flick of my finger!"

"Girl, I shall leave thee thy dog life. Another day this Venerable shall come again; with principal and interest together, I shall have thee repay it!" Blood-Refining Divine Venerable drew in that blood-hued divine light. The blood sea swiftly contracted, and the blood-hued giant fled into the divine light.

"Thou art the girl! Thy whole family are girls!"

"This old lady is enraged to death! This old lady shall bite thee dead!" Yushen flew into a rage. Upon her plump, exceedingly adorable face, her cheeks puffed up like balloons from anger. With one leap, she evolved her hammer art. The barbaric-dragon Yang Spirit opened its bloody maw and bit down upon a swath of the blood sea!

"Hmph!" There came a muffled groan from Blood-Refining Divine Venerable. Thereafter the blood radiance scattered and vanished. At this moment, between heaven and earth, there remained only the mighty figures of Yushen and the barbaric dragon. Their bearing was grand and majestic, shaking the nine heavens.

"Old tortoise, count thyself swift in fleeing!" Yushen cursed and muttered. She shouldered the great hammer upon her back, stepped upon empty air, and descended into the ruins of the Blacksmith Gang. Yushen looked toward Li Shanyun, and toward Su Zhe beside Li Shanyun. Her bright eyes burst forth with splendor:"Shanyun, is this… the disciple thou hast found for this old lady?"