"Now the big, scary hunter had been taken care of. Shall we continue to take on our little hunter here?" Yan Dangxin smirked as he proclaimed loudly.
"What did you mean by that?" Li Kong slowed his talking pace as he observed every little movement Yan Dangxin made.
Yan Dangxin wasn't fazed by the Li Kong's glare and instead he picked on his left fingernails, looking completely disinterested with his question, and replied, "What other meaning does it possibly have?", before exasperatedly sighed.
Yan Dangxin slowly brought out his hidden hand to the light which caused Li Kong's senses to tingle as he prepared his body to unleash another blow.
Filled with visible amusement, Yan Dangxin felt an intense joy coming from the boy's reaction as he slowly revealed his right hand and when the hand had entered the visible light, dark red stains painted his fingertips.
"Should've answer your question, no?" Yan Dangxin said cheerfully while feasting on the youth in front of him.
Li Kong stood silently in place. His head slowly dropped down and he saw his own hand tremored without any signs of stopping.
His eyes, unfocused. His lips trembling. His feet slowly losing its strength.
"Li Kong, calm down! He might only tried to fool you." The familiar voice encroached the depth of his ears but the door had been closed.
With White's words falling into deaf ears, Li Kong continued to look at his trembling hands and shut them tightly until he felt the sensation of nails biting deep into his skin.
"Doctor!!!" Li Kong screamed out his name and cloaked himself with the wind as he accelerated toward the smiling figure.
"Come! Let me reunite you with your uncle!" Yan Dangxin opened his arms wide and welcomed Li Kong.
In his rush, Li Kong suddenly jumped and Qi clumped around his right hand mid-air.
'O' Flame, heed my call!' As Li Kong threw his fist forward, tongue made of flame followed suit and pounced on Yan Dangxin.
Yan Dangxin kept his smirk apparent and jumped backwards before the flame able to graze him.
The flame hit the ground squarely, sending waves of heat and dusts flying everywhere.
"You have to do better than that to h-" Yan Dangxin intend to mock him but before he could finished his words, Li Kong's head poking out from the smoke of dust and he saw a fist already prepared on his side.
Yan Dangxin stared in shock as the Qi began to gather around his fist and as the fist travelled forward, the smell of ignition entered his nose and then, he was blown away.
Looking at the flying man, Li Kong stood in place with ragged breath, his knuckles turned bright red and a faint smoke appeared from the top of his knuckles.
"Shit. It hurts!" Li Kong gasped in the pain as he used his left hand to inspect on his right hand and found parts of his right hand was numb and the other was searing.
"That's why you shouldn't be so reckless! What will happen if you blow off your arm in the process?" White couldn't believe what he had just done and berated him.
"He's coming again." Li Kong couldn't spare any thoughts to what White was saying and looked at the approaching silhouette.
Yan Dangxin's clothes had completely burned, leaving only tattered pieces of clothing on top of his body. On his bare chest, marks of flame etched on his fair skin.
"Second Stage of Body Tempering, huh?" Yan Dangxin twisted around his neck while walking, making a cracking noises along his steps.
Seeing Yan Dangxin walking as if nothing had happened, the alarm inside of Li Kong's head ringing even louder than before and he hurriedly took a stance.
"How curious." Yan Dangxin's lips started to purse as he watched Li Kong's body with a great focus.
"I know you, Li Kong." He pointed at the youth. "You haven't been a cultivator for more than a month, right?"
After that, Yan Dangxin walked to the road side and plucked out weeds as he began inspecting the weed.
"How could someone with no background of cultivation able to reach Body Tempering in such a short time? Could it be you are once in a century talent or do you have latent constitution inside of your body?" Yan Dangxin looking like he was pondering.
"Or..." Yan Dangxin paused for a moment while sneakily peeking at Li Kong's stern expression.
"You found a treasure."
Hearing that, Li Kong unknowingly flinched which created a smile on Yan Dangxin's face.
"It seems I have struck the right chord. Well, whatever is it, today you'll die."
Right after that, Yan Dangxin turned blurry and before Li Kong could processed the situation, a palm entered his field of vision and instinctively, he tilted his head backwards, letting the palm passed in front of him.
Successfully dodged the attack, Li Kong retreated and wiped off something from his cheek.
It was the crimson color of blood and as the realization hit, a pain spread on his cheek as blood slowly flowing out from the newly-made cravices.
"Watch out!" White warned him.
Sensing something coming, Li Kong moved his head to the side again and narrowly missed the attack coming after him.
Watching Li Kong widened the gap between them, Yan Dangxin clicked his tongue in frustration before saying, "Could you stay in one place so I can kill you quickly?"
After that, Yan Dangxin blurred from the vision again but this time Li Kong was prepared and he used Wind Steps to dodge the attack.
Yan Dangxin clicked his tongue again and chased after Li Kong and unleashed flurry of attacks which Li Kong dodged like an eel.
Clarity had returned to Li Kong as he observed Yan Dangxin's hand and found it was abnormally deformed with all of his fingers elongated as bulging veins appeared on the surface of his skin and his nails turned razor sharp and longer.
Li Kong had already tasted how sharp the nails were as a little graze had almost cut his cheek open in half and desperately moved his body around to not get hit.
Unfortunately, even if Li Kong had tried his best to dodge the attack, some of them still managed to graze his body as blood started coming out from his legs and arms.
Realizing that he couldn't stay like this forever, Li Kong once again used Wind Steps to dodge the coming attack and followed suit by Yan Dangxin.
Yan Dangxin saw Li Kong standing still in place without doing anything and smirked at the youth's stupidity as he thrusted his palm, cutting through the air.
Watching the coming nails, Li Kong timed his left hand carefully and managed to hit the side of Yan Dangxin's hand and as the direction of the blow changed, Li Kong had prepared his right hand first and without a pause, he pushed his shoulders and his fist connected directly to Yan Dangxin's cheek and sent him airborne.
Li Kong's breath trembled and his legs shook like crazy and he closed his eyes for a moment remembering the moment that had just transpired.
The sharp nails nearly reached him and if he was just a fractions of second late, he would already be...
'Dead.'
Li Kong gulped down his saliva and right after, a voice as light as a feather rang inside of his head.
"Good job, Li Kong." White calmly said. "Now listen closely. Your enemy's weapon is his own palm and it seems like he have some kind of footwork just like you.
"His abilities were most likely granted by the altars he had built but remember Li Kong, he didn't just made one or two but four of them."
"Do you mean he have two other abilities, White?" Li Kong asked.
"I'm afraid so." White sounded grim. "So be very careful, Li Kong. I'll also help you when the moment is right."
'Moreover I think I've seen that movement somewhere.' White tried to recall but wasn't able to remember anything.
Li Kong didn't ask anything further and simply nodded before he shifted his focus to Yan Dangxin.
Yan Dangxin had just recovered after taking a direct blow from Li Kong and tried standing up before he sense something dripping out from his nose and he took samples from his nose and found his own blood on his hand.
Yan Dangxin whiffed at the sight and swatted the blood away from his hand before looking back at Li Kong with the same smile.
"It was just a tiny mistake on my part. So..." His smile turned into wide grin.
"Let's start again!" Yan Dangxin turned blurry once again but Li Kong had anticipated his advance and positioned his left hand to redirect his attack again but Yan Dangxin simply harrumphed at his attempt and right as Li Kong tried to swat his right hand away, his left hand knuckled up and sent a huge blow on Li Kong's stomach, ejecting air out of his body.
Li Kong's vision blacked out for a moment but he quickly recovered and looked back in front of him to found the swung motion of Yan Dangxin had commenced as he watched the sharp nails readied to skewer him, aiming straight for his head. His eyes blank, devoid of any emotions.
In that moment, the world appeared to slow down for Li Kong as he felt death slowly approached.
Li Kong shifted his right shoulder to the side and moved his whole body following the motion caused by the shift of the shoulder.
The thrust missed it marks and confusion slowly creeping out on Yan Dangxin's complexion before suddenly something covered his whole vision as he felt his head was pushed backwards and his teeth caved in.
Li Kong stood there while desperately catching his breath. His left fist was left open in the air, traces of saliva and blood sticking on the tip of his knuckles.
Li Kong slowly walked to Yan Dangxin after noticing he hadn't move for a long time and discovered the former doctor seemed to be unconscious as his eyes only revealed white and his mouth wide open.
Li Kong raised his legs and kicked on Yan Dangxin's stomach but after kicking on the former doctor for a few times and still received no response, Li Kong chose to leave the doctor behind and remembered about Yu Mei and tried to seek for her whereabout but a light voice interrupted him.
"Wait, Li Kong. Let me break his legs so he couldn't do something funny when he awake." White said calmly.
The pouch hanging on his waist opened by itself and a white bead came, flying out and after that, Yan Dangxin's legs began to bend at an unnatural direction before something snapped and the invisible hand finally released his legs.
Seeing the twisted legs, Li Kong's face contorted ugly and he decided to quickly forget the horrid scene and continued walking.
But right after Li Kong tried to take another steps, an intense pain suddenly appeared all over his body and without any energy left, Li Kong staggered and dropped down to the ground but before his body reached the ground, he felt something was carrying him and when he opened his eyes, a familiar face was smiling to him.
"Good work, Li Kong." A soft texture slowly caressed his cheek. "Good work."
"Yu Mei?" Li Kong called.
"I'm here." Her voice sounded unusually warm today.
"Where's uncle Ye?" Li Kong asked.
"That..." Yu Mei hesitated for a moment.
Looking at the young girl's hesitation, Li Kong swallowed his lips and a little sob began to resound as he covered his eyes with his hand.
"It's okay, Yu Mei. I know it."
"No, no, it's not like that!" Yu Mei quickly shook her head. "It was just-"
But before Yu Mei could finish her words, she heard a scream coming from her front.
"No!!! It can't be like this! Not yet! I can't fail here! There's still many thing I have to do!" Yan Dangxin began to cry.
"My Lord! Please! Bestow upon me your blessings! To the fourth I'd gave you so please grant me my wish!" Yan Dangxin's voice cracked and he coughed hoarsely afterward.
Li Kong slowly got up and took a look at the helpless figure of the former doctor with scorn in his eyes.
"It seems your "lord" had left you behind." Li Kong mocked Yan Dangxin but all of them failed to enter Yan Dangxin's ears as he continued to voice his plea over and over.
Li Kong was getting sick of his voice and he turned back to Yu Mei and said, "Let's gather all of the village."
"Don't you need someone to look after him, Li Kong? What if he got up again and wreak havoc around the village?"
"Good point." Li Kong received her words and went for the pouch on his waist and drew out a white bead from it.
"Can I leave the thing here to you, White?" Li Kong asked politely.
"I don't mind." White swiftly replied.
"It's decided then!" Li Kong smiled and put the bead on the ground.
"We'll go first, White!"
"Yeah, be careful of your wound."
But right just they about to leave, a maniacal laughter came from Yan Dangxin.
"Hahaha!!! My Lord! My Lord have sent his blessing to me! To me! Hahahaha!" Yan Dangxin continued to laugh and tears of happiness flowing out like the river.
Sense of creepiness slowly encroached Li Kong's spine and it seemed like the girl beside him realized it too as she unknowingly grabbed on the hem of his clothes and held it tightly inside her palm.
As if rewinding time, the twisted legs of Yan Dangxin slowly came back to their usual form and Yan Dangxin began to standing up and with fanatical look on his face, he held his arms high onto the sky.
"Blessed are you the Eye of ■■■!"
Li Kong felt like he heard something but the thing quickly went through his mind.
Yan Dangxin screamed in pain as his right arm inflated in size and veins started popping off. After that, a huge piece of bone protruded and pierced through his elbow to the top of his knuckle.
Shortly after, the transformation stopped and like heart, his right arm beat furiously.
"Ah..." Yan Dangxin inspected his newfound arm with awe.
His new arm was easily dozens times thicker and surrounding it was an unimaginable mass of beating muscle and a white skeletal bone spanning from his elbow to knuckle.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you." Yan Dangxin cried. "Thank you."
Then, he wiped off his tears and looked at Li Kong with a smile. A smile more wicked than ever before.