Chapter 77 Provocation

Qingmei and the Hu monk were enemies, and among all the living creatures here, aside from the Hu monk himself, the rest were either imprisoned or enslaved demonic beings. Only Liuchou alone bore the imprint of Buddhist dharma. With Bituo's sharp intelligence, without needing any introduction, he immediately guessed that this demon must be connected to her in some way.

However, an insignificant little demon like Liuchou possessed neither a prestigious bloodline and family background nor formidable strength. Why would Bituo be willing to let Qingmei associate with him? If he had lent a helping hand earlier, it was solely out of regard for Qingmei. But now, seeing Liuchou's profound anxiety, an ominous premonition suddenly arose in Bituo's heart. He narrowed his eyes, and a plan instantly formed in his mind.

The moment Liuchou finished his question, the expression of the man in white before him darkened abruptly. Liuchou felt a bad omen in his heart, and sure enough, he heard the man speak in an icy tone: "A mere insignificant demon, how dare you speak to me like this? Do you have a death wish?"

Along with these words, a chilling and fierce demonic aura instantly crushed down upon Liuchou, pressing him so hard that he could barely stand, his limbs turning weak and numb. Panic surged in Liuchou's heart, but he gritted his teeth, forcing his body to stand completely straight, rigid like an upright spear. He said, "If this humble demon has been impolite and boorish, I beg the Great King to forgive me. However, I beseech the Great King to state your intentions. If you can hand this friend over to me, I will be eternally grateful!"

Spit!

Bituo spat a mouthful of saliva straight onto Liuchou's face, his expression carrying half mockery, half ridicule, and a full ninety percent disdain. "This demon possesses a unique bloodline, and I plan to take her back to refine medicine. Well then, my intentions have been made clear. What do you intend to do?"

Liuchou remained silent. He simply tightened his grip on his iron rod, shoved an object into his mouth, and then raised his head. "Since that is the case, I can only try."

The saliva slowly slid down the fur on Liuchou's face. He did not wipe it away, keeping his eyes locked fiercely on his opponent.

Bituo suddenly found it somewhat amusing. A mere petty demon actually dared to attack him—how utterly ignorant of the immensity of heaven and earth. He wore a murderous smile, one full of hair-raising chill, and said, "Do you truly believe that a gap in cultivation realms can be bridged simply by fighting desperately?"

Liuchou was silent for a moment before replying, "It cannot be bridged."

"Then you still dare to make a move?" Bituo snorted. "Very well, I'm in a good mood today, so I'll spare your life. Leave now, and I can let bygones be bygones..."

Liuchou immediately interrupted him: "That is completely impossible!"

"Fine, since words are wasted on you, I will send you on your way!" Bituo flicked his wrist, and a long sword abruptly materialized in his hand. Its style was identical to the one on his back, though the sword on his back remained in its sheath, meaning this was a weapon manifested from demonic power. Since Liuchou insisted on fighting, Bituo didn't mind teaching him a lesson.

Liuchou took a deep breath and suddenly stomped his foot forward. Circles of shockwaves burst from the ground, causing the earth to crack beneath his heel and splinter outward into the distance. At that very moment, his body shot forward like an arrow, lunging straight at Bituo.

A trace of surprise flashed in Bituo's eyes. In this split second, Liuchou's strength seemed to have elevated by an entire realm, bursting forth with power that should have been utterly impossible for an ordinary minor demon. Furthermore, the demonic energy surging within his body gushed forth endlessly at this moment, resisting the immense pressure of Bituo's aura and allowing Liuchou to move freely.

With no intention of employing true demonic arts, Bituo took a step forward, his sword thrusting directly toward Liuchou. Its momentum was equally thunderous and fell not a whit short.

Liuchou was upon him in an instant. However, just as he was about to cross paths with the sword, he sidestepped with a swift leap, suddenly twisting his iron rod. While the tail of the staff deflected the sword, the tip lashed toward Bituo, kicking up a fishy-smelling wind like surging waves.

This was a mutually destructive style of combat. If Bituo's sword continued straight ahead, the staff would inevitably smash squarely into his face. Although, given the disparity in their strength, Bituo was quite confident he could withstand it, how could he possibly accept being beaten in the face by a minor demon with a stick?

Left with no choice, Bituo had to swerve his body to evade the iron rod while simultaneously retracting his sword. Yet Liuchou's footwork clung to him like a shadow attached to bones, following closely behind with another sideways sweep of the staff, swinging relentlessly toward Bituo without a shred of self-preservation.

This time, Bituo didn't even get a chance to launch an offensive; he could only dodge again.

In just a brief moment, the two demons had exchanged over a dozen blows. Bituo had attacked several times, but Liuchou invariably chose a suicidal, mutually destructive approach to fight him to the death. Even when they occasionally clashed head-on, Liuchou suffered very little disadvantage, which left Bituo all the more astonished.

He simply could not fathom why Liuchou's strength had abruptly skyrocketed to such a degree in such a short span of time. Although there was still a gap between him and Bituo, Liuchou had almost crossed the threshold to reach the peak of grotesque demons, while his physical body and martial prowess had actually attained the realm of a great demon. Coupled with this desperate fighting style, subduing him without sustaining injuries was truly no easy task in a short amount of time!

Bituo suddenly leaped backward abruptly, bringing his hands together. The long sword split into two in a flash, one in each hand, and he charged forward once more. The dual swords whipped up a sky full of sword radiance like a dazzling cluster of stars, carving several wounds into Liuchou's body in the blink of an eye. Yet Bituo's battle intent was gradually ignited through the fierce combat with Liuchou; he no longer treated him as a mere plaything, but regarded him with full seriousness as an opponent nearly his match!

The scent of blood diffused into the air, and Bituo's fighting spirit grew increasingly ardent. Those enslaved and imprisoned demons gradually gathered around. Knowing that these two demons were the powerful beings who had slain the Hu monk and liberated their kind, yet unaware of why they were fighting, they could only honestly stand guard at the periphery, not daring to make a sound.

Most of the monsters, however, were clutching bloody human arms and legs, tearing at them and chewing, swallowing them into their stomachs in small bites. A bit further away, some demonic beasts or minor demons that had only recently taken human form were still frantically fighting over the Hu monk's remains, devouring them voraciously to stuff themselves.

At last, the Hu monk, who had fed demons with demons, had finally ended up as food for the demons himself.

Liuchou continued to grit his teeth and endure stubbornly. Neither stabs nor gashes could cause his expression to change by even a fraction, as if those wounds had nothing to do with him at all. He simply fought back desperately over and over again, turning every incoming sword strike of his opponent into an even more vicious counterattack without a single thought of evasion. This was the essence of Guigu training: as long as you haven't fallen, you must never give up. No matter how many injuries you sustain, the outcome is ultimately decided by a single strike—it all depends on who delivers that final blow.

Bituo had slashed Liuchou twenty-three times in succession, while Liuchou had only managed two counter-attacks with his staff: one stabbed Bituo's arm, and the other merely grazed his forehead, sending two drops of blood drifting into the air as the rod retracted.

Bituo's eyes turned blood-red in that instant, but they quickly returned to their original color. With a long leap backward, he distanced himself from Liuchou, pointing both swords toward the ground. Just as he was about to speak, he saw Liuchou pull a pitch-black hand crossbow from somewhere, gripping it in his left hand while single-handedly wielding the iron rod with his right, charging forward again with extreme velocity.

He had no intention of listening to what he had to say at all!

Bituo let out a heavy snort. He hadn't used a shred of esoteric demonic arts or spells throughout his fight with Liuchou—in other words, he had voluntarily set aside his greatest advantage in cultivation and simply brawled with pure physical might, openly giving his opponent a chance. Who would have expected to run into such a stubborn blockhead who completely misread his intentions.

"He's even using a crossbow!" Bituo couldn't help sneering.

However, Bituo's smile vanished almost immediately. Liuchou didn't pull the trigger; instead, he used the crossbow as an auxiliary weapon, engaging in close combat. When their battle reached its peak, with a sharp screech, the hand crossbow spat out a streak of cold light straight at Bituo's face!

In a flash, Bituo opened his mouth and exhaled, causing half a curtain of cloth to suddenly materialize, radiating colorful glows that enveloped his entire body. Upon entering the multicolored glow, the bolt seemed to lose all its momentum, plummeting limply and clattering to the ground where it bounced a couple of times. Yet at that moment, it had been less than half a foot from Bituo's face—it had almost hit him! Even as a great demon, this attack had broken him out in a cold sweat all over!

Bituo was often revered as the Sword-Spirit Fox, a title referring to his exceptional swordsmanship and sharp close-quarters combat skills. Yet through this battle, he discovered that he fell short of Liuchou in numerous ways. In a contest of pure, unadulterated martial arts on equal footing, Liuchou had won by more than just a slight margin, especially with his unfathomable staff techniques which, combined with his suicidal tactics, completely suppressed Bituo's offensive momentum.

Liuchou's tactics were consistent from start to finish: trading injury for life, trading injury for injury. Moreover, he was as calm as if he were fighting with someone else's body. Bituo couldn't help his anger surging upward. He abruptly flew up into mid-air, looking down from above, and shouted sternly:

"Stop!"

Liuchou came to a halt. He could not fly and thus couldn't possibly reach Bituo, and the speed and altitude of his reed-crossing movement were far inferior to Bituo's ascension arts, so he had no choice but to cease. However, just as Bituo prepared to speak, Liuchou loaded another crossbow bolt and raised the hand crossbow once again.

"This stubborn monkey!" Bituo cursed inwardly, but his expression remained utterly impassoned and dripping with haughtiness as he said, "We've fought for so long, and I haven't used a single demonic spell or Daoist technique. Aren't you even a little curious why?"

"I simply assumed you forgot!" Liuchou replied indifferently, then proceeded to ready his hand crossbow in his left hand once more, regripping the iron rod tightly with his right, radiating battle intent.

"I came looking for trouble with the Hu monk, and seeing you traveling the same path, I couldn't bring myself to make a move against you," Bituo said. "However, if you still refuse to leave, I'm afraid I won't be able to hold myself back..." He gently gestured toward his own forehead. "To say nothing else, just this spot here is enough to kill you ten or eight times over."

Liuchou looked at him, then thrust his right-hand iron rod into the earth. He reached into his robe and withdrew his hand without touching the staff, simply standing in place as he said, "If you cannot hold yourself back, then there's nothing I can do..." A trace of sincere, resolute emotion surfaced on his face as he added, "...If push comes to shove, I can only fight you to the death."

"What are you trying to do?" Bituo gazed deeply at Liuchou. He suddenly had a feeling that Liuchou was exuding an extremely terrifying aura. The source of this aura... He recalled Liuchou's earlier movement, and looking closely now, Liuchou's hand was clenched tightly, as if clutching something in his palm.

"Someone told me that doing this would mean certain death, and initially, I had no desire to do it," Liuchou raised his eyes to look at Bituo. "I am very afraid of dying. I originally thought that sacrificing my life for someone else was something that would never happen to me, yet it has happened today of all days!"

"Are you saying that even if it kills you, you're going to snatch this demoness out of my hands?" Bituo nearly shrieked. "What is she to you? Is she worth risking your life for? Is her life really more precious and important than your own?"

"She's not. My life is much more precious than hers," Liuchou smiled, a desolate look crossing his face. "Yet for some reason, when you said you were going to refine her into medicine just now, I suddenly felt like hers was more important."

"Have you lost your mind?!" Being a demon, Bituo understood demonic nature all too well. Forget about casual acquaintances, even husbands and wives or cultivation partners rarely shared true adversity together, let alone risking their lives to help one another, which prompted him to curse aloud.

"Perhaps I've been sober for many years, and only lost my mind today," Liuchou raised his hand to his mouth and said, "Chatting with you has actually been quite interesting. Unfortunately, I have no time left. I can only thank you for clearing away the inner obstructions in my body just now. What follows next is a genuine fight to the death!"