Slaying the Giant Wolf

*Boom!* Li Guanqi raised his foot above his head and kicked violently into the giant wolf. A furious, agonized howl tore from the Three-Tailed Kunwu Wolf's jaws as its massive body was hurled over a hundred zhang into the air! Yet Li Guanqi, treading upon empty air, wore an exceptionally grave expression. As the saying went, wolves and dogs had iron heads, bronze skin, and tofu waists. The head was the hardest part of their body, while the waist and belly were their most vulnerable. Yet he had just delivered over a hundred punches without even breaching the beast's defense! A trickle of blood suddenly seeped from the corner of the giant wolf's maw. Although Li Guanqi's strikes had not torn open its abdomen, the concussive force had severely displaced its internal organs. Treading on the void, the giant wolf arched taut like a bow. Its fur bristled across its body as a berserk aura swept across heaven and earth. Three massive tails, each seven to eight zhang long, swept through the empty air. Howling astral winds suddenly tore through the once-calm sky! Every demonic beast in the mountain range cowered on the ground, shivering in terror. Li Guanqi's side was still relatively mild; in the forest over by Jiuxiao, the beasts lay flat on the earth, trembling uncontrollably as they fouled themselves in sheer panic. *Hiss!* A gust of azure astral wind whipped past, instantly leaving a long, fine cut across Li Guanqi's cheek. Li Guanqi's gaze narrowed. He had sensed early on that this Three-Tailed Kunwu Wolf wielded a mutated wind attribute. Still, he had not anticipated its power to be this formidable—the mere stray astral winds were enough to slice his skin. One had to remember that his current physical body rivaled that of a peak fifth-rank body-tempering martial cultivator, on par with top-grade spirit tools and even tougher than ordinary magic treasures. Li Guanqi clenched his fists, producing cracking pops like beans roasting in a bamboo tube. The lightning raging through the void around him abruptly surged into his body! "Void Nether Five Thunders Fist, First Layer: Thunder Guidance!" *Rumble!* As spatial power rippled outward, the void for ten thousand zhang around transformed entirely into a purgatory of lightning! As lightning flooded his flesh, it roared through his newly opened thirty-three meridians, circulating along a profound, mysterious path. In an instant, thunderous patterns seemed to surface across Li Guanqi's skin. The crackle of lightning resounded incessantly as his muscles swelled visibly. Guided by the Dragon Elephant Prison-Suppressing Art and the first layer of the Void Nether Five Thunders Fist, his physical strength peaked. The Three-Tailed Kunwu Wolf's slit pupils contracted slightly. In a mere human cultivator, it had actually felt the pressure of pure physical might! The void beneath Li Guanqi's grinding footsteps rippled with creases, resembling cloth seized in a fist. *Boom!* The void shattered, and a crater ten zhang wide caved in beneath Li Guanqi's feet. Surging with astral wind, the giant wolf charged straight at Li Guanqi in an instant! Twisting at the waist, Li Guanqi spun upward like a top! His body arched like a drawn bow, and his right leg snapped out rigidly straight, cleaving down toward the giant wolf's lower back like a battleax! If this blow landed, it would snap the beast's spine in two. Yet the giant wolf possessed immense combat experience. Countless blades of zhang-long azure astral wind hurtled toward Li Guanqi in midair. At the same time, an invisible surge of tremendous force shoved its body several zhang aside, while its three wolf tails thrust at Li Guanqi like spears! A cold gleam flashed in Li Guanqi's eyes. Scooping up the sword coffin with his right hand, he used the momentum to sweep outward, shattering all the surrounding astral wind. *Boom! Boom! Boom!* Explosions rang out in rapid succession, and a razor-sharp wolf claw tore through the blasts in a flash! *Clang!* The claws struck the sword coffin, sending sparks flying in every direction, and the tremendous force slammed Li Guanqi out of the sky. Yet just as the giant wolf lunged to press its advantage, the figure hurtling backward through midair forcibly stabilized himself and shot upward against the wind! In the blink of an eye, only the rapidly flashing silhouettes of the man and wolf could be seen across the sky. Thunderous roars never ceased as lightning and astral wind ravaged the firmament. Clouds churned and savage gales howled in all directions! Blood sprayed from both man and beast, their injuries mounting steadily. Li Guanqi's expression was crazed. This brutal aesthetic of flesh-to-flesh, bone-crunching violence drew him into a near-intoxicated fervor. The two clashed from the sky down to a mountain peak, obliterated the peak, and tumbled into a river. Shattering the riverbed itself, their fight crashed onward into the jungle-covered mountains, flattening ancient trees across a thousand zhang. Fierce roars and the dull thuds of flesh-pummeling blows resounded without pause. At this moment, the subtlety of his fist technique was displayed to the fullest. Punches that appeared entirely harmless blew out shallow craters of torn flesh and shattered bone whenever they struck the giant wolf! Lightning erupted, scorching the beast's open wounds black. Li Guanqi was in no better shape: half the skin on his face had been ripped away, leaving a blur of blood with half an eyeball exposed. A large patch of scalp had been scraped off the back of his head, tearing away clumps of hair. A massive claw mark across his chest had gouged away most of the flesh and shattered several ribs. His eyes were swollen into narrow slits. Resting a hand on his knee, he panted like an ox, his breath wheezing heavily like a broken pair of bellows. One of the Three-Tailed Kunwu Wolf's tails had been torn off raw by Li Guanqi, and its coat had grown completely dull, matted together with thick, congealed blood. With one eye blasted to pulp, the one-eyed wolf stared fixedly at Li Guanqi, a trace of fear flashing deep within its remaining eye. Li Guanqi caught that subtle flicker. With torn lips, Li Guanqi slung the sword coffin off his back, grabbed one end, and flashed forward toward the giant wolf! Wielding the sword coffin like a massive greatsword, he swung it in a full arc, smashing it down toward the beast with all his might! At the same time, the sword intent within Li Guanqi seemed drawn forth, erupting with a deafening roar! Terrifying lightning and heavenly flame poured out in an instant! With Li Guanqi's physical strength paired with the weight of the sword coffin, it possessed enough force to cleave heaven itself! And indeed it did—wherever the sword coffin passed, space was torn open into a broad, pitch-black fissure. *Rumble!* A cold light flashed in the wolf's solitary eye, and it opened its maw to spit out a colossal blast of azure astral wind! Li Guanqi's eyes gleamed sharply. Gripping the sword coffin with both hands, he brought it crashing down like Mount Tai collapsing from above! *Boom!* Facing a giant wolf that stood a whole rank above him, the power of the sword coffin obliterated the azure astral wind with unstoppable force! By the time the giant wolf tried to retreat, it was already too late. Boundless lightning coalesced into hundred-zhang chains, locking it firmly in place. No matter how it struggled, it was futile; the lightning chains had already embedded themselves deep into its flesh. *Boom!* Its body, already teetering on the verge of collapse, was cleaved cleanly in two under that single blow! A sudden cracking sound came from Li Guanqi's arms as the power of Thunder Guidance finally reached its limit. Waves of weakness washed over him. Flicking his wrist, Li Guanqi stowed the giant wolf's corpse into his storage, then plummeted straight down toward the ground below. The domain space vanished in that same instant. "Roar!" An anxious dragon roar sounded as Jiuxiao wheeled down through the air, catching Li Guanqi's falling body on his back. Looking at the blood-drenched Jiuxiao, Li Guanqi could not help but laugh heartily. With a flick of his dragon tail, Jiuxiao instantly tore through the void, carrying Li Guanqi away.