Upon hearing this, Immortal Lord Yang, the giant god, was enraged beyond measure. He sneered, "Born free? In life, you are ruled by mortal emperors; in death, you are ruled by the Netherworld! Where does your freedom come from? Such words are treacherous, treasonous, and punishable by ten thousand deaths! I was willing to leave your corpse intact, but now it seems there is no need!"
He strode forward in a charge. Despite his immense size, he was astonishingly agile. The sharp sword condensed from incense qi in his hand was remarkably nimble as well, bearing the air of a true grandmaster of swordsmanship as it lunged toward Xu Ying!
Xu Ying roared, thrusting his right hand out to meet the incoming blade.
Behind him, the elephant-headed deity thrust out its palm at the same time. Dense fiend qi clashed with the piercing sword, letting out a grating screech like metal grinding against sand and stone!
Sparks flew between his right hand and the blade. The sword penetrated the thick fiend qi but was obstructed by it, unable to drive deep, leaving only a shallow cut in his palm. Xu Ying let out a slight breath of relief.
The giant god was also jarred by the force transmitted through the sword, his arm shuddering a few times. He thought in secret admiration, *This rebel has incredible strength!*
However, while Xu Ying's palm could block the blade, the rest of his body could not.
The giant god wielded the sword, shifting through thrusts, lifts, clouds, slashes, cleaves, points, bursts, hooks, scoops, and sweeps. The techniques varied unpredictably, outrageously agile, forcing Xu Ying to dodge repeatedly to evade the sword's edge!
*Clang!*
Seizing an opening when the giant god withdrew his sword, Xu Ying struck the spine of the blade with his palm. Elephant strength erupted, instantly shattering the sword to pieces under his blow!
Xu Ying stepped forward and threw a punch. Behind him, the Elephant God fiend body let out a soaring, furious roar and punched simultaneously, its fist imprint overlapping with Xu Ying's fist!
When this punch was unleashed, a violent gale rose, even creating a vacuum behind the fist imprint, sucking in the surrounding grass, trees, sand, and gravel to fill the void.
It looked as though the surrounding vegetation, sand, and stones followed Xu Ying's punch, hurtling toward the giant god together and adding to its imposing might!
The giant god cracked a grinning smirk and actually swung his own fist to meet it.
Swirling with azure qi, his fist turned from flesh and blood into solid rock in an instant, colliding heavily against Xu Ying's fist!
*Boom!*
The air between their knuckles detonated with a deafening roar. Gusts of wind rushed out toward the mountain forests on either side, whipping the trees back and forth with loud rustling crashes.
Xu Ying took a step back, his heart sinking.
The giant god was also unsteady on his feet, retreating three steps in succession before finally dispersing the force of Xu Ying's punch. He praised, "Not bad skills, rebel!"
Xu Ying clenched his fist, thinking, *My greatest advantage is strength, but my strength doesn't give me an overwhelming advantage. On top of strength, he has refined incense qi into dharmic power and can cast spells. The situation is not in my favor!*
More critically, for reasons unknown, the vitality in Xu Ying's body was mysteriously draining away!
Although guided by the "mysterious voice," Xu Ying had cultivated divine sense, opened the Realm of Xiyi, achieved Five Qis Facing the Origin, and refined the five qis into origin qi, his vitality was constantly slipping away!
From Mount Jian to this place, Xu Ying found he had inexplicably lost roughly half his vitality!
Had he been at his peak, Xu Ying would still have had the confidence to defeat the giant god, but now, he truly lacked confidence.
The giant god let out a gasp of admiration and chuckled, "Not bad. You truly have the strength to clash head-on with the Stone Mountain God and the Warden. This raw power of yours alone already rivals a deity. You are worthy of my full might."
The incense qi on his body suddenly condensed, once more forming a sword over ten feet long, which he caught in hand.
Immediately after, a second blade formed. This one was a short sword of only seven feet, grasped in his other hand.
Then a third and fourth sword formed. They were even shorter, merely four feet, floating in the air and drifting slowly.
These two swords were the divine being's spells.
"It's a flying sword art!"
Though pinned to the ground, Yuan Qi still cared about the battle and yelled, "The books in my family's collection say gods can temper incense qi into flying swords that can claim heads from tens of li away! They appear and vanish like ghosts—impossible to defend against!"
Xu Ying stared at the two swords, beads of cold sweat breaking out on his forehead. Short though they were, they posed an even greater threat!
Yuan Qi cried, "His two swords don't look like they can fly that far, but flying through the air without hands holding them, their variations multiply dozens or even hundreds of times! If you treat them like ordinary swordsmanship, you'll be hit and die an unnatural death!"
The giant god was infuriated. With another wave of his hand, incense qi transformed into three feathered arrows, thunk, thunk, thunk, stabbing into Yuan Qi's body.
Coughing blood, Yuan Qi yelled, "I can still hold on! I can see he hasn't formed a golden body yet—beat him to death for me!"
Xu Ying's eyes flickered as he glared at the two flying swords. He thought to himself, *I must fight him in close quarters, punch straight through his body, and smash him to pieces! I can't give him the chance to use those flying swords!*
Suddenly, he stomped violently. The ground abruptly sank, caving into a massive crater!
The surrounding rubble was jolted into the air by this stomp—over a hundred river pebbles and rocks of various sizes, the smallest as tiny as a finger, the largest weighing a hundred jin or more, all suspended in midair by his furious vitality!
The moment Xu Ying stomped down, he unleashed a punch. Accompanying the howling gale thrown by his fist, the rocks shot forth with piercing whistles, crashing toward the giant god on the heels of the punch's blast!
The third level of the Elephant-Strength Bull Demon Fist allowed force to project beyond ten feet. Having reached the sixth level, how could his vitality be limited to merely ten feet?
Carrying a flurry of stones, this punch formed a fist imprint four feet across. With terrifying force, it reached several rods away without waning!
Xu Ying strode forward. His foot hit the earth in a second stomp, causing the ground to cave in once more as rocks floated into the air!
He threw another punch, the gale and rocks forming a second fist imprint that slammed toward the giant god!
*Thud!*
His third step struck the earth, and a third fist imprint roared forth!
The giant god grinned and wielded the twin swords in his hands to face the three fist imprints head-on. Stone after stone collided with sword light, exploding with sharp cracks!
The two flying swords swirled around him, shattering the stray rocks his hands couldn't block. In an instant, he broke through all three fist imprints with strength to spare.
The shattered rocks turned to powder and filled the air, obscuring the giant god's vision. Beyond the swirling dust, Xu Ying charged in and threw a fourth punch!
With this punch, he was determined to win!
Just as his fist tore through the shroud of dust, the shriek of a flying sword cutting through the air reached his ears.
Xu Ying roared, pouring everything into this strike. The two flying swords burst from the fog—one aiming straight for his face, the other brushing past his side!
Xu Ying raised his left hand to block his face. Behind him, the elephant-headed deity also raised its arm, its palm forged from thick fiend qi meeting the flying sword first!
With a tear, the elephant-headed deity's palm was pierced. Right after, the vitality in Xu Ying's left palm was punctured, and his hand was run through!
The tremendous force inside the flying sword bore down through his hand and drove into his upper left chest, stabbing through his ribs, piercing his shoulder blade, and bursting out his back!
At the exact same moment, Xu Ying swung his right fist and struck the giant god's body, his vitality erupting into a surging torrent of power!
*Boom!*
He and the giant god were thrown into the air almost simultaneously, flying backward!
Carried backward by the flying sword, Xu Ying was pinned to a large tree sixty to seventy feet away at the village entrance. The flying sword dissolved into smoke and drifted apart, and he slid down to the ground.
He tried to lift his left hand, but his left arm was limp and numb, unable to summon any strength.
His shoulder blade was pierced, his left hand crippled, and his left chest punctured; he had little fighting capability left.
*Is he dead?*
Xu Ying looked up into the distance. Ahead, dust and smoke still hung in the air, leaving the giant god's fate unknown.
Just then, a flying sword chimed crisply as it slowly floated out of the dusty haze.
Xu Ying's pupils constricted. In the midst of the smoke and dust, a towering shadow slowly emerged.
Most of the sashes draping the towering shadow had been shredded, and a third of the halo behind his head was broken.
A hole the size of a fist opened at his ribs—Xu Ying's punch had blown straight through his torso!
Yet he was still not dead!
"If I were flesh and blood, you probably would have killed me,"
the towering figure chuckled as he strode out of the dust. "Too bad for you, I am a god. Xu Ying, your martial arts are utterly useless against me."
The towering figure raised a hand and swept it hard. The dust was blown away with a whoosh, revealing his towering, imposing frame!
Standing beneath the tree, Xu Ying pressed a hand to the wound on his chest, all hope extinguished in his heart.
Little vitality remained in his body. Even if he wanted to run, he couldn't.
*I'll fight to the death!*
Gritting his teeth, Xu Ying stirred his remaining vitality, preparing for one final struggle.
Right at this moment, that familiar voice suddenly rang out in his mind: "Boy, do you know how to shed fiend into origin?"
Xu Ying hurriedly asked, "Senior, what does it mean to shed fiend into origin?"
Immortal Lord Yang was striding toward him when he heard this. He halted abruptly, scanning the surroundings with caution, and sneered, "You have a helper?"
The snake demon Yuan Qi was stunned as well, thinking, *Someone spoke? Why didn't I hear anything? Could that bell have broken Ah Ying's brain?*
In Xu Ying's mind, the voice instructed, "You harbor the five qis within and perform Five Qis Facing the Origin, transforming the five qis into origin qi. It is only because you don't understand how to shed fiend into origin that this good-for-nothing can bully you. 'Fiend' is the fiend qi within you, the foul vitality. In cultivating martial arts, you first formed a fiend body; you must shed fiend into origin to take another step forward."
Xu Ying grasped it in a flash. Overjoyed and pleasantly surprised, he smiled. "So that's how it is! Thank you for the guidance, Senior!"
The giant god looked all around and found no one. He sneered, "Quit bluffing, kid! You think I can't tell you have no helper at all?"
Xu Ying surged the vitality within him, enduring the pain as he circulated the Elephant-Strength Bull Demon Fist again and again!
A roar like an elephant's trumpet rose from his chest, shaking the wilderness. With the elephant cry, the vitality in his five viscera and six bowels surged. On the surface of his body, foul vitality vented like exhaust gas, hissing out from countless opened pores!
His tattered clothes were quickly stained crimson by the blood impurities in the venting gas, and beads of blood even dripped from his hem.
As Xu Ying circulated his vitality, the qi coursing through him grew purer and purer, the chaotic vitality dwindling with every passing moment.
Brilliant light radiated from all over him. The Elephant God fiend body gradually lost its murky, blood-fiend appearance, the fiend qi refined away as he shed fiend into origin, standing behind him like a true Elephant God!
The final level of the Elephant-Strength Bull Demon Fist—the Elephant God King body—was completed!
His aura surged skyward with an overbearing, peerless momentum; before him, any great demon would have no choice but to bow in submission!
He had cultivated the Elephant-Strength Bull Demon Fist to a realm only a demon king could attain!
The snake demon Yuan Qi stared wide-eyed, muttering, "Xu Ying broke through again... He really has become a great demon king..."
It suddenly occurred to him that even if Xu Ying were a demon, he had only cultivated the Elephant-Strength Bull Demon Fist for two days. In just two short days, Xu Ying had cultivated the fist technique to the demon king level.
Could someone cultivate this fast? Was this even reasonable?
*Still, if he breaks through, that means I'm not far from breaking through either,* Yuan Qi thought.
After all, however the smart person cultivated, he would cultivate the same way; he couldn't go wrong.
And even if it was wrong, it was the smart person's fault.
Pinned to the ground, the great snake thought, *Sometimes, just lying flat like this is pretty nice too.*
Within Xu Ying's mind, the great bell felt a twinge of shame, thinking, *I stole too much of his vitality, keeping him from unleashing his full strength, and nearly got him killed. Luckily, this kid is smart enough to comprehend shedding fiend into origin in such a short time. If it had been someone dumber, like that snake demon over there, he would be dead for sure.*
Seeing Xu Ying shed fiend into origin, the giant god was startled as well, yet he charged forward recklessly.
He possessed immense confidence.
"I am an exalted god of Yangzitang Town, having enjoyed two hundred and thirty-four years of incense offerings! With dharmic power this profound, could I possibly lose to a green boy? What does it matter even if you broke through!"
His flying sword sped ahead of him, stabbing straight for Xu Ying's face!
His left arm crippled, Xu Ying could only use his right hand to fend off the blow!
In the blink of an eye, Xu Ying raised his right hand and threw a punch to meet the flying sword.
Behind him, the elephant-headed deity grew ever more towering, punching out alongside him!
The giant god sneered. This sword strike would surely pierce Xu Ying's right arm and pin him to the tree behind him!
Yet when Xu Ying's punch was unleashed, a massive vacuum formed behind it, pulling so violently that even the large tree at the village entrance was nearly uprooted. Its crown tilted forward, and leaves rustled loudly, swirling into the gale created by this single punch!
*Crack! Crack! Crack!*
The flying sword struck Xu Ying's fist and shattered on the spot, forced back into its original form and dispersing into a cloud of incense qi!
Without losing any momentum, Xu Ying's punch met the twin swords slashing down from the giant god, the fist of the Elephant God overlapping with the youth's knuckles.
The moment sword and fist collided, a howling tempest arose, scattering countless leaves swirling through the air to either side!
The snake demon Yuan Qi watched blankly, panic in his heart: *Who won? Who lost?*
As the leaves drifted down, the figures of the giant god and Xu Ying emerged.
Both the long and short swords in the giant god's hands were shattered. The protective incense qi wrapped around him had been blasted through, leaving a gaping hole in his chest.
Around the hole, stone fragments popped and crackled, bursting apart bit by bit.
"Your power... is far purer than mine..."
Terror finally crept into the giant god's eyes. Looking down at the youth who was so much smaller than himself, he said in a trembling voice, "You dare commit deicide! You have violated heaven's laws—there will be no place under heaven where you can hide..."
Xu Ying tilted his head back to look at him, slowly pulling back his fist. He pursed his lips. "When Lord God leaves no way alive for a commoner like me, why should I still revere you as a god?"
Passing by the giant god, he walked toward the snake demon Yuan Qi. "After committing deicide for the first time, Lord God is no different in my eyes from the straw dogs placed before the altar. Next time I kill a god, I will be even more practiced."
"The Nether Court will not let you off..."
The giant god crumbled, collapsing in ruin and shattering all over the ground.
Chapter 12