Xu Ying had long since stopped caring. A simple kowtow to the Green-Robed Deity was all the worship he offered; as for incense, candles, or fruit, the deity could forget about them.
He barely had enough food for himself, let alone to offer to a god.
The other two villagers called out by the Green-Robed Deity, however, looked utterly miserable.
Jiang Lu was a villager in his forties who looked eighty, his face withered with wrinkles and his frame hunched. He stammered tremulously, "Lord Deity, this humble old man can hardly get a bite to eat. Last night I only had some tree bark to chew on, and then the tax collectors came extorting miscellaneous levies. Where could I find anything to honor you with..."
The Green-Robed Deity glanced at him and sneered, "You pay your respects to the collectors, but not to me? Do you take me for less than mere bailiffs?"
Jiang Lu did not dare utter a word.
The Green-Robed Deity's eyes rolled, and he said, "Don't you still have daughters? Offer your daughter to me. I will be your son-in-law and guarantee you food and clothing for the rest of your life!"
Jiang Lu's knees gave out, and he knelt on the ground. "In reply to Lord Deity, when the collectors came last night to extort levies, this old man couldn't pay, so they took my daughter away, saying it would clear my taxes..."
The Green-Robed Deity snorted coldly, swung a fist the size of a wine vat, and roared, "Don't you have two daughters? Still trying to hide one from me?"
The blow hurled Jiang Lu several zhang backward, slamming him against the far wall. Broken ribs pierced through his chest, jagged shards of bone jutting outward as blood welled and gushed from his mouth.
The villagers huddled in the ancestral hall trembled, neither daring to voice their fury nor speak a word.
Xu Ying clenched his fists tightly, forcing himself to look away as if he had seen nothing.
That was a deity. It possessed an awe-inspiring majesty, such that ordinary folk could not muster the slightest thought of resistance in its presence. Even with Xu Ying practicing the Taiyi Guiding Technique from an early age, he could do nothing but shiver before this deity in green.
Besides, his foster father and grandfather had taught him from childhood: commoners do not contend with officials, nor do they contend with gods. Snake-catchers risked their lives hunting venomous vipers merely to survive. To clash with officials or gods was to seek one's own death!
Jiang Lu tried to drag himself up, but his strength failed him.
The Green-Robed Deity barked, "Where is your other daughter? Hand her over! Today I consummate our marriage with her! Don't refuse my favor!"
Suddenly, Squire Jiang of Jiangjiatian chuckled and said, "Lord Deity might not know, but I knew you had taken a fancy to Jiang Lu's girl, so I spent the coin to buy her. I intended to present her to you today. Men, bring out the bride!"
The Green-Robed Deity beamed with joy, laughing, "Squire Jiang truly knows how to conduct affairs."
Turning his eyes back toward the other villagers, he sneered, "You don't even have offerings, yet you still expect my protection? Today, those without offerings will receive merely three fingers' width of rainfall for their fields this year. And those who didn't even bring incense or candles won't see a single drop! You bastards deserve to die of thirst! And you!"
The Green-Robed Deity pointed at Jiang Lu and shouted, "I originally planned to make you my father-in-law and grant you some favors! But now your daughter is an offering bought and presented by Squire Jiang; it has nothing to do with you! You came empty-handed without an offering for me, so your household's fields will not receive a single drop of rain this year!"
Jiang Lu sat blankly beneath the wall, haggard and drained of all color.
Without rain on the fields, there would be no harvest.
*How am I supposed to live?* Total despair engulfed his heart.
The Green-Robed Deity laughed boisterously, pulling the bride into his arms. "No day is better than today! We'll consummate the marriage right now—no need to wait until nightfall!"
Squire Jiang hurriedly beamed with servile flattery. "Right now is an auspicious hour!"
Xu Ying turned in silence and followed the crowd heading out of the ancestral hall. He had never witnessed a deity taking a bride, but he had heard tales of it.
Deities were enshrined in other villages and towns as well. When times became unbearable, some villagers would offer their daughters to a god as a wife. He had heard that the Water Lord of the Xiao River had taken more than a hundred women, all offered by the surrounding villages and towns.
Jiang Lu staggered to his feet. Seeing this, Xu Ying stepped over, intending to support him.
He was on good terms with Jiang Lu. When Xu Ying was young and rescued from a fire by his grandfather, arriving in Jiangjiatian, Jiang Lu had once given him a cornbread bun. His grandfather had told Xu Ying to call him Uncle.
Xu Ying remembered it vividly.
"Uncle, let me take you home..." Xu Ying began.
Suddenly, Jiang Lu bolted straight toward the wall.
*Smash!*
Blood splattered across Xu Ying's face.
Xu Ying's vision blurred as stray drops entered his eyes. Through the haze, he saw the old man violently bash his skull into the wall. The blood instantly ruined the white wall, like a plum tree in full bloom across a winter snowscape.
A ringing roared in Xu Ying's ears, and his mind went entirely blank.
"Uncle..."
He reached out, only to see Jiang Lu's shattered head pressed against the wall. The corpse slid down slowly, painting the sturdy trunk of the plum tree onto the whitewashed surface.
The old man's body knelt before the wall, resembling the base of that crimson trunk.
Uproar swept through the ancestral hall. People fled in all directions, screaming in panic.
Holding the bride, who was on the verge of fainting from weeping, the Green-Robed Deity laughed, "Squire, clean up the corpse and whitewash the wall. Don't spoil my mood."
Squire Jiang hurriedly agreed. Stepping swiftly up to Xu Ying, he shoved the boy and scolded, "Ah Ying, hurry up and drag this body out! The Lord Deity is about to enter the bridal chamber!"
The buzzing in Xu Ying's head intensified. His body trembled, his fists clenched tight.
Squire Jiang yelled, "Are you daring to defy the Lord Deity—"
*Wham!*
Xu Ying swung a punch squarely into Squire Jiang's face. The squire's face caved into his skull, the back of his head blowing open in an instant. The body wavered, then collapsed to the ground.
"Murder! Ah Ying committed murder!" Squire Jiang's servants fled in sheer panic.
Xu Ying's body continued to shake, his mind still a blank. He did not know why he had shattered Squire Jiang's skull with a single blow, nor did he understand why he suddenly could not suppress his rage.
*I killed someone. I killed someone... I didn't want to kill him...*
His hands trembled, the blood on his face still wet. He lifted his head with a shudder. The one he had truly wanted to kill was not Squire Jiang.
His gaze fell upon the Green-Robed Deity. The one he had truly wanted to destroy was this very god.
"Yet for some reason, I just couldn't stop my hands! I just wanted to beat you to death!"
Xu Ying panted heavily like a wild beast, shouting furiously at the corpse of Squire Jiang on the ground, "You were too loud! Shut your mouth! Stop rushing me... I told you to stop rushing me! I'll beat him to death right now!"
Squire Jiang's head was blown open and squashed flat; naturally, he could speak no more.
Yet chaotic voices still swarmed inside Xu Ying's skull, buzzing incessantly, urging him to beat this god to death.
The Green-Robed Deity's pupils contracted as he glared at Xu Ying.
From Xu Ying's eyes, he could no longer find that familiar dread, causing a roaring fury to ignite within his chest.
A look of dread was the expression he knew best—the fear a mortal ought to have before a god!
In the past, he could always see that reverent fear in Xu Ying's eyes, the awe an insect held for a great figure.
Yet now, that awe was gone!
In its place was blasphemy!
And killing intent!
From the youth's eyes, he saw naked, undisguised intent to slaughter him!
What was more terrifying was that he actually felt a trace of fear toward this gaze!
Incensed, the Green-Robed Deity shoved the bride aside, raised a fist the size of a wine vat, and hurled it directly forward, roaring, "Insolent wretch! What kind of look is that?"
Xu Ying raised both forearms before him. In an instant, it felt as though an ox weighing several thousand jin had crashed into him. He flew backward, smashing through the ancestral hall's wall with a thunderous crash and tumbling outside!
The Green-Robed Deity strode forward, stepping over the collapsed wall, and sneered, "Mere mortals can only accept the destiny ordained by the gods; you have no right to resist! Xu Ying, I see evil thoughts of blasphemy in your eyes! I shall cleanse you of your sin!"
Landing on his feet, Xu Ying planted himself firmly and slid back over a zhang before finally stabilizing his stance.
"You seem..." Xu Ying shook both hands, lifting his head with a strange look in his eyes, "not as strong as I imagined."
"What?"
Enraged, the Green-Robed Deity swept a leg out. His thick limb swung like a falling pillar, whipping up a tempestuous howl of wind!
"Petty mortal, how dare you blaspheme divine might! You deserve to be cast into the Hell of Tongue Ripping!"
His expression was imposing, as if this single kick could sweep Xu Ying directly into hell for eternal damnation!
Xu Ying mobilized the vital blood throughout his entire body, throwing a punch straight into the deity's sweeping leg!
In his mind, the manual he had read earlier involuntarily surfaced. The circulation diagrams for blood and qi from the Elephant-Strength Bull Demon Fist flashed across his consciousness, and without a second thought, he channeled his vital blood according to its teachings!
His blood and qi surged through his body at a wildly violent speed, shaking his internal organs and coursing through muscle and sinew. A resonant trumpet of an elephant erupted from within his chest, deafening to the ears!
Xu Ying poured his power into his right arm. The swelling vital blood immediately caused his right arm to thicken, his right fist abruptly expanding by a whole size. The wind from his punch surged, shrieking through the air!
Elephant-Strength Bull Demon Fist, First Form: Horn Strength Splits the Mountain!
Xu Ying's strength erupted. As his fist slammed into the sweeping right leg of the Green-Robed Deity, a loud bang rang out, punching straight through the god's thick limb!
At the same time, crackling pops echoed from inside his body—the distinct sound of blood and qi bursting through meridian barriers!
In his seven years of cultivating the Taiyi Guiding Technique, he had never practiced martial arts and had no idea what realm he had reached. Now, upon his very first contact with a martial art, the accumulation of seven whole years was completely unleashed!
The Taiyi Guiding Technique tempered his vital blood and cultivated his foundation, while martial arts were the vessel through which that cultivation burst into bloom!
For seven years he had forged a sword, its frosted edge yet untested.
At this moment, the time had finally come to test that blade!
Back at Xu Ying's home, the snake demon had finally reset all its dislocated joints and was fleeing toward the village outskirts when it suddenly heard strange crackling booms. Stunned, it hastily looked in the direction of the sound.
*The second, third, and fourth tiers of the Elephant-Strength Bull Demon Fist were breached in an instant! Is this brat human or a monster? How could he cultivate so fast?*
Just as this thought crossed its mind, Xu Ying's vital blood surged again. An impassioned trumpeting burst from his chest, profound and melodious, rattling the window frames of all sixty-seven households in Jiangjiatian with a clattering tremor!
The water in washbasins, water vats, and even the ditches and ponds rippled with shockwaves!
The snake demon's mind reeled.
To break through to the fourth tier of the Elephant-Strength Bull Demon Fist in a single instant was already unheard of, yet Xu Ying had shattered yet another barrier, mastering the fifth tier!
It hastily fixed its gaze on Xu Ying. The youth's vital blood surged with such fury that it began seeping through the pores of his skin!
The overflowing blood and qi coalesced behind him into an apparition of an elephant-headed divine man!
Composed of vital blood, this vision was ethereal, like a translucent phantom standing nearly two feet taller than Xu Ying, moving in tandem with his fists and feet!
This was the very manifestation attained only upon reaching the fifth tier!
The Elephant-Strength Bull Demon Fist had seven tiers in total: the first, Blood Courses Through the Whole Body, Qi Moves the Hundred Bones; the second, Doubled Vital Qi; the third, Power Strikes Beyond a Zhang; the fourth, Might of the Divine Elephant; the fifth, Manifestation of the Elephant God and Bull Demon; the sixth, Baleful Blood-Qi Physique; and the seventh, Divine Physique of the Elephant King!
Any demon warrior who reached the seventh tier could be hailed as a Demon King and conferred the title of Mountain God or River Lord!
Reaching the fifth tier already earned one the title of Great Demon!
Xu Ying could now be considered a Great Demon!
*Yet the brat is clearly a human...* The snake demon was bewildered.
Without a single stray thought, Xu Ying unleashed the second form of the Elephant-Strength Bull Demon Fist: White Elephant Swings Its Trunk!
Twisting his body, he swung his right leg through the air like an elephant whipping its trunk. The air tore apart, emitting a piercing shriek!
Behind him, the elephant-headed, human-bodied divine figure turned and swung its leg simultaneously. The elephant leg overlapped with his own, striking the Green-Robed Deity's waist with a crisp crack. The impact sent the god stumbling, his torso bending sharply until he nearly fell flat on the ground.
Shocked and infuriated, the Green-Robed Deity retreated several steps to evade Xu Ying's assault. Tearing down an adjacent wall, he hoisted it high overhead, intending to swat Xu Ying beneath it like a fly!
The wall shattered with a roar. Xu Ying smashed through it with a single punch, sending bricks and stones flying in all directions, pelting the deity's face.
The Green-Robed Deity shielded his face with one hand while swinging his other fist forward.
His fist collided with Xu Ying's incoming punch. With a sharp crunch, his arm snapped clean in two!
Terror seized the Green-Robed Deity. As his eyes met Xu Ying's, his soul was once more dominated by that dread.
It was the dread of a mortal facing a god!
He had actually developed the fear of a mortal, while Xu Ying seemed to be the god who held power over his life and death!
Parrying left and right, he could dodge no longer.
Seeing Xu Ying's fist expanding toward his face, he screamed at the top of his lungs, "I am a deity conferred by the City God, registered in both the Nether Court and the Imperial Court! Killing me is violating Heaven's Law—"
Before the word *Law* could leave his lips, Xu Ying's fist drove through his face and punched out from the back of his head, leaving a gaping hole.
The Green-Robed Deity froze. His body swayed and toppled forward to the ground. His refined essence scattered, collapsing into a heap of rotting wood.
"Aaaahhhh!" Not far away, the snake demon opened its gaping maw and screeched in terror.
Chapter 2