The Art of Nuo

The sphere of green dispersed like emerald mist, drifting away into nothingness. Xu Ying fell from midair. With a dull thud, his feet struck the ground, and he landed squarely, standing as steady as a mountain. Ding Quan stared in disbelief. A person whose bones had been ground to pieces could never have landed on both feet, let alone stood so firmly! Yet Xu Ying stood unshaken! *But this is a Nuo art! An art unleashed by a Nuo master after opening the body's secret depositories, comprehending heaven, earth, and nature, and elevating internal cultivation!* Just moments ago, a single green vine of his had snapped a massive tree in two! How could Xu Ying have withstood such a strike and survived? Even a deity cast from solid iron would have been riddled with holes and kneaded into pulp! "It seems that even though you became a dog for the Zhou clan, Magistrate Zhou never taught you the true Nuo methods and Nuo arts," Xu Ying said, drawing a long breath as his bones popped and crackled. He lifted his head, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and smiled. "If the Zhou clan had taught you true Nuo methods, I ought to be dead by now. Yet you opened a secret depository in vain, seized the upper hand, and still failed to kill me." Ding Quan's pupils shrank slightly. He had thrown his lot in with the Zhou clan, and they had helped him unlock his secret depository and become a Nuo master. Yet he was not of Zhou blood. The cultivation techniques they imparted to him were mere low-tier arts, and the Nuo methods they taught him were equally crude! Though he believed his natural talent to be exceptional, he had no way to advance to a profound realm and elevate his strength! Xu Ying surged with vital blood almost frantically. Thunder rumbled within his body, the rolling claps chaining together until they became the trumpeting of an elephant! The vital blood behind him condensed into baleful mist, taking the form of an elephant-headed, human-bodied divine phantom. Xu Ying glared intently at Ding Quan, who stood in the pool. Suddenly, his foot stomped down violently, churning up earth. He shot forward like an arrow released from a bowstring, reaching Ding Quan in the very next instant! *Whoosh!* He threw a punch, and the elephant-headed divine phantom behind him threw one as well. Elephantine strength erupted, blasting the water's surface apart, sending a roaring gale sweeping waves toward Ding Quan! With a violent splash, countless vines rose from the water, weaving together in an instant into a massive green shield in front of Ding Quan! Where Xu Ying's fist wind passed, the vine shield shattered. At the same time, Ding Quan launched a punch of his own. Tendrils of green vine wrapped around his fist, swelling larger and larger, while countless more coiled around his arm like tightened, bursting sinews! *Boom!* Nuo art clashed against martial path. The displaced water surged into the air, fluttering wildly as if dragged about by a violent gale! The fist of green vines burst apart with sharp snaps, and Ding Quan drifted backward. As his feet shifted, the vines connected to the armor on his body were ripped up by their roots, severing countless tendrils! Immediately, the green vines took root again, diffusing the force of Xu Ying's strike. Ding Quan lashed out with his left fist. Countless green vines shot forward with a whoosh, winding around his left hand to form another colossal fist. Other vines clung to his body, their root systems tightly entwining his torso, pulling taut to store energy like bowstrings, providing him with unparalleled might! Though he did not practice martial arts, the Nuo art was so exquisite that his strength rivaled someone like Xu Ying, who had mastered elephantine power! *Boom!* Their fists met once more. Ding Quan took another step back, while countless more green vines rose from the earth to serve as his muscles and sinews! Xu Ying had only a mortal body, with the same number of muscles and sinews as any normal man. A Nuo master like Ding Quan, however, could manifest tens of times more muscles and tendons than an ordinary human, making up for any lack in raw strength and rivaling the deities themselves! At the same time, numerous green vines swept toward Xu Ying from all directions! Xu Ying stepped hard on one of the vines, his fists and feet flying to shatter the oncoming tendrils. With another burst of vital blood, he hurled forward another punch! Ding Quan took over ten punches in rapid succession, retreating over ten paces—first out of the pool, then back into the woods. Xu Ying gave relentless chase, driving the Elephant-Strength Bull Demon Fist to its utmost limits. Driven by his vital blood, light radiated from within his body, like a brilliant sun rising endlessly from his dantian, transforming into boundless power that accompanied every strike! His momentum grew ever stronger, but the surrounding trees seemed to come alive, lunging at him from all sides and even from beneath his feet! Xu Ying was confident he could easily bludgeon an entity like the Green-Robed Deity to death by now, yet against a Nuo master like Ding Quan, he possessed immense strength but could not land a decisive blow on his opponent's flesh! Ding Quan's Nuo art always managed to narrowly deflect his force! Ding Quan was secretly alarmed as well. With every punch he took, it felt as though an elephant weighing ten thousand jin had rammed into him, leaving his arms and legs trembling in pain! Though Xu Ying was merely a fourteen-year-old youth, an inhuman power had been tempered within his body, and that power was still steadily increasing! However, with the aid of these vines, he could still withstand it even if Xu Ying wielded the monstrous might of a giant elephant! *And this is a mountain forest, my battlefield! In the woods, every tree, flower, and blade of grass is my weapon!* Ding Quan's eyes gleamed as he countered Xu Ying head-on, thinking, *I can leisurely wear you to death!* He absorbed another blow, and countless green vines exploded into fragments. Immediately, another mass of tendrils slithered forward, linking to his right fist. Right at that moment, however, one of the "vines" approaching him moved with uncanny agility. Instead of wrapping around his fist, it struck at his neck. Ding Quan froze in surprise, only to see that "vine" snap its jaws wide, baring gleaming fangs from its upper jaw and sinking them into his neck! "Xu Ying, I finally got him!" The "vine" slid rapidly down his body, crying out cheerfully. It was none other than the snake demon, Yuan Qi. "A snake demon?" Ding Quan was horrified. With a wave of his hand, a swarm of green vines lashed out to ensnare the giant serpent. Immediately, his head spun, and darkness rushed before his eyes. *How could the poison be this potent?* Dazed and confused, Ding Quan scrambled to steady himself, mobilizing the full power of his secret depository and doing everything he could to fight the venom and preserve his life! The snake demon Yuan Qi had nearly been strangled to death by the vines. Only when Ding Quan lost his strength did he manage to break free. Turning back, he shouted at Ding Quan, "My venom ranks fifth in the world! You're done for!" Ding Quan was deaf to his words. The flesh on his neck was rotting away at terrifying speed, as if it would rot clean through his entire neck, leaving his head teetering. But in the next moment, a mysterious force erupted from within his body; the dead flesh sloughed off, and fresh flesh rapidly sprouted! It seemed as though he had neutralized the venom that ranked fifth in the world! Yet how could the venom of a creature known as a strange snake be so easily dispelled? Ding Quan's neck began to fester once more, the rot spreading with astonishing rapidity! Light radiated from Ding Quan's forehead, and a green aura rose across his face. Flesh grew back, only to rot away again, as if poison and vitality were locked in a tug-of-war across his throat! Xu Ying smashed through layers of green vines like a raging elephant, slamming a fist straight into Ding Quan's chest! Ding Quan let out a muffled groan, vomiting a large mouthful of blood. Xu Ying hooked his fingers into the ribs of Ding Quan's chest, his ten fingers flying across the man's body to swiftly dislocate every single joint! This was the consummate craft of a snake catcher! Ding Quan fell to the ground, unable to move. Countless green vines surged wildly, submerging him! Xu Ying struck out repeatedly with his fists, punching through the greenery, only to find that the vines were connected deep into the earth. The ground had already been hollowed out by tendrils to form a tunnel, spiriting Ding Quan away! Following the tremors beneath the earth, Xu Ying leapt into the air and hammered down against the ground with punch after punch, blasting massive craters into the forest soil! The snake demon Yuan Qi followed behind him in terror. He watched as Xu Ying, like a madman, unleashed a hundred consecutive blows, carving a hundred huge craters into the earth! "Judicial Assistant Ding Quan!" Shouts from officials drifted from the distance. "Are you the one employing Nuo arts? Have you found the criminal Xu Ying?" Xu Ying's expression shifted slightly. He threw a few more punches until dark blood welled up from the bottom of a crater. "Xiao Ying, if we don't leave now, it'll be too late!" the snake demon Yuan Qi urged in a low voice. With no time to confirm whether Ding Quan was dead or alive, Xu Ying slipped silently into the forest alongside him, heading far into the distance. The snake demon shouted, "Get on my back! I won't leave any tracks when I slither!" Xu Ying jumped onto his back, and Yuan Qi sped across the ridges and peaks, evading the pursuing officials. "That Nuo master... he should be dead, right?" Yuan Qi asked hesitantly as he wound through the forest. Remembering Ding Quan's terrifying regenerative power, Xu Ying felt a lingering chill in his heart. "He took your venom that ranks fifth under heaven, plus all those punches from me—he's definitely dead!" Though he said this, he had little confidence in his words. To see a man's rotting neck regenerate so quickly was something he had never witnessed before! He had long heard that Nuo masters were terrifying, but this was his first direct confrontation with one, and the reality was far more dreadful than the rumors! "Yuan Qi, thank you," Xu Ying said suddenly. The snake demon was taken aback, then chuckled. "Did you think I'd run away? I'm not the kind of demon to abandon loyalty. You took revenge for your fellow villagers and slew a deity without care for your own life. We demons place the highest value on righteousness! You acted with benevolence and righteousness, so naturally I couldn't abandon you and run off alone." Moved, Xu Ying reminded him, "I'm a human, not a demon." "Don't be so certain. What if you aren't?" The snake demon laughed. "I've never heard of a human mastering demonic arts so quickly." Xu Ying suddenly felt a pang of uncertainty. *Could it be that I'm really not human?* *No, I'm definitely human! I'm from Xujiaping, and my parents were from Xujiaping!* he told himself silently. *** On the other side of the woods, several young officials rushed to the pool, following the trail until they finally discovered Ding Quan. Ding Quan was not dead. Sheltered by countless severed vines, he had been turned up from beneath the earth. Seeing his gruesome state, the officials were inwardly shaken. Ding Quan's limbs were shattered, countless ribs were broken, and his internal organs had suffered catastrophic damage! Moreover, his neck was a mass of foul, blackened, rotting flesh, reeking with an unbearable stench—an obvious sign of deadly poison! Yet even so, he remained alive! He had opened the Mud Pill secret depository. This bodily depository contained boundless vitality that sustained his physical form, rendering him practically immortal! Of course, Ding Quan had only opened the first layer of the Mud Pill secret depository. Once the vitality of that first layer was exhausted, death would claim him. Ding Quan was on the brink of death, his breath as faint as gossamer, the vitality of the first layer of his secret depository nearly spent! The officials hurried to treat him, carving away the necrotic flesh and resetting the broken bones. One of the officials dressed in black and red placed a finger against Ding Quan's forehead, channeling vitality from his own Mud Pill secret depository to help suppress the poison. The other two officials also transferred vitality to help mend his shattered bones. As for the internal organs, treating them was far too delicate a matter; Ding Quan would need to heal them himself once his condition stabilized. If others intervened recklessly, complications could easily arise. Ding Quan's breathing gradually leveled out, though his joints were all dislocated, leaving him unable to move or speak. The official in black and red, being experienced and knowledgeable, immediately realized Ding Quan's joints had been unhinged. He hastily snapped them back into place and asked, "Brother Ding, who wounded you so severely?" Ding Quan breathed a sigh of relief. He immediately recounted how he had encountered Xu Ying and been ambushed by the snake demon, concluding in humiliation, "That Xu Ying practices demonic arts, and the snake demon ambushed me from behind. That was the only reason I was reduced to such a pathetic state..." The officials exchanged glances, hints of amusement in their eyes. They had previously worried that Ding Quan would claim the top credit, but with injuries this grave, any merit was out of the question for him now. "Rest and heal your wounds in peace, Brother Ding! Leave the capture of Xu Ying to us!" The three men laughed and took their leave. Hearing this, Ding Quan felt a surge of displeasure, yet he was powerless to object. He sat cross-legged in the lotus posture, intending to tend to his injuries, when he suddenly patted his chest. His face drained of color. "No!" Cold sweat poured down his forehead. Tucked inside his robes had been a copy of the *Mud Pill Hidden Scenery Qi Refinement Technique*, the qi refinement method imparted to him when he pledged allegiance to the Zhou clan! The Zhou clan strictly forbade copying or leaking their qi refinement techniques. Anyone who dared violate this decree would have their entire clan exterminated, their three hun spirits annihilated, and their seven po souls scattered! Any outsider who caught so much as a single glimpse of it was to have their eyes gouged out and their mind erased, reduced to an idiot! Ding Quan had harbored selfish motives, secretly transcribing the *Mud Pill Hidden Scenery Qi Refinement Technique* from memory. Now, that scroll had vanished without a trace! *Could it have been lost during the fight with Xu Ying?* Cold sweat soaked his brow as he struggled to his feet and retraced his steps, searching in all directions, but found nothing. *Could it be...* He recalled the moment Xu Ying had dislocated every joint in his body, and his blood ran cold. *Back then... did he steal it from my robes?* His vision went dark, and he nearly blacked out. If the Zhou clan's qi refinement technique were leaked, he would face their most ruthless and merciless punishment! *I must get rid of Xu Ying and reclaim that qi refinement technique!*