Martial Saint

"What is this?!" Yue Xingzhou's expression changed. A tingling sensation crawled over his scalp. He felt as if he had just stumbled upon something terrifying. "We want to know too." Xia Wuyuan walked up to the demon's corpse, aiming a miniature device he carried to record it at close range. Yaoguang observed the scene. Unless an ordinary person caused a massive public uproar, others would only treat something like this as a prank or an exotic fake video. And the paradox in this was... The demons lurking among the upper echelons of human society would never allow anyone to blow things out of proportion. Unless one was prepared to single-handedly face the purge of an entire demonic syndicate. Now, it all depended on whether the video recorded by this Senior Prosecutor would have any effect once transmitted upward. If it still led nowhere... He would not rely on external forces. He would amass strength and flip the table himself. "You two..." Yue Xingzhou glanced at Xia Wuyuan, who had answered, then at Yaoguang, who was squatting down and doing something with an orb. It took him a good while to calm his turbulent thoughts. Looking down at the corpse, which now appeared no different from that of a human, he said gravely, "This person's... this monster's strength... was abnormal." "These monsters have two forms. One is identical to humans, with strength roughly ranging from Martial Master to Grandmaster. This can be judged by their physique: those under two meters are generally at the Grandmaster level, while those over two meters are likely Martial Masters. However, they can transform. Once they complete their transformation, their strength surges drastically." As Yaoguang spoke, he activated the orb he carried. By this point, he had already begun nurturing his spirit. Even though he had only just started with the aid of the Great Sun Spirit-Suppressing Diagram's profundities, as a sliver of his mind sank into the orb, he could faintly sense something being drawn from the demon's corpse and channeled into it. "Completed transformation? A drastic surge in strength?" Yue Xingzhou stared at the corpse. "Just now, did its transformation count as complete?" "No," Xia Wuyuan said. "Even that didn't count?!" Recalling the hair-raising terror of dancing on the edge of life and death, Yue Xingzhou felt a chill down his spine. "Then what does a completed transformation look like, and what kind of surge in strength are we talking about?" "I don't know. This is only my second time encountering this kind of monster..." Xia Wuyuan said, turning his gaze toward Yaoguang. "He has slain far more of them recently than I have." "It means exactly what it sounds like," Yaoguang said. "So, to keep demons from turning into invincible fully formed entities, it's best to kill them thoroughly before they complete their transformation. From the moment they start transforming to when it finishes takes roughly ten seconds. Ten seconds is more than enough to end a fight." Because their commotion had already drawn the attention of others, Yaoguang did not immediately inspect the message inside the orb that resembled a 'soul fragment.' Instead, he put the orb away. Commotion erupted from a building not far off. Numerous silhouettes were surging toward their location at extreme speed. Yue Xingzhou fell silent for a moment, then glanced at Yaoguang. "Regardless... you saved my life," he said solemnly. "Next..." "Watch out!" Yaoguang gave a sharp warning and darted toward a wall at blinding speed. Bang! Bang! Bang! Gunfire exploded. Sparks erupted and stone chips flew where Yaoguang, Yue Xingzhou, and Xia Wuyuan had been standing just moments before. In that split second, all three displayed the inhuman reaction speeds of Grandmasters. Yaoguang went without saying; the moment he sensed the invisible premonition of being targeted, he had already dodged. Xia Wuyuan had also undergone professional training in dodging and countering firearms, quickly ducking behind cover. Though Yue Xingzhou was a beat slower, his speed was formidable. With an explosive burst of Grandmaster-level internal force, he lunged across eight or nine meters in an instant. The volley of bullets struck only empty air. As Yaoguang's figure darted across the ground, the large-caliber handgun he had chosen earlier appeared in his grasp. A Grandmaster's razor-sharp reflexes, paired with eyesight rivaling that of a fighter pilot, allowed him to pinpoint the shooters' positions immediately. Before his leaping body even touched down, gunfire rang out. Bang! Bang! Bang! The instant he landed, pivoted, and pressed his back against the wall, two gunmen perched on the high ground were already dead where they stood. Following Yaoguang's shots, Xia Wuyuan unleashed full firepower with his automatic rifle. Accompanied by flickering muzzle flashes, several security personnel charging down instantly collapsed. The rest scrambled to dodge and take cover, but... It was futile. Relying on astonishing reaction speed and supreme visual acuity, Xia Wuyuan's marksmanship was nothing short of miraculous. All on his own, he pinned down two armed squads totaling twenty to thirty men until they could not even lift their heads. No! He wasn't merely suppressing them! Even while laying down suppressing fire, Xia Wuyuan relocated at blistering speed. Like a hunting leopard, he charged directly at the armed squads. In the few seconds the squad members sought shelter from the barrage to catch their breath, Xia Wuyuan crossed dozens of meters and appeared right before them. Huddled in their blind spots, they looked up in horror, only to find a gun barrel thrust practically into their faces... "No!" Da-da-da! The gun roared! Blood sprayed everywhere as the hidden gunmen were riddled with bullets like sieves. On the other side, Yaoguang was no slower. This large-caliber handgun was clearly top-tier, boasting exceptionally stable ballistics. Coupled with Yaoguang's own reflexes and precision control... He hit whatever he aimed at. With him picking off stragglers and plugging gaps, any gunner brazen enough to attempt a desperate blind fire would have their arm shattered almost instantly. Anyone who dared peek out took a bullet straight through the head, losing their life on the spot. Right then, Yaoguang seemed to sense something and suddenly looked in a certain direction. "The target is trying to escape." "Grandmaster Yue, we leave this place to you," Xia Wuyuan said, clear on their priorities. "We'll pursue." "Understood," Yue Xingzhou agreed without hesitation. Soon, Xia Wuyuan and Yaoguang set off in pursuit of the second demon. With the two of them gone and the suppressing fire lifted, the surviving armed men quickly regained their footing. Scattered gunshots rang out, signaling the start of a counterattack. Seeing this, Yue Xingzhou sighed softly. "Which qualified Grandmaster hasn't undergone professional firearms training?" He slotted his battle saber into its scabbard, swiftly lunged toward an armed guard's corpse, and completed a roll across the ground, rising with an automatic rifle and two spare magazines already in his hands. Da-da-da-da! Gunfire erupted once more. *** On the other side. Yaoguang and Xia Wuyuan pursued at breakneck speed. The Baisheng Chemical Plant was situated in a small town, bordered not far off by a modest, densely wooded hill. As the distance closed, Xia Wuyuan raised his rifle and opened fire. Though the demon dodged rapidly, the precise barrage still threw its sprinting figure off balance—it had clearly taken hits. Yet despite being shot, its speed did not slacken in the slightest. Instead, its body swelled rapidly, transforming from under two meters into a towering behemoth nearly three meters tall. A jolt of alarm went through Xia Wuyuan, and his gunfire grew even denser. As they drew closer, Yaoguang also fired rapidly. Right at that moment, the demon—now swollen to three meters—whipped around, violently hurling tree branches it had scooped up along the way. Empowered by furious, violent force, the branches flew like arrows loosed from a bowstring, fast as thunderbolts. The Chengying sword in Yaoguang's hand thrust out instantly. With a tremor of the blade, the three branches hurtling toward him were all severed and swept aside. Xia Wuyuan sidestepped to dodge. And ahead... Realizing it could not outrun them, the demon suddenly turned back and charged ferociously. Its colossal three-meter frame exuded a suffocating, oppressive aura as it lunged in for the kill. Its combat suit could no longer fully shield its expanded form. Exposed flesh dripped with blood from bullet wounds, adding to its savage, ferocious visage. Even a battle-hardened martial artist like Xia Wuyuan, who had fought in the National Martial Arts Tournament, felt his breath catch. Most alarming of all, though its arms and limbs bore numerous bullet wounds, not a single round had managed to penetrate completely! The implication of that... "A Martial Saint?!" Xia Wuyuan cried out in disbelief. Bang! Bang! Bang! Gunshots cracked sharply. The noise snapped Xia Wuyuan back to his senses, only to see Yaoguang's expression completely impassive as he fired calmly. Yet facing this demon that had fully unveiled its true form and gone berserk, even a large-caliber handgun could not strip it of combat capability in short order. "Pin it down!" Yaoguang said. "Right!" Though Xia Wuyuan did not know Yaoguang's plan, he discarded his rifle without hesitation and drew the triangular trench spike he carried. He braced himself to engage. Even though the fully transformed demon possessed a physique comparable to an 'inhuman' Martial Saint, the bullet wounds in its arms and thighs would still hamper its performance to some degree. Under these circumstances, as a Grandmaster, he had no reason to... Boom! A sound like muffled thunder exploded the instant the two were about to clash. Under Xia Wuyuan's horrified gaze, the punch the demon threw seemed to detonate the very air. The blasting shockwave formed a white ring of vapor across the surface of its fist, like... The Innate Astral Qi of mythical legends?! Yet whether it was astral qi or not was beside the point! The real issue was: how devastating could a punch be if it detonated the air to create such a shockwave?! Xia Wuyuan felt an indescribable shudder surge from the depths of his heart. An electric shock seemed to course through his entire body, driving his thoughts and reflexes to an unprecedented peak. Between life and death lay profound terror! This was the extraordinary perception brought on by a massive adrenaline rush when dancing on the edge of mortality. Under this heightened state, Xia Wuyuan's mind became sharper than ever. Within his line of sight, every subtle permutation of the demon's punch unfolded before him... Yet the moment he saw those variations clearly, an unprecedented feeling of powerlessness welled within him. Flawless! The demon's strike was utterly flawless. The crushing fist force swept across and locked down every conceivable angle of evasion and maneuver, leaving him... With no way out other than taking the blow head-on. And to meet this strike head-on... Only one outcome awaited him. Death!