Only My Way

Although the human body can become stronger than before through persistent practice and exercise,

a body of flesh and blood is, after all, a body of flesh and blood.

As living beings, inherent structural issues limit the defensive capabilities of our physical forms.

This is especially true when [Realm] and [Level] impose restrictions on the actual situation.

As far as Zhang Tang knows, even those [Qi Cultivation Realm Practitioners] who specialize in body refinement and possess exceptionally strong physical defenses would find it virtually impossible to withstand an attack from a [Strengthening Organs Realm Practitioner] with their eyeballs alone.

Even with the assistance of True Qi, it would still be exceedingly difficult!

True Qi can enhance defense, but organs like eyeballs are simply too fragile, severely limiting the strengthening effect…

Moreover, in the process of cultivation, even the best body refinement techniques rarely, if ever, focus on the eyeballs, often deliberately bypassing them during practice.

After all, eyeballs are too delicate.

Specifically training them could easily turn a practitioner blind on the spot.

Compared to training the eyeballs,

training the eyelids is much more practical…

Finally, after pondering for a while,

the town elder named Zhang Tang asked with some skepticism:

“Are you sure you didn't see things wrong?”

Faced with Zhang Tang's question, someone immediately asserted with certainty:

“Impossible!”

“Everyone present saw the entire process.”

Zhang Tang remained somewhat doubtful of the truth:

“Or perhaps, he covered his eyeballs with a large amount of True Qi?”

“That's unlikely too. Although my combat strength isn't great, and I'm just a medicine jar built up with resources, I still have the strength of the [Bone Forging Realm]. I can tell whether someone is using True Qi even from a distance of a few dozen meters…”

The speaker was a somewhat pampered, chubby middle-aged man.

As someone who grew up in a local medium-sized family and has been pampered since childhood, his strength might not be impressive, a pure fraud, but he possesses basic discernment.

Upon hearing this,

Zhang Tang, knowing that the other party indeed possessed that discernment, could not continue to refute and could only mutter to himself with some hesitation:

“So young!”

“Such strength!”

“And such obvious characteristics of gray hair and gray eyes…”

“Why haven't I ever heard of him within the White Mist Country, not even in newspapers like the [News Report]…”

“Could he be a core member of the younger generation from some great sect, deliberately hidden until recently, and only now sent out to gain experience?”

He found it hard to be certain.

However,

after thinking it over for a while,

he felt that he could indeed communicate with Ling Wuyuan.

Just to build some connections.

It's always good to make friends with outstanding individuals when you're out in the world.

“I'm hosting a dinner for him later. Would you like to join me?”

—

At the same moment,

about a hundred kilometers away from Taixia Town.

On a primeval mountain covered with dense vegetation, tents and wooden houses were scattered about as if randomly distributed.

However, although the distribution of the tents and wooden houses seemed quite random, upon closer inspection, it was not difficult to see that the closer they were to the center and the mountaintop, the more luxurious they became, directly indicating the hierarchy of status.

Under the sunlight,

beneath a large tree on the mountaintop,

there was a rather crude stone table and several equally crude stone stools.

At this moment, most of the stone stools were empty, with only two people sitting on them.

However, the stone table was filled with delicacies sufficient for more than a dozen people to enjoy.

Although it couldn't be considered a feast, it was already quite extravagant in this wilderness.

However, at present, facing the many delicacies in front of them, neither the two people sitting on the stone stools nor the people standing in front of the stone table waiting for orders had any appetite. Even though the two seated figures were still slowly eating, even the servants responsible for serving the dishes understood that their mood was quite bad.

Fearing that they might be implicated,

the servants even slowed down their breathing.

“Is that so… Zhang Lao San and Cheng Qi, along with the men they took out, are all dead, and all of them died without a complete corpse?”

As the person sitting in the main seat slowly chewed the delicacies in his mouth and repeated the information he had been given with a hint of anger, the guy who had ridden a horse to the scene to investigate the situation did not dare to be negligent and immediately nodded to confirm:

“Yes, even Zhang Lao San and Cheng Qi have become piles of charcoal.”

“I think this is likely a joint demonstration by the surrounding forces…”

“Previously, Zhang Lao San received information that a large merchant caravan would pass through that canyon. I think it was probably false information deliberately released by the other party.”

“Under normal circumstances, if it wasn't a trap, with the abilities of Zhang Lao San and Cheng Qi, even if they faced some unexpected strong enemies, even if they couldn't retreat unscathed, they should have been able to resist for a while. It's absolutely impossible for them to die so cleanly and without any ripples…”

Listening to the other party's analysis, the person sitting in the main seat felt from the bottom of his heart that this made a lot of sense.

He was very clear about the strength of the two leading cadres.

Although they were only of average strength in the [Strengthening Organs Realm], they were still genuine combatants, not frauds.

Unless there was a difference in level.

Otherwise, it would never have been so easy to die.

And as beings who had been in the nearby area for a year, the [Crimson Fire Bandits] naturally had a rough idea of the true strength of the surrounding forces.

Therefore,

they understood that a powerhouse who could make two [Strengthening Organs Realm Practitioners] die so cleanly would definitely not be the kind of configuration that a normal large merchant caravan should have. Their appearance should be some kind of deliberate act with obvious meaning…

And in the situation where the surrounding local forces were mutually restraining each other,

this warning should not be a decision of a single force, but the final decision after mutual compromise among the local forces.

“A warning…”

After a moment of silence,

the strong man named Yan Linde, the leader of the [Crimson Fire Bandits], smashed the rice bowl in his hand on the stone table in extreme anger and shouted loudly:

“Two captains and hundreds of companions died on the spot. What makes them think that we [Crimson Fire Bandits] can swallow this anger!!!”

“Do those bastards think they can steadily defeat us by joining forces?”

But the guy sitting next to him, the one who served as the deputy leader, hesitated for a while before frowning and advising:

“…Although the joint force of those bastards is only due to the pressure of the situation, it has to be said that their overall hard power is indeed far stronger than ours when they join forces…”

“Ever since Che Xianwei and those other bastards took advantage of the chaos to steal a large amount of wealth and defected a few years ago, the number of cadres in our [Crimson Fire Bandits] has actually been somewhat insufficient.”

“However, now two more have died…”

“In this situation, if we really fight head-on with the various local forces that have already joined forces, I'm afraid that apart from the two of us being able to escape successfully, all the subordinates will be completely annihilated…”

Thanks to: Little Fatty Who Wants to Read Books for 500 starting coins!