.....

Finally, Lu Ding looked at the remaining enemies.

"Which half of yourselves do you want to lose?"

Surrender meant death.

Resistance also meant death!!

They had no choice left.

They could only roar and charge at Lu Ding.

"Tai Island warriors cannot be humiliated!!!"

"Lu Ding, I'll fight you to the death!!!"

"You demon, you'll die horribly!!!"

"You'll go to hell!!!"

"You slaughter innocents—karma will get you!!!"

"I may die, but I remain Tai Island's bravest warrior!!!!"

Their furious shouts became their final swan songs.

An intense, blood-boiling sound wave erupted from Lu Ding's body.

Rings of light exploded inch by inch from his acupoints.

Dark red gleams gradually concentrated in his eyes.

This was the activation of [Devouring Qi Death Beam].

After skill fusion, it became more powerful.

But that didn't mean the original skill became unusable.

Laser eyes.

How fucking cool.

Twin dark red lasers instantly shot from Lu Ding's eyes.

Following his gaze, they swept horizontally across the battlefield.

Cutting explosions annihilated everything blocking his path to Tanaka Hirota.

Severed limbs flew, blood and flesh splattered everywhere.

As Lu Ding advanced with his blade, he responded to their dying words:

"Humbling Tai Island warriors is exactly what I'm doing!"

"Fight me? If you had the strength, you wouldn't be 'shattered' here!"

"If curses could kill, I'd have died a thousand times over!"

"Hell? For you, hell is hell. For me, there's no difference between hell and heaven!"

"Innocent? You stand against me—we're enemies on this battlefield. What fucking innocence? Years ago, Great Han's civilians were the real innocents. Go fuck yourself!"

"You're not the bravest warrior—you're the motherfucker shattered most thoroughly!!!"

Stopping during combat was pointless!

Pointless talk wasted time.

Attacking while trash-talking? That's psychological warfare.

No delay whatsoever!

Lu Ding went full broadcast mode.

Not content with fighting everyone alone,

He had to verbally destroy them all simultaneously.

Above the battlefield,

Great Han's cleanup team observed Lu Ding's performance.

For a moment, they felt their own treatment of enemies seemed... well... somewhat merciful compared to his.

Current Lu Ding roughly equaled their most ruthless historical methods.

This realization made the Heavenly Perception operatives wonder—had age softened them?

Below,

Lu Ding reached Tanaka Hirota.

A carpet of shredded corpses stretched behind him.

Tanaka trembled uncontrollably, barely able to stand.

The scene struck Lu Ding as utterly ridiculous!

Teammates had shielded this man,

Yet here he stood, shaking in terror,

Unable to even raise a hand against him.

How did such trash enter the battlefield bearing [Scholar Stripe-Special]?

Was he worthy?

In Tanaka's eyes, Lu Ding—though human-shaped—was the true monster who slaughtered without blinking!

Finally, face flushed red, Tanaka spat:

"You... you'll face trial at the Qi Refiners' military tribunal!!!!"

Lu Ding could no longer contain his laughter: "HAHAHAHAHAHA........"

His mirth shook the surroundings.

Waves of spiritual energy burst forth with black smoke,

Making the sea tremble, the ground quake, until finally the earth split open and ocean explosions sent water columns dozens of meters high.

Pointing his blade at Tanaka Hirota,

The razor edge pressed against his forehead, piercing skin as bright red blood trickled down.

Lu Ding declared: "Only survivors get tried."

"Come. Attack me."

Pure humiliation.

Tanaka's eyes reddened with rage,

Yet he couldn't muster a single offensive move.

His hands shook too violently to form seals.

This trash who could only fight when winning or evenly matched disgusted Lu Ding.

Lowering the blade to Tanaka's mouth: "Ahhh, open wide."

Though knowing what came next,

Tanaka instinctively obeyed.

The sharp blade plunged through his mouth and out the back of his skull.

Lu Ding genuinely felt... bored.

This ranked among his easiest skill acquisitions ever.

"Willingly submitting to execution" didn't adequately describe Tanaka's pathetic state—

His courage had literally dissolved.

If all skill sources proved this easy, Lu Ding mused, true invincibility couldn't be far off.

Withdrawing the blade with a flick,

Blood droplets scattered like frosty crimson mist.

[Contained Creature: Scholar Stripe-Special]

[Containment Reward: Mountain-Lifting Seal Throw]

[Mountain-Lifting Seal Throw: Twelve Symbol Technique, Ox Attribute. Lifts mountains weighing millions of jin, throws them thousands of meters. Overwhelming force crushes opponents.]

Lu Ding's face darkened momentarily.

His dual-wielding dream... shattered.

"Trash!"

"Expected nothing good from a loser's monster."

Then his expression transformed: "Good! Excellent! This is fantastic!"

[Mountain-Lifting Seal Throw, acquired!]

[Bear Strength, acquired!]

[Spell: Mountain-Shaking Summit-Quaking!]

[Mountain-Shaking Summit-Quaking: Ox Attribute among Twelve Symbols. Shakes mountains, quakes summits, churns earth veins!]

Genuinely surprised, Lu Ding never expected Black Granny's [Bear Strength] could synergize with [Scholar Stripe-Special] to produce a spell.

A pleasant—no, fucking amazing—surprise.

But the show wasn't over.

Lu Ding's face shifted again.

What appeared before his eyes?!

[Mountain-Shaking Summit-Quaking, acquired!]

[Pumping Heart Flesh Malevolence, acquired!]

The merging text now bore special effects.

Golden radiance emerged—legendary golden text!!!

[Spell: Mountain-Shaking Earth-Quaking!]

[Mountain-Shaking Earth-Quaking: One of Thirty-Six Heavenly Methods. Advanced force technique. One kick collapses mountains;

one punch splits earth. Feel power's respiration.]

There were higher levels?!

Thirty-Six Heavenly Methods—what did this mean?!

In his past life's childhood, Lu Ding adored Journey to the West.

Back then, he'd cheered Monkey King learning seventy-two earthly transformations.

Fewer must mean worse, right?

Growing up, after accidentally reading [Comprehensive Records of Past Immortals] (aka [Unified Records of Three Religions]), he realized—Monkey got scammed!!!

Each Heavenly Method surpassed the last in absurdity!

Why settle for earthly transformations?!

Dammit!!!

Journey to the West explicitly named only two Heavenly Method practitioners:

Patriarch Subodhi and Zhu Bajie.

Despite Monkey constantly calling him "Idiot,"

Taoist mythology positioned Tianpeng as the Big Dipper's Breaker of Armies Star, leader of the Four Saints of the North, wielder of triple-head six-arm divine abilities.

His combat prowess knew no bounds.

Taoism possessed a ritual object called Tianpeng Ruler—capable of repelling deities.

It could even shatter divine statues.

One strike produced crisp, clean breaks.

Though Lu Ding never specialized in research, those books suggested two possibilities:

Either Zhu Bajie sandbagged throughout Journey to the West,

Or this "Marshal Tianpeng" bore no relation to Taoism's Tianpeng (though Bajie claimed even True Martial Emperor couldn't intimidate him, suggesting deliberate underperformance).

The novel left this unexplained, creating plot holes.

The truth remained unclear.

But Lu Ding knew one thing—he'd struck gold!

Possessing Mountain-Shaking Earth-Quaking—one of Thirty-Six Heavenly Methods—

Heavenly Perception operatives?

Once he completed [Heaven-Man Unity] and [White Snake Shakes Scales] to model the Yangtze and Yellow River,

Then activated [Black Prison of Death's Body]—

He could beat Heavenly Perception operatives while locked inside their own prison!!!