CHAPTER 285: FIGHT!?

The figures didn’t speak; instead, they launched their attacks with ruthless precision. Daggers and swords slashed at him mercilessly.

Chun Ma watched calmly, standing still as he allowed the onslaught.

But just as the blades neared his skin, they abruptly halted. frozen in mid-air, at least to the naked eye.

The assassins aimed coldly for his vital organs, showing no mercy.

But Chun Ma didn’t budge. His blue pupils calmly observed the rain of attacks, none of which managed to cause even the slightest damage.

After all the weapons had been exhausted, Chun Ma calmly raised his palm and muttered softly:

"Palm Technique: Reversal Qi."

In an instant, the surrounding Qi twisted and distorted. The assassins, who had been lurking in the shadows, were revealed.

Twelve figures stood before him, clad in ragged clothes that covered them completely from head to toe, not a single inch of skin exposed.

Despite Chun Ma’s move, they didn’t even flinch. Like feathers, they shot through the air, swiftly closing the distance.

Shaking his head, Chun Ma observed them coolly. "Two Second-stage Martial Artists and ten Third-stage Martial Artists. Trained killers, all of them. If I were at the Second stage, I might truly have struggled. However..."

He raised his hand and took a deep breath. A faint, translucent image, an almost exact replica of himself, appeared, overlaying his corporeal body.

His fingers curled into a fist, muscles in his arm tightening like coiled steel.

With a sudden motion, he thrust his fist forward.

"First Technique: Meteor Fist."

The air shrieked as the wind tore apart before his strike. Pressure exploded outward in a violent shockwave, raw force condensed into a single devastating blast.

The assassins didn’t even have time to scream. The force consumed them in an instant, swallowing their silhouettes in a flash of burning light.

Then, when the blast ended, everything seemed to have completely evaporated—the ground was charred and blackened.

Chun Ma observed calmly, "So this is the power of a First-stage Martial Artist? Even some of the simplest Martial Techniques I casually learned have this kind of power when the Will merges with the body."

As a Third-stage Martial Artist, you have already formed your Will.

In the Second-stage Martial Realm, you strengthen your Will to its peak.

And in the First-stage Martial Realm, the Will merges with the body, enabling you to unleash terrifying strength. Not only that, but you can also perform Martial Arts that should have been accessible only in their Will form.

But as a First-stage Martial Artist, his Will was the body.

The two Martial Arts he used were pretty much self-explanatory: the Reversal Qi made it so that he could twist the Qi in the air, making most of the hiding techniques useless in front of him, and Meteor Fist gathered his Demonic Qi and, with the help of his Will, focused it to form a blast.

This technique, combined with his control over his body, was almost perfect and that blast would most likely take down anyone below the First-stage Martial Realm.

"I wanted to use the special Martial Arts from the Heavenly Cultivation Technique, but it seems I will not be able to." Chun Ma shook his head with disappointment as he walked away from the alleyway with his arms crossed behind him like an expert.

There was no reason for him to try to interrogate these assassins; he knew that they were expert killers, and their master would have made sure that they didn’t have time to leak their identity.

There are many ways to shut their mouths, so many ways that there was a whole achievement of it in the library of the Shadow faction.

That’s right, this knowledge came from Gang Reyong. Now that he has taken control of the entire faction, all its knowledge was also privy to him, and Chun Ma’s horizon of the world has expanded.

This was how his suspicion for the Heavenly Demon was born.

"There are also methods to..." Chun Ma didn’t finish his sentence, walls had ears, and he didn’t want to act without knowing if anyone was listening.

He walked through the darkened streets, appearing to travel aimless.

And in truth, he was truly walking aimlessly. Then, suddenly, a figure blinked into existence right before him.

Chun Ma didn’t stop.

"Halt," the figure commanded, his voice sharp and authoritative.

Chun Ma kept walking.

"Didn’t you hear me? I said stop," the figure repeated, this time with a crueler edge.

Still, Chun Ma continued on.

The figure suddenly appeared right in front of him, and Chun Ma finally stopped in his tracks. He looked up to see a person wearing a red mask.

"What’s wrong?" Chun Ma asked.

"Heavenly Demon has summoned you."

"Alright." Chun Ma nodded, a smile slowly creeping onto his face.

"Hmph." The figure scoffed, turned, and began to walk away.

But Chun Ma moved in an instant. His fingers curled into a fist, the muscles in his arm tightening like coiled steel.

With a sudden, explosive motion, he thrust his fist forward.

"First Technique: Meteor Fist."

Bang!

The figure was struck mercilessly by the blast of Chun Ma’s fist, completely engulfed in its force.

Chun Ma narrowed his eyes.

When the smoke cleared, the figure still stood, his torn, scorched clothes hanging from his battered frame.

"A First-stage Martial Artist," Chun Ma remarked lightly.

"That’s right," the figure replied casually, turning toward him with a cold gaze. "You’re also a First-stage Martial Artist?"

"That’s right," Chun Ma answered honestly.

Even without words, their invisible Wills clashed within their bodies and they knew their level without a word.

Chun Ma’s Will matched his figure, almost like a perfect replica of him, but the stranger’s Will was unlike any Chun Ma had encountered, a strange Python Will.

Their Wills clashed fiercely, each trying to suppress the other.

"Perfect," Chun Ma said, stretching his body with confidence. "I wanted to test the strength of a First-stage Martial Artist."

The figure sneered. "You’ve got a lot of guts for someone who just barely reached First-stage Martial Artist."

"Python Arts: First Stage."

Chun Ma blinked and suddenly, the figure was right in front of him, transformed into a blinding green light that engulfed him completely.

The figure staggered back quickly, gasping, "My poison is one of the best in the Demonic Cult—" His voice caught and froze.

Behind him stood a youth with long, fluttering golden hair and swirling blue pupils, even though his height was smaller, it felt like the devil himself was behind him.

"How?" the figure muttered in disbelief.

"You were seeing an after-image of mine," Chun Ma’s cold voice echoed sharply in the air as he kicked...

A thunderous bang erupted, shaking the ground beneath them. Dust and debris exploded outward, and the walls surrounding the scene crumbled under the force of the shockwave.

"Heavenly Technique: First Stage," Chun Ma declared with steady calm, his eyes gleaming.

As the swirling dust began to settle, the wind carried it away slowly, revealing Chun Ma’s figure standing unshaken in the center of the devastation.

Before him, the earth was marred by a colossal footprint, a deep imprint nearly a meter wide, pressed firmly into the cracked soil. The figure that had landed there lay flattened, pressed against the ground by the overwhelming force.

The Heavenly Cultivation Technique was not only a cultivation technique, but there was also a Martial Art that complemented it and its power...

From the corner of his mouth, blood poured down.

"I didn’t expect it to be so powerful." Chun Ma thought in his heart. There were four stages of it, but only the first stage already had such power.

Of course that might be because of his Aetherion and other titles which allowed more output of power as well.

The figure was motionless; his heart seemed to have stopped beating.

"Stop acting." Chun Ma scoffed as he slowly walked up to him and kicked him right in the head with a bang.

The figure was sent through the air and landed on the ground, rolling before falling silent again.

"..." Chun Ma was about to act again, but he felt countless murderous thoughts honed in on him.

Without even looking, he knew exactly what was going on, and he frowned because of it.

"There are so many of them," he muttered.

These were the presences of experts; all of them were First-stage Martial Artists, and their Will was honing in on him.

Chun Ma sighed, "It seems that I cannot remain in the Demonic Cult any longer." He turned around, about to leave the place.

Just then, a loud voice rang out, and a figure flew into the sky, a familiar tall figure with long black hair staring at him:

"My disciple, why are you leaving this place? And why have you hurt my people?"

Chun Ma wanted to run away quickly but suddenly felt a crushing pressure descend upon him. The coercion forced a grunt of pain from his lips as he dropped to his knees.

He turned toward the Heavenly Demon and spoke quietly, "You won’t allow me to leave this place, will you?"

"That’s right," the Heavenly Demon chuckled. "Why would you want to leave?"

Slowly, he descended from the skies toward Chun Ma.

Chun Ma remained silent throughout.

The conclusion he reached, based on the knowledge from Gang Reyong, was that the Heavenly Demon wanted to...