There, among the jagged cluster of boulders in the distance, a massive shape abruptly swelled into view.

It was too far away to gauge its true size, but the deafening roar that burst out with it shook the mountains for miles around. The ground rumbled, rocks flew in every direction, and the force made people’s blood churn and their heads ring. Some even felt their eardrums split and bleed.

Everyone was stunned. They all turned to look, following the sound.

Anyone who wasn’t blind could see the source of that thunderous noise.

Yet almost no one noticed, as Li Xun did, the faintest glimmer of sky flashing behind the giant form.

He swallowed hard. If his guess was right, this colossal thing had torn straight through the mountain behind it. Not phased through, like with some escape technique. No. actually torn through.

That meant its path had to be a perfectly straight line. Otherwise, the sky on the far side could never have been visible from here.

Good heavens… what kind of monster was this?

“Ox Warrior!” Wenhai forced the name out, trying to keep his voice steady.

Ox Warrior?

Wait, that Ox Warrior? The one whose reputation among all the demons in the Tongxuan Realm was second only to the The Seven Great Demons? The one who's actually one of the top ten councilors of the Rogue Cultivators’ Alliance?

Everyone who heard Wenhai’s words drew in a sharp breath. The shock came not from the name itself, but from the centuries of bloodshed and infamy that name carried.

By comparison, the stir caused by Li Xun earlier didn’t even come close. Yet what struck Li Xun most, beyond his own surprise, was how quickly Wenhai had recognized him. Was his eye really that sharp?

Meeting Li Xun’s questioning gaze, Wenhai gave a bitter smile. “The reason I came out this time… is because of him.”

Before he could finish, another roar erupted, like thunder splitting the heavens.

This time the force was even greater than before, the impact far stronger.

The mountain in between shook visibly, great slabs of rock tumbling into the gorge, crashing and sparking in showers of fire. A terrifying sight.

On Li Xun’s side, at least four or five cultivators dropped to the ground the instant the sound hit, knocked unconscious by the shockwave.

Not one of them, however, was from the Mingxin Sword Sect.

It wasn’t that their cultivation was higher than the others. Rather, the sect’s Daoist True Breath was simply far more effective at steadying the mind than other methods.

Even so, most people’s faces were twisted in pain. If another roar came, things would get ugly fast.

There was no time for questions. Li Xun made a split-second decision. "Move, now!" he shouted, leading his group up the slope while the rogue cultivators were still frozen in shock.

They had only gone a few dozen steps when the others finally snapped out of it. Some immediately gave chase, but one of them was cut down on the spot by Li Xun and Wenhai working together, throwing the scene into chaos again.

Just then, another wave of sound rolled in from afar. Not a roar this time, but a rough, rasping voice bellowing, “Slut, I know! What can you do to me?”

The voice no longer rattled hearts and minds, yet every word still cracked like thunder, its force undiminished, drawing wary looks from all around.

But what did it mean? No one knew.

Li Xun frowned. The words seemed to carry some deeper meaning. Since Wenhai clearly knew more than most, Li Xun naturally turned his eyes toward him.

Meeting that gaze, Wenhai’s expression grew grave. “The Ox Warrior has gone mad.”

The Ox Warrior has gone mad!

Five days earlier, word had come from the North Pole Yemo Heaven, headquarters of the Rogue Cultivators’ Alliance. The report said that while cultivating, the Ox Warrior had suffered a backlash, lost control, and gone berserk, wreaking havoc within Yemo Heaven itself. After being wounded by the Demon Phoenix and others, he fled south with his injuries.

As his name suggests, the Ox Warrior’s true form was a primeval beast known as the Howling Thunder Rhinoceros. It looked like an ox, but with a violent temper and a tendency to go mad. Whenever it lost control, it would lash out in destruction until it had exhausted itself, only then settling down.

Even after he achieved success in cultivation, those traits never truly faded.

And this time, his frenzy was even worse.

In the far north he laid waste to everything in his path, killing without restraint, until the havoc forced great demons like the Demon Phoenix and the Kunpeng to strike him down.

But the Ox Warrior was terrifyingly strong. Even with wounds that should have been fatal, he managed to break through their encirclement by sheer brute force.

Precisely because of that, the power he was unleashing on the brink of death was nothing to underestimate.

Now he could no longer tell friend from foe. All the way south, every cultivator who crossed his path had died a gruesome death.

They were already nearing the territory of the Mingxin Sword Sect. Daoist Qingming, the sect master, had decided to convene the leading experts of all the sects in the coming days, joining forces to bring the Ox Warrior down. In the meantime, all disciples training outside who lay along the beast’s path were ordered back to the mountain for safety.

Wenhai had come down the mountain precisely to escort this group of disciples home.

He had never expected to stumble into such trouble. Ambushed for meddling in the name of justice, then thrown straight into a confrontation with the mad creature who even had the immortal masters on edge.

No matter how steady or resolute he was, Wenhai could only shake his head and sigh.

He and Li Jun had already shepherded their sect brothers and sisters into a restriction Li Xun had prepared in advance. They hadn’t even caught their breath when someone suddenly shouted, “He’s charging in!”

At those words, everyone’s face went pale.

And before the echo died away, that colossal figure in the distance suddenly sprang forward.

Against the backdrop of the sky, it was only a blur of gray shadow, yet every person present felt it like a mountain hurtling down to crush them.

Even before his voice reached them, they were already gasping for air.

"What can you do to me?"

With a thunderous roar, the Ox Warrior dropped from the sky. A timid rogue cultivator below screamed in terror and tried to flee on his sword.

But the Ox Warrior hunted only those who moved. His giant hand reached down from above, and a sound like ten thousand bulls bellowing shook the valley. The fleeing man didn’t even have time to cry out before his sword light slammed straight into the mountainside, his body smashed to pieces.

The Ox Warrior landed on solid ground and burst into wild laughter.

Only then did Li Xun realize the Ox Warrior stood more than ten feet tall. Of all he had seen, perhaps only the Net Throat Demon could compare.

Yet Net Throat Demon’s body was nothing but a charred, withered branch, far less imposing than the Bull Warrior, whose frame was as solid as a mountain. Just standing there, he crushed the courage of everyone around him to its lowest ebb.

What’s more, every pore of his body seemed to erupt with suffocating pressure, and behind that pressure lurked something even more terrifying: madness.

His bloodshot eyes rolled, sweeping over the surroundings. There wasn’t a trace of reason in them. All he sought now was a target that promised enough excitement.

Suddenly his gaze fixed, locking onto a female cultivator of some beauty. Her face instantly turned pale as snow.

“Slut, I know, I know!” He kept repeating the same words over and over, each one like a massive millstone grinding the female cultivator before him, crushing her again and again.

At last, she broke. With a shriek, she raised her sword and charged straight at the Ox Warrior.

That set everyone off. Of the twenty-some rogue cultivators still alive, some scattered in every direction, some rushed in with bloodshot eyes, and some simply collapsed to the ground, already resigned to death.

The woman who led the charge was also the first to fall. A single punch from the Ox Warrior blasted her into the air. Her lithe, slender body came apart before it even hit the ground. And even the longsword in her hands twisted to the breaking point before shattering with a metallic wail.

She was only the first.

When five people in a row were smashed to pieces by a single punch each, everyone still nearby understood: unless they kept their distance from this mad beast, survival was impossible.

No one dared face the terrifying monster head-on anymore. In an instant, the crowd scattered, fleeing for their lives. Even so, three unlucky souls were a heartbeat too slow and were pounded into pulp.

When it was all over, the madness in the Ox Warrior’s eyes hadn’t lessened in the slightest. If anything, it burned even brighter.

He stopped speaking. Only his heavy breath rumbled through his nostrils. Each inhale and exhale like rolling thunder that never ceased.

Li Xun snapped a branch, and thousands of qi threads stirred. After weaving together hundreds upon hundreds of times, they formed a temporary space of relative safety for everyone within.

All held their breath. The Bull Warrior’s gaze swept past their hiding place at least four times, but he found nothing.

Li Xun finally let out a quiet sigh of relief and whispered to Wenhai, “Lucky for us he’s lost his mind. Otherwise, this makeshift barrier would be nothing but a joke.”

Wenhai gave a silent smile, but his face soon grew grim again. “I never imagined a mad Ox Warrior could be this terrifying…”

He hadn’t even finished the thought when a faint, ragged cough suddenly sounded in their ears.

It wasn’t loud. Against the thunderous rumble outside, it shouldn’t have been noticeable at all.

But that single cough made the Ox Warrior whip around. His snorting breath grew even harsher and heavier, and his great bull’s eyes bulged as if they would burst from his skull.

Every gaze turned toward the same spot, where the orphan girl they had just rescued was desperately covering her mouth. Her pupils already blown wide with fear.

No one would blame her. At least not openly.

Everyone tightened their grip on their swords. Before long, that was all they would have to rely on.

The only one who truly remained calm was Li Xun.

After all, having already witnessed the overwhelming might of figures like the Two Wanderers, the Demon Phoenix, and Shui Die Lan, the Ox Warrior’s ferocity no longer shook him deeply. What concerned him now was how to resolve the situation without revealing his own strength.

That was a far more difficult problem than the Ox Warrior’s fists.

The Ox Warrior took a single step. The ground boomed, and everyone’s hearts jolted in unison.

They braced themselves for the next thunderous impact... but the Ox Warrior suddenly froze, turning his head to the north.

Li Xun’s thoughts stirred. That was the direction he had come from. If his reading was right, the Ox Warrior’s body language now revealed a single word: fear.

What could possibly make even a madman like him feel fear?

Before Li Xun could come to an answer, the Ox Warrior gave another low roar, wheeled toward the south, stomped the ground, and leapt skyward. Crashing through countless trees and rocks along the way, he vanished from sight in an instant.