"Awooo—" The Fifth Protector's eyes bulged from their sockets, the veins on his forehead standing out like cords, and with a shrill, agonized scream he dropped straight to his knees, both hands clamped over the space between his legs, gasping in great heaving breaths.

His manhood had, for all intents and purposes, been smashed to pulp by those six punches of Wei Zhao's! It was one of the most fragile parts of the human body, and the pain of it was more than even a cultivator of peak late Earth-rank strength could endure!

The Fifth Protector had never expected Wei Zhao to be so viciously underhanded—and what baffled him most was this: Wei Zhao's two fists had plainly struck him square in the chest, so how had his groin taken six punches at the very same moment? Where had those six punches come from?

Still, the Fifth Protector could hardly be blamed for his carelessness. No one on earth would imagine that the two fists smashing into his chest could land another six blows upon his groin at the same time. It simply defied all reason!

And so the Fifth Protector had poured every scrap of his true qi into guarding his chest, not sparing the faintest sliver for anywhere else! That, too, was because the damage Wei Zhao's Vacuum Wave Fist had done him earlier had been so devastating; otherwise he would never have been so cautious as to shield his chest with the whole of his true qi.

And had Wei Zhao withdrawn after those two punches, the Fifth Protector might well have spread his true qi over his whole body again before unleashing his martial art—for by his sensing, those two blows to his chest had hardly warranted concentrating all his true qi; a normal full-body guard would have sufficed.

But it was too late for regret now. He was going to die of the pain!

Strike a man when he's down and finish him—that was Wei Zhao's invariable way. The notion of a fair duel had never once entered Wei Zhao's mind. Wei Zhao was no knight; at bottom he was an assassin, for his master had been an assassin.

From childhood, the lesson drilled into Wei Zhao had been this: the process of killing does not matter. Only the result does! And if you cannot win, run if you can; if you cannot run, think of some way to play your opponent foul.

So it was that while the Fifth Protector knelt on the ground gasping for breath, Wei Zhao moved again!

"Frenzied Fire Fist—Fourth Form!"

Wei Zhao bellowed it in the depths of his mind, though on the surface he said nothing at all. His searing true qi gathered into a blazing flame that wrapped his right fist, and he drove it flying at the Fifth Protector's head!

The Fifth Protector was at that moment circulating his true qi to heal his manhood. Though it seemed to have been shattered by Wei Zhao, he still clung to a shred of hope and meant to try healing it.

After all, if he really were ruined, the pleasures of life would be cut in half!

As a protector of the Tagan family—and one ranked rather high among them—he kept several concubines. Night after night of song and revelry—and now, if he were ruined, he would never again taste a man's pleasures. That would be the death of him.

But just as the Fifth Protector thought of healing himself, Wei Zhao's fist came crashing in again!

Only this time, having learned from his last loss, the Fifth Protector was smarter. He did not shield his head with all his strength, but chiefly guarded his lower body! For those two punches Wei Zhao had aimed at his chest seemed to him merely so-so, nothing outstanding.

As for the six punches to his groin—those had been delivered in rapid succession, and to the frailest part of the body, and that was what had done him such grievous harm!

So this time he left only a small fraction of his true qi at his head, and the greater part of it he used to protect his lower half. For the Fifth Protector guessed that a man as venomous as Wei Zhao would likely strike at his lower body again—that root-severing fist of his. Despicable as it was, it was also devilishly effective.

"Boom—"

Wei Zhao's Fourth Form Frenzied Fire Fist slammed straight into the Fifth Protector's skull and sent the man flying backward through the air!

True, the Fifth Protector had left some true qi to guard his head, but certainly not much—and so the tragedy unfolded. This time Wei Zhao had not used the martial art of the Myriad Transformations of Forest and Wood, but had switched to Frenzied Fire Fist!

The Myriad Transformations of Forest and Wood was uncanny, to be sure, but it split its power among a number of separate punches. Had those six punches not landed on the Fifth Protector's manhood, he would never have been injured so badly.

Frenzied Fire Fist was a different matter. Its Fourth Form was enough to rival the Fifth Form of other martial arts, and this one punch of Wei Zhao's all but gave the Fifth Protector a concussion!

"Brat, I'll kill you!" Sent flying, the Fifth Protector clambered shakily to his feet, his face slick with blood, his expression utterly savage. He had not expected to come off the worse again. This Wei Zhao was simply too cunning—his martial arts were not only numerous but uncanny, different every time, leaving him no way to respond.

Of course, domineering as that punch of Wei Zhao's was, the gap in rank between him and the Fifth Protector was simply too vast. Even with the Fifth Protector caught off guard, the blow still could not deal him a fatal injury.

Instead, the pain in his head and his lower body only roused the Fifth Protector's savagery. He drew a deep breath and forced his emotions steady. In an instant the true qi within him surged to a roar, his blood-red eyes glittering with dense killing intent, and with a furious bellow he charged at Wei Zhao, trailing a murderous vigor that seemed to blot out the sky!

"Mountain-Splitting Leg—Tenth Form!"

Watching the Fifth Protector come on like a raging leopard, Wei Zhao's heart sank a little. His opponent's strength far exceeded his imaginings—beaten as he was, the Fifth Protector still possessed such ferocious fighting power!

"Frenzied Fire Fist—Fourth Form!"

There was no help for it. Wei Zhao could only pit his strongest martial art, Frenzied Fire Fist, against the man in a straight clash. His true-qi bomb could not be used again in so short a time, and the Myriad Transformations of Forest and Wood was unsuited to head-on confrontation—it was fit only for surprise attacks.

"Boom!"

Wei Zhao's fist and the Fifth Protector's leg collided with a thunderous crash like a peal of muffled thunder!

Wei Zhao's body was sent flying backward on the spot. In a straight clash, he was indeed no match at all!

Watching Wei Zhao tumble through the air, the Fifth Protector's lips curved in a cruel smile, killing intent churning in his heart!

Today he must slaughter Wei Zhao, or the hatred in his heart would never be appeased!

Never mind that the Eighth Protector had died at Wei Zhao's hands—even his own manhood, the Fifth Protector's, was now in who knew what state. Wei Zhao had to die!

"A Fourth Form martial art, is it? A mantis trying to stop a chariot—what presumption!" The Fifth Protector sneered, and giving Wei Zhao not the slightest chance, he launched himself forward again: "Mountain-Splitting Leg, Tenth Form—brat, go to your death!" (To be continued) RQ

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