The Five Elders of the Lan River were mighty ones who had shattered the Heaven-Primordial Wall and opened the Heaven-Man Spirit Treasury—how exquisite was the sword-control art they had taught?

The art he wielded with his hands was a fist-technique divine power created by the Five Elders of the Lan River, called the Lan River Formula. When both hands performed this fist art, primal qi became a great river, surging and roaring, waves splitting the banks, terrifying beyond measure. Though he had not yet trained the fist art to the level of divine power, its might was already no small thing—splitting steles and shattering rock, grinding stone to powder, were nothing to it.

Yet before the "little spawn of evil's" little stick, these two great arts were riddled with flaws, their defenses breached again and again, the little stick raining down on his face, neck, collarbone, elbow, wrist, finger bones, ribs, the heart of his back, the small of his back, his hip, the hollow of his knee, his ankle! In that brief moment, Senior Brother Chu was beaten until his head was covered in lumps and his body mottled black and blue. How could he not be furious?

Yet what filled his heart was mostly dread. If what Shen Mu held were not a little stick, but a saber.

. . The consequences did not bear imagining!

Too terrifying.

This youth was at most eleven or twelve years old, his body not even reaching his own chest.

Even if he had trained from the womb, he could not possibly have cultivated such a fearsome art, could he?

Senior Brother Chu soon perceived Shen Mu's shortcoming and set his heart at ease: "His primal-qi cultivation is very weak.

His moves are exquisite beyond compare, but his cultivation is pitifully weak. Or rather, he is not a spirit body at all, but merely an ordinary man.

. . "

He had finally hit upon the crux: Shen Mu was only an ordinary man, not a spirit body, and had not opened the Primal Fetus Spirit Treasury.

He must have cultivated some basic art like the Qi-Guiding Art, which had given him a portion of primal-qi cultivation. But the primal qi an ordinary man cultivated had no attribute at all and could unleash no might. So although Shen Mu's attacking moves far surpassed his own, the moves had no power, and thus posed little threat to him.

"This saber art of the little spawn of evil must be a divine power—only he is still far from being able to bring out its might. If I could obtain this divine power. .

. "

Senior Brother Chu's heart began to stir with eagerness.

Shen Mu could not bring out the saber art's might, but he himself could bring out a measure of it. If it were displayed in his hands, its power would surely be terrifying!

He could see that Shen Mu's saber art was a combat skill.

Combat skills were different from divine powers like sword-control. Sword-control freed the hands, letting the sword fly through the air to kill, making one's swordsmanship more nimble and swift, while the hands could attack the enemy at the same time, making it more varied. Combat skills were different.

Combat skills took the primal path; they required one's own hands to wield the weapon, allowing one's primal qi to pour into the weapon to the greatest degree, making the moves mightier and the divine power stronger!

In truth, the question of which was superior, combat skills or sword-control, had long since been settled. Several hundred years ago combat skills and sword-control coexisted, and in those days those who cultivated combat skills and those who cultivated sword-control acknowledged no master but themselves, and often went to war to test who was stronger. But then a prodigy emerged from the sword-control lineage, and slaughtered the mighty ones of combat skill until some died, some were crippled, and some fled.

And that prodigy was none other than the man the Kingdom of Jingping today calls the first under the gods—the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping! To this day, those who cultivate combat skills are few and far between, and the highest divine powers of the combat-skill lineage have one after another been lost, with no inheritors. What has come down are all low-grade combat skills. Yet truly high-grade combat skills are still exceedingly formidable, and Senior Brother Chu was firmly convinced that what this little spawn of evil before him displayed was a true high-grade combat skill!

"I must get this combat skill into my hands!

I will capture him, and by whatever means force him to hand over the cultivation method for this combat skill! "

Shen Mu's little wooden stick was still madly beating Senior Brother Chu.

Senior Brother Chu fought desperately to block it, but could never fully fend off the little stick, and in a short time was struck several hundred times. Senior Brother Chu's head and face swelled more and more, his body ached more and more, and panic gradually rose in his heart.

The more panicked he grew, the more his form fell into disorder, and the more times the little stick landed on his body. Though it was only a little wooden stick with little might, joined to Shen Mu's own strength and striking without cease, the accumulation of small blows wrought no small damage to his body.

"He means to beat me to death! " Senior Brother Chu shuddered with dread.