Wielding his Long Spear, Fang Mushan thrust forward violently. The spearhead, like a nimble dragon's head, carried a vicious wind as it charged straight into the core of the enemy formation.
His body moved with the spear, and the spear with his body. Every flourish created a blur of afterimages.
The spinning tassel on his spear glinted like Dragon Scales, exuding a biting, cold light.
With Xuu Yun, who had reached First Level Great Mastery, dead, the exceptionally talented Fang Mushan moved through the chaotic soldiers as if they weren't even there.
Wherever he passed, enemies fell. Some were flung into the air by the tip of his spear, others were swept off their feet by its shaft. The air filled with incessant, wretched screams.
But soon, a veteran soldier bellowed, "Form up!" Enduring the continuous casualties, the panicked soldiers forced themselves into a semi-circular formation, Long Spears at the fore, interspersed with swords and shields.
At this sight, Fang Mushan was forced to be more cautious. His Long Spear flickered as he charged left and right, but he couldn't achieve much.
A battlefield was different from the one-on-one duels of the Mortal World. With attacks coming from all directions, even a Great Success Martial Master of the Outer Three Harmonies could be killed if they weren't careful.
Fang Mushan gritted his teeth.
'If I were wearing my full Armor, this rabble would be nothing...'
He might call them rabble, but among the thirty elite soldiers dispatched by Zhang Shuyang, the weakest had at least entered the Martial Dao.
Strictly speaking, the fact that Fang Mushan could fight them alone for so long was a testament to his astonishing Constitution.
Meanwhile, Xu Yunfan pushed himself up with one hand and leaped out of the hole. He snatched the Longsword from Xuu Yun's waist and swung it up at Yang Gan like a club.
He had no idea how to wield a sword, of course, but his special trait of overwhelming arm strength allowed him to swing the Longsword with the force of a heavy weapon.
Yang Gan's eyes narrowed. His arms hung limply at his sides, and he remained perfectly still, merely tilting his head to let the Longsword land where his neck met his shoulder.
CLANG!
The sound of metal striking metal rang out, and Xu Yunfan was shocked to find that the Longsword in his hand hadn't penetrated in the slightest.
Just then, Li Haomiao's voice drifted up calmly from the hole below.
"This person cultivates Black Iron Armor. Trained to Great Success, his entire hide is like a suit of Armor. His veins bulge like green pythons coiling around his body, and ordinary swords can't harm him. If you had a Heavy Hammer, you could take him down with ease."
Hearing Li Haomiao belittle him so casually, the corner of Yang Gan's eye twitched.
He was about to speak when Xu Yunfan suddenly kicked up, aiming straight for his groin. The attack was so fierce it made the air WHOOSH.
'Such ferocious power!'
Yang Gan's pupils contracted. The kick was so fast and sudden that he couldn't afford the slightest bit of carelessness.
Years of combat experience made him instinctively snap his thighs together, barely blocking the fatal blow.
"Why are you clamping your legs together like a little lady?"
A mocking sneer played on Xu Yunfan's lips, but his hands didn't slow in the slightest.
Before his voice had even faded, he decisively dropped the Longsword and balled his hand into a fist. Stepping forward, he swung a punch whistling through the air, aimed straight at Yang Gan's temple.
For Horizontal Training, unless one's cultivation reached the pinnacle of Skin Cultivation and manifested the Golden Skin State, there would always be weak points.
These weak points were, nine times out of ten, located in the body's most vulnerable areas, such as the eyes, groin, the back of the head, the navel, and the temples.
A flash of shame and anger flickered in Yang Gan's eyes at Xu Yunfan's sharp taunt.
The way he had just blocked Xu Yunfan's kick did look rather like a coy maiden. For a giant of a man who stood well over six feet tall, the jab hit a sore spot and dealt a heavy blow to his pride.
"You're courting death!"
Yang Gan bellowed. Instead of retreating from Xu Yunfan's heavy punch, he advanced.
He threw up a large hand to parry, precisely blocking Xu Yunfan's attack. At the same time, he bent his other arm at the elbow and shot it upward like a sharp Battle Axe, aiming viciously for Xu Yunfan's jaw.
If that blow landed true, even if Xu Yunfan wasn't injured, he'd be left dizzy and disoriented.
'It all clicked.' Xu Yunfan suddenly understood. He mentally kicked himself for his lack of combat experience.
When two Horizontal Practitioners fought, all you had to do was daze your opponent and slow them down. Then you could easily attack their weak points and finish them with a single strike.
The two instantly descended into a fierce brawl. Fists and feet flew. They abandoned all defense except for their vital areas, both men using every ounce of their strength to attack the other.
The longer Yang Gan fought, the more alarmed he grew.
His Horizontal Training had already reached Great Success. Ordinary blades couldn't harm him in the slightest, and to him, punches and kicks were no different from being tickled.
But Xu Yunfan's fists were like thousand-pound hammers. Every blow sent a shockwave through him that roiled his internal organs, making him feel utterly wretched.
This forced him to start defending. Otherwise, as the shocks to his organs piled up, he feared Xu Yunfan might actually batter him to death from the inside.
Though his Horizontal Training had reached Great Success, making his skin as hard as Iron Armor, he was only at the First Level of Great Mastery. His training had touched upon his muscles and bones, but the Realm of Outer Three Harmonies was still a distant dream, let alone the strengthening of his blood, marrow, and organs. His viscera remained fragile, unable to withstand the continuous, concussive blows of a Hammer Technique.
Xu Yunfan keenly sensed the change in Yang Gan's offense. Seeing him constantly blocking the attacks aimed at his chest, it was obvious that Yang Gan feared the Hammer Technique behind his blows.
He immediately cast aside all restraint, unleashing a furious storm of fists upon Yang Gan.
Thanks to his special trait of overwhelming arm strength, every punch landed with the weight of a thousand pounds, as if a great mountain were crashing down.
Yang Gan was beaten into a steady retreat. Eventually, his arms, which he used to block, grew numb. His qi and blood stagnated, and his movements became much more sluggish.
"Wait! I have something to say!"
Yang Gan finally couldn't take it anymore and was forced to speak.
If this kept up, he feared Xu Yunfan would actually beat him to death right then and there. The thought of retreat began to take root in his mind.
But Xu Yunfan turned a deaf ear. His fists only grew more vicious, each swing seeming to tear through the air with a terrifying WHOOSH.
Yang Gan was both furious and terrified, and he tried to break away from the fight.
But Xu Yunfan wasn't about to let him escape so easily. Seizing the opening as Yang Gan retreated, he flashed forward, closed the distance, and seized him in a tight grapple.
Then, putting all the strength of his core into it, he unleashed an astonishing burst of power. He lifted the nearly three-hundred-pound man clean into the air and then violently slammed him back down.
THUD!
With a dull thud, Yang Gan crashed to the ground. A muffled grunt escaped his lips, and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
Yet his movements seemed completely unaffected. He quickly twisted and kicked, breaking free from Xu Yunfan's hold, then rolled across the ground several times before scrambling back to his feet.
'That didn't kill him!?'
Xu Yunfan was astonished. Now he finally understood why Li Haomiao had said that Martial Artists who practiced Horizontal Training were a bunch of tenacious pests.
Against a foe in the same Realm, if you didn't have a Divine Weapon and they guarded their weak points to the death, your only option was to wear them down to exhaustion, provided you couldn't inflict a serious injury.