"Are you the little thief who ruined my plans?" Ashiya Douman looked at Ying Chen, his eyes flashing with intense ferocity.
Ying Chen walked slowly from the darkness, gazing at Ashiya Douman as he approached. "Didn't your mother teach you to be polite?"
As Ying Chen spoke, a gust of wind exploded at Ashiya Douman's ear. With a thunderous roar, air currents splattered, slicing his face like a knife. Even though Ashiya Douman instantly conjured a protective talisman barrier, he was still inevitably cut by the airflow, a streak of crimson blood flowing from his earlobe.
"Such powerful fist intent! To unleash it remotely from such a distance and still penetrate my barrier! It seems you are at least at the Great Perfection of the seventh stage of martial arts, if not the eighth."
"Good! I haven't met such an opponent since arriving in the Central Plains. Today, I can finally have a thoroughly satisfying battle!"
"Most importantly..." Ashiya Douman said, suddenly licking his lips, a flicker of greed in his eyes. "I have searched for a long time, traveling thousands of miles to the Central Plains, all to find someone like you, someone I've longed for day and night, unable to sleep!"
"..." For some reason, hearing Ashiya Douman's words sent a shiver down Ying Chen's spine. Are people in the future so… adventurous? If it were a handsome young man, it would be one thing, but this is a wizened old man with wrinkled skin and thinning hair! "Ugh..." The more Ying Chen thought about it, the more disgusted he became, goosebumps erupting all over him.
Without hesitation, he opened his five fingers and clenched them towards Ashiya Douman. Bang! A thunderous explosion ripped through the air. Simultaneously, a massive surge of air erupted, white currents diffusing rapidly like a small cloudburst bomb. The intense shockwave consumed everything around. The weeping willows on the bank rustled, their leaves falling to the ground. Ripples churned the water's surface, and the small boat swayed violently, as if a colossal beast hidden beneath the water had surfaced! The power of Ying Chen's single clench was terrifying!
Ashiya Douman, whose expression had been lewd moments ago, was now drastically changed. "Vajrayaksa King Myōō! Protect me!" Ashiya Douman spat out a spell, forming a mudra with his hands. A fierce ghostly roar echoed in the void, and the apparition of a grotesque and ferocious yaksha emerged behind Ashiya Douman. Its colossal form became a mountain, shielding Ashiya Douman beneath it. Rumble… Crashing sounds echoed incessantly. Ying Chen's clenching fist current, like an axe, struck the yaksha again and again. In an instant, it inflicted numerous wounds on the yaksha. The next second, the yaksha wailed, filled with resentment and unwillingness, and vanished into the air. Ashiya Douman's face grew even more somber and grim. "Who exactly are you?" "Why can you suppress and kill my Vajrayaksa King Myōō with just a single 'clench'?" "Such a technique, not to mention now, I've never seen anything like it even in the past!" Ashiya Douman recognized Ying Chen's technique as Wō Gù. Wō Gù was originally a Daoist cultivation method, imitating the way infants clench their fists at birth. This posture could maximally mobilize the body's yang essence, bind the soul, and guard against all evil. It was rumored that at its highest level, Wō Gù could summon wind and thunder with a casual grasp, suppressing demons and spirits. Many great Daoist masters in the past had traversed the world with their Wō Gù, commanding awe from ghosts and gods. Ashiya Douman had always believed these were mere legends, not to be trusted. Yet, Ying Chen was now performing a live demonstration before him! Proving with practical action: a simple Wō Gù gesture could indeed kill! "A dying man is not qualified to know my name," Ying Chen replied coldly, looking at Ashiya Douman. "Arrogant! Don't think you can defeat me just because you know some obscure technique! I am also a rare Shinto master in the East! I still have many hidden trump cards I haven't used!" "The East again?" Ying Chen raised an eyebrow. "It seems Xu Fu really taught his descendants well!" The previous Tsutsumi Shin'ichi had also come from the East and was an Onmyoji. And now, Ashiya Douman also came from the East and was also an Onmyoji. It was obvious they were not unrelated, and their simultaneous appearance in the Dragon Country was no mere sightseeing. However, Ying Chen was too lazy to ponder what conspiracies or schemes these Eastern Onmyoji had. If he encountered them, he would simply crush them. Once a person dies, their schemes and tricks naturally become meaningless. Swish! Ying Chen's figure vanished from his original spot. By the time Ashiya Douman reacted, Ying Chen had already appeared on his small boat. What was most terrifying was that with the addition of a person weighing over a hundred pounds, the entire boat remained perfectly still! Not even a ripple disturbed the water beneath the hull! This showed how heaven-defying Ying Chen's control over his movement technique was! "Sky Inversion." Ying Chen uttered two words coldly. Then, he instantly brought his right hand down. Ashiya Douman's face turned pale with terror. The sky above his head seemed to collapse with Ying Chen's attack! Stars fell from the celestial river, the firmament shattered into huge fragments, whistling towards the ground. The sun and moon also seemed to lose control, friction igniting terrifying thunder and fire in the sky, raining down like a deluge. Ashiya Douman was like a tiny, pitiful insect at the moment of world destruction, able to do nothing but watch as death approached, his heart unable to muster any resistance beyond fear! "No! These are all illusory fist intent he created!" "This isn't real!" "I can't be deceived by illusions, I must resist!" "But… why is his fist intent so real, that I can't even muster the courage to fight back?" Ashiya Douman thought despairingly. He had thought he could quickly deal with Ying Chen and then take over the Hu family. He hadn't expected that he would be the one to be dealt with so quickly! With just one move, he was about to perish under Ying Chen's fist intent! "I can't die! I mustn't die! I've weathered countless storms, how can I falter and sink in the small Central Plains?" Ashiya Douman roared internally. Under this intense will to survive, a surge of energy erupted from him. "Kyō no Shiro!" Ashiya Douman shouted an Eastern phrase. The next second, Ashiya Douman's body took on a bizarre appearance. His body seemed to have fallen into some kind of phantom space, becoming distorted and unreal! His entire form was hazy and indistinct, impossible to discern clearly. Ying Chen's fist print landed on Ashiya Douman's head, but it had no substantial killing effect. It merely created a large splash of air in the void! Following this, Ashiya Douman disappeared, as if Ying Chen had been fighting a mere phantom all along, not a real person! "Hmm?" Ying Chen frowned, looking at the spot where Ashiya Douman had vanished. Clearly, Ying Chen had not anticipated Ashiya Douman having this move either. However, after just a second, Ying Chen let out a scoff, his eyes filled with strong mockery.