The two great sworn enemies at last stood facing each other in the center of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.
Decades of old grudges and fresh hatred intertwined in this moment.
"You old scoundrel."
Lin Cang spoke first.
Upon that cold, hard face, fury had turned into laughter, his voice like rolling muffled thunder.
"You actually dared to come down."
"What?"
"Have you lived enough today? Prepared to die by this old man's hand personally, and settle all these years of entanglement between our two stockades?"
Faced with such naked killing intent and mockery, Li Mang did not grow angry.
That aged face, shaped like withered bone, was unusually calm.
"Life and death are already fated."
Li Mang's voice was hoarse and parched, as though two pieces of rotten wood were grinding violently together.
"All these years, your Black Blood Stockade has pressed in step by step, leaving us no path to live."
"So today—"
Li Mang lifted his eyelids, a chilling, gloomy light flashing through his eyes.
"You can hardly blame this old man for coming to take your life."
"Hahahaha!"
Hearing this, Lin Cang burst into a fit of utterly contemptuous laughter toward the heavens, as though he had heard the funniest joke in this world!
"Li Mang, oh Li Mang!"
"You old dog. In these several decades, none of your other abilities have grown at all, yet this talent for shameless boasting and stirring men's hearts remains as consummate as ever!"
Lin Cang's laughter cut off abruptly.
Killing intent laid bare in his eyes.
"Back when my clan's A-grade genius emerged into the world, who was it that fled for his life like a homeless cur?"
"What?"
"Now, merely borrowing a beast tide stirred up by brutes, coming back with a pack of clay chickens and pottery dogs—"
"and you truly believe you're capable again?"
"You truly believe you have my Black Blood Stockade in the bag?!"
Faced with such humiliation, Li Mang still did not argue.
He merely lowered his head slowly, his turbid gaze sweeping over the swathes of Gu Master corpses beneath his feet.
"An arrow at the end of its flight."
Li Mang spat out the words with exceeding calm.
"How many more times can you draw the bow?"
Then he raised his eyes once more, meeting Lin Cang's man-devouring glare, and said, word by word:
"When your Lin Clan is utterly ruined and dead to the last."
"This old man would like to see—"
"whether you, Lin Cang, can still run your mouth the way you do now."
Boom!
These words struck directly at Lin Cang's deepest taboo!
For Li Mang to curse him, Lin Cang, personally — that was nothing.
But those words, "the Lin Clan ruined and dead to the last," stepped squarely upon the fury and self-reproach that had Lin Cang teetering at the very edge of eruption over the brutal deaths of his clansmen!
"Courting death!"
Lin Cang wasted not half a word more.
He struck outright!
The might of a Rank 4 powerhouse was, in this moment, truly displayed upon this battlefield without the slightest reservation!
Within Lin Cang's aperture, Light Gold Primeval Essence violently surged!
Rank 4 — Gold Sever Leaf Gu!
"Shwah—!"
Lin Cang raised his hand and delivered an exceedingly fierce, powerful cleave!
An enormous leaf blade fully several zhang long, gleaming with the luster of gold and iron as though solid and real, came crashing down toward Li Mang with the momentum of Mount Tai pressing down from above!
The might of this Rank 4 Gold Sever Leaf Gu, whether in speed, power, or all-conquering sharpness, was already far beyond anything the Rank 3 Metal Sever Leaf Gu could compare to!
Faced with this terrifying blow, enough to split mountains and shatter stone, Li Mang's expression turned exceedingly grave.
His withered hands gripped the Bone Spine Scepter tightly and abruptly thrust it upward!
Within his aperture, the Snow Silver Primeval Essence of Rank 3 peak stage surged madly.
BOOM—!!!
A deafening, earth-shaking crash!
The enormous leaf blade hacked viciously into the bone shield propped up by the Bone Spine Scepter!
Even though Li Mang exerted every ounce of his strength, that bone shield held for only half a breath before shattering apart!
The colossal impact surged wildly down along the scepter.
The first clash.
Li Mang's entire body was as though struck head-on by a siege hammer. His chest constricted, and he was forced backward several zhang!
His feet plowed two deep furrows through the muddy, blood-soaked ground!
Watching from the sidelines, the assembled members of the White Bone Alliance saw their own Alliance Master driven back in a single exchange, and their hearts immediately sank!
However.
Lin Cang gave Li Mang no chance whatsoever to catch his breath!
With the first blow landed, the movement Gu at his feet activated instantly.
His robust frame abruptly drew out a blurred afterimage as he closed in on Li Mang!
Rank 4 Iron Bone Gu!
This was Lin Cang's combat style.
Simple.
Crude.
Yet lethal!
"Die!"
Lin Cang roared in fury.
Light Gold Primeval Essence was channeled madly!
He raised both hands high, then clenched those iron fists, as though cast from gold and iron, and smashed them viciously toward Li Mang's face!
The second round!
BOOM—!!!
Another muffled impact that made scalps crawl!
Li Mang exceedingly awkwardly brought the Bone Spine Scepter across, attempting to block with the shaft.
But beneath Lin Cang's heavy, overwhelming fist, Li Mang was once again blasted flying without the slightest suspense!
Pffh!
He spewed out a great mouthful of blood in midair.
Upon landing, he staggered back more than a dozen steps before barely steadying his form.
Those withered hands clamped upon the bone scepter had split open completely at the base of the thumbs.
Blood dripped ceaselessly down the ghastly white scepter.
More blood spilled from the corners of his mouth.
That already shriveled old face was now pale as gold paper.
Seeing this scene, those White Bone Alliance Gu Masters and clan elders around them who had still clung to a sliver of fantasy were thrown into complete uproar.
"Alliance Master…"
"Is this… is this the true strength of Rank 4?!"
"So it really is hopeless after all?"
"Rank 3 peak stage — how could it possibly withstand the attacks of a genuine Rank 4!"
Despair spread swiftly through the White Bone Alliance's ranks.
And amid this panic, Lin Cang trod across the corpse-strewn ground, pressing forward step by step.
Like a god of slaughter descended upon the world.
Those cold, hard eyes stared fixedly at Li Mang, as though looking at dying prey.
"So this was the confidence behind your coming down here to die?"
Lin Cang's voice carried extreme contempt and killing intent.
However.
Faced with such mockery, Li Mang used a faintly trembling thumb to slowly wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth.
Upon that aged face, there was not the slightest trace of panic or frustration.
Instead— he smiled, exceedingly strangely.
"Cough, cough…"
"What's the rush?"
Li Mang's hoarse voice rang out across the battlefield.
And it was at this very moment that the Bone Spine Scepter, which he had gripped so tightly all along, finally revealed its true function before everyone for the first time.
"Krk, krk, krk…"
A string of teeth-grating sounds of bone grinding against bone came from Li Mang's palm.
That bone scepter, which ordinarily looked perfectly ordinary, even somewhat ghastly pale and dried out, was in this moment actually lighting up, bit by bit!
Between the segmented joints of bone along its shaft, threads of eerie golden luster emerged.
And then.
A Primeval Essence fluctuation that clearly did not belong to the Rank 3 tier began to flow out, exceedingly slowly yet unstoppably, from the deepest depths of the Bone Spine Scepter!
That was…
"Golden Primeval Essence?!"
"How is this possible?!"
Every Gu Master nearby, whether of Black Blood Stockade or of the White Bone Alliance, was struck dumb in unison the instant they sensed this fluctuation.
And then— the nearby battlefield erupted in a wave of incredulous cries!
"Rank 4?!"
"When did the Alliance Master break through to Rank 4?!"
The White Bone Alliance's Gu Masters had their eyes nearly bulging from their sockets, wild joy like condemned men suddenly granted a reprieve surfacing on their faces in an instant!
However.
Standing opposite Li Mang, Lin Cang's eyes narrowed in that same instant to an exceedingly dangerous degree.
He saw at a glance that something was off.
"No."
Lin Cang stared fixedly at Li Mang.
This old dog's aura had undergone no true qualitative change whatsoever.
He was still merely Rank 3 peak stage!
That Golden Primeval Essence— it was not coming out of Li Mang's aperture.
Lin Cang's gaze abruptly dropped.
Locking firmly onto that ghastly white bone scepter.
"So it's that thing…"
As that Rank 4 tier power continued to pour forth, Li Mang at last began to truly channel his Bone Path system.
"Crack, crack, crack…"
Layer upon layer of ghastly white bone armor swiftly covered his gaunt frame.
Countless sharp bone spikes burst thunderously up out of the mud beneath his feet!
And the several Bone Path Gu worms originally within his aperture were all channeled at once in this moment, echoing in answer to the Bone Spine Scepter in his hand.
The true core— was always that bone scepter!
The Rank 4 tier power sealed within it was, at this moment, truly released.
And Li Mang's original Bone Path Gu worms were, like branches and leaves, forcibly incorporated into this temporarily constructed combat system.
Li Mang's cultivation was still only Rank 3 peak stage.
His aperture still had not crossed that threshold of Rank 4.
But at this moment— his combat strength had been forcibly elevated by that Bone Spine Scepter to a degree sufficient to step onto a Rank 4 battlefield!
However.
Borrowing power across a rank in this manner was clearly not without price.
As this power that fundamentally did not belong to him was channeled ceaselessly, Li Mang's already somewhat sallow skin rapidly drained of its color.
Taking on an abnormal, corpse-like pallor.
Those hands gripping the bone scepter trembled faintly, beyond his control.
But for Li Mang, it was already enough.
He did not need to truly defeat Lin Cang at all.
So long as this power was enough to let him stand here.
Enough— to stall Lin Cang.
...
Seeing this scene, the fury and disdain on Lin Cang's face instead began to recede, bit by bit, in this very moment.
When it truly came to a struggle of life and death, he grew calm.
"So that's how it is."
Lin Cang looked at Li Mang, his voice low and heavy as iron.
"This is the confidence behind you standing before this old man."
Li Mang gasped in great, heaving breaths.
Yet within those deep, dark eyes burned a mad will to fight.
He slowly raised that Bone Spine Scepter, now blazing with light.
Pointing it straight at Lin Cang.
"Whether it's enough—"
"you'll only know once you've tried."
By this point, those low-rank Gu Masters who had still been embroiled in melee near the two of them, friend and foe alike, had already retreated backward with exceeding unspoken accord.
The sight of Lin Cang blasting a Rank 3 to death in a few exchanges moments ago was still vivid in their minds.
And now, power that truly reached the Rank 4 tier had likewise appeared upon Li Mang.
Everyone knew.
To remain near those two was no different from courting death.
And so.
Upon this vast battlefield where slaughter still shook the heavens, only the spot where the two patriarchs stood gradually emptied into a wide clearing.
In the distance, blade light, Gu worms, and battle cries continued without cease.
And here.
Every old grudge and new hatred accumulated by the two stockades, black and white, over several decades seemed to press down in full weight upon these two old men's shoulders.
The sound of the wind between the two of them suddenly ceased.
Lin Cang's five fingers tightened, bit by bit.
Light Gold Primeval Essence poured like raging billows into the Rank 4 Iron Bone Gu.
The hard ground beneath his feet abruptly gave off a string of cracking sounds, unable to bear the load.
On the other side.
Li Mang gripped the Bone Spine Scepter tightly with both hands.
Upon the shaft, every segment of ghastly white bone lit up at once with piercing golden radiance!
The power sealed in the scepter's deepest depths surged forth once more.
The next instant!
Boom!
Lin Cang's figure abruptly exploded forward!
At the same time.
Li Mang roared in fury and swung the Bone Spine Scepter in his hands without the slightest hesitation!
Iron fist.
Against— bone scepter.