Qin Jingzhou waved his hand, sending Lin Baiming and Lu Jiuxiao flying together to the top of Mount Renshan. He reminded them, “There aren’t many chances when you can go all out without worrying about the consequences. Make the most of it.”
After suffering a slap at the Divine Doctor Clinic, the Demon Lord never dared to act arrogant again, not even now when the flow of spiritual energy surging from the foot of Mount Renshan had not ceased for a moment.
Now that he knew Cheng Jingzhou would never let him go, his anger flared for a moment, but he calmed down quickly. He pulled aside Lu Zhentong, who was no longer entirely his disciple, to discuss using the stratagem.
This world was truly handicapped when it came to inheritance. Almost all sects and Noble Clans who possessed the innate path of cultivation excelled in combat and martial prowess, but rarely in techniques.
And among these rare techniques, most were for defense or discerning the opponent’s strength and fortune.
The Demonic Sect, however, had the greatest trove of techniques among all sects—surpassing even the Gu martial association. It was quite a feat for the previous Demon Lord, upon discovering this ruin, to realize its use and what treasures it held.
Once Lin Baiming and his foolish son Lu Jiuxiao managed to steady themselves on the spacious mountaintop, Qin Jingzhou spoke again. “The higher-ups of the association hoard the supply of Yunling grass for selfish gain. If I weren’t strong enough, they would have coerced and threatened me to hand over all my inheritance and Medicine Recipe, while offering nothing in return. The Demonic Sect, for the sake of toppling the association, is willing to destroy the minds of tens of thousands or even millions of ordinary people. So, you are truly well matched, fighting on the same level.” He seized the chance to instruct his son and Qin Er, “We, practitioners of Healing Dao, must, unless there are unforeseen circumstances, uphold strict neutrality.”
Qin Er understood instantly, immediately switching to a different form of address. “Master, you had already shown your goodwill, willing to lean toward the association, but their higher-ups wanted to monopolize your resources and quotas...”
Qin Jingzhou laughed. “Exactly, they want to teach me how to act.”
Shrinking in the corner, Xuan Wei, who had desperately tried to minimize her presence, finally plucked up the courage to ask, “Is it... out of respect for my foolish father?”
Qin Jingzhou replied, “Your foolish father may be overly cautious, never decisive, but compared to the other old fossils in the association, he at least has some principles.”
Lin Baiming, upon hearing this, was flooded with mixed emotions.
And opposite him, the Demon Lord was not faring any better. Right now, he was tasting the pain and regret of “lifting the stone only to smash his own foot”.
Lu Zhentong suddenly laughed. “Demon Lord, you might have a chance to escape this disaster, but now, there’s no turning back. If Lu Jiuxiao doesn’t finish me, he’ll struggle to break through to the innate stage. If I don’t help you, you may defeat Lin Baiming, but Cheng Jingzhou will never let you go.”
After he spoke, relying on the fragmentary memories he’d gotten from his magical earring, he detonated all his own fortune and charged straight at Lu Jiuxiao, fighting recklessly.
Their only chance was to seriously wound Lu Jiuxiao, then use the Demonic Sect’s unique Confusion Technique to muddle his mind, leaving Cheng Jingzhou too busy saving his son to care about them.
But if he went too far and finished off Lu Jiuxiao instantly, the two of them would then be facing Cheng Jingzhou’s unrestrained fury. And since from the way both of them had just taken two and a half identical slaps without being able to resist, they had no hope whatsoever of defeating Cheng Jingzhou.
For once, the Demon Lord and the scheming Lu Zhentong were of one mind. He ignored the heavy punch Lin Baiming threw from behind, gathering all his spiritual energy and converting it into true qi, which he concentrated on his fingertip, then thrust toward the center of Lu Jiuxiao’s forehead.
At close range, after detonating his fortune, Lu Jiuxiao’s mind rang with thunderous explosions—he was dazed for a brief moment, less than a second. He snapped out of it only because Lu Zhentong grabbed him from behind and locked his upper body so tightly he couldn’t move.
The strength of Lu Zhentong’s late-innate-stage cultivation was not something Lu Jiuxiao, whose dad had forcibly pushed him to the middle stage, could overpower, but he could still fight for his life. He wouldn’t blow all his fortune—he simply didn’t know how—but to dodge the Demon Lord’s fingertip, which was now glowing with a gathering of black light, he decisively tore his own muscle and meridians, even dislocating his own neck.
So the Demon Lord’s strike grazed the right side of his temple. It looked like a miss, but it wasn’t an entire miss.
Before Lu Jiuxiao could feel relieved, memories surged—how he hated the world and everyone in it, including himself, when he was first paralyzed and then had his face ruined. His emotions inevitably surged, which set off the gray mist hiding in the depths of his mind.
Lu Zhentong sensed the changes in the gray mist at once and activated it, causing another swirl in Lu Jiuxiao’s mind. He was again confused for a split second. The Demon Lord, as if reading his thoughts, jabbed at him again.
Lu Jiuxiao’s fortune pulled him back to consciousness, and without hesitation, he smashed backward with his head—head to head. Unlike Lu Zhentong, whose magical earring had taught him how to use his fortune, Lu Jiuxiao was relying on the combat instinct his dad had just drilled into him, gambling everything and headbutting again with all his might.
Having just burned out his own fortune, Lu Zhentong’s was extremely depleted, while Lu Jiuxiao, though not top tier, was still a Fate’s Son.
So, as their heads collided, the result was this—Lu Jiuxiao was the one who hurt but Lu Zhentong was the one who passed out.
The Demon Lord, seeing his next strike about to hit, watched as the two fell backward together. Coincidentally, Lu Zhentong was standing at the edge of the mountaintop, so the two of them fell off together...
The Demon Lord, furious, rushed to catch them, but Lin Baiming, whose attacks had mostly missed or had little effect, crashed right into him from behind.
Caught off guard, the Demon Lord was sent flying, but for someone at the Golden Core stage, flying freely was second nature. Without a need for instruction, he stabilized himself midair, took one glance at Lu Zhentong and Lu Jiuxiao tumbling down the mountainside in a tangle, then delivered a fierce kick, sending Lin Baiming flying and shattering the arm Lin Baiming had used to block with into splinters in midair.
With the troublesome Lin Baiming out of the way, he darted after Lu Zhentong and Lu Jiuxiao again. He was a split second from catching Lu Zhentong’s arm when, familiar gusts of force hit him. He spun uncontrollably two and a half more times midair.
Meanwhile, Lu Zhentong regained consciousness in the midst of his collision with the mountainside. Seeing his last hope—the Demon Lord—spinning helplessly above, he gave up hope. Facing Lu Jiuxiao, whose eyes had turned blood-red, Lu Zhentong even managed a laugh. “Taking you with me, I wouldn’t have lost everything, even though I’ll lose my son…”
Before he could finish, Lu Jiuxiao, having already torn multiple muscles, meridians, and even his own neck, slammed him with another ferocious headbutt, silencing him instantly.
By this time, there really was no retreat. Lu Zhentong gathered all his strength and delivered the final strike of his life, aiming straight at Lu Jiuxiao’s chest.
In the instant that Lu Jiuxiao’s headbutt crushed Lu Zhentong’s skull, Lu Zhentong’s last strike punched right through Lu Jiuxiao’s chest.
Seeing this, the Demon Lord, without a second thought, went madly soaring upward. The other exit of this small space was directly above the summit of Mount Renshan. As he neared the top, a bolt of white lightning, as thick as a bowl, struck him from head to toe, finishing on the mountain peak.
When the lightning faded, the Demon Lord floated midair... and slowly disintegrated, not even having time for final words.
Lu Jiuxiao stared in disbelief as the Demon Lord brought about his own end. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth as he looked at his dad floating over to him. “Dad, my heart and most of one lung are gone... I’m probably done for, right?”
Qin Jingzhou slapped his foolish son on the forehead, then put his palm over the gaping, transparent hole in his chest.
After three seconds, he slowly withdrew his hand.
Lu Jiuxiao looked down at the hole, and saw the flesh around the edge growing rapidly.
Suddenly, he looked up and clutched his dad’s leg. “Dad, it hurts so much! Turns out losing your heart really does hurt!”