The Prince of Qin's Palace is located in the center of the city and is not difficult to find. Qiao Mu certainly understands the principle of capturing the leader first.
But the "king" of the Great Qin Palace is not actually the King of Qin, but the immortal cultivator behind the King of Qin.
This has nothing to do with strength, but the fact that King Qin is essentially a Taoist soldier. No matter how strong he is, he will always be inferior to real immortal cultivators.
So the "king" that Qiao Mu wanted to kill first was actually Daoxu.
..
Half a day later.
Qiao Mu sat cross-legged in a wooden house with his eyes closed.
He seemed to be resting with his eyes closed, but strangely enough, his flesh and blood were slightly moving, rising and falling with his breathing, and a ball of heat was spreading above his head.
After a long time, he opened his eyes.
"The internal injuries in the meridians caused by the disintegration of the Heavenly Demon have almost recovered." Qiao Mu breathed a sigh of relief and clenched his fists.
Now that the body has recovered, it means that the disintegration of the demon can continue.
Just at this moment, the door of the cottage was knocked, and two people in bamboo hats pushed the door open. They were Hu Han and his daughter.
"Mr. Qiao, I have found the trace of the 'Iron Wolf'." Hu Han took off his hat, but his face looked a little solemn.
"His people are hiding in a mansion bought by Li Gongde in the east of the city."
Relying on the "fragrance bug" he prepared in advance, it was easy for him to find his former rival Tielang.
However, he was not expecting Daoxu's existence, so he did not act rashly. Instead, he quickly contacted Qiaomu according to the previous agreement.
"Is this really related to Li Gongde?"
The thought flashed through Qiao Mu's mind, but he just nodded calmly.
The timing was just right. His injuries had just healed when he received the news of Daoxu. It was just like when he was about to hang himself, someone handed him a rope. It was very thoughtful.
"Is there any news about Daoxu, the strange man from the Da Dao Sect? Is he with Tielang?" Qiao Mu asked.
Hu Han looked embarrassed:
"I heard that a strange person appeared before, but I didn't see it with my own eyes after following him for the past few days."
Qiao Mu nodded to show that he understood.
"It's better to do it today than to wait for a day, so I'll go." Qiao Mu stood up decisively.
"Wait a minute." The speaker was Hu Wan, the daughter of Hu Han. She suddenly said:
"It is naturally extremely dangerous for a warrior to be an enemy of a stranger. Although I am weak, I don't want to see the Qiao family take all the credit."
"Mr. Qiao, let me go with you."
Before she finished speaking, Hu Han's expression changed:
"Nonsense, this is a life-or-death situation... Your martial arts skills are still low, what can you do if you go?"
"It is precisely because of the risk of death that I want to go." Hu Wan gritted her teeth, her expression firm, as if she had made up her mind.
Qiao Mu watched the father and daughter quarreling quietly and yawned.
He actually had some impression of Hu Han's daughter...
"Kid, this is not the way you want to die." Qiao Mu suddenly interrupted.
Hu Wan was slightly startled.
Hu Han's life had been saved by the Qiao family in the past, and both father and daughter admired the Qiao family very much, so as soon as Qiao Mu started talking, they temporarily stopped arguing.
I only heard Qiao Mu continue:
"Before in the capital, you were frightened by a stone thrown by that Arhat. You felt terrified in the face of a life-and-death crisis, and therefore you are ashamed?"
Hu Wan opened her mouth, speechless, and did not refute.
"What an easy-to-understand child." Qiao Mu shook his head.
This little girl was just full of courage and wanted to prove her courage again, so she planned to follow him and force her way through Yi Ren Daoxu's gate of hell.
"Why are you coming with me? Do you want to punish evil and promote good to save people, or do you want to prove your bravery and satisfy your desire to play the role of a knight?"
"If it's the former, you shouldn't have come." Qiao Mu's eyes were slightly dazed, and he was reminiscing.
He was only old in appearance but young at heart. However, in front of this little girl, he really recalled the past events in Yancheng like an old man.
At that time, when he held Master Guo hostage and rushed against Guo Yan, he fought to his last breath and made his final blow, but his target was not Guo Yan, but a servant who was carrying a coffin into the house, just because he wanted to clean up the mess for Old Huang.
“Saving people is harder than killing them.”
"Instead of satisfying your own desire to show off, why not take more women and children out of the city with your father in the next few days?"
Hu Wan trembled her lips, as if she wanted to argue, but in the end she said nothing.
To prove yourself? To fulfill your dream of being a knight
Given the status and reputation of the Qiao family elder, she would not contradict him as she did Hu Han.
Qiao Mu didn't expect that just a few words could change the boy's mind. After all, he was not a saint who could educate the world, nor did he have the intention to be a life mentor.
What he said was out loud, whether she wanted to listen or not, he would not let the girl go on the road with him.
Tielang should have become a Taoist soldier and is no longer someone Hu Han can deal with.
The flesh and blood of a warrior cannot face off against the iron and steel of the immortal, so I think I can only rely on Qiao Mu's strong internal energy to cooperate with the demon to disintegrate... .
So let alone Hu Wan, even his father and old soldiers like Hai Siyuan could hardly help.
After briefly asking Hu Han for information about Tielang and the mansion, Qiao Mu took Hu Han's scented insect bottle and left alone.
... ..
It was a dark and windy night, at midnight.
On the tile-roofed house at the edge of Li Gongde’s residence in the east of the city.
A black shadow was running across the roof, its movements as swift as the wind, but its footsteps were a little heavy, breaking a tile. The slight sound of its footsteps spread into the night.
Qiao Mu had already perfected the Shadow Step, reaching the level of walking on snow without leaving any trace. If he wanted to hide his body, no sound would be heard.
In fact, he did it on purpose, playing the role of a fisherman in the middle of the night.
Hu Han's scented insect bottle can help him find Tielang's trace, but what Qiao Mu wants to find is Daoxu who is somewhere behind Tielang.
So he prepared to play the role of a stupid thief and try to lure Daoxu out.
Not long after, a sturdy figure quietly jumped onto the roof in the night.
The man had a sturdy build, not as burly and exaggerated as the bronze-bodied arhat, but his pair of slender eyes were quite deep in the night, as if emitting a wild beast's light. He was exactly the Iron Wolf that Hu Han mentioned.
"Who is this thief who steals from me?" Tielang smiled, standing on the eaves four or five steps away from Qiaomu. He looked at Qiaomu several times, and suddenly bowed in a serious tone:
"Mantis Fist, Iron Wolf."
Still using this trick
Qiao Mu also casually bowed:
"Eternal Life Fist, Qiao Shui."
Before he finished speaking, the Iron Wolf's eyes suddenly narrowed, and while Qiao Mu was answering, he swooped down.
There was only a crisp sound of clanging.
The flesh on his wrists separated, and a long blade popped out from the flesh, flashing a cold metallic light in the moonlight, just like a praying mantis, with the blade pointing directly at Qiao Mu's throat.
"Why is a cyber warrior pretending to be a traditional boxer?" Qiao Mu complained.
Chapter 236 Exploring the Lower Limits of Martial Arts (4k
The long blade in Tielang's wrist flashed with cold light, and it passed through the night sky like thunder, pointing towards Qiaomu's throat.
Similar to the bronze-bodied arhat before, his long blade was simply fast and powerful, and did not contain any internal energy.
After abandoning his ordinary mortal body, Tielang used his second-grade martial arts cultivation to control this iron body, which made him much stronger than when he was an ordinary warrior.
Although he was fast, Qiao Mu also entered the second level of spirit refining.
Although he took the opportunity to launch a sneak attack, Qiao Mu also had a flash of intuition in his mind and had predicted his sneak attack in advance. He jumped back two steps and avoided it in a flash.
"Is it faster than the bronze-bodied Arhat? Is this the characteristic of the second-grade iron-bone Taoist soldier?"
This thought flashed through Qiao Mu’s mind.
The Bronze-bodied Arhat was extremely powerful, and his body was made of cloud-patterned mountain copper, which was extremely hard. It was almost equivalent to a human-shaped immortal magic weapon. Even he could not confront the Heavenly Demon head-on when it was in its incarnation.
But his speed was just average... a little faster than the average spiritual warrior, but still couldn't catch up with him.
But the Iron Wolf in front of him was not like that.
Although it was a sneak attack, his body movement speed was comparable to Qiao Mu's.
They were all at the second level of Spirit Refining, and their body movements and speeds were similar, which meant that Qiao Mu could not escape as easily as he did when facing the Bronze Body Arhat.
"It's not time for the demon to disintegrate yet..."
Qiao Mu's mind was empty, and his figure flickered back and forth on the eaves like a ghost, as if blending into the breeze in the night.
The demon's disintegration could not last long, but Qiao Mu was not going to exchange his own life for that of a Taoist soldier.
What if I appear too strong and scare Daoxu away
His target is the immortal cultivator Daoxu, so his plan is to... alert the enemy.
He would first fight with the Iron Wolf, and without using the Heavenly Demon to disintegrate, he would present himself as a powerful enemy that the Iron Wolf could not handle. This would in turn alert the people behind the Iron Wolf.
“It’s a bit difficult.”
Qiao Mu dodged to the side, but his waist was just grazed by the long blade in Tielang's hand, leaving a long blood mark.
The injury was only a minor one and there was no direct hit, but it sounded a wake-up call in Qiao Mu's heart.
"His speed is similar to mine, but since the Iron Wolf is an Iron-Bodied Taoist, I think he is even faster than the Bronze-Bodied Arhat... In other words, as an ordinary warrior with flesh and blood, I don't think I can block a few of his swords head-on."
When the Undead Demon was disintegrating, Qiao Mu's battle was full of dangers. He just relied on his instinct to dodge continuously. Occasionally, he would use his fingers to burst out his internal energy and hit the Iron Wolf from a distance, but it only made a few muffled sounds and had no effect.
Dealing with it is like dancing on the edge of a knife, but the fight between spirit-refining warriors is not only a contest of skills and techniques, but also a battle of mind and will.
"What iron wolf? It turns out to be the mantis."
"Take a good look at yourself. You have given up your physical body and all the internal energy you have cultivated has disappeared. What kind of martial artist are you? You have taken the wrong path." Qiao Mu shouted.
But Tielang didn't care.
"The path of a warrior is too narrow." The corners of his mouth slowly curled up, almost to his ears, and he grinned widely.
"The mortal body is too fragile."
"If the skin is not strong enough, your energy and blood will decline as you age, your strength will be depleted, and your body will be worse than before."
"Even after practicing martial arts for decades, you will still age and become weak like an ordinary person. There will be a day when all your teeth fall out and you can't walk anymore."
Under the moonlight, his upper body clothes suddenly tore apart.
Under the sturdy body, long blades alternately protruded from under the skin, flashing a sharp cold light.
He didn't just have two long blades on his wrists, he actually had ten long blades all over his body, distributed on various parts of his torso.
"What I'm exploring is the lower limit of martial arts! How can you, an old man who clings to your shortcomings, understand?"
"My current majestic and beautiful posture..."
"It is the symbol of martial arts in the new era!"
Tielang leaped forward, his body as fast as the wind and spinning like a top, slashing out with ten long blades alternately.
"New Mantis Fist, Cross Knife."
His ten long blades were not swung randomly, but with a subtle pattern. They coordinated with each other and chopped from different directions, surrounding the tall tree.
For a moment, Qiao Mu felt as if he was not fighting a duel with anyone, but was besieged by seven or eight people. The long blades that were chopped alternately made him exhausted, and his side was scratched again, leaving another bloody mark.
"Iron Wolf, do you know who you are? You are just a Taoist soldier in the hands of immortal cultivators!" Qiao Mu shouted while dodging.
"What? I'm just a Taoist soldier?!"
Tielang was suddenly shocked and confused by Qiaomu's words. He looked down at his unrecognizable hands and realized belatedly that he was not a human. His face was shrouded in the shadow of the night and his expression could not be seen clearly.