Martial Arts: Starting with Upgrading the Dilapidated Temple

Xu Hao walked quickly to the side of the ship and looked down at the sea.

The once still, mirror-like gray-black seawater was now moving without any wind.

It was as if an invisible giant hand was stirring up turbulent undercurrents beneath the surface of the sea.

This undercurrent formed a huge whirlpool, with the stench-filled mountain of flesh right at its center.

"Boss, something's wrong with the water!" Chen Yuanzhi gripped the gunwale, his face even paler than before. "It's the Ghost General sucking up the water; it's treating us like snacks."

"Luo Meng, stop wasting your time! If we don't chop it up today, none of us are leaving!"

Xu Hao drew the Devouring Sea Blade from behind him. The blade shone with a purplish-black light and emitted an excited buzzing sound.

As the two ships drew closer, hundreds of dead fish eyes on the surface of the ancient warship opposite them turned and stared intently at Xu Hao.

Immediately afterwards, the mountain of flesh writhed violently, and dozens of enormous tentacles, forcibly sewn together from severed limbs and rotting sea beast whiskers, came crashing down on the Zhenyuan with a nauseating stench.

If that hits hard, the Zhenyuan's newly grown extreme cold armor might be able to withstand it, but the group of living people on the deck would definitely be turned into a pile of pictures, impossible to remove.

The sailors on deck were all terrified; their legs were cramping, and they forgot how to run.

Chen Yuanzhi gripped the gunwale tightly, his knuckles turning white.

He turned to look at Xu Hao, his voice tight, "Boss, a Ghost Commander at the Inner Strength Realm, our strength is no match for him."

"Not enough to fill a tooth gap?" Xu Hao sneered, weighing the Sea-Devouring Blade in his hand. "Then we'll make it break a few teeth."

Xu Hao kicked Luo Meng, who was standing there in a daze, in the butt.

"Stop cowering! Throw out all of the second-in-command's Bone-Melting Poison Smoke!"

Luo Meng scrambled to his feet, yelling at the top of his lungs, "What are you all standing there for! Pull out the plug! Throw it away!"

Thirty bamboo tubes were thrown into the air in unison, hitting the falling tentacles.

laugh--

The yellowish-green toxic smoke exploded instantly, forming a cloud of poison.

The moment the yellowish-green poisonous cloud touched the stitched tentacles, the rotting flesh was instantly turned into nauseating yellow liquid, pouring down as if it had been thrown into a boiling oil pot.

The monstrous mountain of flesh convulsed violently, and hundreds of rotting faces opened simultaneously, emitting a piercing, ear-piercing howl.

The tentacles, which were originally as heavy as Mount Tai, were shrunk considerably by the poisonous smoke, and most of their force was immediately dissipated when they came crashing down.

boom! boom! boom!

A series of deafening explosions.

The entire Zhenyuan tilted violently, and a black column of water, ten feet high, was instantly smashed into the sea, pouring down onto the deck.

However, the anticipated scene of the ship sinking and everyone dying did not occur.

The dormant, deep blue frost patterns on the ship's surface suddenly surged, and a thick layer of extremely cold iron armor appeared out of thin air, forcefully withstanding the heavy blow.

Before the Ghost Commander could retract the tentacles, the Zhenyuan's extreme cold counter-damage property suddenly erupted.

The cunning general let out another extremely shrill scream.

Several tentacles lashing against the ship's hull turned white rapidly from their tips, and in the blink of an eye, they were frozen into black ice covered in white frost.

Immediately following the force of the recoil, it shattered inch by inch, turning into countless black ice shards that fell from the sky.

Chen Yuanzhi was overjoyed at the results of the battle and turned to run to the lower deck.

Xu Hao used the "Surging Waves Step" to advance instead of retreat, directly crashing into the other tentacles that were not frozen.

A battle between opponents of higher levels, a head-on clash.

The intense heat and blood of the peak of the Yi Jin Realm were poured into the Devouring Sea Blade without reservation, and the black blade emitted an eerie purplish-black halo.

"Cut it off right now!"

Xu Hao gripped the knife with both hands and unleashed a powerful, spiraling strike with his "Overturning River Force" on a tentacle covered in skulls.

With a muffled thud, Xu Hao's hands went numb, and his chest heaved with blood and qi.

The Ghost Commander, at the Inner Strength Realm, possessed astonishing strength, and this attack nearly caused him to drop his knife.

He gritted his teeth and used the recoil to twist his body in mid-air, slicing open the side of another tentacle with a single stroke.

The foul-smelling black blood gushed out, and the Devouring Sea Blade greedily absorbed the resentment, emitting an excited buzzing sound.

Xu Hao landed steadily back on the deck, casually shaking his numb wrist.

That beast has a really thick skin; it would take forever to cut it down by brute force alone.

The hatch was flung open with a bang, and Chen Yuanzhi rushed out carrying a large black pottery jar that was a foot tall.

The jar was filled with a thick, pale green liquid, and the sour, putrid smell was even more pungent than the toxic fumes from before.

"Boss!" Chen Yuanzhi shouted at the top of his lungs, "This is the raw essence of the Bone-Dissolving Poison! Find a way to trap it, then pour this pot of raw essence over its head, and it'll be skinned alive!"

Xu Hao's face darkened as he looked at the mountain of flesh opposite him, which was waving dozens of tentacles.

"You think this is watering flowers? This is a powerful, cunning general from the Inner Strength Realm! Teach me how to trap a mountain!"

Despite saying that, Xu Hao's mind raced with calculations.

Trapping the dead, he had a sudden thought: there was still a piece of yellow paper lying in the Sumeru Granary.

The talisman that Wei, the eunuch, had previously affixed to Chen Yuanzhi's forehead to suppress the corpse.

We're doing this as a last resort.

Xu Hao took a step with his feet, his figure directly close to Gui Shuai.

Several corroded, pitted tentacles swept across.

As Xu Hao parried with his knife, he cursed under his breath.

"It usually eats so much, and now it's playing dead? Quickly find its weakness! Otherwise, we'll all be finished here today!"

The Devouring Sea Blade in his hand emitted a rapid buzzing sound, its tip constantly veering towards the direction behind the Ghost Commander.

The image of the blessed land in his mind also flickered, pointing to the back of the mountain of flesh.

Xu Hao's eyes narrowed.

Behind this mountain of flesh, amidst the densely packed remains of limbs, the cunning commander was intentionally or unintentionally protecting a head wearing the helmet of a general from the Hengshui Army.

This is it.

Xu Hao changed his footwork and began to use the Cat Step.

Its body twisted and contorted in a bizarre way, sliding in along the sweeping tentacles.

Snapped!

A thick tentacle grazed past Xu Hao's shoulder, causing his protective qi and blood to surge violently, and half of his body went numb instantly.

Using this momentum, Xu Hao leaped into the air and flipped directly behind the mountain of flesh.

He held a talisman covered in cinnabar between two fingers and slammed it down hard on the naval commander's forehead.

"Certainly!"

The moment the corpse-suppressing talisman was applied, the Ghost General's massive body stiffened abruptly, and all his hundreds of tentacles froze in mid-air.

It really works.

Xu Hao didn't waste a second. He pushed the Surging Wave Step to its limit, and his figure turned into a blur as he returned to the deck of the Zhenyuan.

He grabbed the black pottery jar from Chen Yuanzhi's hand and launched it into the air once again.

"Time for soup!"

Xu Hao stepped onto the stiff tentacles of the strange creature and went upwards, pouring a whole pot of pale green slurry over the general's head.

Zizizi!

The moment the toxic fumes came into contact with the mountain of flesh, an extremely piercing corrosive sound erupted.

Large swathes of rotting flesh turned into yellow liquid that flowed down, melting a huge hole in the massive mountain of flesh.

Deep within the massive cavern, a pitch-black heart, shrouded in countless resentful spirits, is pounding violently.

Just then, the corpse-suppressing talisman spontaneously combusted and turned to ash.

After all, the opponent was already at the Inner Strength Realm, and being able to immobilize Gui Shuai for a few breaths was already the limit.

The cunning general regained his mobility and roared madly.

Hundreds of tentacles frantically fought back, weaving into an impenetrable net that stood firmly in front of the heart, trying to prevent Xu Hao from getting closer.