I defeated the saint with a parry.

"not good!"

"Xu the Demon Slayer is about to be exhausted."

When Li west heard the old servant say this, he looked out the window with a worried expression, taking in the situation in the courtyard.

They could hear the commotion very clearly from their hiding place in the hut.

That human-faced tiger demon, at the Concentration Realm, was like a walking terror; with a single move, it could completely demolish a temple. Xu Ling was like a child's toy in its presence, and their duel terrified them.

Zhao Yi also saw Xu Ling's predicament. He groped his way to the old monk's side and asked the barely breathing old man, "Hey! Don't die yet! Tell us quickly, is there any secret passage in this temple that we can sneak away?"

Upon hearing this, the merchants' eyes lit up, and they all turned their attention to him.

The old monk opened his eyes weakly and spoke indifferently. Zhao Yi leaned in to listen with delight, but all he heard was a weak and feeble utterance of Amitabha.

The young monk cried and said, "Benefactor, even if there is a secret passage in our temple, it's not in this small room. If we want to escape, we have to go through the courtyard."

Passing through the courtyard?

Heh, Zhao Yi slumped to the ground in despair: "Are we really going to die here?"

Looking at the despair in everyone's eyes, Li west sighed, glanced at his old servant, and then said, "Gentlemen, there's no need to despair too much."

"You make it sound so easy," Zhao Yi said with a mournful face. "What do you know, you pampered young master?"

"..."

Seeing that they had turned their attention to the monks again, Li Xi couldn't help but remind them, "The demon slayer I found isn't that simple. Have you forgotten? You failed with that group of fox demons, and the tiger demon didn't gain any advantage in the first few moves either."

"Besides, look again. Although Xu Ling was constantly on the defensive, the tiger demon didn't even manage to hurt a single hair on his head."

"So what if he looks exhausted? He might still have a trick up his sleeve. Why should you all despair?"

"Furthermore, who knows, maybe a surprise attack will strike?"

Zhao Yi was pulled to the window by several thugs and carefully observed Xu Ling's condition. The sound of hammering was indeed pleasant, and Xu Ling was indeed as Li west had said, unharmed.

"Wait! That's...!"

Zhao Yi's eyes widened, and everyone in the small house immediately looked in the direction of the sound, only to see that the courtyard had changed again.

Realizing he was nearing exhaustion, Xu Ling changed his approach.

When the human-faced tiger swung its claws, it noticed that Xu Ling no longer used his sword to deflect the attack, but instead rolled over.

Rolling wasn't the end of it; that damned human demon slayer would also block his movement after he rolled and deliver a fatal blow.

You bastard!

The ordinary knife, when it struck him, couldn't even cut the hair on his body, yet it kept scraping the wound on his chest.

It doesn't cause much harm, but it's extremely insulting.

What infuriated the tiger was that he couldn't reach Xu Ling at all. The timing of his roll was perfect, as if divinely inspired, and he managed to dodge all of Xu Ling's claw attacks every time.

"Damn it, you've gone too far in bullying demons."

"Don't rush, let's do two more strikes!" Xu Ling said with a smile, not greedy for a single strike. If there was no opportunity after dodging, he simply wouldn't strike.

He was currently looking at the energy bar for the counterattack displayed by the auxiliary system, as well as the status bar on the human-faced tiger.

The energy required for the counterattack has been almost fully recovered, and the Human-Faced Tiger is only two more counterattacks away from entering the execution state.

Xu Ling seized the opportunity to attack, thrusting his sword forward!

As long as the human-faced tiger sees him making a hasty move, it will surely take the opportunity to attack him. At that time, the counterattack will allow him to quickly enter the killing state.

Greed for a knife is also a way of luring the enemy.

The human-faced tiger grinned and dodged aside. Before Xu Ling could react, it moved to his side and menacingly reached for Xu Ling's waist.

"Thump!"

The force was successfully neutralized and the rebound was successful.

Oh, my goodness!

The man-faced tiger cursed, his smug expression freezing on his face: "You tricked me?"

Xu Ling scoffed, "So what if I'm playing you? Go ahead and try again, you stupid cat."

Anyone who's been in a fight knows that trash-talking is always a great tactic, so don't underestimate it. You can't afford to lose your fighting spirit, and if you lose the fight but don't win the verbal battle, you'll be even angrier.

The human-faced tiger roared to the sky, its sound waves spreading outwards. Though invisible, they stirred up the surrounding soil, sweeping across the land like a plow. Xu Ling didn't see the warning to deflect the attack, knowing it was an attack that couldn't be parried, and could only roll away by instinct to dodge.

After dodging, he thrust forward again, this time hitting the tiger demon directly in the wound that had been opened by the magical weapon.

Another insult!

The human-faced tiger was enraged to the max. It clenched its fists and slashed vertically, gathering all its spiritual energy into the blade. The ten-foot-tall blade crushed down with the power to shatter everything.

"Die!"

After unleashing this attack, the human-faced tiger seemed to have lost all its strength and began to pant, but its eyes were fixed on the three-foot-wide ditch that had been plowed into the ground, and a smile appeared on its face.

He knew that Xu Ling was doomed; a human being a whole realm below him simply couldn't withstand this attack.

All eyes in the hut were fixed on the spirit blade. Xu Ling's small frame meant they could only see his back, a sight that filled them with despair. If it were them, they would probably have been sliced ​​to pieces.

"Can he withstand a full-force attack from a Concentration Realm cultivator?"

This is the question on everyone's mind.

Unfortunately, neither they nor the human-faced tiger could see Xu Ling's expression.

He was not surprised but delighted, because the trajectory of this counterattack was completely different from the ones he had seen before. It not only had a trajectory for receiving the attack, but also an additional trajectory for sending the attack back.

With the sword held horizontally in front of him, Xu Ling neither dodged nor flinched. To everyone's astonishment, he took the initiative to meet the blade head-on, using his own strength to withstand it.

The blade met the spirit blade. The three-foot-wide spirit blade hit Xu Ling like a truck, making his hands go numb and the blade itself begin to tremble.

Upon contact, Xu Ling heard a sound coming from the blade—the sound of the blade slightly cracking.

The pressure from the spirit blade itself is the strongest; Xu Ling is now only one blade away from being crushed by it.

He could even feel the spiritual energy dissipating, and the pain, like being whipped, striking his body...

"No, it's not quite there yet."

Xu Ling is still waiting.

Li west frowned and looked at the old servant, asking, "If he didn't move, fine, but why didn't he move at all?"

"Perhaps..." The old servant stared wide-eyed at Xu Ling's retreating figure, a look of horror appearing in his usually calm eyes for the first time: "He's waiting."

Wait?

What are you waiting for?

Li west didn't understand, but he knew that his old man would never be wrong.

So he obediently stared at it.

Xu Ling gritted his teeth, gripping the hilt of the sword with both hands. He was pushed back a meter by the spirit blade, with dirt piled up behind him.

The cracks on the blade became more and more obvious, clearly showing signs of failing under the pressure, just one critical point away.

Xu Ling knew that all he could see right now was the progress bar in front of him.

The way the force was released and rebounded this time was completely different from what I had seen before. It was not as simple as striking iron. In the first stage, I had to charge up the progress bar to the maximum before I could proceed to the next step of releasing the force.

Once the force is successfully released and the rebound is successful, there will be a pleasant surprise.

"Ding! 』

A notification sounded in Xu Ling's mind, and the knife in his hand seemed to come alive, drawing a bright golden trajectory in the direction the spirit blade was moving.

Xu Ling held the knife, moving along its trajectory, his body twisting accordingly, never daring to loosen his grip even slightly.

His blood and qi surged, and using the force of the spirit blade, he circled around in place and sent the spirit blade flying like a discus throw.

Go back to where you came from.

The plow marks on the ground showed that the thing simply circled around Xu Ling without harming him in the slightest.

Xu Ling used his horizontal sword to deflect the attack, perfectly parrying and sending the attack back at the human-faced tiger.

Everything happened suddenly. The smile on the exhausted human-faced tiger's face froze. He only had time to raise his hands to block in front of him before being struck directly by the spirit blade, and his entire tiger body was thrown off.

As the spiritual energy spread, its palms were already a bloody mess, and it knelt there unconscious.

A cursor with a glowing golden sphere appeared in Xu Ling's eyes, floating on the chest of the human-faced tiger.

Xu Ling leaped forward, the broken horizontal blade slicing through it without any resistance. He gripped the hilt with both hands, placed one foot on the tiger's body, roared, and raised the blade to slash upwards. The blade flashed in a half-circle, and Xu Ling found himself facing away from the tiger demon.

"Pfft! Sizzle."

The tiger's body, starting from its chest, was cut in two, including its head.

A demon core was flicked away by the blade and landed in front of Xu Ling. Its pure demon blood sprayed out like a fountain from the tiger's body.

Blood rained down on the entire courtyard, leaving a crimson stain and a stench that filled the air. But what followed was a fragrance imbued with spiritual energy, making it truly eerie.

The blood water soaked Xu Ling again, and after a long time, the blood rain stopped and the blood on the tiger's body ceased to spray.

Suddenly, the horizontal sword made a "crack" sound, and the entire blade shattered, leaving Xu Ling with only the hilt in his hand.

"Kill him!"