Chaotic Times and Disasters: I Hunt Down Martial Arts Masters and Become a God

Before the dust in the stone hall had settled, the giant python's tail swept over, and Fu Qing didn't even see how it moved.

Its tail was as thick as a palace pillar. When it swept over, the air was compressed into a white wave, and it slammed into his horizontally raised blade with a "bang".

The cold iron blade bent sharply, then snapped straight, sending Fu Qing flying backward like a stone thrown by a catapult, crashing into the stone wall.

The moment his back hit the wall, he heard a sound from his ribs, and then he felt the pain.

He slid to the ground, bracing himself with one hand, and spat out a mouthful of blood onto the bluestone slab in front of him.

Leo's record is even worse.

He charged forward before Fu Qing, relying on his powerful demonic body, attempting to use his bronze hammer to directly strike the giant python's scales. The python didn't even use its tail; it simply tossed its head, its chin slamming into Leo's chest...

The two bronze hammers that Leo held flew out of his hands and smashed into the stone wall. He himself was like a gecko that had been swatted away, his limbs outstretched as he crashed into a stone pillar in the corner of the stone hall and buryed half of his body in the rubble.

He struggled to emerge from the rubble, his lion face covered in ash, a trickle of demonic blood at the corner of his mouth.

"How the hell am I supposed to fight this! Its scales are thicker than the gates of the Demon Emperor's Palace! My copper hammer didn't even leave a mark! One swipe of its tail sent me flying, and I'm a member of the Lion Clan!"

"Didn't you say you were from a collateral branch of the Lion Clan and weren't valued?"

Fu Qing used the knife to support himself as he stood up and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.

"The collateral branch is also a lion clan! A lion clan! Not a cat demon!"

Leo crawled out of the rubble, shaking the dust off his mane.

"The 'collateral branch' means we're not well-liked within the clan, not that I'm incompetent, although I am indeed not very good. But the main problem is that this snake is just too damn strong! This thing has lived for at least a thousand years; a thousand years of cultivation would have killed us!"

Suwen stood at the entrance of the stone hall, holding a bronze plate in her hand. She did not participate in the first round of attacks. When the giant python's tail swept across again, she had already anticipated its trajectory and dodged the frontal impact by turning to the side.

But the wind pressure generated by her tail still sent her staggering back several steps, her back hitting the stone wall, and the copper plate almost slipping from her grasp.

"no..."

She steadied the bronze plate again. "Its cultivation is at least equivalent to a human's Golden Body Realm; your attacks couldn't even break its scales!"

"What should we do then?"

Leo was pawing at his fallen bronze hammer with his paws. When he picked it up, he saw that the demon bone rune on the hammerhead was broken, and he grimaced in heartache.

Suwen looked down at the bronze plate in her hand. The dense ancient runes on the plate emitted a faint light in the dim stone hall, and each flicker reflected on her pale face.

She remained silent for a long time, then raised her left hand, bit her index finger until blood gushed from her fingertip and dripped onto the copper plate.

The moment the blood dripped onto the bronze plate, the dim runes suddenly lit up, emitting a dazzling, scorching golden light. The bronze plate began to heat up in her palm, so hot that her fingers trembled slightly.

The bronze plate was passed down to her by her master. It is said to be a gift from a Taoist master to the Medicine Palace as a token of gratitude. It is a third-grade magic artifact and contains the power of the Taoist Five Elements Barrier.

Only those who possess the Medicine Spirit Body can activate its true form with blood.

"Can you still hold on?"

Suwen's voice was calm, but her fingers holding the bronze plate were trembling slightly, and the golden light on the plate was so bright that it was hard to look directly at it.

"That depends on whether the other side will give us face..."

Fu Qing blocked her way with his sword. The giant python's vertical pupils had already locked onto them, and demonic fire surged in its throat, ready to strike at any moment.

"Then let's give it a try..."

Suwen raised the bronze plate above her head, and golden light poured down from the edge of the plate, slowly unfolding a pale golden circular magic circle beneath her feet.

Five ancient seal characters began to appear at the edge of the magic circle—metal, wood, water, fire, and earth.

The five characters formed a circle, each absorbing the blood dripping from Suwen's fingertips, growing brighter and brighter.

"I've never tried activating its full form..."

She dripped her last few drops of blood into the array's core, and the Five Elements Barrier unfolded with a roar.

Golden light burst forth from the bronze plate, transforming into a massive light shield that enveloped the entire stone palace.

The space inside the light shield began to distort, and the walls, pillars, and floor of the stone hall were all stained with a layer of flowing dark gold.

The giant python hissed as the golden light swept across its body. The dark green demonic fire around it, which had been so dense that it was almost solidified, trembled violently in the golden light, dimming with each leap.

The dark green light that had flowed on the scales for thousands of years quickly faded under the suppression of the Five Elements Barrier, and the color of the scales changed from dark green to gray-green, and from gray-green to earthy yellow.

Its size was also shrunk several times by the golden light. Its huge body, which was originally a size larger than Leo, was curled up in the barrier, like a giant crocodile trapped in shallow water. Its cultivation level was forcibly suppressed to about the sixth level of Gang Qi.

However, maintaining the Five Elements barrier requires enormous energy, which Suwen's cultivation level is far from sufficient.

She was almost translucent from the golden light of the copper plate. On her forehead, neck, wrists, and all her exposed skin, one could see the pale green medicinal vapor being forcibly drawn from her body and continuously injected into the copper plate.

"The First Realm, Gold."

Suwen's voice came from above the light barrier.

"Its scales are now covered in golden energy. When you try to cut through its scales, you're no longer cutting through the scales of a thousand-year-old snake, but rather cutting through the blade in your own hand. The golden energy will reflect your blade's momentum back. How much you can shatter depends on your own skill."

As Fu Qing stepped into the Golden Realm, the stone slabs beneath his feet were no longer those of the stone palace, but a flat surface paved with metallic sheen, each step producing a dull metallic clang.

The giant python coiled in the center, its body covered with a layer of pale golden metallic luster, which was the suppressive layer formed by the golden energy of the Five Elements Barrier attached to its scales.

The golden energy can weaken the scales' defense, but at the cost of reflecting the attacker's blade force back.

With each slash, some of the force from the blade recoils back to the hand holding the knife.

The first strike landed on the giant python's scales with a crisp "clang," and the blade bounced back. The recoil traveled from my wrist to my shoulder, and the bones in my right arm hummed.

Fu Qing gritted his teeth and used the tip of his knife to stab. The tip of the knife pierced the scales, and golden energy exploded at the tip of the knife, breaking off a small piece of the scales.

But as the blade pierced the scales, the recoil also traveled back along the blade, making his hand go numb.

The third cut, the fourth cut, the fifth cut.

He slashed repeatedly in the golden realm, each strike landing on the same gap in the giant python's scales.

Each rebound of the golden energy made his arm go numb, but by the eighth strike, the gap had finally widened.

The python, in pain, opened its mouth and lunged at him.

Fu Qing dodged the fangs to the side, then slashed the giant python's chin with his backhand. Using the recoil, he leaped backward, his boots leaving two sparks as he landed on the golden plane.

"The Golden Boundary has been breached!"

Suwen's voice came from above.

The golden aura surrounding the giant python suddenly shattered, and the metallic sheen attached to its scales exploded like a broken mirror, revealing the dark green scales beneath.