Chapter Ninety-Two: Unable to Make Sense of It
A thunderous roar reverberated endlessly through the underground chamber, deafening and oppressive.
Dust, debris, tables, and chairs filled the air, whipped into a frenzy by surging force, scattering wildly into every corner of the subterranean space.
The lights and bulbs set into the walls and ceiling shattered one after another, their fragments spraying through the air.
The retreating beastmen all half-crouched on the ground, faces twisted with terror.
On the left and right walls beside Tang Mubai and the elephant-headed man, the stone had caved inward into two half-moon craters, each three meters across, their rims webbed with cracks.
A fresh roar split the air.
The elephant-headed man, its palms still striking out, suddenly bellowed.
Its bulging eyes were filled with shock and alarm. Though its mountain-like body had not retreated, it could not suppress the tremor running through it.
It was an elephant-headed man.
Like the bear-headed men, it was a brute-force beastman inheriting the strength of an elephant.
It had encountered human master-level warriors before. More than a dozen had fought it; three had been slain by its hands.
Yet none of those master-level warriors had ever possessed strength greater than Tang Mubai’s.
Was a human warrior like this still human?
He was simply more beastlike than the beastmen themselves.
Body cultivation...
A flash of insight suddenly crossed the elephant-headed man’s mind, calling to memory a rumor. Its eyes widened further, nearly bulging from their sockets, disbelief flooding its gaze.
“You’re a body-cultivation master?”
It stared fixedly at Tang Mubai and cried out in horror, “You’re actually a body-cultivation master!”
Only a body-cultivation master could possess such terrifying strength!
Before Tang Mubai could answer, the elephant-headed man’s colossal body, already strengthened by a crimson shield and a pale white radiance, lifted both palms high and, releasing all its power, slammed down again.
A heavy boom echoed through the underground chamber.
Tang Mubai, reinforced by protective inner force, trembled and was driven backward despite himself. His feet left clear footprints in the hard concrete floor.
The elephant-headed man suffered the rebound as well. Its massive body staggered back, crashing into several beastmen who could not escape and were half-crouched on the ground, blasting them with blood from their mouths and bloody mist from their bodies. They were sent flying more than ten meters, slamming into the walls with dull thuds, their bodies snapping in two or their heads bursting apart.
Life force plus 178.
Life force plus 182.
Life force plus 169.
...
The recovery prompts flashed through his mind.
Tang Mubai drew a breath, steadying the surging blood and qi within him.
The elephant-headed man was much the same, the crimson glow over its body seeming to breathe, at times thick, at times thin.
The other beastmen finally came to their senses and realized this was a battle beyond their ability to interfere with. One by one, their faces filled with shock as their blood ran hot.
“Kill him! Kill him!”
“Lord Elephant Commander, kill him! Kill this human!”
“I want to eat his flesh! I want to eat his flesh!”
...
After a brief silence, the beastmen resumed their howling, screaming themselves hoarse without pause.
The elephant-headed man paid them no mind, only glaring with bloodshot eyes as murderous aura rose from its body.
“Human, you’ve made me look at you in a new light. Unfortunately...”
Boom.
A dull explosion interrupted him.
Tang Mubai had not waited for the elephant-headed man to finish. He stomped the ground again with full force, shattering the concrete beneath his feet.
As rubble flew, Tang Mubai shot forward like lightning, both hands outstretched. He consumed the blood and qi he had just converted, channeled it along the circulation path of Cloud-Rolling Hands, and unleashed all his power, combining it with his ten-thousand-jin strength as he lunged straight at the elephant-headed man.
“You’re courting death!”
Seeing this, the elephant-headed man roared and met Tang Mubai head-on.
Roar!
Tang Mubai’s strength surged to its limit, violent force raging around him like a tiger’s howl.
The wind follows the tiger, the cloud follows the dragon.
At the peak of Cloud-Rolling Hands, his strike erupted with a tiger-like cry, surging forward together with a massive palm imprint.
Yes.
This blow no longer scattered his power. Instead, Tang Mubai concentrated all his palm force into one stream and sent it crashing into the elephant-headed man.
Awooo.
The mountain-like elephant-headed man raised its trunk high and howled, then slammed a palm down upon Tang Mubai.
Bang—
BOOM!
The great palm imprint and the giant hand collided, detonating the air.
The explosion was so immense it rivaled several cannon shells bursting at once. The violent force blasted up countless clouds of dust around them, sweeping through the entire underground space.
The clothes Tang Mubai wore finally could not withstand the maelstrom of force. Even with protective inner force shielding him, they were instantly shredded into countless fragments and scattered into the air along with the raging gale.
His tall body trembled as well, but it did not shatter, nor did any bones break.
On the contrary, the entire right arm of the elephant-headed man cracked in a series of explosive bursts, blood mist spreading everywhere.
Its mountain-like body was driven backward uncontrollably, each heavy step leaving clear footprints on the floor. Swept by the raging force, it was pushed back more than ten meters in an instant, once again blasting three shouting beastmen away and killing them, before it finally managed to stop.
Life force plus 168.
Life force plus 177.
Life force plus 181.
...
Tang Mubai did not move, simply digesting the remaining force from that strike.
Inside, however, he was delighted.
It worked.
When using Cloud-Rolling Hands, his power tended to disperse.
At first, Tang Mubai had not paid it much mind, but after facing the elephant-headed man, he realized dispersed force was a major problem.
It was one thing to slaughter ordinary beastmen. But against an existence like the elephant-headed man, with its immense strength and thick, durable hide, it would not do.
Only concentrated force could win.
And now, it seemed the effect was strikingly clear.
Huff... huff...
The elephant-headed man did not know any of this. After it stopped, it panted heavily, its savage face full of fury, and for the first time, fear surfaced in its scarlet eyes.
“Damn human, how can he be that strong!”
“Even if he’s a body-cultivation master, after such an eruption, his power should be nearly exhausted!”
“Why, why does this bastard still have strength left?”
The elephant-headed man could not understand.
Neither could Tang Mubai.
It seemed that the strength gained by consuming lifespan lasted longer.
Unable to make sense of it, Tang Mubai did not dwell on it.
Boom.
With a tap of his toe, he shot forward fiercely.
His palm swept out, blasting the air with repeated muffled detonations.
In an instant, he was in front of the elephant-headed man.
That single great palm imprint rose to meet the elephant-headed man’s head and crashed down from above.
“Roar!”
With nowhere to evade, the elephant-headed man roared in fury and swung its claws to meet the blow.
Boom!!!
Amid the thunderous impact, torrents of force burst from the bodies of man and beast, ravaging the entire underground space.
Wherever they passed, dust and rubble were lifted in full, swirling into cyclones that refused to disperse.
Pfft—
The elephant-headed man spat blood violently and staggered back.
Boom!
Tang Mubai pressed the attack without mercy, continuing to strike out with his qi-forged great palm imprint, layering blow after blow onto the elephant-headed man.
Pfft!
Pfft!!
Pfft!!!
...
The elephant-headed man kept vomiting blood.
Its mountain-sized body, like a kite with its string cut, was battered off the ground and left drifting in midair.
The crimson shield around it faded little by little.
When it finally vanished, the elephant-headed man was struck hard into the wall, smashing out a massive crater, and could no longer move.
Life force plus 297.
Life force increased by 297... just three short of three hundred.
A lord-level elephant-headed man, on the verge of reaching that threshold, was beaten to death alive.