Soul-Body Dual Cultivation was Lu Shang’s ultimate trump card.
It was also the method personally chosen by Elder Hun as the best way to deal with Cultivators.
But now, facing a young man three years his junior, the Soul Fire that Lu Shang had spent immense resources and effort cultivating couldn’t even break through his opponent’s Shield.
How could he not be dejected?
Li Chang’an didn’t rush forward to continue the fight. Instead, he asked again, "Can we sit down and talk now?"
Lu Shang was crestfallen.
He remained silent for a long moment before shouting hysterically, "Talk? No way! Elder Hun said you’re all just dogs raised by Cultivators. I may not be a good person, but I wouldn’t stoop to talking with a dog! Come on! Even without my Soul Fire, I can still tear you to pieces!"
As he spoke, Lu Shang retracted the Soul Fire cage that had enveloped Li Chang’an, forming it into a suit of Flame Armor that clung to his body before throwing a fierce punch at Li Chang’an.
’Unless I beat this guy to a pulp,’ Li Chang’an thought, ’he probably won’t calm down.’
And so, he no longer held back.
Although Lu Shang had already retracted the Soul Fire he controlled, the armor it formed still made Li Chang’an quite wary.
He condensed the Shield over his hands, dodged Lu Shang’s fist, and in the same motion, grabbed Lu Shang by the shoulder and violently hurled him out of the inn.
BANG!
A tremendous crash echoed. Because Li Chang’an truly hadn’t held back at all this time, Lu Shang was sent flying nearly a hundred meters. He smashed through dozens of houses before finally collapsing a section of the border town’s wall.
Lu Shang practiced Soul-Body Dual Cultivation.
He primarily cultivated the soul, with the body as a secondary focus.
More than half of the power in this Cultivation System was concentrated in the Soul Fire.
Now that his Soul Fire was blocked by Li Chang’an’s Shield, it couldn’t display its formidable properties.
Stripped of his soul cultivation, Lu Shang was merely a Martial Saint at the Blood Refining Realm. Before the current Li Chang’an, a mere Martial Saint was laughably weak.
Lu Shang had just hit the ground and hadn’t even had a chance to get up when Li Chang’an’s ghost-like figure appeared before him again. He grabbed Lu Shang by the collar, punched him squarely in the face, and said coolly, "What was that you said? I didn’t quite hear you. Why don’t you say it again?"
Even though the armor condensed from his Soul Fire blocked most of the force, the punch to the face still made Lu Shang’s head spin. He laughed hysterically and spat through gritted teeth, "The people of the Jiuzhou Continent may be a bunch of weeds and pigs, harvested by your kind again and again, but we still have some backbone! You can’t kill me today, but even if you could, I’d never surrender to you!"
As he spoke, he spat a mouthful of saliva.
Li Chang’an let go and dodged, chuckling. "Well, look at you. You started out acting like a little punk, and now you’re playing the part of a lone hero!?"
Lu Shang sneered, "Where do you think I’ve been all these years? How much death and bloodshed do you think I’ve witnessed with my own eyes?"
As he spoke, he urged his Soul Fire to burn furiously.
But this time, he wasn’t trying to burn Li Chang’an with the flames.
Instead, he was burning his very own Soul Fire as fuel. Amidst the furiously burning flames, his speed and strength suddenly skyrocketed, briefly approaching the limits of a Martial God!
However, not all Martial Gods are created equal.
And Li Chang’an was no ordinary Martial God.
BANG!
Lu Shang’s fist collided with Li Chang’an’s. Li Chang’an retreated three steps, but Lu Shang was once again sent flying nearly a hundred meters, smashing through an untold number of buildings along the way.
Li Chang’an was about to give chase, but after taking just one step, he saw a gaunt old man shrouded from head to toe in a black robe watching him from a short distance away.
Sensing danger, Li Chang’an stopped and sized up the black-robed elder.
The black-robed elder was also sizing him up. After a long moment, he finally spoke, "Just who are you?"
Li Chang’an glanced at Lu Shang, who was stumbling a short distance away and struggling for a long while before barely getting to his feet. Then he looked back at the black-robed elder and said coolly, "So, are you finally willing to listen to me now?"
Lu Shang coughed up several mouthfuls of blood, his gaze toward Li Chang’an still filled with rage and resentment.
Of course, there was also a trace of... fear, which he was desperately trying to conceal!
He had encountered Li Chang’an twice, and both times he had been utterly thrashed. Even though Lu Shang had a very high opinion of himself, he couldn’t help but feel afraid now.
His opponent was simply terrifyingly strong, instilling in him a deep fear of Cultivators as a whole!
He limped over to the black-robed elder’s side and said with a bitter expression, "Elder Hun, I have disappointed you..."
The black-robed elder glanced at him but didn’t reply.
His gaze returned to Li Chang’an, his expression still impassive. "What is it you want to say?"
Li Chang’an replied calmly, "First, as long as we can communicate properly, we don’t have to be enemies. Second, you seem to have some sort of misunderstanding about me!"
The black-robed elder’s expression didn’t flicker; he continued to watch him intently.
Seeing that he kept a stony face, like a block of wood, Li Chang’an couldn’t help but look at Lu Shang and say, "Kid, your master here doesn’t seem very human..."
He paused, his tone turning playful. "So, should I call him a vessel for the Heaven and Earth Consciousness, or the personification of the Heaven and Earth Consciousness?"
Hearing these two terms, a look of confusion crossed Lu Shang’s face.
Apparently, he didn’t know Elder Hun’s true identity. In his mind, Elder Hun was just a mysterious old man in a black robe who acted as both a father and a mother to him, always ready to offer guidance and help in any matter.