Chương 400: Killing Ren Ji

Long Feng circulated his energy to staunch the bleeding at his back as he stated at Ren Ji cautiously.

'i can't compare to his speed at all, and predicting his movement is impossible. Even with the true essence, I still can't block his attacks.' he took a deep breath and began to think of a solution. The amount of true essence he could withstand simply wasn't enough to close the gap between them. Since he could escape from a Dao realm master, he didn't believe that a mere Ren Ji would kill him here.

"It's night. And in the night, my Dao reaches a new height. I don't know why I can sense true essence within your body, but it still won't help you!" Ren Ji said before tightening his grip around the dagger.

"Dark moon technique…" a faint moon seemed to spring up from behind him and rose high into the sky while the surroundings turned even darker. The darkness was strange, similar to ink. Long Feng tried to move only to sense several invisible strings restricting his movements. As for Ren Ji, he was nowhere to be seen, yet his voice echoed through the darkness.

"I am similar to the Lord of the darkness. This special skill makes you a fish on the chopping board for me." A deep wound suddenly appeared on Long Feng's arm, and another one appeared on his left cheek nearly instantly. He gave up resisting the invisible shackles and instead snorted coldly, not bothering about the wounds. In fact, many of them were already recovered visibly due to his great vitality.

"Lord of the darkness? With just this, you dare to call yourself that?" He laughed coldly before unleashing his demon intent infused with the true essence. It's power instantly surged to new heights. A storm seemed to erupt within this inky darkness as the invisible strings were destroyed by the overwhelming demon energy that surged around him. The dark moon technique itself was shaken from the very foundation, causing it to slowly unravel.

Ren Ji's figure reappeared and he stared at the roiling demon energy around Long Feng in shock.

"Demon Dao?" He laughed.

"To think you're a demonic cultivator as well? How unexpected. You'll still die anyway!"

"Scarless soul reaping slice!" He suddenly faded with the wind and before Long Feng could react, a dagger directly pierced through the cloud of demon energy and stabbed into his chest, barely missing his heart by a few inches. Long Feng's face turned pale as he gathered his strength and punched at Ren Ji with a thousand tons of force in his fist. The air screeched and compressed under his fist, but Ren Ji easily retreated, pulling his blood stained dagger out of Long Feng's chest.

"Such powerful physical strength…" Ren Ji smiled coldly. Long Feng weakly blocked the blood from gushing out of the deep stab with his palm while staring at Ren Ji. Nothing seemed to be working at all! If it wasn't for the true essence, he would have lost miserably already.

"If I can land a single hit, I'll be able to compound upon the injuries he is suppressing and worsen his situation. But he's too unpredictable." The hole in his chest was overflowing with blood, and even his vitality was unable to begin healing it. He wasn't even able to staunch the bleeding. Most importantly, a strange energy entered his body and seemed to target his very vitality and life source. This was naturally Ren Ji's unique energy. Gritting his teeth, Long Feng pulled out a vial of blood from his Dantian.

This was the blood essence of the rock ape. He didn't hesitate and poured the entire content into his mouth at once. A burning liquid rushed down his throat and spread to every corner of his body, releasing a savage and overwhelming amount of vitality. His body seemed to be burning from within and his skin turned red as sweat began oozing out of his body. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

An excruciating pain filled every cell in his body as they began to crumble apart, only to heal under the overflowing vitality. A circle of destruction and healing formed in his body, causing an inestimable amount of pain to wrack his body. At the same time though, Long Feng sensed his physical strength rising dramatically, breaking past the thousand tons benchmark without stopping. A pained roar escaped his mouth as the remnant savage intent of the rock ape filled his mind, muddling his thoughts.

Ren Ji's expression turned serious as he vanished and appeared behind Long Feng, stabbing the dagger into his back. But Long Feng didn't flinch, as though he didn't sense the pain. Instead, he turned around and delivered a punch that contained over a thousand tons of force, causing Ren Ji's expression to change. The speed of the fist wasn't slow, but he still managed to dodge it and appear somewhere else.

The wound on Long Feng's back stopped bleeding instantly and began to heal, just as every other injury on his body was healing at a ridiculous pace.

"This…" Ren Ji's eyes were clouded with shock as he stared at this scene. Long Feng clearly wasn't having an easy time though. He was desperately trying to protect his mind from the remaining intent of the ape while trying to refine the overflowing vitality within his body. The vitality was so much that his skin and organs began to tear open and heal in an endless circle, worsening the pain he was undergoing. Ren Ji's heart began to turn uneasy as he sensed the rising strength within Long Feng's body.

Two silver eyes unconsciously surfaced in his mind, causing his breathing to hasten as he rushed at Long Feng.

"Die!" He dodged the fist that headed his way and left a deep wound on Long Feng's chest, only to watch it heal instantly. At the same time, the overflowing vitality reduced slightly. Long Feng put his sword away and began to fight with his bare fists, unleashing extremely powerful fists that contained over a thousand tons of force. Even Ren Ji didn't dare to let those punches hurt him, so he focused on dodging while leaving extremely deep wounds all over Long Feng's body.

Unfortunately, the wound would recover instantly, causing a great amount of frustration to him. Moreover, Long Feng focused on protecting his vital organs like his throat and his heart, causing Ren Ji's to be unable to kill him in one hit.

"Bastard!" Ren Ji snapped with red eyes as he increased his speed, becoming practically invisible as dozens of cuts appeared simultaneously on Long Feng's body. Each injury drew upon the overflowing vitality within his body and healed instantly while slowly wearing down the vitality so it was no longer harming him. Long Feng continued to attack Ren Ji without care about himself, causing the vitality to continuously decrease till his cells stopped crumbling.

"Form!" He suppressed the savage intent in his mind and forced a great amount of vitality into his bones, flesh and muscles, causing his entire body to bulge. A shackle seemed to appear within his body, preventing his physical strength from increasing past a certain level. Long Feng's eyes turned bloodshot as he gathered all of the remaining vitality at once and smashed them within his body, causing him to cough up a great amount of blood.

But the shackle also crumbled, causing his physical strength to surge directly to two thousand tons of force! At the same time, a powerful energy rapidly formed within his body, condensing from every cell and gathering into a force that contained extremely terrifying power. This energy was extremely similar to true essence, yet it was vastly different at the same time. It was the true force formed within his own flesh, capable of contending against true essence!

The feeling of being freed from a shackle was extremely intoxicating as his body rose from the Imperial stage to a true deity body! His strength rose dramatically once again, finally pausing at three thousand tons of force. The vitality from the blood essence was thoroughly tamed and compressed into a huge amount of true force that surged through his muscles. Long Feng couldn't help but let out a satisfying roar, startling Ren Ji.

He glared at Long Feng, unable to help but sense as though the latter was different, yet his aura was the same. If anything, a strangely dense pressure was emanating from his body. Ren Ji vanished once again and appeared behind Long Feng, swinging his dagger at his back. But this time, he was startled when the dagger barely left a light wound on Long Feng's back. It no longer healed instantly since the overflowing vitality in his body was gone, but his body's toughness stunned Ren Ji.

Long Feng suddenly turned and unleashed a fist that was several times faster than before, purely using his true force. Ren Ji's pupils shrank as he realized that he couldn't dodge it all on time! He pushed his speed to the limit, but the fist wind still sent him tumbling backwards for a few meters with a trace of blood on his lips.

"Impossible! How can you suddenly become so much stronger?!" He exclaimed. Right now, Long Feng was giving him the same feeling as an early stage deity, but how could that be? His cultivation was clearly still in the Imperial realm! Long Feng clenched his fists, sensing the true force that was surging through his body. Each casual attack contained three thousand tons of force! And if he went all out, he could even achieve four thousand!

"You…!" Ren Ji's pupils trembled. He was sensing the exact energy possessed by that lunatic Xiao Hu within Long Feng!

"I don't believe this!" He shook his head and vanished once again, appearing by Long Feng's right side. Long Feng reacted nearly instantly, driving his true essence into his veins. A shocking amount of true essence flooded into his veins, surpassing the previous amount he could draw out by three times! He was able to draw out a great amount of true essence after his body reached the deity stage, and the power of the true essence alone was equal to that of Ren Ji, merely a step away from the refined mid stage!

Ren Ji barely dodged an attack, his heart shaking in fear and disbelief. He could sense it clearly now. Long Feng was no weaker than he was!

"Where are you going?" Long Feng snorted when he sensed Ren Ji retreating. He channeled his true essence and true force simultaneously, pushing his speed to a new height. He was even slightly faster than Ren Ji, rapidly closing the distance and unleashing a fist that directly formed a vacuum before him. The true essence caused his physical strength to reach a mind boggling five thousand tons!

"I can't dodge it!" Ren Ji realized. The power of this fist was already at the same level as a refined mid stage deity, or a normal peak deity! He crossed his arms before his chest just as the fist landed, directly crushing the bones within his arms. A gut wrenching scream escaped from Ren Ji's throat as his chest caved in and he was sent tumbling uncontrollably from the sky.

The bones within his two arms were completely crushed to pieces, and the force transmitted into his chest and shattered his rib cage while tightening his heart. To actually take a full five thousand tons of force with his body which had never been tempered… it could only be said that Ren Ji was unlucky. The fall from the sky didn't make things easier for him. His spine cracked from the impact as he formed a human sized crater on the ground while blood poured out of his seven facial apertures.

There was barely a breath left in him as he stared at Long Feng's descending figure with unfathomable hatred in his eyes.

"I… curse…" Long Feng didn't let him complete his words. His sword appeared in his grasp and he buried it deeply into Ren Ji's heart, causing his body to twitch on last time before the light faded from his eyes. After confirming that Ren Ji was truly dead, Long Feng breathed heavily and let out a faint sigh of relief before he let go of the sword and collapsed right next to the corpse.

The true essence as well as the rock ape's blood essence had completely shaken his body, and even though he broke through successfully, every cell in his body ached with a throbbing pain. That final attack that merged his true essence and true force also taxed his body greatly, exceeding the limit he could withstand. After all, the power he generated could compare to a refined mid stage deity. His body was merely still at the early stage deity, probably at the refined stage at best.

"So tired…" his eyelids were extremely heavy, making him to feel like closing them and falling into a deep sleep. Of course, that was impossible. He was in the middle of nowhere, which meant danger could come at any time, from any direction. He glanced tiredly at Ren Ji's lifeless corpse before smiling widely even as his consciousness threatened to give out.