ters had already been inside, meaning there were now three masters inside. Their chances of success became even more slender as a result."Professor Ye, you've arrived!""Hello Professor Ye..."The other...Chapter 658: Fierce Battle (Part 2)

In response to Musashi Ichiro's attacks, Xiao Yu either sidestepped or slightly shifted his body. No matter how Musashi Ichiro attacked, Xiao Yu could always move a little bit and avoid the strikes.

Upon seeing Xiao Yu's evasions, Musashi Ichiro furrowed his brows. He was quite shocked at this point; if Xiao Yu had used cultivation techniques to dodge the attacks, there would be nothing he could say about it. But for Xiao Yu to evade with such subtle dodges left him feeling a ripple in his heart.

Even though Xiao Yu got hit by the wind from the punches and palms when evading, given Xiao Yu's strength level, neither the fist winds nor palm winds posed any threat to him.

Step of Subtlety!!!

Xiao Yu was currently using Step of Subtlety. At present, he could only achieve small-scale dodging; if he could move freely within a small space, his mastery of the Step of Subtlety would be considered complete.

To learn the Step of Subtlety requires one's spirit to merge with the surrounding environment and cosmos. If Xiao Yu hadn't inherited everything from Zhong Kui, even reaching the late phase of Internal Energy Cultivation or Muscle Strength Phase wouldn’t allow him to master it.

It was worth noting that Musashi Ichiro had now entered the Master Realm, but he still couldn't grasp this technique. Only after some time adapting and exploring could he possibly initially connect with the surrounding cosmos.

Similarly, even if he mastered it, he wouldn’t be able to achieve what Xiao Yu did. Just like Rishujun, who is now at the peak of the Master Realm but can only achieve temporary unity with heaven for brief periods before his spirit could no longer endure.

Around Xiao Yu's body, Musashi Ichiro’s every move was decomposed in Xiao Yu's mind, allowing him to easily dodge Musashi Ichiro’s attacks.

"Pfft..."

As soon as Xiao Yu dodged Musashi Ichiro's attack, he suddenly spotted a gap left by Musashi Ichiro. Without any hesitation or awkwardness in his movements, he counterattacked with his dagger. A soft sound echoed after which Xiao Yu’s dagger pierced through Musashi Ichiro’s ribcage, leaving behind a trail of blood.

When Xiao Yu's dagger struck Musashi Ichiro, the latter’s expression changed dramatically. He then quickly retreated to a safe distance.

Xiao Yu did not pursue when he saw Musashi Ichiro retreat hastily; he knew that his current ability to injure Musashi Ichiro was due to taking him by surprise. If he were to recklessly attack now, it would produce no such effect.

Because Xiao Yu understood that there was a significant difference between their strength levels. Even in the state of unity with heaven and earth, injuring him would be quite challenging. The only thing he could do right now is wear Musashi Ichiro down until he lost his cool; then he might have a chance to win.

Musashi Ichiro took a few quick steps back and lowered his head to look at the side of his rib cage. He saw a wound about ten centimeters long, with flesh peeled apart on both sides, revealing the white bones underneath.

If he hadn’t reacted quickly just now, Xiao Yu’s dagger would have disemboweled him.

Although his carelessness was one reason for what happened, wasn’t it also due to Xiao Yu's strength

At this moment, when Musashi Ichiro looked at Xiao Yu, a serious expression appeared on his face. Only now did he truly take things seriously.

After all, he was a Master! Although he had just recently broken through, ordinary Late Transformation Power users were not his match. Yet, Xiao Yu managed to wound him so badly.

Now when he looked at Xiao Yu, he treated him as an equal opponent.

However, deep down in his heart, he still believed that the secret techniques of China were miraculous. Despite seeing Xiao Yu before him looking like a regular person, Musashi Ichiro could sense that Xiao Yu's strength was inferior to his own.

He was a Master! Perhaps the only one in the Yamato race, since when he reached the peak of Transformation Power, he had already interacted with the highest echelons of the Japanese martial arts world. At that time, there was only one person who could match him in strength.

This was also why he was called a Master by the entire Japanese martial arts community despite not being at the Master realm.

His breakthrough can be attributed to luck; he didn’t believe that the other person could break through as well. He had great confidence in this, for when he reached peak Transformation Power, he was under seventy years old, while the other man was over eighty. At such an age, due to the body’s aging process, breaking through became virtually impossible.

Musashi Ichiro glared at Xiao Yu with a vicious expression; after crossing into peak Transformation Power two decades ago, he had hardly ever been injured, let alone wounded by a young man in his twenties.

Musashi Ichiro slowly circulated the internal energy throughout his body. At this point, there was no more holding back on his part whatsoever.

Suddenly, Xiao Yu’s brows furrowed slightly; just then, he could sense Musashi Ichiro's aura intensify dramatically, to a degree that even the space around him began to ripple, as if it were about to collapse.

At this moment, Musashi Ichiro had fully unleashed his Master-level strength and was determined to finish Xiao Yu off in one move.

"Hai..."

Musashi Ichiro saw Xiao Yu standing there with his eyes closed and no intention of attacking, so he couldn't help but shout loudly as he charged at Xiao Yu with a mighty aura.

Xiao Yu had already stopped holding back by now. He poured all his spirit into the space to stabilize it, which was on the verge of collapsing.

He knew that if his state of unity between man and heaven were broken, there would be no way for him to defeat Musashi Ichiro. Thus, he first had to steady this state.

"Clang..."

As Musashi Ichiro charged toward Xiao Yu, a sharp sound echoed through the air. Suddenly, in Musashi Ichiro's hand appeared a gleaming soft Japanese sword.

This soft sword was originally limp and flexible, but after Musashi Ichiro gave it a slight shake, it instantly turned into a chilling sharp blade.

This soft sword could be considered Musashi Ichiro's biggest trump card; countless warriors had met their doom under its blade.

Therefore, by showing this sword now, he was essentially revealing his entire hand and swearing to kill Xiao Yu here.

Today was originally a day of great joy for him due to breaking through, but it also happened to be the day he suffered an unprecedented disgrace. How could he bear being injured by a young man like this

Musashi Ichiro, wielding his sword, attacked with extraordinary ferocity; every slash produced long streaks of sword light that left Xiao Yu scrambling for defense. Furthermore, even though Xiao Yu's light steps used to be nimble, they seemed less agile now in the face of these long sword lights. Even if he wanted to counterattack, the length of the Japanese sword rendered his dagger ineffective.

Suddenly, a metallic clashing sound rang out in mid-air; it turned out that when Xiao Yu saw how busy he was dealing with the sword light, he decided to rely on the sharpness of his dagger to break the deadlock.

However, once his dagger clashed with Musashi Ichiro's Japanese sword, he realized that he had underestimated the strength of this master. Each time their blades met, Xiao Yu felt a surge of blood rushing in his chest until after several collisions, he could no longer suppress it and spat out a mouthful of fresh blood.

Seeing such a situation, Xiao Yu hastily retreated; at that moment, the space around him seemed to disintegrate. Helplessly, he had to retreat while trying hard to stabilize his state of unity between man and heaven.

He knew that to deal with Musashi Ichiro, this was his only hope.

Seeing Xiao Yu's retreat, Musashi Ichiro did not chase after him but instead looked at the disheveled Xiao Yu with a sinister smile playing on his lips.

Xiao Yu stepped back and slightly activated the Righteous Qi Formula to suppress his surging blood energy.

Although Musashi Ichiro was sneering, he also felt a slight shock. He wasn't shocked by Xiao Yu's cultivation but rather by the sharpness of the dagger in his hand.

When his Japanese sword clashed with Xiao Yu's dagger just now, it seemed as if he heard the sword's lamentation. This blade had followed him for over fifty years and was specially crafted by a top master from Japan fifty years ago when he was young.

This sword had been with him for five decades, and he meticulously polished it every day, creating a subtle connection between them. However, due to his relatively weak mental state, he couldn't feel this bond until today when he broke through to the Master realm; during that critical moment of life and death, he sensed the faint wailing from the sword.

After hearing the sword's lamentation, he didn't continue pursuing Xiao Yu. When he stopped and focused on sensing his sword again, there was nothing—leading him to believe it was a false alarm while regretting letting up in order to decisively defeat Xiao Yu.

Since the earlier wailing was merely an illusion, Musashi Ichiro no longer held back and charged towards Xiao Yu once more.

"The Tiger-Bear Unification of the Five Animal Exercises!"

Xiao Yu saw Musashi Ichiro charging again and abruptly sped up his cultivation method's energy circulation while roaring loudly.

Knowing that he couldn't withstand a direct attack from Musashi Ichiro, Xiao Yu had to deploy all his strength for an all-out confrontation.

In this moment, Xiao Yu's form was like a tiger and bear combined, rushing towards the advancing Musashi Ichiro. As he attacked, the fierce roars of tigers and bears echoed with the wind from his movements.

Xiao Yu released all the killing intent within him, but since it belonged to Zhong Kui, Xiao Yu's current strength wasn't sufficient to completely control this killing intent, causing it not to be fully concentrated on Musashi Ichiro.

Despite its dispersion, the killing intent remained extremely intense. When it approached Musashi Ichiro, even he was momentarily stunned.

Although he quickly recovered from the effects of the killing intent, Xiao Yu seized this brief moment of distraction and charged forward with his dagger exuding an unstoppable momentum accompanied by tiger roars and bear howls.

At that moment, Xiao Yu was like a mountain-climbing tiger concentrating all his strength into his dagger.

When the dagger in Xiao Yu's hand collided with Musashi Ichiro's sword, several crisp sounds were heard followed by a muffled groan from a person.ow lotuses, Xiao Yu could easily complete the refinement."Daoist Brother Xiao, you don't seem to be refining it" Li Qiong asked after seeing how Xiao Yu drank his bowl of wine without any intention to...