The blades stabbing through his torso were locked within the folds of his flesh. The sand bandits were unable to move their sword even a single centimeter! It didn’t matter if they were trying to pull their swords out or shove their swords further in, it was useless. No one knew exactly what Bing was feeling at this moment. His blue hair hung down over his face, covering his eyes and expression. What they did know was that he was not moving an inch.

“Is he dead?” A bandit asked.

“Could you survive with 6 fucking swords stabbing through you?”

“I did hear he was a monster earlier...”

“You’re such a fucking retar---” A loud metal clang sounded out and a body fell to the ground.

  One by one, all the bandits that stabbed him had their skulls crushed in with his shield. The swords lodged into his body were slowly being pushed out by his fat. They dropped with a soft thud to the sand below and Bing turned around to face his attackers. This ambush was planned. Somehow, they tracked him and planned to kill him here.

“Fire!” A voice shouted as a rain of arrows headed straight towards Bing.

  Bing raised his shield and slowly walked forward. None of the arrows could even scratch the surface of his shield. Its defensive abilities were remarkable. Bing has yet to find the limit to the amount of damage it could take. At times even Ying’s sword couldn’t pierce through it during their spars.

  With Devil’s Physique, his body could naturally take arrows on without any harm. They bounced off his skin when they made contact. This greatly startled the sand bandits. Once they saw that their arrows had no effect on him, they began throwing talismans at him instead. Bing couldn’t risk getting hit by one of those. There are countless number of spells that could ruin him even with his tough body.

  He only knew this after finding out the Empress became an apprentice spellmaster. There was no reason why a person like her would do that for no reason. There had to be something about the art of talismans and formations that could be used in a way never seen before. The Empress tended to do things like that.

  He used Swift Devil once to avoid the magical flying slips of paper and then a second time to arrive in the middle of their group.

“Kill him! Kill him!” He slashed at Bing with his sword.

“Die you fat monster!” He shot an arrow towards Bing’s head.

  Bing calmly waved his shield and blocked both attacks. He ruthlessly struck them back with unrestrained blows with his fist and shield. Bing spared no mercy towards any of the bandits aiming to rob and kill him. He was like an unstoppable juggernaut as he tore through them like brittle wood with his terrifying strength. Blades had little effect on his body, arrows were like toothpicks, and talismans were avoided with extreme caution.

  He considered himself pretty lucky at this moment as most of these guys here were near his cultivation stage or below it. If they were higher then, he would have to escape to save his life and come back a different time to hunt them all down. Bing remembered Qing telling him that the tower rewards those who earn it. He wondered if the tower would reward him for dealing with these bandits and what kind of reward would it be. He hoped it would be a better cultivation technique. Bing’s been stuck with the most common cultivation technique on the continent and couldn’t find a better one that felt right to him in the Martial Pavilion.

“Gahhh!” Bing knocked his shield into a bandit’s forehead, launching him across the sand.

“I know I killed your lizard mount but is that really any reason to come after my life with this much force?” Bing suddenly asked.

“Of course not. We had a different reason for coming after you.” A woman suddenly revealed herself.

  She rose from the sand right beneath him and this shocked Bing greatly. He hopped away to gain distance from the woman and was secretly frightened. Where did she come from?! Bing didn’t sense anyone near him at all! She escaped his senses and could’ve easily killed him if she wanted to!

“And that reason is...?” She was stronger than him and not by a small amount.

“You’re not from around here, are you?” She asked. It was a probing question, possibly.

“Of course I am. I lived in this desert my entire life.” Bing lied with a straight face.

“Oh?” Her voice rose in amused interest. “Then who am I?”

“Like I wouldn’t be able to tell who you are. The real question is do you know who I am?” Bing shot the question back towards her. He made sure to pump up his voice in an arrogant manner.

“No. I don’t. And if I don’t know you, then you certainly aren’t from around here.” She was important. She must be a big figure on this floor.

“Heh, I guess your little scouts aren’t worth much if they can’t even find out about me. The Great Mountain Crusher, Leng Huan. Everyone knows about me and my powerful Huan Clan.” Bing boasted perfectly.

“A little Qi Gatherer at the 5th stage dares to mock my men? Surely your background is anything but ordinary if you have the guts to insult my men to my face.”

“What are your men worth to me?! My entire clan could destroy your little group with a fart! Do you truly not recognize this handsome young lord?” Bing flexed his plump muscles.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Hmm...” She was conflicted. His bluff was actually working!

“I’ll say this out of the kindness of my heart. Get out of my sight and stop bothering this young master. My patience is wearing thin for you bandits. If you wish to continue spitting on my kind gestures, then prepare to find your entire little group annihilated within the next few days.” Bing threatened with a pompous gesture.

“Oi! Did you bastards properly investigate this guy?” She yelled to her men.

  The fact he wasn’t cowering to her when she was an 8th stage Qi Consolidator probably unnerved her. He had to thank Wan Qing for this. She regularly used her 6th stage Qi Consolidation qi aura around him and Lei. Not caring if they could withstand it or not. This forced them to quickly adapt or become a bigger burden to her.

‘Now’s my chance!’ Bing thought.

  Bing used Swift Devil and just barely touched his devil hand around the neck of the powerful woman. Her response was almost instantaneous, but it was enough for his hand to prick her neck with his devil hand’s tongue. His devil hand drained some of her energy, allowing Bing to not die from this unbelievably quick counter kick. After taking some of her physical essence, Bing’s shield was struck with her foot. This unassuming light kick was exactly what Bing was hoping for. Bing used the force from her powerful attack to send himself flying away at speeds he wouldn’t be able to reach on his own. This was only possible thanks to third chapter within his Shield Art manual, the Art of Counter, which teaches him about using the opponent’s strength against them. He’s only learned the basics of this chapter and none of the truly powerful defensive techniques within the chapter.

“Thanks! See ya later!” The bandits were nothing more than just a blur in the distance at this point.

“Leng Huan of the Huan Clan! You will not escape this desert alive!” Her yell became as quiet as a whisper at the speeds he was going.

  He made sure to position himself in the direction that Lei was at before attacking the woman. It would be counter-productive if he was sent flying in the opposite direction from Qing or Lei. Bing still didn’t let his guard down even though he was so far away from the woman. As soon as he landed back on the ground, he used Swift Devil till his body couldn’t handle the strain anymore. Looking at the state his shield was in, he absolutely wouldn’t stand a single chance against that woman.

  His shield was damaged horribly. A deep dent was made into the shield with small cracks coming from the edges going towards the center. All the bones in Bing’s shield arm were broken. If he wasn’t using Devil’s Arms and a recovery pill to slowly heal the injuries, his arm would look a mangled horrifying mess right now. But he didn’t come out of that situation with nothing.

  A stupidly wide silly smile was on Bing’s face. He brought his palms together and slowly split them apart as a tiny black and white orb manifested in between them. The orb immediately shattered and blood spurted from Bing’s orifices, but his smile didn’t lessen one bit. Whatever this technique was he stole from the woman, it was too powerful for him to utilize with his lacking qi control. He’d ruin his qi pathways trying to correctly perform this technique.

  But there was something that confused Bing about this lucky situation. Stealing that technique wasn’t what he aimed for at all. He didn’t even know he had the power to steal techniques! Bing just hoped to escape without suffering too much damage from that woman. He’s absorbed several people with his devil hand but never has a situation like this happened to him before. What Bing was interested in knowing was what was the difference between her and the other people’s he’s drained.

  It was a mystery he hoped to find out one day but for now, he just wanted to get the hell off this floor. If anyone asked him about his opinion about deserts, he would ask them, “Did you mean desserts? I love them.”

“Heh...” His stomach rumbled as he laughed at his own joke.

  Bing’s attention was captured by a very strange sight in the sky coming towards him. The figure waved at him with a mysteriously large object on his back. While the other one, far above him, looked down on him with disappointment. Heh heh... he expected that look when he didn’t breakthrough in the several days he’s been on this floor.

  Wan Qing was flying on her fan with Ni Xong in her lap. Lei Zhi hooked his fishing pole to Wan Qing’s fan and was soaring through the sky connected to her fan. Quon was wrapped around him and Xiurong as too tiny to see from this distance. Quite a strange sight to greet him but considering his allies, he isn’t too surprised... If anything, he’s glad to see them. Now he could have a feast with Lei’s fishing rod!

“Hey guys!” Bing waved.

“I see you made zero progress whatsoever.” Qing immediately struck him where it hurts.

“I uh... had some trouble on this floor...” He admitted somewhat embarrassed.

“Hmph.” She lowered her fan to only slightly hover above sand.

“You must have had it rough. I can tell by how messed up you look.” Lei said with a giant golden coffin on his back.

“What’s with the...” Bing asked, referring to his coffin.

“A spirit tool I found. I’ll show you what it does another time.” Lei answered.

“How was your journey Qing?” Bing asked nicely.

“Better than yours it seems.” She took in his appearance after hearing Lei Zhi bring it up.

“Isn’t that the truth...” He agreed. “I just ran into an 8th stage Qi Consolidator not too long ago and barely got away with my life.”

“I was wondering why the left side of your body looked like that...” Lei said.

“You can see my injuries?!” Bing exclaimed. Outwardly his left side didn’t look injured at all because of his auxiliary art covering it but inwardly his bones an organs on that side were a complete mess.

“I can see quite a few things.” Lei revealed.

“Hmm. That’s not bad.” Qing couldn’t lie. It wasn’t easy to spot internal injuries. Even qi had its limits when it came to sensing.

“Lei Zhi, I need a big favor from you. I’m starving and haven’t eaten in many days. Can you please fish me up some food to cook so I can not starve to death?” Bing begged.

“Not a problem Bing but just so you know, I have no idea what I'll pull out with this pole. There is a chance that it could be poisonous or inedible entirely.” Lei shared.

‘Shouldn’t you be worried about your injuries?’ Wan Qing thought.

“Let’s do it.” Bing wasn’t a gambling man but sometimes you have to take chances to survive. He refused to starve again.

“What are you doing exactly?” Qing was curious. What mysterious ability did Lei Zhi’s fishing pole have? Was it similar to her own fan? Even though she has been with them through several floors in the Great Tower, she hasn’t seen too much of their abilities as she handled most of the trouble that came their way.

“Come watch an old man do some good ole fishing.” Lei Zhi took a squat on the sand and channeled his qi into his weapon. Bing excitedly stood next to him, preparing to subdue any beast that gets hooked by Lei. Ni Xong mimicked Bing’s excitement and copied him as Wan Qing relaxed on her fan and looked on in feigned disinterest.