The night was a suffocating, ink-black shroud. Total darkness. Through it moved five figures—the spirit children. They were silent, wraithlike horrors, ghosts flitting through the gloom. Their eyes were voids, their mouths stretched into rictus grins that promised only pain as they swept the area. For a trained martial artist, there was no hiding. The children found them instantly.
"Ah!"
A scream tore through the night—sharp, desperate, and then abruptly silenced. It was swallowed by the darkness before it could even echo.
These things, these bizarre spirit children, they killed without a touch, without a fight. An ordinary warrior was nothing to them, a flimsy obstacle to be passed through. In their wake, they left only desiccated husks, shriveled and dry like the victims back at the Jiang Family courtyard.
"Hee hee hee…"
A childish giggle, thin and spectral, drifted on the wind. It was a sound of pure, demonic terror. It was enough to jolt anyone from the deepest sleep. Men, startled awake, would stumble to their doors, pulling them open to investigate. They were met by a lunging shadow. There was no time to react, no time to even raise a hand. The spirit child would phase through them, and they would drop to the ground, a silent, withered corpse.
High above, perched atop a pavilion, a woman watched. She was a strange, delicate creature in a short white dress, her feet bare against the cold roof tiles. A twisted smile graced her lips, her eyes glowing with an unholy light as she savored the slaughter.
"This feeling… this beautiful carnage," she whispered. "Hee hee hee…"
The Flying Eagle Hall
The Hall was an island of light in the sea of darkness. Torches blazed and massive lanterns hung from the eaves, casting the spacious courtyard in a stark, flickering glow. Patrols of Hall members walked their rounds, their eyes scanning the oppressive shadows beyond the walls.
Suddenly, a distant scream cut through the night.
"What was that?" a squad leader barked, his face hardening. "Sounds like a fight. Move out, check on it!"
His men raised their torches, ready to plunge into the darkness.
But it was too late.
A new sound joined the night—a chilling titter that seemed to come from inside the courtyard itself. A sinister wind whipped through the compound, making the flames of the torches and lanterns dance and gutter. The light faltered, and a preternatural chill bled the warmth from the air.
Every man there felt his skin crawl, the hair on his arms standing on end. It was like being thrown into a bottomless, frozen abyss.
"Hee hee…"
The giggle came from a corner of the yard.
They spun around, their eyes widening in horror. Squatting on the edge of a dry well was a child, maybe seven or eight years old. Its skin was pitch-black, its mouth a gash filled with needle-like teeth. Its eyes and nose were just black, hollow pits. It stared at them, that awful, sinister grin plastered on its face.
"What in the hell is that thing?" the squad leader gasped.
Swoosh!
The creature launched itself forward, a blur of motion streaking toward the squad leader.
"Ahhh!"
The man's scream was cut short as his body withered in an instant, collapsing into a heap of dried skin and bone.
At that very moment, in the solitude of the back courtyard, Jiang Dao was on the precipice of a breakthrough. His mind was a whirlwind of motion and technique, images flashing behind his eyes. A furnace roared to life in his chest, his blood boiling as he struggled to merge the Eagle Claw Iron Shirt with the Golden Bell Divine Art. He was so close, just one final piece away from shattering the dam in his meridians. But it wouldn't give. The pressure was immense, unbearable.
Outside, the courtyard erupted in screams.
Hall members poured from the barracks, their faces a mask of shock. They saw the creature and knew.
"It's an evil spirit! Everyone, fall back!" roared Guo Dutian, his experience telling him exactly what they were facing. The men scattered in terror.
Guo Dutian let out a battle cry, drawing his saber and charging the spirit child. He unleashed his Swift Saber Technique, a whirlwind of sixty-four slashes meant to obliterate his target. But the child just grinned its lipless grin and met him head-on. With a sickening crunch, Guo Dutian was sent flying through the air, blood spraying from his mouth.
The other masters charged, and the front yard descended into a chaotic melee of shouts, screams, and the futile clang of steel against something not of this world.
"Hee… hee hee hee…"
The giggle was right above him now. On his roof.
Jiang Dao's face was flushed, veins bulging across his skin as the fire within him raged. He snapped his eyes open and stared at the ceiling.
Scrape. Scrape.
The sound of a tile being moved.
A few were slid away, and a head poked through the opening. It was another one of the children, its black face a canvas of horror, its empty eyes weeping pus and blood as it peered down at him.
"Heh…" it chuckled.
Then, something inside Jiang Dao snapped.
A thunderclap echoed in his mind, and a wave of power surged through him, the crackle of energy running through his bones like a string of firecrackers. The pressure vanished. The two arts had finally become one.
A wild, primal energy radiated from him. He looked up at the creature on his roof, his eyes as cold and sharp as shards of ice. "What," he growled, "are you laughing at?"
The spirit child's grin widened, and it dropped from the ceiling, lunging for his face.
Jiang Dao exploded into motion. He rose, his body swelling with power, muscles hardening into plates of living steel, veins like thick cables coiling across his skin. He was no longer a man; he was a god of war. His hand shot out, a blur of motion, and snatched the creature from the air.
Squelch.
His hand, now a vise of iron and sinew, clamped around the child's skull. It was trapped.
A look of pure cruelty crossed Jiang Dao's face. He watched the thing struggle and shriek, and then, with a surge of power, he closed his fist.
POP!
The creature's head exploded in a shower of foul-smelling pus and blood.
Just then, far away on her rooftop perch, the woman in white went rigid. She spun, her gaze locking onto the direction of the Flying Eagle Hall.
"One of my darlings… destroyed?" Her voice was a sharp hiss. A predatory smile spread across her face. "You killed my pet. I can't just let that go, now can I? Hee hee hee…"
She launched herself from the roof, a white streak cutting through the night.
Jiang Dao ignored the filth dripping from his hand. He could hear the battle still raging in the front yard. He glanced at his internal status panel. The names of the two arts, Eagle Claw Iron Shirt and Golden Bell Guardian Divine Art, blurred and faded. In their place, new words appeared.
Eagle Claw Vajra Body [Modifiable]
He focused his intent on it.
Swoosh!
Eagle Claw Vajra Body [Unmodifiable]
A torrent of knowledge flooded his mind. His body changed in an instant, growing harder, stronger. His veins swelled, pumping raw power through him, before sinking back beneath his newly forged, steel-hard muscles.
His eyes were like ice chips. He took a step, and the sheer force of his movement created a gale that shattered the doorframe. He was a storm of muscle and rage, and he was heading for the front yard. His new form, the Eagle Claw Vajra Body, had pushed his physical strength to the absolute limit.
He burst from the back of the compound like a cannonball. He was a giant, standing nearly eight feet tall, his body a masterpiece of raw, sculpted power. In the courtyard, he saw what was left of his men locked in a desperate, losing battle with the second spirit child. Half the Hall was already dead.
"DIE!" Jiang Dao bellowed, his voice the roar of a demon.
He charged, a living battering ram aimed at the heart of the creature. The spirit child turned, its face splitting into a savage grin as it lunged to meet him.
BOOM!
Jiang Dao didn't even slow down. He met the creature with a devastating palm strike. The thing let out a piercing shriek as smoke poured from its mouth and nose. It was launched backward, crashing to the ground, its body sizzling and melting into a puddle of black ooze.
Jiang Dao stood over the dissolving remains, his breath coming in ragged clouds, his eyes blazing with fury.
The Spirit Child Palace. Their revenge had come.
But how did they find me? He thought, a cold dread washing over him. My family… are they safe?
The surviving men in the courtyard could only stare, their minds reeling. Their Hall Master… he was a monster.
Power rolled off him in waves. He stood bare-chested, a titan of steel-like muscle gleaming under the torchlight, towering over them all. Was this their Hall Master? Or something else entirely, forged in the crucible of some forgotten hell?
To kill an evil spirit with a single blow… it was the stuff of legends.
"Divine Strength Realm…" Guo Dutian whispered in awe. "Has he reached the Divine Strength Realm?" It was a mythical state, a level of power ninety-nine percent of martial artists would never even approach. And Jiang Dao was there.
Suddenly, Jiang Dao's head snapped to the side, his gaze piercing the shadows.
"Hee hee…"
That same chilling giggle. But this time, it wasn't a child who emerged from the darkness.
It was her.
She was a nightmare wrapped in porcelain skin. Tall and graceful, she wore a simple white dress, her bare feet padding silently on the blood-soaked ground. A waterfall of jet-black hair cascaded down her back. Her face was one of impossible beauty, but her smile was poison, and her eyes… her eyes were just two pits of endless, solid black.
"I know you," she cooed, her voice a sweet melody of death. "You're Jiang Dao, of the Jiang family. Hee hee… You killed one of my darlings in Hengzhou City, and you thought you could run here?"
Jiang Dao's voice was a low growl. "We do not quarrel with your Spirit Child Palace. Why are you hunting my family?"
"Oh, but you do," she purred, taking another step forward. "The Jiang family killed my child. They killed my master. For that, you all must die. Not just you… every last one of you. Hee hee hee…"
The last bit of warmth left Jiang Dao's eyes.
"Then let's end this."
BOOM!
He didn't wait. He exploded forward, a terrifying shadow of destruction. The air itself seemed to shatter as he closed the distance in an instant, his hand stabbing forward like a spear, aimed directly at her chest.
"You—!" Surprise flickered across her face, but it was too late. His palm struck home.
Thwump!
It was like hitting a sack of cold, wet clay. The force of his blow was absorbed, neutralized, and unable to penetrate.
She just smiled. With a flick of her head, her black hair came alive, lashing out like a thousand poisoned needles, all aimed at him.
"THUNDERFLAME!" Jiang Dao roared, channeling all his power into his Wind and Thunder Poison Sand Palm. A vortex of purple, toxic fire erupted from his hand.
BOOM!
This time, the force slammed into her, an internal detonation that made her shriek in genuine pain and sent her reeling backward. At the same moment, her hair struck his body, but it was like throwing needles at a mountain. Sparks flew as the strands scraped harmlessly against his Vajra Body.
Jiang Dao's hand shot out and grabbed a massive fistful of her hair. It was cold, slick, and smelled of the grave. He yanked, halting her retreat and pulling her back towards him.
"DIE!"
He swung her by the hair, smashing her body into the ground with enough force to crack the flagstones. His other hand, still wreathed in purple flame, descended on her temple.
CRUNCH!
The sound was sickening. A wave of searing, toxic heat washed over the courtyard, forcing Guo Dutian and his men to stumble back, choking.
"Ahhhhh!"
The woman's scream was a thing of pure agony. Her head had been completely caved in, her beautiful face now a misshapen, melted ruin.
"Why couldn't you just leave me alone?" Jiang Dao snarled, his voice a guttural roar of pure rage. "All I want is to live in peace! WHY DO YOU PEOPLE KEEP COMING FOR ME?! WHY?!"
He punctuated each word with another brutal, flaming strike to her skull.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
"This is for provoking me! This is for my family! This is for my peace!"
With every blow, her head was driven deeper into the earth. Her hands clawed blindly at him, her sharp nails screeching as they raked across his chest, leaving nothing but faint white lines and showers of sparks. He was untouchable.
After a dozen more strikes, he seized her ruined body and hauled it from the crater he'd made. He opened his mouth, revealing teeth that looked more like fangs, and sank them into her neck.
Flesh ripped. Black blood sprayed.
Rip! Rip! Rip!
He tore at her like a rabid animal, biting off chunks of the foul, black meat. She thrashed and spasmed, but he pinned her arms, his rage absolute, his mind gone. After a final, savage tear, her struggles ceased.
With a soft, wet sound, her ruined head tore free and rolled across the ground. The headless body in his hands went limp.
Jiang Dao spat a mouthful of black blood onto the ground. His face was a mask of cold fury. He tossed the corpse aside, where it landed with a wet slap, a broken doll of flesh and bone.
He stood there, a terrifying colossus of muscle and rage, breathing heavily. He turned his gaze to Guo Dutian. "Count the dead."
Guo Dutian shuddered, snapping out of his horrified trance. "Yes… Yes, Hall Master!"
Jiang Dao started to walk towards the main gate, but a sudden noise made him freeze. He spun around, his eyes wide with disbelief.
In the middle of the courtyard, the headless corpse was getting up.
It rose to its feet, swaying slightly. The ruined, flattened head on the ground began to… inflate, swelling back to its original shape. It levitated into the air, settled back onto the neck, and seamlessly fused into place.
The woman rotated her neck, a series of sickening cracks echoing in the silence. Her face, now perfectly restored, twisted into a mask of pure hatred.
"You… you really, really hurt me," she hissed, her voice dripping with venom. "Now… It's my turn. I'm going to devour you, piece by piece, and forge your soul into my new little darling!"
Jiang Dao's pupils contracted. She's still alive? This isn't a [Fierce] grade monster… this is something else.
The other men scrambled backward, their faces pale with a new, deeper terror. Their Hall Master had literally torn her apart, and she was still standing.
"I don't care what you are," Jiang Dao said, his voice dropping to an icy whisper. "If killing you once doesn't work, I'll just have to do it again."
Swoosh!
The words had barely left his lips when every instinct he had screamed DANGER.
The woman vanished. She was suddenly in front of him, her speed and power magnified tenfold. A single palm strike slammed into his abdomen.
There was a deafening BOOM, and for the first time, Jiang Dao, the unbreakable man of steel, was sent flying.