Chapter 20: A Desperate Struggle

  "Arise——"

  Jiangnan's cultivation rose to the level of a single elephant in just a few moments, and was still rapidly rising. His body expanded, and his chest involuntarily let out a long dragon roar. He transformed into a giant python, with his body as the python's body, his hands as the python's head, and his claws and teeth exposed. Suddenly, he executed the first move of the Dragon-Tiger-Elephant Fist technique: "Python Emerges from the Abyss!"

  Boom!

  That Lingming Mi Yuan had just lowered its head and drilled into the mine, and before it could adapt to the dimness of the mine, it felt a terrifying force coming, directly blasting onto its body, and sending its majestic physique flying out of the mine like a cannonball!

  The Tongling Mi Yuan let out a furious roar in mid-air, and suddenly saw a cyan figure flying out of the mine cave, charging straight at him.

  "Divine Elephant Treads the Mountain!"

  Jiang Nan's right foot heavily trampled on the Tongling Mi Yuan's forehead, forcing this giant demon beast from mid-air to fall hard onto the ground. The entire demon beast was embedded flat into the mountain rocks and mud, with only its two hind legs exposed outside.

  The physique of this demon ape was incredibly powerful, its strength astonishing. It slaughtered the masters of the Refining Qi like they were nothing. Unexpectedly, it was still struck flying by Jiang Nan's single move, and one foot sank into the muddy stone mountain. This shows that the power unleashed by Jiang Nan's two moves was incredibly astonishing, almost as if it was an extraordinary display.

  With a mighty kick, Jiang Nan's left foot sent himself flying forward for over ten zhang, his massive inertia carrying him almost horizontally before he suddenly stood upright, his body coiling like a dragon and shooting forward with a fierce whoosh.

  He had just taken a step forward when he suddenly heard a loud roar behind him, followed by the sound of rocks and soil cracking, Tong Ling Mi Yuan was apparently enraged, jumping out from underground and chasing after him with big strides!

  "This spiritual gibbon is really formidable, I swallowed a petal of the Buddha's hand golden lotus flower and suddenly possessed the strength of an elephant. This violent gibbon withstood my two heavy blows, yet it didn't even flinch, still full of vitality, and instead shook my hands and feet numb!"

  Jiang Nan suddenly felt a huge shadow rising behind him, his heart was shocked, and in an instant, this spiritual gibbon had already caught up with him, standing right behind him!

  It's absolutely not a good thing to have this demon beast standing behind you. Tongling Mi Yuan has a body of copper and iron, with sharp claws like knives, plucking people's heads as easily as picking something from a pocket, and with just one pluck, it can rip off a person's head and drink blood from the neck!

  Jiangnan had once seen this demon beast pluck off a young servant's head in green clothes and suck him dry.

  "Thirteen strokes of the lynx cat!"

  The Tongling Mi Yuan probed with its claws, but before it could even touch the Jiangnan region, a young man suddenly changed his movement, like a nimble weasel, jumping and leaping about, making it impossible for him to capture any trace.

  The gibbon let out a loud cry, leaping and bounding like the wind, its agility reaching an extreme. Originally it was a gibbon that had cultivated itself into a demon, and in terms of agility, it was not one bit inferior to the Jiangnan!

  One man, one gibbon, one chasing and one fleeing, in the blink of an eye they had run over ten miles, Jiang Nan repeatedly encountered danger, Tong Ling Mi's sharp claws that could cut gold and jade several times scratched his back, tearing his clothes to shreds, and even once cutting open the skin on his back, narrowly avoiding having his heart dug out!

  In the south, his heart was free from distractions, fully focused on fleeing, and his physical form was truly unpredictable. Sometimes he would use the thirteen pounces of a wild cat, sometimes transform into a dragon snake rising to land, like a giant python walking around, evading the pursuit of Tongling's Mi Yuan!

  In his body, the enormous medicinal power hidden in that petal of Buddha's hand golden lotus was thoroughly triggered, and after being refined by the Mysterious Fetal Scripture, it continuously transformed into boundless true energy, rushing upwards along the spine like withering wood, cracking open one piece of bone membrane after another, at a speed so fast that it left people staring in awe!

  A small petal contains such a huge medicinal power, the Buddha's hand golden lotus is indeed a spiritual medicine that can cultivate to the divine wheel realm, far surpassing the spirit elixir refined by the Medicine King Temple!

  In this short escape, Jiang Nan had already opened up fourteen pieces of bone membrane, adding to the six he had previously opened, for a total of twenty. It was estimated that it wouldn't be long before he could thoroughly open all twenty-four vertebrae.

  The periosteum of the twenty-four vertebrae is the most critical, it is the center of the body's periosteum, each piece of periosteum connects through, the true nature of Qi has no obstruction, making his speed and agility greatly enhanced, changing moves like a fish in water.

  His power was rising steadily, one elephant and one tiger's strength, one elephant and two tigers' strength, one elephant and three tigers' strength...

  However, the explosive power of the Buddha's hand lotus was too fast and too strong, even the Mysterious Womb Scripture couldn't keep up with the speed of the explosion. The massive heat filled his entire body, causing his body to swell and expand, bursting his skin open, and threads of blood seeped out from the cracks in his skin, transforming into a bloody mist.

  Jiang Nan's heart sank, Tong Ling Mi Yuan was bloodthirsty and crazy, with blood on his body, making it even harder to escape the pursuit of this demon beast!

  "This Lingyun Mihou is too fast, if I were to refine the medicinal properties of this Buddha's hand golden lotus petal, I might be able to escape its pursuit, but for now it's still far from possible!"

  Suddenly, the sound of gurgling water came, Jiang Nan looked up and saw that a large river blocked the way ahead, which was Yangchuan River. And in front of Yangchuan River, it was Qi Wang City!

  A woman in white leaned on the opposite bank of the Yangchuan River, her black hair hanging down into the river, her jade hand holding a comb, washing her hair with the river water.

  "Jiang Xue sister, hurry up and get out of the way!"

  Jiang Nan rushed to the riverbank, suddenly leaping up and bounding over the Yangchuan River in a single leap. The next moment, his strength was exhausted, his body plummeting downwards, falling into the middle of the river.

  "The dragon rises from the abyss!"

  The true energy of Jiangnan intersected, emitting a dragon's roar, his body slid across the river surface like a crocodile, suddenly shaking both arms, soaring into the air, crossing over ten zhangs of distance, landing on the opposite bank, without even a single water droplet falling on his body.

  In the south, suddenly turned around, only to see Tongling Mi Yuan's angry cry, like crying and sobbing, also rose into the air, like a dark cloud pressing down!

  "What a racket!"

  A woman in white clothes washing her hair by the river was somewhat impatient, and suddenly snapped her fingers, only to see a drop of water suddenly flying out from between her hair, shooting away.

  That Lingming Mihou was hit by this water droplet, let out a miserable cry, as if struck by a giant hammer of tens of thousands of kilograms, and was sent flying hundreds of feet away, from the sky above Yangchuan River all the way into the forest of a mountain valley, rolling all the way, knocking down countless trees, unknown whether it was dead or alive!

  The Southern General couldn't help but stare blankly, the majestic demonic beast was actually struck flying such a great distance by the water droplets flicked out by Jiang Xue's fingers!

  That Lingming Mihou chased him to the point of almost no escape, but in front of Jiang Xue, it was even more vulnerable than a paper paste. The Lingming Mihou is absolutely not weak, and Jiang Nan has a deep understanding of this. With his deliberate sneak attack, he made two consecutive heavy moves, which can be said to have used all his strength, but he didn't even touch a single hair of the Lingming Mihou!

  Jiang Xue merely popped out a single water droplet and heavily injured Tong Ling Mi Yuan; what kind of strength was this?

  "Jiang Xue sister had said that she was secretly plotted against, her cultivation was completely lost, and her soul was also shattered. I didn't expect her to recover so quickly in just a few days!"

  Jiang Nan suddenly let out a muffled hum, and the medicinal power in that piece of Buddha's hand citron petals grew stronger and stronger, almost bursting him open. With no time to think, he immediately used all his might to urge on the Mysterious Fetal Scripture, concentrating his mind to refine this massive medicinal power.

  Half a time unit later, his body transmitted several light explosions, and suddenly all twenty-four vertebrae membranes were opened by him!

  The medicinal power in the golden lotus petals of Buddha's hand still had some leftovers, allowing his true energy to continue surging and accumulating more and more vigorously.

  More than half a time, the medicinal power in the petals gradually dissipated, but there was still an extremely large residual medicinal power that had not been transformed into true energy by the Demon Prison Xuan Tai, but rather accumulated in his body, and could only be slowly refined.

  And the power within his body had also reached the level of one elephant and nine tigers, just one step away from advancing to two elephants!

  "I wonder if I can muster up the energy to break through all the bone marrow in my body?"

  Jiang Nan only felt the true energy inside his body surging and roaring, at least two to three times more than before. As soon as his mind moved, he immediately urged the true energy to take the spine as the center, and it rushed out in all directions.

  Clap! Clap! Clap!

  His body suddenly transmitted extremely dense explosions, like the rumble of firecrackers. His limbs and bones were blown open with a crackling sound, his ribs, arm bones, wrist bones, finger bones, pelvis, tibia, and toe bones were all shattered by the true energy!

  The power of two elephants has finally been refined!

  His true energy surged upwards, opening up the bone membrane of the cervical vertebrae and clavicle, until it was blocked near his brain.

  The Jiangnan drummed up his true energy, preparing to make a concerted effort to open up the bone membranes near his skull. Suddenly, a cool breeze came from his brow and spread throughout his body in an instant, calming down his violent true energy.

  "Zihe, breaking through the bone membrane is extremely dangerous. The true energy bursts open the skull near the brain, and if you're not careful, you'll hurt your brain. If you're slightly careless, you'll turn your own brain into mush." Jiang Xue's voice came over.

  Jiang Nan opened his eyes to see Jiang Xue walking towards him, her hair fluttering in the wind. A drop of water automatically detached from her hair and fell onto his brow, calming his true energy that had been stirred up earlier by a single drop of water she had used to seal her own true energy within him.

  "To break through the bone membrane on top of the head, one must use a gentle and meticulous approach, slowly and carefully grinding away, or else there will be great danger."

  Jiang Xue pointed out how to break through the last few pieces of bone membrane, and asked in doubt: "Zi Chuan, why did you provoke Tongling Mi Yuan, such a powerful demon beast?"

  Jiang Nan smiled and said, "I snatched a Buddha's hand golden lotus from the hands of this Tong Ling Mi Yuan, which is why it's chasing me to kill me. I originally planned to rush into the Qi Wang City and borrow the help of the experts in the royal palace to deal with it, but I didn't expect to meet my sister here."

  "Buddha's Hand Citron?"

  Jiang Xue nodded slightly and smiled, "No wonder your cultivation has progressed so quickly. It turns out that you've been taking Buddha's Hand Golden Lotus, a spiritual medicine. The Tongling Mihou is fond of eating the Buddha's Hand Golden Lotus and also remembers grudges. You took its golden lotus, I'm afraid it will hold a grudge against you. Earlier, I didn't kill it, but only made it retreat in defeat. Next time you enter Luoxia Mountain, this demon beast will come looking for you."

  "Next time I enter Luoxia Mountain, my cultivation strength will only be stronger than it is now. If Tongling Miyan wants to kill me, it will only become more difficult!"

  Jiang Nan stood shoulder to shoulder with her and took out the Buddha's hand golden lotus, smiling: "Sister, this kind of spiritual medicine is extremely wonderful, will it be useful for your injury?"

  Jiang Xue shook his head: "I'm a divine soul injury, and I can only repair my divine soul with the help of yang energy. The Buddha's golden lotus is useless to me. Moreover, in these few days, I've been using your yang energy to repair my divine soul, and the injury has already shown significant improvement. I estimate that it won't be long before my divine soul can recover."