Chapter 2829 — An Even Stranger Technique

"Oh... it's perfectly normal. I'm from the branch descended from Dongfang Bubai's cousin," Dongfang Bushu said, his face reddening as he explained.

In truth, whether their Dongfang clan had any real connection to Dongfang Bubai was something even their current head, Dongfang Chaoqun, could not say for certain. But the ancient Dongfang family had borrowed the identity of Dongfang Bubai's descendants, and the name did carry a certain intimidating weight.

"Oh, I thought you might have some secret for how eunuchs can father children." Zhang Naipao sounded rather deflated at this. "That whatever Qiankun Great Shift you mentioned, I've only ever seen it on TV. Qiankun Great Shift isn't what I cultivate."

"I don't care whether you do or not. Rest assured, I won't attack you first. I'll just finish off these little underlings of yours right now. As long as I don't strike at you first, your Qiankun Great Shift can be as formidable as it likes — it'll be useless against me." Dongfang Bushu had already made up his mind that Zhang Naipao cultivated the Qiankun Great Shift.

"Oh, that works too. Then how about I hit you first?" Zhang Naipao asked, his expression giving nothing away.

"You? Hit me? Go ahead — as long as you can actually do anything to me, hit me however you like!" Dongfang Bushu curled his lip, plainly not regarding Zhang Naipao, an early Heaven-rank expert, as worth his attention.

"You're the one who told me to hit you." Zhang Naipao gave a cold snort. "Don't blame me for not warning you."

"You're nothing but an early Heaven-rank expert. What's the harm in letting you have one free strike?" Dongfang Bushu said carelessly.

"Hell Yin Demon Fist!" Zhang Naipao rapidly circulated the mnemonic of his inner art, forming an exceedingly bizarre hand seal with one hand, then abruptly clenched his fist and swung it out, aiming straight at Dongfang Bushu's head!

Dongfang Bushu had been quietly on guard all along, not only circulating his inner art to shield himself with true qi but also keeping himself ready to dodge at any moment. Seeing Zhang Naipao's fist come sweeping over, he hurriedly retreated two steps to evade — but to his surprise, Zhang Naipao had already halted his steps, and his fist too had stopped in midair!

Yet just as Dongfang Bushu was wondering what on earth Zhang Naipao was doing, the true qi on Zhang Naipao's fist did not halt at all — it shot straight forward and sank into Dongfang Bushu's mind.

"Aah—" Dongfang Bushu let out a sudden roar. His eyes turned crimson, and his hands began flailing wildly without pause, as though he had been subjected to some tremendous shock. He abruptly dropped to his knees on the ground, frantically tearing at his own hair with both hands. Then just as suddenly he leapt up and began spinning about in place...

"Young Master Dongfang, what's wrong with you?" His lackey was stunned by Dongfang Bushu's bizarre behavior and asked in some alarm.

"Aah—" Dongfang Bushu did not answer at all. He flung his lackey aside with one hand, sending the man staggering and very nearly crashing to the ground to his death. His lackey was only a mid Earth-rank expert — how could he withstand such a fling?

But this lackey bore the heavy responsibility of accompanying Dongfang Bushu, and if anything happened to Dongfang Bushu during the trial, he could forget about ever having an easy time of it once he returned to the Dongfang family! He was, after all, nothing but an ordinary disciple of the family.

"Thud!"

Dongfang Bushu actually dropped straight to his knees on the ground and began kowtowing, his forehead striking the earth with a resounding thud, thud, thud, leaving everyone present except Zhang Naipao utterly astonished as to what on earth had come over him.

"Aah, aah, aah—" Dongfang Bushu kowtowed and roared out a string of syllables whose meaning no one could fathom.

Suddenly, Dongfang Bushu turned and ran straight out of the safe ground, charging toward the outside, with no telling what he meant to do.

The lackey was startled and hurriedly ran out after him, only to see Dongfang Bushu dashing headlong at a large crawling spirit beast that happened to be passing by.

Seeing Dongfang Bushu come charging over, and sensing in particular the peak late Heaven-rank strength radiating from him, the crawling spirit beast instantly went on alert. It watched the onrushing Dongfang Bushu warily and let out a furious roar: "ROAR!"

But Dongfang Bushu seemed not to hear the spirit beast's roar at all and charged straight at it. Those watching from the safe ground were badly frightened by the sight — that was a gigantic crawling spirit beast, a creature of enormous bulk; not to mention Dongfang Bushu, a peak late Heaven-rank expert, even an expert at the peak great-perfection of late Heaven-rank would be no match for it!

Sure enough, the lackey watched as the crawling spirit beast simply lashed out with its tail and sent Dongfang Bushu tumbling head over heels.

What power did that crawling spirit beast possess? After Dongfang Bushu was struck to the ground, he twitched twice, then his eyes rolled up and he was off to the Western Paradise to fetch the scriptures.

This scene was witnessed clearly by the people in the safe ground, for it had all happened in a straight line from them — even inside the safe ground, one could see it all perfectly clearly through the entrance. Every one of them felt a chill run down their spines!

If what had happened before — when Young Hero Yang struck Zhang Naipao once and then died himself — had been strange, then what was happening now was utterly incomprehensible! Zhang Naipao had somehow unleashed some kind of martial technique that drove Dongfang Bushu stark raving mad, as though he had become a lunatic, so that he ran over to the spirit beast and got himself killed by it...

Dongfang Bushu's lackey now stood staring blankly at the scene before him, at a loss for what to do. Dongfang Bushu was dead, and he had no idea how he should handle it. His mind was a complete blank, and all he could think was either to run for his life or to die along with his master.

Yet reason and loyalty prevailed upon the lackey to wait until the spirit beast had gone, then carefully go recover Dongfang Bushu's corpse and slowly make his way toward the teleportation array. Had he known this would happen, he would never have chosen to bring Dongfang Bushu to the safe ground for a rest — he would have insisted, with all the force he could muster, that Dongfang Bushu leave this place...

But there is no medicine for regret in this world, and the lackey had no way out either. Whether he could reach the teleportation array safely with the corpse on his back was another matter entirely — but no matter what, he had done his utmost.

After gathering up the corpse, he did not even glance back at the safe ground again, nor did he dare say another word to Zhang Naipao. Zhang Naipao was simply too formidable — a peak late Heaven-rank expert had died just like that, in the midst of such bizarre circumstances.

"Fool who overestimates himself," Zhang Naipao said flatly, then ordered Mo Ba: "Mo Ba, go give our friend from the Night Palace a Small Return Pill. I see he's injured too!"

"Yes, sir!" Mo Ba took out a Small Return Pill and went straight to the side of Night Palace Disciple A, giving it to him to swallow. Both disciples of the Night Palace were moved to tears of gratitude, feeling that following a leader like Zhang Naipao was simply too great. (To be continued)