181 Stone Statues (1/2)

Xue Wei stared calmly as the two sculptures transformed from mute existences into actual threats. Although they were not individually as strong as him, they outnumbered him two to one, and they were tailored to match his strength.

The Qi he had infused into them came from his Azure Dragon Spirit and the stream of several thousand tiny roaring dragons coursing through his meridians.

Xue Wei's Qi was no longer ordinary after his core had hatched. It had caused a mutation in him.

The mutation had elevated his strength to new heights. Although his cultivation base had not moved an inch beyond its previous plateau, his Qi had undergone a full metamorphosis. He could vaguely sense that every ability required little to no Qi to use now, reducing his consumption of energy to abnormally low levels. The purity of his Qi could almost be called 'absolute', with no room for improvement.

Xue Wei rolled his head and cracked his neck. He clenched his fists and gave a smile.

”This will be interesting,” he said, grinning. Xue Wei was itching for a fight. It had been far too long since he had truly let loose against a worthy foe. All of them had been weaker than him. Furthermore, he was feeling frustrated about what he had learned earlier about his father and his uncle.

He would use these stone statues to give vent to said frustration now. The corners of his lips curved upwards.

Forbidden Rush!

Xue Wei rushed at them with his movement technique, reappearing behind them in the blink of an eye like a gust of wind.

Arcane Fist!

A thousand fist imprints appeared in the air. Each and every one of them had the power of Xue Wei's renewed Qi behind them, but there was something different about them this time. Each illusory fist had a small dragon coiled around it

The imprints drew an arc through the air before impacting with the first statue, which was pushed back . The resulting collision made it sound like the statue had been struck by a truck. Small stone bits cracked off from the statue's exterior, but it was not enough damage to render it immobilized.

In truth, the statue had only been pushed back five steps. Nor did it feel pain, so it had sustained virtually no actual damage. Without pause, the statue joined its companion statue in a pincer attack on Xue Wei, both with their arms covered in swirling, dense Qi.

Xue Wei retreated to the side by using his movement technique. Although he was not too fearful of these two statues, he did not dare look down on them either.

Xue Wei kept narrowly dodging the attacks of the stone figures without letting up.

”They are better than expected!” Xue Wei smirked, as they were actually forcing him to use his movement technique to its utmost just to dodge each attack. Furthermore, he could feel the intense vibrations from each attack on his skin after barely avoiding getting grazed..

”They are no ordinary opponents.” He curbed his arrogance and kept pushing his movement technique to its limits, cautiously circling the two statues to hopefully catch a weakness.

The more he looked, however, the more he realized just how tough they were to deal with. They were not living beings, so they had no vital areas, and losing a limb did not spell the end of their retaliation.

”Break the horse, and the general will fall,” Xue Wei muttered while looking at the statues' legs. If he could break just one of them, their speed would drastically decrease.

Xue Wei focused the entirety of his energy and accelerated half a step beyond his usual limit, preparing an all-out attack to shift the tide of the battle.

Kick of Forgotten Kings!

A sea of tiny Qi-dragons covered his leg as he swept it out at the leg of the first statue. His kick broke the sound barrier, which manifested as a pulse of turbulent, exploding air behind him.

The statues were not intelligent creatures. They felt no fear and did not inhabit any sense of self-preservation, so they just charged mindlessly at Xue Wei when he unleashed his attack.

A loud cracking sound filled the area. Xue Wei retreated as fast as he could after the collision. His leg was numb, but it was much better off compared to the statue's leg. Its leg had been shattered in half, which made the statue clumsily collapse onto its side.

A smile appeared on Xue Wei's face. He glanced at the other statue, intending to repeat his strategy, but then he saw out of the corner of his eye that the other statue was mending its leg by reabsorbing the fragments of its shattered leg.

Xue Wei's eyes widened. ”Hey! This is unfair,” he muttered. While the statue's leg was not truly without impairment, the situation was not going according to plan.

”Do I need to turn them into dust or something?” Xue Wei muttered, glancing at the formation runes inscribed on the chests of the statues.

Xue Wei was not in a hurry. The first statue was still in the middle of restoring itself while the second one stood guard. Although they were not intelligent creatures, they seemed to possess pack mentality, which was most likely due to the nature of their twin formations.

This gave Xue Wei some time to consider what exactly could be the way to deal with them.

”The formation is what keeps them running,” Xue Wei mused to himself. ”I don't know much about formations yet, but it is to be expected that they are built in a complex way. So... all I have to do is destroy the formation, right?”

Albeit simple, this idea was Xue Wei's best bet. He snickered. ”I don't know if that is the test, but it should work.”

Xue Wei began moving again, targeting the one with the crushed leg, and unleashed a flurry of attacks.

Azure Light Finger!

Shattering Mountain Palm!