Martial Dao: I Can Enhance My Talents

"A Cyan Armored Ox Demon."

The name flashed through Fang Han's mind.

This type of Demon was known for its strength and defense. With its thick hide and tough flesh, it was one of the more difficult Demons to deal with at the same level.

At this moment, Yun Qianyue's Body Technique was nimble and her Swordsmanship was elegant as she weaved around the Ox Demon like a butterfly flitting through flowers.

Her sword flashed like water, and every strike left a gash on the Ox Demon's body.

Though the Ox Demon had a thick hide, it was gradually failing to hold on against Yun Qianyue's Swordsmanship, which was imbued with Water Momentum.

More than ten vicious wounds already covered its body. Fresh blood gushed out, dyeing its cyan-black hide a deep, dark red.

The Ox Demon was clearly enraged. It let out a series of deafening roars as it charged and thrashed its head wildly.

But Yun Qianyue's Body Technique was far too agile. She always managed to dodge at the last possible second and take the opportunity to counterattack.

'I probably won't need to intervene!'

Fang Han stood on a treetop, watching quietly.

He could tell that although Yun Qianyue had consumed a fair amount of Inner Qi, she still had the situation well in hand. This Cyan Armored Ox Demon was likely no match for her.

He didn't make a move, merely remaining on guard in case anything unexpected happened.

Dozens more exchanges passed.

Yun Qianyue seized the moment the Ox Demon was recovering from a charge, her figure suddenly closing in as she thrust her sword.

The strike was as fast as lightning and as gentle as a ripple, yet incomparably sharp.

The sword's tip plunged with unerring accuracy into a pre-existing wound on the Ox Demon's neck, sinking all the way to the hilt.

"MOO—!"

The Ox Demon let out a mournful, drawn-out cry, its massive body trembling violently.

A moment later, its enormous frame crashed to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust before falling silent.

Yun Qianyue stood not far from the Ox Demon, panting heavily.

She had expended a great deal of energy in this battle.

Her Inner Qi was almost depleted. Fine beads of sweat trickled from her temples and slid down her cheeks.

Unbeknownst to her, the purple veil on her face had come loose during the fierce fight and was now fluttering down to the ground.

It revealed a delicate and flawless face.

It was a face of extreme beauty.

Her skin was fairer than snow, as smooth as the finest White Jade, and flushed slightly from the intense battle.

Her eyebrows were shaped like distant, mist-shrouded mountains, perfectly defined without a touch of ink.

Her eyes were like clear, deep autumn pools, rippling with light.

Her nose was elegant and straight, her lips like dotted cherries. Without a trace of makeup, she possessed a clear, otherworldly beauty.

At this moment, her forehead was beaded with sweat, and a few strands of dark hair, damp with perspiration, clung to the sides of her cheeks, but they did nothing to diminish her beauty.

Standing on the treetop, Fang Han's gaze fell upon her face, and for a moment, he found he couldn't look away.

It wasn't that he'd never seen beautiful women before.

In the internet age of his past life, he'd seen all sorts of beauties.

But this face stirred something in him that was hard to describe.

It was a very pure kind of beauty.

Unadorned by any artifice, untouched by any dust of the mortal world.

Yun Qianyue caught her breath for a moment, then suddenly noticed a rather intense gaze fixed upon her.

She looked up and saw Fang Han standing on the treetop.

Their eyes met.

Yun Qianyue froze for a second, then seemed to realize something. She looked down and saw the purple veil on the ground.

Her movements were a bit flustered as she hurriedly bent down, picked up the veil, and put it back on her face.

Only after the purple veil once again concealed her face did she calm down slightly.

But in the bright eyes that remained visible, a trace of shyness she couldn't quite hide lingered.

'Strangely, I don't feel any revulsion at all. If anyone else had looked at me like that, I would have met them with a cold glare long ago. But Fang Han...'

"Ahem—"

Fang Han had also come back to his senses by then, realizing his lack of composure.

He gave a dry cough, floated down from the treetop, and landed steadily a short distance in front of Yun Qianyue.

"Are you injured?" he asked, his voice tinged with a hint of guilt.

"I'm not injured."

Yun Qianyue's voice was as cold as ever, but beneath that iciness, there seemed to be a faint touch of softness.

"I've just used up a lot of my Inner Qi."

Fang Han nodded slightly.

His gaze swept over the fallen Cyan Armored Ox Demon on the ground, then to Yun Qianyue's slightly pale face. He pondered for a moment.

"From now on, you'll travel with me for the time being," he said. His tone was flat, but it held an air of authority that brooked no argument.

"You've expended too much Inner Qi. If you encounter another Demon, you could be in danger."

"Alright."

Yun Qianyue was slightly taken aback, but then she nodded gently without refusing.

Fang Han turned and started walking back the way he came.

Yun Qianyue followed silently behind him, maintaining a distance of about three paces.

The two walked on in silence.

Fang Han walked in front, continuously circulating his Spirit Smelling Technique to sense the surrounding auras and search for Demons.

Meanwhile, Yun Qianyue followed quietly behind, her eyes fixed on his back.

This continued for an hour.

Suddenly...

"BOOM—"

The sound of a fierce battle erupted from the side. The commotion was comparable to Yun Qianyue's fight with the Cyan Armored Ox Demon.

The deafening roar of a Demon mixed with the boom of exploding Qi Force and the loud CRACK of breaking trees.

Fang Han paused, his gaze turning toward the source of the sound.

"That's in Lin Xiao's direction," Yun Qianyue's cool voice sounded from behind him. "He must have encountered a powerful Demon."

"You're right, Lin Xiao has run into a powerful Demon!" Fang Han nodded, his expression grave.

With his Great Success stage Spirit Smelling Technique, he could clearly sense Lin Xiao's aura entangled with that of a Demon.

He had actually discovered this Demon even before it encountered Lin Xiao.

However, the Demon was skilled at concealing its aura. The aura it emitted wasn't strong, causing him to misjudge its true power.

He hadn't realized in time that the Demon's strength was too great, likely beyond what Lin Xiao could handle.

"Let's go," Fang Han said in a low voice. His body had already transformed into a streak of pale cyan light, darting toward the commotion.

Yun Qianyue followed close behind. Her Body Technique was light and graceful, and while she couldn't match Fang Han's speed, she was still astonishingly fast.

After passing through a dense patch of woods, the scene ahead came into view.

In the woods ahead, Lin Xiao was locked in a fierce battle with an enormous Demon.

He was fighting a Tiger Demon.

The Tiger Demon was several times larger than an ordinary tiger. Its shoulder was taller than a man, and it was nearly ten meters long from head to tail, like a small, moving mountain.

Its fur was a base of golden yellow, covered in black stripes. These were no ordinary tiger stripes; they seemed to form some sort of strange pattern, from which a faint light flowed.

Its eyes were a dark gold with vertical pupils, radiating unconcealed brutality and ferocity.

With every pounce, its sharp claws tore through the air with a piercing shriek.

Every lash of its long, thick tail swept out like a steel whip, snapping nearby trees in half.

In terms of strength, it was no weaker than the Cyan Armored Ox Demon that Yun Qianyue had faced earlier.

But compared to Yun Qianyue, Lin Xiao, who was at the Early Stage of Seventh Grade, was clearly a notch weaker. He was now in a perilous situation.

His once-neat robes were now torn in several places. A deep claw mark gashed his left shoulder, and blood had soaked through half of his lapel.

There was also a wound on the outside of his right leg. Though not deep, it affected his movement, and his footwork was no longer as nimble as before.

"ROAR—!"

The Tiger Demon let out a deafening roar and pounced again with its massive body.

It opened its cavernous, blood-red maw and went straight for Lin Xiao's throat.

Inside that great mouth, its fangs were bone-white and over a foot long, gleaming with a chilling light.

Lin Xiao's expression changed drastically. He dodged to the side with all his might.

But the leg injury clearly hampered his speed, and it was obvious he wasn't going to make it.

"SWISH—!"

Fang Han acted decisively. He drew his sword and slashed through the air.

A stream of pale cyan light shot toward the Tiger Demon like a bolt of lightning tearing through the void.

The air itself seemed to be sliced open where it passed, leaving a brief, transparent ripple in its wake.

It was so fast it defied the limits of vision. Lin Xiao didn't even see what it was; his vision blurred, and a cyan shadow was already between him and the Tiger Demon.

The Tiger Demon sensed a fatal threat. Its dark golden pupils contracted as it desperately tried to dodge.

But Fang Han's strike was too fast, so fast that it had no time to react at all.

"SQUELCH—!"

A spray of blood erupted.

The cyan Sword Qi sliced into the center of the Tiger Demon's head and passed straight through its massive body.

The Tiger Demon's pouncing figure froze mid-air, the brutal and ferocious light in its eyes instantly solidifying.

The next instant, its enormous body split neatly down the middle into two halves and crashed to the ground.

Blood gushed out like a spring, instantly staining a large patch of ground as the thick stench of gore filled the air.

The two halves of the corpse were even still twitching slightly as they hit the ground.

One strike.

Just one strike.

This powerful Tiger Demon that had pushed Lin Xiao to the brink of death was so casually cleaved in two.

Lin Xiao's eyes went wide. He stared fixedly at the two twitching halves of the Tiger Demon's corpse, then looked at Fang Han who had just appeared, momentarily at a loss for words.

He opened his mouth to say something, but found his throat was too dry to make a sound.

He knew Fang Han was strong.

Thirty-sixth on the Celestial Pride List, third on the Sect's overall ranking—he had heard these titles all too often.

But knowing was one thing; seeing it with his own eyes was another entirely.

He had personally experienced just how strong that Tiger Demon was.

Its speed was astonishing, its power terrifying, its hide thick and tough. His sword could only leave shallow cuts on its body.

And Fang Han?

He probably hadn't even used his full strength, yet with just a casual strike, he had sliced the Tiger Demon in two.

The difference...

Lin Xiao took a deep breath, suppressing the shock in his heart. He struggled to bow, his voice hoarse but respectful.

"Thank you for saving my life, Senior Brother Fang!"

Fang Han turned, his gaze sweeping over him as he nodded slightly.

"How are your injuries?"

"Not too serious," Lin Xiao managed to force a smile.

"I have a Healing Elixir here."

Fang Han took a Jade Bottle from his robes, tipped out a lustrous, longan-sized Elixir, and flicked it toward Lin Xiao.

"Thank you, Senior Brother Fang!"

Lin Xiao hurriedly caught it. It was warm to the touch and had a fragrant medicinal scent. It was the Jade Dew Pill, a secret Healing Holy Medicine from the Qingxuan Sect.

Knowing how precious this Elixir was, he gratefully popped it into his mouth.

'He killed it with a single strike!'

By now, Yun Qianyue had also arrived and was standing not far away.

Her bright eyes, visible above her purple veil, were fixed on the two halves of the Tiger Demon's corpse, a flicker of unconcealable astonishment in them.

She had arrived just in time to see the Tiger Demon's corpse fall.

'To kill such a formidable Tiger Demon with a single strike... With my current strength, I know I could also kill this Tiger Demon, but it would be absolutely impossible to do it so casually, much less with a single, fatal blow.'

'Compared to when we carried out a mission together last year, his strength has grown by leaps and bounds.'