“Wen Ming?”
The masked man was astonished.
He asked himself if the familiar face before him belonged to the kid he encountered the other day and from whom he had asked for directions. He wondered why the kid would appear on the mountainside.
On top of everything, the kid even stabbed him.
Xu Xiaoshou suddenly felt himself trembling. Despite all his calculations, he never thought the man on the ground would be able to do such a thing.
Without warning, he reached out to tear off the mask from the masked man’s face.
It was only fair that he returned the favor.
Whack!
However, the masked man’s movements were no longer slow. He swiftly grabbed hold of Xu Xiaoshou’s hand and dug his fingers into its flesh.
Xu Xiaoshou pulled his hand back from the pain but, to his horror, discovered that he could not pull it away.
Xu Xiaoshou was stunned.
Shouldn’t he be in a weakened state?
How was it possible that he was instantly immobilized when the masked man grabbed him? It felt just like how it was in their previous encounter.
But how could it be? I now have the Master Physique, man! I have upgraded!
“Well, um… I think this is all a misunderstanding,” Xu Xiaoshou said.
“Shut up!”
The masked man shouted, pushing Xu Xiaoshou down and forcing him to sit. The force he applied soon caused Xu Xiaoshou to drop to the ground.
Xu Xiaoshou’s face had turned red from the pain, and it took him quite a while before he could even utter a word. “I’m not fond of this pose.”
The masked man stared at him in exasperation.
Cough! Hmm!
The masked man was choking, and he almost coughed out blood.
Xu Xiaoshou immediately seized the opportunity and delivered a knee strike to the masked man.
POW!
The tremendous power of Master Physique and Recoil delivered a terrifying amount of force. Somehow, it enabled Xu Xiaoshou to throw the masked man, unable to maintain his fighting mettle, high into the air.
Xu Xiaoshou probably realized that if the masked man were to strike him, he could certainly not handle the blow.
However, he had to do something, regardless of the risk.
The masked man behaved like a sick man when Xu Xiaoshou attacked him. He was unable to parry or deflect any of the attacks and could only endure the inflictions.
To put it simply, the masked man seemed like someone who had lost his sense of judgment, for he had spent all his points in attack but had set none into defense.
Xu Xiaoshou noticed that the masked man’s Spiritual Source reserve seemed to be lower than his.
He did not know if he was imagining it, but the masked man looked even weaker than when they had first encountered previously.
Back then, the masked man could still somehow maintain his level of power at the Innate Stage. Presently, it felt like his powers had dropped right down to the Acquired Stage.
Xu Xiaoshou wondered deep down if the members of the Holy Vassal became more vicious in their combat prowess when they had lower levels of powers.
As they were now quite a distance apart, Xu Xiaoshou took the chance to get up to leave. He noticed that the masked man seemed to struggle to even steady himself after getting kicked into the air.
He was shocked to find how wobbly the masked man looked in the sky. He looked unbalanced, just like how he had been when he first rode on his sword in flight.
“Wait, he cannot fly?”
Are you telling me that his power has dropped to that of Acquired Stage?” Xu Xiaoshou muttered.
He immediately shot a compressed fire seed at the masked man.
BOOM!
The masked man went flying even further after the explosion.
“He is weak,” said Xu Xiaoshou with raised eyebrows.
Xu Xiaoshou’s eyes widened in disbelief. He found it rather unbelievable that the man in front of him was the same man who once overpowered a host of formidable opponents from the Spirit Palace.
: Cursed, Passive Points +1.
He saw the Information Bar suddenly refreshed at that moment, causing his eyes to glint.
The attack worked?
Well, why else would the masked man curse at him if it did not, eh?
Xu Xiaoshou then shot another five fire seeds at the masked man with a flick of his hand without a second thought.
“Wen Ming! You…”
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The deafening explosions drowned out the furious rantings of the masked man. Mushroom clouds took form in the dark sky, and Xiao Qixiu, who watched from afar, was utterly shocked.
“Is that Xu Xiaoshou?”