Chapter 153: Annihilating Cao Dou!

Cao Dou stared coldly at the two of them, closing in step by step as a formidable aura steadily swelled around him. The corner of his mouth twitched into an icy smirk: "Just the two of you, and you actually delusionally thought you could escape from my hands?!"

Qin Shou's face instantly turned somewhat pale, whether from his injuries or other reasons. Su Yi, on the other hand, furrowed his brows deeply; he had not expected the adversary to catch up so quickly. But since he was here, he had to face him. Subconsciously, Su Yi touched the Mysterious Dragon Tendon wrapped around his arm, then glanced at Qin Shou. He wondered if he should once again borrow Qin Shou's strength to utilize the Mysterious Dragon Tendon.

Much like how Yao Xin had previously used the Mysterious Dragon Tendon to slay a Dou Xiu cultivator, once infused with Dou Qi, the Mysterious Dragon Tendon would become razor-sharp. Under a sneak attack, an ordinary Dou Xiu cultivator simply could not withstand it. If he let Qin Shou take the lead, killing Cao Dou was by no means an impossibility!

Before Su Yi could take action, Cao Dou suddenly lunged forward like a striking ape, unleashing a fierce palm strike directly at Qin Shou. Having been injured and somewhat slow to react, Qin Shou hurriedly threw out a punch in defense, but instantly let out a muffled groan as he was blasted backward, slamming violently into a nearby tree trunk. The gap between a Level 9 Dou Zhe and a Level 11 Dou Xiu was indeed vast.

Su Yi's expression shifted, and the next moment he felt a fierce gust of wind rushing toward his face. He slammed his foot hard onto the ground, using the recoil to instantly spring backward and dodge Cao Dou's wind-laden attack. The moment his feet touched the ground, Su Yi's gaze sharpened; he forcefully drove his right foot downward, causing tiny cracks to spiderweb across the earth. His body suddenly lunged forward, slamming directly into Cao Dou with his entire weight!

This series of reactions was truly as fast as a flash of light. Cao Dou had not expected that someone so young would possess such remarkable reflexes and combat experience, shifting from defense to offense in a split second. However, a cold sneer immediately appeared on his face—no matter how the opponent struggled, the ultimate outcome would be the same!

With a soft cry, faint Dou Qi abruptly flashed across Cao Dou's arms, and the oppressive momentum of his vital energy grew even stronger. Cao Dou swung his right arm fiercely, slamming his elbow directly into Su Yi's body!

A dull thud echoed through the air as their figures separated once more. While Cao Dou only retreated half a step, Su Yi was blasted backward over a long distance by the impact of the Dou Qi. As expected, he was still temporarily at a disadvantage.

"This brat is seriously one tough bastard to beat!" Seeing that his attack had not inflicted any severe injuries on Su Yi, even Cao Dou, who held the upper hand, could not help feeling a wave of frustration. He cast a cold glance at Su Yi, slowly closed in once again, and sneered, "Su Yi, you've done exceptionally well to hold on until now, but you are no match for me. Be a good boy and accept your death!"

"Heh, you really know how to tell a joke. Who on earth would willingly accept their death? ...Besides, that last strike just now—though you won by a slight margin, your arm must still be aching quite a bit, right?" Su Yi's mouth curled into a slightly sarcastic smile. While his attack power could not compare to Cao Dou's, his physical toughness was not the least bit inferior. He hadn't felt much pain from the previous clash, but relatively speaking, Cao Dou probably hadn't had such an easy time of it.

Sure enough, the moment these words left Su Yi's mouth, Cao Dou's expression turned rather ugly. Su Yi's counterattack had been swift; though he had managed to beat him back in the rush, the counter-force had left his arm aching, a dull pain that lingered even now. He couldn't help wondering what kind of monster Su Yi actually was—possessing no Dou Qi yet being exceptionally ferocious. Could this be precisely why he had attracted the attention of the Supreme Medicine Pavilion?

"No need to waste any more time. Let's end this in a single blow!"

Finally turning serious, Cao Dou let out a low roar as the Dou Qi across his entire body erupted without reservation. It seemed he was truly going to unleash a lethal, all-out attack!

At this sight, Su Yi's expression inevitably turned grave. An all-out assault from a Dou Xiu cultivator was no laughing matter; even with his currently formidable physique, he couldn't simply shrug it off! Just as Su Yi was frantically searching for a countermeasure, Qin Shou abruptly lunged forward, grabbing Cao Dou tightly from behind with all his might, and roared at the top of his lungs: "Su Yi, do it!"

The sudden turn of events startled both men. Regaining his senses instantly, Cao Dou sneered and surged his Dou Qi violently, attempting to shake Qin Shou off. Under the tremendous impact of the vital energy, Qin Shou—who was merely a Level 9 Dou Zhe—let out a muffled groan and coughed up a mouthful of blood. He deliberately spat the blood right beside Cao Dou's ear, yet continued to grit his teeth and hold onto him for dear life!

Before Cao Dou, feeling disgusted by the wetness near his ear, could take further action, Su Yi wasted no more time or breath. In a few rapid blinks, he dashed right in front of Cao Dou, and with the veins on his right hand bulging fiercely, he lunged forward. But he wasn't grabbing just anywhere—

He grabbed Cao Dou's throat directly!

The human body had resilient areas, but it also had vulnerable spots, and the throat was universally a critically vulnerable zone. Once that place was crushed, death was not far off. Therefore, Su Yi targeted Cao Dou's throat with a lethal grip from the very start! Thanks to the precious time bought by Qin Shou's desperate delay, Su Yi seized the opportunity in an instant and succeeded in one fell swoop!

With his throat seized, feeling a crushing pressure followed by an immediate sense of suffocation, Cao Dou was startled. He forced his Dou Qi to erupt, blasting Qin Shou away with a tremendous shockwave. Freed from the restraint, Cao Dou frantically threw a punch at Su Yi!

Su Yi let out a muffled grunt, but the grip of his hand only grew tighter and tighter. Back when he trained using massive boulders, he had also practiced hand conditioning; crushing a piece of diamond-stone with his bare hands was not entirely impossible. Could Cao Dou's throat possibly be harder than a rock?

Cao Dou landed several successive punches, but Su Yi stubbornly absorbed every single one of them. Meanwhile, the pressure around his neck grew increasingly suffocating. He felt the available air dwindling, his head growing dizzy and the power in his punches turning weaker and weaker... A wave of panic instantly gripped Cao Dou's heart. Driven purely by the primal survival instinct, all the Dou Qi in his body surged toward his neck, desperately attempting to form a protective barrier of Dou Qi and blast Su Yi's right hand away!

Sensing the rebounding force on his hand growing stronger by the second, Su Yi's expression darkened, and a fierce, ruthless glint flashed through his eyes. He had endured a near-fatal counterattack earlier by sheer willpower; if he let Cao Dou succeed now, all his previous efforts would go down the drain!

"So what if you have a protective layer of Dou Qi? I refuse to believe I can't break through it!" Su Yi gritted his teeth and let out an explosive roar. Veins popped out all over his body as he concentrated every ounce of his strength into his right hand, then squeezed with all his might!

"So what if you're a Dou Xiu cultivator?! It's not like I haven't killed one before!"

"Go to hell!"

Accompanied by Su Yi's final roar, Cao Dou's throat and neck violently ruptured, spurting a pool of fresh blood. His entire head went limp, flopping onto his shoulder as if it might detach at any second. Su Yi released his grip, and Cao Dou's corpse crashed heavily onto the ground, twitching unconsciously a few final times. Only a look of lingering fear and disbelief remained frozen on his face, his eyes wide open and staring blankly...

"Cough, cough..." Su Yi clutched his chest and panted heavily; taking those few punches head-on had indeed been thoroughly unpleasant. He turned and slowly walked over to Qin Shou, only to discover that the latter had been knocked unconscious by the shockwave of Cao Dou's burst of Dou Qi. After a brief check, Su Yi found that while Qin Shou's injuries hadn't shattered his bones or left him permanently crippled, they were hardly minor either.

It looked like Qin Shou wouldn't be waking up anytime soon. Sighing, Su Yi hoisted Qin Shou up. After a moment of thought, he decided against the original plan of heading east, opting instead to travel south toward the denser and more concealed forest.

...

After traveling this way for a while, Su Yi found a relatively secluded spot and hid Qin Shou away. To be frank, heading into the Luojia Mountain Range meant he couldn't possibly drag Qin Shou along indefinitely. Besides, once Qin Shou woke up, the two of them were unlikely to stay companions; dragging an unconscious person around would only drastically increase their chances of being captured. It was far better to part ways here and act independently.

"Sigh, whether we can survive this ordeal depends entirely on our own fortune..." Su Yi muttered to himself. To avoid being easily discovered, he buried a portion of Qin Shou's body in the soil, much like how Su Yi had concealed himself earlier. Naturally, he didn't bury him entirely—not everyone could breathe while submerged in earth.

Once that was done, Su Yi covered the spot with a thick layer of weeds and tree branches, using the native bushes and trees as natural camouflage. After this thorough processing, it practically blended seamlessly into the surrounding environment. Looking around one last time, Su Yi finally stood up and prepared to leave.

Touching the white mask resting against his chest, Su Yi let out a regretful sigh. Just earlier, he had removed all the Dou Techniques from it and placed them onto Qin Shou's person. At this moment, the mask held only storage cards, gold coins, and those medicinal herbs and demonic cores. Although he had memorized the cultivation methods for most of the Dou Techniques, there was one scroll he had never opened—and that was an Earth-tier Dou Technique!

On this continent, Earth-tier Dou Techniques were by no means as common as cabbages; techniques of that caliber were exceptionally rare even within empires. Aside from a few major factions, very few people likely possessed them, yet an item defying the heavens like that had fallen right into his hands!

"Oh well, forget it... Anyway, I couldn't open it, and even if I did, I wouldn't necessarily be able to cultivate it... Since Qin Shou was more or less implicated because of me, consider this compensation... Uh, this compensation seems a bit too generous..." Shaking his head, Su Yi stopped dwelling on it. Taking one last look at his surroundings, he turned around and headed back north along his original path.

"Since Dou Techniques are useless to me right now, if I acquire more in the future, should I trade them? ...Trafficking and smuggling Dou Techniques?..."

...

His return journey was noticeably faster. Arriving back at the spot where Cao Dou had died, Su Yi glanced at the already stiff corpse. After a moment of thought, he reached down and searched it, but unexpectedly found no storage rings, storage cards, or anything of the sort. Logically speaking, as a Dou Xiu cultivator of the Supreme Medicine Pavilion, he should have plundered plenty of wealth over the days. How could he have traveled completely empty-handed?

Snorting softly, Su Yi lingered no longer, turning and sprinting toward the east. That was where his destination, the Luojia Mountain Range, lay. Pushing forward along the way, he had no idea how much time had passed when the sky began to grow dim. Su Yi was just considering whether he should find a hiding spot to rest for a bit.

Right at that moment!

A streak of Dou Qi, sharp as a sword, tore through the air with a spine-chilling whistle, shooting straight toward Su Yi's back!

His expression shifted drastically, and the hair all over Su Yi's body stood on end!

Dou Qi projection?!