As the broken blade jammed into the rock crack the dead cliff answered with a deep dull echo It felt like something trapped for a thousand years had been slapped awake Then the main peak of Cangqiong Mountain began to shake hard Loose stones fell like rain

  Bluestone slabs on the platform split one after another The disciples who had been laughing a moment ago toppled and slid in panic Screams rose everywhere

  A jet of sha qi black as ink and streaked with dark red fire burst out of the crack It shot upward like a high pressure oil line ripping open Then it turned back and poured into Mike with unstoppable force This was not clean refined qi

  It was violent muddy and hungry Mike felt his dead dantian flare scorching hot It was like boiling high octane diesel being dumped into an empty tank His snapped and clogged meridians were forced open by the surge

  They crackled like rusted gears grinding and biting their way into mesh

  Mike squeezed his eyes shut against the pain Inside that darkness the power did not turn into dragons or tigers or immortal shadows It became something he knew better than his own hands A heavy truck V eight engine shining with cold metal light

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  Boom Boom Boom

  Mikes heartbeat changed It was no longer a human rhythm It became the roar of eight cylinders firing Each pulse pumped burning fuel strength into every limb He snapped his eyes open

  The blue in his pupils burned red like brake lights

  On the high platform Elder Xuanji stared in shock Mike bared his teeth in a grin There was the tired madness of a long haul driver in that smile He did not pull the broken blade free

  He only swung his hand through empty air toward the elder

  The black red sha qi in his palm compressed in a blink It became a massive sword pressure wide enough to swallow the ring That was not sword qi at all It was a runaway semi truck front end at full speed carrying the momentum to crush anything in its path

  Elder Xuanji felt alarm hit his instincts He threw himself backward at once Protective light flashed around him in frantic pulses But the force was too fast and too heavy

  It roared past as if air resistance meant nothing

  A thin hiss cut through the cold wind Turbulent flow tore the air open Elder Xuanji felt sudden chill across his scalp His tall hair knot that carried his pride and rank was cut clean off at the roots

  Gray white hair spilled down around his face He looked exposed and humiliated

  The entire arena fell into a dead stillness Only the low growl inside Mike like an engine at idle echoed clearly through the mountain wind

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