Chapter 2372 — Mutually Reinforcing

"Foolish!" Piao Laoliu sneered. "Fine. I had no wish to kill you, but since you mean to ruin Mr. Piao's grand design, I have no choice but to send you to the Western Heaven."

Wei Zhao's expression shifted slightly. His opponent's strength was steadily bearing him down. If he still had Fireflow Divine Pellets, he would have been a hundred percent certain of victory; unfortunately, two of them had gone into the Chief Guard and one into Tagan Long—all spent. Now he could only fight it out head-on.

A straight collision was the worst possible way for Wei Zhao to fight, but he had no choice. At the Profound Rank, contests were decided by level of strength; at the Earth Rank, by the strength of one's martial techniques; only Heaven Rank experts could channel true qi into divine weapons, so their contests came down to technique and weapon alike. At the Earth Rank, carrying a weapon was merely a burden.

"Frenzied Fire Eight-Trigram Palm, Fifth Style!" Wei Zhao once again triggered the Frenzied Fire Eight-Trigram Palm—only this time his target was Piao Laoliu's head. He was hunting for a flaw, hoping that Piao Laoliu's head was his weak point.

But the contempt that flickered in Piao Laoliu's eyes told Wei Zhao otherwise. This man, like Ma Zhu whom he had fought before, was an external-school cultivator built for high defense—one could hardly find a gap anywhere on his body!

And since the man had also trained in the internal school, becoming an internal-school expert capable of attacking as well, he was more troublesome still! So in an instant Wei Zhao made his decision. As the saying went, to catch the bandits, catch their king first. Wei Zhao simply stopped attacking Piao Laoliu—after all, it was a straight clash of force, and since his blows had no effect on the man, he might as well leave his back exposed and let him strike; Wei Zhao shifted his target to Piao Huotai!

Suddenly, Wei Zhao's body, hurtling at Piao Laoliu, twisted in midair in an inconceivable reversal, and both palms shot out at Piao Huotai, who sat beside the gambling table! In his days as an assassin Wei Zhao had learned a footwork technique that, once applied, made him faster than ordinary cultivators, and it could produce movements that seemed utterly impossible—like this one!

Neither Piao Laoliu nor Piao Huotai had expected Wei Zhao to wheel about so abruptly and fix his aim on Piao Huotai!

"Boom! Boom!"

"Bang!"

Wei Zhao's palms landed squarely on Piao Huotai's chest, and Piao Laoliu's Heaven-Splitting Earth-Rending Claw, wreathed in flame-red true qi, clamped onto Wei Zhao's back!

"Pff..."

At the very moment Wei Zhao struck Piao Huotai, he was struck by Piao Laoliu; a mouthful of fresh blood sprayed across the gambling table, dyeing a spread of playing cards red... Yet what Wei Zhao found inconceivable was that Piao Huotai neither dodged nor flinched—he took Wei Zhao's blow head-on, his face placid as ever.

Given the speed of Wei Zhao's movement technique, Piao Huotai certainly could not have dodged—even an early Heaven Rank expert could never have evaded Wei Zhao's sudden change of move; the private box was simply too small. But to be unable to dodge did not mean he could not evade—turning his vital parts aside, that is.

Yet Piao Huotai did not evade at all. He took the Fifth Style of Wei Zhao's Frenzied Fire Eight-Trigram Palm squarely on the chest, and afterward his expression remained utterly calm, as though the man Wei Zhao had just struck was not him at all.

"You... you're an external-school cultivator too?" Wei Zhao started, a flicker of incredulous dread passing through his eyes. That Piao Laoliu was a high-defense external-school cultivator had already astonished him; he had never imagined Piao Huotai would be one as well!

Still, Wei Zhao had not been able to read Piao Huotai's level of strength clearly. His golden finger could not directly reveal an external-school cultivator's rank, but when such a cultivator used external-school mental techniques to defend or attack, he would draw the heaven-and-earth spiritual qi around him and convert it into true qi shrouding his body—at that moment, his rank could be judged!

That was precisely how, when Piao Laoliu was defending, Wei Zhao had learned that he was a cultivator of both the internal and external schools. Piao Huotai, however, had done no such thing, and Wei Zhao still could not read his rank. He had only a feeling that the man was a cultivator—but what he cultivated, and how strong he was, he could not tell.

Piao Huotai did not answer. He looked at Wei Zhao and said flatly, "Your strength is no trifle. I have no wish to make enemies of cultivators like you. Turn around and leave now, and I will not stop you!"

Though unharmed, Piao Huotai had sensed Wei Zhao's extraordinary power. A mere mid Earth Rank cultivator, yet able to elevate his martial technique across ranks to the eleventh style, with the might of an early Heaven Rank—this was certainly no wild, self-taught rogue cultivator!

So Piao Huotai surmised that Wei Zhao's background was not simple; behind him there must be an ancient sect or some other power, and making an enemy of him would bring no good. By Piao Huotai's plan, he meant to stay in Huaxia for a time, challenging gambling kings and self-important gamblers in underground casinos across the land, and in exchange taking the first nights of young girls to refine his demonic arts.

Precisely for this reason, after witnessing Wei Zhao's formidable strength, he had begun to draw back, unwilling to make an enemy of him.

"I don't want to make an enemy of you either, but you've taken my friend, and I must bring him back. Otherwise, this ends only when one of us is dead!" Wei Zhao did not back down either; he spoke with iron resolve.

"You don't suppose I'm actually afraid of you?" Piao Huotai frowned slightly and said indifferently. "I merely dislike trouble. Since you are so obstinate, don't blame me for being ungracious. Piao Laoliu, continue!"

"Boy, Mr. Piao has spared you a way to live—don't be ungrateful!" Piao Laoliu said coldly as well. "You cannot beat me. I'll grant you that your martial techniques are formidable, but they can only give me a few minor scratches. To truly wound me, a hundred moves would not be enough!"

"Oh? So you're saying there's no way I can do anything to you—that no matter how formidable my martial techniques are, they're useless?" Wei Zhao's heart stirred, and he asked.

"Boy, if I didn't tell you, you'd never give up. I'll be frank: my internal school, my external school, and my martial techniques complement and reinforce one another. In this world, unless it is an expert far above my rank—say, above mid Heaven Rank; one might say anyone below mid Heaven Rank—none pose much threat to me!" Piao Laoliu said smugly. "The bane of my external-school skills is in fact my internal-school martial techniques! Only my internal-school martial techniques can break my external-school skills!"

"The tale of the spear and the shield?" Wei Zhao frowned, yet inwardly he rejoiced! Piao Laoliu's techniques could counter his own external-school arts? That meant that if he could secretly learn those techniques, he could overcome Piao Laoliu's external-school skills!