After becoming a Half Paper Man, Xu Zhenshan was far more powerful than he had been in life.
National martial arts utilized strength, which was essentially the power of the human body itself, but national martial arts transformed it into explosive force to manifest.
However, this Half Paper Man employed a kind of cold, sinister energy that, upon striking the human body, could actually cause an effect similar to instant freezing.
To be honest, this was already true supernatural power, akin to inner strength, and not just any ordinary inner strength, but the powerful attribute of Ice True Qi.
Thus, in a sudden clash, Lin Heier was caught off guard and fell with a single blow.
Otherwise, if Xu Zhenshan were alive, Lin Heier could have easily dominated him.
At that moment, Wu Pifu charged forward, using his still unrefined Sitting Lotus Strength to engage in a contest.
Upon contact, Wu Pifu felt a heavy sinking in his heart as an indescribable icy aura transmitted through his palm, almost instantly threatening to freeze the meridians and blood vessels in his hand.
However, at that moment, Wu Pifu was employing the Sitting Lotus Strength, or rather, a half-finished version of it.
Although it had not yet reached the level of imitating Dan Strength, it had already condensed half of his qi and blood, and its condensing effect had far surpassed the Dark Strength stage.
When it erupted, it directly dispersed the cold energy, surging along the Half Paper Man's palm and continuing to bombard upward.
A loud bang erupted between their palms, and to Wu Pifu's astonishment, the Half Paper Man's fleshly palm was actually shattered.
The power of this half Dark Strength and half imitative Dan Strength spread upward, blasting apart half of the Half Paper Man's arm, stopping only at the elbow.
Simultaneously, the Half Paper Man was sent flying back nearly ten meters, directly pushed to the edge of the battlefield.
At the same time, Wu Pifu himself was not unscathed; his qi and blood instantly condensed and erupted, causing slight pain throughout his body.
However, the benefits of his robust physique and strong qi manifested.
Although Wu Pifu felt a slight ache all over, it did not harm his foundation.
Within a few breaths, his body gradually filled with qi and blood, and that slight pain disappeared.
In terms of physical constitution, Wu Pifu was even stronger than Yamadae, a genetically modified veteran of the Three Wars, almost reaching the pinnacle of normal human physicality.
Despite his height being just around one meter eighty, his strength, endurance, qi and blood, and robustness surpassed even the top athletes of the twenty-first century.
If he were on a basketball court, he could even knock over a peak Shaquille O'Neal.
After a single strike, the Half Paper Man, with an arm blown off, displayed a look of shock.
Indeed, the Half Paper Man, who should have been ignorant and unknowing, had Xu Zhenshan's head showing an expression of astonishment, though this expression was fleeting, quickly returning to the eerie, terrifying visage of a dead man.
"Who... comes...?" Xu Zhenshan's head asked in a very "difficult" tone.
Wu Pifu was taken aback but still rose from his seated position.
He looked around and, seeing Lin Heier slowly getting up, he breathed a sigh of relief.
He then cupped his fists towards Xu Zhenshan and said, "Tiger Demon Skill... Wu Pifu!"
This could be considered adapting to local customs.
Many of the etiquette of this era were unknown to Wu Pifu, but after conversing with Xu Rongyu and Lin Heier for several days, he had a rough understanding of some of the communication rules within the martial world.
For instance, when two martial practitioners are unfamiliar with each other and engage for the first time, they either state their sect, such as Wudang so-and-so or Shaolin so-and-so, or they mention their regional name, such as Foshan so-and-so or Guangdong so-and-so.
If neither is applicable, it could be due to a lack of fame in their region or the disappearance of their sect, in which case they would state their martial art name, such as Taiji so-and-so or Xingyi so-and-so.
Upon hearing this, the Half Paper Man also performed a very "difficult" fist salute with one hand and continued "laboriously," "Smasher of Monuments... Xu... Zhenshan!"
Wu Pifu's mind raced, and he had an incredible guess.
Could it be that Xu Zhenshan's self-awareness had not been completely obliterated? Was it trying to use its last consciousness to fight as a martial artist?
Just as Wu Pifu was pondering this, he saw the Half Paper Man suddenly reach out, forcefully pulling a nearby Paper Man towards itself.
The Paper Man struggled and screeched, its voice sharp as a knife, but the Half Paper Man remained unaffected, lifting the Paper Man towards its mouth.
It appeared to be made of paper, but once it entered its mouth, it was bitten into flesh and bone, dark red blood and rotting flesh gushing forth from its mouth.
Xu Zhenshan's head nearly deformed entirely, its mouth tearing wide enough to swallow a basketball whole, and the entire Paper Man was swallowed whole, a long tongue curling over the remnants of flesh on its jaw.
In just a few seconds, the Half Paper Man devoured a Paper Man, and immediately its damaged arm began to heal at a visible speed.
Paper-like threads extended from the severed arm, intertwining and weaving to form the arm, which then transformed from paper back into flesh, restoring the Half Paper Man to its complete state.
"Come!" The Half Paper Man extended one hand forward lightly, as if lifting something heavy, while the other hand supported upward, adopting this posture before striding towards Wu Pifu.
Since Wu Pifu had stepped forward, he naturally had no intention of retreating.
Perhaps he had not fully mastered the Sitting Lotus Strength, or perhaps Yamadae had not yet completed the final adjustments, but with the arrow on the string, he had no choice but to shoot.
One cannot be killed by holding in their urine; thus, he also advanced towards the Half Paper Man.
The Half Paper Man used both arms to execute different martial arts techniques.
One hand moved lightly as if wielding a long whip, each palm strike producing a loud clap, while the other hand moved heavily, as if supporting a thousand-jin weight, each strike possessing the might to shatter mountains and break walls.
In their initial clash, Wu Pifu's Tiger Claw was suppressed by the Half Paper Man's palm, unable to advance even a fraction, while the other Smasher of Monuments palm struck towards his chest from the side.
Before the palm arrived, a fierce wind rushed, and Wu Pifu felt a dull pain in his chest.
Just as the palm was about to reach him, he saw his body flash and unexpectedly flipped upside down.
Wu Pifu supported himself with both hands, his feet in the air, and delivered a flying kick that collided hard with the Smasher of Monuments palm.
With a muffled thud, the seemingly overwhelming Smasher of Monuments palm was actually kicked away by this foot.
Following this, Wu Pifu's palms moved swiftly, propelling him upward, nearly closing in on the Half Paper Man.
With a change of technique, he leaped and forcibly tore away a large chunk of flesh from one of its arms, exposing bone.
"Good... move!" The Half Paper Man grunted in difficulty, then unexpectedly pulled over another Paper Man, chewing it on the spot, and its arm once again returned to completeness.
The Half Paper Man's gaping maw licked the blood and grime, and surprisingly, it did not attack immediately.
Instead, it gazed at Wu Pifu with Xu Zhenshan's head, then its technique changed once more, both palms forming a circle, stepping forward with an inexplicable rhythm towards Wu Pifu.
"Furnace Grinding Palm!" Xu Rongyu lay weakly on the ground, at this moment guarded by Xu Shilan, who held two torches to ward off the Paper Men that were drifting in.
Upon seeing this move, Xu Rongyu immediately shouted, "The human heart is like iron, the law is like a furnace, the world is a grinding disc... My father has yet to master this move. It is said that this move directly penetrates the realm of the Transformation Strength Grandmaster. He often lamented that he learned this move too late. How could this monster possibly use it!?"
Wu Pifu remained silent.
In terms of techniques, the Tiger Demon Skill might not be particularly marvelous, but he had already cultivated a bit of Unresting Spirit Awareness.
In real combat, although his mind was filled with distracting thoughts and evil intentions, when it came to life and death moments, the Unresting Spirit Awareness would instinctively react, just as he had just faced the Smasher of Monuments, unexpectedly executing a one hundred eighty-degree turn and kicking towards the Smasher of Monuments.
This move was called Returning Body Tail in the Tiger Demon Skill, but the normal Returning Body Tail involved leaning backward in a straight position and kicking with one foot, not this upside-down double-foot kick.
It should be noted that the leg strength of the human body is twice that of the arm strength, and this clever move easily broke through the Smasher of Monuments palm.
At this moment, the Half Paper Man advanced again, both palms forming a circle as if embracing a round grinding disc.
Wu Pifu still met it head-on, his Tiger Claw roaring as he aimed for the Half Paper Man's neck.
However, just as he extended halfway, he immediately felt a pulling force emanating from between the Half Paper Man's arms.
One palm of the Half Paper Man rotated clockwise while the other rotated counterclockwise, and between the rotations of the two palms, a cold, sinister force erupted, pulling Wu Pifu's Tiger Claw along with it.
In that instant, Wu Pifu felt as if his claw had plunged into a viscous mercury-like liquid, and the pulling force rapidly expanded.
In less than a second, he felt as if he were being solidified, unable to even move a finger.
At that moment, the Half Paper Man's palms came together, the spiraling force exploding violently, easily crushing Wu Pifu's Tiger Claw.
The momentum did not stop; the force penetrated his body, and the palms struck deeply into Wu Pifu's chest in the blink of an eye.
With a loud bang, Wu Pifu was sent flying over ten meters, crashing into the outer wall of a building, breaking through it and rolling into the interior.
"Transformation Strength!?" Lin Heier had already stood up by this time.
She even neglected to wipe away the blood and ice debris from the corner of her mouth, exclaiming in shock.
"Ha, ha, ha, ha..."
The Half Paper Man let out a stuttering laugh, still wearing that dead face, speaking in what seemed like extremely joyful words: "I have... attained the Dao, blessed by the Old Mother. Transformation... what is Transformation? My son, now I will let you attain the Dao together."
It seemed that as long as the Half Paper Man spoke words belonging to the martial artist Xu Zhenshan, its voice would stutter and hesitate, but when it came to attaining the Dao or the Old Mother, it flowed smoothly.
Everyone could see that this seemed to be the Half Paper Man, or rather, the remaining will of the original Xu Zhenshan still existing, but it was likely that only a small fragment remained.
Xu Rongyu cried out in pain, shouting, "Father, if you still have consciousness, resist this monster's influence!"
The Half Paper Man, however, remained silent, stepping towards Xu Rongyu, while the drifting Paper Men flew towards Lin Heier, Xu Shilan, and Yamadae, who was making final adjustments.
Everyone's lives hung in the balance at that moment!
Suddenly, at that moment, the Half Paper Man abruptly stopped, all the Paper Men ceased their flight, and even the thin mist was pushed back by an invisible force.
Within the half-collapsed wall of the building, a pair of blood-red pupils suddenly opened wide!
(End of Chapter)