The Supreme God of Martial Arts

The figure that emerged from the tree was not a living person. Its face was dry and wrinkled, completely dehydrated. It was skinny with deeply set eyes. Two green eyeballs were fixed on them like ghost fire. It was tall and all of its bones could be seen under the skin. It was terrible to look at and would give anyone the creeps.

Austin didn't feel any vitality from it, but there was a thick death breath and the smell of a rotting corpse. However, from its bony body, Austin could feel that it had tremendous strength.

Austin and Violet realized that the rotten odor that they had smelled earlier had emanated from it. It was blocked by the dead wood, so it was not so strong.

Sensing that there was something strange about the dead tree, Austin attacked it with the sword-light. And unexpectedly, the corpse appeared before their eyes.

"What's this?" Violet asked in surprise.

"I have no idea, but I'm quite sure it's not a living person,” Austin answered, shaking his head.

While they were talking, their faces turned pale. They were terrified when they saw the withered body in front of them carry a strange expression on its wrinkled face. It seemed to be grinning, but because of its wizened face, the grin seemed very strange and fierce. Suddenly a hoarse voice came from its mouth, "Ho ho...".

The growl was extremely weird and harsh. It was blood-curdling.

Listening to his growl, Violet couldn't stop shivering and hid behind Austin.

Instantly, the withered body pounced on Austin, trying to attack him.

Austin had to react quickly. He brandished his Violet Royal Sword and attacked the corpse with more than thirty rays of sword- light again.

Faced by Austin's attack, the corpse started howling in a low voice. It didn't evade the attack, but crossed its arms over its chest.

A wisp of faint yellow smoke was released from all over its body and instantly wrapped him. It rushed towards Austin to face the rays of sword-light.

With a stern look, Austin didn't do anything else, but looked at the corpse coldly.

The sword-light he shot precisely hit the corpse's arms, but its body just shook slightly under the strong impact. Its arms were unharmed in the faint yellow smoke which was spiraling up. Only loud clashes could be heard.

"Its body is so strong. Even my vital energy force of the premium stage of Earth Realm isn't causing any damage to it. It's surprising.’ Austin increased his vital energy to more than 30 rays of sword-light. Each of his vital energy was adding up more power to his attack, yet the withered body was able to withstand it easily.

Warding off Austin's sword-light, the withered body rushed over to Austin and extended a big shriveled hand. Its long, black fingernails gave out a cold dim light as it tried to grab Austin's head.

As it extended ahead, it made a hissing sound that echoed in the air. Certainly, it wanted to reach out, grab Austin's head and twist it off.

Austin raised his hand, joining his fingers together to form a fist and greeted the big hand with all his might.

Unperturbed by Austin's action, the fingers of the withered body tightened firmly and grasped Austin's fist. It clenched Austin's hand tighter, trying to turn it into fine powder.

Guessing what the dead figure was trying to do, Austin swung his arm and the power of 8, 000 pounds was released to resist the grip of the hand of the dead.

The tremendous strength from Austin's fist made the corpse's green eyes go wide and the eyeballs shake in shock. With a weird shriek, without making any further attempts to attach Austin, it flew away like a kite.

Austin felt a wave of shock jolt his body. He took a few steps backward and felt the ice cold hand that had grabbed his fist. When he looked down, he saw impressions of the dark fingers on his skin. The fingerprints were emitting strong black vapours on the back of his hand. The gas seemed to be living, wriggling on the back of his hand and trying to invade his body.

"Be careful! That seems to be corpse miasma. It's extremely insidious. Once your body is invaded, it'll be difficult to remove it," Violet reminded Austin aloud. Seeing the abnormality on the back of his hand, she had thought for a while before she figured out what the gas was. She had to warn Austin before things turned worse.

"Corpse miasma?" Austin rolled his eyes and immediately thought of the Golden Sun Scripture he had practiced from. So, he began to direct his vital energy towards his hand. The light golden vital energy progressed to the back of his hand, wrapping in that strand of black gas.

The creeping black gas, as if encountered by a powerful enemy, flew out from the back of Austin’s hand and escaped into the air after giving out low, shrilling cries.

Seeing this, Violet felt relieved. Austin was not afraid of the weird corpse gas. Rather, he got rid of it, so she had nothing to worry about.

Alittle far away, the withered body climbed up on a few rocks. Its empty eyes stared at Austin. It didn't understand why the corpse miasma didn't work on Austin.

It had realized that it was not as powerful as Austin. For a moment, the withered body hesitated. It was not sure of what it should do.

Sadly, it was not as clever as man. So, after hesitating for a few moments, it decided to make a move again. It put on the ferocious look again, growled and rushed towards Austin. Baring its teeth and with hands that looked like claws, it was making a mad rush trying to frighten Austin and attack him.

Indeed the figure looked terrifying enough. It had great physical strength and its strange corpse miasma would have certainly scared many. However, it was clumsy in movement and lacked skills. Fighting it was like child's play for Austin.

Austin was not one to be afraid of it anymore now. So he moved in front as quick as a flash.

As the figure approached closer, Austin made a fist and the punch landed on the wrinkled face of the tall, dark figure.