Possibly, it's because my innate talent for 'taunting and provoking' is just too high.

The moment my words landed, the other side erupted in an uproar.

"Leave the mountain?"

"This guy wants to go back outside? What a joke!"

"Are you here to mock us?"

In short, my perfectly normal response triggered an extremely intense reaction from the group—the moment they heard "leave the mountain," everyone drew their swords, pulled out weapons. Even the old man, seemingly not very skilled in martial arts and protected in the center, pulled out a powerful crossbow from who knows where and nervously aimed it at me.

I genuinely felt like his hand might slip and he'd fire.

"Hey, hey, everyone, calm down. I don't want to fight you. I just wanted to ask for directions… Okay."

At first, I raised my spear and waved it, seemingly trying to show that I was not hostile. But seeing that the group still hadn't lowered their guard and had even begun to close in for a complete encirclement, I could only narrow my eyes, shrug, and say helplessly: "Oh well, looks like we'll have to fight."

"You're smiling, Su Zhou." Yala unceremoniously retorted: "You've been practicing your spear techniques for the past two months, your bones are itching for a fight."

"Nonsense, this is called testing the combat power of the locals."

I grinned, revealing eight pearly white teeth. Then, with a flick of my wrist, the spear shaft vibrated. As spiritual energy poured in, the white cloth wrapped around the spearhead instantly shattered, turning into strands of floating white fabric in the air, revealing the hideous and sacred cross-patterned spearhead.

I surveyed the fourteen people who had surrounded me and smiled: "I'll beat them all down first, then it'll be easier to ask questions."

At this moment, the team on the opposite side also erupted when they saw me reveal my spear.

"The mandibles and tail stinger of the Clear Water Centipede!"

"A demonic spear, it's a demonic spear!"

"This man, as expected, is an An Dynasty dog emperor's dark guard. Kill him!"

Without further words, in the next instant, in the snowy mountain forest, the fourteen of them drew their blades. The three leaders of the team took a step forward, wielding their knives, swords, cudgels, and staffs, attacking simultaneously from three directions!

In an instant, the previous noisy voices turned to silence. The battle began in silence—in a true life-or-death struggle, no one would talk much, except at the beginning to intimidate and seize the initiative.

I actually wanted to waste a few more words, purely out of habit as an internet troll. It felt uncomfortable not to bicker a bit before a fight.

But before I could open my mouth, my head suddenly jerked to the left. A crossbow bolt, carrying a gust of wind, grazed my forehead and struck the pine tree behind me, the arrow tail buzzing.

At the same time, the strongest of the team, the bald-headed martial monk wielding an iron staff, had already charged from the front. The iron-wood staff, weighing at least forty or fifty pounds, swept horizontally from left to right, bringing a whistling wind and chanting Buddhist sounds. The female saber wielder, using a thick-backed saber, had also circled to my left, drawing her saber sideways, bringing up a cold, spiritual blade light from bottom to top.

Subduing Demon Staff! Water Severing Saber!

And the young swordsman had already leaped forward. He fired eight bladed circular darts from above, and then drew his sword, imbued with abundant internal force, and stabbed down from above!

The three-person joint attack, seemingly simple and direct, actually encompassed left, right, up, and down. Such coordination was by no means the result of a moment's effort. Even if one's skill exceeded the three of them, carelessness could lead to being hacked to death by a flurry of blades.

But such a fierce attack seemed like slow motion in my eyes.

Facing the joint attack from left and right, I raised my hands—my left hand formed a knife shape, and with a flick in front of me, a crisp cracking sound echoed. All the darts were swept away by the strong wind. Amidst the surging qi, even arc-shaped qi blades slashed towards the saber wielder's brow, forcing her to retreat and dodge.

At the same time, I raised my right hand, completely ignoring the swordsman's thrust aimed at my right eye. The seven-foot spear not only didn't block or parry, but instead struck first, directly stabbing towards the monk's throat. Spiritual light flickered on the runes, and the semi-transparent qi blade added half a foot to the spearhead, making it even faster.

—An undead demonic soldier is indeed fearless!

Recognizing that I was some kind of undead demonic soldier, the monk, considering himself an ordinary person, didn't want to trade injuries for a life. He waved his arms, turning the sweeping iron staff into a circling motion, sticking to my spear, trying to use brute force to press the spear into the snow, disabling my weapon.

And the swordsman had already stabbed with his sword, the sword tip flashing with spiritual light. I could only slightly tilt my head at this moment, and the sword, carrying a sharp whistle, directly hit my forehead!

This was the Legalist's secret "Punishment Sword," infused with internal force. Not only was it unstoppable, but it could also strike the mind and spirit, punishing both body and soul!

Crack!

A crisp breaking sound rang out, but what cracked was not my skull, but the swordsman's four-foot straight sword—the sharpest sword tip pierced the flesh, but after touching the bone, it directly broke due to the collision of two great forces!

Not only was the attack ineffective, but even the weapon was broken, which obviously astonished the swordsman. But even more astonished was the monk, because at this time, I, with layers of triangular spiritual force structures appearing on my head, didn't care about the broken sword tip stuck in my forehead at all. I directly exhaled and shouted, and then swung my arms violently, and with a sweeping motion of the spear shaft, the seven-foot spear rapidly drew an irregular elliptical arc around my body, and a white gust of wind swept out a great force that directly swung away the monk's iron staff.

Whoosh whoosh!

Afterwards, the fierce wind swept across, and the spear, after completing a full rotation, tilted up and swept away the female saber wielder's saber strike, who was approaching again from the left. The abundant force, enough to flip over a wooden centipede, swallowed and spat out, directly launching her entire body into the air—the female's weight was still a bit of a disadvantage.

"Ha!"

Feeling a tightening in his heart, in order to prevent me from pursuing the saber wielder, who was already wide open and could be killed with one move, the monk and swordsman both shouted loudly, the long staff thrusting forward with force, and the broken sword slashing diagonally from above. Both had internal energy surging, pouring in with all their might, wanting to force me back. And a crossbow bolt was once again fired from the rear of the formation, venomously flying towards my crotch.

But I narrowed my eyes slightly, as if anticipating their subsequent moves. My arm muscles bulged, and with a sway of the great spear, the cross spearhead directly blocked the swordsman's broken sword—then, I lowered my body, twisted my wrist, and the cross structure of the spearhead caught the sword body.

I twisted my waist to exert force, and the spear shaft swung downward, actually using the spear to carry the sword, using the sword to carry the person, wanting to throw the entire swordsman towards the monk!

At the same time, because my body sank, the crossbow bolt that was originally aimed at my crotch hit my lower abdomen—and then got stuck in place. The arrow only pierced through my clothes and didn't even break the flesh of my abdomen.

"Don't hurt Brother Zhou!" "Continue!"

The monk was an honest man. In order to avoid hurting the swordsman who was being thrown at him, he actually wanted to put down his long staff and catch him with his hands. But the swordsman also reacted at this time. He shouted softly, reminding the monk to continue attacking, and then abandoned his sword and leaped away, borrowing my strength to jump far away. Then, he pulled out a second soft sword from his waist belt and pounced forward!

The swordsman shook his soft sword, and the cold light pierced towards my face like a wave. Compared to the armor-piercing power of a hard sword, this soft sword was directly aimed at flattening my facial features. If possible, it even wanted to enter through the nose and eyes and directly pierce through my skull!

He actually excelled in both hard and soft sword techniques!

"Well done!"

But at this time, with a loud shout, my spear and the monk's staff had collided head-on!

Boom!

With a muffled sound, in the monk's shocked and astonished expression, the iron-wood staff he was holding was directly blasted away by inhuman force—force originating from the bones, energy originating from the tendons. The great spear was my external bone, and spiritual energy was the genuine long tendon.

And how solid were my tendons and bones?

Although the monk was tall and strong, he was ultimately just a mortal body. How could he compare to me, who after the revival of spiritual energy could lift a small car, and whose arms could casually exert seven or eight thousand pounds of force with a casual shake, and even ten thousand pounds of force with a little effort? What's more, I had also infused it with spiritual energy.

Crack! The air was torn apart. The spear swept away the iron staff and whipped across like a whip—I didn't want to kill anyone, so I just lightly tapped the other person with the front of the spear.

But with just that one tap, the spear shaft, whipped across like a whip, directly shattered the cheekbone of the nearly two-meter-tall monk. A mouthful of blood spurted directly from his nose and mouth, and the person spun around, staggered back a few steps, and then fell straight to the ground.

"Die, you dog emperor's lackey!"

It sounds like a long time, but in reality, the exchange was only a few seconds. At this time, the others had just surrounded me—they had naturally seen the monk's miserable appearance, and also saw that the strongest three were no match for the opponent.

But precisely because of this, they instead shouted in grief and indignation, disregarding their lives, raising all their internal strength, and continuing to charge towards me!

"Wow, are the people here so valiant?!"

At this moment, I reached out and casually pulled out the broken sword tip stuck in my flesh, my flesh wriggling and regenerating—because of the cold weather around, my self-healing ability had decreased a lot, so much so that when the sword tip was pulled out, it brought up a bit of blood with a purple light.

Seeing the group charging over without any fear even after seeing my martial strength, I blinked my eyes, not quite understanding what was going on: "You can just surrender, I don't kill people—I'll heal that bald guy later..."

"A demonic soldier! This regeneration speed, he's even a demonic general!"

"Demon, how many people have you killed!"

But after seeing the scene of my rapid regeneration, everything I said next was ignored. And this abnormal phenomenon not only didn't make them feel fear, but even aroused the group's grief and anger.

The swordsman shouted loudly and charged forward again. Even the female saber wielder, who seemed to have sprained her back after being launched into the air, struggled to stand up, pulled out a few medicinal pills from her pouch, and looked like she was about to swallow them with a determined expression.

"...Am I acting too much like a villain? Or is there really something about me that they misunderstand deeply? Is it the self-healing ability, or the centipede cross spearhead?"

Seeing the other party's death-defying act, I was really a bit stunned. I really didn't want to kill anyone. The Evil-Devouring Demon Lord's divine power didn't show any reaction, proving that the other party hadn't at least committed any great evils like killing the innocent.

But since the other party had already attacked, I didn't have the habit of holding back. Facing those ordinary martial artists who didn't even seem to have very pure spiritual energy circulation, I simply extended my spear, casually flicked and shook it. The force, enough to flip over a car, launched these people one by one into the air, and then they fell like raindrops, headfirst into the snow.

Even the swordsman with white hair at his temples didn't last three moves in my hands. In a one-on-one fight, I held the great spear steady. The distance advantage of the seven-foot long weapon prevented the swordsman from getting close at all, no matter how eager he was, and the cross spearhead, with spiritual energy infused, could shoot out half-foot-long spirit blades from several directions from time to time, forcing the other party to dodge repeatedly, exhausted.

After thinking about it, I felt that it was better not to drag it out for too long, after all, the monk over there was injured a bit seriously, and if he really died, it would be my fault—so I shook my arm, and the entire hardwood spear shaft was lifted up like a lever, and a gust of wind swept across the swordsman's chin.

Then the swordsman fainted—my Space Splitting Strike had been practiced for several months, and even a casual strike could penetrate wood by an inch, let alone this was a serious sweep. The whistling wind was much heavier than a heavy punch in King of Fighters. Even if this swordsman had spiritual energy to protect him, he couldn't stop such a strike.

At this point, everyone in the team was declared out of combat.

The battle temporarily came to an end.

It could be seen that from beginning to end, whether defending or attacking, I had been standing on the black wood stake. Apart from two footprints about an inch deep on the entire black wood stake, I hadn't moved at all.

"Demonic soldier, I will never let you take our lives to nourish your immortal roots!"

Seeing this scene, the female saber wielder, who had originally wanted to swallow some pills that squeezed out the potential of her life for a final struggle, had a look of despair rising in her eyes. She took out a small dagger from her waist with unparalleled decisiveness, and stabbed it towards her heart—then she was slapped unconscious by me, who had rushed over in a hurry.

"No, what's wrong with these people? I didn't even kill anyone, why are they even committing suicide?"

Swinging the spear in my hand, and then inserting it back into the strap on my back, I was simply so confused that I slowly wanted to type out three question marks floating above my head. I surveyed my surroundings—the monk's eyes were rolled back, and blood was still flowing from his nostrils; the swordsman had a concussion, and even an Awakened person wouldn't be able to wake up for a few hours, and the saber wielder who wanted to commit suicide was probably the same.

As for those who fell headfirst into the snow... Well, they were basically all unconscious. After all, although I had held back a bit of strength at that time, it was just to the extent of not killing them. As for the old man who had shot the crossbow in ambush at the beginning, he had already secretly run very far at this time.

"Seriously, why are they running..." Who knows the bitterness in my heart? After having to beat up a group of martial artists who shouldn't be bad people, I could only sigh, and then raised my voice and shouted: "Don't run! Stop!"

"Stop! Don't run!"