97: You tyrant's come knocking! Is your invincible body made of paper?

War God Hall, True Inheritance Peak.

The early morning sunlight spilled across the cultivation field at the mountain's summit.

Gu Yang sat cross-legged, his bare upper body covered in fine beads of sweat.

Inside his body, earth-shaking changes were taking place.

Countless rare resources transformed into surging currents of heat, washing through his spine like the Yangtze River.

“Roar—!”

A faint dragon's roar emanated from within him.

That was the rumbling of his spinal dragon!

With the infusion of massive amounts of energy, the third great acupoint on his spine—the "Gate of Life Point"—was finally forced open!

Boom!

Gu Yang's entire body jolted as a golden wave of Qi rippled outward from him in all directions.

He felt as if a powerful engine had been installed in his lower back, with endless strength surging from the Gate of Life to his four limbs and hundred bones.

“Whew...”

Gu Yang slowly opened his eyes and exhaled a mouthful of turbid Qi.

This breath actually condensed without dissipating, transforming into a small white sword in the air that flew ten meters before vanishing.

“Finally... My Physical Body has reached the Middle Stage Nascent Soul.”

He clenched his fist, feeling the terrifying, monstrous strength capable of easily crushing the Void Realm, and nodded with satisfaction.

“The money wasn't wasted, and neither was the meat I ate.”

Beside him, Er Gou was gnawing on a head-sized piece of "Stellar Gold" with great relish.

Seeing Gu Yang wake up, it wagged its tail pleasingly and pushed the remaining small piece of Ore over.

“Awoo?” (Big brother, eating breakfast?)

Gu Yang chuckled and patted its dog head.

“Eat it yourself. I'm going to get something warm.”

He stood up, just about to head to the kitchen to see what was for breakfast today.

Suddenly.

“Gu Yang! Get the hell out here!!!”

A thunderous roar came from the direction of the mountain gate.

The sound waves rolled in, making the stone table in front of Gu Yang shake three times and spilling the tea all over the ground.

Gu Yang's movements froze.

He looked at the spilled tea and the half-piece of roasted meat that had been shaken onto the ground, and his face instantly darkened.

“Early in the morning... can't a man eat in peace?”

...Outside the War God Hall mountain gate.

A crowd of Cultivators had already gathered to watch the commotion.

In the center of the gate stood a giant man nearly three meters tall.

His skin was bronze, and his muscles coiled like horned dragons; every muscle radiated a suffocating sense of pressure.

He was empty-handed, yet simply standing there, he looked like an insurmountable mountain.

At his feet lay seven or eight Inner Sect Disciples of the War God Hall, all bruised and swollen, groaning in pain.

The top of the Hidden Dragon Rank—the Overlord!

“Hmph! Is this all the War God Hall is capable of?”

The Overlord looked around, his eyes full of disdain.

“Each of you is as weak as a breeze, yet you dare call yourselves a Holy Land for Body Cultivators?”

“Where's that shrinking turtle named Gu Yang? Is he scared? Doesn't he dare come out?”

The surrounding War God Hall Disciples gritted their teeth in anger, but no one dared to step forward.

Just now, the Senior Brother had gone up, only to be sent flying by a single punch from this Overlord; he was still embedded in the wall, unable to be pried out.

This man's strength was too terrifying!

“Who's yapping?”

Just then, a lazy voice drifted down from the mountain.

Everyone looked up.

They saw a young man in loose training robes, carrying a pitch-black Meteor Hammer, walking down leisurely.

As he walked, he picked his ear with his pinky, looking completely annoyed.

“Senior Brother Gu!”

“Senior Brother Gu is here!”

The War God Hall Disciples immediately erupted into cheers.

Gu Yang walked to the front of the mountain gate, glanced at his injured Junior Brothers on the ground, and his gaze turned cold.

He turned to look at the arrogant giant.

“Are you that... what was it... Bastard?”

The Overlord was furious: “It's the Overlord! The Overlord of the Heavenly Overlord Body!”

“Oh, close enough.”

Gu Yang curled his lip.

“You injured my people and made such a racket that I couldn't eat my breakfast.”

“How are we going to settle this debt?”

“Hahaha! Settle it?”

The Overlord laughed wildly, his blood Qi erupting and condensing into a golden phantom of a war god behind him.

“Beat me, and you can settle it however you want!”

“Lose, and you'll lend me your head to step on!”

Gu Yang sighed and planted the Meteor Hammer into the ground.

“So much nonsense.”

“Since you're asking for a beating, I'll fulfill your wish.”

“Come!”

The Overlord didn't hold back, kicking off as the ground shattered.

He was like an out-of-control heavy chariot, charging at Gu Yang with an unrivaled Aura.

“Overlord Crash!”

This strike had no frills; it was a pure combination of strength and speed.

The air was struck into rings of white sound waves.

Gu Yang stood his ground, neither dodging nor avoiding.

He didn't even take a defensive stance, merely raising one hand casually.

“Bang!!!”

A dull, massive thud rang out.

Their bodies collided violently.

Everyone thought Gu Yang would be sent flying.

But to their jaw-dropping shock, Gu Yang didn't budge an inch!

He held back the Overlord's shoulder with just one hand, his feet rooted to the ground like they had grown there.

Instead, it was the Overlord who felt as if he had crashed into a primordial divine mountain; the massive counter-shock sent his blood Qi churning.

“You've got some strength,”

Gu Yang evaluated, “but that's all.”

“Arrogant!”

The Overlord roared, his muscles swelling another size as golden patterns surfaced on his skin.

Heavenly Overlord Body—Damage Reflection!

He swung a fierce punch, aiming straight for Gu Yang's face.

Gu Yang still didn't dodge, throwing a punch of his own.

“Great Dark Heaven Demonic Tiger Fist!”

The two fists met.

Boom!

Gu Yang felt a strange force travel back through his fist—it was seventy percent of his own power!

“Reflecting damage?”

Gu Yang raised an eyebrow. “Interesting. So this is what you call an Overlord Body?”

“Scared now!”

The Overlord grinned savagely. “My Overlord Body is impervious to all techniques and can reflect attacks! The harder you hit me, the more you hurt yourself!”

“Is that so?”

Gu Yang smiled—a very 'friendly' smile.

“Then I'd like to see just how much you can reflect.”

Extreme Dao Force Field—Activate!

Hum!

Gravity instantly increased a hundredfold.

The Overlord's body suddenly sank, his movements becoming stiff.

In that instant.

Gu Yang moved.

He no longer used a simple straight punch, but transformed his fist into a palm, passing through the Overlord's defense like a swimming fish.

“Technique? I know a little bit too.”

His palm lightly pressed against the Overlord's chest.

It seemed gentle, but it hid a deadly killing intent.

“Inch Power — Five Elements Destruction!”

This was no longer surface-level brute force, but a highly penetrative vibrational power!

The force instantly bypassed the Overlord's hardened skin and acted directly on his internal organs.

“Pfft!!!”

The savage grin on the Overlord's face instantly froze.

He violently sprayed a large mouthful of blood, mixed with fragments of internal organs.

While his Overlord Body could reflect external force, it was helpless against this kind of penetrative power acting directly on the inside!

“You... you...”

The Overlord clutched his chest, staggering back with eyes full of disbelief.

“All brawn and no brains. Are you just a reckless boor?”

Gu Yang shook his head, taking a step forward to instantly catch up to the Overlord.

He grabbed the Overlord's hair and slammed him down.

“Get down!”

Thud!

The Overlord's face slammed hard into the ground, creating a large crater.

Gu Yang stepped on his back, pinning him down.

“What Heavenly Overlord Body? Looks like paper to me.”

“Do you yield?”

The Overlord struggled a few times, only to find that Gu Yang's foot was like a mountain he couldn't budge.

Moreover, the pain in his internal organs was like being stabbed by knives; he would really die if they kept going.

“I yield... I yield! Big brother, stop hitting me!”

In this world that worshipped strength, calling someone 'big brother' after being beaten into submission wasn't shameful.

“Wouldn't it have been easier to say that earlier?”

Gu Yang withdrew his foot and glanced at the blood-red war flag planted nearby.

The flag's material was decent, seemingly made from the skin of some high-level Yao Beast, and it radiated the fluctuations of a top-grade Spiritual Artifact.

“Since you lost, there needs to be a prize.”

Gu Yang walked over and yanked out the war flag.

“This cloth is nice. Confiscated.”

“It just so happens the stone table in my courtyard is missing a tablecloth.”

The Overlord wanted to cry but had no tears.

That was his Lifebound Treasure, the "Overlord Flag"!

But looking at Gu Yang's casserole-sized fist, he could only nod through his tears.

“As long as... as long as big brother likes it.”