Chapter 387
Chapter 387
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 388
Chapter Title: Sweeping the Six Directions, Crushing the Eight Wastelands
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“After Li Qianyun was defeated by Li Tianqing, she developed a heart demon.”
Zhang You was shocked in his heart. He said to Zhai Yuanyuan beside him,
“She entered the Upper Realm this time with the goal of defeating Li Tianqing. Just now, seeing Top Scholar Chen use Li Tianqing’s techniques to defeat Xia Tianjie, she really took Top Scholar Chen for Li Tianqing.”
Zhai Yuanyuan had also heard about this. It was said that a genius had emerged from the Li family’s outer sect, rebelled against the family, and together with Chen Shi, raided the thirteen great families’ medicine fields in Qingzhou. This forced the ancestors of the major families to emerge from seclusion early, only to get brutally beaten one after another by Little Five the Creation and Chen Tang in Xijing.
The Li family had turned the pursuit of Li Tianqing into a trial for selecting the next sect master. Thus, all the young experts of the Li family mobilized, only to be defeated one by one by Li Tianqing—including Li Qianyun.
Rumor had it that the young Li family experts who survived that battle all suffered severe damage to their Dao hearts. Li Tianqing had even become a nightmare for this generation of Li family youths—the kind that would wake them up in terror.
Clearly, Li Qianyun was one of them.
Her obsession with defeating Li Tianqing had grown too deep, turning into a heart demon.
Xia Tianjie, covered in blood, descended from the sky and knelt on the ground. He said in a deep voice,
“Li Tianqing, I, Xia, am utterly convinced of my defeat! If there’s a next time, I’ll personally come to learn from you!”
He was decisive as well. He immediately sealed his wounds, took out various healing medicines, had his nascent soul consume them, and refined the medicinal power.
Ma Zhe stared at the wounds on Xia Tianjie’s body, his expression somewhat grave. Each of those fourteen spear thrusts on Xia Tianjie had been off by just a tiny bit—perhaps half an inch—and Xia Tianjie would have been dead!
For every spear to so precisely avoid the vitals, it showed that “Li Tianqing’s” strength was indeed extremely terrifying.
“Brother Zhang, is Li Tianqing really that strong?”
He asked in a quiet voice,
“Was it Li Tianqing who’s so strong, or Child Top Scholar?”
Zhang You hesitated for a moment, then shook his head.
“Child Top Scholar is definitely that strong, but whether Li Tianqing has that level of power,
I don’t know. If Chen Shi wasn’t exaggerating about him, then that man is indeed extraordinarily formidable. The most formidable thing about Li Tianqing is his ability to read the enemy and break them.”
Zhai Yuanyuan’s gaze fell on Chen Shi, who was slowly descending. She said,
“I think that to defeat Li Tianqing, you can’t give him any time to observe you. Strike with your fastest speed and bring out your most perfect technique right away. Otherwise, he’ll definitely find your flaw!”
Ma Zhe shook his head.
“I think that as long as my techniques and spells are perfect enough—perfect to the point of having no flaws at all—he won’t be able to do anything to me!”
There was a powerful confidence in his words. He deeply believed that his diligent cultivation made him incomparable to a guy like Xia Tianjie, whose primal yang had been broken.
Zhang You pondered.
“What I’m worried about is that Top Scholar Chen is only imitating Li Tianqing’s abilities, and can at most replicate seventy or eighty percent of it. The real Li Tianqing might break enemies even faster. If he’s versed in the strengths of every school, he might find flaws in you and me during the fight.”
Zhai Yuanyuan laughed.
“Someone like that exists?”
Zhang You said,
“Perhaps.”
Chen Shi possessing the True King’s Treasury was no longer a secret among the thirteen great families. Li Tianqing was very close to him and likely had already obtained various techniques stored in the True King’s Treasury. With that man’s heaven-defying talent, if he knew every family’s techniques like the back of his hand, he wouldn’t just be the Li family’s nightmare—he’d be the nightmare of the other twelve families too!
The current question was whether the True King’s Treasury contained their thirteen families’ various techniques!
If it did, then Li Tianqing breaking their techniques wouldn’t be difficult at all.
“Top Scholar Chen, I want to test Li Tianqing’s abilities!” Zhai Yuanyuan suddenly said, looking at Chen Shi.
Ma Zhe said in a deep voice,
“You get in line behind me. Top Scholar Chen, I also want to experience Li Tianqing’s skills.”
Zhang You said nothing.
Chen Shi’s gaze swept over the two of them. He calmly said,
“You’ll have to wait half a day.”
Zhai Yuanyuan laughed out of extreme anger.
“We have to wait half a day too? Shouldn’t everyone wait half a day?”
Chen Shi smiled faintly.
“I, Li Tianqing, don’t need to go through such trouble. In half a day, figuring out your techniques and moves—what’s so hard about that?”
At that moment, another voice came, laughing.
“Since Brother Li is so bold, why not add us into that half day!”
Chen Shi looked toward the voice and saw more young people arriving at the White Lang Palace on auspicious clouds. There were men and women among them.
They should be the next-generation sect masters from other families, having heard the news and come to the White Lang Palace.
Chen Shi’s gaze swept over the crowd, his expression unchanged. He said,
“Even if you all come at me in a wheel battle, what do I, Li Tianqing, have to fear?”
Zhai Yuanyuan quietly said,
“Brother Zhang, has Top Scholar Chen started taking himself for Li Tianqing too?”
Zhang You nodded lightly.
“There’s that possibility. Brother Gao!”
He saluted a brocade-robed man and laughed.
“What wind blew you all here?”
Gao Shaokun laughed.
“I heard Li Tianqing boasting shamelessly that he could surpass our families’ ultimate arts, so I came for a try.”
He looked at Chen Shi, his gaze eager. He smiled and said,
“Unable to challenge Child Top Scholar, challenging Li Tianqing is still pretty good. After all, Child Top Scholar has been monopolized by Yang Bi—he’s a favorite in front of the thirteen ancestors.
Another youth who was rather short named Xu She, a disciple of the Xu family, came before Xia Tianjie. He said,
“Know yourself and know your enemy, and you’ll win a hundred battles. I think I can discern that man’s technique path from Brother Xia’s wounds, so please allow me, Brother Xia.”
Xia Tianjie was both shocked and furious. He struggled to stabilize his injuries to prevent the wounds from reopening and gritted his teeth.
“Xu She, you’d better be careful. Don’t get yourself injured!”
Another woman approached, laughing.
“Why be so stingy, Brother Xia? If we can beat Li Tianqing, won’t that avenge you too?”
Her name was Cui Xingcai, an heir of the Cui family, and an extremely formidable woman.
Cui Xingcai carefully examined Xia Tianjie’s wounds and frowned slightly.
“How could every spear thrust avoid the vitals?”
Jiang Baoyi came to their side and observed the wounds with great interest. He said,
“Li Tianqing must have gone easy on him a lot.”
Heirs from the other families also crowded around Xia Tianjie, lifting his clothes to inspect the wounds, chattering in discussion.
Xia Tianjie was utterly humiliated and thought to himself,
“If I fainted dead away right now, would that be better?”
He tried for a while but still couldn’t faint.
Chen Shi’s voice came from not far away.
“I, Li Tianqing, have no ultimate arts. Any move in my hands becomes an ultimate art. Whatever move works best, that’s the one I use. Studying him is pointless for you.”
Yan Shao blinked and smiled.
“Li Tianqing has no ultimate arts—so what about Child Top Scholar?”
“You mean the current top scholar, Lord Chen Shi?”
Chen Shi’s expression turned solemn, a sense of reverence arising naturally. He said,
“Lord Chen has a body full of ultimate skills that I, Li Tianqing, can’t hope to match—be it civil or martial prowess, I fall far short. Lord Chen is a perfect man, flawless in every way. How could I, Li Tianqing, presume to stand shoulder to shoulder with him?”
The crowd exchanged glances.
Finally, the half day was up. Chen Shi stepped into the void and walked out from the White Lang Palace, arriving amid the mountains.
Ma Zhe and Zhai Yuanyuan shot out from the White Lang Palace almost simultaneously. Zhai Yuanyuan refused to yield an inch and suddenly activated the Three Ones Fusion God Transformation. In an instant, the delicate beauty turned into a ten-plus-zhang-tall woman with an indigo face and four heads and eight arms!
Zhai Yuanyuan exuded a violent aura as she clashed with Ma Zhe in a battle of speed. Ma Zhe wasn’t skilled in close combat and was sent flying heavily by her after just a few exchanges. Before he could steady himself, he saw Zhai Yuanyuan charging straight at Chen Shi!
As Zhai Yuanyuan rushed forward, her body shifted. Strange patterns emerged on her skin’s surface, flowing along her flesh and gathering in her hands, forming eight different weapons. Her body spun as she attacked Chen Shi—truly fierce and unstoppable!
Her speed grew faster and faster, her momentum stronger and stronger.
At that moment, Chen Shi gathered qi into a flute, placed the jade flute to his lips, and blew. The flute’s sound was clear and bright, piercing yet not harsh. Accompanied by a florid trill, the melody suddenly stabbed into Zhai Yuanyuan’s mind.
“Jade Flute Three Melodies?”
Zhai Yuanyuan was startled in her heart. The Jade Flute Three Melodies was an Xu family spell that primarily attacked the Dao heart. She cultivated the Three Ones Fusion God Transformation, and the deity she transformed into was the Buddha Mother, famed for slaughter. When in this form, her Dao heart had to be filled with savage killing intent!
Chen Shi blew the jade flute inexpertly, but he attacked her exact weak point, instantly shattering her Dao heart!
Zhai Yuanyuan grunted dully. The qi and blood in her body churned with the flute’s sound. She hurriedly shifted her god transformation form, changing from Buddha Mother to Asura form!
Asuras were heavenly beings with lofty mental states, capable of resisting the Jade Flute Three Melodies. Just as she transformed, the flute’s melody turned graceful and surged upward at a critical juncture, dragging the qi and blood in her body upward with it!
“Crack!” “Crack!” “Cra—”
Zhai Yuanyuan’s left two arms twisted and snapped, her right leg’s shin bone twisted forward and broken by her own power, her right first arm’s upper arm muscles wrenched, snapping her own upper arm. Then, finger by finger on her eight arms bent backward—all forty fingers snapping with pops!
Terror filled her heart as she realized her four heads were turning in different directions, eliciting a shrill, piercing scream from her.
But the muscles in her necks merely tensed slightly under the flute’s influence—they hadn’t truly snapped.
Zhai Yuanyuan breathed a sigh of relief, her entire body’s qi and blood in chaos.
In the White Lang Palace, the crowd looked up and saw Zhai Yuanyuan plummeting from the sky, crashing into the valley before the palace with a massive boom.
On the other side, Ma Zhe roared and stomped heavily. His flesh, nascent soul, and Dao field merged as one as he activated the Ma family ultimate art, Turtle Mountain Mysterious Script, giving Chen Shi no chance to breathe.
The Turtle Mountain Mysterious Script was a unified technique and art, one of the Ma family’s supreme ultimate arts, renowned in the world for its Soaring Serpent and Mysterious Turtle methods.
The Mysterious Warrior was originally a Soaring Serpent. Later combined with the Mysterious Turtle, the Soaring Serpent had wings for flight and could summon great floods, while the Mysterious Turtle excelled at floating on water and was famed for defense.
The turtle-serpent combined strike was hailed as the strongest offense and strongest defense—no one could withstand such a divine ability’s attack, nor break its defenses!
Boundless waters surged from under Ma Zhe’s feet, forming a surging, majestic river in the air that threaded through the divine mountains on either side, charging straight toward Chen Shi dozens of li away!
This river was a Soaring Serpent, its massive snake head surging forward with unstoppable momentum!
The water surface under Ma Zhe’s feet suddenly bulged, revealing a mountain-sized Mysterious Turtle with a dragon head, turtle shell, and dragon tail, its four legs paddling like flying as it rampaged through the water!
Ma Zhe stood atop the Mysterious Turtle, his steps precise—not a hair off—as he moved swiftly across the turtle’s back. His hands formed seals that constantly changed. With each seal vibration, the river soared, condensing into different seal forms to block the incoming sword qi.
Those sword qi stretched a hundred zhang long, plunging into the river with resounding clangs. Just as they were about to break through the Soaring Serpent’s blockade, the dragon-turtle under Ma Zhe roared massively. Divine lights emerged on the turtle’s back, forming layered light barriers that blocked the sword qi.
“Chen Shi is using the sword chamber collection from Taihua Qing Palace!”
Ma Zhe breathed a sigh of relief. The Taihua Qing Palace sword chamber collection was indeed an outstanding sword art, ranked among the top ten best sword arts in West Ox New Continent. But it still wasn’t enough to break his Turtle Mountain Mysterious Script!
His confidence surged. The Soaring Serpent thrashed about with ferocious attacks. At that moment, the sword qi embedded in the river suddenly split, becoming hair-thin strands that shot out from the river straight toward him.
Ma Zhe urged the Mysterious Turtle onward. Divine light shone from the turtle’s back, forming layered light barriers. He thought to himself,
“My techniques and arts have no flaws. Once I close to the range for the turtle-serpent combined strike, victory is mine!”
No sooner had he thought this than he sensed the Soaring Serpent’s movement falter. His heart clenched.
A strand of Chen Shi’s sword qi had pierced the Soaring Serpent’s neck, running it through. This wouldn’t normally matter—the Soaring Serpent was formed of kan water qi and would reconnect even if severed.
But in that brief moment of faltering motion, hair-thin sword qi suddenly pierced through the weak points in the turtle shell’s light barriers, whistling toward him!
Ma Zhe was terrified out of his wits. He hurriedly turned, but whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—his occiput and back were riddled with countless sword qi strands,
stuck full!
He toppled rigidly onto the turtle’s back. Then the Mysterious Turtle and river collapsed and disintegrated. He tumbled from the sky, smashing heavily into the valley.
“I’ll come to learn from you!”
Gao Shaokun let out a long whistle and charged at Chen Shi. He cultivated the Infinite Jade Pearl Art, renowned for its vast magical power,
hailed as an endless sea of qi, jade pearls transporting, hand plucking sun and moon, shifting mountains and filling seas.
“Boom!”
He flew back even faster, whistling past the White Lang Palace overhead before smashing heavily into a divine mountain,
piercing right through it, and falling silent!
Jiang Baoyi rushed out, shouting,
“Li Tianqing, I’ve come to learn from you!”
Lightning filled the sky as the superior Small Jade Capital Thunder Art erupted from his body. He was like a thunder-wielding god!
“Boom!”
Jiang Baoyi plummeted from the sky headfirst, embedding into the earth.
Cui Xingcai and the others went up one by one, but no matter what techniques they unleashed, Chen Shi broke them in an instant. Each was wounded and lost all power to fight.
In a short half hour, only Li Qianyun and Zhang You remained.
Li Qianyun hadn’t found her chance until now. Finally, she flew out and called from afar to Chen Shi,
“Li Tianqing,
last time you defeated me, I wasn’t convinced! This time, I have no flaws from before! Today, I’ll fight you again at a hundred li!”
The two sped through the air, soon a hundred li apart.
Li Qianyun rapidly unleashed spells and divine abilities from afar, striking at her opponent. At such a distance, it was hard to see the other’s movements clearly, so she had to lock on with her nascent soul—which had to float in the air, unable to merge.
The two moved while casting, their moves unleashing at extreme speeds.
From afar, Li Qianyun saw Chen Shi unleash six spells in an instant. A hint of disappointment rose in her heart.
“He’s not Li Tianqing after all.”
No sooner had she thought this than Chen Shi’s first spell approached, slamming into her nascent soul’s Dao field.
“My nascent soul Dao field has no flaws!”
No sooner had she thought this than the power of Chen Shi’s first spell erupted, turning into countless thunderbolts cascading down!
“Great Thunderbolt Mighty Virtue Divine Incantation?”
Li Qianyun saw thunderbolts weaving along serpentine curves, hurtling toward her at high speed!
“Crack!”
The thunderbolt’s tip reached her brow. Li Qianyun dodged in haste, her heart jolting.
“Did I dodge it?”
Chen Shi’s second spell arrived. This time it was the Great Dao Fire True Art—clusters of Dao fire exploding with booms,
blasting open her Dao field and reaching right before her. Li Qianyun dodged frantically, evading the Dao fire, then her heart sank.
“I didn’t dodge it. Rather, he held back because I took care of him when he was unconscious.”
Chen Shi’s third spell arrived, breaking her Dao field again. Then the fourth spell—her Dao field broken once more.
Fifth spell—broken again!
Sixth spell—still broken!
Li Qianyun was numb. She didn’t even check if her six spells had broken Chen Shi’s Dao field. She turned woodenly and flew back to the White Lang Palace.
Six spells, breaking her Dao field six times—this hurt more than beating her into heavy injury!
Back at the White Lang Palace, she saw Zhang You bustling about with a smile, rescuing Ma Zhe, Zhai Yuanyuan, and the others whom Chen Shi had gravely wounded.
The crowd returned to the White Lang Palace. Except for Zhang You, no one looked pleased.
Zhang You laughed.
“Everyone, now you know the flaws in your Dao arts—this is a good thing for you. With a direction to strive in, you’ll grow stronger.”
Jiang Baoyi snorted.
“Brother Zhang, why don’t you go try? Don’t you want to know the flaws in your Dao arts?”
“No.”
Zhang You laughed.
“I know where my flaws are. Besides, even if I had none, in front of Li Tianqing, he’d manufacture one for me.”
Cui Xingcai saw Chen Shi approaching, her eyes turning. She suddenly laughed.
“The one who just beat us must be Child Top Scholar, right? You’re just borrowing Li Tianqing’s name, but actually using your own methods, aren’t you?”
Chen Shi said in surprise,
“Why do you say that, Miss Xingcai? I used Li Tianqing’s style and methods. My style and methods are different from Li Tianqing’s.”
Xu She asked curiously,
“Then, what if it were Child Top Scholar making a move?”
Chen Shi smiled faintly.
“Want to try? You can all come at once.”
Suddenly, the crowd felt a chilling killing intent envelop them, as if they’d be slain in the next instant.