As if it sensed the danger’s disappearance, the monster took a deep breath. Its chest then swelled, and it savagely roared at Xu Yangyi.

“GRRRR!!!”

Middle-stage Qi Condensation…

 Stools and chairs went flying inside the wooden room. Xu Yangyi didn’t even spare a glance, and said indifferently, “Quiet down a bit.”

Swoosh!

 The chairs and stools flew over in front of Xu Yangyi and now oddly stopped in midair.

However, his gaze measured his surroundings with great solemness.

“These… are Rules?” Several seconds later, he gritted his teeth and murmured, “This ordinary room… actually has the existence of Rules?”

What were Rules?

They were order. They were a game’s standards.

If judgement wasn’t rendered then you couldn’t act! Unless you were above the rules!

Just like how Foundation Establishment could only be achieved after Qi Condensation, this was Earth’s great Rule. Among Rules, there was major and minor. Long ago, the Rules had been almost fully researched by the cultivation world. Even if he didn’t have access regarding profound Rules at Heavens Law, per the “game’s standards”, Heavens Law had to inform all cultivators of the basics.

The Great Oath of the Dao Heart. Once violated, infinite calamity would descend upon oneself. This was the Rules. In connecting the bridge between heaven and earth, and condensing elixir into a pill, this was also the Rules. And this little wooden room in perfect condition, isolated from all anomalies… This was also the Rules!

“But even if with the Rules’ protection, you won’t survive with your realm.” Xu Yangyi stowed his gaze and steeled his mind. Two of the erosions had been dispersed, but this dispersal was just that—an anomaly. The pitch-black qi, qi of slaughter, had already swiftly gathered from outside the wooden room to the front of Xu Yangyi. A continuously squirming orb of black qi took shape, and sparks of heart-shaking deep-blue electricity glinted within it from time to time.

Xu Yangyi flicked out a finger, and the manifested orb shout out with a bang! Following a mournful roar, all of the flesh-oddity’s blood, muscle, and bone withered at the same time! In less than a second, it had shrunk into the size of an infant!

Blood, flesh, and bone were all ground to dust… The Heavenly Opening Six Erosions basically destroyed the other’s fleshly body! Moreover… it was a ranged attack that couldn’t be avoided! Under all five erosions, there wasn’t the slightest possible chance of survival!

Did it d-die? 

Shocked, Zhao Ziqi looked at the “infant” facing him. 

Big bro, is it dead?

Xu Yangyi didn’t reply, and the room calmed down again.

After five minutes passed, Zhao Ziqi let out a sigh of relief. Ten minutes passed, twenty minutes passed, and the pair stared fixedly at the bowl-sized blackish-gray corpse in front of them.

Looks like it really died… 

Half an hour later, Zhao Ziqi acted as if he was in human form and swiped away at his nonexistent sweat. But just as his voice fell, the infant in front of him… actually began to oddly swell up little by little!

The speed was very slow, and the time taken was especially slow! The corpse appeared to be saving something, like the wounds created by the Heavenly Opening Six Erosions were too great. Nonetheless, once it started it no longer stayed still.

Blood-red veins and arteries stretched over the shriveled infant-like corpse. At the same time, hair and skin grew all over its entire body… Unexpectedly, it was starting to transform into an actual person!

“Such a fiend…” Xu Yangyi took a deep breath. This time, he didn’t hold back at all. Ten purple fire-dragons screamed around him and then stormed into his body.

Crack crack crack!

 On the Animus Armament, the design of ten dragons rapidly coalesced. Bereft of the slightest pause, he stabbed out at this unknown entity with all of his might!

Ten bolts of lightning thoroughly ignited the air in front of him. And while a wretched screech rang out, and the shriveled corpse was violently dashed against the wall, it didn’t fall apart!

Big bro? 

Zhao Ziqi stared vacantly. 

Did you… hold back?

“No.” Xu Yangyi pulled back his sword. Although he could sense that he’d just severely injured the creature, he hadn’t been able to kill it!

“Spread your senses… carefully.” His clothes were already whistling in the breeze of a formless wind. Solemn-faced, he looked all around. “We’ve really run into something terrible this time…”

Zhao Ziqi let his senses out for less than a second and promptly returned to Xu Yangyi’s spiritual sense. He no longer dared to speak a word.

The wooden room… was shaking!

If said the qi came from the bones before, then this time it originated from the creature itself!

Streaks of qi, as pitch-black as ink and each one as thick as a finger, almost solidified. Furthermore, this qi held a certain essence… 

Foundation Establishment!

Initial-stage Foundation Establishment!

In a single breath, the creature ascended a minor boundary and then to a great realm! In less than an hour, this monster… had walked the experience and history that barely less than 20,000 people were capable of in China!

Swoosh!

 The entire corpse started to bulge, and it squirmed from head to toe. Several meters in front of Xu Yangyi, it grew hair, revealing jade-like skin, a generous, ample bosom, a smooth, full bottom, and a woman’s visage… that Xu Yangyi could be no more familiar with!

“Nalan Liusu?!” This time, not only did Zhao Ziqi cry out, but Xu Yangyi himself shouting in alarm!

In this twinkling, an incredibly preposterous thought was born in his heart.

Were they actually in the real world?

Where was this place?

There was absolutely no way that Nalan Liusu could’ve survived. He had personally sent her to hell. Yet now, on this day, she had appeared before him once again in the flesh, and in such a strange way!

The location was wrong, and her realm was wrong as well! After the huge-mouthed man had died a few times, Nalan Liusu had emerged! She should’ve originally been Great Circle Qi Condensation or at most half-step Foundation Establishment!

Swoosh swoosh swoosh… 

A formless wind pressure blew on Nalan Liusu’s hair, making it appear like a paper fan. She wasn’t truly nude, and her upper body was Nalan Liusu as before. Her lower half, however, had already demonized into a golden spider!

What to do?

To kill or not to kill?

For a moment, Xu Yangyi hesitated. He wasn’t afraid of his one-time nemesis, but… if he killed the opponent again, what would show up next?

Middle-stage Foundation Establishment? Or even… late-stage Foundation Establishment?

“What the fuck is this damn place!” He leveled his longsword and faced Nalan Liusu with a terribly solemn look. “I can’t get out… and I can’t go in, but this damn thing’s shown up!”

His voice yet to fall, he was struck dumb in the next second.

In this instant, the view in front of him blurred. In the next second, he surveyed his surroundings in disbelief.

The wooden room he was in had mysteriously vanished! Now, a massive stone buddha appeared! It was approximately 2,000 meters tall! And Xu Yangyi and Nalan Liusu were on its palm!

Huff… 

Zhao Ziqi’s voice was somewhat shaking. 

I swear… I didn’t even close my eyes just now… This, how… 

There was no feeling whatsoever… 

There was no anomaly at all.

In a fleeting moment, the heavens had been stolen and the sun exchanged! As if a section from a complete movie had been suddenly cut away, entering the next scene! If not for Nalan Liusu who was still recovering a hundred meters away, they would’ve even believed that everything a little while ago was all a dream.

Xu Yangyi’s eyes ventured forward. A splendid sun shone high above. Xu Yangyi and Zhao Ziqi shockingly discovered that countless immense mountains surrounded the stone buddha. And in these mountains, black fog drifted, not one trace of a living creature’s aura present.

While all of this was incredibly vivid, it was peculiarly strange.

“It’s like a dream or illusion.” Xu Yangyi ruefully looked to his surroundings. At this time, something abruptly skirted around his senses… 

In his qi sea, the Azurecloud Seed shook again. He could even feel… that a vigorous life inside the cocoon was eager to break free and come out. Nonetheless, the amount of spiritual force it required was still far, far from enough.

He performed Innersight. Since the beginning he’d entered this world below, wisps of black fog were twisting over the cocoon. To this moment now, the cocoon still continued to absorb the fog, yet he had no clue what this haze was exactly.

But furthermore… the Sky Restriction had disappeared!

Regardless, Xu Yangyi and Zhao Ziqi weren’t given any time to observe. A qi, both extremely violent yet all too familiar, surged in front of Xu Yangyi like a tide!

Nalan Liusu finally moved. Gentle in her actions, she took a step out, yet all of her qi was locked onto Xu Yangyi like an infrared ray.

“Initial-stage Foundation Establishment… and not a normal initial-stage Foundation Establishment…” In Xu Yangyi’s eyes, a wisp of battle intent flickered and faded away.

This was a woman who had once killed him. Although he ultimately won, he still wanted to truly defeat her, to prove victorious over this mighty reincarnated cultivator!

This 

was the first cultivator he’d encountered of the same realm who was leagues above him.

This

 was the first true ancient cultivator he had met.

“Ziqi,” he said in a low voice, “don’t interfere in what’s coming next. Take advantage now to properly size up this buddha statue. See if there’s a place to get out.”

Zhao Ziqi nodded. In kind, his impression regarding Nalan Liusu was deep and profound. Without uttering a word, he drifted away.

“Last time, I cut you in two with my blade.” After the earth master left, Xu Yangyi brought up his longsword and pointed it straight at Nalan Liusu. “This time, I’m going to completely send you to hell.”

Nalan Liusu seemed to sense his provocation, but she kept silent, not a word leaving her mouth. Her ample bosom rapidly swelled, and she roared at him.

“ROOOAR!!!”

She was just like a wild beast, unlike a woman at all. Her figure then transformed into a stream of golden light and directly pounced Xu Yangyi!

Swoosh swoosh swoosh… 

Amidst her frontal lunge, pitch-black barbs mixed with a scarlet color quickly grew out from her entire body. Their snow-white tips were marked with dark-red traces. Nalan Liusu seemed as if she’d never give up as long as Xu Yangyi wasn’t torn to smithereens.

The demon slayer coldly snorted. Just as he was about to take flight, however, he suddenly paused.

Back then, he and the other had engaged in a clash of force like this.

Their fight was unlike Foundation Establishment battles that went unsullied by dust. On the contrary, it had been true physical combat. Their might was far inferior to Foundation Establishment, but it had been more dangerous. He only stopped for half a second. But in the next instant, he shouted, and without adopting the battle tactics of Foundation Establishment cultivators, stormed straight ahead like a Qi Condensation cultivator instead!

While he was defeated back then, he would strike back today!

“Kill!” The guttural word drifted out from between his clenched teeth. Longsword raised up, he thrust forward without cowering back one bit!

BOOM!!!

 Both sides brought forth several meters of sand and dust on the stone buddha’s palm. In the wake of their impact, two half-meter-deep trenches appeared on the buddha’s hand! A heavy rumble sounded, and Xu Yangyi and Nalan Liusu, having not seen each other for twenty-somewhat years, clashed together again!

Crack crack crack… 

The pitch-black barbs mixed were before Xu Yangyi’s eyes, and Nalan Liusu’s unchanging face was closing in within spitting distance. Her eight bony barbs though, were all vertically nailed upon Xu Yangyi’s sword!

Bang!

 A gold and azure spirit tide erupted where the two of them welcomed each other! In a single clash, neither of them had actually fallen back half a step!

They were equally matched!

Xu Yangyi reared his head back and laughed heartily, a purple glint then flashing on his sword. At the same time a sky of fire was about to ignite, Nalan Liusu’s fine, yet enormous, body seemed to flutter like a butterfly. In the next second, her surroundings on the buddha’s hand burned with a twenty-to-thirty-meter-tall pillar of purple flame! Ten fire-dragons spiraled into the air!

“Surprised?” With a slash of his sword, Xu Yangyi only felt his heart suddenly open free. Back then, he’d braved the danger of serious wounds, yet hadn’t been able to do a thing against the woman-spider. But now she couldn’t do a thing against him!

Hatred was revenged, and blame was returned! Gratitude and vengeance intertwined led to immediate reprisal!

“In that case… try my move again!” He flipped back high in the air, and the longsword in his hand spread a curtain of snow-white light. “Severing Dragon Typhoon!!!”

Swoosh!

 A crescent-shaped screen of light sprinkled in and out as his sword-light followed. Compared to when he was in Qi Condensation, the skill was completely different. This time… it extended for a full thirty meters in length!

The light of a sword and a solitary duck take flight together, the bright moon coloring the heavens as one shade!

[1]

1. This is a poem from the Tang poet Wang Bo (650-676 CE). He is considered one of the Four Great Poets of the early Tang period. 劍光與孤鶩齊飛，明月共長天一色!

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