Swoosh swoosh swoosh! 

Endless golden spears, mingled with deathly qi, quickly pierced down!

A chilling touch flitted through Nalan Liusu’s eyes. Going down? Xu Yangyi could only be herded another step into her compressed battle space. Once compressed to the limit, the spider’s arrangement would be completed. The web would force one into a dead end, and then the moment of her attack would begin.

Going up?

Impossible! The corrosive strength of these golden silk-formed spears was incredibly strong, and their destructive power was outstanding! She had never encountered a same-stage cultivator who dared to welcome her spears head-on!

Xu Yangyi didn’t see, but an odd spider totem was slowly emerging behind Nalan Liusu. Its eight legs seemed to loosen and tighten the web. No matter where he escaped to, Nalan Liusu’s attack would soon follow him as a shadow did the body.

But in the next second, Nalan Liusu fell into a sudden daze. “This?!”

Neither dodging nor evading, Xu Yangyi stood in place!

CRASH!

 Silken spears cut past him, and his hair rippled in the wind. In the next moment, a loud rumble rang out from the stone buddha’s body! Like a blade cutting tofu, golden spears stabbed out thousands of holes on the statue!

However, in the instant a golden spear was on the verge of piercing Xu Yangyi, his body lightly flashed. He seemed to split into several shadows, vanishing out of the air afterwards. Unexpectedly, the golden spear didn’t hit him and continued to fall straight through!

If it was just one, Nalan Liusu wouldn’t be shocked, but now, any spear that might’ve caused Xu Yangyi injury was all like this! As if he’d become air, all that was left was an idea. Regardless of how, none of the spears could injure him.

Swish swish swish!

 Phalanxes of golden spears cut through Xu Yangyi. He was like a skiff in a storm, firm and steady. After about three minutes, all the spears came to an end. The legs of the stone buddha below were no longer recognizable as they had originally been! But Xu Yangyi was still in perfect shape!

“The Voidspirit Immortal Physique sure is special.” He took a deep breath. Since he and Nalan Liusu were at the same realm, he knew that this solid spider silk couldn’t wound him!

“That’s it?” He looked at Nalan Liusu, rearing his head back and erupting with laughter. His figure suddenly blurred and became azure lightning, charging straight up!

Nalan Liusu took a step back. This was the first time she had done so. She wasn’t scared, but rather incredibly solemn.

She sensed that Xu Yangyi’s surging figure contained an extremely powerful spiritual force. This spiritual force put her on full alert! 

In the azure light, Xu Yangyi’s finger had already become crimson-red!

On his finger, boundless auras of murder, resentment, death, and malevolence lingered layer after layer. Strange ruins twisted upon it. It was like the grim reaper’s sickle, pointing directly at Nalan Liusu.

“Heavenly Opening… Fifth Erosion.”

His gaze was fire manifest, but his expression was like an old well without ripple. His finger softly tapped out, and all of a sudden, the world stilled.

The wind disappeared. Clouds also stopped. All that was left was the sound of Nalan Liusu’s and Xu Yangyi’s beating hearts. In this splinter of time, the world seemed to omit this second.

“What in the world is this divine ability?!” Nalan Liusu looked at her constructed world, in amazement. In an instant, she felt mortal crisis. However, the surrounding space didn’t give the slightest hair of a warning!

Her spider silk wasn’t as simple as it appeared! It was of the Nalan Clan’s style! This spider silk… could attack and defend! In attack, it could force the enemy inch after inch into a dead end! In defense, the surrounding thousand meters was her absolute domain. In this domain, not to mention the opponent’s action trend, not even the spiritual force of a hidden move could escape her eyes.

But at this moment… the spider web didn’t move at all. Nonetheless, her intuition told her to flee… flee swiftly! Otherwise, she was bound to suffer heavy injuries!

“Where?!” Time almost halt in this second, and her thoughts frantically scattered. Without nearly a second of melancholy, she jabbed the middle of her brows, and jade-green light jetted out! It illuminated the surrounding horizon!

“This is…” Time seemed to pass slowly. In truth though, in barely a second, she finally saw everything clearly. At the same time, the terror in her heart could increase no more!

The area all around her… was already twisting with golden talismans!

These talismans were very small, but the sensation of divine might stiffly prohibited her movement to any direction. Furthermore, these talismans were everywhere! She had been trapped in a hundred-meter region!

Demonic imprisonment!

Chatter chatter… 

Her teeth began to shake, but not because of the talismans. Her head snapped up to the sky and her pupils almost slackened!

From the sky, a titanic spiritual pressure weighed down on her joints to the point that she almost fell to exhaustion. Yet under her demon pupils, she finally saw the unbelievable object above her head!

A sword!

An enormous golden sword!

It was entirely formed of pure gold, an imperial golden qi!

On the surface, fine hairs could be discerned. Designs of birds, beasts, fishes, and insects were sculpted on it. Brilliant royal might seemed to stride across China’s 5,000 years of history! Almost so terrifying that it caused one to tuck their head and pay worship, the spiritual pressure caused Nalan Liusu’s entire body to involuntarily shake!

Tick… 

The soundless second hand of the clock rang out. After the third second passed, the world seemed to remember this forgotten time.

“SLASH!!!” Xu Yangyi thundered, and endless golden light flashed in the sky! Afterwards, the massive hanging sword loudly descended upon the top of Nalan Liusu’s head!

“Spidermother’s Holy Canon!!!” Nalan Liusu exhaled sharply. In a crisis of life and death, she couldn’t hide one trace. All of her qi erupted like a tide, and the entire spider web shivered!

“Five Venoms Devour Soul!”

RUMBLE!!!

 Black qi surged straight to the horizon from her orifices, but under the golden light’s oppression it was so weak that it couldn’t be ignored!

BOOM!!!

 At the center of the massive stone buddha, a terrible mushroom cloud exploded!

The maximum limit of a Foundation Establishment cultivator’s divine ability was within a hundred meters. At most, some could surpass a hundred meters, but… the Heavenly Opening Explosion, the Tianqi Explosion, brought forth 300 meters of gigantic, fiery clouds in the Foundation Establishment Realm.

[1]

BOOM!

 The first blast wave exploded. Even if Xu Yangyi was the engineer of this destruction, he was shaken back several hundred meters in the air! The surrounding hundred meters of the stone buddha’s giant hand loudly transformed into chips of rock in this blast! Rubble scattered through the air.

BOOM! 

The second blast wave exploded on top of the first, pushing the mushroom cloud of death and explosion several hundred meters into the sky. The dark-red of blood and the black of death dyed the area below into hell’s color!

CRASH!!!

 The third blast wave came five seconds later, reaching the peak of the Heavenly Opening Explosion! A deafening noise boomed, and a wind pressure far surpassing the first blast wave by countless times spread everywhere!

Xu Yangyi only felt as if he’d been hit by a sledgehammer in his chest. He groaned heavily and sensed another giant hand push him afterwards. A gale that went far beyond a tsunami! A tornado! He couldn’t even open his eyes! Like a kite cut of its string, he moved back another several hundred meters!

At the same time… he only had enough spiritual force left to barely fly!

Swoosh swoosh swoosh… 

It was unknown how many seconds went by until he finally opened his eyes. Now… he was confronted with devastation.

From the chest up, the giant stone buddha had disappeared! Fragments of debris occasionally revealed a corner from the black fog below. Even the remaining portion was also in ruin.

A 300-meter-sized region in the sky and ground was all red. Furthermore, it was faintly shaking. It seemed to warn everyone not to enter.

As for Nalan Liusu, he didn’t see a shadow’s trace of her.

“This is the Heavenly Opening Explosion’s power?” He sighed in amazement and looked in front of him. Not even waiting for him to gasp in surprise though, his brows furrowed as he looked at his body.

His body… was healing?

Qi… was inexplicably continuing to decrease, but because of a minor internal injury from the blast wave, his body was healing at a visible speed.

“This…” He performed Innersight in doubt, yet saw a green mist healing him at lightning speed. Everywhere the mist passed, it rapidly healed to him to his prior state, just like it was rewinding time. 

He looked on for a couple seconds, and a flash of realization dawned on him. He remembered something that he had gained twenty years ago. All along, it had no use, and even he quickly forgot about it.

The Spirit Parasite.

Back then, the Spirit Parasite that he had obtained was weak, but he could now feel that it was no less than the Reincarnation Puppet’s orb! It even exceeded the past Spirit Parasite!

“Is it possible… that it can also follow my cultivation’s advancement and growth? The parasite is inside me? In the past twenty years, I haven’t been injured once. If the parasite’s effect was healing, then it makes sense that it couldn’t show itself. That’s why I forgot about it.”

He firmly remembered this point in his heart. This advantage didn’t appear to be great, but it was quite fitting for him!

He was a pill master!

A Spirit Parasite needed a qi supply, and he had many more items than other people, items that were many times more superior than pill-elixirs to swiftly lay down padding. Although the Clearcloud Realm’s condition didn’t allow it, and many spirit plants couldn’t be found, his advantage would be limitlessly expanded as long as he left!

“And… I have an even more fitting path for physique cultivation.” He murmured as he looked at his hand, “I know how strong the Reincarnation Puppet was from experience. Now that I have a Spirit Parasite in my body… physique cultivation won’t need too much spiritual force as long as I find a suitable flame to ignite my furnace and then refine my body. My physical body will be my strongest shield.”

“And this spiritual force can act as the Spirit Parasite’s healing reserve. Medicinal pills will also replenish my spiritual force…”

“No, not just purely physique cultivation.” He seemed to have some enlightenment in that battle just now. “I’ll use whatever fits me. I won’t stick to one style. Anyone’s battle style is my style. I don’t need to learn from anyone else, and I don’t need to restrict myself to some ideology. Whether physique cultivation or qi divine abilities, a black or white cat that catches a rat is a good cat.”

This battle was undoubtedly very important to the sum comprehension of his studies. In his twenty years of seclusion, he hadn’t encountered a truly difficult opponent. Plus, that wasn’t to speak of integrating his gains in real combat. While he’d already achieved mastery of many disciplines in theory, he’d still have to ultimately verify these things in an actual fight.

He mused to himself for a brief moment. At this time, the front of his eyes suddenly blurred, and the entire setting silently transformed!

“Still not done?” He looked around in surprise. He had finally returned to the cave he’d been inside at first. At the center though, a pitch-black vortex of qi was madly circling around!

No less than ten meters in size… a black hole took shape before him little by little. Amidst it, an extremely powerful qi was gradually forming!

Crack… Crack… 

Pebbles scattered everywhere on the ground. Xu Yangyi took a deep breath and trained his eyes on the vortex.

The battle still wasn’t over!

This time… the enemy was middle-stage Foundation Establishment! Even a shred higher than himself!

1. Tianqi Explosion = Heavenly Opening Explosion. Tianqi Explosion is based on an event during the Ming dynasty in 1626 CE. Also known as the Wanggongchang Explosion. In real history, there are various explanations why this occurred, but no conclusive answer. In

Archfiend

, the excuse is that the Xuan-Yuan Sword caused it.

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