Inner Demons

Chapter 147: Courting Death

Qingliangzi had fought great demons of the True Realm and had killed cultivators at the peak of the Manifestation Realm who possessed magic treasures.

But this person before him, calling himself Li Yunxin, was truly a Yin Spirit entity. At the peak of the Manifestation Realm, with the strength of the Illusory Realm.

Qingliangzi believed he could never defeat him, but... his heart was ringing with alarm because of that phrase "grind you into a pulp"!

Driven by this premonition that had allowed him to turn defeat into victory in countless critical moments, the cultivator didn't bother to think about the other's true identity anymore. He just roared without hesitation, "In your mother's wildest dreams!"

With this shout, the cultivator slapped the back of his head and spat out a green light sword from his mouth. With a grab and a flick of his right hand, the light sword solidified into a chillingly sharp thin sword!

Then this Qingliangzi flew forward, writing runes on the sword's body with his left hand while bravely shouting, "Taste your grandfather's dual-cultivated Daoist Arts!"

A twelve or thirteen-year-old beggar shouting like this would normally look somewhat comical. But at this moment, he crossed the ten-step distance between them in an instant!

In that instant, his left hand wrote six Talismans on the sword's body. The sword, infused with magic power, turned the crimson red of something just pulled from a furnace. The crimson light flowed, tearing through the air, and as it pierced Li Yunxin's chest—

There was a loud bang!

With the point of contact as the center, a violent wave of air and mist swept across the street, grinding the bluestone slabs underfoot into fine powder. The stone powder, water mist, and distorted, fluctuating air mixed together, and this long street was instantly enveloped in a white fog!But sparks flew madly from where the sword tip touched Li Yunxin's body, like steel grinding against steel, iron streams engulfing rock—the air heated up sharply due to the fierce thrust, and in the next moment, it dispersed the water mist, causing a second, more intense air blast—

Revealing Li Yunxin and Qingliangzi!

The cultivator had crossed ten steps in the blink of an eye and thrust his sword at Li Yunxin's chest. At this moment, the dust cloud that had risen from where he had stood due to his sudden, fierce attack had not yet settled, yet he had already struck Li Yunxin's left chest at a single point, sixteen times in a row!

This had already surpassed the limit of what a Daoist Orthodoxy cultivator's eyes could capture. It was precisely because of the superposition of these sixteen strikes in an instant, compressing the air, that the second air blast was created!

It was only at this moment that Li Yunxin had time to look down and retreat—a full three steps back.

Then he looked at his chest.

Not even his clothes were torn.

Qingliangzi did not pursue. Because those sixteen strikes were one of the killing moves of the Sword Sect's Lingxu Sword Sect, yet... they could not harm the opponent in the slightest.

Li Yunxin raised his hand, dusted off his clothes, looked at him with a smile, and shook his head. "Fast enough, but not strong enough, friend. With such skill, how did you honorably kill my parents?"

Qingliangzi slowly lowered his sword, the tip pointing diagonally to the ground. He snorted coldly. "Just a test. To see what skills you have. But you do have some tricks."

Li Yunxin stood three steps away from him, hands clasped behind his back, smiling. "This trick is very simple. It's because I painted an 'Overlord's Carapace Diagram'—a Treasure Scroll. It would be a wonder if your mere Manifestation Realm peak strength could break this diagram."

As he spoke, he pulled a piece of paper from his clothes.

The paper was the yellow straw paper used for accounting at Wood South Residence, with a scroll hastily sketched on it with a worn-out brush. But it still couldn't hide the astonishing flow of Spiritual Power on it.

Then Li Yunxin tore the diagram casually.

And threw it on the ground.

"Since it's a trick I've revealed, I won't use it a second time."

Qingliangzi's eyes widened at his action. "You're really... that Li Yunxin? Weren't you dead? Are you a Ghost Cultivator now?! What trick are you pulling now?!"

"To honorably grind you into a pulp, friend, so forgetful?" Li Yunxin hummed lowly and smiled at him. "The tricks my parents taught me. I'll show them to you one by one. To let you know what your so-called honorable—your so-called honorable against a Painting Daoist, how stupid a saying that is."

Hearing his words, Qingliangzi's anger turned into laughter.

He looked up at Li Yunxin, the thin sword in his palm trembling like a snake about to strike and devour someone. "You arrogant brat. You think you're so great for blocking my previous attack with a single Treasure Scroll?! Now let me show you some real skill!"

As his voice fell, Qingliangzi himself did not move.

But a dazzling golden light suddenly erupted from his body!

His entire being seemed to transform into a sun in an instant, illuminating every detail in this small alley. And in this golden light, Qingliangzi whispered, "Mysterious Grand Golden Light Method!"

As he whispered this, Qingliangzi raised his left arm into the void and, with a drop of blood from the beggar's fingertip, quickly wrote three characters—

Lock! Yang! Terrace!

Once the characters were formed, the profound power of the Daoist Orthodoxy Talisman immediately responded to the opportune moment. Wherever the golden light in the alley reached, everything instantly slowed by half a beat, as if trapped in a viscous, sluggish quagmire of light that was impossible to escape!

And beside Li Yunxin, within the expanse of light, a small figure of light suddenly formed in the void. As soon as it formed, it drew its sword and lunged, aiming straight for his chest.

But Li Yunxin just sidestepped to avoid the blow. The light grazed past his left shoulder and into the ground, and a small patch of earth instantly turned into red-hot lava.

However, this was only the beginning. After the first light figure appeared, more light figures emerged densely, one after another, from the void beside him. Golden sword gleams shot towards him continuously like a storm from all sorts of incredible angles, yet Li Yunxin managed to dodge them all!

He was only three steps away from the cultivator, yet he did not try to rush forward and fight him—because every cultivator knew that when a Daoist Orthodoxy Taoist priest was casting spells, the most dangerous place was right in front of them—powerful restrictions would appear along with the Talismans within three steps of them. Within those three steps was a place fraught with danger.

Yet in such a perilous place, Li Yunxin's speed seemed to be even faster than the golden light assassins—so fast that his figure almost became an afterimage amidst the crisscrossing golden light!

The Daoist Orthodoxy character incantation "Locking Yang Terrace" was specifically designed to counter Yin Spirits. In a vast expanse of righteous golden light, it would slow the opponent's speed and intimidate their minds. Paired with the Sword Sect's "Mysterious Grand Golden Light Method," they complemented each other perfectly—no one should have been able to escape this killing move!

Yet at this moment, this Li Yunxin was unexpectedly unaffected by the restriction. He dodged like the wind, able to change his position more than ten times in the blink of an eye. After one breath, not a single sword light could hit him!

And while dodging, this Li Yunxin even had the leisure to sneer in a composed voice, "Strong enough, but not fast enough, friend. With such skill, how did you honorably kill my parents?"

"You're at the Manifestation Realm now—Manifestation Realm, turning the illusory into the real, but it's still different from the True Realm. I guess your golden light method can last for... three, two, one—can't hold on anymore, can you."

As his voice fell, the brilliant golden light on the street suddenly dissipated, and darkness once again enveloped the battlefield.

Li Yunxin closed his eyes for a moment to adjust to the darkness, then opened them again to look at the beggar.

And from his clothes, he took out another painting on straw paper and tore it casually.

"'King Guang's Formation-Breaking Diagram'."

"I'm always stronger and more agile than that King Guang, and your sword light is far less dense and sharp than the blades of a hundred thousand soldiers."

He smiled in the darkness. "This diagram, he taught me when I was seven."

Qingliangzi no longer underestimated him and realized he had made a mistake.

This Li Yunxin was at the peak of the Manifestation Realm, with the strength of the Illusory Realm.

And he himself was formerly at the True Realm, now with the strength of the Manifestation Realm peak.

If they were both Taoist priests or both Sword Cultivators, killing him would be easy. But the problem was... he was a Painting Daoist.

He had fallen for his trick earlier, giving him half an hour to prepare!

A well-prepared Painting Daoist, who had been on this street for an hour. Qingliangzi now knew what those dozen or so streams of spiritual energy that had passed through his restriction were—it was this Li Yunxin setting an ambush.

Because in that one hour, this Li Yunxin, with ample preparation, had quickly closed the gap in strength between them, and even...

Damn it, he was no ordinary Painting Daoist, and certainly not one of those useless painters kept in Grotto-heavens or Schools for making art.

The methods of a true Painting Daoist at the peak of the Manifestation Realm hadn't been seen for a very, very long time. And when he fought with Li Chunfeng and his wife, it was their Spiritual Souls manifesting their true forms to fight from a thousand li away—that was a pure contest of cultivation, without using a single Painting Daoist trick!

Now Qingliangzi understood what Li Yunxin's repeated emphasis on "honorably" really meant.

And his mistake was to compete in Daoist Arts with this well-prepared Painting Daoist.

The tricks this Li Yunxin had prepared were all for self-preservation.

It was clear he cherished that body of his.

Which meant... it was extremely fragile.

He was also a dual-cultivating Sword Cultivator. The body of a Manifestation Realm peak was always stronger than an Illusory Realm body. He should have continued to engage in close combat with Sword Sect techniques after Li Yunxin blocked his first attack, instead of retreating three steps to fight with spells!

Just then, Qingliangzi heard Li Yunxin say in the darkness—

"Since I've already let you have two moves, it's my turn to attack now. When I beat you up later, you're not allowed to cry."

As his voice fell, Li Yunxin charged towards Qingliangzi!

Qingliangzi also let out a strange laugh and raised his sword to meet him. "Good of you to come!"

At this moment, dark clouds covered the moon, and the long street was plunged into darkness. But darkness was no obstacle for a skilled warrior—air currents, sounds, temperature, all could serve as guiding lights!

As Qingliangzi lunged forward, he had already written a Talisman—a restriction formed three steps in front of him. If that Li Yunxin charged over, he would be entangled by this restriction for a moment. Then he could...

But suddenly, a faint golden light shone before his eyes!

By this golden light, Qingliangzi saw—that Li Yunxin had actually ignored the restriction within three steps and charged straight in!

And that faint light... was the glow of one ineffective restriction after another shattering against his body!

Qingliangzi cursed inwardly—what kind of evil spirit had he encountered tonight?!

How could there be nothing logical about this Li Yunxin?!

However, there was no time to think. That Li Yunxin had already swung a savage punch. The fist carried immense force, powerful and heavy, heading straight for Qingliangzi's face.

This power, speed, and technique, even a top expert from the secular world, a martial arts prodigy seen once in a thousand years, would be smashed into a meat pulp by this punch.

But in Qingliangzi's eyes, Li Yunxin, after tearing up that "King Guang's Formation-Breaking Diagram," had become laughably slow. He even had time in that split second to consider several countermeasures, but ultimately decided to meet the punch with the gleam of his sword!

Tonight, he had had enough of this Li Yunxin's insults and contempt—and his strength was clearly far superior to his opponent's!

This brat was getting carried away... he must teach him a good lesson, to let him know that his, Qingliangzi's, Sword Sect Daoist Arts were—

He thrust his sword diagonally upward.

So very—

Then the sword's body vibrated.

Incomparably sharp!

Straight towards Li Yunxin's fist!

"Bang!!"

Half of Qingliangzi's face was almost caved in, and his whole body was sent flying backward!

...His sword thrust had indeed been delivered.

Straight into Li Yunxin's punch. In an instant, he had thrust thirty-two times, striking his knuckles, wrist, and eyes, and another twenty-nine times at his heart. It all happened in a flash, and the sword was infused with the full power of a Manifestation Realm peak cultivator.

Although this beggar's body was only temporarily enhanced with Spiritual Power, it was already strong enough!

So the thing Qingliangzi couldn't figure out in the instant he hit the ground was—

Why... was this Li Yunxin not dead!

The body of an Illusory Realm Ghost Cultivator couldn't possibly withstand such power!

But although half his head was caved in and he should have been dead, it was, after all, a possessed body controlled by a cultivator's soul. This Qingliangzi felt this was his last-ditch effort. He immediately leaped up from the ground, holding his broken sword, and charged towards Li Yunxin's position again!

This time, he no longer cared for any technique—although being killed in a living host's body or being forced out of it would deplete his cultivation, at this moment, Qingliangzi truly realized that if he didn't go all out to kill this Li Yunxin tonight, there would be even greater trouble in the future!

This kid... was too damn strange!

He hadn't been able to predict him even once, not a single time!

On the dark street, an even more violent burst of fire and fists erupted! After three breaths of intense trembling, a short, suppressed cry of pain...

Qingliangzi's beggar body was sent flying to the ground with a bang. And in his chest, there was now a gaping, bowl-sized bloody hole!

The body of a Manifestation Realm peak cultivator, protected by Spiritual Power... had been pierced through!

The dark clouds obscuring the moon finally scattered.

And the dying beggar... finally understood why Li Yunxin, who had clearly been stabbed by him so many times, was completely unharmed, and why his body had even emitted intense sparks upon being struck!

Because standing before him was a being with... the body of a demon god.

Over ten feet tall.

With ferocious deer antlers the color of blood growing from its head.

Long hair like silk, white as snow, like a lion's mane.

His entire body was covered in dark, heavy scales, which produced a metallic clang with the slightest movement!

A pair of golden eyes with a thin black line, demonic and ferocious. A mouth full of fangs and sharp teeth, grinning to the ears. Like a wild beast, he smiled ferociously, breathing out clouds of mist. He said to him—

"Do you know that I once used this Weicheng as a scroll to reshape my Spirit Soul Dharma Body for myself?"

"The streets and alleys of this Weicheng are like my meridians. Now that you are fighting me within this Weicheng, it is like fighting me within my own body."

"You had perfectly good Daoist Arts you didn't use, and insisted on fighting me hand-to-hand, hahaha..."

"—Wouldn't you say you are... courting death?"

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