Chapter 189: Slashing the Dao and Extinguishing Life

"I'm going to kill him!"

Seeing Li Fei charging toward this side, Zhao Yu took the initiative to say.

Following that, he controlled this Dao Foundation clone to dash rapidly toward Li Fei's side.

"Careful!"

Shangguan Xiao could not help but warn.

This was different from the sparring matches she usually had with Li Fei; this was a life-and-death battle, and no one would hold back!

*Swish—*

A sheet of ice and snow swept over, forcing Shangguan Xiao to retreat.

"Worry about yourself first!"

Yu Hu said coldly.

On the other side, Yan Yichen also seized the opportunity to slash another wound onto Shangguan Xiao with his sword!

The characteristic of the Cold Fiend Drifting Snow Force is that it can accumulate coldness, much like snow covering the ground; once the 'accumulated snow' becomes thick enough, those struck by this force will gradually lose their ability to move.

After fighting for this short while, the cold force accumulated within Shangguan Xiao's body was already significant, which caused her movements to gradually slow down, which is why she was repeatedly caught by Yan Yichen and left with wounds.

At this moment, Zhao Yu's departure caused her pressure to suddenly decrease significantly, but if the fight continued like this, she would eventually be defeated sooner or later!

Shangguan Xiao felt anxious inwardly, but on the surface, she said sternly:

"Fine! Even if I die today, I will definitely take one of you with me!"

These words did indeed make both Yu Hu and Yan Yichen secretly vigilant.

Although the two of them were working together, they were divided in heart and had their own agendas, so they were truly worried about being dragged down by Shangguan Xiao in the end.

As a result, both of them secretly held back some of their strength, preparing to use it for self-preservation or to retreat at any time.

On the other side, when Zhao Yu was still over ten meters away from Li Fei, he swung his palm to strike out a Red Qilin Force.

A seven or eight-meter-long red snake let out bursts of hissing sounds, speeding like an arrow as it tore toward Li Fei.

Li Fei leaped to the side to dodge this red snake, but as the red snake passed by Li Fei, it suddenly turned in mid-air, doubled back, whipped its tail, drew an arc, and lunged at Li Fei once again!

Sensing the danger behind him, Li Fei made preparations in advance and turned to slash out with his blade.

The dark golden blade radiance collided fiercely with the red snake!

The next second, Li Fei was knocked flying, just happening to use the momentum to fly toward Zhao Yu in the rear.

After Shangguan Xiao's guidance, Li Fei's perception of force was now quite sharp; through this collision, he could sense three different types of Innate Qi within this Red Qilin Force!

The mixture of three types of Innate Qi was already the threshold for the vast majority of high-tier forces, but what Zhao Yu struck out was still the Red Qilin Force, only with two more attributes than the original version, and its power was also enhanced significantly.

Even with the strength boost brought by the 【Blood Rage】 of 11 Blood Souls, plus the addition of Geng Metal True Qi, Li Fei still could not win in a head-on collision.

The chasm between the Qi Transformation realm and the Dao Foundation realm was not so easily crossed!

Zhao Yu aimed at the flying Li Fei and struck out another Red Qilin Force.

The previous Red Qilin Force had not yet dissipated and was still continuing to crash toward Li Fei.

In this way, Li Fei was caught in a pincer attack by two Red Qilin Forces, one in front and one behind!

Li Fei turned and slashed with all his might at the Red Qilin Force behind him; three dark golden blade radiances almost overlapped as they struck the red snake.

This was an application technique for Innate Qi learned from Shangguan Xiao; this kind of 'Overlapping Wave' attack was common, but effective. Geng Metal True Qi is pure and extremely sharp; using the 'Overlapping Wave' style does not require many variations, it only requires charging like heavy cavalry breaking through a formation, piercing through the opponent's defense wave after wave!

The three dark golden blade radiances slashed a crack into the head of the red snake, and the force condensed upon it dissipated significantly.

Finally, Li Fei slashed fiercely onto it with Ghost Slash.

Boom! Boom!

Following two muffled, thunder-like explosions, the two Red Qilin Forces exploded one after another; one was blown up by Li Fei's Ghost Slash, and the other exploded after striking his back.

Crimson-red aura permeated the air, completely shrouding Li Fei's figure.

Seeing this, Zhao Yu revealed a cold sneer.

This Dao Foundation clone of his contained a total of three implants: one was the original owner Wang Ping's fire-attribute implant 【Red Qilin】, one was Zhao Yu's dark-attribute implant 【Corpse Cluster】, and the third was a wood-attribute implant 【Grass Traveler's Foot】 stripped directly from another registered martial artist.

Back then, Zhao Yu had taken away four registered martial artists; the bodies of two registered martial artists were used by him to refine two demonic martial artists, and the remaining Wang Ping and the other registered martial artist were both used by him to refine his own clones.

【Red Qilin】 + 【Corpse Cluster】 + 【Grass Traveler's Foot】; there is no such combination of martial foundations in this world. In fact, there is no martial foundation that contains 【Corpse Cluster】 at all, so the realm of Zhao Yu's clone could only stop at the Dao Foundation stage and could never truly complete a martial foundation to step into the first-class realm.

However, although the realm was stuck, the clone's strength could still be improved. Zhao Yu used 【Corpse Cluster】 to strengthen the clone's physique and integrated the Innate Qi of 【Corpse Cluster】 to give the Red Qilin Force corrosive and toxic properties. Finally, using the Five Elements principle of wood generating fire, he used the wood-attribute Innate Qi of 【Grass Traveler's Foot】 to further strengthen the Red Qilin Force.

In this way, even if his Red Qilin Force was not a high-tier force, its power far exceeded the vast majority of low-tier forces.

At this moment, seeing Li Fei hit by his two Red Qilin Forces, Zhao Yu immediately felt the outcome was decided.

The inherent characteristic of the Red Qilin Force is like a festering sore, capable of igniting the Innate Qi within others.

Once hit, the best case is the consumption of a large amount of Innate Qi, and the worst case is the total destruction of the implants within the body!

After integrating the Innate Qi of 【Corpse Cluster】, Zhao Yu's Red Qilin Force gained two additional characteristics: corrosiveness and toxicity. Once hit, even a Dao Foundation realm expert would find it very troublesome.

Zhao Yu charged up, intending to capture Li Fei alive.

Suddenly, an invisible ripple surged out from the red mist permeating the front, instantly hitting Zhao Yu.

The consciousness Zhao Yu had entrusted to the clone shook, falling into a boundless sea of blood.

"A spell?!"

Zhao Yu was extremely horrified.

He was a Great Mage of the Possession realm; his resistance to spells was naturally extremely high, and he knew how to quickly break spells, so although this spell was powerful, it was not enough to do much to him.

What was truly fatal was that at this moment, Zhao Yu only had a sliver of consciousness entrusted to the clone, and this sliver of consciousness was something that diminished with every bit used; once the consciousness was exhausted, his life would be completely gone!

Therefore, this spell attack was like 'true damage' to Zhao Yu, leaving him both shocked and afraid.

By the time Zhao Yu regained his senses, a tall figure rushed out from the red mist, lunging at him with a powerful gust of wind.

This figure stood over two meters tall; the black outer robe was completely shredded, revealing the dark green protective suit underneath, with robust muscles keeping the protective suit taut. The exposed skin was dark red, and the face still wore that cyan ghost mask.

"Cyan-Faced Ghost?"

Zhao Yu recalled the battle where Zhang Mingze died; the opponent seemed to have changed into a form like this as well.

But no matter how one changed, it was impossible to directly become a Dao Foundation realm expert!

Zhao Yu swung his fist at the lunging figure, a red snake coiling around his arm.

Bang!

The dark golden Ghost Slash blade collided with Zhao Yu's fist, which was wrapped in Red Qilin Force.

The next second, Zhao Yu was slashed backward!

"How is this possible?"

Zhao Yu looked at the figure before him in horror.

At this moment, Li Fei had naturally entered the 'Blood Demon State'.

Just now, he had taken two Red Qilin Forces head-on and used one full-power 【Blood Might】, consuming 16. Blood Souls, dropping his total number of Blood Souls to below 80, meeting the conditions for using the transformation skill 【Blood Demon】.

After entering the 'Blood Demon State', Li Fei's various physical attributes increased significantly, and he automatically activated 'Tyrant Body', which also enhanced his 'Tyrant Body' by a notch.

Such 'base strength' was already astonishing, and the 'Blood Demon State' could also double the power of all Blood Soul skills!

The physical endurance of the 'Blood Demon State' was also greatly enhanced, so the moment Li Fei entered the 'Blood Demon State', he consumed 12 Blood Souls to cast 【Blood Rage】 again.

The strength equivalent to 24 Blood Souls plus the strength of the 'Blood Demon State' itself, and the addition brought by Geng Metal True Qi, allowed Li Fei's absolute strength to go head-to-head with a Dao Foundation realm expert!

After shaking Zhao Yu back with one blade, Li Fei stomped the stone slab beneath his feet into pieces, leaving a trail of dark green afterimages as he continued to slash his blade toward Zhao Yu.

Because Li Fei came too fast, Zhao Yu did not have time to release the Red Qilin Force and could only raise his arms to block the horizontally slashing Ghost Slash blade.

The dark golden blade edge was like a raging tide, first breaking through the Red Qilin Force coiled around his arms, then breaking through the tough layer of skin outside, cutting through muscles as hard as granite, and finally slashing into the two arm bones.

Boom—

Zhao Yu was hit as if by a heavy truck speeding at high velocity, flying backward like a cannonball, crashing through a courtyard wall and into a residence.

This residence must have been the courtyard of some powerful figure in the Kaiping District; it was decorated very elegantly, with lush gardens, small bridges, and flowing water.

However, the people in the courtyard had long since run away.

Li Fei quickly rushed into this residence.

Immediately after, the ground shook continuously, dust and smoke rose within the residence, large trees were snapped, and houses collapsed one after another.

It was as if two giant beasts were fighting to the death in this courtyard, and soon they had demolished this residence into a ruin!

With a splash, a figure fell heavily into the pond in the courtyard, exploding into a large spray of water and the carp in the pond.

The one who fell into the pond was Zhao Yu.

Li Fei followed closely behind and arrived at the edge of the pond.

After exchanging blows with the opponent, he discovered that Zhao Yu was merely a hollow shell.

He had the speed, strength, physical toughness, and force of a Dao Foundation realm expert, but lacked the corresponding martial essence.

In terms of reaction in close-quarters combat, experience, application of moves, and control of force, Zhao Yu was not even as good as Li Fei, a martial artist who had just entered the Qi Transformation realm.

A mage using a jungler's account to play; what kind of rhythm could there be?

The reason Zhao Yu was able to fight Shangguan Xiao just now was simply because he relied on this clone not fearing pain or injury, and having almost no fatal vital points, so he used this clone as a berserker and a meat shield.

Moreover, the doubly-strengthened Red Qilin Force was indeed very troublesome; Shangguan Xiao did not dare to be hit while being besieged, and thus was very wary of Zhao Yu.

But these advantages of Zhao Yu meant nothing to Li Fei; he was not afraid of being hit by the Red Qilin Force at all, and by simply trading attack for attack, he instead forced Zhao Yu, this 'pseudo-Dao Foundation realm' expert, into a steady retreat!

"Ah—"

Zhao Yu roared as he stood up from the pond.

He could not accept that he would actually lose to the Cyan-Faced Ghost, a martial artist who was only in the Qi Transformation realm.

*Swish—*

Another Red Qilin Force was struck out by Zhao Yu, shooting rapidly toward Li Fei on the shore.

Li Fei swung his blade at this force, blowing it up directly!

As the crimson mist exploded, Li Fei rushed out from the mist and also landed in the pool.

The center of this pool was about 1. meters deep; relying on his height advantage, Li Fei was more agile in the pool than Zhao Yu and found it easier to exert force.

This was the battlefield Li Fei had specifically chosen for Zhao Yu.

Fighting in the water would further amplify the gap in technique between the two sides!

After grappling for two moves, Zhao Yu also realized something was wrong and hurriedly erupted with a burst of Red Scale Force that circled his body, forcing all the surrounding pool water away to form a massive vortex in the center of the pool, after which he exerted force to leap up, intending to jump onto the bank.

Slap!

Just as Zhao Yu leaped up, his ankle was firmly grabbed by a thick hand, and five fingers as thick as carrots gave a forceful tug.

Splash—

Zhao Yu fell back into the water.

It turned out that Li Fei was willing to take a hit from the Red Scale Force just to keep him in the pool!

This time, before Zhao Yu could stand up again, a large hand pressed onto his face, pushing him back into the water; the powerful force caused his entire body to slam heavily into the silt at the bottom of the pool.

Zhao Yu was startled, and then the Ghost Severing Blade stabbed into his chest!

Instead, his ferocity was stirred up; disregarding everything, he struck Li Fei's body desperately with both palms, landing waves of Red Scale Force onto Li Fei.

Anyway, he had no vital points; even if his head were gone or his heart were shredded, he still wouldn't die!

He wanted to see if Li Fei could endure more than he could!

After Li Fei stabbed the blade into Zhao Yu's chest, he did not take the opportunity to inject Blood Fiend Qi.

Through the previous exchange, he had thoroughly understood this avatar of Zhao Yu; it was simply a dead object, and Blood Fiend Qi was useless against such things.

Therefore, Li Fei chose to switch to a different method of attack.

Inside the Ten Thousand Blood Bead, 16 Blood Souls vanished instantly, and 【Blood Might】 was activated!

A powerful mental shock slammed fiercely into Zhao Yu's consciousness.

In the "Blood Demon State," the power of 【Blood Might】 was also doubled!

After taking such a blow, Zhao Yu's body stopped moving at once.

His consciousness felt as if it had been struck by lightning, and he was instantly severely wounded!

He had never imagined that he, a dignified Great Mage of the Possession Realm, would one day be beaten to the brink of death by someone using sorcery.

Taking advantage of Zhao Yu being motionless, Li Fei exerted force with his right hand and used the Ghost Severing Blade to cut Zhao Yu's body directly in two from the chest!

After the cut, Zhao Yu finally snapped out of it, and his body, severed into two pieces, began to struggle desperately.

Seeing this, Li Fei simply unleashed another 【Blood Might】, this time consuming 8 Blood Souls.

After this 【Blood Might】, the body severed into two pieces stopped moving completely.

The last shred of mental power Zhao Yu had left in the world was completely scattered by Li Fei.

In this way, no matter how many preparations he had left behind or whether he had prepared other avatars, it was all useless.

At this moment, he was severed of his Dao and extinguished of his life by Li Fei—

Reduced to ashes and smoke!

(End of chapter)