Chapter 865: A Single Sword Decides Twenty Years

"As expected, demonic path martial artists are weaker than those of the same realm."

Li Fei, having just slashed across Li Ming's throat, looked at the wound and thought to himself.

When he had originally planned to cultivate the demonic path, Master Cai Ming had warned him solemnly—

The demonic path appears to be a shortcut, but in reality, the foundation is unstable, the risk of breaking through realms is high, and even if one is lucky enough to reach a higher realm, their strength is weaker than other martial artists of the same level.

He had not expected this principle to hold true even for a Martial Saint!

After only two exchanges, Li Fei clearly felt that Li Ming was a notch weaker in both offense and defense than Qin Mingli on the Baifeng Plains.

Yet Qin Mingli had been suppressed by Wen Renzheng from start to finish!

That contemporary Buddha had even charged into the Imperial Palace alone, fighting almost two opponents at once!

Not to mention that there was still a "Supreme" figure pressing down on everyone else.

"It seems that even among peak experts, the gap between them is quite large."

Li Fei gained some insight.

"Seeking death—"

A voice like thunder exploded in Li Fei's mind.

It was Li Ming, who had just had his throat slashed, erupting with intense killing intent and attacking Li Fei once more!

The wound on his neck had healed instantly; such an injury meant nothing to him, but the fact that a dignified peak expert had been wounded by a Grandmaster was a supreme humiliation!

Rumble—

Under the firmament, the heaven and earth spiritual energy within three thousand meters boiled as if being cooked.

The solidified spiritual energy transformed into thousands of crimson lightning bolts, weaving in the void into a constantly collapsing thunderstorm cage!

Trapped in this cage, with 【No Distance】 unusable, Li Fei could not even maneuver or shift positions, and could only clash head-on with Li Ming inside this "cage."

The two figures collided again, and Li Ming threw a punch at Li Fei's head.

His fist technique had also reached the realm of creation; every punch was like striking space into an inward-collapsing funnel, creating a powerful gravitational pull that left Li Fei unable to dodge, forcing him to collide with the fist aura.

Li Fei did not block, letting the opponent's punch strike his head while he held his broken blade in one hand and stabbed at the opponent's lower abdomen.

This strike also felt like piercing into an ocean of spiritual energy, encountering greater resistance than before.

But the blade edge cut through the ocean again, emitting a metallic clang as it pierced into flesh!

Snap—

At the same time, the dragon-head battle helmet on Li Fei's head, which had only half-healed, was completely shattered, and the fist aura left a purplish-blue bruise on his forehead.

It was because he had actively weakened the defensive power of his armor and the 【Jing'an】 divine ability to stack it onto his attack!

Any other Grandmaster who dared to fight like this would have already had their head exploded by a punch.

But Li Fei had the Ten Thousand Blood Bead; even if he completely dropped his defenses, he would not die for a while.

Li Ming could not quite understand what method Li Fei was using to resist his attacks, but he did not believe Li Fei could keep it up forever.

With a grab of his left hand, he precisely seized Li Fei's wrist, preventing him from withdrawing the blade he had thrust out.

Ignoring Li Fei twisting the blade to carve a larger wound in his own abdomen, Li Ming continued to smash his right fist into Li Fei's head!

He possessed the divine ability 【Flesh and Blood Myriad Transformation】, where all tissues of his body were fused into one, allowing him to change his form as he pleased.

It also left him with no fatal weaknesses; even if his brain, heart, and internal organs were all shattered, it did not matter.

As long as his spirit and will were not extinguished and his divine ability power was not exhausted, Li Ming was an immortal body!

Therefore, he did not care at all about the damage Li Fei inflicted on him.

In his view, Li Fei daring to trade injury for injury was simply seeking death!

Originally, wary of Li Fei's status as a high-ranking court official and fearing that killing him would invite the court's frantic retaliation, Li Ming had intentionally held back.

But since Li Fei was so recklessly provoking him, Li Ming no longer had any scruples.

"With the current foundation of the Great Lan Dynasty, how many more peak experts can they kill? With the Buddhist sect watching like a tiger, do they really dare to fight me to the death?"

Li Ming's eyes were cold and frantic; his killing intent was set!

After the two exchanged a move, Li Fei recognized the 【Flesh and Blood Myriad Transformation】 divine ability.

He no longer channeled his internal energy to destroy Li Ming's body, but decisively unleashed 【Blood Fiend】.

At this moment, the number of blood souls in the Ten Thousand Blood Bead had dropped below 30%, triggering the "Blood Demon Extreme State," and all active blood soul skills no longer had restrictions.

【Blood Fiend】 (Extreme) could at most convert 10% of the total blood souls, which was 677 blood souls.

Now that the limit was broken, Li Fei directly consumed 1, 00 blood souls to convert them into blood fiend energy!

The scarlet fiend energy rushed out from the broken blade edge like a living demonic creature, instantly devouring all the flesh, internal organs, and dantian inside Li Ming's lower abdomen!

From the Martial Master stage onwards, the dantian was no longer a martial artist's fatal weakness; even if the Dao foundation within the dantian was damaged, the condensed divine ability would not immediately collapse.

Peak experts went even further by turning their Dao foundation into Dao rules, and with no implant left in the dantian, it could not be considered a weakness at all.

However, the dantian was the "transfer point" for the internal energy of many martial arts; without a dantian, the flow of internal energy would become unsmooth.

Li Ming's Martial Saint body had long been tempered and was constantly optimized by 【Flesh and Blood Myriad Transformation】, protected by internal energy, but before this strand of blood fiend energy, it was like paper!

Li Ming had not expected the lethality of Li Fei's fiend energy to be so strong, and unable to mobilize his internal energy in time, he immediately channeled surging heaven and earth spiritual energy to impact the fiend energy, attempting to disperse it and drive it out of his body.

But the highly condensed heaven and earth spiritual energy met this fiend energy like a wooden stake hitting an iron rod, and was shattered instantly!

The blood fiend energy was like a demonic dragon, flowing against the current, devouring Li Ming's flesh with unstoppable force as it tore toward the opponent's heart!

After being strengthened twice, the more blood souls 【Blood Fiend】 consumed, the higher the intensity of the fiend energy; it was no longer like before, only lethal to living organisms and easily dispersed by internal energy.

The blood fiend energy Li Fei converted by consuming 1, 00 blood souls in the "Blood Demon Extreme State" had an intensity that far exceeded his own internal energy!

Li Ming channeled his internal energy and heaven and earth spiritual energy to intercept while simultaneously using 【Flesh and Blood Myriad Transformation】 to restore his body.

But the recovery speed could not keep up with the devouring speed of the blood fiend energy, and his heart was completely devoured!

Li Ming had to release Li Fei's wrist, and another punch sent Li Fei's head tilting back, shattering the phantom images of heavy mountains and cities, forcing his body to retreat.

The two separated once again.

This time, Li Fei took the initiative to charge forward, slashing at Li Ming with another move of 【Not Knowing the Height of Heaven】!

Li Ming punched his own chest, creating a bloody hole to disperse the fiend energy inside his body.

At the same time, he pushed a palm forward, and the surging heaven and earth spiritual energy collided in layers against the myriad images, blocking the collapsing "firmament."

This was the first time Li Ming had adopted a defensive stance in front of Li Fei.

He stared coldly at the golden figure not far away, completely putting away his contempt.

He had not suffered such an injury in many years!

Being able to step onto the peak step by step as a demonic path martial artist was actually harder and less easy than for those other peak experts.

Therefore, Li Ming was by no means an arrogant or brainless person.

After feeling the threat Li Fei posed to him, he immediately adjusted his mindset.

Pride or face—none of it was as important as his own life!

Thus, Li Ming no longer engaged in close-quarters combat with Li Fei, instead tangling with him using only his vigorous fist energy and the near-boundless heaven and earth spiritual energy.

The blood fiend energy converted from 1, 00 blood souls had not yet been exhausted, but Li Fei was like a large ship in the middle of a vast ocean; although he could ride the wind and waves, it was difficult to get close to Li Ming, and naturally, there was no opportunity to continue using the blood fiend energy.

His 【Heaven-Mixing Golden Palace】 had not been able to absorb a single bit of heaven and earth spiritual energy from the surroundings since the beginning.

If this continued, once his internal energy was exhausted, he would be unable to maintain his divine ability and 【Primordial Sword Realm】, and his combat power would plummet immediately!

Li Fei felt somewhat helpless.

Li Ming was simply suppressing him with his realm.

Just like when facing the 【Ten Thousand Lights Return to Buddha】 of the Buddha-Eye Heavenly King, even the Ten Thousand Blood Bead could not take effect, and Li Fei could only watch helplessly as his internal energy, divine abilities, and even his martial domain were slowly "converted" into the opponent's power.

Now, facing Li Ming's manipulation of heaven and earth spiritual energy via the 【Heaven-Swallowing】 Dao rule, his "supply" from the outside world was completely cut off.

Without achieving a Dao rule, he had no way to compete with the opponent, could not replenish even a bit of heaven and earth spiritual energy, and his internal energy would eventually run out.

"How is it over there?"

Li Fei slashed through the surging ocean of spiritual energy while keeping an eye on the situation with Ying Jie.

He had never expected to defeat Li Ming; he was only trying his best to buy time for the others.

At this moment, over a dozen Grandmasters surrounded Ying Jie, using various methods to try and cut the connection between the power on Ying Jie and Li Ming.

It was only when over a dozen Grandmasters simultaneously unleashed their own martial domains and wrapped Ying Jie within them that they finally succeeded.

Rumble—

The world resonated, and the ocean of spiritual energy raged!

Li Ming decisively abandoned Li Fei and charged toward Ying Jie.

His fists carried torrential spiritual energy, and demonic flames transformed into a pitch-black star, crashing toward the martial domain formed by the dozen Grandmasters.

BOOM!!!!

A storm rose on the sea, and the spiritual energy condensed into "seawater" was whipped up into a hundred-foot-high wall of air, spreading outward in layers.

The layers of martial domains were like eggshells being broken one by one, shattering continuously!

Taking advantage of the decrease in the concentration of heaven and earth spiritual energy sealing his surroundings, Li Fei activated 【No Distance】 and gave chase.

But after entering within five hundred meters of the opponent, the concentration of spiritual energy in the spatial interlayer was too high, and 【No Distance】 could no longer be used.

Li Fei tore through the air, pursuing with all his might.

The golden figure streaked across the sky!

When he was only a hundred meters away from Li Ming, Li Ming had already completely shattered the dozen layers of martial domains wrapping Ying Jie.

If the dozen Grandmasters had been willing to go all out and block him at any cost, they could have bought more time.

But these Grandmasters were primarily focused on self-preservation, and after their martial domains were broken, they all chose to scatter and dodge.

No one stood in front of Li Ming anymore.

The eyes of this demonic being had become completely frantic!

His expression was ferocious as he extended his right hand, palm aimed at Ying Jie in front of him, to perform the final guidance.

Divine Ability—【Demonic Fetus Soul Seed】!

The "seed" he had carefully planted while laying his plans in secret fifteen years ago had finally reached the time to blossom and bear fruit!

Although Ying Jie's aura had been interrupted for a moment, it had already recovered to the absolute peak it reached when he previously fought Li Fei.

At this moment, under the guidance of Li Ming's divine ability, Ying Jie's aura climbed further, about to break through a certain critical point.

The next instant, a streak of sword light tore through the heavens and earth!

A cyan rainbow suddenly appeared between Li Ming and Ying Jie.

The entire world seemed to stand still at this moment.

Whether it was Li Fei or the other Grandmasters, everyone felt as if they were placed inside an ink-wash landscape painting, watching helplessly as a paintbrush suddenly left a heavy, bold stroke at the very top of the scroll!

Thus, a touch of cyan appeared in the world of only black and white.

This color was so bright, so vivid, and so intoxicating.

A single glimpse, and the heavens and earth were dyed!

By the time everyone regained their senses, the black flames on Ying Jie's body had been completely extinguished, and his aura began to fall uncontrollably.

Li Fei immediately turned his gaze toward Li Ming.

He saw that this demonic figure who had shaken the world now had a sword mark running from his left eye to his lower abdomen, and using that mark as a boundary, the left half of his body had been directly annihilated by sword Qi!

At the same time, the remaining half of Li Ming's body turned into a mass of blood light and streaked away into the distance.

No sooner had the blood light departed than a figure appeared in the air.

The newcomer wore cyan robes and a cloak that obscured their face, holding an ordinary iron sword.

Compared to Li Ming's earth-shaking entrance earlier, this person looked like the most inconspicuous type of ordinary swordsman in the pugilistic world.

She looked toward the direction the blood light was fleeing and slashed her iron sword forward.

A cyan wave suddenly appeared in the distant firmament, blocking the path of the blood light, surging over to cover the sky and earth!

The blood light immediately turned and changed direction, but new waves appeared ahead.

In the blink of an eye, four waves emerged.

The newcomer seemed to be using the three-foot cyan blade in their hand as a brush, painting upon the ten-thousand-mile azure sky, drawing the character for "well"!

Li Ming became the person trapped in the "well," forced to sit in the well and watch the sky.

This was a premeditated Sword Art of Creation; the sword Qi from all directions had long been quietly laid out to seal the heavens and earth!

"Ning Qingman!!!"

Li Ming's roar resounded through the heavens and earth.

Upon hearing this name, Li Fei could not help but be startled.

The "Sword Immortal" Ning Qingman?

One of the Seven Martial Saints, the only rogue cultivator among the world's peak powerhouses!

"Did she just happen to pass by here, or was she waiting for a rabbit to hit a tree?"

Li Fei did not think such a coincidence existed; one Mount Tiansha could attract two peak powerhouses at once.

"Was it premeditated? Does she have a grudge against Li Ming?"

Li Fei stopped his pursuit and looked at the figure a hundred meters away.

Counting this one, he had already seen six of the Seven Martial Saints, excluding the Pavilion Master of the Red Dust Pavilion.

The sword Qi waves moved from afar to near, and the "well" character in the air continuously shrank.

Trapped within, Li Ming channeled his divine ability with all his might to restore his body.

The most ruthless part of Ning Qingman's sword strike just now was not the direct damage to his body, but that at the critical moment when he was about to succeed, she struck to completely sever his connection with Ying Jie, causing him to suffer a backlash!

Being able to strike so accurately at the vital point at the most critical moment meant the opponent had long been targeting him.

"When did you discover it?"

Li Ming asked unwillingly.

For the sake of today, he had secretly laid out his plans in the grasslands, preparing for a full twenty years!

Only then did he quietly replace Huyan Hetai, the first warrior of the Sakaze Temple.

To get rid of Ning Qingman's interference, he had even set up a decoy before launching his plan, leading her deep into the grasslands.

Ning Qingman had indeed been lured away, and had even made a move in the grasslands previously, which was seen by people of the grassland royal court. (See Chapter 78 of Volume 4 for details)

Yet, the opponent appeared here today.

This meant that even if Li Fei hadn't come out to stir up trouble, he would have found it difficult to succeed today.

Twenty years of planning, severed by a single sword strike!

While furious, Li Ming also felt a chill in his heart.

How did Ning Qingman see through his layout?

If he couldn't figure this out, even if he escaped with his life today, he would live in fear for the rest of his days.

Ning Qingman did not answer Li Ming; she carried her long sword in reverse and walked toward him with leisurely steps.

Rumble—

A sea tide rose within the "well"!

Seeing the surging heaven and earth energy about to break through this "well," Ning Qingman struck with another sword.

This strike came from a position of superiority, hitting exactly the center of the "well" character.

The sword light flashed and vanished, not as grand as before.

But the surging heaven and earth energy suddenly calmed down and slowly overflowed from the mouth of the "well."

Li Ming lost his control over the heaven and earth energy for a moment; 【Heaven Swallowing】 was broken just like that!

Li Ming was not the least bit surprised by this.

Having fought Ning Qingman for so many years, he was already familiar with her Dao principles.

The Dao principle of the "Sword Immortal" Ning Qingman was named—【Sword Dissolution】.

All martial arts in the world can be broken with one sword.

The power of the Great Dao can be dissolved with one sword.

This was a Dao principle specifically designed to break the Dao principles of others!

In terms of pure killing power, even Wenren Zheng was inferior to this female sword immortal!

That was why Li Ming was extremely wary of Ning Qingman and had no desire to face her head-on.

After a round of exchanges, the mouth of the "well" had shrunk to the limit, and the cyan sword tide squeezed toward Li Ming from all directions.

Rumble—

The blood light transformed by Li Ming was submerged by the tide of sword Qi!

But the next second, over a hundred even finer streaks of blood light exploded from the sword Qi tide and flew in all directions.

The piercing sound of sonic booms was continuous!

This was Li Ming channeling 【Flesh and Blood Myriad Transformations】 with all his might, actively decomposing himself into over a hundred portions of flesh and blood to flee in different directions.

He possessed the 【Demonic Fetus Soul Seed】 divine ability, which allowed him to divide his mind into "seeds" and hide them within his flesh and blood.

He also had the 【Regeneration】 divine ability, which allowed his limbs to grow and recover rapidly.

Combined with several divine abilities, plus the dual reinforcement of his Martial Domain and Dao principle power, even if only a fist-sized piece of flesh remained, Li Ming could slowly recover a complete body!

Compared to Qin Mingli's Ninth-Grade True Dragon Body, Li Ming was only slightly inferior in physical recovery speed, but in terms of survival ability, he was not inferior at all, and perhaps even superior!

【Demonic Fetus Soul Seed】 allowed Li Ming to restore a complete "soul" at any time, so as long as one of these hundred portions of flesh could escape, he could rely on the unparalleled heaven and earth energy absorption speed of 【Heaven Swallowing】 to recover quickly.

Li Ming had formulated this escape plan from the very beginning and had never intended to fight Ning Qingman.

Although Ning Qingman's killing power was strong, it was only strong in one-on-one combat.

Her means of movement, tracking, area-of-effect damage, etc., could only be considered "average" among peak powerhouses.

Li Ming had counted on this, which was why he was willing to be heavily injured again to use this method to escape.

As the hundred streaks of blood light flew in all directions, a deafening roar sounded in the heavens and earth once more.

The energy storm reappeared, and the eye of the storm was exactly where Ning Qingman was located!

Ning Qingman still just stabbed out with a sword in an understated manner.

A cyan rainbow hung in the heavens and earth, and the firmament was dyed azure!

The energy storm was broken, but because of this delay, those streaks of blood light had already flown a certain distance.

Ning Qingman struck with her sword rapidly, and most of the blood light was swept away and shattered by the sword energy from a distance.

Li Fei decisively utilized 【No Distance】 to chase in the direction the opponent could not attend to, and then used 【No Distance】 to continuously strike out sword Qi from a distance to attack those streaks of blood light!

"Li Fei! If you don't stop now, I will surely kill everyone you care about in the future!!"

Li Ming's roar resounded in Li Fei's mind.

Li Fei's expression remained unchanged, and his sword Qi did not stop.

If Ning Qingman hadn't appeared, he wouldn't have harbored murderous intent toward Li Ming.

But since this female sword immortal had already crippled Li Ming, how could he hesitate?

Unfortunately, his long-range attacks with sword Qi were still a bit weak in power, unable to directly shatter the blood light Li Ming had divided into, only slightly hindering their escape.

Of the remaining Grandmasters, only a few made moves to intercept the blood light, while the others did not move. They had also received Li Ming's death threat and were hesitant, lacking such decisiveness.

The cyan sword energy arrived shortly after, sweeping away and shattering another portion of the blood light.

But the remaining few masses of blood light actually divided into even finer streaks of blood light, with a total of seventeen streaks continuing to flee in different directions!

"This is just too damn hard to kill."

Li Fei felt somewhat helpless.

These streaks of blood light were extremely fast and scattered as they fled; even though Li Fei's speed was greater, it was very difficult to round them all up in one go.

On the mountain terrace of the main peak of Mount Tiansha.

When the "Sword Immortal" Ning Qingman suddenly appeared, the Bright Phoenix Sword in Shentu Yue's hand began to tremble slightly.

Shentu Yue was startled, but she remained calm and stood silently among the crowd, looking up to watch the battle.

It was not until Li Ming transformed into streaks of blood light filling the sky and fled in all directions, and Ning Qingman, Li Fei, and the others failed to intercept them all, that the Bright Phoenix Sword in Shentu Yue's hand finally broke free from her control.

Clang—

The divine weapon unsheathed!

It was unclear whether it was sword light or blade light; a streak of brilliant, extreme crimson flashed across the firmament.

The experts present clearly did not sense any earth-shattering power from it, yet their minds swayed involuntarily.

The stronger the person's cultivation base, the more intense the sensation.

Li Fei's mind was in a trance; in the dark, he felt as if something had been severed.

When he regained his senses, he saw that of the seventeen streaks of blood light fleeing rapidly, sixteen had suddenly slowed down and fallen from the sky!

Ning Qingman did not hesitate and pursued the only streak of blood light still fleeing.

Li Fei was even closer to this streak of blood light; he also reacted and immediately unleashed 【No Distance】 to give chase!

"Wen Xuexian! It really is you—"

Li Ming's voice, filled with resentment, resounded across heaven and earth.

(End of this chapter)