Flowing Clouds and Running Water

Jin Buhuan no longer hesitated, nor cared about any losses. Surrounded by two mouths of eighth-grade golden energy, he thrust towards Li Qi.

One yin and one yang, one in front and one behind.

Before, they suspected and investigated the truth; after, they accepted the responsibility and faced the consequences.

Yang changes at seven, Yin remains at three. It is no longer a straight thrust without holding back. Because Yin and Yang are mixed, there are many more variations, making it much more difficult to deal with.

However, the reason why Li Qi was ahead and wanted to spar with Jin Buhuan was actually for this moment.

In his eyes, Elder Si illiterate.

Is Jin Buhuan the same?

Li Qi waved the willow branch, using it to temporarily entangle the two streams of golden energy and prepare a defense.

This defense won't last long, since willow branches aren't specifically designed for this, but it can still buy you about ten seconds.

In those ten seconds or so, Li Qi performed the sacrificial ceremony, cupping his hands in a gesture of respect to the West.

Then he spoke, Jin Buhuan: "Gold represents the West, the beginning of all things and the start of killing intent! Ancient kings raised armies and established banners to punish the wicked, prohibit tyranny, and bring peace to the world. Killing was always righteous, in accordance with the energy of gold!"

"Metal represents punishment and weaponry. If punishment is not justified and weaponry is not restrained, and if propriety is lost, arrogance and presumption will arise, and the spirit of metal will be destroyed!"

He directly rebuked him, using the power of words to refute him with reason.

Why do Shaman need to prepare Sacrificial Ritual, quote scriptures, and create sacrificial texts with special origins?

That's because lengthy chants, ornate eulogies, and solemn Sacrificial Ritual are powerful in themselves.

This is the power of 'writing' and 'language'.

When Cangjie created writing, Heaven rained grain, and Ghosts cried at night.

The heavens were horrified by these words, and grains rained down from the sky. On earth, countless Ghosts cried at night incessantly, filled with unspeakable terror.

Because writing and language themselves possess astonishing power, all kinds of spells and talismans need to be contained in writing.

The saying "the brushstrokes startle wind and rain, the poems move ghosts and gods to tears" is actually an application of the power of words. It is said that there are several schools of thought in the Human Path that specialize in this, namely calligraphy and Confucianism.

However, their use of writing and language was actually learned from Shaman.

Regarding the right to interpret sacrifices, Confucian scholars even had many disputes with shamans. Both sides believed that sacrifices should belong to them, but they could not reach a conclusion.

Ultimately, it was the Shaman who first used these methods. In the earliest rituals, Shaman would loudly chant incantations to the deities they wished to communicate with.

Li Qi is now using the power of the sacrificial inscription to condemn the tyrannical metal energy. In this way, the metal energy itself will feel something and will naturally begin to resist Jin Buhuan's unjust and unjust actions.

Shaman is skilled at communicating with all things, not just gods Earthly Deity spirits, Human-Ghost, but truly "all things." Anything with a spirit, even the Heavenly Dao or mountain spirits, can be communicated with by Shaman.

Even Li Qi's efforts to consult with various people and spend an entire night running around among the major forces in Clear Mist City could be considered as communication.

However, such communication requires the Shaman to possess virtue to ensure its success.

If Shaman yourself are inconsistent and say one thing but do another, how can anything believe your words?

Therefore, Shaman may be wicked, but one must never break faith with all things. Even if one is a bad person, one must still treat the Sacrificial Ritual with seriousness and solemnity, and must not be untrustworthy.

Li Qi conveyed the power of the Shaman and the meaning of the Sacrificial Ritual rites to those two golden breaths.

Upon hearing this, Jin Qi, though devoid of consciousness, began to waver in his spirit.

Jin Buhuan was enraged and forcibly manipulated the metal energy.

Fortunately, the Shaman's words were not law and could not be forcibly manipulated, so the golden energy only hesitated and its power was no longer so sharp, but it still retained more than 80% of its killing power.

With a sharp and fierce aura mixed with a powerful killing intent, Jin Buhuan no longer held back in manipulating the golden energy, but instead unleashed it directly, causing a loud explosion in front of Li Qi.

The willow branch, which had never been damaged before, was broken in part by the combined attack of two eighth-grade golden energies.

This caused some of the metal energy to leak out.

The intense friction between the metal energy and the air sparked Mars in the air. Because it was entangled by the willow branches, it had not yet hit Li Qi, but the shockwave from the forward thrust alone had already pierced through Li Qi!

Li Qi didn't even have time to dodge before his chest was pierced by the force of the energy.

The golden energy pierced through his chest and even damaged his heart meridian, severely injuring Li Qi!

But at this moment, although Li Qi was grimacing in pain, his eyes gleamed with triumph.

The heart's blood flows out, enveloping the golden energy.

The heart is fire, and the yang energy of Yang Energy is strong. Li Qi uses his heart blood as a guide to direct the yang energy. When fire prevails, metal weakens. Within Li Qi's human body, he sees the five internal organs transformed into the five sacred mountains. Among them, the heart of the Southern Mountain suddenly bursts forth with power beyond the limit!

At the same time, the four seasons in Li Qi's microcosm naturally began to become unbalanced.

This is normal. Only when the five elements function properly can the four seasons function properly.

At this moment, Li Qi's heart meridian was severely injured, and the fire element among the five elements erupted in large quantities. Although it temporarily wrapped up the metal energy, how could a ninth-grade human body's small world suppress the eighth-grade metal energy?

Moreover, Jin Buhuan was doing his best to control the golden energy, trying to restore it quickly so that he could tear Li Qi apart from the inside.

The two sides are locked in a power struggle.

Therefore, the suppression is only temporary and will also lead to the absorption of a large amount of internal Fire Qi.

However, at the same time, Li Qi suddenly pulled back his willow branch.

Willow branches, without a doubt, belong to the wood element.

The broken willow branches released a large amount of wood energy and scattered Great Shaman energy.

Li Qi absorbed a large amount of wood energy into his body without hesitation.

Originally, fire and wood are mutually destructive and mutually generating. When the five elements in the body are in balance, excess wood energy will be burned away by Fire Qi, thus maintaining stability in the body.

But now, almost all of the Fire Qi in Li Qi's body has been used to suppress Jin Buhuan's metal energy.

Wood energy is generated in large quantities, while Fire Qi is almost non-existent; even the Fire Qi in the heart is completely absorbed.

The human body, a microcosm, was originally only missing one element, but now that one element has been lost, another element has overwhelmed the others, causing it to completely lose control and become unbalanced.

The internal organs Qi and Blood, the rising and falling of the sun and moon within the body, and the correspondence and Xianghe with the vital energy of heaven and earth—these changes disrupt the natural order of the human body, which is a microcosm of the universe.

Jin Buhuan also saw all of this. He sneered. Sure enough, although the other party had Eighth-Rank Magic Treasure, he had two. At this moment, he disregarded the consequences and forcibly activated two eighth-grade divine weapons. How could Li Qi possibly defeat him?

When the balance of the universe is disrupted and collapses, Li Qi will die, with absolutely no chance of survival.

Therefore, he forcefully took a deep breath, his veins bulging, disregarding the damage to his liver and lungs, and once again activated his metal energy, making it emit a buzzing sound, attempting to shatter Li Qi from the inside.

They had only been facing each other for about twenty seconds when the battle began, and both sides were already fighting to the death.

But Jin Buhuan suddenly felt—

What happened?

The metal element has spiraled out of control?

Impossible! Why did it go out of control? How could it become unresponsive?!

He doesn't understand.

But Li Qi understood.

Because at this moment, the balance of his personal world and the timing of the seasons has shifted from the early spring days that normally correspond to the outside world to the late summer and early autumn.

This is what people commonly refer to as the Three Fowl Days.

What are the three periods of intense heat (Sanfu)?

Fu refers to the day when the metal element is hidden and concealed.

The four seasons cycle through mutual generation. At the beginning of spring, wood replaces water, and water generates wood; at the beginning of summer, fire replaces wood, and wood generates fire; at the beginning of winter, water replaces metal, and metal generates water. As for the beginning of autumn, metal replaces fire, and metal fears fire, so it must be dormant on the day of Geng metal.

In other words, as summer draws to a close, the metal element of autumn begins to rise, but the Fire Qi still has a little bit of its strongest momentum left. At this time, the fire will burn itself out and suppress the metal element one last time. Only after the suppression is complete will autumn, dominated by the metal element, begin.

This means that the third Geng day after the summer solstice is the beginning of the first period of the hottest days of summer, the fourth Geng day is the middle period of the hottest days of summer, and the first Geng day after the beginning of autumn is the end of the hottest days of summer. This is called the three periods of the hottest days of summer, and is therefore known as the Three Fowl Days.

Three Fowl Days, the Fire Qi of heaven and earth is at its peak, making it the hottest time of the year. Only in this way can the fiery energy of autumn be suppressed.

Li Qi had just experienced a massive outburst of Fire Qi, and a large amount of wood energy had been injected to further Fire Qi. This coincided perfectly with the final explosive burst of fire Fire Qi during Three Fowl Days.

Three Fowl Days, the metal element is hidden, making it the time when the weather is most restrained.

Fire overcomes metal, and the three periods of intense heat last for three consecutive days.

As a result, Jin Buhuan's three breaths of golden energy were suppressed by Li Qi four or five times in succession!

First, reason with them to weaken them by three points; then nurture them with your heart and soul, weakening them by another three points; finally, use the power of timing to suppress them by three points.

That leaves only one point.

Li Qi grasped the golden energy and directly inserted it into his body.

Using the human body as a microcosm, we can suppress it!

Every step was perfectly timed.

The process was seamless, with no flaws whatsoever in either planning or execution.

Li Qi had previously stated that Jin Buhuan's Cultivation Method required a vessel as a carrier.

He suppressed the two streams of golden energy with his own body, leaving him without any tools.

Then, he rushed towards Jin Buhuan.

Even though he was seriously injured, his physical fitness and fighting skills were still better than Jin Buhuan's.

Seeing that the golden energy had been temporarily suppressed, Jin Buhuan felt a pang of anxiety and immediately took out two small bells from his belt.

He estimated the time it would take for Li Qi to rush over and was about to shake the small bell to produce a sound of killing intent to affect Li Qi's pace.

But Li Qi far exceeded his expectations.

Because Li Qi suddenly swelled up all over as if he were inflated.

Large amounts of white smoke billowed from his mouth and nose, his muscles bulged, his skin turned blood red, and he grew a head taller.

It is the Ox-Strength Technique.

After reaching the ninth rank, Li Qi rarely used this Technique Method anymore, because it was originally used by those Shaman were not yet at the rank level to practice and attempt to communicate with the gods; it was basically just for practice.

But now, this sudden increase of 6,000 jin of force has made Li Qi a little faster.

Before Jin Buhuan react, Li Qi punched him in the face.

The once handsome young man's face immediately shrunk, and his nose even sank in.

Without his tools, Jin Buhuan lost ninety percent of his internal energy.

They are simply no match for us.

I'll say it again.

The Shaman Path gave Li Qi knowledge.

In martial arts, one is invincible in close combat against opponents of the same level in most situations.

Dealing with Jin Buhuan, who had used up ninety percent of his power, was enough for Li Qi, who was also seriously injured.

A punch landed squarely on his nose, causing blood to gush out and Jin Buhuan's nose to be crooked to one side.

Li Qi's physical strength and combat skills flowed like water. Although he didn't have any honed combat instincts, he could easily crush someone who couldn't fight back.

To be honest, if it weren't for the powerful forces behind Jin Buhuan, he could have Jin Buhuan in just a few minutes, without needing all the previous planning.

This is the advantage of having a complete lineage.

Clang! Another punch, shattering the skull.

Jin Buhuan fainted immediately and lost the ability to move.

Li Qi didn't stop, and threw another punch.

However, when the fourth punch was delivered, a bell suddenly rang out from Jin Buhuan's body.

The bell tolled with a booming sound, its tone resonant, melodious, and loud, full of rhythm.

As the bell within Jin Buhuan's body rang, it seemed as if bells were also ringing in the distance.

Li Qi's heart skipped a beat!

An intense sense of oppression is coming!

But then, a wave that could be seen with the naked eye surged towards the place where Green Mountain was located!

A bell tolled, a loud bell tolled!

It was clearly a sound, yet it came at supersonic speed.

Even though Li Qi was two thousand miles away, he could still clearly see the surging power.

The earth surged and shattered, creating a violent and intense shockwave that shot into the sky from the direction of Green Mountain, illuminating the entire heavens and outshining even the sun and moon!

Although it sounds terrifying, the scene was actually quite beautiful, with golden streaks of light constantly tearing through the sky, as if the heavens were expanding and shattering.

Li Qi witnessed all of this and was deeply shocked.

This was just a casual strike from the sixth-rank Green Mountain God, but it was passively triggered by the call of the protective golden energy within Jin Buhuan's body.

But even just that seems so terrifying, so dazzling.

Is it possible for someone at the sixth rank of the Divine Path to achieve this level?

What about my own rank of sixth grade?

Li Qi closed his eyes and clearly recalled the time when he first used the "Qi Observation" technique in the Great Deer Kingdom, witnessing the city awaken with his own eyes.

That kind of shock seems to be recreated at this moment.

Yes, isn't this magnificent sight what we cultivate ourselves for?

To reach the highest peak, to see more and more magnificent scenes, and ideally to have a panoramic view of the entire world and all things.

This scene is far more spectacular than the original Human Path county town.

Li Qi didn't even try to resist, because he knew that under such great power, he was powerless to resist, and it would be useless to resist.

I wonder how spectacular it will be later?

Li Qi raised his hand with anticipation.

The battlefield trembled.

It was as if the power to distort and reverse spacetime had descended, and countless substances disintegrated in the collision, shattering into the most basic particles, presenting the most minute structures in space, and even disintegrating spacetime itself.

Li Qi felt a power that could disintegrate and shatter everything surging from his fingertips.

But nothing was destroyed in the area it passed through; everything was so peaceful, as if the power that had just surged forth was an illusion.

In fact, no one else noticed anything except him.

However, some distant force, high above time, appeared here.

It seems that the past and the future have merged into one.

There was no energy released, not even a gust of wind.

However, Li Qi saw it clearly.

The story of "the Green Mountain God taking action" has been erased.

Within the cosmic light, the event of 'the Green Mountain God taking action' no longer exists.

The event of 'Green Mountain God's intervention' collided with itself at different points in time.

This event, colliding with its own 'other possibility' at other times, evaporated from each other.

Time did not rewind, but the event itself was interfered with, causing its existence in the cosmic light to be erased.

Is this the power of 'Chen'?