"So heavy!"
Li Changqing opened his mouth and spat out a bloody arrow.
The bright-red blood shot into the water with a hiss, raising great plumes of white smoke.
Bang!
Freed of all obstruction, the river poured its accumulated gravity through the narrow opening in the collapse, unleashing it all upon Li Changqing's body.
There was simply no time to think. Even though his chest throbbed with pain and vitality surged within him, Li Changqing had no time to inspect his injuries.
Rolling waves, carrying an overwhelming force, were already crashing toward him. If he could not withstand this wave—
From the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the deep cave entrance behind him, jagged with strange rocks.
If he fell here, even vitality protecting his body would not save him from certain doom.
Boom!
Wave after wave crashed head-on into Li Changqing.
His vitality embraced the core, and explosive force surged into both hands.
Tai Chi, Invert Yin Overturn Yang.
Li Changqing poured powerful soft strength into his fists. He intended to use Tai Chi Soft Strength to ease the first wave's impact, then, after slightly reducing the water's speed, use Heaven-Man Resonance to forcibly borrow the lake's power and repay it in kind.
Using water to control water.
Bang!
The first impact had arrived.
Li Changqing's pupils contracted sharply. The vitality erupting from his body did not even hold for half a second before the howling waves shattered his first barrier.
At this moment, it was completely unlike when Li Changqing had stood above the cave entrance.
The lake water that had not been gathered and compressed by the narrow opening was placid. Tai Chi could easily block it.
But now, he was three meters below the opening.
The vast lake had accelerated through that narrow entrance, and the pressure produced within that confined space was far beyond anything at the lakebed.
Yet the cave behind him showed no sign of being filled by the lake water.
Where exactly did this cave lead?
Tai Chi Soft Strength met the waves head-on, and Li Changqing's face turned three shades paler.
He gritted his teeth and reversed Yin and Yang with both hands.
Turn motion into stillness!
He deflected part of the lake water's force, but Li Changqing had no room to catch his breath.
He had only just deflected thirty percent of this wave.
Close on its heels, even fiercer waves had already reached him.
Bang!
Without time to dissolve the force, Li Changqing took the following impact head-on once more.
Blood seeped from the corner of his mouth. The impact had destabilized his internal organs, and the vitality in his dantian was already showing signs of dispersing.
Once the state of Embracing the Core and Returning Strength ended, he would have no power to turn the tide.
Tai Chi Soft Strength was useless.
He glanced at the abyss below. If he kept using Tai Chi Soft Strength to deflect the force, he would either die of internal bleeding before reaching his limit, or fall into the abyss behind him.
"Tai Chi Soft Strength can't dissolve it?" Li Changqing exerted strength through his legs, smashing the ground beneath his feet and driving them into the rock.
"Can't dissolve it? Then I won't dissolve it." He raised his fists, still assuming the opening stance of Tai Chi.
Yet the vitality within him underwent an earth-shaking transformation.
The Universe Breathing Technique operated beyond its limits, mobilizing every pore in his skin.
Tai Chi Hard Strength.
This was the strength he had only recently comprehended through the Universe Breathing Technique.
Strength that had been as unpredictable as water, without fixed form or shape, fundamentally transformed into its opposite—utmost Yang and hardness.
Tai Chi Hard Strength was not a separate fist technique.
Hard strength and soft strength both belonged to Tai Chi.
Just as Yin and Yang continued into each other, the two were one whole.
When Tai Chi Fist was executed with soft strength, it was the movement of water.
When executed with hard strength, it was the movement of fire.
The same fist technique possessed two utterly different kinds of strength.
This was Tai Chi.
Tai Chi, Thunder Division.
Part the Body, Shift, Block, Hammer!
Boom!
Li Changqing suddenly stepped forward. His left foot came down and directly crushed the ground.
His right hand clenched into a fist, and his dense vitality no longer remained restrained.
Aggressive as fire!
The surging waves collided with Li Changqing's iron fist.
Blazing flames struck azure waves.
The violent impact sent Li Changqing stumbling three steps back.
Pwah—
He spat out blood.
Yet Li Changqing showed no fear whatsoever. Fire flickered in his eyes.
He stepped forward again.
Retreat?
A fist technique of utmost Yang and hardness had never possessed a retreating move.
There was only constant advance, and then further advance!
The water that had driven him back surged at him again.
Li Changqing stepped upon the seven stars. As strength flowed through him, he used Tai Chi Hard Strength once more.
Bang!
They clashed head-on.
Like a spark striking Earth, the waves were blocked, but this time Li Changqing was pushed even farther back.
His back slammed directly into the cave wall.
Vitality surged and withdrew. He violently broke free of the restraint as his dantian erupted.
"Again!"
Bang!
Collision after collision, Li Changqing blocked the water's rushing momentum.
But his body was constantly being forced backward.
In the blink of an eye, he had reached the last sliver of ground.
His vitality was nearly exhausted. His internal organs were injured in many places, and there was countless subcutaneous bleeding.
Li Changqing knew every injury on his body clearly.
As the waves came again—
Every pore across his body opened.
He drew all his vitality into his dantian.
Whoosh—
The raging lake water rushed into the cave in a frantic scramble. Under the crushing pressure, the already terrifying water pressure doubled again.
Watching the lake water draw near, Li Changqing finally gathered all his vitality.
The next instant—
Within his dantian, the vitality of Embracing the Core and Returning Strength divided into Yin and Yang, intertwining together.
Leaving no room at all, terrifying explosive force and all his vitality burst from the skin across Li Changqing's body as Tai Chi Hard Strength.
Boom!
The lake water inside the cave was completely cleared away.
That immense force directly blasted the waves back through the opening and into the lake.
This strike had emptied all his vitality, yet his physique had not reached its limit, so he could not receive the power replenishment from an attribute increase.
At this moment, Li Changqing's face held neither joy nor sorrow as he slowly closed his eyes.
One second later—
The lingering force of the strike that had consumed all his vitality completely dispersed, leaving the cave entrance unshielded once more.
Two seconds later—
The waves surged into the cave with the force of mountains roaring and seas howling, cracking rocks wherever they passed.
The third second—
The roar of the waves was already at his ears. Li Changqing slowly opened his eyes, and rolling blue waves were nearly against his face.
There was no vitality in his dantian, no strength left in his muscles.
His body was covered in injuries and had long ceased to be at its peak.
Floodwaters before him, an abyss behind him.
There was nowhere left to evade.
At the same time, the Mental Power in Li Changqing's mind stirred, and at the very end of the third second—
It completed its outline.
Intense emotional resonance, an identical desperate predicament.
The rolling blue waves before him seemed to transform into elite Qin troops blanketing mountains and plains.
And he wore armor, holding an Overlord Steel Spear, with nothing behind him but a ragtag mob, starving and dispirited.
Clang—
It was as though swords and blades rang in unison beside his ears.
Break the cauldrons and sink the boats—the hundred passes of Qin would ultimately belong to Chu!
At that instant, Li Changqing's spirit successfully resonated with the Overlord of a thousand years ago.
"Break!"
His vitality was exhausted, and his physique was weak.
Li Changqing raised his right arm, as though gripping a refined steel spear.
Strength of utmost Yang and hardness, with no intention of retreating.
Just like the Overlord himself.
Comparable to a Divine Ability.
His fist, devoid of all vitality, collided with the floodwaters.
It was the latter that retreated.
With a single punch, Li Changqing had actually forced back the floodwaters.
Overlord's True Intent: 10%
The Artistic Conception gained from the Overlord Lifting Cauldron Diagram had changed.
Not only had its completion rate leaped directly from 5% to 10%, even its name had changed.
Overlord's True Intent.
The single word "true" encompassed everything.
Cast away the false and preserve the true. The True Intent he had comprehended now was the Overlord's invincible bearing, looking down upon all beneath heaven.
With the aid of Overlord's True Intent, Li Changqing drove back the water with one punch, and his physique finally surpassed its limit.
Physique +5
An unprecedented increase. Pressure and reward were proportional.
Terrifying power flooded into his physique. Though his injuries did not diminish in the slightest, Li Changqing's Aura now vastly surpassed his former peak.
Vitality Concentration: 45%
The completely empty dantian produced vitality from nothing, and vast amounts of it poured in.
His vitality, already transformed into liquid, was compressed yet again.
After circulating through one great cycle within his body—
Countless tiny crystalline particles slowly formed within the thick, mercury-like vitality.
Lead-Mercury State!
Vitality had been further compressed from liquid, displaying the characteristics of a solid.
This was the mark of a Lower-Rank Martial Artist reaching great completion!
Embracing the Core and Returning Strength.
The vitality that had developed solid characteristics embraced the core once more.
Within his dantian floated a rounded mass of vitality, smooth on the surface and emitting a faint metallic sheen.
It came ever closer to the Brilliant Golden Core said to exist within the bodies of Qi Practitioners in pre-Qin times.
Li Changqing slowly stepped forward. The lake water he had just forced back through resonating with Overlord's True Intent surged toward him once more.
As long as the entire cave entrance did not disappear, these rapid waves would not cease.
Li Changqing calmly raised his hand. The rounded vitality within his dantian revolved.
Tai Chi Hard Strength.
No fist technique was needed—only pure strength.
Boom!
The terrifying force punched through the air, punched through the flowing water.
There was not the slightest form or technique to it—only overwhelming might crushing everything head-on.
The plunging lake water stalled. In the blink of an eye, it actually surged backward, smashing apart the water that had likewise been about to fall midway down.
This was true Tai Chi Hard Strength.
Utmost Yang and utter hardness—there was no martial art it could not break!
Tai Chi (Heaven-Man Resonance): 50%
After Li Changqing comprehended the Hard Strength of the Tai Chi cultivation method, yin and yang reached perfection, and he directly pushed it to 50%.
He flexed his legs slightly and leaped out of the pit, mobilizing the vitality within his body.
His hands stirred the lake water, forming a massive vortex at the mouth of the hole and stopping the water from pouring down.
Without the slightest warning, without needing to trace anything.
With Overlord's True Intent reaching 10% progress, Li Changqing could already act as his thoughts willed.
An invincible will, the courage to smash the cauldrons and sink the boats.
Like the Overlord who led his remnant troops to crush the Qin army, the moment the True Intent emerged, it directly commanded all the vitality in Li Changqing's body.
Boom!
He slammed a fist into the stone wall by the lake shore, and enormous cracks spread outward.
Li Changqing thrust one hand into a crack in the rock wall.
"Rise!"
His right arm exerted force, effortlessly wrenching a thick boulder four or five meters in diameter from the rock wall.
He aimed it at the pit below.
Bang!
The boulder crashed down, directly covering the hole.
Li Changqing feared it would not be sturdy enough.
He threw a punch through the air.
Vitality left his body and traveled through the water. The tremendous force shattered the rock, embedding it firmly into the mouth of the hole.
There was no longer the slightest crack.