Resistance?
Only five immortal seedlings remained. All but Li Ji'an were trembling.
"That's an Immortal Master! How could ordinary people like us possibly fight one?"
It wasn't that they lacked the strength to resist, nor were they a bunch of cowards. They were simply bound tight by the ideas instilled in them since childhood.
Running and dodging were already desperate acts of defiance against the Immortal Masters.
"Resist? Heh." At Li Ji'an's words, the masked men all looked his way, barely holding back their laughter.
"Then let us show you what... the chasm between immortals and mortals is!"
"Whoosh!" A flying sword and a wind blade shot toward Li Ji'an at the same time.
"Brother Li, watch out!" Zhao Shuyao cried.
The other three also looked stricken, unable to bear watching, like rabbits mourning a dead fox.
Li Ji'an narrowed his eyes. He didn't seem particularly nervous; instead, a hint of hesitation crossed his face.
Then, though he could have dodged with ease, he didn't move aside or evade. He faced the wind blade and flying sword head-on.
"Has even Brother Li given up?"
"Even a prodigy like Brother Li, who made the top ten of the Grandmaster Ranking at such a young age, can't resist them at all?"
"This is the chasm between immortals and mortals!"
Despair deepened across the other three's faces, and even their desire to run dwindled.
"Move!" Zhao Shuyao's features twisted almost beyond recognition as she screamed with all her might.
When Li Ji'an still didn't move, she rushed toward him in desperation, trying to knock him out of the way.
But she was a step too slow.
"Thump, thump!" Two dull impacts sounded in front of Li Ji'an.
"Brother Li..." The four of them went completely blank.
But just as they thought Li Ji'an would be dismembered the next moment, he slowly raised his head and lightly brushed at the wrinkles left in his clothes by the wind blade and flying sword. "This... is the chasm between immortals and mortals?"
His voice held a hint of mockery and confidence!
From sensing the young Immortal Master in the Immortal Hall slapping the emperor, to the Immortal Master using magic power to lift them into the air... and through the chaos that had just unfolded, Li Ji'an had formed a rough judgment of these cultivators' strength.
He'd instinctively tried to dodge just now, but had keenly sensed how weak the two attacks were. So he'd stirred his blood and qi and met the flying sword and wind blade head-on.
The result had surprised him.
They were even weaker than he'd expected!
Their power was probably only half as strong as his own burst of blood and qi.
"!!!"
As soon as he spoke, the whole place was stunned.
The four immortal seedlings stared fixedly at the unruffled Li Ji'an. An inexplicable flame began to rise in their eyes, and a shackle in their hearts started to rattle...
"The Immortal Masters... are nothing special?"
"How is this possible?" The two masked cultivators were also shocked, and they whipped their heads toward Li Ji'an.
"You... have tempered your body to this extent?" Sensing the vigorous blood and qi surging through Li Ji'an, the two stared at him in disbelief.
Li Ji'an ignored them and turned to the four immortal seedlings instead. "Immortal Masters are merely cultivators. Their cultivation is no different from our martial arts. They're not invincible. Don't admit defeat without a fight!"
"Cultivators?"
"They're not immortals?"
At last, their childhood understanding of "immortals" shattered, and their fighting spirit flared.
"No different? Hmph! I'll admit, you've surprised me. I never thought anyone in a place abandoned by Heaven could temper their body to this level before the age of thirty. But... never mind a mere first-tier body cultivator. Even if you were a Kirin Body Cultivator, how could you compare with us Eternal Law Cultivators? Die!" After their initial shock, the two masked cultivators regained their composure, but couldn't hide their air of superiority.
Instead of using magic power to drive their flying swords or form wind blades, they cast the Fireball Technique again, attacking with spellcraft.
Boom~
Two basin-sized fireballs, trailing waves of scorching heat, surged toward Li Ji'an.
Li Ji'an didn't try to withstand the blazing fireballs. He wasn't sure whether the protective blood and qi that could repel physical attacks would work against these manifestations of heaven and earth formed from magic power.
Besides, he'd only taken those attacks head-on to test their strength and rouse the other four.
The two cultivators cast their fireballs quickly, but Li Ji'an's spirit, strengthened by three successive uses of "returning to youth," was sharp enough to see their trajectories clearly and dodge with ease.
"Whoosh~" Li Ji'an shifted his foot, his figure turning ethereal, faster and harder to track than the two masked cultivators had been moments before.
Seeing Li Ji'an forced back by the fireballs, Zhao Shuyao's eyes narrowed. She too used the martial arts Li Ji'an had taught her and charged at the two masked cultivators.
The other three immediately reacted, attacking from different directions.
"How dare you!" The two were furious that chickens and dogs they'd always slaughtered at will now dared to resist.
Their spells needed time to recharge, so they had no choice but to fall back on their old tactics, using flying swords and wind blades against the four attacking from the sides.
But this time, everything was different.
Before, the "blood slaves" had started scrambling for cover before the wind blades and flying swords even reached them. They hadn't had the courage to fight back with their blood and qi.
This time, though the four still feared the wind blades and flying swords, they dared to summon their blood and qi to resist.
"Thump, thump, thump~"
"The flying sword only broke through my skin!"
"I can take a wind blade head-on!"
"Brother Li was right. Their Immortal Methods are no different from our martial arts!"
Though all four suffered minor injuries, they were overjoyed, flames blazing in their eyes.
The two masked cultivators, meanwhile, had lost their lofty air and grown alarmed.
Seeing the four tie up their opponents, Li Ji'an didn't hesitate any longer. He gathered his blood and qi in his legs and darted toward the two like a phantom, closing to within thirty feet.
"Whoosh~" Several Golden Needles formed from his blood and qi shot toward them.
"Watch out!" The masked cultivators only sensed the needles when they were almost upon them, and hurriedly warned each other.
"Clang, clang, clang..." Several sharp clanks rang out in succession.
A soft halo appeared around each of them, shielding them from harm.
"Magical Power Shield!" Li Ji'an furrowed his brows.
His attack had failed, but Li Ji'an wasn't discouraged.
After years of studying how to unleash blood and qi, he had long since realized that to bring out its full might, he needed to channel it into his body, not send it outward. Close-quarters combat was the way to go!
What's more, after a few more attacks with needles of condensed blood and qi, he could clearly feel the two cultivators' Protective Magic Barriers weakening.
The wind blades and flying swords attacking the four were weakening too.
This sent the already battered four's morale soaring, and they fought with ever greater courage.
"Bang!" A moment later, Li Ji'an seized the moment one cultivator attacked Zhao Shuyao. He closed the distance in an instant, channeled all his blood and qi into his fist, and smashed it at the cultivator.
Just as he'd expected, the cultivator's Protective Magic Barrier shattered on impact.
"Save me!" The cultivator cried for help in terror, just like the blood slaves they'd casually slaughtered moments earlier.
"Boom~" The moment the Magical Power Shield broke, Li Ji'an felt as though his fist had struck tofu.
The cultivator's body was unbelievably frail, no stronger than Li Ji'an's own when he used Muscle Compaction.
It exploded almost instantly, blood and flesh flying everywhere like scattered petals...
"Hiss~" The four immortal seedlings and the remaining masked cultivator all froze in that moment, drawing in sharp breaths.
"D-dead?"
"He was actually... killed by a lowly blood slave?" The cultivator stared at the bloody scene, legs shaking so badly his teeth chattered uncontrollably.
The four immortal seedlings were even more shocked. Their blood and qi surged, their hearts pounding!
"Brother Li... has slain an immortal!"
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Thanks to all the readers who kept following.
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