Tragic

Li Ziye gave a wry smile and tossed Heavenly Sword upwards. Heavenly Sword transformed into a silver streak and returned to its scabbard. Then, Li Ziye removed the scabbard he always wore and threw it towards Ye Chang.

Ye Chang took out several Talismans and activated them. The Talismans turned into golden lights and sealed the scabbard. After doing so, Ye Chang, without hiding his smugness, laughed heartily, "You hypocritical cultivators of the new era... Eat this!"

With that, a powerful killing technique was unleashed towards Li Ziye.

Li Ziye, having lost the aid of Heavenly Sword, was significantly slower in his evasion. However, as if foreseeing the attack, he retreated seven steps diagonally backward. Ye Chang's sure-kill strike narrowly missed him, blasting a huge crater into the ground!

Ye Chang frowned, "Who told you to dodge? Believe it or not, I'll..."

Li Ziye sighed, "Let me state one thing clearly: abandoning Heavenly Sword is my bottom line. If you want me to tie my hands and let you kill me, I cannot do that."

Ye Chang's expression turned ferocious, "Don't you care about this kid's life?"

"I'm not an idiot. If you kill me, this young brother still won't be saved, so why should I stand here and let you kill me?" Li Ziye chuckled, "Since you captured him alive, he must be useful to you. If you weren't in a desperate situation, you wouldn't kill him so easily."

"So what?"

Li Ziye continued, "If we were to fight head-on, I seem to be slightly stronger than you. Given the personality of ancient cultivators, if 'defeating me' offers no personal benefit to you, you'd rather flee than fight. But you've stopped now, which means the situation has changed to 'if you don't defeat me, you'll be in trouble. Is your stronghold or something nearby?"

His thoughts exposed, Ye Chang became agitated, "What exactly do you mean?"

Li Ziye smiled, "If this young brother dies in front of me, I might feel guilty for a while, which isn't good. But if I let him go with you, he'll either die or wish he were dead. The worst-case scenario is becoming an ancient cultivator—this might be unfair to him, but from my perspective, I cannot allow that to happen. I can't just watch you abduct him when I can try my best to save him. What can I do?"

"I don't care what you do!" Ye Chang roared, intending to use his evasion technique to escape. With Heavenly Sword sealed, Li Ziye's evasion technique couldn't possibly be as swift as before!

At this moment, Li Ziye's leisurely voice echoed, "A reminder, the seal you placed on Heavenly Sword is not difficult to break—don't forget that unsealing is also a specialty of the Myriad Dharma Sect. I was able to kill three Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators and then chase you just now. I can still do the same after breaking the seal."

Ye Chang abruptly halted his movement. The spells of the new era were far more complex than those of the ancient era. He couldn't be sure how long it would take Li Ziye to unseal Heavenly Sword—one breath, or two? The scene of Li Ziye methodically killing his three Foundation Establishment subordinates before chasing him was still vivid. That amount of time was nowhere near enough for him to shake off Li Ziye.

The voice of this Nascent Soul Realm cultivator actually carried a hint of a tremor, "What exactly do you want?"

"Don't you understand the situation? If you escape, I can unseal Heavenly Sword and pursue you. Then, the secrets of your ancient cultivators will surely be exposed. Moreover, in the worst-case scenario, I will personally kill Wang Qi. I will feel guilty for a while, but it's better than letting you achieve your goal—of course, this is a situation neither of us wants to see. If you are ruthless enough to kill Wang Qi here and now, then with no hostage to restrain me, I can unleash the full power of Heavenly Sword, and defeating you won't be difficult."

Ye Chang could no longer stand Li Ziye's confident demeanor and roared, "What exactly do you want?"

Idiot!

Wang Qi mentally scorned the Nascent Soul Cultivator who was restraining him. What Li Ziye was doing now was to eliminate all other options for this fellow and steer the situation towards his desired outcome. Now, this Nascent Soul Realm cultivator couldn't kill him, nor could he escape, so there was only one option...

Li Ziye spread his hands, "As you can see, the only way for you to break this deadlock now is to defeat me, without Heavenly Sword, right here, and also ensure the young brother's life is preserved before a victor is decided."

Wang Qi had already understood Li Ziye's intentions and felt a temporary sense of relief, beginning to fully deduce Zhen Chanzi's method for breaking through the seal.

Ye Chang's expression shifted several times, and finally, he let out an angry roar, unleashing several spells towards Li Ziye.

Without Heavenly Sword in hand, Li Ziye's ability to overcome myriad techniques with a single principle was greatly restricted. However, he was completely unfazed, using his movement technique to dodge the attack and pounce towards Ye Chang. His bare palms were utilized to their utmost, generating infinite variations, his palm strikes covering all the flaws in Ye Chang's defense.

One principle giving rise to ten thousand techniques!

Ye Chang was no pushover either. He used Magical Power to bind Wang Qi, while his hands wielded his greatsword, engaging Li Ziye in combat.

Just as the two cultivators were locked in battle, Wang Qi's deduction entered a critical phase.

"Simpler than I imagined... it doesn't seem to involve more complex variations..."

"This vector can be eliminated..."

"The formula is slightly complex... Since the circulation of Magical Power is in units of a full cycle, this function is periodic... Let's verify... It satisfies Dirichlet conditions and can be simplified using Fourier transforms..."

Wang Qi was completely immersed in his calculations, unaware that a trickle of warmth within his body had begun to move slowly through his meridians like a snail, circulating on its own.

The sealing technique Ye Chang used on Wang Qi was a secret art of the Imperial Splitting Heaven Dao, designed to counter the most overbearing Magical Power, severing the circulation of Magical Power within others to achieve complete封禁 (fēngjìn - sealing/imprisonment). However, the forcibly severed Magical Power did not disappear; it was merely sealed. And Zhen Chanzi's method for breaking seals was to utilize the residual Magical Power left behind by the seal, bypassing it to reconstruct a full cycle of circulation. Because the Magical Power of the sealed individual was severed inch by inch, a small stream of Magical Power could not complete a full cycle. Therefore, thirty-seven streams of Magical Power had to circulate simultaneously.

And cultivators of the new era who had undergone Nurturing Life cultivation could directly translate their thoughts into their own cultivation. As Wang Qi calculated, streams of Magical Power within his body began to circulate according to the trajectory he calculated.

"Faster... This can be decomposed into... This can be represented as... Faster..."

As Wang Qi's calculations progressed, the flow of Magical Power began to accelerate, transforming from a snail's crawl to a trickling stream, and finally merging into one!

This was equivalent to one-tenth of Wang Qi's Magical Power!

"Here... the final simplification... Done! Huh, my Magical Power..."

Having completed his calculation, Wang Qi was astonished to find that he could now use a portion of his Magical Power!

"I clearly haven't... Never mind, there's no time to think! The urgent priority now is to escape!"

Wang Qi immediately shifted his attention to the battle between Li Ziye and Ye Chang.

Currently, Wang Qi was still being held by Ye Chang's Magical Power, suspended half a foot behind him. The battle between Ye Chang and Li Ziye had entered a white-hot stage. Li Ziye already had several wounds, his blood staining his red robes almost white. Ye Chang was not faring any better; he had been struck in the critical acupoints of his Magical Power circulation by Li Ziye multiple times, causing his Magical Power to surge, nearly injuring his Nascent Soul. While Li Ziye's speed had dropped a notch due to abandoning Heavenly Sword, Ye Chang's attacks had also become disorganized due to his chaotic Magical Power, making it difficult to sustain his greatsword techniques.

"Gotcha!" Li Ziye charged forward two more steps, piercing through Ye Chang's offensive. Ye Chang's greatsword tried to recover, but such a wide-sweeping weapon was almost useless in close-quarters combat. Li Ziye's hands moved like butterflies dancing through flowers, leaving dazzling afterimages as he repeatedly struck the weak points of Ye Chang's protective aura!

The force penetrated the protective aura and struck his acupoints. Ye Chang cried out in pain, his body even trembling. Wang Qi rejoiced and was about to activate the Talisman in his hand.

"Wait! The situation isn't clear yet, I can't rush!" A cautious instinct made Wang Qi stop his actions.

As expected, Ye Chang was not defeated by this round of attacks. He abandoned his greatsword, his hand seals changing. Magical Power erupted from the acupoints all over his body, forcibly repelling Li Ziye!

"Li Ziye is a disciple of the Myriad Dharma Sect, and his techniques are closely related to mathematics. He mentioned that the Myriad Dharma Sect emphasizes calculation in combat. Launching an attack while he's on the offensive might disrupt his rhythm, potentially leading to both of us dying here. I can't take that risk."

"Therefore, I should only make my move when Li Ziye is at a disadvantage, or when he has no hope of winning and prepares to kill me!"

With his plan set, he began calculating again, how to maximize the effect of his single strike.

"Fortunately, when dodging those three Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators, to avoid misplacing talismans, I specifically placed the offensive Talismans in my right hand, while the others are in my left."

"I can't determine if the offensive Talismans and defensive Talismans conflict, so I'll assume the worst-case scenario, which is a conflict. If I activate all Talismans simultaneously, my attack might be weakened by my own shield, or the shield might simply block the attack. If it's the former, I'll be left completely defenseless against a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator. If it's the latter, I might just add a layer of defense that's negligible to a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator, unable to shake off my restraint."

"But the power of three stacked explosive Talisman could blow me to death."

"However, if I don't fight for my life, I might die. This risk is worth taking."

"Besides, as long as I activate the left-hand Talisman in time after activating the right-hand Talisman, I can largely avoid this risk."

Just as Wang Qi decided on his course of action, the situation suddenly changed: Li Ziye was, after all, only Golden Core, his Magical Power was ultimately a bit weaker, and his movement technique was a step slower. He had just narrowly dodged Ye Chang's greatsword, and the consequence of this step slower was that he was struck by Ye Chang's heavy sword sweeps, sent flying backward, and spewing blood!

Ye Chang was also a cultivator with rich combat experience. He didn't advance recklessly, nor did he stop to mock his enemy. Instead, he pressed the attack, adopting a steady approach to further expand his gains. He understood that Li Ziye's injuries would only worsen in a drawn-out fight!

"Not good!" Wang Qi exclaimed in alarm, almost activating his Talisman. But he held back again. Because Li Ziye hadn't regained his footing yet, and there was no opportunity to turn the tables. Acting rashly would only let the chance slip away in vain.

Li Ziye did not disappoint Wang Qi. Vomiting blood, he re-established his defense. Although Li Ziye was struggling precariously under the fierce sword momentum, he managed to resolve Ye Chang's attacks in incredible ways! Ye Chang was not impatient. His current task was to prevent Li Ziye from having the chance to cast spells to break the seal and retrieve the Heavenly Sword.

This current cultivator of the new method is in an irreversible decline. I can't give him a chance to go berserk and kill both me and this Qi Refining stage brat!

Seeing that he couldn't achieve victory quickly, Ye Chang turned to attack Li Ziye's morale. He sneered, "Hmph, brat, where did your earlier prowess go?"

Li Ziye opened his mouth to say something but first coughed up a mouthful of dark blood. He spat out the blood foam and, while parrying the opponent's attack, gave a wry smile, "Indeed... I, Li, overestimated myself."

Ye Chang burst into laughter. He never imagined he would have a chance to kill this elite cultivator of the new method who was granted the Heavenly Sword! His original mission was to kill Xiang Qi and Li Ziye with the assistance of that rogue cultivator of the ancient method at Nascent Soul stage. At first, when he discovered the intelligence was wrong and Li Ziye was actually granted the Heavenly Sword, he deemed the mission a failure. He never expected to have a chance to turn the tables now!

How much reward would the sect give for killing the grantee of the Heavenly Sword?

Just as Ye Chang thought the situation was settled and his thoughts drifted elsewhere, a faint fluctuation of Magical Power appeared on the battlefield!

Now is the time!

Wang Qi used half of his remaining Magical Power to fiercely activate the three Talisman in his hand again!