Black Tortoise Unity

Elder Qi pointed a finger at him.

A wave of heat burrowed into Li Pingsheng's skin.

Even with [Tiger Bone] bolstering him, his body still wouldn't move.

This was what it meant to be suppressed by a difference in cultivation realms.

The finger was only three inches from his chest.

Just then, the Peace Talisman on Li Pingsheng's chest suddenly grew hot.

On it was a tiny spot of blood left by Yunmei when she'd pricked her hand.

The force at his fingertip struck the bloodstain with a BOOM, and a mass of clear light appeared.

The clear light held back Elder Qi's finger.

After the wave of heat dissipated, Li Pingsheng felt a chill in his chest, and the power of that finger seemed to have weakened by more than half.

The flesh on Elder Qi's face stiffened.

He withdrew his finger.

Old Qi stared at Li Pingsheng's chest, breathing heavily.

He'd seen this kind of light and energy only in True Disciples of those great sects.

A natural Spirit Aperture??

This was a gift!

"Who's behind you?" Elder Qi asked. "Who gave you this Peace Talisman?"

As he spoke, he took a step forward, and the stone slab beneath him was crushed to powder.

A spellcraft prodigy like this couldn't possibly be wandering around the Outer City, much less involved with an ordinary student from a martial arts school.

There had to be someone behind the boy—someone Elder Qi couldn't see through.

Li Pingsheng said nothing. He only pressed a hand to his chest, which was still warm.

You never knew what lurked in another person's heart.

If other people learned that Yunmei had a Spirit Aperture, they might use her to refine medicine or treat her as a tool for some great power.

He couldn't take that chance.

He felt the taste of blood in his throat, but forced it back down.

Li Pingsheng raised his head, his eyes blazing with defiance.

"I bought it at the Black Market. It has nothing to do with anyone."

Elder Qi snorted, not believing him for a second.

He watched this Stele Forest every day, and he'd long since heard all kinds of wild rumors.

"If you won't tell me the truth, then I'll just make the person behind you show themself."

The old man stopped wasting words. The entire aura around him shifted.

A crushing pressure bore down on Li Pingsheng's shoulders.

Divine sense pressure.

It was an attack that struck directly at the soul.

Li Pingsheng's head rang. His vision blurred as he tried to look around.

The stone steles nearby seemed to come alive, roaring at him.

Crack!

Li Pingsheng's legs sank into the ground, and the stone slabs beneath his feet burst apart.

His knees trembled violently, and his muscles felt ready to snap.

The [Tiger Bone] talent spun furiously, but his body's strength couldn't withstand this mental pressure.

Blood started flowing from his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose.

It ran down his face, dripping onto the stone slabs.

Li Ping clenched his teeth until they cracked, blood streaming from his mouth.

He didn't retreat. He kept his back straight.

He knew that if he backed down, Elder Qi would surely investigate Yunmei.

"Old man, is that all you've got?"

Elder Qi's eyelid twitched.

He'd never imagined that a nobody from a martial arts school could hold out this long against thirty percent of his divine sense pressure.

That kid had bones harder than iron.

Just as Li Pingsheng was nearing his limit and his head was reeling, the two talents within him—the [Spirit Aperture] and [Martial Wisdom]—suddenly began to resonate.

The lightning of Heavenly Thunder Guidance in his mind.

The lightning of Thunderclap Explosion.

The two rivers of martial blood and Mystic Gate spiritual energy, which had never had anything to do with each other, burst through their dams.

Lightning spiritual energy flooded into his blood like a mad torrent.

The meridians in Li Ping's body snapped, inch by inch, then slowly healed under the effect of the [Blood Strengthening] talent.

Each time they broke and healed, they grew a little stronger, and so did he.

Purple-red blotches appeared all over his skin.

"Get the hell away from me!"

Li Ping opened his eyes, and a bolt of lightning danced in his pupils.

He wasn't afraid anymore. He stepped forward, twisted at the waist, and threw a punch!

This punch was different from Thunderclap Explosion.

A layer of purple-red lightning shrouded his fist.

This was what happened when martial strength combined with Mystic Gate spellcraft.

His punch smashed the air with a series of BANGS.

The crushing mental pressure weighing on Li Pingsheng's head was punched open.

His fist shattered several nearby stone steles.

Elder Qi's expression changed completely.

A look of disbelief, unlike anything ever seen in his eyes before.

The kid was fighting while fusing two systems together?

A lunatic!!

Elder Qi didn't dare be careless. He flipped the palm he'd been pressing down, and a wall of azure energy appeared before him.

Thud!

The fist struck the wall of energy.

The muffled impact made the entire Stele Forest tremble.

Purple-red lightning clashed against the azure wall, sparks flying everywhere.

Li Pingsheng's punch was incredibly powerful, and Elder Qi was knocked half a step backward.

Half a step.

But that half-step overturned everything Elder Qi had thought he knew about Li Pingsheng.

The lightning stopped.

Li Pingsheng's legs gave way, and he dropped to one knee, mouth open as he panted for breath.

His right arm remained stretched out to the side, its meridians pushed past their limits.

But he still held his head high, his eyes bloodshot as he glared at Elder Qi.

Elder Qi stood there, staring at the groove in the ground. It took him a while to speak.

He slowly lowered his guard, and his killing intent faded with it.

He'd seen plenty of gifted people. Some were born strong, while others had quick minds. But Li Pingsheng was the first he'd met who, at such a young age, had broken through the wall between two systems in a life-or-death moment and twisted their powers into one.

This wasn't the work of a genius.

This was a freak.

"Little kid, heh. I suppose you win."

Elder Qi let out a long breath, walked over to Li Pingsheng, pulled a small green bottle from his robes, and tossed it to him.

"Take it. It's medicine for your injuries. Don't ruin your foundation."

Li Pingsheng caught the bottle but didn't take the medicine. He only watched him.

Seeing him like that, Elder Qi smiled bitterly and raised three fingers to the sky.

"I, Qi, swear that I will never tell a third person what I saw or heard today. If I do, may my soul be utterly destroyed and never find rebirth."

The Heart Demon Oath was the most vicious oath a cultivator could take.

Only then did the tension in Li Pingsheng's nerves ease.

He pulled out the stopper and poured the medicine into his mouth.

After the pill went down, a warm current surged through his body, and his depleted blood energy began to rise again.

[After enduring the crushing pressure of a life-or-death ordeal and forcibly fusing martial arts with spellcraft, potential points +0.5]

[Current total potential points: 2]

When Li Pingsheng saw the number, he felt even more confident.

With two potential points, he could upgrade another specialty before the major exam.

Elder Qi looked at him, the feverish excitement still in his eyes. "What did you call that punch just now?"

Li Pingsheng wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and said, "I named it Thunderclap Explosion."

"Thunderclap Explosion?"

Elder Qi murmured the name, then shook his head. "Thunderclap Explosion doesn't have enough force to it. The punch you threw had a hint of Black Tortoise Unity. Too bad your foundation is too weak; your meridians can't take that kind of strain."

After a pause, he turned to look at the last ancient well in the Stele Forest.

"All right, you took that move of mine, and I keep my word."

Li Pingsheng stood there, his body still aching, but he knew what came next was the important part.

Elder Qi pointed to the ancient well and said, "What's sealed beneath the well isn't a dragon."