Eerie Methods

Liu Yuanchen understood at once. No wonder Yue Kongming harbored such resentment—his master had been beaten up by Liu Yuanchen's own master.

"Actually, my master thought quite highly of your master."

The young evil cultivator was somewhat curious. "How does Zhao Hong evaluate my master?"

Liu Yuanchen replied, "I was worried before that your master might attack me.

My master said that he and your master were 'not of the same path, and thus could not make plans together.'

Though they had many conflicts, he still trusted your master's character. He would not stoop to bullying the young with his seniority.

In his heart, he had always regarded your master as an equal opponent. He never looked down on him."

Hearing this, a faint smile appeared on the young man's face. "How rare. The killing god who makes the Demon Race tremble at the mere mention of his name actually thinks so highly of my master."

From the young man's reaction, Liu Yuanchen made some deductions.

Just because Liu Yuanchen knew nothing about the Soaring Immortal Sect, the young man had become so enraged.

Now that he had heard Liu Yuanchen's master regarded his own master as an equal opponent, his anger had turned to delight.

The strong would not care about the opinions of the weak. Only those in a disadvantaged position would care deeply about what the strong thought.

It seemed the Soaring Immortal Sect was inferior to the Eight Desolations Pavilion.

With that thought, Liu Yuanchen gained some confidence.

"After all this talking, I still don't know your name, or your master's."

The young man cupped his hands. "I am Yue Kongming of the Soaring Immortal Sect. My master is He Daoheng.

I came here this time to investigate something.

Since I happened to encounter you, I thought I might as well ask."

Liu Yuanchen looked surprised. "I'm from the Eight Desolations Pavilion, and you're from the Soaring Immortal Sect. Our sects are old enemies.

You're dressed as a Demoncloud Sect cultivator, while I'm a disciple of the Azure Elixir Sect.

The two sects are currently at war, and you want intelligence from me?"

Yue Kongming looked entirely unconcerned. "So what? The intelligence I want has nothing to do with the war between the two sects and will not harm the interests of either the Eight Desolations Pavilion or the Azure Elixir Sect.

We are in the middle of nowhere. Setting aside our life-saving methods, you are no match for me.

You can either tell me what I want directly, or I can beat it out of you.

Will you drink the toast, or the forfeit?"

Although Liu Yuanchen had been at a disadvantage earlier and had no good answer to Yue Kongming's eerie methods,

being looked down upon like this left a bad taste in his mouth if he did not fight.

"If that's how you put it, then I can only drink the forfeit."

Yue Kongming smiled. "That's what I thought. How could Senior Zhao's disciple surrender so easily?"

"I'm at the Ninth Qi-Nourishing Layer, two minor realms above you. I won't take advantage of you."

With that, his aura steadily declined, quickly falling to roughly Liu Yuanchen's level.

"Now we can fight. You are Senior Zhao's first disciple and will likely become his chief personal disciple in the future.

As it happens, I am also my master's chief personal disciple.

My master has never been able to defeat Senior Zhao. In my generation, I must win back some face."

Liu Yuanchen did not waste words. He raised the Wind-Thunder Staff and charged forward.

The Wood-Shadow Evasion was not particularly fast, and its concealment was useless against Yue Kongming, so there was no need to use it.

Liu Yuanchen instead employed the Forest-Piercing Escape Art, leaping among the vegetation like an ape.

He was incredibly fast, and his movements were unpredictable.

Yue Kongming smiled as he produced a thick-backed saber. Clearly, he was also a cultivator of considerable physical strength.

Liu Yuanchen brought the Wind-Thunder Staff crashing down at his head, but Yue Kongming shifted his feet lightly and narrowly avoided the blow.

Liu Yuanchen followed through with a horizontal sweep toward his waist.

Yue Kongming seemed to have anticipated his intentions and gripped his saber with both hands as he chopped at the staff.

Clang—

Blade and staff collided, and both retreated about ten feet.

Yue Kongming looked surprised. "I really underestimated you. I thought Senior Zhao had not taken you as a disciple for long, so you could not have learned much of the Eight Desolations Pavilion's methods.

I never expected your Astral Force to be so pure.

Even your Azure Ape Forest-Piercing Technique is so well-practiced.

It seems that defeating you at the same realm will truly take some effort."

Liu Yuanchen smiled. They were a few miles north of Yujin Mountain and only a little over a hundred miles from Bluestone Mountain.

Every hundred breaths or so, the Spirit Realm could feed back a strand of spiritual power.

It was not much, but in a battle between evenly matched opponents, even a slight difference in spiritual power could alter the final outcome.

"In my opinion, you should use your Ninth Qi-Nourishing Layer cultivation.

If this is all you can do, then you are bound to lose this battle."

Yue Kongming sneered. "You are merely evenly matched with me in physical strength and techniques. Beyond that, I have many methods I have yet to use."

Before he finished speaking, his speed suddenly surged, and his entire figure became indistinct.

Then, his figure vanished completely. He could not be seen with the naked eye, and even Divine Sense could not detect the slightest trace of him.

Liu Yuanchen closed his eyes and used his Divine Sense to sense the life force of the surrounding vegetation.

The plants here grew thickly. Within a radius of sixty zhang, there was a sea of green everywhere.

Normally, anything other than vegetation entering that range would block the green light and leave behind a shadow.

Yet at this moment, Liu Yuanchen could not find Yue Kongming's figure within his perceptions.

There was only an eerie object constantly moving through his senses.

This object did not block the green light at all. It was like an uneven sheet of transparent glass.

When he sensed the vegetation through that object, the plants appeared distorted.

Liu Yuanchen was certain that this thing which distorted the vegetation was Yue Kongming's doing.

Suddenly, that thing rapidly approached him and leaped high into the air.

Liu Yuanchen had been prepared. He swung his staff at the thing.

Clang—

Another full-force collision. Liu Yuanchen redirected the impact into the ground and only took two steps back.

Yue Kongming was forced to reveal himself. With no foothold in midair, he was blasted five or six zhang away.

After landing, his face was filled with astonishment. "My method can completely evade detection by both the naked eye and Divine Sense.

Even Sea of Qi Realm cultivators cannot sense it at all. How did you see through it?"

Liu Yuanchen chuckled. "If I had no abilities at all, why would my master have accepted me as his disciple?

As for my methods, that is a secret.

Just like yours—they are truly strange.

In the blink of an eye, you can casually evade a fatal strike.

That is not something a first- or second-tier escape technique can accomplish."

"I still have methods I haven't used. Shall we try again?"

Yue Kongming sneered and did not use his concealment technique again.

With saber in hand, he charged directly at Liu Yuanchen.

Liu Yuanchen swept his staff horizontally. Yue Kongming crouched to evade it, and the staff passed almost right over the tip of his nose.

To accomplish that, he clearly had an extremely precise grasp of distance.

Yue Kongming took the opportunity to close in, swinging his saber at Liu Yuanchen's neck.

Suddenly, a shield appeared out of thin air. It was the Azure Vine Shield Liu Yuanchen had bought from Liu Qingyuan.

Yue Kongming's slash struck the Azure Vine Shield solidly.

Liu Yuanchen raised the Wind-Thunder Staff and smashed it down at his head.

Yue Kongming was startled. He used that eerie technique again and retreated backward.

But the moment he landed, a large tree bent its trunk, and several thick branches smashed toward his head.

Yue Kongming rapidly retreated and dodged the strike.

"The Azure Elixir Sect's Ten Thousand Woods Become a Forest. You saw through my figure earlier by relying on Ten Thousand Woods Become a Forest, didn't you?

This spell has considerable potential. Among first- and second-tier spells of the Qi Refinement Path, it is one of the most promising.

Unfortunately, the Ten Thousand Woods Become a Forest held by the Azure Elixir Sect is only the most basic version.

If you think you can defeat me with this, then you are dreaming—"

Before he could finish, terror appeared on his face. "What the hell is this?"

At that moment, one tree after another seemed to come alive. Their branches moved as flexibly as human arms and swung at him.

More than a dozen trees were attacking at once. Caught in their midst, Yue Kongming was like a man being beaten by more than a dozen burly men.

Nor was that all. Trees in the distance released sheets of leaves that shot toward him like flying knives.

Yue Kongming moved like a ghost, using extraordinarily strange movements to evade every branch.

As for the leaves, whenever they flew before him, their trajectories would always veer aside.

Liu Yuanchen recalled the abilities Yue Kongming had displayed earlier. His steps had clearly been slow, yet his speed was incredibly fast.

When Liu Yuanchen had attacked him the first time, that staff should have struck the back of his head.

But just as the staff was about to land, the scene before Liu Yuanchen's eyes had distorted slightly.

Then Yue Kongming had evaded that attack in an instant.

His earlier method of concealing himself could evade not only the naked eye but also Divine Sense.

Even Liu Yuanchen's ability to sense the life force of vegetation could not directly capture his figure.

Putting all these strange details together, Liu Yuanchen formed a guess.

"You're only at the Ninth Qi-Nourishing Layer, yet you can already wield spatial methods."

Yue Kongming froze for a moment upon hearing that, but quickly regained his composure.

Seeing his reaction, Liu Yuanchen could confirm that his guess was correct.

If it was a spatial method, then everything made sense.

As long as Yue Kongming could distort a small patch of the surrounding space, evading attacks and Divine Sense detection would be effortless.

He appeared to move slowly while actually traveling at astonishing speed, similar to Shrinking Space to Inches—the most famous spatial method of legend.

After evading every attack, Yue Kongming retreated more than ten zhang away.

He sneered. "I truly did not expect you to cultivate Ten Thousand Woods Become a Forest to such a level.

But the Azure Elixir Sect's Ten Thousand Woods Become a Forest has a major flaw.

The greater its range and the more vegetation it controls, the greater its spiritual power consumption.

I can still evade attacks like these, though it will take some effort.

How much longer can your spiritual power last?"

Liu Yuanchen smiled. "That is true. Spatial methods have immense uses in both offense and defense.

A spell like Ten Thousand Woods Become a Forest naturally amounts to nothing."

"You used spatial methods to distort the flight paths of those leaves.

When you concealed yourself, you also used distorted space to avoid my detection.

The only things I have seen that might be connected to spatial methods are storage bags.

I truly have no confidence in defeating you."

Seeing that Liu Yuanchen refused to take the bait and stubbornly focused on the matter of spatial methods,

Yue Kongming did not deny it further. "Since you have already guessed, there is no point in continuing to conceal it. My methods are indeed related to space.

With spatial methods, even Sea of Qi Realm cultivators may not be able to defeat me.

Will you admit defeat directly, or—"

Before he could finish, more than a hundred leaves shot toward him.

At the same time, the surrounding trees began their assault again.

Even the low grass and plants on the ground stretched out their branches and leaves, trying to entangle his legs.

With his spatial methods, Yue Kongming could pass through a forest of ten thousand trees without a single leaf touching him.

This wave of attacks lasted for the time it took to drink half a cup of tea.

Yue Kongming was relaxed at first, but gradually began to struggle. Sweat even beaded across his forehead.

In the end, he did not dare continue tangling with the vegetation and leaped back more than twenty zhang.

He panted for quite some time. "What kind of monster are you? You controlled the vegetation within a radius of twenty zhang for half the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, yet you are neither flushed nor out of breath?

Even if Sea of Qi Realm cultivators used Ten Thousand Woods Become a Forest, they could only make the trees move slightly.

But the trees you control are like people, swinging their arms to hammer me.

It seems you have quite a few secrets too!"

This was naturally the effect of the Heaven-Reaching Divine Wood Technique. Aside from commanding all vegetation, it also increased his own strength in places where vegetation grew abundantly.

Liu Yuanchen chuckled. "You said it yourself—Ten Thousand Woods Become a Forest has great potential. I merely developed a small portion of that potential.

Even if word got out, it would not be a big deal.

Compared to spatial methods, it is nothing worth mentioning.

I already told you that if you wanted to defeat me, you would need Ninth Qi-Nourishing Layer cultivation.

So, do you still want to make me drink the forfeit?"

Yue Kongming waved his hand. "A loss is a loss. I am not so low as to bully others with my cultivation.

Your Ten Thousand Woods Become a Forest is too strange. I cannot defeat you.

But with my spatial methods, if I focus on escaping, you cannot catch me either.

Let us call this match a draw."

"I can offer some things in exchange for information."

Hearing there was profit to be made, Liu Yuanchen beamed. "You should have said so earlier. This was business to begin with, so why bother with all that fighting?"

As long as it did not threaten the interests of the Azure Elixir Sect and the Eight Desolations Pavilion, they could take their time discussing it."

Just moments ago, he had been ready to fight and kill, yet now he had suddenly become extremely amiable.

This change left Yue Kongming somewhat unable to adjust.

After steadying himself, he transmitted through Divine Sense, "Over a month ago, the Demoncloud Sect set an ambush at Jintong Mountain. The Azure Elixir Sect discovered them and sent people to surround and attack them. Among the Demoncloud Sect cultivators was an ape-man Half-Demon. Do you know where he went?"

Liu Yuanchen nodded. "I know. I was there as well and even fought that ape-man."

Yue Kongming's eyes lit up. "Where did that ape-man go afterward?"

Liu Yuanchen held out a hand. "Bring me something worthwhile. I don't want Spirit Stones; I'm not lacking in those things. I'm rather curious about your spatial methods. Even Condensed Origin Realm cultivators cannot use spatial techniques. You're only in the Qi-Nourishing Realm, so how did you manage it?"

Yue Kongming shook his head repeatedly. "This is a means of saving my life. How could I reveal it?"

Liu Yuanchen smiled. "You don't need to explain it in too much detail. Just tell me how you accomplished it. Did you rely on a treasure, or some secret technique?"

Only then did Yue Kongming nod. "Strictly speaking, this method should count as a secret technique. It is simply a rather special one, requiring the cooperation of a spatial Immortal Seed. Without a spatial Immortal Seed, obtaining the secret technique would be completely useless. My Immortal Seed is related to space. By cultivating this secret technique, I can awaken the Immortal Seed's special ability. Moreover, with my cultivation, I am still unable to employ overly powerful spatial methods. The spatial techniques I used to contend with you today were also aided by the power of a treasure."