Delusion Traps the Mind! Fury Severs an Arm!

As his words fell, a familiar screen of light appeared before Li Qingshan.

[Identity lie established once more!]

[Identity: Level 99 Limit Douluo, titled Love Sword.]

[Current realization progress: 60%.]

[Tang Lie has not yet believed. Realization progress gained this time: 0%.]

Li Qingshan glanced at the screen, unsurprised. Words alone would never convince the man in front of him.

Sure enough.

Tang Lie froze for a moment, then burst out laughing. "Level 99? Brat, you really do talk big!"

He held his Clear Sky Hammer and swept his gaze over Li Qingshan, making no attempt to hide the mockery on his face.

"If you're Level 99, I'll call you my father!"

Rather than get angry, Li Qingshan smiled. "Then give it a try, son, and see whether I am."

The smile froze on Tang Lie's face. The next instant, rage nearly burst from his eyes.

"Brat, you're asking for death!"

With an angry roar, Tang Lie stamped his foot and shot forward. He raised the Clear Sky Hammer, then brought it straight down at Li Qingshan's head with a heavy rush of air!

He held nothing back in that strike.

Before the hammer had even fallen, the oncoming wind set Li Qingshan's robes snapping.

Li Qingshan looked up at the descending Clear Sky Hammer. He had already made his decision.

Since he had decided to use Tang Lie and the members of the Clear Sky Sect behind him to build realization progress, he needed to show them power convincing enough to believe in.

With Level 70 Soul Power and the Passionate Sword, he could not clash head-on with a Level 79 Clear Sky Hammer Soul Master and hope to suppress him like a Titled Douluo.

But he also possessed a wisp of a Limit Douluo's Spiritual Power. Combined with the Passionate Sword's mind-affecting Soul Skills and his ability to choose where his spatial movement ended...

Used well, those abilities could let him severely wound, or even kill, a Soul Master of the same realm in a single blow!

Tang Lie could not die yet, though. Li Qingshan was counting on him to return to the Clear Sky Sect and spread word of what happened today, building more realization progress. A living Seventh Elder would be far more useful than a corpse.

By the time that thought passed, the Clear Sky Hammer was upon him. Li Qingshan did not move his feet, but a faint ripple suddenly stirred in the air before him.

The next instant.

He vanished into thin air!

Boom!

The Clear Sky Hammer slammed down, caving in the ground beside the main road. Stone fragments and dirt flew in all directions.

Tang Lie's strike hit nothing.

His pupils contracted. He whipped around and saw Li Qingshan more than ten meters away, the silver-white sword in his hand still angled toward the ground. Hardly any dust had settled on him.

"A Teleportation Soul Skill?"

Tang Lie frowned. He had not even seen how Li Qingshan had left his spot!

Then he gave a cold snort.

"No wonder you dare act so arrogantly. So you have a trick like that."

"Let's see how many times you can dodge!"

Before he finished speaking, the seventh, black Soul Ring around him suddenly lit up.

"Seventh Soul Skill: Clear Sky True Body!"

Vast Soul Power surged into the hammer.

Dense black light enveloped Tang Lie and the Clear Sky Hammer. The already massive hammer began to swell rapidly.

The shadow of an enormous hammer took shape behind him, and even the surrounding air seemed to grow heavier.

Tang Lie gripped the hammer with both hands, his eyes cold.

He had no intention of giving Li Qingshan another chance to dodge. If he could not track the man's teleportation, he would smash down on the entire area around him!

The giant hammer rose slowly. Even the loose stones on the ground began to tremble under its pull.

"No matter how strong a hammer is, the man holding it still has to bring it down." Li Qingshan watched him, his expression growing more intent.

He turned the Passionate Sword slightly in his hand, and only his Fourth Soul Ring appeared.

"One wrathful thought ignites the heart; flames bloom along a three-foot sword."

"Fourth Soul Skill: Fury!"

Pale red flames crept silently up the Passionate Sword's silver-white blade. Li Qingshan's attributes surged, and his grip on the sword slowly tightened.

At the same time.

He instantly released that wisp of a Limit Douluo's Spiritual Power, channeling it into his Soul Skill.

The next moment, Li Qingshan's Sixth Soul Ring blazed. He murmured:

"In dreams, I meet my beloved once more; my foolish heart mistakes illusion for truth."

"Sixth Soul Skill: Delusion!"

Several nearly transparent threads of feeling extended from the Passionate Sword. Driven by that wisp of a Limit Douluo's Spiritual Power, they struck before Tang Lie could do more than sense something amiss. The scene before his eyes abruptly changed.

He saw the Clear Sky Hammer crash down in his hands. The young man who had spoken so recklessly had no chance to dodge this time and was knocked to the ground by a single blow.

Then Tang Lie dragged him back to the sect.

The disciples who had panicked earlier crowded around, their eyes full of reverence. Even Fifth Elder Tang Wei no longer frowned and called him rash.

"Old Seven, we owe this one to you..."

Relief washed over Tang Lie. The Soul Power he had pushed to its limit faltered for an instant as satisfaction filled him.

In reality, he stood rooted to the spot with the Clear Sky Hammer raised high. The anger had not yet faded from his eyes, but the corners of his mouth had already lifted without his noticing.

The Passionate Sword followed the path of mental control. Bolstered by that wisp of a Limit Douluo's Spiritual Power, Delusion, its Sixth Soul Skill, had been pushed to the extreme.

Even an ordinary Titled Douluo, let alone a Soul Saint, would have fallen for it and been held in place!

Silver light flashed in Li Qingshan's eyes. Rather than swing his sword at the giant hammer, he drew on Spatial Power again. The air before him quivered, and he vanished.

At almost the same instant.

A white-clad figure appeared out of thin air beside Tang Lie!

Less than a step separated them. Li Qingshan raised the Passionate Sword, and the pale red flames on its blade rushed toward the cutting edge.

Only then did a powerful sense of danger jolt Tang Lie out of his satisfaction.

"No!"

There was no young man lying defeated before him. There was only a flash of silver-white sword light, already upon him!

Tang Lie's expression changed sharply. He hurried to draw back the Clear Sky Hammer and defend himself, but his mind had only just broken free of the illusion. His Soul Power had not yet begun flowing smoothly again.

The giant hammer, made impossibly heavy by his Martial Soul Avatar, could not return in time. He could only force his Soul Power to gather before his chest, thickening the black light around him.

But the sword light had already fallen.

Shhk!

The silver-white blade cut through his not-yet-solidified defense of Soul Power, swept diagonally from his shoulder across his chest, and severed one of his arms in an instant.

Li Qingshan had deliberately avoided his throat and heart, but the flames of emotion on the sword still invaded Tang Lie's soul with that strike.

Then came a wave of agony.

It exploded deep inside his mind!

"Aah!"

Tang Lie let out a piercing scream. The hand gripping the hammer's haft trembled, and the Soul Power he had barely managed to maintain fell into complete disarray.

The enormous shadow of the Clear Sky Hammer shook violently. He had unleashed his Martial Soul Avatar, yet before he could complete even one swing, he lost all control of it!

Li Qingshan gave him no chance to steady his Soul Power. He whipped his sword around and slashed at Tang Lie's chest again!