Before the system prompt had even faded, a streak of azure sword qi tore through the air! Li Chen Zhou leaned back three inches, and the sword qi grazed the tip of his nose, plowing a thirty-foot ravine into the stone wall behind him.
"Fine sword." Li Chen Zhou licked the cut on his cheek, the taste of blood blooming on his tongue. "A pity the one wielding it—"
The Blood Demon Blade suddenly let out a trembling cry like the howl of a savage ghost!
"—is too filthy!"
Blade qi swept across the arena, shearing twelve bronze lamps at the waist along its edge. Jian Wu Dao lightly tapped a broken lamp with his toes and drifted down in white robes before Xuan Ye. The jade token at his waist, inscribed with "Heaven Ranking Forty-Three," struck his sword sheath, its clear chime somehow drowning out the uproar of the crowd.
"Brother Li, wait." Jian Wu Dao ran two fingers along the blade of his sword, and the poisoned blood staining it instantly vaporized. "Killing a reckless monk will only add ten years of cultivation... Spare his life, and there will be no need to tear all ties with Shaolin."
Li Chen Zhou narrowed his eyes at this seemingly gentle swordsman. That sword qi meant to "save someone" had clearly contained seven layers of hidden force. Had he truly been struck, his collarbones would already have been pierced through.
"Sword King City's Dual Polarity Sword Sutra..." Li Chen Zhou suddenly lunged, the Blood Demon Blade chopping straight at the other man's face. "Is used like this!"
The instant blade and sword collided, Jian Wu Dao's pupils contracted sharply. This was clearly Sword King City's secret opening stance, yet the blade's momentum concealed the devouring force of the Soul Absorption Art!
Screech—
Jian Wu Dao's left sleeve instantly shattered, revealing an arm covered in sword scars. A fresh wound was seeping blood, yet strangely—the droplets flowed backward through the air toward the Blood Demon Blade!
"Brother Li's skill at stealing techniques..." Jian Wu Dao suddenly smiled, flicking Xuan Ye's Buddhist beads up with the tip of his sword. "Is even more terrifying than your blade."
The beads exploded. Amid a skyful of golden dust, Li Chen Zhou's blade suddenly slowed by half a beat.
In that fleeting instant, Jian Wu Dao had already drifted back thirty yards with Xuan Ye. A pattern of the Big Dipper appeared on the blue bricks beneath his feet. With every step back, one star lit up.
"Celestial Pivot Steps?" Li Chen Zhou sheathed his blade with a cold smile. "No wonder you dared to come save him."
Orderly hoofbeats suddenly sounded from outside the arena.
Everyone turned to see three hundred black-armored cavalry sealing off the street. Their leader raised a gilded command arrow high.
"By order of the Commander! The southern training grounds are to be sealed immediately!"
Jian Wu Dao sighed and sheathed his sword. "It seems we can only leave matters here for today."
Li Chen Zhou raised his blade and pointed it at Jian Wu Dao. "Tomorrow. I'll be waiting for you."
Just after the night watch drum struck three times at midnight, three ghostlike shadows swept over the glazed tiles of Duke Zhen's Estate. The black-clad man in the lead landed his toes atop a roof-beast ornament, the jade token at his waist marked "Heaven Ranking Forty-Three" gleaming eerily beneath the moon.
"You're certain that little devil lives in the west wing?" His hoarse voice carried a Lingnan accent, and three bone-piercing nails between his fingers glimmered with an ominous blue light.
"No mistake." His companion lifted his face covering, revealing a familiar scar from the Six Doors wanted posters. "The Soul Absorption Art's secret manual must be hidden—"
Before he could finish, the entire ducal estate suddenly shook violently! The bronze bells beneath the eaves rang without wind, startling flocks of cold crows from the trees. Before the three men could react, a black shadow had already shot into the sky like a demon god descending upon the world!
"Who goes—"
The challenge cut off abruptly. Beneath the moonlight, Li Qing Shan stood in midair, a thirty-foot-tall Vajra demon image emerging behind him. Its left eye held the compassion of a Buddha, while its right eye brimmed with the savagery of a demon. The demon-subduing vajra in its hand coiled with blood-red karmic fire, dyeing half the night sky a sinister violet-red.
"A... a Grandmaster?!" The Lingnan man's bone-piercing nails clattered to the ground. Never in their wildest dreams had they imagined that sneaking in at night would bring them face-to-face with Duke Zhen Guo, who cultivated both Buddha and demon arts!
Li Qing Shan's state was extraordinarily strange. The right half of his face was solemn and radiant, while demonic patterns covered the left. A growl inhuman in nature rumbled from his throat. "Intruders... die!"
The Vajra demon image's demon-subduing vajra crashed down. The three men frantically raised their weapons to meet it. The scar-faced man's twin hooks shattered inch by inch the moment they touched the vajra's shadow, while the Lingnan man's poisoned needles vaporized directly in the karmic fire. The thirteen coin darts thrown by the last man melted into molten bronze in midair!
Boom—
The demon-subduing vajra's force did not diminish, smashing a deep pit into the bluestone ground. The three men flew backward like torn rags, crashing through seven corridor pillars before finally stopping, blood spraying wildly from their mouths.
Li Qing Shan's demon image changed again, the demon-subduing vajra transforming into a massive blade wreathed in black flames. Seven blood-red inscriptions surfaced across the blade—it was the opening stance of Brahma's Seven Sin Blades!
"Greed, wrath, delusion, hatred, love, evil, desire..."
With every word, the blade qi swelled by thirty percent. By the time the seventh word left his lips, the great blade blotted out the sky and moon. Before its edge even arrived, the three men's clothes had been shredded, and strange sigils corresponding to the seven sins appeared across their skin!
Just as the blade qi was about to devour the three men, a blood-red figure flashed into the battle. Li Chen Zhou's hands fluttered like butterflies among flowers, tracing an arcane trajectory through the air—it was the newly unlocked Cosmic Shift!
"Letting you die like this would be too wasteful."
The three heavily injured martial artists were drawn into the air like puppets on strings. A black-hole-like vortex appeared in Li Chen Zhou's palm, and they were instantly struck as if by lightning, the essence and blood throughout their bodies pouring madly from their pores!
"Ah—" The Lingnan man's scream became a hoarse, dry howl before it could fully leave his mouth. His body shriveled at a visible rate, his skin rapidly turning gray, decaying, and cracking apart. In the end, they became three grotesque desiccated corpses.
Ding—Absorbed 45 years of inner force Current cultivation: 192 years Ding—Congratulations, Host, on successfully entering the middle stage of Rank Five Warning! Abnormal energy fluctuations detected
Before Li Chen Zhou could inspect the system prompts, a chill ran down his spine—his father's scarlet demonic eyes were staring straight at him!
"Father?" Li Chen Zhou cautiously stepped back half a pace, and the Blood Demon Blade slid three inches from its sheath on its own. Li Qing Shan was in an extremely unstable state, demonic qi boiling around him like scalding water, sometimes condensing into a Buddha's solemn visage and sometimes transforming into a savage Asura ghost.
"Chen... Zhou..." Li Qing Shan's voice shifted between solemn majesty and violent fury. "Run... quickly..."
Before his words faded, the demonic qi suddenly surged! Caught off guard, Li Chen Zhou was hurled away by the blast, smashing through three courtyard walls before stabilizing himself. Amid the shattered stones and dust, he saw his father clutching his head in agony, the Buddha-on-the-left, demon-on-the-right image behind him twisting violently.
"System! Scan my father's condition!"
The light screen flickered rapidly:
Target detected: Li Qing Shan Status: Buddha-demon imbalance (demonic qi: 78%) Recommendation: Immediately channel away the demonic qi
Li Chen Zhou gritted his teeth and leaped up, driving the Soul Absorption Art at full force. This time, he was no longer absorbing inner force, but specifically targeting that rampaging demonic qi!
The instant the demonic qi entered his body, Li Chen Zhou felt as if he were being sliced by a thousand blades. That pure demonic qi rampaged through his meridians, and illusions flooded his vision—battlefields piled with corpses and seas of blood, hells filled with endless wailing.
"Urgh—ah—"
Black blood seeped from his seven orifices, and countless tiny snakes seemed to writhe beneath his skin. Just as he was about to collapse, the Blood Demon Blade at his waist suddenly gave a hungry hum!
"Right... there's still you!"
Li Chen Zhou desperately guided the demonic qi within him toward his blade. The dark-red patterns on its body were like parched earth receiving sweet rain after a long drought, greedily devouring the surging demonic qi. The markings gradually turned violet-black, and the Taotie pattern on the guard actually opened a third eye!
Ding—Demonic qi infusion detected. The Blood Demon Blade has triggered its advancement mechanism. Current grade: Heaven-tier high grade Demonic qi infusion: 1%
When the final wisp of demonic qi entered the blade, Li Qing Shan finally regained clarity. He looked at the strange, demonic long blade in his son's hand with a complicated expression.
Li Chen Zhou looked toward his system screen:
Host: Li Chen Zhou Realm: Middle stage of Rank Five (192/240) Martial arts: Thirteen Guardian Golden Bell Shield (mastery) Three Abyssal Slashes (mastery) Soul Absorption Art (mastery), divine attribute 20% (Cosmic Shift unlocked) Thousand Faces (mastery) Soaring Illusionary Steps (mastery) Hell Soul Exchange Scripture (mastery) Wind God Kick (mastery) Inner cultivation: 192 years (calculated based on an ordinary person cultivating a basic technique for one year) Lifespan: 37 years Weapon: Blood Demon Blade (charging: current progress 1%)
"System, didn't you say Father still had half a year before he would completely lose control?"
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