"Immeasurable... uh... Heavenly Venerable!" Duan De finally rolled his eyes. After a whole combo of clubbing him from behind and bricking him by surprise, he could resist no longer. His eyes rolled back as he went limp and hit the ground with a thud.
"As expected of the Tribulation Transcendence Heavenly Venerable. Still vigorous in his old age, and so healthy-he falls asleep the moment his head goes down." Qin Tian put away the wooden plaque, planted the Phoenix-Winged Gilt Trident in the ground, and wiped the sweat from his temples.
Those few short seconds had left Qin Tian tense too. This was Duan De, after all! The Tribulation Transcendence Heavenly Venerable! The Netherworld Emperor!
Those who knew nothing could beat him without a care, but knowing his origins inevitably gave one a few more reservations.
"Tsk, tsk. You know, my moves were pretty smooth." Qin Tian gave the Phoenix-Winged Gilt Trident a couple of experimental swings.
"Could it be that I was born to make a living this way?"
Were the Universe's Four Blackguards going to become the Universe's Five Blackguards?
Qin Tian hastily shook his head. "No way, no way!"
"I'm such a kindhearted... person!" Qin Tian glanced at Duan De lying on the ground, impressive bumps rising from his head. His words really lacked conviction.
The unconscious Duan De was still twitching. Whether it was a reflex or something else, Qin Tian had no idea.
"Sorry, teacher. Your power is simply too great. For my own safety, I'll have to put you through a little more!"
Qin Tian looked left and right before finally deciding to take out the formation diagrams from his Bitter Sea.
Qin Tian stacked the four formation diagrams together, turning them into something resembling a brick.
Then... bang, bang, bang!
He called him teacher with every strike, each blow harder than the last.
"I... immeasurable bloody Heavenly Venerable!" Duan De groaned in pain, beginning to wake from his stupor.
"Oh no, I've outsmarted myself!" Qin Tian exclaimed.
"Where do you hit someone to knock them out quickly again?" Qin Tian's mind worked swiftly.
"Right, the chin!"
While Duan De was still dazed.
He lined up the spot and brought the brick down again, knocking Duan De unconscious once more.
"Thank you, master, for bestowing this treasure!"
"Time to scarper!" Qin Tian picked up the Devouring Heaven Demon Lid from the ground. Without even taking another look at this half of an Emperor Weapon, he fled.
Suddenly, Qin Tian stopped, keeping one leg raised high. He silently backed up a few steps, attached the concept of his past to a stone, and aimed it at Duan De.
"A classic scene. Can't miss this!"
A long while later, Duan De slowly woke up. Sitting on the ground, he looked around in confusion.
The next moment, Duan De sprang to his feet and began searching everywhere.
"Where is it?!"
"My Demon Lid! My Emperor Weapon!" Duan De roamed the Fire Domain, even tearing up the ground to check beneath it.
"It was stolen before I could even put my mark on it!!!"
"I'm such a fool. I knew all along..."
In the end, he finally accepted reality. The Devouring Heaven Demon Lid was gone.
An "awooo" shook the Fire Domain as he let out a heart-rending howl, its grief so profound that anyone who heard it would be moved to tears.
"Immeasurable... Heavenly Venerable... fuck you!"
Beside himself with rage, Duan De stammered, unable to get a coherent sentence out. He staggered back a few steps and clutched his chest, nearly coughing up blood.
Compared with Ye Fan and the others, Qin Tian still had some scruples. He had only taken a battered bowl and left everything else untouched.
Though everything Duan De wore put together was worth less than that battered bowl.
He had not been stripped naked, yet this hurt worse than being stripped naked. Duan De had paid a tremendous price to steal the Devouring Heaven Demon Lid from one of the Ruthless Great Emperor's tombs.
From then on, whenever he encountered anything connected to the Ruthless Great Emperor, Duan De would tremble so badly that all his flesh shook.
He had only just acquired an Extreme Dao Emperor Weapon, and it had been stolen before he could even warm it in his hands. It nearly drove him mad.
Most importantly, he had just paid the price of using heavenly venerable blood to wash away the mark on the Devouring Heaven Demon Lid, and had yet to put his own mark on it.
And then it was stolen!
Stolen!!!
This was a critical blow on top of a critical blow.
After pouring in an ocean of sunk costs, he had not used it even once before someone stole it outright. The feeling left Duan De consumed with regret, wanting to slam himself into a wall.
Had he known it would be stolen, he would not have used emperor blood to wash away the mark. He would have used it as it was.
He had sewn a wedding gown for someone else, all for nothing!
"Aaaaaah..." The more Duan De thought about it, the more miserable and furious he became. He kept screaming and banging his head against the ground.
The rocks, tempered over countless days and nights by the Fire Domain's scorching essence, should have been indestructible. Yet under Duan De's iron-head technique, fueled by grief and rage, they shattered straight into rubble.
"Hmm, he's caught fire!" Through the "eye" he had left behind, Qin Tian saw a blaze that did not belong to the Fire Domain.
White smoke streamed from Duan De's nose, ears, mouth, and other openings. More precisely, it was innate essence, which could also be understood as fiery anger. His Dao Palace Deities could no longer suppress it, and it erupted from his body.
Simply put, he was so angry that smoke poured from all seven orifices.
Essence surged throughout Duan De's body, all from anger. Divine power spilled out, making him look as though he were burning. Every strand of his hair stood on end, and he resembled a human torch.
"Aaaaaah!"
He rammed his head into stone pillars, spinning around where he stood and knocking down pillar after pillar.
His regret was unbearable. He wanted to end this life's reincarnation ahead of time.
Year after year, bitterly stitching golden thread, only to make a bridal gown for someone else.
The more Duan De thought about it, the angrier he became. He began running laps around the Fire Domain. Unless he vented the fury in his heart, he feared he would truly go mad.
One lap, two laps, three laps... a hundred laps.
In the end, Duan De ran a full four hundred laps before dropping onto his backside. He looked indescribably dejected, as though he had eaten a dead child, his face a sickly green.
He kept muttering furiously.
"Damn it, this Daoist's luck has hit rock bottom. I actually ran into someone in the same trade!"
"You bastard, don't let this Daoist catch you!" Duan De roared, shaking half the Fire Domain.
Finally, Duan De could hold out no longer. He spat out a mouthful of blood that shot three feet into the air, making his already pale face look even worse.
Not long afterward, the stone bearing the concept of Qin Tian's past shattered.
Elsewhere, Qin Tian smiled knowingly after watching the whole thing.
"Looks like I'll have to be more careful from now on!"
Although Duan De was something of a comic-relief character in the original story.
Looking at his history, however, he was truly extraordinary. Perhaps his talent fell slightly short of the Heavenly Emperor Trio: Ruthless, Wushi, and Ye Fan.
But he still stood firmly at the Heavenly Emperor level.
He had created the Nine-Life Reincarnation Immortal-Ascension Method himself. In one life, he had been a Heavenly Venerable who systematized the secret-realm cultivation method, hailed as the foremost venerable of all ages-the Tribulation Transcendence Heavenly Venerable. In another, he had been the Netherworld Venerable, the Origin Emperor, founding the Underworld to face the Heavenly Court from afar. He had even been Emperor Venerable's teacher. The achievements of those two lives alone surpassed ninety percent of the world's Great Emperors and Ancient Emperors.
Although he might not have attained the Dao in his later lives, someone of Duan De's caliber would certainly be stronger than an ordinary Great Emperor through alternative Dao attainment.
If someone like that devoted himself wholeheartedly to targeting Qin Tian, Qin Tian would cry too.
Of course, if given another choice, he would still arrange an intimate encounter between the brick and Duan De's forehead.
If Duan De targeted him, so be it. At worst, life would be a little harder and more tiring, while what he gained in return was a smooth road ahead.
This was an Extreme Dao Emperor Weapon, something one could encounter only by luck, never by seeking it. With this thing in hand, who would dare bluster in front of him, Qin Tian?
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