Who will win?
No one could guess Chen Qing's identity at this moment, but the outcome of the hurricane was a crucial factor!
"If Chen Qing dies, how confident are you in sealing off that place?"
Inside the palace, His Majesty the Emperor looked somewhat seriously at the hurricane that Chen Qing and Xiao Mingyue were in. The view was provided by a royal spy closest to Liu Yu, located at a point of spatial distortion.
It was Gu Ying, who possessed the Zhulong Technique.
Unlike Xiao Mingyue, who was completely out of control, Gu Ying, though also completely deformed and located at the location of the spatial rift, was surrounded by black ice. She did not rush in like Xiao Mingyue, but instead stared intently at Chen Qing group outside the space with her huge eyes.
And deep within his pupils lay the Imperial Study, the very place where the Xiao Household emperor resided.
"About 70%," the empress said, a rare serious expression on her face. "I never expected Liu Yu to dare use the blood of the divine statue. Fortunately, we had a trump card planted in the body of the Zhulong beforehand, otherwise, there might have been a real problem."
"Even if Gu Ying's technique is activated, it's only at 70%?" The emperor was stunned. "That's the technique the King of Qin used to seal the divine statue!"
" The Abyssal Extreme Cold is indeed a powerful technique," the Queen said softly. "It comes from the abyss. I don't know where the King of Qin obtained this thing, or even possessed the Dao Seed of this technique. But this thing itself comes from beyond the heavens, and it is also an extremely dangerous thing. It must be used with caution, otherwise its destructive power will not be much less than that of the blood of the divine statue."
"So what?" the emperor frowned. "Even if divine blood might be leaked?"
He had personally witnessed the terrifying power of those statues. Unlike ordinary ancient ones, these things existed solely to destroy the world. For example, the one Liu Yu used, which the emperor had seen, was called "Thousand Decays," possessing the power to corrode all life and drive it to madness and destruction.
Even a floating dandelion, touched by the aura of that divine blood, would become an extremely terrifying monster, rapidly infecting its surroundings. Compared to that, the so-called zombie infection of the Ancient Insect was child's play. He had personally witnessed how, in the vast land of ten thousand miles, within just a few breaths of the divine blood landing, the world could be transformed into something he couldn't recognize, extremely terrifying and distorted. He had no doubt that, if left unchecked, within a few days at most, that thing could turn the entire world into a twisted hell!
"Yes, even if the divine blood is leaked, there are still ways to remedy it. But once the King of Qin's technique gets out of control, then the world will truly be doomed!" The Empress looked at the Emperor, whose face was cold and hard. "You need to understand your position. Ghost Domain wants is a living world. Even if it's ruined, it's better than being completely frozen to death."
"Is that so?" The emperor didn't refute it, seemingly calming down immediately, and looked at the hurricane in Gu Ying.
"So you're saying that at this point, I still have to hope that Chen Qing wins?"
"It's only temporary," the Empress said, her tone softening as she saw the Emperor was no longer being defiant. "If Chen Qing wins, that technique will only need to be tried once; it doesn't need to be used too harshly, otherwise..." The Empress gazed at where Chen Qing was.
The land of the West Sea will likely become a thing of the past forever!
It seems I really need to calm down and hone my martial arts skills from now on.
Chen Qing barely managed to fend off Xiao Mingyue's relentless onslaught, almost completely falling into a disadvantageous position. He showed none of the heroic bearing of a royal warrior. Chen Qing had anticipated this, but he hadn't expected it to be this difficult. After all, he had always been a high-ranking strategist, and his understanding of so-called techniques was simply incapable of overcoming an absolute gap in performance.
Anyone who's played games knows this: a character nerfed to the point of being useless in a version update will get utterly crushed no matter how skilled you are. Skills are only useful when the characters' abilities are roughly equal. This is true both in games and in later novels. So-called skills are utterly worthless in the face of level differences.
Chen Qing wasn't disrespectful of so-called skills, but if skills were truly absolutely effective, then men like Xu Hu, who were skilled in striking techniques, wouldn't have been humiliated by the bloodlines of third-rate families.
But at this moment, he deeply felt the terrifying gap in skill.
It's like a duel between a swordsman and a embroidery needle. No matter how weak you think your opponent is, they can always cleverly deflect your attacks, leaving you powerless. Even if they can only prick you once at close range, they can keep stabbing you.
Chen Qing was in this situation. Although he had tried to avoid the dragon scales all over his body, he was still damaged everywhere. Several gaps revealed flesh and blood. This made Chen Qing even more hesitant to fight with open and aggressive moves. However, the more timid he was, the more the situation was controlled by his opponent.
At this moment, Chen Qing's mood was extremely strange.
As a monster designer, he had spent his life working against players, using every means to make things difficult for them. But at this moment, Chen Qing felt as if the other party was a top-tier player using the most basic equipment to fight a boss on hell difficulty.
The boss can be killed in one hit, but the player is doing the ultimate challenge, preventing you from even touching him and mercilessly slaughtering him without taking any damage.
"Is that all you've got?" The voice on the other end still carried Xiao Mingyue's tone, utterly mocking. "You're such a newbie, aren't you? You've managed to use this performance like this."
Chen Qing frowned as he looked at the other person. The word "performance" rarely appeared in ancient times, and it was even less likely to appear in a metaphor for the human body. The other person's tone was like that of a player controlling a mecha.
"Judging from your tone, it seems this isn't the first time you've used a low-performance body to defeat a high-performance being. Are you a pro gamer?"
"A pro gamer." The other person paused slightly upon hearing this, then revealed a twisted smile, "It's been a long time since I've heard that term."
"But it's true, the world is getting more and more boring. Every Samsara is the same, nothing new, just symbolic distributions and inevitable endings. The early stages were more interesting; at least you could have some slightly more interesting struggles through them."
"But you're not all that great. I remember a hundred years ago, most of those so-called bloodline families' warriors were quite interesting. At least they all had excellent fighting skills. Several of them even destroyed the followers I controlled. That's what makes it interesting. What's the point of boring victories and rule?"
Upon hearing this, Chen Qing frowned even more deeply. As a designer, he felt he couldn't quite understand what the other person was saying.
However, one thing is clear: the other party seems extremely confident in their control over me!
I'm curious about something.
"Oh? Tell me about it."
"You just said that the warriors of this world destroyed your followers, which you found interesting. Does that mean that many years ago, your followers were all destroyed? Otherwise, how could they have fallen to the point where their blood was being extracted and used?"
"What do you want to say?" The other person's tone became noticeably colder.
"What I'm trying to say is, in the end, you'll still only be able to rely on your abilities to defeat people in this world, because your prized skills won't actually help you achieve anything."
"Bullshit!" the other party sneered. "You're sharp-tongued, just say what you want."
"Let's try it out." Chen Qing took a deep breath, immediately retracted the dragon scales all over his body, and the trident formed by wind elements in his hand transformed into a hurricane, which then changed into a short sword.
"I'm a newbie in this world, but I've still learned a few things." Chen Qing said, pointing to the other person, "It's from the original owner of the body you've taken over. Back in Jiangnan, when I formed an alliance with her, she stayed in Jiangnan for a year, taught me a few times, and then said I was too stupid, only passing on three sword moves to me, but I've only mastered one of them so far."
As he spoke, Chen Qing made a starting gesture.
The other party narrowed his eyes slightly and immediately sensed the origin of Chen Qing's moves from his memory. They were the Three Scorching Wind Forms created by Xiao Mingyue!
"Let's decide the outcome with one move, pro player. Let me see if you really can't cheat and still beat everyone in this world."
"You're quite the talker," the other person sneered, adopting the same stance as before. "Then let me see how well you can execute these moves you've been learning for a year."
But the moment he finished speaking, his head was severed from his body. The dazzling flames and Chen Qing's movements at that moment were completely flawless, his unparalleled swordsmanship displaying its full potential in that instant.
"You"
The head flew off, and the alien's eyes were filled with disbelief. It couldn't believe that it hadn't even reacted before it met such an end.
"You are indeed far inferior to Xiao Mingyue." Chen Qing dispelled the wind sword in his hand and said coldly, "If she were still controlling this body, she would definitely have been able to dodge this sword strike."
"Nonsense!" the other person retorted, "It's because your performance is too good, your speed too fast. That move was a hundred times more powerful in your hands! How could she possibly dodge it?"
"Now you're saying that technique can beat performance?" Chen Qing said with a mocking laugh.
"Kid." The other party paused for a moment, then let out a sinister laugh, "You're not bad, not bad at all. You've successfully angered me. I'll find you, and I'll make you wish you were dead, just like those who came after you! I can sense you're quite interesting. It's strange, though; logically, the passage should have been closed by now."
"A passage?" Chen Qing's pupils contracted, a feeling creeping into him that the world wasn't as simple as he'd imagined. "What are you talking about?"
The other party was about to reply with a sneer when he was interrupted by a cold voice, "Enough, you lost, so get lost."
The cold voice carried a strange power, causing Xiao Mingyue's consciousness to be expelled.
"How embarrassing."
The familiar voice rang out again; it was Xiao Mingyue's original voice.
Chen Qing looked at the other person. At this moment, Xiao Mingyue's head was still twisted and terrifying, but her eyes had regained their former color.
Your Highness.
"Your move is quite good," Xiao Mingyue said with a smile.
"Thank you for your praise, Your Highness," Chen Qing said with a complicated expression.
Xiao Mingyue stopped looking at Chen Qing and instead looked at another figure, the one who had stripped away the power of the idol that occupied her with just a single sentence.
She had longed for this figure for a very, very long time.
"I knew you'd come back."
Chen Qing also looked over, and saw a man in white who looked exactly like her!
Faced with Xiao Mingyue's deep affection, his cold gaze seemed unmoved. As he passed by, he simply stomped on her, crushing Xiao Mingyue infatuated gaze to dust!