Stranger Danger

“Your Break Hammer is strong in intent and not in shape. It has already reached the level of Samadhi[1].”

The Chief Libationist paid Ye Qing’s “Break Hammer” a compliment. Then, he clenched his own fist and threw an uppercut, striking at the sky.

The punch looked nothing out of the ordinary, and yet Ye Qing suddenly lost his connection to the surrounding energies and his control over Break Hammer. The qi was gone, the strength was absent, and the intent was unclear.

What should have been a punch that shattered heaven and earth instead became a water with no source; a tree without roots. In short, it had lost its power.

“What do you think of my punch?” The Chief Libationist asked after withdrawing his fist.

“You somehow severed my connection to the energies of the world. It is incredibly profound,” Ye Qing answered honestly.

The Chief Libationist’s grin widened. “Haha, I call this ‘Severing Energy’. It is something I invented like, just now.”

Ye Qing: “...”

Well, what did he expect? The Chief Libationist was a living legend. It wasn’t surprising for a man like him to break his “Break Hammer” with a casual punch.

“Young friend, I can see that your mind is severely exhausted. If you attack again, it won’t do your martial way any good.” The Chief Libationist asked, “How about we stop here?”

“Thank you for your concern.” Ye Qing saluted. “But this junior still has more tricks to try.”

Previously, he had forcefully used Break Hammer and emptied his mind to punch through the Inkstone of Learning. Now, he was using it again in an attempt to overcome the Chief Libationist. Naturally, his condition was even worse than it was before.

In fact, if he was anyone else, overdrafting his mind to the extent he did would have majorly impacted his martial cultivation, assuming they could recover at all. However, Ye Qing wasn’t concerned because his mind was purified by the Profound Yellow Mother Qi. So long as he still had Profound Yellow Mother Qi, and so long as he didn’t experience a mental death, he could always recover without impacting his martial foundation.

That said, going too far is as bad as not doing enough. Therefore, Ye Qing wasn’t planning to overdraft his mind again.

He wasn’t giving up, of course. On the contrary, the show was just beginning.

From the beginning, his mind wasn’t his greatest strength. It was his body.

The next moment, dark yellow light surrounded Ye Qing and dyed his skin color dark. If the black canvas represented the sky beyond the sky, then the structured, dark yellow lines covering his body represented the earth. His eyes were also shining brightly like the sun and the moon.

Objectively speaking, Ye Qing did not look too different from before. Now though, his back felt as tall as a mountain, and his stature as dense as thick as the earth. He felt both unassailable and insurmountable.

“Huh…? You reforged your body using Profound Yellow Mother Qi? Is it the Profound Yellow True Body of the Earthly Sovereign Hall? But… it’s purer and more refined than the Profound Yellow True Body. How interesting!”

A hint of surprise flashed through the Chief Libationist’s face.

It was at this moment Ye Qing took a step forward—the earth seemingly singing a mysterious melody as he did—and appeared in front of the Chief Libationist in the blink of an eye.

The punch was basic, and it was infused with neither true qi nor fist intent. There was only pure physical strength.

And yet, the punch felt like it would tip mountains and rivers and flip the earth upside down, dense and heavy.

In response, the Chief Libationist swung his sleeve horizontally as if to pluck the sun and moon from the sky. Ye Qing’s thick, heavy punch landed on his sleeve like a drop of water in the sea, failing to elicit a single splash.

The Chief Libationist wasn’t done, however. A weak breeze blew, and the Chief Libationist’s sleeve stirred like rolling clouds, emitting halos of light and pushing Ye Qing’s fist away. His body was shaking a little as well.

One might have thought that they were acting if not for the fact that the ground beneath Ye Qing’s feet were shaking violently and seemingly without end.

“Huh?”

A flicker of astonishment appeared in the Chief Libationist’s eyes. The move he used to neutralize Ye Qing’s punch just now was called “Sweeping Sun and Moon”. An ultimate technique in the True Martial Sect, it was a defensive, counterattacking technique that turned one’s sleeve into a pocket world capable of “plucking the sun and moon” and “washing the world clean”. Not only could it be used to block any attack and spell, its ability to “wash the world clean” could force any opponent backward and disrupt their energies, effectively disabling them.

However, not only did his “Sweeping Sun and Moon” fail to push Ye Qing back, it only shook him a little.

To his senses, it felt as if Ye Qing had become one with the earth of this corner of the world. He was the earth, and the earth was him.

Ye Qing didn’t know what the Chief Libationist was thinking, but the technique he was using now was the Earthly Sovereign Body. The Earthly Sovereign Body was the basis of the “Earthly Sovereign Scripture” and the foundation in which he forged the Earthly Sovereign True Body. Obviously, he was a long, long way from forging the Earthly Sovereign True Body, but the Earthly Sovereign Body still boasted some of the Earthly Sovereign True Body’s power. For starters, he was beloved by heaven and earth and boasted immense virtue. As long as his feet were planted on the ground, his strength was infinite and endless.

Was there any burden one could not carry; any art one could not shake off if they were the earth? Nay.

Naturally, the Chief Libationist’s “Sweeping Sun and Moon” was no exception.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

While Ye Qing was shaking and transferring all the power contained within the Chief Libationist’s sweep down to the earth, he moved his elbow back and aimed a strike at the scholar’s chest.

This elbow strike was denser than the mountains and thicker than the earth.

In response, the Chief Libationist crossed his hands before his chest with his palms facing outward.

When a person clasped their hands with the palms facing inward, they were welcoming a guest into their homes. When it was the opposite, they were rejecting a guest and keeping them out of their homes. Such was the case for Ye Qing.

Immediately, felt as if he had plunged into a swamp. The heavens disliked him, and all of creation loathed him. Hence, they were doing everything in their power to impede his path.

A Sage commands, and the heavens obey. It was that simple.

Ye Qing was unmoved, however.

So what if the heavens dislike me? So what if all of creation loathes me?

The earth is my friend, and that is enough.

I am my body, and the earth is my soul. Our lives belong to us, not the heavens!

If the heavens seek to impede our path, if all of creation desires to stop us, then we shall shatter it all!

While holding his elbow beside him, Ye Qing stepped forward. The earth was throbbing beneath his feet like it was breathing; like it was excited. Every time it throbbed, Ye Qing’s aura would grow a tad stronger, and his eyes brighter.

Buzz!

Finally, Ye Qing’s elbow landed on the Chief Libationist’s hands. A soundless buzz rippled, and the Chief Libationist took a step backward. The radiance surrounding his body visibly dimmed, and the false sky behind his back cracked slowly like a mirror.

The Chief Libationist was retreating. Ye Qing was pushing forward.

It looked like the Chief Libationist was only one step away from him, but Ye Qing’s senses told him that the scholar was, somehow, thousands and thousands of kilometers away from him.

But so what?

My fist arms me, and my courage emboldens me. That is all I need to turn an impossible gulf into a highway!

Ye Qing planted his right foot forward and bent his knees a little like he was readying himself. Then, his right fist shot out of his waist without fear.

“Break Through”

The fist punched through countless layers of space and shattered the infinite distance. It landed right on the Chief Libationist’s stomach.

The Chief Libationist did not move. His stomach contracted and swelled, and what sounded like a toad’s croak filled the ear.

Ye Qing did not move. The earth behind him, dozens of kilometers of them, abruptly dissolved into fine powder.

The next moment, Ye Qing lifted his leg and attempted to knee the Chief Libationist in the groin.

“Where are your martial ethics, young friend?”

The Chief Libationist laughed at the audacious strike before huffing out a wisp of grandiose qi.

“Grandiose qi lives eternal,

Its oath never wavering.

Grandiose qi suppressed a thousand autumns.

And it will continue to uphold ten thousand blue skies.”

Although it was just a wisp of grandiose qi, but it felt as heavy as the sun and moon, and as dense as a thousand autumns. Caught off guard, Ye Qing sank into the ground until only his head was still outside.

“Arise!”

In response, Ye Qing growled. Dark yellow light shone brightly as earthly qi gathered within his person. He was actually going to blast away the grandiose qi that weighed a thousand autumns via pure, unadulterated strength!

1. in Indian philosophy and religion, and particularly in Hinduism and Buddhism, the highest state of mental concentration that people can achieve while still bound to the body and which unites them with the highest reality ☜