“Commander Xu has good methods.” After five minutes passed, a feminine voice rang out. Ge Qianqiu gently touched the ground and his entire body was like a kite, floating softly onto the martial stage: “Allow this Ge to receive the teaching of Fellow Daoist’s great move!”

Over the course of his floating over, his hands suddenly glimmered with two golden halos. His figure not yet falling to the ground, he flipped his palm and countless golden qi swallows swooshed towards Xu Yangyi to fiercely peck him.

“Flipping Clouds!” Following his voice, soft and tender like a woman’s, a sharp yell reverberated throughout the whole venue. No less than several hundred qi swallows covered the entire martial stage!

“Just a mere fist!” As Ge Qianqiu fell to the ground, his eyes already carried the joy of success: “I don’t believe it! If you receive this move of mine, you can’t make just a single fist!”

Xu Yangyi’s move from moments ago completely astonished him even now. Ruminating back and forth in his mind, there was only this method! Every opportunity was to be seized, a bag of tricks put to use. Xu Yangyi had said one fist, so he would force the other to make countless of fists! He didn’t believe that this commander had the gall to tell him to restrain himself on the spot!

“He’s cheating!” Several hundred qi swallows revolved around Xu Yangyi to form a golden vortex. The cultivators below who hadn’t even reacted yet collectively began to shout angrily in the next second!

“Ge Clan? Isn’t this cheating of yours really too shameless?!”

“Hehe, do you lack so much faith in yourself? It’s not enough to show this disgrace and then use a ranged-attack divine ability?”

“If the Ge Clan is selected first as a result, this Di won’t accept it!”

Elder Ge’s old face was flushed red. Ge Qianqiu hadn’t even made a sound just now, but immediately jumped over! He still thought the other had the self-confidence, but hadn’t expected Ge Qianqiu would use such an obvious cheating method!

Confronted with a qi attack of several hundred swallows, who would be able to not make a move? A Qi Condensation cultivator wasn’t a Foundation Establishment cultivator! Qi still wasn’t capable of pure outwards manifestation! All of it was “attached”! This was also the current root cause that Xu Yangyi’s body techniques and divine abilities were combined together in use!

The golden vortex became increasingly larger. Ge Qianqiu turned his nose up and scoffed towards everyone’s arguments. A king if successful and a bandit if defeated. What good was there to say?

Ding ding ding… At this time, countless sounds of clashing metal were heard from the golden swallow vortex. Everyone’s expressions were gloomy. Had action finally been taken?

“No…” Twelve carefully sensed and abruptly inhaled: “He hasn’t made a move! His qi hasn’t even stirred once… but… but…”

But… in the vortex, a spiritual pressure that commanded everyone to feel terror exploded with a rumble! Xu Yangyi was on the same level as them, all of them at the middle stage of Qi Condensation. However… that spiritual pressure seemed to have been cut off… from the body of a Core Formation ancestor! It was similar… to a person suddenly looking upon a tremendous hair. The kind of dread and mental fear that was fundamentally impossible to get rid of!

At this very moment, Xu Yangyi’s serene voice echoed from the vortex: “Ten Thousand Shadows Heavenly Punishment.”

“T-T-T-Ten T-Thousand Shadows Heavenly Punishment?!” Quan Ningyue nearly jumped up!

The bald man was the first to spread his mouth wide open, looking incredulously at the golden vortex. Elder Ge believed himself to have misheard it. It was unknown how many people who clearly understood this move had their chin almost drop to the floor!

This was a scam, right…? You’re kidding me, aren’t you? Weren’t cheaters unable to draft outlines nowadays?

The instant that Ge Qianqiu heard this name, the pores all over his body tightened! The Qi Condensation realm was insufficient to fill his eyes, but faced with a Core Formation ancestor’s divine ability… he… was at fault! Ensuingly, he immediately relaxed, only then becoming aware of the cold sweat that wet his entire body.

“Scared me to death…” He took a long and deep sigh: “I thought he really was.... W-w-w-what is this?!?!?!” A second later, his spirit departed his mortal coil! Not only that, everyone’s bewildered expressions had converted into shock, not even needing a tenth of a second.

The sky had gone dark. Each person clearly saw that the shadows beneath their feet… had been stripped from them.

“This… This… This is…” Zhao Wuye sluggishly watched his own shadow leave his body and rush frantically towards the golden vortex. It seemed to leave together with his thoughts, as well.

Swish! Swish! Swish! In a twinkling, endless shadows all condensed in the air. At this moment, formless and incorporeal shadows appeared to possess substance! In the blink of an eye, the sky above was an expanse of blade, spear, sword, and halberd, so dense that wind couldn’t pass through. Hatchet, battle-axe, hook, and trident, the eighteen martials arms, all kinds of weapons beneath the sun! [1]

Merely… all of them were brimming indistinctly with a terrible black qi! The present venue was like a funeral hall! A domain of deathly stillness! None dared give voice! A Core Formation master’s divine ability had been reconstructed! An identical likeness!

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Without giving anyone time to react, the weapons launched towards the qi swallows like raindrops! In the wake of a whizzing sound, any swallow that ran into a weapon was transformed into flying ash in a split second!

Boom! A violent qi wave suddenly erupted from where Xu Yangyi was standing! It was a black heavenly curtain! A lost paradise of shadows!

“ROAAR!!!” After everyone’s hair flew back, a several-meter-long shadow dragon appeared before their eyes. Coiling around Xu Yangyi’s surroundings, it released a snarl of a Core Formation divine ability at all the present Qi Condensation cultivators!

One who challenged the dragon’s might would be slain without pardon! Amidst the shadow dragon, Xu Yangyi wore a strange black armor. A moment ago, those swallows had pecked this surface. Surprisingly, they hadn’t even left a white mark!

“This… is a magik artifact bestowed by an ancestor…” It wasn’t known who, but after a minute of morbid silence, this phrase was said. Yet subsequently, it was silent as before.

Xu Yangyi coldly looked at the dumbfounded Ge Qianqiu. He dared to take out this magik artifact. If someone asked question questions later, he could just explain that his “friend” has allowed him to test it out. On the contrary, there was nothing to be scared of. However… in no way did he want to allow opportunistic people join his legion.

You like to cheat? Whatever, my cheating methods are much more high-end than yours! Still using a divine ability? Mediocre. A Core Formation magik artifact will tell you straight what a mobile fortress is! A qi barricade!

He deeply felt the formidable might of the Shadowlumen Armor. There unexpectedly wasn’t even a fraction of an injury from the strike of a middle-stage Qi Condensation cultivator! Furthermore… the experience of controlling a Core Formation divine ability with his own hands practically bewitched his mind like a drug!

This might… was powerful to a perverted degree! However, he pushed down on this engrossment in a fleeting moment. After all, this was an external power. Moreover… on that day, this move of Ten Thousand Shadows Heavenly Punishment had forcibly obstructed Ancestor Floating Cloud’s Six Desires Extermination!

As he faintly pondered, Ge Qianqiu had already become completely stunned. Which… director’s screenplay was this? How… could the Ten Thousand Shadows Heavenly Punishment appear?

“Fellow Daoist Ge…” At this instant, Xu Yangyi’s voice drifted over. Ge Qianqiu opened his mouth a few times, yet discovered his mouth had gone dry. He couldn’t even say a word.

However, as he felt a dagger twisting in his heart, a hoarse voice was heard from the stage below: “Commander Xu… please be lenient… The Ge Clan… concedes defeat… and will abandon this opportunity…”

On the stage below, Elder Ge who was at the late stage of Qi Condensation distantly bowed to Xu Yangyi’s figure at nearly right angle: “This business is the Ge Clan’s blame. I offer my own apologies and hope Fellow Daoist Xu can be lenient.”

Xu Yangyi nodded. Glancing at Ge Qianqiu, he faintly smiled and cupped his hands. Ge Qianqiu’s face was burning hot! Already… the other was disinclined to speak with him?

Indeed it was so. If it weren’t for Ge Qianqiu just now only acting to force Xu Yangyi’s fist, he would’ve already been a dead man. Since the other party had withdrew, Xu Yangyi naturally didn’t feel like bothering with such a person.

A weakling.

Even if a sheep’s talents were better, it still wouldn’t possess a lion’s heart! He didn’t say a thing, and the armor that covered his entire body quietly faded away. Facing towards the stage below, he cupped his hands again. There was triumph in silence over sound. [2]

This period of silence… was even longer. Before, everyone was still struggling to outdo one another. However, the the first challenger Meng Butong had been sent flying out. The second challenger Ge Qianqiu was unscathed, yet his trickery had drawn out the great killing tool of the Ten Thousand Shadows Heavenly Punishment. Whoever the third challenger, they no longer dared to rashly mount the stage.

In their hearts, many people were beginning to sound the drum of retreat. This trial… A single fist, a truly unordinary fist. This fist was too heavy. On the floor, many people were simply unable to give birth to the idea of receiving it!

“No one’s making a move?” At this time, A crowing voice was heard. A short figure slowly walked on stage step by step. Following this person’s arrival on stage, everyone’s eyes brightened. Likewise, they needed one person to be selected first! This allowed them to know that there was still an equal freak able to take on a monster such as Commander Xu!

This person… had quite the chance!

“Reddust Executioners. Twelfth-seed assassin.” Garbed in martial attire and with buzzed hair, he had covered his face with a mask from beginning to end. A slender man around 1.73 meters tall who wore camouflage from head to toe unhurriedly came on the stage. He used a scorching gaze to study Xu Yangyi: “You may call me Zhan Twelve.” [3]

Xu Yangyi’s eyes also began to shine. He would soon know whether or not an expert was making a move. This was no empty talk. As Zhan Twelve had arrived on stage, there wasn’t the slightest sound. Moreover, the other was wearing military boots!

Already used to cat-walking…? Xu Yangyi grew solemn for the first time: It’s an expert.

“Please.”

Zhan Twelve cupped his hands, and Xu Yangyi similarly did so: “Please.”

Two seconds of silence. After two seconds, Zhan Twelve had vanished! In the present venue, all cultivators’ eyes saucered. This was also their first time seeing the Reddust Executioner’s assassination divine ability!

“Shadow Dance!”

In the absence of sound or dust, Xu Yangyi’s nerves faintly pricked. Relying on his outstanding spiritual sense, he immediately discovered a gale was attacking behind him!

Its destination… was his backbone! As expected of an assassin… As the hare arose and the hawk descended, the crook of Xu Yangyi’s mouth surprisingly curved upwards. The blood in his veins has also started to finally boil.

If a cultivator’s qi sea was destroyed, qi couldn’t be utilised. If the spiritual sense was destroyed, a cultivator would die. But if the body was injured, it would likewise affect movement! If the backbone suffered damage… the entire body would be paralyzed and soften entirely!

“Starfire!” In a twinkling, he suddenly jumped upwards. In the air, he left behind several afterimages, but he clearly sensed… he hadn’t thrown off his opponent!

“Good!” Xu Yangyi raised a brow. This was the first person able to keep pace with his bodily technique!

“Then try this out.” Both his hands swiftly formed a Dao-seal: “Life Sacrification!” All of a sudden, his speed explosively increased. However, he hadn’t foreseen that the murderous will behind him, so sharp it was solid, followed like a shadow to the body!

“Chest, activate!” Following a soft cry so faint that it couldn’t be heard, to Xu Yangyi’s surprise, the murderous will oddly swiveled below him! At this moment, he was in a state of rapid forward charge. If he didn’t stop, this murderous will would cut him in half!

“Truly a sinister move, heh…” Xu Yangyi slightly grinned, yet didn’t slow down! Instead, his speed became even faster!

Wind Brandishes Traces!

But even through three consecutive increases in speed… the murderous will was actually still close on his heels!

[1] “Medicore”. Author uses English: “LOW”, but I’m not quite sure how it fits the situation. The best analogy I was able to find was a slang somewhere along the lines of “something is called high class, but is sarcastically low grade”.

[2] “Triumph in silence over sound”. Line from Tang Poet Bai Juyi. An idea of “Better being quiet sometimes versus loud”.

[3] The character for Zhan is what I translate as “Executioner” in “Reddust Executioner” Literal Chinese is “behead red dust”. Red dust is a common saying that refers to all the pleasures/things of the human world.