Chapter 1146: Utterly Powerless
Once a dispute over the Great Dao begins, a life-or-death battle becomes like two armies facing off—an arrow nocked and forced to fly, with no room for surrendering without a fight or yielding the path.
When Jiang She pulled out that Po Zhen spear, Chen Ping'an immediately produced a sword immortal banner he had obtained from Li Zhen years ago and thrust it heavily into the ground. The banner, which had only recently been refined into a life-bound object, had previously been dared only as a mid-level refinement. Chen Ping'an had placed it atop the "Mountain Shrine" made of five-colored soil, but now he had opened a separate life-bound grotto for it. From within the banner, eighteen sword immortals floated out—silver-eyed, ethereal in form—their "Dharma robes" all formed from refined talismans.
Jiang She's robust figure transformed into a rainbow light. On the ground, the Po Zhen spear trailed arcs of flowing fireflies, and those sword immortals blocking the way shattered like thin paper, without even a chance to draw their swords. Every time the spear touched a sword immortal's form, it was like a snowball bursting apart.
In the blink of an eye, Jiang She arrived before Chen Ping'an, and those golden eyes that met his gaze were truly detestable!
Chen Ping'an's mind stirred slightly as he tried to retrieve the sword immortal banner, but Jiang She shattered that strand of divine consciousness with a single thrust of his spear.
Jiang She tugged at the corner of his mouth, reached out to grasp the temporarily ownerless sword immortal banner, and casually snapped it in two.
Inside Chen Ping'an's body, which had shrunk the earth to a distant spot, a muffled thunderclap echoed.
A painstakingly refined sword immortal banner, inscribed with thousands of talismans as runes, along with a life-bound grotto, was thus rendered useless. Jiang She knew this kid still had plenty of other life-bound objects refined on him. Which ordinary cultivator would dare pursue such quantity in refining life-bound objects so recklessly? If all battles could be won by relying on the sheer number of dharma treasures, wouldn't every cultivator who had lived for thousands of years have hundreds of life-bound objects? Still, Chen Ping'an's approach wasn't wrong. Being half of a "one," his innate foundation was excellent—famished but unafraid of overeating. If he had another two or three hundred years of cultivation, he could open all the thousand-plus qi mansions in his body and station a life-bound object in each. By the time he ascended to immortality, he might even find the heavenly tribulation insufficiently fierce. That would be an unprecedented and remarkable method. Unfortunately, he had run up against himself.
Jiang She shook his head and warned, "Do you think such patchwork items are enough to test my depth of Dao power? I advise you not to embarrass yourself further. Why not show your real trump card?" As he spoke, Jiang She was unstoppable. His Po Zhen spear thrust straight at Chen Ping'an's chest. Instead of retreating, Chen Ping'an stepped forward, letting the spear pierce through his chest. Twisting his wrist, he instantly raised a thunder formation built from stacked formations, interwoven with lightning like dragons and snakes slithering. He hurled the thunder formation like a punch, smashing it against Jiang She's face. Pressing down hard, the entire formation clashed with Jiang She's dense true qi, instantly turning to powder. It struck Jiang She's head, causing it to sway slightly. Dragging his spear, he retreated, not forgetting to twist it, tearing a huge hole in Chen Ping'an's chest.
Backing off a dozen paces, Jiang She stood with his spear planted.
Truly an exceptionally pure and condensed divine being's body, combined with the realms of Cloud Water Body and Water Essence, the wound on his chest healed at a visible rate. Two daggers slid out from his sleeve, and Chen Ping'an gripped them lightly.
One was a Caozi dagger, inscribed with the words "Morning Dew," but its true name was "Zhuolu." The other, inscribed with "Evening Glow," was named "Ge Deer" by Chen Ping'an. Barely dodging a spear thrust aimed at his neck, Chen Ping'an closed in with the daggers. A brilliant Big Dipper pattern appeared on the ground out of thin air. Jiang She was slightly surprised. His second spear also missed, failing to split that fellow from head to toe. It turned out Chen Ping'an had used some unknown secret method, delivering daggers from both Yaoguang and Yuheng simultaneously—both real, both true—stabbing toward the temple on one side of Jiang She's head. At the same time, the stars shifted silently, and Jiang She's position happened to land near the Kaiyang star position. Jiang She chuckled. If his earth-shrinking speed wasn't enough, he had to rely on such flashy tricks to compensate for the disadvantage.
Even supplemented by the formation pattern, with the Daoist's step pattern and earth-shrinking supernatural power, his speed was still so slow.
When a person is inadequate, even if you fully exploit the advantages of time and place, it's all in vain. Jiang She was too lazy to even move his divine position. He simply turned his head slightly, dodging one of the Evening Glow daggers, then raised his hand to meet the dagger inscribed with Morning Dew. That Caozi dagger, with its long history and legendary tales, shattered inch by inch, crumbling like jade chips.
Then he reached out, grabbing Chen Ping'an's face with five fingers, and twisted his wrist, flipping Chen Ping'an onto the ground in retaliation.
The earth shook violently. Chen Ping'an was embedded in a crater, surrounded by countless cracks. Jiang She raised his foot and stomped hard toward the fellow's heart. Chen Ping'an's form instantly scattered into eighteen sword lights, reassembling in the distance. Jiang She seemed disdainful of pursuit, only slanting his spear. Where the tip of Po Zhen directed, a majestic Dao power condensed into an arrow and shot through the air. Chen Ping'an's form exploded again, a bowl-sized hole appearing in his abdomen—a true "empty stomach." This time, the wound healed noticeably slower.
Chen Ping'an's face was expressionless, but a hint of confusion flickered in his eyes. How could Jiang She's body be so fast?
One must know that since Jiang She pulled out the Po Zhen spear, he had not yet used any military supernatural powers, nor any kind of immortal techniques. That is to say, Jiang She had been fighting purely with a martial artist's physical body. Moreover, this battlefield ruins was already naturally suppressing Jiang She, the first ancestor of the military who had slain a god. A swordsman's life-bound flying sword was already the special case least affected by the long river of time, hence the saying "one sword breaks ten thousand methods." Since Jiang She hadn't activated his life-bound supernatural powers, being in this military realm, how could he completely ignore the obstruction of the long river of time? Most importantly, Chen Ping'an had long activated his life-bound flying sword, Caged Sparrow, so Chen Ping'an, seated in the realm, moved like a boat with the wind and current. But Jiang She here was like being in an invisible, frozen glass realm—his movement was far slower than a boat going against the current, and it most obstructed the flow of his soul and the qi within his body.
Damn it. No wonder Jiang She was strong. Really strong.
If Jiang She, who had not yet returned to his peak, was already so formidable, what about the Dao Ancestor, who had been firmly in the upper hand ten thousand years ago?
No wonder earlier in the Night Boat, Bai Jing had mentally warned him that back then, when the two armies faced off, the generals on both sides, like in later historical romances, had fought each other in front of the ranks. The Dao Ancestor had been pestered relentlessly by Jiang She, even fighting until real anger flared.
Jiang She advanced slowly, smiling. "Those in the Flying Ascension realm have no idea of the magnificence of the fourteenth realm; martial artists at the Ultimate realm find it even harder to comprehend the weight of the eleventh realm of martial arts."
The world suddenly darkened, like clouds covering the sun. Jiang She raised his eyes slightly, seeing a white jade lingzhi mushroom as huge as a mountain, smashing down heavily toward him.
Jiang She only glanced sideways, not pausing his steps. He pulled back his fist and casually threw a punch, easily shattering the jade mushroom. A torrential rain of white jade scattered wildly across the ground.
"Didn't the Sword Bearer tell you? Since ancient times, those who sought immortality as qi refiners have never been exceptions. They are all just cupping and drinking from the long river of time—water thieves, nothing more." As Jiang She walked slowly with his spear, another strange phenomenon emerged from the side. A flying sword shaped like a great river on earth, fierce and surging, crashed into him like a breached dam. The river water, imbued with surging sword intent, struck like a pillar in the middle of the current, stirring up ten-thousand-zhang-high mist. After a moment, Jiang She walked out of the flying sword's water screen, which concealed a Dao meaning of "du" (channel), completely unharmed. But in front of him, a vast expanse of ground turned into a huge, azure-green lake, its waves vast and boundless. Jiang She saw through the trick at a glance—it was a small realm imitated and refined from swords. After major refinement, the refiner could shape it at will as a decoy. The true roots of those two swords were actually the two short dragon swords from Chen Ping'an's Water Mansion "Longqiu," inscribed with the characters "du" and "hu" (lake).
"Among the so-called countless grotto-heavens and Dao fields in the world, which one is not built beside water? So-called Dao cultivators, who are not maggots clustering on the corpses of gods? We martial artists have no such flaw."
Jiang She walked leisurely on the water surface. Each step he took on the emerald-green, mirror-like lake surface forcibly suppressed the sword intent beneath the water, preventing it from rising like a dragon.
Another miniature flying sword, disproportionate to the river and channel, lurked silently and insidiously approached, but was still only knocked away by Jiang She's spear.
If it weren't for this flying sword carrying a trace of demonic qi, in the midst of the lingering echoes from the earlier water screen dispersion, Jiang She might have discovered its trail even later.
It was the life-bound flying sword "Ji" of the Zhengrong Sect's demonic swordsman. Just now, the flying sword was struck by the spear tip, sparking flames, and turned to ashes on the way.
Such was the might of the Po Zhen spear. If the item refined was not of high enough quality, even slight contact would shatter it.
Pity for him again. If he were facing an ordinary Flying Ascension cultivator, with all these messy spells and magical powers, as an Immortal facing a Flying Ascension, he might even gain the upper hand?
In an instant, above Jiang She's head, the daylight scene turned into night. The starry sky shone brilliantly, revealing a twenty-eight lunar mansion pattern rich in Dao meaning. Jiang She focused and looked carefully. It seemed to be refined from a real object as the formation's core, plus twenty-eight talismans of extraordinary material, "painting" lifelike painted divine images of the twenty-eight mansions. Jiang She found them somewhat familiar. He remembered—it was from the Jade Emperor Temple in Jin City, Gu Zezhou, in the Qingming Heaven. It was as if Chen Ping'an had "invited the gods" and moved them all here, the deities returning to their positions, each seated in their own heavenly mansion. A slightly odd thing was that outside the star chart, there were also signs of the sun and moon coexisting in the same sky, giving the impression of a patchwork assembly.
The star chart formation above his head was only cycling on its own, always in a state of readiness without any sign of attack, so Jiang She temporarily ignored it.
Whether it was a scarecrow facade, or a trump card Chen Ping'an thought could decide the outcome, it couldn't be a mere decoration wasting spiritual qi—he would know when it "landed."
The spender wasn't in a hurry, so Jiang She, watching the show, would only be more patient.
"Pity you haven't succeeded in either martial arts or swordsmanship, lacking 'purity' in both. How pathetic. Instead, your own divinity, which you regard as your greatest Dao enemy, is the only thing with a chance at purity. Even more pathetic."
With a large lake blocking the way, Jiang She disdained to go around. He walked straight into it, stepping onto the emerald-green mirror surface, soft as mud. The full lake of sword intent, restless and eager, was forcibly suppressed.
Even a proud man like Jiang She had to admire inwardly: how old was this Chen Ping'an? He had already amassed so many possessions.
"What do you eat? You eat martial fortune, spiritual qi, dharma treasures, gold essence coins, dragon-slaying platforms, etc. Everything is eating a meal before decapitation, and in the end, it all becomes a wedding dress for divinity."
"Listen to my advice—you can't contain it. In this tug-of-war, the outcome is already decided. Struggling is futile. Better admit defeat and lose half. Allowing divinity to fully unfold—isn't that a kind of freedom?"
"Fight if you're fighting, Daoist. Don't chatter."
At some point, Chen Ping'an had donned a Daoist's attire: a lotus crown on his head, a green gauze Dao robe, a white whisk in his left hand, and a miniature imitation of the Jade Capital pagoda in his right. His entire body was thick with Dao qi, almost tangible, radiating dazzling purple and yellow brilliance. Behind him appeared two radiant wheels of the sun and moon.
Finally speaking, he teased Jiang She.
In the palm of "Daoist" Chen Ping'an hovered the imitation: a Jade Capital with five cities and twelve towers, each with slender rays of treasure light flowing, and green book secret manuals emitting bursts of Dao rhythm light. Jiang She was both amused and angered by the remark. In his field of vision, from a pavilion with emerald-green glazed tiles in the lake's center, a white-robed swordsman emerged as if warming wine for a guest. He walked out of the pavilion with his sword, boldly laughing, "Good man, your skills are impressive. State your name, drink with me, and then you should go up the mountain to join the fraternity."
Jiang She found it utterly inexplicable. Without wasting a word, he lunged forward, raised his spear, and shattered the swordsman apparition blocking his way on the spot.
Though it was an apparition, from Jiang She's perspective, if it were an ordinary martial arts grandmaster at the Ultimate realm facing it, it would cost no small effort to defeat.
Jiang She quickly understood the mechanism and commented dismissively, "An eleventh-rank martial artist conjured out of thin air—useless for anything important."
The Daoist Chen Ping'an smiled. "So many words, just diminishing your own demeanor as a master. Learn more from me, Daoist. I've long comprehended the principle of preserving spirit."
He flicked his whisk toward Jiang She and tossed out a line, "A violent brute like you, a rebel against the Great Dao—dare to act fierce? Submit and die."
Jiang She couldn't help but laugh. If throwing a punch at him was acknowledging his lineage, then you, kid, using this supernatural power of "ghost troops passing through borders" were determined to change your surname to Jiang? On the lake, troops were being arrayed. Roughly estimated, there were hundreds of thousands of ghost soldiers and spectral beings, each forming formations, raising large banners. There were leading generals in armor holding weapons, or seated in military tents. For a time, the lake echoed with the clang of ghostly armor, the rhythmic pounding of hooves, and the drumbeats like thunder, roaring into the sky. The aura of slaughter coalesced, forming thick black clouds in the air. On each floating, ink-like sea of clouds, countless divine warriors in precious armor gathered like locusts and ants, innumerable.
Jiang She, spear in hand, walked straight into the pavilion without any suspicion. He downed the pot of steaming warm wine in one gulp, wiped his mouth, and nodded appreciatively. Good wine.
He casually threw the wine pot aside, walked out of the pavilion, and said calmly, "Battle formation slaying."
If before, Jiang She's spear breaking formations was the martial artist's path of "one force subduing ten," then this time it was the true "words become law." The two words "battle formation slaying" rolled like heavenly thunder, filling heaven and earth. The ghost soldiers on the lake and the divine generals in the clouds—millions in number—not a single one escaped.
In an instant, they were all dismembered. Black smoke billowed across heaven and earth, wails filled the wilds. Listening carefully, it seemed countless women's mournful sobs rose and fell.
Jiang She paid no heed. One who uses troops would not care about such dust that scatters with the wind. If one uses troops without an iron heart, their Dao heart would have long crumbled under the burden.
"Daoist, please stop a moment. Take some time to read a book."
The Daoist flicked his sleeve, unfurling a long historical scroll. Everywhere were fresh battlefields of slaughter or ancient battlefield ruins, dead and lifeless.
After manifesting a volume of "military text," Chen Ping'an lightly tossed his whisk toward Jiang She.
The whisk suddenly scattered, turning into countless long threads of causality that actively entangled the manifestation body of that first military ancestor, which had never shown itself until now.
Each thread bore thousands of fierce ghosts and lost souls.
Jiang She frowned slightly. His expression lost some of its earlier confidence. "Petty heretics—dare to hope to erode a golden body?"
The manifestation behind him immediately showed signs of shattering those golden threads.
"Is Jiang She not also a heretic?"
At the same time, the Daoist Chen Ping'an brought his two fingers together in a mudra before him, spoke true words, and smiled: "I shall destroy it, to act on behalf of Heaven's way."
Jiang She's shoulders moved slightly. The golden manifestation behind him blazed with light. The threads were washed over by thick, golden light, quickly turning into decayed ashes that fluttered to the ground.
Chen Ping'an watched this scene calmly from afar, not particularly surprised. Military cultivators were indeed among the qi refiners least concerned with causality.
Probably irritated by Chen Ping'an's series of moves, Jiang She thrust his spear into the ground beside him again, brought his palms together, and made a simple twisting gesture.
Scholars from the Hundred Schools, when doing great studies, had disagreements about whether the Heavenly Dao rotates left or right.
But to Jiang She, such scholarship was far too boring.
However I want the Great Dao to rotate, so it shall!
Heaven and earth both tilted, like a millstone grinding, unstoppable. All living beings and things within were ground to powder, reduced to ashes of tribulation, scattered like flying dust.
Sure enough, the entire scroll before Jiang She was easily torn apart in an instant. The lake under his feet vanished without a trace. Not only that, but the whole world showed visible distortion.
Having thrown the scroll and whisk and spoken the boast "act on behalf of Heaven's way," Daoist Chen Ping'an squinted, watching sidelong.
His fundamental grottoes for the five elemental life-bound objects, plus ten additional grottoes found from the Storehouse Mountains as support—a main with two attendants, totaling fifteen life-bound acupoints.
This meant that during his seclusion in the Fuyaolu Dao field, Chen Ping'an had already refined an extra ten life-bound objects—and this was far from the true total.
However, he had been obstructed many times by the unknown fourteenth realm sneak attacker, forced to repeatedly exit seclusion, wasting too much time.
This caused the matter of refining life-bound objects to be somewhat rushed. He omitted refining several key treasures, or failed to refine them to the peak of perfection, so the overall effect didn't meet expectations.
Chen Ping'an had thought these obstacles were insignificant, but he hadn't expected to face Jiang She just a few days later.
Earlier, Chen Ping'an's thinking was simple.
His work in the Immortal realm, besides refining swords, consuming gold essence coins, and searching for dragon-slaughtering stones to continuously improve the rank of his two life-bound flying swords, was nothing more than consolidating his Dao foundation and increasing Dao power.
He could simply refine many dharma treasures and achieve multiple goals at once.
Like in the marketplace—no tricks needed, just wild punches to beat an old master.
In mountain duels, he could directly overwhelm the opponent with quantity, simply smashing them with treasures.
A simple idea, but it required extremely complex and tedious steps to lay the foundation.
Ultimately, what he sought was a unique method of ascension to achieve longevity.
That's why he transmitted the Dao to Daoist Ding, protected the Dao, observed the Dao, and witnessed the Dao.
Daoist Chen Ping'an looked up at the sky.
The barrier of the Azure Heaven's Great Dao was like a wall, the sun and moon on the same wall, the Dao unable to go out, trapping countless heroes and Daoists through the ages.
The true form of the star chart in the sky was a square, short-distance object of an ancient inkstone carved with the sun and moon on the same wall. On the back of the inkstone were carved the pillars of the twenty-eight mansions.
Obtained from Zheng Juzhong, used to hold a few hundred gold essence coins. In the battle outside heaven, Chen Ping'an, with the lowest cultivation, was actually responsible for overseeing the core and hosting the grand formation's operation. He got this short-distance object without clear instruction if it needed to be returned. During his seclusion, a flash of inspiration struck him. Using the refining method taught by Gu Can, who could even refine a single Liuxia Boat successfully, Chen Ping'an actually managed to refine this short-distance object into a small cave heaven. This verified the method's feasibility and could be called a true supernatural power.
As for the talisman-drawing technique, it had a primitive, simple style of ancient Daoists, convincing enough to pass for authentic—enough to make many senior ancient real men mistake it for the handwriting of some ancient Daoist.
This was thanks to the "Ghost Talisman Drawing" book loaned to him by Li Huai, which recorded the fundamental methods of spirit-writing and inviting deities.
The items given by Yuan Lingdian from the Index Finger Peak, and the multiple imitation swords entrusted to Liu Jinglong to purchase from Hate Sword Mountain in Beijulu Continent, had all been refined one by one.
Whether the rank was spiritual tool, dharma treasure, or half-immortal weapon—whether bought or "found by chance"—Chen Ping'an refined each as a life-bound object connected to the Dao, to fill various qi mansions.
Beneath the Azure Heaven's Great Dao where the sun and moon share the same wall, this battle unfolded, each displaying their abilities. Even if Jiang She advanced like a hot knife through butter, seeming to move unhindered within the long river of time, even if he reversed yin and yang and used heaven and earth as a grindstone—it was all Jiang She reaping what he sowed, merely "grinding ink" with his Dao powers.
Ultimately, it was a situation where both sides alternated between gain and loss. In Chen Ping'an's hand was an imitation Jade Capital, and within the Nanhua City of the Jade Capital, a young Daoist wearing a lotus crown held a Six Full Seal inscribed with "Lu Chen's Decree" on its top surface. On the seal's face, thirty-six ancient gods opened their eyes simultaneously.
The scene changed. The young Daoist seemed to summon a huge manifestation, his wide sleeves fluttering as it drifted out from Nanhua City, its height not inferior to Jiang She's golden body. But Chen Ping'an shrank to the size of a mustard seed and hid in the highest part of the Jade Capital.
The Jade Capital collided with the grinding wheel of the Great Dao that Jiang She had set in motion, producing a heart-shaking creaking sound—like a chisel slowly carving on a glass surface.
After a moment, the Jade Capital seemed to forcibly block the rotation of the grinding wheel, causing the entire heaven and earth to shake with a subtle amplitude.
Chen Ping'an clasped his hands in his sleeves, his green-robed figure swaying along with the five cities and twelve towers beneath him.
Jiang She picked up Po Zhen again, gently twisted his wrist, and rotated the spear.
He changed his mind temporarily and wasn't in a hurry to smash that fake Jade Capital.
Because Jiang She saw through Chen Ping'an's scheme at first glance and didn't let the fellow get what he wanted.
If the opponent was inside the "Jade Capital," then if Jiang She forcibly broke in with his spear, it would be an excellent opportunity for Chen Ping'an to witness the Dao—using a stone from another mountain to polish his own jade.
"Thus it can be seen that Jiang She doesn't have full confidence to kill me on the spot today."
That Daoist laughed heartily, muttering to himself: "If he thought he had victory in hand, why would Jiang She care about such small gains and losses? Would he be afraid I'd learn the general route and subtle tricks of breaking into the Jade Capital?"
Jiang She rubbed his chin, finally beginning to understand the thoughts of some qi refiners. A martial artist's foul mouth was indeed annoying.
"All of you enjoy watching from the sidelines, huh? Watching me perform like a monkey?" Jiang She seemed to have finally lost patience. "Everyone, if you don't show yourselves now, your Dao companions, mountain lords, and allies really will be beaten to death by me."
He easily reversed roles by wielding the Great Dao, temporarily trapping the imitation Jade Capital and the divine Chen Ping'an. Jiang She's figure flashed backward, merging into the manifestation behind him. The manifestation reached out, grabbed the spear Po Zhen, took a few steps, and arrived before the young Daoist. With a horizontal sweep of the spear, it struck the chest of the Daoist's manifestation, sending countless jade chips flying. The Daoist staggered back, and the "man-high" Jade Capital moved with him.
Jiang She then thrust his spear into the Daoist's heart. The Jade Capital lit up with countless rays of light, converging at the point where the Daoist's manifestation met the spear tip.
Jiang She didn't pull back the spear. He stepped forward, pushing the Daoist and the Jade Capital sliding backward together.
Jiang She looked around and sneered, "Isn't this 'chest cracking open a boulder' entertaining? Spectators don't have to pay—won't they even give a shout of praise?"
"Daoist Jiang, calm down."
Inside the Jade Capital, Chen Ping'an leaned on the railing, hands in sleeves, looking up at the manifestation holding the spear, and smiled, "Daoist, have some restraint in your words—don't harm the harmony."
Even with a Dao heart as tough as Jiang She's, he was infuriated by this nonsense.
Jiang She increased the force in his hand. The tip of Po Zhen pierced into the Jade Capital.
When a martial artist throws a punch, or a cultivator fights, they always expend physical energy, blood, and heaven-earth spiritual qi. Any damage to a qi refiner's life-bound object can be said to injure the very foundation of the Dao. This is more insidious than losing decades or centuries of cultivation—it's a hidden flaw with endless consequences, like a martial artist in the mundane world developing a chronic ailment. As for injuries to the soul, mental dispersion, reduction of merits—all these easily become the site of inner demons, future obstacles in merging with the Dao. The higher a cultivator's realm, the more such seemingly insignificant flaws, mere pinpricks, become bigger than a hole in the sky. If a qi refiner thinks they can mend the Dao heart's lacks with external things after reaching a higher realm, heaven leaves no way out—well, go ahead and mend the sky.
How many life-bound objects, intimately connected to his own life and the Great Dao, had Chen Ping'an shattered today?
A flash of understanding dawned on Jiang She.
Could this guy be doing the opposite?
Look at Chen Ping'an—he had many identities, many methods, but even more hidden problems. For instance, having no yin or yang soul, he would never be able to refine life-bound characters; as both a swordsman and martial artist, he was impure in both... Suppose he assumed his human body's soul would inevitably have flaws that couldn't be mended, and so he deliberately staged a "battlefield drill" akin to "scattering the Dao." For a cultivator, "all dharmas are empty," empty the body to nurture the primordial spirit. Determined to abandon all external things, leaving only a clear Dao heart?
Damn.
The phrase "Learning increases daily, the Dao decreases daily" combined with "Heaven's Dao diminishes the abundant to supplement the deficient"?
Could it be annotated and glossed like that?!
Truly a strange and wonderful idea.
Earlier, Jiang She had commented, "A kid making a name for himself"—he had done that young mountain lord, who was both a swordsman, a martial artist, and a talisman cultivator, a disservice.
No wonder I had to inquire about your information everywhere, to avoid capsizing in the gutter. The first fight after coming out of seclusion, and I almost fell for it, making a laughingstock of myself before the friends in the temple and Bixiao.
Today's confrontation had some surprises, but ultimately too many disappointments.
Could a young man with half of a "one" only have this much Dao power?
So far, wasn't it just utter powerlessness?
The two manifestations were close at hand.
Jiang She was about to spear through the Jade Capital and the Daoist's chest.
At that moment, the Daoist, holding a Five Thunder Seal, smashed it toward Jiang She with lightning speed.
Jiang She failed to shatter it with a punch, only knocking it aside. The seal tumbled on the ground.
Smashing someone with a seal seemed reckless, completely unrefined, but it carried the fist intent of a divine being beating a drum.
Jiang She was inwardly puzzled but sneered, "Thunder loud, rain small. After all that scheming, this is your killing move?"
Chen Ping'an frowned slightly, utterly puzzled. Why had the Five Thunder Seal instantly lost most of its effectiveness? The change happened in just a moment.
This caused many follow-up moves to not come out.
He didn't think this seal alone would severely wound Jiang She, but this seal was indeed the starting point for several of his true trump cards afterward.
So this move not only surprised Chen Ping'an, but even Jiang She mistakenly thought Chen Ping'an was pulling some trick.
At the top of the tilted pillar, the green-robed Chen Ping'an, who had let divinity fight Jiang She as the enemy, for the first time stepped in to help. He took out an ancient large bow, drew it to a full moon—there was a bowstring but no arrow. With a bang, a golden light shot out, dragging an extremely long, brilliant line, like a sky-leaning sword.
Jiang She withdrew his spear, used its tip to meet that fierce sword light, and shattered the "arrow."
"Even a muddy-legged man has a cleanliness fetish?" Jiang She's face was full of mockery. "Or does he simply not dare let the divinity hold a sword?"
Putting away the long bow obtained from the Night Boat, Chen Ping'an opened his hand, translucent like mutton-fat jade. In the palm appeared a green jade short sword, no longer than an inch.
This sword embryo, obtained from Great Yue Sui Mountain, was anciently named "Little Fengdu."
The two flying swords, "Chuyi" and "Shiwu," had been in his possession for a long time, but were among the very few things he hadn't refined as life-bound objects.
Chen Ping'an remained silent.
This seemed to be the first time Chen Ping'an had fought a duel where the spiritual qi stored in all his grottoes was completely depleted.
A cultivator dueling another in combat, sparring and asking about the Dao, always costs money.
He commanded each of his already refined life-bound treasures, either attacking or defending, deploying them like troops.
But the result was either shattered by Jiang She with one blow, or pierced by the spear tip—though not instantly destroyed, they became battered and dropped in rank. In the battle outside heaven, although Chen Ping'an was a conscript, he gained much and benefited greatly for his cultivation. Just by witnessing the collision path of the two heavens, Chen Ping'an began, in the Fuyaolu Dao field, to attempt laying out a traceable green path within his own human-body heaven.
Paving roads and building bridges.
Pursuing a single realm where each sword stroke moves like Heaven's Dao.
As for the "choice to shatter all life-bound objects into one piece"—it was forced upon him by facing Jiang She.
The reason was simple: without doing this, there was no way to fight. Not only could he not confront, even stalling was a luxury, let alone probing and trying to gauge Jiang She's cultivation depth.
At the mountain peak, the green-robed true body of Chen Ping'an smiled. "See? Something went wrong. Probably a major situation in the Qingming Heaven." Putting away the manifestation, he retrieved the imitation Jade Capital, now back to miniature size, held it in his palm. Chen Ping'an tilted his head as if listening, hearing a faint crackling sound like porcelain opening lines. Ding-ding-ding, finally it collapsed. A miniature imitation Jade Capital crumbled thunderously. When the heavenly wind blew, it stirred up countless debris, falling like snow.
"One fight, barely warmed up, and the loss is already so great. Don't you feel any pain?"
Jiang She understood. He looked at Chen Ping'an's true body in front of him, then turned his head to look at the decoy at the high place. "Yes, that's how it is when divinity is in charge. No heart means no mistakes."
The two Chen Ping'ans exchanged positions.
The Chen Ping'an before Jiang She, now with the decoy removed, was the true divine half of the "one."
Around him appeared four immortal swords.
This "Chen Ping'an" rolled his neck, raised his hand, shook his sleeve, and his golden eyes actually showed a hot gaze. He grinned, "Jiang She, that 'me' is too inefficient. Honestly, I've been holding it in for a long time."
Jiang She smiled. "Same here."
Chen Ping'an had always been good at learning from others—for example, during his seclusion at the Mixue Peak of Qingping Sword Sect, inside the Changchun Cave Heaven Dao field, he had also imitated Wu Shuangjiang and copied four immortal swords.
If Wu Shuangjiang's four were second-rate originals, akin to official reproduction of official items in ceramics, bearing tribute marks,
Then after the Night Boat battle, Chen Ping'an's copies following the gourd's lead were even lower grade—both in sword material and divine intent—the folk reproduction of official items.
Scaring people in the mountains was naturally easy; in fights within the same realm, it even worked. But to use these again-imitated immortal swords against Jiang She inevitably looked like running out of tricks or jumping the wall in desperation.
Jiang She could tell at a glance the quality of those shoddy imitation swords.
It seemed not far off before he would have to use the few truly bottom-of-the-box skills.
This kid sure could pick an opponent—he directly chose Yu Dou of the Jade Capital as his 'sword question' target.
"Truly Invincible"—in today's world, it wasn't arrogant talk. It was estimated that after Yu Dou fully refined a Jade Mountain, it would be time for him to step into the pseudo-fifteenth realm.
But if one wanted to become the number one person in the world across several heavens, each had tribulations to go through.
Jiang She had his, and Yu Dou certainly did too. Presumably, the great chaos in the Qingming Heaven had already begun, turning from a peaceful world into a chaotic one. How to restore peace... that was the crux of Yu Dou's tribulation.
Looking at the young man before him, who had exhausted all schemes and means, there was no hint of discouragement in his expression.
After all, these techniques of Chen Ping'an were originally meant to deal with Yu Dou.
A pot of wine in the pavilion—did it mean something?
Jiang She couldn't help but recall that group of scholars from ancient times: spirited, passionate, not pedantic in temperament, always clear about kindness and enmity.
Jiang She raised his spear, pointing at the high place, and said lazily, "Whether Sword Bearer or half of a 'one,' can you show some real skills without all the fuss?"
"Easy."
The true body Chen Ping'an at the high place stomped his foot, instantly shattering hundreds of jin weight talismans on his hands and feet. He smiled, "To embrace the universe with this spirit, one must first shatter it into a chaotic blur."
Jiang She nodded. "Young man, you really dare to think."
The next moment, Jiang She was grabbed by the head by Chen Ping'an and slammed to the ground.