White-Robed Chief

Chu Li threw another blade.

Fang Qingyang vanished in a flash and the flying blade flew through the air.

Before disappearing, he had thrown a blade at Chu Li as well.

Chu Li vanished as soon as the Light Blade shot through the air.

The Heavenly Demonic Orb dropped to his precordium in an instant, and as a boundless force surged through his entire body, his wound quickly stopped bleeding and began to close. The Heavenly Demon Body was extremely powerful, so such a minor injury was not worth mentioning.

The Life and Death Scripture was channeling a very refined form of spiritual energy from Heaven and Earth. Most of it was used to circulate his Cloud Slashing Power while the remainder went into his wound, speeding up the healing process.

Fang Qingyang sensed that his Light Blade was no different than Chu Li’s flying blade as it was only slightly faster than the other, yet Chu Li was able to neutralize it without any sign of fear. If this were to go on, he would not be able to survive either; even if Chu Li got injured.

Chu Li’s physique was very tough.

Although his blade had previously hit Chu Li directly in his precordium, he managed to stay alive. He even endured another stab from his blade and a few more Divine Light Fist attacks. If someone else were to take Chu Li’s place, the person would have died more than a few times.

Chu Li, on the other hand, was able to recover his vigor and power within seven days. Clearly, he had a rare innate talent, so he should not compete with him in this area.

Fang Qingyang’s greatest strength was his cultivation level. His inner energy from the Great Light Scripture was deep and superior to that of Chu Li.

Thus, he drew on all his energy to launch a Divine Light Fist powerful enough to kill a Grandmaster, hoping to end Chu Li as soon as possible to prevent any future trouble.

Chu Li counter-attacked with his Cloud Slashing Palm.

After a loud “bang,” their fist and palm came in contact with each other.

Then, their fist and palm seemed as if it had become glued together as they began to battle with their inner energy.

The fist force of Fang Qingyang’s Divine Light Fist rushed into Chu Li’s palm.

As the Heavenly Demonic Orb had already fallen to his precordium, it could not be used to devour the force of this fist. Thus, Chu Li had to urge his own inner energy from the Cloud Slashing Power to throw itself at the incoming force and wrap itself around it, devouring and dissolving the force as it came.

Soon, the fist force from the Divine Light Fist was devoured entirely and transformed into the most refined inner energy of the Cloud Slashing Power.

Both of their inner energy came at each other like two troops of soldiers charging into battle.

The purity of Chu Li’s inner energy from the Cloud Slashing Power was slightly less than Fang Qingyang’s inner energy, which was also mightier in power and was forcing Chu Li to retreat gradually. The point of confrontation between their inner energy slowly moved from Chu Li’s palm to his wrist, and then to his arm before reaching his shoulder.

As their inner energy battled each other at his shoulder, Chu Li was able to slightly reverse his disadvantageous situation.

The vastness of his Dantian and meridians could not compare with that of Fang Qingyang because the unique characteristic of the Divine Light Body was its expansive meridians. It was as if his meridians were spread out all over his body, and his inner energy could surge around like a huge body of water, unhindered by his meridians.

Chu Li’s meridians were quite broad as well, but it still could not compare with the Divine Light Body. Fortunately, he had endless spiritual energy.

Chu Li’s meridians were more solid and narrower than the Divine Light Body, so now it was like having two troops of soldiers engaging in battle in a narrow valley.

Fang Qingyang’s soldiers were elite and had a sturdy formation but due to the narrow valley, they were unable to unleash their entire strength.

Chu Li’s soldiers were not elite enough but the number of soldiers was inexhaustible. As a wave of soldiers died, two more waves would come and battle to their death without any sign of retreat, relying on their mass amount to prevent Fang Qingyang’s soldiers from advancing.

Fang Qingyang stared at him with a cold smirk at a corner of his lips. His inner energy flowed out like an endless stream of water, pressing ahead. He doubted Chu Li could hold on much longer.

Chu Li’s resistance was starting to falter because his boundless inner energy was not as refined as Fang Qingyang’s inner energy. It was now slowly retreating from his shoulder to his precordium.

He gritted his teeth and quickly kept his Heavenly Demon Body away. At an instant, the Heavenly Demonic Orb appeared at his precordium.

In the next moment, it appeared in front of the Great Light Scripture’s surging inner energy and swallowed it whole. With that, the immense pressure vanished immediately, making way for the inner energy from the Cloud Slashing Power to reach his palm once again.

Subsequently, the Heavenly Demonic Orb appeared at his wrist and proceeded to absorb the inner energy of the Great Light Scripture.

Fang Qingyang felt that Chu Li’s body was like a bottomless pit because when he poured his inner energy into Chu Li, it seemed to vanish without a trace. This sparked his arrogance and stubbornness as he wanted to see if he could push Chu Li to his limits!

Chu Li ignored Fang Qingyang’s inner energy and focused on his own inner energy from the Cloud Slashing Power, making it more and more refined, while also turning part of his attention to channeling his spiritual energy to heal his wound.

Cycle after cycle, the Cloud Slashing Power continued to refine his inner energy, preventing it from being devoured by the Heavenly Demonic Orb and allowing it to circulate within his body instead. With every circulatory cycle, the inner energy became increasingly pure and refined.

Eventually, this ball of inner energy was turned into a fine filament floating in his meridians like a strand of hair.

However, there was a dull pain in his meridians as this fine filament was like electrical energy. Wherever it went, his meridians felt like they were being burned.

As time passed, the moon slowly moved across the night sky.

Two hours later, Chu Li and Fang Qingyang both seemed to be bursting with life, showing no signs of tiredness.

Four hours later, the two of them were still full of vigor.

Six hours later, it was already broad daylight, yet both of them did not seem the slightest bit tired as their eyes gleamed brightly.

Leng Qiu and Leng Ding pushed the door open to enter the courtyard and found the two men unmoving with their fist and palm pressed against each other. They stopped immediately and looked at Fang Qingyang with sharp expressions.

Chu Li gave them a meaningful look. “Come in. This is Fang Qingyang, a Priest of the Holy Church of Light. You two go ahead and practice wielding your swords.”

“The Holy Church of Light?” Their expressions changed slightly.

Chu Li said, “Fang Qingyang, you won’t be able to persist any longer. You can’t defeat me!”

Fang Qingyang frowned. “Not necessarily!”

“It’s wishful thinking to expect my inner energy to run out!” Chu Li stated. “My biggest strength is the immensity of my inner energy.”

“Likewise!” Fang Qingyang replied flatly. “Chu Li, it’s such a pity for a person with an outstanding talent like you to die at my hands!”

Chu Li scoffed. “I’d like to see which one of us will die at the hands of the other!”

He pointed his right index finger at Fang Qingyang and used the Spear Finger Strike.

As his inner energy flowed by, the meridians in his entire arm became injured. Then, this most refined strand of inner energy was transformed into a finger force and was fired at Fang Qingyang.

Fang Qingyang launched a fist to counter it.

With a loud “bang!” the two men each took a step back.

There was a slight change in Fang Qingyang’s expression as he felt electrical energy shooting into his fist, heading toward his precordium. His boundless inner energy could not stand in its way and was utterly defeated as it pressed on toward where the precordium was.

He frowned and huffed. “What kind of martial art is this?”

“Soul Devourer Touch!” Chu Li replied indifferently. “I invented it myself. What do you think of it?”

The sword strapped to his waist flew out in a flash. The light reflection on the blade seemed to converge into a winter star as it charged forward, aiming for Fang Qingyang’s throat.

Fang Qingyang knocked it away with his fingers.

“Ding…” As the long sword swung away, Fang Qingyang turned into a flash of light and left. Then, a shout echoed from a distance. “I will be back!”

Chu Li heaved a sigh of relief and returned to his room right away.

…

He sat cross-legged on his bed, channeling to recuperate.

His meridians were quickly recovering under the nourishment of the spiritual energy from Heaven and Earth. After two hours, the meridians had completely recovered, and the wound on his chest had also been closed. Even though the wound was not fully healed yet, he could move with ease.

When he opened his eyes, there was a hint of tiredness in his gaze.

This round of battle had made him physically and mentally exhausted as he had to push his mind and inner energy to their limits and bring all of his strengths and skills into play. If he had made a wrong move, he would end up having to run for his life again.

He had used the Imminent Skyline and Eternity Blade to force Fang Qingyang into an inner energy battle. If Fang Qingyang had not underestimated his opponent, he would not have entered directly into an inner energy battle.

Following that, the Heavenly Demonic Orb from his Heavenly Demonic Power was able to make up for his own weaknesses and with the addition of that mutually injurious finger force, he finally managed to scare Fang Qingyang away. He might not have such luck next time!

He still needed to go through further cultivation instead of relying on his intelligence as a quick fix to win all the time.

A smile suddenly appeared on his face. The Heavenly Demonic Orb had really devoured quite an amount of inner energy, which was probably more than what he could cultivate within a month.

In the courtyard, Leng Qiu and Leng Qing were sitting at the stone table, resting and wiping away the sweat on their foreheads. When they saw him coming out, the two women smiled. “The Head Chief has driven off that Priest of the Holy Church of Light?”

Chu Li nodded. “It was by luck that I’ve managed to drive him off. I may not be so lucky next time. You two shouldn’t have come over.”

Fang Qingyang could still be considered a respectable figure since he did not try to harm these two helpless women. Otherwise, both of them would be consuming the Spirit Blessing Pill right now.

Leng Qing replied, “We didn’t hear any sound of movement coming from here, so we thought it was over.”

Chu Li sighed. “Don’t come here in the next few days. I’m afraid he might come again!”

It was unlikely that the Spear Finger Strike had inflicted any serious injury on Fang Qingyang, so he should be discontented and would return again.

After battling him twice, he could tell that Fang Qingyang’s personality was somewhat similar to what later generations would describe as perfectionism and monomania.

Once he had started on a task, he would need to see it through. In fact, he would have to complete it in a perfect way.