The sword qi shredded the severed part of the arm in the air.
“Y- y- I will never spare…” Chu Tian clutched his wound and gazed at Xiao An, overcome by surprise and anger.
If his arm had only been cut off, then it should not have been too great of an issue as long as he reattached it in time and underwent treatment. However, since it was destroyed, then it would be troublesome.
Even for daemons with their vigorous life force, it would take quite the effort to regrow limbs. To humans with pitifully weak life force, it was extremely difficult, essentially impossible for it to self-heal.
However, before Chu Tian could say much at all, Liu Zhangqing covered up his mouth and bowed. “Greetings, Annihilum Light Chan Master.”
Chu Tian was trying to declare revenge right in front of the head monk of the Bodhi courtyard against his beloved disciple. Even if buddhism was about benevolence, they were still fierce like guardian kings. Even if he killed Chu Tian on the spot with a palm strike, Liu Zhangqing would not be able to vent his grievances anywhere.
The Annihilum Light Chan Master nodded gently, and the shine in his eyes subsided. His expression immediately became blank, which happened to share some master-disciple resemblance with the always expressionless Xiao An.
Liu Zhangqing let out a sigh of relief inside. If he were an elder of the Sword Collection palace, Chu Tian would have been a dead man already. If he came from the Umbral Yin sect, it would be even worse. Even his soul probably would have been taken away by now.
The other cultivators around all went up and bowed too. This was the most basic courtesy they had to show towards cultivators of a higher realm. Surprised gazes all swept past Xiao An uncontrollably.
For the entire time, everyone had treated divination as her greatest power. They did not place much focus on her strength.
After all, a Heavenly Meridians prodigy was only worth something as a Qi Practitioner. Once they reached Foundation Establishment, they would be in an entirely different world. Only with today did they learn what the capable was almighty meant.
Among them, Liu Zhangqing had personally taught Chu Tian the Palm of the Five Elements, so he understood the power of this cultivation method the most. Even he could not penetrate Chu Tian’s Protection of the Five Elements so easily.
The new was truly superseding and replacing the old. Geniuses would always emerge in swathes when the world was changing, becoming as numerous as schools of carp migrating. Ten years ago, Hua Chengzan had already been regarded as a startling genius. Talent like what Chu Tian possessed was already equivalent to one-in-a-century geniuses.
Yet, under Xiao An’s radiance, even Chu Tian was overshadowed. He had come for revenge, only to dig his own grave.
After reaching Foundation Establishment, Chu Tian should have been in his prime in terms of vigour. However, not only did he lose an arm, humiliated tremendously, but he could not even spit out a vicious threat. As such, pent-up bitterness filled him. The spiritual qi of the five elements constantly surged in his sea of qi as his face varied between scarlet red and purply green.
“Chu Tian, Chu Tian!” Liu Zhangqing was the first to notice that something was amiss. He called out his name several times, but Chu Tian did not respond. “Oh no, he’s suffering from qi deviation!”
If handled well, simultaneous cultivation of the five elements resulted in mutual promotion of the five elements, but if handled badly, it resulted in mutual regulation. It was much easier for something to go wrong compared to practising a single type of spiritual qi. In the past, it had been relatively easy for Chu Tian to control five types of true qi with his Five Elements constitution. However, spiritual qi was different from true qi. After establishing a foundation, the advantages that came with a constitution diminished drastically. A much larger focus was placed on the cultivation of mentality and temperament.
Chu Tian had always been a rash and short-tempered person. He had rushed over here for revenge the moment he succeeded with Foundation Establishment before becoming heavily injured and overwhelmed with anger. He had fluctuated between his positive and negative emotions far too quickly, which was beyond what his mind could withstand.
Chu Tian’s eyes were wide open. Although he did not faint, the flow of qi and blood in his body completely reverted, leaving him immobilised.
Liu Zhangqing was afraid to recklessly suppress what was going on with his spiritual qi. He was afraid of setting off the five element spiritual qi in Chu Tian’s body and making it become even more violent.
“Prefect Liu, hand him to me!” Ru Xin drifted over. With a wave of her hand, a large, green leaf lifted up Chu Tian. She prodded a few pressure points on his chest before returning to the academy.
Everyone had become rather worried with what they saw. Qi deviation was a great menace among cultivators. Only heavenly tribulations were more threatening than that.
Once they encountered that, their cultivation would regress drastically if they were lucky, or they would die on the spot if they were unlucky. Even if Chu Tian managed to keep his life intact, he was basically regarded as dead as a genius.
From the beginning to the end, Xiao An did not even glance at Chu Tian. She had basically been expecting all of this with that strike of hers. Even if the Annihilum Light Chan Master had not interfered, she would never kill Chu Tian in front of so many people. That would lead to a lot of trouble.
Chu Tian had not suffered from qi deviation just because of his rash and short-tempered mentality.
There was basically nobody who understood the value of the body to a cultivator better than her. Having condensed flesh and blood and refined her body countless times, she possessed an extremely deep understanding of every single blood vessel and meridian that ran through the body.
The human body was like a world, complete with yin, yang, and the five elements. Perhaps this object known as a vile skin-bag in buddhism was not as tough as the bodies of daemons, but it did hold a cultivator’s soul. Once balance was lost in a certain part, resulting in damage, it would set off a chain of reactions.
If a regular person lost an arm, they would be disabled at most, but to cultivators, particularly someone like Chu Tian who cultivated the five elements, the effects would be much more than that. She understood this the most as someone who practised seven types of spiritual qi.
However, Chu Tian did lose his balance much faster than she had anticipated. But regardless, he would not be able to cause any more problems.
There were many insightful and knowledgeable cultivators present, but no one had thought of this. Even Liu Zhangqing believed that Xiao An had only cut off Chu Tian’s arm after being angered.
This was because her behaviour the entire time seemed rather naive, or perhaps dim. She seemed like she had absolutely no concept of how to conduct herself. That was only because she basically never responded with emotions or feelings aside from when she was with Li Qingshan. Her ability to comprehend and her intelligence that even the black ox had praised had been completely unleashed.
Ru Xin drifted away on the green leaf and glanced at Xiao An from afar. This child is a little terrifying!
Xiao An dispersed her guardian king’s avatar and brought her hands together, bowing towards the Annihilum Light Chan Master. “Disciples One Will greets master.”
The Annihilum Light Chan Master had no other reason for coming this time. He had been paying attention to the situation of the Clear River prefecture the entire time, and he had told Mind Enlightenment to constantly send him information regarding Xiao An.
He had been prepared to take action the moment Xiao An reached Foundation Establishment.
Foundation Establishment was only the foundations of a formal disciple in the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga. Only with this foundation could they comprehend buddhist dharma of greater depth. However, reaching Foundation Establishment at such a young age was very rare even with the past disciples of the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga in perspective.
However, that happened to be when the war in the Clear River prefecture was most intense, with various people observing. It was inconvenient for him to directly fetch her, as it would weaken the strength of the human cultivators.
He waited until the decisive battle between Li Qingshan and Fu Qingjin, when the chess game began showing signs of coming to an end. He rushed over immediately and ran into this out of pure coincidence, and he chose to watch on silently from the sky. He wanted to see what level the youngest disciple of his could reach after establishing a foundation.
In the end, even his heart that had become as still as an ancient well began to ripple. He was quite overjoyed by this. If she had not been born with the roots of wisdom and a natural aptitude for buddhism, how could the Guardian King’s Scripture of Demon Subdual transform like that? If it were not for the fact that the Green province had no esoteric buddhist sects, he basically would have suspected her to be the reincarnation of a certain eminent monk.
Then, the Annihilum Light Chan Master said, “You still haven’t answered me with whether you’re willing to return to the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga with me.”
“The chaos in the prefecture has yet come to an end. The daemons stand strong, and it is a deciding moment of the academy’s fate. I am indebted to the school leaders’ kindness, so I cannot leave right now. Please forgive me, master.”
Xiao An said expressionlessly as she tried to think of a method to get away from everyone so that she could venture underground and lend Li Qingshan a hand.
The Annihilum Light Chan Master was present. No matter where she went, she would struggle to avoid his watch, and it would only lead to problems for Li Qingshan. If his identity were exposed, neither the Human nor Daemon race would accept him anymore. He would become a traitor spurned by both sides.
This time, Li Qingshan was helpless. He could only rely on himself. Perhaps this had been his plan all along.
……
Deeply entangled in the spider’s web, Li Qingshan struggled as hard as he could. He possessed almost-divine strength that could split open mountains, yet he was unable to break free from the spider’s web composed of thin strands of silk.
A Daemon Commander’s daemon qi flowed through them. Let alone the silk Lolth had spun with care, even a piece of rotten wood would become as tough as steel once imbued with a Daemon Commander’s daemon qi.
The Spider Queen was completely bare. She moved her perfect, slender legs and walked towards the intersection of the silk with her especially petite feet. The part between her legs was vaguely visible. Her dark hair flowed from her snowy shoulders, covering her proud, erect chest. The lingering charm that followed intercourse remained on her face.
Her figure and posture was enough for most men in the world to throw themselves at her like moths to a flame. Even if they knew it would be certain death, they would still want to catch a whiff of her.
“Just stop struggling and save some strength. That way, I can still use you a few more times. Though, I’ll have to eat your arms and legs first.”
“It’s a pity that I’ve already gotten slightly sick of you.”
Li Qingshan laughed loudly. The power of the Tremors of the Ox Demon filled his body, unleashing from every inch of muscle on him. The spider web trembled violently.
The Spider Queen’s expression changed, becoming twisted with fury. Who knew whether it was because of what Li Qingshan said or what he did, or perhaps a combination of the two.
In that instant, she vanished from her location, lunging towards the centre of the web. It was better to describe her speed as instantaneous movement rather than lightning-fast.
Her claws reached towards Li Qingshan’s shoulders at top speed. If she managed to gain a grasp, Li Qingshan would have to leave behind his forelimbs even if he objected. Otherwise, he would become wrapped up in close combat that he had no chance of winning.
However, Li Qingshan seemed to be prepared. His right arm suddenly broke free from the web, directly hurling towards the Spider Queen’s beautiful face.
Li Qingshan had begun using the Spirit Turtle’s Method of Sea Suppression a long time ago to push his mental processes to a state of intricacy. In the moment the Spider Queen vanished, he experienced a strange sensation as if he could predict her next move. It did not come from close analysis. It was purely a feeling.
With his punch, the Spider Queen’s sudden lunge seemed more like delivering her face to his fist.
Bang!
However, Li Qingshan failed to achieve the intimate contact with her face as he wished.
In that critical moment, the Spider Queen used her superior reaction to catch Li Qingshan’s fist. A silvery-grey colour began to spread, dyeing her entire body rapidly, which made her seem like an exquisite metal sculpture.
The power of Tremors of the Ox Demon produced cracks in her silver palm, but that was it.
“These puny tricks of yours only have some use in bed!” the Spider Queen said coldly, biting towards Li Qingshan’s neck.
This time, it was no longer a passionate kiss, an intense act of love. Instead, she wanted to inject venom directly into his body. This was completely different from the weak poison on her legs.
She only needed a single kiss and that would be enough to destroy all of Li Qingshan’s abilities to resist.
