Following that strike, Li Guanqi stood suspended in midair, panting heavily.
Battling a powerhouse of Xuan Yue's caliber drained several times more mental energy at every single moment than any normal fight.
Down within the crater and fissures, the man wore a contemplative look, finding Li Guanqi's strength somewhat peculiar.
"Such profound, surging primal energy... Is it because of the Devouring Void Sacred Flame?"
Li Guanqi's eyes flickered. Terrifying sword light merged into an unbroken expanse in an instant, raining down like a torrential storm toward the crater and fissures!
His figure flashed explosively, turning into streaks of afterimages as he vanished from the spot.
A sharp glint passed through Li Guanqi's gaze. He knew full well that his opponent had far more to show.
Xuan Yue had not expected Li Guanqi to still possess such surplus strength either. Slapping both palms against the ground, his body shifted horizontally across hundreds of zhang in a flash.
Figures flickered as sword qi detonated around him like a driving rainstorm.
Whenever sword beams were impossible to evade, he shattered them directly with his bare fists.
Sweeping his gaze across the void, Xuan Yue found no trace of Li Guanqi.
A faint smile appeared on Xuan Yue's face, and he murmured softly, "Impressive method. To completely erase his aura."
Indeed, Li Guanqi was currently concealed within the void above the Dao platform. Another capability granted by the Demon King Physique was Dark Concealment.
This ability was somewhat similar to Pengluo's.
Just as Li Guanqi was searching for an opening, a chill suddenly crept up his back and shot straight to the crown of his head!
Without time to think, Li Guanqi burst out from the void in an instant.
Right behind him, a broad, massive hand reached through the empty space.
The burly Xuan Yue strode calmly out of the void.
"Tricks like this are useless against me."
Li Guanqi frowned deeply. He could not comprehend where he had exposed his whereabouts.
By all reason, his concealment should have hidden him thoroughly; the man should never have detected him so easily!
Before Xuan Yue could speak, realization suddenly struck Li Guanqi.
Turning to look at the surrounding void, he caught the faint, elusive traces of earth laws...
A look of astonishment surfaced in Li Guanqi's eyes, and he murmured softly, "Earth laws, merging body and world... No wonder you could sense my presence."
Surprise flickered across Xuan Yue's face at those words.
This was the first time he had seen someone see through his method so quickly.
By all accounts, this subtle power of his was rarely revealed and exceptionally well concealed.
Precisely because of the Black Tortoise's power, almost anyone who had ever tried to assassinate him on the battlefield had met a gruesome end.
Xuan Yue rolled his neck and spoke in a deep voice, "Come. Round two!"
Li Guanqi grinned and circulated the Divine Punishment art with all his might.
With the enhancement of the Devouring Void Sacred Flame, the speed at which Li Guanqi refined spiritual energy was now terrifying.
Crushing several dozen purple gold crystals to replenish the primal energy within his body, he simultaneously drew upon the lightning bead that drifted and circled beside his origin soul. It trembled faintly, instantly sending primal energy surging forth like a rushing river.
Li Guanqi took a deep breath, raised his sword, and charged!
In an instant, heaven and earth shook, and the Dao platform roared.
Both men fought with sweeping, unrestrained momentum, yet Li Guanqi rarely managed to breach the man's defenses.
Only the precise stabs, thrusts, cleaves, and slashes of the sword tip could wound his opponent.
Yet Li Guanqi dared not take a single punch from Xuan Yue lightly...
Not merely punches—the man's body checks, close-range leans, elbow strikes, knee drives...
Li Guanqi could not easily withstand any of these attacks.
Whether in raw strength or speed, the man completely surpassed him.
Even with Xuan Yue drawing upon only a fraction of the Black Tortoise's power, Li Guanqi's fully unleashed strength was still thoroughly suppressed at every turn...
Two shichen later, barely an intact patch of skin remained on Li Guanqi's body.
Lying limply on the ground, he finally understood what the man had meant by "taking a beating."
Not far from Li Guanqi, Xuan Yue stood proudly with only a dozen or so wounds across his entire body.
Moreover, those dozen-odd wounds had merely broken the skin.
Aside from his all-out strike with Dao Fall earlier, virtually no sword technique or sword intent had been able to harm his opponent.
The man's control over attack distance had practically reached the realm of microscopic precision.
What was more, the man had hardly revealed any of his own fist intent.
Indeed... he had not displayed it at all...
Blood blurred Li Guanqi's vision, and a bitter smile tugged at his lips.
He had never imagined that even after giving his all, he remained nothing more than a slightly stronger ant before Xuan King, the weakest of the Four Kings.
Only now did he truly grasp the mere tip of the iceberg that was Xuan Yue's true strength...
If this man went all out, invoked the Heavenly King Transformation to fully merge with the power of the Black Tortoise, and combined that with his various other methods...
Defeating him would probably take less than three punches.
Three punches might even be too generous an estimate.
From start to finish, the man had merely engaged him using his purest physical strength, speed, and raw combat instincts.
Had this been a genuine fight to the death where his opponent unleashed full power from the very start, Li Guanqi probably would not have stood the slightest chance of fighting back.
The various trump cards he had taken such pride in now seemed somewhat ridiculous.
Before absolute individual might, any extraneous power appeared utterly superfluous.
Indeed, Li Guanqi now classified all the little tricks he had once prided himself on as unnecessary clutter.
After fighting Xuan Yue for so long, Li Guanqi had come to realize some of his own shortcomings.
His power was far too eclectic...
Compared to Xuan Yue, who was a pure physical martial artist—a pure fighter who had tempered his mortal body to the absolute limit—Li Guanqi had always pursued the ultimate path of the sword. Otherwise, he would never have gifted the Yinming Profound Flame and Purple Firmament Thunder Flame to Ye Feng and Cao Yan back then.
Yet the Devouring Void Sacred Flame was different.
It was merged directly with his origin soul; one could say he now possessed dual spiritual roots of lightning and fire...
However, the Devouring Void Sacred Flame was not his innate spiritual root after all, so the fundamental nature of his primal energy remained lightning.
Nor did mobilizing this flame require him to split his focus as he once had with the Purple Firmament Thunder Flame.
There was no need to exhaust his mind weaving the flame's power into his lightning.
Now, the power of Devouring Void could be commanded alongside lightning, completely unified.
Previously, he had needed a wide variety of methods because he had been facing the Eight Generals.
Different opponents fought in different ways, making those diverse techniques advantageous.
Yet as things stood now...
When facing a truly top-tier powerhouse, he would likely need to become a pure cultivator like Long Hou and Hong Zhi.
He had to push his core strengths to their absolute peak!
Lying on the ground with his eyes closed, Li Guanqi continuously replayed the earlier battle in his mind.
Meanwhile, his frame had shrunk by more than two full cun compared to before!
An earth-shattering transformation was underway within Li Guanqi's body, and his conscious mindset began to shift as well.
He started deliberately letting go of the miscellaneous arts and incantations he had cultivated.
Seated cross-legged in the distance, Xuan Yue sensed the shift in Li Guanqi's aura, and the corners of his mouth curled into a faint smile.
"This level of comprehension... What a monster."
Chapter 1448