Qin Ming swung his palm across. With a sharp crack, Li Qingxu's face fractured.
"So tough?" he mused in surprise. It was merely a statue, yet what material was it made of to withstand the force of his palm? He did not stop; since one slap had not shattered it, he would deliver another.
Moreover, he exerted more power this time, channeling the Dragon Snake Scripture. A series of sharp crackles rang out at once as Li Qingxu's face shattered, followed by his entire head bursting apart.
Qin Ming naturally found him intolerable. Back before he had even embarked upon the Newborn path, this man had broken his arm and fractured his skull in three places, subjecting him to a near-fatal ordeal.
He had lain in a stupor for at least two months and nearly never woken up. No matter what, the feud between him and Li Qingxu could never be resolved.
In a misty realm within a palace of golden bricks and jade tiles, Li Qingxu sat with eyes closed in meditation. The prayer mat beneath him flowed with purple mist, enveloping his body.
On the table before him, a stick of incense had been lit, exuding a continuous stream of Daoist rhyme. Its aura brought exceptional clarity and tranquility to the mind.
Within Li Qingxu's heart, the mists veiling a sect-guarding supreme technique he had memorized long ago were clearing away. Its core essentials emerged vividly, and he was grasping its true essence, gradually comprehending it in full.
At this moment, immortal qi surged upward. Dense runes appeared across the surface of his body, as if imprinting themselves into his flesh and conscious spiritual light.
Suddenly, with a loud boom, his path shook violently, nearly knocking him off the special prayer mat. Li Qingxu snapped his eyes open, his face filled with shock and bewilderment. At such a critical moment, how could an outside force disturb him?
Just now, he had invested all his vitality, energy, and spirit into the Single Page of True Heritage, using this enlightenment ground to deeply fathom its profound principles. Yet he had been abruptly jolted awake.
This infuriated him. Nothing could be worse than this.
"What is going on?" He shot to his feet.
"A being from another path is attacking the 'traces' you left behind," a mechanical, cold voice sounded within the palace.
"How does this affect me?" Li Qingxu demanded.
"Once he shatters your statue on that plaza, he may challenge you to a confrontation between different paths!"
Hearing this, the feather robes on Li Qingxu fluttered, and his hair rose. He originally carried a near-immortal grace, but now his gaze turned frigid.
"How do I strike back at him now?" he asked in a chilly voice. When had he ever suffered such an indignity?
The youngest of his senior brothers and sisters was over a hundred years old, all formidable experts, so he normally feared no one. For someone to dare target him like this, he would naturally strike back fiercely.
Most importantly, he was Cao Qianqiu's youngest disciple—their lineage had always occupied the position of strength!
The cold voice told him, "He has only recently set out on his path and has only reached the plaza of the first node. He has not yet left a trace there, so he cannot be reflected here to you. For now, you can only wait."
Li Qingxu's face darkened. Forced to take blows passively? He could only sit here and wait for someone to challenge him. Ordinarily, he would have struck back directly to seize the initiative.
"Who is he?" he asked again.
The cold voice replied, "Only after he condenses a trace on the plaza and his statue is erected will his name be recorded. At present, it is only known that he treads the demon path."
Li Qingxu's expression turned aloof and cold. "The plateau outside the Third Peril is about to be bathed in blood, yet a young demon dares set foot on the path and infiltrate the secret realm? Quite audacious. I will settle scores with him later—I doubt he will make it out of the secret realm alive."
He waited for a moment and found that the entire path had quieted down, free of further attacks.
He could not afford to waste time like this; the lit stick of incense was exceedingly precious, and he had no desire to squander it. He sat down once more. The prayer mat beneath him was no ordinary item either, aiding in his comprehension as well. These were temporary boons bestowed upon him after stepping onto the mysterious immortal path.
Meanwhile, Qin Ming was examining the other statues. He spotted Li Qingyue, the Tathagata renegade, Su Shiyun, and others—all immortal seeds, divine seeds, and the like. Xiao Wu was among them as well.
"Well, among everyone here, you're still the most irritating. Disappear completely!"
Spinning back around, Qin Ming delivered a midair kick—the Tail Flick Stance from the Dragon Snake Scripture!
With a sharp crack, the upper half of the statue blasted apart.
Then, he followed up with a second kick, blowing Li Qingxu's remaining statue to complete smithereens.
At once, Qin Ming's mood brightened considerably.
Far away, Li Qingxu's path shook violently twice. Disturbed once more, his face froze like frost as he was forced out of his meditative state.
Just then, Qin Ming suddenly saw a blurry silhouette of himself appear, and a voice asked for his name.
"My statue is being erected here too? What is this for?"
Moments later, he understood.
"Demon One of the demon path formally issues a challenge to Li Qingxu of the immortal path!" the cold voice proclaimed.
"Finally!" Li Qingxu rose, his face sinking like still water. Then, he watched as a statue materialized within his palace.
He was certain he had never seen this wild-tempered demon before. He made no effort to conceal his disgust toward this challenger, itching to smash him to pieces with a single strike of his staff.
Now it was Qin Ming's turn to frown. So these statues possessed another marvelous use—allowing different paths to clash. Before him on the plaza, Li Qingxu's statue reappeared, completely intact.
"Is this not a head-on duel?" Qin Ming asked.
The mechanical voice informed him, "It is not. Rather, your respective achievements along your paths are materialized to collide with each other!"
"How dull!" Li Qingxu grumbled in dissatisfaction upon hearing this. He longed to face that demon head-on; from what he knew, demon seeds from the plateau were nothing special.
"The challenge has begun. You may strike now," the cold voice rang out.
In an instant, Li Qingxu found that the statue before him seemed to come alive. He immediately swung his purple-gleaming bamboo staff, smashing forward.
Across his body, within his flesh and conscious soul light, runes shimmered; he had applied the scriptural doctrines he had just been contemplating. For a time, the power of his flesh and his conscious spiritual light resonated together, rendering the purple bamboo staff in his hand nearly transparent, brimming with terrifying might.
Qin Ming saw that the Li Qingxu on the plaza appeared to have truly come alive before him, brandishing a weapon straight at him.
In that moment, he felt no hesitation. Facing a genuine near-immortal seed of the second realm, he dared not be the least bit careless and naturally had to go all out.
In truth, he felt he had been somewhat reckless, starting a fight with Li Qingxu too early. After all, his own realm was not high enough yet. The silver-robed youth and spider-scorpion he had slain in the secret realm had only possessed fragmented demon seeds, not complete forms.
Boom!
Along his path, massive swathes of red demonic mist were stirred into vapor by his strike, churning furiously. For a moment, the fused and unified heavenly light force hung like a blazing sun across the sky, tinged with a bloody hue as it blasted forward.
"Huh?"
"What is this...?"
Both were deeply astonished, each realizing they had misjudged their opponent's strength!
Qin Ming had originally thought he would bear unimaginable pressure. Yet at this moment, an expression of disbelief surfaced on his face. Was this supposed to be a near-immortal seed of the second realm? He had actually stopped it with a single fist! It seemed somewhat unworthy of the reputation.
At the very least, the opponent's bamboo staff had been knocked aside by his fist light, devoid of any real lethality.
"How is this possible? How can a demon be this strong?!" Shock rocked Li Qingxu's heart. When that statue erupted, the punch smashing forth had looked like a blood-stained blazing sun spanning right before him. At this moment, even his conscious spiritual light burned with excruciating pain.
His right hand gripping the staff grew numb from the shock, and he was actually stumbling backward.
The cold voice sounded, "This is the outcome of your materialized achievements along your respective paths colliding after being scaled to the same realm."
For a moment, Li Qingxu lost his composure. In a duel within the same realm, he was actually inferior to that demon! He did not know the opponent's exact realm, but presumed he was in the second realm as well.
"Is that so? Then this gets interesting!" Qin Ming spoke, a smile rippling across his face.
"A solemn reminder: you may command your paths to combat each other without direct physical contact!" the mechanical voice rang out, informing them that this served as protection for those aspiring to blaze new paths.
In the secret realm, many people jerked their heads up as two paths mysteriously manifested across the void, traversing the sky where everyone could see them.
They actually surged toward each other like two colliding mountains, smashing together in a deafening blast.
One path steamed with demonic qi, while the other was shrouded in immortal mist, both drifting and surging there. Was a demon seed clashing with an immortal seed, locking horns in battle? Everyone was utterly shocked.
At this moment, red demonic mist surged along one path, accompanied by resounding dragon roars, while immortal qi surged on the other, with a portion of pure yang conscious spiritual light rising from it.
Everyone watched as the two paths slammed into each other once more.
A heart-palpitating aura erupted from the collision, as though two mountain ridges were about to crash from the sky.
The demon path held a distinct upper hand, pressing down upon the immortal path, which shook violently and made onlookers wonder if it might snap.
"Could it be... that person fighting?" Gan Jincheng's voice trembled.
"Could he... have set out using a demon seed just to conceal his true identity?" Jiang Ruoli also appeared dazed, staring blankly into the sky.
At this time, Xiao Yaqin, Liu Hanya, and others harbored similar thoughts, for they all knew that Qin Ming had obtained several fragmented demon seeds.
Xin Youdao spoke with utmost gravity. "Don't forget, we all swore oaths under forbidden arts. No matter what, that person cannot be him."
"Right. Even if it truly is... uh, it's not him!"
"Exactly, it's definitely not him!"
Though they said so, their eyes burned like fire, blazing with intense light as they stared at the two paths in the sky, unable to calm their agitated expressions.
They naturally understood the gravity of the situation; certain words could not be voiced carelessly. That person had saved their lives, so even without the forbidden arts, they would never bring up the matter.
"That's Li Qingxu's path! He's being intercepted! Who could have expected such a demon to exist in the secret realm, possessing strength beyond imagination!"
Disciples from the outer pure land were also craning their necks toward the sky, completely awestruck.
"Li Qingxu might actually get knocked down!" someone remarked, bringing up old grievances with a hint of excitement in his voice.
Someone immediately rebuked him, "Shut your mouth! Senior Brother Li will not lose! He is Senior Cao's closed-door disciple, harboring ambitions to blaze a path, and can become near-immortal in the future!"
People were deeply wary of Cao Qianqiu's lineage and did not want to give anyone ammunition to use against them. Fearing retribution, many fell silent, quietly watching the scene unfold.
Chapter 211