The two of them arrived at a desolate stretch of land on the edge of Qingming.
Close to the mountains, this had originally been the battlefield where the decisive clash with the Shamans had taken place; the ground everywhere was scarred with bomb craters and pitted by venom and toxic fire.
Qingming was still slowly repairing the terrain, but without the special blessing of the Jianmu life-mystic power, it would likely take years for this area to regain its vitality.
Ji Liuli flicked her ten fingers in rapid succession, sending out seven or eight streaks of radiance that transformed in an instant into seven or eight magic treasures. They donned her person one after another, covering even her face beneath a helmet forged in the style of ancient divine armaments.
Wei Yuan took a sharp breath. Eldest Senior Sister's dharma body was already unimaginably hard, and now she had draped herself in layer upon layer of magic treasures—how was he supposed to fight that? Only now did Wei Yuan truly appreciate the extravagant wealth of the Hall of Heavenly Secrets.
Just as he was fretting over this headache, Zhang Sheng's silhouette manifested and said, "Her physical vessel is not merely tough; she has melted and forged her intrinsic dharma idol and her dharma body into a single entity. You can regard her as a living, humanoid magic treasure. Certain anatomical structures and vital points that a human body ought to have simply do not exist on her."
Wei Yuan was shocked. If she had no vital points, how on earth was he supposed to fight?
Still, now that his master had made clear that Ji Liuli was essentially equivalent to a magic treasure, he would treat her like one.
Ji Liuli said, "Does this count as you stepping into the ring to make it two-on-one?"
Zhang Sheng replied, "My own disciple is about to enter the ring to spar with someone, and his opponent happens to be an incorrigible, mentally disabled patient. A few pointers from me hardly cross the line. As for entering the ring myself, my current cultivation is lacking, and I am not foolish enough to do such a thing. Once I cultivate my dharma idol, I will certainly test your Xuanhuang Tower. Well, I have already witnessed your Linglong True Intent, but I have yet to discover what your Xuanhuang True Intent is."
Wei Yuan's heart tightened. For Zhang Sheng to specifically point this out, it was obviously a crucial piece of information.
Wei Yuan immediately searched for Xuanhuang True Intent. Drawing on the vast repository stored within the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, he pulled up over a dozen possible answers in an instant. Every single one was packed with terms like chaos, primordial opening, Great Dao, source origin, celestial pivot, and transformational genesis. Reading them chilled Wei Yuan to the bone.
He had truly come to appreciate the terror of eighteen feet of innate root bone.
Zhang Sheng added, "As for this Eldest Senior Sister of yours, she cannot tolerate a single grain of sand in her sight. Even the slightest speck of dirt must be scrubbed completely clean."
*A germaphobe?* Wei Yuan caught the underlying implication.
Ji Liuli paid it no heed. Her aura rose slowly as she said, "Whenever you are ready, make your move. No need to announce it—sneak attacks are welcome."
"Very well!" Wei Yuan agreed cheerfully.
The next instant, over a dozen Dao soldiers appeared behind Ji Liuli, their bodies glowing as they channeled the power of the domain.
Yet the moment these Dao soldiers rushed within ten feet of Ji Liuli, they suddenly crumbled like sand, disintegrating into primordial Dao power that was then absorbed by her.
Ji Liuli had not even lifted a hand. Solely through the crushing pressure her dharma body exerted over the ten-foot space around her, she had dismantled Wei Yuan's Dao art. Unwilling to give up, Wei Yuan pointed toward the sky, and several streaks of fiery rain came crashing down. But the instant they fell within ten feet above her head, they automatically reverted to primordial Dao power.
Still refusing to concede, Wei Yuan switched to falling lightning, but the result was the same. Everything was shattered within ten feet, and not only was it reduced to primordial Dao power, but that very power was also seized by Ji Liuli.
The harvested Dao power lingered temporarily over the surface of Ji Liuli's body. Without any apparent gesture on her part, that power condensed into seven Dao swords, firing in a barrage that sent Wei Yuan hopping and darting all over the place.
Wei Yuan finally experienced the Xuanhuang True Intent firsthand.
The Dao arts he unleashed were considered potent even among the Dharma Idol realm, yet they still could not breach the ten-foot boundary around Ji Liuli. And her effortless counterattacks were equally formidable, Dharma Idol-grade arts—all powered by Wei Yuan's own Dao power.
Evidently, Ji Liuli was completely fearless in group battles. An assault by swarms of low-tier cultivators would merely serve to feed her Dao power. Her sole expenditure was in maintaining the ten-foot domain around her body.
None of the seven Dao swords struck home; some soared into the sky, while others blasted into the ground.
By this point, Wei Yuan had used the Peerless Dao Domain to vaguely grasp Ji Liuli's exact presence. When Ji Liuli erased the Dao soldiers blessed with the domain's power and slammed her Dao swords into the earth, every strike was an assault on the Peerless Dao Domain itself.
Wei Yuan immediately gathered the power of the domain. Abandoning all ferocious, explosive, and razor-sharp True Intents that maximized lethal damage, he deliberately picked those that were damp, slimy, putrid, fermenting, clinging, and sagging. The longer-aged, the better; the more pungent and foul, the better. Blending them into a single sphere, he hurled it squarely at the Eldest Senior Sister locked within the Peerless Dao Domain.
In an instant, Ji Liuli's face turned green!
A dazzling burst of light erupted across her body, instantly sweeping away the clump of True Intent!
However, a tiny shred of it had still clung to the tip of her boot, stretching out into several thin filaments that refused to snap.
Though it was merely an intangible True Intent and possessed no physical mass, in the eyes of the iron-willed, hyper-perceptive Ji Liuli, such a True Intent was far more horrific than any physical filth. A physical substance might still contain impurities, but a True Intent was absolute and pure.
Without a word, she jerked her left foot, shattering her magic treasure boot to pieces and baring her foot.
Wei Yuan's eyes lit up. He had not expected this tactic to produce such remarkable results. The radiance Ji Liuli had just released had cost her a considerable amount of Dao power, and she had even destroyed one of her own magic treasure boots.
Yet at this moment, murderous intent surfaced in Ji Liuli's eyes!
With a flick of her hand, a long saber cleaved through the air, arriving right before Wei Yuan's eyes!
Wei Yuan did not even have time to think. Driven by pure instinct, he shifted his body sideways while desperately exerting the domain's power to deflect the blade. The saber shaved past his cheek, missing by mere inches.
The strike was terrifyingly fast; had he not been inside Qingming, Wei Yuan would have been struck for certain. He recognized the saber as Jingdian, a renowned magic treasure of the Hall of Heavenly Secrets. Its speed and sharpness were secondary; its primary power was severing an opponent's karmic luck.
Having missed with her strike, Ji Liuli beckoned with her hand, and the saber flew back on its own. At the same time, a short sword flew from her grasp, spinning like a wheel as it pursued Wei Yuan at a measured, unhurried pace.
Wei Yuan blinked away, leaving behind several dozen bizarre, crude pixel Dao soldiers in his place, each brandishing a weapon as they charged Ji Liuli. They were originally meant to wield diverse artifacts, but because their pixel resolution was so low, every soldier appeared to be holding a long stick.
The spinning short sword released a ring of light, wiping out all the Dao soldiers in an instant. Yet this act also deepened her karmic entanglement, making her silhouette turn distinct within the Peerless Dao Domain once again. Without hesitation, Wei Yuan blasted another Dao art straight at her.
With the previous encounter paving the way, Ji Liuli was far clearer in Wei Yuan's perception. Sure enough, she was hit again: a sticky, gooey mass of True Intent clung to her left arm, intensely foul and seeping into her sleeve like black tar.
Intense light surged over Ji Liuli once more, but a trace of the True Intent still remained on the fabric. Without uttering a single word, she stripped off her robe and pounced directly at Wei Yuan!
Wei Yuan dodged gracefully, but halfway through his leap, the surrounding space suddenly turned dense and viscous, as though he were wading through thick glue. His speed plummeted.
*Not good!* Wei Yuan thought in dismay, only now recalling the most common application of Ji Liuli's nine-layered tower back in her Dao Foundation days: Demon Subjugation.
By the time he thought to break free, it was already too late. Ji Liuli caught up to him in an instant, and the two clashed in close-quarters melee. Both were consummate masters of martial and combat techniques, locked in a fierce, inseparable struggle.
Wei Yuan possessed a formidable dharma body, but fighting Ji Liuli was like trading blows with a living magic treasure; flesh and blood were ultimately half a step behind true artifacts.
In the blink of an eye, Wei Yuan fell into an absolute disadvantage, taking several heavy blows in succession and even catching a punch square in the eye.
Even as he used his body to batter Ji Liuli's fists, Wei Yuan relentlessly whittled down her Dao power.
Over a hundred pixel Dao soldiers finally lumbered into position, simultaneously unleashing Water Blade Arts in an indiscriminate barrage across both Wei Yuan and Ji Liuli.
This was a strategy Wei Yuan had devised on the fly: since both would suffer the blows and need to expend Dao power and magic treasures to ward them off, their Dao power would deplete at the same time. Wei Yuan's Dao power stemmed from the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, and both his total capacity and recovery speed far exceeded Ji Liuli's. Through this method, he aimed to grind out a victory.
Seeing through Wei Yuan's ploy, Ji Liuli suddenly backed away, planting a kick into Wei Yuan's lower abdomen just before retreating. Fortunately, she had pulled her strike; had it landed three inches lower, Wei Yuan would have been finished.
In truth, what forced Ji Liuli back was not the spells of the Dao soldiers, but the greasy, rot-infused True Intent imbued within them.
The two broke apart and clashed again, exchanging offense and defense. Wei Yuan moved with astonishing speed and had already summoned the Civil and Military Dragon Guards to harry her from the perimeter. Wielding rotary flying sword autocannons, they fired as opportunities arose, though they could only mildly restrict Ji Liuli's movements.
Ji Liuli would periodically suppress Wei Yuan with her domain before rushing in to deliver a beating. Fortunately, Wei Yuan was exceptionally durable. He used these exchanges to drain Ji Liuli's Dao power while searching for a chance to draw her into the encirclement of his Dao soldiers.
As for the Sword of Ten Thousand Generations and Autumns, it was impossible to unleash against Ji Liuli's insurmountable speed. The moment Wei Yuan drew the Yin Furnace Greatsword and before he could even adopt a stance, Ji Liuli suppressed him, snatched the greatsword away, and immediately began subduing it.
Wei Yuan had no choice but to dismiss the weapon's materialization and recall it into the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World. Had he been a moment slower, Ji Liuli would have thoroughly suppressed the greatsword, making it impossible to retrieve.
However, Wei Yuan also seized the opening to strike Ji Liuli with another burst of mixed True Intent, forcing her to cast off her other boot as well.
Yet Wei Yuan was suffering in silence. With Zhang Sheng watching nearby, there were certain areas he could not target with his foul True Intents, lest things become impossible to explain.
At that moment, Zhang Sheng suddenly remarked, "What are you hesitating for? She is the one baring skin and making a fool of herself, not you."
Wei Yuan's spirits soared. As if receiving an imperial decree, his attacks grew completely uninhibited, aiming straight for vital spots.
The entangled brawl lasted for half an hour, yet neither gained the upper hand. Wei Yuan took a beating every now and then, while Ji Liuli was forced to discard a magic treasure every so often.
Their colossal duel had long since stirred the entire domain. Feng Chutang, Xu Henshui, and the others—even Old Daoist Chuhe—quietly lay down or sat back, slipping off into dreamland.
Right then, Ji Liuli's spiritual awareness suddenly noticed Zhang Sheng arranging immortal swords in midair: one, two, three...
Ji Liuli could not understand why Zhang Sheng was doing something so pointless, but the swords were identical in color and design, lined up in neat, orderly rows that looked rather pleasing to the eye.
The first six were all emerald-green immortal swords. But for the seventh, Zhang Sheng not only brought out a red immortal sword, she also set it down crooked.
*Crooked...?*
A moment later, Ji Liuli could bear it no longer. She flashed directly before Zhang Sheng, glared at her fiercely, and reached out to straighten the seventh sword.
Meanwhile, the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World was in an uproar. Countless people were working at full capacity to analyze Ji Liuli's combat data and unearth her weaknesses. Except for Feng Tingyu, nearly all the cultivators of the Palace of Grand Beginning were present, quietly contributing one proposal after another from their respective nodes.
Moments later, eighty-one columns of Dao soldiers suddenly marched onto the battlefield, advancing in a square formation with perfectly synchronized steps—save for two soldiers in the middle of the ranks, who deliberately walked out of step with all the rest.
Chapter 680