Having unblocked all seven apertures, Zhou Wuji found his true qi refined to a higher tier, and the power unleashed through his Tianshu Hand had grown exponentially.
Though that palm strike had seemed effortless, in that single instant, it had depleted nearly half of his true qi.
Yet he had had no choice. Faced with rogue soldiers in formation, he could only meet them head-on. If he failed to halt their advance and allowed them to seize the opening to kill Wuzheng, all would be lost.
Unable to unleash consecutive Air-Cleaving Palms, Zhou Wuji took advantage of the moment to flick his wrist, hurling six White Brow Needles.
However, the soldiers were now on guard. Only one fell dead to a needle; the others were wounded, but none critically.
Before Zhou Wuji could make another move, two skilled fighters thrust their spears straight at him.
Both possessed Rank 8 cultivations, their long spears vicious, fast, and packed with immense force.
Unable to retreat, Zhou Wuji had no choice but to raise his sword to meet them.
These men were battle-hardened veterans, not mindless demon beasts. In close, face-to-face combat, landing a vital hit with the White Brow Needles was exceedingly difficult; facing them with a sword was far more practical.
True qi coursed through the Seven Stars Sword as it slashed left and right against the spears. The force bearing down from both weapons was dense and solid; though he had intended to sweep the spears aside with his true qi, he failed to deflect them.
Zhou Wuji knew something was amiss. This was likely a secret military technique capable of amplifying their strength when fighting in formation, or perhaps they had ingested some medicine. In any case, these men were vastly superior to the rabble at Laocang Village.
Yet his swordsmanship was extraordinarily profound. Sensing the abnormality, the true qi coating his blade shifted from hard to soft, then back to hard. First, it dissolved the force along the shafts, using the adhesive pull of his qi to guide the spears, only unleashing an explosive burst of true qi once the soldiers exerted their own power.
Such continuous, subtle variations in true qi were far beyond what brute soldiers could comprehend.
To them, it felt as though their spears had plunged into empty air. Just as they exerted force to follow through, the spears snapped back violently in tandem with their own momentum, bouncing high into the air.
The rebound left both men's arms utterly numb. Seizing the opening, Zhou Wuji flicked two White Brow Needles from his left hand.
The two seasoned soldiers watched the cold glints flash toward them, but their bodies were stiff, leaving them powerless to dodge.
With two dull thuds, the White Brow Needles pierced straight through their eyes and into their brains, ending their lives.
Between the bombardment of Yin Thunder and Zhou Wuji's successive strikes, only five men remained of the dense spear formation.
Their minds were steeped in blood-fiend aura, making them fearless and savage.
Yet watching their comrades cut down so effortlessly, even they felt a tremor of fear.
They retreated in haste, spears pointed at Zhou Wuji, eyes wide with terror lest he loose another hidden projectile.
Just as Zhou Wuji prepared to press his advantage and finish the lot of them, he "heard" a scorching, tiger-like presence beside his ear.
It was not a sound, nor was it the circulation of true qi, but the martial prestige and murderous fiend aura unleashed by an expert channeling his inner force.
Zhou Wuji knew the enemy's Rank 7 martial artist could no longer hold back and had charged straight into the main hall.
A violent pounding also echoed from the rear door. Clearly, the squad of rogue soldiers that had rushed to the back courtyard was attempting to batter their way inside.
Sturdy though the rear door was, it would soon be smashed to splinters before a mob of rogue soldiers.
Wang Qi had judged the timing perfectly, charging in to launch a pincer attack from front and back.
Turning around, Zhou Wuji saw Wang Qi leaping forward as if in flight, closing the distance in the blink of an eye.
The goose-feather saber in Wang Qi's grip was fully five feet long. Even before reaching his target, he had raised it high and brought it cleaving down with ferocious might.
As a Rank 7 martial artist, Wang Qi possessed a punch force of two thousand jin.
Driven by such formidable power, the fifteen-jin goose-feather saber let out a shrill howl, its brilliant blade-light seeming to shear the dim hall clean in two.
As an elite military expert, Wang Qi was not one for probing strikes; he went all out the instant they clashed.
His saber technique was forged through a thousand trials, simple and direct yet exquisitely pure.
What made Wang Qi even more terrifying was that having weathered countless brutal battles, his mind was exceptionally resolute, having even condensed a sharp, palpable killing intent.
Before the blade even arrived, that biting intent had already locked onto Zhou Wuji.
Even with divine sense as formidable as his, Zhou Wuji felt the crushing pressure. It was not merely his presence being suppressed; even the circulation of his true qi was hindered to a degree.
He felt a jolt of surprise. A battle-hardened Rank 7 martial artist, even one incapable of channeling true qi, was far stronger than he had anticipated.
"Thunder, come!"
Wuzheng made his move. The Tianpeng ruler pointed directly at Wang Qi as Yin Thunder descended.
The water-like lightning struck straight toward Wang Qi, leaving him no room to evade.
Yet Wang Qi had anticipated this. Every sinew, muscle, and organ inside and out tightened at once, his focus entirely concentrated upon the edge of his blade. Just as the lightning fell, he twisted the saber in his grip.
The water-like lightning was shattered by the long goose-feather saber, bursting into thousands of radiant streaks like an unfurled umbrella of light.
Seeing an opportunity, Zhou Wuji raised his hand and loosed three White Brow Needles. Wang Qi shifted his saber once more, shattering two of them, while the third grazed past his temple...
Such a ferocious Rank 7 expert left Zhou Wuji secretly unnerved.
Wuzheng's Yin Thunder, channeled through the divine hall, had been amplified at least threefold, yet it had failed to inflict any direct harm on this man.
A true Rank 7 martial artist was simply too overbearing, truly capable of shattering countless arts with sheer brute force. It was terrifying!
Even with a temperament as unyielding as Wuzheng's, shock gripped his heart. Yet he understood that so long as they killed the leading expert, the remaining bandits would pose no threat.
If they could not dispatch this man, all of them would perish.
Wuzheng dared not hesitate and summoned the Yin Thunder once more.
As the Tianpeng ruler pointed forward, a beam of water-light tens of feet long surged toward Wang Qi like a colossal serpent.
Wang Qi knew that such thunder arts were impossible to dodge. Before Wuzheng even unleashed the strike, he drew a deep breath, his chest swelling abruptly as his dark skin flushed crimson beneath the surge of blood and vitality.
Though the Blood Fiend Art was a straightforward martial path, it was easy to learn but hard to master.
The most direct way to elevate one's cultivation in it was to slaughter men and demons, absorbing the blood-fiend qi from gore and death.
Though he had appeared unharmed after taking the earlier blast of Yin Thunder, his five viscera had felt as though they were burning.
Having tasted the potency of this Daoist's thunder art, Wang Qi dared not test it again. He instantly catalyzed the Blood Fiend Art to burn his vitality, unleashing all his power in a frenzied burst.
Burning vitality in this manner damaged one's bodily foundation and ruined the roots of one's martial arts, requiring at least half a year of recuperation afterward at a terrible price.
Yet at this juncture, Wang Qi had no other choice.
Just as the thunder fell, the crimson-hued Wang Qi opened his mouth and roared, "Break!"
The tempestuous soundwave collided head-on with the water-like thunder. The lightning shattered into concentric rings of umbrella-shaped ripples, exploding outward with a deafening blast.
Though Zhou Wuji had sensed it in advance, guarding his seven apertures with true qi and locking down the divine aperture between his brows, the shockwave still left his blood boiling and his true qi churning, forcing him a step backward against his will.
He knew things had taken a turn for the worse. That roar was not merely a concussive soundwave, but one infused with the blood-fiend qi tempered through a hundred battles. It not only subdued sorcery, but targeted the spirit directly.
If someone of his capability could barely withstand such might, Wuzheng and the others were in dire straits.
Sure enough, the azure light barrier before Wuzheng rippled and trembled violently. Wuzheng's face had turned deathly pale, his gaze unfocused.
The other Daoists fared even worse. Two collapsed on the spot, blood leaking from their seven apertures as they fell unconscious, while the remainder went limp, staggering backward.
The Big Dipper Seven Stars Array was visibly on the verge of collapse.
As for the handymen hiding beside the statue, nearly all had blacked out instantly.
At that moment, archers and crossbowmen rushed into the hall, drawing bows and raising crossbows to loose their bolts.
Seeing the situation deteriorate, Zhou Wuji raised his hand and hurled a cloud of white flour.
Carried by his true qi, the flour drifted across the front of the hall, and the Fire Bell Incantation that followed immediately detonated the dust.
With a thunderous roar, blinding flames erupted, and the shockwave sent several archers and crossbowmen flying.
The violent blast also shattered the azure light barrier, blowing out the eternal lamps and candles upon the altar table, snapping the incense sticks in the burner so that they flew through the air, and sending offerings of fruit and grain scattering in all directions.
With that, the Seven Stars Array was completely destroyed.
The main hall plunged into eerie darkness.
The sudden eruption of flame and shock threw the entire hall into chaos. Neither the rogue soldiers nor the Daoists knew what had just occurred, let alone what they ought to do; everyone was entirely bewildered...
Yet Wang Qi remained clear-headed. Glancing at the disoriented Daoists, he instantly concluded that the formation was broken, and these priests no longer posed any threat to him.
Zhou Wuji, on the other hand, was vicious and deceitful, his tricks nearly impossible to guard against. He had to kill Zhou Wuji first!
With that thought, Wang Qi raised his saber and slashed savagely toward Zhou Wuji. Still burning his vitality in a berserk state, this strike carried overwhelming momentum.
The fierce blade-light tore through the gloom, illuminating Zhou Wuji with sword in hand.
The gale kicked up by the blade whipped Zhou Wuji's hair and robes.
To Wang Qi's surprise, Zhou Wuji did not evade. Instead, facing the furious cleave of the saber, he swept his long sleeve forward, channeling a torrent of true qi as though intending to engulf the blade with fabric.
A savage grin spread across Wang Qi's face. The youth's cultivation of true qi was indeed impressive, but dreaming of deflecting his saber with true qi alone was pure delusion!
This single strike would sever Zhou Wuji's arm!
He poured thirty percent more power into the blade. No matter how Zhou Wuji attempted to adapt, this slash would leave him not the slightest chance...
Chapter 53