A Pawn's Passage

For a Martial Arts Practitioner, the Shattered Void Realm was at the Zaohua stage, which was determined by the number of refined acupoints.

In this realm, their fist intention took on a tangible form, enough to tear through the fabric of the void. A Martial Arts Practitioner’s blood qi reached its extreme, which was no longer boiling hot but as still as stagnant water. The body spirits within the acupoints fall into a dormant state without the push of blood qi, ensuring that Martial Arts Practitioners would not harm those nearby simply by existing.

Yet if that blood qi was injected into the acupoints, awakening the body spirits, then their full strength would burst forth, allowing them to manifest the Manly Immortal True Form. This was the pinnacle of self, a doctrine opposite to that of the unity of heaven and man, practiced by the Heavenly and Earthly Immortal lineages.

The Heavenly Immortal lineage harmonized the five elements with their organs, merging elemental energy with their true essence. It was less detailed than the Manly Immortal’s body spirits, but it focused on balancing the internal and the external. But this harmony focused more on qi than on physique. That was why Heavenly Immortals’ bodies were never as unyielding as those of the Manly Immortals.

Qi Xuansu’s bones and muscles crackled like thunder. His body grew to over 5 meters tall, resembling a giant or the Ancient Great Shamans. His presence was terrifying.

Yang E shielded herself with the surging dragon qi.

The next instant, Qi Xuansu moved.

From Yang E’s perspective, Qi Xuansu merely leaned forward slightly, as though preparing to sprint. But that was only an afterimage. The real Qi Xuansu was already upon her, his speed so fast that she could only track him by spiritual sense, not sight.

Qi Xuansu’s punch had no flourish, only brute force with overwhelming blood qi. Wherever it touched, Yang E’s dragon qi melted before him like ice under the sun, dissipating completely.

His devastating blow slowed only a meter before Yang E’s body. In that instant, she condensed her dragon qi to its peak. Soon after, Qi Xuansu’s fist met Yang E’s extended claws.

A visible ripple burst outward from the clash. The ground beneath turned glassy due to Qi Xuansu’s blood qi, which burned at a high temperature.

Though bolstered by dragon qi, Yang E’s five fingers shattered from the punch.

Forced backward, Yang E screamed again.

Qi Xuansu also threw back his head and roared to the heavens.

This was the Blood Roar of a Martial Arts Practitioner. Torrents of blood qi surged outward, flooding the entire underground hall. The ceiling trembled, and dust cascaded down like ash beneath his thunderous might.

Qi Xuansu’s earth-shaking roar suppressed Yang E’s scream, the force of it rebounding on her until blood streamed from her orifices.

Then, he punched her again. At first, his fist appeared at a normal size, but as it approached Yang E, it expanded until it was as big as a canopy, blocking her entire vision. A web of dark cracks spread all around his fist, as if all matter disintegrated before this punch, simply erased from existence.

Yang E flung out her sleeve, using her surging dragon qi to envelop the oncoming fist.

Though the dark cracks ceaselessly devoured the dragon qi, the flow of dragon qi seemed inexhaustible. Qi Xuansu’s strike slowed as if he had sunk into a swamp.

In response, Qi Xuansu revealed the Manly Immortal True Form, with three heads and six arms, each arm wielding a distinct fist technique. Within his body, his bones, blood, organs, and flesh continuously roared as they shifted, the sound ringing like a Daoist mantra echoing through the void.

One head let out a Blood Roar, while another observed in all directions, and the third exhaled condensed white breath from his chest that was as sharp and lethal as a Qi Refiner’s flying sword.

At this moment, Qi Xuansu was at the peak of his arrogance, bordering on madness. It made him one with the Demonic Blade’s wild nature, allowing him to wield it to an unprecedented level.

The perfected Demonic Blade, combined with the ever-changing Manly Immortal True Form, made Qi Xuansu the ultimate humanoid killing machine.

Yang E only managed to restrain one fist. Qi Xuansu’s five other arms continued to strike in a frenzy, raining down punches on her.

Even with dragon qi protecting her, Yang E’s body was soon mangled beyond recognition. Her bones snapped like twigs, and she was reduced to a lump of rotten flesh.

However, she was still not dead. Empowered by the dragon qi, her no-longer-humanoid state was not seriously injured.

As Yang E’s form collapsed, waves of decayed dragon qi seeped out. Since dragon qi contained large amounts of incense power, wherever the dragon qi spread, it resembled a Godly Immortal’s divine kingdom, bound by its own set of vague and insidious rules. Being within the vicinity was restraining, making it hard to move. Only an external force could tear down this realm and cleanse the filth.

In an instant, Qi Xuansu felt himself sinking into a mire. His fists grew heavy and sluggish, the force within them waning.

The dragon qi continued eroding his body, seeping through every pore and corroding the body spirits within his acupoints.

Qi Xuansu withdrew his Manly Immortal True Form, drawing all power inward as his whole body entered a restrained, coiled stance to concentrate his force.

Every joint in his body rumbled like war drums. He then thrust his fist forward, his punch tearing through the air with the roar of a thousand peals of thunder.

This punch carried the purest yang energy, one step short of the turning point where excessive yang birthed yin.

Violent shockwaves rippled out with his strike, spreading through the void itself—omnipresent and unstoppable. For a moment, everything within the underground hall blurred.

The void was even more elusive than qi. The Ancient Great Witches called it time and space. Time was what spanned from past to present, while space was what stretched in all directions.

Since all things existed in the void, the Manly Immortal’s Shattered Void Realm aimed to turn everything in the void into nothingness.

When even the void warped and twisted, everything relying on it faltered. Intricate formations and talismans lost alignment under such distortion and thus would unravel themselves.

Yang E’s dragon qi was no exception.

Martial Arts Practitioners always had some flaws. Under certain conditions, a Banished Immortal could toy with them, leaving them in a helpless state, where they had incomparable strength yet nowhere to use it. This happened when Madam Qi banished The Inn’s Owner to Donghai. But if a Martial Arts Practitioner was given the right chance, one punch was all it took to obliterate anything.

The surging dragon qi scattered at Qi Xuansu’s punch. The entire underground hall also began to quake and crumble.

Yet compared with The Owner’s punch, Qi Xuansu’s was still lacking due to inexperience, falling just short of delivering a fatal blow to Yang E.

Yang E gathered the dragon qi, restoring her body and regaining her human form. Her garments were completely torn apart, revealing her scale-covered body, similar to a dragon’s hide. She now resembled a dragon hybrid that walked upright like a human.

Without the suppression of the decayed dragon qi, Qi Xuansu regained his full speed. His figure blurred like a ghost as he closed the distance in a flash and struck again.

The Manly Immortal lineage had always been plain and unadorned.

Qi Xuansu’s fist shot straight toward the center of Yang E’s brow, pressing upon her dragon scales so heavily that faint cracks appeared on her body. Yet, just before the fist could land, Yang E leaped back, narrowly escaping the brunt of the strike.

Qi Xuansu pressed his advantage mercilessly, following close behind without pause.

The veins on Qi Xuansu’s arms bulged like snakes writhing beneath his skin. His blood surged faster until the flow was audible, like waves crashing against a shore. His domineering aura flared to its fullest. Then he stepped forward. This simple step caused the entire floor to sink more than 30 centimeters. Harnessing the immense force from that motion, he shot forth like an arrow released from a taut bowstring, instantly closing in on Yang E.

Martial Arts Practitioners were unmatched in close combat. Even though Yang E was at the Zaohua stage, at such proximity, she had no proper way to counter his strike. All she could do was retreat again and again to avoid a head-on collision.

With every step Qi Xuansu took, the ground quaked, leaving massive web-like cracks beneath him. With a series of deafening cracks, Qi Xuansu unleashed another punch. Then, in the next instant, all sound vanished.

That punch had reached the point where extreme yang energy gave rise to yin energy. Yang E had nowhere left to dodge.

This unstoppable hidden force turned Yang E’s chest into a gaping void, as if a piece of her body had simply ceased to exist.