Chapter 21: Kill

A surge of violent purple lightning erupted around Li Qing.

He appeared as if clad in a robe of thunder, looking utterly unstoppable.

Li Qing leaped high into the air, throwing a direct punch at the approaching barrage of talismans.

Bang! Bang!

Under his forceful assault, several rounds passed, and the talisman attacks were completely obliterated.

Just as Li Qing intended to press his advantage, a golden sword light reappeared behind him.

Li Qing’s figure flickered, accelerating to dodge the attack.

He possessed a degree of self-awareness; with his current physical capabilities, attempting to tank a direct strike from the golden sword was unrealistic.

"Open!"

Li Qing let out a loud shout.

Then, with lightning speed, he threw a heavy punch toward the golden sword.

Bang! Clang!

Following a crisp sound, the golden sword was blasted back by Li Qing.

The spiritual light on the surface of the golden sword began to dim, appearing significantly damaged.

Taking this opportunity, Li Qing closed the distance completely, standing right before Hei Feng.

"Go join your brother on the road to the afterlife."

Li Qing's cold words reached Hei Feng's ears.

"Purple Thunder Palm!"

A massive purple lightning palm appeared above Hei Feng, slamming down violently toward his turtle-shell defensive artifact.

Seeing this, a look of madness crossed Hei Feng's face.

He had originally harbored fantasies of escaping.

However, he never expected the opponent's offensive to be so rapid, nor that the strike would be so ruthless, leaving him absolutely no chance of survival.

"I'll make sure you accompany me to the grave!"

Hei Feng roared with a distorted, ferocious expression.

Seeing that Hei Feng did not retreat upon his approach but instead turned manic, a flash of caution crossed Li Qing's eyes, and his movements slowed accordingly.

In the next instant, a black orb appeared in Hei Feng's hand.

A violent aura began to permeate the air.

Upon seeing the black orb, Li Qing's pupils constricted sharply.

"Yin Thunder Bead!"

He hadn't expected Hei Feng to have such a trump card.

The Yin Thunder Bead was a special, one-time-use treasure.

It contained immense Yin Thunder energy; once detonated, the instantaneous explosion could destroy everything in the vicinity.

Its power was no less than a full-strength strike from a cultivator at the peak of the Qi Refinement stage.

"Retreat!"

Without a moment's hesitation, Li Qing immediately turned to flee.

The moment he turned, Li Qing performed a hand seal.

An unseen large net had appeared above Hei Feng's head at some unknown point and was now falling directly upon him.

This was the Spirit-Training Net that Li Qing had purchased previously.

This artifact was not typically used for combat; rather, its characteristic was extreme stealth, making it difficult for others to detect.

Just as Hei Feng was about to release the Yin Thunder Bead, he suddenly saw a massive black net descending upon him.

Hei Feng was struck with terror.

He never imagined the opponent would be so insidious as to deploy this artifact in secret.

In the split second Hei Feng was stunned, Li Qing had already sped away from his side.

Seeing the descending Purple Thunder Palm and the Cold Water Sword watching him like a predator from the side, Hei Feng could only release the Yin Thunder Bead in desperation.

Rumble!!

A heaven-shaking explosion erupted, the massive roar blooming across the island like a clap of thunder.

*Pfft!*

Having just escaped the blast radius, Li Qing spat out a mouthful of blood.

Under the massive explosion, the Cold Water Sword was sent flying.

Because the Cold Water Sword was linked to his mind, his divine sense suffered damage as well.

A sharp, twisting pain radiated from his brain.

Li Qing immediately circulated the Water Control Technique to suppress the surging mana within his body.

Enduring the continuous throbbing pain in his head, Li Qing's figure charged once more toward Hei Feng's former position.

This was where the advantages of a body cultivator became apparent.

Unlike a spell cultivator, he would not suffer a divine sense backlash that rendered him completely unable to fight.

As Li Qing approached, he found Hei Feng hiding beneath the turtle-shell defensive artifact, coughing up blood continuously.

The recent explosion had also inflicted significant damage upon him.

Seeing Li Qing reappear, a bitter smile crossed Hei Feng's face.

He never expected that he and his brother would fall at the hands of the same person—and a person they had tried to scheme against.

A final shred of survival instinct made Hei Feng attempt to beg for mercy, but at that moment, a lightning palm slammed down.

Boom!

The surrounding dust surged once more, obscuring Li Qing's cold and ruthless gaze.

A sea breeze blew through, carrying away the dust.

Ignoring the blood at the corner of his mouth, Li Qing stood indifferently to the side.

The turtle-shell artifact had been knocked away by Li Qing.

On the ground lay a charred corpse; it was Hei Feng.

This was perhaps the first time Li Qing had experienced such a brutal slaughter, yet the deaths of the two men did not cause him any discomfort.

Compared to the battle, he was far more interested in the post-combat spoils.

With a calm expression, Li Qing wiped the blood from his mouth.

He then stepped forward quickly to retrieve the storage bags from the corpses.

In addition to the two storage bags, Li Qing also picked up the discarded turtle-shell artifact and his own Cold Water Sword.

Seeing the tragic scene of the battle nearby, Li Qing quickened his pace to leave.

The previous battle had caused a massive disturbance, especially the detonation of the Yin Thunder Bead, which was extremely conspicuous.

He had to leave this place immediately.

As for the battlefield, Li Qing had no need to worry about it; such battles were far too common in the cultivation world.

***

Qingling Cliff.

A black-clad cultivator wearing a bamboo hat arrived at the shop entrance.

"I'll stay for seven days."

Li Qing tossed out seven low-grade spirit stones, and after being led by a servant, he arrived at a small courtyard.

Several strikes of mana hit the command token, and as a cloud of mist drifted by, the courtyard was shielded from view.

Now that he was back, Li Qing finally shed his disguise.

Walking with a somewhat weakened gait, he returned to his room.

Li Qing quickly took out two Blood Replenishing Pills from his storage bag and swallowed them in one gulp.

As the two pills entered his body, they slowly dissolved.

A massive surge of vital energy and blood appeared within him.

Li Qing continued to sit cross-legged as the first layer of the Thunder Spirit Technique began to circulate automatically.

The surging vital energy was greedily absorbed by his injured body.

Gradually, tiny purple sparks of lightning began to appear around his body.

Upon closer inspection, one could see more than ten flickering purple spiritual apertures appearing on Li Qing's physical body.

This was the secret of the Thunder Spirit Technique.

Spiritual apertures are hidden deep within the human body.

If Li Qing did not choose to reveal them, others would have no way of detecting them; at most, they would only notice that his physical strength was unusual.

The first layer of the Thunder Spirit Technique required opening spiritual apertures on the body to store the power of thunder, serving as the foundation for storing strength.

To promote to a mid-tier body cultivator, one needed to open thirty-six spiritual apertures within the body.

Although Li Qing was already a late-stage low-tier body cultivator, he was still far from the true peak.

The cultivation of body cultivators differed from that of spell cultivators.

Spell cultivators focused on spiritual roots and opening meridians to absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to comprehend the Great Dao.

Body cultivators, however, opened spiritual apertures upon the physical flesh, using the body as their foundation to pursue eternal immortality.

The two were not in conflict.

From the very beginning, Li Qing had a clear understanding.

Although he practiced both law and body cultivation, he primarily focused on law cultivation; body cultivation served merely as a hidden trump card.