The water overflowed from the stream, soaking the nearby area in a thin layer of water. Mist rose around them, creating a hazy and indistinct atmosphere. The Water Element force between heaven and earth suddenly intensified, bringing a terrifying and oppressive dampness. In that instant, Meng Qi felt as if he had entered the deep sea!
The man who exuded a strange and eerie aura carried himself with an air of lofty superiority, as if a deity were looking down upon insignificant mortals, or a higher lifeform gazing at crawling insects. His arrogance made Meng Qi want to punch him in the face.
Just as Meng Qi prepared to unleash his full strength without restraint, he suddenly noticed a trace of mockery and smugness in the blue-blooded man’s eyes, as though he had seen through Meng Qi’s intentions and was ridiculing his futile efforts.
His aura was clearly not strong, so why was he so confident? Was he concealing his true power, or did he have other advantages? A sudden sense of foreboding flashed through Meng Qi’s mind.
As the premonition surfaced, Meng Qi felt his blood become scorching hot, bubbling and boiling like boiling water!
Meng Qi attempted to restrain it, but his efforts proved futile. His blood seemed to rebel against him, moving of its own accord. Had it not been for his cultivation of the Eight-Nine Arcane Art, Meng Qi would have sustained severe injuries from this alone. If he were still an ordinary practitioner who had not yet crossed the Threshold of Life and Death, he would have perished instantly—without exception. No ordinary individual whose blood had boiled in such a manner had ever survived!
“How is it? Is your blood boiling, no longer under your control?” The blue-blooded man displayed a perverted sense of delight, as if he thoroughly enjoyed the process of killing or controlling others. His hands had unknowingly formed a seal, and faint blue ripples undulated around his body.
Meng Qi was startled. Could this blue-blooded man’s mastery of the Water Element be so extreme that he could directly control an enemy’s blood, sweat, even their brain fluid?
This was almost beyond the level of an Outer View!
Even the Queen Mother of the West, who had once controlled the Metal Element, needed to reach the peak of the Outer View to subtly manipulate the metallic components within an enemy’s body. Yet this blue-blooded man before him was only at the level of the first tier of the Celestial Ladder!
The blue-blooded man stepped forward, changed his hand seal, and struck from afar. The light blue ripples gently swayed.
Meng Qi’s head buzzed with dizziness. Faintly, he could hear the sound of water sloshing inside his skull. His thoughts slowed, sustained only by his Yuan Shen.
“Shocked, aren’t you?” The blue-blooded man sneered arrogantly.
He changed his seal again. Meng Qi felt his internal organs, skin, and muscles all slow down. The water within him became uncontrollable. He could no longer form an Inner View, so naturally, he couldn’t connect with the outer world. Even his physical strength was unusable, making every movement difficult!
What use were techniques like Heavenly Thunder, World Shattering, Karmic Binding, or Yin-Yang Seal under such a condition? Meng Qi had no hope of using them at all!
The blue-blooded man’s body faintly turned transparent, radiating a crystalline sapphire glow. He declared proudly, “Worship me! This is the power of the gods!”
“I’ve seen countless human experts, and every one of them wept before me, their tears and snot betraying them. You, a useless wretch who hasn’t even stepped onto the first tier of the Celestial Ladder, dare ask me why I didn’t ambush you?”
“No one can resist this control unless they are far beyond my level!”
“Pathetic insect, with your strength, how could you possibly deserve an ambush from me?”
He mocked Meng Qi relentlessly, slowly approaching the seemingly hunched-over Meng Qi. He clasped his hands together, ready to completely detonate the liquids within Meng Qi’s body, letting them burst free of their constraints!
His eyes gleamed with anticipation as his hands suddenly snapped shut. At that moment, a cold, ghostly hand abruptly emerged and tightly gripped his wrist!
What?
The blue-blooded man’s eyes widened in shock. He saw the Meng Qi before him transform into a semi-transparent, ethereal state—sinister and ghostly—and he could no longer sense the liquids within Meng Qi’s body!
How could he no longer sense the liquids? He couldn’t believe it at all!
Meng Qi’s lips curled into a smirk as his other hand also grabbed the blue-blooded man’s wrist.
Surprised? My body has become a ghostly form, with no water inside!
What is the Eight-Nine Mystical Art? This is the Eight-Nine Mystical Art! Unrestricted by any terrain, weather, or condition, I can fight anytime!
If I hadn’t wanted to lure you in to prevent your escape, I could have broken free right after the first attack!
The nobleman was both startled and bewildered, attempting to break free. Suddenly, he felt a terrifying suction force emanating from Meng Qi’s hands, causing his Yuan Shen to grow dizzy and his condensed water essence to scatter, as if he might be pulled into Meng Qi at any moment!
Soul-devouring demonic arts? Only now did he seem to remember that the man before him was a notorious demon expert. He forcefully focused his mind and began to circulate a secret technique, emitting rings of deep blue ripples from his body, attempting to counteract the suction force.
But at that moment, Meng Qi, gripping his wrist, suddenly gave a slight tremble with both hands.
A pleasant sensation surged through the blue-blooded man, tiny tingling electric currents zipping through every corner of his body, making him feel as if he were floating into ecstasy.
The Heavenly Demon’s Bliss!
This sensation lasted only an instant before the blue-blooded man quickly recovered, filled with shame, anger, and hatred. He roared, “Die!”
“You must die!”
The deep blue ripples within his body condensed into a heart shape before suddenly exploding, changing the heavens and earth, turning them into a deathly, sapphire void.
The Water Element was not merely about water—it was also the force of life itself. The blue-blooded man unleashed a forbidden technique, recklessly unleashing power he had not yet fully mastered, transforming the nurturing force into a corrosive one!
Even if you are a ghost, even if you have no water in your body, as long as you exist, you still carry the essence of life!
The blue-blooded man’s eyes burned with hatred, wishing nothing more than to tear Meng Qi apart.
As he anticipated Meng Qi’s life essence being corroded and dissolved, he suddenly saw Meng Qi’s figure shift, turning sapphire blue. Water flowed and condensed into a human form, ripples spreading inch by inch from within his body, resisting the corrosion and control.
What! The blue-blooded man’s eyes widened. He saw Meng Qi’s mocking smile!
He could transform into one of his kind!
He also had the talent to control the Water Element!
When both parties were equally skilled and their strengths were similar, this corrosive attack on life essence naturally couldn’t take immediate effect!
Meng Qi had only a superficial grasp of the core techniques of the Heavenly Demon Art. He had only dabbled in them by studying the old bell-ringer’s energy pathways. Whether it was the Heavenly Demon’s Four Corrosions or the Heavenly Demon’s Bliss, he could only mimic their effects through the Eight-Nine Mystical Art. He hadn’t intended to win with them at all. In his ghostly state, he had limited techniques available, and he had to use them to mask his true intentions while letting the electric currents of his spirit deeply “explore” the blue-blooded man’s body and Yuan Shen, mastering the secrets of his structure and thereby enabling transformation and a certain degree of control!
Another tremble, and the Bliss returned. The blue-blooded man faltered slightly. Behind Meng Qi, two arms grew from his back, forming a seal and pressing it onto the blue-blooded man’s head—the dwelling place of the Yuan Shen.
Bliss as the catalyst, Heaven-Transforming and Earth-Shaking Strike!
The blue-blooded man’s Yuan Shen was left defenseless. His spiritual sea surged and swelled, and fragments of memories surged forth. Naturally, the most vivid images came first.
Sapphire waves undulated, and deep within a ten-thousand-fathom ocean trench stood a towering, sapphire-crystal structure with a metallic sheen. It looked like a pagoda but was slightly different. Entirely cylindrical, it had a pair of grayish-blue wing-like decorations on either side. Its base rested on a massive shallow dish, its design extremely peculiar.
Carved upon it was an image of a deity. As Meng Qi tried to examine it closely, he suddenly noticed a surge of water rushing toward him.
With a splash, the blue-blooded man’s memory fragments shattered, and his spiritual sea erupted into a towering wave, beginning to collapse!
Meng Qi had already grabbed the blue-blooded man’s head with one hand, retracting his arms. With one hand behind his back, he now slightly frowned as he watched the blue-blooded man’s body shatter like glass into fragments, melting into water and quickly evaporating into nothingness.
In the end, Meng Qi’s right hand held only a condensed blue gemstone, its surface engraved with mysterious patterns, and within it, faint water ripples undulated.
“It can block remote probing…” Meng Qi withdrew his hand, gazing at the sapphire-blue stone.
After his earlier exploration, he had discovered that the blue-blooded man’s body structure was different from both humans and demons. Neither human nor demon, he had no acupoints on his body and no internal organs like lungs or viscera. Instead, his body was covered with countless tiny, ethereal, deep-blue branches, each marked with seal-like patterns that connected to the Water Element, exuding an air of divine craftsmanship.
“A strange race that claims to be divine? Not that impressive…” Meng Qi scoffed inwardly.
After a moment of contemplation, he transformed back into Master Fah Zheng’s appearance, wearing a yellow monk’s robe and a red kasaya, his expression solemn and dignified. He returned to Linhai, holding the sapphire-blue gemstone in his hand, and directly went to the Yun family estate to request an audience with He Jiu.
Upon receiving the report, He Jiu extended his perception and suddenly sensed a strong presence of the Water Element. His expression subtly changed.
He composed himself and instructed a servant to invite Master Fah Zheng inside, not rushing out to greet him personally to avoid drawing attention.
As Meng Qi entered the guest courtyard, he noticed that the pond was dry, devoid of even a drop of water, and so was the well. He nodded slightly—so the Donghai Sword Workshop truly understood the nature of the blue-blooded beings.
He Jiu, Huang Taichong, and He Xiu all possessed formidable cultivation skills. They sat calmly, waiting until Meng Qi entered. After the servants withdrew from the courtyard, they fixed their gazes on the sapphire-blue gemstone in Meng Qi’s hand.
“Is this the one you killed?” He Jiu resumed his bold and confident demeanor, asking casually.
“Amitabha, this old monk had intended to leave Linhai and travel to help the world. However, on the way, I encountered this practitioner. He was neither human, nor demon, nor a cultivator, yet he attacked without provocation. To protect other lives, this old monk had no choice but to uphold the precept of benefiting sentient beings and eliminate this evil.” Meng Qi raised one hand in a Buddhist salute.
Huang Taichong gazed deeply at Meng Qi and sighed, “Master Fah Zheng, you truly are extraordinary. I was not mistaken about you.”
He exchanged a glance with He Jiu and continued candidly, “The blue-blooded beings possess extraordinary innate talents and unique physiques. Unless one exceeds them by an entire cultivation stage, humans have no chance against them. Of course, once one reaches the level of a Grandmaster, integrating principles into their Dharma Body, one can barely resist their innate abilities and stand a chance against blue-blooded beings of the same level.”
“Judging from this Water Heart Stone, the blue-blooded being you killed was equivalent to an Outer View practitioner who had just crossed the first tier of the Celestial Ladder. If you were not a Grandmaster yourself, you would likely have perished.”
Seeing Meng Qi arrive with the Water Heart Stone, they knew he had indeed encountered a true blue-blooded being. Recognizing his formidable strength, and guided by the idea of exchanging information and aligning with the righteous path, they slightly revealed some secrets.
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