Chapter 14

Li Ziyeh smiled bitterly, threw the Heavenly Sword upward, and it instantly transformed into a silver streak, returning to the sword case. Then, Li Ziyeh took off the sword case he had never been without and threw it to Ye Chang.

Ye Chang took out several talismans and activated them, turning them into golden lights that encircled the sword case, sealing it. After doing this, Ye Chang couldn't hide his satisfaction and laughed loudly, "You so-called righteous modern cultivators... take this!"

As he spoke, a powerful killing technique was unleashed toward Li Ziyeh.

Without the assistance of the Heavenly Sword, Li Ziyeh's escape technique was much slower, but he seemed to have foreseen everything and took seven steps diagonally backward. Ye Chang's killing move narrowly missed him, creating a huge crater in the ground!

Ye Chang frowned, "Who told you to dodge? Do you believe me or not..."

Li Ziyeh sighed, "Let me make one thing clear: giving up the Heavenly Sword is my bottom line. If you want me to tie my hands and let you kill me, that's impossible."

Ye Chang's face twisted, "Don't you care about this kid's life?"

"I'm not stupid. If you kill me, this young brother still can't be saved, so why should I stand here and let you kill me?" Li Ziyeh smiled lightly, "Since you're capturing him alive, he must be useful to you. If it weren't a desperate situation, you wouldn't easily kill him."

"So what?"

Li Ziyeh continued, "If we fight head-on, I seem to be slightly stronger than you. According to the nature of ancient cultivators, if defeating me doesn't benefit you personally, you'd rather escape than fight. But now that you've stopped, it means the situation has changed to 'if you don't defeat me, you'll be in trouble.' Is your base nearby?"

Caught off guard, Ye Chang became agitated, "What do you mean?"

Li Ziyeh smiled, "If this young brother dies in front of me, I might feel guilty for a while, but it wouldn't be good. But if I let him go with you, he'll either die or suffer worse than death. The worst-case scenario is that he becomes an ancient cultivator—this might be unfair to him, but from my perspective, I can't allow this to happen. I can't let you take him away. If I can do my best to save him, what can I do?"

"I don't care what you do!" Ye Chang roared and tried to use his escape technique to leave. With the Heavenly Sword sealed, Li Ziyeh's escape technique was definitely not as fast as before!

At this moment, Li Ziyeh's calm voice echoed, "Just a hint, the seal you placed on the Heavenly Sword isn't hard to break—don't forget that unsealing is also a specialty of the Myriad Methods Gate. I was able to kill three Foundation Establishment cultivators and chase you, and breaking the seal and chasing you again would be the same."

Ye Chang stopped in his tracks. Modern techniques were much more complex than ancient ones, and he couldn't be sure how long it would take Li Ziyeh to break the seal—would it be one breath or two? The memory of Li Ziyeh methodically killing his three Foundation Establishment subordinates and then chasing him was still fresh, and this time wouldn't be enough to shake off Li Ziyeh.

The voice of this Nascent Soul cultivator trembled slightly, "What do you want?"

"Don't you understand the situation? If you run, I can break the seal and chase you, and your secrets as an ancient cultivator will be exposed. In the worst case, I'll kill Wang Qi myself. I'll feel guilty for a while, but it's better than letting you achieve your goal—of course, neither of us wants to see this happen. If you're ruthless enough to kill Wang Qi here, with no hostage to hold me back, I can fully unleash the power of the Heavenly Sword, and killing you won't be hard."

Ye Chang couldn't stand Li Ziyeh's confident demeanor and roared, "What do you want?"

Fool!

Wang Qi despised the Nascent Soul cultivator who had him restrained. Li Ziyeh's current strategy was to eliminate other options and guide the situation to his desired outcome. Now, this Nascent Soul cultivator couldn't kill him or run away, so the only option was...

Li Ziyeh spread his hands, "As you can see, the only way to break the deadlock is to defeat me here without the Heavenly Sword and keep the young brother alive before the fight is over."

Wang Qi understood Li Ziyeh's intentions and relaxed, focusing on deducing the method to break the seal given by Zhen Chanzi.

Ye Chang's face changed several times, and he finally roared, releasing several spells toward Li Ziyeh.

Without the Heavenly Sword, Li Ziyeh's ability to counter all techniques was greatly limited. However, he was not afraid and used his body techniques to dodge the attacks and pounce on Ye Chang. His physical prowess was pushed to the limit, creating endless variations, and his palm strikes targeted all of Ye Chang's weak points.

One technique leads to myriad techniques!

Ye Chang was no pushover. He used his magic power to bind Wang Qi and wielded a heavy sword with both hands, engaging Li Ziyeh in battle.

As the two cultivators fought, Wang Qi's deductions entered a critical stage.

"Simpler than I thought... doesn't seem to involve more complex changes..."

"This vector can be eliminated..."

"The formula is a bit complex... since the circulation of magic power is based on the cycle of the heavens, this function has a period... let's verify... it meets the Dirichlet conditions, so it can be simplified using Fourier transform..."

Wang Qi was fully immersed in his calculations, unaware that a warm current in his body began to slowly move through his meridians, circulating on its own.

The spell Ye Chang used to seal Wang Qi was a secret technique of the Supreme Heaven Splitting Path, designed to use the most powerful magic power to cut off the flow of magic power in the body, achieving a complete seal. However, the cut-off magic power didn't disappear; it was just sealed. Zhen Chanzi's method to break the seal used the residual magic power to bypass the seal and rebuild a cycle. Since the sealed magic power was cut into segments, a small amount of magic power couldn't complete a cycle, so 37 segments had to circulate simultaneously.

Modern cultivators, who practiced the Way of Life, could directly reflect their thoughts in their cultivation. As Wang Qi calculated, the magic power in his body began to circulate according to his calculations.

"Faster... this can be decomposed... this can be represented... faster..."

As Wang Qi's calculations progressed, the flow of magic power accelerated, changing from a snail's pace to a trickle, and finally merging into a stream!

This was equivalent to one-tenth of Wang Qi's magic power!

"Here... the final simplification... done! Hmm, my magic power..."

Upon completing his calculations, Wang Qi was surprised to find that he could use part of his magic power!

"I haven't... never mind, no time to think about it! The priority now is to escape!"

Wang Qi immediately focused on the battle between Li Ziyeh and Ye Chang.

Wang Qi was still enveloped by Ye Chang's magic power, floating half a foot behind him. The battle between Ye Chang and Li Ziyeh had entered a heated phase. Li Ziyeh had several wounds, and the blood almost turned his red clothes white. Ye Chang was also in a bad state, having been hit in several key points, causing his magic power to surge and almost injuring his Nascent Soul. Li Ziyeh's speed had dropped a level due to giving up the Heavenly Sword, but Ye Chang's techniques were also disordered due to his chaotic magic power, making it difficult to continue with the heavy sword.

"Hit!" Li Ziyeh took two more steps forward, dodging Ye Chang's attack. The heavy sword couldn't defend in close combat. Li Ziyeh's hands moved like butterflies, leaving dazzling afterimages, and struck Ye Chang's weak points!

The force penetrated the protective aura and nailed into the acupoints, causing Ye Chang to wince. Wang Qi was overjoyed and almost activated the talismans in his hand.

"Wait! The situation isn't clear yet, can't rush!"

Indeed, Ye Chang wasn't defeated by this attack. He discarded the heavy sword, changed his hand seals, and released magic power from his acupoints, forcing Li Ziyeh back!

"Li Ziyeh learned from the Myriad Methods Gate, where techniques and mathematics are closely related. He mentioned that the Myriad Methods Gate emphasizes calculations in battle. Attacking him during his offensive might disrupt his rhythm, possibly leading to both of us dying. Can't take that risk."

"So, the real move should be when Li Ziyeh is at a disadvantage or when this guy has no hope of winning and is about to kill me!"

After making his decision, Wang Qi began calculating how to maximize the effect of his single attack.

"Fortunately, to avoid using the wrong talisman while dodging those three Foundation Establishment cultivators, I put the attack talismans in my right hand and the others in my left."

"Can't be sure if the attack and defensive talismans conflict, so assume the worst case, that they do conflict. If I activate all the talismans at once, my attack might be weakened by my own shield, or the shield might block the attack. In the former case, I'd be defenseless in front of a Nascent Soul cultivator, and in the latter, I might just add a negligible defense that can't break his seal."

"But, the combined force of three explosive talismans might kill me."

"However, if I don't take the risk, I might die. This risk is worth taking."

"Besides, if I activate the right-hand talismans first and then the left-hand ones, I can largely avoid this risk."

Just as Wang Qi decided on his plan, the situation suddenly changed: Li Ziyeh, being only a Golden Core cultivator, was ultimately weaker in magic power and slower in movement. He had always narrowly avoided Ye Chang's heavy sword, but this time, he was hit by the heavy sword, flying backward and spitting out a mouthful of blood!

Ye Chang, an experienced fighter, didn't rush in or mock his enemy. Instead, he followed closely, changing his strategy to a steady, methodical approach, further expanding his advantage. He knew that Li Ziyeh's injuries would only worsen in a prolonged battle!

"Oh no!" Wang Qi was alarmed and almost activated the talismans. But he held back. Li Ziyeh hadn't regained his footing, and acting rashly would waste the opportunity.

Li Ziyeh didn't disappoint Wang Qi. He coughed up blood and reestablished his defense. Although he was struggling against the fierce sword attacks, he managed to counter them in unexpected ways! Ye Chang wasn't impatient. His goal was to prevent Li Ziyeh from having the chance to break the seal and retrieve the Heavenly Sword.

This modern cultivator's decline was irreversible, and he couldn't be allowed to make a last-ditch effort and kill both him and this Qi Practitioner!

Seeing that he couldn't achieve a quick victory, Ye Chang turned to undermining Li Ziyeh's spirit. He sneered, "Hmph, where's your skill from before?"

Li Ziyeh opened his mouth to say something but first coughed up a mouthful of blood. He spat out the blood and, while defending against the attacks, smiled bitterly, "Indeed... I, Li, was overconfident."

Ye Chang laughed. He never thought he'd have the chance to kill this modern elite cultivator who was granted the Heavenly Sword! His initial mission was to kill Xiang Qi and Li Ziyeh with the help of a mixed ancient Nascent Soul cultivator. When he discovered that Li Ziyeh had been granted the Heavenly Sword, he thought the mission was a failure. But now, he had a chance to turn the tables!

How much reward would the sect give for killing a Heavenly Sword recipient?

Just as Ye Chang thought the situation was settled and his mind wandered, a faint magic power fluctuation appeared on the battlefield!

This is it!

Wang Qi used half of his remaining magic power to fiercely activate the three talismans in his hand!