787. Open Schemes

First rank, he’s advanced to first rank?!

Xu Qi’an’s words were like a thunderclap, exploding by Baidi’s and Agaruka Bodhisattva’s ears.

Shock, fury, bewilderment, vexation, all kinds of emotions rose uncontrollably in Baidi’s and Agaruka’s hearts.

Xu Pingfeng’s puppet had no features, so no one could see any change in expression, but it half-raised its chin and stared stiffly at Xu Qi’an in the sky, remaining motionless for a long time.

He’s advanced to a first rank martial artist… Baidi was immersed in a surreal, dreamlike sense of absurdity, yet through its clear perception it had no choice but to admit that Xu Qi’an’s aura had indeed changed drastically.

That spotless white body was tall, well-proportioned, with smooth lines of muscle flowing together in perfect unity.

Baidi had never seen a first rank martial artist before. The Xu Qi’an before its eyes was unlike Agaruka, who radiated the immovability of a mountain and the vast majesty of the sea.

There was no qi fluctuation to be sensed from him, no fluctuation of primordial spirit either, but that was exactly what made him frightening. It was as though he had severed all interaction with the outside world and become a world unto himself.

Such a strange feeling. Clearly no strong power is emanating from him, yet he makes one instinctively cautious… Baidi let out a low roar:

“What’s going on? Why did he suddenly advance to first rank? Is first rank in the martial artist system so easy to attain? Why did none of you mention this in advance?”

It was questioning Agaruka and Xu Pingfeng, its voice edged with exasperation.

Its loss of composure was understandable. Although there had been twists and turns in this tribulation-crossing battle, it had remained under control. It should have been a certain victory, and no one had expected that in the middle of the fight, the Great Feng side would actually turn the tables.

Among all the systems, martial artists were universally acknowledged as unrivalled in close combat. A first rank martial artist’s fighting power was absolutely stronger than that of other systems.

To put it plainly, the current Xu Qi’an was even more troublesome than Luo Yuheng, the earthly immortal.

One earthly immortal was still within the limits of what they could tolerate and bear, but add another first rank martial artist…

Baidi had no confidence it could still keep the situation suppressed.

Xu Pingfeng ignored it completely and did not answer. He merely continued to look up at Xu Qi’an like a statue.

Agaruka Bodhisattva pressed his palms together and lowered his eyes in silence. On the face of this Bodhisattva, whose overall strength was the greatest in Buddhism, there was deep helplessness. After Wuzong, the Great Feng had produced another first rank martial artist.

This battle was going to be far harsher than they had imagined.

Al-Asura, Daoist Jinlian, and Zhao Shou all retreated at the same time, opening the distance from Agaruka. The three beyond-mortals were exhausted, but their spirits were abnormally roused.

“The overall situation is decided!” Al-Asura exhaled the foul breath he had been holding in his chest for so long.

“Good!” Zhao Shou said with a smile as he stroked his beard.

Daoist Jinlian scrutinised Xu Qi’an high in the sky and let out a complicated sigh.

“In this age, he is already invincible.”

So long as no Beyond-rank appeared, a first rank martial artist was enough to sweep aside every faction.

At that moment, from within the puppet, there came Xu Pingfeng’s bleak laughter, suppressed with all manner of emotions.

“What a calculation!

“Using the fire thunder tribulation, the Flower God’s spiritual essence, and Dragon Qi to advance to first rank. Very good, very good… Xu Qi’an!”

The last three words were spoken through gritted teeth.

Xu Qi’an looked down at the white-robed puppet, raised his right arm, lightly tapped with his fingertip, and said flatly:

“Wash your neck clean, wait for me to behead you!”

Bang!

Amid a sound that set teeth on edge, the metal-forged puppet shattered into pieces, and that wisp of divine thought from Xu Pingfeng rapidly dispersed.

Without even glancing at it, Xu Qi’an first looked towards Al-Asura and the other two.

“You three watch from the side and recover your strength.”

Then he looked at Baidi and Agaruka and bared his teeth in a savage grin.

“I’m gonna tear you apart with my bare hands.”

Baidi narrowed its azure vertical pupils. It was not afraid, and answered blow for blow:

“We are both first rank. Just come, then. I also very much want to taste what a first rank martial artist’s blood essence is like.”

Its only regret was that it had already used that horn to seal the Jianzheng, otherwise it could have served as a lethal trump card against this newly advanced first rank martial artist.

Agaruka said in a deep voice:

“This battle will be incomparably difficult!”

He had even more confidence than Baidi. With the Vajra Dharma Aspect paired with the Immovable Lord Dharma Aspect, he had enormous confidence in his own defence.

Al-Asura and the other two watched expectantly.

Baidi lowered its body, and between its horns a water-thunder sphere began to brew, its inner core continuously collapsing while arcs of electricity leapt over its outer layer.

It took the opportunity to glance at Agaruka Bodhisattva. However strong its own body was, it was still not stronger than Agaruka’s two Dharma Aspects. Letting him take the lead and test the standard of a first rank martial artist was the most suitable choice.

Agaruka Bodhisattva understood its meaning. He looked up at the sky, bent both knees, and with a heavy boom as the ground caved in, turned into a streak of golden light and shot into the air.

The ring of fire behind the Vajra Dharma Aspect’s head exploded open, and the gold-cast body bloomed with ten thousand rays of Buddhist light. It symbolised power and majesty. Merely by the pressure leaking from it, cultivators of middle and lower ranks would feel as though they stood at the edge of an abyss and collapse prostrate to the ground.

Its twelve pairs of arms spread out and clenched into fists, every single fist containing the divine might to shatter mountains.

At the sight of those twenty-four fists, Al-Asura only felt pain all over his body, and the corner of his mouth twitched.

Facing the fists crashing down thick as clouds, Xu Qi’an gently drew a breath, clenched his right fist, and drew it back.

How many years had it been since Jiuzhou had seen a first rank martial artist?

Since Wuzong’s death and Shenshu’s sealing, the ceiling of the martial artist system had been second rank. First rank had vanished entirely.

The Vajra Dharma Aspect claimed to be unmatched in battle?

Then I’ll let you see, how strong a proper martial artist, famous for close-quarter combat, is… Two rays of golden light suddenly shot from Xu Qi’an’s eyes. The muscles all over his body bulged piece by piece, flaunting power without restraint, and he smashed out a punch.

Buzz!

One punch met twenty-four fists, and between them there suddenly exploded a wave of force like a barrier.

The wave coursed swiftly through space, turning the area within dozens of li into something like crumpled cloth.

Thud, thud, thud…

Agaruka Bodhisattva staggered backwards, each footstep cracking the earth.

Xu Qi’an, by contrast, did not move an inch. After withdrawing his punch, he lifted his right knee. Without any visible bend of the leg to gather force, his body shot towards Agaruka like a cannonball, and a vicious knee strike slammed towards his chest.

While retreating, Agaruka rapidly formed hand seals with both hands. He knew he could not allow himself to fall into a first rank martial artist’s chained attacks, so he intended to withstand this blow head-on with the Immovable Lord Dharma Aspect.

Buzz!

The airflow all around congealed. Not the slightest thread of wind could rise.

Xu Qi’an’s knee struck the spatial cage. Bang, the cage shattered. Relying on the unmatched violence of a martial artist, he broke through the Immovable Lord Dharma Aspect’s spatial confinement and successfully drove his knee into Agaruka’s face.

Agaruka did not move at all, and his skin seemed to have turned to stone as well, not deforming in the slightest beneath the knee.

“Heh, even the Jianzheng, with the power of all living beings, couldn’t break your Immovable Lord Dharma Aspect. Then guess this, can a first rank martial artist with the power of all living beings shatter your tortoise shell?”

Xu Qi’an withdrew his knee and suddenly shook both arms. The power of all living beings came surging in, covering his arms like armour.

He did not use the Strength Gu’s “berserk” skill. After his essence, qi, and spirit fused into one furnace, his strength had reached a limit, the limit of the world.

The Strength Gu’s berserk could no longer increase his power.

Xu Qi’an pressed both palms against Agaruka’s chest and suddenly exerted force.

Clang!

A mighty bell-like toll rang between heaven and earth.

Agaruka lost consciousness for an instant. When he came back to himself, he found that his body was flying backwards uncontrollably, as fast as a shooting star.

He still maintained his hand seal, but the “Immovable Wisdom King” could no longer hold. It was sent flying by that terrifying brute force. After five hundred years, he once again tasted what it was like to have his defences broken.

The last time had been when he faced Shenshu. That half-step Martial God had crippled his Immovable Wisdom King with three punches.

At the same time, Agaruka Bodhisattva felt a burning pain in his chest. Two palm prints had been sunk into it.

Boom!

Agaruka Bodhisattva smashed heavily into the ground, creating an absurdly large crater and sending yellow sand billowing into the sky, as if an earthquake had suddenly struck.

At that moment, Baidi suddenly thrust its head forward and launched the water-thunder sphere!

It had seized the timing perfectly, attacking at the very instant Xu Qi’an sent Agaruka Bodhisattva flying.

How fast was lightning?

Not faster than Luo Yuheng, the earthly immortal. Dense arcs of electricity and streams of air surged around her body, propelling her into the path of the water-thunder sphere.

Luo Yuheng drew both hands from her wide sleeves and clapped them hard around the sphere. The terrifying thunderball, which had been building power for so long, was instantly snuffed out.

A body forged by the Golden Core and unmarred by myriad calamities was immune to all spell attacks.

Back then, the Daoist Venerable had driven the descendants of gods and demons out of Jiuzhou precisely because he could restrain the spells of most of them.

After extinguishing the water-thunder sphere, Luo Yuheng flattened her palm, and a cluster of flame sprang up. She gently blew on it with her little mouth.

Whoosh!

As if it had a will of its own, the fire traced a circle on the ground, trapping Baidi inside.

She used the fire spirit to counter the water spirit.

“Roar!”

Baidi let out a pained bellow. Its mane turned to ash first. The searing temperature made its snow-white scales crack inch by inch, nearly reduced to ash themselves.

A cold killing intent flickered in Luo Yuheng’s eyes as she raised the peerless divine sword and charged at Baidi.

The Human Sect’s swordsmanship was famed for slaughter. Its killing arts were nothing like the feeble offensive techniques of the Earth Sect and the Heaven Sect.

Baidi gave a deep growl and took the initiative to meet the sword light. It ignored the fierce sword strike coming at it and bit straight at Luo Yuheng’s arm.

Pfft!

The iron sword pierced into Baidi’s neck, spraying out a great deal of bloody water, and it bit into Luo Yuheng’s arm in the same motion.

Luo Yuheng’s arm rapidly turned to sand and drifted away.

This was the power of the earth aspect among the Four Aspects. After advancing to earthly immortal, Luo Yuheng could alter her own structure at will, switching freely among earth, wind, water, and fire.

Baidi’s pupils lost focus slightly, and it briefly lost consciousness.

Heart Sword!

With her strike landed, Luo Yuheng retreated at once. In close combat, she could never be a match for a descendant of gods and demons.

As she withdrew, she saw Xu Qi’an flash in front of Baidi. He drew back his right arm, and the corresponding muscles bulged section by section.

Luo Yuheng’s thoughts stirred, and the surrounding raging flames surged towards him, winding around Xu Qi’an’s fist and forming a blazing sun.

Bang!

Xu Qi’an’s fist smashed heavily into Baidi’s head, producing an explosive effect. The scales there were scorched black, the skull cracked open, and blazing flames burst out.

Baidi’s body collapsed heavily, and its head slammed to the ground, raising a cloud of dust.

The intense pain instantly restored Baidi’s consciousness. A vicious determination to perish together flashed in its eyes. Bzzz, its two horns turned incandescent white, and bolts of lightning burst wildly around them.

The next moment, the horns exploded, plunging everything nearby into a sea of thunder.

Agaruka Bodhisattva seized the instant when Xu Qi’an was engulfed by the sea of thunder and his whole body went numb. He descended from the sky, the twelve pairs of arms behind his Vajra Dharma Aspect drawn back, fists clenched.

Suddenly, his pupils shrank. Through the sea of thunder, he saw Luo Yuheng standing in front of Xu Qi’an, one hand extended, palm facing out, supporting a shield of qi. Exaggerated currents raced along the edges of the barrier.

This barrier had not only protected them, it had enclosed Baidi within it as well.

Before a earthly immortal, even the most overbearing spells are utterly useless… Agaruka Bodhisattva felt his scalp go numb.

Ignoring Agaruka Bodhisattva above him, Xu Qi’an stepped on Baidi’s neck and locked both arms around its head. His spine was like a bent steel bow.

Baidi’s body trembled violently as the two entered a contest of strength.

Xu Qi’an gave a low roar. His waist and back suddenly snapped straight, and as his body straightened, Baidi’s head was torn off by sheer force.

Even a descendant of gods and demons, born with an exceptionally powerful body, could not compete with a first rank martial artist in brute strength.

Luo Yuheng drew a deep breath, parted her little mouth slightly, and breathed out a blazing tongue of fire.

In an instant, Baidi’s head was burned to charcoal, with only the two horns left intact.

After doing all this, Luo Yuheng and Xu Qi’an raised their heads at the same time and stared coldly at Agaruka Bodhisattva as he descended from the sky.

Not good… Agaruka Bodhisattva’s brow twitched violently. He forcibly halted his descent, withdrew the twelve pairs of arms he had drawn back, and made a snap decision to flee through the air.

This first rank Bodhisattva had lost all will to fight.

Meanwhile, on the other side, a black shadow with a sheep’s body and a human face drifted out of Baidi’s shell-like corpse. It turned into azure smoke and floated away into the distance.

Luo Yuheng formed a sword incantation and sent her flying sword shooting after it. In an instant, it pierced through that primordial spirit.

The black shadow with the sheep’s body and human face twisted violently, on the verge of collapse, but it endured and continued fleeing, soon vanishing beyond the horizon.

“Its primordial spirit is very strong. Its resilience surpasses first rank.”

Luo Yuheng frowned.

Among first ranks of the same level, unless they were Warlocks or fellow Daoists, it was very difficult for them to withstand her Heart Sword attack.

“Its true body is the Desolation. It must be stronger than ordinary first rank. You go after it, I’ll go after Agaruka Bodhisattva!”

Xu Qi’an did not waste time talking. He bent his knees and shot straight into the sky in pursuit of Agaruka Bodhisattva.

The direction Agaruka Bodhisattva fled was not west, but the capital.

He still had not given up. He wanted to shift the battlefield to the capital and use it to destroy the Great Feng’s capital city.

…

The Capital.

Xu Pingfeng, who had been confronting Wei Yuan, suddenly changed expression. His face became uglier than ever before.

What his two puppet incarnations had seen and heard came back to him at the same time. In one place, Qianlong City had come under attack, and Nangong Qianrou and the other Rank Four experts had led the army straight for the heart of the matter.

In the other, in the northern frontier, Xu Qi’an had advanced to first rank martial artist.

Two blades had stabbed into vital points at the same time, completely overturning what had originally been an excellent situation, and the Yunzhou army was now in an awkward position.

The power he had painstakingly built over twenty years had been pushed into a perilous state.

Arrogant as he was, he could not help but feel his heart tremble.

Wei Yuan read his expression and said with a smile:

“You can no longer interfere in the battle at the northern frontier. Make your choice. Will you go back and reinforce Yunzhou, or fight me to the death here in the capital?

“With your teleportation art, you can return to Yunzhou’s main camp within a quarter of an hour. As for these tens of thousands of Yunzhou elite troops, I’ll gladly swallow them up. You won’t lose out either. My two adopted sons and ten thousand heavy cavalry, I’ll give to you.”

As he spoke, clear light rose beside him, and Sun Xuanji appeared on the city wall with Kou Yangzhou.

The surprise raid on Qianlong City was a stratagem, but this choice between two options was a true open scheme.

Either choose the main camp, or choose the Yunzhou forces before his eyes.

Xu Pingfeng had no third option, just as Wei Yuan himself had no third option either.

With a livid face, Xu Pingfeng gritted his teeth and said:

“Wei Yuan, you are ruthless enough!”

Wei Yuan slowly put away his smile. The gentleness in his eyes gradually turned sharp, and he said coldly:

“Before they set out, I had already explained the pros and cons.

“I’m not like you. Even your own flesh and blood son could be treated as a disposable pawn. Xu Qi’an is a junior I value greatly. What you did made me very unhappy!”

Xu Pingfeng stared at him deeply, then shouted:

“Attack the city!”

Boom boom boom!

On the city walls and outside the city, war drums thundered.

787. Open Schemes

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