Chapter 154: Blocking

Jin Buhuan took his first step.

Li Qi met him with a smile.

With the second step, both looked at each other gently, their expressions filled with mutual appreciation and approval.

Step by step, the two approached each other amicably.

They walked until they were face to face.

Li Qi lowered his voice: “Brother Jin, lean closer and listen.”

Jin Buhuan leaned his ear over.

In an instant, Li Qi suddenly attacked!

It was an unhesitating sneak attack.

But the very next moment, Jin Buhuan had already raised his innate Spiritual Artifact.

With a clang, he blocked Li Qi’s sneak attack.

“Alas, Brother Li, you gave up the opportunity I gave you,” Jin Buhuan said, shaking his head.

“Did you forget I am a Spirit of Metal Energy? Metal governs killing, and I am very sensitive to Killing Intent,” he lamented.

Li Qi thought he had hidden it well, calming all his Killing Intent, even transforming the emotions emanating from his expanded Human Body Minor World into gentleness and naturalness.

But as a Spirit of Metal Energy, Jin Buhuan could still clearly feel the Killing Intent.

However, he considered it normal; having Killing Intent didn't mean one intended to kill. There were too many people in the world who had Killing Intent towards him, but most were respectful in his presence.

After all, people couldn't just be controlled by their emotions.

So Young Master Jin, being magnanimous, decided to give Li Qi a chance.

If he passed, Li Qi would be a worthy follower or ally.

If he didn't pass…

Then he would die.

While Jin Buhuan was lamenting, Li Qi wasn't idle.

He unhesitatingly launched a series of fierce attacks.

Carp Current Intent erupted, and Li Qi’s fist broke through the air, whistling as it slammed into Jin Buhuan’s shoulder blade! The immense force dislocated the joint, leaving Jin Buhuan unable to move for a moment.

Jin Buhuan endured this blow stoically, his expression unchanged, still lamenting Li Qi’s actions.

Li Qi’s next attack had already arrived.

His other hand drew a Tang Dao, swinging it towards Jin Buhuan with a cruel Aura, erupting with astonishing speed.

There was a layer of protective Jin Qi (Metal Energy) around Jin Buhuan, but the Tang Dao easily cut through it, the whistling sound of it tearing through the air was incredibly piercing, filled with Killing Intent.

But just like the previous scenario.

Jin Buhuan's body suddenly erupted with terrifying energy, and he once again transformed into his tiger-headed, human-bodied form.

His strength and agility instantly increased by a notch, and the powerful and threatening Aura around him was almost palpable, incredibly dense!

The erupting shockwave pushed Li Qi away.

Just like that previous scene, Li Qi was pushed back five zhang while maintaining a horse stance, his feet rooted to the ground, plowing two furrows.

The following events were also the same as before.

A flash of golden light.

Silent, traceless.

A thin wisp of Jin Qi (Metal Energy) swept past Li Qi’s throat, and Li Qi didn't even manage to make any useful reaction.

He couldn't even detect it.

The next moment, his head would be severed.

This was Jin Buhuan’s tactic, executed countless times, and never failed.

Undoubtedly, Li Qi’s head was indeed severed.

The head is the chief of the six yangs; severing it means certain death.

However, it was severed, but not completely.

Li Qi’s charge had not yet stopped!

“Wait, it’s the Shaman’s Substitute Technique! Young Master, be careful!” Si Lao immediately recognized Li Qi’s trick and called out!

Li Qi’s speed suddenly surged, his head regrew, and the severed head on the ground turned into a blood-stained piece of wood.

Jin Buhuan immediately prepared to dodge.

But under the close-quarters of Martial Dao Ninth Rank, how could he dodge?

Jin Buhuan, caught off guard, was stabbed in the body by the Tang Dao.

For some reason, the Tang Dao's blade was now surrounded by a dark light wheel, and some energy surged into Jin Buhuan's wound. A coldness composed of shadows enveloped his heart and began to spread along his blood vessels to his limbs, bringing pain, weakness, and shivers.

With a thud, Jin Buhuan fell to the ground. As the black energy spread throughout his body, the expression on his face gradually changed from confusion to astonishment. The spreading black shadows gradually made him unable to move.

His body involuntarily stiffened, his face turned ashen, and he continuously broke out in a cold sweat, as if something was gripping his heart, ready to crush it with a slight squeeze. His control over his body gradually began to disappear.

Spirit Shaman Qi entered his body, and his Spirit Soul was not attached.

His Spirit Soul was not attached to his body, as if falling and stumbling.

This was the Spirit Shaman Qi of Eighth Rank Li Weng from back then!

Upon seeing this, Si Lao was immediately enraged!

In front of him, an Eighth Rank Shaman, he had actually been successfully ambushed by a mere Ninth Rank minor Shaman.

“That brat deserves to die!” Si Lao immediately took action, preventing Li Qi from delivering a finishing blow.

On the other side.

Li Qi had originally wanted to give Jin Buhuan's Spirit Soul another whip, but before he could strike, five fierce ghosts surged around him!

One was covered in knife wounds, flesh peeled back to expose continuous white bones, with no skin or flesh left, and was charging towards Li Qi.

One was covered in bruises, as if beaten into a pulp by sticks, with no good skin or bones on its body, only able to crawl forward with its flesh, yet its speed was extremely swift.

One was pale all over, its skin swollen from being soaked in water, leaving a dent with every press, its entire body already showing signs of advanced decomposition, dragging its bloated belly forward.

One was covered in flames that tore at the surrounding air, the blaze intense and scorching, burning its skin, flesh, tendons, fat, membranes, bones, and marrow, causing unbearable pain.

One was stiff all over, a complete dried corpse, parched and hungry, with no moisture in its body, and nothing but yellow earth in its belly, yet unable to drink or eat.

Li Qi immediately abandoned all actions and retreated explosively! He dodged the first wave of attacks from these ghosts.

He recognized them; these were the Five Elements fierce ghosts.

Si Lao had used the Spirit Shaman Qi of these Five Elements fierce ghosts to curse Piao Xu back then.

If touched by them, one would immediately be dragged into the Five Elements Purgatory, suffering all the torments of the Five Elements fierce ghosts, experiencing all their suffering, with no release.

But the Five Elements fierce ghosts immediately continued to pounce on Li Qi, while Si Lao rushed towards Jin Buhuan.

Si Lao had also realized that Jin Buhuan’s condition was due to Spirit Shaman Qi entering his body, causing his body and Spirit Soul to separate.

Fortunately, he was a Spirit Shaman, so Spirit Shaman Qi was not difficult for him to deal with.

He carefully examined Jin Buhuan and found that the Spirit Shaman Qi in his body was dormant but not dissipated, and his Soul Qi was flying away, unable to reattach to his body; he was on the verge of his Spirit Soul leaving his body.

It was Eighth Rank Spirit Shaman Qi, such high quality!

He immediately took out a spiritual herb, lit it, and waved it over Jin Buhuan's head using the method of incense fumigation.

The Qi of the spiritual herb calms the spirit and stabilizes the soul, specifically warding off evil Qi, misfortune, and ghost poison, and can treat heat.

Ghost Shamanes always kept these on hand to prevent being backlashed by the fierce ghosts around them.

He lit the spiritual herb and, using the Shaman Dao method, offered the incense, successfully expelling the Spirit Shaman Qi. Jin Buhuan coughed violently, and the chill in his body completely disappeared.

“Kill him!” Jin Buhuan roared loudly, furious!

He had already given Li Qi a chance!

He was given face but didn't want it!

Go to hell!

Si Lao nodded: “Although my Five Elements fierce ghosts are all Ninth Rank, when they form a Formation, they have the combat power of an Eighth Rank. He won't last long… What’s going on!?”

Si Lao was stunned, raising his head in extreme surprise, only to find that one of the Five Elements fierce ghosts had already dissipated.

His Five Elements fierce ghosts, which he had painstakingly gathered over decades, were killed by someone in just one encounter, in less than five breaths of time?

How was that possible!?

The Five Elements fierce ghosts are ghosts that died tragically through the Five Elements method. They require the ghost itself to have a certain level of cultivation and to have experienced extreme pain and immense resentment before death to serve as raw material.

Then, the raw material is refined with Yin Qi from the underworld, slowly tempered and purified, grinding away its consciousness, and then arranged as the Formation eyes.

Through years of painstaking effort, they are forged into a mobile Formation, within which the five ghosts are hidden, incredibly ferocious. Their destructive power isn't particularly strong, but their advantage lies in their insidious nature, making them almost impossible to defend against, and their elusive concealment makes them very difficult to detect. Thus, when they form a Formation, they can contend with an Eighth Rank, and against a Ninth Rank, it's likely an instant kill.

This was Si Lao’s trump card.

But why? What happened?

What Ninth Rank could, in one encounter, instead kill one of his five ghosts!?

One must know that the strongest point of the Five Elements fierce ghosts is that they encompass all Five Elements, allowing them to form a continuous, endlessly rotating Formation.

If the Formation is broken, then they are merely five Ninth Rank Peak fierce ghosts.

While Si Lao was astonished, Li Qi, on the other hand, appeared relaxed and at ease.

Eighth Rank Spiritual Artifact?

Only you have them?

Only you, Jin Buhuan, have Eighth Rank Jin Qi (Metal Energy), and only you, a Spirit Shaman, have Five Elements fierce ghosts comparable to an Eighth Rank?

I, Li Qi, have them too! And of much higher quality!

Li Qi brandished the willow branch in his hand, and with one whip, he directly whipped the Jin Qi (Metal Energy) fierce ghost, which was at the forefront, into a wisp of green smoke!

The willow branch, imbued with a trace of Great Blessing Divine Qi, had already reached the pinnacle among Eighth Rank items. Even the Jin Qi (Metal Energy) in Jin Buhuan's hand couldn't compare, only two mouthfuls of Jin Qi (Metal Energy) combined through Yin and Yang could surpass it.

Moreover, the reason this willow branch was relegated to the Eighth Rank was simply because its material was truly just a willow branch casually broken off by Young Master Zhu, thus it naturally had limitations.

The reason for choosing a willow branch, besides the meaning of 'breaking willow for farewell,' was probably just that there happened to be a willow tree nearby.

However, Li Qi had always held this item tightly, never revealing any of its power.

When he walked out the door, invited Jin Buhuan to meet him, and prepared to challenge him, he had already planned out this entire scenario.

From the moment he shut himself in the inn, remaining silent for several hours, to the instant he pushed open the door, he had already thought through everything he was going to do next.

Si Lao was a Spirit Shaman. When killing Jin Buhuan, if fierce ghosts appeared, this item could catch the opponent off guard!

The Great Blessing Divine Qi was incredibly powerful, one whip directly shattered a Five Elements fierce ghost.

Li Qi immediately continued to brandish it, the whip's shadow like a Dragon, with no particular technique, just pure random lashing.

But even so, all five fierce ghosts were actually dispersed!

Si Lao coughed up a mouthful of blood. With the Five Elements fierce ghosts completely annihilated, he suffered a backlash from his Spirit Soul being implicated.

The five ghosts were connected to his Spirit Soul, which was why he could control them as if they were his own limbs.

A portion of the impact suffered by the five ghosts spread to him, causing him to experience waves of dizzying impact.

Li Qi seized this opportunity and bolted outwards.

“Brat! You’ll pay with your life!” In a fit of rage, Si Lao directly cast aside Jin Buhuan, tossing the weakened young master away, then fiercely clenched his hand towards Li Qi.

In his hand, there was a wisp of Qi.

This wisp of Qi carried a trace of Li Qi's Aura, and a wisp of his blood.

The blood was temporarily taken from the wooden substitute Li Qi had just used.

Using blood to find the master and Qi to simulate life is the Shaman Dao curse method of ‘Capturing Life and Substituting Death’.

Techniques like sticking needles into straw figures or smashing stone figures are all manifestations of ‘Capturing Life and Substituting Death’. The essence is to link the opponent’s life to another object, and then destroying that object indirectly destroys the opponent’s life.

And Li Qi’s substitute technique, in essence, operates on the same principle: letting another object bear the consequences, only the process is reversed.

But as this wisp of Qi was crushed, Li Qi showed no reaction; instead, he accelerated, running even further away.

Correspondingly, it was the substitute wooden figure on the ground that directly shattered.

Si Lao immediately realized something.

This person had already anticipated this! So he deliberately showed a flaw, luring himself to take the blood, but in reality, that blood was fake!

Meanwhile, Li Qi, while on the run, was arranging the subsequent events.

Si Lao being deceived was already within his expectations.

Shaman Dao seeks to maintain the balance and harmony of all things in the world, and the prerequisite for achieving this is understanding all things in the world.

If one cannot even understand, then how can one achieve balance?

Therefore, the Shaman God Mountain training manual—that is, the book “Zhu”—recorded countless introductory knowledge, roughly equivalent to a Shaman Dao version of 'Ten Thousand Whys'.

And Li Qi, through his Dao Resonance, had already memorized all of these things.

In the face of the orthodox Grand Invoker Legacy of Shaman God Mountain—

Si Lao? An Eighth Rank Shaman?

Heh heh, just an illiterate.

But Si Lao didn't know any of this. He only knew that he had failed twice, and the opponent also possessed an Eighth Rank Spiritual Artifact that seemed specifically designed for the Spirit Soul.

An Eighth Rank against a Ninth Rank, and he had failed twice?

It was simply an insult to himself.

He became serious and attacked again.

Si Lao raised his finger and fiercely waved it, and a small altar appeared before him, with candles spontaneously igniting on it.

He cupped his hands and said: “I invite the Earth Lord and the Mischievous Spirits to appear. Your efforts are appreciated, and there will surely be a reward afterward.”

The Earth Lord refers to the lowest-ranking Di Qi (Earthly Qi), which is the Earth God.

Mischievous Spirits refer to small ghosts flying around causing trouble.

Si Lao, using the method of inviting deities, requested these two ghost deities to appear and block the fleeing Li Qi for him.

He wanted these two ghost deities to locate Li Qi, and then he would perform a spell to curse and kill him again. This time, there was no way he could escape.

Li Qi also noticed this.

However, Si Lao’s actions, including his words, delayed him by a few seconds.

A few seconds were enough for him to escape a li away; Martial Dao had nothing else, but its instantaneous burst of speed was truly fast.

But the ground began to become rugged, growing steeper and steeper, slowing him down more and more.

Fireflies also began to appear around him, making him increasingly conspicuous.

However, Li Qi stopped instead.

He stopped and looked back. This should be enough, right?

Li Qi had just stopped to look at the sky.

Sure enough, fiery clouds suddenly ignited on the horizon.

Jin Buhuan revealed a triumphant expression.

A vortex formed by flames suddenly appeared and enveloped Si Lao.

Accompanied by violent explosions and heat waves.

Jin Buhuan and Li Qi simultaneously shouted loudly:

“Yan! Jun!”