Chapter 258: Fighting against martial artists

Liu Canzhi was loitering nearby.

Li Qi had always been curious about what a true Martial Artist's frontal combat looked like, so during his visit, he proposed a fight with the Martial Artist he had just inquired about.

He had cultivated until now, and the number of times he had fought with others was few and far between, so he was very interested in Martial Artists, who were rumored to be incredibly powerful in direct confrontation.

It was clear that for a Martial Artist, such an invitation was impossible to refuse.

Thus, the two quickly headed to an open space in this miniature heaven and earth.

However, for some unknown reason, this news suddenly spread.

A non-Martial Dao Cultivator wanted to challenge a Martial Artist of the same rank.

This truly surprised the other Martial Artists who were training nearby.

Being forced into a beating was common, but actively seeking one out was not.

So, not long after, Li Qi noticed four or five more gazes around him, seemingly from people looking for a show.

But there were only four or five, not too many, so Li Qi didn't pay much attention; Martial Artists were naturally sharp of hearing and sight, so it wasn't strange for them to overhear him.

"Your Excellency, please do not hold back; I wish to personally witness the power of Martial Dao," Li Qi said, cupping his hands to the other party after finding a spot to stand.

"I won't. Student, you choose a spot to stand. When you say 'start,' we'll begin," the Martial Artist said to Li Qi.

"Alright, how about we fight three rounds? I'd like to have one round each for close, mid-range, and long-range," Li Qi said to the Martial Artist opposite him.

The other party was momentarily speechless, then chuckled, "If you can hold out, we can fight as many rounds as you like."

"Mm." Li Qi nodded, "Let's start with close-range first. Thirty zhang should be close enough."

"Alright." The Martial Artist nodded.

The two were separated by thirty zhang, which was just under a hundred meters.

It was already quite far, but in an eighth-rank battle, this was considered face-to-face.

Li Qi thought for a moment, then preemptively set up a series of emergency preparations around himself, similar to a Formation.

While not the kind of Formation that required long preparation, they were more like small traps, but they were the best defenses he could set up within five seconds before the battle.

This was already taking advantage; in a normal fight, no one would give you five seconds to prepare.

Feeling the gazes of others in the distance, Li Qi shook his head, invoked his True Knowledge Dao Resonance, and said, "I'm ready—"

Before he could utter the word '—now,' the Martial Artist's figure, thirty zhang away, vanished.

A phantom image suddenly appeared before Li Qi.

Around this phantom, a shockwave surface formed from the wind, and visible vortices began to gather, the eruption from the shockwave surface stirring up a fierce wind!

Li Qi had set up an illusion in front of himself to distort perception, a gravity field formed by the Five Mountains within his body, and binding ribbons made of water Qi, all methods to impede progress.

However, all his preparations were instantly shattered by brute force!

Li Qi didn't even see it, made no reaction whatsoever; his True Knowledge Dao Resonance transmitted the message to him, but his brain hadn't even processed the information when a sharp pain already came from his chest!

Just one punch! Li Qi's body was sent flying backward at high speed!

Within ten seconds, he flew nearly a li, crashing with a thud into a cliff face, his entire body embedded within it.

"Pfft wah!" By the time he reacted, the violent impact had already made him vomit a large amount of bitter bile.

Then, he was grabbed by the arm and pulled out of the cliff.

The Martial Artist easily dragged Li Qi out of the mountain, helped him up, and said with some surprise, "Oh, your body is very resilient. Is it because you practiced martial arts before? You took a punch from me and only suffered superficial injuries, not even a broken bone, just vomiting bile. I thought you'd be spitting blood."

Li Qi didn't answer him, because his mind was still a bit dazed.

He had heard many times that Martial Artists were invincible in close combat, and he himself had used this trick to ambush Jin Buhuan when he was at the ninth rank.

But... when he truly faced an eighth-rank Martial Artist at close range, he realized what the word 'invincible' meant.

It was genuinely, truly invincible...

"Uh, ah... Student, let me recover, I'll sit for a bit..." Li Qi didn't answer the other party, he clutched his stomach and found a rock to sit on.

He rested for quite a while, using the vitality of Great Forest Wood Qi to accelerate his body's recovery, and it took about a few minutes to fully recover.

Once recovered, he stood up, shook his head, and said to the Martial Artist, "In close combat... Martial Dao of the same rank is invincible, I understand. Then let's try a bit further, five li? How about it?"

"Are you still alright?" The Martial Artist curiously scrutinized Li Qi, then asked.

Although he had held back in that punch, the fact that the other party could withstand it was truly astonishing.

Li Qi nodded, forcing a breath and saying, "Don't worry, my Dao path also tempers the physique, I can still hold out."

The Qi of the Five Mountains could make one's inner body spirits more resilient, which also counted as a form of tempering.

"That's good then, let's continue. A bit further away would be good, it can also train me," the Martial Artist agreed.

The two once again distanced themselves.

This time, it was five li.

At this distance, Li Qi should have enough reaction time to respond.

After setting up his preparations again, Li Qi waved to the distance.

This time, through his True Knowledge Dao Resonance, he clearly perceived the opponent's charge!

But by the time he perceived it, the opponent had already rushed nearly one li.

In other words, within one li, if a Martial Artist launched a surprise attack on Li Qi, Li Qi would not have any time to react.

However... this time it was five li.

Li Qi waved both hands, and the Five Peaks Mountain Gods among his inner body spirits stretched their forms behind him, reaching ten zhang tall, with majestic postures and profound presence.

A Five Peaks Mountain God stomped on the ground, and immediately, the earth Qi surged.

There was a river on the ground, its waters vibrated, and in an instant, wind and clouds erupted in the mountains, sending sand and stones flying!

Earth Qi shot out from the ground, and giant rock snakes emerged from the earth, obstructing the Martial Artist's path.

His forward momentum was blocked.

However, the Martial Artist bent and straightened his joints, as if a great bow had been drawn to its fullest and then released, his internal sinews twanging loudly.

The sound even traveled several li, reaching Li Qi's ears.

Twanging and humming, resonating all around, as if a Heavenly King was playing a pipa from beyond the nine heavens!

With this accumulation of power, he directly threw a punch!

It wasn't a straight punch, but rather like a whip, sweeping out.

Li Qi immediately realized that this was utilizing the whip effect.

When the whip effect occurs, the displacement of the protruding part is several times that of the main body; when the whip swings at high speed, it curls and forms a wave shape, and when this wave reaches the tip, it increases the speed brought by the whip body by several times!

This punch, under a strange force-exerting mode, transformed into a whip-like form, and at the same time, the speed of his fist increased several times!

A punch was thrown!

All those giant rock snakes collapsed, directly shattered into pieces.

And his speed did not diminish at all, he continued to rush towards Li Qi!

Seeing his first move broken, Li Qi's mind raced, and he immediately waved his hands again, causing the Mountain God and Water God to appear behind him.

inner body spirits were not merely for show, but true deities, possessing all the power an eighth-rank deity should have; although they couldn't compare to true Divine Dao Cultivators, their divine rank was genuine.

Nine eighth-rank inner body spirits appeared, rushing forward one after another, blocking Li Qi two or three li in front of him, buying Li Qi time.

But the Martial Artist ignored them, charging in a straight line, plunging into the midst of the nine inner body spirits.

Then, the same whip-punch as before!

Under the force of the punch, one Mountain God directly shattered, transforming into vital Qi and returning to Li Qi's body!

Li Qi's body trembled, and he suffered some injuries.

The dispersion of a body god had a backlash for him; if all twelve of his inner body spirits were shattered, then even his inner body spirits would suffer significant damage, and a drop in rank was not impossible.

However, it was only one, so it didn't matter much, it couldn't even affect Li Qi's concentration.

Li Qi continued to do his own thing from behind.

The second punch was thrown.

However, this punch suddenly felt weak.

The Martial Artist suddenly felt his body light and powerless, as if he hadn't eaten for a year.

A weak punch landed on the Mountain God's body, merely causing a few cracks.

The Mountain God immediately fixed him in place, pressing him down with a large rock.

Then, the Water God immediately pulled out several water bands, combining their efforts.

Mountain and water merged, carving the undulating forms of mountains and rivers, their essence greatly enhanced; they directly discarded their divine bodies and transformed into four great mountains, a hundred zhang tall, landing firmly and suppressing this Martial Artist!

This was Li Qi's most common move, using the Qi of the Five Mountains to suppress.

High mountains rose, with crimson Qi ascending from within them, and then:

Sparse mountains drive the Yingjie,奔鯨吐華浪.

A hundred layers of cliffs and crags, as if carved and chiseled!

Although one Mountain God was dispersed, the four great mountains were still not to be underestimated.

Looking at Li Qi again, it was unknown when he had already erected an altar, and within the altar was a strand of the Martial Artist's hair.

He repeatedly offered sacrifices to this hair, but not to worship, but to curse!

Cursing his body to be weak and his blood Qi to be sluggish.

Clearly, it was very effective.

It directly caused the Martial Artist's body to lose strength and be suppressed.

However, Li Qi knew that the battle was far from over.

Just as he expected, in the next moment, the great mountain suppressing the Martial Artist suddenly began to tremble.

A terrifying aura erupted from within the mountain!

"I am the king of the mountains, and you dare to suppress me with mountains?!" The Martial Artist roared from beneath the mountain in a deep voice!

Then, a phantom image of a fierce tiger appeared.

Li Qi frowned at the sight.

Martial Dao Divine Intent?

More than that, it was different from what was written in the books; was it a combination of Martial Dao Divine Intent and a demon's true form?

Good heavens, as expected, those who could come to Imperial Academy were indeed worth recording.

Li Qi's mind was stirred, and he immediately used True Knowledge to observe the opponent's situation.

From the beginning until now, he had been trying his best to record Martial Dao techniques.

To learn, record, and witness more Dao paths.

This was Li Qi's wish from the very beginning; he came to Tang Nation for this purpose.

He wanted to see how the other party would counter his mountains.

However... indeed, as the other party said, a tiger is the king of the mountains, and the Qi of the mountains would be countered by the opponent.

Then let's add another element.

While Li Qi maintained the ritual, two golden lines emerged behind him, piercing towards the mountains at an extremely fast speed.

If you want to break through the suppression, you must overcome the interference.

However, what Li Qi didn't expect was that the other party didn't come out from under the mountain at all.

That fierce tiger phantom, a combination of Martial Dao Divine Intent and a demon's true form, directly solidified, then roared fiercely!

The fierce tiger roared, shaking mountains and valleys, bringing sudden wind and rain, accompanied by thunder and lightning!

Countless afterimages vibrated, like raging waves, thousands of sound waves like surging tides splitting the shore, descending from the air, river waves churning, reaching extremes, a continuous chain of impacts!

Li Qi reacted extremely quickly, immediately waving his hand to withdraw all his inner body spirits, letting them return to his body.

The sound waves rolled, and the ground's soil rippled like water, layer after layer rising and falling, an area of several hundred meters was plowed by the sound waves!

Fortunately, Li Qi retreated quickly, otherwise, if he had been hit by that tiger's roar, the battle would probably have ended immediately, with all his inner body spirits severely wounded, enough to make him lose combat ability.

With the inner body spirits withdrawn, the suppression naturally became ineffective.

That Martial Artist broke free, his demon true form appearing as a giant fierce tiger, its fur dark gold with black stripes, the surrounding air constantly crackling under its pressure, like firecrackers.

The fierce tiger charged towards Li Qi.

Li Qi decisively burrowed into the ground and fled, retreating frantically.

Seeing this, the fierce tiger stopped directly and shouted, "Stop! You're earth-burrowing, I can't catch you!"

Subsequently, his demon true form dissipated, and he reverted to his Martial Artist form.

Li Qi emerged from the earth and calculated his speed.

Full-speed earth burrowing, about half a li per second, was this already faster than the current Martial Artist's speed?

After making a note, Li Qi returned again.

This round was considered a draw.

Facing each other again, Li Qi said in confusion, "You can't catch up at this speed? This is too far from your instant burst speed, isn't it?"

"Your spell made my legs weak. I'm only good at burst speed, not pursuit. It takes some time to resist spells, so you got far away, and I couldn't catch you," the Martial Artist said.

Then, he complimented, "Those servants you summoned are really something. What are their origins? They have impressive combat power and can even link up to form a suppressing Seal. It's my first time seeing it, and I suffered a great loss."

Saying that, he was a bit unconvinced and explained, "However, if we were to fight again, with my guard up, that suppression method would be useless against me."

"Mm." Li Qi nodded, not arguing about it.

He was only observing Martial Dao techniques, then recording and learning from them; there was no need to argue about who was stronger or weaker in a direct confrontation.

Shamanes weren't meant for direct combat, anyway.

When a Shaman truly wanted to kill you, you generally wouldn't even see their shadow.

"Then let's try long-range, fifty li," Li Qi continued.

"Alright." The Martial Artist didn't waste words either.

The two once again set up their positions.

And this time, it ended with Li Qi's difficult victory.

Separated by fifty li, Li Qi had ample time to set up traps, maintain distance, and kite his opponent.

When a Martial Artist was perceived in advance, it was difficult for them to get close to a prepared Li Qi.

But Li Qi also won with great difficulty; he was completely unable to cause substantial damage to the other party. This Martial Artist's physique was too resilient; Li Qi could only barely kite the opponent, wearing him down little by little, but he couldn't truly trap or kill the opponent, not even severely wound him.

In the end, it was the other party who conceded after realizing there was no hope of reaching Li Qi.

To cause fatal damage to a Martial Artist of the same rank, one would probably need to make extensive preparations far in advance, perhaps then there would be a chance.

With the battle concluded, both sides had gained something.

Li Qi was thoughtful, then bid farewell and left first, committing the data to memory.

Next, he returned to Liu Canzhi's side.

However, standing beside Liu Canzhi was a young woman.

Her appearance was dignified, her posture upright, dressed in a purple ruqun, with a beautiful face.

One could tell at a glance that she was an extremely serious person; although she had a smile on her face, her eyes did not smile.

Li Qi had just walked over when the woman stepped forward and directly asked, "Shaman?"