Chapter 690: Hidden line

Li Qi looked at Zhu Fengdan, then at the thunder power brewing in his hand.

This was power directly bestowed by the threads of Karma.

At this moment, Li Qi, through his Karma connection, borrowed the power of Lesser Heavenly Master Zhang Zong.

“Your Master, I, have long been prepared. All right, work hard,” Zhu Fengdan said, striking a hand seal, then patted Li Qi: “Now that the hidden danger in your body has been removed, whether you can resolve this depends on you. The path, after all, must be walked by yourself. I’ll be leaving first. Let me be clear, if you enter Reincarnation, I will come find you, but I will not protect your true spirit. Think about where you want to be reborn, whether it’s as a pig, sheep, cattle, or horse, you’ll have to transform yourself.”

With that, Zhu Fengdan withdrew from the Immortal Heaven and returned to Shamansan’s side.

When he was with Shamansan, he was quite well-behaved, without a trace of his usual carefree Aura.

Clearly, facing Shamansan, who could stand on equal footing with Haotian, even Zhu Fengdan dared not act presumptuously; he was wild and unrestrained, not a fool.

At the same time, Lesser Heavenly Master Zhang Zong, who was an unknown number of light-years away, suddenly felt his heart pound.

At this moment, he was helping Li Qi fulfill the duty of a Slayer, a job Zhu Fengdan had entrusted to him many years ago, which was to ‘impersonate Li Qi’.

To be honest, this job was too easy for him.

The Little Celestial Master was already stronger than Li Qi, and his Dao Orthodoxy was particularly adept at clearing large-scale battlefields. When he acted, it was like strolling in a leisurely garden; with a casual wave, the thunder pool expanded, instantly engulfing the battlefield, and all enemy forces perished.

Human Dao sent many Fifth Grade beings to fight him: two Fifth Grade Dao Resonances, other Gentlemen, and even a Fifth Grade Langguan.

Langguan were close officials who attended the Human Emperor, usually cultivated as direct high-ranking officials of the Human Dao. The often-heard ‘Shi Lang’ was actually a type of Langguan, besides which there were also Zhonglang Dao Resonances and the like, but all were attendants to the Human Emperor.

While called attendants, they were actually being groomed; each one, if sent out, would be a high-ranking regional official, capable of governing tens of thousands of worlds.

If Li Qi had faced them, if his luck were bad and no Great Power were there to reverse time, he might very well have fallen, as Li Qi’s background was almost thoroughly understood by Human Dao, and they came with intelligence.

Unfortunately, they faced the Little Celestial Master.

The Little Celestial Master’s background was known to the whole world, but no one could target him.

Thunder Dao Orthodoxy, the progenitor of all Dao Orthodoxy, had no weaknesses. What if his background was known?

Shaman such as Li Qi was a typical ‘mechanics’ monster; he possessed extraordinary mechanics. If one couldn’t discern his manipulation of Karma to become the will of heaven, and the special abilities of Star Officials and other Dao Orthodoxy within him, and as a Shaman, he had too many bizarre Divine Ability and first-strike kill abilities.

But the weakness of a ‘mechanics’ monster was that if their mechanics were thoroughly understood, then overcoming them was only a matter of time.

The Little Celestial Master was different; he was a pure ‘numerical’ monster. He would show you his background, and he could even give you a book of Thunder Dao Orthodoxy to copy and learn yourself.

To defeat him, you could only confront him head-on.

And the Little Celestial Master’s head-on approach… could suppress the Demonic Prince! If not for the Demonic Prince’s excessive Dao Resonance and peculiar mechanics, the Little Celestial Master’s attributes would basically have no peer in his grade that could withstand him.

The same Dao Orthodoxy, when he used it, was ten times, or even more, stronger than when you used it.

The same attack that could directly kill the squishy Li Qi, might not even break Zhang Zong’s skin.

His magic power reserves were comparable to a Shaman, his Qi recovery speed was astonishingly fast, and his sustained output capability was almost infinite, able to output at full power for decades without tiring.

Moreover, his durability was terrifying. Due to the ‘progenitor of all Dao Orthodoxy’ characteristic of Thunder Dao Orthodoxy, he possessed near-‘immunity’ resistance to almost all Divine Ability and Dao Orthodoxy.

There was nothing flashy; just continuous Thunder Dao Orthodoxy bombardment until you died. These Thunder Dao Orthodoxy didn't even repeat; there were thousands upon thousands of different types of thunder.

Just the Five Elements thunder, Yin and Yang thunder, and various divine thunders, as well as niche Thunder Dao Orthodoxy including palm thunder and gallbladder thunder, could be combined in countless ways; there was always one suitable for you.

Therefore, purely from the perspective of the Slayer duty, the Little Celestial Master performed it much more easily than Li Qi. For decades, he had treated it as a vacation.

Anyway, others were responsible for the beginning and end. With a Great Shaman acting, he appeared to others as Li Qi. He only needed to keep silent and act like an expert, and no one would recognize him.

Although this was quite uncomfortable; unlike Li Qi, who was a gloomy fellow, Lesser Heavenly Master Zhang Zong, was a typical sunny boy, talkative and cheerful. Making him silent for decades was actually a bit painful.

But besides that, there was nothing else.

However… just today, he suddenly felt his power, his Dao Orthodoxy, establish some kind of spatio-temporal connection with a place an unknown distance away.

“Wait, this Aura, is it Li Qi?” Zhang Zong immediately sensed the source.

But he was immediately astonished to find that he couldn’t control it.

The disguise Divine Ability that had helped him ‘become Li Qi’ now, to some extent, caused a ‘Fusion’ with the real Li Qi.

This was… a substitute life?

Shaman had a method of substituting life, which could completely replace others by disguising and imitating them. They could completely replace the other person’s existence, and the other person would become ‘the unknown person,’ while the Shaman themselves would become the other person.

This was the principle of ‘Li Dai Tao Jiang’ (substituting a plum for a peach), completely replacing the other person. They could even modify others’ memories along the lines of Karma, so you would completely replace that person, and the other person would be forgotten by everyone; no one would know who they were.

The Shaman themselves could replace their existence. This was the bizarre Divine Ability of the Shaman. The impression that Shaman were sinister was not without reason.

However, this would not change the true Karma relationship, nor would it have more impact.

Originally, it was just a minor Divine Ability used by lower grades, and it was basically impossible for it to be effective at the Fifth Grade, as a Fifth Grade’s memories were not so easily modified.

But in the hands of a Great Shaman, such a small Divine Ability displayed an unexpected wondrous use.

At this moment, in terms of Karma connection, Zhang Zong and Li Qi were temporarily considered one person.

Therefore, Zhang Zong could clearly feel his power being ‘conscripted’ and even being forced to ascend.

Damn it, making him impersonate Li Qi, he thought it was because they were short-handed, but upon closer thought, how could Shaman Dao lack a Fifth Grade Slayer? They could just pull one from somewhere else.

Making him come to substitute was just subtly, through the act of ‘impersonating Li Qi,’ making him gravitate towards the true Li Qi!

Damn it, his power was being forcibly elevated. This feeling… this feeling was Dao Fusion!

Li Qi was forcing him into Dao Fusion!

Stop! His Fifth Grade Dao path wasn’t finished yet, and he didn’t want to advance yet, let alone advance through such a foolish method as Dao Fusion!

In his panic, Zhang Zong found that everything had completely escaped his control.

Impersonating Li Qi, he ended up becoming the real thing!

But on Li Qi’s side—

“Whoa!” Li Qi couldn’t help but exclaim.

What the hell was this?!

Such powerful strength!

If Li Qi’s base attribute was one hundred, the power surging over now had a base attribute of at least fifty thousand!

The Fusion of Li Qi and the Little Celestial Master made him, in that instant, a Fusion of a ‘mechanics’ monster and a ‘numerical’ monster!

Furthermore, through this method of Dao Fusion, he advanced to Fourth Grade.

Now, Li Qi was not only difficult to deal with in terms of mechanics, with various bizarre methods, but also temporarily possessed the terrifying attributes and numerical values of the Little Celestial Master. He could even mobilize the Five Elements thunder!

As Li Qi’s Aura ascended, it was not just Dao Fusion, but also a补足 of his shortcomings.

On the side, that Human Dao Utmost Person was quietly observing Li Qi’s situation.

If Li Qi had just advanced to Fourth Grade, he estimated that he would only need five moves to kill Li Qi.

As a Shaman, Li Qi’s main body was too weak, overly reliant on his Inner World. Three moves would break through his Divine Ability defense, one move would sever the connection between his Inner World and his main body, and the last move could easily kill him.

As for Li Qi’s mechanics? Those first-strike kill methods and various mysterious Divine Ability were simply laughable in the eyes of the Utmost Person.

These things were only called bizarre by those who didn’t understand them, and this Utmost Person clearly knew these methods inside and out, even more than Li Qi. Avoiding mechanics was too simple for him.

But at this moment, it was no longer so simple.

Li Qi’s main body was no longer weak, and even carried a hint of Dao Orthodoxy’s Aura.

All his weaknesses were compensated for; there was no longer that kind of flaw that could be broken in one move. However… the flaw still existed, but Li Qi gained a ‘Dao Orthodoxy immunity’ buff.

All Dao Orthodoxy, when striking Li Qi, had to undergo the baptism of the protective Thunder Dao Orthodoxy, and as the progenitor of all Dao Orthodoxy, Thunder Dao Orthodoxy itself had terrifying resistance to other Dao Orthodoxy. Even the former Third Rank Supreme Being had no clever way to deal with Thunder Dao Orthodoxy of the same rank.

Facing a numerical monster with no weaknesses, there was simply no ‘clever’ option. Whatever you did, you could only go head-to-head, everyone fighting fair and square.

While going head-to-head, one also had to face the various methods of the Shaman.

If there were only these bizarre methods, he could still break or dodge them, but at this moment, he couldn’t break them, because Li Qi’s Dao Orthodoxy all carried the characteristics of Thunder Dao Orthodoxy. Even if the flaw was clearly visible, he couldn’t break it in one or two moves; he could only dodge.

This directly led to the fact that under numerical suppression, there would also be various traps and even instant-kill mechanics…

The difficulty increased by more than a hundredfold? It was simply incalculable.

If he were a Third Grade, he wouldn’t be afraid, but now he had been forced into Dao Fusion, dropping to Fourth Grade, so his cultivation essence was no different from the opponent.

“Alas, when I made my move, I fell into a trap. This tribulation was destined. So be it, I shall undergo the Tribulation,” he shook his head, too lazy to consider these things further.

Even with all these advantages, was Li Qi’s chance of winning very high?

Incorrect.

Even with these enhancements, the outcome was merely seven-three split, with the Utmost Person having seven and Li Qi three.

It could only be said that without these enhancements, Li Qi would definitely lose; now he merely had a chance of winning.

Zhu Fengdan’s departure directly announced the start of the battle.

Under the gaze of the Immortal Heaven, two crickets, forced into Dao Fusion, began their fight.

The Immortal Heaven wanted to determine whether Human Dao was stronger, or Shaman Dao was stronger.

This would make it easier for it to choose an ally.

However, the gap between the two before was like heaven and earth.

One was a high and mighty Legalist Utmost Person, the other was merely an ordinary Fifth Grade.

Now, under the pressure of Dao Fusion from the Immortal Heaven, one ascended and one fell, surprisingly reaching the same starting line.

The Utmost Person deeply understood his situation and knew where his path to survival lay. Although he looked down on the Immortal Heaven, this beast that devoured civilizations without knowing satiety, he still greatly respected its power.

There were no extra words, no greetings.

Li Qi wasn’t entirely clear about his situation, but Zhu Fengdan had already told him the mission objective.

You’ve been given the cheat, now go, solo a degraded Utmost Person.

His brain, which had undergone 2.5 billion regressions, became active again.

In fact, Li Qi began to feel another person’s thoughts.

That thought was vaguely speaking…

The content of the words… seemed to be: “Damn your grandma! Li Qi, you bastard! I must have had eight lifetimes of bad luck to be linked by Karma to you!”

Uh, this thought didn’t seem very friendly.

But Li Qi also knew the source of this thought.

The Little Celestial Master.

“Alright, I didn’t want this either. Since things have come to this, let’s face it together. We two are fighting a degraded Utmost Person; we can’t have infighting,” Li Qi said.

The thought on the other side was silent for a moment.

Soon, Li Qi felt a projection appear in his mind.

Zhang Zong must have chosen to go into seclusion over there, dedicating himself wholeheartedly to this place.

“Although this is a messed-up situation, I, your young Master, haven’t fought a Utmost Person before. You say, the Demonic Prince’s Overlord Dao Foundation, can we two also get a share?” Zhang Zong said.

The dignified Little Celestial Master, despite his cursing, upon realizing this was an opportunity to challenge a degraded Utmost Person, decisively chose to embrace it.

A Fifth Grade fighting a former Third Grade, was there anything more exhilarating in this world!?

The Demonic Prince challenged all opponents of the same grade throughout the Immortal Heaven, challenging countless from Seventh Grade to Fifth Grade, defeating all peers, establishing his path of invincibility, known as the Overlord Dao Foundation, absolutely invincible among his peers, no one could defeat him.

But even he hadn’t done something like this, had he?!

Damn it, he was fired up!

Seeing the Little Celestial Master go from cursing profusely to being highly enthusiastic, Li Qi no longer concealed anything.

Anyway, things were as they were; since he was here, he might as well.

In the time before, he had already shown the Immortal Heaven the Shaman Dao’s way of handling affairs. Now, what he had to do was show the Immortal Heaven Shaman Dao’s combat power.

If both were done well, then Shaman Dao would gain a First Grade ally.

This was a tremendous merit. Li Qi might be able to use this merit to ensure that Rabbit and Li Shiwei would no longer suffer from the ravages of war.

He didn’t like fighting, and wouldn’t be as happy as the Little Celestial Master, but he wouldn’t be afraid either.

On one side was the Fourth Grade Dao Fusion with two minds in one body, Li Qi and Zhang Zong.

On the other side was the Legalist Utmost Person, who had just dropped in grade and whose heart was already resolute.

The next moment, within the Immortal Heaven, the battle began, and around Li Qi, a large number of restraints filled the space! (End of Chapter)