Taiyi Dao Fruit

Heaven and Earth seemed to be responding to him, the scene almost reminiscent of the era before the End of Dharma, a time when the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Mechanism was powerful. But back then, that manifestation belonged to everyone who had achieved something in their cultivation, yet now, it belonged solely to Jiang Li.

the Qi Mechanism, brought by the Gang Wind, pressed down on Jiang Biehe like a physical pressure, making his face hard and began showing pale golden hues.

"Hmm? This kind of aura..."

Jiang Li suddenly paused, his left eye rapidly flickering with light.

He raised his Sword Light, and the Great Circle Sword, too, showed scenes of Gang Wind and Cangming. Then, a curved light streaked across the sky, splitting the firmament, where the wind and clouds rapidly changed within the brilliance, forging an extreme Natural Sword.

Danger!

An extreme sense of crisis exploded in Jiang Biehe's heart, his instincts crazily warning him of the threat. Almost without hesitation, he decisively pressed his left hand on his right arm, merging two flows of Innate Yuan Qi, which burst forth with his left hand's push.

"Hidden Abyss."

The Qi of the mountains and the earth converged into a wall of Qi, like a heavenly rift, standing in front of the arc of Sword Qi. Upon collision, only a humming was heard, mixed with thousands of sounds, and that wall of Qi was actually split in two, mercilessly cleaved.

The Qi Tomb" technique of combining mountain and earth Qi barely withstood one sword, the Sword Light swept across, Jiang Biehe's facial golden color intensified, even tinging his eyes yellow.

In the blink of an eye, a streak of red Sword Light suddenly flashed.

It appeared abruptly in front of Jiang Biehe, so fast that even Jiang Li could only catch a fleeting afterimage, less than ten feet long, as for the trajectory, Jiang Li couldn't make it out.

"Near Light Speed?!"

Jiang Li's thoughts couldn't flash by fast enough, the red Sword Light had already met the arc of Sword Qi.

In an instant, storms changed wildly within Jiang Li's Sword Qi, Yuan Qi circulated, oscillating thousands of times, a single sword as though a million swords overlapped, colliding with the red Sword Light, and then—

The Sword Qi was split in two.

The oscillating Sword of Yuan Qi could easily slice open the Qi wall created by "Hidden Abyss," yet it struggled against one strike of the Near Light Sword, the speed of the red Sword Light directly cutting into the Sword Qi, the oscillation speed of the Yuan Qi far behind the speed of Near Light.

"Hold on!"

Then, a belated call of "hold on" arrived.

The speed of the voice was far slower than the Sword Light, only reaching Jiang Li's ears after his Sword Qi was intercepted. At the same time, a golden light flashed, a Daoist maneuvered through the air, arriving between Jiang Li and Jiang Biehe.

"Would Fellow Daoist grant me a favor by sparing my junior brother."

Daoist Guang Cheng, who had been fighting the Immortal Queen, had somehow escaped, perhaps in the last instant, or perhaps right now.

He blocked that sword for Jiang Biehe in a simple yet utterly incomprehensible way.

'Near Light Sword, probably nothing in this world is faster than this sword.' Jiang Li gently exhaled a breath of Dirt Qi.

He didn't know how close to the speed of light this sword was, he only knew he couldn't catch its trajectory at all. All perceptions were ineffective at this speed, to respond, there was only one way to anticipate the opponent's move.

Before the sword was drawn, use Yi Dao Divination, intuition, wisdom, and other means to act prophetically, only then could one potentially guard against it.

Otherwise, the only option was to take the hit head-on.

Jiang Li thought so, glancing towards the distant mountains.

There, layers of frost had covered everything, the bitter Mysterious Ice proliferating like vines, forming a primeval forest-like scenery, with ice spires and columns standing like towering trees.

On one of the ice columns, a pure white figure was barely discernible.

As Jiang Li looked over, that figure also looked over distantly; in that moment, their gaze turned substantial as the bitter cold, freezing Jiang Li's vision, and even invading along his line of sight, causing Jiang Li to feel a chill.

Fortunately, the cold retracted quickly, and the pure white figure also vanished into the mists.

The Immortal Queen had departed.

She had intended to capture Tianxuan's two disciples, not to fight Daoist Guang Cheng in a life-and-death struggle. After a brief probing exchange, when the Immortal Queen realized it was fruitless, she chose to cease her efforts.

Fighting desperately against Daoist Guang Cheng, even if she won, would have been of no benefit and most likely would have also resulted in her own injuries.

In that case, even if he captured the man, going against Tianxuan with an injured body also carried a substantial risk of overturning.

The Immortal Queen was not so reckless.

Jiang Li wasn't so reckless either, not disrespecting Daoist Guang Cheng.

"I am indeed willing to show respect to Daoist Master Guang Cheng, but I'm afraid that certain individuals lack shame."

Jiang Li withdrew the Gang Wind, the Two Sceneries that had merged into his body appeared again, and the Sword Light receded, as he said in a genial tone.

The blizzards that surged in from all directions also gradually calmed down with the convergence of the Qi Mechanism, and even some sunlight filtered in, bringing with it traces of warmth.

In the blink of an eye, the weather, which had just shown signs of a natural disaster, had eased, almost as if the heavenly phenomena changed with Jiang Li's intentions.

"The words of a poor Daoist still hold some weight."

Hearing this, Daoist Guang Cheng's expression remained unchanged, and he said coolly with his back to Jiang Biehe, "Brother Guangyang, go and face the wall for ten years; during these ten years, you are not to step outside."

At that moment, Jiang Biehe had already retracted the golden hue, and upon hearing Daoist Guang Cheng's command, his expression drastically changed as he said, "The nephew of my disciple Jiang Zhuyun was killed by this clan disaster; there is no place for reconciliation with this disaster, and I utterly disagree with any collaboration with those kinds of people."

The old fellow was cunning enough, immediately bringing up the grudge of Jiang Li killing Jiang Zhuyun to cloak himself in a garb of vengeance and to justify his actions.

Under such a pretext, whatever actions were taken could somewhat be deemed justified.

However, Daoist Guang Cheng remained unmoved.

"Brother, I am the temple master," Daoist Guang Cheng said calmly.

The implication was obvious: your disagreement is futile. He also countered any other remarks from Jiang Biehe.

Jiang Biehe's expression turned ashen, but he could not retort at all. Since Daoist Guang Cheng had invoked his authority as the temple master, even though he was reluctant, he had to comply for the time being.

"Brother, you will regret this."

Eventually, Jiang Biehe could only snort coldly and leave, his figure vanishing into the still lingering wind and snow with a trail of golden light.

His words suggested a deep hatred, but he departed without any hesitation.

'This old fellow is quite cunning.'

Jiang Li watched this scene, and once Jiang Biehe had left, he suddenly spoke, "I thought the Daoist was planning to personally take actions to eliminate the uncertainties within Yuxu Temple, but I didn't expect the Daoist to let him go so easily."

"Oh?" Daoist Guang Cheng seemed surprised as he said, "Fellow Daoist, why do you say so?"

"If it weren't for the Daoist wanting to meet me alone, how could Jiang Biehe have acted so eagerly?" Jiang Li said calmly, "It seems today's events originated from a visit from my fellow apprentices, but we were merely a catalyst. The real promoter of today's battle was not us."

It was Daoist Guang Cheng.

Initially, Jiang Li thought it might have been because Jiang Biehe was too hasty or likely to act that way, but after seeing Daoist Guang Cheng let Jiang Biehe go, Jiang Li had other thoughts.

Perhaps the person most eager to handle the unstable factors within Yuxu Temple was Daoist Guang Cheng himself.

This Daoist, although a Sword Cultivator, was also a practitioner of Yi Dao. It is well known that those proficient in Yi Dao tend to think a lot and strategize extensively.

"Ha."

Daoist Guang Cheng did not directly respond to Jiang Li's remarks but just laughed and said, "Among the young people I have met, Daoist Yaoguang's thoughts are indeed among the most intricate. If not for knowing your past records, I might have thought an old friend took on a new identity to jest with me."

Saying so, he gently beckoned, and a red Sword Light flew towards him, hovering in front of him, with a faint hint of Sword Qi emanating from it.

That was Jiang Li's Sword Qi.

"Excellent cultivation; a fifth-rank realm comparable to the fourth rank, your capabilities are not just unprecedented but truly rare."

Daoist Guang Cheng pinched the strand of Sword Qi and said, "With such cultivation, it would be a pity not to promote you to Qingyuan Miaodao True Monarch."

I know you have seen through my plans, but that's alright, I also hold the leverage you need.