Taiyi Dao Fruit

"One Qi Transforms Three Thousand."

Jiang Li stood still, and from behind him, lines of energy walls began to rise, two thousand walls resisting and countering the sword energy that tore through space.

The pitch-black rift seemed to cut through the multitude of energy walls unstoppably, their sheer number unable to halt that ultimate sharpness. Yet, after breaching two thousand walls, the sword's momentum leaked, and its fierce intensity was somewhat diminished.

The rift advanced further, but Jiang Li had already turned around, seemingly slowly yet swiftly, and reached out to grab it.

On his palm, blood energy surged up, scorching like the sun, revealing silhouettes of mountains—icy, majestic, towering, righteous, perilous—the shapes of the Five Mountains all within his grasp.

Capturing the shapes of the Five Mountains, his fingers like peaks, he seized the pitch-black rift. The grating noise of friction tore through the air, creating currents of Gang Wind, an invisible yet substantial pressure emerged within the grip, crushing down on the rift as his fingers closed in.

Time seemed to freeze at that moment, stretching infinitely. All that was seen was the rift slowly being pressed together by the enclosing fingers, a sharp edge being suppressed and breaking free, and then—

"Boom."

The sharpness of the Sky Cluster Cloud Sword was crushed, and the torn space was pressed back together.

"Remarkable, it has wounded me."

On his palm and fingers, fine yet deep cuts appeared. Feeling the sharpness from before, Jiang Li couldn't help but express his admiration.

However, to Jidou, Lou Shuangying, and even the Giant Snake Baqi below, this admiration seemed terrifying, as if they had seen a ghost.

By sheer force, he had closed the torn space and even crushed the renowned sharpness of the Sky Cluster Cloud Sword. Just thinking about it made one's eyebrows twitch and brought a chill to the heart.

Jidou and Lou Shuangying exchanged glances from afar and halted their advance, now attacking the mountain beneath them instead.

At this point, rather than thinking about forcing back Jiang Li, they preferred to consider how to deal with the Five Finger Mountain, which had lost the blessing of the Great Brightness Mantra. At least the Five Finger Mountain wouldn't suppress space rifts.

At the same time, the pressure changed dramatically; a wind force, overwhelming like an infinite sea and immensely heavy, seemed to pull down the heavens.

Within Jiang Li's eyes emerged countless Yin Yang symbols, forming divinations, with a vast surging Qi Mechanism flowing from within him.

"Emperor's Ultimate World, Yiyuan Jinghui."

The Eight Trigrams combined Yin and Yang, ceaselessly evolving and deriving Essence Qi, filling the heavens and earth.

Jiang Li had completely refined the Demon Cleansing True Qi and had come to understand the effects of the Yin Yang transformation. Although he had not actually tried to convert the Five Vile Qi yet, comprehending the transformation of Yin and Yang gave him a new idea.

That was to use himself as the fulcrum, to recreate the Essence Qi and combine the Divine Skill of Outer Object Transformation, to turn the local area into a sea of Essence Qi, reversing the environment of this realm to a state before the End of Dharma.

As for not having truly transformed the Five Vile Qi yet, that didn't matter; he would simply use his Innate Qi as the source.

With the support of the "One-foot Hammer" and his Power that could be deemed inexhaustible, Jiang Li's Innate Qi rapidly transformed into Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi under the evolution of the Yin Yang symbols, deploying Qimen Dunjia, and sustaining a space amidst the Five Turbid Evil World.

This seemed superfluous, but with Innate Qi inside him, Jiang Li's True Qi might never run dry, however, the output always had a limit and shouldn't exceed half, and even without considering the time for replenishment, he could only exert his full strength.

Yet, turning Innate Qi into Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi and shaping a realm was akin to returning to the era before the End of Dharma when Cultivators could stir monumental Essence Qi with a single thought, where every motion followed by the Qi of Heaven and Earth, it was virtually walking against the current of time.

That was the new technique Jiang Li created, "Yiyuan Jinghui."

Yin and Yang cycled, Essence and pathways intertwined, reversing Heaven and Earth, temporarily returning to before the End of Dharma.

All the Essence Qi originated from within Jiang Li and was naturally under his control. The benefits of reversing the norm could only be enjoyed by him, and the enemy couldn't share in the fortune.

Under the increasing pressure of layered Essence Qi, Jidou and Lou Shuangying felt as if the whole world had turned against them, rejecting their presence and with the intensity still growing stronger, such that even their True Qi used to attack Five Finger Mountain was constrained.

Even their own bodies were on the verge of being suppressed by the Essence Qi.

"Not good!"

The two of them finally sensed the danger. If they were suppressed along with it, what use would an Undying Body be? They would end up as company for the Giant Snake Baqi.

If forever suppressed, what difference would it make from being dead?

They immediately attempted to flee, but the Essence Qi surged like tidal waves, the skies churned by Essence Qi into a tumult, signifying a great change of Heaven and Earth.

"Luo Hou obstructs the moon."

Just as the two contenders seemed ensnared in a vortex, the sky suddenly darkened, a massive shadow eclipsing the sunlight.

A gigantic hand pressed down from the heavens, its ancient bronze palm lines undulating like rivers and ravines, vaguely resembling a reversed swastika, with fingers like mountains, scattering the turbulent winds and clouds, bearing down upon Five Finger Mountain.

Luo Hou!

First among the four Great Asuras of the Fire House Buddha Prison, the principal caretaker following Karma Tathagata's seclusion.

Jiang Li's descending right hand lifted, the vast Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi surged with his palm, and his body too rapidly expanded, almost reaching a point where it seemed to pierce the sky.

"Boom!"

Palm collided with palm, the most primitive force clashing in the most direct manner, mountains and earth undulating like waves, swirling like tides, dust rolling like dragons through the hills before rising upward, forming layer upon layer of sky curtains.

This collision shook the heavens and the earth, trembling mountains and rivers, generating waves that seemed capable of moving mountains and submerging everything in their path.

Lou Shuangying, Jidou, and even the Five Finger Mountain beneath their feet, all were engulfed by the shockwaves, and the Giant Snake Baqi's prolonged screams of agony were unmistakable.

Without a doubt, this clash of palms bore the severest brunt for this being.

"Hmph."

A muffled grunt echoed from the sky, as if the firmament itself was collapsing, the shadow blocking out the sun shrank at a visible rate, and in the blink of an eye, sunlight once again illuminated the dust-covered mountains and rivers.

At the same time, as the waves tumultuously rolled, Lou Shuangying and Jidou's figures were no longer visible within them; they had been swallowed up by the tide and had completely vanished from this place.

On the peak, only a steadily shrinking figure remained.

He looked at his right palm, feeling the powerful strength from the encounter, and stated flatly, "Not bad."

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In a dark hall, three ghostly lights appeared, with three figures stepping out from the glow—one in front and two behind.

Naturally, the two figures in the rear were Lou Shuangying and Jidou, while the one at the front was a man in a black robe, tall and sturdy as a mountain.

His visage was crude, with a rocky textured complexion, features ugly yet strangely harmonious together, and hair as thick as needles, brimming with vigorous vitality; just standing there, he exerted a tangible pressure that crushed the air.

That was the pressure of his vibrant blood and the materialization of his strength.

"Dinghu Sect's newly appointed Yaoguang Breaking Army, the Jiang family's new master..."

Luo Hou extended his right hand, the sound of his surging blood roaring like river waves, his bones subtly shifting back into their original positions, "Since the 'Buddha's Scripture of the Strongman Moving Mountains' took effect, this is the first time encountering a fourth-rank capable of competing in physical prowess with me."

"With him there, it seems Five Finger Mountain cannot be destroyed."

Jidou, looking at Luo Hou's palm, couldn't help but say, "The way he grasped the Sky Cluster Cloud Sword and how it resembled Five Finger Mountain suggests he may share a connection with the Awakened..."

Suddenly, Luo Hou raised his hand to stop Jidou's words, his gaze shifting to land on Lou Shuangying.

"Let's leave this matter to me and Elder Jiang to discuss."

Luo Hou's gaze swept over before settling on Lou Shuangying's shoulders, "Won't you step out to meet me? Elder Jiang."

At this, Lou Shuangying and Jidou were truly shocked; they had not expected someone to follow them here.

Lou Shuangying's Qi mechanism burst out, sweeping around himself.

But it seemed to have no effect; there was no reaction on his body, not the slightest sign of an alien presence, until...

A strand of hair-fine Primordial Qi detached from Lou Shuangying's long hair, slowly drifting upward, with an ethereal silhouette gradually solidifying.