As the power brought by the Lord of Mountains and Rivers and his other talents converged upon him, Qi Ping became the master of heaven and earth in both name and reality!
Specifically, after he dismantled the array siphoning the leylines and used the Earth-Vein Ants to elevate the earth's power, his control over the Qingtian Domain surged. At this moment, Qi Ping was the world, and the world was Qi Ping.
When that power was funneled into the Mountain-River Seal, the luck-treasure erupted with an overwhelming pressure. Like the heavens themselves, it carried a majestic weight, smashing toward Ling Qianjue with terrifying speed.
Facing this strike, Ling Qianjue naturally understood the mechanics behind it.
"The empowerment of Heaven-Earth Favor, a luck-treasure! Good, good! So you, Bee Daoist, are the Child of Fortune born in response to the world's needs!"
Facing this scene, the doubts in Ling Qianjue's mind were instantly cleared. Since he knew what he was facing, there was nothing to fear! He had broken through realms and forcefully extended his life, fighting against the heavens for ten thousand years. When had he ever felt fear?
A green flying sword appeared before Ling Qianjue!
However, the moment it appeared, its outer shell shattered, revealing a bizarre divine weapon radiating black and red aura! This sinister weapon—nurtured with the best minerals and treasures of the Qingtian Domain—finally revealed its true form!
A terrifying aura and a bizarre will permeated the world, sounding like the screams of ten thousand ghosts!
Then, the Dao-Demon Holy Infant within Ling Qianjue erupted with full power. The surge of Dao-Demon energy caused the aura of the bizarre sword to skyrocket! It transformed into a streak of light, crashing into the Mountain-River Seal!
In the moment of impact, the entire world seemed to fall silent!
Countless people in the Qingtian Domain felt as if time and space had frozen and trembled for a heartbeat! The Foundation Establishment and Golden Core cultivators were most sensitive to this shift in heaven-earth power, yet they had never seen such a bizarre occurrence.
Then, centered on the seal and the sword, the space collapsed. Innumerable spatial fissures spread across the sky! A terrifying explosion of power swept out, shattering the space and causing it to cave in, forming a massive black void!
Next came a tremor that shook the world, and a boom that echoed through the heavens!
The power of their opening move was truly horrifying! It appeared simple, but it was the peak of simplification—containing incredibly high-level techniques of spellwork and power manipulation.
As a result of the clash, both their bodies trembled violently. Their internal organs were jolted, and threads of blood leaked from their facial orifices!
'What a terrifying attack!'
'What frightening combat power!'
Both were shocked.
Qi Ping's shock was particularly intense. If the land of the Qingtian Domain hadn't absorbed the majority of the attack for him, his body would have been torn to pieces in that single clash! How terrifying was Ling Qianjue's combat power to be able to resist the majesty of the heavens with his own body?
Of course, Ling Qianjue's shock was no less. He could hardly imagine that a green youth who had just emerged could reach this level through world-empowerment. Could a Child of Fortune really do this? It was as if he had been in seclusion for two hundred years, and before he even emerged, a peer who hadn't even been born yet had become his equal in combat. His talent was the greatest in tens of thousands of years; could things get any more absurd?
However, these injuries were only horrifying in appearance. Within moments, they had both recovered!
Without a word, they clashed again. Their only goal was to kill the other.
As terrifying explosions rang out, they fought at high speed. The sky was filled with spatial collapses and fissures, and the earth was scarred with horrifying craters. Anything near the center of the battle was reduced to dust!
During this battle, almost the entire Qingtian Domain was thrown into a bizarre state of constant tremors and spatial distortion! Near the center of the fight, the land was overturned and immortal dwellings collapsed!
As images of the horrifying battle were transmitted by nearby cultivators, others finally realized what was happening:
A war had broken out! A battle far more ferocious than any between normal Nascent Soul cultivators had erupted! And the combatants were famous figures known to everyone:
The renowned Bee Daoist versus Supreme Grand Elder Ling Qianjue!
Upon receiving the news, everyone was dazed. 'What? The Bee Daoist is fighting Ling Qianjue? He's that brave?'
Previously, the Bee Daoist's feat of slaying twenty Foundation Establishment cultivators and destroying almost all subsidiary forces of the Celestial Alliance was already ridiculous enough. At that time, Foundation Establishment cultivators were the "ceiling" in most people's eyes, and that event had caused massive waves. Later, his slaying of nine Golden Core cultivators in one battle had nearly scared everyone to death. And how many years had passed since then? Now he was fighting the number one expert in the domain? And the battle was more terrifying than those between peak Nascent Soul masters!
Even the people of the Qingyuan Sect were stunned. Their ancestor was fighting the Bee Daoist? And it had reached this level? They then looked for Lin Ya, who was not present, and waves of shock rolled through their hearts.
However, the most confused was Meng Yan. He was now fundamentally certain that the Bee Daoist was Qi Ping. But now he was told that Brother Qi was fighting his own ancestor?
Elsewhere, the other Nascent Soul cultivator of the Qingtian Domain, Lin Wuji, began to break out in a cold sweat. He huddled within the Celestial Alliance headquarters, trembling. Was this the Bee Daoist he had once hunted?
'If you're this strong, why did you hide? Why didn't you just kill me?!'
After thinking it through, Lin Wuji guessed that Qi Ping had only recently obtained this power. The terrifying speed of his growth shocked him. What secret did this man possess?
A spark of greed rose in Lin Wuji's heart, which had originally intended to stay hidden. If he could obtain that secret, could he find a way to Deity Transformation or even higher?
After some thought, he made a decision:
Wealth is found in risk! No cultivator could resist the temptation of something beyond Deity Transformation—especially someone like him who had lived long and was obsessed with the Dao.
He didn't dare fight the Bee Daoist or Ling Qianjue one-on-one, as he would likely die. But he was a Nascent Soul expert backed by the terrifying Celestial Alliance; how could he not have some trump cards?
Having made his decision, Lin Wuji took all his trump cards and quietly left the Celestial Alliance headquarters...
At the battlefield, the fight between Qi Ping and Ling Qianjue had continued for a long time. However, since neither had any weaknesses in attack, defense, or recovery, they had yet to determine a winner despite having overturned the mountains and rivers.
Qi Ping was protected by the power of the land and the protective will in his Dao-Heart. He had no weaknesses in self-preservation. The world's will firmly guarded his soul, and the Mountain-River Seal provided an impenetrable defense, giving Ling Qianjue no opening for a kill.
Ling Qianjue was even more of a "hexagonal warrior." Not only was his attack peerless, but he had mastered the Supreme Longevity Scripture and surpassed it by integrating bizarre powers. His defense and recovery had reached a terrifying level. At the Nascent Soul stage, he was essentially unkillable.
As of now, Ling Qianjue was not worried about his safety. He had already grasped Qi Ping's combat style and power; he was certain Qi Ping couldn't kill him. But he was also struggling to kill Qi Ping. With the protection of the land, Qi Ping was too tough. He wasn't sure how long Qi Ping could maintain this power or how long his body could endure it. He never expected that one day, he would be unable to deal with a junior!
At the center of the battlefield, the two continued to clash, their bodies stained red with blood.
Facing such a difficult situation and such a frightening enemy, Qi Ping did not panic. He used the Illumination Mirror Image talent from the Little Green Snake to continuously analyze Ling Qianjue's attacks, movements, and even the circulation paths of his manuals and spells, searching for a weakness.
Against such an enemy, he had to find the perfect opportunity to use his bee swarms to deliver a fatal blow! Otherwise, with Ling Qianjue's terrifying speed and movement techniques, even if Qi Ping could win the fight, he couldn't keep the man here. Once he missed this chance, killing Ling Qianjue later would be filled with obstacles. The man might even go on a rampage across the domain out of spite!
This was why Qi Ping hadn't dared to move against Ling Qianjue before. He had no certainty. The deductions from the Little Immortal Tiger were always "Calamity" or "Lesser Calamity." How could he dare to fight?
Combined with his high growth rate, Qi Ping believed in his own speed of improvement. If not for the warning from heaven and earth, he still wouldn't have initiated this battle.
'But it's not as if there's no chance!'
A mysterious light erupted in Qi Ping's eyes—a sign that the Eyes of Transcendence within the Illumination Mirror Image were being pushed to their limit. Supported by his various talents and the power of the land, this talent was far stronger than what the Little Green Snake could produce. Ling Qianjue's physical data, spiritual energy characteristics, and manuals were all being systematically analyzed.
The weight of the phrase "Never fight an Illumination Mysterious Green Snake twice" was fully demonstrated here.
'Soon! Almost there!'
As Ling Qianjue's data and weaknesses were analyzed, Qi Ping realized that while the man's control over his recently mastered Dao-Demon Holy Infant was high, any flaw could be infinitely magnified under the Illumination Mirror Image. Qi Ping finally found a way to potentially slay Ling Qianjue.
On the surface, however, Qi Ping intentionally began to show a slight sign of faltering to keep the man engaged.
That slight faltering gave Ling Qianjue hope of killing Qi Ping. He didn't suspect anything, as he had absolute confidence in himself and didn't believe Qi Ping had the strength to kill him. As for the signature spirit bees, he didn't give them a second thought. Even the Bee Daoist himself was only barely holding his own through luck and world-protection; what could some bees possibly do?
Forget bees—the spirit beasts of the entire Qingtian Domain weren't enough for him to refine. If Qi Ping brought out some decent beasts, they would only become fodder for his Deity Transformation!
'Just a bit more... almost time!'
Far from the center of the battlefield, at the location of the Geo-Fire Salamanders, Qi Ping's Treant clone was ready. In an instant, the Rank 4 array Ling Qianjue had set up was broken. Then, the Parasitic Blood Seeds on the salamanders were rapidly cleared by the clone.
With these actions, the crisis of the Magma Eruption was resolved!
In that moment, Qi Ping's control over the Qingtian Domain rose by another tier! His Power of Living Beings surged simultaneously!
Ling Qianjue, sensing another location destroyed, began to lose his composure.
'There are accomplices? It's one thing for the Bee Daoist to break my arrangements, but someone else can do it too? How strong are they?' A series of questions popped up in his mind.
But Qi Ping seized the moment, as he had already devised a combat plan based on Ling Qianjue's weaknesses. He was waiting for the exact moment Ling Qianjue realized the salamanders were saved!
In a flash, Qi Ping utilized all the augmented power of the land and all his Power of Living Beings—save for what was needed for resurrection—and funneled it all into the Mountain-River Seal!
The seal erupted with unprecedented pressure, smashing toward the flaw in Ling Qianjue's spiritual energy!
Facing this sudden, terrifying attack, Ling Qianjue's expression changed drastically!
But what terrified him even more was that at the moment of Qi Ping's attack, over three thousand Rank 4 King-Grade demonic insects screeched as they emerged!
And even more terrifying was that these King-Grade bees formed a vast Yin-Yang Grand Array, and every single one of them had their bloodline boiling to the limit under the Heart of the Wild!
"That many King-Grade demonic insects? How is that possible?!"