Li Ziye forced a bitter smile and threw the Heavenly Sword upwards; it automatically transformed into a silver streak and returned to the Sword Box. Then, Li Ziye took off the Sword Box that he had always carried with him and tossed it to Ye Chang.
Ye Chang pulled out several talismans to activate them. The talismans turned into several rays of golden light, encasing the Sword Box, sealing it. After doing all this, Ye Chang couldn't hide his triumph and burst out laughing, "You so-called benevolent Modern Cultivators... take this!"
As he spoke, a deadly heavy technique thundered towards Li Ziye.
Without the aid of the Heavenly Sword, Li Ziye's escape skill slowed significantly. However, as if he had foreseen it, he stepped back seven steps diagonally. Ye Chang's lethal attack whistled past him, blasting a huge pit in the ground!
Ye Chang frowned, "Who let you dodge? Believe it or not, I..."
Li Ziye sighed, "Let me clarify something first—discarding the Heavenly Sword is my bottom line. If you want me to tie my hands and let you kill me, that's impossible."
Ye Chang's expression turned ferocious, "Don't you care about this young man's life?"
"I'm not stupid. If you kill me, this young man can't be saved. So why would I stand here and let you kill me?" Li Ziye chuckled lightly, "Since you have captured him alive, he must be of use to you. If it's not a deadlock, you shouldn't kill him so easily."
"So what?"
Li Ziye continued, "If we were to fight face-to-face, it seems I'm slightly stronger than you. Given the personality of an Ancient Method Practitioner, if defeating me doesn't benefit you personally, you'd prefer to flee rather than fight. But now that you've suddenly stopped, it means that 'if you don't defeat me, you'll be in big trouble.' Is your stronghold nearby?"
Ye Chang, his mind read, grew somewhat anxious, "What exactly do you mean?"
Li Ziye smiled, "If this young man were to die in front of me, I'd probably feel guilty for a while, which is not ideal. However, leaving him to go with you, his fate would be either death or a fate worse than death. The worst-case scenario is that he becomes an Ancient Method Practitioner—I'm sorry to say, but from my standpoint, I can't allow that to happen. I can't stand by and watch you take him away; I have to try my best to save him. So, what can I do?"
"I don't care what you do!" Ye Chang shouted, wanting to use his escape skill to flee. Li Ziye's Heavenly Sword was sealed; surely his escape skill couldn't be as swift as before!
At that moment, Li Ziye's leisurely voice sounded, "Just a reminder, the seal you placed on the Heavenly Sword isn't hard to break—and don't forget that unsealing is also a specialty of the Wanfa Sect. I could kill three Foundation Establishment Cultivators and chase after you; breaking the seal and pursuing you is no different."
Ye Chang abruptly stopped in his tracks. The spells of the Modern Method were much more complex than the Ancient Method, and he really couldn't be sure how long it would take Li Ziye to unseal the Heavenly Sword—a moment, or two? The recent scene where Li Ziye methodically killed his three Foundation subordinates and then pursued him played in his mind; that little time was not enough to shake off Li Ziye.
The voice of this Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator even trembled slightly, "What exactly do you want?"
"Don't you understand the situation yet? If you flee, then I can unseal the Heavenly Sword and catch up, and then your Ancient Method secrets will certainly be exposed. Moreover, in the worst case, I will personally kill Wang Qi. I indeed would feel guilty for a while, but it's better than letting you achieve your goal—of course, both of us would rather not see this scenario unfold. If you're ruthless enough to kill Wang Qi here directly, then without a hostage to constrain me, I can fully utilize the Heavenly Sword's power, and cutting you down wouldn't be difficult."
Ye Chang could no longer stand Li Ziye's confident demeanor; he roared, "What exactly do you want?"
Idiot!
Wang Qi inwardly despised the Nascent Soul Cultivator who had captured him. Li Ziye's current approach was to eliminate the man's other options, steering the situation towards what he desired. Now, this Nascent Soul Cultivator couldn't kill him nor could he escape. So, there was only...
Li Ziye spread his hands, "As you can see, the only way for you to break the deadlock is to defeat me here, who lacks the Heavenly Sword, while also keeping that young man alive until the winner is decided."
Wang Qi had now understood Li Ziye's intent and temporarily set his mind at ease, beginning to fully dedicate himself to deducing the Forbidden Breaking Technique from Zhen Chan.
Ye Chang's complexion shifted several times, and finally, with a roar, he released several spells towards Li Ziye.
Without the Heavenly Sword in hand, Li Ziye's ability to counter numerous spells was greatly restricted. Yet, he remained fearless, unfolding his movement technique to dodge the attacks and lunged at Ye Chang. His bare hands were utilized to their fullest, generating endless variations and enveloping Ye Chang's entire body, targeting all its vulnerabilities.
One method evolves into countless methods!
Ye Chang was no simple adversary. He used his mana to bind Wang Qi while swinging a heavy sword with both hands, fighting Li Ziye head-on.
As the two Cultivators clashed, Wang Qi's deduction entered a critical phase.
"It's simpler than I imagined... doesn't involve more complex changes..."
"This vector can be eliminated..."
"The formula is slightly complex... Since the mana circulation takes the Circulation as the unit, this function has a periodic nature... Let's verify... It satisfies the Dirichlet conditions, so Fourier transformation can be used to simplify..."
Wang Qi's entire being was immersed in calculations, not noticing a tiny warm current starting to slowly crawl through his channels like a snail, operating on its own.
Ye Chang's spell that restricted Wang Qi was a secret spell of the Emperor's Extreme Split Sky Dao, aiming to use utterly dominant mana to sever others' internal mana flow, achieving a complete seal. But, the abruptly truncated mana didn't vanish—it was only sealed. The Forbidden Breaking Technique from Zhen Chan utilized the residual mana left from the seal to bypass it and rebuild a Circulation Cycle. As the sealed individual's mana was chopped piecemeal, a small stream of mana couldn't complete an entire cycle. Therefore, thirty-seven streams of mana had to operate simultaneously.
And through the Nourishing Life Master's cultivation of the Modern Method, what Wang Qi contemplated could directly reflect onto his own cultivation. As Wang Qi calculated, the paths of mana in his body began to operate on their own along the trajectories he had computed.
"Speed up a bit... this can be broken down into... this can be represented as... even faster..."
As Wang Qi's calculations progressed, the flow of mana began to accelerate, swiftly shifting from a snail's pace to a thin stream, eventually merging into a singular force!
This constituted ten percent of Wang Qi's mana!
"This here... the final simplification... finished! Oh, my mana..."
Having completed the calculations, Wang Qi was surprised to find that he could now utilize part of his mana!
"I clearly haven't... no time to think it through! The urgent priority now is to escape!"
Wang Qi immediately shifted his focus to the battle between Li Ziye and Ye Chang.
Currently, Wang Qi was still enveloped by Ye Chang's mana, suspended half a foot behind him. The fight between Ye Chang and Li Ziye had escalated intensely. Li Ziye already had multiple wounds, with the bleeding almost turning his red garment white. Ye Chang was also faring poorly, continuously struck in the acupoints where mana flowed, severely disrupting his internal mana and nearly damaging his Nascent Soul. Although Li Ziye's speed had decreased a notch due to abandoning the Heavenly Sword, Ye Chang's disordered mana rendered his moves chaotic, making it difficult for his Heavy Sword to continue the sword moves.
"Hit!" Li Ziye once again lunged forward two steps, bypassing Ye Chang's offense. Ye Chang's Heavy Sword struggled to defend, virtually useless in close combat. Li Ziye's hands moved like a butterfly flitting through flowers, with dazzling afterimages, striking repeatedly at the weaker spots of Ye Chang's protective Qi Force!
The force pierced through the protective Qi Force and into the acupoints, causing Ye Chang to flinch in pain. Wang Qi was overjoyed, almost ready to trigger the talisman in his hand.
"Wait! The situation isn't clear yet, I mustn't be reckless!" A cautious instinct halted Wang Qi's actions.
Indeed, Ye Chang wasn't defeated by this round of attacks but instead abandoned his Heavy Sword. His fingers shifted forms, and mana burst forth from the acupoints throughout his body, forcefully repelling Li Ziye!
"Li Ziye is a disciple of the Wanfa Sect, and his magic and mathematics are closely related. He once mentioned that the key to Wanfa Sect's combat is calculations, and attacking him during his offensive could disrupt his rhythm, possibly leading both people to perish here. This risk is too great to take."
"So, the real move should be made when Li Ziye is at a disadvantage, or when this guy has no hope of winning and is about to kill me!"
Having made up his mind, Wang Qi began to calculate how to maximize the effect of his only remaining strike.
"Fortunately, when avoiding those three Foundation Establishment Cultivators earlier, to ensure no misplacement of talismans, I specifically placed the offensive talismans in my right hand, while the others were held in my left hand."
"I cannot confirm whether the offensive and protective talismans conflict, so I'll assume the worst-case scenario, which is that there's a conflict. If all talismans are triggered at once, my own attack might be weakened by my shield, or the shield might outright counteract the attack. In the former case, I would be left utterly defenseless in front of a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator; in the latter, I might merely add a layer of defense that seems negligible to the Nascent Soul Stage, unable to break his constraint."
"But, the combined power of three explosive talismans could blow me up."
"However, if I don't take this risk, I might end up dead anyway. This risk is worth taking."
"Moreover, as long as I trigger the talismans in my left hand immediately after those in my right hand, I can largely avoid this risk."
Just as Wang Qi decided on his course of action, the situation suddenly changed: Li Ziye, after all, only had a Golden Core. His mana was slightly weaker, his movements a step slower. He had narrowly avoided Ye Chang's giant sword until this moment when his slow response resulted in him being heavily struck by Ye Chang's Heavy Sword, sending his body flying backward, blood spraying wildly!
Ye Chang, an experienced combatant, did not rush forward nor did he pause to mock his opponent. Instead, he followed up steadily, aiming to broaden the results of his victory. He knew that wounds like Li Ziye's would only deteriorate over the course of the struggle!
"Not good!" Wang Qi exclaimed in alarm, almost launching the talisman. But he held back, as Li Ziye had not yet regained his footing, and taking action recklessly would only waste the opportunity.
Li Ziye did not disappoint Wang Qi. Spitting blood, he managed to stand his ground again. Though now floundering amidst the violent sword momentum, he incredibly managed to deflect Ye Chang's attacks at unbelievable moments! Ye Chang remained patient. What he needed to do now was to ensure Li Ziye had no chance to cast a spell that would break the seal and retrieve the Heavenly Sword.
The situation for this Modern Cultivator was increasingly irreversible, and he could not be given the chance to make a desperate move, potentially killing both me and this Qi Cultivation novice!
Seeing that he couldn't achieve immediate success, Ye Chang turned to attack Li Ziye's spirit. He scoffed, "Humph, boy, where's your capability from earlier?"
Li Ziye opened his mouth to say something but instead vomited a mouthful of clotted blood. He casually spit out the blood and, while blocking the opponent's strikes, wryly smiled, "Indeed... Li is, overburdened."
Ye Chang burst into laughter. He could hardly believe that he might actually have a chance to kill this Modern Cultivator Elite Practitioner bestowed with the Heavenly Sword! Initially, his task was indeed to assist that miscellaneous Ancient Method Nascent Soul in killing Xiang Qi and Li Ziye. At the start, when he realized the intelligence was wrong and Li Ziye was actually bestowed with the Heavenly Sword, he deemed the mission a failure. Unexpectedly, now he had a chance to turn the tables!
Killing the one awarded the Heavenly Sword... how much reward would the Sect offer?
Just as Ye Chang thought the overall situation was set and his thoughts began to wander, a faint mana fluctuation emerged on the battlefield!
Now!
Wang Qi used half of his remaining mana to fiercely trigger the three talismans in his right hand!