If a small army had been in front, then all of them would’ve been bisected at the waist!

Swish! Xu Yangyi’s crescent stuck close to the ground and flew, and layer after layer of stone overturned wherever it passed! Nalan Liusu’s slitted golden pupils shrunk, and her hands weaved seals at a rapid pace. Her spideresque body stood up like a human, and her massive lower half ceaselessly bulged. As the Severing Dragon Typhoon was ten meters away from her, a sea of golden spider-silk quickly spilled out!

Swoosh… Swoosh… The massive net was no less than several hundred meters in size. Cleverly, it exploited the stone buddha’s five fingers to build a giant web hanging in the air. Xu Yangyi’s attack rushed into the web, and a fit of violent shaking caused the web to vibrate. In an instant, the web pulled taut like a bow string!

Huuummm… Nalan Liusu’s gaze was razor-sharp. She hadn’t expected at all that this opponent who she had defeated in the past was actually so powerful now! Those days were long ago, and no more was Xu Yangyi the greenhorn of the past!

Rip… A soft noise echoed, akin to a bow string snapping. The white light of the Severing Dragon typhoon gradually transformed into motes of spirit light and dissipated. But at this time, Nalan Liusu snapped her head up. Above her, a black shadow had already appeared.

“Life Sacrification, Flying Star…” Xu Yangyi used these simple magik arts from Heavens Law. He didn’t even need to form seals. With the swiftness of a thought or cycling electricity, his body drew afterimages in the air. The Ketu-Rahu Sword’s wings were unfolded; he was like a demon-god descending!

Two one-meter-sized balls of purple fire were tightly wrapped around his hands. A flash of killing intent flickered through his eyes, and he dropped down like a meteor!

“Solution Fifty…” All kinds of moves he was familiar with in the past slightly emerged in his mind. Unexpectedly, he suddenly felt that he was more suited to these kinds of battle tactics. Passing by ten thousand flowers without a single petal touching the body, Foundation Establishment was free and easy. It didn’t fit a rough-and-tumble person like him.

This kind of fight… fists meeting flesh, physical combat, was his truest of loves!

“Yes… I am me; why should I chase after how other people do things! That’s their Dao, not mine!”

“What I want… is to be unchained, to be free! Not just to stick to one way! To do as I want! This is why the Great Sage’s Dao arrived! Why do I want to copy those cultivators, anyways! Could it be that when Great Sage Sun met the enemy with his staff back then, he wasn’t a high-level cultivator because he didn’t act with the ease of Foundation Establishment?” [1]

“They are them, and I am me! I’m Xu Yangyi, not a Foundation Establishment cultivator!”

The demon slayer had never imagined that movements he hadn’t performed in a long time, divine abilities he hadn’t used for ages, would actually cause his heart to open wide. A feeling of perfect enlightenment was born spontaneously. Were it not because the current situation didn’t permit it, he even wanted to look to the sky and scream, and then calmly meditate. [2]

“Tiger Roar!”

BANG!!! From his hands, two orbs of purple spirit light suddenly made two world-shaking screams! Afterwards… two white tigers, a full three meters long, followed his punches. While the tigers didn’t reach Nalan Liusu first, the wind of Xu Yangyi’s fists did! The ground immediately became littered in cracks that looked to be made by a chopping sword!

He didn’t hear the sound of an extremely faint crack ringing out in his spiritual sense.

“Spider-Spirit Shield! Spidermother’s Bind!!!” Nalan Liusu didn’t risk being careless by the slightest bit! The person facing her was strong… very strong! If she slipped up, she would be the one to die!

Clang! The eight bony, segmented barbs growing out of her back were like a scorpion’s tail, quickly closing down in front of her! Oddly, however, they closed seamlessly like a tangram! The small chinks formed weird veiny patterns, and beams of golden qi roamed these patterns. While explaining this was slow, time was fast. In less than a second, a golden qi in front of her soared above! The manifestation became a giant shield with a spider engraved on it, no less than twenty to thirty meters in size!

But at the same time, the silk around her undulated like an ocean tide! Afterwards, like a heavenly net, it swept back in from all around, wishing to twist Xu Yangyi to death in between!

This was a Foundation Establishment strategy. The battlefield was too large, quite difficult to injure a body in itself. However, Xu Yangyi couldn’t dodge!

Qi to seize onto the opponent, and a divine ability to crush them. This was the “standard tactic” of Foundation Establishment cultivators. But although this attack put Xu Yangyi in a bad spot, it wasn’t enough to send him boiling!

Fuck the standards! He only wanted to do as his heart pleased!

Boom! Flashes of gold and azure flickered like a tide! The entire buddha’s hand cracked aloud. And while Nalan Liusu clearly saw that her shield perfectly defended against Xu Yangyi… her binds couldn’t even capture the tail of his shadow!

She was unsurprised, however, she herself having lived during the Ancient Cultivation age. Already, she saw a silhouette of a long-lost cultivator on Xu Yangyi’s frame.

A physique cultivator.

Physique arts.

To speak of the Eternal Alchemy as a literary work in name, a furnace smelted the body. Still, it in itself ultimately cultivated a true physique art. But in any case, the furnace in Xu Yangyi’s body hadn’t been ignited yet. Naturally, cultivation was beyond his reach. His present vigor and attitude, though, already implicitly agreed with the scripture’s intent.

Crack crack crack… The surrounding fingers of the buddha became the foundation for a spider’s web. The web dissolved upon this strike and was pulled taut again. But as far as Nalan Liusu could see, Xu Yangyi, who was in her web, was like a butterfly flitting through flowers. Her large net couldn’t catch him!

This was the Nalan Clan’s weakness. Their tactic was “great momentum”. This momentum wasn’t merely so simple as one plus one equals two. It was more like it equaled four or five. Little by little, they closed the enemy into a dead end. It was a typical hunter’s method. Although the time this took was a little long, it could guarantee absolute certainty. Any clan had their own unique combat methods.

But while Nalan Liusu and Xu Yangyi were of the same realm and level of achievement, the Nalan Clan was at a disadvantage! Even if she’d once been a holy maiden!

This couldn’t go on!

In this instant, she realized something. Xu Yangyi still hadn’t taken to the sky. Her figure had flickered away, already flying into the air.

“What? Scared?” Xu Yangyi sneered as he used his hand to pinch his throat. “Back then you broke my neck. Why weren’t you afraid that time?”

With ice in her eyes, Nalan Liusu stared at him. Afterwards… the eight barbs behind her and her two hands made a giant seal together.

“Spidermother’s Symphony…” She closed her eyes. When she opened them again, a pitch-black sheen rapidly surfaced over her eyes. Her pupils flashed, having already become scarlet-red.

In this twinkling, Xu Yangyi’s body sunk down without warning. An unexplainable qi… was wildly scattering out from Nalan Liusu! Here and now, she cast herself apart from her human guise, instead transforming into a spider that took the world as its lair!

In merely an instant, to the four reaches and eight directions, the sensation of terrible crisis bubbled forth!

“Myriad Gu Tidal Genesis!!!” Following Nalan Liusu’s savage roar, the space in front of Xu Yangyi crackled, and a pitch-black tear surprisingly split open!

“A spatial crack?!” Xu Yangyi’s gaze chilled, and he immediately flew to the side. However, this hair-thin crack followed him like a shadow! Like a heel maggot, it frantically spread! In the blink of an eye, the surrounding seventy to eighty meters had become an expanse of terrible pitch-black spatial cracks that was as dense as a spider web!

BOOM!!! In less than three seconds, the space above him seemed to become broken glass and uniformly shattered! Akin to an endless blade, qi swiftly came flooding down!

However, this was no spatial crack.

“It’s fake!” The light of his eyes flickered, and ten fire-dragons shot out and incinerated all of the qi!

“Something’s off… This is obviously one of her reserve divine abilities. It can’t be this simple.” Limitless blade-light rained down. He dealt with it for no less than four to five seconds, only then having the time to glance up at the sky.

With one look, he understood what this was.

Battlefield expansion!

There were no longer blue skies and white clouds above him. Instead… an incredibly massive spider web claimed the sky!

This faint-golden spider web emitted heart-shaking qi. It hung between each nook and cranny of the several thousand meters of the buddha statue, turning the area above him into a dreadful spider nest. The web stretched out for a full thousand meters and embraced the entire sculpture! And in this web was a giant spider lying at the center. It was bluish-black, gorgeously colored, covered in black bristles, and eyes grew all over its abdomen.

“You’ve revealed your demon form…” He licked his lips in determination. This was the strength of demon cultivators. A human form, a demonized form, and a full-fledged demon form. They had three stages. Each form was stronger than the last, and the manifestation of the demon form was the apex of the other’s power! This represented that Nalan Liusu wanted to truly determine this decisive struggle!

Xu Yangyi wasn’t afraid though, on the contrary, his heart’s valor rocketed!

Twenty years ago, he hadn’t even managed to get past Nalan Liusu’s human form. Now, after several bouts, Nalan Liusu knew. Without revealing her demon form, victory today wouldn’t be known!

“It’s a pity… my demon form isn’t here. I heard it was a lot more awesome than your secret thing,” Xu Yangyi chuckled, free with his laughter. Just as his laughter began though, it came to a guttural stop. [3]

Crack… crack… Waves of faint crackling quietly rang out in his mind. Just as he delved into his spiritual sense… he saw a large row of golden characters begin to shimmer on an opened page of the Eternal Alchemy Canon!

Flames, representing he’d already learned a technique, were slowly igniting. But the form of these characters wasn’t completely distinct. In ten minutes at most, however, they would all be revealed.

“It didn’t remind me to learn a new divine ability…” The situation was urgent. He only roughly scanned the page belonging to the divine ability. “But… it activated by itself?”

His train of thought yet to end, a violent tremor spread in from the outside world. He promptly drew back his spiritual sense and welcomed the enemy with full force.

Nalan Liusu had finally moved.

Among her eight legs, one was slightly curved. Xu Yangyi followed her gaze, but discovered that the entire web was resonating like a string, even making the sound of a drum. Each strand was lightly bouncing. Whether this came from her spiritual force or some direction was unclear.

In the next second, his body abruptly sunk down!

Crack… boom boom boom!!! A loud, heavy noise echoed. The area linking the stone buddha’s palm and wrist rose up with surging dust. Even he was taken along and fell down with a rumble!

That… was from the taut strings forcibly severing the stone buddha’s palm!

At the same time, Nalan Liusu’s other leg flicked out again. In less than half a second, before Xu Yangyi even had time to react, a string of web was molded into a spear. It was pointed straight at him in the air!

No, there wasn’t just one. Nalan Liusu, who occupied both an advantageous position and the high ground, flicked her eight legs out as if she was playing a piano. On the spider web, countless golden spears formed!

“Spidermother’s Symphony… Blade Flurry!!!”

With the ancient cultivator’s piercing screech, cold glints of gold suddenly appeared above Xu Yangyi! They were inescapable!

1. Fun fact: Xu Yangyi here says “To do as I want!”, in Chinese this is: “是任我行!” This is also the name of a character in The Smiling, Proud Wanderer by Jin Yong, and also the namesake of Wuxiaworld’s founder RWX (Ren Woxing).

2. “Perfect enlightenment” is a very peculiar idiom. It means to “anoint the head with the purest cream”. Apparently an expression related to Buddhism.

3. “Secret”. Apparently the specific term here used in Chinese is another net slang. “暗搓搓”. Used in text messaging sense for a “private chat”.