Without warning, an azure lotus slowly grew out at Floatingcloud’s fingertips. At the same, endless azure light gathered in the world and caused the qi lotus to gradually increase in size!

“A yellow crane returns, with it the Dao sanctum’s fragrant aroma of pine flowers.” In the wake of these words, two azure lights glimmered in the lotus, and two azure lotus flowers were born from the lotus at his fingertips. Very soon there was a third… a fourth… endless flowers!

Each azure lotus spun. Xu Yangyi could feel that a terrible murderous will was caging him in! Less than two seconds later, hundreds of murderous flowers were already dead-locked onto him!

“A white cloud flies, leaving behind the autumn moon to illuminate the alchemy terrace.” At this moment, Floatingcloud was without one bit of gloominess. He bore an immortal air and the Dao was entrenched in his bones. His long sleeves fluttered in the wind, and he was just like an exiled immortal come to earth. His finger pointing at Xu Yangyi slowly tapped down. “Crane Dances, Cloud Flies.” [1]

BOOM!!! All around, the sky quaked for 300 meters!

In the following moment, the great bouquet of lotuses vanished at Floatingcloud’s fingertips and emerged by Xu Yangyi’s side. The lotuses began to rapidly swell, soon on the verge of exploding!

“Wolfbane!”

“Fellow Daoist!!!”

Rocjourney and Moonless cried out in unison. Anyone could see that this move was backed by Floatingcloud’s full strength! The opponent hadn’t held back at all!

“He’s fucked!!!” Bladevessel’s eyes twinkled at great speed. He let loose a bellyful of laughter and surprisingly reverted back to human form, dashing towards the battle. “There’s no way he can survive a Great Circle Foundation Establishment cultivator’s full-powered attack! Die… just die! Interrupting trash like you… should’ve died long ago!!! Otherwise, it would by my, Horseplague’s, turn to seize this good fortune!”

“Hopeless.” The puppet was second to speak, its voice like ice. “Floatingcloud is a Great Circle Foundation Establishment cultivator who has already spied into the Grand Dao of Core Formation. Although he’s strong for middle Foundation Establishment, he’s less than dogshit when placed before the Great Circle.”

Yet now, Xu Yangyi suddenly burst into laughter.

“Didn’t you feel it?” He snapped his fingers. “Azurecloud.”

In the wake of his voice, all the lotuses unexpectedly turned hazy! Afterwards, Floatingcloud roared angrily, “What is this?!?!”

In shock, he looked at his palm. And on his palm, a palm-sized cocoon was actually absorbing something in a frenzy! Streaks of black qi were rapidly drawn out from his body. In an instant…

He felt that his control over the Dream Walker was slipping away like an opened water pump!!!

Still, that wasn’t the end of his astonishment. Because at the Azurecloud Seed’s side, he quickly sensed a feeling that terrified him out of his wits! He saw a phantasmal butterfly. It was graceful and beautiful. It didn’t attack him, only circling the Azurecloud Seed. Nonetheless, he had a premonition… that so long as he dared to lightly touch it, his divine form would be utterly destroyed in a flash!

Just now, Xu Yangyi had surprisingly hung the Azurecloud Seed on the Heavenly Opening Fourth Erosion and launched it!

“Mongrel…” Floatingcloud flung his hand aside, a cold sweat brewing over his heart. The Azurecloud Seed flew back to Xu Yangyi. He wasn’t scared of the Azurecloud Seed, but that butterfly… he suspected whether or not he was mistaken. In that fleeting moment… he seemed to sense a demon-god’s memories. He didn’t dare to keep his hand close to it no matter what!

Xu Yangyi took a deep breath, and the Azurecloud Seed returned to his dantian again.

Without any other methods available to him, achieving a momentary separation was already his limit.

This was his attempt…

A test of his actual trump card!

“Perish…” Floatingcloud cast a spell with the full support of his might, and the lotuses around Xu Yangyi suddenly blossomed! In a flash, he was engulfed by azure light!

“Your so-called strategy is nothing more than artless tricks which lack strength. In the face of true power, all is void.” Floatingcloud’s gaze was fiery, and he spat out between clenched teeth. “To die to my Crane Dances, Cloud Flies, your chance journey to this realm was not in vain. To be buried with such generosity in consideration of your maggot-like status… is too convenient for you…”

Azure light hid the world, swallowing Xu Yangyi’s form.

Floatingcloud worriedly sent his gaze to his spiritual sense. He felt that the Dream Walker was becoming progressively harder to control!

“That damned maggot just now… what is it?! It was actually capable of drawing out the Dream Walker’s power… and that strange butterfly as well… I’ve been going too easy on this dog…” he snorted coldly and gnashed his teeth as he turned around, preparing to step into the void.

But before he even finished thinking, he snapped his head up and fell into a daze. Afterwards, he looked behind him incredulously.

He was not alone, though. Everyone was staring blankly and looking behind him.

Even Bladevessel, who was flying in the air, could hardly believe his eyes as he looked into the azure light.

To everyone’s shock, a shadow walked out from the sky of light.

The figure wasn’t injured, but rather in perfect condition! Not one wound was present on his entire body! He was dripping with blood… but this couldn’t be considered a fatal injury! It was to the extent that this was battle strength!

Xu Yangyi’s chest heaved up and down like a bellows as he endured the pain of what was like a knife scraping through his entire body. He licked the corner of his mouth and silently beckoned at Floatingcloud.

Come on.

Face death.

“How is this possible?!?!?!” Even Floatingcloud cried out in great alarm. Not to speak of Xu Yangyi, but even Sunnihilator wouldn’t be able to welcome his move! He exceeded the other by a minor boundary, and the disparity between pure spiritual force wasn’t exactly so simple!

This gap was at least threefold… even five to six times greater… all the way up to a dozen times greater!

Yet Xu Yangyi had survived!

“Impossible!!!” Bladevessel also cried out in surprise. “How… a Great Circle’s strongest move didn’t kill a middle-stage?!”

“Huff…” The puppet was completely floored, the golden light in its eyes wandering about. “This is practically… unimaginable!!!”

Floatingcloud observed Xu Yangyi for three seconds and then shivered slightly. Unexpectedly, he took a step back!

The late stage… of Foundation Establishment!

In the moment Xu Yangyi emerged, he was actually late Foundation Establishment!

“He advanced?” Everything before his eyes was too unbelievable, making Floatingcloud feel that it wasn’t real. “An advancement… in my Crane Dances, Cloud Flies?”

This was no advancement.

On the contrary… Xu Yangyi had taken the Qi Explosion Pill!

Only because of the Azurecloud Seed’s disruption and the Qi Explosion Pill’s advancement had he managed to survive Floatingcloud’s divine ability. Furthermore, he had battle strength spare!

The first card, a medicinal pill, had been drawn!

A truly unexpected event! [2]

The Qi Explosion Pill’s duration wasn’t long. Without a second word, he shot up like a monkey!

If he didn’t settle victory and defeat in this limited time, he would be the one to die!

Floatingcloud took a deep breath, and the look in his eyes was exchanged with graveness for the first time.

“I… didn’t expect that trash like you would actually be so troublesome. As expected… none of those able to come here are inexperienced.” Confronted with Xu Yangyi’s lightning-fast momentum, he seemed to never have heard of anything like this. He said in a plain voice. “Good, truly. Very good.”

“You have given me the opportunity to tear you apart with my bare hands.” His voice seemed calm, but the ice-cold killing intent within it, already at the peak of explosive rage, caused the bottom of everyone’s hearts to grow chilly.

The middle-aged Floatingcloud raised his hand, gripped the horsetail whisk on his back, and slowly drew it out. “This time, I will surely kill you… Did you know… that when a housefly is swatted, the intestines usually explode. Its death is exceptionally unsightly…”

“I will cut off your head… and watch you die! No! DIE!!!” As he said the last word, he screamed. His horsetail whisk shook, and a longsword was revealed within. Likewise, it transformed into white light and charged out!

He was impatient; he was thoroughly enraged!

A middle Foundation Establishment cultivator, an insignificant middle Foundation Establishment cultivator had now put him in a seriously difficult position! Once mounted, a tiger was hard to get off!

His strongest move hadn’t killed Xu Yangyi. Instead, it had caused the other to advance to the late stage! At such a critical juncture for him, Xu Yangyi was like a heel maggot, pursuing him relentlessly and unwilling to let go!

He was going to personally shred Xu Yangyi apart! He was going to cut Xu Yangyi’s entire body to pieces to vent his fury!

Without wasted words, Floatingcloud and Xu Yangyi’s figures swiftly clashed, the sole method to ensure each other’s demise. This was a destruction of the fleshly body! Sword-light brought forth a field of snowy shadows, and two blades flourished like two silver globes. The melodious jingle of bells echoed through space!

But in his fury, Floatingcloud hadn’t noticed that Xu Yangyi’s sword had already blackened completely.

Clang! Longswords crossed, an old man and young man glowering at each other. Their hair rose into the air. They were like demon-gods, even wishing to swallow and devour each other. Originally, Floatingcloud should’ve absolutely dominated. After all, he could borrow the Dream Walker’s divine ability to return to the true grandeur of Great Circle Foundation Establishment. However… the Great Circle was the late stage, and right now Xu Yangyi was also late stage!

Where one opportunity faded away in one place, another reared its head elsewhere, adding onto Floatingcloud’s multi-tasking between Xu Yangyi and the Dream Walker. In the blink of an eye, ten seconds passed. Victory and defeat couldn’t be discerned!

“This won’t do… this matter cannot go on like this!!!” As Floatingcloud was continuously interrupted, he fell into a state of disarray from both sides. He clearly understood this point. Twenty seconds passed, and the anger in his heart was already burning the heavens! In the same vein, impatience, nervousness, and tension were like raging tsunamis!

He couldn’t keep dragging this out!

In his spiritual sense, the Dream Walker’s counterattack was intensifying! If he couldn’t dispatch Xu Yangyi, then while he attended to one thing he would lose sight of the other. The two sides of a fish’s fin and a bear’s paw, defeat over Xu Yangyi and the Dream Walker, were both simultaneously wanted for, but in the end he would be the one to die!

Longsword sweeping out, Floatingcloud closed his eyes in the next second.

When he opened them again, two white lights shot out! They pierced through all fabrications!

Speed and power! Faster and faster!

In space, two longswords stirred the winds and clouds! Treasure swords were like twin rain-dragons, snowflakes shining upon hibiscuses. Radiant light fired through the world, and lightning soared but did not clash!

In the second bout of twenty seconds, Xu Yangyi had been continuously stabbed in his dantian, chest, and thighs. A disordered array of sword scars left half his body bloody.

In a discussion of strength, he definitely wasn’t Floatingcloud’s opponent.

Still, he didn’t retreat by half a step! He went up against Floatingcloud’s frantic offense and doggedly persevered!

Clang! Longswords locked together again. Xu Yangyi clenched his teeth, his persistent face separating from the swords to look at Floatingcloud’s already-bloodshot eyes. In the next second, their swords became like swallows and fluttered through the air again.

In his body, the majestic spiritual force of late Foundation Establishment caused him to even enjoy this moment of the heated battle. Between blade glints and sword shadows, each slash was infused with spiritual force. To truly delay was to instantly be an arm or leg scarce, to not even think of returning a move. The pair’s sword-light resembled the autumn gale sweeping away fallen leaves. In a sword, dozens of echoes rang out! Their speed was already close to that of sound!

The red of murder filled their eyes!

Clang clang clang! The sound of clashing swords mingled with their white-hot snarls. Ten seconds passed!

All of a sudden, Floatingcloud took his sword back, and his left hand formed a sword-seal.

“You are doomed to die…” His voice was shivering. The longer the fight dragged on, the greater the formless dread in his heart became. With these words, his movements weren’t fast but instead slow. In the air, he left behind countless afterimages. Gazed from afar, it was similar to the thousand-armed Guanyin wielding swords.

“Eighteen Swords of Pure Yang.”

Once these words were said, his face quickly flushed red, and his veins began popping and rupturing! Faint trickles of blood sprayed onto his face and chest.

This was an all-out move, a secret reserve divine ability!

“First Sword… Drunken Worship Of Peach Blossoms!”

Swoosh! Dozens of afterimages roamed the air! This sword left no mark, only a streak of white light! A sky of spiritual light swirled through the heavens!

1. So these two verses spoken by Floatingcloud are a couplet for the Chinese Spring Festival ceremony.

2. So I’m not sure if I got this one totally down-to-pat. I believe this particular phrase comes from a Chinese card game called “Fight the Landlord”. It’s “四個二”, meaning “Four Twos”. Apparently, this kind of hand is very unexpected in terms of probability and gameplay for some reason that I just don’t understand. Most likely because even drawing four twos in a card game is extremely hard.