A Pawn's Passage

Chapter 1365: Qi Xuansu’s Fist

Qi Xuansu’s intervention came at the perfect moment, when Huangfu Ji had just lost the use of one arm.

Huangfu Ji was a ruthless and decisive man. He ignored his injuries and stepped forward again. With only one arm remaining, he grabbed Hun Chowen’s wrist and twisted it, locking the man in place.

Unless Hun Chowen chose to sever his own wrist immediately, he could not break free. After all, Huangfu Ji was still a Pseudo-Immortal.

Unable to evade, Hun Chowen was pierced through the heart from behind by Qi Xuansu’s sword.

Though Hun Chowen was a Pseudo-Immortal Martial Arts Practitioner, Qi Xuansu’s incarnation was also at that level, and he wielded the exceptionally rare semi-immortal object, Green Cloud. Strictly speaking, Green Cloud was half of a true immortal object, so in terms of quality, it was essentially an immortal object.

Gravely wounded, Hun Chowen roared in fury and altered his form. His wrist became like a snake, slipping free from Huangfu Ji’s grip. Then, he punched Huangfu Ji, forcing him back so that he could lunge forward and pull himself free from the sword lodged in his chest.

Hun Chowen spun around swiftly and punched toward Qi Xuansu, unleashing a roar that could collapse mountains. The sheer force of the blow cleared all elemental energy between them, leaving a void.

Qi Xuansu did not meet it head-on. Instead, he drifted backward.

Pressing the advantage, Hun Chowen charged like lightning, leaving a trail of afterimages behind him. He quickly closed the distance with Qi Xuansu and struck straight at his face.

Qi Xuansu held his sword horizontally to block at the critical moment, yet Hun Chowen’s strength was terrifying, forcing Qi Xuansu to drift back over 30 meters in a single breath, seemingly unable to counter.

Hun Chowen pursued like a shadow, his barrage of punches relentless, producing countless afterimages that instantly engulfed Qi Xuansu.

Qi Xuansu retreated, each step leaving behind spiderweb-like cracks. Small stones on the ground trembled and bounced, like a precursor to an earthquake.

Hun Chowen’s continuous punches left marks of varying depth on Qi Xuansu’s body. Each mark contained heavy fist intention, suppressed but not released. As they accumulated, these fist intentions weighed down on Qi Xuansu like a mountain, waiting for the right moment to erupt as the final crushing blow.

Over the span of a few minutes, Hun Chowen threw more than a thousand punches. Qi Xuansu’s body bore over a thousand nearly invisible marks and was burdened by the weight of a mountain.

Hun Chowen unleashed his final punch, simultaneously detonating all the accumulated fist intentions within Qi Xuansu, causing them to explode at once.

Qi Xuansu was blasted away, shooting toward the palace walls like a meteor. He smashed straight through the walls, causing violent tremors as dust billowed from the cracks.

He was sent flying out of the palace district.

Hun Chowen followed with brute force, crashing through the wall in pursuit.

Qi Xuansu slashed out a wave of sword qi.

Hun Chowen crushed the sword qi with his left hand and struck with his right fist. Space itself trembled and distorted. This was the Martial Arts Practitioner’s Shattered Void Realm.

Qi Xuansu’s form twisted instantly, like a stone disturbing the reflection of the moon in water.

However, Qi Xuansu was merely an incarnation. Unless completely destroyed, such attacks only drained divine power and caused no permanent damage.

Hun Chowen fared even worse. Qi Xuansu also struck with a void-shattering punch. Despite Hun Chowen’s powerful physique, blood seeped from his nose, mouth, ears, and eyes, even oozing from his pores.

More critically, Qi Xuansu’s earlier heart-piercing strike had done a number on Hun Chowen. The void-shattering punch then worsened Hun Chowen’s injuries, shattering his heart completely.

Though it was not fatal, it was devastating.

A Martial Arts Practitioner’s foundation lay in their blood qi, and the heart was the core of its circulation.

Great Sage Lan and Wu Guangbi had their hearts shattered before, but as Qi Refiners, the impact on them was far less severe than for a Martial Arts Practitioner.

Moreover, Great Sage Lan was an Immortal, so they were hardly comparable.

The greatest advantage of a Liberation Incarnation was the absence of fatal weaknesses. Injuries would not impair its performance. If subjected to overwhelming force or excessive depletion, it would simply collapse and dissipate. Before that point, it had no intermediate weakened state, much like a Spiritual Body. Yet because it was anchored by an external object, it was not purely illusory and was not suppressed by Martial Arts Practitioners.

Thus, Qi Xuansu was not greatly affected. Only his divine power was consumed. For ordinary people, this would be a serious issue, as it was practically burning money. But the Daoist Order was wealthy, allowing such operational costs to be reimbursed, so Qi Xuansu felt no concern.

Qi Xuansu immediately shifted from defense to offense.

In the blink of an eye, they exchanged over a dozen moves.

Now Hun Chowen found himself in the same predicament Huangfu Ji had faced. His injuries prevented him from unleashing his full strength.

Qi Xuansu gained the upper hand, striking Hun Chowen’s chest with a punch that ignited demonic fire at the point of impact.

Rippling shockwaves spread outward in all directions, sending sand and stones flying across the ground.

Enduring the searing demonic fire, Hun Chowen swung back with a punch toward Qi Xuansu.

Qi Xuansu was blasted sideways. Another section of the already broken city wall shattered with a deafening crash, as if cleaved in half.

Amid the billowing dust, Qi Xuansu slowly stood up, showing no signs of disarray.

Pressing his advantage, Hun Chowen rushed forward. But this time, he failed to land a strike because he was blocked by Qi Xuansu’s outstretched hand. Instead, he was sent flying backward, crashing to the ground in a cloud of dust.

Their exchange resembled two ancient beasts locked in brutal combat. It was overwhelming in presence and extremely destructive.

Qi Xuansu stepped forward, stamping a deep crater several meters wide into the ground. Using that force, he lunged forward and struck directly at Hun Chowen’s face.

Though Hun Chowen was massive in size, his agility was unaffected. Crossing his arms, he shielded his face and barely blocked the punch at the critical moment.

Yet the force of Qi Xuansu’s punch far exceeded his expectations. Though he remained standing, Hun Chowen was driven back dozens of meters, unable to counter.

Along his path of retreat, numerous buildings were flattened, and dust surged upward.

Qi Xuansu closed in instantly. Having abandoned his sword at some point, he was now fighting solely with his fists.

Hun Chowen did not yield, meeting him head-on.

Each clash caused the ground to quake violently, with fine cracks spreading like snakes.

After hundreds of exchanged blows, Qi Xuansu appeared to falter, needing a moment to catch his breath. That brief pause gave Hun Chowen an opening.

Delighted, Hun Chowen unleashed a full-force punch. All his remaining body spirits struck simultaneously, with a force capable of moving mountains.

Qi Xuansu was sent flying backward, crashing to the ground 30 meters away. His body bounced and skidded uncontrollably across the ground before slamming into a pile of ruins, dust filling the sky.

The sound reverberated violently, enough to shatter one’s heart.

After that punch, Hun Chowen still maintained his Manly Immortal True Form, yet he instinctively pressed a hand to his chest.

His heart had been shattered, causing damage to his body spirits and acupoints. These were impossible to recover from in a short time.

With the body spirits of his heart destroyed, his body was no longer that indestructible, greatly reducing its effectiveness.

He knew full well that this single punch alone would not be enough to deal with Qi Xuansu.

Sure enough, after a brief silence, the ruins burst apart.

Qi Xuansu rose again from the rubble, revealing his Great Witch True Form. Its imposing aura surpassed even Hun Chowen’s Manly Immortal True Form. A fist mark about 10 centimeters deep had dented his chest in a horrifying way, as if a massive boulder had crushed him.

Hun Chowen prepared to repeat his tactic, intending to detonate the accumulated fist intention once more.

However, Qi Xuansu was already prepared. The fist mark faded rapidly, disappearing before it could be triggered. His sunken chest restored itself, demonstrating the impeccable regenerative power of his Liberation Incarnation.

Qi Xuansu leaped upward, then stomped down from above. It was a step that could shatter mountains and split stone.

Hun Chowen crossed his arms above his head to block the kick.

He was driven into the ground, his lower body sinking deep into the earth.

Qi Xuansu followed with a forward kick, sending Hun Chowen sliding backward, his embedded lower body carving a trench several meters long.

With an angry roar, Hun Chowen leaped out of the trench and landed back on solid ground.

Qi Xuansu struck again with a punch, exploding like thunder.

Each blow rang out like a resounding bell.

Hun Chowen struggled to withstand Qi Xuansu’s increasingly powerful assault, retreating step by step as his aura wavered. His Manly Immortal True Form was riddled with dents from punches.

Like a shadow, Qi Xuansu followed relentlessly, throwing another punch straight toward Hun Chowen’s face.

Hun Chowen was immediately lifted off the ground, but before he could land, Qi Xuansu slammed into him with a brutal shoulder strike. At this time, Hun Chowen hovered strangely in midair, trembling uncontrollably.

But Qi Xuansu did not stop. He pressed forward, continuing to throw punches and forcing Hun Chowen to retreat again and again.

Dust swirled everywhere. Qi Xuansu’s punches using the Tantai Fist Intention were so fast that only a trail of afterimages could be seen.

Hun Chowen gradually lost all ability to counterattack and could only endure the blows passively.

After accumulating enough fist intention within Hun Chowen’s body, Qi Xuansu unleashed a final punch that detonated all of it at once.

Hun Chowen’s Manly Immortal True Form exploded, flesh and blood scattering in all directions. He reverted to his original form and fell to one knee, mangled and completely soaked in blood.