Martial Cultivator

Before his words had even finished, that dharma idol several dozen feet tall stood upright within the Purple Qi Pavilion, propping up heaven and earth. It threw the purple-qi head in its hand, smashing it toward the other purple-qi daoists.

The dharma idol’s great hand swept out. Countless terrifying astral energies spilled from between its fingers, forming violent astral winds that tore apart the many daoists condensed from purple qi one by one. Those purple-qi daoists attempted to struggle, but before this astral wind, it was almost entirely futile.

Seeing this scene, Daoist Jadevoid widened his eyes, his face full of disbelief.

As a great daoist sage of Daoism, his eyesight was naturally sharp. He could clearly see that the dharma idol before him contained not the slightest trace of daoist techniques, it was merely a product of Chen Chao’s countless strands of qi condensed together. The more this was the case, the more unbelievable he found it.

If an ordinary martial artist could condense a saber or sword from the qi within his body, that would already be considered remarkable. A more powerful one might perhaps condense something else. But like Chen Chao, forcibly condensing a dharma idol from the qi within his body, and not a mere bluff, was truly rare in the world.

As that dharma idol casually shattered these purple-qi daoists, vast amounts of purple qi began to dissipate. Even the memorial tablets behind Daoist Jadevoid began to show numerous cracks.

Facing the nearly unstoppable might of this dharma idol, Daoist Jadevoid could only place his hopes on the purple lightning from the lightning pool above the sky curtain, hoping it could split this dharma idol apart.

Yet even as the purple lightning poured down from the sky curtain, an all-out strike from a powerhouse at the end of Nepenthe, the dharma idol remained unmoved. After shattering those purple-qi daoists, it raised its head and looked toward the sea of clouds, gave a slight smile, then heavily stamped one foot and used the momentum to soar into the air, smashing out of the Purple Qi Pavilion and charging toward the sky curtain.

Meanwhile, on the ground, Chen Chao merely reached out and gripped the hilt of his saber. In the end, he did not draw the blade Cloud Mud, but instead swept toward Daoist Jadevoid and delivered a punch, like sudden spring thunder erupting out of nowhere.

Daoist Jadevoid hurriedly formed a dao seal before him. It became an endlessly rotating Eight Trigrams diagram, its veins and lines clear.

Taichi and the Eight Trigrams are both totems of Daoism. Daoism has long spoken of one giving birth to two, two giving birth to three, and three giving birth to all things. It is said that in the beginning, the Dao Ancestor used Taichi to deduce numerous daoist techniques, and the Eight Trigrams diagram was the very essence of his lifetime of cultivation.

Daoist cultivators of later generations almost all sought to comprehend the Eight Trigrams diagram. The dao technique that Daoist Jadevoid was circulating at this moment had been refined from among the dao techniques passed down in the world by the founding ancestor of Purple Leaf Grotto. Later, his dao techniques were transmitted to his seated disciples, but only this one was passed to his final disciple, Daoist Jadevoid.

It must be known that in those years, Daoist Purple Leaf relied on this very daoist technique. In battle, he was almost always invincible, and it was praised as the strongest defensive method of the age.

Daoist Jadevoid had studied this daoist technique for several hundred years and could already be said to wield it with complete mastery.

At this moment, the Eight Trigrams diagram unfolded. Daoist Jadevoid took a deep breath and calmed considerably. Sun and moon revolved at his sides, strands of daoist qi spilling out, spreading here to prop open a not-so-large dao field.

In ancient texts, the term dao field referred to the place where true powerhouses cultivated, often an entire mountain or a cave dwelling. In the present age, few strong cultivators traveled alone. Instead, they chose to establish sects and widely accept disciples, so the term dao field gradually became almost synonymous with a sect.

But in truth, at the very beginning, the words dao field applied to all cultivators. Through cultivation, they could open up a space around themselves. Within that space, their own cultivation would be infinitely magnified, while enemies entering that space would be infinitely weakened.

Those truly great cultivators could extend their dao field to cover an entire mountain. That was the origin of the earliest usage of the term dao field.

At this moment, Chen Chao was instantly dragged into Daoist Jadevoid’s dao field. After stepping inside, Chen Chao looked at the Eight Trigrams diagram above in the sky curtain. Then, within the black and white, he saw Daoist Jadevoid and the enormous daoist phantom behind him.

Chen Chao narrowed his eyes. Earlier he had said that even if the Dao Ancestor came, it would only mean he needed to throw a few more punches. Now had the other party truly brought forth a Dao Ancestor?

Daoist Jadevoid was expressionless, dao qi constantly spilling from his body as he maintained the operation of this dao field.

This second-generation ancestor of Purple Leaf Grotto truly had some means. As the greatest foundation of Purple Leaf Grotto, he was indeed capable of resisting most cultivators in the world. Unfortunately, his luck was poor, today he had encountered Chen Chao, a martial artist who never walked the ordinary path.

This peerless martial artist took up a punching stance. Brilliant strands of qi flowed at his sides. Merely by once again drawing back into a posture to throw a punch, within the dao field before him, countless mountains and stones began to shatter. Along the single line in front of Chen Chao, it had almost already reached the state of total collapse.

With a slight stirring of thought from Daoist Jadevoid, a great mountain rose from flat ground. The daoist stood atop the mountain peak, looking down at the young martial artist before him, purple qi scattering within his eyes.

His snow-white daoist robe fluttered. From his great sleeves surged two purple pythons, rushing toward Chen Chao with extreme speed. The first purple python was directly shattered by a single punch from Chen Chao. Amid the sky filled with purple qi, the second purple python struck. Chen Chao leaped onto the python’s head and heavily stomped, crushing its skull.

Afterward, Chen Chao climbed upward along the massive body of the purple python. The purple qi beneath him constantly tried to entangle his body, but in the end it was torn apart by his astral energy. When Chen Chao reached midair, Daoist Jadevoid pulled forth a brilliant strand of purple qi out of thin air and smashed it toward Chen Chao.

Chen Chao narrowed his eyes. The Cloud Mud at his waist was drawn half an inch. In that instant, an incomparably vast saber qi surged forth, tyrannically shredding the purple qi before him.

The wound on Daoist Jadevoid’s forehead had long since scabbed over, but at this moment, for some unknown reason, it split open again. Blood dripped down from his brow. The youthful appearance of this daoist now began to grow wrinkles.

His head of black hair had already begun turning white at the roots.

Chen Chao had not yet reached the mountain peak and was obstructed for a moment by purple qi. When he attempted to advance again, above in the sky curtain, that phantom of the Dao Ancestor had already arrived above his head. With a great hand forming a dao seal, countless strands of daoist qi poured down like a sudden rainstorm.

For the sake of this moment, Daoist Jadevoid had even withdrawn the qi that maintained his appearance. This alone showed the resolve of this great daoist sage of Daoism.

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