"Can you beat him?" Li Qingxian asked Song Baige.
"Be serious. I’m just the imperial exam’s Runner-Up Scholar, not the Cyan Cloud Ranking’s runner-up. Besides, Literature Cultivators are all weak at the Lower Grades. Only when we reach the Middle-Upper Grades can we even compare to these Great Cultivators. There aren’t more than ten Seventh-Grade cultivators in the world who can stand against Bone Filth Child, and they’re basically all top-tier Great Cultivators from the major powers. Let me put it this way: if we were just sparring, he’d be worth about a hundred Lower-Grade cultivators. If he fought to the death, he’d be equivalent to a thousand. If he decided to take us all down with him, not a single one of our six thousand-plus Lower-Grade cultivators would probably survive."
"He’s that strong? No way."
"How else do you think they become Great Cultivators, invincible within their own grade?"
"What about the Great Cultivators on our side?"
Song Baige said helplessly, "The Great Cultivators of Literature Cultivation are all Middle Grade or even Upper Grade. Right now, the greatest Literature Cultivator is the current Chief Minister, Zhao Yishan, who is invincible at the First Grade. The Great Cultivators from other powers aren’t participating in this attack. Who knew the Demon Sect would actually dispatch a Great Cultivator? Still, I suspect he wasn’t sent by the Demon Sect. He probably saw how miserable the Ministry of Justice looked and just happened to be nearby, so he decided to step up for the Demon Sect’s sake."
"He’s not going to choose mutual destruction. If we really fight, our chances of winning are high," Li Qingxian said.
Song Baige said, "I have a feeling that since he’s gotten involved, someone’s going to have a bad day."
The moment Song Baige finished speaking, Bone Filth Child surveyed his surroundings. His eyeballs, glowing with green, ring-like light, slowly rotated, looking extraordinarily strange.
"Who is Li Qingxian, and who wants to trample the Demon Sect?" Bone Filth Child spoke, his chrysanthemum-like mouth writhing back and forth. Not a single tooth could be seen inside, only thin, cartilaginous tentacles that made him look inhuman.
Every word he uttered was accompanied by a hissing sound, as if tentacles were scraping against the listener’s eardrums along with his voice.
The surrounding crowd looked toward Li Qingxian.
Li Qingxian looked left and right, then asked in feigned surprise, "Where’s Li Qingxian? He was just here a moment ago. Strange. Too bad everyone’s masked, can’t find him."
Song Baige grinned broadly.
Bone Filth Child looked in Li Qingxian’s direction, his gaze landing on the Qi Fortune Battle Armor.
’I was careless,’ Li Qingxian thought. ’In future battles, I must wear a set of normal clothes over this.’
Bone Filth Child said, "Since this matter started because of you, do you dare to fight me to settle your grudge with the Ministry of Justice?"
"Did you get promoted to Eyeless? Can’t you see I’m only Qi Fortune Seventh Grade, but actually Eighth Grade?" Li Qingxian retorted.
Bone Filth Child’s skin was extremely pale and his face smooth. He showed no joy or anger as his lips writhed. "Since you are Eighth Grade, you will receive three of my moves."
Song Baige laughed. "In that case, why don’t you go to the Zhao Mansion right now and try to receive one move from Lord Zhao Yishan? You’d be more than True Martial then. You people from the Evil Demon Sect kill as easily as you eat and drink, so what are you doing talking about martial honor? Aren’t you ashamed?"
Bone Filth Child just stared at Li Qingxian and said, "What will you do?"
Li Qingxian thought for a moment and said, "I hear you cultivate both Evil and Demon paths, and your body is exceptionally strong. How about this: you take one of my Thunder Skills. If you can take it head-on without using any external power like Magic, True Essence, or anything else, then no matter what happens, I’ll turn and leave. If you use any power besides your physical body—like a Divine Gift, Magic, a Cultivation Technique, anything at all—then you turn and leave. How about it?"
"Agreed," Bone Filth Child immediately replied.
Song Baige frantically signaled to Li Qingxian with his eyes.
The crowd looked at Li Qingxian, frowning slightly. Most of them thought Li Qingxian was being arrogant.
His opponent was a Sincere Evil Demon Child, after all.
"Is it okay if I set up an altar to perform a small ritual? Just to add a little bit of power," Li Qingxian asked.
"Go ahead," Bone Filth Child said, his expression still indifferent.
Song Baige looked at Li Qingxian suspiciously, smelling a plot in the air.
With a flick of his right hand, Li Qingxian summoned a Daoist Cultivation Desk, covered with numerous ordinary Magical Artifacts.
Then, Li Qingxian set out a Jade Platform and placed the spirit tablet of the Yuqing True King upon it.
Li Qingxian first chanted the Void Walking Words praising the Yuqing True King. He performed no other rites, merely reciting the Curse Technique he had obtained from the two Eighth-Grade Warriors.
"Yuqing Great True King, your immortal name shakes the eight directions! You shatter mountains and topple peaks, your might awes the celestial vault. Duke Lei leads a thousand divisions, Dianmu wields ten thousand energies. Slay the wicked and the foul, send them back to the Emperor’s Village..."
The instant Li Qingxian uttered the two words "Emperor’s Village," thunderclouds instantly gathered tens of thousands of miles high in the sky.
A thousand layers of black clouds, ten thousand banners of war, pressed down from above like a mountain range.
In the distance, the Upper-Grade Experts from various factions who were observing the fight heard the words "Emperor’s Village." Some were puzzled, while others’ faces changed.
Some of the Daoist Sect experts showed looks of delight.
Bone Filth Child furrowed his hairless brow slightly, looking up at the sky as the green rings in his eyes spun rapidly.
As Li Qingxian reached the end of the chant, a gale erupted around him, whipping his clothes about. Thunderbolt flashed in his eyes, and slivers of lightning flowed backward from his eye sockets.
He suddenly spun around, formed a sword with two fingers of his right hand, and pointed at Bone Filth Child.
"...Emperor’s Finger God, annihilate all in your path!"
BOOM!
Myriad thunderbolts crashed down, a vast and mighty torrent like the celestial river descending, filling the sky above the Divine Capital.
As they neared the Ministry of Justice, they miraculously shrank, finally converging on the tips of Li Qingxian’s right fingers.
"Go!"
The Emperor’s Finger Divine Curse was complete.
Behind Li Qingxian, the image of a mountain peak appeared, wreathed in clouds and mist. Its beginning and end were unseen. It looked like a mountain, yet also like the corner of a giant city, or even the spine of a giant.
The crowd saw only an immeasurable torrent of lightning erupt from Li Qingxian’s hand.
Where the lightning passed, all was silent.
A body of pure white thunder, wreathed in cyan and violet lightning, filled the entire White Realm.
Before the eyes of the crowd, everything turned a vast, blinding white.
At the same moment Li Qingxian struck, Bone Filth Child took a long look at the thunder-wreathed youth, let out a long sigh, and a ring-shaped pool of black sludge materialized at his feet. Beneath the black pool, the sludge writhed.
Bone Filth Child raised his right arm. The bone spurs on his head shot out, twisting and intertwining to form a massive, sharp cone that stabbed toward the thunderbolt.
At the same time, the fleshy membrane over his right fingernails peeled back, and countless miniature humans made of sludge began to climb out of the void, converging into a black, sludgy crowd that surged toward the thunderbolt.
Finally, he opened his mouth, and countless transparent tentacles surged forth. The moment they left his mouth, they turned black, like gigantic octopus tentacles coated in sludge, madly multiplying, thickening, and growing.
Where Li Qingxian stood, the Divine Thunder illuminated the White Realm.
Where Bone Filth Child stood, black mud devoured the Ten Directions.
BOOM!
The thunderbolt and the Evil Demon Power collided, stirring up a thousand layers of Divine Light. The Divine Light suddenly expanded, exploding with a gray Qi Force that filled the sky with dust.
A fierce wind swept through, sending sand and stones flying. The crowd shielded their faces and retreated.
Both of them flew backward, crashing into the crowds behind them.
A pit several dozen feet wide appeared in the ground, filled with swirling dust.
"Are you okay?" Song Baige asked, helping Li Qingxian up.
Li Qingxian’s face was deathly pale. "I was careless," he said. "I didn’t expect this Daoist Magic to be so powerful. It drained not just my Magical Power, but my brain, too."
"Good, let it drain. You’re a mere Eighth Grade daring to use an Emperor’s Village Technique. It wouldn’t matter how much brain you had," Song Baige said.
Li Qingxian looked ahead and saw Bone Filth Child, charred black from head to toe, slowly getting to his feet. The eerie green rings in his eyes were cracked. He glanced at Li Qingxian, then turned and disappeared into the night.
Li Qingxian grinned at Song Baige. "Do I have what it takes to be a Great Cultivator?"
"You do. You’re just brainless and have a death wish," Song Baige said, rolling his eyes at Li Qingxian.
Li Qingxian coughed twice, then shouted, "I, Li Qingxian, have challenged a Sincere Evil Demon Child today! Do you all dare to break through the Nine Palaces of the Ministry of Justice and demand an answer from them?"
"Fuck the Ministry of Justice!" Zheng Gaojue howled.
"Fuck the Ministry of Justice!"
"Break through the Nine Palaces!"
"Li Qingxian overpowered an Evil Demon Child! How can we back down?"