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Chapter 97: Yin Blood Qi

“You’re also smarter than you look. It’s too bad the answer isn’t going to help you one bit!” Qing Kui sneered, and the frosty blood on the ground abruptly lifted into the air and transformed into a swarm of hissing snakes. Ye Qing had no doubt they would rip him and Tao Xian into pieces if given the chance to do so.

“You should go!” Ye Qing slapped Tao Xian on the chest. The gentle force didn’t just push him out of the frosty blood’s range, it also dissolved the yin energy stifling his limbs and restoring control to his body.

After Tao Xian was out of danger, he immediately turned tail and ran like the wind. “Hang on, boss! I’ll call for help immediately!”

“...”

You know, I thought the underlings should be the ones throwing themselves against formidable enemies while I, the boss, shoot orders from the backline. So why is the opposite happening here?

“Your underling has abandoned you, brat. If you surrender now, I might yet change my mind about torturing you and making you wish you were dead!” Qing Kui couldn’t care less about Tao Xian escaping because there was no one he could call that could pose a real threat against him, and by the time he mustered enough men he would’ve killed Ye Qing and left the place a long time ago.

“Thanks, but no thanks!” Ye Qing jolted back to reality and replied. He could daydream after he had beaten the assassin. Staring at the snake swarm in front of him, he curled his fingers and somehow caused the blood to drain away from their bodies, leaving behind only icy frost. When the snakes were about three inches away from him, they abruptly shattered into pieces as if they had completely expended their energy and could not maintain their form any longer.

“How did you…?” Qing Kui’s smile morphed into shock and confusion when he saw this. He had no idea how Ye Qing had done it, but he had suddenly lost control of his bloody snakes when they were less than a second away from skewering the young man.

The battle was just starting though. Qing Kui’s palm and the surrounding air abruptly turned blood red like an inferno. Then, he unleashed a palm strike that was far, far more powerful than the one he attempted to kill Tao Xian with earlier.

The bloody palm flying toward Ye Qing looked as picturesque as a painting, but it came at the cost of everything around it. The ground, the plants, and even the fake mountains some thirty meters away from the attack were covered in sheen of red frost. It slowly ate away at their form until nothing was left behind.

“Yin Blood Hand”

The “Yin Blood Hand” was Qing Kui’s signature move. He cultivated a cultivation art called the “Yin Blood Qi Scripture”, and it transformed his true qi into an insidious, brutal astral qi called the Yin Blood Qi.

It bore repeating that Yin Blood Qi was an exceptionally insidious and brutal astral qi. Not only was it cold enough to freeze a person’s blood and inflict frostbite damage, it could invade a person’s body to corrupt their vigor and melt their innards without a trace. At a certain level, the astral qi could even influence a person’s mind without them noticing.

The “Yin Blood Qi Scripture” came together with a palm art known as the “Yin Blood Hand”. It was a martial art made to maximize the Yin Blood Qi’s potential. Ideally, the “Yin Blood Hand” could freeze everything and melt all flesh and blood into goo in one palm strike. It was incredibly deadly to put it mildly.

Of course, Qing Kui hadn’t gone all out. He didn’t want to kill Ye Qing until he had obtained the painting after all. Even so, he was confident that the palm strike would hurt Ye Qing enough to incapacitate him.

On the other side, Ye Qing stood frozen in place like someone who had lost all will to resist. However, right before the bloody palm would land, Qing Kui’s hair abruptly stood on end not unlike a mouse who was cornered by a cat. It was at this moment Ye Qing opened his mouth and sucked the bloody palm and the bloody air around it into his stomach!

“Not bad, not bad! It’s kinda like eating a super hot pepper, but cold!” Ye Qing smirked while licking his lips.

Qing Kui wasn’t expecting this at all, but he did not hesitate to rush forward and point his finger at Ye Qing. Bloody energy streamed out of his fingertip like light beams and threatened to turn the body part he was aiming at into goo. He was aiming at Ye Qing’s major points too, meaning that the young man would be crippled if even one of the attacks hit.

“Melting Finger”

However, Ye Qing was able to duck and weave through the assault like a cloud dancing in the wind. No matter how close the Melting Finger came to hitting him, it was never actually close enough to deal any sort of damage. When he had dodged the final attack, Ye Qing abruptly disappeared and reappeared behind Qing Kui.

“Flowing Cloud, Flying Sleeve”

Qing Kui was both shocked and furious when he sensed the attack. His senses told him that Ye Qing was just a late-stage Vessel Augmentor, and yet the tidal wave of force rushing toward his back was on par—no, greater than what he could muster, an Astral Refiner! This wasn’t possible unless…

Did he achieve perfect augmentation!? The possibility entered Qing Kui’s mind. Only a Vessel Augmentor who had augmented all twelve Standard Meridians, eight Extraordinary Meridians, and three hundred and sixty points could possess such a tremendous amount of true qi!

But this is Anyang! What is a perfect Vessel Augmentor doing in a backwater county like this?

It was no wonder that Qing Kui was confused. He was a member of a powerful faction, but even he had only augmented twelve Standard Meridians, six Extraordinary Meridians, and three hundred points in his body.

There’s no way this can be true. I have to be mistaken… right?

By now, Ye Qing’s attack was less than a second away from hitting his back. Not daring to treat it lightly or conserve his strength, he channeled his Yin Blood Qi to the max and manifested what looked like a blood red moon from his body.

Boom!

The red globe of astral qi was so thick it was almost tangible, but Ye Qing’s attack had smashed through it like a tsunami crashing through a building. If Qing Kui wasn’t sure before, he now knew with absolute certainty that Ye Qing’s reservoir of true qi was much bigger than him.

Qing Kui staggered forward uncontrollably and had to catch himself. Although his makeshift shield managed to block off most of the attack, he still felt like cracks were forming across his innards. However, his pain was quickly overwhelmed by a greater shock when he saw Ye Qing clenching his hand and pulling all the blood in the air toward him. They converged just above his palm and formed a small globe of blood.

“Impossible… How are you controlling my Yin Blood Qi?” Qing Kui couldn’t help but blurt out in shock.

He could accept Ye Qing having a greater reservoir of true qi than him, an Astral Refiner. The guy was a perfect Vessel Augmentor after all. He could even accept that Ye Qing was resistant or immune to his Yin Blood Qi. He had fought against warriors whose martial art was the antithesis of his Yin Blood Qi and witnessed martial arts that were far stranger than his.

But how in the flying fuck was the young man controlling his Yin Blood Qi like he was the true Astral Refiner here, not him? He had never seen anything like this despite his myriad life experiences, and he did not like it one bit because it meant that there was at least one factor in this battle that was completely out of his control.

Ye Qing squeezed the globe of blood in his hand a little. It was only as big as a walnut, but he could feel an unbelievable amount of energy in it. If he tossed it on the ground, he had no doubt that the resulting explosion would destroy at least half of the headquarters. It was a terrifying amount of power to say the least.

Astral qi was just so much more powerful than natural true qi, and this was especially true in Qing Kui’s case. Qing Kui had not ascended to the Astral Refinement stage by refining common astral qi such as Bing Fire or Gui Water. It was the strange and deadly Yin Blood Qi. If Ye Qing had been an ordinary late-stage Vessel Augmentor, he could’ve defeated him and killed him in just a matter of seconds.

Unfortunately for Qing Kui, the Yin Blood Qi was mainly a blood astral qi with a bit of yin element in it, and it just so happened that Ye Qing’s blood was the bane of all blood thanks to its devouring ability! In fact, his blood had been growing restless since Qing Kui had launched his first attack. He could tell that it wanted to devour the blood in the air to enrich itself.

This was why Ye Qing had chosen to stay behind and fight despite knowing that his enemy was an Astral Refiner. It was because he had a real shot at overcoming the gap between their cultivation level and killing Qing Kui. Otherwise, he would’ve run away a long time ago!

“I don’t know. Maybe your astral qi likes me more than it likes you?” Ye Qing joked while continuing to toy with the globe of blood.

“Is there no end to your shitty jokes, you bastard?” Qing Kui narrowed his eyes. Of course he didn’t believe Ye Qing’s nonsense, but until he figured out exactly why his opponent could steal away his Yin Blood Qi, he would be fighting at a disadvantage, and the thought that a Vessel Augmentor had any advantage over him at all irked him to no end.

Still, he needed to end this as soon as possible. If Ye Qing managed to drag out the fight long enough for reinforcements to show up, he would be in a lot of trouble not because they could threaten him, but because it would lead to the kind of consequences Xiao Yang had warned him about.

Also, he refused to believe that he, an Astral Refiner, could not squash a mere Vessel Augmentor.

“Don’t think you’ve won yet, brat. I’ll show you the true power of an Astral Refiner starting now!” Qing Kui declared when blood suddenly poured out of his eyes and trickled down his bronze mask. Then, strange patterns lit up across the surface of the mask and formed the lifelike image of a tiger as it absorbed the blood.

Rumble!

].

A terrific amount of fiendish energy gushed out of the bronze mask then. It was so thick that it shrouded the assassin like a fog.

“Kill! Kill! KILL!”

Ye Qing could vaguely hear the sound of hoofbeats, the clanging of metals, and battle cries from the fog-like energy. There were the sound of war drums and blowing horns as well. It was as if the two of them had been transported into a battlefield.

At the same time, a silhouette wearing a draconic armor and a bronze mask appeared behind Qing Kui. The mask looked exactly the same as the one Qing Kui was wearing. The silhouette also wielded a Green Dragon Crescent Blade.

“GRAH!”

The silhouette abruptly looked up and roared on top of his lungs, and the fiendish energy surrounding Qing Kui immediately flooded into the silhouette. His body kept growing more and more tangible until he almost looked like a real person; a real war general.

The general abruptly slammed the butt of his crescent blade against the ground, shattering it. He glared daggers at Ye Qing and roared again, “KILL!”

An unspeakable aura full of bloodthirst and violence washed out of the war general then. At that moment, Ye Qing had no doubt that whoever the war general in life was a mighty warrior who had fought a thousand battles, wade through mountains of corpses, and swam across seas of blood to become who he was. It was such a show of intimidation that even Ye Qing could barely keep his cool and stabilize his mind. A weaker man would’ve lost all will to fight after hearing that battle cry alone.

“KILL!”

Finally, the general grabbed his crescent blade with both hands and began his attack.

Rumble!

The general was a good distance away from Ye Qing, but when he swung his crescent blade diagonally across the air, a terrific crescent of death flew toward the young man with seemingly enough force to cut the heaven and the earth itself in half. At that moment, the world trembled, and all colors seemed to fade into nothing!

“Oh shit shit SHIT! I knew I shouldn’t have fooled around!” Ye Qing cried out in alarm while dashing sideways as quickly as he could. Every cell in his body was screaming that there was no chance in hell he could block the attack. The crescent blade was a true blade of war whose sole purpose in existence was to slay its enemies. The technique might seem insultingly basic—anyone who had reached the Vessel Augmentation stage could swing a weapon and shoot their true qi—but why would you need complexity when your attack was backed by overwhelming power?

It was as if the general’s violence, bloodthirst, aura and more had been molded together to create a pure instrument of murder. This one attack was worth thousands and thousands of attacks. Forget one Ye Qing, not even two Ye Qings might be enough to block the attack!

Ye Qing had launched into evasive maneuvers as soon as he saw the crescent of death flying toward him, but it chased after him like a homing missile and could not be shaken off no matter what he tried. Not only that, there was so much power behind the attack that it was crushing everything ahead of it before it even reached them. It cut through walls, structures and the earth beneath it like they didn’t even exist.

I can’t dodge this, the thought entered Ye Qing’s mind. But he had to, because every other option led to certain death. So, he pushed Blood Sea Fragrance to the utmost limit and danced all over the place as light as a feather and as quick as a lightning bolt. Not only that, he unleashed his spirit so he could locate the weakest spot in the air and minimize the air resistance he was enduring. Any speed he could squeeze out might just make the difference between life and death!

In Qing Kui’s eyes, Ye Qing was like a candle flame struggling to survive a raging storm. The wind was strong, and the downpour was so potent that it could have extinguished even a raging inferno, much less a pathetic candle flame. But no matter how fierce the storm raged, the candle refused to submit to fate and kept on burning. It never stopped emitting a warm light that valiantly pushed back against the darkness and despair closing in around it; a light that looked like hope itself!