The Path of the Martial Arts BOSS
Chapter 244 - 56: The Mysterious Black True Qi (Advance Access with Recommendation Tickets)

Chapter 244: Chapter 56: The Mysterious Black True Qi (Advance Access with Recommendation Tickets)

Upon hearing Yuan Jianyi’s words, a glimmer of realization shone in Zhang Yangde’s eyes, and his mouth opened as if to speak.

But before the words could leave his lips, he had already taken his last breath.

His lungs and heart had been pierced by Sword Qi like a honeycomb; how could he still manage to speak? The fact that he was briefly able to hear Yuan Jianyi’s words was already a testament to his astonishing Life Force.

After Zhang Yangde breathed his last and fell to the ground, his True Qi did not dissipate. Instead, it surged once more, enveloping his body and drawing astonished glances from Qing Yu and the others.

A person’s death is like the extinguishing of a light, they thought. Once a person is dead, how can their True Qi remain active? True Qi is formed by the merging of Inner Strength and Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi, and Inner Strength comes from the process of Refining Essence and Transforming Qi. Once a person dies, their Essence Qi dissipates.

Even if there were any remaining True Qi, it would quickly disperse and turn into Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi.

Therefore, this black True Qi suffusing Zhang Yangde was extremely unusual.

"Sssss—" The sound of something akin to sulfuric acid corroding an object kept emanating. Zhang Yangde’s body visibly disappeared at a visible pace, and the volume of the black True Qi was noticeably increasing.

"This... this True Qi... is alive..." Bie Pengyue stuttered, pointing at the black True Qi and shivering as he spoke.

Yes, from the current situation, this black True Qi seemed like a living entity, and furthermore, a man-eating one. Zhang Yangde’s body was consumed and digested by it, growing in mass.

"What exactly is going on at Dragon Tiger Mountain..." Qing Yu could hardly believe what he was witnessing and sighed incredulously.

It was hard to imagine that such man-eating, strange True Qi would appear in a disciple of Dragon Tiger Mountain, which was the foremost among the Taoist sects. And from what Qiao Baixuan had said earlier, Zhang Yangde was not an isolated case.

It was not that Zhang Yangde harbored any malevolent intentions or had strayed into an evil path; rather, there were others like him within Dragon Tiger Mountain itself, hidden away from the world.

After observing for a moment, Yuan Jianyi suddenly released a stream of Sword Qi, aimed at the slowly writhing black True Qi that was covering Zhang Yangde’s corpse.

The sharp Sword Qi shot a hole into the black True Qi, but it was quickly filled in.

It wasn’t that Yuan Jianyi’s Sword Qi was ineffective; rather, his Sword Qi was too condensed and solid, unsuitable for eradicating this widely spread black True Qi.

"I’ll handle it."

Qing Yu raised his hand and channeled his energy. The ’Fire of Ignorance’ ignited in the air, invisible in form and color, yet one could acutely feel the sudden rise in temperature.

The ’Fire of Ignorance’ entirely enveloped the black True Qi, not leaving any gaps. Under the intense heat, countless ghostly faces within the black True Qi seemed to painfully wail, as if in agony.

This scene made Bie Pengyue standing by even more hair-raisingly terrified, and he looked away.

Qing Yu and Yuan Jianyi, however, remained composed, continuously watching. It could be anticipated that this kind of black True Qi might appear again in the future, so observing its characteristics now would help them find a way to deal with it later.

Quickly, the black True Qi was completely incinerated by Qing Yu’s ’Fire of Ignorance’. Only the remains of Zhang Yangde were left on the spot, which Qing Yu also burned into ash to prevent any possible remnants.

"Now that I think about it, I understand why Brother Yuan said Zhang Yangde’s True Qi wasn’t cultivated by himself," Qing Yu remarked.

Such active True Qi—had Zhang Yangde been capable of cultivating it himself, he wouldn’t have died at the hands of Yuan Jianyi.

Thinking it over, the volume of Zhang Yangde’s True Qi and the intelligence of its manifestation could now be explained. Why a Martial Artist of the Innate Realm would have such bizarre attributes, it all boiled down to this black True Qi.

"I have a more sensitive perception," Yuan Jianyi stated succinctly.

At this time, the spinning of the Shaking Light Stone Room finally stopped, and the Stone Gate rose, revealing the passageway beyond.

And in the corridor they had just passed through, a group of disciples from the Sword Palace had also poured in.

Yuan Jianyi had found and joined the other disciples through the Sword Heart Stone before he looked for Bie Pengyue, the last one who was alone.

Earlier, by cutting open the stone wall and entering the Shaking Light Stone Room, the other Sword Palace disciples hadn’t entered it until now, when they finally joined Yuan Jianyi.

One of the disciples, with a sharp eye, spotted fragments of an iron sword on the ground and then...

He skillfully took out an identical iron sword from the rectangular wooden box on his back and handed it to Yuan Jianyi. After swinging the sword a few times to get used to it, Yuan Jianyi sheathed it in the previous iron sword’s scabbard.

This scene caused a slight twitch in the corner of Qing Yu’s eyes.

"Now that everyone has arrived, let’s set off for the Ziwei Constellation," said Qing Yu.

The pathway to the Ziwei Constellation was the same path that Qiao Baixuan had escaped through, still marked with his fallen blood droplets. Not only had he been vigilant about the direction of the pathway during the intense fight, but he had also remembered the exact location of the passage to the Ziwei Constellation.

This discovery deepened Qing Yu’s wariness of Qiao Baixuan by another layer.

Shortly after Qing Yu and the Sword Palace party left, another group stepped into the Shaking Light Stone Room.

The Stone Gate descended, and the Stone Chamber began to rotate slowly.

The newcomers gasped at the two openings in the stone wall, utterly shocked.

It should be known that to exit the stone chamber as quickly as possible, it wasn’t that no one had thought of breaking through the stone wall directly. However, the hardness of the stone wall exceeded their imagination. With their power, although they could break the wall, it would take a considerable amount of time and True Qi.

In these ruins, where many bodies had already fallen, rashly expending True Qi was not a wise move. Moreover, the time it would take them to break through the stone wall would be enough for the chamber with insufficient rotational degree to stop once more.

"The cuts are neat and smooth; it must be Yuan Jianyi," said Bu Lengchuan as he touched the hole Yuan Jianyi had cut to enter the chamber.

Luo Yan stood on the other side, observing the hole that Qiao Baixuan had broken, "The hole on my side seems to have been shattered with extreme Hand Power."

Moreover, a big battle seems to have erupted in the chamber. These people were all killed by a single sword strike, swiftly and cleanly, but from the look of the wounds, it doesn’t seem like Yuan Jianyi’s Sword Qi. This swordsmanship reminds me of Li Qiuran’s death yesterday," said Zhu Kong from Luo Fu Mountain, rising from a pile of bodies in the center of the Stone Chamber.

The manner of these people’s deaths was truly fearsome; the killer dispatched them as easily as if slaughtering chickens.

If Qing Yu had known the situation here, he would have been surprised.

Not because Luo Yan and the others had figured out the origins of these traces but because of their alliance.

Six Gates and Luo Fu Mountain, along with one from the Zhenwu Sect, had actually joined forces.

"Luo Yan, do you know which direction they headed?" Bu Lengchuan asked.

Luo Yan tilted his head to use the "Wind Listening Technique" and, after a brief distinction, pointed in the direction Qing Yu and the others had left.

All along the way, they had relied on Luo Yan’s "Wind Listening Technique" to navigate accurately to the Shaking Light Stone Room. Without the assistance of the "Wind Listening Technique," the other forces were still stumbling around the maze.

After indicating the direction, everyone present took a deep breath to ease the pressure in their hearts. They knew that they were about to encounter several formidable monsters directly and, if they weren’t careful, they might end up as corpses just like these.

"If everyone’s ready, then let’s go."

With that, Luo Yan took the lead and walked into the passage through the hole Qiao Baixuan had created. The others followed close behind.