Cultivation: I Can Traverse Otherworlds

"Sister."

His body trembled with excitement as he quickly rolled up the painting.

"Let’s go!"

"Leaving?"

An ice-cold voice rang out. A cold-faced man had appeared at the doorway, though no one knew when.

"This is the master’s restricted area. Entry without invitation is forbidden. You’ve trespassed, and now you think you can leave with that scroll?"

SHING!

The Longsword was drawn.

"Have you asked my sword?"

Before Feng Hongda could answer, the man lunged, his sword flashing as he aimed every strike for a vital point.

"Sister, get back into the painting, quick! I’ll deal with him."

Feng Hongda leaped back, ushering Feng Yue’er into the scroll, then blasted a palm strike at his opponent with a great wave of his hand.

*

*

*

The chaotic battle raged on.

Xing Suanzi held the Jile Spirit House aloft. A tide of countless Painted Skins and blank papers surged from it, crashing toward Ye Baici and her companions.

The Buddha’s Heart Lamp and the Painted Skin Puppets clashed relentlessly.

The two sides were at a stalemate.

Time...

...seemed to favor Xing Suanzi.

After all, the Jile Spirit House contained decades of his work, and was guarded by two Mage-level experts.

Meanwhile, Ye Baici and her companions had exhausted their techniques. Although they were holding their ground for now, the effects of the Ghost Gate Needles were limited.

Once their potential was exhausted,

it would be their doom!

But they had come prepared to die, so this desperate situation only made their attacks more ferocious.

Suddenly,

"Hmm?"

Xing Suanzi’s brow twitched, and he glanced behind him.

There, the already turbulent Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi had suddenly formed a vortex, consuming and expelling a massive amount of energy.

’This is...’

’The sign of a breakthrough to the Mage realm!’

Xing Suanzi’s heart sank.

’Isn’t that Zhu fellow already dead?’

He was sure he’d felt Zhu Ju’s aura vanish just moments ago.

...

「Amid the ruins.」

Zhu Ju’s eyes were tightly shut, his body covered in wounds. He looked like a corpse that had been dead for some time.

But between his eyebrows, something seemed to squirm beneath the skin. As time passed, a faint, almost imperceptible wisp of Spiritual Light quietly appeared.

Then, suddenly,

Zhu Ju’s eyes snapped open.

His head, protected by True Qi, was unharmed, but the clothes on his upper body were in tatters, revealing wounds so deep that bone was visible.

The grievous injuries and weakness of his body didn’t seem to affect him. His expression was calmer than ever, and a bright light shone from his profound eyes, illuminating his surroundings.

’The plan had been risky—to take the Tang Family Ancestor’s attack head-on, use its power to break open my Forehead Ancestral Acupoint, and then use the Hidden Element Technique to hide underground and achieve my breakthrough during the chaos.’

’But,’

’it had worked!’

With the Forehead Ancestral Acupoint open, Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi poured in, and Magical Power began to generate within his body.

A Mage!

A being who could command the Power of Heaven and Earth for their own use.

"A cold blade to the throat, yet spring suddenly blooms— / the plum blossom was in my heart all along."

"The living walk on snow to the underworld’s door, / while the dead, cloaked in sun, knock on the Ghost Gate!"

Zhu Ju rose to his full height. His Divine Soul pulsed with unprecedented activity, and the True Qi in his body had nearly doubled. As the Tang Family Ancestor charged him again, he casually raised a hand, unleashing a whistling Five Elements Palm Force.

The air on the battlefield suddenly went still.

The mindless Tang Family Ancestor snapped its head up, as if seeing a terrifying, colossal hand descend from the heavens with the power to suppress all of creation.

The Power of the Five Elements converged in the air.

Its might...

...was boundless!

BOOM!

The ground in a radius of dozens of feet caved in.

CRACKLE... SNAP...

The sound of shattering bones was like a string of firecrackers. The Tang Family Ancestor, brought back to "life" by the Puppet Creation Technique, was brutally crushed into a paste by that single palm strike.

"A Mage!"

"Innate?"

Without a glance at the corpse on the ground, Zhu Ju mused aloud, ’So-called True Qi and Magical Power are but two sides of the same coin, different paths to the same destination. There’s no real difference between them.’

’After his breakthrough,’

’he finally understood the distinction.’

’True Qi and Magical Power were, in essence, the same thing.’

’Magical Power is channeled through the Divine Soul, so its outward expression is more agile and precise. True Qi is primarily based on the Essence of one’s blood and flesh, making it comparatively more ferocious and aggressive.’

’There are differences.’

’But their essence is the same.’

’The Divine Soul can also channel True Qi, and True Qi can be used to cast Magic, though their power is somewhat diminished.’

’In other words,’

’having opened his Forehead Ancestral Acupoint, he could be considered a One-Acupoint Innate Qi Refiner. There would be no problem at all using the ’Magical Power’ in his body as Innate True Qi.’

"Xing Suanzi!"

Taking a step forward, Zhu Ju’s eyes narrowed. His gaze pierced through the dense fog, locking onto the figure within.

"It’s time we settled our accounts!"

"Face my blade!"

Second Form of the Ghost God Limit—Asking the Way in the Underworld!

In the moment between life and death, as he broke through to the Mage realm, Zhu Ju had naturally mastered this Saber Technique.

Asking the Way in the Underworld, where a hundred ghosts knock at the gates.

The battlefield suddenly went dark.

The Buddha’s Heart Lamp and the Painted Skin Puppets all froze. Time itself seemed to grind to a halt.

Only the cold, ghostly gleam of a saber blade emerged.

They were separated by over a hundred feet, but the blade’s light seemed to ignore the distance as it fell.

"Aargh!"

As the crisis descended, the keen perception of a Mage made Xing Suanzi’s scalp tingle. The divine light in his Ancestral Acupoint flared, and he forcibly broke free from the oppressive Sword Intent.

"Block it!"

WHOOSH!

The Jile Spirit House in his hand trembled violently, transforming into a streak of light that shot toward the descending blade.

"Hmph!"

Ye Baici, unaffected by the Sword Intent, seized the opportunity. She urged the Buddha’s Heart Lamp forward, and two Fire Dragons spiraled into the air, spitting Fierce Flame at the Jile Spirit House.

BOOM!

Fierce Flames raged.

SLICE!

The blade fell.

The saber’s gleam, formed from the convergence of Five Elements Evil Qi, spun like a mad cogwheel. The instant it made contact with the Jile Spirit House, the Power of the Five Elements suddenly concentrated.

The near-imperceptible blade light fell.

The Demon Saber—Shocking God!

This strike actually contained the Sword Intent of the Demon Saber. The Jile Spirit House’s Spirituality was assaulted by the Sword Intent and instantly dimmed, allowing the properties of the Evil Qi Breaking Method to drive straight in.

Besieged by two great experts, the Jile Spirit House froze in midair. Then, to Xing Suanzi’s utter horror, it slowly cracked and split in two.

"No!"

"Impossible!"

His face twisted, and he gritted his teeth.

"The Jile Spirit House was entrusted to me by the Celestial Capital Great Master! You just had your breakthrough, you couldn’t possibly..."

"...couldn’t possibly destroy it!"

Although the Buddha’s Heart Lamp could damage the Jile Spirit House, destroying it completely was no simple task. The thing that had truly stripped the Spirit House of its inherent Spirituality...

...was that single strike of the saber!

Zhu Ju withdrew his saber and stared directly at Xing Suanzi.

"I only destroyed a paper house. Why are you..."

"Hm?"

Before he could finish his sentence, he saw Xing Suanzi’s body begin to swell at a visible rate, as if being pumped full of air.

"Aaaargh!"

Xing Suanzi’s expression twisted, his eyes filled with terror.

"Die!"

"Die with me!"

"Look out!"

BOOM!

A blinding light erupted from Xing Suanzi’s location, and countless paper fragments swirled wildly in all directions like sharp blades.

’A Paperman?’

Zhu Ju frowned, waving his saber to create layers of defense.

’Xing Suanzi was actually a Paperman Puppet?’

’To be able to create a Paperman Puppet of such a high level, one that could fool the world for decades... just how powerful must Xing Suanzi’s creator be?’

Meanwhile,

Ye Baici manipulated the Buddha’s Heart Lamp, enveloping the few remaining survivors in a protective shield to withstand Xing Suanzi’s death throes.

They were unharmed.

However, the others who had not yet escaped the Jile Workshop met a terrible fate. Xing Suanzi’s self-destruction was an indiscriminate attack, and everyone was caught in the blast.

It wasn’t just the Jile Workshop.

The buildings surrounding the Jile Workshop were almost instantly reduced to rubble. In the blink of an eye, the area was littered with corpses and rivers of blood.

"Young Master!"

A heart-rending scream rang out.

"Young Master, don’t scare me! You have to be okay!"

Zhu Ju glanced over to see Wan Zian’s body lying in the ruins, sliced into several pieces by the white paper.