Poor Taoist Qiu Chuji

Chapter 343 Severing Heaven and Earth, Becoming a Unique Realm

"Haha! That's more like it!" Qiu Chuji raised his sword and slashed. His swordsmanship had long since reached the realm of returning to simplicity. With a casual slash, he incorporated a variety of forces and natural changes. With a flick of his wrist, he tangled the crane boy's wings and the deer boy's whip together and shook them apart with force.

The impact of the energy collision during the battle still swept across an area about ten miles in diameter. The sea monsters and Kunlun immortals instinctively avoided this area, unwilling to be drawn into this high-level battle.

Before his physical transformation and significant improvement in skill, Qiu Chuji could only rely on his close-quarters combat skills to briefly entangle with Lu Tong and He Tong, since the gap in raw strength could not be bridged by technique.

However, Qiu Chuji's current power is approaching five thousand years, almost only slightly inferior to Nezha after his major breakthrough. His methods are also more convenient and efficient. Many things that his primordial spirit can do with its 'free and unfettered' nature can now be done by Qiu Chuji with his physical body.

This allowed Qiu Chuji's abilities to make a qualitative leap.

As Qiu Chuji fought the two celestial children, he became more and more excited and his skills improved with each battle.

Under Qiu Chuji's guidance, the two celestial children gradually broke free from their original plans and constraints, and began to reveal their full range of abilities. Their attacks were no longer as detached from worldly concerns as they were at the beginning, but instead showed more of the ferocity and violence inherent to the demon race.

Cranes are birds of prey, and deer are powerful beasts. The so-called elegance and etherealness are merely a perception and preference imposed by humans, and have nothing to do with their true nature.

Crane Boy's wings transformed into sharp blades as he swooped down towards Qiu Chuji. Deer Boy, on the other hand, took the opportunity to escape. After creating some distance, he drew his bow and aimed at Qiu Chuji, the divine runes between his brows shining brightly, showing that he was giving it his all.

Whoosh!
A golden arrow, carrying an extremely terrifying force, shot towards Qiu Chuji. The crane boy, forced back by Qiu Chuji's sword and looking somewhat disheveled, let out a clear chirp and let feathers fall onto the arrow, as if adding wings to the golden arrow.

Qiu Chuji also sensed the 'two qi circulation' that had previously been difficult for him to deal with from this arrow.

With the support of this dual energy cycle, Qiu Chuji could still sense the arrow rapidly approaching with his physical eyes, but in his primordial spirit's perception, this fierce arrow simply vanished.

This is no small matter. It means that Qiu Chuji can only use his visual judgment to intercept the arrow, and can no longer use his spiritual power to calculate its landing point, its changes, its true location, and the power it carries, the node where it explodes with strong energy impact, and so on.

In a closely fought battle, such a lack of information can be quite fatal.

In the mythological world, there is a saying that "supernatural powers cannot overcome the will of Heaven." In a broader sense, this means that no matter how well one cultivates magical powers, if one goes against the workings of Heaven and goes against the general trend, one is destined to meet a bad end. In a narrower sense, if one has supernatural abilities but lacks the ability to sense and connect with the changes in Heaven and Earth with one's primordial spirit, and cannot rationally allocate those supernatural powers with their vast adaptability and computational mechanisms, then no matter how strong one is, one's strength is superficial and limited.

When Qiu Chuji faced Fahai, Fahai clearly possessed more profound magical power and broader supernatural abilities, yet he was limited in many ways. The martial prowess and methods he represented were only one of the superficial reasons. Digging deeper, Qiu Chuji actually had the advantage of a stronger primordial spirit, having cultivated a Yang spirit.

That was not a case of the weak defeating the strong, but rather Qiu Chuji's overwhelming mental superiority through his immense computational power.

Fahai's defeat was inevitable because his thinking was not on the same level as Qiu Chuji's.

Qiu Chuji is about to face a similar predicament.

Without his advantage in the primordial spirit, relying solely on his physical strength seems unlikely to win. Continuing the fight might even lead to his defeat.

When he draws his sword, his opponent has at least several ways to respond; but when his opponent shoots an arrow, he has no idea where the arrow will actually land.

This information gap will widen as the war progresses, until the difference in supernatural abilities and paper strength can no longer be bridged.

The so-called "one force can overcome ten techniques," "to dominate with strength," and "to become a saint with strength" are certainly very domineering, but in terms of strength, speed, defense, and so on, there will always be someone better.

"What a magnificent display of the Chaotic Qi!"

"I have witnessed the skills of both of you today!" Qiu Chuji exclaimed in an instant, but before he could finish speaking, he had already drawn his sword and charged forward.

To sum it up, if it's time to fight, then fight!

If he's afraid to fight when his opponent is strong, then why did he take the initiative to challenge the opponent and end up like this? Wouldn't he just be a clown?
Having cultivated such a body of laws and painstakingly taken the second step of this plan, it's not something to be taken lightly.

Is his supernatural power no less than that of Heaven?
Then I will embrace all opportunities and integrate all changes into one; I am destiny itself!
Qiu Chuji's sword began to completely blur its trajectory, leaving no trace of external influence.

On the surface, this is the transformation of the sword, but in reality, it is a change in Qi.

Under the pressure of the Hunming Arrow, Qiu Chuji unleashed his first sword strike, severing the connection between his true qi and the outside world. From now on, he would be like a Pixiu, only extracting primordial qi from the outside world to strengthen himself, but he would no longer integrate his true qi with the energy of the outside world.

Beyond heaven and earth, a small cycle is formed.

Every bit of force exerted will eventually be recovered, preventing it from scattering into the world and naturally merging into all things.

While this lacks the superficial advantage of using true qi to influence the changes in the energy of heaven and earth, making each strike more powerful and ferocious, it also makes his offensive and changes a complete internal cycle and transformation. As long as his physical information is not known to others, then his attack changes will naturally not be clearly seen by others.

At Qiu Chuji's level of skill, whether he could use his own power to mobilize the heavens and earth to fight together was no longer as important as it had been before.

After all, there is already a huge gap between one's own aura and the quality of the external world's primordial energy. Merging into one is like an unparalleled general leading a group of bandits in a charge. Apart from increasing the momentum, it does not increase the attack power or destructive power much, but it will expose one's whereabouts.

Unless Qiu Chuji can directly influence the primordial energy of the entire world, turning bandits into subjects and crushing them with overwhelming power, it would be better to fight alone.

"That's right! I come from the martial world, I'm a wandering knight-errant, fighting alone is my foundation."

"To harness the power of heaven and earth and manifest all things is the path taken by traditional practitioners." When the mind is at ease, true qi naturally transforms.

At this moment, Qiu Chuji and the two fairy boys have both become 'blind'.

Neither of them could foresee the other's next move.

The outcome of the battle has once again been thrown into the unknown black box.

It happened very quickly, though it may seem like a small thing.

Swords clashed with arrows, the leaping arrows weaving back and forth across several spatial nodes, always appearing from unexpected angles to launch surprise attacks on Qiu Chuji. But Qiu Chuji, wielding a longsword, employed Hunyuan swordsmanship, creating a world of his own. No matter how cunning the arrows came from, he would simply cleave them away with a single sword strike.

In the blink of an eye, the sword and arrow clashed hundreds of times.

Qiu Chuji's chest heaved, and his heart pounded like a war drum. He did not try to influence the primordial energy of heaven and earth, but only digested and processed everything on his own. In the midst of the massive energy collision, he also had to reclaim the scattered power, which placed a considerable burden on his body.

However, for Qiu Chuji, who was determined to achieve sainthood through physical means, this was not entirely a bad thing. The energy carrying the enormous force of the backlash, after returning to his body, itself had the effect of tempering his physical body.

"fall!"

He stepped forward again and swung his sword in a diagonal slash.

The golden arrow was broken in two and gradually scattered into the wind.

Qiu Chuji, on the other hand, withdrew his power, endured the enormous backlash, and coughed up a mouthful of blood.

The blood plasma, as if possessed by a spirit, rolled back to Qiu Chuji's lips and then returned to his body.

The two fairy boys looked solemnly at Qiu Chuji, standing together as they gazed at him, who had become detached from heaven and earth, unable to understand why he could be so resolute.

Severing the connection with heaven and earth is not just a matter of strategic maneuvering on the battlefield, but also a choice about the future path.

Qiu Chuji chose a path that was destined to be extremely difficult.

"Uncle Qiu...what courage!" Lu Tong exclaimed in admiration.

Qiu Chuji wiped his mouth: "How about it? Want to learn? I'll teach you!"

He spoke with utmost sincerity, but Lu Tong immediately shook his head, not even considering agreeing.

It's a world unto itself, which sounds carefree, but it's an extremely demanding path.

Even the worst of the lowly soldiers and bandits can still serve to attract attention, mitigate most of the damage, and help cover the retreat, so strictly speaking, their advantages outweigh their disadvantages.

While taking on all the responsibilities may seem carefree, it leaves no way out.

They can hold out in a close battle, but what if they face a stronger opponent?

That would be like injuring the enemy by a hundred while losing eight thousand of your own.

Who can stand this?
"I wonder if I'm capable of learning it?" Crane Boy asked.

After all, she was a specialist in defense, and her physical body was by no means fragile. She naturally saw the advantage of Qiu Chuji's move.

She and Lu Tong could barely use the Chaos Qi when they joined forces. Since their cultivation level was not much stronger than theirs, they could not figure out what kind of methods they were using in the Chaos Qi, and thus they were controlled by them.

However, this also bound her to Lu Tong. When the two worked together, their strength increased greatly, but if they separated, they were more easily defeated one by one.

This is somewhat like being able to use the Big Dipper Formation to fight against the Seven Masters of Quanzhen, who are like a ball of fire when gathered, but a fart when scattered.

"Okay, after this battle, we'll have a chat."

"But now... let's continue!" Qiu Chuji said, then drew his sword and charged forward again.

At this moment, the battlefield across the East China Sea has also become extremely intense.

Nezha was relentlessly attacking Wuliang Xianweng, and the ferocity of Nezha when he unleashed his full power was off the charts.

Compared to Nezha's explosive performance at this moment, Qiu Chuji's progress seems less remarkable.

(End of this chapter)