Tong Ruobing and Xi Shangyan entered the pagoda for their battles. A projection appeared in the middle of the participants for them to witness everything.
These two found themselves floating above a large plain with mountains and forests in the distance. There were no houses or living habitats, only endless vivid green.
They stared at each for a moment, gathering their auras and momentum. Then, Xi Shangyan went on the offensive. She waved her to manifest millions of enormous galaxies. Then, she dropped them on her opponent.
‘That attack,’ thought Tong Ruobing. ‘I did not sense any laws; it’s pure energy. It should be Star Qi?’
Tong Ruobing pointed at the fallen galaxies and used a Decomposition Talisman. Her talisman resonated with the laws of this world before activating; it tried to decompose the attack and revert it to its original Qi form.
Unfortunately, she failed. So, Tong Ruobing quickie used another talisman with a frown.
Swallowing Talisman
A small rune appeared before Tong Ruobing. Then, it swallowed all the galaxies in a matter of seconds. However, she was not out of danger yet. As soon as she dealt with the galaxies, Tong Ruobing detected her surroundings had changed.
On the left side were millions of black spheres, and the other had the same quantity of white spheres.
‘Black and White Hole,’ she thought. And she was correct. The left side had a powerful gravitational pull that wanted to swallow her. Meanwhile, the right side had an equally powerful gravitational push that wanted to squash her into puree fruit.
As the person caught in the middle, the feeling of constantly being pushed and pulled by a powerful force was a nightmare. So, Tong Ruobing acted swiftly.
Gravity Canceling Talisman
She used an instant talisman to cancel the gravitational power of both black and white holes. However, she also went on the offensive.
Energy Suppressing Talisman
Tong Ruobing noticed the enemy only used pure Qi/ Energy attacks. And all her spells were abnormally powerful. As such, she concluded that there was a 70% chance she was a pure Energy Cultivator. It would make sense, given Xi Shangyan’s identity as a Celestial race.
Of course, there is also the 20% chance she hid her Law Power as a trump card. However, if that was the case, Tong Ruobing determined this battle might be harder than anticipated based on how powerful her Qi Spells were.
As for the remaining 10%, it was possible that her Qi attacks were more powerful than even her Laws, so she only used them for battle. Although this conclusion appeared logical, there were some truths behind it.
Pure Energy Systems were weaker than Law ones because they usually created Third-Class Emperors. Laws and Daos were subsets of the Grand Dao Source. As such, cultivators usually comprehend them before in preparation for understanding their Grand Dao Source.
However, Pure Qi cultivators do not have this opportunity. After acquiring the Heaven Will, they skip directly to comprehend the Grand Dao Source, creating many Third-Class Emperors. In the Endless Void’s history, only one individual became an Eternal Emperor from a Pure Energy Cultivation System.
A strange forcefield emanated from Tong Ruobing’s talisman before surrounding Xi Shangyan. And the field could limit her control and power of her Qi. However, she only sneered in response.
Xi Shangyan pointed two finders toward her opponent. Then, her Qi changed from the previous star attribute to a space.
Space Compression Spell
Immediately, Tong Ruobing felt the space around begin to compress her into a biscuit. She could tell she could not run away or teleport from this attack. She immediately used a Space Twisting Talisman to take back control of the surrounding space.
Unfortunately, she only temporarily delayed the spell’s effect.
‘Something is wrong. Her spells are too powerful.’
She focused on the battle without the time to properly analyze the situation being this anomaly, and using Law Resonance to create Space-related Talismans cannot reach its full potential of Space Laws–unless Tong Ruobing was willing to comprehend Space as one of her secondary Laws.
And she has not done so. She has to use alternative methods to boost her talisman’s powers. She waved her hand to manifest nine more Space Twisting Talismans.
Subsequently, she used a high-level technique for professions: Synchronization. Using many of the same talismans, Tong Ruobing can fuse them to boost their strength through great control.
So, as the nine talismans in the shape of yellow papers with runes floated before her, they vibrated, linked through a green line before fusing into one.
Boom!
Space cracks appeared around Tong Ruobing as she broke free from the spell. With deep eyes, she said: “You’re a young Emperor.”
“You’ve finally figured it out.”
“Your ability seems to amplify your Qi Based Spells by a large margin. Moreover, you can deploy your Pseudo Domain without being detected.”
Xi Shangyan smiled without explaining. When she was young, the clan’s patriarch trained her severely, tempering her Dao Heart with extreme methods. Previously, she thought it was because she was the next heir of the clan.
But now, Xi Shangyan realized the clan has been preparing for the possible defection for many years. And they might even have predicted the current change long ago.
With how long the Celestial Race has existed and its background, she would not be surprised if they had some extraordinary method to predict the upcoming changes in the Eternal Ascension World. And she even guessed many people were also preparing.
‘This woman is very talented. Using Synchronization of talismans with Space Attributes is a feat few mortals could achieve back home.’
Synchronization was a high-level skill, but there were also levels of difficulty. For example, it was thousands of times harder to use Synchronization on Space-attribute Talisman than on a fire one.
‘I need to get serious.’
Secret Technique: Qi Sealing
Xi Shangyan clapped her hands, and immediately afterward, Tong Ruobing’s face changed. She discovered she had lost control of the Origin Essence inside her Divine Sea.
She immediately activated the Energy Control Talisman inside her Divine Sea to regain control of her energy.
“It’s useless,” commented Xi Shangyan. “Unless you have better or equal Energy Control as me, you cannot break this technique.”
Tong Ruobing did not believe her as her mind functioned rapidly to find a countermeasure. Then, a mysterious Will came from her body to block and protect her Divine Sea.
‘Duyi Realm? I can do the same,’ thought Xi Shangyan. She activated her Duyi Realm to boost her secret technique and counter Tong Ruobing’s Duyi Realm.
The Celestial Race has an advantage over others when entering the Duyi Realm. Most cultivation system has some form of Energy Gathering Stage. So, as long as they can create a unique Qi in that realm, they can enter the Duyi Realm.
Of course, Heavenly Dao placed restraints on them. The Qi they created must meet a certain standard before achieving Duyi. Nevertheless, it is way easier for members of the Celestial race to enter compared to ordinary cultivators or other powerful races.
After weakening her opponent, Xi Shangyan went for the finishing move.
Destruction Qi Beam.
A dark-purple beam flew out of her finger, traveling with incredible speed toward Tong Ruobing, who quickly reacted. Although she lost control of her Origin Essence, she still had spiritual power which she could use to control her Law.
Tong Ruobing then created millions of Defensive Talismans and synchronized them. Unlike powerful attributes like space, where she is limited by the number of talismans she can synchronize, she had little to no limit on ordinary talismans like defensive ones.
Unfortunately, despite creating the ultimate shield, the beam passed through it before stopping one inch in front of her heart.
Tong Ruobing sighed. “I lost.”
Xi Shangyan then canceled her attack.
“Your Celestial Race is truly blessed.”
“Indeed.”
The Celestial Race is considered one of the most blessed races from Tier 1 to 10 in the cultivation journey. Their races can use many powerful Qi to supplement their battle prowess. They can even control Qi that is based on Supreme Outlaws like Destruction Qi or Creation Qi.
And they do not have to pass the Outlaw Trial by controlling these Qis. Many people believed if the Celestial race could convert their Mortal Qi into Immortal Qi, they would truly be an unmatched race.
Unfortunately, this was impossible; Xi Shangyan could not elevate her Destruction Qi into a higher form of Immortal Qi; she had to search for it in the Source Qi Space like everyone else. Some Mortal Qi do not even have an Immortal counterpart.
As such, it will become useless after she proves the Dao. Additionally, if she did not prove the Dao and only cultivated Destruction Qi, no laws, and tried to prove the Dao with Destruction Grand Dao Source, she would have to undergo a terrible Heavenly Tribulation with a 99.9999% chance of death.
A few of her clans tried to use this loophole to control Supreme or Outlaw Daos, and they all died under the tribulation.