Ah Liang brandished his blade.

Between him and the White Jade Capital on the high platform, a subtle golden thread appeared, surging forward like an incoming tide.

The Prince, Song Changjing, instead of retreating, advanced, his aura instantly soaring to the pinnacle of martial arts. With a roar, he crossed his arms, defending himself.

The plaza beneath his feet, after being heavily trampled by the second Boundary Realm Grandmaster of the Eastern Treasure Bottle Continent, cracked into a vast spiderweb pattern.

Tempering martial arts between life and death was not an empty phrase. Song Changjing, once a prince of the Great Li Dynasty, resolutely joined the military, spending over twenty years on the battlefield, experiencing countless victories, defeats, bitter struggles, and desperate fights. His ability to stand out among the martial artists of the entire Eastern Treasure Bottle Continent was, in part, due to this willingness to face challenges head-on.

The golden thread touched Song Changjing’s arm, instantly tearing through the sleeve of his white robe as easily as a heated wire cuts through soft tofu. It should be known that Song Changjing’s robe was a top-tier Taoist treasure of the Great Li Dynasty, named “Flowing Water Robe,” a precious relic of a Taoist land immortal of the upper five realms, said to be able to withstand all spells and supernatural powers below the upper five realms. Yet, against the golden thread of solidified qi, it was so vulnerable.

Even without the reliance on external objects, Song Changjing stubbornly refused to retreat. This man wanted to test whether his martial artist physique, rumored to rival that of a golden-bodied Arhat, could withstand this genuine immortal blade.

The answer soon became clear: it could, but only for a blink of an eye.

Still unwilling to concede, Song Changjing roared, his face radiating an unusual golden brilliance, the qi within his body shifting from a raging flood to a sudden freezing of the water surface, a scene of thousands of miles of ice.

The slender figure of the Great Li Prince retreated several feet.

Fine grooves had been cut into the skin and flesh of his arms, but no blood was visible. At the same time, the unstoppable golden thread was about to carve into Song Changjing’s bones.

“Get out of the way!”

A Taoist talisman general, towering several feet tall and clad in azure armor, knocked Song Changjing away, taking his place.

The talisman-clad general, engraved with countless Taoist golden characters and cloud patterns, radiated a treasure light, its hands tightly gripping the golden thread disproportionate to its massive body.

Retreating again and again.

Eventually, this mountain-shaped talisman general, carefully crafted by a major Taoist sect, was cleaved in two. The slightly dimmer golden thread continued to advance towards the White Jade Capital.

After the Taoist puppet general was dismembered, it collapsed with a crash. But behind it appeared an old man in simple linen clothes, extending a hand to block the thread.

The old man exuded an aura of aging and decay, yet possessed a youthful face, creating an extremely strange impression. With a bitter smile, the old man asked in a foreign accent, “Ah Liang, can you stop here?”

Ah Liang frowned, “Luan Changye? Weren’t you exiled to the north after failing to compete for the position of Grand Master?”

The old man, while resisting the golden thread, blood already seeping from his palm, helplessly said, “It’s a long story.”

Ah Liang suddenly realized, “I was wondering how someone in the Treasure Bottle Continent could build such a clumsy, smaller version of the White Jade Capital. It was you.”

Luan Changye hesitated, then whispered, “I once consulted Mr. Qi about the construction of this building.”

Ah Liang glanced askance at the eager Song Changjing, who, after a battle of wits, finally chose to give up fighting.

Ah Liang looked at Luan Changye, an acquaintance from the Mo family, his narrow blade, Auspicious Talisman, swaying slightly in his hand, appearing extremely lazy and underestimating. In fact, after that initial blade strike, if he had insisted on pressing the attack, Song Changjing would have died, Luan Changye wouldn’t have been able to stop it, the White Jade Capital would have been doomed to collapse, and the national power of the Great Li would have regressed by at least forty or fifty years. In other words, Ah Liang would have undone all the benefits that Qi Jingchun had brought to the Great Li Dynasty’s national fortune when he built the Cliff Academy, it just would need one more slash of the blade.

Among the various philosophical schools, the Mo family had considerable influence, divided into three branches. One branch consisted almost entirely of wandering heroes, mostly sword cultivators among qi refiners. Ah Liang, having wandered the world for many years, was a renowned hero across several continents. To be precise, Ah Liang had met Luan Changye once. Luan Changye, who had once been only two steps away from becoming the Grand Master of the Mo family, truly admired and revered Ah Liang. So Ah Liang knew Luan Changye, but was not close to him.

However, Luan Changye’s words about Qi Jingchun irritated Ah Liang. Raising Auspicious Talisman again, the blade pointed at the old man who had been expelled from the Mo family, he scoffed, “Qi Jingchun is already dead, and you’re still using him as a talisman for your Great Li and this White Jade Capital? When did you, Luan Changye, become more thick-skinned than me, Ah Liang?”

Luan Changye’s weathered face revealed a hint of slyness, shaking his head vigorously, “I can’t compare to Senior Ah Liang. Mr. Qi mentioned Senior Ah Liang with the same expression you have now.”

Ah Liang was skeptical of the first sentence. He believed the second.

Ah Liang looked up at the sky, slowly sheathing Auspicious Talisman, glaring at the old man, “Don’t think I can’t see through your delaying tactics.”

After Ah Liang sheathed Auspicious Talisman, the Great Li Emperor, escorted by the old man surnamed Lu, appeared beside the Mo family’s Luan Changye.

The Great Li Emperor wanted to step forward, but the old man in the high crown grabbed his sleeve, softly saying, “Don’t be presumptuous.”

The man in the dragon robe smiled and shook his head, freeing himself from the old man’s grasp, and continued forward, taking more than ten steps, clasping his fist and saying, “Song Zhengchun of the Great Li, greets Senior Ah Liang.”

Ah Liang narrowed his eyes, suddenly gripping the hilt of his blade.

In an instant, everyone felt despair.

The Great Li Emperor even closed his eyes with a smile, ready to die.

Behind Ah Liang, someone pleaded bitterly, “Ah Liang! You can’t kill him!”

Ah Liang did not turn around, his anger intensified, “You worthless bastard! You’ve always liked to compete with Qi Jingchun for this and that since you were a kid. If you can’t win, you can’t win. What’s so shameful about it? Why do you have to play these underhanded tricks? Do you really think I, Ah Liang, will remember that old friendship and not beat you to death?”

Behind Ah Liang stood a gaunt old man with a slender frame and sunken cheeks, dressed in a green robe and wearing jade, with an excellent temperament, like a Confucian sage educating the people.

The old man looked complex, softly saying, “Ah Liang, Qi Jingchun’s efforts of his later life were all for the Great Li.”

Ah Liang turned his head, his face gloomy, “Cui Chan, you’re full of shit! The Cliff Academy is gone, and you still have the nerve to say that to me?”

The old man’s eyes were firm, “I’m telling the truth. Qi Jingchun truly hoped that the Great Li could forge a different path. Even if in the end, Qi Jingchun was only disappointed, but no matter what, Ah Liang, you can’t deny that the person he chose is the child of our Dragon Spring County!”

The old man lowered his head, “Ah Liang, you were the one who said I, Cui Chan, could walk my own path.”

Ah Liang sneered, “Trying to reason with a stubborn smart person like you is worse than arguing with that little bastard, Li Huai.”

Ah Liang released his hand from the hilt of the blade, “The old man’s life was full of earth-shattering feats, and he ended up having to imprison himself in the Merit Forest, what a lonely and desolate ending. A life of great ups and downs, with no shortage of years rolling in the mud. But the old man still gives people a feeling of cleanliness and gentleness, cleanliness on the outside, gentleness on the inside. Qi Jingchun was the same, but you, Cui Chan, are not. Back then, Qi Jingchun was one-minded, you, Cui Chan, learned everything quickly. Who would have thought that in the end, Qi Jingchun would be able to fight those old bastards with earth-shattering power, but you, Cui Chan, would be reduced to a state of being neither human nor ghost nor god nor immortal, you have only yourself to blame.”

Ah Liang smiled, “The last time I saw the old man, he said your ideas were good, but you were doing it wrong. He also said that your calligraphy was really good, the ‘Small Garden Leek Post’ and the ‘Worldly Yellow Flower Post’ were really beautiful. If he had known it would come to this point of master and disciple turning against each other, he should have asked you for a few more copies back then.”

The old man’s eyes were red, his voice trembling, “Did the teacher also think he was wrong? Not all right?”

Ah Liang rolled his eyes, “Whose thick skin did I, Ah Liang, learn from? The old man wouldn’t admit his mistakes, couldn’t you students pretend to be confused after eating and drinking from the old man for so many years? Besides, others don’t know the old man’s heavenly abilities and difficulties, but you, Cui Chan, don’t know? Forget it, forget it, I’m too lazy to talk nonsense with you, shut up, get out of here, I don’t want to see your cowardly look.”

The old man staggered, turned and left, the strange bitter laughter echoing in the empty square, feeling extremely desolate.

Ah Liang looked up at the sky again, scolding like a shrew, which was eye-opening, “I know, I know, hurry, hurry, hurry, like that mixed-up kid Cui Chan, surnamed Cui! If you have the ability, come down and fight me! Come on!”

Although he scolded, he still had to do what he had to do.

Ah Liang took off Auspicious Talisman, thought for a moment, and tossed it high to Song Changjing, but spoke to the Great Li Emperor, “I’ll leave this blade here, have your Great Li return it to a little girl named Li Baoping for me. Remember to be polite to the little girl, she’s my friend.”

The Great Li Emperor nodded with a smile, “No problem.”

Ah Liang muttered to himself, “Tsk tsk tsk, riding a horse, drinking wine, wearing a knife and carrying a gourd, what a handsome picture, it’s a feast for the eyes. You people in the world will have a good fortune in the future.”

Song Changjing grasped the narrow blade.

Although it was a knife, it was a terrifying sight of overflowing and soaring sword energy, as deep and vast as the rivers and seas.

Ah Liang hesitated for a moment, did not take off the green bamboo sheath, stretched his waist, even jumped lightly a few times, looked up and asked with a smile, “Come, come, come! You up there, tell me, is Buddhism far, or is Taoism high?! Whose ability is greater, whose fist is harder?!”

Beyond the heavens, some smiled slightly, some chanted a Buddhist verse.

Ah Liang laughed, “Then let me, Ah Liang, fight with you before we talk!”

This man, who claimed to never know what bragging was, suddenly soared in momentum, from the peak of the twelfth realm of Qi Refining, he instantly climbed to the peak of the thirteenth realm, his whole person like a brilliant beam of light, rising from the ground, directly breaking through the heavenly dome of this vast world, and finally disappearing.

The young Song Jixin was unwilling to withdraw his gaze for a long time, and finally discovered that the man in the dragon robe standing in the front was drenched in sweat that soaked through the bright yellow dragon robe.

The young man couldn’t help but look up again. At this moment, the young man realized that there was such a fierce guy in the world.