Chapter 64: Target Locked

Recently, Qin Lie had been trying his best to not think about anything related to Ling Yushi and tried to forget about her for now.

This was because as soon as he began to think about her, as soon as he began to reminisce, he would find it hard to calm back down and become unable to do other things.

But as of right now, the mocking and ridicule of those people had made his memories emerge, causing his heart which had finally calmed down… to become agitated again!

His expression suddenly became dark and cold.

“What? Is what we are saying making you uncomfortable?” The first martial practitioner to speak had a cultivation at the ninth level of the Refinement Realm. Previously, he had also been at Ling Town and had seen Qin Lie’s battle with Du Heng. Yet he still dared to act so brazenly because his cultivation was a level higher than Du Heng’s. Thus, he had no fear as he continued mocking, “Nebula Pavilion doesn’t restrict people from having personal duels. As long as no one dies or becomes severely crippled, the pavilion generally doesn’t care.”

He stuck out a finger, pointing towards the distant Qin Lie, motioning for him to come over, and sneered, “Feel insulted? Then come make a move!”

“Boom!”

As soon as his remark was made, the sound of thunder rumbling immediately emanated over from within Qin Lie’s body.

In a moment, Qin Lie who had seemed so weak, delicate, and skinny seemed to have become another person!

A violent, intent surged out of his eyes as strand after strand of fine, blue electric current wrapped around his arm like a fine rope.

Under the surprised gazes of all of the spectators, Qin Lie suddenly launched an explosive attack. Like a fierce beast hunting its prey, he charged towards the person.

“Zzzt zzzt zzzt!”

Strand after strand of lightning began to discharge, interweaving into a violent bolt. Under the sun’s extremely harsh rays, everyone’s eyes suffered temporary blindness.

“Hmph!”

Du Haitian’s subordinate immediately clasped his hands together then quickly opened them as a dark purple sphere of spirit energy quickly gathered at his palms. Within the sphere, dense smoke pervaded and bright light flickered.

A pure, vigorous fluctuation of spirit energy surged out from within the glowing dark purple sphere as the glowing sphere in his hand was thrown out by the person.

“Poof poof poof!”

One stifled sound after another emanated out from within the glowing dark purple ball. Afterwards, a purple colored smoke suddenly dispersed outwards towards the space between him and Qin Lie, filling it.

Mn?

Qin Lie who was charging towards the person suddenly discovered that all he could see was purple smoke, making unable to spot his target.

Moreover, the smoke seemed to have a kind of paralyzing effect. As the smoke permeated into his body, he began to feel tired; even his eyelids began to feel heavy.

“Brat, did you really think that just because you beat Du Heng, you could also beat me?”

The person’s cold laughs emanated over from all directions, as if the speaker were right by him. However, it was impossible for his eyes to lock onto his target.

A strong sense of crisis seemingly surged over from each corner, causing the hairs on Qin Lie’s body to stand up as his heart and expression became uneasy. He knew that his opponent’s attack would be coming soon.

“Dou Yang, this wretch. He must really like to bully people. To use his ‘Smoke Cloud Art’ right from the start, just how will that kid ever find his position? Must this fight even continue on?”

“Mn, within that purple smoke, Dou Yang can do whatever he wants. That kid will be just like a fool, only able to passively suffer beatings. There is absolutely no way for the kid to see Dou Yang.”

“……”

Many Nebula Pavilion martial practitioners stood arms crossed atop the Scripture Tower and Artifact Tower as they watched and conversed over the battle.

Between the two buildings, purple smoke slowly surfaced. Occasionally, they would get a glimpse of the motionless Qin Lie as well as his opponent, who was constantly circling around him at high speeds, as if he were a cat playing with a mouse. Clearly, he wanted to slowly embarrass Qin Lie.

“Just where is he?”

Qin Lie paused. As his vision had been affected by the smoke, he had no way to see the surrounding situation.

At this time, Dou Yang’s casual, provoking, ridiculing voice emanated over.

“Thing who doesn’t understand life and death, do you know what kind of fate you will have, having dared to injure Young Master Du Heng? Did you think that just by entering Nebula Pavilion, you would be able to escape your reckoning? Hehe, very soon, you will understand what you will face in the future.”

“The Ling Family is now involved with Seven Fiends Valley so Elder Du temporarily cannot go settle his debts with them, but as for you… a brat that has been abandoned by the Ling Family, do you think that you can escape from Elder Du’s palm?”

Dou Yang wasn’t in a hurry to make a move, instead using words to ravage Qin Lie’s mental barriers. It seemed as if he wanted to first destroy Qin Lie mentally.

“My eyes… have no way of locating him, so I might as well close them.”

Within the smoke, Qin Lie closed his eyes and calmed himself down. Immediately, he released his mind consciousness, using strands of mind energy to feel out his surroundings.

His mind consciousness swiftly emerged and he could immediately feel the clear fluctuations of life. The fluctuation of life constantly circled around and was moving at a high speed…

“Found you.”

Qin Lie quietly whispered to himself as he gathered the energy of the thunder and lightning around his body. Amongst his ten fingers, electric current suddenly began to discharge!

Amongst the smoke, ten bolts of eye-blinding lightning suddenly flashed!

“Zzzt zzzt zzzt!”

The sound of lightning striking something suddenly came from within the smoke, immediately followed by Dou Yang’s miserable cry. It was the sound of opportunity having been seized.

“Boom!”

The sound of rumbling thunder also came out as Qin Lie took the opportunity to strike his target with his fist, hitting Dou Yang right in the chest.

Dou Yang’s body abruptly flew out from within the purple smoke, with a stream of fresh red blood splurting out from his mouth.

The stream of blood combined with the purple smoke to form a line. As his body flew out from within, it seemingly became connected with the smoke; it was an extremely strange scene.

“Bang!”

Dou Yang landed on the group, his hair charred black and his expression ashen as he terrifyingly looked towards the purple smoke.

He couldn’t understand, couldn’t understand why Qin Lie could accurately pinpoint his location. First it had been the ten lightning bolts, and then it was followed by the thunderous fist which had explosively struck his body out of the smoke.

“Eh, Dou Yang lost? Is his Smoke Cloud Art actually unable to confuse that kid?”

𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

“To have been directly sent flying by him. Hehe, it is truly laughable.”

“Interesting.”

“……”

Mocking expressions emerged on the faces of all of the observing Nebula Pavilion practitioners as they looked at Dou Yang, incessantly laughing.

From within the smoke, Qin Lie walked out, his brows furrowing as he stood in front of Dou Yang, “If not for Nebula Pavilion preventing people from dying during personal duels, you would have already been killed by me just now.”

Afterwards, he indifferently swept his eyes over the other subordinates of Du Haitian that had been mocking him with Dou Yang before turning around and walking towards the Scripture Tower.

“Haha, this kid is interesting. Before, I truly looked down on the people who came from vassal forces. I never thought that this time two interesting ones would appear. One named Gao Yu, and this kid… quite interesting.”

“Mn. However, Gao Yu, that kid, is a little bit more powerful. His opponent was Fang Tong, who was at the early stage of the Natal Opening Realm and he completely embarrassed Fang Tong.”

“Indeed, who told Fang Tong to have a cheap mouth and say that Gao Yu relied on his relationship with his sister to enter Nebula Pavilion; he deserved his woes.”

“I also never would have thought that although he is at the ninth level of the Refinement Realm, he would actually be able to surpass Fang Tong and make him look bad. It was truly shocking. Say, what realm is this new kid at?”

“For him to have been able to defeat Dou Yang, he must have at least also been at the ninth level of the Refinement Realm right?”

“Then between him and Gao Yu, who is stronger?”

“Definitely Gao Yu. You don’t even have to think about it. Could it be that you think he is stronger than Gao Yu?”

“It’s not that, I believe Gao Yu is a little bit stronger. The way that kid looks at others is rather eccentric. He is definitely an extremely ruthless person!”

“Heh, Gao Yu and Liu Yan are currently within Artifact Tower. Before I came out, I saw both of them.”

“……”

As Qin Lie walked towards Scripture Tower, a group of Nebula Pavilion’s practitioners were all conversing with each other, comparing him with Gao Yu. They discussed who would win in a fight between the two of them, eventually unanimously deciding that Gao Yu was slightly stronger. However, this made it so that none of them dared to casually provoke either one.

“Qin Lie!”

At this time, from the entrance of Artifact Tower, Liu Yan’s voice emanated over. Standing beside Liu Yan was Gao Yu, his eyes indeed sinister and cold.

The two of them had originally been within Artifact Tower. Upon hearing the sounds of fighting outside, the two of them had walked out, only to see that the fight was over. However, with just a glance, they discovered Qin Lie who was walking towards Scripture Tower.

“Big Brother Liu, Gao Yu.” Qin Lie stopped in front of the entrance to Scripture Tower, turning his head towards the two as he asked, “How come the two of you are also here?”

“We were trying to see if there were any good things within Artifact Tower when we heard the sounds of fighting, so we decided to come take a look,” said Liu Yan with a smile.

He looked around, glancing in the direction of Dou Yang. Through the eyes that were all still staring in Qin Lie’s direction, he suddenly exclaimed, “Was it you who fought with Dou Yang?”

Qin Lie nodded.

“Haha, you and Gao Yu, you two brats, are truly prickly! In the three days since Gao Yu entered the pavilion, he has already fought a fiery battle with Hall Master Fang Tong, who is under Elder Weixing’s command. When did you enter? How come you too have already picked a fight?” asked Liu Yan with a weird expression.

“I just entered today,” said Qin Lie, explaining, “That Dou Yang’s mouth was too cheap and deliberately begged me for a fight. I was only fulfilling his wishes.”

“Ha!” Liu Yan turned his head to look at Dou Yang only to discover that him and the other subordinates of Du Haitian were currently walking away with dark, cold expressions. “You and Gao Yu are truly of the same caliber, causing trouble as soon as you arrive. Compared with others who came here with their own power, you two are a little bit too conspicuous.”

“Some people’s mouths are just too smelly and it causes my skin to itch unbearably. If I don’t teach them a lesson, I will feel uncomfortable,” said Gao Yu with a cold expression, his eyes dark. “What Qin Lie did was right. Nice guys are the ones that get bullied. If you behave properly here, it will only bring you trouble. Only if you shatter a few teeth will their mouths be a little cleaner.”

His sinister eyes swept across the surrounding crowd. Those who he looked at all just awkwardly laughed dryly.

It seemed as if they all held some fear towards him.

“It is good that you came, otherwise, it would seem rather boring here,” said Gao Yu, looking at Qin Lie. With a cold expression, he continued, “Last time, we weren’t able to say who won and who lost. I will wait for you to break through to the ninth level of the Refinement Realm, and then we shall fight again!”

“No problem,” readily agreed Qin Lie, nodding.

“Young Master Gao, forget about it. Don’t go around finding trouble for yourself,” said Liu Yan bitterly laughing, “Last time, you were already at a disadvantage, why can’t you remember it? It isn’t a problem for you to fight anyone. You were even able to fight Fang Tong. However, against Qin Lie… I advise you to forget about it. This guy’s existence is just to restrain you.”

As soon as his remark was made, all of the nearby Nebula Pavilion practitioners who had yet to disperse all looked towards them with a look of astonishment.

Listening to Liu Yan’s words, Gao Yu had actually been defeated by Qin Lie before. How could this be?

When they looked at Qin Lie again, they suddenly felt as if Qin Lie was becoming more and more profound and unfathomable, causing them to become more and more afraid to look down on him.