Chapter 1234: No I, No Enemy

“Hahaha! Exhilarating! Simply exhilarating!”

There was a loud boom, and Taba Xuanwu rolled at least a hundred meters across the ground before he stabbed the Tyrant King Halberd into the ground to arrest his momentum, accidentally lifting the entire chunk of earth into the air as a result. At the distance, Ye Qing was also being pushed back by his technique, “No I”. He let out a mad laugh before saying, “It’s been a long time since I fought such an exhilarating fight!”

Right now, half of Ye Qing’s legs were buried under the ground. His body wasn’t moving, but the earth beneath his feet was surging constantly like a tidal wave.

“It is exhilarating,” Ye Qing echoed in agreement as he snapped his broken fingers back into position one by one, eyes burning with fighting spirit.

He was speaking the truth. In the past, whether the person he was fighting was stronger or weaker than him, and whether or not it was a fight to the death, the large majority of the fights had ended in a short time. Some were as short as a few breaths, and some a teatime or so. Very rarely was there a fight that lasted several hours without a clear victor.

It wasn’t like he was holding back either, He did not use the Earthly Sovereign Bell, but he had used practically every art and Magia he knew including the Earthly Sovereign True Body, Suppression Hammer and Break Hammer, Intercept and Breakthrough, the Yin Yang Spell Eyes, the Nine Impetus of Tai Chi, the Hellfire Red Lotus Saber Art, Heavenly Demon Captures The Soul, the Boundless Heart Demon Tribulation and more.

Body, mind, fist, saber, Strange Artifacts, Magia... he had used practically every technique and trump card he had. Even so, he was unable to push Taba Xuanwu to the brink of defeat.

Taba Xuanwu was a body-tempering Great Grandmaster, and his main cultivation art was called the “God Demon Tyrant King Scripture of No I”. Said to be invented by the ancient god of war Tyrant Xiang[1], “God Demon Tyrant King Scripture of No I” was a martial art with major focus in body and strength.

Having mastered the “God Demon Tyrant King Scripture of No I” a long time ago, Taba Xuanwu was as tough as he was strong. In terms of physical endurance and strength alone, he was undoubtedly the equal of Ye Qing.

Taba Xuanwu’s one weakness was that his mind and spirit were slightly behind his physique, and he was unfamiliar with spiritual secret arts. However, the Tyrant King Halberd he practiced was a military art, and it boasted peerless strength and unparalleled might. Not only that, Taba Xuanwu had joined the army since young and experienced all kinds of hardships. The battlefield hadn’t just honed his body and heart, it also engrained fearlessness and deadliness into his very bones.

Thanks to this, the Tyrant King Halberd Art became even deadlier than it already was. There was no secret art or Magia that his undying will of war and death could not rip apart, which was why it was extremely difficult to harm Taba Xuanwu.

Finally, Taba Xuanwu possessed a tenacious will and an extreme wealth of combat experience. In fact, he was even more experienced than Ye Qing. That was why he could handle any technique calmly and correctly.

This was why Ye Qing could not defeat Taba Xuanwu even though he was stronger than the general in terms of mind and spirit, and the “Paranirmitavaśavartin Heavenly Demon Sutra” was profound like no other.

Ye Qing’s greatest advantage over his enemies was the fact that he was a perfect all-rounder. Powerful both in body and mind, he could always employ one aspect or the other to gain the upper hand over his enemies and dominate them. However, Taba Xuanwu was his equal in terms of body and strength, and his mental arts were useless against him. That was why he just could not overwhelm Taba Xuanwu.

Of course, Taba Xuanwu could not overwhelm him either. This was why the duo had entered a stalemate.

On top of that, they were powerful and vigorous Great Grandmasters with a near bottomless well of stamina. Their fight was unending even though several hours had passed since they began.

No one had any complaints regarding the fight though. It was a pure duel where nothing—not life or death, not favor or grievances, not even profit or self-interest—but the fight mattered. There was only an exhilarating exchange of blows where both sides gave everything they had.

It had been a long time since Ye Qing had had such a pure exchange of martial arts. As such, it was greatly beneficial to his cultivation and his martial way.

Not only was he discovering the flaws in his skills and correcting them, he was growing stronger in terms of spirit and becoming perfect in terms of the heart.

Besides that, his understanding of the Undying True Blood inside his body was deepening as well.

In conclusion, this was turning out to be quite the rewarding fight.

“It’s getting late. Let’s decide this in one blow, shall we?”

Taba Xuanwu began growing taller as a thick crimson aura of war and death flooded out of his person. The red aura transformed into ghastly patterns of gods and demons, and a hat with a peacock tail feather[2] appeared on his head. Demonic patterns crawled all over his face, and a terrifying, fiendish aura surged into the sky. It stirred the heaven and earth around him like the conqueror he was.

“God Demon Tyrant King Golden Body”

The “God Demon Tyrant King Golden Body” was the martial true body Taba Xuanwu gained after pushing the “God Demon Tyrant King Scripture of No I” to the adept level. At this level, his body was as indomitable as a god or a demon, and his strength was literally endless. It was Taba Xuanwu’s strongest technique.

Taba Xuanwu grabbed the Tyrant King Halberd on the ground, and the weapon suddenly grew bigger as well. The stench of death the halberd was giving off was so terrible that the skies turned as dark as the night, and ghastly wails filled the ears.

“Very well. Let’s decide this in one blow!” Ye Qing echoed in agreement. As he spoke, dark yellow light shone brightly, and the sun and the moon rose and fell inside his eyes, transforming into yin and yang. His body was like the profound heavens and the steady ground, and there was neither him nor enemies inside his heart. Such was the way of the Earthly Sovereign True Body.

“Here I come!”

Taba Xuanwu let out a long battle cry and raised his arms over his head, spinning the Tyrant King Halberd. The air currents began churning wildly, the aura of death spilled everywhere, and the wind howled like dragons and tigers. He looked invincible and unstoppable.

As the Tyrant King Halberd spun, a dragon and a tiger appeared above the nine heavens. They were chasing each other. Then, the clouds took the form of a terrifying god demon and roared loudly. It consumed the clouds and devoured the sun and the moon, plunging it all into absolute darkness.

“No I, no enemy[3]! Take this—

Invincible!

”

Taba Xuanwu leaped into the sky so high that, for a moment, he was on the same level as the ninth firmament. Then, he descended.

Like a true god-demon, Taba Xuanwu dragged the invisible fabrics that was the nine heavens with him and crashed toward Ye Qing.

I am invincible! Heaven and earth tremble before my presence!

“No I, no enemy, huh?”

Right now, Ye Qing felt like Taba Xuanwu was the god who overturned heaven and earth; the demon whose only match was himself.

Ye Qing was fearless, however. He began bending his knees slowly. Every time he dropped lower, the earth within dozens of kilometers of him would vibrate as if cheering or resonating with him.

When Ye Qing’s legs were bent about ninety degrees, the mountains were shaking, and the earth was crying.

At this moment, Ye Qing was the earth, and the earth was Ye Qing.

The earth is me, so I too am invincible!

Ready, Ye Qing raised his hand, clenched his fist, and punched.

𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

The punch looked ordinary, but the Five Phases plunged into chaos, the four cardinal directions became confused, heaven and earth turned upside down, and yin and yang shook violently at its emergence.

The next moment, his fist intent shot up to the nine firmaments.

The fist intent was neither grand nor vast. In fact, it looked weak like the flicker of a lamp in a rainstorm, threatening to go out to the powerful wind and extinguish under the heavy downpour.

And yet, it refused to vanish no matter what.

The fist intent made contact with Taba Xuanwu. The next moment, the Five Phases dissolved into primal chaos, the four cardinal directions shattered into a directionless maze, heaven and earth returned to nothingness, and yin and yang were blown away into a chaotic mess. It felt as if the sky, the ground, the sun, the moon, the stars, everything was returning to nothingness.

This was an anti-world[4] where even heaven and earth had shattered, so how could a mere god-demon survive? Naturally, Taba Xuanwu’s invincible and endless force returned to nothingness as well.

Taba Xuanwu looked stunned as blood jetted out of his orifices. He flew backward until he crashed into the walls of Cloud Hue Pass. The structure spanning over hundreds of meters dissolved into fine powder just like that. Strangely, there was no sound. In fact, no sound could be heard in this corner of the world for a very long time.

One breath, two breaths, three breaths... a hundred breaths...

It wasn’t until a hundred breaths later that sound finally returned to this world. It began from absolute nothing to a low hum, then a low hum to the usual volume once more. The wind, the clouds, the people. It was as if this corner of the world had regained its vitality once more.

Not a moment too soon, countless elite cavalrymen rode out of Cloud Hue Pass and split into two. One of them charged into the giant pile of powder in search of Taba Xuanwu, and the other went straight for Ye Qing.

They were about thirty meters away from Ye Qing when they slammed into what felt like an invisible wall. Naturally, they fell all over the place.

1. Reference to Xiang Yu. ☜

2. The design is to show his official ranking. ☜

3. No enemy in Chinese can also be interpreted as invincible. He’s basically saying that my only match in this world is myself. ☜

4. Just a description, don’t think deep into it. ☜