Chapter 123: Tianzi Wangqi

　　Zhao Xiaoyu who stood in mid-air and swayed along the wind was bathed in a pale holy glow. Unlike the moon, she was not reflecting the brightness of the sun. She was emanating the glow from within, just like the stars.

　　A white mark with the shape of lotus flower appeared between her brows, and her body that was clothed in holy glow fell and rose in the wind. It was hard to gauge her actual location.

　　The Empress stood on a broad piece of lotus leaf, and her gaze was bursting with divine lights as she sized up Zhao Xiaoyu.

　　The move earlier was indeed a great skill that needed no work. Most cultivators that had not attained the state of Huandan would not be able to dodge away from it.

　　Faced with such strong power, the troops of the army in Shendu City was but a joke. When cultivators had transcended worldliness and attained holiness, mere numbers could not eliminate them.

　　Unless it was like the peculiar formation used by the army troops back in the ancient times, drawing upon the unknown and unseen force in the heaven and earth, or even to utilize the Qi of blood and Qi of devilry. Only then would they stand a chance against these supernatural beings.

　　The breeze was free and so was the moon, together they brought refreshing coolness to the Southern Tower.

　　Shen Lian was not at the tower, but he was at the top of the willow tree. He did not look at the bright moon that rose up behind him.

　　The massive Qi dynamic of the Empress was more eye-catching than the bright moon, and Zhao Xiaoyu was like the clear breeze that no one could restrain.

　　The Empress’ eyes changed, and it was as though her haze had taken on a physical form and encapsulated Zhao Xiaoyu within it, rendering everything on her visible. Everything that she was hiding had been exposed.

　　Shen Lian even had the feeling that the transmission of his breath fell within the Empress’ gaze despite that her attention was not directed at him.

　　“Your Majesty, your Tianzi Wangqi Technique is impressive,” said Zhao Xiaoyu as her gentle voice drifted in the wind.

　　Her body melted into the intangible wind. The wind was intangible and without a physical form, any attack from the Empress was moot. However, when the Empress was using “Tianzi Wangqi Technique”, she could not escape from the Empress’ eyes even if she had become a gust of wind.

　　Watch its Qi, and restrict its shape.

　　During the ancient times, there was Saint Tianzi who observed the Qi of four seasons and managed their mountains and rivers; Shen Lian did not expect the Empress to know this technique. He could not see the inheritance of the Empress because the supernatural Dao techniques that she exhibited were pretty similar to that of authentic Xuanmen.

　　From her movement earlier, one could tell that her physical form was scarily brutal. Her body advanced with the sonic speed of the explosion, the quality of her body was very impressive.

　　It was obvious that the Empress’ dragon robe and crown was not just any common item, which would explain how they survived the high-speed movement.

　　Cultivator of Qi could tap into the essence of heaven and earth and trained their physical body, but there was a limit as to how much they can do. If they were to cultivate their physical body till it was indestructible, put aside the amount of effort required, they would need to secure a corresponding Dharma as well.

　　At the last stage of cultivation right before the attainment of longevity, the body would become dispensable. When the body broke through from the Absurd State, the Primordial Spirit would be formed. Those that gathered would take shape, while those that did not would become Qi and would be able to travel for tens of thousands of miles and be freed of the struggle of life, old age, sickness, and death.

　　This was why the Daoist addressed the cultivators of Qi who had not attained longevity as corpse-guarding ghosts – a clear illustration of how the physical body was merely playing its final role in the attainment of longevity.

　　The intangible wind was frozen by the Tianzi Wangqi Technique, and Zhao Xiaoyu descended slowly. Her Yin Spirit was not out of her body, and she was not a cultivator of Buxu, it was not possible for her to stand on thin air. Cultivators could fly with the help of Daoist techniques or instruments. However, only those who had attained the Daoist state of “Buxu”, or those who had cultivated Ruyi shapeshifting, or those who were born with such a supernatural power could get rid of the gravity so easily.

　　Zhao Xiaoyu was walking on the path of Shen, but she still had not reached the state where she could dispense with her physical body. A pinch of black soil appeared on her porcelain-white hand. It had a smooth surface and an unknown aura.

　　The Empress backed away immediately after she saw it, but it was too late.

　　Shen Lian who was far away felt a sudden rush of complicated feelings, and his spirit was caught in a state of confusion due to the intensity of the drastic changes before him. His heart of Dao was still, and he did not panic. The bright moon was nowhere to be seen, it was not at the top of the willow tree. The space was darkening, and less than a thousand feet away, the world was shrouded in darkness.

　　His body fell naturally and was as light as feather.

　　In the end, he found himself standing. Meanwhile, the Empress and Zhao Xiaoyu stood over a hundred feet away, and the distance between the two was less than fifty feet. Those two were a lot closer to each other now.

　　“I didn’t think that you would have the Divine Soil in your possession. To think that you would use something as rare and precious as this,” the Empress said coldly.

　　When he heard this, Shen Lian finally realized why the Empress distanced herself immediately the moment she saw the black soil. Allegedly, there were a lot of holy deities during the ancient days. Even though the Dao path was blocked, but there were still similarities between the almighties.

　　If the holy deities were powerful, they could create their place of enlightenment in the void which was independent of the Boundless Universe. The heavenly palace in the legends and mythologies was the Heavenly King’s place of enlightenment. The Heavenly King, Dijun, had limitless mana, which was why the size of the heavenly palace was comparable to that of the Boundless Universe. The Western Paradise was the place of enlightenment of the Amitabha, and it too was limitless.

　　Besides these two famous places of enlightenment, the other almighty of the path of Shen had their own place of enlightenment too, and they were known as Heavenly Nations. Similarly, the counterpart for the ancient Saint Tianzi would be the Emperor’s Nation.

　　Regardless of the Emperor’s Nation, the Heavenly Nations, or the holy deities’ place of enlightenment, they were all man-made space. The bigger ones would be akin to Mount Sumeru, while the smaller ones were akin to the size of a mustard seed. All of them had differing abstruseness from the Boundless Universe, and a lot of precious things were born there.

　　Zhao Xiaoyu’s Divine Soil was a material from one of the almighty Heavenly Nations. If it was used by a cultivator who was good at forging, he could create an instrument that had the function of storage and trapping humans. Despite the Technique of Having An Ace Up One’s Sleeve that Shen Lian used, he had to constantly instill mana to maintain it. If he were to lose all of his mana or to meet his death, all of his mana would collapse and what he was carrying up in his sleeve would probably be lost forever.

　　There were countless of space-related magical talisman, and the space inside could be said to be in a world of its own.

　　The space created by Zhao Xiaoyu’s Divine Soil was not particularly huge, but it was merely meant to be the final battleground between the two of them. Moreover, without being forged into an instrument or magic talisman, the space created by the Divine Soil could not be brought away.

　　It was not that Zhao Xiaoyu did not want to forge it into an instrument, but she simply did not have the capability to do it. Moreover, to forge a space-related instrument or magic talisman, a lot more precious ingredients were needed besides the Divine Soil. Even with the help of the best master in forgery, a lot of effort was required.

　　It was unspoken that she was determined to have the final battle with the Empress.

　　Having worshipped the Divine Soil prior to this, Zhao Xiaoyu had attained control of the space. Even a cultivator who had attained the Seven Transformations of Huandan would be at her mercy the moment he entered into this space.

　　Shendu was the home ground for the Empress and Zhao Xiaoyu had no chance of winning. However, having undone the Empress’ formation, both of them could battle fairly on equal grounds now. What the Empress did not expect was that Zhao Xiaoyu had something as precious as the Divine Soil in her possession. The Empress was placed in a reactive position now.

　　Shen Lian observed the both of them in silence, and he did not say much. Zhao Xiaoyu did not need to drag him into this, but she did it nonetheless. Was she trying to catch all the fish with one net, or was she planning something else?