Volume 1, Chapter 142 – The Limit

“General.”

Shi Lan came to stand before Bai Weiyang, bowed slightly, and looked at him with some confusion.

“Attack me with everything you have, let me see your limit.”

“?”

Shi Lan did not react for a moment and froze.

“The number of Heavenly Astral Realm experts under this general is limited, and there are not many late Earth Fiend Realm martial artists either. You may have only just stepped into the Earth Fiend Realm, but I can see that your strength is far from stopping there. I need a clear grasp of your true power so I can assign some Earth Fiend Realm martial artists under your command.”

Bai Weiyang gave a brief explanation, then retreated nearly a hundred zhang in a single step and beckoned to Shi Lan. “Use your full strength, do not hold back.”

“Yes.”

Shi Lan did not hesitate in the slightest. She raised her hand and summoned the Purple Star Seven-Section Halberd. The vast true qi in her body began to surge and flow.

The several hundred people who had been about to leave all stopped when they saw this scene, each of them surprised. Were they going to spar?

The halberd blade trembled lightly, a soft white glow rising along its edge. Shi Lan stared fixedly at Bai Weiyang, calming her heart and condensing her qi, doing her utmost to adjust herself to her peak state.

As for what level her own strength had actually reached now, Shi Lan did not have a clear evaluation either. This time, Bai Weiyang testing her strength was also an excellent opportunity for her.

She had never really come into contact with martial artists of the Myriad Phenomena Realm before, so she did not know what level their strength was at. From the information she had learned, Heavenly Astral Realm martial artists had already placed one foot in death and rebirth. With a thousand years of lifespan, they had stepped into the ranks of the half-immortals.

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And after the Heavenly Astral Realm, the Myriad Phenomena Realm underwent a transformation akin to being reborn. By that reckoning, even treating them directly as “immortals” was not inappropriate.

The realm that surpassed the limits mortals could reach was the Myriad Phenomena Realm.

“Huu…”

Shi Lan exhaled slowly, her gaze growing sharper.

From beginning to end, she never said anything ridiculous like telling Bai Weiyang to be careful. Let alone that she was only in the Earth Fiend Realm now, even if she were in the Heavenly Astral Realm, she might not be able to injure even a single hair on Bai Weiyang’s head.

Crack, boom!

With a deafening roar, Shi Lan’s figure vanished in an instant, leaving only a pit over three chi deep and nearly a zhang across where she had been standing.

Brilliant light flickered as a dazzling halberd aura tore through the air, crossing the hundred-zhang distance in a flash to cleave down toward Bai Weiyang’s head.

Bai Weiyang was slightly surprised, but did not dodge. He lifted a finger lightly, drawing the surrounding spiritual qi of heaven and earth together into a barrier that intercepted the halberd aura.

Shi Lan appeared above Bai Weiyang’s head almost simultaneously, gripping the battle halberd with both hands as she chopped down in an inverted strike.

At this moment, radiance seemed to glow from Shi Lan’s skin, light flowing over her body. Her aura was like a volcano, filled with an oppressive pressure.

She had mobilized every bit of strength in her body, even pushing the Jade Tempering Art to its limit.

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When the halberd aura’s chopping momentum was blocked, Shi Lan’s expression did not change. The halberd shaft shifted slightly in her hands, and more than twice her original true qi surged out. A shock force crashed down, burrowing into that barrier.

Crack.

With a crisp sound, a crack half a zhang long appeared on the spiritual qi barrier, but it quickly vanished without a trace, filled in and repaired by spiritual qi.

This brief exchange made quite a few people around them change color, especially those in the Innate Realm.

“At first when I heard that Chen Qi had all his joints shattered by a single move from this Shi Lan, I thought it was just rumors getting exaggerated. Now it seems it wasn’t out of nowhere.”

“Far from it. With that strike just now, even a late Earth Fiend Realm martial artist would have to pay a price to take it, there is no way to come out unscathed.”

Several Earth Fiend Realm martial artists spoke up one after another, muttering in low voices, each wearing a complicated expression.

Every one of these people was a mid to high-ranking figure of some power, some were even the heads of their respective forces. Each had run rampant in this region for at least several decades.

Now, suddenly seeing a junior not yet thirty whose cultivation was already close to, even surpassing, their own, how could their hearts possibly remain calm?

Shen Tianlan stood among the people of Sky Thunder Hall. Feeling the terrifying waves of energy spilling out, he could not help but give a slight shake of his head.

“How do you feel right now?”

Lei Wuji did not know when he had arrived at the plaza, but he now stood beside Shen Tianlan.

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“Disciple only feels that, if I had refused to admit defeat back at the martial meet, the outcome probably would not have been any different.” Shen Tianlan said calmly.

“You were born with a Thunder Spirit Body. Fighting beyond your realm is your everyday norm. To sweep through the mid Earth Fiend Realm as soon as you step into it already marks you as a peerless talent, but compared to this Shi Lan, you are still more than a step behind.”

Lei Wuji waved a hand. “But you do not need to belittle yourself. You started too late. Even though you temper your body with heavenly thunder day and night, you still cannot compare to others who built their foundations from childhood. You have only been on the martial path for eight years. In the future, it is not certain you will not surpass Shi Lan.”

“Master, you are wrong.” Shen Tianlan gave a slight shake of his head and, unusually, refuted Lei Wuji’s words.

Lei Wuji was slightly taken aback.

“There is no chance.”

Looking at the radiant woman in midair, Shen Tianlan spoke in a flat tone.

“I am not her equal.”

……

Looking at the barrier beneath her that had recovered in an instant, the sharp light in Shi Lan’s eyes did not diminish in the least. She reversed her grip on the halberd, her body suddenly dropping down, and in the blink of an eye she shot to within less than three chi of the barrier.

The halberd shaft in her hands bent like a great bow being drawn to its fullest, then snapped forward all at once. Space hummed and shuddered, stirring up a sweeping wave of qi.

Shi Lan’s long black hair loosened and scattered slightly while her hands remained rock-steady. A burst force driven to its absolute limit exploded out.

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Crack, bang.

A gap was whipped open in the barrier. Shi Lan slipped through it like a fish in water, and true qi ripples rose once more along the halberd blade.

The surprise in Bai Weiyang’s eyes deepened. He raised his hand and closed his fingers. The spiritual qi barrier behind Shi Lan rapidly folded in, forming a giant cocoon that wrapped her inside and began to tighten quickly.

Hundreds of halberd auras poured out like a storm, hacking against the spiritual qi barrier. The clashes rang out in a constant metallic clamor that grated on the ears.

Many Innate Realm martial artists could not endure the series of metal-splitting sounds that felt like they would pierce their eardrums, and they withdrew several hundred zhang in succession.

After nearly a quarter of an hour, Shi Lan lowered her battle halberd, slightly out of breath. She had been fighting at her absolute limit the whole time. Thanks to the spirit marrow as her foundation, her true qi reserves could still hold on, but her meridians were already struggling to bear the rampaging true qi and ached faintly.

The spiritual qi barrier had thickened by nearly half again. Shi Lan simply could not break it and was unable to escape.

The halberd auras she chopped out could only barely slow the barrier’s tightening speed. They treated the symptoms but not the root. For the moment, Shi Lan was trapped.

Staring at the barrier that was still slowly closing in, Shi Lan tentatively opened the Black Domain.

The instant the Black Domain appeared, the spiritual qi barrier collapsed and was then swallowed up by it.

A flicker of doubt flashed in Bai Weiyang’s eyes. Then, as if to confirm something, he raised his hand once more, and a tide of spiritual qi from heaven and earth nearly ten times denser than before surged toward her.