Victory

"Boom boom boom boom..."

Wherever the talismans spread, the explosion reached. Wave after wave of detonations made the air scorching hot and caused turbulent air currents on the Wind Cloud Platform.

Lü Wangji pushed his True Qi, forming a water-wave-like Qi mass outside his body, covering him entirely. But under the continuous explosions, even someone with abundant True Qi like him couldn't withstand the consumption. His protective True Qi thinned at a visible rate.

Simultaneously, the explosion reached its peak.

"Boom!"

All the talismans were consumed. The firelight and air currents on the Wind Cloud Platform surged wildly, causing the surrounding crowd to shield their faces with their hands, their hearts pounding with shock.

Qi Changsheng and Luo Yi almost couldn't resist rushing onto the platform.

But Feng Ziyang, responsible for adjudicating and protecting the disciples in the duel, remained motionless, merely floating quietly in mid-air, observing the scene within the firelight.

The battle wasn't over yet.

"Pfft—"

Lü Wangji spat out bright red blood. His cyan robe was tattered, revealing scorched marks all over his body. He forced his True Qi to block the remaining firelight and took out a white porcelain bottle from his bosom, just about to open it.

As descendants of Shennong, the Jiang family naturally wouldn't be ignorant of medicine. Moreover, Lü Wangji wasn't an unlucky fellow like Jiang Li who had lost support; he always carried various medicinal pills on him.

But before he could open the porcelain bottle, a golden light flashed before him. Jiang Li tapped Lü Wangji's wrist, causing the bottle to fly from his grasp. Simultaneously, Jiang Li swiftly caught it and tucked it into his sleeve.

"Senior Brother, a duel is a duel, but cheating with medicinal pills isn't allowed."

Jiang Li, who had already secretly taken a pill himself, wore a righteous expression. His palms struck out like twin dragons emerging from the sea, aiming straight for the chest.

The defensive power of the Six Ding Six Jia Protection Talisman surpassed that of a True Qi shield. Furthermore, Jiang Li had prepared as many as fifty protection talismans, fully capable of withstanding the continuous bombardment. This was the foundation of Jiang Li's confidence in using the art of explosion.

Compared to Lü Wangji at this moment, Jiang Li's condition couldn't be better.

"Bang."

Both palms pressed against the chest, force surging in and out, colliding with the rebounding True Qi. Surprise still lingered on Lü Wangji's face, but his reactions remained sharp. He didn't hesitate to borrow the force and retreat backward.

But Jiang Li followed like a shadow, unleashing a chain of five techniques—fist, palm, finger, claw, leg—raining down on Lü Wangji like a torrential storm, beating him until he vomited blood and retreated continuously.

"Anticipating the enemy's moves, how is that possible?" Lü Wangji completely lost his composure.

He realized he had completely lost the initiative in terms of techniques. Jiang Li anticipated his moves, responding each time he attacked. In close combat, he was being completely suppressed.

This was clearly the observational ability of the Louguan Sword Art, but Jiang Li wasn't pinching his fingers to calculate right now, and the calculation power he displayed far exceeded when his hand was behind his back.

"You can already perform mental calculation?" Lü Wangji cried out.

"And when did you get the misconception that I couldn't?"

Jiang Li laughed heartily. On the book visible only to him, text flashed rapidly, scrolling down like a waterfall.

Pinching fingers was for auxiliary calculation, compensating for insufficient calculation power. But Jiang Li had the Causality Collection as a tool, allowing him to quickly draft calculations. Pinching fingers actually slowed down his calculation rhythm.

The reason he kept his hand behind his back was, firstly, because it looked cool, and secondly, to mislead the enemy.

While speaking, Jiang Li flashed closer. His arm flicked out like a whip towards Lü Wangji's face.

Lü Wangji quickly bent his arm to the side, blocking the vicious blow, but didn't anticipate Jiang Li's other hand shooting up from below, striking Lü Wangji's lower abdomen Dantian from an extremely awkward angle. This caused his Qi and blood to surge, resulting in a Qi backlash.

He couldn't help but spit out another mouthful of blood. Jiang Li then retracted his move, transforming it into a palm strike. Palm force blasted out like a river wave, sending Lü Wangji flying backward off the Wind Cloud Platform, about to fall like a bird with broken wings.

"Victory decided."

Feng Ziyang raised his hand, sending out a beam of sword light that caught Lü Wangji and delivered him to the cliff edge.

"Senior Brother, you let me win."

On the Wind Cloud Platform, Jiang Li calmly clasped his fist in salute. While saying "you let me win," his gaze was fixed directly on Luo Yi, as if waiting for him to send out the next punching bag.

"Junior Brother Jiang's strength is extraordinary. Senior Brother is impressed."

Lü Wangji managed to suppress his churning Qi, blood, and injuries. A slight smile appeared on his face, showing no anger. "What I said earlier still stands. If Junior Brother is interested, the Dao Fruits for Warlock and Qi Refiner are ready. Junior Brother can come and take them anytime. Additionally, if Junior Brother is willing to abandon past grievances, I also welcome it."

Warlock was a Rank 8 Dao Fruit, and Qi Refiner was Rank 7. These two Dao Fruits aligned quite well with Jiang Li's current path. Lü Wangji had truly researched Jiang Li.

However, Jiang Li showed no intention of being swayed. "I'll stick to my previous answer: I refuse."

Sugar-coated bullets are still bullets. You might think you ate the sugar coating and threw the bullet back, but others might not see it that way. If misunderstood, all of Jiang Li's previous efforts would be wasted.

Hearing this, Lü Wangji showed a look of regret.

He stepped back two paces, pressed down on Luo Yi's hand, which was about to rise, shook his head slightly, and whispered, "He took my Yuan Replenishing Pill."

It was now past noon, and Jiang Li had a Yuan Replenishing Pill in hand. Although the tactic of wearing him down with successive opponents still had some meaning, it could no longer succeed. Sending more people would only expose their own identities.

"This time, we lost. Let's go."

Whispering this, Lü Wangji's face paled, his injuries seemingly flaring up again. Seeing this, Luo Yi quickly supported him, and they retreated together.

This also marked the end of the confrontation between Jiang Li and the Jiang family this time.

'This way, the opportunity for tendon transformation and marrow cleansing is secured. The reason Jiang Zhuyun wants to kill me, the conflict between the Jiang family and the sect—perhaps some clues can be found from this tendon transformation and marrow cleansing.'

Jiang Li's eyelids lowered slightly as he thought inwardly.

Then, fine beads of sweat suddenly appeared on his face. His body swayed, looking as if he might collapse at any moment.

After battling an expert like Lü Wangji, even though Jiang Li won, it was reasonable for him to be injured and his True Qi severely depleted, right?

Seeing such an opportunity, wouldn't the Senior and Junior Brothers below the platform come up and offer a wave of merit points?

Senior Brother Feng, won't you give a few more pills?

However, neither Feng Ziyang nor the crowd on the cliff edge reacted to this situation.

Feng Ziyang had seen Jiang Li snatch the porcelain bottle, and the others... they had witnessed this scene far too many times already.

For the past few hours, Jiang Li had looked like he was about to collapse, about to collapse, but when Lü Wangji came onto the stage, he suddenly became full of vigor, beating Lü Wangji until he repeatedly vomited blood.

If they still believed he was about to collapse now, they deserved to lose two hundred merit points.

However, the crowd didn't leave immediately. Instead, they looked at the figure on the Wind Cloud Platform with expressions of yearning.

Today, they had witnessed the birth of a legend in the outer sect.

"Senior Brother Jiang."

Someone started calling him Senior Brother, and then, one after another, the outer disciples joined in.

"Senior Brother Jiang."

"Senior Brother Jiang."

Among disciples, unless they shared the same master, the relationship of senior and junior brother was tacitly determined by strength.

And people are naturally drawn to the strong; this was no exception even in an orthodox sect.

Jiang Li fought from morning till afternoon, defeating over twenty people in succession, and even vanquished a strong expert like Lü Wangji, proving his strength. The outer disciples who witnessed all this, driven by their admiration for the strong, offered their cheers to the victor, Jiang Li, at this moment.

Time gradually passed amidst the rising shouts, eventually reaching sunset.