Chapter 37: I Won’t Kill You

Qu Yi quickly took out over a hundred lower-grade spirit stones, pressing them with both hands. His internal cultivation techniques immediately activated, and his lungs, heart, liver, and spleen acted like four black holes, instantly devouring all the lower-grade spirit stones and restoring his vital energy.
Having lower-grade spirit stones was a boon, and only Qu Yi could do this—after all, having dug up a spirit stone vein, he had an abundance of them to spare.
Qu Yi had regained all his strength!
Liu Qingfeng, having been stabbed, had to use his vital energy to heal himself. Fortunately, his Wood-type vital energy, which he had cultivated, was highly effective for healing. After a few cycles, the wound had already healed.
“Qu Yi, you’re great, truly great. You’ve completely provoked all my anger,” Liu Qingfeng’s icy voice almost froze the surrounding space.
Liu Qingfeng had originally thought that with his strength at the early Golden Core stage, it would take him just a breath’s time to eliminate Qu Yi. But to his surprise, Qu Yi launched a desperate attack and managed to stab him first.
If he didn’t suppress this anger, he would surely die from it.
So, Liu Qingfeng acted. His Golden Jade Sword suddenly emitted a green glow, and in an instant, he appeared in front of Qu Yi, his sword light flashing wildly.
Liu Qingfeng actually wanted to engage in close combat and stab Qu Yi to death!
Close combat? Qu Yi was amused. Liu Qingfeng had abandoned his strengths and, driven by anger, chosen to fight him up close.
What was Qu Yi’s greatest strength? It was his movement skills, perfect for close combat.
In the divine technique “Five Energies and Three Flowers,” there were five speed techniques: the Gold-type “Inch-by-Inch Speed,” the Wood-type “Silent Wind,” the Water-type “Flowing Clouds,” the Fire-type “Lightning Speed,” and the Earth-type “Compressing Space.” In previous battles, Qu Yi had always used the Gold-type “Inch-by-Inch Speed” and had never used the other four.
This time, he still used “Inch-by-Inch Speed.”
As Liu Qingfeng’s sword light moved, Qu Yi’s body moved with incredible agility, dodging left and right, always managing to make Liu Qingfeng’s sword strikes miss.
“Liu Qingfeng, you have no eyes. No wonder your sword doesn’t either. I’m right here—why are you stabbing in that direction?”
“Liu Qingfeng, to be honest, your appearance is second to none even in the Xianyun Sect. But it’s a shame to pair it with someone whose attacks are so mediocre.”
“Liu Qingfeng, I feel ashamed for you. How many swords have you thrown? The sword light is pretty, but what good is that? Are you here to kill me or to perform for me?”
……
As he effortlessly dodged, Qu Yi kept up his verbal attacks, constantly provoking Liu Qingfeng.

Liu Qingfeng was completely driven mad. In the Xianyun Sect, when had he ever heard such vulgar insults from villagers? Now, Qu Yi had even brought out all the vicious words he had learned in Linshan Village. Liu Qingfeng almost cut off his own ears—such things were unbearable!

Fueled by anger, Liu Qingfeng’s attacks became even more frantic, with his sword beams slashing out without pause, lighting up the entire valley. Although Qu Yi was quick to dodge, he still felt increasing pressure. After all, Liu Qingfeng was at the early stage of the Golden Core realm, and the energy in each of his sword strikes was so intense that it left Qu Yi struggling to breathe. Naturally, realizing the situation was turning unfavorable, Qu Yi no longer wanted to play around with Liu Qingfeng.

The sword beams flew toward him; he dodged swiftly and stepped back. Unintentionally, Qu Yi retreated hundreds of meters, returning to where he had started. As the fight continued, Liu Qingfeng’s mind gradually calmed down. Seeing Qu Yi backing away while dodging, he began to doubt and stopped pursuing him.

The distance between the two was now about ten meters.

“Liu Qingfeng, so your mind has cleared? Not bad. You realize you can’t defeat me, so you don’t waste your energy chasing after me,” Qu Yi said, smiling despite his annoyance.

If Liu Qingfeng didn’t come over, his carefully set up formation wouldn’t be able to affect him.

“Qu Yi, your movement skills are good, and your vicious words are impressive. You’ve indeed managed to anger me, but that doesn’t matter. I still have many ways to kill you,” Liu Qingfeng said with a cold smile.

Qu Yi then spread his palms in a welcoming gesture and said, “Then please use your ultimate move. I’m waiting here.”

After saying that, he waited carefully, knowing that since Liu Qingfeng had said those words, he must have some powerful life-saving techniques.

At that moment, Liu Qingfeng actually sheathed his Jinfei Sword. He pressed his five fingers together, and soon a flame appeared in his palm—it was the Samadhi True Fire!

“Qu Yi, swallow my Samadhi True Fire!” Liu Qingfeng shouted coldly, then waved his right hand, sending the flame flying.

At the early stage of the Golden Core realm, not only did the vital energy in the body condense into a Golden Core in the dantian, but the essence of spirit, energy, and vitality also formed the Samadhi True Fire. Once a cultivator possessed such true fire, they could use it not only for refining weapons but also for strengthening their bodies, and most often, for attacking.

Once unleashed, the true fire could burn everything!

Qu Yi saw the Samadhi True Fire approaching rapidly and realized he could never withstand it head-on. This was not like Liu Qingfeng’s true energy attacks, which he could resist with his own true energy. If he tried to block the Samadhi True Fire with true energy, it would only intensify its power. As the fire neared, at this critical moment, the Artifact God within his soul suddenly took action. It commanded the “Five Energies and Three Flowers” divine talisman cards, which were rotating around the Dimensional Sphere, to fly out and block in front of Qu Yi. The Samadhi True Fire struck the talisman cards, causing the fire to extinguish, while the cards remained unharmed and returned to Qu Yi’s soul. “What… what are those pentagram-shaped cards? How could they block my Samadhi True Fire!” Liu Qingfeng went berserk, shouting in fury. Qu Yi let out a deep sigh, then remembered what had happened to those talisman cards earlier, realizing once again that they had saved him. In the Misty Demon Mountains before, Qu Yi had used the talisman cards as shields to block Liu Qingfeng’s attacks, and at that time he had already known just how strong they were. Now that they had even blocked the Samadhi True Fire, it further proved their exceptional quality. Qu Yi had an intuition that these talisman cards must be among the highest-tier artifacts, probably only slightly inferior to the Dimensional Sphere. “Liu Qingfeng, congratulations—you’ve learned another secret from me. Yes, I possess a precious artifact that helped me block your Samadhi True Fire,” Qu Yi said with a laugh. Qu Yi wasn’t sure about the exact tier of the talisman cards, but he could use this to deceive Liu Qingfeng for now. A precious artifact could only be crafted by cultivators at the Yuan Ying stage or above, so naturally it could withstand the Samadhi True Fire of a Jin Dan stage cultivator. Liu Qingfeng nodded. He guessed these cards were at the precious artifact level—they couldn’t possibly be mere magic tools, nor spiritual artifacts. Magic tools would surely be damaged by the Samadhi True Fire, and spiritual artifacts were beyond Qu Yi’s current control; he needed to cultivate true energy within his body first. “You’re lucky to have a precious artifact protecting you. I can’t break through your defense. But how much true energy do you still have? I’ll attack you again now—I’m going to drain every last bit of it,” Liu Qingfeng said coldly in an instant. As he spoke, he swung his Golden Jade Sword once more, sending out ten streams of Wood Energy simultaneously, leaving Qu Yi with no choice but to take the hits head-on. “Let’s see how you handle these Ten Dragons Outward!” Liu Qingfeng said ominously. Qu Yi knew this was another ultimate move from Liu Qingfeng—dividing his powerful true energy into ten streams and launching a combined attack. With nowhere to escape, he could only endure it, which would undoubtedly deplete his true energy. “Wind Binding Formation!”

Qu Yi hesitated not at all and immediately activated the prepared formation. Dozens of lower-grade spirit stones were placed into the formation, and the Wind Binding Formation came online instantly, creating a thick wall of wind around Qu Yi’s body. Originally designed to trap enemies, Qu Yi now used it as a defensive measure since he was standing within the formation.

Liu Qingfeng’s ten streams of true energy struck the Wind Binding Formation, generating layers of gusts on the rotating wind wall, but they failed to break through it. Qu Yi had also calculated that after continuously attacking him, Liu Qingfeng’s true energy reserves would be nearly depleted—hence he only used a little over thirty lower-grade spirit stones to activate the formation. After the collision, the ten streams of true energy vanished, and the lower-grade spirit stones inside the formation were also used up.

“Qu Yi, you really did set a trap. It’s a pity, but this formation still can’t harm me,” Liu Qingfeng said quickly, a smile appearing on his face.

Realizing that Qu Yi must have had a trap, but finding it to be just a Wind Binding Formation, Liu Qingfeng’s worries dissipated.

“It’s enough to deal with you,” Qu Yi said with a smile.

Without further argument, Liu Qingfeng suddenly took off and rushed at Qu Yi, his Golden Jade Sword emitting a bright green glow—this must be Liu Qingfeng’s strongest move.

“Essence of water and wood, united as one—Line of Heaven!”

This was Liu Qingfeng’s most powerful spell, Line of Heaven, which gathered all his wood-type true energy and fired it in a linear beam through his Golden Jade Sword. If it hit Qu Yi, it would pierce through him and slice his body in two.

“Hahaha, Liu Qingfeng, you’re done!”

Faced with Liu Qingfeng’s final and strongest move, Qu Yi suddenly burst into laughter. He then took out a hundred lower-grade spirit stones and hurled them into the ground. Suddenly, flames erupted within fifty meters around them, forming a sea of fire. This sea of fire surrounded both Liu Qingfeng and Qu Yi, also serving to counter Liu Qingfeng’s Line of Heaven attack.

Qu Yi had actually activated the “Fierce Fire Formation,” and the large number of lower-grade spirit stones used gave it a power comparable to that of a mid-stage Golden Core cultivator. Line of Heaven was destroyed halfway by the fierce flames.

Liu Qingfeng, however, didn’t have time to fly away. His true energy had already been used for his final move, and now, surrounded by the flames, he had no energy left to protect himself, causing his entire body to be roasted. Qu Yi controlled the Fierce Fire Formation for a moment until Liu Qingfeng exhausted his true energy, lost all strength, and fell unconscious, at which point he stopped the formation.

“Liu Qingfeng, you failed to kill me with your Samadhi True Fire, but I managed to stun you with my flames. You’re still not good enough,” Qu Yi said with a smile, filled with emotion.
After a long time, Liu Qingfeng woke up. His first sight was a night pearl in the valley, with Qu Yi smiling at him beside it.
“Ah, my dantian, my golden pill!” Liu Qingfeng tried to attack, but when he tried to use his energy, he found his cultivation completely ruined.
Seeing Liu Qingfeng’s panicked state, Qu Yi laughed heartily before saying, “Liu Qingfeng, I made a ten-year deal with you. Although you shamelessly tried to get rid of me early, I won’t do the same. I ruined your dantian as a lesson for trying to ambush me. I won’t kill you, really, but I won’t let you go either. Stay here. Whether you encounter monsters or elders from our sect, it’ll depend on your luck.”
With that, Qu Yi flew away.