Chapter 46: The First Death

“I surrender!”
His internal world was shattered, and he lost all his strength. Faced with Wu Yuan’s terrifying presence, what else could Gongye Qing do but admit defeat?
Wu Yuan smiled faintly and put away his Jiukong Staff.
Gongye Qing was extremely unwilling. Staring at Wu Yuan, he said fiercely, “When I return to the Divine Realm, I hope to meet you again. By then, my internal world will have recovered, and I won’t give you another chance.”
Wu Yuan laughed heartily and said, “You’re just a defeated opponent. No matter what you do in the future, you won’t be my match.”
Gongye Qing snorted, then stepped out of the light barrier. Under the guidance of Divine King Gongye Yu, he returned to his seat.
Thus, Gongye Qing was the first of the top ten fighters from the day before to be eliminated.
Meanwhile, in another transparent light barrier, Qing Wugui stood opposite Qiu Guanyu.
Qiu Guanyu’s spiritual entity numbered an astonishing 240 million, placing him ninth on the rankings from the day before. As an outstanding disciple of the Qiu Clan’s Divine Marshal stage, he was highly valued by the clan, and even his lowest-grade divine weapon was a Divine King-level one.
At that moment, Qiu Guanyu held a Sky-Piercing Spear that glowed pure yellow, with the tip flashing yellow light as if it could tear through space at any moment.
“You’re someone close to Qu Yi, so you’re still an enemy of our eight royal clans. Therefore, in today’s battle, as long as you don’t surrender, I will kill you,” Qiu Guanyu said coldly.
Qing Wugui smiled faintly and replied, “Let’s swear that neither of us will surrender until the other dies.”
Qiu Guanyu froze. He hadn’t expected Qing Wugui to be so confident, which greatly surprised him. With a hint of hesitation, he shook his head firmly, resenting his own fear, then fixed his gaze on Qing Wugui.
“Good. This battle between us will be our duel,” Qiu Guanyu declared firmly.
Then, Qing Wugui and Qiu Guanyu swore in front of Divine King Zong Jing that this battle would be their duel—no matter if one side admitted defeat, the battle wouldn’t end until one of them died.
The Divine Marshal-stage cultivators of the Eight Realms were shocked by the brutal nature of this battle. Of course, they all hoped Qiu Guanyu would win and kill Qing Wugui, Qu Yi’s assistant.
“Let’s begin,” Qing Wugui said calmly after making his oath, pulling out his Water Condensing Sword.

Qiu Guanyu glared at Qing Wu Gui indifferently, then suddenly flew away and disappeared. The next moment, he reappeared behind Qing Wu Gui and thrust his Sky-Piercing Spear fiercely at his back. Two lightning-like spatial rifts appeared, attempting to devour Qing Wu Gui’s body outright.
“Your speed is too slow,” Qing Wu Gui said with a faint smile, before his body also vanished instantly.
With Qing Wu Gui’s killing technique, he could control the primordial energy of the Five Elements to create spatial passages, allowing him to disappear as if by teleportation.
The appearance of the spatial rifts failed to harm Qing Wu Gui, causing panic on Qiu Guanyu’s face. He had realized that Qing Wu Gui’s speed was far greater than his own—comparable even to that of a Divine King.
A Divine King’s spatial leap involved entering a spatial turbulence and reappearing in another space. Qing Wu Gui’s method, however, involved using the Heart of the Five Elements to control the primordial energy to form spatial passages, through which he moved. Of course, compared to a Divine King’s spatial leap, Qing Wu Gui’s method was far less effective in terms of distance.
Qiu Guanyu calmed down and made up his mind. He picked up his Sky-Piercing Spear again and sent out a barrage of spear strikes in all directions.
Hundreds of spatial rifts appeared simultaneously, sealing off the space where Qing Wu Gui was. Violent chaotic energy surged forth, swirling toward his body.
Qing Wu Gui smiled faintly before suddenly emitting intense killing intent, which resembled solidified lightning. Waves of killing intent were sent out rapidly in all directions.
This killing intent originated from his Heart of the Five Elements. By using his killing technique, he drew upon the primordial energy of the Five Elements in space to create powerful “axes” that sliced through the space.
Qing Wu Gui used the killing intent from his Heart of the Five Elements to induce countless spatial vibrations, making it seem as though the spaces themselves were about to collapse.
Undoubtedly, the hundreds of spatial rifts created by Qiu Guanyu sensed the instability in those spaces. They changed direction and rushed toward them, tearing them apart.
All of Qiu Guanyu’s spatial rifts changed direction in front of Qing Wu Gui yet failed to harm him in the slightest.
“You…” Qiu Guanyu grew panicked. He hadn’t expected Qing Wu Gui’s killing aura to be so powerful—enough to draw upon the primordial energy of the Five Elements in the surrounding space and even make the spatial rifts change direction.

Qiu Guanyu calmed down, realizing that relying solely on the Sky-Piercing Spear, he would not be able to deal with Qing Wu Gui. Now, he had no choice but to use his ultimate trump card. Thus, his expression turned cold as he drew out a top-grade innate spiritual treasure—none other than the Mountain and River Tapestry.

It turned out that the Qiu clan’s ultimate trump card for Qiu Guanyu was indeed the Mountain and River Tapestry, a top-grade innate spiritual treasure that, in addition to its devastating spatial attacks, also possessed the ability to attack souls.

The Mountain and River Tapestry quickly unfolded, revealing a magnificent and mesmerizing landscape that instantly covered the space where Qing Wu Gui was located.

“This is a top-grade innate spiritual treasure. Let’s see how you’ll break through it. Die now!” Qiu Guanyu shouted frantically.

Undoubtedly, by revealing his ultimate trump card so early, Qiu Guanyu was deeply unwilling. This would surely alert Qu Yi, making it even more difficult to deal with him.

Qing Wu Gui still showed no sign of fear, smiling instead. He swiftly swung his Water-Condensing Sword, causing the elemental energies of metal, wood, water, and fire generated by the Mountain and River Tapestry to collapse automatically. Soon, the landscape created by the tapestry vanished.

Indeed, the scenery of the Mountain and River Tapestry was formed from the elemental energies of the five elements. Since Qing Wu Gui had mastered the art of slaughter, which allowed him to destroy the laws of metal, wood, water, and fire, he could naturally influence these elemental energies and cause the scenery to disappear.

However, besides its spatial attack capabilities, the Mountain and River Tapestry also had the power to attack souls. Invisible spiritual forces entered Qing Wu Gui’s soul space, attempting to capture and tear apart his soul.

But to their shock, Qing Wu Gui’s soul space contained only one soul orb—bright yellow in color—significantly different from the soul orbs of other cultivators at the Divine General stage in the divine realm.

These spiritual forces tried to attack Qing Wu Gui’s soul orb but were horrified to find that his soul was not intact; it seemed to have lost four-fifths of its existence.

After destroying the laws of metal, wood, water, and fire, Qing Wu Gui had dispersed his soul throughout the universe rather than keeping it in his soul space. Thus, once he destroyed the law of earth as well, his entire soul would be embedded in the universe, allowing him to transcend the five elements entirely and no longer be bound by spatial rules.

Since a soul without a place to return is incomplete, the soul power generated by these landscape maps cannot attack such a soul, and thus cannot affect it either.
Qiu Guanyu was shocked!
All the cultivators from the Eight Regions and the various Divine Kings watching the battle were equally astonished. They never expected that, aside from Qu Yi being immune to the attacks of top-tier innate spiritual treasures, this Qing Wugui also possessed such ability.
Just as Qiu Guanyu was filled with unease, Qing Wugui curled his lips into a cold smile.
A mid-tier innate spiritual treasure—the Void Sky Blade—appeared in Qing Wugui’s hands!
Whoosh!
It pierced through space in an instant, appearing right in front of Qiu Guanyu. It pierced through his Divine King-level defensive armor and entered his body, instantly destroying his internal world and stripping him of all his cultivation.
“Yu’er!”
At that moment, Qiu Yan, Qiu Meng, Qiu Qi, and Gou Fang, the four Divine Kings of the Qiu clan, suddenly stood up and cried out loudly.
Of course, they knew that Qiu Guanyu’s internal world had been destroyed, he had lost all his strength, and could no longer resist Qing Wugui’s attacks. He was doomed to death—how could they not be anxious? But they also knew that if they stepped in to save him, the three hidden Divine Emperors in the air would surely punish them severely.
The rules of a one-on-one battle cannot be changed by Divine Kings!
“I surrender! I surrender…” Qiu Guanyu got up from the ground and knelt down immediately, his eyes filled with tears as he pleaded for mercy. He no longer showed any trace of being an outstanding disciple of the Qiu clan.
Seeing this, the pain on the faces of Qiu Yan, Qiu Meng, Qiu Qi, and Gou Fang vanished instantly, replaced by anger. Qiu Guuyu’s behavior had utterly disgraced the Qiu clan.
Qing Wugui stepped forward and looked at him with a smile. Then he raised the Water Condensing Sword and said, “Qiu Guanyu, since you deliberately intended to kill Qu Yi, you are now my mortal enemy. No matter how much you plead, you must die today.”
“Ah…” Qiu Guanyu could hardly believe that even after giving up all his dignity, he still hadn’t moved Qing Wugui.
Just as he tried to curse, he realized his head had already been severed from his neck. Then a fierce killing intent entered his soul space, piercing it through.
Qiu Guanyu became the first to die in this one-on-one battle.
Qing Wugui picked up the treasures left behind by Qiu Guanyu after his death, especially those landscape maps, and kept them in his hand, though he didn’t dare claim them as his own.
Meanwhile, inside another transparent barrier, Qu Yi and Wu Zhuangyi, ranked eighth on the list from the day before, stared at each other for a long time before finally speaking.

“Wu Zhuangyi, your brother Wu Tanchen died at my hands, and I gave his Falling Heart Spear to Wu Yuan. Today you’ve come here to die as well—it seems I’m destined to be the gravedigger of your Qiu clan,” Qu Yi said with a smile.