"Junior… Did you really think that just by glimpsing the threshold of the Land Immortal level, you could act with impunity? How naive can you be?!!"

Qi Yunfei narrowed his eyes, and a murderous intent leaked out uncontrollably.

Spiritual power stimulated his flesh, blood, and bones as his skin transformed into a structure resembling glass. His figure became blurred, flickering in and out of existence.

"Senior Qi, I'm just joking."

"A mere sparring session, that's all. Among all the seniors present, you, Old Ghost Qi, are the one I respect the most."

Li Mo smiled and took a step forward, instantly vanishing from where he stood.

Half a breath later, a deafening sonic boom echoed out of nowhere. Sword cultivators who hadn't yet reached the Divine Separation Stage instinctively clutched their ears.

Blood flowed from their five orifices, and their hearing was completely lost.

The rest of the cultivators stepped back, distancing themselves. However, they didn't retreat entirely to the Sword Tomb, as their curiosity about the confrontation between Li Mo and Qi Yunfei was too great.

One was a Sword Immortal renowned for tens of thousands of years, once called the "Ten Thousand Miles Sword Light" in the ancient cultivation world.

The other was a newly ascended Body Integration cultivator with an Innate Immortal Seed, whose promotion to Land Immortal was nothing short of earth-shattering.

"What audacity!!"

Master San Yan clapped his hands in delight, a trace of admiration flashing across his face. Beside him, Zhang Qiyang looked visibly tense, ready to assist at any moment.

Zhang Qiyang noticed the damage to Qi Yunfei's Tao Heart. It was evident that Li Mo intended to use this opportunity to establish his dominance.

But… Qi Yunfei was, after all, a Mahayana-stage cultivator. Even if he was not in an optimal state, he wasn't someone a newly ascended Body Integration cultivator could so easily handle.

"San Yan! If Old Ghost Qi attempts to deal a lethal blow, block him for me!!"

"Alright."

Master San Yan's eyes flickered with calculation.

Li Mo's talent far surpassed the ordinary; his ascension to the Mahayana Realm wouldn't take too long. Seizing this chance to build goodwill seemed prudent, especially since he and Qi Yunfei weren't exactly allies.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Li Mo maneuvered through the air with rapid turns and leaps, seemingly adapting to the explosive strength of his amplified body.

Qi Yunfei, out of caution, refrained from attacking immediately. After all, suppressing someone from an entire realm beneath him, only to be caught in an evenly matched fight, would render him a laughingstock within the Heavenly Sword Sect.

Yet it wasn't long before the noises Li Mo generated became fainter and fainter. The only signs of his movement were slight ripples in the air where he passed.

Qi Yunfei's expression changed dramatically—his Divine Sense could no longer locate Li Mo.

Yu Xiao smiled and commented, "The strength of his physical body is comparable to that of a perfected Body Integration cultivator. Junior Brother truly gained much from his time in isolation."

"Perfected Body Integration?"

Zhang Qiyang froze momentarily in astonishment.

He himself had yet to reach Perfect Body Integration, but somehow, Li Mo—after spending only a handful of years in the Death Tomb—managed to emerge as his peer?

Shock, tinged with an unspoken defeat, coursed through Zhang Qiyang. Suddenly, his tens of thousands of years of cultivation felt utterly meaningless.

"Three inches below the ribs."

Bang!

Li Mo's voice echoed as he appeared beside Qi Yunfei in an instant, wielding a flying sword resembling a True Dragon.

This sword was merely one among the millions stored in his Sword Pouch.

Qi Yunfei, however, had been preparing all along.

The Dao Sword Intent: [Inch Radiance].

Upon Qi Yunfei's execution of Inch Radiance Sword Intent, he entered a chaotic phase of displacement. Seemingly stationary yet imperceptibly transforming into a streak of tunneling light, utterly invisible to the naked eye.

"Did you truly think that sanctifying your physical body allows you to act with complete freedom?"

Qi Yunfei activated the Sky Dome Mirror.

If Li Mo showed the slightest opening, Qi Yunfei planned to use the Sky Dome Mirror to teleport him away from the Heavenly Sword Sect, where he'd have ample justification to kill.

"If your reliance is merely the Mountain Protection Array, then… die!"

As long as the Heavenly Sword Sect's Mountain Protection Array remained active, Qi Yunfei couldn't directly project his Void Realm here.

Swish.

As Li Mo swung his sword, his Tattooed Beasts reinforced his body while Spirit Root Worms coiled around the blade. The exposed blood and qi churned up a whirlwind of Gang Wind.

A single strike, imbued entirely with the Life and Death Sword Intent.

Visions erupted without pause, as though the Nine Netherworld had descended upon the Heavenly Sword Sect.

"A Spiritual Treasure?"

Zhang Qiyang gasped sharply. Spiritual Treasures, also known as Fake Immortal Artifacts, were already top-tier spiritual objects in the mortal realm—an astonishing display of wealth.

He speculated that Li Mo had likely obtained this treasure during the Void Refining Stage but chose to reveal it now in the Body Integration Stage, signifying his confidence against external covetous eyes.

Li Mo's physical body's strength surged again, temporarily elevated. The Spirit Root Worms added countless variations to the Life and Death Sword Intent, catching Qi Yunfei off guard.

Qi Yunfei clearly understood that Li Mo was using illusions to interfere with his perception, yet he instinctively activated a Spirit Shield, raising his sword in defense.

"Senior, you've shut yourself away for too long. You're old and feeble, unable to keep up."

Li Mo's Lifebound Flying Sword flashed by, yet his figure remained elusive.

Calling forth another Lifebound Flying Sword, Li Mo precisely stabbed Qi Yunfei three inches below the ribs, sending the latter hurtling backward.

Clang.

The distant sound of sword resonance signaled Li Mo's shift in focus to a point a hundred meters away.

This was Li Mo's first encounter with the Dao Sword Intent. Qi Yunfei's Inch Radiance Sword Intent was indeed enough to grant him an unassailable position, though its execution was clumsy—likely derived from reliance on external artifacts.

"Thank you for going easy on me, Senior."

Qi Yunfei's spine cracked open, and quicksilver-like marrow began to bubble. The mutation was intensifying.

Li Mo's eyes lit up as he plunged into melee combat without hesitation, leveraging his dual-life memories to disturb Qi Yunfei's Mental Realm further.

"Senior Qi, I heard that you were quite famous tens of thousands of years ago. But ever since Sister Yu Xiao emerged, it seems you've seldom interacted with the outside world."

"Could it be… you once suffered defeat at Sister Yu Xiao's hands?"

Li Mo sprouted dozens of arms, pushing the Life and Death Sword Intent to its peak. Each strike was not aimed at wounding Qi Yunfei—that was unrealistic given his status as a veteran Mahayana cultivator—but solely at disrupting Qi Yunfei's rhythm.

Every move was designed to be as aggravating as possible.

Yu Xiao added fuel to the fire, "Back then, I was merely at Nascent Soul Perfection, sparring with disciples under Qi Yunfei's lineage. A pack of useless drunkards—they begged Qi Yunfei to intervene."

"Sister, what was his cultivation at the time?"

"If I recall, he'd just stepped into the Divine Separation Stage. I chopped off three of his fingers as a warning."

Li Mo gave Yu Xiao a thumbs-up with an arm newly sprouted from his back.

In the ancient cultivation world, regrowing severed limbs was extraordinarily difficult. While losing three fingers wouldn't impede cultivation, it thoroughly dismantled Qi Yunfei's reputation.

Rumor had it that Qi Yunfei didn't emerge from seclusion until he advanced to the Void Refining Stage.

But over the span of a thousand years, the tides had shifted. Yu Xiao had become an untouchable figure, her tally of slain Void Refining cultivators exceeding a single hand's count.

"Yu Xiao!!!"

Red light flooded Qi Yunfei's eyes as he suddenly split into a dozen chaotic afterimages.

Li Mo's pupils contracted. Qi Yunfei's sword technique gave the harrowing impression of being inescapable. Countless blades converged toward his upper body.

Retreat?

No retreat!

To suppress Qi Yunfei, Li Mo had to maintain the appearance of dominance, exploiting the weak points in his uncontrolled mutation for a relentless offense.

Delaying the fight only dragged Qi Yunfei further into an inevitable stalemate.

So, no retreat. Retreating would completely derail the rhythm.

Gritting his teeth, Li Mo sidestepped, his body swelling beyond a hundred meters. Countless arms engulfed Qi Yunfei, while Life and Death Sword Intent summoned a horde of malicious spirits to wail incessantly.

"Senior Qi, you should kowtow three times to Sister Yu Xiao. Without her guidance, you wouldn't have the cultivation you enjoy today."

"You talk too much!"

"Die!!!"

Bang.

Li Mo forcefully endured Qi Yunfei's strike.

A large portion of his body was reduced to pulp, his internal organs shattered. Fortunately, expanding his body mass in time shielded his Middle Dantian from harm.

"With no meridians intact, Taiyi, how do you plan on fighting me?!!!"

Qi Yunfei's face was twisted with malice, looking as if he wanted to devour Li Mo whole.

"Heh heh, too mild. Haven't eaten lunch today?"

Li Mo burned through three centuries' worth of Innate Essence. The splattered flesh and shattered bones of his body ceased to scatter, instead freezing midair as though time had halted.

A Core Formation Sword Cultivator could not resist reaching out to grab a piece of the flesh.

"Ah…"

The flesh shard pierced through his palm before flying back to Li Mo, seamlessly repairing his body's gaping wounds.

Seizing Qi Yunfei's brief moment of shock, Li Mo summoned a torrent of two hundred thousand Lifebound Flying Swords.

The dense light of the swords shimmered, while countless spectral dragons writhed in the void. The onlookers had never witnessed such a scene before.

Poof.

Qi Yunfei's back finally burst open, two silvery-white arms emerging.

The silvery arms each clutched a shard of mirror, driving them into Qi Yunfei's eyes, causing his eyeballs to dislodge. Li Mo urgently directed the spectral dragons to retrieve them.

The mutations of the world were endlessly strange. Qi Yunfei's transformation appeared as if another entity dwelled within his body.

Li Mo suspected that Qi Yunfei had successfully crossed the fifth death tribulation of Fatal Disease, [Uncertainty], but succumbed to the torment of the [Five Organs Wisdom] tribulation in the Destiny Knowing Stage.

"Without Yu Xiao's existence, Qi Yunfei would have undoubtedly been the number one in the Heavenly Sword Sect—his talent and potential unmatched by any peer."

"Alas, born in the wrong era."

Li Mo's face showed faint pity, but his strikes displayed no hesitation whatsoever.

Even as the retaliatory Inch Radiance Sword Intent left him mutilated at times, Innate Essence coupled with his sanctified body rendered such damage negligible.

The accumulated total of his Three Dharma Bodies after reaching the Body Integration Stage had grown to span thirty thousand years of Innate Essence.

Relying on Innate Essence to accelerate his healing, Li Mo managed to fight on even terms with Qi Yunfei.

Despite himself, Qi Yunfei couldn't deny that his strength seemed insufficient against Li Mo, even though the latter had only endured a brief imprisonment within the Death Tomb.

The number of arms breaking through Qi Yunfei's body grew increasingly overwhelming.

He desperately suppressed the thought of summoning his Externalized Dharma Body, knowing full well that unleashing his Void Realm might indeed kill Li Mo but would plunge him into irreversible ruin as well.

"Heh heh heh."

Li Mo sensed Qi Yunfei teetering on the brink of losing control. In that instant, he surged backward, deploying the rest of his Lifebound Flying Swords in a swarm.

Qi Yunfei's form flickered, and most of the Lifebound Flying Swords were shattered.

"This junior, Taiyi, humbly admits defeat. I am in awe, Senior."

Li Mo retreated toward the massive Sword Shuttle. Qi Yunfei, his body now an unrecognizable mass of limbs, his mouth agape, was desperately resisting the emergence of his Dharma Body.

Yu Xiao whispered softly, "Qi Yunfei, if you don't suppress the mutation, attaining Immortality in this life will be impossible. You're fated to become one of the inner Sword Tomb's remains."

Qi Yunfei gazed hard at Li Mo for several breaths before vanishing into the starry void.

Li Mo withdrew the remaining Lifebound Flying Swords.

Although unclear about the origins of Qi Yunfei's malice toward him, Li Mo knew that failing to seize this opportunity to severely wound him would leave him perpetually at a disadvantage.

"The man has already been infected by cancerous cells; finding an opportunity to deal with him once I'm stronger is imperative."

Li Mo's gaze swept across the assemblage of factions.

"Fellow cultivators, if any of you wish to spar, Taiyi will gladly oblige."

"If there are no objections, how about sharing the Taoist inheritance for us all to review?"

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