605 Infection (1/2)

In the past year, Gu Shenwei's Qi deviation had actually stabilized, settling into a regular pattern of occuring every forty or fifty days. It was like a reasonable parasite which had made a tacit agreement with its host and agreed to lower the amount of torture its owner had to suffer before dying.

But it couldn't be stimulated, neither internally nor externally.

This was also one of the drawbacks of the Death Sutra Swordsmanship, which focused on exerting one's full strength and killing in one strike. If one's power was not fully released, the force would turn on the wielder. Lotus who was fine now had once suffered through Qi deviation due to it. Gu Shenwei still had this hidden danger and therefore, was more sensitive to being pressured.

The combined force of the five Taoist priests was a heavy pressure.

Dao Xiu was big and tall. Behind him, the thinnest Dao Huo was pressing his palm on the vital acupoints of his back and continuously pouring out his internal energy, while the other three Taoist priests were also helping out through the conduit Dao Huo.

This was a clear violation of the rules of the kung fu competition, and the cover-up was very poor. But Gu Shenwei could already think of their excuse, ”To deal with the insidious heretic, we had to use insidious means.”

As a matter of fact, he had guessed beforehand that the five were going to fight together, but what surprised him was that the five's internal energy could be blended into one harmonious whole.

Gu Shenwei shuddered. The familiar little devil reappeared. It was done going through its understanding and reasoning and only wanted to make a scene as it pleased, regardless of its master's fate.

The chill fell upon him, and the ice needles in his Dantian came into being. Usually, at such moment, Gu Shenwei would exert all his internal Qi to protect his heart meridian before leaving the rest of his body to the ice needles.

This time, however, the internal trouble again rose before the foreign enemy was removed. He was immediately caught in a dilemma.

It was a life-or-death moment. The five Taoist priests' had formed a crushing force, and yet the millions of ice needles in his Dantian had always been dominant, neither of them leaving any time for Gu Shenwei to dwell on his situation.

Just at that very moment, a flash of inspiration perhaps accumulated through years of experience and struggle inspired Gu Shenwei to gamble his life on a single stake.

This wasn't the only path open to him but it was the one least considered. Yet now even though he hadn't reasoned out why he should take this path, he just felt that this was the only way to go forward and that he had to go along it.

He withdrew both his yin and yang energy, and not only let the foreign enemy to come in, but also allowed his internal ice needles to expand at will.

Dao Xiu's face grew even redder. He had finally broken into the enemy's Dantian. With a final blow, he could wipe out all of the other side's internal energy, which the Dragon King had accumulated through years of hard training, and make him a powerless man.

The internal Qi of the orthodox sect had met the stealthy but tyrannical 'ice needle'. If both sides were masters of martial arts, they would be in a state of shock at first, and then a state of utter amazement, followed by a sense of strangeness, and finally a mindset of extremely stubbornness. Half-like youths seeking to prove themselves, and half-like beasts in heat the two forces circled each other, red-eyed, and viciously bumping into each other in a fight to the death, both feeling themselves to be the stronger side.

Both had their own reasons.

The elders of the Jade Pure Sect thought that they were very powerful in terms of their internal energy. Even a single one of them was already a bit stronger than the Dragon King, so the combined power of them five should be nearly invincible throughout the whole world.

The ice needles inside Gu Shenwei's body was like a country boy who had dominated the village for many years and had never met a worthy opponent. Running amok had become a deep-rooted instinct.

Only Gu Shenwei, whose body had become the war field, was the weak maiden.

When pain surpassed the limit, it was not pain anymore. Like a pessimistic person committing suicide, Gu Shenwei coldly watched the blood gurgling from his wound, not intending and also powerless to help.

He felt that he had lost consciousness for some time, and though his thoughts were coherent, the scene in front of him was broken. One moment ago, his left fist was still touching Dao Xiu's palm. And then in less than a blink of an eye, he had fallen to the ground and the other five Taoist priests were also lying in disorder on the ground several steps away.

As the pain in his body suddenly turned crystal clear, Gu Shenwei couldn't help but groan. Besides the pain of the familiar piercing chill, there was an even deeper pain born from fractures and emptiness.

His body seemed to have been cut into pieces, but his consciousness, the bearer of the pain, had remained intact.

Gu Shenwei's body wasn't damaged at all. What was broken were his meridians.

Every time he had fallen into Qi deviation, Gu Shenwei would guide his internal Qi to protect his heart meridian, but this time, he couldn't find his internal Qi at all. His Dantian had completely become the territory of the 'ice needle', which had also paid a heavy price for its recklessness. It was dying under the impact of the outside forces and had greatly reduced its ability to inflict pain.

”Heh.” Gu Shenwei forced himself to stand up. As an expert in enduring pain, he wouldn't break down easily in front of the newly popped-up 'little guy'.

But his hands were trembling slightly. He gripped his saber hilt, drew it out, and slashed. It was still fast but its speed had fallen far short of what it used to be. The only consolation for him was that his internal Qi which had been both internally and externally attacked had finally emerged from the ruins, weak and fragile, like a bud in cracked concrete, but the sensation proved its existence.

Gu Shenwei had been trying to control the growth of his power, hoping that his yin and yang energy could be refined to an even purer point before fusing completely. Now his plan had come true but it was quite different from what he imagined.

The Daoless Divine Power was a type of yin energy which Gu Shenwei had practiced for a long while and was the foundation of his internal energy. The Sumeru Mustard Divine Power was a type of yang energy which he had practiced only a few days and was very weak. But all of a sudden, the two became equally powerful, or more accurately, equally weak.

So was his Balanced Power. Gu Shenwei tried the three sets of internal Qi manuals one by one but none of them worked. None of the methods could force his internal Qi to flow through his broken meridians.

He was already acquainted with Qi deviation. Although he had a new opponent this time, his way of dealing with it was the same, which was to leave it as it was.

The Taoist priests on the ground were also groaning but they were not dead yet.

There was no victor in this competition.

Gu Shenwei walked over with his saber. He had to kill all the enemy before they came to their senses. In the face of life and death, seeing the Khan was not as important.

Amongst the five of them, Dao Nian was the most powerful so he woke up first. When he saw the Dragon King coming over with a saber, he bounced up halfway before falling as he tried to straighten his legs. Then he spat out a large mouthful of blood and began to tremble. As time went by, his trembling got worse like a sheep recognizing the coming of its butcher.

The other four Taoist priests woke up one by one with the same reaction, vomiting blood, trembling, and shaking violently.