Taking advantage of Karura Tree being knocked back by the White Emperor’s charged water-lightning ball, Asura spat out a paper sheet. With a “hiss,” the paper burned to ashes.

As Karura stumbled, his chest resounded with a “thud” and caved in slightly, but failed to tear through his Vajra physique.

Witch Doctor – Death Curse technique!

Asura had returned part of the damage to this Rank One Bodhisattva. Unfortunately, the spell recorded by the Confucian School fell short of the original version, and the Death Curse executed through damage reflection was far less potent than using the enemy’s flesh as a medium.

The Death Curse had two forms:

Using the enemy’s personal effects as a medium; or reflecting damage at the cost of self-injury.

The latter somewhat resembled Xu Qi An’s Jade Shatter but differed in key ways. First, their power levels weren’t comparable, and second, the Death Curse’s reflection method was more singular, targeting only the heart and primordial spirit.

While Xu Qi An’s Jade Shatter was truly eye for an eye.

After buying more time with the Death Curse, Asura’s two severed arms flew back, reconnecting at the stumps—this consumed less energy than regenerating limbs.

In the Northern Border War, they had prepared for a prolonged battle.

Karura looked down at the dent in his chest, unconcerned. Compared to this minor wound that barely qualified as a surface injury, the damage from the water-lightning ball’s explosion was more severe, causing him burning pain.

The White Emperor was also a Rank One expert—his charged attack, though unable to break through the Vajra Dharma Image’s defense, had caused intense pain.

Though seasoned in hundreds of battles, Karura had never crossed hands with an Earth Sect Daoist before, nor experienced the power of the Earth Sect’s Merit Heart Method. Yet this didn’t prevent him from sensing something wrong with his own “luck.”

Buddhism lacked the Confucian School’s righteous qi that repelled all evil, and the Dao School’s “one golden core breaks ten thousand methods.” However, the source of their meditation skill—the Immovable Wisdom King Dharma Image—could block bad luck.

But if he manifested the Immovable Wisdom King Dharma Image, his physical body couldn’t move either.

After brief consideration, Karura decided to ignore it.

Though being plagued by bad luck was troublesome, it had its limits. With the suppression of Rank One over Rank Two, bad luck could at most bring minor troubles. Since he had no means to clear it, he would simply ignore it.

Karura bent his knees slightly, and then with a “boom,” the plains beneath his feet suddenly collapsed as he shot toward Asura in a streak of golden light.

Asura spat out a dark golden longsword, gripping it in his palm.

The Peace Sword!

Xu Qi An had lent this quasi-treasure to Asura.

With the Peace Sword’s current sharpness, it could slash through a Rank Two warrior’s physical body. Against Karura’s Vajra Divine Skill, though it couldn’t break through his defense in one strike, it was still better than Asura using his fists.

The gap in ranks couldn’t be bridged, but it could be minimized as much as possible through treasures, spells, and other external means.

The brilliant light wheel contracted, surging along his arm into the blade, adding a layer of dazzling special effects to the Peace Sword.

Seeing the golden light charging head-on, Asura took a bow stance, stepped aside, and drew sparks across the opponent’s body with the Peace Sword in his hand.

Karura’s brows immediately furrowed as he felt a burning pain.

Though this sword couldn’t break his Vajra Dharma Image, it made him feel the threat of a weapon against his body.

Karura’s golden light form stopped abruptly, his right hand gripping Asura’s wrist, attempting to seize the Peace Sword.

Asura’s palm loosened, passing the sword to his left hand, the brilliant blade slashing toward Karura’s eyes.

Karura’s body leaned back, avoiding the blade while driving his knee violently into Asura’s abdomen.

The energy burst through Asura’s back with a boom.

This blow should have sent Asura flying, but Zhao Shou’s “One Man Guards the Pass, Ten Thousand Cannot Break Through” enhancement was still active, making Asura more valiant than usual.

Karura gave a cold laugh, his waist springing as his leaning body suddenly retracted, his headbutt fiercely smashing into Asura’s face.

Rippling energy exploded, causing Asura to lose consciousness for an instant as he flew back like a sandbag.

Golden Lotus Daoist forcefully blew out a breath, the airflow condensing into a “Wind Image” behind Asura, wrapping around him and making him drift in a turn, avoiding Karura’s follow-up killing move.

The four on each side displayed their divine abilities, engaging in fierce combat. Asura faced Karura directly, holding the pressure, while Zhao Shou and Golden Lotus Daoist provided support.

With the Vajra Dharma Image’s enhancement, Karura pressed the attack aggressively, pursuing and striking fiercely, while Asura’s three carefully responded, not daring to make the slightest mistake.

The former could freely make mistakes, while the latter had almost zero error tolerance.

Karura sent Asura flying with a straight punch, needing no charge time as he transformed into golden light and pounced toward the Golden Lotus Daoist on the other side.

Karura’s target was clear. Asura was stronger than ordinary peak Rank Two warriors—due to his system, his defense was strong and vitality abundant. Even for Karura, it would be difficult to kill this traitor in a short time.

Zhao Shou was of the Confucian system. Confucians could freely modify rules, making them most troublesome. With the assistance of two peerless treasures—the Semi-Sage Confucian Cap and Sage Carving Knife—Zhao Shou’s level might not be inferior to Asura’s.

So among the three, the Earth Sect’s old Daoist was easiest to handle.

The ground beneath Golden Lotus Daoist’s feet rose, condensing into a giant three-zhang covered in stone armor, arms crossed over its chest in a defensive posture.

Earth Image!

Among the Dao School’s “Earth, Wind, Water, Fire” four great images, the Earth Image was renowned for defense. At Golden Lotus Daoist’s peak Rank Two level, the Earth Image he manifested had higher defensive power than a Rank Three warrior, approaching Rank Two.

Bang!

The Earth Image shattered under Karura’s iron fist. Golden Lotus Daoist’s chest was struck, blood spraying violently as his body curled like a shrimp and flew backward.

Karura pressed his advantage, closing in—for high-ranked experts outside the warrior system, this was equivalent to a death sentence (for the physical body).

Zhao Shou’s large sleeve suddenly swept out as he said in a deep voice:

“Retreat two hundred zhang!”

Golden Lotus Daoist abruptly disappeared, appearing two hundred zhang away, narrowly avoiding having his physical body destroyed.

Zhao Shou hadn’t chosen to make Karura retreat two hundred zhang but instead sent Golden Lotus Daoist to a relatively safe place. The benefit of this operation was that the backlash from “words become law” would be very light.

Yet the achieved effect was the same.

A mature Confucian disciple should understand how to execute skillfully.

After sending the Golden Lotus Daoist away, Zhao Shou took out the vibrating Confucian cap and said in a deep voice:

“This blade must hit!”

He gently extended the carving knife in his hand. During the process, his brow center lit up with golden lacquer, quickly covering his whole body, temporarily raising his physical prowess to the level of a Rank Three warrior.

The knife in Zhao Shou’s hand broke through spatial limitations, thrusting the Sage Carving Knife toward Karura’s chest.

Knowing well the terrifying nature of this treasure, Karura quickly formed hand seals—for the first time since the battle began, he was about to manifest the Immovable Wisdom King Dharma Image.

But at this moment, the sky suddenly rolled with ink-black clouds, and a water barrel-thick lightning pillar struck down, hitting Karura directly.

It struck him paralyzed, frozen in place.

The hand seals couldn’t be completed.

This wasn’t ordinary lightning—this was Luo Yu Heng’s heavenly tribulation.

But for some unknown reason, it had struck the wrong person.

“Poof!”

Unable to manifest the Immovable Wisdom King Dharma Image’s defense, the Sage Carving Knife pierced Karura’s chest, breaking through his Vajra physique as dark golden blood gushed forth.

After landing one hit, Zhao Shou immediately withdrew the knife, seemingly not daring to harm Karura further.

The next moment, his brow center split open, blood flowing like a stream, while the clear light-wreathed Confucian cap and carving knife both dimmed slightly.

The backlash from “words become law” varied in intensity according to different effects.

Though Zhao Shou usually talked big, constantly making things retreat hundreds of zhang or giving teammates wild buffs, these were either indirect influences or created troubles—annoying but not causing direct damage.

So the backlash was light.

But this time was different—this time he had directly used the power of “words become law” to wound Karura with the Sage Carving Knife.

If not for the Confucian cap and carving knife helping bear the burden, Zhao Shou would have suffered even greater backlash now.

Nearby, Golden Lotus Daoist swallowed healing medicine, his broken ribcage and damaged organs slowly healing as he smiled:

“This poor Daoist is one with great fortune—harming me invites heavenly punishment.”

Karura looked down, pressing the wound that had pierced his heart. His expression became extremely serious.

Though such an injury couldn’t threaten his life, the power of the Sage Carving Knife couldn’t be removed in a short time, preventing the wound from healing.

This meant his Vajra physique would have a fatal flaw, no longer being invincible.

Strength and defense were Karura’s capital for looking down upon the Nine Provinces. A flaw in his defense would directly lead to reduced combat power.

The Great Tang’s transcendent experts present shared knowing smiles.

The earlier lightning tribulation hadn’t struck wrong—it had meant to hit Karura.

This was all within the plan.

That day in Yong Province, during the transcendent melee, it took Xu Qi An, Kou Yangzhou, and Asura—three Rank Two warriors—to barely contend with Karura.

Analyzing afterward, Xu Qi An discovered the reason was that all three were of the same system, or similar systems, while their opponent was also from the same domain.

Simply put, Xu Qi An’s three specialized in energy, close combat, and defense, but no matter how strong they were, could they match a Rank One Karura?

This created suppression from rank differences within the same system.

The Great Tang’s transcendent experts learned from their pain and reorganized, discovering that if they changed the systems of the trio, having one peak Rank Two warrior lead the charge while two other Rank Two experts from different systems provided support.

The effect was far stronger than three Rank Two experts of the same system fighting together.

Because systems had counters between them, and each system had its advantages, there were more ways to deal with enemies, increasing the chances of victory.

Like the Earth Sect’s fortune reduction operation—Karura had no way to deal with it.

While Buddhism’s precepts were countered by the Confucian School’s righteous qi and golden core.

This was something three Rank Two warriors simply couldn’t achieve.

Of course, Asura, Golden Lotus Daoist, and Zhao Shou still found it difficult to defeat Bodhisattva Karura, but as long as they could entangle him, delay him, and fight back and forth instead of being one-sidedly dominated, it was enough.

“For your battle tactics to succeed, the key is whether you can withstand my offensive.”

The White Emperor glanced at the four people fighting in the distance, looked at Luo Yu Heng in the lightning tribulation, and finally fixed his gaze on the blood-stained Xu Qi An.

“So far, I’ve only used fifty percent of my power, and you’re already failing.”

He felt these transcendent experts had some cleverness.

But before absolute power, wisdom was worthless.

As he said, for these tactics to succeed, the key was whether Xu Qi An was qualified to contend with a Rank One descendant of gods and demons.

The White Emperor wasn’t of the warrior system, lacking crisis intuition and energy refinement abilities, but as a descendant of gods and demons, his innate physical body was powerful, with speed and strength not inferior to warriors of the same rank.

Moreover, his innate divine abilities had immense destructive power.

He only needed three water-lightning balls to make the young man before him physically disintegrate.

Xu Qi An took a deep breath, the scorch-marked wounds on his body healing instantly. He lightly flicked the Nation-Stabilizing Sword, and amid its clear ring, smiled and said:

“Now you can use sixty percent.”

“Then I’ll grant your wish.”

Between the White Emperor’s horns, a pure black energy ball formed, collapsing inward. With a crack, electric arcs jumped and wrapped around its outer layer.

After briefly charging, the water-lightning ball shot forth, electric arcs flashing and disappearing along its path.

But its target wasn’t Xu Qi An—rather, it unsportsmanlikely sneak attacked Luo Yu Heng.

Boom!

Xu Qi An flashed in front of Luo Yu Heng and the water-lightning ball, raising his sword edge to strike the ball.

The water-lightning ball immediately exploded, filling the air instantly with electric charges, arcs of electricity flickering and dying in midair.

Xu Qi An’s Vajra physique was torn apart again, but this time, though his flesh split open, no white bone showed through.

He had grown stronger, just as the reports showed… The White Emperor’s tone unchanged, sneered:

“A method to unleash potential? This is what your confidence is based on?”

As he spoke, he wasn’t idle. His four hooves moved like flying, his waist and back contracting and extending like an agile leopard pouncing on its prey.

Descendants of gods and demons weren’t afraid of close combat this was one of their primary methods of killing enemies.

Taking advantage of the paralysis effect from the water-lightning ball, he planned to hunt down Xu Qi An in the shortest time and end the battle.

Seventeen lightning tribulations already… Xu Qi An’s body silently collapsed, melting into the shadows, and disappearing without a trace.

“Running away?”

The White Emperor sneered, spitting out two black arrows toward Luo Yu Heng.

Compared to Karura who was tightly entangled, he only faced Xu Qi An as an enemy, and Xu Qi An couldn’t possibly entangle him alone.

So he often had free hands to deal with Luo Yu Heng.

Luo Yu Heng, amid transcending tribulation, divided part of her attention, raising her right hand in a sword finger to control her flying sword to slash at the two black arrows.

Boom! Boom!

The arrows condensed from water spirit power scattered, and Luo Yu Heng’s body swayed, her face turning slightly pale.

Xu Qi An emerged from the shadow beneath the White Emperor, holding the Nation-Stabilizing Sword, yellow light exploding as he thrust toward its reproductive organs.