The Sage Who Transcended Samsara

Dark clouds began to crowd overhead in a matter of seconds and turned the surroundings dusky in a flash. The purple light reflected the rising and falling waves of the flowing river water as if it was building up to a whirlpool. It was incredibly frightening.

Purple bolts of lightning had filled up Meng Qi’s vision. The thunder blade hacked him from above, making five simultaneous strokes that burst with terrifying explosions. The explosions expanded with him as the ‘core,’ clearing and destroying everything in their way!

“Roaring Thunder?”

“Seven Purple Thunderstrikes?”

“Thunder God from the Ninth Heaven of the Myths?”

Meng Qi’s pupils shrunk in shock. He never thought that the Myths would dispatch their men to Luoyang and so daringly try and assassinate him!

The Myths sending their the Exterior experts to kill him was akin to him killing Yang Wuliang, the Foreign Official of Prince Jin, in broad daylight!

What he had been guarding against was the Destruction Sect and the Luo Denomination, yet by a stroke of fortune, he happened to sense the threat of the Thunder God from the Ninth Heaven. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have the time to respond at all and would be struck dead by the thunder under that sword stroke!

This was the disparity in the realm that he was incapable of surpassing by himself without the help of a secret treasure.

Furthermore, Thunder God from the Ninth Heaven wasn’t a the Exterior expert. When it came to battle power, he was superior to Ze Luoju!

Boom!

The sudden clap of thunder burst with bolts of purple lightning. The sword, carrying a might that was capable of destroying everything, became a divine punishment that struck Meng Qi. Its prominent changes in the thunder marks were imposing and frightening.

Just then, a ray of saber radiance rose from the ground, dispelling the dark cloud. Silver serpents tangled about in disorder as if the doomsday was approaching.

Boom!

The saber radiance split into five — rapid yet unhurried; heavy yet empty; intense yet whole. Thanks to Meng Qi being on high alert he detected the threat in advance and managed to force a response out of himself at once instead of frantically responding to the enemy’s Thunderstrike.

Otherwise, he would’ve found it impossible to escape this calamity!

Boom!

Green Thunder, the thickness of a bucket, converged mid-air before striking down with a loud bang. The thunder struck one after another, climaxing at the fifth strike!

This time, Meng Qi rolled out his changes and slashed at his enemy from underneath, with the void as the basis for containing all the changes. Shaped into his Inner World, it was no longer merely a Sky Thunder saber but the merging of the saber and divine punishment. They attacked from above and below respectively, sandwiching the enemy!

The Celestial orbited around the Grand Sun, with his Vital Spirit as the central point, and the Chaotic Hole emerged. Meng Qi’s long saber became faint and dark, already resembling the sky before the arrival of thunder or the boundless cosmos.

“Shatter!” Meng Qi roared in his heart, pushing his momentum to its peak. He showed no sign of retreating even in the face of Exterior masters.

“If I’m going to die anyway, then why bother whining about it? Even I die, I won’t let you have it easy!”

“I’ll go all out for an opportunity to live!”

Boom! The place shook with the explosion, the sound resounding all around, as the Green Thunder got caught in the web of purple bolts of lightning. The void contained the sharp ends of the blades. Meng Qi only felt his Heaven Inflicted Pain become heavier, to the point where he couldn’t lift it. The bolts of unrelenting purple bolts of lightning overflowed from the saber and hacked him.

Using the Upstanding Qi as a wall to turn the dead into the living, the bolts of lightning chaotically danced around Meng Qi, flickering non-stop. He felt an unceasing numbing and stabbing pain in his limbs. The faint golden glow appeared, helping him block the invasion of his enemy’s attacks.

In the past year, Meng Qi had promoted the Immortal Pressing Art and the Matchless Celestial Saber to a level beyond the Exterior thanks to the help of the first volume of the Muscle-bone Strengthening Scripture. Otherwise, with the power of the Thunder God from the Ninth Heaven, he feared he wouldn’t be able to escape the fate of his Eight Nine Mysteries shattering even if he made an Exterior-level strike. Right now, under the cooperation between the saber and skill, he had avoided defeat!

Pop, pop, pop! The bluestones underneath Meng Qi’s feet exploded continuously, bursting in all directions. The double blades exchanged hands in mid-air before attacking him as if they had temporarily frozen in place. Bolts of purple lightning curled up around two men, setting off them just like gods.

Clang!

With a distant voice, Meng Qi made a strange horizontal sweep and dragged the remnants of the Purple Thunder with him. Like a devil, he unleashed his saber momentum and threw himself into the river water, which resembled a ferocious beast by now.

“Hmph!” Thunder God from the Ninth Heaven was somewhat surprised to see that he didn’t manage to kill his target in one strike, but his subordinate didn’t loosen his guard or stop in his tracks in the slightest. The latter thrust his blades horizontally, forming bolts of wild and violent dragons, and hunted after Meng Qi to gain a quick victory. He was so fast that Meng Qi couldn’t grasp his movements at all, only sensing the flash of his lightning.

Rain began falling, leaving ripples on the surface of the river water. With the slash of Thunder God from the Ninth Heaven’s saber, the river water separated from within and instantly turned dry in that crevice.

However, Meng Qi seemed to have predicted this. Just as he threw himself outwards, his breath instantly became empty as if he had grown a Chaotic Hole. He broke away from the targeting on his back in an instant, went along with the unimaginable shift of events, and hurled himself in the other direction.

Thunder God from the Ninth Heaven put his saber away when he saw Meng Qi running away and ran straight for him. Transforming into many bolts of purple lightning, he enveloped Meng Qi and sealed off any possibility of him dodging. He was treating Meng Qi as an Exterior master who was capable of flight.

Rumble! The clap of thunder was soul-stirringly loud, causing Meng Qi’s Vital Spirit to tremble and fall into a daze as if it was returning to the primal chaos.

The thunder marks on the back of his hand were apparent. The falling of the purple rain had primarily dissolved the effect of the thunder, allowing him the capability to make a response.

He was already turning around with an expression full of fighting vigor. It was as if his escape earlier had just been a pretense, all so that he could incite the unyielding collision of their powers right now.

“Kill!”

Meng Qi roared the word. Purple Thunder burst forth just as saber Qi gushed. The heads and tails of the nine bolts of dragons winded around each other like wheels, crushing the blade-shaped purple lighting.

He was now capable of launching two Exterior-level attacks even if his attack now was weaker than the one before!

Boom!

The purple lightning exploded midair like the setting off of fireworks. It lit up the sky and turned it into beautiful scenery. The tremor shook the bridge over the river and, finally unable to take the rocking, it collapsed with a loud noise. It fell into the river and gave rise to tall, overflowing waves.

The land was scorched all around them; not even a hint of trees, plants, or flowers seen. The fish maw by the river became suffused with white, half-sinking and half-floating.

Unlike Thunder God from the Ninth Heaven who could change direction as he pleased, Meng Qi was flung away and was currently airborne. He fell into the soil on the opposite river bank, thrown so hard that he felt muddleheaded. Purple lightning flashed all around him, and the faint golden glow dimmed. His Seven Apertures began bleeding, indicating that he had sustained quite massive injuries.

Thunder God from the Ninth Heaven’s breath showed no signs of weakening in the slightest. Just as he was about to attack Meng Qi once again, he suddenly stopped in his tracks. He sneered before turning around, walking away, and returning to the darkness.

The commotion that they had made earlier had drawn the attention of people thinking that there was an unyielding battle ongoing. There was no way for Thunder God from the Ninth Heaven to kill off Meng Qi cleanly in just two or three strikes, so he had no choice but to leave and retreat!

“Haha! What a chicken!”

Meng Qi laughed heartily, unconcerned about the blood overflowing out of his mouth, as he made fun of Thunder God. The shadow of the latter seemed to have stopped in his tracks.

Meng Qi had never thought of escaping in their battle earlier. This was Luoyang after all. As long as he could make it through three of Thunder God’s strikes, the latter would retreat!

Even so, if he wanted to run away, he was reasonably confident that he was capable of doing so. But harboring the intention of escape would weaken his fighting intention and make him a puppet to his opponent. The injuries he would’ve received would be much worse than what he had sustained now.

Wang Wenxian was the first who noticed the commotion and rushed there as he had reminded Meng Qi a while ago and had a premonition about it. When he saw that Meng Qi was fine, he appeared relieved. “I had been careless. I didn’t think they’d be this audacious to spring an attack on you right after our meeting.”

“It’s not the Destruction Sect and the Luo Denomination. It’s Thunder God from the Ninth Heaven of the Myths who attacked.” Meng Qi got up from the ground and wiped the blood off his face.

He was likely the leftovers among Method of Mistress Su’s the Exterior masters!

Wang Wenxian’s face turned serious. “The Myths?”

Just as he was about to question further, he saw Su Yue, with a yellow-eye hanging from his waist, walking over to them. He nodded and said, “Let’s report this to the Six Fan School first.”

In the end, Wang Wenxian conformed to the rules and didn’t take matters into his own hands. The issue belonged to the Six Fan School, after all. Naturally, he would get involved privately.

After saluting Wang Wenxian, Su Yue took Meng Qi to the headquarters of the Six Fan School.

This was Meng Qi’s first time seeing the famed building, and he couldn’t help his curiosity. From the outside, the building appeared to be an archaic courtyard. Inside, tall trees that reached for the sky lined the ground. Hidden from view were one after another of small pavilions. They were mostly straightforward and undecorated. It was hard to believe that this was the headquarters of the Six Fan School whose might had shaken the entire Jianghu.

However, the arresters coming and going about the headquarters mainly had strong, unrelenting breaths, many of them with Purple Ribbons and Gold Badges. This place was indeed the real deal.

Su Yue brought Meng Qi into a clean office with a calm, refreshing atmosphere. He smiled and said, “I’ve wanted to invite you to the headquarters to receive your reward for Wolf King’s incident. But it’s either because I couldn’t contact or because I can’t bring myself to ask you out of worry about leaking your identity. Here’s my chance at long last.”

“Reward?” Meng Qi only heard the main point.

“Wolf King had captured a frontline official correspondent overseas. Of course, there is a reward for killing him. The Chief Arrester discussed with us Super Arresters and decided to promote you to the position of Silverly-badge Arrester. You can choose an Exterior-level cultivation method or a corresponding elixir or treasure. Of course, you didn’t complete your assignments in the past one-and-a-half year and often uncontactable. Your remuneration for that period must be deducted,” Su Yue said, beaming.

The simultaneous reward and punishment seemed fair; it also demonstrated the rules of the Six Fan School.

“One-and-a-half-year of remuneration…” Meng Qi felt a sudden stabbing heartache. After he was carried away by Gao Lan, he had been focusing on training and cultivating. He refused any distractions, resulting in him forgetting about his investigation.

“If I claim elixirs as his reward and exchange it with the six realms, I’d be getting more than 3,000 Karma points at the very minimum…”

“Fortunately, I still have other rewards! Besides, my remuneration after becoming a Silverly-badge Arrester would be nearly 300 Karma points…” He tried to comfort himself.

“Come over in a few days to secretly receive your rewards and promotion. You can also meet the Emperor and Chief Arrester while you’re at it and make up for what you didn’t do the last time,” Su Yue reminded him with a serious expression. “Now explain in detail what had happened earlier.”

Su Yue paced back and forth inside his office, with hands behind his back, after listening to Meng Qi’s explanation. “It’s all the fault of the assassin who infiltrated Prince Jin’s mansion to kill his Foreign Official setting a wrong example. In the past, there were few such cases in Luoyang.”

“…” Meng Qi didn’t know what to say. He could only puff his chest in an apparent self-righteous manner. “Such an audacious person who openly flouts the rules must be harshly punished to set an example for others!”

“You’re right.” Su Yue nodded. “The matter about the escort item perhaps involves something even bigger. Once you manage to contact your friend, don’t forget to report to the school. As for the Myths, we’ll investigate them and see who dares to harbor them!”

He paused and stared at Meng Qi. “I see the first place on the Ranking List of Young Masters has a well-deserved reputation to be able to withstand three Exterior-level strikes. You don’t pale in comparison against He Jiu in the slightest. Not bad, not bad.”

Gratified, he patted Meng Qi on the shoulder. “You’re in a lot of danger now that you’re the target of an Exterior master. You should return home; at least there are arrays and Exterior masters there. Your dad may treat you coldly, but he cares for you a great deal. Not only did he help conceal your identity and prevent troubles for you, he even requested the Emperor to free you from your duties in Luoyang so you can train freely.”

Meng Qi was planning to examine Su Ziyuan’s childhood room anyway. Now that things had come to this, he readily accepted Su Yue’s suggestion.

Su Yue escorted him back to the family manor. Just as he arrived in the courtyard that Su Ziyuan had once lived in, he saw Su Ziyue coming over to him excitedly. “Second Brother, I heard you’d blocked three Exterior-level strikes,” she said, with a rosy face.

“Yes.” Meng Qi nodded gently. News sure travels fast in Luoyang!

“You’re powerful, really powerful!” Su Ziyue’s eyes were glinting with stars. She then said in concern, “Second Brother, you’re not injured, are you?”

He chuckled. “How can I not be injured? It’s just not serious, that’s all.”

“That’s good to hear.” She patted her chest and heaved a sigh of relief. Her worry was still apparent as she said, “Second Brother, the three brothers of the Ke family plan to challenge you tomorrow after hearing about you blocking the three Exterior-level strikes! Humph, they only know how to take advantage of people in difficulties!”

Meng Qi patted her on the shoulder and grinned. “Even if a tiger is handicapped, it’s not up to a wild dog to take unfair advantage of it.”