Fang Lijuan did not waste time and activated her Dharma Body, which looked like her but had a weird aura surrounding it that made it seem that it did not exist, that it was invisible. Li Jun followed her and deployed his Dharma Body, except it had a hidden quiet bloodlust hidden deep in his eyes.
"Tell me, how can you affect something you cannot see? Something invisible."
Li Jun immediately lost track of Fang Lijuan as she became invisible to him and unknown to the world.
"How can an ant hide from a god? And unfortunately, no creature–known or unknown–can escape the clutches of death." His Dharma Body stabbed a golden spear directly at Fang Lijuan's location.
[Shadow Escape]
She disappeared before manifesting a distance, avoiding the attack. Immediately, Fang Lijuan knew the fight wouldn't be as easy as she had guessed.
"Shadow Dao? It seems you've improved since we last met," said Li Jun.
Fang Lijuan did not answer; she might have been quite arrogant before, but after breaking through the limit of her bloodline and experiencing many things in this generation, she's not stupid enough to keep holding on to certain detrimental ideas of the Divine Dao League. She knows to constantly improve and never become complacent. Otherwise, the only fate awaiting her is death, or worse, becoming irrelevant.
[Wrath of the Shadow World]
Li Jun sensed something and looked into the sky. 'Invisible shadow?' He sensed she created a small world full of Shadow Energy to enhance her attack. Then, she applied her Invisible Dao to the shadow to enhance their hiding ability.
Bang!
Numerous shadow spears, swords, palms, and punches landed on Li Jun, but he did not move a single step; he easily tanked the attack with his fleshly body with no injury. Then, he looked at her as if to say: do you have something better? Is this the best you can do?
"Oftentimes, knowledge and the truth are invisible to us."
The surrounding immediately changed after Fang Lijuan's Dharma Body used this technique. The soldiers in the surroundings began to lose their knowledge or all the things they learned in their lives–including how to cultivate and how to use their powers.
They began to forget fundamental truths like they were humans, had a mind, spirit, and soul, or that they understood the laws of Heaven and Earth. And it was the same for Li Jun.
"The fear of death is ingrained in all living beings, and slaughter is instinctual–especially when someone is cornered."
Li Jun's counter immediately removed the effect of this spell before counter-attacking with a beam of death energy. Fang Lijuan's Dharma Body turned into a giant crystal and protected her.
Boom!
She defended the attack but was still injured; blood spilled from her nose, and her complexion became paler. Fang Lijuan immediately tried to make her injury invisible as a way to heal; if it's not there and invisible, then it does not exist. Unfortunately, Li Jun's Duyi Realm would not allow such a thing.
'Is this what Mo Xingyun referred to as Duyi Realm? How can Li Jun be talented enough to reach such a stage?'
Fang Lijuan knew she could not achieve Nine Extremity, so she wanted to enter the Duyi Realm at least. But even that was more challenging than it sounded. Her mind worked rapidly, thinking of countermeasures.
Meanwhile, Wang Wei looked at the battle from a distance. They were not surprised by the flowering words these Dharma Bodies would recite during the match. In the Supreme Realm, battles are often more about understanding the Dao and manifested in the form of a philosophical debate.
Although it may appear stupid and pointless to some people, they knew these battles were perilous if something went wrong. If a cultivator suddenly doubts their Daos during one of these debates, there is a high chance of developing Heart Devil, the collapse of the Dao Heart, and/or their state of mind.
And this collapse has created the existence of an anomaly: Half Emperors. Typically, these people with doubts or wrong interpretations of their Dao would die if they ever touched the Heaven Will. However, throughout history, one recorded exception is the Heat Emperor.
The Heat Emperor cultivated Pure Yang Dao, with a fighting style involving extreme heat to burn all matters and concepts. However, in one of his battle in the Supreme Realm, someone pointed out that 'solitary Yang cannot exist without Yin, and vice versa," meaning he needed a touch of Yin Dao in his extreme Yang Dao. Unfortunately, the Heat Emperor refused to accept this fact and went on a maddening tirade.
Years later, no one knew how he managed to enter the Quasi-Realm, and he took the Heaven Will with some luck and strength. Then, the world learned of Half-Emperors–an entity even weaker than Pseudo-Emperors.
Pseudo-Emperors can become Third Class as long as they fix their Dao Hearts. However, Half-Emperors are as weak as 5-Root Dao Ancestors. According to records, they have the eternity ability of ordinary Emperors, but it is unknown whether they can improve or fix the issue with their Dao.
Wang Wei theorized the Heat Emperor might have been the first Half Emperor, and Heavenly Dao fixed the bug in the game after him. Of course, there is also the possibility that Half Emperors is more common in other places like other Source Chaos Worlds.
Fang Lijuan decided to be even more aggressive in her approach.
"The things most important to us cannot be seen."
What are the most important things to Li Jun? His family, loyalty, sect, and pursuit of the Dao. All of a sudden, he felt these were not that important; they were rapidly becoming invisible to him–they no longer were a part of him.
"My Slaughter Dao exists for guardianship, and as long there are people I need to protect, nothing can change my essence."
Splish!
Fang Lijuan suffered backlash for the failure of this technique. But she did not care since it was the first step of her plan.
[Shadow Attachment]
A very subtle and undetectable shadow expanded from her body to connect to Li Jun's shadow.
"Now, your power belongs to me," said Fang Lijuan. Through the connection of the shadow, she can access her opponent's power and bless herself with it. This is one of the tactics she's been planning to use against Wang Wei and Di Tian after learning about their strengths. Of course, she knew this was far from enough.
"My power? Can you even handle its weight? Can you handle the burden of Death? The screams of the fallen?"
"AAAAHHHHHH," screamed Fang Lijuan, her voice shrieking with misery and pain. "The voices, make them stop." She could hear an infinite number of people talking to her, asking her why she killed them. It was like she had to confront the grieving souls of all the people Li Jun had killed. However, there is no way he could have killed so many people.
Li Jun did not kill so many people. However, in the sect's trial, he had to confront the Killing Intent and Baleful Aura of numerous Emperors who had too much blood on their hands. He has been using this method to temper his mind and Willpower. So, he passed on this burden to Fang Lijuan for her to have a small taste.
"This battle has been quite the disappointment," he commented. He has not even used his Immortal Venerable strength yet; otherwise, he would have instantly crushed her.
"Not yet…It's not over," stuttered Fang Lijuan as she disconnected the shadow and abandoned her previous tactic. "I have one last attack."
Suddenly, her aura exploded as it drastically increased. Then, her hair turned white-grey like an older woman, and her face aged with wrinkles and age spots. The power of invisibility emanating from her Dharma Body became even more potent.
"Things are finally becoming interesting," commented Li Jun, who could see she sacrificed her lifespan to exponentially boost the Invisible Talisman's power; she even reached the strength of 1-Leaf Immortal Venerable.
[The Invisible Hand of Fate]
A grey hand with the power of fate descended from the heavens intending to annihilate Li Jun, and he looked at the sky in shock.
'I win,' thought Fang Lijuan. She spent countless years and efforts before developing this technique that used Invisible Dao to manifest the power of Fate Dao. However, this is not why she believes she won, given she already concluded Li Jun has Immortal Venerable strength.
'It's because of who you are: you worship your big brother. You worship his strength, intelligence, and, more importantly, his Dao,' she thought with a sneer. 'And when confronted with its power, you've become overwhelmed, thinking there is nothing you can do before it.'
Li Jun looked at the descending palm, unable to move. He faced that palm many times in practice, and he was always helpless each time. And today, seeing it brought back all these memories.
As he was about to be squashed to death, he suddenly heard a familiar voice: 'Fate can be killed.'
His eyes suddenly became bright as he held his spear, "Yes, there is nothing between Heaven and Earth that I cannot kill.'
[Fate Killing Spear]
He stabbed his spear, utilizing all the power of his Slaughter Dao. The palm disintegrated into beautiful motes of light, turning the grey sky back to its blue color.
