All Heavens: A Role-Playing System Starting from Tianlong

Chapter 65 Li Qiushui, the old lady who loves to imagine things

"You sensed something was wrong, didn't you?" Zhang Cheng's voice came through. "This is to give you a heads-up."

The light veil covering Li Qiushui's face was slightly fluttering due to the stirring of her inner energy, revealing a section of her fair, jade-like chin. She stared at Zhang Cheng, her eyes filled with surprise and uncertainty.

"What kind of technique did you just use?"

Zhang Cheng did not answer. He raised his hand and swung his sword again.

Having just witnessed the strange occurrence, Li Qiushui dared not confront it head-on. She used her Lingbo Weibu (a martial arts technique) to retreat swiftly.

But Zhang Cheng is equally proficient in this art.

The two followed the divination, chasing and dodging each other through the ruins, their figures ethereal, like immortals dancing. The one in black was a bit more robust.

Xiao Yu slumped to the side, watching the two fighting in the arena.

The two hadn't used any secret telepathic means during their conversation, so she heard the whole thing.

She also learned that the white-clad woman who had attacked was actually the Venerable One's junior sister. And the black-clad man who had saved her seemed to be a disciple of the Free and Unfettered Sect, a junior disciple of the Venerable One.

She wanted to help Zhang Cheng, but her injuries were quite severe.

Having witnessed her lord's defeat, she knew that the enemy's cultivation was far superior to her own. Any tricks she tried to use would not fool her.

Therefore, the palm strike she delivered to herself was a genuine and severe blow to her internal organs, without holding back in the slightest. Afterwards, she was captured by Li Qiushui and tortured for a long time with her internal energy. If Zhang Cheng hadn't intervened in time, she would probably have already fainted.

However, the commotion caused by Zhang Cheng's fight was quite loud, and many Lingjiu Palace disciples from the vicinity had already rushed over upon hearing the noise.

One of the disciples, with sharp eyes, spotted Xiao Yu slumped on the ground and quickly went to help him up.

"Grandma Yu, what's wrong with you—"

Xiao Yu took a breath and quickly said, "The woman in white is the invading enemy, and the man in black is a helping hand."

Upon hearing this, the disciples exchanged glances and immediately drew their swords to help.

Zhang Cheng, who was sparring with Li Qiushui in the middle of the arena, caught a glimpse of this out of the corner of his eye and hurriedly spoke up to stop them: "Your skills aren't up to par, you'd better not interfere!"

The disciples didn't show any displeasure upon hearing this; they simply looked at Xiao Yu questioningly.

Xiao Yu gritted his teeth and said loudly, "Hero Zhang, although we are of lowly skill, we are willing to die for our lord."

I am willing to sacrifice myself to secure victory for the great hero!

The disciples beside him nodded in agreement, their eyes resolute.

Zhang Cheng was completely baffled.

"Stop! Stop! Stop!" he shouted repeatedly while dealing with Li Qiushui's onslaught. "Stop it! Can you please stop making things worse?"

Upon seeing this, Li Qiushui scoffed.

"I didn't realize that my nephew, who is so big and burly, is so tender-hearted towards women."

As she spoke, another palm strike came from afar. The force of the palm pierced the air, and a strong wind howled.

Zhang Cheng parried with his sword, saying irritably, "You old lady pretending to be young, you're even making personal attacks on me."

He took a moment to raise his hand and waved it, releasing a gentle force that pushed aside the Lingjiu Palace disciples who were about to cause trouble, keeping them outside the battle circle.

Then he focused on dealing with Li Qiushui in front of him. He wielded his sword with wide, sweeping strokes.

Li Qiushui tried to gather her true energy in her hand to intercept Zhang Cheng's sword energy.

But as soon as they made contact, they sensed that some of the true energy flowed smoothly through her condensed energy shield as if it were not obstructed.

Fortunately, she was prepared and immediately withdrew, thus avoiding being slashed across the palm.

Li Qiushui took two steps back, her eyes darting around.

"I'm starting to believe that this young man is not my senior brother's disciple."

She said slowly, "Your internal energy technique, which can penetrate internal energy, is indeed extraordinary. You must have a master to teach you."

Zhang Cheng hadn't even had time to feel relieved that she was finally listening to him properly—

But Li Qiushui changed the subject, saying, "However, the Northern Darkness Divine Art is different from all other martial arts in the world in terms of its energy cultivation method. If you have practiced martial arts in the past, you cannot directly switch to practicing the Northern Darkness Divine Art."

So, after you met my senior brother, he used the Northern Darkness Divine Art to absorb all your internal energy and then transferred it to you?

Zhang Cheng slapped his forehead speechlessly. Old people are incredibly stubborn; he shouldn't have had any expectations.

"Has Sister Li considered another possibility?"

He made up a story off the top of his head: "I first obtained the Northern Darkness Divine Skill and the Lingbo Steps from your former residence in Wuliang Mountain, then I met your senior brother, and then, as instructed on your scroll, I killed him and absorbed all his internal energy."

"The Northern Darkness Divine Art cannot absorb large quantities from small ones." Li Qiushui actually began to seriously consider this possibility.

"The Northern Darkness Divine Art cannot absorb power from a weaker source, but what if your senior brother has had enough of being crippled and can no longer bear the humiliation, so he voluntarily gives me his power?"

"That's utter nonsense!"

Li Qiushui's eyes sharpened, and her aura suddenly intensified.

"Watch me capture you, and then I'll get to the bottom of things!"

She deliberately dispersed her protective aura, channeling all of that internal energy into her subsequent attack.

He unleashed a palm strike from each side, and two invisible giant hands, condensed from the power of the white rainbow palm, reappeared.

She was multitasking, continuing to use her Lingbo Weibu (a martial arts technique) to recover her breath while focusing on controlling the two giant hands.

This attack used up almost all of her internal energy, except for the energy she used to maintain her physical vitality. In her usual battles, she would always allocate some of her internal energy to maintain a protective aura. This was the first time she had ever used her full strength in an attack.

These two giant hands were infused with a massive amount of internal energy.

Zhang Cheng attempted to attack with his sword, but the sword energy struck the giant hand, only to be met with a resounding failure, unable to disperse it.

The invisible giant hand continued to advance towards him. Because it was controlled at will, Zhang Cheng could not predict it by sound as he would with ordinary invisible energy.

Zhang Cheng frowned, then suddenly stomped his foot on the ground. "Bang!" The ground trembled, and dust flew up.

The tiny dust particles were shaken and scattered in the air. The moment they touched the invisible giant hand, they immediately outlined two enormous shapes.

Zhang Cheng clearly saw their shape and location.

Seeing this, Li Qiushui remained calm. Under her full control, the two giant hands actually began to use martial arts techniques from the Xiaoyao Sect.

With one hand raised and the other pressed down, if the old woman were still nearby, she would recognize the starting stance of this move, "Yangguan Sandie".

Zhang Cheng was amazed: "That old man still has something up his sleeve; he even has this kind of trick up his sleeve."

Seeing one of the giant hands coming down on his head, he immediately used the Lingbo Weibu (a martial arts technique) to dodge.

This time, it was Li Qiushui's turn to predict his landing point.

As soon as Zhang Cheng took a step, another giant hand was already waiting on the next hexagram he was about to land on.

A giant hand loomed ahead, pursuers were closing in from behind. Seeing this, Zhang Cheng unleashed a flurry of Six Meridian Divine Sword strikes at Li Qiushui.

"Swoosh swoosh swoosh swoosh—!" More than ten sword energies shot out, covering Li Qiushui's body and blocking all possible escape routes.

To relieve the siege of Wei by attacking Zhao.

Li Qiushui frowned and had no choice but to temporarily halt her attack, redirecting the second giant hand, which was originally intended for the encirclement, back to intercept the sword energy.