Chapter 58 The Miraculous Daoist Canon

Twilight enshrouded the earth, and the firelight of the huan bird dyed the sky a deep, ominous red.

Cui Laoqi looked majestic, carrying the refined air typical of a middle-aged scholar, much like a mortal schoolteacher.

Yet within his body, a Dao Repository was condensing. Two arms, seemingly forged from glowing red iron, grew from his shoulders, stained with a faint bloody hue. Innumerable red lines wound around his entire body, making him appear considerably more violent. "The relic of the ancient immortals, I found it first."

Amidst the forest, Chen Xuan was dressed in concise martial artist black. His face was handsome, but his body was bathed in a faint white radiance. His demeanor was vastly different from before, carrying a transcendent, ethereal quality.

He stepped out of the forest, looked up at the sky, and let out a faint chuckle.

"Boom!"

The huan bird beneath Cui Laoqi suddenly accelerated, resembling a small volcano crashing down toward the earth, closing the distance in an instant.

The giant bird lunged downward, the earth trembling. Its beak, like a red divine scissor, stabbed forward, but Chen Xuan stood like a reef amidst giant waves, unmoving. A massive wave of fire impacted and dispersed from both sides, causing towering trees along the path to crash down and burn in rows.

"Rip!"

Chen Xuan grabbed the huan bird's sharp beak and, with a sharp tear, forcibly ripped it apart into upper and lower halves. A massive surge of hot blood gushed out. In an instant, the piercing, mournful cries of the huan bird pierced the firmament.

Cui Laoqi was startled. He hadn't noticed Chen Xuan employing any immortal *qi*, yet the youth had resisted the huan bird's might purely with his bare hands. Could this really be a human in the Apotheosis Realm? He almost suspected the youth was some disguised ghost or demon.

However, this astonishment vanished in a flash. Two hours earlier, he had witnessed Chen Xuan in battle with his own eyes and knew the youth was absolutely incapable of matching a grand master who had just stepped into the Dao Repository realm.

"Boom!"

Two vortices of red *qi* exploded beneath Cui Laoqi's feet, leaving a red phantom streak in the air. He instantly traversed more than twenty meters, charging straight at Chen Xuan.

Every part of his body was a lethal weapon, especially his two crimson arms, which harbored thousands of degrees of heat. As he struck fiercely, the air itself warped from the scorching temperature, flashing across like two bolts of red lightning.

"Hum!"

Chen Xuan stood unshaken, a profound melody echoing within his body. He swung both fists, and five-colored immortal *qi* erupted simultaneously. The immortal *qi* blooming from each punchprint was entirely different, unleashing the roaring shrieks of a sonic boom.

Five different, ferocious phantom beasts—a giant ape, a azure deer, a firebird, a black carp, and an earth boar—emerged one after another, charging toward Cui Laoqi along with the sky-filling barrage of punchprints.

"Bang! Bang!"

Cui Laoqi came quickly, but he flew backward even faster. More than a dozen indented punchprints appeared across his body, and he heavily crashed into the dissipating form of the huan bird.

Sparks flew, and with a loud bang, the giant bird manifested from *qi* directly dissolved into nothingness.

"The Five Elements *Qi*!"

Cui Laoqi was struck with terror. As a cultivator at the half-step Dao Repository realm and a once-in-a-generation cultivation genius, he naturally knew how difficult it was to master the Five Elements *Qi*, because it was fundamentally impossible to achieve!

The first four types of immortal *qi* could be painstakingly ground out by some geniuses over twenty or thirty years, but the fifth type of immortal *qi* was utterly impossible to cultivate. The difficulty multiplied tenfold, forbidden by the will of heaven. Countless ambitious geniuses of the past had tried, only to meet with dismal failure in the end.

Yet how old was the youth before him? He had actually succeeded!

Chen Xuan's eyes were clear, his long hair dancing in the air as the demeanor of a peerless grandmaster flowed around him. His entire body was glowing, circulating the five types of immortal *qi*, making him look like an immortal descended to the mortal realm.

He lowered his gaze to study his fists, having preliminarily tested the strength of the Five Elements *Qi*. It was unquestionably capable of contending with, and perhaps even surpassing, an incomplete human Dao Repository!

This was because just moments ago, he had traded several blows with Cui Laoqi's crimson arms, and the ferocious fire-attribute impact had been largely neutralized and nullified by the Five Elements *Qi*, vanishing without causing any significant injury.

"The so-called half-step Dao Repository is nothing much." Chen Xuan stepped across the scorched earth, walking completely out of the forest.

"You possess the world's rarest Five Elements *Qi*, why did you run away earlier?!"

Cui Laoqi demanded angrily, finding it incomprehensible, as his opponent clearly had the capital to compete head-to-head with them for the ancient immortal relic.

He glanced down and saw the two crimson arms protruding from his body... actually trembling slightly, as if they had been beaten sore from the previous collisions?

A profound sense of crisis welled up in Cui Laoqi's heart. Intuition told him that the youth before him was unfathomable and spell trouble. He had to flee immediately.

"Boom!"

Chen Xuan had locked onto him completely long ago. With every step he took, a brilliant phantom beast seemed to manifest. Swift as thunder, he launched his attack.

Cui Laoqi turned to flee, but his speed was no match for Chen Xuan's. Moreover, sensing a mortal crisis, his two crimson arms instantly seized control of his body, dragging him straight toward Chen Xuan to counterattack.

The Dao Repository knew clearly that escape was impossible; only by fighting for one's life was there a sliver of a chance of survival!

"No!"

Cui Laoqi's mind was filled with horror, his eyes laced with panic. He completely lost his composure because his body was dragging him to his doom while he had no control over it, forced to watch helplessly.

Suddenly, he displayed exceptionally high combat skills. Planted firmly on one crimson arm to swing his body, his right leg whipped out like an iron lash, whistling through the air to kick at Chen Xuan's head.

"Admirable spirit!"

Chen Xuan laughed heartily, lashing out with the tip of his toe with split-second precision, accompanied by the massive phantom of a wild boar whose fur resembled steel needles, accurately striking Cui Laoqi's waist and abdomen.

"Agh!"

Cui Laoqi was sent flying backward for dozens of meters, coughing up a mouthful of blood. The robes across his chest shattered entirely, revealing a luxurious yet resilient soft armor beneath. Nonetheless, the tremendous explosive force still caused his chest and abdomen to vibrate violently, snapping several ribs.

His two crimson arms hummed and vibrated, innumerable crimson rune lines spreading across them as a higher fighting will awakened!

"Stop!"

Cui Laoqi felt as though he were going mad. His body was clearly on the verge of being beaten to pieces, yet his fighting spirit remained soaring as he charged forward once more, vowing to fight the opponent to the bitter end, locked in a battle to the death.

Chen Xuan secretly thought that as expected of a major figure at the half-step Dao Repository realm, his fighting will was exceptionally high, completely unlike those peers of his generation he had encountered, who always prioritized caution above all else and were terrified of death.

"Boom!"

Chen Xuan drove the Five Elements Immortal *Qi* to its absolute limit. One after another, phantom beasts roared across the world as he engaged Cui Laoqi in a fierce, unrestrained battle. The two moved at blinding speeds, the sky filled with splashing crimson flames and five-colored immortal *qi*.

After a dozen-odd blows, Cui Laoqi's two normal arms exploded, and his legs were crushed as well.

Cui Laoqi's body was thoroughly beaten to pieces, reduced almost to a pool of bloody mud held together by bone fragments. Yet his two Dao Repository crimson arms continued to fight to the death, resisting relentlessly. Chen Xuan had no choice but to tear the two crimson arms off and then stamp them down with loud *squishing* sounds into a pile of flesh and blood stained with flames.

Even until the three aspects of his consciousness were completely worn away, he was still muttering incoherently in his mouth, as if repeating: "No more fighting, no more fighting!"

Chen Xuan could not make out what he was saying.

"Whoosh!"

Suddenly, a wisp of crimson flame flew out from the remains of the two crimson arms, suspended in mid-air, flickering and swaying.

"What is this?"

Chen Xuan's gaze locked, staring blankly at this wisp of flame, feeling a violent and scorching fire virtue emanating from it... so much so that it gave his mouth a bizarre feeling of salivating. He wanted to eat it!

In the distance.

The earth trembled. The old man from the Lu family, riding upon the *qi* of the writhing serpent, rushed over without stopping. Cui Laoqi had discovered the traces of the ancient immortal relic first; if he was a step late, he would get nothing. "The ancient immortal relic must be mine!"

Yet very soon, he stopped in horror, having witnessed the entire process of Cui Laoqi being blasted to death from afar.

In the span of just a dozen breaths.

A half-step Dao Repository expert no weaker than himself had been beaten to death by Chen Xuan in a frontal battle.

"Why does he know the Five Elements *Qi*?!"

The old man surnamed Lu muttered in horror and disbelief. Having fought the youth earlier, he clearly knew the latter did not possess this ability, and his strongest attacks had only caused him minor injuries. A deeply absurd thought suddenly bloomed in his mind.

In the span of a mere two hours, the opponent had mastered the Five Elements *Qi*...

"Impossible, impossible! There is no such monster in this world. Even the absolute pinnacle of peerless prodigies could never accomplish such a feat!"

The old man's lips trembled with fear, his aged face twisted in terror. The next instant, the countless dark cyan scales across his skin vibrated, emitting a sound like a hiss of a snake. Sensing a dire crisis, they instantly seized control of the panic-stricken old man's body, which had completely lost its wits, spinning him around and sending him fleeing wildly.

The Dao Repository realized that Chen Xuan was extremely dangerous, but the distance between them was vast. Immediately evading the youth was the best choice.

"Now that you're here, don't bother leaving."

In the distance, Chen Xuan turned his head, his gaze locking onto the massive writhing serpent figure several miles away.

The commotion was massive; he had noticed it long ago.