Chapter Fourteen: The Long River of Qilin Town
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The blade had pierced nearly three inches into his flesh, drinking greedily of his blood.
Li Changhe slowly lowered his head and stared at Immortal Annihilation, which had been driven into his chest. His pupils trembled.
Even when Xiao Lin had shattered his sword intent and spiritual power with a single word, he had not found it so difficult to believe.
Immortal Annihilation was indeed extraordinary.
But how could Xiao Lin, with only Qi Refining cultivation, possibly pierce a Foundation Establishment body?
As though he knew what Li Changhe was thinking, Xiao Lin said, “The Righteous Qi of the Asura can shatter all evil.”
“Senior Brother was bewitched by the Fallen Sword Immortal’s deceitful words and has begun to nurture a heart demon. Nothing counters it more perfectly than the Righteous Qi of the Asura.”
In truth, there was far more to it than that.
Aside from the fact that Li Changhe had begun to nurture a heart demon and could already be considered half evil, his mind was also churning with countless distracting thoughts.
The Asura Heaven-Subduing Art showed no mercy to anyone who cultivated it. So long as one’s faith was not firm and one’s will wavered, it would destroy the meridians and shatter the cultivation method.
How much more so for an outsider?
Furthermore, the teachings Li Changhe had received over the years had caused him to appear as though he had fallen into demonic madness, while in truth he was still struggling to preserve clarity of mind. As a result, he could not bring his full strength to bear.
With one side weakened and the other strengthened, Xiao Lin had been able to defeat him with a single stroke.
But so long as the audience saw him suppress Li Changhe in an almost overwhelming fashion, that was enough.
“Senior Brother.” Xiao Lin once again infused his words with the Righteous Qi of the Asura and said solemnly, “Do not force the thing in your chest out. That is righteous energy. Absorb and refine it, and use it to extinguish your heart demon!”
At that moment, under the influence of all these factors, Li Changhe’s mind had become a complete muddle.
He subconsciously nodded and followed Xiao Lin’s instructions, attempting to refine that strand of righteous energy.
But in the next instant, he let out a muffled groan, closed his eyes, and fainted.
“Brat, what have you done? Did you kill him?” the Fallen Sword Immortal exclaimed in shock. The face that belonged to Shen Wuya was filled with utter disbelief.
“Old fool, have you gone mad? He is my senior brother.”
Xiao Lin cast him a glance, pulled Immortal Annihilation from his chest, and staunched Li Changhe’s wound and bleeding.
“I merely tricked him into absorbing this strand of righteous energy, causing it to clash with the evil energy in his body and rendering him unconscious.”
“Though this sword stroke was ingenious in countless ways, it was ultimately only a clever trick. The gap between Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment is simply too vast. There was no way I could truly defeat Senior Brother, so I had to find another solution.”
Having said this, Xiao Lin sighed.
The Fallen Sword Immortal heard him, and the face of Shen Wuya twisted once more.
A clever trick?
What sort of clever trick was that?
Even if such a sword stroke would be difficult to reproduce, was the unconscious Li Changhe not completely at his mercy now?
Damn it. How could he have encountered such an arrogant junior in both speech and conduct?
Yet once Li Changhe had fainted, even the pitifully small trickle of negative emotions ceased to emerge.
After raging for a while, the Fallen Sword Immortal was gradually replaced by fear.
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Who in this world was not afraid of death?
What was more, he had absorbed countless wicked thoughts, many of which were thoughts of clinging desperately to life and fearing death.
He could only be even more afraid of death than an ordinary person.
In the past, he had never believed that he could die.
But now, facing Xiao Lin, who produced not the slightest trace of negative emotion, he no longer possessed that confidence.
Xiao Lin, however, could not be bothered with the Fallen Sword Immortal at first. Instead, his gaze swept toward the front.
There, the barrage of comments surged forth like waves, one after another.
“What just happened?”
“He’s using cheats!”
“Wait, isn’t the junior disciple’s combat power a little too absurd? Second Senior Sister and Senior Brother were locked in an even battle. How did he take Senior Brother down in one move?”
“Senior Brother wasn’t able to display his true strength either. He was stacked with debuffs. If they had fought for real, he probably still wouldn’t have been able to win, but that was undeniably cool enough to slap me across the face.”
“No one expected Li Changhe, whom we had placed such high hopes in, to fall beneath Xiao Lin’s hand…”
“This is our Brother Lin for you—so righteous that it becomes evil, so evil that even the Fallen Sword Immortal thought he had killed his own senior brother.”
“I love this character so much. He isn’t merely righteous, and he isn’t the rigid, inflexible sort of righteous either. He’ll even deceive people if that is what it takes to achieve his goal.”
“Fallen Sword Immortal: To all the viewers watching this, do you think I can still absorb negative emotions from this junior and revive indefinitely?”
“Nice, there’s even an interactive segment.”
[Popularity +100…]
[Popularity +100…]
[Popularity +10…]
The “+100” popularity notifications continued to flash again and again.
Then, instead of immediately dropping to “+1,” they fell to “+10” and continued for quite some time before finally returning to their normal state.
Seeing this, Xiao Lin was thoroughly satisfied.
All his painstaking planning and careful arrangement of this scene had not been in vain.
This wave alone had earned him at least a hundred thousand popularity points.
Of course, it had not come without a price.
Whether he had won through clever tricks or sheer strength, the audience had seen him defeat a Foundation Establishment sword cultivator.
From this day onward, in the eyes of the audience, no Qi Refining cultivator would be worthy of becoming his opponent.
Even when facing someone at the peak of Foundation Establishment, they would expect him to win with ease, perhaps even by crushing them outright.
After all, why else would he have chosen to build himself an invincible persona?
That was the price.
But Xiao Lin did not regret it in the slightest.
Because after this battle, his persona had already taken root completely in the hearts of the audience.
This entire segment could even be called a guaranteed source of income.
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From now on, every new viewer who opened The Record of Love on Sword Mountain and reached this scene would provide him with popularity points.
In this way, he could continue growing stronger.
The victory he had achieved through clever tricks would eventually become a truly effortless triumph.
In particular, Xiao Lin already had a goal.
Just now, he had broken through the technique with the character “Suppress” and stabbed Changhe with his sword.
This was precisely an ability he had gained after the Asura Heaven-Subduing Art had reached mastery and the Righteous Qi of the Asura had advanced to a higher level.
It was not a divine ability, yet it surpassed one in effect. It could be called the Art of Suppression.
It was a form of force.
Not the influence of some power behind him, but his own aura.
Just as certain experts and great cultivators could make others struggle to breathe with a single glance, relying on the imposing presence they had accumulated through years of cultivation and countless trials, so too did Xiao Lin sense something within himself.
If his cultivation rose a little further, or if he pushed the Asura Heaven-Subduing Art to perfection, the force contained within the Righteous Qi of the Asura could transform into a domain unlike any other.
Anyone who stepped inside it and possessed inferior righteous energy…
Suppressed!
Anyone whose will was weaker than his…
Suppressed!
Anyone whose Dao heart was inferior to his…
Suppressed!
Anyone whose cultivation was beneath his…
Suppressed!
After being weakened again and again in this manner, how could he fail to overcome opponents above his level with ease?
At that moment, accompanied by a fragrant breeze, Tang Qianxue hurried back.
She seized Xiao Lin by the shoulders and examined him from left to right, afraid that he might have been injured somewhere.
“Little Qilin, are you all right?”
“Of course I’m fine.” Xiao Lin smiled. “Senior Sister, you’re worrying about the wrong person. The one you should really be asking about is…”
As he spoke, he lowered his head.
Tang Qianxue followed his gaze and only then noticed Li Changhe lying on the ground. Her beautiful eyes widened instantly.
From the place where she had been hiding, she had been unable to see what had happened here. She had merely sensed that the fluctuations of spiritual power had ceased and realized that the battle was over.
On her way here, Tang Qianxue had imagined all sorts of possibilities.
Had Senior Brother taken the Suppression Sword Box without harming Little Qilin?
Or had Senior Brother temporarily regained his reason, hurried away, and gone somewhere to recover his senses alone?
Or perhaps…
Of all the possibilities, she had never imagined the one before her now.
One sword to defeat the champion; the Qilin to suppress Changhe.
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