Chapter 13

Thunder is born from the intersection of Yin and Yang. If Qi Xing's lightning cultivation blindly pursued only the utmost rigidity and ferocity, it would be nothing special, and he would have long since died halfway through. This Yin-Yang Fate-Reversing Nine-Transformation Tribulation-Hand can be called his true life's work. With the circulation of Yin and Yang, he transforms the deadly tribulations attacked by others into paths of survival.

The rapidly spinning, profound chaotic hole rotated a full thirty-six times before it could barely dissipate seventy percent of the immense force Samael had casually flicked out. His true energy was subsequently scattered, causing Qi Xing to be knocked flying to the ground not far away, his hair standing on end in shock. The remaining thirty percent of the destructive force continued to blast forward. The temple was completely pierced through by this unstoppable shockwave.

It wasn't over yet; the remaining force continued to surge forward until it reached the boundary line of the Inner Realm.

Theoretically, this boundary line should be absolutely indestructible. Because there is nothing outside the boundary line; it is already beyond the narrative scope of this small world.

Yet, the aftermath of this mere flick of Samael's finger actually blasted open this narrative wall. In an instant, a brilliant light suddenly shone. When the light dissipated, Qi Xing looked closely and saw a hole larger than a house appearing out of thin air, with indescribable, variegated colors surging within.

The Inner Realm is a person's subconscious world. If one breaks through from the Heart Chamber, that would of course lead to the Dream of All Living Beings of all humanity, the sea of the unconscious. Even immortals would find it hard to save themselves if they fell in.

But this Loli Evil God had flicked her finger, forcing out Qi Xing's ultimate technique, and the aftermath had punched through the small world. This was no longer just a question of a gap in power.

At this moment, facing such a great being who was several orders of magnitude higher than him in both age and power—honestly speaking, he was breaking out in a cold sweat. This was truly a formidable enemy the likes of which he had never seen in his life.

How did she move "fast and slow" at the same time? Time manipulation?

"Not bad. You understand the method of transforming life and death."

Samael revealed a joyful smile, as brilliant as a blooming flower.

"But your imagination is insufficient. Why do you think time must be continuously flowing? Time is actually just like your Yin and Yang, positive and negative; it is in segments, frame by frame, with intervals of existence and non-existence."

"I didn't stop, accelerate, or decelerate time; I just did a lot of things in the intervals."

What on earth is she talking about? Can someone translate?

Qi Xing had dropped out of school and left home before he even finished high school in this life, and in his previous life, he was a liberal arts student. He couldn't understand this!

Regardless, Qi Xing's original super speed now held no meaning in front of Samael. At a time like this, retreating temporarily and opening up distance was a valid choice; after all, the Evil God could take a life with a casual flick of her finger… But would Qi Xing choose that?

Without a word, he charged at Samael again, like a cannonball shot from a cannon, moving forward without hesitation.

"Not discouraged, not retreating, very good. What other tricks do you have hidden?"

Samael gladly accepted this clumsy challenge. She remained seated on her throne, this time not even bothering to use physical attacks, and simply pointed at him casually.

Countless phenomena, a vast torrent of primordial chaos, immediately emerged infinitely from the endless void, rushing fiercely down toward Qi Xing.

What poured out from her fingertips was infinity; infinity is everything that contains everything. First came the thunderbolts, howling gales, raging mountain fires, volcanic eruptions, and giant wave impacts—these natural phenomena were the easiest to understand; anyone could create them.

First, with a casual flick, it was a wind. A giant wave of wind swept across the entire world.

This wind could not be described by conventional hurricanes or storms; the lethal wind speed was like a sharp blade, and the heavy wind pressure was greater than the deep sea. Heaven and earth cried out in a crackling wail within the wind. The entire desert was lifted, aiming to blow Qi Xing's bones away, blow his heart away, blow his lungs away, blow his teeth away, blow his blood into a blood mist, peel off his skull, blow away his brains, and shatter the entire person with wind mixed with sand.

A casual flick, a playful strike, and this was the result.

Qi Xing used his ultimate technique to turn death into life to eliminate the force, but he could only barely hold on. The residual power still tore multiple wounds on his body. In an instant, his entire body was scratched by the sand and wind, blood flowed out, and his clothes were torn into rags.

Thunder-Fire Heavenly Garment? This was not even the same order of magnitude. It was impossible to "defend"; at best, it was just "barely resisting," and even then, he "could not hold on." To be touched was death, to be grazed was injury, and to be hit head-on would turn him into powder. Even if he blocked it, he would be blasted away.

So Qi Xing could only counterattack.

True experts can fight rivers and catch fast winds.

Amidst his surprise, he used the Yin-Yang Fate-Reversing Nine-Transformation Tribulation-Hand to forcefully grab the attack Samael had unleashed, then used a backhand to blast the sandstorm back, inserting his own counterattacks in the tiny gaps of time between every strike.

"Not bad. You learn quickly. Lightning techniques can command wind and rain; catching wind is not difficult for you to learn."

This counterattack couldn't even blow a hair on the Loli Evil God; she even commented and praised him with composure.

Then, the next thing that poured out from her fingertips was man-made weapons.

I don't know which war on Earth it was, nor which past or present battlefield it was. Regardless, Samael casually pulled over all the killing intent that humans on that battlefield had for each other. In an instant, the sky was filled with bullets like clouds and rain, almost turning day into night; dense, unbelievable numbers of shells, rockets, and countless explosions slammed down toward Qi Xing like an iron wall.

She threw an entire battlefield directly at Qi Xing.

Even the greatest martial arts master in the world couldn't possibly dodge all the attacks from an entire battlefield, right?

The already battered Master Leipu was even in mortal danger.

But he took a deep breath, yelling as he charged toward the battlefield!

He slid and moved in small increments through the gaps between countless bullets and explosions. Using his feet, he navigated the narrowest gaps in this storm of war, passing through with miraculous and minute footwork every time, pushing his speed to the most incredible degree, like a flash of lightning.

So much fun.

This luxurious, splendid dance of death made Samael smile from ear to ear.

She hadn't had this much fun in a long time. Without a miracle, humans could not accompany her in playing like this.

Without a miracle.

Only then did she notice that Qi Xing's whole body was quietly glowing, a warm, white, miraculous radiance.

"Oh."

Samael suddenly realized.

"Where did the other two little girls hide?"

017: This is in the bag!

Where did the other two little girls go?

They went to save people.

The cruise ship would sink in thirty minutes. In this amount of time, it would be very difficult for the three of them to save five hundred people.

So Qi Xing chose to cheat.

"Can you give us thirty minutes to prepare for the wager, and pause time on the cruise ship first?"

Samael agreed.

"The two little girls won't attack you, can you also not attack them?"

Samael agreed to this too.

So now, they had a lot of room to operate.

It is very difficult to save two thousand people who might panic in half an hour. But saving two thousand static people on a ship where time is stopped—hey, this job became very interesting!

Half an hour ago, Qi Xing first pulled out a gourd of beans. Elaine sighed as she took it. Artemina peered over curiously, but didn't understand: "What is this?"

"These are five hundred red beans I refined," Qi Xing explained calmly. "Scatter them on the ground and they will turn into Red-Armored Warriors, which can be used for three hours every day."

Spreading beans to turn into soldiers?!

The Magical Girl was so shocked that she started trembling: "As expected of Master Leipu!"

"Don't say 'As expected of Master Leipu' at everything," Qi Xing said, speechless. "Don't you Magical Girls fight the dark organization's grunts and combatants every day? It's just something similar. At my level, it doesn't have much use; it's too weak."

The art of cutting grass into horses and spreading beans into soldiers first appeared in the "Guiguzi" and is a truly very ancient traditional talisman spell. Everyone has heard of it to some extent, and because of "Investiture of the Gods," even some Japanese people know it.

Of course, this doesn't actually turn beans into soldiers. Instead, it uses beans injected with Yang energy as a carrier, letting each bean bear a Yin soldier, borrowing the bean to appear in the Yang world. The Yin soldiers and ghosts will snatch the beans; swallowing the bean is equivalent to taking the Taoist's military pay, so they must obediently work while attached to the bean. Soybeans, red beans, white beans, adzuki beans, and mung beans can all be used. They will turn into armor of the color of the bean they ate; it can be considered a type of contract spell.

But why did later Taoists not use this spell much?

"Because bean soldiers are afraid of water."

Qi Xing explained with dead-fish eyes.

"The Yin soldiers and ghosts summoned by spreading beans are afraid of water. Once splashed with water, they immediately turn back into beans."

During the Northern Song Dynasty, a Taoist once wanted to use this spell against the Jin army, but it rained, and the whole plan collapsed instantly.

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Great Sage Zhang Jiao was good at using paper men and paper horses to become an army, but in actual combat, it was really unreliable. It was too easy for accidents to happen.

It can be said that since ancient times, the outcome of using such spells to fight battles would fail nine times out of ten due to mishaps. Gradually, everyone stopped using them.

In fact, no technique in this world has rules that are only beneficial to the user. Either it is difficult to control, or it causes a backlash to the caster, or it consumes too much, or it has fatal weaknesses… In short, there must be flaws. Otherwise, why would everyone still study physical science?

This is also why Qi Xing doesn't like to rely on metaphysical spells when fighting. Straightforward thunder, electromagnetic energy, and force output—it's simple! It consumes a lot but isn't prone to mishaps! Otherwise, using them occasionally is fine, but if you are halfway through a battle and your key metaphysical spell suddenly bugs out, that is truly desperate.

Many Magical Girls who relied on their unique, powerful spells were defeated miserably because their spells were discovered to have flaws by villains, and in the end, they were played with until they wished they were dead.

"Mr. Qi,"

Elaine's retort was also merciless.

"We are on a ship. Why did you take out something that dissolves in water?"

"Don't underestimate flawed things," Qi Xing became serious. "Flawed things also have their uses. The three of us cannot save two thousand people, but what if we use five hundred pairs of arms and legs plus a portal?"

The nun was speechless.

Artemina, however, was a bit worried: "Master Leipu, I can only open a portal where I can see. Here, except for the cruise ship, it is all sea around us; I can't see anything. Where can I teleport everyone to?"

"You will see," Qi Xing said calmly. "This ship is not 'too far' from Japan right now. If I lift you up and throw you several thousand meters into the air, you will be able to see the land of Japan. Shoot an arrow at it, and no matter where it opens, it will be enough."

For a moment, even Elaine suspected that Qi Xing was under too much pressure and had lost his mind.

The Magical Girl, however, was greatly impressed: "So this spell can be used like this? How amazing!"

She shouldn't fall to her death or suffer from hypoxia, right?

Not every Magical Girl can fly; Artemina cannot fly, she can only jump high. But it seems there really isn't any Magical Girl who has died from falling.

It is difficult for three people to save over two thousand hypnotized or panicked people within half an hour using a portal two meters high and one point five meters wide.

But five hundred soldiers who listen to commands can certainly throw over two thousand people who are time-stopped and cannot move at all into a portal within half an hour!

"Once they enter the portal and leave the time-stopped Inner Realm, those people who have been cut will start to bleed. It is January now; if they are teleported to the wilderness, they may also suffer from hypothermia," Qi Xing continued, taking out a pot of medicine. "So Elaine, mix this pot of medicine into the water and give it to everyone who is time-stopped in advance."

Elaine took the large medicine pot and looked; it was full of green medicinal powder, which looked quite creepy: "What medicine is this?"

"Corpse poison."

Qi Xing said with an 'as a matter of course' expression.

"It's a secret recipe from my hometown. Mixed in water and drunk, it will cause semi-zombification within six hours. This way, they won't bleed or suffer from hypothermia."

Turning them into semi-zombies just to prevent people from bleeding and suffering from hypothermia—is something wrong with this? Mr. Qi, is there really no 'common sense' section in your brain?

But at this point, Elaine decided not to question this. Because there was clearly a more important question at hand.

"Samael is not a fool; she will discover it sooner or later, or at least she will definitely discover it after everyone on the ship escapes through the portal. By then, she will find that all the conditions you negotiated with her were actually lies, and at that time, you will be the only one standing in front of her."

She asked in the sharpest tone.

"Mr. Qi, are you planning to sacrifice yourself to buy time?"

"What do you mean by sacrificing myself to buy time?"

Qi Xing replied lightly.

"Maybe I will win?"

Win?

How could you win!

That is Satan, the most famous and also the most powerful evil god in the world, a cheat-code Demon King with infinite power!

"Even if I lose, I will at least hold on until I am the only one left on the ship. So no problem. As for the rest… Elaine, I'm counting on you."

Qi Xing never duels evil fairly.

If a villain is proudly showing off their evil grand plan, Qi Xing will find an opportunity to launch a sneak attack.

If he can steal the hostages before the duel, he will of course go and steal the hostages.

If he can cheat outside the arena, he will absolutely, definitely cheat outside the arena.

To save people, he could unhesitatingly turn living people into zombies, throw them eight kilometers into the air, and then save them back.

So at this moment, in the shallow layer of the Inner Realm, five hundred bean soldiers and the Magical Girl Artemina's portal had already sent out ninety percent of the two thousand people on the ship.

Nevertheless, when Elaine stood on the deck directing the bean soldiers to move people, her heart trembled and shivered with the aftermath of the battle coming from the Heart Chamber.

They had actually already won. They had saved lives right under Satan's nose and defeated her dark messengers. No matter where this was placed, it was a great achievement worthy of being remembered.

But this victory was to be tarnished by the only volunteer who sacrificed himself. When she saw the Evil God's might rolling up wave after wave from the deepest layer of the Inner Realm, she still felt a sense of powerlessness that made her unable to breathe.

She could say: "Keep the faith," saying that no matter what fate awaited him today, her heart would not waver.

But in reality, now, her heart had sunk to the bottom of the sea, as heavy as a stone. Her bitten lips even seeped blood.

Please, don't die, Qi Xing.

This chaotic world still needs you in too many places. The people you have saved also hope that you can live.

"My Lord Iesus, Son of God, through the prayers of Thy most pure Mother and all the Saints, have mercy on us."

Once all civilians were evacuated from the cruise ship, there was nothing Elaine could do to help Qi Xing. Because she was too weak. Although she had knowledge, although she understood affairs, although she could perform the Church's various rituals and mysteries, and use various sacred objects to fight—unfortunately, she had never stepped into the realm of the superhuman.

Not considering the IQ gap, she couldn't even beat a Magical Girl in a one-on-one fight. She couldn't jump higher than a building, nor could she knock down a monster with one punch. She was just a mortal nun, a bombshell babe, not a living saint with wings and golden light.