Chapter 1367

Duke Long’s aura, overwhelming a moment before, condenses until it is completely concealed. Purple Mountain True Monarch senses that Duke Long in this state is much more dangerous than he was with an overwhelming aura. Duke Long roars and vanishes entirely, teleporting close the way he once did to ambush Purple Mountain True Monarch with chaotic dragon fist. Purple Mountain True Monarch, reasoning through wisdom path, has already seen through the trick and erases the sound of the roar, so Duke Long reappears several hundred steps short of him. From that distance Duke Long calls human qi retraction and waves, and a huge amount of Purple Mountain True Monarch’s human qi tears free into Duke Long’s palm. Purple Mountain True Monarch is left hollow-eyed, pale, and gripped by an intense weakness. ^{ch. 1367}

Purple Mountain True Monarch recognizes Primordial Origin Immortal Venerable’s triple qi retraction. It is very difficult to learn and carries huge risk, since a cast that fails or misses backfires on its own user. Triple qi retraction has incredibly terrifying power. The move targets the heaven, earth, and human qi that sustain any immortal aperture, and demands a Gu Immortal extremely skilled to combine its consecutive and variation structure. A Gu Master accumulates human qi from rank one to rank five, and more of it fuses more heaven and earth qi into a higher grade immortal aperture, with the ten extreme physiques and grandmaster attainment in any path both marking unusually abundant reserves. Its three styles, human qi retraction, earth qi retraction, and heaven qi retraction, drain each qi in turn. Human qi retraction fails against a target with none, such as a desolate beast, while all three landing shatters an aperture at once. ^{ch. 1367}

Purple Mountain True Monarch throws out hundreds of clones and vanishes his main body. Duke Long, unmoved and completely prepared for the response, warns that the next two styles cannot be dodged, only endured, and lands earth qi retraction blind, with no idea where Purple Mountain True Monarch is hiding. A vast amount of earth qi flees his aperture into Duke Long’s palm. His aperture is left greatly damaged, its three qi out of balance and close to breaking apart within a few breaths. Placing the aperture to refill earth qi would trap his main body inside it and hand Duke Long a clear path to attack, so he rejects it at once. His human qi deficit has no fix but human path methods or buying humans, which placing the aperture cannot supply. ^{ch. 1367}

Rather than take the rejected option, Purple Mountain True Monarch grabs at his stomach and draws the immortal aperture out of his body, a method Fang Yuan recognizes from Blazing Heaven Demoness, whose fire path method could take another person’s immortal aperture. Fang Yuan is a little puzzled that Purple Mountain True Monarch knows a Zombie Alliance method. He reasons that Hei Lou Lan, firmly controlled by Shadow Sect, could be the source, or that Purple Mountain True Monarch devised it himself through wisdom path. Purple Mountain True Monarch places the aperture in the open air, and its entrance takes in earth qi, though the grotto-heaven has little hope now that its human qi is too lacking. Duke Long watches this resolve with slight shock and a flash of admiration. ^{ch. 1367}