Volume 2 - Chapter 23: Masters of the World, Crushed by a Finger!
This scene erupted suddenly, catching everyone off guard.
When they finally saw the enormous Dharma Avatar radiating divine might, its fiery presence burning brightly, and the direct disciple of the Buddhist Lord pinned under the finger of that Avatar, everyone turned pale with shock.
This was the Buddhist Lord’s direct disciple, the top-ranked figure on the Qianlong Ranking!
Famed from a young age, he had stepped into the Grandmaster Realm at just nineteen years old and dominated the Qianlong Ranking for three years.
During that time, his title as the greatest prodigy of the era was unshakable!
Yet now, just months away from aging out of the ranking at twenty-two, he was being crushed on the stage like a dead dog, utterly immobilized by a single finger!
“Please, show mercy!”
In the deathly silence, the only sound was the relentless rush of the Huang River’s sandy waves, undeterred as they surged and crashed against the Debate Platform.
Tianji Hermit was the first to react, rushing to intercept part of the force radiating from the chess piece. Upon contact, he immediately sensed the terrifying power contained in the seemingly ordinary stone. The burning divine flames, like fierce winter sunlight, seemed capable of incinerating everything!
Simultaneously astonished, he urgently addressed Li Hao:
“This is a Grandmaster Debate; it should end with restraint. Please do not take a life!”
Being a cultivator in the Three Immortals Realm, he could not stand idly by and watch the Buddhist Lord’s direct disciple be crushed into a pulp under the watchful eyes of so many.
If this were to happen, the Buddhist Lord, seated in the Brahma Pure Land, would undoubtedly erupt in fury—rage that even Tianji Tower could not withstand!
As Tianji Hermit intervened, the four others who accompanied Qin Wuque also regained their senses. One of them, a middle-aged Arhat clad in a crimson-gold kasaya, stepped forward, glaring angrily at Li Hao.
“This is just a Debate—do you mean to kill someone?!”
Li Hao sneered and replied calmly, “I am merely engaging in a Debate. Why are you so agitated?”
The words were almost an exact echo of what had been thrown at him earlier.
Although the thought of killing had indeed crossed his mind, Li Hao would not openly slay a Buddhist Son. Otherwise, the Buddhist Lord would have every reason to confront him openly.
Furthermore, the Buddhist Son likely bore protective titles. Unless Qin Wuque explicitly agreed to an unrestricted challenge, killing him on this Debate Platform would violate the laws of the Great Yu Divine Dynasty.
Hearing Li Hao’s words, the middle-aged Arhat’s eyes widened in fury, his expression resembling that of an enraged Vajra.
“A Debate? Is pinning someone to the ground and grinding them down also part of a Debate?”
Yet frustratingly, this did fall within the scope of a Grandmaster Debate. The fault lay entirely with Qin Wuque’s lack of skill—or rather, with the overwhelming terror of the young man before them!
The towering Dharma Avatar, so colossal that even the middle-aged Arhat felt a flicker of unease, was unprecedented. If it were only a matter of expanding the Avatar to such a massive size, he could manage that too. But its power, if anything, grew more concentrated and lethal as it expanded!
“You have taken this too far. A Debate should end with restraint!”
The middle-aged Arhat, his chest heaving with suppressed fury, maintained a composed and solemn demeanor, akin to a dignified elder offering a stern reprimand.
Li Hao remained indifferent. “As you said, restraint is about focusing on a single ‘point.’ I concentrated my strength on the chess piece and its ‘point.’ It’s unfortunate he couldn’t withstand it. Is this the Buddhist Son you speak so highly of? He’s not much different from the one I defeated earlier with a pair of chopsticks.”
Hearing this, the middle-aged Arhat and the other three Boundless Mountain Reverends were so enraged they almost exploded.
Li Hao’s words clearly referred to Li Qianfeng, the youngest direct disciple of the Buddhist Lord, who happened to be Qin Wuque’s junior martial brother. The two shared a close relationship.
Qin Wuque had provoked Li Hao in the first place to avenge Li Qianfeng and restore Boundless Mountain’s reputation. After all, Li Qianfeng had suffered an utterly humiliating defeat in the Dragon Seat Battle, tarnishing the sect’s honor.
Yet no one had expected that Qin Wuque himself would end up losing even more miserably in front of such a large audience!
What made it worse was that this was witnessed by all the Grandmasters under the heavens. They could barely fathom how much ridicule and mockery Boundless Mountain would face in the aftermath of this single battle.
“So arrogant and impetuous at such a young age—is this what the Divine General Mansion raises? No wonder even your father had to personally discipline you!”
The middle-aged Arhat bellowed, “Stand down at once! Such aggression—where is the bearing of a Grandmaster?”
Li Hao’s eyes flickered with a cold light, though it disappeared just as quickly. His voice turned icy, cutting through the chaos like a winter gale.
“Are you saying this on his behalf, to plead for mercy?”
“Plead for mercy? A Debate has winners and losers. Stop pressing your advantage!” the middle-aged Arhat growled, suppressing his rage.
At that moment, Qin Wuque still lay prostrate on the ground, utterly immobilized. The longer this dragged on, the greater the humiliation for Boundless Mountain.
Li Hao sneered. “Why should I let up when I have the advantage? If you know you’re in the wrong, then make amends. If he wishes to surrender and beg for mercy, let him say it himself!”
“You!”
The middle-aged Arhat’s eyes burned with fury, yet his expression remained solemn and grave.
Were it not for concerns about Li Hao’s identity and the need to follow the rules, he might have taken matters into his own hands by now.
“Fine! If this is a Debate, then let’s Debate!”
At this point, one of the Boundless Mountain Reverends, standing beside the Arhat, stepped forward.
Apart from the middle-aged Arhat, the three Reverends who had accompanied Qin Wuque to the Grandmaster Assembly were all Bao Xiang cultivators, Grandmasters of Heaven and Man.
Above them stood the Arhat, representing the Three Immortals Realm. Higher still was the Buddhist Lord’s direct line, the Bodhisattvas.
“Allow me to test your arrogance!”
One of the Reverends, a middle-aged man with a calm demeanor, strode forward. His entire body radiated Buddhist light, and the prayer beads circling him shimmered with divine power.
These beads, imbued with immense spiritual energy, enhanced his strength by at least fifty percent. Summoning his Dharma Avatar and channeling all his might, he unleashed his Grandmaster technique, throwing a devastating punch toward the chess piece perched atop Qin Wuque’s head.
The chess piece gleamed like a miniature sun, radiating blinding brilliance that was impossible to look at directly.
The Reverend’s punch embodied the Dao of Stillness, emphasizing control through tranquility. Though he struck with anger, his movements appeared slow and deliberate, hiding immense power within.
With a deafening explosion, his fist generated a sonic boom as it struck the chess piece fiercely.
Just as everyone thought he might shatter the light emanating from the chess piece, the Reverend suddenly recoiled as if he had been struck by an invisible force. His sleeve ripped apart, his kasaya fluttered wildly, and his body was flung backward.
His fist dripped with blood, his skin torn and flesh exposed, revealing stark white bone beneath.
The crowd’s pupils shrank in unison, their faces filled with horror.
The middle-aged Reverend staggered back, only stopping when the Arhat caught him from behind. Still, he coughed up a mouthful of blood, his pale face etched with fear as he stared at the dazzling light of the chess piece.
Just now, he had felt an overwhelmingly powerful rebound from the tiny chess piece, as though he had struck an unyielding iron wall. At the same time, all the force he had unleashed was completely reflected back at him!
Caught off guard, he suffered serious injuries. Even though his body had been fortified by the golden elixirs of Buddhism, it paled in comparison to the true physical strength of a body-refining practitioner. The intense vibrations ravaged his internal organs, causing his blood to surge wildly and seep from his eyes and nose.
“This… this is impossible! What kind of Dao is this?”
He spoke in a trembling voice, utterly incredulous.
The middle-aged Arhat’s expression turned grim as he listened.
The other two Reverends also hesitated, clearly not expecting the young man to have enough strength left to repel them while still pinning Qin Wuque.
Without further discussion, the two Reverends attacked in succession.
Both were Bao Xiang cultivators, their Dharma Avatars gleaming with a golden sheen, exuding divine flames that burned with immense majesty.
Mindful of Boundless Mountain’s reputation, they avoided attacking Li Hao simultaneously, opting instead to take turns.
One Reverend sought to lift the oppressive chess piece, while the other aimed to pull Qin Wuque free in the ensuing chaos.
Li Hao quickly discerned their intentions and smirked faintly. The more desperate Boundless Mountain became, the more he intended to humiliate them.
With a flick of his mind, his object manipulation technique formed an invisible barrier, imbued with the myriad Daos he had comprehended.
It contained the transformations of Yin and Yang, the five elements, the movements of the sun, moon, and stars, as well as the essence of mountains, rivers, and beasts.
This power could deflect, weaken, redirect, or even channel the force of an attack elsewhere. It could also conceal hidden counterattacks, like seedlings sprouting after a spring rain, catching opponents off guard.
When combined with his understanding of countless martial principles, Li Hao’s defenses were as unpredictable as they were insurmountable. Ordinary cultivators in the Three Immortals Realm might fall to his blade; these Grandmasters stood no chance.
The Reverend wielding a demon-slaying staff struck first. Feeling an immense resistance, he invoked the Nine Heavens Demon-Suppressing Technique to counteract the chess piece.
The staff, imbued with an overwhelming power meant to shatter mountains, aimed to crush the tiny chess piece.
However, the moment his staff connected, it felt as though it had sunk into an unseen mire. The tremendous force seemed to dissipate into an endless void, absorbed entirely.
Before he could react, a devastating counterforce surged back at him.
His grip on the staff faltered as his palms split open, blood spraying everywhere. A subsequent wave of energy struck his chest, flinging him and his staff out of the Debate Platform entirely.
On the other side, the elder-like Reverend, who had been attempting to drag Qin Wuque out, turned pale upon seeing his companion hurtled through the air.
Before he could retreat, another attack descended.
Li Hao’s Dharma Avatar extended a finger, flicking forward with immense force.
The middle finger of the Avatar, like a towering mountain, swept forward with overwhelming momentum that seemed to sever heaven and earth.
Terrified, the elderly Reverend hastily threw out a golden disc. The disc expanded rapidly, growing larger as it spun and summoned a spectral beast head to confront the attack.
The spectral head roared in defiance but was shattered instantly by the Avatar’s finger. The golden disc vibrated like a gong, flying back and slamming into the Reverend’s chest, sending him plummeting into the Huang River.
The waves of the river quickly engulfed him, though he soon broke through the surface and staggered back onto the Debate Platform, drenched and pale.
In mere moments, two Reverends had been defeated in succession.
Everyone present was stunned.
Not only had Li Hao pinned Qin Wuque with a single finger, but he had also effortlessly defeated three Boundless Mountain Reverends in the process. What kind of monster was this young man?!
Previously, Tianji Tower had ranked him fifth on the Qianlong Ranking, which many had thought was an overestimation. But now, it seemed the ranking had underestimated him instead.
If this terrifying strength only ranked him fifth, what kind of absurd joke was this?
The former first-ranked cultivator was now crushed beneath Li Hao’s finger. How could anyone imagine where Li Hao should truly be ranked?
“You!”
The middle-aged Arhat glared at Li Hao in shock and fury, completely unprepared for the overwhelming might of this prodigy from the Li family.
When he had first heard that Li Qianfeng had nearly been killed by this youth wielding chopsticks, he had thought the rumors were exaggerated. Now, he realized they might not have gone far enough.
At just fourteen years of age, could this youth have already reached invincibility within the Grandmaster Realm?
Grinding his teeth, the Arhat clenched his fists, his face dark with anger. He looked down at the sneering young man seated below the stage. From Li Hao’s cold, mocking gaze, he knew that unless he intervened, Boundless Mountain’s humiliation would be absolute.
But if he intervened, even if he won, it would hardly be a fair victory.
Taking a deep breath, the Arhat raised his voice toward the crowd. “This is a Grandmaster Debate! Fellow Grandmasters, who among you is willing to challenge this Li family prodigy? Boundless Mountain will offer a great treasure as a reward for victory!”
Though furious, his tone retained an air of grace, couching his plea in the guise of the Debate.
Yet everyone could hear the desperation in his words. He was seeking aid to defeat Li Hao and restore Boundless Mountain’s honor.
The so-called great treasure was likely a significant favor from Boundless Mountain itself.
The crowd’s interest piqued.
This was Boundless Mountain!
If one could secure their favor, it would be akin to an ironclad guarantee of safety—unless one blatantly violated imperial law by, say, slaying a prince.
“Ha! Since this is a Debate, allow me to join in and liven things up. Let me experience the strength of youth!”
A Grandmaster leaped onto the Debate Platform with a hearty laugh.
Drawing his blade, he channeled his self-created technique, infusing his weapon with divine might. His dharma manifestation exuded an aura that could sever mountains and rivers, striking directly at Li Hao’s finger.
The blade was imbued with corrosive power, a manifestation of decay capable of withering all it touched.
Yet decay inevitably gave rise to renewal...
...
He turned his head, gazing at the young man seated calmly in another corner.
That youth sat on an unassuming wooden chair, yet his presence exuded the loftiness of a solitary figure atop a mountain peak, overlooking the entire world with transcendent indifference.