Chapter 4589 — Comprehending the Killing Qi!

Surging battle intent, biting killing qi—it seemed these two things alone remained between heaven and earth, blanketing and engulfing all eight directions.

By sheer instinct for self-preservation, Wei Zhao unconsciously wanted to flee this terrifying and dangerous battlefield. Even though he saw this scene only within the memory fragments surfacing in his mind, that dread pressure—so tangible it might as well have been real—still crushed the breath out of him.

Yet just as it had begun, Wei Zhao was now already mired in the memory fragments, unable to tear himself free. He could not control his own will at this moment. The earth-shattering battle between the Dragon of Five Baleful Spirits and the giant electric eel was projected deep into his mind beyond his control; no matter how tightly he shut his eyes, it all remained crystal clear.

In an instant, Wei Zhao's whole body began to shake violently as if sifting grain, and he seemed on the verge of collapse. Just as the damnable thing could not hold back and was about to intervene, Wei Zhao suddenly stopped moving—and his entire being entered a wondrous state.

"Tsk tsk. Is this kid deeply blessed, or is his innate talent and bone structure simply this unique? How does he keep stumbling into good fortune that others could never obtain even in their dreams?" the damnable thing could not help but marvel.

At this moment Wei Zhao had, remarkably, entered yet another ineffably profound state of sudden enlightenment. But unlike the last time, when his consciousness had awakened without his awareness, what exactly he might comprehend this time could only be known once he regained consciousness. The only thing the damnable thing had to do now was stand guard for him—such an opportunity came by chance and could not be sought, and it must never be interrupted by outside forces.

Within Wei Zhao's sea of consciousness at this moment, the Dragon of Five Baleful Spirits and the giant electric eel were locked in a battle so fierce the heavens dimmed and the earth darkened. Mighty five-element killing qi and deep-purple lightning arcs collided ceaselessly between heaven and earth, and with every collision the world changed color; for the surrounding waters and indeed the entire sea, each impact was another doomsday-caliber catastrophe.

And now Wei Zhao once again felt that restless, stirring instinct he had experienced when he first beheld the deep-purple lightning arcs. But this time, what he meant to imitate was not the deep-purple lightning arcs—it was the five-element killing qi unleashed by the Dragon of Five Baleful Spirits!

After all, Wei Zhao already possessed a deep familiarity with and understanding of this five-element killing qi. Now, seeing the Dragon of Five Baleful Spirits unleash it again and again with his own eyes was tantamount to having a ready-made master at hand. If he still failed to seize such an obvious opportunity and learn quickly, then Wei Zhao would truly be a fool beyond redemption.

Neither the Dragon of Five Baleful Spirits nor the giant electric eel was a top-tier ferocious beast that ought to exist in this world, and their strength seemed evenly matched. This chance, world-shaking encounter did not resolve itself in a few brief exchanges; instead, it unexpectedly bogged down into an utterly deadlocked war of attrition. The longer they fought, the more furious both sides became, until at last they were playing every trump card they had and had entered a state of fighting to the death with no end but mutual annihilation.

This, in turn, worked to the advantage of Wei Zhao, the bystander. Otherwise, if things had been as before—if the Dragon of Five Baleful Spirits' moves had been like the giant electric eel's deep-purple lightning arcs, a single flash that ended the fight—he would not even have been able to see how the strikes were made, let alone secretly learn them.

But as things stood now, setting all else aside, the Dragon of Five Baleful Spirits alone had unleashed its five-element killing qi no fewer than a hundred times, and Wei Zhao, watching and stealing what he could, saw the entire process clearly and distinctly from beginning to end. Add to that his already profound understanding of the five-element killing qi, and his secret study naturally yielded twice the result with half the effort.

In particular, Wei Zhao was at this moment immersed in a rare state of sudden enlightenment, his powers of insight and of rehearsal far beyond the ordinary. Things he would not dare imagine at ordinary times—now he did not even need to think about them; by instinct he had already begun to act.

Bit by bit he groped and learned. Each time the Dragon of Five Baleful Spirits unleashed its five-element killing qi, Wei Zhao tried to imitate it once. At first he was utterly lost in the fog, but after repeating it a hundred times over, his movements gradually began to take proper shape.

Though both were five-element killing qi, what the Dragon of Five Baleful Spirits unleashed and the naturally formed kind from before, while belonging to the same category in essence, were two entirely different things once truly deconstructed. The former was a mighty martial technique that a cultivator could command; the latter was a formidable power belonging solely to heaven and earth—not to be blasphemed, and all the more impossible to imitate.

How long passed, he did not know, but at last a faint, barely perceptible thread of true qi suddenly seeped from the palm of Wei Zhao's hand. In terms of sheer power it was utterly beneath notice—any decent Foundation Establishment expert could have effortlessly crushed it—yet when the damnable thing sensed this thread of true qi, even he could not help but be startled. This was, remarkably, a thread of five-element killing qi!

Faint as it was, this was indeed a five-colored true qi, complete with metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—the five elements all present. There was no doubt about it: this was genuine five-element killing qi.

"He actually managed to cultivate it? This kid really is a freak!" Only after a long dazed pause did the damnable thing finally exclaim in hushed shock. He had said that five-element killing qi could be unleashed once one's strength was sufficient—but that referred at minimum to the Mountain-Opening stage, and Wei Zhao was currently only at the peak of the early Nascent Soul realm!

In the damnable thing's view, a technique like five-element killing qi was a fearsome martial art capable of slaughtering all in every direction even at the Mountain-Opening stage or higher. And now it had been grasped by a brat merely at the peak of the early Nascent Soul realm—what kind of sight was that?

Once Wei Zhao truly unleashed five-element killing qi from his own hands, the spectacle would be far more than simply fighting above his level. It would feel like a three-year-old child suddenly pulling out a handgun—not a toy gun, but a real one that could truly take a life!

With all his vast experience, the damnable thing felt a chill run through him at the very thought of such a scene. Having ridden along with Wei Zhao for so long, he had always considered Wei Zhao a monster lurking among humans—but now, on reflection, it was not just among humans. Looking across every living thing under heaven, this kid was without question a dyed-in-the-wool madman, outdoing even him, the former Azure Dragon.

The intensity of the five-element killing qi grew bit by bit in his hand, growing stronger with each further rehearsal. At first it was only at the Foundation Establishment level, then gradually at the Golden Core level, and then at the Nascent Soul level—until at last he could unleash it at full force as naturally as moving his own arm, and it became a brand-new martial art belonging to Wei Zhao alone! (To be continued...)