One person: Senior brother Zhang Zhiwei, the Celestial Master begged me to descend the mountain.

"The Death Gate?"

Zhuge Qing was stunned for a full two seconds, then his shoulders began to shake uncontrollably as if he had heard the biggest joke in the world.

That was laughter.

He was so angry that he laughed instead.

"Ha...haha...hahaha!"

Zhuge Qing suddenly raised his head, his face, which had always maintained an elegant demeanor, now appeared somewhat distorted due to the overwhelming sense of absurdity.

He stretched out his hand, pointing the folding fan directly at Zhang Taichu opposite him. The fan ribs creaked under the strain of the force.

"Master, you really will stop at nothing to win."

Zhuge Qing's voice was filled with sarcasm, and even a hint of anger at being slighted:

"Psychological warfare? Deception?"

"Do you think I'm some greenhorn who'd be intimidated by your alarmist words?"

He stomped his foot, and the azure Qimen Dunjia formation beneath his feet shone brightly, with the hexagram in the Kun position being particularly dazzling.

"I, Zhuge Qing, could read at the age of three, memorize the divination hexagrams at five, and by seven I could determine the central palace and interpret the eight directions!"

"In the past twenty years, I've performed more fortune-telling than you've eaten rice!"

Zhuge Qing stood firm, staring intently at Zhang Taichu, his tone chilling:

"Although it is noon, when the yang energy is at its peak, the ground beneath my feet is the center of the training ground, and the soil is thick and deep!"

"Fire generates earth, which is the natural order! The stronger the fire, the thicker the earth!"

"I'll use the solid ground to shield you from the scorching heat of the weather; this is the perfect arrangement for life!"

"You're telling me this is a dead end?"

Zhuge Qing sneered, the blue light in his eyes almost overflowing:

"Master, if you don't understand Qimen, don't pretend to know."

"This kind of low-level psychological warfare just makes me feel..."

"You're ridiculous."

In the stands, the audience, who had been in a state of surprise and doubt because of Zhang Taichu's words, breathed a sigh of relief after hearing Zhuge Qing's reasoned and well-founded rebuttal.

"That scared me to death! I thought Ah Qing had really miscalculated."

"That's right, the Zhuge family are the ancestors of Qimen Dunjia, how could they make such a basic mistake?"

"This Taoist priest is too good at fooling people; I almost believed him too."

"Ah Qing! Stop wasting time talking to him! Kill him!"

Hearing the cheers that rose again around him, Zhuge Qing's sneer deepened.

however.

Faced with this overwhelming wave of doubt and ridicule.

Zhang Taichu's expression remained unchanged.

He remained as lazy as ever, even reaching out to pick at his ear, seemingly annoyed by Zhuge Qing's loud voice.

"Finished playing?"

Zhang Taichu flicked away non-existent earwax from his fingertips, then sighed and shook his head:

"Young people these days read a lot of books."

"Unfortunately, all that reading went to waste."

"Since you don't believe me..."

Zhang Taichu slowly pulled his hand out of his sleeve and let it hang naturally at his side.

He looked at Zhuge Qing, who stood arrogantly in the center of the halo, and his expression suddenly changed.

Those originally cloudy and languid eyes suddenly became incredibly deep.

"Then this humble Taoist priest will show you."

"What is true...momentum?"

The moment the words fell.

Zhang Taichu lifted his foot and took a step forward.

thump.

The sound of the foot landing was not loud.

But in that instant.

Zhuge Qing's face turned pale instantly.

Because he felt that as Zhang Taichu's foot landed, the entire training ground... no, the entire world seemed to tremble.

Om-! ! !

An indescribable, terrifyingly hot aura suddenly surged in from all directions.

That's not just the temperature of the sun.

That was the fire poison deep within the earth's veins, stirred up by Zhang Taichu's kick!

Click!Click!

Zhuge Qing lowered his head in fear.

The Kun trigram at his feet, which originally represented indestructibility and the virtue of bearing all things, suddenly cracked!

"This...how is this possible?!"

Zhuge Qing's pupils suddenly contracted.

He felt as if he was no longer standing on solid ground, but on a volcano that could erupt at any moment!

An indescribable heat surged from the soles of his feet to the top of his head, instantly disrupting the flow of Qi within his body.

"Soil can indeed start a fire."

Zhang Taichu's voice came through calmly.

He then took the second step.

boom!

This time, Zhuge Qing's body swayed suddenly, his knees buckled, and he almost knelt down.

The pressure on him instantly doubled!

"But if the soil is too dry, it won't retain moisture."

Zhang Taichu walked slowly and deliberately toward Zhuge Qing, his hands behind his back.

"If one cannot retain vital energy, one's foundation will be unstable."

third step.

puff--

Zhuge Qing spat out a mouthful of blood, and the Qimen formation that had been maintained perfectly began to flicker and distort violently, with its edges even beginning to collapse and dissipate.

"What...what have you done?!"

Zhuge Qing gritted his teeth, blood staining his chin.

He desperately tried to mobilize the Qi within his body to stabilize his position.

"The character 'Gen'—Kunlun! Defeat it!!!"

He roared, his hands forming a mudra, trying to summon a mountain to block the approaching demon.

however.

The illusory mountain shadow that had just materialized was only just taking shape.

Zhang Taichu walked up to him.

He didn't even glance at the spell before bumping into it with his shoulder.

boom!

That majestic Kunlun Mountains, like a soap bubble, burst with a "pop."

Fragments of Qi energy scattered everywhere, stinging Zhuge Qing's cheeks.

"Fancy and overly complicated."

Zhang Taichu gave a four-word evaluation.

At this moment.

He was already standing less than three meters away from Zhuge Qing.

The massive Qimen formation that originally covered the entire field has now been compressed to its limit, with only the area less than one meter under Zhuge Qing's feet still struggling to hold on.

Zhuge Qing was panting heavily, his whole body already soaked in cold sweat.

He looked up at the disheveled Taoist priest in front of him, who still had his hands in his pockets and whose hair was perfectly styled.

An unprecedented sense of fear and powerlessness gripped his heart like a pair of cold, large hands.

Why...?

Zhuge Qing's voice was hoarse and trembling slightly:

"Why are my spells not working on you...?"

"Your location... your Qi... were all within my calculations..."

"Calculation?"

Zhang Taichu seemed to have heard a joke.

He bent down slightly, and his large face, so close to Zhuge Qing's, brought a tremendous sense of pressure to him.

"Young man."

"That's not scheming."

"That's called a fill-in-the-blank question."

Zhang Taichu stretched out a finger and poked Zhuge Qing's forehead without any hesitation.

"If you see fire, block it with earth; if you see water, cover it with earth."

"Do exactly what the book says."

"Is this the ultimate martial art of your Zhuge family?"

Zhang Taichu straightened up, looking down at this so-called genius with no pity in his eyes:

"The essence of Qimen Dunjia is to follow the natural order and adapt to local conditions."

"You've locked yourself in this drawn grid, thinking you're in control."

Little did you know, you had already turned yourself into a piece of dead flesh in this world.

"Is this all you've got?"

Zhang Taichu curled his lip:

"His basic skills are too poor."

"Didn't your parents teach you proper Qimen Dunjia?"

At this point, Zhang Taichu paused:

Or perhaps...

"Did you learn all these skills from the monkeys in the mountains?"

Upon hearing this, Zhuge Qing immediately flew into a rage.

monkey?

He is Zhuge Qing, the most talented successor of the Zhuge family in a thousand years.

From childhood to adulthood, all I've heard are words like genius, prodigy, and hope for the future.

I have never suffered such humiliation before!

To be told in front of all the extraordinary people in the world that his Qimen Dunjia skills were learned from monkeys?!

"What did you say?!"

Zhuge Qing suddenly raised his head.

That instant.

His rationality completely crumbled.

Those eyes, which were always narrowed and revealed shrewdness and calculation, were now bloodshot and filled with hideous veins.

"Shut up!!!"

"Shut up!!!"

Zhuge Qing let out a roar like a wild beast.

At this moment, he no longer wanted to win.

I don't care about the competition rules anymore.

He had only one thought in his mind—

Kill this Taoist priest!

We're going to tear that stinking mouth apart!

We must burn this bastard who trampled on his dignity to ashes!

hum! ! !

A violent and suffocating surge of energy erupted from Zhuge Qing's body without warning.

This energy is no longer the deep blue color it once was.

Instead, it transformed into an extremely eerie and terrifying color, a mixture of black and red.

His meridians began to flow in reverse, and an abnormal flush appeared faintly under his skin.

"I want you dead!!!"

Zhuge Qing clasped his hands together abruptly, his fingers digging into his flesh with excessive force, and blood flowed out from between his fingers.

But he was completely unaware.

The Qimen formation beneath his feet began to spin wildly, reaching extreme speed and emitting a sharp, piercing whistling sound.