One person: Orochi, starting with Feng Baobao's Eight Heroes.

He had to get back before the material world completely collapsed, otherwise Zhang Shoucheng and the others would surely die.

As for that mysterious being and the spellcaster in the Qian position... we can only leave them for now.

After making the decision, Chen Qi formed a hand seal, and his spiritual body began to fade rapidly.

Before disappearing completely, he took one last look at the spot where the black hand had appeared, memorizing the eerie energy fluctuations.

"We'll meet again 々‖."

He muttered to himself, then vanished completely from his mental world.

Outside the Eight Banners Arch Dragon Qi Formation, the cold wind whipped snowflakes against everyone's faces.

Suddenly, all twelve sled dogs pricked up their ears and let out low growls.

"what happened?"

Shanqi frowned as he looked at the white mastiff leading the pack. This beast, which usually dared to attack even bears, was now tucking its tail between its legs and retreating.

Before he could finish speaking, the pack of dogs suddenly started barking, and the chains rattled as they were broken.

The old man in black robes calculated with his fingers, and his expression suddenly changed.

"Your Highness, there is something unusual about the stars!"

When Shanqi looked up, the night sky over Changbai Mountain had been shrouded in gloom and darkness.

The darkness was unlike any other night; it was so dense that it seemed impenetrable.

Even more strangely, the clouds were smooth, reflecting their terrified faces.

"The Mirror Heaven has appeared..."

The copper coins in Shanqi's sleeve jingled loudly.

"A very bad omen!"

Suddenly, ripples appeared on the mirror-like sky, and black mist began to writhe.

Lightning flashed through the fog, each bolt revealing a blurry, gigantic human figure.

Shanqi's grandson was so frightened that he fell to the ground in the snow, and a foul-smelling liquid seeped from his crotch.

"Grandfather, what is that?"

The boy's voice trembled.

Shanqi did not answer, but stared intently at the increasingly clear golden outline in the mirror.

When the third bolt of lightning struck, he finally saw the sharply defined face, and the compass in his hand shattered into pieces with a "crack".

"Chen Qi?!"

He took three steps back, his goatee trembling.

"How could this wicked star possess the art of communicating with the spirits?"

As if in response to his horror, the mirror-like sky trembled violently.

The golden light shattered, and the figure plummeted straight down through the lens.

When they were a hundred feet off the ground, everyone could see that it was a burly man surrounded by golden light, falling like a meteor falling from the sky.

"Scatter!"

Shanqi shouted sternly, and at the same time pulled his young son next to him to shield him.

The poor child hadn't even realized what was happening before he was used as a human shield and pushed into the air.

Chen Qi, enveloped in golden light, crashed into the crowd, and the sled instantly disintegrated.

Shanqi watched as his grandson vaporized in the golden light, not even having time to scream.

The splattered blood condensed into ice crystals in mid-air, reflecting his distorted old face.

"The character '巽' (Xun) – '御风' (the Zhao of the King)!"

Shanqi bit the tip of his tongue, spitting out a mist of blood.

A sudden gust of wind swept his emaciated body toward the mountain hollow.

A series of explosions came from behind, and without turning around, one could tell that his wives, concubines, and children were turning into a bloody mist.

Six ancient coins flew out of his sleeve and formed a "Six Harmonies Barrier" behind him.

The golden light pierced through the money array as easily as tearing paper. Shanqi felt a sharp pain in his back and was thrown away by the shockwave.

He rolled several dozen feet through the snow, and the purple aura automatically protected his heart meridian.

Just as I was about to get up, a shadow loomed over my head.

"I hope Your Highness is well."

Chen Qi moved without leaving a trace in the snow, his golden pupils crackling with lightning.

Chapter 256 Trivial Skills

"Using one's own flesh and blood to shield oneself from disaster—this 'golden cicada shedding its shell' technique truly captures the essence of Taoism."

Shanqi chuckled and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.

"Why must Fellow Daoist Chen be so ruthless? I am willing to exchange the secret treasures of the Aisin Gioro clan for my life."

As he spoke, he secretly made a hand seal in his sleeve, and mottled purple energy silently spread across the snow.

Chen Qi suddenly reached out and grabbed his throat.

The instant his fingertips touched his skin, Shanqi's robes shattered, and purple energy condensed into a three-zhang-long phantom of a dragon.

The monster had deer antlers and a snake's body, and it bit towards Chen Qi's brow and life palace.

"Little tricks."

Chen Qi neither dodged nor avoided the dragon and python's bites.

A blinding golden light burst forth from the top of his head, and seven stars could be vaguely seen forming a dipper shape.

As the dragon and python howled and collapsed, Shanqi took the opportunity to distance himself by twenty steps, and in his hand appeared a talisman paper 607 that shimmered with moonlight.

"All those who are facing a fight must march forward in formation!"

The incantation from the Eastern Kingdom echoed through the snowy valley, and the talisman ignited with ghostly blue flames.

A female ghost wearing twelve layers of clothing crawled out of the fire, her long hair hanging down to her ankles, each strand dripping with pus and blood.

This is the secret ancestral fire spirit of the Tsuchimikado family, which is used to burn the souls of cultivators.

Lightning crackled in Chen Qi's palm, and the shikigami was cleaved into smoke before it could fully materialize.

Shanqi then threw out three more talismans, this time summoning Crow Tengu, Bone Woman, and Blue Monk.

At the same time, he bit his middle finger, and the blood droplet that popped out turned into a crimson gold bell.

"Soul-capturing!"

The bell emitted a teeth-grinding vibration, and the sound waves even plowed furrows into the snow.

Chen Qi caught the flying bell with great interest and tapped it lightly with his knuckles.

"Thunder comes."

With a deafening roar, the shikigami were torn apart by lightning.

Shanqi groaned and staggered backward, black blood seeping from his nostrils.

His "Nine Phoenixes Breaking the Filth" technique, which he had cultivated for sixty years, was easily broken. What was even more terrifying was that the opponent was completely unaffected by the backlash from his destiny.

"impossible..."

He stared at the faint Big Dipper pattern between Chen Qi's eyebrows.

"A destiny of 'Greedy Wolf Devouring Evil'?"

Chen Qi stepped forward, and spring grass sprouted from the snow.

Knowing that his life or death hung in the balance, Shanqi tore off the jade pendant from his chest.

The moment the jade shattered, the wind and clouds within a radius of a hundred feet changed drastically, and the twenty-four solar terms swirled wildly between the two.

"The Eight Banners Dragon Locking Formation - Open!"

The venerable one was suspended three feet in the air, and golden light shone brightly in his eyes.

Chen Qi suddenly felt his steps become heavy. The enemy, who was clearly within arm's reach, seemed to be separated by overlapping time and space.

The four trigrams rotated on their own on the snow, and the flow of time was sometimes fast and sometimes slow.

"interesting."

Chen Qi raised an eyebrow.

"I never thought that a descendant of a false emperor could even touch the threshold of Feng Hou Qi Men."

"This is a secret technique left behind by the founding emperor!"

The venerable one formed a mudra with his hands, and his frosty temples moved without wind.

"I'll show you today..."

Before he could finish speaking, Chen Qi suddenly took a deep breath.

　(agdj) White mist spewed from his pores, which condensed into a giant hand phantom behind him.

The hand made a strange hand gesture and inserted it into the rotating Bagua plate.

"The solar terms serve as the guide, and the human body is the framework."

Chen Qi sneered.

"Break it for me!"

Shanqi stared wide-eyed as the compass reversed.

The miraculous situation that saved his life was being brutally altered, as if an invisible hand was tearing silk.

When the solar terms of Awakening of Insects and End of Heat coincided in an unusual way, the blockade was suddenly broken.

Snapped!

A slap sent Shanqi tumbling through the air.

He crashed into the ice rock, his mouth full of broken teeth and blood spurting out.

Through blurred vision, Chen Qi's figure cast three shadows on the snow.

Having a Heavenly Soul, an Earthly Soul, and a Life Soul is a sign that one's cultivation of nature and life has reached a state of perfection.

"Wait a minute!"

Shanqi suddenly tore open his clothes, revealing a strange tattoo on his chest.

It was a dragon's head bound by chains, each scale dotted with cinnabar.

"If you push me too far, we'll die together!"

Chen Qi squinted.

"A forbidden technique of the Aisin Gioro clan? No wonder he has lived for so long."

Black blood suddenly seeped from the tattoo, and Shanqi's face aged at a visible rate.

He took out a bronze compass from his bosom, with eight seal characters engraved on its surface: "By the mandate of Heaven, may your life be long and prosperous."

"Do you know what this is?"

He laughed maniacally.

"Made from scraps of the Imperial Seal of the State!"

The compass soared into the sky, attracting thunderclouds from the heavens.

Chen Qi's expression finally changed; this old fox had actually concealed the vessel of an emperor's destiny.

All that could be seen was blood flowing from Shanqi's seven orifices, yet he still roared as he completed the hand seal.

"I offer this sacrifice with the bloodlines of the twelve emperors of the Qing Dynasty..."