Volume Two: The Life of a Bandit - Chapter Sixty-One: Qin Si's Realm of the God King [Part One]

An upper-level Heavenly Deity and a Divine King—no one would have ever imagined that such a duel could take place. Not to mention that an upper-level Heavenly Deity would never consent to it, a Divine King would hardly lower his status to duel an upper-level Heavenly Deity.

Outside the city of Duanshui, tens of thousands of Heavenly Deities and a number of Divine Kings watched with rapt attention as the two figures confronted each other in the sky. Although neither had yet made a move, the spectators below were dead silent, not even daring to breathe heavily. The only sounds were the occasional rasps of people swallowing hard.

Wu Qing gazed coldly at Qin Si, a faint smile suddenly touching the corner of his mouth before his figure vanished in the next instant.

"Hmph, teleportation?" Qin Si smiled slightly, his hands trembling ever so slightly. Within a radius of hundreds of meters around him, the air was suddenly filled with countless black spatial fissures. Though tiny, everyone present knew that these spatial fissures posed a fatal threat, even to a Divine King.

"Whoosh!" Wu Qing's figure reappeared abruptly. Frowning slightly at the scene before him, he remained entirely motionless. Even he did not dare to approach these spatial fissures lightly.

"Heh, is that all you can do?" Qin Si laughed heartily. "And here I thought the fifth-ranked expert of the Tianyi Water Pavilion would be formidable. Turns out you're just as helpless against me, a mere upper-level Heavenly Deity."

Wu Qing ignored Qin Si's taunt, waiting quietly instead, showing not the slightest hint of surprise at the enduring spatial fissures that refused to dissipate.

"Hmph, if you won't make a move, I will." A golden spear abruptly materialized in Qin Si's hand as he charged forward.

A bizarre scene unfolded before everyone's eyes. Everywhere Qin Si passed—places previously choked with spatial fissures—all the fissures instantly vanished, as if they knew ahead of time that he was coming and automatically cleared a path for him.

Leaving aside the tens of thousands of Heavenly Deities below, even the watching Divine Kings stared with wide eyes, looking upon the sight in sheer disbelief.

"Brother Ma, you've been a Divine King for almost an epoach now. Could you manipulate space to such a degree?" A newly advanced Divine King asked the Divine King beside him, staring dumbfounded at Qin Si's performance.

The Divine King surnamed Ma could only offer a bitter smile. "Brother, please spare me the teasing. Strictly speaking, an upper-level Heavenly Deity must thoroughly comprehend the spatial laws of the Divine Realm to attain the rank of Divine King, and we have indeed all comprehended spatial laws. Yet this sort of divine ability, displayed by the Alliance Master of the Zixuan Alliance using space itself, is something we have neither heard of nor witnessed before."

A distance of several hundred meters, at the speed of an upper-level Heavenly Deity, was crossed in the blink of an eye. The golden spear in Qin Si's hand suddenly thrust forward, its golden radiance extending the apparent length of the weapon as it lanced straight toward Wu Qing.

Wu Qing merely smiled faintly. "The rumors are indeed true. A grand-initial-meng spiritual treasure is truly formidable, capable of unleashing such might merely through the energy inherent to the treasure itself. If it were in my hands, it would surely exert even greater power."

"Whoosh!" Wu Qing's figure vanished once more, reappearing the next instant several hundred meters away. He had no intention of meeting Qin Si's spear head-on.

Choosing not to block it head-on was undoubtedly a wise decision on Wu Qing's part. The moment he retreated, a colossal black ravine nearly ten meters wide and hundreds of meters long tore open right where he had been standing. Even the Heavenly Deities and Divine Kings watching from below felt a shudder of dread at the sight of that massive, annihilated void.

Even for a Divine King, carving open such a massive spatial fissure would be extremely difficult. Furthermore, that annihilated space was recovering at a glacial pace, completely imperceptible to the naked eye, as if it had existed since the dawn of time.

On either side of the ravine, Qin Si and Wu Qing stood facing each other. A portion of the golden spear in Qin Si's hand was still submerged within that black abyss, looking utterly surreal.

"After all, you are still not a Divine King. Though your understanding of space has reached its absolute peak, the lack of comprehension regarding the laws of time dooms you to remain merely an upper-level Heavenly Deity." Wu Qing shook his head, sighing with what seemed like a trace of pity.

Qin Si's lips curved into a smile as he softly asked, "Is that so?" Following that, he gave the spear in his hand a gentle flick.

Looking back at that massive chasm, it suddenly began to tremble violently as if stirred by some irresistible force. Countless spatial fissures split outward from the giant abyss, and in the blink of an eye, they completely enveloped the airspace where the two men stood.

"Space is filled with fissures all around us. By now, you're no better off than an upper-level Heavenly Deity yourself," Qin Si chuckled lightly, then swept his hands back and forth. A relatively independent domain instantly formed around him.

The surroundings remained a chaotic maze of spatial fissures, yet the small patch of space where Qin Si stood remained entirely intact, even the divine ambient energy within it preternaturally tranquil.

Wu Qing, meanwhile, was forced to dodge continuously to the left and right, clearly entirely helpless against these spatial fissures.

"Where is your advantage now?" Qin Si mocked with a laugh as his figure abruptly surged upward. With a flick of his spear, a blinding burst of golden light erupted within that seemingly shattered realm, and tens of thousands of golden spear images practically filled the entire fractured space. Some of the golden beams were ruthlessly sliced into two by spatial fissures, creating a deeply bizarre spectacle.

"Freeze!" Wu Qing, who had been dodging ceaselessly, finally unleashed Time Stoppage. In an instant, the ceaselessly trembling spatial fissures, the scattered golden spear images, and even Qin Si suspended in mid-air were simultaneously locked in place, resembling a motionless painting.

With a few blinks, Wu Qing's figure slipped out of that restricted space.

"Break for me!" A sudden, thunderous roar echoed from Qin Si in mid-air. Immediately afterward, everything returned to normal, and both the spear images and spatial fissures vanished completely.

The very moment Wu Qing stepped out of that region, his Time Stoppage had been shattered by Qin Si.

An upper-level Heavenly Deity had actually broken free from Time Stoppage!

The tens of thousands of Heavenly Deities and Divine Kings below were dumbstruck. Those who had previously believed Qin Si to be merely a puppet of some Exalted Paragon wore expressions of absolute disbelief.

"Clap..." A sharp sound of a palm striking flesh suddenly rang out from the crowd.

"Ow, that hurts." Nan Que rubbed his reddened cheek, staring at Qin Si with eyes filled with adoration as he whispered to the fat man Liu Hanbin beside him, "Hey, the Alliance Master of the Zixuan Alliance... he really is just an upper-level Heavenly Deity, right?"

"S-should be..." Liu Hanbin stammered. Faced with such terrifying strength from Qin Si, many people were already beginning to doubt his status as a mere upper-level Heavenly Deity.

"You are strong." The gaze Wu Qing directed at Qin Si had grown deeply solemn, his earlier confidence shaved away by a fraction. "You are the first upper-level Heavenly Deity I have ever seen who can shatter Time Stoppage."

Qin Si picked his ear with an air of utter indifference, speaking quite casually, "That just means you lack exposure. I know plenty of people like that."

"Hmph, boasting without even drafting your words first," Wu Qing sneered. "However, don't think that just because you can break Time Stoppage, you can defeat me."

Qin Si waved his hand impatiently. "For someone trying to look so cool, I didn't expect you to be such a chatterbox. Are we going to fight or not?"

"Flippant-tongued! Today shall be your day of death." Wu Qing loathed nothing more than being called a chatterbox. Stung by Qin Si's words, he flew into a rage. "Freeze!"

Without the slightest warning, it was Time Stoppage once more!

Qin Si remained caught mid-sentence, a mocking grin frozen upon his face as he hung completely motionless in the air.

"Breaking Time Stoppage requires time on your part as well," Wu Qing smiled, teleporting directly to Qin Si's side in a flash.

"Freeze!" Just to be safe, Wu Qing broke precedent and invoked Time Stoppage a second time.

"Die!" A small hammer suddenly materialized in Wu Qing's hand. It was diminutive and appeared weightless in use, yet no one would dare underestimate it.

Although it was merely a high-grade Heavenly Divine Artifact, it possessed the power to shatter the soul. Even a Divine King struck by Wu Qing's hammer would suffer soul annihilation.

"A Divine King is ultimately a Divine King, while an upper-level Heavenly Deity... is simply too far apart," a Heavenly Deity below murmured with emotion.

Yet... the corners of Qin Si's mouth suddenly upturned into an arc. With a gentle tilt of his head, he effortlessly dodged Wu Qing's hammer while the spear in his hand pierced straight through Wu Qing's chest.

It wasn't that Qin Si didn't want to kill Wu Qing with a single thrust through a fatal spot; rather, from his position, Wu Qing's chest was simply the most accessible target for an attack.

"This..." Wu Qing teleported away in a flash, his chest wound instantly healing, yet the shock within his heart was beyond measure.

"How is this possible? Even for a Divine King, breaking Time Stoppage requires time!" Wu Qing stammered incoherently.

"It just so happens that your young master here doesn't need time," Qin Si retorted with a curl of his lip.

The tens of thousands of watching Heavenly Deities erupted in a roar. Previously, Qin Si had merely shocked them, but at this moment, his effortless shattering of Wu Qing's Time Stoppage ignited a glimmer of hope that burned with blinding intensity.

Which of those who had cultivated to the rank of Heavenly Deity had not endured countless eons? Becoming a Divine King had originally been their only path forward. Yet Qin Si's performance today told them that aside from becoming a Divine King, they might have other choices.

"Very well, truly formidable. No wonder you are so arrogant—you indeed have reason to be," Wu Qing sneered. Immediately afterward, a sphere shimmering with dual gold and blue colors emerged from deep within his body.

The very instant that sphere appeared, a bone-chilling frost radiated outward, causing everyone present to shudder involuntarily.

(To be continued)