Heavenly Dao Engine
Chapter 1174 - 1174 682 Crashing the Game_2

Chapter 1174: Chapter 682: Crashing the Game_2 Chapter 1174: Chapter 682: Crashing the Game_2 Just like Ma Deru, Pan realized the danger of the situation when he was enveloped by the black mist. At that moment, he made the same choice as Ma Deru, using every defensive means he could think of to securely surround himself. However, Pan was more cautious than Ma Deru. While setting up defenses, he didn’t even overlook the ground beneath him, covering it with a dense array of defenses.

Such arrangements were undoubtedly the correct choice. Moreover, Pan was quite wealthy. The defenses he set up were costly, some of them amounting to artifacts of the Half-step Nascent Soul level. The armor he wore was even an artifact above the Half-step Nascent Soul level. For the Liuli Sand to break through these defenses wasn’t an easy task; a considerable price had to be paid.

However, none of these were considerations for Liuli Sand. As Qi Tian’s Spirit Pet, how to quickly complete the tasks entrusted by Qi Tian was all that Liuli Sand needed to consider.

Just as Liuli Sand was about to eliminate Pan in the same manner as it had done to Ma Deru, Qi Tian suddenly flew over.

The No-fly Array set up in the Saint’s Tomb had a significant effect on Qi Tian. It would have been virtually impossible for him to fly here purely by his own strength. But Qi Tian found a clever workaround. He had already collected the body of Zhou Ping, including the flying sword that once carried Zhou Ping through the sky, which now became Qi Tian’s spoil of war.

Qi Tian originally had the mentality to just give it a try to see if the flying sword could carry him through the sky, and to his surprise, he succeeded on the first attempt. These flying swords must have been specially made; they were probably engraved with runes or arrays specifically designed to counter the No-fly Array here. Hence even with the No-fly Array in place, the flying sword could still fly, which also explained why Pan and the others could fly here.

Since he could take flight here, Qi Tian’s mindset changed as well. He steered the flying sword immediately toward Pan’s location.

Qi Tian wasn’t in the mood to fight Zhou Ping, but the idea of sparring with others hadn’t vanished from his thoughts. In fact, he was always waiting for a suitable opportunity to make a move. Now, with Zhou Ping and Ma Deru both dead, only Pan remained. Perhaps he would make a worthy opponent for Qi Tian to practice his skills.

Of course, Qi Tian didn’t overestimate himself by instructing Liuli Sand to spare Pan. After all, Qi Tian was very clear about his own condition. He wasn’t at his peak, and if he truly engaged Pan in a head-on battle, he had no chance of winning.

Qi Tian chose a more cunning approach, whilst also roughly gauging his own strength.

Qi Tian gave the command, stopping Liuli Sand from using the method of shooting sand grains to kill Pan. He only instructed Liuli Sand to create more black mist around Pan. Then he used the black mist to sever Pan’s connection with the outside world, preventing Pan from using his Divine Sense to investigate his surroundings.

Subsequently, Qi Tian plunged directly into the black mist. For ordinary cultivators, this black mist released by Liuli Sand was a deadly weapon, turning anyone inside it blind, unable to perceive their surroundings with either their eyes or Divine Sense.

But the black mist had no effect on Qi Tian. Through the sensing function of the Heavenly Dao Engine to Spirit Qi, Qi Tian could distinctly discern the detailed situation within the black mist.

Using this method, Qi Tian easily located Pan’s position, then he pulled out the Yonghe Stick he had just been thinking about, and lashed it fiercely at Pan.

Pan, who was unable to see through the black mist to discern his surroundings, found his eyes useless here. However, his ears had no such problems, and by using the method of listening to identify direction, Pan immediately sensed the danger Qi Tian posed to him.

However, Pan did not immediately counterattack, allowing Qi Tian’s Yonghe Stick to strike against his shield.

Qi Tian did not hold back at all; he exerted all the power he was capable of at his current stage, delivering a heavy blow to Pan’s shield through the Yonghe Stick.

The shields shook chaotically, their brightness quickly dimming, but they did not shatter, remaining incredibly sturdy.

Qi Tian maneuvered his flying sword beneath his feet, rapidly changing its position, seizing the opportunity to give Pan an unexpected blow with the stick. His speed was very fast, and each attack was essentially an all-out effort. In these continuous assaults, Qi Tian gradually came to a clearer recognition of his own combat power.

Pan initially refrained from retaliating because he was not familiar with Qi Tian, this suddenly emerging figure. Now, through Qi Tian’s attacks on his shield, he made a clear judgment of Qi Tian’s combat capabilities. A cold smile surfaced on the corner of Pan’s mouth; although he could not see Qi Tian’s position, he could essentially lock onto where Qi Tian was by sound.

Having pinpointed Qi Tian’s location and assessed his combat power more accurately, what remained was for Pan to stew over a decisive counterattack against Qi Tian.

Pan was very confident that as long as he could bring his combat abilities to their peak, then it was highly likely he could finish Qi Tian with a single, fatal strike—all he needed was to make one move to kill Qi Tian.

Pan was waiting for the opportunity, waiting for the moment when Qi Tian let his guard down or revealed a flaw—that would be his moment to strike.

What Pan didn’t know was that while he was plotting against Qi Tian, Qi Tian was also constantly watching him, continuously using the sensory function of the Heavenly Dao Engine to precisely lock onto him.

That Pan would counterattack was something Qi Tian had calculated long ago; after all, no one is willing to be hit continuously without fighting back, especially for someone as proud as Pan who was at the Gold Core Stage Eighth Level—it was simply intolerable.

Having ascertained this, the task now was to determine when Pan would make his move. For others, confirming this might be extremely difficult, but for Qi Tian, it was relatively easy. For this reason, Qi Tian constantly used the Heavenly Dao Engine’s sensitivity to Spirit Qi to firmly lock onto Pan, continuously scanning his every movement, not missing the slightest change in Pan’s condition.

When a cultivator launches an attack, a very obvious characteristic appears: the Spirit Qi distributed throughout his body gathers conspicuously. For example, if a mage is to cast a spell with a staff, the Spirit Qi in his body must converge on the hand holding the staff, and the circulation of Spirit Qi inside his body will also accelerate; this is inevitable.

Pan, not being a mage, would still exhibit these signs that appear on others. As long as Qi Tian locked onto these signs, he would be able to discern clearly what Pan was preparing to do.

When Qi Tian sensed that Pan harbored sinister intentions and was about to launch an attack, he promptly caught on to this change. He immediately ceased his unilateral beating of Pan and then ordered the Liuli Sand to carry out the task of eliminating Pan.

Pan had never anticipated that Qi Tian would stop at that moment; he thought Qi Tian would keep hitting him non-stop like a sandbag. To make his act more convincing, Pan had allowed Qi Tian to hit his shield all along, deliberately not restoring the shield in time, causing its defensive power to be greatly weakened compared to its peak state.