## AST 2301 - A Violent Collision, First Killing She Chou

The boorish old man was a master strategist. It extremely fitting of the sentence: “Don’t judge a book by its cover”.

The old man looked strange, completely ignoring everyone. Even though Wu Tianchou was there, it was like he never saw him, just walking straight towards the area where they discussed about troop deployment.

No one said anything. Generally, capable people also tended to have the worst temper. As such, when they saw this, they felt happy instead as it meant that the Wu family would definitely have difficulty in dealing with this expert.

The old man stood up and looked around from time to time. The more he looked, the more his brows began to furrow. He went around touching objects at random time intervals and even took out a jade-looking object and threw it. Without realizing it, a quarter of an hour had passed.

“Is this old head really powerful?” She Chou couldn’t help but ask.

At this moment, Wu Tianchou was also inwardly unconfident, but he awkwardly laughed out, “This old man is a formation master. It also hasn’t been that long, just wait a bit more.”

There wasn’t an expert formation breaker on hand, so there was no harm in letting the old man have a try. After all, the supposed “formation masters” that they brought along were only of a low skill level, as such, no one could say anything to dispel everyone’s ridicule.

Qing Shui observed the old man wandering around the room. Sometimes, his face would contort into one displaying a strange expression. At this time, the old man held a mystical staff, and the top of this staff emitted strong devouring powers. He then picked up a mystical nail, setting it down somewhere and started drilling.

Formation Meridian!

Qing Shu never thought that this old man would be this skillful. The eye of the formation was the weakest spot, easy to break but incredibly well-hidden. There were even many special fail-safes to protect it, so the next weakest spot would be the Formation Meridian.

It was also well-hidden, and breaking it wouldn’t cause the whole formation to fall apart, but only chip away the small spot.

Now that the old man had found the meridian and also had decent tools, it wouldn’t be long before the formation at this side was destroyed.

The old man didn’t show much joy at his success as if it all came naturally. He moved forward, using a few jade stones to probe his surroundings before walking north. Thereafter, he started to place down his own formation.

After arranging, the old man found a specific position and used the nail to drill in, causing this section of the formation to break down...

Wu Tianchou laughed but did not say anything. At this moment, She Chou said, “This old man is not bad. His skills in creating battle formations are really exceptional!”

Qing Shui could tell that if the old man continued like this, the battle formations would naturally break. As such, he took some people and walked out, “That’s enough, there’s no need to break it further. We hadn’t provoked you guys, yet since you’re here now, you can’t leave without paying the price.”

“What an arrogant boy, I want to see what gives you the right to be so arrogant?” She Chou roared. He was instantly enraged.

Qing Shui used supporting techniques, and everyone in the Chi Clan had been working extremely hard to prepare for a large-scale battle. Although the opponents were very strong and capable and had a lot of manpower, the Chi Clan members were still brimming with ferocity.

“Sure, do you want both of us to fight a one-on-one battle?” Qing Shui’s eyes were filled with ridicule.

“A young and inexperienced small boy coming to battle me… You’re not worth it.” She Chou scornfully spat.

She Chou knew that there was something odd about this place. When he sent a large troop here, not a single person made it back; there was definitely a reason for this. As such, this time he had already decided that there would be no solo battles. They would be going straight into the plan of killing everyone.

“Haha, put away your pitiful superiority. In my eyes, you are nothing. Listening to what you said earlier made me feel disgusted. You don’t even deserve to say those kinds of words. Don’t you know that if you say things that you are not in a position to say, people will feel beyond disgusted?” Qing Shui calmly mocked.

She Chou’s face flushed with anger, so much that he wanted to charge. However, at this time, the Reverend Human Buddha exclaimed, “Continue your actions if you want to die!”

Such a simple sentence caused She Chou to stop in his tracks, his whole body feeling chilly. He turned to the Reverend Human Buddha, “Are you saying this boy here is very capable?”

“Did you not realize that he is the backbone of this place spiritually? It is exactly because of this young man that these people, even facing opponents outnumbering them by ten times, are not fearful at all. They even seem eager to battle. It’s not that these people do not know us… Even under the circumstances that they know us and how powerful we are, they still choose to do such things, don’t you think it’s a little strange?” The Reverend Human Buddha lightly mentioned.

“Could this be a bluff?” Even as She Chou said this, he felt the nonsense in his words.

The Reverend Human Buddha did not reply to his question.

Upon hearing the Buddha’s words, Xiang Ba continuously stared at Qing Shui. He wanted to see how this young man was different from everybody else, so much so that he could be the spiritual backbone of this place. The people here were all Chi family members. If he really was someone who was acknowledged by the Chi family as their spiritual backbone, then how strong was this person exactly?

Qing Shui kept on looking at this strange Buddhist Monk. He was too stable, so much so that it made Qing Shui curious as to how he was so relaxed. Such emotional stability could not be faked, and it was clearly due to ignorance. He seemed to have unshakable confidence in some knowledge.

Qing Shui himself also possessed some trump cards, thereafter, he was also feeling relatively confident. Looking at things this way, the other party probably prepared strong trump cards as well which explained their confidence.

“There’s nothing left to say, only a battle to do. We’re coming, begin!” The Reverend Human Buddha exclaimed to Qing Shui.

Qing Shui smiled. “You guys can do the first attack!”

Battle Formations!

Qing Shui launched the Four Symbols Formation. This formation had shrouded all around them. Even if he wasn’t at each spot personally, his strength could allow up to a hundred people to stand in the requisite spots to start up the formation despite their lack of understanding of the underpinnings of the formation.

It was ok to have such a small number of people here because of it.

Qing Shui looked at the Chi Yang couple before stomping his feet all of a sudden, causing the power of the Art of Pursuing and Emperor’s Qi to shroud the surroundings.

Area Dominance!

The Chi Yang couple directly charged towards She Chou, while Qing Shui charged towards the Reverend Human Buddha.

The Buddha’s face tensed up as he raised a hand, ready to attack Chi Yang. He could tell that the Chi Yang couple wanted to kill She Chou.

However, Qing Shui glared at the Buddha, not allowing him to attack Chi Yang. He started with a Stellar Transposition and began his frantic assault!

The Buddha’s expression’s dramatically changed, and his figure rapidly drew out a long fragmented shadow, before reaching out to send out two seals.

Bang Bang!

The Stellar Transposition caused the two seals to be destroyed, and it still struck the Buddha’s body, though the blow was lessened by a bright light being emitted from his body.

It was possible to ignore and disregard defense. However, some treasure could still block it, just like Qing Shui’s Parry Heavenly Fate Treasure Pagoda. Regardless of whether the parrying power was the power to ignore defense, it would still be parried.

As such, Qing Shui knew that the opposing party’s treasure had something to do with parrying, but he was not sure whether or not it was the pagoda.... The Buddha had been pushed away by Qing Shui, who didn’t continue his chase. He raised his hand to apply a Buddha Bright Seal to greatly reduce She Chou’s speed.

Immediately, She Chou’s body stiffened as he stood unmovingly.

At this time, he was scared to the point of his soul nearly flying away. He felt as if all the hairs on his body was standing while the Chi Yang duo cut at him with their weapons.