Hearing this, Li Yuanling froze for a moment.
She suddenly felt that what Li Musheng said sounded very familiar. It seemed to be exactly the assurance she had repeatedly made to him before coming to Floating Boat City.
This feeling was like a boomerang that had been thrown out and was now hitting her squarely on the head.
However, Li Yuanling didn't even have time to feel embarrassed.
All the copper rings above the wooden boat suddenly shattered silently at the same time, instantly transforming into wisps of copper powder that rustled down.
Li Yuanling looked up in surprise, and in the next moment, a hand had already grabbed the collar at the back of her neck.
Then, she felt the scenery of the entire underground palace around her instantly recede. When she could clearly see her surroundings again, she had already arrived on the black giant ship that had originally been floating above her head.
Li Yuanling looked around in bewilderment, only to see two figures with terrifying martial arts auras standing directly ahead, currently examining the two of them with their gazes.
The heart-palpitating aura emanating from them clearly indicated that they were both Heaven-Human Realm martial arts experts.
"I didn't expect it would be you!"
Elder Sheng's eyes surged with blood light as he stared at Li Musheng with some disbelief.
He had previously only thought that there were experts backing these two people. However, he hadn't expected that the true expert was actually Li Musheng himself!
Such a young Heaven-Human Realm martial arts expert undoubtedly shattered Sheng Shi'an's long-held understanding.
He had wandered the martial world for most of his life and had seen countless martial arts geniuses, but someone like Li Musheng was something he had never heard of or seen before!
At this moment, Li Musheng's gaze swept over Sheng Shi'an and Tu Yao before him. He had no intention of wasting words with them and went straight to the point, saying, "I presume you two should be the ones in charge of Floating Boat City. Perfect timing. Hand over the Qilin Blood for me to study."
Hearing this, Tu Yao's pupils narrowed slightly, then he exchanged glances with Sheng Shi'an, "How strong does Elder Sheng think this person is?"
The blood light in Sheng Shi'an's eyes grew visibly richer. The true qi of heaven and earth around him had never stopped pouring into his body.
The black iron chains writhed, making clattering sounds, while his aura continued to rise, as if there would be no end as long as the true qi of heaven and earth didn't cease.
"This old one did not see him use any martial arts techniques, so I don't know what martial arts he cultivates. However, the movement technique he displayed should be extremely extraordinary, possibly no weaker than that Wave-Treading Immortal Maiden's Wave-Treading Steps."
"Furthermore, judging from how he manipulated the true qi of heaven and earth to destroy this old one's copper rings, he must have mastered an extremely powerful 'Qi Control' divine technique. He absolutely cannot be underestimated."
Hearing this, Tu Yao's expression shifted.
The difference between the Acquired Realm and Innate Realm in martial arts lay in whether a warrior could absorb the true qi of heaven and earth, store it in their meridians and dantian, and transform it for their own use.
The difference between the Innate Realm and Heaven-Human Realm in martial arts lay in whether one could comprehend the boundary between man and heaven and earth, using the martial arts true qi within their own body to manipulate the true qi of heaven and earth outside themselves.
Those in the Heaven-Human Realm could not only maintain endless martial arts true qi within themselves, but could also use a small point to guide a larger area, using the small to drive the large, controlling the true qi of all heaven and earth for their own use, greatly enhancing the power of the martial arts techniques they cultivated.
At this level, just the quantity of true qi they could control far exceeded what a Martial Dao Grand Master could compare to.
In his view, if Li Musheng truly mastered some kind of Qi-controlling martial art, he had undoubtedly elevated the power of manipulating heaven and earth's true qi to an even higher level.
Even if he and Sheng Shi'an had higher martial arts cultivation than the other party, they would still need to deal with him extremely carefully.
Thinking of this, Tu Yao didn't act arrogantly. He immediately suggested to Sheng Shi'an, "We can chase after those who escaped later. To be safe, I must trouble Elder Sheng to join hands with me to capture this person and avoid any complications."
Hearing this, gray-robed Elder Sheng slowly nodded.
The blood glow in his eyes gradually grew violent, blooming from his eye sockets like rising, burning blood flames, as if he could barely suppress the mad malice in his heart. He said, "Such an astonishing martial arts genius, this old one has never seen before. Perfect, let's capture him and see what secrets he holds."
As his words fell, Sheng Shi'an seemed to release the restrictions he had always maintained on himself. The martial arts true qi around him suddenly trembled, and the black iron chains that had been wrapped around his body abruptly shattered.
Replacing them were blood-colored chains that emerged from his skin, rapidly writhing to cover every part of his body, emanating eerie, towering blood light.
In an instant, endless torrential blood energy surged from Sheng Shi'an's body, stirring up a terrifyingly horrific blood-colored storm that immediately caused the entire black iron ship beneath their feet to crack and fall toward the palace below.
"Elder Sheng, you mustn't!"
Seeing this scene, Tu Yao's expression changed drastically. He wanted to stop him with his voice, but it was already too late.
The blood-colored storm was too powerful, sweeping in all directions. Whatever rocks and iron chains it passed turned to powder in an instant.
Even the massive, heavy iron ship beneath their feet was continuously cracking and crumbling, rustling as it fell from midair.
At the same time, Sheng Shi'an was already shrouded in rolling blood flames. The entire person stood in midair, floating motionlessly, the aura around his body evil, powerful, and heart-palpitating.
The stalactites originally hanging from the cavern ceiling couldn't withstand the martial arts power emanating from his aura and were shattered into stone powder that scattered and fell like rain.
"Heavenly Demon Blood Hand Seal!"
Rumble!
The entire underground void shook. A giant hand several zhang in size, condensed from countless blood lights and overwhelming true qi, quietly manifested above Li Musheng and his companion's heads. In the next moment, carrying terrifying, sharp killing light, it directly pressed down heavily toward the two.
Li Yuanling, standing beside Li Musheng, was shocked to her core at this moment!
As she looked up at the blood hand descending from above, she could also clearly feel that the space around her seemed to be gripped by an invisible giant palm.
Her body felt as if sealed by candle wax, unable to breathe, unable to move, only able to let that giant blood hand fall.
However, Li Musheng was completely indifferent to this.
He looked calmly at Sheng Shi'an, who now seemed like a blood demon descended upon the world, and slowly shook his head, saying, "Your guess wasn't wrong. My martial arts cultivation is indeed at the Heaven-Human Realm. However..."
"What you may not know is that the gap between Heaven-Human and Heaven-Human is sometimes also immeasurable."
As his words fell, Li Yuanling beside him felt her collar being grabbed again, and the scenery before her eyes retreated in the blink of an eye.
In an instant, she discovered she was already positioned in midair.
The person floating a foot in front of her was the blood flame-shrouded Sheng Shi'an. However, the blood flames on his body were now receding like a tide in an instant.
The crimson blood light in his eyes also extinguished in a flash, and the blood-colored storm that had been sweeping around them also simultaneously dissipated silently...
The entire underground space suddenly became quiet.
Li Yuanling even gently turned her head to look down. The blood hand that had originally been descending below had somehow already vanished without a trace.