After Duke Long finished speaking, his aura underwent a sudden transformation.
He had just repelled Purple Mountain True Monarch and forced Shadow Without Evil's "Guiding Soul into Dream" to fail. His imposing momentum had been heaven-shaking, like a great dragon soaring into the clouds.
But now, his aura began to descend bit by bit.
To say "descend" was not quite accurate.
It was being compacted, condensed.
The originally vast and staggering torrent of aura grew tighter and more solid with each moment. After a few breaths, Duke Long's astonishing presence had been completely retracted. His entire being resembled a bottomless abyss—unfathomable and mysterious.
Purple Mountain True Monarch felt as though he faced a mortal enemy.
In his perception, Duke Long in this state was far more dangerous than Duke Long with his heaven-shaking aura.
Roar!
Duke Long opened his mouth and let out a dragon's roar.
Then, in an instant, he vanished from where he stood.
"Not good!" Purple Mountain True Monarch's heart sank immediately.
Duke Long was repeating his old trick.
He had once relied on this method to continuously teleport before Purple Mountain True Monarch, unleashing the "Chaotic Dragon Fist" killing move and pressing him firmly into a disadvantage.
An ordinary Gu Immortal, even if they saw through Duke Long's plan, might not be able to react in time. But Purple Mountain True Monarch was different—he cultivated the Wisdom Path, and all his thinking was extraordinarily swift.
Almost simultaneously with Duke Long's roar, Purple Mountain True Monarch had already finished his deliberations and formulated a countermeasure.
In their previous exchange, Purple Mountain True Monarch had already deciphered the mystery of Duke Long's teleportation. Now he repeated his own trick, utterly neutralizing and purifying the surrounding dragon roars.
Sure enough, the next moment, Duke Long's teleportation ended and he reappeared before Purple Mountain True Monarch.
But this time, he had not succeeded in closing the distance—several hundred steps still separated him from Purple Mountain True Monarch.
However, for Duke Long, this distance was already sufficient.
"Human Qi Return!" he called out softly, making a beckoning gesture toward Purple Mountain True Monarch.
The gesture was utterly ordinary, as if a friend were casually waving hello.
But Purple Mountain True Monarch suffered a devastating blow in that instant.
A massive torrent of human qi erupted from his body and rushed uncontrollably toward Duke Long.
In the blink of an eye, it plunged into Duke Long's palm and swiftly vanished without a trace.
With such a tremendous loss of human qi, Purple Mountain True Monarch's eye sockets immediately sank inward, his complexion turned deathly pale, his originally bright purple hair became dry and dull, and a profound feeling of weakness from the deepest core of his being filled his entire body.
In the depths of Purple Mountain True Monarch's eyes, a flash of horrified light appeared and vanished in an instant. The moment he heard Duke Long's soft call, he immediately recalled a famous Qi Path killing move.
Three Qi Return.
This killing move was created by Primordial Origin Immortal Venerable and possessed two widely known characteristics.
The first was that it was extremely difficult to master.
This killing move was immensely complex, involving a massive scale of Gu Insects, and the interactions between them—the steps needed to activate and drive them—were so numerous that even Wisdom Path Gu Immortals would feel dizzy trying to follow them.
The second characteristic was that the risk was enormous.
Because the killing move itself was so complex, if a Gu Immortal made the slightest error during activation, it would fail, and the backlash would strike the user themselves.
If the killing move was successfully activated but failed to hit the enemy, it would still rebound and harm the user.
The destructive power of Three Qi Return was absolutely terrifying.
To explain this, one must start with Immortal Ascension.
When a mortal ascended to immortality, it involved Three Qi—Heaven Qi, Earth Qi, and Human Qi.
A Gu Master continuously cultivated from First Transformation all the way to Fifth Transformation, accumulating human qi throughout the entire process. When it came time to ascend, the Gu Master would then absorb Heaven Qi and Earth Qi. The three qi would fuse into one, the Gu Master would carefully regulate them, and then use their Life Gu to detonate—blasting open an Immortal Orifice.
The more human qi a Gu Master possessed, the more Heaven and Earth Qi they could fuse. The Immortal Orifice thus formed would be of higher grade.
Generally speaking, the Ten Absolute Physiques meant one's human qi was extraordinarily dense, far beyond the common. Or a Gu Master who had accumulated vast reserves—regardless of which path they followed, achieving a Grandmaster level meant their human qi would be immensely rich.
Once an Immortal Orifice was formed, a Gu Immortal—whether in cultivation or in managing the orifice—had to maintain the balance of the Three Qi.
Heaven Qi, Earth Qi, and Human Qi—none could be lacking, lest the balance be disrupted.
Take Fang Yuan, for example. Having obtained the Reversal Flow River, a secret realm of heaven and earth, the Heaven and Earth Qi within his Supreme Immortal Orifice suffered great losses. He had to periodically descend his orifice to absorb external Heaven and Earth Qi, replenishing the deficit and always maintaining the balance of the Three Qi.
Regarding the Three Qi, no Gu Immortal—not even a Venerable—could afford to be careless.
The five great regions of the world had slight differences in Heaven and Earth Qi. A Gu Immortal who was not native to a region, if absorbing external Heaven and Earth Qi, would often suffer damage to their own Immortal Orifice. While it could temporarily make up for deficiencies, it was only a stopgap. Too many repetitions, and it would absolutely not do.
When a Gu Immortal died in a foreign region, their Immortal Orifice could still form a Blessed Land. For example, in the Battle of the Valley of Lost Souls, many Central Continent Gu Immortals perished on the battlefield, and their Immortal Orifices all formed Blessed Lands in the Northern Plains. However, because they had absorbed foreign Heaven and Earth Qi, the foundation and various resources of those Blessed Lands suffered considerable damage.
All of this is to illustrate one point: the Three Qi of Heaven, Earth, and Human are critically important to Immortal Orifices and Gu Immortals. Even slight imbalances could cause severe damage to an Immortal Orifice.
And the Immortal Path killing move "Three Qi Return" was created precisely to target this vulnerability. It directly attacks the very foundation of an Immortal Orifice.
It is the fusion of linked attacks and adaptive variations into a single whole. Therefore, a Gu Immortal who activates this killing move requires extremely high skill.