The sudden appearance of Ji Xiang gave Nurhaci a sense of extreme danger!
Although the two had never met, Nurhaci, who had spent years on the battlefield and in the deep mountains, fighting enemies and wild beasts, had developed a dangerous intuition. It told him that the person before him, though seemingly young, was in fact a lurking beast.
And the other party was coming for him.
While Nurhaci was alarmed, he was also puzzled. The transformation technique he had learned was essentially a spell to escape disasters and avoid calamities. Generally, it should not be detected by people or any special eyes.
As he pondered, his thoughts raced for a moment, and his movements slowed. Ji Xiang's Beidi Tianpeng Ruler, which had been held vertically, gradually lowered. However, the tip of the ruler was still aimed at Nurhaci.
"I'm asking you a question, why aren't you answering?"
Ji Xiang then raised his right hand, flicking his horsetail whisk. A crimson aura swept past the old man's eyes!
Whoosh! The evil energy was severed, and the illusionary technique was instantly broken!
The old man awoke as if from a dream, exclaiming in pain as he fell to the ground, feeling weak all over, dizzy and disoriented. Matteo Ricci, who was beside him, was startled. As he helped the old man up, he looked at Ji Xiang with concern and fear, demanding, "Why did you hit him!"
"I didn't hit him, I saved him. Look closely, what is this flower seller in front of you!"
Ji Xiang did not turn back. As he spoke, his left wrist snapped inward!
The moment the Beidi Tianpeng Ruler fell, Nurhaci's female form suddenly disintegrated into a stream of water, evading the ruler's aim. The water splashed onto the ground, causing the surrounding people to cry out in alarm. Ji Xiang then smashed the Beidi Tianpeng Ruler towards the ground. The stream of water immediately transformed into flames, which then dispersed. This scene made Matteo Ricci's eyes widen in disbelief!
"Oh, so that's how it is. This is what's called the intermediate profound technique for escaping disasters and avoiding calamities, somewhat like the Seventy-Two Transformations."
Ji Xiang observed this.
Transforming into a woman, then into water, then into fire – three consecutive transformations in an instant. But what of it?
Ji Xiang discarded the Beidi Tianpeng Ruler and suddenly clenched his palm towards the flames!
The void trembled, water and fire shattered, form and spirit separated, disintegrating inch by inch!
With a deafening roar, the fleeing flames vanished without a trace, crushed into nothingness. The surrounding streams of fire disappeared, but the light remained, filling the onlookers with both shock and fear!
"Huh? No true form, just a pool of blood?"
Water and fire exploded on the street, with rumbling sounds echoing in the air, but no true form landed. Only a pool of blood appeared where the water and fire had been.
This caused Ji Xiang to frown. He mused that shattering the void and clenching his palm in mid-air shouldn't have turned a living person into a pool of blood. The true form should have remained. Ji Xiang had even hoped to "accidentally" do something in this opportunity.
As a grandmaster of the Royal Daoist sect, maintaining the peace and order of Shuntian City, it was perfectly reasonable for him to have accidentally killed a Jurchen chieftain who was committing evil deeds and using dark magic, wasn't it?
It was too reasonable!
The Inner Scene Divine Tablet then provided a description of the situation:
[The opponent has used the Kong Chang Jue and begun to evade calamity!]
[Scattered Form Clone (Blood Anchor): When a person dies, it is called scattering the form. Using the form and spirit of a deceased person, a corresponding form is created to escape the arrival of disaster.]
[The opponent has hidden their true name!]
[The opponent possesses national prestige, and national prestige cannot be used to force them to reveal their form!]
[Recite: "What is sought arrives suddenly, what is summoned has preceded, swiftly and according to the heart, as the eye sees, it is present. Ten thousand things, spoken according to the heart." This text originates from the "Great Emperor Lord Nine Yin Scripture" and can resolve the scattered form and transformation techniques below the "intermediate" level, obstructing those who evade calamity and causing them to enter calamity!]
[By displaying the ascension cultivation (up to the Golden Core realm) and continuously chanting, the voice will gradually spread and diffuse throughout Shuntian City. Those scattered form clones (including the main body) who hear this will find their spellcasting becoming sluggish and gradually weakening. After three quarters of an hour, they will reveal their true forms!]
[When chanting the scripture, the reciter will be "marked" with the location of the fleeing form and shadow!]
Ji Xiang didn't need to guess these descriptions. He was merely surprised at how Nurhaci possessed such advanced transformation techniques.
But no matter how powerful the technique for escaping disasters and avoiding calamities, there would always be a corresponding method. Sometimes the method was a spell, and sometimes, the method might be to put a monkey's tail on some large-eyed temples.
Calamity? Ji Xiang chuckled!
He himself was his calamity!
However, transforming into a woman and wandering around was indeed a good method. Who would have thought that a woman selling flower baskets on the street would be the esteemed Commander of Jianzhou Guard, a second-rank General of Dragon and Tiger in the Great Ming Dynasty!
Of course, no matter how much he hid, it would be useless. This was another method he had never heard of before, likely created by some unscrupulous expert from the Inner Mountains, specifically designed to annoy those who used transformation techniques to escape calamity!
He glanced around and suddenly saw a woman appear. The Inner Scene Divine Tablet once again provided a name!
Hum!
Ji Xiang had no second thoughts. His consciousness formed a divine sword, and he unleashed his second divine ability of the Ascension realm. After a pause of about thirty breaths, the woman, who had hidden herself in the crowd, was also useless. The moment Ji Xiang saw her, she was locked on!
The divine sword appeared, making a thousand li feel like an instant. It traversed the void, moving back and forth without obstruction, and in an instant, it appeared at the woman's forehead, piercing through and killing her!
Bang! The woman on the street was killed, with some blood flowing from her forehead. As she fell, her form disintegrated into a wisp of energy, leaving only a pool of blood on the ground.
The surroundings immediately erupted in screams: "Murder! Murder!"
But upon closer inspection, there was no corpse to be found on the ground, only a pool of rotten blood!
The cries then turned into "Killing a ghost! Killing a ghost... Well done!"
"Oh, this is quite interesting. The so-called scattered form technique, this isn't a manifestation, but rather the form and spirit separated using blood as the core?"
"It's somewhat like Celestial Master Zhang's scattered shadow of the form, but using blood as the core is like a medicinal guide. Clearly, it's not a righteous method, but a forcibly stripped form and spirit."
"Escaping disaster and avoiding calamity, this is what it means, using form and spirit to substitute for death, so that calamity cannot find the true body...!"
"This is indeed interesting. With such a vast Shuntian Prefecture, let's play hide-and-seek."
Ji Xiang chuckled. Behind him, Matteo Ricci was shouting something about "encountering a ghost," "demons and evil spirits retreat," and "May the Almighty Heavenly Father protect me!"
And he indeed possessed some skill. Ji Xiang turned his head and saw a soft halo of light emanating from Matteo Ricci's hand, helping the weakened old man recover his strength.
A cleric?
In this era of initial exchange between the East and West, it was quite normal to see Western clerics dressed in Confucian attire.
Well, speaking of which, the Grand Shaman Lama Wang of the Wudang Sect's mission to the Roman Curia also had a rather normal appearance.
At this moment, Matteo Ricci looked up at Ji Xiang and approached him with surprise to greet him:
"Hello, hello! You seem very powerful! Could it be that you are the Celestial Master they speak of!"
"A pleasure to meet you! Your humble servant is Matteo Ricci, a missionary of the Society of Jesus in the West!"