As the Buddha closed in to a single step away, Li Chang’an, who had appeared frozen to the spot, suddenly smiled.
[Heaven-defying Comprehension: Upon hearing the Buddha’s Lion’s Roar, you have gained an epiphany. You have comprehended the sound wave Divine Soul attack method: the Sound Wave Skill!]
He felt a torrent of new insights flood his mind.
Li Chang’an took a light step back, dodging the palm strike the Buddha had been certain would land. He chuckled. "That sound is certainly invigorating, but it’s a tad too noisy for my taste!"
The Buddha had thought that even if his Lion’s Roar couldn’t grievously wound Li Chang’an, it would at least stagger him for a moment, buying enough time for his follow-up attack.
Yet, as he closed the distance again, Li Chang’an had evaded him with ease. The Lion’s Roar seemed to have had no effect whatsoever.
Against any opponent, the Lion’s Roar had always been an unfailing technique.
This was the first time the Buddha had ever encountered such a situation.
He couldn’t help but feel goosebumps rise on his bald scalp.
Li Chang’an had practiced the method for tempering the Divine Soul found in the Martial Scripture. While his soul was not yet as powerful as his physical body, it was far beyond what the Buddha could hope to affect.
After dodging the Buddha’s palm, Li Chang’an smiled. "Three moves are up. Now it’s my turn. Die, you bald-headed old fiend!"
His voice was soft, yet it carried a unique rhythmic vibration.
This was the Sound Wave Skill, which Li Chang’an had just comprehended from the Lion Roar Skill.
He was giving the Buddha a taste of his own medicine.
Because the Buddha’s Divine Soul wasn’t powerful enough, he required various auxiliary methods to execute the Lion’s Roar. Moreover, the attack’s primary destructive power lay in the physical sound wave itself.
The assault on the mind and soul was merely a secondary effect.
However, with the Sound Wave Skill that Li Chang’an had comprehended, the sound wave was merely the delivery method. The true killing blow was the one that targeted the mind and soul!
If he wished, every word he spoke could carry his Essence, Qi, and Spirit on the sound waves, directly annihilating his enemy’s mind and soul.
The Buddha’s Dao heart was already unstable, and his mind was in a daze.
Though he bore no external injuries from Li Chang’an’s sound wave attack, the Buddha couldn’t stop himself from violently spitting out a mouthful of blood as the light in his eyes dimmed.
He sank cross-legged to the ground, panting for a long time before putting his palms together in a gesture of respect. "Such incredible methods... From now on, the Jianghu is yours."
Li Chang’an roared with laughter.
The melee between the hundreds of men below had also concluded. Li Chang’an’s soldiers had won a crushing victory, beating the hundred-plus disciples from the Buddhist Sect so badly their own mothers wouldn’t have recognized them.
Li Chang’an mounted his horse again, glanced back at the Buddha, and said, "Remember to copy all of the Buddhist Sect’s Cultivation Technique Secret Manuals and send them to the Liyang Imperial Palace. Especially unique skills like the Lion Roar Skill. Don’t you dare hold anything back!"
With that, he waved his hand.
The ten thousand elite soldiers had arrived quickly, and they departed even faster.
It wasn’t long before they vanished from the Buddhist disciples’ line of sight.
They looked at the Buddha, still sitting on the ground, unable to rise. Then they looked at their dejected, bruised, and swollen-faced martial brothers.
The tens of thousands of disciples of the Buddhist Sect were all utterly silent, completely dumbfounded.
...
News of the battle between Li Chang’an and the Buddha spread quickly, going viral and reaching every corner of the world.
"What on earth happened? Isn’t the Buddha a Martial Arts Mythology? How could he have lost to that Prince Liyang?"
"Who the hell knows? That Prince Liyang is uncannily powerful!"
"I heard his army even defeated a hundred of the Buddhist Sect’s elite disciples! They beat those monks so badly they were sent fleeing for their lives, completely powerless to fight back!"
"How is that possible? It’s just an army of ten thousand men. How many Martial Artists could be among them? The Buddhist Sect’s elite disciples are top-notch fighters no matter where you put them. How could they lose to a bunch of common soldiers?"
"Who knows? I heard that Prince Liyang, Li Chang’an, created a Cultivation Technique called the Martial Scripture. Could that be the reason?"
"’Unify the Jianghu, reshape the Martial Dao’... Such bold words. If he truly succeeds, will we get to witness an unprecedented golden age for the Martial Dao?"
At first, almost no one took Li Chang’an and his ten thousand soldiers seriously. But after the defeat of the Buddhist Sect, the entire Jianghu’s opinion and attitude changed in an instant.
However, the Buddhist Sect’s submission was only the beginning.
Half a month later, Li Chang’an paid a visit to the Taoist Sect. After a "friendly discussion," the Taoist Sect also yielded to him, pledging to follow his lead from then on.
Just as everyone thought Li Chang’an’s next stop would be the Demon Sect, its Sect Leader, Leng Yanran, proactively stepped forward and personally announced that the Demon Sect would henceforth submit to Li Chang’an.
In less than a month, the Three Great Sects, once at the height of their power, had all bowed their heads and declared their allegiance to Li Yang. The shift was so sudden that many people found it hard to adjust.
’The Jianghu... how had it changed so suddenly?’
’How had the Liyang Dynasty, which had been on its last legs, suddenly revived?’
’All because of one man, Li Chang’an?’
But regardless of how outsiders saw it or whether they could adapt, Li Chang’an had already accomplished his goal. The next step was to proliferate the Martial Dao throughout the world.
He had to arm all the Martial Artists of the Li Yang Martial World before the Cultivators arrived.
When Li Chang’an ordered the Three Great Sects to copy all their Cultivation Technique Secret Manuals and send them to the Li Yang Library Pavilion, the Buddhist and Taoist Sects were, in truth, quite reluctant.