'So this is the Qi network of a Nascent Soul cultivator - amazing!' Tang Ze thought. Qi was constantly being condensed into what felt like a massive ocean compared to the few meager drops that Tang Ze could condense. Although the dantian was a place inside the human body, the space inside of it could expand greatly beyond what would otherwise be physically possible as one advanced through the realms. Not only was there far more Qi, but it was far thicker than Tang Ze's own as well.
Even though Tang Ze could only inject a few drops of his own Qi into this network, it immediately had an effect.
One had to be careful while examining another person's dantian to be sure that they didn't inadvertently end up causing damage to it.
Conversely, if one wanted to cause damage to it, it was quite easy!
Everyone's Qi, as it was condensed, was modified by their Qi network, so that everyone's Qi which they stored in liquid form after condensing it was different - even among identical twins there would be variations.
Injecting foreign Qi into your dantians was like getting a blood transfusion from a blood group that one was not compatible with.
As such, Ling Kuang's Qi network was suffering from a violent transfusion reaction!
Even though the amount of Qi that Elder He Xuan had stored within the ring paled in comparison to his actual body, since it was much stronger, being from a Golden Core cultivator, it had an even greater calamitous effect on Ling Kuang's Qi network!
If Ling Kuang had still been conscious, for one, he would not have allowed anyone to come so near to his dantian, and secondly, he would have been able to direct this foreign Qi out of his dantian simply by concentrating.
However, he was unconscious, and could not do so. His wounds were about ten percent healed by this point, but because of the damage that his Qi network was currently undergoing, this regeneration had completely stopped.
The adverse reaction spread from his lower dantian to his middle and upper ones, and from there, to his meridians. The damage was truly extensive as his Qi network tried to get rid of the foreign Qi but was unable to!
"Honestly, this was kind of boring."
"I was hoping to see a big fight - but that was over in less than a second."
"Yeah, that Ling Kuang guy talked a lot but went down with a single blow."
"S-scoundrel!" one of the Astral Wind sect's disciples said. "We won't forget this!"
The reason that Tang Ze hadn't killed Ling Kuang was because there were still other members of the Astral Winds sect who had come along with Ling Kuang, likely people he had coerced into acting as witnesses.
Some of them were Golden Core cultivators, and he wanted to avoid a fight if possible.
"I hope for your own sake that you don't," Tang Ze said, now that he was done completely crippling Ling Kuang's Qi network. "Here's a message for your sect - if any more of you come into the Rising Phoenix sect's territory, you will find that you're not the only one who can cross sect boundaries. And then, your entire sect, all the way from the lowest Initiate to the Supreme Elder will fall prey to my new and improved [Monkey Stealing Peaches] technique!"
The men crossed their legs instinctively, though one of the women of the Astral Winds sect said, "Our Supreme Elder is a woman, you fiend!"
"Ah, a woman you say?" Tang Ze said, stroking his chin. "Good! Good! Good! I can finally put the other technique I was working on - [Yin-Yang Inversion Palm] to good use then!"
"You really are something else when it comes to making things up aren't you?" Elder He Xuan muttered.
"So that was it!" one of the Rising Phoenix sect's prefects cried out from the crowd. Tang Ze thought that the man seemed sort of familiar - as if they'd just met recently. "Brother Tang Ze really does have such a technique! I saw him earlier this evening, thinking that he was crossdressing, but it turns out he was just practicing this new technique!"
'You were right - I was just crossdressing,' - Tang Ze thought, but whatever. He wasn't sure why this man had leapt to the wrong conclusion after getting it right the first time. It didn't look like the prefect was lying to make Tang Ze's words more believable, for whatever reason, he seemed to genuinely think that Tang Ze had such a technique.
What was going through the prefect's mind was this: 'Tang Ze looked far too beautiful at that time to simply have been cross-dressing, the only logical explanation is that he really managed to turn himself into a woman! That has to be the case!'
Now, both the women and the men of the Astral Winds sect cried out.
"D-Demon! To target not just men, but women too with that technique!"
"Forget about him! We need to take Senior Elder Ling Kuang to a healer as fast as we can! That fiend messed with his Qi network, if we don't get him patched up fast Senior Elder Ling Kuang will end up as a cripple, unable to cultivate any further!"
"That's right, we need to focus on saving Senior Elder Ling Kuang!"
Even if the members of the Astral Winds sect were furious at Tang Ze, the fact of the matter was that a single Nascent Soul cultivator was more valuable to the sect than all of them combined.
If they didn't get Ling Kuang to a healer who could patch him up, his cultivation might even fall by a major realm to Golden Core. That would be disastrous - and a significant loss in strength for the entire Astral Winds sect. And naturally, they would not be able to find such a healer within the Rising Phoenix sect's boundaries.
The longer they waited to get Ling Kuang to a healer, the more damage his Qi network would take.
Also, none of them felt confident about fighting Tang Ze after what he had done to Ling Kuang who was stronger than all of them combined, let alone the crowd gathered behind him as well.
They also had no justification for the same - Ling Kuang had challenged Tang Ze to a duel, and as far as they could tell, Tang Ze had won fair and square. After all, they were part of a righteous sect, and without Ling Kuang leading the charge they did not feel confident whatsoever in breaking any more rules that day. As it was, they knew they were going to be in hot water simply by coming all the way here - but they had agreed as Ling Kuang had promised to reward them commensurately for the same. But how would Ling Kuang reward them if his cultivation was crippled?
It was only if they were able to examine Tang Ze closely that they would be able to feel Elder He Xuan's spirit in the ring on one of his fingers and realize that he hadn't actually played fair during the duel, but naturally none of them dared to get that close to Tang Ze. As for Tang Ze's ability to draw power from costumes, they had no chance whatsoever of discovering that or proving to anyone that he had such a power.
The members of the Astral Winds sect took Ling Kuang away, all the while glaring at Tang Ze.
"Honestly, it might have been better if you had just killed him," Elder He Xuan said in person, walking up to Tang Ze as the two of them watched the retreating backs of the members of the Astral Winds sect. Tang Ze handed him back his ring.
Elder He Xuan understood why Tang Ze had let Ling Kuang live, but even then, it might've been better in the long run simply to have killed him.
"Maybe," Tang Ze said. "But, I don't think I could've done it intentionally."
Cultivators were supposed to be ruthless - wiping out village after village for the slightest affront to their honor or for the slightest benefit.
That was what Tang Ze had heard - but he had been a normal college student on Earth just a year ago. He couldn't be someone who took lives so callously - and the most important aspect of being a cultivator is being true to yourself.
Why pretend to be something he wasn't?
Not to mention, if he had killed Ling Kuang, the other members of the Astral Winds sect might have lost themselves and struck at them - disregarding the fact that such was not allowed by the rules of the righteous sects. They might have come to the conclusion that they were in too deep and there was no going back.
"There will definitely trouble," Elder He Xuan said. "The Astral Winds sect will complain - or, maybe they might be too ashamed to admit that their Nascent Soul Senior Elder was beaten by someone at Qi Condensation stage. Regardless, they were the aggressors, we can more than enough show that."
"How did they know so much about our sect?" Tang Ze wondered. "Spies?"
"Hardly - merchants come and go through the sects and between the regions controlled by them - they cannot be stopped, else the flow of goods would be negatively impacted," Elder He Xuan said. "One can learn a lot from them... though indeed, someone like Senior Elder Ling Xuan might have something like a spy planted here." Elder He Xuan shook his head.
There had now been two instances of their security being breached - this had to be investigated and did not look good on him as this division's head.
But there was something else that was on Elder He Xuan's mind that greatly outweighed those other matters.
That was seeing Tang Ze walk away with the rest of his squad as the members of the Rising Phoenix sect gathered around him, congratulating him on his victory.
He had agreed to let Tang Ze join despite his complete lack of cultivation talent at the time (and to be fair, even now, his cultivation progress could only be rated as 'poor'), not because of the upcoming tournament, but because there was something else he needed a strong cultivator for.
It was clear though that he had greatly underestimated Tang Ze's strength.
If Tang Ze continued on this path, it was likely that he would be ready long before Elder He Xuan had first anticipated. That was good, he would not need to wait another decade or two.
But, that also meant that it was now a good idea to invest some extra resources in Tang Ze beyond what they were already giving him. After all, even at Qi Condensation a minor realm was a ten percent compounded increase in strength - and if you were already strong, ten percent was quite a big boost.
At this point, if you took only Tang Ze's passive strength with no costume, it was almost equivalent to that of a Nascent Soul cultivator at the lower end of the minor realms. Having only a fraction of a percent of a character's strength was humongous when said character was said to be able to crush planets at full strength. That was why, although it was technically feasible for Tang Ze to mix and match a bunch of character's powers, he was focusing only on strength for now as the boost was just absolutely out of this world.
On the other hand, having a fraction of a wizard's power or healing ability was next to nothing when it came to usefulness.
And with that kind of strength as his baseline, even a few minor realms could make a massive difference. Soon, the time would come when Tang Ze might be able to lift an entire mountain atop his back.