The pervasive, oppressive Sha Qi saturated the area, a force so potent that even the Five Elements and the inky power of the Qilin Holy Lord could not hold it back. After all, Sha Qi was not a tangible power; this ephemeral, nebulous attribute, even magnified a hundredfold, remained invulnerable to the Five Elements' sealing efforts as long as it refused to manifest concretely.

Of course, if one could command the might of Heaven and Earth, even the most formidable Sha Qi would be utterly annihilated. However, He Yiming did not commit everything to a single desperate gamble; instead, he countered with his own projection of ephemeral Willpower.

A strange energy erupted abruptly from He Yiming, a power without form or shadow, preceding its appearance without the slightest warning. Yet, the moment this power materialized, the face of the Qilin Holy Lord instantly changed.

A sharp cry tore from his lips, and the Qilin beast, no longer languishing lazily in place, moved with startling swiftness. The Qilin beast, towering five meters high, reared up on its hind legs.

The Qilin Holy Lord settled himself precariously upon its back, and in this utterly bizarre posture, they unleashed an even more potent wave of Sha Qi. Above their heads, an apparition of a rider upon a Qilin beast slowly materialized.

Despite the furious assault of the myriad rays of multi-colored light, this phantom stood utterly unfazed, as if He Yiming’s Five Elements power could inflict absolutely no harm upon it. He Yiming’s eyes glinted.

The instant this phantom appeared, he understood a great deal. This manifestation was not formed from the traditional powers of East or West, but was connected to Willpower.

Since this power existed without physical form, this bizarre phenomenon occurred. If this technique were used against ordinary Venerables lacking Willpower, it would guarantee the demise of every single one.

However, the Willpower emanating from the phantom was saturated with an overwhelming quantity of Sha Qi—an amount no mere human could possibly sustain. If a person habitually housed such an immense concentration of Sha Qi, survival would be impossible.

Perhaps only within the mythical Dao of the Gods could one gather such a vast reservoir of malevolent essence. Taking a deep breath, a faint, peculiar hue emerged from He Yiming, though these subtle colors were immediately swallowed and concealed within the surrounding kaleidoscopic radiance, rendering them invisible to observers.

Yet, this seemingly frail power, hidden beneath the encompassing multi-colored light, managed to entirely repel every trace of the Qilin Holy Lord’s Sha Qi. The beautiful, wide eyes of the White Horse Lightning snapped open; finally, through the intense surge of Sha Qi, it sensed the unmistakable aura of the Qilin beast.

Indeed, upon witnessing the image suspended in the sky, only an absolute fool would fail to grasp that the formidable Qilin beast had entered the fray. The White Horse Lightning let out an angry roar.

It had been anticipating the Qilin beast’s challenge, never imagining that the person and beast opposite them had already struck. The single horn on its brow flared instantly, and violet lightning arced outward with blinding speed.

In the White Horse’s fury, the power of its electrical strike was unleashed without mercy. Yet, the phantom in mid-air abruptly lunged downward, plunging halfway into the space before it.

Suddenly, it was as if an insurmountable wall had materialized directly in the path of the violet lightning, effortlessly absorbing the entirety of that potent electrical force. He Yiming’s eyes widened at that moment.

What kind of combat skill was this? If he remembered correctly, this power was a colossal might forged from the fusion of Sha Qi and Willpower.

While this might was known to be uniquely effective against Willpower manifestations, he never expected it could also successfully block an assault of this magnitude, like lightning. Instantly, He Yiming’s heart began to pound furiously.

If he could master this combat technique, for someone like himself who possessed two forms of Willpower within his Sea of Consciousness, it would constitute a monumental leap forward. He quietly monitored the subtle shifts in the opponent's power, missing not even the slightest variation.

Furthermore, the White Horse’s lightning and his own Five Elements power rained down without restraint, as if an irreconcilable hatred existed between them, showing absolutely no quarter. Under He Yiming’s merciless onslaught, the Qilin Holy Lord’s composure finally fractured.

The Qilin beast beneath him roared repeatedly, seemingly issuing a challenge of its own. When the confrontation first began, the Qilin Holy Lord had not intended to engage He Yiming in a battle to the death.

After all, the might of the White Horse’s lightning, coupled with He Yiming's combined Light and Dark power, gave him considerable pause. His original plan was simply to establish a clear advantage in strength between the two sides.

Relying solely on his own strength, he certainly stood no chance against an expert who had fused Light and Darkness. But with the addition of the Holy Beast, the equation changed entirely.

He was certain that centuries of honed synergy could not be withstood by a freshly ascended individual and his Holy Beast. However, to his astonishment, after absorbing the prepared Sha Qi attack, the opponent, though unable to counterattack, defended flawlessly—there was none of the expected, utter disarray.

This made him seriously doubt whether his Sha Qi retained its rumored devastating potency. Yet, successfully defending against the Sha Qi attack so easily could only confirm that He Yiming’s strength was far from ordinary.

What followed, however, utterly baffled him. He Yiming suddenly launched a furious offensive, behaving as if he faced not a revered peak of the Human Dao, but an arch-nemesis deserving of eternal enmity.

The volume of multi-colored light power abruptly increased severalfold, pushing back his protective Ink Aura even further. This level of exchange had clearly surpassed the limits of a friendly spar, taking on an air of fighting until one side perished.

The Qilin Holy Lord snorted in anger, unleashing an even more colossal wave of Sha Qi that surged toward He Yiming. As this power was fully unleashed, even the White Horse’s lightning was momentarily driven back.

He Yiming felt a subtle surge of excitement. So, the power of Willpower was this formidable.

In his estimation, Willpower should be a power cultivated only by those in the God Dao realm; the difficulty of training Willpower for an ordinary Human Dao expert was insurmountable. Even with his Chaos Dantian, capable of absorbing all powers under the heavens, he couldn't absorb even a shred of Willpower cultivation.

Thus, whenever he attempted to explore and research Willpower, he always felt as if he were trying to catch a turtle in a mouse trap—utterly without a starting point. But at this moment, having personally experienced the strange Willpower Sha Qi released by the Qilin Holy Lord, a novel concept began to form in his mind.

Pure Willpower was indeed difficult to control and cultivate, but what result might be achieved if Willpower were allowed to integrate with some other form of power? He Yiming was swift in decision and action.

He let out a sharp cry: "Lightning, power." The White Horse Lightning instantly understood. A fraction of the violet electricity atop its head split off and enveloped He Yiming.

Meanwhile, He Yiming cautiously began to channel the incoming power of Willpower. Under the crushing pressure of the Sha Qi, his Willpower became entangled with the Willpower of the God Dao Blood Condensation cultivators.

It was precisely because he possessed two potent forms of Willpower that He Yiming could so easily withstand the Sha Qi invasion; otherwise, even if he wouldn't concede defeat, he certainly wouldn't be this relaxed. And at this instant, when his Willpower intersected with the White Horse’s lightning, the two forces fused in a bizarre manner.

A sharp light flashed in He Yiming’s eyes. The immense pressure exerted by the Qilin Holy Lord and beast, fused into one entity releasing this miraculous Willpower Sha Qi, was staggering.

This pressure was so great that it arguably surpassed the combined Light and Dark fusion of the two Western Ninth Heaven experts from the past. The two Western masters, though they cast aside past grievances to ally against a common foe in the end, were old rivals, and each held a reserve, preventing them from exerting full strength.

The Qilin Holy Lord and the Qilin beast were different; their bond was symbiotic, their mutual dependence and significance beyond verbal description. Thus, when they coordinated, the power they unleashed was comparable to the Light and Dark fusion of those two Western masters.

The phantom before the Qilin Holy Lord suddenly swelled violently and began to move relentlessly toward He Yiming. Under He Yiming’s merciless assault, he and the Qilin beast had finally erupted in true anger, unleashing their absolute maximum power, hoping to settle the matter once and for all.

In the hundreds of previous confrontations, whenever he deployed this near-ultimate Divine Art of Human-Beast Unity, even facing two masters of the same tier, they could only retreat desperately, avoiding the immediate sharp edge of the attack. This time, however, the Qilin Holy Lord clearly sensed a difference.

Not only did He Yiming refuse to yield, but a thick bolt of lightning suddenly blazed forth. He recognized this as the work of He Yiming’s Holy Beast—that searing electrical current shot straight towards the heavens, its immense aura enough to chill the soul.

A cold, wry smile touched the Qilin Holy Lord’s lips. The attack of Willpower Sha Qi was a unique kind of power.

While perhaps not the strongest, it was certainly the most peculiar. No matter how immensely powerful the flashing lightning might be, the Qilin Holy Lord remained utterly undaunted.

He possessed the firm conviction that this electrical power could never penetrate his Willpower shield. In the next moment, that Willpower Sha Qi finally collided with the immense power of the lightning.

At that instant, the entire region seemed to tremble. Though the clash between four powers equivalent to peak Human Dao experts could not match the authority of Heaven and Earth commanded by a Blood Condensation cultivator of the God Dao, the residual shockwaves from their collision were not to be dismissed lightly.

Then, the Qilin Holy Lord’s face, previously brimming with confidence, changed drastically. He stared fixedly ahead, his eyes filled with an expression of utter disbelief.