A clap of thunder.
The sky had already been overcast, and this thunderclap caused everyone in the dense forest to freeze. But a moment later, all eyes were drawn to Jiang Huai.
The Yening Sword in Jiang Huai’s hand was fully revealed, as bright as a lamp, illuminating the dim sky. Every step he took seemed particularly slow, while Mo Dan, sitting under the tree, merely smiled.
Only when Jiang Huai finally stood before him did Mo Dan unhurriedly stand up. The Gu patterns had already spread across his skin, completely covering his handsome face. At this moment, all the cultivators present finally realized what was happening. They stood not far behind Jiang Huai, drawing their swords.
“Where is that beautiful girl by your side?” Mo Dan’s lips curled, tugging at the black Gu patterns on his face, distorting them.
“Hidden away.”
“It seems you’re quite afraid of me.” Mo Dan stretched out his hand, catching a drop of rain falling from the sky. He suddenly said, “I seem to remember now, I think I’ve heard of you… Jiang Huai.”
“Is that so? That’s good.”
“I heard you were once a peerless genius, but you ruined your future to save a group of mortals.” Mo Dan sighed softly. “What a pity. I heard you have the Three-Patterned Heavenly Way Spiritual Qi. It seems I won’t be able to consume it.”
“Are you so confident that you can devour me?” Jiang Huai had already silently recited, using the remaining two High-level Experience Scrolls on him, as well as several low-level Experience Scrolls. His cultivation level had almost instantly reached the Great Perfection of the late Nascent Soul stage.
The System’s Experience Scrolls directly infused spiritual energy into his body. His body was now like a leaky bucket. Although it couldn’t hold water, the cultivation provided by the Experience Scrolls was enough to sustain him for the time it takes an incense stick to burn.
“Late Nascent Soul stage?” Mo Dan saw his cultivation level change at a glance but merely smiled indifferently. “So what?”
He gently placed his hand on his chest, and after a moment, he tightly grasped a pale Gu sword. In that instant, Jiang Huai activated Mirror Flower.
The moment Mirror Flower enveloped Mo Dan, Jiang Huai suffered a backlash. His soul felt as if it were pierced by thorns, causing him to break out in a cold sweat. His vision seemed to blur slightly. It was clear that Mo Dan’s soul cultivation was far superior to his. Mirror Flower could only delay him for a short period. He held his breath, gripped the Yening Sword in his hand, and began to search for Mo Dan’s vital point.
With his current cultivation level, he only had two chances to strike.
For his first strike, he chose to use Silver Ray, a sword technique from Chu Xianning, centered on extreme speed. He had long mastered the Sword Intent of Silver Ray. He lurked within Mirror Flower while Mo Dan stood still. Mo Dan spoke indifferently, “A soul technique that blinds perception?”
Mo Dan muttered to himself, then suddenly chuckled. His body moved, turning into an inky blur and striking at a certain point in the void. “Your technique is good, but unfortunately, your soul is too weak. You still revealed a flaw in your aura.”
As he said this, his sword strike suddenly shifted. The blade that should have been directed forward was now swept behind him, thrusting directly backward. The sword tip pressed against Jiang Huai’s lower abdomen, and at that same instant, Jiang Huai drove his sword into Mo Dan’s chest.
Yening Sword was a Heaven-tier Spirit Sword, and its Sword Spirit could absorb worldly spiritual energy. Little Ning had already unleashed all her sword power, attempting to destroy Mo Dan’s heart脉 and kill the Gu insects within his body. Jiang Huai tightened his grip on the sword and withdrew it from Mo Dan’s chest. He retreated a few steps, blood gushing from his lower abdomen.
Mo Dan’s face still held a calm smile. He calmly lowered his head and looked at the wound on his chest. Where his heart should have been, there was now a large hole, completely destroyed by the sword’s force. However, countless red insects quickly crawled over his chest, filling the wound. He smiled and said, “I know that flaw was left for me by you. And I’ve returned your strike. Do you like it?”
The moment he finished speaking, Xu Qing, who was under the tree, activated the Five Elements Absolute Sword Formation. Five spirit swords condensed from the formation suddenly erupted from the ground, stabbing towards Mo Dan. Mo Dan dodged sideways and then gripped his Gu sword, calmly engaging the five spirit swords.
He even had the leisure to speak, “I had the chance to deliver that sword to your heart earlier.”
Jiang Huai’s arm trembled slightly. He pursed his lips, remaining silent.
“But I also told you where you hid that beautiful woman. I really like her, so… could you please tell me?”
Even though Jiang Huai had quickly swallowed the best healing pills, his Gu sword seemed to carry some kind of Gu poison, preventing his injuries from healing. Blood had already stained his white clothes, making him look disheveled. The spiritual energy in his body was rapidly draining. He still had one more chance to strike.
The heart was not his vital point. Where would it be? His head?
Should he take the gamble and use his second strike, or use his remaining spiritual energy to escape now… and retreat to True Person Qingxuan’s secret realm?
Xu Qing’s face was as pale as Jiang Huai’s. The Five Elements Absolute Sword Formation didn’t seem to be able to hold Mo Dan for much longer. Jiang Huai looked back at the crowd behind him, but they were like frozen statues, and he didn’t know whether to help or to flee as quickly as possible.
“Master, don’t be foolish. They aren’t helping you, so why are you saving them?!” Little Ning’s voice instantly reached Jiang Huai’s mind. But at the very moment she spoke, a sword cultivator from the crowd stepped forward and thrust his spirit sword towards Mo Dan, who was entangled with the Five Elements Absolute Sword Formation.
With the first person, a second soon followed. Over a hundred cultivators now drew their swords and charged towards Mo Dan like a swarm of bees. They all used their ultimate moves, but Mo Dan calmly wielded his sword alone, avoiding the momentary gaps in the Five Elements Spirit Swords. He even had the leisure to casually toss his sword, severing two heads. As the sword blade cut down the cultivators, its luster seemed to brighten slightly.
The sword blade returned to Mo Dan’s hand, its luster quickly fading, while Mo Dan’s aura grew stronger. The two cultivators who were killed instantly turned into mummified corpses.
This terrifying scene caused many cultivators to stop their swords, their gazes shifting to further away, searching for escape routes. But Mo Wanqiu, who had been standing under the tree, stood up with a smile. She raised her hand, and a giant purple cauldron suddenly appeared in mid-air, hovering high above, creating a pool of lightning above the dense forest. No one could… cross the pool of lightning.
“No one can leave.” Mo Wanqiu leaped lightly and sat on a bluestone, crossing her slender legs beneath her qipao.
When there was nowhere to escape, only the option of a fight to the death remained.
Jiang Huai gripped the hilt of Yening tightly and raised his hand, locking onto Mo Dan’s aura again. Mo Dan was currently struggling to deal with the Five Elements Absolute Sword Formation and couldn’t spare him any attention. But as Mo Dan casually struck, mummified corpses fell before him. Jiang Huai took a deep breath and unleashed his final trump card.
Water Moon.
Yening Sword’s edge traced a crescent-shaped arc of light in the void. The blade landed on Mo Dan’s head at that instant. Everyone held their breath. The blade split Mo Dan’s head… in half, and even continued down, to his neck, his chest… as if splitting a piece of wood. Jiang Huai had used all his strength. He leaped back, trying to remind Xu Qing to convert all the power of the Five Elements Absolute Sword Formation into a blazing fire sword and attempt to burn everything. But before he could speak, Mo Dan’s shattered body transformed into countless red insects.
At that very moment, Mo Dan’s bones suddenly melted, turning into a pile of blue powder. But the powder instantly proliferated infinitely, forming another skeleton. The red insects from his flesh and blood immediately crawled towards the skeleton.
Even though Xu Qing reacted and smashed the skeleton with a blazing fire sword, both the skeleton and the red insects were unharmed under the blazing fire. Instead, they seemed to be reborn in the flames.
When the red insects crawled all over the skeleton, they distorted again, forming Mo Dan’s body. His cultivation level was no longer Foundation Establishment, but… Void Refinement.
The cultivation realms were divided into Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul, and Spirit Transformation – these were the Lower Five Realms.
Void Refinement, Body Integration, Mahayana, and Supreme Saint were the Upper Four Realms.
Once one stepped into Void Refinement, they were worlds apart from cultivators in the Lower Five Realms. Jiang Huai suddenly reached out and grabbed Xu Qing’s body. “Let’s go!”
“No… I have to break through Mo Wanqiu’s Mystic Cauldron of Lightning… let them escape…”
“It’s useless, you can’t escape… I can only save you… Go…!” Jiang Huai spat out a large mouthful of blood. His injuries had still not healed. Xu Qing stubbornly remained in place. The next moment, Jiang Huai used his last ounce of strength, stabbing directly at one of Xu Qing’s acupoints. Xu Qing’s vision went black, and she fainted.
At that instant, Yening activated the space within its sword body, absorbing both Jiang Huai and Xu Qing. The sword blade instantly turned into a stream of light, piercing through the pool of lightning shrouded by the purple cloud cauldron, so fast it was almost invisible.
Even when Mo Dan reacted and raised his hand from afar, throwing his Gu sword to try and pursue Yening’s trace, this was, after all, Yening’s accumulated power over a thousand years. The bone sword couldn’t even reach a third of Yening Sword’s speed, and could only watch it disappear into the distance.
Mo Dan was filled with rage. He looked at the rogue cultivators still struggling before him. He casually grabbed one by the neck, and in an instant, that person… turned into a mist of blood.
…
True Person Qingxuan, Ancestral Inheritance Land.
Yening Sword had already flown here. The bone sword behind it had not yet caught up. Sensing Yening’s aura, True Person Qingxuan opened the secret realm, and Yening Sword flew into it. Jiang Huai and Xu Qing were also released from the sword by the Yening Sword Spirit. The chaotic world within the sword was not a place for humans to enter. It was Yening using its soul power to protect them that allowed them to stay inside the sword for a short while.
Xu Qing was knocked unconscious by Jiang Huai, while Jiang Huai himself was slumped on the ground, spitting large amounts of black blood from his mouth.
