Chapter 87: Sword Severs the Ancient's Scheme

The greatest hatred of this life! Only Xiang Jianzong alone! His mind surged, and the boundless spacetime instantly rose into a raging tide.

It seemed like an echo from the primordial past, recounting the myths of the world's first opening, an archaic rhythm, like a sacrificial chant, piercing through the barrier of spacetime.

The river of time heaved with great waves, within which flowed endless streams of light and shadow.

Star rivers circled his body one after another, and towering, world-shaking majestic figures emerged with the waves.

There were Cang, there were humans, there were yao!

Archaic and vast, cold and murderous, eerie and treacherous.

Huo even saw himself within it, along with several Dao companions other than Dao-xiong.

These were the Shadows of the Ancients! The numerous majestic figures all struck at once, light and shadow alternating and interweaving.

One saw Sword Venerable in moon-white plain robes, his killing sword Dao severing spirits and extinguishing gods! Hehuan Laozu pressed his palm upon the Great Thousand, a streak of red garments of matchless elegance! Tyrant Venerable strode forth and swung his fist, his supreme divine fist sweeping across the universe! Pill Ancestor flicked a finger and sent forth a pill cauldron, inhaling and exhaling chaos!

……

Too many, far too many—from ancient times to the present, the shadows of countless heroes all seemed to manifest at this moment, striking together, seeking to withstand that sword that spanned boundless spacetime.

Buzz~ Yet a single thread of sword light swept past, wind and waves ceased, and those majestic figures could not even block for an instant before being easily broken through.

Unstoppable, unblockable! As if everything before it held no meaning whatsoever.

"How was it?"

Huo's lips curved in a smile, throwing back the very question He had just asked him.

Then, the blazing sword light swept past, severing cause and cutting off consequence, ten thousand myriad connections all chopped apart.

One saw those 'Huo's who had stepped out from the picture one after another, the colored light in their eyes dimming, falling back into the picture once more.

Wisps and strands of colored light gathered, converging into a vast, towering divine being, a resplendent divine halo behind him, endless light and shadow flowing, recounting all the principles of past and present.

The Ancestor of the Cang race—Gu!

"Xiang Jianzong's sword, its edge remains as ever." Gu's eyes lowered, lightly stroking before him.

Before him, a sword wound was extraordinarily conspicuous.

"Only as ever?"

A faint voice came through.

Gu paused, abruptly raising his head.

He saw appear beside Huo a figure he least wished to see—indeed, one could say the figure every member of the Cang race least wished to see.

"Xiang Jianzong!"

Extreme, intense hatred surged in his eyes, along with… surprise.

But this state did not last long; calm quickly returned to His eyes.

At this moment, no matter what emotion, it held not the slightest meaning.

Only as ever? Gu could not help but glance at Xu Xing's hand, yet did not see that boundlessly ferocious sword.

"So that's how it is. I have still underestimated Xiang Jianzong. Xiang Jianzong's sword, its edge surpasses even those years." Gu looked at Xu Xing. "This time… it is I who have lost."

"You stole my essence—what do you intend with it?" Huo asked.

Yet Gu did not answer, merely gave him a faint glance before closing his eyes and sitting cross-legged.

With Xiang Jianzong alone, he was not necessarily a match; the scheme had failed, and further words now were useless.

Huo: "……"

"Since you will not answer, then be on your way."

Xu Xing had no intention of wasting words with Him either, and pressed two fingers together like a sword, slashing out with one strike.

The sword light reached his body, yet Gu neither dodged nor avoided.

Slick! He was directly cleaved into a cluster of fine, scattered colored light, vanishing without a trace.

Yet that sword light did not disperse there, but followed the connections within the unseen, entangling its way over.

This sword, He had to take! Certainly, as the Ancestor of the Cang race, an existence at the absolute pinnacle of the Tai Xuan Realm, Gu could not perish so easily.

Just as His name implied, 'the Past' was His authority, His Dao.

This also made Him, among the absolute pinnacle existences of the Tai Xuan Realm, the one with the strongest ability to preserve His life.

But the pursuing sword light, and the wounds sustained from this failure, were already enough to keep Him quiet for quite some time.

And now was also the most crucial period…

Heh.

"Gu's trip this time is just as Yuan said—'tried to steal a chicken but lost the rice.'" Huo laughed. "Or perhaps one could call it 'lost the lady and the soldiers too'?"

Xu Xing glanced at Huo. Speaking of which, just how long had this fellow been peeking at that transmigrator fellow countryman?

"Let's go."

Xu Xing shook his head slightly, stepped out in one stride, and his figure vanished.

Huo stood quietly, looking at those flowing pictures—from when he had sent the Cang race's blood to Xiao Fan, all the way until he entered the Secret Realm and his body was occupied by Gu.

Everything returned to normal under Dao-xiong's sword.

"Long time no see. Dao-xiong's sword is truly becoming more and more extraordinary."

It was not just Gu who felt surprised; he himself was the same.

Gu's authority was 'the Past,' so the alterations He had wrought in the past were extremely difficult to correct, yet now they were severed by Dao-xiong's single sword…

"Dao-xiong seems to care quite a bit about Yuan's deeds…" he murmured softly.

In the primeval years there had been a rumor—Xiang Jianzong was Not the Tai Xuan Realm's person.

And Dao-xiong, it seemed, had never refuted it either.

……

……

The time-frozen Xuanjian City was like an ink-wash landscape painting, suspended in the spreading of ink-dark hues.

Grey buildings, motionless pedestrians, even the wind had lost its rhythm—everything had fallen into a deathly, eternal stillness.

Suddenly, a wisp of faint light broke the dawn, as if daybreak were tearing apart the long night.

First one building regained its color, then a second, then a third…

On the streets, the frozen figures began to tremble slightly, like fish breaking through ice, struggling to move once more.

In an instant, color returned, clamor reappeared, and Xuanjian City broke free from the frozen scroll.

A green leaf drifted down, and Li Qingyang—who had been about to draw his sword—stiffened.

What happened? How did it recover just like that? "Senior Li, do you think we should…" The mayor got halfway through his words, then suddenly trailed off.

Hm? Why is Senior Li gripping his sword? "You, you're…"

They don't have any memory of what just happened—Li Qingyang's heart stirred.

"It's nothing. Li Mou sat for too long, just getting up to stretch." Huh? Getting up to stretch?

Could you come up with a more half-hearted excuse? Li Qingyang didn't explain further—at their realm, knowing too much wasn't necessarily a good thing.

………

Inside the battle space, Xiao Fan's eyes faded from their prismatic glow, his gaze looking somewhat dazed.

Where… am I?

He only remembered continuously harvesting spiritual essence, the stored spiritual essence growing more and more, while Senior Huo's voice grew clearer and clearer—but he also felt increasingly exhausted, and finally couldn't help closing his eyes for a nap.

When he woke again, then…

Hiss! A chill ran across his neck.

Huh? His vision suddenly flipped, the world spinning, as if it had become a painting of splashing blood.

A buzzing in his ears, as if countless bees were flapping their wings beside him.

In the gradually blurring world, he saw a familiar headless figure.

Oh.

So he was already dead.

Huh?!

Why the hell did I die?! Thud! Thud! A figure like a vengeful ghost, every part of the body stained red with blood, fresh blood already congealed on the face.

This ferocious, terrifying figure seemed… to be Zhang? "Hah hah…"

Xiao Fan wanted to say something, but since only his head remained, he could only make "hah hah" sounds.

He saw the longsword swing down, the last point of light vanished, leaving only endless darkness devouring every color and sound.

In the end, only one indignant thought remained.

'Does it have to be this ruthless? What did I ever do to you? You already chopped off my head, and you still had to land another blow?!'

After Zhang Yunlu minced Xiao Fan's head, she finally couldn't hold on any longer and dropped to one knee.

She had already been at her last gasp; those two sword strikes were her absolute limit.

Zhang Yunlu felt her eyelids weigh a thousand pounds, almost impossible to lift, her vision blurring, the scene before her as if seen through a veil of water.

Her bones felt as if they had come apart, her muscles aching as if about to explode, every breath pulling at sharp pain in her lungs.

'Comprehension' couldn't refresh one's state like leveling up in a game.

If that bizarre Xiao Fan could still revive after all this, then she truly had no way left.

Fortunately, that eerie scene ultimately did not repeat itself.

Xiao Fan's headless body collapsed, and the head she had minced into a pile of mush also began to dissolve into specks of faint light.

Victory!

In an instant, a surge of vigorous power rose from within, and injuries large and small across her body began to heal; the already dried-up spiritual sea rapidly filled once more.

The clothes soaked through with blood also became clean and tidy again, and even her mental fatigue vanished along with it.

'The victor will be restored to peak condition.'

Zhang Yunlu recalled the rule.

In her previous battle with Teacher Yu, not much spiritual power had been spent, so it hadn't felt very obvious.

This time, however, she felt it truly and clearly.

The scene before her began to fade; Zhang Yunlu held her sword, not letting her guard down in the slightest—she remembered there were still many Tongxuan Grass Monsters outside.

'But now, I should be able to deal with all of them.'

Soon, the surroundings returned, and she appeared once more within the Secret Realm.

Yet what greeted her eyes was not countless Tongxuan Grass Monsters, but… Tongxuan Grass all over the ground? Hm? How did they all turn into Tongxuan Grass?

…

…

Inside the villa, Chi Jiuyu also recovered from her frozen state.

Seeing Xiao Fan cleanly defeated by Zhang Yunlu, she was somewhat puzzled.

No way—you specifically grew your head back, I thought you were about to unleash some big move, and the result was just to get cut down again? What's the point?

Could it be that the previous death wasn't satisfying enough, so you wanted to die again? "Senior…" She wanted to consult the senior again.

But when she turned her head, she saw Xu Xing sitting beside her—Huo, however, was nowhere to be seen.

"Uncle-Master? Why is it you? When did you get back?"

"Just now."

"What about that senior?"

"Already gone."

"Leaving already?"

"Worthy of a master on the same level as Martial Uncle—truly comes without a shadow and leaves without a trace."

"Speaking of which, Martial Uncle, what was the deal with that person who just fought Little Yunlu?" Asking Martial Uncle about this situation would work just as well.

"Just as you said, that was a cheater, so I 'awarded him a title.'"

Xu Xing's words weren't wrong—Gu taking over Xiao Fan's body did indeed count as cheating.

Chi Jiuyu nodded.

That's more like it. At Qi Refining you can regenerate severed limbs, so at Foundation Establishment wouldn't you be reborn from a single drop of blood? Why don't you just fly up to the heavens!

"So from now on, is Little Yunlu invincible?"

A Qi Refining sword cultivator who has 'Comprehended Principle'—facing other Qi Refining cultivators, she'd beat them hands down!

"If nothing unexpected happens, that should be the case."

Xu Xing didn't deny it either; the outcome of this trial was basically that.

"Then will she join our Xiang Jianzong?" Chi Jiuyu asked expectantly.

"Of course." Xu Xing paused, then looked at her. "What sneaky scheme are you cooking up now?"

"Nothing, nothing." Chi Jiuyu gave a sheepish grin.

Little Yunlu is a 'Comprehended Principle' sword cultivator—she'll definitely become a pillar of strength for the Xiang Jianzong in the future! And I've at least given her some pointers.

Once she grows up, would she really not join my 'Future Sect Master Faction'? "Oh right, once the trial ends we'll head back to the sect. Senior Sister said to have you get ready."

"Huh?"

Wishing everyone a happy National Day!!!

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First subscriptions: three thousand three hundred. Thank you all, dear readers, for your support!!! (End of chapter)