Chapter 1103: A Dispiriting Spectacle

In the starry sky, such a wondrous sight appeared.

A blazing sun hung overhead, suppressing a Dao-ordering blood saber condensed from a mountain of corpses and a lake of blood and bone. It crashed down, and amid the brilliant starlight, countless scorching spiritual lights scattered, drowning everything, and the cosmic starry sky brightened for an instant.

When all the spiritual light dispersed—

One saw, in the starry sky, a blood saber condensed from the power of order and a blue-gold flying sword locked in a frenzied slaughter. The clanging of blade and sword rang without end, forming visible ripples of sound that tore apart patches of starry sky. Spatial rifts appeared one after another, only to shatter again and again.

At this moment, one could clearly see that the hazy world around the blue-gold flying sword had grown a little clearer.

This immediately produced a terrifying effect. Clearly, the Order-Blood Divine Saber was far more dreadful in might, cleaving star rivers with every swing, its power of order boundless beyond measure, possessing an overwhelming absolute advantage in strength—nothing needed to be considered.

Yet when the Order-Blood Divine Saber truly fell upon the blue-gold flying sword, that sword would slash, or tap, or flick, or thrust—every stroke perfectly natural, effortlessly repelling the foe with ease to spare.

When swordsmanship reaches such a realm, it takes on an artistic beauty.

Ding!

Ding ding ding…

The saber body of the Order-Blood Divine Saber, enough to shatter an entire asteroid belt of starry sky, clashed with the Taiqing Flying Sword. It was like a savage brute of a giant, whose strength could topple mountains and whose spirit outshone the world, locked in a life-and-death slaughter against a slender, slight swordsman. Clearly, one slash from the savage giant should have pounded the slender swordsman into mincemeat.

Yet when blade and sword truly collided, seven-tenths of its full force was deflected away.

Could the remaining three-tenths of force then land on its foe?

No!

The remaining three-tenths of force was guided, flooding into that hazy, indistinct Sword Realm whose form could not be discerned!

Force enough to push back mountains and cross seas vanished, unreasoningly, by more than half. In the end, less than one-tenth of the force truly landed on the body of the Taiqing Flying Sword, and was casually cut down by the sword.

"Swordsmanship, the Sword Realm… is precisely this…"

Amid the life-and-death slaughter, Jiang Ding felt a sudden awakening.

Certain truths in his heart grew clearer and clearer. Sword techniques he had once agonized over in bitter contemplation suddenly opened up; many difficulties and doubts could no longer hinder him at this moment.

Swordsmanship is the art of combat!

Swordsmanship is the technique of using one part of force to cleave out five parts, ten parts, even twenty parts of force. There are even existences so terrifying that with one part of force they can produce the effect of a thousand parts!

This kind of force already borders upon the Great Dao. Even a frail mortal could, in the span of a breath, inhale and exhale the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to strengthen themselves, leap in an instant from mortal to Foundation Establishment, and then with a single sword slay a Soul Transformation cultivator!

This kind of force—

Perhaps it can be called the Art of the Sword Immortal, or the Art of the True Immortal!

Now—

?? Jiang Ding was still far, far from reaching such a level.

When he was at the peak of the Fourth Realm Indestructible Sword Qi, a single sword strike could leverage his swordsmanship foundation to pry out ten parts of force. That was already his limit; he could not advance a single step further, nor break through by even the slightest bit for several hundred years.

But now, a single sword strike—the most ordinary of strikes, not yet the embryonic form of an immortal art—could already pry out eighteen parts of force.

His strength had nearly doubled!

This was the terrifying effect of swordsmanship breaking past the limit of the Fourth Realm Indestructible Sword Qi and drawing close to the Fifth Realm Sword Realm—and this was only drawing close, not truly breaking through to the Fifth Realm of the Sword Dao!

Ding ding ding ding…

The Order-Blood Divine Saber and the Taiqing Flying Sword slaughtered each other fiercely. Each side held its own, fighting to madness; neither could gain the upper hand. They seesawed back and forth, fighting for a sliver of life amid the bloody battle.

"Blood Zombie!"

"You are too weak! Far too weak!"

Jiang Ding growled low: "Your Blood Dao and Curse Dao arts are naturally countered by this lord—like a blazing sun against a ghost that cannot stand the light. Ten parts of your strength can only bring out nine, not even as much as that dead soul beneath the sword of Master Canghai Canghai Tianjun!"

"You are going to die. Understand?"

"You fool, dreaming of reaping where you did not sow! You are going to die!"

Each low growl, like the howl of sword qi, echoed into the hearts of every disciple of the Blood Lake Corpse Bone Mountain, making their hearts tremble and giving rise to a powerful sense of dread.

The coordination of the Blood Dao army formation thus showed the faintest hint of sluggishness, tilting the stalemate ever so slightly toward the side of the Great Sun.

This slight shift was seized by the Taiqing Flying Sword. It slashed at the Order-Blood Divine Saber, forcing it back a step, and wildly amplified that tiny shift!

"Ant of the lower realms, dare you bewitch the masses with your lies!"

"Die!"

The Blood Zombie Canghai Tianjun of the Blood Lake Corpse Bone Mountain, seeing that the battle could not be won quickly and that he was beginning to fall at a disadvantage, likewise went mad.

"Kill!"

He sliced open his own wrist, letting the cinnabar-red blood—thick as quicksilver—flow from his body. He forcibly stripped out the fresh blood of the hundreds of millions of ghostly demon soldiers under his command. Countless army-formation runes were born from chaos, condensing into a blood-dripping Order-Blood Divine Saber of the Blood Dao.

The moment this blood-dripping Soul Transformation Divine Saber appeared, it erupted with a terrifying, baleful aura that pierced through the star river and acted upon the Minor Thousand Worlds, causing the blood of countless living beings to twist and change, their veins to bulge beneath their skin, and their wails to never cease—as if their blood had gained a life of its own and wished to tear free from their bodies.

Screech!

The Order-Blood Divine Saber twisted like a serpent and hacked down from above toward the head of the blue-robed youth. As its edge arrived, the blood-light flooded the eyes and was branded into the divine soul.

In that instant, it was as if countless evil ghosts shrieked in unison, dragging living souls into the eighteen layers of hell, never to be reborn for all eternity.

While the blood saber hacked down head-on, the Blood Zombie Canghai Tianjun silently and soundlessly formed a hand seal.

A transparent, invisible, ghastly pale—

bone nail flew out from the very last segment of his spine. Bearing endless venomous curses, it skirted around the fierce battlefield of blade and sword, and stole silently toward the back of the blue-robed youth's head as he stood in the starry sky upon nothing.

Black Blood Bone-Transforming Nail!

This was the true Ben Ming Fa treasure hidden beneath the cover of the Order-Blood Saber dharma treasure that the Blood Zombie Canghai Tianjun displayed openly—refined with heart's blood for over ten thousand years.

No one would have imagined that a coarse, hot-tempered cultivator of the zombie Dao body would possess such a vicious treasure, nor that this Primordial Spirit treasure would be so utterly baleful.

As everyone knew, a sword cultivator's defense was always thin as paper. So long as the Black Snow Bone-Transforming Nail could pierce into the body, it would surely nail the target to death!

In the blink of an eye—

The blood-colored saber-light had already enveloped the blue-robed youth. The power of Blood Dao order was grim and cold as a prison; death seemed certain.

"Fellow Daoist Blood Zombie."

"You are… somewhat of a disappointment."

Jiang Ding paused, even his frenzied battle intent beginning to recede, no longer so mad, and he sighed in disappointment: "Blood Corpse, I find you hard to understand."

"Why would you use such clumsy methods?"

"In the past, you perhaps relied on such clumsy methods to slaughter enemy after enemy, both inside and outside sects, reaching this day; you regarded it as your greatest trump card, using it amidst life and death."

"But why did you fail to notice one thing, which is..."

"What thing?"

A strong sense of unease suddenly arose in the heart of Blood Corpse Master Canghai Canghai Tianjun.

"That is, your own strength is as weak as an ant; even Shuo Yang Canghai Tianjun could have slain you in a single strike."

"You are entirely relying on the Dao soldiers of the Blood Lake Corpse Bone Mountain to contend with me, not on the trump cards you have refined in your hand for so many years."

"Understand?"

Jiang Ding appeared somewhat disinterested.

It was as if a magnificent feast had been promised, only to discover at the end that everything was noodles, everything was staple food; although prepared magnificently and not lacking in exquisite items, it completely failed to suit the appetite of a southerner.

"Blood Corpse."

"You should have devoted all your power to controlling the military formation."

"Instead of splitting half of your divine soul's computational power to do something laughable; on what grounds do you have the qualification to do so?"

"Is it based on your abysmally poor achievements in the Art of Spells?"

"Or your laughably crude ability to command military formations?"

Clang!

Jiang Ding drew his sword.

The cosmic starry sky suddenly darkened!

Billions of magnetic starlights vanished at this moment, plunging into extreme darkness; even divine sense was blocked, bringing great chaos to the demon and ghost Dao soldiers of the Blood Lake Corpse Bone Mountain, causing their reactions to slow down once more by a fraction.

Under such circumstances, one thousand and twenty-four sunbeams appeared between heaven and earth, converging

all the light from thousands of li of starry sky, like magnificent silk scarves of the sun, projecting instantly from afar to land upon a blue-gold flying sword.

Dai Sen Sun Sword Domain!

And it was a Dai Sen Sun Sword Domain that arose spontaneously within the range of divine sense, at the mere thought!

Infinite, boundless power was converging; terrifying sun starlight, extreme to the utmost, concentrated here, falling upon the Taqing Flying Sword, causing her speed to surge suddenly; under the enhancement of a hazy, blurred sword realm phantom, she severed the power of order and vanished from the surveillance of billions of demon and ghost Dao soldiers.

At this moment, the Transformed Blood Divine Blade, born from the Blood Dao order, slashed before his eyes, about to cleave the youth in green robes in two.

Whoosh!

The Taqing Flying Sword, trailing a magnificent sun-star silk robe, neither off nor on, neither fast nor slow, precisely pierced into the Transformed Blood Order Divine Blade, terrifying as a star river.

Crack!

Amidst the crisp sound, the entire blade body was easily pierced through by the Taqing Flying Sword, destroying the core spell structure of the Transformed Blood Order Divine Blade.

The Transformed Blood Divine Blade, which had gathered the power of billions of demon and ghost armies, and furthermore gathered the fresh blood of countless Blood Dao cultivators, containing terrifying power of order, froze stiffly in the void like this, unable to move a single inch further.

"No good!"

"This is impossible!"

Blood Corpse Master Canghai Canghai Tianjun was filled with immense terror in his heart.

He instantly knew how huge a mistake he had made.

While fighting a near-Void Refinement-stage powerful enemy, he had split half of his divine soul's mental energy to do other things!

Half of his divine soul's mental energy!

What did this mean?

It meant that, in the process of fighting a powerful enemy, he had bound one of his own hands and one of his own feet, plus half of his body and half of his head!

Now, the price had been paid!