Chapter 2601: Nine Leaves Toward Death and Life

Wu Jin Kong Kong, two venerable Eight-Character Immortal Scripture Forbidden Zone Sword Emperors engaged in a brutal slaughter!

After several thousand moves, the Nine Leaves Sword Emperor was covered in wounds, and countless immortal blood spilled across the starry sky, causing patches of weeds to grow and spread between the stars, only to wither rapidly under the End-Dharma radiance, which carried a high concentration of End-Dharma Dao poisonous sword qi—any opposing immortal substance touching it would instantly perish.

After another dozen or so moves, the Nine Leaves Sword Emperor was on the brink of desperation!

"Kill!"

The Nine Leaves Sword Emperor let out a furious roar.

His sword-path will burned fiercely, his immortal body aged and frail, unable to do anything, yet his will had already risen to its peak, unleashing one hundred twenty, even one hundred fifty percent or more of his power, breaking through again in this extreme peak state, he charged toward the Tai Shang Da Ri Domain Lord, seeking life in death, completing a sword-path breakthrough to reverse-slay his opponent.

All the mighty ones of Wu Jin Kong Kong, all sword cultivators, held their breath, staring intently at this battlefield.

Sword cultivators have always had a tradition of breaking through desperate situations with nine deaths and one life; this is a characteristic of this path— the deeper the talent, temperament, and foundation of a sword cultivator, the greater the chance of breakthrough in desperation.

Since ancient times, countless sword cultivators have reversed defeat against opponents in situations of ten deaths and no life, shaking the heavens.

And the Forbidden Zone Sword Emperor must have undergone such an experience!

"A dying struggle?"

"Nine Leaves Daoist friend." Jiang Ding watched with leisurely ease, the End-Dharma Great Dao bursting forth with boundless power, one sword strike after another descending, forming sword nets that sealed off the Nine Leaves Sword Emperor's retreat, continuously compressing his space, continuously accumulating his sword-path advantage, a terrifying killing sword was constantly being nurtured.

In his pupils, black and white light flickered.

From the perspective of the Eye of Extinguishing the Dharma and Becoming an Immortal, the Nine Leaves Sword Emperor was not humanoid, but an endless, boundless expanse of azure grass sea, completely fused with the Great Dao of the soul and spirit!

As the sword light descended, this starry sky grass sea continuously bled, continuously fell into chaos, with more and more breaches, growing larger and larger.

When these breaches reached a certain degree, that was when the killing sword would be fully formed— at that moment, one venerable Eight-Character Immortal Scripture Forbidden Zone Sword Emperor would certainly die!

"Kill!"

"Kill kill kill..."

This invisible, icy terror of death was also felt by the Nine Leaves Sword Emperor, but he did not retreat; instead, he became even more frenzied in his assault.

His sword soul grew ever more fervent, flashes of transcendent sword-path inspiration appeared in his immortal soul, causing his "Grass-Character Immortal Sword Scripture" to continuously reorganize and transform, moving toward the Seven-Character transformation!

Too terrifying.

In just a few thousand moves, he had already completed nearly one-tenth of the evolution of the Seven-Character Immortal Scripture!

No need for painstaking deduction of the Dao, no endless expenditure of human and material resources, no gradual accumulation of wisdom from countless heavenly geniuses— merely a life-or-death battle yielded such tremendous progress! This is the most orthodox path of sword cultivation: seeking the Dao amidst death.

The Tai Shang Da Ri Gu Huang was bringing death to the Nine Leaves Sword Emperor, yet simultaneously revealing his own higher-level sword-path and immortal scriptures, which the Nine Leaves Sword Emperor referenced, absorbed the essence of, and integrated into his own sword-path.

If facing an ordinary opponent, the Nine Leaves Sword Emperor would grow stronger and stronger in battle, ultimately reverse-slaying him for an effortless victory!

But now, that is merely a luxury.

"Kill..."

The Nine Leaves Sword Emperor once again spat blood and retreated violently, then launched another assault.

A trace of fear and trepidation arose in his heart, for he discovered that the Tai Shang Da Ri Gu Huang's immortal scripture was likewise evolving, undergoing qualitative change in battle, transforming toward a higher degree!

This human Forbidden Zone Sword Emperor, clearly not in a life-or-death crisis, yet possessed immense learning and deductive ability, capable of rapid strengthening even in peaceful times, even excelling at it, with extraordinary combat talent— the Nine Leaves Sword Emperor's repeated peak life-or-death breakthroughs were utterly useless!

Clang!

"Break!"

"Break for this Emperor! Shatter!"

The Nine Leaves Sword Emperor roared madly, then his sword light shifted, charging toward the entire Yuan Tai Shang Da Ri Slay Demon Sword Formation. He truly was somewhat mad.

Actually, during a life-or-death assault against a venerable Eight-Character Immortal Scripture Forbidden Zone Sword Emperor, he completely ignored his opponent, turning instead to slaughter a pile of lifeless objects— utterly reckless!

The Tai Shang Da Ri Gu Huang's sword light, condensed from the End-Dharma Great Dao, once truly slashed into his body and immortal soul, would instantly kill him— immortality, indestructibility, the revival and resurrection of billions of grass seas would be utterly useless; in the End-Dharma Great Dao, the Forbidden Zone Sword Emperor excels at slaying undying bodies.

The Nine Leaves Sword Emperor is committing suicide!

He is seeking death!

"Oh?"

"Interesting..."

Jiang Ding revealed a hint of a smile.

At this moment, the Nine Leaves Sword Emperor gave him two choices.

That is, to slay the Nine Leaves Sword Emperor— completely possible, for the Nine Leaves Sword Emperor is now seeking his own death, committing suicide.

The cost would be the complete shattering of the Yuan Tai Shang Da Ri Slay Demon Sword Formation!

This formation, planned since the First Tai Shang Da Xi Immortal Dynasty up to the Ninth, having schemed for who knows how many hundreds of millions of years, paid who knows what price— this cosmic-level great formation shattered, and at least for hundreds of thousands of years cannot be rebuilt. Then, losing this immortal formation, many Tai Shang Da Ri Dao Sovereign Emperor-level cultivators and ancient emperors would die one after another— this is inevitable; many Eight-Character Immortal Scripture Forbidden Zone ancient emperors harbor resentment, which must be vented; losing the immortal formation and failing to achieve the Seven-Character breakthrough, a Tai Shang Da Ri Gu Huang surviving would already be fortunate, unable to protect anyone.

This is the price of life for an Eight-Character Immortal Scripture Forbidden Zone Sword Emperor!

And what is gained?

The life of an Eight-Character Immortal Scripture Forbidden Zone Sword Emperor, the Great Dao of such an emperor in holy sword combat, and his natal flying sword!

This is undoubtedly a great boon, certainly enabling the "Extinguishing the Dharma Sun Immortal Scripture" to make a great leap forward.

At least it can advance the Seven-Character Immortal Scripture project of the "Extinguishing the Dharma Sun Immortal Scripture" by fifty percent, reaching eighty or ninety percent, only one step away from true Seven-Character Immortal Scripture, and at most another ten million years would suffice for further breakthrough, becoming the sole Seven-Character Gu Huang in Wu Jin Kong Kong!

Two choices, two costs, all pointing toward different fates.

"Nine Leaves?"

"Damn it!"

At this moment, countless Forbidden Zone ancient emperors cursed in anger.

Sword cultivators, the sword cultivators of holy sword combat— the victors' Dao advances further; whoever dies will cause the ensuing Wu Jin Kong Kong to head toward an even more brutal situation.

Clang! The sword cry of Wu Jin Kong Kong echoed long and far.

The Tai Shang Da Ri Gu Huang's sword descended again, myriad ages of time transformed beneath the blade— past, present, and future coalesced into a single sword; the sword had long transcended time, slaying the living beings of Shen Zhou.

What is the choice?

All Forbidden Zone Sword Emperors trembled in their hearts.

Ding!

Two sword lights intertwined, the Great Dao collided, and countless sparks burst forth.

Boom—

The Nine-Leaf Sword Emperor was blown back hundreds of millions of light-years with his sword, spitting blood profusely, his hands and feet broken, his entire body below the chest turned into dark green blood mud, clearly destroyed by one sword of the Tai Shang Da Ri Gu Huang, his immortal body more than half shattered, his breath like a gossamer thread, on the brink of death.

"Hahaha!"

"Hahaha... hahaha..."

However, this Forbidden Zone Sword Emperor laughed wildly: "Tai Shang Da Ri, you have ultimately grown weak! Weak! Because of a swarm of ant-like living beings!"

"Ridiculous!" "Ridiculous, ridiculously so!"

At this moment, the Forbidden Zone Sword Emperor laughed maniacally, delighted to the point of nearly shedding tears.

Because, after this suicidal strike, the terrifying killing intent network spread across the Wu Jin Kong Kong finally cracked open an extremely fine fissure, and vitality emerged accordingly.