Chapter 744: One Sword Cuts Two Kings

Before the sword even drew, its pressure crushed the ground!

The Rain King and the Fire King, leveraging the domain spread by twelve hundred Mao Shen, were enough to defeat most Nascent Soul cultivators.

But under the Sword Domain, they were fragile.

If they waited any longer, the Water and Fire domains would completely collapse; once the Sword Domain covered them, mere sword qi alone would swallow the two of them.

"Fire!"

The Fire King's hair and beard bristled as he roared.

His originally jet-black hair instantly turned crimson, each strand twisting like a snake; his face turned dark red, and flames a foot long shot from his eyes.

This appearance was extremely similar to the Fire Virtue Star Lord of the mythological Heavenly Court.

These hairs were, in fact, his Ben Ming Fa.

Since birth, he had been accompanied by strange phenomena; his hair was crimson, and he was naturally able to contain the strange fires of heaven and earth, growing stronger the more he devoured them. Coupled with his extraordinary comprehension, he was extremely suited to cultivate one of the Supreme Lineages of the Brother Xuanwu Sky Palace, the "Fire Virtue Star Lord Sutra."

Thus, he rose all the way up.

In battle, often just a single hair strand would fly out, turning hordes of enemies to ash.

"Swallow!"

The Fire King roared.

Hoo~

Hoo-hoo...

Tens of thousands of fire-attribute long hairs transformed into fire pythons with rows of sharp teeth, dense and layered; with just one inhalation, the sword qi filling the sky was howled in and swallowed into their mouths.

The fire pythons' bellies swelled several times over; after swallowing the sword qi, they spat out streams of sharp, destructive spiritual light that could not be digested, shooting toward the youth in the Great Sun.

"Rain!"

On the other side, the Rain King clasped her hands, her voice ethereal.

She seemed like an ancient ancestor performing a sacrifice, praying to the heavens for rain; beside her, twelve hundred Mao Shen danced, array patterns spread, and water-element spiritual energy in the world gathered at this moment, forming sharp raindrops that rushed toward the Sword Qi Domain at extreme speed.

Where a raindrop fell, a patch of sword qi dissolved completely.

The wind blew, and vast swaths of raindrops moving at extreme speed changed direction, rushing toward the youth in the sky.

From all four directions, endless and boundless, there was only a curtain of rain.

It looked magnificent, but in reality, it held boundless killing intent.

"Not bad."

Jiang Ding nodded slightly, looking toward the four directions.

The endless rain curtain, interspersed with roaring fire dragons, saw the two extreme forces of water and fire perfectly merge at this moment, indistinguishable from one another, actually combining into a spell whose power slightly exceeded the peak of Nascent Soul.

"Fall!"

Jiang Ding lightly spoke a single word.

Boom!

In the sky, the Great Sun, which had originally been merely a shadow and illusion, suddenly solidified after the Taiqing Flying Sword took residence, gathering all sunlight from a radius of nearly one hundred kilometers.

Extreme heat!

Extreme brilliance!

Carrying the will of destruction and forbidden spells, it crashed down with a boom.

Sizzle...

Before the Great Sun, the raindrops filling the sky steamed into white mist, and the white mist vanished completely under the extreme heat, losing all threat; the continuous rainy season instantly turned into a clear, cloudless sky.

The fire pythons filling the sky rushed to attack, their mouths filled with multi-layered, interlaced, vortex-shaped sharp teeth; though they were also fire-attribute treasures that should have feared no high temperature, they wailed under the Great Sun, their grotesque heads melting before the sun and dripping down as molten metal.

The Great Sun pressed down.

Whether fire or rain, both collapsed before it, fragile and defenseless.

"Ah!"

With his Ben Ming Fa damaged, the Fire King screamed in agony.

But before he could do anything else, the scorching Great Sun had already descended from the sky, landing on his head; boundless sword intent and boundless heat wrapped around him, and the armor on his body melted and dripped.

"Thousand-Thread Fire Net!"

Facing death, the Fire King slapped his chest and summoned a treasure he had painstakingly refined for many years, forged from ten-thousand-year spider silk from the fire spiders of the Star Domain, most skilled at fire-attribute defense.

"Gold-Fire Light Shield!"

"Fire Spirit Pearl!"

"..."

He did not stop; the Fire King summoned thirty-six special Infant Treasures in a row, all rare treasures seen rarely between realms, fully displaying the extravagance of a Sky Palace cultivator dominating dozens of Minor Thousand Worlds.

The thirty-six Infant Treasures hung in the air, forming an array formation; twelve hundred Mao Shen chanted scriptures urgently, layers of fire light climbed upward, adding layer upon layer of fire shields.

From a distance, it looked as if a fortress of flames had suddenly appeared in the sky.

"Many tricks."

Jiang Ding watched him, doing nothing more.

The Great Sun fell.

It landed within the fire fortress.

Boom!

Brilliant light, destructive light, suddenly appeared in the world, obscuring everything, destroying everything; even spiritual sense lost its original function.

Under the light, the soul throbbed with pain without end; the extended spiritual sense had already melted under the high temperature, suffering permanent damage.

"Ah... no..."

As the light dispersed, a mournful wail rang out.

An Siyan and the others looked on: beneath the blazing sun, amidst terrifying heat and sword light, the Flame Fortress and the thirty-six Infant Treasures shattered layer by layer, while all twelve hundred Mao Shens turned to ash, utterly fragile.

Even the Fire King, at the center of the layered protections, could not escape.

Starting from the skull, the body gradually turned to ash; hair melted into droplets of metal rain, and the magical body became dust beneath the sword.

Only a weak divine soul and a Jin Dan remained, preserving his life with a desperate escape card.

In panic, the Fire King clutched a precious talisman and fled into space, vanishing without a trace.

This talisman was exceedingly profound, with a significant origin; it even allowed his divine soul to flee faster than the Nascent Soul of a peak Nascent Soul cultivator.

"A Nascent Soul escaping into space... this is truly too..."

Jiang Ding chuckled; the Great Clarity Flying Sword also fled into space to pursue.

"Foolish..."

Jiang Ding's face showed astonishment, his words suddenly freezing.

He looked down.

A transparent sword tip, as if polished from ten-thousand-year-old dark ice, had pierced his chest at some unknown moment; blood dripped down, and terrible cold radiated outward.

"... When..."

"Success! Success!!"

The Rain King rejoiced wildly; a crack appeared in her originally sorrowful and helpless expression.

This sword strike seemed ordinary.

In truth, she had burned all her magic power, vital blood, and bodily lifespan, using the Fire King's desperate sacrifice as cover to unleash the Rain Vein's illusionary secret technique in a final gamble.

In the end,

She succeeded outright!

"Damn Great Sun Sword Disciple!"

"You truly deserve to die!"

"You have doomed me to cultivate as a ghost cultivator from now on..."

Amidst her wild joy, the Rain King felt deep resentment, cursing incessantly.

She quickly discarded her withered, lifespan-drained body; her divine soul, carrying the Jin Dan, shed its shell and also fled into space to avoid the Dongji Demon Sect's enraged naval bombardment that would follow.

"... When..."

"The time..."

"..."

Just then, the Rain King's body froze; confusion filled her eyes. The divine soul that had just fled into space stood motionless, dazed, utterly still.

Clang~

A faint sword chime.

A flying sword arrived from beyond the heavens, gently piercing her skull and passing straight through, leaving a hole clear from front to back.

"No..."

The Rain King's divine soul struggled slightly; unable to utter a single last word, it scattered into ash across the sky, her life extinguished forever.

"Jiang Ding..."

Teacher Ouyang Hui and the others, enraged, were about to do something.

In the next instant, they retracted their words.

The boy's phantom, pierced through the body by the dark ice sword tip, slowly faded away, revealing a short dark ice sword.

Not far from the vanishing phantom, another boy stood silently.

All around, silence reigned like a crow's hush.

This was no subtle escape technique.

From beginning to end, his true figure had never appeared within the enemies' field of vision; it was this phantom that had been speaking all along.

"This..."

Teacher Ouyang Hui and the others also saw the principle behind it; they exchanged glances: "This one should be the real one, right?"

"Mm, I am the real one."

"Don't tell anyone."

Hearing this, Jiang Ding smiled slightly: "If others find out, it won't work anymore."

"Mm, mm, mm!"

Teacher Ouyang Hui nodded frantically.

(End of this chapter)