Chapter 167: A Sword's Cold Gleam, A Chorus of Cannon Fire

When Lu Yuan rose into mid-air with the bearing of an Immortal descending to the world, standing upon the void, the massive venue fell into a deathly silence.

Whether inside or outside the arena, hundreds of thousands of spectators saw this scene, stunned like wooden chickens, as if in a dream or illusion.

Most people stared blankly at such a shocking scene, seemingly unable to believe their eyes; even those most familiar with Lu Yuan—his disciples Li Junxian and his master, Chen Zhantang and other disciples who spent their days with him, and even Wu Yixian, Cao Futian, and so on—were all shocked into silence and speechlessness.

Even on the viewing platform, the Xuantong Emperor and all the princes and ministers were terrified, blinking their eyes in disbelief.

Subsequently, after confirming it was not a hallucination, many commoners in the crowd reacted, letting out excited shouts:

"Treading the void and riding the wind, surrounded by immortal light!"

"An Immortal, this is an Immortal—!"

"There really is an Immortal in this world!"

"The Immortal saves us from suffering; we mere mortals pay our respects to the Immortal!"

Noisy shouts rose one after another; whether in the inner viewing area or the vast sea of people in the outer area, a large number of commoners realized what was happening amidst the shouting, and subconsciously, whether out of ecstasy or fear, knelt down to kowtow.

In just a few breaths, this action turned into a wave; the dark mass of people bowed excitedly in patches, and less than one-tenth remained standing.

Hearing is believing, but seeing is reality.

Legends of Immortals and gods were widely circulated among the people; Lu Yuan, surrounded by immortal light and riding the wind upon the void, was like a legend turned into reality—if this was not an Immortal, what was it?

Compared to the mountain-shaking, sea-roaring excited kneeling of the thousands of commoners present.

The six powerhouses from the great powers, including Abraham, Alexeyevich, and Ueda Masaaki, were now staring wide-eyed in terror at Lu Yuan standing in the air, unable to speak a complete sentence as if their throats had been choked.

"Flying in the air, how is that possible?"

"This is the method of a god; how on earth did he do it?"

The sky is the domain of gods.

In the knowledge of all of them, even the current Pope, the previous Tsar, and the Shrine Master, who had already stepped into the Eighth Legend Realm, could not rely on personal strength to fly in the air.

Yet the Lu Yuan before their eyes had done it!

This completely overturned their long-held understanding, plunging them into a shock that could not be described in words.

"I have no grace toward you; the people of the world may respect me, but there is no need to kneel to me."

Facing this situation, Lu Yuan simply stood in the air, his grand voice spreading in all directions:

"Continue; do you still have the courage to challenge me?"

His voice was not loud, yet it seemed to ring in everyone's ears.

The latter sentence was clearly directed at them; Abraham, Alexeyevich, Ueda Masaaki, and the others returned to their senses from the shock and looked at each other.

It had to be said that the unbelievable means displayed by Lu Yuan had completely extinguished all their confidence and arrogance; if their own faith did not forbid it, they would almost have suspected that Lu Yuan was the incarnation of a god!

However, to admit defeat like this without even daring to strike, and without even using the trump cards prepared in secret—such a defeat without a fight could not be explained to their respective countries. The six exchanged glances and reached a consensus in an instant, shouting in unison:

"We acknowledge your power, but if you think this can make us flee without a fight, then you are greatly mistaken!"

"The glory of the Empire shines, we fear nothing; let us fight you together as you said before!"

"But we have one request: this battle must take place on the ring, and no evasion can exceed a height of ten zhang; otherwise, it is a defeat! How about it?"

Flying in the air already placed one in an invincible position from the start; Lu Yuan looked down at the crowd and smiled indifferently:

"Fine."

"I will give you this opportunity."

As he spoke, his figure drifted down slowly and landed back on the ring; the dazzling light wheel behind his head and the immortal light also largely faded, as if he had turned back into a mortal.

Even so, in the eyes of the six powerhouses of the great powers, Lu Yuan was an unprecedentedly powerful enemy; they all roared in anger, their figures darting out as they killed their way toward the ring!

Abraham and Hellers roared wildly, their entire bodies seeming to burn completely; from every pore, they exhaled holy light Qi faintly tinged with silver, making the two look like silver War Gods burning with Godly Strength.

【Silver White Holy Water】; this was the rewarded sacred object they had received from the current Pope before their departure, and also the trump card they had prepared for this Martial Arts Tournament.

The holy water was refined by the Pope using top-tier Alchemy, containing highly concentrated life energy; after consumption, it could significantly increase the user's speed, reaction, strength, recovery, and their own vitality. A Sixth Rank peak Platinum Knight could even have a chance to defeat a Seventh-tier Holy Bauhinia Knight after consuming it!

The key was that, apart from being extremely rare and having a short duration, the Silver White Holy Water had no side effects!

Just like now, the holy light Qi of Abraham and Hellers surged to an unprecedented level; under the infusion of the massive power, the Holy See's sacred weapons in their hands emitted a blinding silver light, striking toward Lu Yuan like two destructive silver thunders;

At the same time, Alexeyevich and Julius of the Tsarist Russian Empire also had surging auras, each wielding an ancient Military Saber as they attacked, the sound of the blades whistling like thunder dancing, piercing into everyone's eardrums like sharp arrows.

Their trump card was none other than the Ancestor Relics, ancient fierce weapons unearthed from an ancient battlefield in Tsarist Russia.

Most of these fierce weapons were damaged beyond repair, but many, even as fragments, possessed fierce and strange powers, and could even absorb the blood of others to increase their might. The noble elite of the Tsarist Russian Empire had gathered all materials to repair and forge several powerful Ancestor Relics, which could significantly boost the strength of a Title War God.

The two Military Sabers in the hands of Alexeyevich and Julius were just such weapons; as they roared and slashed, everyone saw dark red blade glows stretching several meters long, whipping up rolling killing intent, sweeping out like waves breaking through the air, a sight that made one's heart tremble.

Besides them, the Great Priest Ueda Masaaki and the Ninja King Miyamoto Shinichi were not to be outdone; under an extremely sharp, shrill, and ruthless mental fluctuation, a ghostly light broke through the air at high speed, distorting the light wherever it passed, while the sound of thousands of wronged souls and evil ghosts roaring resonated, as if the sword of the King of Hell had appeared in the human world.

It was Ueda Masaaki unleashing his strongest trump card: the 【Budu Mitama Sword】; the evil and grand momentum of this sword strike even surpassed all the other powerhouses attacking at that moment!

To coordinate with him, the Ninja King Miyamoto Shinichi let out a long roar, his figure darting out as he drew his blade; an equally piercing blade sound resonated, bursting forth in a continuous, interwoven display that formed a blade glow as violent as thunder, sealing off all space where Lu Yuan might evade.

Air explosions like thunder on flat ground, absolute killing intent that was chilling to the bone, blade glows and sword beams violently trying to shred everything... At this instant, they all locked onto Lu Yuan on the ring. For a moment, the six powerhouses all unleashed the most powerful killing moves of their lives. The air and atmosphere trembled and wailed in unison; all the spectators saw this scene, which could be called heaven-collapsing and earth-shattering, and were terrified, feeling it to be truly heart-stopping.

And facing the siege of these six.

"The six of you have commendable courage."

"... It is just a pity, it is meaningless."

Lu Yuan just chuckled; he was already holding the Seven Star Dragon Abyss in his hand, and then golden light bloomed as he swung his sword.

Clang!

A brilliant sword light rose from thin air, masking the heavens and earth; the vast and mighty Sword Qi caused ten thousand weapons to chime in unison, like the Heavenly River overturning. The sword light, more brilliant and magnificent than thunder, made the world shine with a blinding glare!

The moment the ruthless, annihilating golden Sword Qi burst forth, everyone who saw the sword light from afar felt an indescribable terror, a horrific illusion that they would be dismembered on the spot in the next second.

Thousands of spectators saw clearly that the sword light was so dazzling that it seemed to have sucked in all the light of the sun, and the world suddenly went dark.

Under the illumination of the brilliant sword light, the entire world, including the verdant towering mountains and ridges, became exceptionally small and insignificant.

At this moment, any offensive lost its color before this sword. The golden sword light, like a thunderbolt, carried incomparable light and heat as it slashed into the heaven-shaking joint attack unleashed by the six, including Abraham, Alexeyevich, and Ueda Masaaki, immediately bursting forth with an immeasurable light that was brilliant beyond compare, as bright as the scorching sun.

Boom—

Under a deafening, indescribably violent roar, the silvery-white holy light, the crimson blade radiance, and even that nether sword light, which resembled the howling of ten thousand ghosts, all shattered and vanished!

The venue thundered as light, flames, and sharp energy burst and scattered like a silver flower tree in bloom; the Sword Qi storm, which made one's hair stand on end, swept through like a true hurricane, and countless strands of Sword Qi crisscrossed and sliced, causing the ten-zhang-radius arena to shatter like tofu, with everything in the path of the chaotic Sword Qi currents silently splitting apart.

As for the five powerhouses closest to the sword light—Abraham, Hellers, Alexeyevich, Julius, and Miyamoto Shinichi—they groaned at the very first moment, blood spraying from their bodies as they retreated wildly until they were outside the arena's perimeter.

Everyone saw that after these three great powers barely managed to steady themselves, they all spat out blood in unison, their figures trembling violently, with dozens of bloody wounds appearing all over their bodies as if they had been sliced by a thousand blades, to the point where they could not even hold the weapons in their hands.

Ueda Masaaki, who was controlling the Budu Mitama Sword for a long-range attack, was at the edge of the arena and did not face the Sword Qi torrent directly, but for some reason, he stumbled and then knelt on the ground in extreme disarray, with blood snakes flowing from his eyes, nose, and even his ears.

A single sword strike.

The six great powerhouses, having exhausted all their means, were defeated once again.

And defeated so decisively!

Such an earth-shattering scene left the millions of commoners stunned, after which they no longer had any doubts about Lu Yuan's identity as an Immortal, and they began to shout and worship even more fanatically, their voices converging into a wave of sound that swept in all directions:

"A true Immortal descends upon Xiantai Mountain, a single dance of the sword shakes the four directions."

"Sword Qi crisscrosses three thousand li, one sword's cold light chills nineteen continents."

"Immortal, Immortal Lu!"

"Shenzhou is saved!"

Meanwhile, also watching the scene of the six great powerhouses' miserable defeat on the arena, the Xuantong Emperor and all the princes and ministers on the viewing pavilion had looks of shock and terror, their faces ashen.

In the entire Great Jin, the imperial court and even the Old Buddha were the true Heaven; who could have imagined that legends would actually turn into reality and a true Immortal would emerge?

The key was that this Immortal also seemed to be a Han person; if the other party wanted to overthrow the dynasty, how could they, the Jin Clan, resist!?

And as if in response to the thoughts of the princes and ministers on the viewing pavilion.

Suddenly.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang—!

On the viewing stands around the arena, and even on the viewing pavilion, at least dozens of figures suddenly stood up, holding Short-barreled Machine Guns and firing wildly at Lu Yuan in the center of the arena!

These people were clearly well-trained sharpshooters and death squads; their movements were uniform, and as the dense sound of gunfire rang out like firecrackers, hundreds and thousands of bullets also struck the target with extreme precision.

However, such a dense rain of bullets, which would have shattered even an iron man, only caused fine sparks to bloom upon landing on Lu Yuan, as a layer of dharma robes condensed from golden light blocked all the rain of bullets.

Such a shocking turn of events left both the various nations' powerhouses on the field, who had suffered heavy injuries and were unable to fight again, and the thousands of spectators, terrified, and then—

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!

Several artillery shells were fired from an unknown location, landing with extreme precision in the center of the arena and triggering a violent explosion.

Scarlet firelight and flames flashed and bloomed, accompanied by an earth-shattering roar, and billowing thick smoke rose into the sky like an all-encompassing sandstorm, while the violent impact sent Chen Zhantang and the other disciples of the Guangwu Hall, who had been staying on the sidelines, flying away.

In an instant, a perfectly fine International Martial Arts Tournament turned into a scene of gunfire and artillery; facing such a direct threat to life and death, the delegations and spectators from various nations on the viewing stands screamed in terror, rising one after another to flee, not daring to linger in place.

As for Lu Yuan's figure, the moment after the arena was continuously bombarded by artillery, he immediately flashed out from the thick smoke and dust under the protection of the golden light, the golden radiance on his body appearing much dimmer, as if caused by the recent shelling.

And it was at this very moment that his figure flew out.

At the edge of the shattered arena, among a squad of soldiers wearing imperial guard uniforms, several figures suddenly rushed out with indescribable speed, like lions and tigers hunting prey, heading straight for Lu Yuan!

Clang!

The leader was slightly short in stature, with internal energy (gangqi) erupting from his body, holding a bone spear filled with deathly aura; as he thrust the spear, ripples like waves stirred in the void, erupting with a sharp screech as if the void itself could not bear it;

At the same time, as the bone spear was thrust, thousands of skeletons and phantoms of ghosts from the ten directions appeared, making one feel as if they were in a sea of blood and a mountain of corpses, a hell where billions of white bones stood like a forest, intending to drag one's spirit into it and devour it completely.

At this moment, the shrill whistling sound of the bone spear's killing strike shook people's hearts, and at the same time, Xici's sharp and resolute voice resounded throughout the entire martial arts venue—

"My dear subjects, join me in executing this traitor to the nation!"