Chapter 557: Killing the Fifth-Rank

The spatial constraints near this inheritance pillar are still too strong; otherwise, I would have long since escaped the battlefield—how could I still be trapped?

Fang Xing teleported again—or rather, flashed—out of the Devouring Domain, becoming a streak of sword light as he fled swiftly.

Since repelling Yumir, he had randomly chosen an unclaimed inheritance pillar to seek an opportunity.

Then he came to Pillar No. 9, and as expected, witnessed a great battle.

He himself used his spatial-temporal abilities to snatch the prize from under their noses.

At this moment, his figure flickered, and hundreds of past selves appeared, each fleeing in a different direction.

One by one, they were caught by crimson tentacles and dissolved into phantom shadows...

"Stay!"

After flying millions of light-years, a hazy voice echoed beside Fang Xing's ear.

It was the Hive Mother—Ling Jun!

This Hive Mother, who should have retreated, had somehow returned again!

A woman of incomparable beauty awaited ahead.

In her hand, she held a blue spherical treasure; layer upon layer of illusions appeared before Fang Xing.

"Willpower attack?"

Fang Xing sneered, and his martial will surged forth, forming a towering azure giant whose every muscle was perfectly sculpted—he suddenly punched!

BOOM!

The layers of illusions shattered instantly, revealing the true form of the Hive Mother Ling Jun.

"A fifth-rank Law Lord? Too bad the insect race excels at soul attacks... you've met your match."

Fang Xing's soul attacks and defenses had both reached the level of a fifth-rank Law Lord.

Thus, he feared nothing more than a fifth-rank Law Lord of the insect race!

He sneered, and the Destroying Demon Wolf's heart-image appeared on his third eye, flames of destruction blazing fiercely as they surged into Ling Jun's body.

In an instant, Ling Jun's face turned pale, her aura plummeting rapidly: "True-soul attack?"

A look of horror crossed her face as she retreated swiftly.

"You're too slow compared to Yumir."

Fang Xing's mental force surged, and the Destroying Demon Wolf's heart-image reappeared, plunging into Ling Jun's body once more.

After several Huskies surged inside, Ling Jun's aura plummeted to an extremely dangerous level.

SHH!

Fang Xing merged with his sword, like a white rainbow piercing the sun, severing the beautiful woman's head.

"What?"

"The insect race's fifth-rank Law Lord Ling Jun is dead?"

"Isn't this the first fifth-rank Law Lord to fall in these days?"

"The Sword Master truly possesses fifth-rank Law Lord strength..."

"I don't think it's just because he's specifically counter to her."

"A fifth-rank Law Lord... to revive would cost a hundred or even a thousand times more than reviving a fourth-rank Law Lord... even the insect race's Eternal Ones would feel the pain..."

The four-legged beast halted, a look of malicious delight appearing on its face.

Then...

It saw a blood-soaked planet materialize behind Fang Xing, the entire planet opening like a blooming flower of flesh and blood!

Its petals and sepals resembled countless crimson saw-teeth and tongues, eager to swallow Fang Xing whole.

"Destroy!"

Fang Xing pressed his third eye.

The Destroying Demon Wolf's heart-image appeared, surging into the Devourer's body, causing it to pause for an instant.

"Useless... your soul attacks are powerful, but I am a sixth-rank Law Lord... my soul essence is dense enough to withstand dozens, even hundreds of attacks..."

The Devourer roared, and the fleshly flower instantly closed, reforming into a blood-soaked planet.

And the surface of the blood-soaked planet became utterly still.

"Dead?"

A flicker of joy arose in the four-legged beast's heart.

After all, in the end, it was their beast civilization that had won.

"Damn... where is he?"

But the next instant, it heard the Devourer's roar.

"What? Escaped?"

"Could it be teleportation? To teleport beneath a sixth-rank Law Lord's Devouring Dao... impossible?"

The four-legged beast's eyes froze, then narrowed with suspicion: "Could it be the Devourer is lying, trying to monopolize the inheritance?"

Pillar No. 3.

Fang Xing sat cross-legged, gazing at the inheritance pillar ahead, lost in thought:

"Jin's path, in its early stages, differs from this world's—it advances through various 'professions'..."

"Upon closer study, it resembles the profession path of the Creator Universe... but at higher levels, both involve comprehending laws and sensing the Dao..."

"Ultimately, one carves a path to transcendence, becoming an Exalted One."

"What I truly need is the 'carving of a path' and the 'transcendence' aspect... these are not covered in the pillar's ordinary inheritance—they must lie within the shattered inheritance."

Fang Xing was somewhat pleased that his cultivation avatar had secured a piece of shattered inheritance.

In the end, his cultivation avatar escaped because his true self had reached out, communicating with the Gates of All Realms to send the avatar back to the True Immortal Realm.

Since fully comprehending the Space Law, he had further refined the Gates of All Realms—doing this was effortless.

"But to accomplish this within a realm opened by an Exalted One... the origin of the Attribute Panel truly shocks me..."

Fang Xing sighed silently, and a thread of consciousness entered the virtual lobby.

"The shattered inheritance of this pillar has coalesced and been taken by Lord Yumir..."

"Did you hear? The 'Sword Master' who defeated Yumir appeared at Pillar No. 9, killed the insect race's fifth-rank Law Lord—Hive Mother Ling Jun—and snatched the inheritance right from under the sixth-rank Law Lord Devourer!" "Sss... wasn't the Sword Master said to have only reached fifth-rank Law Lord level in soul attacks, with everything else still at the fourth-rank limit?"

"Hmph, someone who repelled Yumir and killed the Hive Mother, then escaped from a sixth-rank Law Lord—how could he be merely a fourth-rank Law Lord?"

"True. Even the Heavenly Blade has reached the peak of fifth-rank Law Lord strength and still gained nothing obvious—clearly, the Sword Master's power surpasses the Heavenly Blade..."

"Fifth-rank Law Lord battles have erupted at other pillars—it's shocking to realize how many fifth-rank Law Lords exist in our universe..."

Fang Xing listened silently to the intelligence summary, lost in thought.

'My cultivation avatar's strength is still at the fourth-rank limit; it's just that my mental force is too mysterious—true-soul attacks can threaten fifth-rank, but even against the Devourer, I'm outmatched... my true combat power is certainly inferior to the Heavenly Blade's...'

'But if I were the true self, it would be entirely different... even against a sixth-rank Law Lord Devourer, if pushed to the brink, I could activate the single drop of 'Exalted Blood' on my Attribute Panel to amplify my true-soul attack—I'd have a decent chance of annihilating the Devourer outright... these massive flesh-blood beings are notoriously tough and resilient, but their true soul is their greatest weakness.'

'But using the Exalted Blood's aura would surely bring many aftereffects... that would be far from ideal.'

'I'll just refine for another hundred years or so—I should leave this place of chaos anyway; I came here to slack off to begin with...'

At this moment, Fang Xing's true self had already devoted most of his mental focus to his cultivation avatar.

Please... Your Majesty... Collect_(!)

True Immortal Realm, hermitage.

Fang Xing's cultivation avatar sat cross-legged, a glowing orb floating before him.

Inside the orb was unmistakably the black horn with golden veins, broken.

His ten fingers flickered rapidly, and streams of golden-silver sword qi, shaped like lotuses of space-time, flowed into the broken horn.

Half an hour later, Fang Xing changed his hand seals and spat out a wisp of immortal fire.

SIZZLE!

The pale white flames bloomed like lotuses, about to coil around the black horn—yet they parted automatically.

"Just a piece of shattered inheritance... and it's this miraculous?"

After a long while.

Fang Xing sighed.

Since acquiring this black horn, he had tried every method imaginable.

But the evidence proved this black horn was extraordinary.

It was immune to blades and swords, impervious to water and fire—those were the basics...

More crucially, no matter how hard Fang Xing meditated upon the black horn, he could not comprehend anything from it.

Otherwise, he wouldn't be this furious.

"Perhaps... this shattered inheritance requires the inheritance pillar to be studied alongside? Or must it be done within that realm?"

"I forcibly seized it—was that cheating, and now I'm being punished?"

Fang Xing pondered, then stored away the black horn.

Regardless, he would never bring this shattered inheritance back to Jin's realm.

"Well... perhaps I'm just too eager to succeed, which is why I can't comprehend it."

"Now that I have the inheritance, even if it takes decades, centuries, or even millions of years—what does it matter?"

"Worst case, if it all comes to nothing—still, transcendence isn't the only path for me."

At the very least, that drop of transcendent blood was waiting there, and Fang Xing didn't particularly covet it…

And there was the Eternal Great Sun King Spell as a fallback.

Even the attribute panel remained.

"I wonder if I could succeed by wishing to be sent to a world rich with transcendent legacies?"

Fang Xing closed his eyes and sank back into cultivation.

Within his immortal sea dantian, the golden lotus swayed, radiant; its roots and lotus pod had fully solidified, and three solid petals had bloomed.

This meant Fang Xing had taken another firm step along the Path of Space and Time.

…

Time flowed on, indifferent.

One day,

a paper crane flew to the entrance of Fang Xing's cave dwelling, transforming into a young boy who politely knocked: "Master Fang Xing, the Sword Immortal… my master requests your presence!"

"Oh?"

Soon after, the cave door burst open.

A young man with sword-like brows and starlit eyes stepped out, nodded to the boy, then pinched his fingers in calculation: "So I've been in seclusion for over sixty years?"

Fang Xing summoned his sword light and arrived at the Drunken Moon Pavilion.

There stood the Bi Xia Immortal, clad in green, poised and elegant.

"Many years have passed, yet your immortal grace remains unchanged, and now you're surrounded by a mist of divine qi—your cultivation must have advanced greatly."

Fang Xing smiled faintly.

"You always tease your fellow cultivators…"

Bi Xia Immortal shot Fang Xing a glance, then grew serious: "I received news I couldn't wait to share with you, and yet you're so indifferent—it truly wounds me."

"What news is this?"

Fang Xing's expression turned solemn; Bi Xia Immortal had vast connections and a deeply rooted family, far from ordinary.

"It's said the 'Xiao Yao Dao Jun,' who governs our immortal realm, has given his consent—he will soon journey to the Dao Court to receive an order from the Dao Sovereign!"

Bi Xia Immortal's opening words shook the heavens: "The heavens are about to change…"

(End of Chapter)