Chapter 309: 318 Crane Flying

With one sword strike, the flames vanished into thin air.

Those flames, fire seedlings, and firelight—the burning, the smoking, the color-changing, all sorts of dangerous fire momentum—were instantly cleared away the moment the Sword Art was activated.

Such an effect was certainly intense, but it was nothing extraordinary. Many types of Sword Arts could achieve similar results, and some even had different additional effects.

If it were that "Disappearance" sword, with this strike, not only would the flames vanish, but everyone would forget that a fire had just occurred. If it were Mai Shiyu's Fangfei Sword, the flames would vanish from this spot, but he might end up setting Shi Chunqing's house on fire later.

Xue Xianyun's sword had no extra effects; it simply had an excellent disappearance effect, clearing away a large expanse of flames as if they were nothing.

However, for a split second, Tang Zhao suspected he had seen wrong—those flames didn't seem to have vanished, but rather flown away. In that instant, those flames seemed to have grown wings and taken flight on their own like birds.

Immediately after, Tang Zhao knew he had seen correctly; Xue Xianyun's sword had already pierced into that powerful Spirit Image of Shi Chunqing. With one slash, the Spirit Image dodged just in time and was not heavily injured, but it still had a finger cut off. Yet, immediately after, that finger transformed into a halo of light, and behind the halo, two wings were faintly visible, flying off toward the horizon.

Hmm...

Crane Flying Dimly, without trace or boundary?

Tang Zhao felt this Sword Art was quite interesting, and its combat power was also formidable. Especially when fighting against others, the effect was extremely powerful. Moreover, "it is better to break one of his fingers than to injure all ten"; in a battle, being struck meant the effect of breaking a finger, losing a part of the body. And this finger would fly away on its own, never to be reattached. It could deal a heavy blow both physically and mentally.

It was just unclear if the limitations on the effect were significant?

Could any kind of existence sprout wings and fly away?

Or was it only at the level of fire? A Spirit Image and flames are both "fire," after all.

Were there other limitations?

For example...

This move did not have a good effect on Shi Chunqing.

Shi Chunqing was startled at first, but he adapted immediately. He confirmed the method of this Sword Art: it made the opponent's severed part fly away. It was flying away, not vanishing; this was important. Although this flying speed was fast, there was still a tiny bit of hang time.

The body of Shi Chunqing's Spirit Image was his Mental Power, which was under his greatest control. After being hit by the Sword Art, that winged body could, at a single thought, instantly dissipate on the spot and then re-condense, returning to the Spirit Image. There was almost no loss of power. If there was any, it was that his Spirit Art could not exert its effect under the Sword Art.

"Kidney Water—"

Waves rolled up in the lower part of the Spirit Image.

"Liver Wood—"

The right chest gate opened, and wooden vines lashed out from all sides.

"Lung Metal—"

Realizing that heart fire could not overcome the enemy, Shi Chunqing decisively switched to other Spirit Arts. Indeed, it was the five viscera and bowels, exhausting the Five Elements; the momentum was grand and extremely exquisite. These Five Elements Spirit Arts generated and restrained each other in a perfect cycle, and were cleverly controlled by emotions—joy, anger, sorrow, and grief connected to the five viscera, and could also erupt together. Once a cycle was formed, it could even raise an array on flat ground, exerting ten times the effect.

At this moment, Xue Xianyun's Sword Art displayed its power.

Its effect was almost unaffected by the level of power. Countless Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth—almost covering the power levels of wind, water, fire, and earth—could all be cleanly and neatly sent away by a single strike of this Sword Art, and sent far away. This Sword Art was very practical and had a wide range of use.

The so-called generation and restraint: Xue Xianyun's Sword Art was restrained by the Spirit Image's ability to gather and disperse at will, yet it could constrain this set of miscellaneous Five Elements Spirit Arts; any Spirit Art would be sent away by the wings of the Sword Art.

A yellow crane once gone never returns. Was this the Sword Intent of Xue Xianyun's sword?

However, this was not the kind of large-scale released Sword Art; it was like chopping vegetables, one cut at a time. Over there, the flood was surging, but here, one could only cut the water flow into chunks and take them away, which was somewhat time-consuming and laborious.

Moreover, was it good to use the Sword Art so recklessly?

Previously, Tang Zhao did not know the combat style of a Sword Guest and only thought that Sword Arts could be used infinitely, limited only by the Sword Guest's physical strength and energy. But now he already knew that Sword Arts—including all the power of a sword—had an upper limit and were even more constrained by the most fundamental power: Sword Essence.

Sword Essence was a power like Gang Qi and Internal Energy, but at a higher level, and its effects were more miraculous, almost omnipotent, supporting all realized Sword Arts. But it still required the Sword Guest to cultivate and accumulate it. Any Sword Art consumed Sword Essence, just in different amounts. You could develop a Sword Art with infinite power, with an upper limit approaching a Sword Law, but your pitiful Sword Essence as a Sword Guest would not be enough to use it many times.

However, for a Loose Practitioner, once Gang Qi was used up, it was gone, and no amount of squeezing would bring it out. But Sword Essence was different; Sword Essence could be extracted from the sword itself, or called overdrawing. The sword itself contained quite abundant Sword Essence, making one feel as if it would never run out. But that was actually an illusion; the sword itself naturally had limits too. The consequences of breaking the limit were also very serious. Most of the time, it would make the sword weak for a period, becoming fragile and easily damaged; in severe cases, it would make the sword fall into a slumber. The most severe case would be irreversible damage to the sword body.

Therefore, Sword Smiths often had to do repair work; those Broken Swords were not just broken by being slashed.

Tang Zhao had truly come into contact with these things and could not help but always have some doubts:

His "Imitation" was also using Sword Arts and even Sword Laws; where was this portion of Sword Essence paid from?

He certainly consumed a portion of physical strength and energy, but those were not valuable, nor were they enough to support the Sword Art; there must surely be some other costs, right?

Who paid these costs?

Perhaps the Glasses? Or perhaps the Dharma Artifact used for the "Imitation" was being forcibly drained?

Tang Zhao guessed both, but the latter more so. After all, if the former were overdrawn, it would shatter, and it was not as if he hadn't seen that. And Dharma Artifacts were all rare, high-quality items; the wear and tear from one or two battles was not enough to show immediately.

He hadn't noticed it before, but as the number of times he used it increased, his Lihuo Sword Dharma Artifact became more and more "light"; one day, it would completely shed its Sword Law and become an ordinary sword made of better materials, or simply shatter.

It could only be said that it was fortunate Tang Zhao was not truly "experienced in a hundred battles"; he even had three years where he didn't fight at all, and on the mountain, he didn't use "Imitation" much. Otherwise, this old companion probably wouldn't have been able to accompany him for several years.

Precisely because he was becoming more familiar with the world of swords, Tang Zhao changed many of his views and could more accurately judge the situation of a Sword Guest battle, such as the one before him.

Shi Chunqing using Five Elements Spirit Arts could not achieve victory at all, so he stopped using them and focused on manipulating the Spirit Image to fight Xue Xianyun with greater power and faster speed. And since Xue Xianyun held a sword, setting aside the Sword Art, his own strength was also increasing. The battle between the two remained a stalemate, just more intense than at the beginning.

Tang Zhao watched the battle situation nervously. Although it hadn't reached the point where he needed to intervene, such a tense situation was truly bad for the heart. He worried secretly in his heart: Master couldn't possibly only know this one type of Sword Art, right? Since it was a stalemate, why not try another Sword Art?

"Crane Cry—Wind Sound!"

"Cry—"

A crane's cry.

"Cry—Cry—"

One crane cry after another.

From all directions, in the blink of an eye, countless crane cries rang out. In the night, one white crane after another appeared out of thin air. At first, they were just shadows, clusters of radiance, but then they solidified and became vivid. In the blink of an eye, they were no different from real white cranes. On this beach, thousands of cranes stood, like patches of white reeds.

The crane cries clearly had a miraculous effect. Tang Zhao heard them and felt a slight panic in his heart, then pressed down on his sword hilt, suppressing it again. This was another attack targeting the heart and spirit. "Wind sound and crane cries" originally carried the meaning of "every bush and tree looks like an enemy"; hearing it made one feel flustered and chaotic. Not to mention thousands of cranes crying in unison—even if they were real cranes, it would make people panic.

However, the effect was still not good. Jiang Shenyi, who had reinforced his Soul, was completely unaffected, not to mention the Spirit Image and Shi Chunqing within the Spirit Image were also unaffected. The punches he threw were still extremely powerful and precise, while Xue Xianyun even fell into a disadvantage due to being distracted by the Sword Art.

This was also natural; a Spirit Official is an expert at playing with the spirit, capable of solidifying a "True Self Spirit Image" with Mental Power. How sturdy was that? It was likely no less than Jiang Shenyi's Soul reinforcement; mental attacks below the level of a Sword Hero would have no effect.

Tang Zhao was slightly nervous, but not that nervous. Although there was no evidence, he already had a premonition—

The battle should—

"Sword Art—Crane Returns."

Whoosh—

The crane shadows, like a white forest, rushed up like a tide, instantly pouncing on the legs and body of that Spirit Image, like waves crashing against a reef, splashing up piles of white foam.

Boom!

Water, fire, earth, wood, metal!

The multicolored attacks exploded almost simultaneously!

They returned, they all returned!

The Spirit Art attacks that had just sprouted wings and transformed into distant yellow cranes suddenly returned along with the crane shadows; they were also sprouting wings and flying extremely fast, yet they all crashed into the Spirit Image!

The scale of this explosion was immense, and the smoke stirred up even turned multicolored. From tangible to intangible, every type of attack was present, each one capable of standing on its own and serving as a genuine attack, yet they all erupted in a single instant. The Spirit Image was instantly submerged in the attacks.

Because the vibration was so great, Tang Zhao felt a bit of tinnitus; he seemed to hear Shi Chunqing's scream, or perhaps he had misheard. He only saw the chubby figure of Xue Xianyun, who was gripping his small Crane Cry Sword, crossing past the obstruction of the Spirit Image and rushing toward Shi Chunqing within.

But in that brief instant, another angry shout came, and this time it was clearly Xue Xianyun's voice:

"Where are you running?"

With those few short words, Tang Zhao immediately held his sword and followed.

Shi Chunqing had indeed escaped; the massive Spirit Image collapsed in an instant, but his true body was unharmed, wobbling as it slipped out from the afterimages of the Spirit Image and the remnants of the five-element attacks, his speed like flowing light.

"You're courting death—I didn't want it to come to this!"

From far away, Shi Chunqing's angry rebuke came.

Immediately after, several blue light spots appeared in the night sky; although they were very far away, they could be seen clearly.

That color was all too familiar to Tang Zhao—it was a portal of the Turtle Bandits!

Regardless of what Shi Chunqing's original intentions were, he had finally brought out a portal after a defeat, intending to bring in more Turtle Bandits.

This was something Tang Zhao was determined not to allow.

And he had long been prepared.

Seeing Shi Chunqing fleeing extremely far away and the blue light spots expanding, Tang Zhao did not hesitate:

"Sword Control Art!"

The most basic Flying via Sword Control was also the fastest, carrying him as he transformed into Sword Light and rushed toward that place, holding out a Time Jar in his hand, which instantly disintegrated:

"Air Burst!"