Chapter 591: 544 Life and Death

In an instant, a sword that arose from nowhere swept across the sky like a sickle, almost slicing the area just enveloped by the Golden Tiger halo in two.

This streak of Sword Light was quite bright, especially striking in the now pale and empty dome, yet it was not any particular color, but carried an extreme sense of horror. The spectators below all had the feeling that the blade was aimed right at them, its sharp chill pressing directly against their brows.

However, compared to Tang Zhao's Sword Technique from before, this move was actually quite ordinary.

Following this sword came a slight bit of Sword Light and formless Sword Qi; there was nothing else. At most, one could only say the range was vast, but it was a pity it was only for an instant and did not persist.

Tang Zhao's previous sword had set the very sky ablaze, and the spectators below had also brushed against the gates of hell, leaving them still lingering in fear. Naturally, they expected a back-and-forth, and for Gui Rong to have a corresponding transcendent Sword Technique.

The crowd did not realize that Gui Rong had already died; they all thought he had used some clever method to escape a catastrophe, and was now just emerging from an ambush to launch a counterattack. They all felt that his repeated patience was to build up for a grand ultimate move, but the result was only:

That's it?

How does this compare to that handsome Sword Hero from before...

Amidst the disappointment, in front of the canopy already standing in mid-air, Jin Wu narrowed his eyes slightly:

"This sword... is truly ruthless."

The sword edge swept past, and for an instant, nothing happened.

Then...

The ten swaggering tiger heads suddenly froze, and then, dissolved.

Dissolved—the tiger heads dissipated from the air.

Those tiger heads were originally condensed from light, illusory objects. By rights, they should not have been physically scattered, but Sword Art rarely involves purely physical attacks; if they were scattered, they were scattered, merely becoming dim. Yet, everyone who saw this scene clearly felt a chill rise within them.

It seemed... it was not that the light composing the tiger heads had extinguished, but that the tigers had died.

In that instant, the tiger heads stopped, their lifelike expressions frozen, their eyes rolled upward, and all aura of life dissipated. Following that, the tiger heads split open, as if spraying out blood and brains that should not have existed, and then fell. The moment they fell, they dissipated.

As light, their final end was to dissipate, but as tigers, they had indeed died without a doubt.

The tigers, which were merely conjured, had actually been killed by that sword.

At the same time, the ten Wangliang Power warriors that were rising from below to serve as stepping stones for the arena suddenly stopped and then... lost their vitality.

They had also been grazed by that sword just now, merely grazed.

The ten warriors, riddled with holes by the Golden Tiger but rapidly recovering through the power of Wangliang, were swept by Gui Rong's sword and then killed.

The ten shells fell almost instantly. Because they were not solid, there was no booming sound of heavy objects hitting the ground; they simply lay there quietly, turning into ten corpses without any signs of life, remaining on the field.

That was total death; from this point on, the Shadow Kingdom would forever have ten fewer Wangliang Power warriors.

Dead, dead, they were all dead!

The phantom warriors that clearly would not die and could not die had actually been killed by the aftermath of a sword; what about the people who were originally destined to die?

Tang Zhao floated quietly in mid-air. Almost the instant the sword was swung, his eyes lost their luster in an instant.

This luster is generally called vitality.

Even though that sword did not strike him, even though he was a great distance from the sword edge, and even though he had Sword Essence for Body Protection even if he were struck, it was as if a formless hand had reached into his body and crushed his vitality.

The next instant, he fell downward along with those tiger heads from before.

A gasp erupted from the spectator stands.

These people were not concerned for Tang Zhao; they were merely instinctively exclaiming at the sheer power of this sword.

"Jishi—" the Master of Fuhu said in both shock and joy, "Did you see? This is the Jishi Sword Technique! It ignores defense, ignores life-and-death interactions, and erases from the rules. To touch it is to die; this is an incredible Sword Technique! Wherever the sword edge reaches, all must die! Even among Sword Techniques, this is the most powerful kind; ordinary Sword Techniques simply cannot achieve this. This must be..."

"Changjie Sword Technique," Liu Shusheng added.

The Master of Fuhu cried out: "Exactly! Changjie Sword Technique. Before the Sword Technique is formed, there must be very harsh conditions; only by satisfying these conditions can one use such a powerful Sword Technique. Jishi—even things without life, things that only have the form of life, will die and wither, being erased together. A Sword Hero of the same rank would die suddenly without even being struck by the sword; how powerful a Sword Technique is this? It must require harsh prerequisites. So he had been laying the groundwork for this move all along."

Liu Shusheng was thoughtful and said: "But the Sword Technique of the Sword Hero who used light just now came at will, it was not Changjie, yet its power was not small either? It also seemed to transcend ordinary Sword Techniques."

The Master of Fuhu said angrily: "It looks not small, that is because we do not understand Sword Art. That Sword Technique might not count for much among Sword Techniques. Look at the result clearly: one is unscathed, the other is already dead; whose ability is greater, is that not..."

Before the words were finished, another gasp broke out.

Tang Zhao's shell drifted downward. It was not obvious at high altitude, but at low altitude, it gradually became blurred. Everyone had already noticed: that falling speed was abnormal; it was definitely not a human body.

Sure enough, at a certain height, blown by the wind, the body dissipated like foam.

It was a phantom.

A phantom could also be killed, and it was indeed killed, but the person himself was not killed.

The moment that sword was swung, a phantom image appeared in the sky. As the tiger heads and Wangliang Power warriors died one after another, that phantom image became more and more solid, eventually revealing a discernible outline.

It was Gui Rong!

When his phantom image was not very clear, he looked dull and stiff, like a low-quality portrait. As "life" withered away one after another, his figure became increasingly clear, and the whole person became "vivid," finally no different from a real person, only slightly blurred, as if shrouded in a final layer of gauze.

Seeing that he was about to be reborn and return to his previous appearance, as Tang Zhao's shell shattered, that layer of gauze was never finally lifted. Gui Rong remained in a state of "99% loaded," ultimately separated by a layer.

"You—"

Gui Rong was horrified, then flew into a rage: "You actually—"

He turned his head to look around, as if trying to grab a different color out of the whiteness, finally staring at a blank space, and said: "You are actually not dead yet! Get out here!"

Then someone said: "Good eyes, you actually saw it? You are a Sword Hero after all."

The white sky seemed to suddenly become a curtain, pulled open from both sides, revealing Tang Zhao's figure, holding a sword in one hand, floating in mid-air.

Everything seemed to have returned to the beginning, with one person and one sword on each side, confronting each other from a distance.

Only one person was as before, while the other was slightly "virtualized" by a tiny bit. Furthermore, there were the ten Wangliang Power warriors that had been standing, now all lying on the ground.

Gui Rong said word by word: "How are you here? How are you here?!"

Amidst his roar, Tang Zhao said with a smile: "As you can see, I have some small insights into hiding. I was just hiding behind the light curtain, but even this was seen through by you; it seems my cultivation is not enough."

Gui Rong roared: "I don't care where you hid! Even if you hid in another world, you should have died! This is the rule! The rule of the Sword Technique!"

The rule—it was a rule he had exchanged his life for!

His own death turning from death to life, letting others turn from life to death, Life and Death Reincarnation—this is the rule of the Sword Technique, and it is not to be broken!

How could he break the rules?

This question not only puzzled him, but even Jin Wu was very puzzled.

The reason the Changjie Sword Technique is called "Long Stair" and is particularly difficult to activate is to trade for power that transcends one's realm; once successful, even if one cannot challenge those of a higher level, one will certainly be invincible among those of the same level. Moreover, the more difficult it is to activate, the harder it is to resist.

This Sword Technique requires Gui Rong to be killed to activate; although it is only First Tier, it is already a top-tier activation condition, and anything higher would likely only be a "True Sacrifice."

Logically, the best way to counter the Changjie Sword Technique is to prevent it from activating and kill the user during the preparation phase, because once it is activated, a Sword Hero of the same level can almost never resist it; even Dongjun would bleed if he were hit by it.

There is another method, which is to counter rules with rules by using a rule-based Sword Technique here, but when both are rules, why would a rule that hasn't been sacrificed win against one that has? Furthermore, I haven't seen Tang Zhao activate any rule-based Sword Technique.

Dongjun realized that he had still slightly underestimated this "one-third heir."

Perhaps he is more than qualified to be the true heir of Dongjun.

Tang Zhao smiled and said, "Not restricted by your rules—never seen that before? But I have seen someone like you."

Gui Rong became even more furious and said, "Impossible, this is my unique Sword Technique!"

Tang Zhao said, "It's not about your Sword Technique, but an elder who had a very powerful Changjie Sword Technique. Once the conditions were met and it was activated, it was a rule-based kill; even another powerful Sword Hero would die instantly upon being struck. At the time, I wondered, if I were to face this kind of rule-based Changjie Sword Technique, how would I resist it?"

Gui Rong could not help but ask, "How do you resist it?"

Tang Zhao suddenly grinned and said, "I can't tell you. In any case, you have already seen it—it can be blocked!"

Gui Rong was so angry that smoke poured from his seven orifices; he remembered that this person looked fair but had a very black heart, and that he had just said all that purely to anger him. He pointed his long sword forward and said, "Although you are incomparably cunning, you will certainly die today without a doubt."

Tang Zhao's gaze shifted to his sword blade and discovered that the blade was different from before, as if a trace of elusive mystery was flowing over it; just one look made him feel a chill in his heart.

He asked cautiously, "The power of your Changjie Sword Technique from just now hasn't been exhausted yet, and it's still on your sword blade?"

Gui Rong sneered, "Good eye. I didn't intend to hide it from you; if you are struck by my sword, it is Jishi!"

Tang Zhao realized, then said, "That suits me perfectly! Stop playing those clumsy tactics of yours; as such a great Sword Hero, are you relying on these little tricks? Pick up your sword, summon your Sword Image, use your full strength, and let us have a proper fight!"

Gui Rong calmed down and said slowly, "Very well. After all these years, I have finally met an opponent truly worth fighting. Then—"

"Sword Image, descend!"

In the air, a shadow that was half-black and half-white appeared out of thin air.

Sword Image—Life and Death Bell!