Chapter 593: 546 Collapse

The sky has changed!

No, the general feeling is that the people have changed!

The previous scorching heat was a change in the environment, but this time, as the Sword Technique arose, the people themselves changed too!

Tang Zhao was Floating in the air, his figure gradually becoming blurred—

Following the high temperature, high brightness, and the peculiar changes occurring and already having occurred in the sky, Tang Zhao seemed to have undergone some kind of qualitative change as well.

Gui Rong, who was in front of him, felt it most deeply; unlike the transition between life and death he had experienced himself, Tang Zhao's change possessed another kind of profound mystery—though still before his eyes, it had already gone very far away.

It was a change that was unreachable, perhaps a gradual detachment, never to be approached again.

This cannot be!

An unprecedented fear rose in Gui Rong's heart; it was an extremely strong intuition honed through his long experience with life and death—something truly terrifying, beyond his imagination, was happening!

"Is this your strongest Sword Technique? Since that is the case, I will also bring out my true strength to show my respect."

While sneering without showing weakness, he stared fixedly at the tip of his sword, his gaze as firm as steel.

"Sword Technique... Death Struggle!"

Almost simultaneously, the Life-Death Bell exploded!

The hourglass shattered into several Fragments and scattered; the black sand inside, representing death, gushed out and transformed into smoke that wrapped around his body.

His body and his sword were covered in every inch by black Qi, like black armor, or perhaps a more spacious, more elegant, pure black cloak.

That was death, and also power—the power of exhaustion!

Just when Tang Zhao underwent his change, only the nearest Gui Rong and the most powerful Golden Crow could sense it keenly, but when Gui Rong unleashed his full power, everyone on the field felt the Shadow of death truly and clearly shrouding their heads, their hearts trembling. Even the number one "Gui Rong fan" Fuhu Master could not speak, only gaping like a wooden chicken.

"Hah—"

Gui Rong erupted with a loud roar, his entire person transforming into a streak of black light, like the sharpest dagger, charging forward.

His speed was certainly fast, but compared to the extreme speed he had burst out with during his previous Sword Fighting with Tang Zhao, it was not considered that fast. Everyone could clearly see the trajectory of that black light.

But everyone felt that, though they could see it, they could not dodge it!

Too strong, too strong!

The powerful force had already sealed off all room for maneuvering; heaven and earth were filled with this power. Facing this power, there was nowhere to hide, nowhere to avoid; only waiting for this power to grind oneself to pieces was the only final outcome.

This is the judgment of the god of death!

A thought flashed through many people's minds: If this sword were aimed at me, I fear I wouldn't even have the thought of resisting.

At this moment, Tang Zhao actually seemed to have no thought of resisting either; he just floated there, not moving at all.

Perhaps he had already moved just now, and that Sword Technique had already been released; that light and heat, which seemed to be at their limit, had not vanished, but simply stopped rising.

It was not being suppressed, but had become still. It seemed the light and heat that the Sword Technique could reach only went to this extent. It could not gather any more.

Sword Techniques also have limits.

What he wanted to achieve through his Sword Technique had now been achieved. It just remained to be seen whose Sword Technique was stronger—his or the opponent's soul-snatching one...

A comparison between high temperature and death?

It sounds like a joke!

At this moment, that strongest power had already crashed over, reaching the edge of Tang Zhao's intense light!

Break for me!

The blade of death cut through the high heat like cutting butter, cut through the intense light like cutting tofu, and continued to thrust forward!

White Rainbow Piercing the Sun!

However, the further it thrust forward, the slower the sword of death became; the black light seemed to be subjected to an invisible pull, beginning to tremble, deflect, be torn apart, and ground to pieces, scattering as specks of debris before dissipating.

This reminded people of when the two first exchanged blows to test each other; at that time, Gui Rong's sword carried magnificent Sword Light, and Tang Zhao had once torn his Sword Light to shreds, yet failed to shake his power, instead being knocked flying by a single sword strike to the face.

At that time, Gui Rong mocked: Why only shave off the Sword Light and not the Sword Essence? Is it because you can't stand others shining?

Tang Zhao also jokingly replied, that's right, I just can't stand others being better at shining than me.

Looking at it now, that was undoubtedly a strategy to hide his strength, because now, the hostile power in front of Tang Zhao was also being cleared away; he was capable of weakening power.

Every piece of black light debris took away a portion of real power. A force field had formed in front of Tang Zhao, as if there were countless Bone-scraping steel knives, peeling the enemy's everything down to the Bone, scraping it away inch by inch.

If Fang Weiran saw this scene, he would surely recall the situation when he accepted the test of approaching the sun and would immediately realize: It is space!

The space around Tang Zhao is distorted; any power that approaches becomes distorted and shattered.

And Gui Rong's response was...

No response!

The moment he shattered the hourglass, Gui Rong had already emptied his mind of all thoughts, having no superfluous ideas.

At this moment, just like the name of his Sword Technique, he would use all his power for a Death Struggle.

Along the way, he seemed to feel his power dissipating, and the Sword Essence protecting him leaving his body, but this did not matter; as a dead man, he had abandoned everything, save for—

Kill!

At this moment, having reached a certain limit, he suddenly discovered that he was being pulled toward Tang Zhao by a strange pulling force!

Then, Gui Rong himself, along with Gui Rong's power, disintegrated!

This speed was too fast; almost in an instant, Gui Rong's body was already on the verge of collapse!

Only he himself knew of this change; to others, it looked like he had accelerated before reaching the end!

He was actually still able to accelerate!

By this time, Gui Rong had no other thoughts, only to clench his final power and charge forward!

Even if it were just inertia, charge over, crash into him!

Even if less than one in ten, or one in a hundred of his power remained, it did not matter; what he relied on was never that vast power, but death itself.

Only a sliver of death was needed to touch the opponent's physical body to take away all his life. Life is just that fragile, unable to dance with death.

Die for me!

In the eyes of the crowd, for the final stretch of distance, Gui Rong transformed into a blurred shadow, with only a single gleam of cold light remaining clear, pointing straight at Tang Zhao, who stood motionless in the center like a Tiantai.

The last inch—hit!

That gleam of cold light, carrying the final layer of unquestionable death power, stabbed toward Tang Zhao.

At this moment, there was finally a change in front of Tang Zhao.

He remained suspended like a statue, not even moving a single finger.

Within the Void, a hand condensed of light reached out, two fingers pressed together.

It clamped onto the sword.

Just like flame clamping onto ice, the outcome was decided in an instant.

A black light flashed, then melted into the light.

That death power, which had been at its peak and chilled the hearts of all living things, dissipated completely.

Only Gui Rong's thin and shattered body remained, along with the sword in his hand, still held in a charging posture.

At this moment, only one color remained between heaven and earth; the surroundings were a golden yellow, and the light shone upon him, causing his body to appear with a color other than black or white for the first time.

Bright as Sunlight, it was a color he had never possessed.

It was as if there was blood color on his face.

Gui Rong's expression shifted from determination to shock, from shock to confusion, and finally to realization:

"You are not human!"

In the light, no one could hear his voice; only Tang Zhao could see the shape of his lips.

But Tang Zhao did not even have lip movements; his floating body was like a still well, without a ripple.

Gui Rong only found the answer in his eyes:

"Correct."

Gui Rong continued to Ask: "What kind of thing are you?"

This time, the question was not something Tang Zhao's eyes could answer, even though he was willing to answer.

He only answered silently in his heart:

I am a Tiantai.

Gui Rong obviously could not hear this answer, and even if he had, he would have found it hard to understand; he simply had too many doubts in his heart and continued to Ask on his own: "No matter what kind of thing you are—can you not die? My current death power has already transcended life; it can make stone weather, rivers dry up, and volcanoes extinguish!"

A Tiantai will of course die, and will even collapse into a Black Hole...

But—

The lifespan scale of rock, water, and fire might be a thousand or ten thousand years, but a Tiantai is measured in astronomical units.

Hundreds of millions of years...

How could the mysteries of the universe be something that a mere Heroic Sword like you could touch?

I cannot do it now.

I am merely imitating the existence of a Tiantai slightly, in order to evade the rules set by the human world.

You will not understand these things.

Depart with your fragile life and your empty, unlearned head.

Gui Rong did not understand Tang Zhao's explanation, nor could he hear Tang Zhao's consistent mockery, but he understood Tang Zhao's gaze.

He was urging himself to set off on his journey.

A victor urging him to fulfill the rules agreed upon before the battle:

The winner lives, the loser dies!

He did not even need to commit suicide; an existence that approached a Tiantai too closely would naturally disintegrate. As long as the last trace of Sword Essence protection was withdrawn, Gui Rong would completely vanish from this world. That trace of Sword Essence was already flowing away rapidly. He was already truly experiencing a "final flash of light."

However...

A smile appeared on Gui Rong's face, which already had fine cracks; although it was somewhat self-deprecating, it was more filled with mockery and triumph.

Tang Zhao frowned secretly:

How is it, not over yet?

You are not keeping the agreement?

Since that is the case, then let us continue to fight.

Tang Zhao had consumed a lot of power using his Sword Technique continuously, but he still had strength to spare. He was just curious what trump card Gui Rong still had at this time.

However, Gui Rong turned around rapidly, with his back to Tang Zhao, changed the direction of his long sword, and struck out fiercely; a streak of Sword Light slashed out!

That was the direction of the spectator stands!

After the consumption from the recent Death Struggle, this streak of Sword Light was pitifully thin and looked crooked; even the Sword Light emitted by the most immature Sword Guest would be stronger than this. Even as Tang Zhao gradually withdrew his Tiantai force field, that Sword Light was so weak it seemed it would dissipate before flying a few steps.

However, this was the horn for the start of some major event.

A white-haired old man somewhere opened his eyes, flicked his finger lightly, and the sword left its sheath by three inches.

At the same time, an old man sitting in a wheelchair also pressed a button almost simultaneously.

Hum...

Boom!

A huge roaring sound shook the earth itself.

Jin Wu, who was watching the battle from underground, jumped several times, looked around, and shouted: "What is the situation?"

Tang Zhao instantly pulled himself out of the Tiantai state; before he could recover his Sword Essence, he first waved his sword to summon a small tiger for self-defense, thinking only:

I knew it, they still had a treacherous plot!

He immediately lowered his head to look at a certain place; he had suspected there were mechanisms there at the time and had kept an eye on it, so he looked there first.

Sure enough—the spectator stand had collapsed!