Chapter 774: The Emperor and the Sword Immortal

"State... State Preceptor? Is that you, State Preceptor?"

Even though the Emperor was not lacking in courage, hearing that familiar, numbing voice by his ear made him shudder involuntarily, his expression becoming unnatural. He had assumed the State Preceptor had returned to the Xing Tian Seal along with the power, perhaps even fallen into a deep slumber; from start to finish, he had no idea the State Preceptor's rules and consciousness had separated from the lightning. He was, after all, still young, his cultivation insufficient, and his skin not yet thick enough to be impervious to blades and spears. Facing the State Preceptor, who was practically a foster father to him, he could not help but feel a twinge of guilt.

"To wield the power of a Sword Immortal, you must learn the Sword Momentum..."

"Wait, State Preceptor, I..." The Emperor could not help but want to explain something.

"No need to explain. Explanations are meaningless; they are all excuses and only make you look ridiculous. What is done is done; does an Emperor truly care? I am tired, too. You want power, and I am about to give it to you. Once I give it to you, I will be relieved. I will no longer be trapped in Jingcheng, managing the messy affairs of your family generation after generation. I will be able to go out and see, see the scenery outside Jingcheng. I don't want to stay in this wretched place called Jingcheng anymore."

The Emperor opened his mouth, but in the end, he only said: "Then, I trouble the State Preceptor to send me off one last time."

The State Preceptor said: "Indeed, I am here to send you off one last time. Originally, I did not want to do this, to let you wade into that muddy water; not causing you trouble was already enough. However, firstly, I see you still have some ambition, better than your father and grandfather, so I am helping you this once, which is also a clean way to retreat and settle this karmic debt. Secondly, he persuaded me. I thought about it and decided to give him some face. Heh, he was even angrier than me before, but now that it has come to this, he has come to persuade me; he really is a soft-hearted fool. He is exactly the type of person your family is best at deceiving. People like him were almost driven to extinction by you lot in recent years, yet you managed to stumble upon one."

The Emperor sighed: "Is it the Gaoyuan Marquis who persuaded you? She was a loyal subject of the Great Jin."

The State Preceptor chuckled, skipped over the topic, and said directly: "I will now teach you how to fight like a Sword Immortal. The first step is to become familiar with your own Sword Momentum. My Sword Momentum is 'No Delusion'; your Sword Momentum may be different, but you can first invoke my Sword Momentum, add your own modifications, and slowly adapt it to yourself."

The Emperor asked curiously: "No Delusion? Heavenly Thunder No Delusion? So the State Preceptor's Sword Momentum is the power of the unfathomable? I remember the State Preceptor taking rules as the core; I would not have thought the Sword Momentum would be anti-rule?"

The State Preceptor said: "Rules are set by others, while Sword Momentum is somewhat a reflection of my own heart. But it cannot escape the rules of its origin. Although 'No Delusion' is unfathomable, it actually encourages people to act in a steady, down-to-earth manner. As for my Sword Momentum, it corresponds to the saying, 'If the punishment is unknown, the power is unfathomable.' The more unexpected it is, the harder it is to resist. If someone is familiar with the rules within it and can predict my actions, then I cannot exert ten-tenths of my power."

The Emperor was stunned. As an ordinary human, he could understand matters of power, but it was difficult for him to understand such matters of rules. He could not help but ponder, saying: "Being unexpected makes one stronger—is this regardless of the comparison of power, based only on causal necessity?"

The State Preceptor said: "This is my rule; it is both the rule of the sword and my own will. Emperor, if you want to thoroughly form a Sword Momentum, you must understand that the root of a Sword Momentum's strength is rules. Form your own rules, and it is best if you follow them yourself; then it will be easier to master more powerful strength. If you want to continue my Sword Momentum and treat it as your own, you must first digest and absorb it, then use unexpected lightning strikes frequently in battle. The speed must be fast, fast enough that others cannot react, and the targets must be tricky. It is best not to be too attached even in your own heart; do not make long-term plans. Just a single thought is enough; there is no need to be fixated."

The Emperor pondered. Following the State Preceptor's explanation, he gradually understood what the State Preceptor meant: "Act on a whim, do whatever you want, don't play schemes or tricks, and definitely don't make calculations. It would be best if even I didn't know where I would strike in the next second, and then I just strike—is that when the power is at its greatest?"

"How can that be?" Although he was on the battlefield, the Emperor immediately reacted: "This is not what I wish, nor is it what I am capable of! I am new to the battlefield; planning before acting is not even enough, and now I must discard my thoughts and empty my mind? How can I fight like this? In my opinion, the Sword Momentum should be changed to 'Heaven's path has its constants; those who follow it prosper, those who oppose it perish.' The more one follows the rules of heaven and earth, the more powerful one should be."

The State Preceptor could not help but think: You want to follow rules? Don't you just treat everyone else's rules as farts? Oh, only your own rules are rules; you truly are an Emperor. He said: "If you truly want to establish this rule, you can. But I must remind you that any rule that restricts others but not oneself will not be particularly powerful as a Sword Momentum. A truly powerful rule is to pull others into your own rules, while you yourself only utilize the rules without breaking them. In this point, being an Emperor and being a Sword Immortal are quite different. You can abandon my rules whenever you like—after all, I took all the rules with me when I left—but once your rules are established, if you change your decrees from morning to evening, you will suffer a backlash. You will never be able to establish rules or momentum again, let alone anything else."

The Emperor was thoughtful and said: "According to the State Preceptor, being an Emperor and being a Sword Immortal are actually very similar. Once an Emperor establishes rules, he cannot do whatever he wants, right? If you don't establish rules, don't reward and punish clearly, and don't give people orderly expectations, no one will ever truly follow you, and you won't be able to wield power well. I understand now; the key lies in—acting like an Emperor while being a Sword Immortal, right?"

The State Preceptor was silent for a moment and said: "I am merely a Sword Deity; how would I know the thoughts of you humans? If you think it's right, then do it that way!"

The Emperor laughed aloud, stretched out his hand again, and the golden lightning once again transformed into the Emperor's Sword, held firmly in his hand!

At this moment, the Emperor's Sword was shining with golden light. Compared to the previous one, the lightning had become peaceful, but that solemn and grand gold was even more brilliant!

With the Emperor's conquests and his realization of thought, the Emperor's Sword had unconsciously shifted, changing into a new form as the Emperor changed.

And at this moment, the Huayuan Master below had just finished building its Huayuan and was preparing to start probing.

In its timeline, it had just flown out from the summoning mouth of its believers' offerings, arrived in a new world, and then raised its own "Momentum," spreading its "Xiling Huayuan" here.

After spreading the Huayuan, it knew it had gained a foothold, and only then did it look up at the Emperor, its prey.

Or rather, it looked at the Xing Tian Seal.

Although this Emperor before it was someone who had been specifically targeted for death and could absolutely not be let go, what it valued most was the Xing Tian Seal. It had taken a fancy to that rare Human World Sword Immortal power; as for others' requests and its own goals, it naturally had to prioritize itself.

Moreover, judging from the Emperor's own power that it could observe, he was not worthy of being the most important target.

Therefore, the Green Tide rose!

It was the same movement as before, the same power as before. The gushing green tide of grass leaves, carrying white smoke, rose from the ground like a water tornado and charged toward the Emperor.

This was still a probe, and the lethality indeed still had room for more, but the previous change had caused the Emperor to die once directly; that time counted as an "unexpected harvest."

This time, the green tide reached before him in the blink of an eye. After the Emperor held the Emperor's Sword, the power on the sword combined more and more with his own aura, allowing him to see not only the torrent of grass and wood condensed together but also the white smoke wrapped around the torrent. Although he had died very quickly after being hit before, he had faintly felt the pain brought by the white smoke wrapping around his body in the end.

It was a suffocating pain, and it was distinct from the pain of branches piercing his body. The Emperor would never know that the white smoke accompanying the grass leaves could be called "carbon dioxide"; he treated this as a kind of additional attack.

Last time, the Emperor used offense as defense and destroyed the main trunk of the green tide, but was easily ambushed by the branches. This time, he did not move; endless Thunder Light swirled in place, wrapping the Emperor tightly like a gift, with only his golden silhouette visible.

Could it be that the Emperor chose to be conservative this time, wanting to survive this first wave?

He hadn't defended successfully before; could he defend successfully just by thickening it?

"Puff—"

With a vibration, that green giant net spread out in the air again!

Perhaps because the Emperor did not use lightning to counter the green tide, this time the net was even more magnificent than the last. The moment it spread, it was like a massive, peerless green firework exploding, or like some green flower in the Huayuan below, teleporting to the sky to bloom to its heart's content.

Because it bloomed so smoothly, the Huayuan monster moved its position slightly, letting the green bloom beside that mass of golden Thunder Light.

Watching with one's own eyes, countless grass leaves once again passed through that mass of Thunder Light, which was so dazzling it was nothing but gold! This time, the Thunder Light was truly comparable to the Nine Heavens Heavenly Thunder!

Can wood strike lightning?

It seemed even worse than hitting a stone with an egg!

Those grass leaves, while passing through the lightning, were almost instantly digested by the Thunder Light, not even leaving behind charred remains. Even grass at the Sword Immortal level could not withstand lightning at the Sword Immortal level!

But behind the branches and leaves were more branches and leaves!

The green net transformed from leaves stretched continuously, with no sign of stopping at all. The moment the previous inch of grass branch was melted by the Thunder Light, the next inch followed, with incredible speed, as if it wanted to launch a sneak attack before the Thunder Light could react.

In fact, it succeeded. At a certain moment, the green spikes, one after another, pierced the critical point and penetrated the Thunder Light.

It was not one or two, but like a dozen rakes, all nailed into the Thunder Light at once, and some even penetrated the Thunder Light, coming out from the other side!

Although the next moment, the Thunder Light had completely pulverized those intruders and did not repeat the feat of being turned into a hedgehog like last time, just this momentary penetration would have been enough to pierce anyone inside through the heart with ten thousand arrows!

Once again!

The Huayuan monster looked up, seemingly somewhat satisfied, but the next moment that blood-red smile froze.

The Thunder Light extinguished instantly, and behind that radiance, there was nothing, not even a trace of flesh and blood remains after being attacked.

Only lightning, no person!

The Emperor was no longer there!

So where did he go?

This was originally the instinct of an experienced expert, but even without thinking, it required physical reaction, even if this reaction time was very fast.

Just as the Thunder Light shattered, electric currents suddenly appeared around the Huayuan monster, making a "Zzz—" sound.

The speed of sound was fast, but there was an action faster than the figure. A yellow-robed figure turned into a bolt of lightning and suddenly appeared, the magnificent golden sword in his hand stabbing into the monster's heart!