Chapter 48: The Sword of Miracles (Third Chapter, Ten Thousand Words)

"Shatter Blade. Break the Boundary!"

With a hoarse roar, light flooded the entire world.

The high-difficulty sword technique’s secret, which he had never mastered, succeeded miraculously on this one thousand and first attempt.

The scorching Hero’s Sword emitted both blazing sunlight and pure holy light.

"It... actually succeeded?" The most incredulous was Li En himself.

How did I succeed? I don’t know.

When did I master the technique’s secret? I don’t know.

What are its conditions? Why did it never work before? I don’t know.

When the blade of light was finally filled, Li En was both lucky and dazed.

"A miracle?"

Courage grants hope to the desperate. At this moment, Li En’s potential was fully drained, his subconscious and luck both reaching their maximum values.

"I succeeded?!"

In that instant, the longsword, infused with immense holy power, rested in Li En’s hand.

Then, it reached its critical point.

It exploded.

"Boom!"

Silver light spread outward; the entire world was instantly eroded by a holy storm, everything dyed in holy radiance.

Infinite holy light, like an ocean tide, radiated outward from the sword in Li En’s hand.

This strike drained nearly all of Li En Sudar’s holy power.

The sword technique, which he had never mastered, could not be stabilized even if miraculously used.

At this moment, all of Li En’s power was extracted, transformed into a blooming flower of holy energy.

"Boom!"

The holy explosion had become a sustained state.

The holy sword had become a source of high-temperature, high-purity holy energy radiation.

The entire cave shook; rocks fell everywhere; everyone inside instinctively turned toward this direction.

The explosion’s power was so immense that, had it occurred outdoors, it would have certainly produced a mushroom cloud.

All living beings around Li En were subjected to "purification."

Dimon and Larry, farther away, were blasted backward; the beasts driven into a frenzy by Li En’s Dragon Claw were vaporized in an instant.

What of Heik and Li En at the epicenter?

When the white light began to fade, only a long, dark, shadowy stain remained on the ground.

The powerful demon had no time to utter a final word—it was utterly vaporized.

In that instant, the immense holy power of the Heroic Oath was fully unleashed, turning it into a "micro-nuke" confined to a three-meter radius.

Even Heik’s regenerative ability could not withstand this unreasonable sea of holy power.

As for Li En himself, he lay on the ground unconscious, his body emitting a faint aroma of roasted meat.

The benefit was that his wounds had been seared shut; the downside was that the burns were likely severe.

In the real world, there is no "friendly fire immunity/reduction"—throwing a fireball at yourself really can kill you; holy power is no different.

Holy power targets only evil, and a Holy Knight’s holy resistance is often absurdly high; Li En suffered little direct holy damage, but the sheer light and heat from the ultra-pure explosion still caused secondary injuries.

"Senior Li En."

"Master."

Before slipping into complete unconsciousness, seeing the two arrive, Li En finally closed his eyes in relief.

Shatter Blade. Break the Boundary was an advanced holy sword secret that Li En had only grasped a fraction of.

As an evolution of Exorcism Slash, its principle remained simple: "Channel holy power, then swing the sword"—only adjusted for area-of-effect attacks.

It was a reckless, high-consumption area attack: overloading with holy power, then detonating it as a wide-range AoE.

The core lay in maintaining stable, massive holy power infusion, compressing it, then triggering a focused explosion to contain the power within a controllable range.

All these actions had to be completed in an instant; otherwise, failure was inevitable.

This was not the legendary light beam (priests and high-rank knights had dedicated ranged holy light skills), but a close-range, sword-centered controlled holy storm—poor control would destroy the sword first.

Every step demanded extreme manipulation skill, requiring long-term cultivation under normal circumstances.

Previously, Li En had been stuck at the first step—"holy power infusion"—he hadn’t even seen the door, let alone entered.

But this time, a one-in-a-million stroke of luck had triggered: not only did he succeed on the first try, he overfilled beyond the limit with Heroic-level holy power—and didn’t detonate prematurely.

"How long have I slept?"

When he awoke again, the armor burned and stuck to his skin had been removed; Li En, bare-chested, was already bandaged.

The young man pushed himself up; every moment now was precious.

He didn’t waste words telling them to ignore him—without his combat power, this battle was already lost.

"Less than fifteen minutes."

This, at least, was good news.

Slight movement brought pain to his shoulder, but it was no longer the bone-deep agony it had been.

This was clearly the result of holy power healing.

"Do you still have holy power?"

".Almost none," Larry sighed, speaking honestly.

"We can still fight," Dimon said—he’d never had much holy power to begin with.

Li En tried moving his left hand—it still worked, though it hurt. He’d likely have to rely on one-handed swordplay from now on.

The wound on his neck felt much better; such rapid recovery meant his two junior knights had used all their holy power to heal him.

Li En glanced: Dimon still had combat capability.

Larry, clutching his chest and gasping, had truly reached his limit.

In this battle, she, unarmored, had suffered heavy injuries, then used all her holy power to heal Li En—she was done.

"Where are the children?"

"Still in the secret chamber. We’re guarding the door—they’re safe."

This, perhaps, was the best news of all.

Li En nodded, thought for a moment, then spoke directly.

"Larry, take the children up first."

"No, I—"

"Leave your armor with me. This is the optimal setup."

Li En looked at his armor—the expensive "Sudar family artwork"—now completely ruined.

Large gashes across the upper half had shattered its defense; the armor’s interior was fused with blood and flesh, faintly smelling of roasted meat—it could only serve as a grill now.

"Obey. Think of your vow of protection. As long as the children are safe, we are already undefeated."

Larry clenched his teeth, then finally nodded.

His bare chest felt cold; Li En instinctively touched his chest—there should have been a copper necklace with a "ruby" pendant.

The necklace remained, but the gem was now only a few charred fragments.

Li En never suspected the two knights had taken it; it seemed something had happened at that moment.

【Biological Level: Inferior Stone, Status: Strength 6(13), Physique 7(11), Agility 5(6), Spirit 6(16)】

At this moment, Li En was stunned.

The increase was enormous (all stats rose by over two points), and his attributes now subtly surpassed most ordinary orc’s Inferior Stone baseline.

He was likely just one step away from truly entering the Inferior Stone level.

【Dragonization: 5.7%, Awakened Racial Talent: Dragon Eye (Perceive Truth), Dragon Claw (Rend Reality)】

【Beastization: 2.5%, Awakened Bloodline Ability: Tongue of Speech (Understand Human Language)】

Dragonization had been further stimulated; beastization remained unchanged.

Li En now understood what had happened at that moment.

The explosive holy power had stimulated his body to absorb the Hero’s Blood, completing the bloodline foundation and granting him the basic capability for Shatter Blade.

Then, with his rapidly evolving body as a foundation, and through a series of coincidences, he had successfully swung that sword.

"Is this a miracle? Or did you do it?"

Li En stared at the Hero’s Sword beside him; at that moment, he had truly felt its aid.

【The Hero Who Brings Miracles, said to be a super-gambler who never lost.】

"Uh, your activation condition isn’t 'user is about to die,' is it?"

Li En could only guess—perhaps its miracle was an unknown fate or luck-based ability.

"Huh." He swung the sword once more with one hand; holy power could be unleashed at any moment.

Even if it had been luck and accident before, now that he’d used it once, repeating it required only following the instinct of life.

Its power would never match the lethal blow of unleashing all Heroic holy power, but for his current state, it was the new strength he needed most.

【Shatter Blade. Break the Boundary (Beginner) mastered】

The Heroic Codex’s record confirmed this possibility.

"The Hero’s sword that brings miracles? Legend says the Hero was indeed a unique class—stronger the stronger the foe, the more desperate the battle. But can you really walk by the river forever without falling in?"

(End of chapter)