Chapter 517: Divine Battle

Within the illusion, Susanoo merely plunged his arm into the pitch-black sand. But outside the illusion, he had accurately plunged his arm into the center of the Corpse Lotus, the heart of the flower formed by the fused legs and feet of countless monks.

"Roar!"

Susanoo threw his head back and roared!

He pulled his right arm out violently!

He had actually pulled a giant sword from the heart of the Corpse Lotus!

Within the illusion, the pitch-black figure, completely controlled by Li Miao’s consciousness, frowned as he looked at Susanoo. Logically, after being pulled into the illusion, without the approval of the Silence-Illumination master, even if one interacted with external objects, they could not be brought into the illusion.

But that giant sword was different.

The moment Susanoo grasped it, the hilt of the giant sword intertwined with the flesh and blood of his palm, becoming inseparable. And the True Qi flowing within Susanoo’s body penetrated the entire length of the sword through the hilt.

That sword was alive.

It was originally a part of Susanoo.

Therefore, the moment it was pulled out, it appeared simultaneously within the Silence-Illumination illusion.

Susanoo shook the blade violently, shouldered it, crouched down, touched the ground with his left hand, and raised his eyes to stare fixedly at Li Miao.

Li Miao frowned as he observed the giant sword.

The blade was over a zhang long; the hilt was a femur, with several hand bones climbing up it, and the radius formed the crossguard. The spine of the sword was a vertebral column, with ribs spreading to both sides, wrapping countless bone fragments within to form a crude blade.

And at the top of the hilt, a skull was embedded, covered in cracks, its jaw agape as if emitting a wail.

Li Miao laughed.

"You reap what you sow."

Even though it had been shattered and reassembled, and even without skin or flesh covering it, Li Miao could tell—that was the skull of Yuan Chaoliang.

And that was the core connecting the True Qi between the giant sword and Susanoo.

Nearly ten thousand monks had died at Enryaku-ji; why did Susanoo choose Yuan Chaoliang’s damaged skull as the core instead of the many others? It must have had something to do with his identity in Shintoism.

In other words, perhaps Yuan Chaoliang did not know that from the moment he stepped into Enryaku-ji, from the moment he accepted the mission to intercept Li Miao and left the Ise Grand Shrine, he had already become a disposable pawn destined to die.

Even if Jianzhen had not revived, Susanoo would have taken his head and used his skull to forge this giant sword.

The Kusanagi Sword.

Also known as the Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi, the divine artifact from legend that slew the eight-headed serpent, was now held in Susanoo’s hand.

The two sides stared at each other.

On one side was the Heavenly Demon of Five Paths Unified, a false body created after suffering heavy injuries by using the Silence-Illumination illusion and the wonders of Profound Observation. Although his strength was slightly weaker, he was controlled by Li Miao’s full mental focus.

On the other side was the method personally transmitted by Amaterasu to intercept the Heavenly Demons of later generations, a legendary deity condensed from the flesh and blood of the Ise Grand Shrine’s high priest and nearly ten thousand monks of Enryaku-ji.

Time seemed to freeze in this instant.

And in the next instant—it exploded with a roar!

Bang!

A massive amount of sand flew up, and Susanoo instantly closed the distance between himself and the pitch-black figure, the blade sweeping horizontally, the tip of the sword creating a white sonic boom!

"Scared?"

The pitch-black figure bared his stark white teeth.

Although the attack was fierce, Susanoo still kept the distance between the two at the tip of the blade, stuck just outside the range of Li Miao’s fist attacks—in the short instant of their previous exchange, he had already realized that when it came to close-quarters combat, even if his brute strength surpassed Li Miao’s, he would only be torn to pieces by that brutal fist technique!

His chance of victory lay beyond three feet, but within one zhang!

But would Li Miao expose such a weakness?

Among the experts defeated by his hand—the Emperor, Zheng Anqi, Anqisheng—not one was unskilled at long-range combat. If one could just dodge by knowing that, Li Miao would have died long ago!

In an almost negligible instant, Li Miao’s fist dived beneath the blade and slammed violently into the body of the sword!

Clang!

The direction of the giant sword’s sweep was knocked upward, passing over Li Miao’s head. At the same time, Li Miao raised his hand and gripped the protruding ribs on the Kusanagi Sword.

"What a brainless piece of junk sword!"