Chapter 573: Divine War

In the illusion, Susanoo only inserted his arm into the pitch-black sand. But outside the illusion, he accurately inserted his arm into the center of the corpse-lotus, the heart of the flower formed by the fusion of the legs and feet of countless monks.

"Roar!"

Susanoo roared at the sky!

His right arm pulled out violently!

He actually pulled a giant sword out of the heart of the corpse-lotus!

In the illusion, the pitch-black figure, fully controlled by Li Miao's consciousness, frowned at Susanoo. Logically speaking, after being pulled into the illusion, without the recognition of the Jizhao master, even if one interacted with things in the outside world, one could not bring them into the illusion.

But that giant sword was different.

The moment it was grasped in Susanoo's hand, the hilt of the giant sword became intertwined with the flesh and blood of his palm, inseparable. And the true energy circulating in Susanoo's body penetrated the entire sword body along the hilt.

That sword was alive.

It was originally a part of Susanoo.

So the moment it was pulled out, it appeared synchronously in the Jizhao illusion.

Susanoo shook the sword 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 and observed the giant sword.

The sword was over a zhang long; the hilt was a leg bone, several hand bones climbed up, and the radius became the sword guard. The sword spine was a vertebral bone, the ribs spread to both sides, wrapping countless broken bones within to form a crude sword edge.

And at the top of the hilt, a skull was embedded, covered in cracks, its jaw open, as if it were wailing.

Li Miao laughed.

"Self-inflicted."

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

And that was the core where the giant sword and Susanoo connected their true energy.

There were nearly ten thousand monks who died at Enryaku-ji; why did Susanoo choose Yuan Chaoliang's damaged skull as the core instead of so many other skulls? It must have something to do with his Shinto identity.

In other words, perhaps Yuan Chaoliang did not know that from the moment he stepped into Enryaku-ji, from the moment he accepted the task of intercepting 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 legendary divine artifact that killed the eight-headed serpent, was now in Susanoo's hand.

The two sides stared at each other.

On one side was a Heavenly Demon of Five Paths Unified, a fake body created by the Jizhao illusion and protective true energy after being heavily injured; although his strength was slightly weaker, he was controlled by Li Miao's full spirit.

On the other side was a means personally passed down 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 chief priest and nearly ten thousand monks of Enryaku-ji.

Time seemed to freeze in this instant.

And in the next instant—it exploded!

*Bang! *

A massive amount of sand rose, and Susanoo instantly closed the distance between him and the pitch-black figure, the sword blade swept across, and the tip of the sword set off a white sonic boom!

"Scared?"

The pitch-black figure bared his white teeth.

Although the attack was fierce, Susanoo still kept the distance between the two at the tip of the sword, stuck outside the attack range of Li Miao's fist—in the short exchange just now, he already understood that in terms of close-quarters combat, even if his brute force surpassed Li Miao's, he would only be torn into pieces by that ferocious fist technique!

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

But would Li Miao expose such a weakness?

The experts who had been defeated by him—the Emperor, Zheng Anqi, Zheng Anqi Sheng—none of them were unskilled at long-range combat. If they could have avoided it just by knowing, Li Miao would have died long ago!

In an almost negligible instant, Li Miao's fist drilled under the sword blade and smashed hard onto the sword body!

*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 broken sword!" ===== CHAPTER 574 =====