“You don’t know your limits!”
Daoist Yan hadn’t expected that after such a battle, this young man would still underestimate him. Anger surged within him, and with a loud shout, he charged forward again, wielding the Nine Yang Talisman Sword which hissed and howled.
The void seemed to be crisscrossed with dozens of thin red threads, each thread a pure and concentrated manifestation of fire energy. Slight tremors caused flames to burst forth, engulfing several square feet of the forest in an instant, leaving no gaps.
However, the roaring flames couldn’t drown out the metallic clashing from within. Daoist Yan felt a slight tremor in his hand and saw a streak of green light shoot out from the sea of fire. It appeared to be a straight line but was actually subtly bending to avoid the sharp edge of the Nine Yang Talisman Sword, cleverly avoiding fatal damage.
Yu Ci, wrapped in the sword’s light, broke through the fire. Though his body was aflame in multiple places, even his hair and eyebrows weren’t spared, he was unharmed. Rolling on the ground, he quickly extinguished the flames.
But the danger hadn’t passed. Daoist Yan, relying on his talisman sword’s power, seized the initiative and changed his sword’s direction, pursuing the side-stepping Yu Ci. Abandoning any finesse, he simply relied on the sword’s sharpness to strike down.
This strike, though seemingly clumsy, was far more powerful than the previous large fire net. Yu Ci, however, neither dodged nor blocked. Driven by a deep, instinctual impulse, he reversed his grip on the sword, not parrying but instead thrusting directly at Daoist Yan’s face—a move for mutual destruction.
“You brat!” Daoist Yan was at a loss for words. He certainly wouldn’t die with this mortal boy and had to change his move mid-strike, diverting his sword to deflect Yu Ci’s.
Their swords collided, producing a sharp whistle in the air like a bamboo flute. This left Daoist Yan feeling stifled. He could see clearly that the Seven Star Talisman Sword was something Yu Ci had conjured using talismans and a mouthful of vital blood. How could it match his Nine Yang Talisman Sword, which had taken two years of painstaking refinement?
Damn it!
Fueled by this frustration, Daoist Yan’s desire to dismember Yu Ci increased, and his sword strikes grew more fierce and vicious. Yet, Yu Ci’s resilience surpassed his expectations. It was evident that Yu Ci’s swordsmanship was mediocre, without any sophisticated techniques, but strangely, despite the lack of form, even as wounds accumulated on his body, he consistently aimed at vital points, forcing Daoist Yan to defend himself.
This shouldn’t have been possible!
Talking about risking one’s life was easy; it was about attacking where the opponent had to defend, testing one’s courage. But how could one repeatedly dance on the edge of life and death without consuming all their courage? Let alone, in the process of exhausting one’s courage, accurately and swiftly threaten the opponent’s life each time.
Combining vision, technique, mind, and courage into a seamless whole, delivering dozens of flawless strikes—could he do it if placed in the same position?
Even if he had more refined control over his divine intent, he might still not be able to!
As this thought crept into his mind, Daoist Yan inevitably became distracted. Just as he slashed towards Yu Ci’s neck, Yu Ci slightly sidestepped, letting blood splash from his shoulder to create an opening, and thrust forward, the Seven Star Talisman Sword gleaming like a star aimed at Daoist Yan’s face.
Turning defense into offense! Yu Ci had finally seized the initiative.
His mind focused on the sword tip, with no hesitation, thrusting forward.
Since he was twelve, Yu Ci had learned swordsmanship from Immortal Chi Yin, fleeing a year later, leaving his foundation unstable. After wandering, with no renowned teacher’s guidance, his sword sk!lls were mediocre. But his extraordinary courage and different way of thinking, honed through countless fights and struggles, led him to understand:
Swordsmanship has its levels, cultivation its strengths, but in life and death, he and his opponent were absolutely equal. He didn’t compare swordsmanship or cultivation, but the moment of life and death, who could seize that sliver of chance.
Using courage to fight for a chance, exchanging death for life to grasp the initiative.
Life-and-death battles weren’t a means but the end! This was the essence of Yu Ci’s swordsmanship. After years of such sword fighting, if he hadn’t died, how could he not have mastered this integrated sword sk!ll?
Daoist Yan didn’t understand this but found himself in a real predicament. The cold wind from the sword nearly made him shut his eyes.
“Get lost!”
With a roar, Daoist Yan, in humiliation and anger, unleashed a k!ller move. The Nine Yang Talisman Sword in his hand vibrated violently, shooting out a spark which rapidly expanded, its internal flames swirling, reaching an extremely unstable state.
Yu Ci didn’t hesitate when he saw the situation, immediately retreating. He had barely withdrawn ten feet when a blinding red light burst forth, and a scorching wave of fire swept across, causing the air to suddenly expand. In the ensuing explosion, he was flung far away, crashing into a large tree before coming to a stop. The surging wave of fire followed, and he didn’t care about his image as he rolled and crawled behind the tree, curling up into a ball to barely shield himself from the flames.
The battlefield in the forest, covering about an acre, had turned into a blazing inferno, with thick smoke rising and heatwaves assaulting. The fire was still spreading.
Daoist Yan’s breathing was slightly irregular. The mountain wind and heat waves blew through, causing his hair bun to loosen and his hair to scatter, making him look extremely disheveled. He glared at the half-charred tree, his eyes red with anger.
Just a little more…
If he hadn’t used the fire talisman in time to divert the sword’s trajectory, the Seven Star Talisman Sword might have already pierced his forehead. At that moment, all his efforts with the Shrimp Whisker Grass and the Pure Yang Sword would have been in vain. Even though he had avoided it, having his hair bun cut open was an utter humiliation, and Daoist Yan was nearly exploding with rage.
He came from a distinguished background. Though his family had fallen from grace and could no longer restore their former glory, he was still a Divine Connectivity cultivator, a victor on the path to immortality. How could he be driven to such a state by a young upstart?
At that moment, Yu Ci peeked out from behind the tree and made eye contact with him. Daoist Yan suddenly noticed that in Yu Ci’s dark pupils, a fire was burning—not a fire of hatred or fear, but one of enjoyment, as if he was constantly seeking new thrills and pleasures, akin to the dazed intoxication after drinking, making it hard to extricate himself.
Daoist Yan shuddered, feeling a chill from his tailbone to the top of his head, extinguishing half of his anger. A thought flashed through his mind:
A menace, he will definitely be a menace in the future!
I must end him now!
With murderous intent boiling in his heart, Daoist Yan didn’t advance but made a strange movement instead.
With his hair disheveled, he held his sword in front of his chest and even half-closed his eyes. As he adjusted his breathing, the sword slowly leveled out.
Yu Ci panted behind the tree. The recent bout of swordplay had almost drained all his strength, his True Qi nearly exhausted, and his injuries were severe. Yet, he felt surprisingly well. Since he was thirteen, he had been accustomed to walking the edge of life and death. Such experiences hadn’t diminished his courage but had instead made his spirit more excited.
Since entering the upper levels of Enlightened Spirit, he hadn’t faced such a life-and-death situation in a long time. He even felt a bit nostalgic, and now that he had paused, he found himself unsatisfied. A peculiar force surged through him, replenishing his depleted True Qi, urging his heart to fight on and battle Daoist Yan for three hundred more rounds.
So, he peeked out from behind the tree to watch, through the distorted heatwaves, witnessing Daoist Yan’s entire process of closing his eyes and positioning his sword.
At this moment, the two were about a hundred feet apart, supposedly a relatively safe distance. But as the sword blade pointed at his head, without any reason, Yu Ci’s heart began to race wildly, just like when Daoist Yan had swung his sword by the campfire. This time, without the scent stimulation, purely by a vague instinct, he followed the direction of his body’s inclination and fell straight down. At the same time, driven by instinct, he placed the Seven Star Talisman Sword horizontally in front of him.
Before hitting the ground, his palm suddenly felt hot as if the Seven Star Talisman Sword had blocked something. But immediately after, his chest ached, and he involuntarily spat out blood. Glancing sideways, he saw that the vital blood talisman sword, which had just matched the Nine Yang Talisman Sword, had been cut in two. The tip of the sword exploded in mid-air, turning into a faint red blood mist.
It was only then that he heard a long “hiss,” like a red-hot brand being plunged into ice water, indistinguishable between hot and cold. The only thing clear was the sharpness emanating from it, capable of piercing any obstacle, impossible to resist.
“What technique is this? It seems like an induced sword Qi, but the power is more than ten times greater?”
With this confusion, Yu Ci crashed to the ground, finally inhaling the strong odor of scorched air—the scent of death.
His usually sharp sense of smell had lagged by a heartbeat. If not driven by instinct, he might have already been pierced by that invisible sword Qi, dead beyond measure!
Yu Ci struggled to lift his head and saw that Daoist Yan’s state was extremely strange. Despite achieving success with one strike, he maintained his sword-holding posture. The reddish sword body was no longer as radiant as before, appearing much more restrained. The sword tip drooped slightly, still aimed at his head.
Yu Ci naturally wanted to dodge the sword tip’s direction, but his internal organs were still in turmoil, making it impossible to move for a while. Straining with all his might, he only managed to shift his body a few inches. The distant Nine Yang Talisman Sword adjusted its angle simultaneously.
At that moment, he saw Daoist Yan’s eyes. Those large eyes were devoid of any divine light, with pupils dilated, empty and gray, as if he had lost his soul. Yet he clearly felt that Daoist Yan was still staring at him, seemingly projecting a “light” onto him through some incomprehensible means.
The feeling was so clear, even in the blazing inferno, that the touch of that “light,” its scorching heat far surpassed the surrounding heatwaves, like a red-hot iron needle piercing through his bones.
“He will k!ll me!”
Instinct and reason simultaneously echoed this warning. However, Yu Ci’s feelings at this moment were very strange. His chest felt as if it had been doused with boiling oil, burning painfully, but it certainly wasn’t the taste of fear.
This burning sensation served no other purpose than to force him to open his eyes wide, compelling him to find a way out of this sudden death trap.
Yu Ci stared at Daoist Yan. He was certain that this man was preparing to unleash another deadly attack just like before, except the interval between the attacks was somewhat long, and his posture for gathering strength was full of flaws. If Yu Ci had the strength to charge now, he would undoubtedly rush forward without hesitation and chop off that villain’s head. But now, his recovery speed was clearly unable to match the speed of his opponent’s energy accumulation.
The two were ten feet apart. In Yu Ci’s hand, there was only a broken Seven Star Talisman Sword. Even if his arm were ten times longer, he couldn’t reach the enemy, but for that invisible sword Qi, distance was no issue.
This was a deadlock, but he wanted to survive. So, all problems boiled down to one sentence: k!ll Daoist Yan before he could release his sword Qi!
When it comes to life and death, everything becomes simple. This is the choice he is best at!
He didn’t know how he mustered the strength, but half of the Seven Star Talisman Sword flew from his hand!
At this moment, he saw the sword light of the Nine Yang Talisman Sword brightening to a near-dazzling brilliance.
Yu Ci didn’t think about what would happen if the invisible sword Qi struck him, nor did he consider the lethality of hurling a broken sword without any aim. At this moment, all his thoughts broke off, leaving only a single inexplicable idea:
That Daoist in front, k!ll him!
In that instant, his pupils also dilated, and all the light and shadows around him imprinted within, passing through his heart like clear water. Yu Ci suddenly felt that everything around him quieted down, yet his body was vibrating, like the pulsation of blood, but at a more peculiar frequency.
Then, he found the true pulse, with his blood beating like war drums due to the impact of the sword Qi. Simultaneously, the vibration that had just arisen continued to demonstrate its power.
It was as if he suddenly gained an extra heart, or perhaps an additional “self.”
The strange feeling continued, slowly or perhaps in an extremely brief moment, the once-familiar pulse of blood receded into the background, naturally masking the physical pain, leaving only the new “self” expanding infinitely. Using an indescribable method, it connected with the surrounding world, extracting unimaginable complex information from the environment and feeding it back to his brain.
His brain had ceased functioning and couldn’t comprehend any of this, yet there was an inexplicable joy. The feeling of confusion and clarity intertwined, ultimately forming a chaotic state, with only a single spark of inspiration hanging in the air, guiding him back to the simplest thought:
That Daoist in front, k!ll him!
Once this thought arose, it was as if the gods responded!
Within the chaos, an infinite void suddenly opened, with countless stars shining brightly. Among them, several stars, as large as eggs and as bright as jade, cast their light down. With such a response, the flying half of the Seven Star Talisman Sword suddenly radiated brilliance, its green light and blood shadows swirling like smoke and mist. Then, its speed abruptly increased, transforming into a blurred rainbow light, flashing past Daoist Yan’s neck.
Daoist Yan didn’t even attempt to block, truly full of flaws.
Then, his head fell off.