Chapter 50: Nine Strokes Sword Art
Chapter 50: Nine Strokes Sword Art
Tianyi looked below at the collapsed mountain as he rubbed his face. He saw the countless injured bodies and corpses below him and he couldn’t help but feel awkward. Strictly speaking, he did not have a deep hatred for the Bliss Earth Sect, the two Protectors that had offended him, he had already killed. Not that the Bliss Earth Sect needed to know that.
His hands formed several hand seals as he recalled a technique inscribed upon the stone stele, Mortal Reversal Art. It was a technique that allowed one to heal from their wounds by reversing time, but it was only suitable to heal those weaker than the user and those who hadn’t ascended to the immortal realm.
There was also another requirement, that was to call upon the power of the River of Time. But Tianyi had a Sea of Time in his pendant and under his control, silver strands emerged from his pendant and attached themselves to all the members of the Bless Earth Sect; their injuries began to heal at a visible rate.
After Tianyi healed all the disciples the Nascent Soul Grandmaster burst out of the rumble and headed straight for Tianyi.
“Give this old man your life!”
Tianyi felt his lips twitch, it just so happened that he attacked after Tianyi healed them all. Was there such a coincidence in the world?
Tianyi’s hand formed a flat blade and just as the old Nascent Soul Grandmaster reached Tianyi, Tianyi chopped down. Tianyi’s hand became like Pangu’s axe and cleaved downward, separating the primordial world into heaven and earth. The Nascent Soul Grandmaster felt as if his body was splitting into by itself without any external influence. Gritting his teeth, he crossed both of his arms in front of him, having no time for any other action and his attack long forgotten.
Then he felt pain, indescribable pain.
Tianyi’s hand sheared through the Nascent Soul Grandmaster’s arms like a hot knife through butter. But after severing both arms, Tianyi’s hands clenched into a fist and hammered the Nascent Soul Grandmaster’s defenseless chest. With a strangled cry, the Nascent Soul Grandmaster was sent careening into the ground and created a new hole. His arms, now stumps, weren’t bleeding but that was more because of Tianyi instead of the unconscious Nascent Soul Grandmaster.
Tianyi glanced around the collapsed mountain, none of the Bliss Earth Sect members dared to meet his eyes.
“I had expected the Roving Dragon to be here, but it seems that he did not think it was worth his time to come here.” Tianyi calmly said. “Since that is the case, then I will leave first.
Just as he said he would, Tianyi controlled the flying sword he was on to soar into the distance.
The remaining Bliss Earth Sects looked at one another. Have them stop that calamity? Wasn’t that just asking them to die? Even if all of them banded together, they did not have the confidence to take down Tianyi. Especially the Core Formation Masters, some of who recognized the now miserable figure of the Nascent Soul Elder that had been dispatched by Tianyi in one strike. Who would dare go against someone who could crush a mythical Nascent Soul Grandmaster in one strike?
The members of the Bliss Earth Sect all could only watch with complicated gazes as Tianyi disappeared into the distance.
Bai Tiezi roared as he thrust his spear forward, the spear was like a flood dragon leaving the water, unstoppable.
The Foundation Establishment realm cultivator in front of Bai Tiezi could not deflect the attack in time and his body was pierced through. Not just him, but Bai Tiezi continued to charge forward and his spear pierced through two more people before Bai Tiezi swung the spear and disposed of the three corpses.
This was the scene that Tianyi had arrived at. When he left Bai Tiezi, he had left a tracking formation on Bai Tiezi, unknown to him.
Tianyi was standing in the sky atop his flying sword, looking down at the whole scene. With his eyes and viewpoint, he could see that this road was en route to the Bliss Earth Sect, Just a few more days and the procession would reach the Bliss Earth Sect, Tianyi even spotted the girl that Bai Tiezi pined after.
She along with tens of other girls were gathered in one place, guarded by over ten Foundation Establishment realm cultivators. Tianyi understood the reason why Bai Tiezi chose this moment to attack, if he did not attack now then he would have to wait until years or perhaps decades later before being able to rescue his beloved.
Although the chance of rescuing his beloved here was slim, the chance was not zero as he had reached the Spiritual Pillar Foundation Establishment realm. Coupled with the Unwavering Dragon Spear Art and the cultivation method Tianyi taught him, his foundation was greater than the Foundation Establishment members of the Bliss Earth Sect. The amount of power he was able to unleash was also greater than the average cultivator on the island too.
Tianyi was content to watch the show, and as he had expected. The more perilous situation Bai Tiezi was in, the greater the strength he exuded, through each strike his combat techniques were polished.
The members of the Bliss Earth Sect were the perfect whetstone for Bai Tiezi to digest everything he had learned from Tianyi. If Bai Tiezi learned at a snail’s pace with Tianyi, then right now he was learning as fast as a dragon soaring into the sky. Tianyi couldn’t help but question his teaching ability.
Perhaps teaching by direct combat like his mother did for him, was not the most optimum method.
Tianyi shrugged, it was only his first time actually teaching someone like this. Perhaps once he reached the Nascent Soul realm and at the next Disciple Acceptance Ceremony, he would get a disciple. Tianyi’s musing was brought out as a snort reverberated through the sky. The members of the Bliss Earth Sect showed joy upon their faces as they craned their necks to look at the black-robed figure standing in the sky. But the black-robed figure did not look at the figures on the ground and instead looked at the area in the air where Tianyi was.
“Show yourself.” The voice was majestic and had the tone of an overlord that ruled over all. Tianyi’s pupils shrunk when he saw the black-robed standing in the air.
When a cultivator reached the Nascent Soul realm, they were able to solidify air under their feet into a solid platform for them to walk on, no longer needing an artifact to travel through the air. Tianyi wasn’t in the Nascent Soul realm, but his soul had reached that threshold, and the evolution of a cultivator’s soul was why they were able to step on air. Although it wasn’t as powerful as the genuine ability, it was enough.
Step by step, like he was descending down a flight of stairs Tianyi slowly walked down towards the Sect Master of the Bliss Earth Sect, Roving Dragon. With each step, the majestic tribulation aura within him was released and he was like a heavenly monarch descending into the mortal realm. Soon he was face to face with Roving Dragon.
Roving Dragon had a sneer on his face, but Tianyi’s eyes were just ice cold. His gaze flickered towards the girls at the ground before looking at Roving Dragon again.
“Those girls wouldn’t happen to have Water Spiritual Veins, would they?”
Roving Dragon’s pupils shrunk as he heard Tianyi’s words, but he gave no other indication otherwise.
“I did not expect the infamous figure to cause the collapse of the legacy site to be so young and at such a realm. But this is my Bliss Earth Sect’s territory, not someplace you can cause a ruckus as you like.” Roving Dragon’s face was that of a handsome man in his mid-twenties, he appeared rather young and didn’t have the air of steadiness a several hundred years old cultivator should have. It could be said that he was still filled with the hot-blooded passion of youth.
Tianyi looked at the familiar face that was across from him and said nothing as images of the tragic fate of Daoyi flashed through his mind.
“You must also be the one who killed the two Protectors, aside from you there is no one else able to kill them in such a short time.” Roving Dragon took Tianyi’s silence as admission as he revealed the hidden intent that had been hiding in his eyes. His fist shot out like a cannonball towards Tianyi.
Tianyi wasn’t one to back down either and he also unleashed a punch, this was a fist art from the Dragon Emperor Fist manual, its movement mirrored that of Roving Dragon’s punch.
When the two first clashed, shockwaves erupted from the impact, and Tianyi was sent back several tens of steps. Roving Dragon was only slightly better as he was forced back ten steps. His right hand tingled and he felt as if a mountain had crashed into his hand. An unprecedented solemnity appeared on his face, ever since he had entered the Nascent Soul realm hundreds of years ago, there had been no one who could contend with him. And now appeared a youth who was of a lower realm than him, but could contend with his fist head-on.
Roving Dragon naturally guessed that it was the work of the inheritance in the legacy site. In his eyes, although Tianyi could defeat Core Formation Masters, against a Nascent Soul Grandmaster, he was still lacking in many areas.
Roving Dragon took out two black gloves with white plates and wore them on his hand. They were his Dragon Scale Gloves, a Nascent Soul ranked artifact that he had forged using his own blood and bones.
Tianyi despite being forced back even more than Roving Dragon, his hand didn’t tingle at all, and only at the moment of impact did his skin ripple. The force from the attack had traveled inside his body and was dispersed by the true qi of chaos and the large space within. But with his Tianyi could tell in terms of martial prowess, although he would not lose, he could not defeat Roving Dragon with his fists alone. So he reached out and grabbed the flying sword, instantly a sphere appeared with Tianyi at the center. It resembled the void, but it was filled with countless stars and there were even hints of celestial objects.
Tianyi ran towards Roving Dragon and unleashed a slash that Roving Dragon blocked with the back of his gloves, sparks cascading off from the impact. Tianyi’s attacks were swift and fierce and instantly he unleashed a total of five strikes, but Roving Dragon blocked them all with ease.
Just as Tianyi backed up, Roving Dragon was about to rush forward to change the tempo of the battle but his instincts screamed at him. Roving Dragon immediately dodged to the side as Tianyi thrust his sword forward for a piercing strike.
“Kill (杀)”
It was only a single word. But with that word, Tianyi’s sword strike was filled with a murderous aura as if it would exterminate all life that it pierced.
Roving Dragon had a cold sweat run down his temples as he narrowly dodged that attack. He could feel his body stiffen and slow down within this special area of Tianyi, but he was a martial cultivator so he could only resist against the compressive aura to engage with close combat against Tianyi.
Tianyi immediately turned to attack Roving Dragon again. This time Roving Dragon was prepared and in the eleven sword strikes, Tianyi unleashed he blocked and deflected a few of them, unleashing his own attacks that Tianyi dodged. But on the twelfth strike, that ominous feeling appeared again and Roving Dragon suddenly jumped to the side to avoid Tianyi’s downward slash that he used two hands to execute.
“Slaughter (屠)”
An aura of slaughter had covered the blade Tianyi said and unleashed his attack. Roving Dragon finally found a pattern to Tianyi’s attack but this just made him even more vigilant.
Earlier, Tianyi’s Kill sword strike was unleashed on the sixth move and the character for “kill” needed six strokes to complete, corresponding to the number of strikes Tianyi unleashed. The slaughter strike was the same.
The limit to Tianyi’s move was only suppressed by his own imagination and the number of characters in the world.
A golden aura began to cover Roving Dragon’s body and dragon roars could be heard. It covered him like a golden armor and he became a human-size dragon temporarily. Tianyi frowned as he could feel his Sword Formation as the World’s power weakened.
Tianyi still chose to engage with Roving Dragon, but Tianyi felt more suppressed even within this formation, and only after suffering numerous light scratches was Tianyi able to unleash his final strike for another character.
“Cage (笼)”
Roving Dragon paused but he continued his attack, even though he was confused why Tianyi’s tenth strike didn’t have any attacking power. Whatever the purpose, for Roving Dragon it was not a good thing. He could discern that Tianyi’s qi reserve wasn’t dropping at all and this created a sense of urgency within him.
His golden dragon armor expended a large amount of his qi constantly. It was a flawed and incomplete technique, if it was complete he would only need to use a set amount of qi. He would not need to expend anymore to maintain it unless it was damaged.
Tianyi reengaged Roving Dragon and after his fifth strike, he said.
“Dragon (笼)”
Upon hearing that word, Roving Dragon’s instinct screamed at him. His attacks became even fiercer and he even ignored some of Tianyi’s sword strikes just to land a blow on Tianyi. After Tianyi’s fourth strike, a sense of annihilation Roving Dragon never felt before came upon him.
He decisively disengaged from Tianyi and attempted to leave Tianyi’s Sword Formation as the World. But upon coming into contact into the edge, he felt an invisible cage blocking his way. He roared furiously and punched the cage. But before he could unleash his second punch, Tianyi was already behind. He grasped his sword with two hands as it emitted a murderous red light and slashed downward.
“Extermination (灭)”
Roving Dragon gave a bestial roar as a red aura appeared on his body and he unleashed two of the most powerful punches in his life, side by side. But Tianyi’s sword sliced through his fist and cleaved his body in half.
Dragon Extermination, for a person who cultivated the Dragon Emperor Fist who cultivated to make themselves a human-shaped dragon, this was extremely lethal. It was even more so for Roving Dragon who had on his golden dragon armor, that technique just unleashed the lethality of Dragon Extermination even more.
The two halves fell towards the ground. The overlord of Tianwei Continent died just like that.