Chapter 273 - 299: Sword Crumbles Chu An

The two Daoists, one tall and one short, felt their Heart Spirits tremble as they instinctively looked toward the source of the sound.

There, on the mountainside where the morning sun streamed down, a young man in white robes strode forward, his steps as swift as the wind.

An invisible barrier seemed to surround his body, shimmering with a faint Divine Light that blocked the sweeping, torrential sword light.

SWOOSH!

Chu An controlled his Flying Sword, letting it circle Lonely Mountain, ready to strike at any moment. Its entire body pulsed with a blinding, silvery-white sword light.

On the mountain, Chu An’s expression was grave, his gaze flickering with uncertainty.

"Who are you?"

Su Bai flicked a finger, batting away another wave of Sword Qi, and raised his other hand.

A golden radiance bloomed in an instant, gathering to form a Spirit Light Mirror.

Reflected in the Spirit Light Mirror was Chen Tianhua’s face, as black as thunder.

Through Su Bai’s methods, every single word Chu An had just spoken reached Chen Tianhua’s ears, loud and clear.

"Daoist Chen, did you hear that clearly?"

Su Bai asked coolly.

With the current strength of his Divine Thoughts, all it took was a small trick to subtly influence Chu An’s Heart Spirit, making him speak his true thoughts aloud.

This was a technique he had comprehended from the Celestial Eye Divine Techniques.

However, this was only possible because Chu An’s Divine Thoughts were a level below his own. An expert whose Divine Thoughts were on par with his would naturally not have been affected.

As for that Qingming Daoist, Chen Tianhua, he held a Divine Position and was thus under the unseen protection of the Dayu Immortal Dynasty. Su Bai’s little tricks were useless against him.

"Chen Tianhua!?"

Chu An’s face fell. Seeing Chen Tianhua in the Spirit Light Mirror, he nearly coughed up a mouthful of old blood.

"Good! Very good!"

In the Spirit Light Mirror, Chen Tianhua spoke coldly.

"Your Gui Chen Sect steals our Incense, and you’re still not satisfied. Now you want to seize the very foundation of our extended lives!"

"I will report this matter, word for word, to Taixu True Master, and then submit it to the Lord of the State."

"We’ll see just how impressive your Gui Chen Sect is then!"

"Chen Tianhua!"

Chu An’s expression was ghastly, his chest heaving. He wanted to say something, but no words would come out.

It was one thing to say such things behind someone’s back, but now that he had been overheard, how could he possibly argue?

How could he explain?

In mid-air, the Flying Sword hummed, pulsing with torrential sword light. The sheer intensity of the Evil Qi it unleashed shot straight into the clouds!

"Qingming Daoist, Qingming Daoist! This is all a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding!"

The tall and short Daoists felt their scalps go numb with terror and hurriedly cried out.

"A misunderstanding?"

"Heh... I’ll be waiting for you to come and seize my Divine Position!"

Chen Tianhua shot Chu An one last cold glare before severing the connection to the Spirit Light Mirror.

A dragon has a Reversed Scale—touch it, and you die. For Daoists who already had little time left, a Divine Position from the Immortal Dynasty was just like that Reversed Scale.

A decrease in Incense was tolerable, but without their Divine Positions from the Immortal Dynasty, they would instantly become wandering ghosts, their souls shattered and scattered, their bodies dead, and their Dao extinguished.

If he could hear such words and remain completely impassive, his mental fortitude would have to be vast enough to contain mountains and oceans.

’Dammit! This is big trouble...’

The two Daoists’ hearts pounded in their chests, and they were filled with dread.

If this matter got out and was heard by all the Daoists in the world who had been granted Divine Positions...

No matter how much they feared the Gui Chen Sect, they would likely unite to resist.

Once an investigation began, they would surely be unable to escape death.

And if the two sides went to war, they would be nothing more than cannon fodder sent to their deaths. Even if war was averted, they would be thrown to the wolves to appease the other side’s anger.

*Huff!*

Chu An took a deep breath. With a flick of his wrist, the silvery-white Flying Sword flew into his hand. A near-tangible Sword Intent erupted from his body, soaring to the heavens, and the whistling cry of the blade sounded like a series of dragon roars.

He looked at Su Bai, his heart surging with cold fury.

"Just who are you?"

In just a few moments, he seemed to have calmed down, but in reality, the killing intent in his heart had reached its absolute peak.

But he couldn’t for the life of him figure out how this man had done it.

He was a Sword Cultivator. While he didn’t cultivate the Ten Thousand Laws and his Divine Thoughts were only average, he could shatter the Ten Thousand Laws with a single stroke of his sword. It was incredibly difficult for any Evil Ghost Technique to affect him.

He would have sensed any such an invasion instantly.

A typical Void Realm expert would be completely incapable of invading his mind so silently.

Su Bai’s gaze swept over the three Daoists present. In his perception, besides Chu An, who possessed a Seven-Star Sin, the sin on the other two Daoists was even more severe.

The blood-red light of their sins was so overwhelming it was practically tangible, surging to the heavens.

These two Daoists’ Cultivation was not strong, yet their Sin Value was as high as Eight-Star.

One could only imagine what kind of trash these so-called higher-ups of the Gui Chen Sect truly were.

Hearing Chu An’s question, Su Bai retracted his gaze. With a beckoning motion of his right hand, he casually picked up a cyan Iron Sword from within the Daoist Temple.

"A dead man has no need to know."

’Just an Iron Sword?’

A trace of astonishment appeared in the eyes of the three men on the mountain.

They could, of course, tell that the cyan Iron Sword in his hand was merely a standard-issue weapon used by the Daoist Temple’s entry-level disciples, not some powerful artifact.

But the three of them didn’t dare to be careless. The man’s aura was too powerful; just by standing there calmly, he seemed as immovable as a towering mountain peak—deep and unfathomable.

"A dead man?"

Chu An snorted coldly, tightening his grip on his longsword. Behind him, a display unfolded like a peacock’s tail.

Streaks of blood-red, malevolent Sword Aura illuminated the entire Lonely Mountain.

"My Gui Chen Sect is entrenched in Yu Province, our might overwhelming the Four Seas and Eight Desolates. Our Sect Leader is a supreme Feathered expert of world-shaking divine power. Your path of cultivation has not been easy. Do you truly insist on making an enemy of us?"

A Sword Cultivator’s intuition is exceptionally sharp. He had cultivated for a hundred years, and his sword-heart was meant to be pure and clear.

But upon seeing this white-robed young man, his sword-heart felt as if it had been covered in dust. He didn’t dare to make an enemy of him, and his own heart was wracked with a profound sense of crisis.

Otherwise, with his temperament, he would have attacked with his sword long ago.

Why would he still be wasting time with words?

"I thought you were going to say that no one in heaven or on earth could save me, and that my death was certain."

Su Bai chuckled, flicking the blade with his finger. The three-foot sword released an invisible ripple.

"Even now, you’re still trying to use your backer to save your own skin? Should I call you pathetic, or laughable?"

BUZZ!

Before his words had even faded,

The invisible ripple that had spread out surged instantly toward the tall and short Daoists.

"Oh no! Elder, save me!"

"AHH!!"

They only had time to let out a blood-curdling scream before that mere sliver of a ripple—one that stirred the very power of heaven and earth—completely shattered their bodies and Divine Spirits.

Their physical bodies disintegrated, their Divine Spirits torn asunder!

They faded completely into nothingness.

On the mountain peak, Chu An’s face twisted in shock and rage. He threw his head back and let out a long roar, raising his sword high as its light surged violently.

Like a cascading waterfall!

"Then we fight!"

"To the death!"

RUMBLE!

In an instant, the sword light swelled, becoming like the celestial Tian He river, rolling down from the heavens.

One sword was unleashed, and ten thousand followed.

Moreover, the countless beams of sword light did not scatter. Instead, they crisscrossed and wove together, swiftly converging into a long dragon made of sword light that roared in the clouds!

"DIE!!"

With Chu An’s furious roar,

the long dragon of sword light struck!

Su Bai glanced up.

He saw that the dragon of sword light was astonishingly lifelike. The whistling beams of light that formed its body were woven even more densely than the finest scales in all the world, making it look like a true Divine Dragon diving down from above.

He had, in fact, heard of this sword technique. It was the third form of the Nine Swords of Gui Chen: Celestial Dragon’s Roar!

And just as the long dragon of sword light was about to come screaming down,

Su Bai flicked his sword and leaped into the air!

BOOM!

It was as if endless thunderclaps had detonated in all directions.

"This... this sword..."

Bathed in the glow of a golden sword light, Chu An’s pupils contracted.

This single beam of sword light carried with it an immeasurable amount of Heaven and Earth Essence Qi, and it seemed to contain an entire world within.

In a daze, he saw within this one strike boundless mountains and rivers, gentle breezes, fish and insects, birds and beasts, the sun, the moon, and the stars.

Then, the strike manifested as a massive world-within-the-sword that came bearing down upon him!

In that instant, a chill shot through his heart. The True Qi in his body erupted from his fingertips, stirring the ambient power of the world around him as he tried to contend with the strike.

KCHAAANG!!

However, the golden sword light instantly tore apart the diving dragon of sword light.

The mountains shook, and the vegetation turned to ash. For a moment, the world between heaven and earth became an ocean of swords.

An infinite light blotted out everything.

When the light finally dissipated, the longsword in Su Bai’s hand had already shattered inch by inch, turning to dust.

"When it comes to a battle to the death, you’re still a step behind."

Hearing Su Bai’s words, Chu An no longer reacted.

His five fingers trembled as they reached forward. Blood dripped from his entire body, and the light in his eyes gradually dimmed.

"I... refuse to accept this..."

The moment the words left his lips, his Divine Spirit dissipated.

Slain by a single sword strike!

WHOOSH!

With a single movement, Su Bai appeared on the shattered mountain peak.

Before him, Chu An remained standing, but the divine light in his eyes had already vanished.

"A little interesting."

Su Bai glanced over, his expression flickering slightly. He reached out and grabbed at the empty air, and a ball of green light appeared in his palm.

In the final moment before Chu An’s Divine Spirit dissipated, some kind of anomaly seemed to have occurred.

A sliver of his Divine Spirit had managed to escape.

That Elder Hui De had a trump card up his sleeve; as the leader of a branch sect, Chu An naturally had one as well.

’But my sword shattered his protective talisman. He only had time to escape with a sliver of his soul. Even if he’s saved, he’ll just be a mindless, wandering ghost.’

Su Bai smiled indifferently and crushed the green flame in his hand.

’I wonder if that Leader of Gui Chen Sect has any way to repair his Divine Spirit?’

...

「Yu Province, Gui Chen Sect Headquarters.」

「Within a small courtyard.」

A Little Daoist Child was carefully sweeping the courtyard when he suddenly heard a strange noise from inside the house. He froze, a stunned look on his face.

Then, his expression changed drastically.

’Oh no! Don’t tell me a rat knocked over the Soul Lamps of the masters and grandmasters?’

Panicked, he scrambled into the house.

The room was very ordinary and unremarkable, but inside were the Soul Lamps of many of the Gui Chen Sect’s higher-ups.

As soon as he entered, he saw that in the fourth row, the third Soul Lamp from the right had been extinguished and had toppled over.

Seeing this,

his heart went cold with dread, and he cried out in terror.

"Chu An... Master Chu An’s Soul Lamp is out!"