Chapter 156 - The Boundary of Sword Will

Su Ming was forced to retreat step by step through the air. The pressure was suffocating. His meridians burned, and his breath became ragged. Every strike rattled him to his bones.

He was being pushed past his limit.

Su Ming circulated the Primordial Yang Sovereign Body Art to its peak.

His heart pounded like a war drum. Deep inside his flesh, the physique responded to the mortal danger. His skin transformed to dark crimson, and two tiny horns emerged from his temples, piercing through his black hair. A terrifying aura leaked from his body.

Demonic Ancestor Mo froze mid-strike. His blood-red eyes widened in shock.

"This aura... a demonic transformation?"

Demonic Ancestor Mo stared at the horns on Su Ming’s brow and the crimson skin, then threw his head back and laughed.

"Hahaha! What righteous peak master? What sword genius? In the end, you are one of us!"

Demonic Ancestor Mo lowered his blade slightly, a greedy smile curling his lips. "Why die for the Heavenly Cloud Sect? Join me! With your talent and my experience, we can rule this world together!"

Su Ming took a ragged breath. He teleported some distance away, reining in the wild surge of his body cultivation.

He suppressed the demonic transformation, the bone horns sinking beneath his scalp as his skin returned to normal.

He spat a mouthful of dark blood into the wind.

"Shut up. You talk too much!"

Demonic Ancestor Mo’s smile vanished, replaced by a murderous gaze.

"Be it then! Die with your righteous trash!"

Demonic Ancestor Mo lunged forward, the Blood Moon Sabre slicing through the air straight toward Su Ming’s throat.

Su Ming did not retreat.

He knew he could not outlast this ancient monster in a battle of attrition. He needed one clean chance.

Su Ming twisted his upper body slightly to the right.

Squelch!

The Saint-grade sabre plunged straight through Su Ming’s left shoulder.

Foul yellow water sizzled into his flesh, sending unbearable pain through his nerves. Blood sprayed across the sky, staining the demonic ancestor’s pale face.

Demonic Ancestor Mo smirked. "Got you."

In that fraction of a breath, as death pressed against his neck, time seemed to halt.

Vivid memories flashed through Su Ming’s mind.

He saw the central courtyard of White Lotus Peak under the setting sun. He remembered two months of relentless sparring with Jian Wushen. His sworn brother had once entered that mysterious realm of Sword Intent during their spars, yet could neither hold it for more than a single breath nor explain the sensation to Su Ming.

He remembered asking Ancestor Sky Sovereign about his own sword path and how to cross the boundary from Sword Will to Sword Intent, only to receive cryptic words that made no sense at the time.

He remembered the pure Sword Will Demonic Ancestor Mo had unleashed during their fight.

In the face of death, the scattered thoughts all came crashing together.

’Sword Will is mind’s intent.’

’Sword Intent is the Dao itself.’

Inside his soul sea, the Twilight Nether Lantern flared with brilliant light. A thick stream of Samsara Resin dissolved into pure enlightenment.

Essence Sight and the Halo of Insight activated simultaneously.

His Annihilation Sword Will reached its peak. For half a breath, Su Ming experienced the realm across the unsurpassable boundary.

Annihilation Sword Intent!

Su Ming opened his eyes.

"Did you?" Su Ming smirked.

A terrifying aura wrapped around the Dragon Emperor Sword. The fractured blade did not glow with flashy light, but the space around its edges seemed to cease to exist.

Demonic Ancestor Mo’s eyes widened in sheer terror. "Sword... Intent?!"

Before Demonic Ancestor Mo could pull his sabre from Su Ming’s shoulder, Su Ming thrust the Dragon Emperor Sword forward.

The blade pierced straight through Chen Wuhen’s chest.

’True Dragon Extinction Singularity!’, Su Ming muttered.

A microscopic black dot formed deep within Chen Wuhen’s chest. Inside Su Ming’s soul, the Void Dragon Soul roared with primal fury as his Dragon Will flared to its limit, collapsing into the point.

Demonic Ancestor Mo’s pupils dilated. In a desperate struggle, he tried to pull away from Su Ming.

Boom!

A silent shockwave ripped through the sky.

The expanding void swallowed his right side. Chen Wuhen’s right chest, shoulder, arm, and half of his face vanished into nothingness. The sabre hilt and his grasping hand were erased, leaving only the broken blade that was still stuck through Su Ming’s shoulder. Even the front half of the Dragon Emperor Sword was consumed by the void.

The light in Chen Wuhen’s eyes faded as he coughed a mouthful of dark blood onto his chest.

Su Ming pulled his remaining sword back with trembling fingers.

Every drop of his spiritual Qi was gone. The strain on his body and soul made his vision blur.

His grip loosened as the broken Dragon Emperor Sword slipped from his fingers and he lost consciousness, his body plummeting toward the basin floor below.

***

Down across the subterranean basin floor, the chaotic battle raged with fury.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Peak Master Lei Zhenwu swept his Saint Grade Thunder Halberd in a broad defensive arc, deflecting another barrage of molten fist strikes from the Tiger Demon. Sparks exploded against his dark-steel armor, forcing him back across the valley. Arcs of silver-blue True Stellar Meteor Lightning flickered along his heavy frame, anchoring his footing amidst the relentless attacks.

He could easily obliterate the entire valley with a single swing of his weapon.

Yet he was forced to play defensive.

Twenty Heavenly Cloud Sect elders swarmed around him with lifeless eyes, their limbs jerked like wooden marionettes by the threads of Elder Yun Song. The eight-armed Yin-Flesh Puppet also moved in sync with them. Every time Lei Zhenwu attempted a counterattack, Yun Song shoved the elders into the halberd’s path as living shields.

From the flank, the Tiger Demon pressed with explosive molten punches in its Flame Lord Armor while Yan Jingshu shot condensed beams of corrupt blood and death with the Profound Reversal Mirror.

Pinned between protecting his brethren and defending against the assault from multiple fronts, Lei Zhenwu was forced to continuously pull his strikes back.