Chapter 69: Heaven-Splitting Strike

"Let’s see what the Prince was hiding!" Barry said out loud.

He stepped past the gates and walked inside the new room. Suzy followed right behind him. The room was incredibly large and quiet. There were no piles of gold or random coins on the ground. Instead, the area was filled with rows of neat shelves containing thousands of glowing spiritual stones. The air inside the chamber was very dense with Spiritual Qi.

Right in the middle of the room, a smooth platform stood on the floor. A crystal ball was hovering just a few inches above the platform. Inside the crystal ball, a golden scroll was floating completely still.

Barry walked over to the center platform to inspect it. The moment he looked at the golden scroll, a clear system screen appeared right in front of his vision.

[System Alert: You have discovered a legendary technique scroll — ’Heaven-Splitting Sword Strike’!]

[Description: A supreme offensive technique created by an ancient expert. It allows the user to gather all their spiritual energy into a single point, executing a strike that can cut through solid mountains.]

[Requirement: Ascendant Core & Basic Sword Intent.]

[Would you like to comprehend this technique?]

Suzy walked up to the edge of the platform and looked at the floating scroll. She looked shocked by the amount of power coming from it. "What rank is this technique, Barry? The energy coming off it is completely different from anything I have felt before."

" it is a ancient technique," Barry replied, looking at the choices on the screen. "I am going to learn it right now."

Barry sat down cross-legged on the floor right in front of the platform and closed his eyes to focus. Instantly, thousands of simple cultivation lines and memory frames rushed into his mind, showing the exact energy pathways and body balance required to execute the attack. While ordinary cultivators would take decades to understand even a single layer of a legendary technique, Barry’s screen began to blink rapidly.

[Comprehension complete! You have successfully mastered the first layer of ’Heaven-Splitting Sword Strike’!]

Barry opened his eyes and stood up, moving his hand down to grip his sword. The knowledge felt completely natural in his mind, as if he had practiced the stance for his entire life.

However, before they could even move toward the high shelves to collect the spiritual stones, the ground beneath their feet began to shake. The smbricks at the back of the hall shifted apart, and a massive stone guardian rose from the floor. The construct was twelve feet tall, its eyes flaring with a deep crimson light as it locked onto their positions.

"Intruders will be eliminated," the stone sentinel grunted, its hand reaching out to grab a large battleaxe from the wall rack.

Suzy immediately raised her weapon, her face turning serious. "Barry, this construct has an incredibly high defense . Regular physical attacks won’t be able to break its armor."

Barry took a stance, a calm smile showing on his face as he drew his sword. "Don’t worry. I just learned the perfect tool to clear this room."

The stone sentinel took a step forward, its massive body causing the entire floor to vibrate. It lifted the battleaxe high above its shoulder and brought it down toward Barry’s head with incredible speed. The pure physical force of the strike cut through the air, creating a loud whistling sound before it even hit the ground.

Barry didn’t try to run away or dodge. He wanted to see exactly how powerful the first layer of his new technique truly was. He held his sword with both hands, planting his feet firmly into the smooth floor panels.

"Let’s try this," Barry muttered.

He closed his eyes for a second, allowing his core energy to flood into the sword’s internal channels. The sword began to vibrate smoothly, absorbing his spiritual energy like a sponge. In less than a second, a invisible aura began to form around the edge of the sword, expanding outward until it reached three feet in length.

[System Alert: You are channeling 40% of your current spiritual energy pool into the ’Heaven-Splitting Sword Strike’!]

The moment the battleaxe was about to strike his neck, Barry opened his eyes and swung his sword upward in a straight, simple line.

A massive wave of golden light erupted from the edge of his sword, shooting straight toward the ceiling. The golden light was so dense that it completely filled the dark hall, blinding the stone sentinel’s red eyes instantly. The two attacks clashed in the middle of the air.

Snap!

The heavy battleaxe split down the center like a piece of dry firewood, its pieces flying across the room and smashing into the weapon shelves. But the golden light from Barry’s sword didn’t stop there. It carried straight through the sentinel’s chest armor, cutting the twelve-foot stone monster completely in half from its shoulder down to its waist.

The stone sentinel froze mid-movement, its red eye light blinking twice before turning off completely. The two halves of its massive body fell to the floor with a thud, crumbling into a large pile of regular sand and grey gravel.

Barry let out a slow breath, looking down at his sword. The edge of the steel was completely clean, with no scratches or marks on it from the clash.

[System Notification: You have successfully defeated the Vault Sentinel!]

[Experience points allocated to your transformation panel. Current breakthrough progress: 85%.]

"That was just forty percent of the energy pool," Barry said to himself, his mind analyzing the efficiency of the strike. "If I use the full one hundred percent of my core power, the strain will definitely tear through my arm pathways, but the destructive output will be enough to wipe out an entire fortress wall in a single hit. I have to keep this as a strict trump card ."

Suzy walked over to his side, her weapon lowered as she stared at the massive pile of sand on the floor. She looked completely stunned by what she had just witnessed. "You... you destroyed a Tier 4 construct in less than two seconds without even using a single defensive skill. What kind of heritage did that old Prince leave behind in this scroll?"

"It didn’t belongs to King and i don’t think he even about this properly or ," Barry said, turning around to look at the rows of shelves. "He just locked it away because his own spiritual pathways were too weak to handle the ledger lines. Now, let’s collect these spiritual stones before the other two kings arrive at the crevice entrance."

Suzy nodded quickly, her business mind returning as she pulled out a large leather storage sack from her belt. "Victor is holding the rear gate, but his five-hundred-man squad won’t be able to stop Malakor’s main army if they bring their siege units. We need to clear these shelves right now."

We walked over to the high racks together, quickly transferring the glowing spiritual stones and the remaining premium weapons into system inventory.