Chapter 622: Fifty Percent Cultivation Power

Deng Hai Town was peaceful, with wisps of cooking smoke rising from the chimneys. Some people were lighting fires to cook, and farmers led their oxen out of the town to plow the fields. Many tower ships were still docked by the sea. Fish demons leaped out of the water, transforming into fish-headed human-bodied forms, removed the chains from their bodies, and carried their saved money into Deng Hai Town to purchase immortal qi and spiritual liquid.

At the nearby dock, some immortals had accepted payment from fish demons to help them brand and ritual-refine their tower ships.

Everything here seemed no different from before.

Suddenly, the sky darkened. The townspeople all looked up, and saw another magnificent stretch of time and space floating in the air, with a verdant continent hanging upside down in the sky, blotting out the sunlight.

Behind that continent was another world, a realm supported by a massive demon-blood tree, grandiose and spectacular.

The two overlapping worlds completely obscured the sky above Deng Hai Town, oppressive enough to make it hard to breathe.

"Waaah-" A child was frightened into crying. A young mother quickly held him in her arms, softly comforting him.

Deng Hai Town was filled with a murderous solemnity.

Amidst this solemn atmosphere, a youth wearing a Purple-Gold Crown walked in from the sea, treading on yellow waves, arrived at the dock, and stepped onto land.

All around, pairs of eyes fixed tightly on him.

Chen Shi paid them no mind, passing through the prosperous town.

"Finally, he's come."

Wu Banshan stood at the bridge of Deng Hai Town, looking across the river channel at him, and said quietly, "Hid inside your Dao Realm, did you? Hiding in your Dao Realm can only last so long. Eventually, you have to come out."

The position from which one exits a Dao Realm is the same as the position from which one enters, this was the great immutable law of the void.

Wu Banshan and the others had searched for Chen Shi for a long time without finding any trace of him, and so guessed that Chen Shi had hidden inside his Dao Realm, and waited here.

Chen Shi noticed him. Above his head, within the Dao Realm, the purple sword-nurturing gourd grew larger and larger, like a mountain hanging upside down in the sky. The gourd's mouthpiece had already opened, and the mysterious yellow sword qi inside was still colliding and ringing, its sound clear and resonant.

Just by listening to the sound, one could sense just how sharp this sword qi was.

On the tea house across the river, Purple Heaven Immortal Lord pushed open the window, holding a cup of tea, and looked toward the sword-nurturing gourd, his expression somewhat grim.

Behind him, several disciples wore expressions of grief and fury. One of the disciples had only a single arm.

Chen Shi acted as though he had not seen the two of them, and continued walking out of the town. On the road ahead, Yuan Bixia, Fairy Maiden Yuan, and two old servants sat beneath a tree enjoying the shade, watching him approach.

Fairy Maiden Yuan ground her teeth lightly, stood up, and sneered, "Chen Shi, you stole my Crimson Origin Furnace, and left poetry to insult me. Your crime deserves death ten thousand times over. Where is my Crimson Origin Furnace? Return my immortal furnace, and I will grant you a whole corpse!"

Chen Shi glanced at the woman. "You are the one who claims kingship over the waves, Yuan Bixia, Fairy Maiden Yuan? Your senior martial brother helped you cross tribulation and achieve Dao Unification. After you ascended, in order to become Immortal Lord Hua's outside concubine, you murdered the senior martial brother who had shown you great kindness. You woman, living in this world is a waste of spiritual energy!"

Before his voice had even faded, he stepped forward, raised his hand, turned his palm, and brought it down.

A dragon's roar erupted. Within thousands of li around Deng Hai Town, all the Eastern Heaven Green Emperor's qi was mobilized, transforming in the sky into the claw of an Azure Dragon, descending from the heavens. Before it had even landed, it had already enveloped Yuan Bixia on all sides, sealing off every escape route, leaving her nowhere to flee!

Yuan Bixia felt the pressure bearing down from all different directions, trapping her dead in place, unable to move. Looking up, she saw the dragon claw descending from the sky!

Almost simultaneously, the two old servants behind her charged forward, one from the left and one from the right. The old servant in blue-green robes surged with immortal qi, his body like a roaring furnace thrumming with sound, providing him with incomparable power. He raised his hand, preparing to forcefully withstand the Azure Dragon's Roar.

He likewise employed a seal technique, his palm force square and upright, like the seal of an emperor, the patterns upon the seal being the veins of mountains and rivers of the great thousand worlds!

The other old servant, in red robes, summoned his sword. Dozens of strands of sword qi flew from his sleeve, sword light spilling forth, transforming into the move "Desert Sands Exhausted, Caves Unfathomable," attacking Chen Shi, forcing Chen Shi to retract his move!

Their coordination could not be called anything but exquisite, one blocking, one striking at what the enemy must save. Clearly the two were in perfect mutual understanding, able to execute the most flawless coordination without needing to communicate.

Yet just as the blue-green-robed old servant's seal technique took shape and its power formed, his heart sank: "Can't block it!"

"Boom!"

Chen Shi's seal fell before the blue-green old servant's seal technique even arrived. Yuan Bixia was sent flying backward. This woman, in midair, had all the bones and tendons of her flesh body shattered, and her Primordial Spirit was blasted to death by thunderous roars!

"So fast!"

The blue-green-robed old servant's expression was grim. His strike had already been extremely fast, but unexpectedly, it was still too late, he had failed to block Chen Shi's seal.

This one seal of his had failed to block Chen Shi's Azure Dragon's Roar, and the red-robed old servant's Primordial Chaos Sword Scripture had also failed to make Chen Shi stay. The two of them were powerful in cultivation and exquisite in technique, but their strikes had been a heartbeat too slow. Though it was but a heartbeat, Chen Shi had already rushed out from beneath their moves, causing both of their attacks to miss.

The blue-green-robed old servant, having missed his strike, immediately flipped up and attacked from the air, his palm seal bearing down on Chen Shi's crown!

Chen Shi stopped, turned, and paid no attention to the incoming aerial strike. His gaze fell on the red-robed old servant, and he said, "You have refined the Primordial Chaos Sword Scripture to the seventy-three sword stage, simultaneously controlling seventy-three strands of sword qi. That is already extraordinarily rare."

The blue-green old servant's palm had already reached the top of his head, about to shatter his skull to pieces, when suddenly the Purple-Gold Crown atop Chen Shi's head blazed with light. Thirteen pearl hairpins flew from his hair, instantly erupting with firelight, Drifting Azure Flames, all of it sword light!

The blue-green-robed old servant let out a miserable scream as one of his arms was burned clean away.

Seeing the sword light about to drown him, he immediately soared into the air. Just then, the red ball on the Purple-Gold Crown swayed gently, instantly transforming into the Blood Sea Hell, pulling him inside.

The blue-green old servant leaped with all his might, jumping out of the blood sea. What met him head-on was a strand of mysterious yellow sword qi. With a chi sound, it pierced through his throat.

Chen Shi withdrew his sword. The blue-green old servant's corpse collapsed to the ground.

Chen Shi's gaze fell upon the red-robed old servant, and he said, "The Primordial Chaos Dao Scripture, you have also cultivated it to the True Immortal Realm. Truly remarkable. You were originally an immortal, why serve as a slave?"

How difficult the Primordial Chaos Dao Scripture was to cultivate, Chen Shi knew better than anyone. To have refined this technique to the True Immortal Realm meant one had barely entered the gate. After that, cultivation speed gradually picked up. Although still inferior to other immortal techniques, its advantage lay in its profound foundation.

This old servant had also cultivated the Primordial Chaos Sword Scripture to an extremely high level. Unexpectedly, he was merely an immortal slave beneath Immortal Lord Hua.

The red-robed old servant's gaze fell upon the blue-green old servant's corpse. His heart skipped a beat, but he stuck out his neck and said, "Serving Immortal Lord Hua as a slave is no disgrace. You killed Lady Yuan, your crime deserves death ten thousand times over! Immortal Lord Hua will never spare you!"

He activated his seventy-three strands of sword qi, killing toward Chen Shi.

The Primordial Chaos Sword Scripture was something almost everyone in the Earth Immortal Realm had a copy of. Anyone could study it, but those who could actually master the sword scripture's moves were exceedingly few, and those who could simultaneously command multiple strands of sword qi were even fewer.

The red-robed old servant could already command seventy-three strands of sword qi. He was already a rare expert among those who cultivated the sword scripture.

Chen Shi's mind stirred slightly. Within the sword-nurturing gourd, strand after strand of sword qi flew out. Sixty-four strands of sword qi met the opponent's seventy-three strands, a sky-full of sword rain, battling endlessly. Autumn's Departing Wind and Rain, Heaven's Net Smashing the Sundered Sky, Wind Lord's Irregularity, all manner of moves, intricate and ever-changing, urging swordsmanship to its absolute limit!

Suddenly, the sword light fiercely contracted. The red-robed old servant was covered in blood, struck by dozens of swords, and fell to the ground.

His eyes were blank. His attainments in the sword scripture were clearly above Chen Shi's, and the strands of sword qi he controlled were more numerous. Yet in their exchange of sword moves, Chen Shi had broken apart every single one of his techniques, and in almost a single face-to-face clash, severed all of his vitality!

"As Heaven moves vigorously, the gentleman strives without ceasing."

Chen Shi turned to leave, his voice reaching the old servant's ears. "You were willing to be a slave, and your understanding of the Celestial Way went astray. Even if you could control more strands of sword qi, your moves are still not as flawless as mine. From the moment you knelt before Immortal Lord Hua, you were destined to die beneath my sword."

The red-robed old servant roared in fury, struggled to his feet, and lunged at him. After only two steps, he breathed his last.

His corpse fell forward. In his final glimpse before death, he saw figures rising into the air throughout Deng Hai Town, killing toward Chen Shi.

From Chen Shi's sword-nurturing gourd, sword qi flew out once more, sword moves precise and unfathomable, indeed far beyond his reach.

The red-robed old servant exhaled his last breath. At his ear came Chen Shi's voice: "Kill you all today, and there will be no aggrieved party left! On the Immortal Slaying List, I will still be of clean name!"

"This bastard deserves death." His consciousness gradually faded.

A single strand of Chen Shi's sword qi pierced through several hundred li, nailing a True Immortal dead. Then his figure soared into the air, executing Despair Slope's supreme escape art, Ascending Heaven Gate. Like a spirit ape climbing a heavenly ladder, one leap and three bounds, he evaded the magic treasures killing toward him from behind.

Before he could steady himself, the sound of a magic treasure tearing through the air came from above his head. A great bell, quaking, descended to cover him.

The Purple-Gold Crown atop his head blazed with light. From the red ball, the Blood Sea Hell unfurled, transforming into a blood sea spanning ten thousand li. But the next moment, the bell tolled once, and the blood sea was evaporated.

The great bell smashed downward. Immediately, from the Purple-Gold Crown, the Yin-Yang Dao Field unfurled, blocking the great bell. The great bell quaked without cease, but for the moment, it could not break through the Yin-Yang Dao Field.

At this moment, a Daoist flew forward, reaching out. His arm instantly became several dozen li long, and he snatched the Purple-Gold Crown from above Chen Shi's head, crying out, "You stole my Heaven Jade Purple-Gold Orchid, today I'm taking your Purple-Gold Crown!"

That Daoist was precisely the aggrieved party of the Heaven Jade Purple-Gold Orchid. After snatching off Chen Shi's Purple-Gold Crown, he placed it on his own head.

The instant the Purple-Gold Crown landed on his head, the first rule of the external Dao inscribed on the crown's inner wall suddenly erupted.

The first rule that Chen Shi had inscribed on the inner wall of the Purple-Gold Crown was the external Dao of Western Ox New Continent. Chen Shi's eighth form of the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade had been comprehended and created from that first rule.

The instant that Daoist put on the Purple-Gold Crown, his head suddenly split into countless pieces, reduced to fine powder. His headless corpse swayed, and was about to fall from the sky.

Light blazed from within the Purple-Gold Crown, and the headless corpse likewise disintegrated into countless pieces, body dead and Dao extinguished.

Chen Shi, his hair loose over his shoulders, was retreating even as he fought. Just then, golden light flashed, and the Purple-Gold Crown flew back, inserting one pearl hairpin after another into his hair bun in succession. The golden crown once again sat securely in place.

"Whoosh-"

A long blade flew in. The blade light vibrated at high speed, slicing space into three thousand thin pieces, attacking Chen Shi's back.

Chen Shi swept his hand backward. The Tianluo Blood-Transforming Divine Blade descended from the sky and landed in his hand. With a mighty clang, it collided with the long blade attacking from behind.

The power of the twin blades erupted. One was demonic might, stirring up thousand-layer waves with its quaking. One was an immortal weapon, ritual-refined for twenty thousand years in Little Blue Sky's immortal domain. As the two collided, both Chen Shi and the immortal blade's master were startled, each withdrawing their blade to examine the cutting edge.

Chen Shi raised his hand and wiped his blade. The Blood-Transforming Divine Blade was unscathed, and only then did he relax.

"Today I will let you drink your fill of immortal blood!"

He raised the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade and brought it down in a slash, meeting the master of the immortal blade charging at him.

Clang-clang-clang, a string of rapid collision sounds rang out. Both sides' blade techniques were supremely refined.

Chen Shi's Blood-Transforming Divine Blade, though chillingly murderous, and worthy of its reputation as the ferocious demonic blade that had been through the war to destroy Shang, had after all been left in the mortal world, suppressed beneath the feet of the Erlang True Lord for hundreds of thousands of years. Its power could not keep up with other magic treasures of the same era. As the demonic blade and immortal blade collided, the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade unexpectedly could not gain the upper hand!

Suddenly, Chen Shi's blade technique changed drastically, executing the eighth form of the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade: The Heavenly Pillar Crumbles, The Earth's Axis Splits!

The opposing blade-wielding immortal's expression changed instantly. He saw the sky topple and the earth overturn before him, countless blade lights tearing heaven and earth apart, bearing down on him.

He dragged his blade and fled, escaping into his own Dao Realm. The next moment, he saw those blade lights that tore apart everything follow him into his Dao Realm, drowning his Dao Realm!

Chen Shi slew that blade-wielding immortal. In his hand, the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade, having drunk the blood of an immortal path expert, trembled with excitement, rattling ding-ling-ling, its power growing stronger and stronger.

At that moment, Chen Shi tossed aside the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade and raised the mysterious yellow sword qi, meeting Purple Heaven Immortal Lord's strike.

In Purple Heaven Immortal Lord's hand was a purple long whip, refined from a segment of the Purple Heaven Vine. When brandished, the sky was filled with purple true dragons pouncing toward Chen Shi.

Chen Shi activated sixty-four strands of sword qi, fighting with all his strength to hold them off, but still, strand after strand of purple dragon whip shadows broke through the sword qi blockade and lashed his body.

Chen Shi let out a muffled groan, his body sent crashing backward, flying several hundred li before he could stabilize himself. At this moment, other immortals came killing toward him as well.

He retreated even as he fought, sometimes meeting the enemy with the mysterious yellow sword qi from the sword-nurturing gourd, sometimes raising the Tianluo Blood-Transforming Divine Blade, its blade light flashing red for ten thousand li. Blade and sword, he wielded both with supreme mastery.

The immortals lying in ambush in Deng Hai Town all came charging out of the town, chasing and killing for tens of thousands of li without pause. Chen Shi had originally planned to rush to the ferry crossing to seize a star raft, but unexpectedly, Purple Heaven Immortal Lord had cut off his route to the crossing.

The group fought their way into the mountains. There were quite a few fairy mountains here. There was one fairly large immortal sect called the Eight Immortals Sect, rumored to be a sect founded by eight immortals, cultivating the pure yang orthodox method, and quite flourishing.

"Boom!"

Chen Shi was struck and sent crashing toward the Eight Immortals Sect's main peak. Before he even drew near, the main peak's mountain-protecting formation was activated. His figure slammed into the mountain-protecting formation, and the light screen immediately rippled violently like water.

The Eight Immortals Sect's experts were all alarmed, rising into the air in succession, only to see several hundred immortal experts killing toward them.

"Quick! Quick, activate all the mountain-protecting formations across the whole mountain!" Sect Leader Lu Daozi hastily cried out.

Across the mountains, one mountain-protecting formation after another was awakened, and strand after strand of aurora-like light enshrouded the mountains.

The crowd's attacks fell upon the mountains from time to time, making these mountain-protecting formations tremble without cease.

Chen Shi, covered in blood, forcefully took a sword strike from Daoist Qian Yi. Risking injury, he used the Small Heavenly Cycle Tribulation Formation to refine another immortal to death within the tribulation formation, and laughed, "One less aggrieved party!"

He swallowed a Fulong Village medicinal pill. Facing the attacks of immortal path experts from all sides, he could see the flaws in the opponent's immortal techniques at a glance, and often within just a few moves, would cut the opponent down.

In the brief time since he had fought his way into the Eight Immortals Sect, more than ten immortal path experts had perished one after another.

And along the way, more than thirty had died!

Daoist Qian Yi's other hand raised his horsetail whisk. The whisk threads, ten thousand strands, grew madly, coiling toward Chen Shi.

Chen Shi saw the flaw in his technique and immediately activated his sword qi to meet it. It looked as though he could slay him, when suddenly strand after strand of mysterious yellow sword qi halted in midair. Chen Shi's heart startled. He saw Wu Banshan standing in front of Daoist Qian Yi.

The tenth heaven of the Dao Realm, Xuanming Gonghua Heaven's Gold Immortal!

Chen Shi spat out a mouthful of turbid breath, wiping the blood from his hands onto his clothes.

"This time, I fear I cannot escape my fate..."

Just as he thought this, suddenly the heaven-and-earth Dao power from Western Ox New Continent grew stronger and stronger. And above his head, behind the Dao Ruins and the demonic domain within the well, a stretch of darkness gradually became clear.

That was the Dark Sea.

And at the center of the Dark Sea, Western Ox New Continent drew nearer and nearer. The Dark Sea was like countless tentacles of Western Ox New Continent, dancing and clinging to the Earth Immortal Realm's time and space, as though about to invade the Earth Immortal Realm from another time and space!

Chen Shi's heart was full of shock and uncertainty, yet his aura surged higher and higher, and he felt his mana rising without cease!

This was not only a rise in mana, it was also a rise in realm!

The situation from back then, when he used the Celestial True God as his Divine Embryo and controlled the Dao power of the entire Western Ox New Continent, seemed to have returned!

However, he immediately sensed that he still could not control all the heaven-and-earth Dao power of Western Ox New Continent. At most, he could grasp fifty percent.

"Phew!"

Chen Shi exhaled a turbid breath, his gaze falling upon Wu Banshan.

"Fifty percent of the cultivation power that killed the Celestial Venerable, that's enough to handle today's chaos!"