Unsheathed

Chapter 615 (1): Death of Li Zhen

Li Zhen's frown eased. This was a small surprise that wouldn't affect the overall situation.

He walked out of the thunder pool that was being supported by eighteen treasures from the mountains, and the figure of Guan Zhao formed by the sword intent followed closely behind him. The remaining immortals in black also walked out after Guan Zhao.

Li Zhen turned around and said, "Using your yin soul to trick my eyes and move elsewhere, huh? Then just treat this thunder pool and the tribulations of heaven and earth as a present to you."

The little boy paid a hefty price for this. Of the eighteen treasures that formed the eighteen formation cores, more than half of the immortal treasures would be destroyed due to the tribulations of heaven and earth. The two pseudo-celestial tools, the Five Lightning Daoist Seal and the replica White Jade Capital Treasure Pagoda, wouldn't be destroyed, but they would be damaged and suffer a drop in level, becoming ordinary immortal treasures.

However, he was Li Zhen, the closing disciple of the old ancestor, so he could easily accept this kind of heavy price.

However, the unexpected surprises came one after another. First, it was this person leaving the city wall in the place of Ning Yao, and afterward, it was this person refraining from approaching him the entire time, wasting his sword intent formation that was brimming with killing intent. And now, this person had even tricked him, leaving behind only a yin soul to face the great tribulations inside the thunder pool that were powerful enough to severely wound Unpolished Jade Tier cultivators. This caused Li Zhen to feel displeased.

He was only twelve years old, yet he spoke in a haughty manner and looked down on everyone else. He had also uttered a load of nonsense and stood with one foot on the great demon's head, remaining still and inviting the young man in azure to attack him.

Despite all this, the young man surprisingly still hadn't taken the bait.

Apart from Ning Yao, any one of the young and naive sword cultivators from the Sword Qi Great Wall would have fallen for his traps and faced certain death.

Li Zhen couldn't help but turn around and glance back again.

Chen Ping'an didn't try to conceal things anymore after Li Zhen revealed the truth, and his feet left the ground, and his sleeves fluttered in the wind as he moved slightly further away from the earth tribulation. He flicked his sleeve, retrieving a jade bamboo folding fan that he used to lightly tap his palm. His azure robes rippled, and the concealment technique receded to reveal a snow-white robe.

He looked at Li Zhen and asked with a faint smile, "You've only trapped my measly yin soul after using so many treasures to set up such a large formation, so does this cause your heart to ache? Are you going to leave now? Are you not going to stay inside the thunder pool and stare intently at me being annihilated? Are you not afraid of the heavenly tribulation failing to kill me, thus rendering your treasures wasted?"

Holding the folding fan in one hand and raising his other hand, Chen Ping'an revealed the scraps of a green talisman. It was as if there were some mossy dirt on his palm.

He had used a single talisman to trick Li Zhen into destroying and damaging a large number of immortal treasures and pseudo-celestial tools.

Most importantly, he had escaped from the sword intent prison of certain death.

Most of the sword immortals on the city wall breathed a sigh of relief.

Dying a courageous death was still dying, after all.

Li Zhen smiled and replied, "A yin soul is still a yin soul, and at the end of the day, this can't be regarded as an illusion technique. Its destruction is also permanent. Your cultivation base doesn't seem to be high, and you're also under thirty, so can you possibly have a higher cultivation base than Ning Yao or Pang Yuanji?

"Even if you possess a paramount treasure, and in the off chance that you're able to channel some strange mystical ability to resist the tribulations of heaven and earth for a brief moment, death will still arrive. Perhaps you might even end up gifting me a fated opportunity. I might not be happy to accept gifts from other people, but I feel like it would be very symbolic and significant to snatch something from you, even if it's nothing more than a trashy immortal treasure."

Li Zhen slowly walked away from the thunder pool, continuing to glance back as he said, "I don't know where someone as capable as you has come from, nor do I know when the Sword Qi Great Wall found itself such an interesting person. However, I know that Ning Yao is able to hear me from the Sword Qi Great Wall, and her ears are already starting to hurt.

"You stepped forward to return the gesture for Chen Qingdu, and not only did Ning Yao not stop you, but Chen Qingdu even dared to take a huge gamble by allowing you to do so. I knew straight away at that moment that you needed to die. What's wrong with paying a small price? Perhaps killing you won't be any less significant than killing Ning Yao."

Li Zhen pointed at the towering Sword Qi Great Wall and remarked, "Paying a price? The entire city wall will be my cultivation base in the future."

He looked at the young man in flowing white robes, waving a hand and saying, "Farewell."

The collapse of one's yin soul meant an incomplete soul, and to cultivators, this would mean developing something akin to an illness that even gods and immortals couldn't cure. This would severely affect one's combat power.

The yin soul smiled faintly as it flicked its sleeves and released a large number of talismans that flowed through the sky like water and clouds. It didn't matter that Li Zhen's treasures had torn apart his talismans before, given that he had quite a big stockpile of them.

There were Five Element Talismans, Lightning Talismans, Snow Soil Talismans, Yang Energy Illumination Talismans from the Authentic Death-Avoiding Book, talismans that Qi Jinglong had taught him, the Mountain Searching Talisman that Cui Dongshan had taught him, and no fewer than twelve types of talismans in total.

It was naturally disappointing that his talismans hadn't been able to create a formation before, but Chen Ping'an was still able to use the remnant spiritual energy flow of the many talismanic cores to observe the fine movements of the heavenly tribulation and earth tribulation.

Li Zhen suddenly stopped and asked, "You looked resigned to death just then. Was that a ploy to purposely trick me into setting up this formation sooner rather than later?"

The yin soul in white smiled faintly and replied, "Why don't you guess?"

"Enjoy the two tribulations of heaven and earth, but don't forget that the eighteen sword immortal puppets guarding the treasures will become idle following the activation of the two tribulations," Li Zhen reminded out of goodwill. "At that time, each of their sword strikes will be as strong as a full-power attack from an earth immortal sword cultivator."

He then looked at someplace and said, "It's about time for you to reveal your true body, no?"

Li Zhen had tampered with the sword immortal's head just then, so his opponent wouldn't be able to hide any longer after he used up the strange talisman that was helping him conceal his aura.

There was a ripple in the air where Li Zhen was staring, and a young man in azure stepped out with his sleeves rolled up. Hovering beside him were two replica flying swords from the Northern Complete Reed Continent's Hatred Sword Mountain, Pine Needle and Lightning Devourer.

The two flying swords disappeared in a flash.

Li Zhen didn't say anything else, and the two sword immortals in black that were formed from condensed sword intent dashed forward from behind him, unleashing two bursts of glowing sword light.

Chen Ping'an stomped on the ground and disappeared from view, dodging the two bursts of sword light. One of the sword immortals in black held his sword and stood guard in front of Li Zhen, while the other sword immortal was nowhere to be seen.

Only "Guan Zhao," who was almost as tall as a real person and formed from the most condensed sword intent, remained standing behind Li Zhen.

He was a sword cultivator with a low cultivation base, but he was also a pure martial artist with a relatively high cultivation base at the same time?

Just who in the world was he?

Li Zhen felt slightly less displeased than before.

Great Demon Zhong Guang stood behind the old man in gray, and he bent down as if wanting to say something, but he couldn't help but hesitate.

The old man in gray smiled and said, "When the Savage World closes its doors, everyone inside is family. It's okay for Li Zhen to face some small obstacles and suffer some small losses. It's still too early to talk about who's going to win or lose."

Only after experiencing these obstacles and losses would Li Zhen understand the importance of diligently practicing the sword. He would no longer reject his identity as "Guan Zhao" in the depths of his heart.

Great Demon Zhong Guang smiled obsequiously in response, yet he suddenly felt a cold chill run down his spine.

Hang on, this wasn't going to be a certain victory for Li Zhen?

"He just won't lose," the old man in gray said.

Great Demon Zhong Guang's back was drenched in sweat.

The old man in gray smiled and said, "You've stood so close for so long, and you've already absorbed a fair bit of the Great Dao's aura. You can treat this as a reward for the two small skirmishes you previously led."

Great Demon Zhong Guang bowed and retreated, leaving in silence.

Standing atop the city wall, Zuo You didn't unleash a sword strike to attack the sea of heavenly tribulation clouds.

Without exception, all of the young sword cultivators under thirty years old at the Sword Qi Great Wall were prodigies among prodigies — this was a generation of prodigies that would only appear once every several thousand years.

The previous time so many prodigies had appeared was none other than when the Sword Qi Great Wall had experienced the most intense and tragic battle, so tragic that only Chen Qingdu had remained standing on the city wall.

This time, the Sword Qi Great Wall had taken extremely good care of these children over the past thirty to forty years, but the price for this was naturally many more of their earth immortal sword cultivator guardians falling in battle.

"If it were me, I definitely wouldn't be able to dodge the lightning from the heavens and the killing intent from the earth. I would only be able to face it head-on and die as a result," Pang Yuanji commented.

Gao Yehou's younger sister, Gao Youqing, said in a soft voice, "I would have died even quicker. I would have been killed by that sword formation."

"That little bastard is the closing disciple of Holding Moon Mountain's owner, so apart from Big Sister Ning, all of us would lose to him. This is normal, and there's no need to overthink it," Dong Huafu said.

"Just look at us. Which of us is able to summon so many immortal treasures and pseudo-celestial tools in a single breath? So, according to Chen Ping'an's explanation, we can't rush over by ourselves to offer our heads on a silver platter when we're up against these types of wealthy and powerful opponents who have strong backers. Rather, we have to provoke them into charging over to challenge an entire group of us. That way, everyone can split the spoils of battle afterward and become filthy rich."

"This is true in theory, but we also saw that little bastard's ability to summon and control all of those treasures at once. This isn't something that an ordinary person can do," Pang Yuanji said. "Thankfully, his opponent is Chen Ping'an this time, and it's only because of this that his big and small schemes have fallen flat. We need to be extremely wary of this type of enemy on the battlefield."

A young sword cultivator who didn't have a very good relationship with Ning Yao, Chen Sanqiu, and Die Zhang's wine shop offered a fair remark, saying, "That little bastard has picked the wrong opponent if he wants to see who plays dirtier."

Ning Yao didn't say anything as she looked up at the sea of heavenly tribulation clouds.

It wouldn't be difficult for her to block the heavenly tribulation, but the consequences of doing so would be very troublesome.

Chen Qingdu smiled and said, "Little Ning, that wager naturally wouldn't exist if you were in Chen Ping'an's place. Moreover, since I dragged Chen Ping'an onto the city wall, the possibility of you being in his place is zero."

He recalled a past matter that seldom crossed his mind anymore, and Chen Qingdu continued, "Wu Chengpei once interrogated A'Liang, asking him which person in the world didn't need to die. And did this have anything to do with one's surname and clan?

"A'Liang was quite helpless, since this type of question was the most difficult to answer. In the end, he could only run off to Holding Moon Mountain and Elite Cavalry River."

Chen Qingdu smiled and looked at Ning Yao, continuing, "I naturally have high hopes for you and Chen Ping'an, but I genuinely don't think that the two of you have to be kept alive at all costs. It's a bit complicated to explain this, Little Ning, but do you understand what I'm trying to say?"

Ning Yao nodded and replied, "I understand. However, I'm very unhappy. Not for myself, but for Chen Ping'an."

Zuo You chuckled coldly and said, "Add me to the list of people who are unhappy."

However, the smile on Chen Qingdu's face grew even wider. It was always easy to speak with Little Ning, and Zuo You's straightforward nature was also very good.

"This is good. It's correct for you to be unhappy, and this way, you won't be careless about everything. Otherwise, Zuo You is an example of what can happen. What sword technique is he practicing? Why is he practicing sword techniques? What's the point of life and death? He's been unable to answer these questions the entire time, and only today has he finally appeared a little bit like a true sword cultivator."

Chen Qingdu ignored the noise around him and murmured to himself, "A true sword cultivator."

A true sword cultivator would draw their sword for the world. They would be able to forget life and death and transcend life and death.

The more one pondered this, the more difficult it would appear to achieve this great feat. At the same time, however, it was also a small matter that one could achieve without intending to do so.

It was also a strange feat that many Middle Five Tier sword cultivators could achieve, yet many Upper Five Tier sword immortals would surprisingly fail to achieve.

If the world were becoming worse and worse, then many sword immortals would feel despondent and be unwilling to risk their lives. On the other hand, if the world were becoming better and better, then the sword immortals would feel reluctant to risk their lives.

Those with middling sword skills weren't afforded the luxury of feeling reluctant, and this gave them the resolve to die for themselves and die for other people. In contrast, those with lofty sword skills had the power to come up with all kinds of reasons to avoid fighting to the death. This was perfectly justified and a force of human nature, so they couldn't be forced to make sacrifices against their will.

Sure enough, the human heart was the most interesting cage that the gods and deities had created back then.

As for the other cage, this related to people's perception of the flow of time. The primordial sages had separated heaven from earth, giving formless protection to all matters of life that had come afterward. However, people could only observe time from afar, rendering their perceptions incomplete.

Thus, before truly attaining Dao, any person in the world would inevitably have thoughts about their life being illusory and futile, even Ascension Tier immortals. This was an incredibly challenging problem that the sages of the Three Teachings and Hundred Schools of Thought had been tirelessly trying to understand and find a solution to for over tens of thousands of years.

Immortal Tier cultivators sought truth; the Confucian Sect used its righteous aura to calm people's hearts; the Buddhist Sect promoted transcending self-attachment; and the Daoist Sect taught people to return to natural simplicity — all of these actions and teachings were methods for exploring this challenging problem.

Everyone was working hard to stay alive, yet each person was also silently walking toward death. Just how big a contradiction was this? It was because of this that people needed to pursue a form like the sun and a heart like the moon, comprehensively seeing through all matters and upholding a gaze limpid and bright.