Chapter 662: Return

The man spread open both hands with his palms facing upward, then gently waved them a couple of times.

He had returned after a long absence, and he had to acknowledge the people on the Sword Qi Great Wall, particularly all of the good women who had missed him dearly.

The originally silent Sword Qi Great Wall immediately erupted into a chorus of whistling and booing.

Sword Immortal Lu Zhi averted her gaze in exasperation, feeling too much secondhand embarrassment on the man's behalf.

The man had his back facing the city wall as he nodded with a pleased expression, convinced that he was still as popular as ever.

Outside the battlefield, everyone detested A'Liang and avoided him like the plague, and even the children on the Sword Qi Great Wall would denounce him as a shameless and immoral charlatan. However, on the battlefield, he was just A'Liang; it was as simple as that.

A'Liang took a glance at the tents that were scattered across the horizon, then challenged, "Don't hold back! Send your best warriors to fight me to make it worth my while!"

A man with a thick beard turned and focused an intense gaze on A'Liang as he volunteered, "I'll take him on."

A'Liang cast his gaze toward Liu Cha, who was standing alone on the other side of the golden river. Once upon a time, they had gotten along very well with one another, and they were more like friendly rivals than enemies.

Rubbing his hands together in a sheepish manner, A'Liang requested, "Can we not do this right away? Send a few lesser warriors first so I can get warmed up. If we're already starting off with you, then I'm not going to be able to last long at all."

Liu Cha completely ignored the request as he stepped forward in an expressionless manner.

"I've already been waiting for you for a very long time. Why have you still not found a suitable sword for yourself?"

A'Liang interlaced his fingers and began flexing his wrists. It was going to be a tough match-up from the get-go, so he would just have to warm up himself.

Liu Cha pressed his thumb against the underside of the hilt of his saber, then gently pushed it upward, and in the blink of an eye, he had already sped over the golden river, closing the gap between himself and A'Liang as he swung his saber down.

From that point onward, the two of them completely disappeared. They were far too fast to track with the naked eye, and the only thing that betrayed their location was the sound of their mighty clashes as they darted from one place to another.

In the wake of A'Liang's unexpected arrival, all of the demonic warriors on the battlefield in a radius of several dozen kilometers who had survived were frantically retreating, and the commanders in the tents made no effort to stop them.

A string of explosive bangs rang out as one giant crater after another was smashed into the ground, and the immediate area around all of the craters was a lethal death zone. All demonic cultivators, weapons, and immortal treasures in those death zones were instantly obliterated, erased from the face of the battlefield before they even had a chance to register their fate.

It was as if they were being blighted by the very heavens, and all of this was only a result of the residual sword qi that leaked out onto the battlefield from the clashes between the two swordsmen who stood at the very pinnacle of the Sword Dao of their respective worlds.

It was a calamitous disaster for the demons on the battlefield, but they could count themselves fortunate for the fact that they weren't directly on the receiving end of A'Liang's wrath. Otherwise, all of them would've already been wiped out without a trace.

A tent that was relatively close to the two almighty swordsmen was abruptly torn apart, and the cultivators inside who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time were instantly slain.

Liu Cha was standing on top of the ruined tent. The tent beneath his feet hadn't yet collapsed, but all of the cultivators inside had already fled in a panic.

Several kilometers away, A'Liang stopped in his tracks, then made a grabbing motion to catch the flying sword of an Upper Five Tiers sword cultivator. He gripped the flying sword tightly, then pressed a finger into its tip and its hilt before applying some force, bending the flying sword into the shape of a horseshoe.

The flying sword was as thin as a strand of cow fur, and it was barely even visible to the naked eye. Most importantly, it was able to conceal itself in the river of time, and it clearly belonged to a sword immortal who excelled in assassination.

As A'Liang continued to apply force through his fingers, the flying sword was bent even further, to the point that its tip and hilt had almost been brought together to form a full circle. Right as it was about to snap, a barely audible grunt rang out from afar. The owner of the flying sword had used some type of secret technique to forcibly recover the flying sword from A'Liang's grasp, but doing so had clearly come at a massive cost. Immediately thereafter, the sword immortal turned to flee without any hesitation.

His specialty was assassination, and now that he had failed, his only option was to flee. However, he wasn't able to get very far before A'Liang appeared directly behind him and grabbed him by the head. A'Liang injected his sword qi into the sword immortal's cranium, killing him on the spot, then pulled his head back to examine his facial features.

"I knew it wouldn't be Shou Chen! He would never dare to try and attack me!"

The lifeless body was casually pushed aside by A'Liang, and it crashed down onto the ground below several hundred feet away.

In another direction, a white pillar of light abruptly rose up from the earth. A demonic sword immortal had just abandoned his physical body, but before he could make his escape, his golden core and nascent soul were caught within the pillar of light formed purely by sword qi, erasing them from existence.

After this brief interlude, A'Liang looked around to see a boundless expanse of white mist. Clearly, he had fallen into the small world of some great demon.

"You tryna scare me with this? How did you know I'm a massive coward? I suppose that's not hard to guess, considering I'm someone who blushes at the sight of women," A'Liang mused as he gently exhaled, and the white mist around him gradually receded to reveal the enormous true form of a great demon.

The great demon resembled a giant mountain towering over the battlefield, and A'Liang was made to appear like a tiny black speck in comparison.

A'Liang looked up with a dumbfounded expression, as if he were overawed by the enormous stature of his assailant.

He then asked a very sincere question: "How come you dare to face me when I don't even recognize you?"

Aside from the beings who possessed thrones in the ancient well of the Heroic Spirit Hall, all the other demons who had never faced A'Liang in battle before weren't even worthy of being called great demons on the Savage World. If this demon wasn't even a great demon, what made him think he stood a chance against A'Liang?

The enormous demon was just about to use his ability to try and put an end to A'Liang's life when a white line that was as straight as an arrow appeared down the exact center line of his body, perfectly bisecting him.

It was as if he had been split into two. Fortunately for the Immortal Tier great demon, his small world afforded him some protection, and even though he was instantly severely wounded by A'Liang, he was able to get away just in the nick of time before his body was actually split into two.

He could travel to anywhere in his small world that he pleased in the blink of an eye, and he immediately reappeared in the corner of his small world furthest away from A'Liang. However, to his utter despair and bewilderment, he discovered that thousands of rays of light had appeared throughout his entire small world and even outside, encompassing the entirety of heaven and earth to leave him no room for escape. All of a sudden, it was as if his small world had become A'Liang's small world instead.

In the blink of an eye, dozens of streaks of sword light had pierced through the great demon's entire body, and even the slightest movement came with excruciating pain. He had been confident that he would at least be able to ensure self-preservation in the safety of his small world, but he was now sorely regretting his own hubris.

A'Liang didn't even bother to spare the Immortal Tier great demon another glance. To him, the great demon's small world was as fragile as a piece of porcelain, something that would shatter into a million pieces with even the lightest tap of a sword.

The vast expanse of white mist quickly dissipated to reveal countless rays of sword light around A'Liang, and the formation of sword light was still expanding, encompassing the entire area in a radius of several dozen kilometers around him.

Liu Cha had risen up into the sky from the top of the tent, and once again, he was the only one facing A'Liang on the battlefield.

"I advise all of you to stay out of this if you value your lives," he warned in an indifferent voice.

Even if some of them were willing to throw their lives away, at the very least, they should try to inflict some injuries upon A'Liang instead of dying in vain.

Liu Cha sheathed his saber, then reached out behind his back to draw his sword.

There were almost no opportunities for him to use his sword in the Savage World, and that was why he so looked forward to his reunion with A'Liang. He had thought that the reunion would come in the Majestic World, but to his surprise, A'Liang had broken through the boundaries of two worlds to return directly to the Sword Qi Great Wall.

A'Liang reached out a hand, and a generic longsword from the sword market flew into his grasp all the way from the battlefield north of the golden river. He weighed the sword briefly in his hand to find that it was a little lighter than he remembered, and he heaved a forlorn sigh. Clearly, the Sword Qi Great Wall was in truly dire straits if even the sword market were skimping out on materials for its swords.

With both swordsmen armed, the two clashed, and in the aftermath, A'Liang was sent flying back into the heavens, completely scattering the entire sea of clouds in the sky above the Sword Qi Great Wall.

He stepped firmly on the air to steady himself, while Liu Cha was sent barreling into the earth, creating a tunnel so deep that it was impossible to see the bottom.

In the next instant, A'Liang descended from above the sea of clouds, while Liu Cha appeared on the ground below, and the two of them lashed out once again.

After their second clash, both were sent flying back even farther than the first time.

A'Liang was forced all the way back to the loftiest sea of clouds above the Sword Qi Great Wall, where the old Daoist priest was stationed in the heavens.

After casually shaking off Liu Cha's residual sword intent, he turned to the old Daoist priest with a grin and asked, "How've you been, old friend? It's been over twenty years since we last met. All of the sniveling little girls on our Sword Qi Great Wall must've grown up into fine young women during this time, right? Do they still remember me?"

The old Daoist priest was cradling a severely damaged horsetail whisk with one arm, and he transferred it to his other arm with a smile, then cussed at A'Liang in the regional dialect of the Heavenly World.

After exchanging some "pleasantries," A'Liang vanished in a flash.

The entire sea of clouds was stirred up by his sword intent, causing it to churn violently. The Daoist priest presiding over the heavens heaved a resigned sigh, then reached out with one hand to gently press down upon the sea of clouds to quell the unrest.

A'Liang raised his arm up high, then brought it down wildly like a child who didn't know the first thing about swordsmanship.

The force of the slash sent Liu Cha flying back once again, tunneling even deeper into the earth.

In contrast, A'Liang was able to stand his ground without taking even half a step back, but the longsword in his hand had been obliterated by the force of the clash.

Following the harrowing example set by the Immortal Tier great demon, no one else dared to intervene in their battle.

Of course, if the old man in gray standing outside the Jia Zi Tent issued an order for the great demons to attack A'Liang, they would have no choice but to oblige, but for the moment, he had issued no such order.

A few of the great demons from the twelve thrones were itching with anticipation, but ultimately decided to continue watching. After all, Liu Cha still hadn't gone all-out yet, so it would be premature for them to get involved.

Freshly unarmed, A'Liang made a different hand seal with each hand, and two mighty torrents of sword qi surged toward Liu Cha on the battlefield, with one containing the Sword Dao true intent of the Sword Qi Great Wall, while the other harbored the Sword Dao true intent of the Savage World. The two torrents of sword qi resembled a pair of almighty flood dragons that crashed into the ground below, shattering the earth in a radius of dozens of kilometers.

A'Liang had originally only been several dozen feet off the ground, but he had since risen high up into the sky, forcing all of the demons below to look up at him.

Liu Cha was standing on the ground below with one hand clasped behind his back while simultaneously making a hand seal with his other hand. In this moment, he was wielding no sword, but a pristine, white jade plate manifested by his sword had appeared before him, giving off rays of luminous radiance like a miniature moon.

The two torrents of sword qi came crashing down upon the glowing moon, and the ground beneath Liu Cha's feet began to crumble, plunging him deeper and deeper into the earth.

The sword qi was scattering in all directions in a radiant storm, and many of the demonic earth immortals who were watching the battle from afar through observation techniques were forced to avert their gaze. The storm of sword qi was so bright that it was like the equivalent of a mortal staring straight into the sun, and none of the spectating earth immortals dared to watch any longer for fear of being blinded.

Liu Cha's coarse garments were flapping audibly around him as he looked up at A'Liang and sneered. "You went to the heavens beyond heavens and killed a bunch of heavenly demons, yet this is all you have to show for it? Perhaps the Daoist second disciple isn't actually as powerful as all the stories make him out to be."

"Let me tell you something from the bottom of my heart, one friend to another: if you really think that's true, then you're going to die," A'Liang said with a smile.

Liu Cha shook his head as he abandoned his defenses, simply holding his sword behind his back and allowing the two torrents of sword qi to cascade directly down upon him.

At the same time, he began intentionally restraining his sword qi, and he resembled an immovable rock, resolute and unshakable as an impregnable fortress.

If the torrents of sword qi were turbulent floodwaters, then Liu Cha's Sword Dao was a resolute mountain. The two rivers of sword qi crashed down upon Liu Cha before scattering around him, raising waves of sword qi several hundred feet tall.

Some people had heard about or even personally witnessed the vast abundance of Zuo You's sword qi. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that he possessed the most sword qi of any swordsman in all of the worlds, and following his stint of cultivation on the Sword Qi Great Wall, he was even able to manifest his pure sword qi into a tangible form.

However, at this moment, Liu Cha was manifesting his Sword Dao into reality.

A faint smile appeared on A'Liang's face, and an ethereal river of time suddenly appeared between him and Liu Cha, giving off a dreamy, iridescent glow.

The entire river resembled a giant flying sword that encompassed Liu Cha from all directions. Situated within the river of time, it was as if Liu Cha had ended up in a foreign scabbard, while the sword that belonged to the scabbard was being sheathed after him.

The river of time was supposed to be one with the Great Dao of heaven and earth, yet A'Liang was somehow able to pull it out, and it was immediately rejected by the Great Dao of the Savage World. As a result, countless restrictive phenomena that were manifestations of the will of the Savage World's Great Dao appeared around the river of time, threatening to crush it from all directions.

However, the more the river of time was compressed, the tighter and more resolute it became. It was as if a longsword forged by the colored glaze golden body of an Ascension Tier cultivator had suddenly appeared between heaven and earth.

"Marvelous!" the old man in gray praised, almost involuntarily.

In a certain tent, a scholar whose attention had been solely fixed on his book this entire time also suddenly raised his head to observe the battlefield in the distance.

A'Liang raised his head.

Liu Cha had been trapped in the river of time, and his Sword Dao was being slowly whittled away, but of course, he wasn't just going to resign himself to his fate.

An enormous Dao Manifestation appeared between heaven and earth, and only its upper body was visible above the ground. It was holding a sword with both hands, and it plunged the sword down upon A'Liang with the tip aimed straight at his head.

At the same time, another Liu Cha appeared amid the wreckage of the freshly demolished tent, and he joined his middle and index fingers together to manifest a longsword using his sword intent.

A'Liang had jokingly stated that he wouldn't be able to take on many opponents of Liu Cha's caliber, but at this moment, Liu Cha's Sword Dao true body, yang soul avatar, and yin soul were all split apart, and of course, each of the three parts was not as powerful as Liu Cha at his peak.

A'Liang was never one to adopt a passive stance in a fight, not when he fought Dong Sangeng, not when he fought the shameless True Invincible in the Heavenly World, and he certainly wasn't going to make an exception against Liu Cha.

In the next instant, an utterly gargantuan Dao Manifestation appeared behind Liu Cha's Dao Manifestation, then pressed a hand against the latter's head before slamming it into the ground.

Even before A'Liang left the Sword Qi Great Wall, he had been meaning to tell Liu Cha that while it wasn't ideal that he didn't have a suitable sword, that was completely inconsequential unless his opponent was armed with an immortal sword.

Prior to their reunion on this battlefield, A'Liang had seen Liu Cha as a friend, and he didn't want to be so blunt and direct as friendships were often ruined by excessive honesty.

While pressing the head of Liu Cha's Dao Manifestation into the ground, A'Liang's Dao Manifestation swung the sword in its other hand through the air, lashing out at eight tents at once.

Three great demons from the twelve thrones stepped forward in unison to oppose the attack, namely Bai Ying, the staff-wielding old man, and the deity in golden armor.

"I'm outta here!" A'Liang chuckled with a cheeky grin, and the river of time that he had brought down upon Liu Cha immediately disintegrated.

At the same time, a streak of sword light shot forth without any warning from where Liu Cha's avatar was situated, hurtling directly toward the Sword Qi Great Wall, and it was even able to pierce through the golden river.

After the sword light faded away, a figure was revealed, sprawled against the city wall, slowly sliding downward.

The old man in gray arrived by Liu Cha's side, and he took a glance at the blood trickling down from the corner of Liu Cha's lips, then smiled and said, "That should teach you not to hesitate the next time you face him in battle."

Liu Cha nodded in response, and his yin soul Dao Manifestation and yang soul avatar combined back into one.

As for A'Liang, who had just been "escorted" all the way to the city wall by the streak of sword light, he had crashed into the great wall right above the "badass" character, and while sliding down, he sneakily spat onto the palms of his hands, then began carefully smoothing down his hair and sideburns. In a battle, the top priority was naturally to secure victory, but showing off and looking good came a close second.

He recalled that there used to be a little girl on Stalactite Mountain selling wine from the Golden Millet Blessed Land, and she had said something very memorable to him. She had told him something along the lines of, as soon as she saw his face, she felt like a little deer had been let loose in her heart, running around with no restraint.

A'Liang was happy to accept her kind and sincere words, but he would pass on reciprocating her feelings.

All of a sudden, A'Liang drew to a halt in mid-air, then took a step forward and extended a smiling greeting toward an old sword cultivator who was observing him with a peculiar expression.

"Hey! If it isn't old Brother Yin! Whatcha lookin' at? You think you can go up a few tiers just from looking at me?"

He slapped a hand down onto the shoulders of the Nascent Tier Yin Chen, then scoffed, "I don't wanna be overly harsh on you, brother, but what've you been doing all this time? Have you been spending all your time looking at girls while I've been away? Otherwise, how is it possible that you still haven't reached the Upper Five Tiers?"

Yin Chen's shoulder slumped as he grimaced in pain from A'Liang's heavy-handed blow. On the Sword Qi Great Wall, Yin Chen was notorious for being difficult to deal with, but in a rare display of restraint, he remained silent with a stoic look on his face.

An alarmed look appeared on A'Liang's face, and he began slapping Yin Chen's face back and forth with both hands as he asked in an urgent voice, "Why aren't you saying anything, Brother Yin? Do you not recognize me anymore? Have you gone senile?"

"I recognize you." Yin Chen sighed in an exasperated manner. "I'm just so overjoyed to see you again that I was temporarily lost for words."

A smile reappeared on A'Liang's face, and he said, "Thank heavens there are still a few familiar faces around. It's my fault for returning too late."

A sense of foreboding welled up in Yin Chen's heart, and sure enough, in the next instant, A'Liang slung an arm across his shoulders, tucking him under his armpit.

Unable to struggle free, Yin Chen could only resign himself to his fate as A'Liang's spittle sprayed all over his face.

"Oh Brother Yin, it pains me to no end to see that you're still single!"

All of a sudden, A'Liang released Yin Chen, then stepped out of the city wall and drifted over to the old great sword immortal.

"Senior A'Liang," Wei Jin greeted with a smile as he cupped his fist in a salute.

A'Liang gave Wei Jin a forlorn pat on the shoulder and sighed. "Looks like both of us are still as single as ever."

He then sat down with his legs crossed, facing south, and a rare look of solemnity appeared on his face.

His meddling had brought momentary peace to the battlefield, but now that he had retreated to the wall, the battle quickly resumed, and more lives continued to be lost.

Chen Qingdu was standing beside A'Liang with a smile, and he asked, "Surely there were a few good-looking Daoist nuns in the Heavenly World's White Jade Capital. Were they not enough to keep you?"

A'Liang pointed at the sea of clouds above his head, then rested his chin on one hand as he cast his gaze toward the battlefield and sighed. "There were, but that was precisely the problem. As soon as I showed up in the White Jade Capital, all of the beautiful celestial maidens there immediately looked like they wanted to eat me alive. If I let my guard down for even a split-second, they would've been all over me. This is an ever-present problem wherever I go."

Chen Qingdu merely chuckled and offered no response.

"How severe are Chen Ping'an's injuries?" A'Liang asked. "I only caught a glimpse of what happened from a distance at the time, so I couldn't see clearly."

"He'll live," Chen Qingdu casually replied. "Ning Yao carried him back to her residence, so he's no longer in any danger. Once he gets used to being on the verge of death, it'll no longer faze him."

"Be that as it may, but at the end of the day, he's still just a young man and an outsider to boot, so as his senior, you should really look out for him where you can," A'Liang said. "He's only doing all of this because he has feelings for Ning Yao, but he doesn't actually owe the Sword Qi Great Wall, so it's not good to take his efforts for granted."

"Are you teaching me how I should live my life? Would you like to educate me in swordsmanship as well?" Chen Qingdu chuckled.

A'Liang stood up and sighed. "I'm a terrible teacher, but if you insist on learning from me, I can reluctantly take you on as my student."

Wei Jin was very impressed with A'Liang's brazen courage.

Chen Qingdu took a side-eyed glance at A'Liang, and in the next instant, A'Liang was already gone, fleeing in a timely fashion instead of overstaying his welcome.

However, Wei Jin then quickly noticed that he seemed to have been fleeing in the wrong direction.

"Where is he going?" Wei Jin exclaimed with a stunned expression.

"You can't tell?" Chen Qingdu scoffed as he glanced at Wei Jin. "He's going to pick a fight."

Wei Jin was rendered speechless.

Chen Qingdu turned his gaze back to the long streak of light A'Liang had left behind in his wake, and he smiled and asked, "Did A'Liang not tell you this back when he was traveling with you on the Eastern Treasured Vial Continent? Being ganged up on by a bunch of Ascension Tier adversaries is one of his favorite pastimes."

Wei Jin was silent for a moment, and a peculiar look appeared on his face as he revealed, "Back then, Senior A'Liang told me that he's able to hold his own on the Sword Qi Great Wall, and that he ranks at least in the top fifty among all of the Sword Qi Great Wall's sword cultivators. He said it with full confidence, but... but he simply didn't look the part."

In the beginning, Wei Jin thought that he had run into a fraud. However, the Sword Dao insights that A'Liang later went on to provide were of immense benefit to Wei Jin, even though they would've seemed like nothing more than errant ramblings to anyone else, and that was why Wei Jin had ultimately refrained from lashing out at A'Liang. Then came their bet, during which Wei Jin lost his Sword Nurturing Gourd.

After that, he went into seclusion, and sure enough, he was able to reach the Upper Five Tiers. After emerging from seclusion, Wei Jin was naturally filled with a sense of wonder and longing toward the Sword Qi Great Wall. He wanted to see this incredible place that supposedly had fifty sword cultivators on par with or even superior to A'Liang.

"Not only does A'Liang consider himself a swordsman, but he's also a scholar," Chen Qingdu suddenly said.

A'Liang raced through the heavens, passing directly over the golden river, then crashed down heavily onto the ground, right in the middle of the demonic army. All of the demonic cultivators around him were momentarily stunned into inactivity, after which all of them began to run for their lives, frantically trying to get away from A'Liang as if he were a walking plague.

He raised his head up high, then stroked a hand over his own hair and asked himself, "Can you get any more badass than this? Honestly, I don't think so!"

All of a sudden, a tornado began to take shape around him, and it expanded rapidly to encompass an enormous area. It was a formation that consisted of countless flying swords manifested by sword intent.

The sword formation was completely unfettered by the Savage World's Great Dao.

After leaving the Sword Qi Great Wall, A'Liang had ascended to the heavens beyond heavens and slain countless heavenly demons with nothing more than his bare fists. As a matter of fact, he was even presenting himself as an equal to the Daoist second disciple, and he had gone a further step beyond his former peak after already reaching the pinnacle of the Sword Dao.