Chapter 196 ·Slash!
Chapter 196: Slash!
“Clang!”
A faint sword cry rang out from one corner of the plaza.
Everyone instinctively turned to look, only to see a rust-covered, pitted half-broken sword burst straight through the roof of the Sword Pavilion and fly toward Li Yunqing.
“This? A broken sword?”
Seeing that broken sword, everyone’s expressions froze, their eyes filled with despair.
If it were some divine weapon, they could still believe Li Yunqing might use it to kill the enemy.
At the very least, she might still be able to contend for a while.
But with such a rust-covered, pitted broken sword, whether it could even pierce someone’s clothes was probably a question.
“A broken sword! Hahahaha…”
Seeing the broken sword fly straight toward Li Yunqing, the three Kings exchanged glances and could not help but laugh.
Though they laughed, they still cautiously extended their divine senses toward the broken sword.
After a full moment, the three Kings still detected nothing unusual.
The broken sword had no spirituality at all, and its blade was covered in traces of corrosion left by time.
It looked like a lump of scrap iron that had been buried in some filthy ditch for ages before being dug up again.
There was not the slightest trace of sharpness.
Such a broken sword perhaps could not even be called a sword.
Calling it scrap iron would be more fitting.
Even as scrap iron, it was likely already on the verge of complete decay.
“Tap!”
The broken sword landed in Li Yunqing’s hand and was lightly grasped by her.
Seeing this, the expressions of the three Kings all turned strange.
“Don’t tell me you mean to rely on this broken sword to resist?”
“All of this is futile!”
“Fine then. With your temperament, if you don’t struggle once more, you probably won’t be willing to accept it!”
The three Kings looked at each other and spoke in succession.
If a person had not stepped into true despair, they would never know what despair really was, and in their hearts, there would always remain a trace of luck.
Without experiencing genuine despair and being truly trampled beneath their feet, how could such a woman ever accept her fate?
And if she did not accept her fate, how could they subdue such a peerlessly gifted woman?
“Peerless Sword!”
Among the crowd, Di Qing’s expression suddenly turned grave.
When the Fallen Immortal Land was defeated a hundred thousand years ago, cultivators below the Sixth Realm were mostly ignored, unless they had extraordinary talent or physique.
Di Qing had been one of them.
He had even personally seen that sword light rising from the Great Luo Sword Sect.
That sword light had blazed brilliantly and shot into the heavens.
With just one strike, it split apart the giant eye in the sky, and blood rained from heaven!
That was a giant eye formed from the rules of heaven and earth, capable of seeing through all beings and all things across the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands, observing every detail.
It was said that only the victor of the Ten Lands Reincarnation Battle and the Ascension Battle could control it.
Rumor held that it was the only divine object on the battlefield of the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands capable of observing all those worlds.
And it was precisely because of that divine object that other worlds could be easily plundered and blood-washed.
Yet that sword strike had forcibly torn the giant eye apart.
It was the most terrifying sword light Di Qing had ever seen in his life.
Under that sword, it seemed that all things would be destroyed and march toward the end.
Even the giant eye formed from the rules of the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands had been heavily damaged.
At this moment, a thread of hope inexplicably arose in Di Qing’s heart, and his eyes fixed directly on Li Yunqing.
Li Yunqing remained silent. She raised the broken sword before her eyes, and her heart trembled slightly.
At this moment, she seemed finally to understand why that swordsman of the Great Luo Sword Sect had been willing to pay any price to unleash that sword.
When a world was blood-washed and plundered, for the living beings of heaven and earth at that time, there was nowhere to flee, nowhere to hide, and no way to resist.
Watching one senior brother or junior sister after another fall into pools of blood, killed one after another before one’s eyes—
in such a dead end where death was certain, anyone would probably have done the same.
Even if it meant death, even if everything would be extinguished, even if there would be no reincarnation, no next life, no anything left at all—
amid endless ruins, endless despair, endless death and destruction, one would still slash out with that sword.
At such a time, all thoughts had probably been severed, leaving behind only a single conviction.
A conviction that could not be erased.
Just like her at this very moment.
Even if she gave everything, she would make the one before her bleed—
even if it was only a single drop.
“Today, bloom once more with the light that belongs to you!”
Li Yunqing tightly gripped the broken sword in her right hand and slowly raised it, pointing it toward the sky.
“Buzz!”
The broken sword trembled lightly.
At that instant, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, the laws of heaven and earth, and all vitality surged toward the broken sword in Li Yunqing’s hand.
“Rustle…”
The Ten Thousand Wood Prison surrounding everyone in the plaza began turning to sand at a speed visible to the naked eye.
In the blink of an eye, the thick plant roots, once as stout as human bodies, all withered, collapsing like threads of dust and smoke onto the ground.
Even the earth of the entire plaza began to turn to sand with Li Yunqing at the center, spreading outward in all directions.
It was as if, in that instant, all vitality and spiritual energy in this land were silently devoured.
Or as if all things in heaven and earth had stepped toward the end and destruction at this moment.
Especially under the blessing of Li Yunqing’s trait of merging with heaven and earth, the entire world churned with wind and clouds, drawn in and devoured by the broken sword.
“Buzz!”
The broken sword in Li Yunqing’s hand trembled again and suddenly released light.
Specks of rust fell away, and the pitted blade gradually revealed its sharpness.
Seeing this, everyone paused, and even the expressions of the three Kings turned grave as they stared fixedly at the broken sword in Li Yunqing’s hand.
“It’s still not enough!”
“Rumble!”
Behind Li Yunqing, that enormous moon—already dim to the extreme and on the verge of vanishing—suddenly shattered.
The vast power of laws, like threads of moonlight, instantly poured into the broken sword.
This was a sword strike that left no retreat and gave everything.
At this moment, Li Yunqing even shattered her own inner world by force, turning it into nourishment for the broken sword in her hand.
“What? The National Preceptor destroyed her own cultivation?”
Seeing the immense moon phenomenon shatter, everyone’s hearts trembled.
The phenomenon was the starting point of the new Dao. Once shattered, it was equivalent to crippling one’s own cultivation.
Yet Li Yunqing had done it without the slightest hesitation.
At this moment, endless despair surged through everyone’s hearts.
Even the Path Pioneer had chosen to pour out everything.
“Buzz!”
The broken sword hummed, and its aura rose bit by bit.
“This is?”
Seeing the aura of the broken sword in Li Yunqing’s hand grow stronger and stronger, the expressions of the three Kings changed slightly, and they instinctively exchanged glances.
They had personally witnessed Li Yunqing’s methods while trapped inside the formation.
With only Sixth Realm strength, she had forcibly fought six Kings to the death. Such an achievement could not be underestimated by anyone.
Even for them, accomplishing such a feat would be extraordinarily difficult.
“We can’t be careless. Suppress her!”
“Agreed! This woman is too strange. Even under the suppression of the origin of the Nine Lands, she can still communicate with the laws of the Fallen Immortal Land. She must not be underestimated!”
“With the lesson before us, how can we just stand here watching?”
The three Kings exchanged glances and reached an agreement almost instantly.
A formation formed by the origins of the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands—if controlled by a Ninth Realm Saint—could even suppress a Supreme Being.
And yet it could not suppress Li Yunqing!
How could they not be cautious?
Even if Li Yunqing had already reached a dead end.
“Rumble!”
In the next moment, light rose above the heads of the three Kings.
The light expanded with the wind, and in the blink of an eye transformed into three gigantic heavy weapons.
One was a great seal as massive as a divine mountain, engraved with endless mountains, rivers, sun, moon, and stars. It instantly blotted out the sky as it descended to suppress Li Yunqing.
One was a gigantic furnace burning with blazing flames, as if it could melt heaven and earth within it.
Now, endless flames coiled around the furnace, igniting even space itself as it descended directly above Li Yunqing.
The last was a great millstone, round above and square below, corresponding to heaven and earth. As it slowly turned, space shattered inch by inch.
It seemed that space simply could not bear the crushing force of that great millstone.
The three heavy weapons descended together, and the immense force made the whole land tremble slightly, sinking several inches.
The endless dust had just risen when it was pressed dead to the ground by that overwhelming power.
“Buzz!”
But at that moment, the broken sword in Li Yunqing’s hand trembled faintly.
The pressure of the three heavy weapons, including the flames within the furnace, was drawn away by an invisible force and poured directly into the broken sword.
As for Li Yunqing herself, it was as if she felt none of that suppressing force at all. Holding the broken sword, she stood straight and upright.
Only her blood-soaked robes and long hair fluttered wildly.
“How is this possible?”
Seeing this, the three Kings were all shocked.
These were heavy weapons. Nearly every Eighth Realm King would collect rare materials, immortal metals, and divine iron to forge such a treasure.
They would pour in their effort and laws to refine it.
In the future, such a weapon might even become a Dao-attaining artifact.
And yet now, three King-grade heavy weapons descended together—
and still could not affect Li Yunqing in the slightest.
That scene shocked not only the three Kings, but everyone silently watching as well. Their eyes filled with astonishment and hope.
The aura of that broken sword had revived. Though it still did not appear especially extraordinary, it was clearly not the useless thing everyone had assumed.
“No wonder this broken sword was stored in the Sword Pavilion!”
“And in a Sword Pavilion built only to hold this sword!”
At this moment, everyone could sense how extraordinary the broken sword was.
But their perception was nothing compared to Li Yunqing’s as she held it.
“So this is the power contained within this broken sword?”
Li Yunqing seemed able to see what lay within the broken sword.
The spiritual energy of heaven and earth, endless vitality, the laws of heaven and earth, even the laws released after her inner world shattered—
all were devoured by the broken sword.
The broken sword was like a bottomless abyss. Everything that entered it became its power without raising even a ripple.
Even the power of the three Kings’ heavy weapons, upon entering the broken sword, could not stir the slightest wave.
It was as if all beings, all phenomena, all laws, and all Great Dao in heaven and earth could be devoured by it.
“No! This isn’t devouring!”
“This is more like the end point of all living beings, all things, all laws, and all Great Dao.”
“The end point of everything!”
“This sword should be called the Sword of the End—a sword that ends all things, ends heaven and earth, ends the universe and all living beings!”
At this moment, boundless understanding arose in Li Yunqing’s heart.
Holding the broken sword, with herself as the anchor, devouring everything in heaven and earth—including her own inner world—
naturally, she understood the most.
“But it’s still not enough!”
“Take my lifespan too!”
Li Yunqing clenched the broken sword tightly, and with a turn of thought,
she felt the vitality in her body, even her Dao Self, True Self, and Past Self formed from her Primordial Spirit, flow into the broken sword like a great river.
At that instant, even Li Yunqing, who possessed endless lifespan, had her hair turn white in an instant.
Her entire being seemed to be hollowed out completely. Even her flesh and blood seemed to be devoured by the broken sword, becoming faintly transparent.
She looked like an illusory dream bubble.
“Buzz!”
Her white hair danced wildly in the wind, and her blood-red dress fluttered noisily.
Everyone who saw this was stunned.
A girl who had been only seventeen or eighteen years old had, in the blink of an eye, become someone with a head full of white hair.
“Not good!”
“She’s throwing away her life!”
The three Kings finally seemed to realize something was wrong and tried to act.
But at this very moment, Li Yunqing gripped the broken sword and slashed toward them.
A somewhat hoarse voice rang out from her mouth as well.
“Slash!”