Chapter 62 : Chapter 62
Chapter 62: Supreme Sword Intent Suppresses the Dragon Abyss Sword; the Demon-Slaying Sword Displays Its Might
Master?
Everyone was stunned. This expert had a master here as well?
Jian A's attainment in the Sword Dao was already so extraordinary.
What kind of figure, then, was his master?
While everyone was still reeling in shock, a familiar figure stepped out.
Cheng Yu stepped forward.
Standing there in calm indifference, he said, "The Dragon Abyss Sword?"
He turned back to look at Jian A and Liu Xiong. "Watch closely and learn."
The martial artists were instantly dumbstruck.
A great expert had just called for his master, so what was a mere Fourth Rank Jinyiwei Hundred-Household Commander stepping out for?
They admitted that Cheng Yu's talent was monstrous, and that his strength among his peers was beyond imagination.
But what they were facing now was the Dragon Abyss Sword in He Qin's hands!
A heavenly armament on the Heavenly Armament List, a Heaven Grade divine weapon!
A strike driven by the life of a peak Eighth Rank expert carried enough might to cut down even a Ninth Rank opponent.
What could a mere Fourth Rank expert possibly do?
The Jinyiwei also stood frozen in place.
What was Hundred-Household Commander Cheng trying to do?
Only the Jinyiwei from Qingjiang Prefecture reacted differently.
They were Cheng Yu's trusted men, the ones who had followed him in sweeping through the jianghu, and their eyes gleamed.
Their hearts were utterly steady.
"Lord Cheng is making his move!"
There was no reason for it, and it defied all understanding.
Yet they simply believed Cheng Yu could do it.
He Qin raised the Dragon Abyss Sword high. Vast sword qi surged into the heavens, wrapped in dragon-might, while peals of draconic roars rang out one after another.
The dragon-might suppressed everyone so heavily that their feet could barely move.
Already half-mad, He Qin saw Cheng Yu actually daring to step forward and burst into a scornful laugh.
"Overestimating yourself! Once I kill them, the men of my Sword-Forging Manor will surely take your head to console my spirit!"
"Hahahahaha!"
Not far away, the surviving disciples and elders of Sword-Forging Manor trembled all over.
"Manor Lord..."
Their Manor Lord was about to cast away his life to defend Sword-Forging Manor's dignity!
Their hearts shook, and their faces were bleak.
Then they all turned furious eyes toward Cheng Yu.
It was this man who had ruined Sword-Forging Manor. If they did not avenge this hatred, they swore they would not go on living!
"Die!"
With a long howl, He Qin brought down the Dragon Abyss Sword's sword qi. Sword intent vast enough to tower through heaven and earth swept outward with crushing force.
Wherever the sword qi passed, the dragon-might dyed all things a dark gold.
At the sight of it, everyone's vision seemed to freeze, and in that instant their hearts nearly stopped beating.
At that moment—
"Hmph."
In everyone's ears rang Cheng Yu's cold voice, which had seemed so recklessly overconfident a moment before.
"The Dragon Abyss Sword? Let me see what makes one of the world's supreme weapons so different!"
In the next instant, within the dark-gold sea of sword qi from the Dragon Abyss Sword, a flare of blinding light burst forth.
There was no savage dragon-might adorning it, no vast Internal Energy reinforcing it.
There was only sword intent of absolute sharpness.
Within that radiance, Cheng Yu held a pitch-black broken sword.
Its blackness was abyssal and bottomless, so deep it felt unreal.
SHING!
The sword's cry seemed to ring down from the heavens themselves.
Pure sword qi filled sky and earth as it rose from the Demon-Slaying Sword in Cheng Yu's hand, carrying an absolute majesty.
An unimaginable amount of sword qi spilled outward, and everyone felt a sharp sting on their faces.
Thin lines of crimson appeared one after another.
They were marks carved by the sword qi.
But no one had time to feel the pain.
Because as they looked at Cheng Yu's imposing and majestic figure, they forgot even to breathe.
The Demon-Slaying Sword's sword qi was actually suppressing the Dragon Abyss Sword's sword qi!
The Dragon Abyss Sword's savage dragon-might fled in all directions like a beaten cur.
He Qin's eyes went wide. No matter what, he refused to believe what he was seeing.
"Impossible!"
Even a Ninth Rank expert would find the Dragon Abyss Sword's might hard to withstand. By what right could a mere junior like Cheng Yu do this?!
By what right?!
"Rise, wind," Cheng Yu intoned calmly.
A fierce gale answered his words, blowing the Dragon Abyss Sword's sword qi completely back the way it had come.
The breeze seemed gentle, yet it bit with chilling sharpness, as though it were not wind at all, but endless strands of sword qi scraping across the air.
The sword qi was icy sharp, yet it came in fine, unbroken threads. It felt less like a sword than like a light breeze.
The Wind and Cloud Sword that Jian A had transformed into a wooden cane fell to the ground.
His aged body collapsed into a full prostration, yet his eyes shone with incomparable light.
Supporting his wounded body, he kowtowed to Cheng Yu again and again.
Master was demonstrating the Gale Sword Intent for him!
He had seen it!
This was supreme sword intent—the power at the very summit of the Sword Dao!
The sword was within the wind, and the wind within the sword!
Cheng Yu's body swayed slightly as he put away the Demon-Slaying Sword.
Then he slowly turned around and stood with his back to He Qin, no longer looking in his direction.
Behind him, the sword-wind swept past, lifting a corner of his Flying Fish Uniform.
That razor wind reached He Qin.
His eyes bulging and features twisted, He Qin's body was carved into countless pieces and crashed to the ground.
The Dragon Abyss Sword fell to the ground, its dragon-might completely scattered. After trembling a few times, it went still.
That was a sword strike forged from the totality of Cheng Yu's comprehension of the Sword Dao.
Under that one strike, the dragon-might was extinguished to ash!
【The host has slain the rebel leader and shocked all with a display of Jinyiwei might. Reward: Internal Energy!】
An unprecedented flood of pure Internal Energy surged madly into Cheng Yu's body.
Bottleneck after bottleneck became as though they were nothing.
By brute force, it pushed his realm from the late Fourth Rank into the mid Fifth Rank.
At the same time, the Demon-Slaying Sword stored within the system space trembled again and again, and part of its broken body slowly repaired itself.
More and more, it revealed its supremely sharp and majestic form.
【By serving as a living example, the host has passed on the Dao of Weapons and defeated a powerful enemy. Demon-Slaying Sword (Broken) can absorb the Dragon Abyss Sword's sword intent!】
【Reward: Demon-Slaying Sword (Broken) has been partially repaired into Demon-Slaying Sword (Incomplete). The cost of using Demon-Slaying Sword (Incomplete) has been greatly reduced!】
Cheng Yu looked at the Dragon Abyss Sword lying on the ground.
He walked over and took it into his hand.
All of the sword intent carrying dragon-might was absorbed into the Demon-Slaying Sword.
The light of the Dragon Abyss Sword gradually faded until it became nothing more than scrap iron.
"A heavenly armament? So this is all?"
He shook his head, looking disappointed.
The surroundings, which had already fallen silent long ago, became even stiller.
Everyone who witnessed this scene was already dumbfounded.
Then, in the next moment, boundless shock erupted.
"What did I just see? What did I just see?! The Dragon Abyss Sword lost!"
"How is that possible? By what right could he defeat the Dragon Abyss Sword?!"
"I'm dreaming. I must be dreaming! SLAP! No... I'm awake!"
The Dragon Abyss Sword wielded by He Qin had been defeated at Cheng Yu's hands.
This was sheer fantasy!
Everyone present felt the martial understanding they had built over decades suffer a tremendous blow.
Fan Xiu and the jianghu martial artists stood frozen in place, shuddering as though sealed in ice.
Ai Peng, Liu Xiong, and the others were equally astonished, their eyes burning with excitement.
They had witnessed a miracle of martial arts!
And they had gained a backer beyond imagination!
Seeing the crowd practically prostrate themselves, Cheng Yu nodded.
Even he himself could hardly believe that a Fourth Rank expert had withstood the might of the Dragon Abyss Sword.
This outcome had truly been a matter of coincidence and fortune.
He Qin had never been able to control the Dragon Abyss Sword in the first place, yet he had arrogantly tried to kill both Ai Peng and Fan Xiu with a single strike.
Unable to wield the sword properly, he could only rely on the Dragon Abyss Sword's sword qi to crush and kill by brute force.
Then Jian A blocked one strike.
After that, He Qin had forced out a second strike with his life.
And then he ran into Cheng Yu.
Because his Sword Dao had already grasped the Dao of Weapons, and because he wielded the supreme treasure Demon-Slaying Sword, Cheng Yu had been able to suppress the Dragon Abyss Sword.
That one strike had also exhausted Cheng Yu to the limit, draining every last bit of his Internal Energy and mental strength.
Had He Qin's control over the Dragon Abyss Sword been even slightly stronger, today's ending would have been drastically different.
And if Sword-Forging Manor had instead been Hammer-Forging Manor, with a Dragon Abyss Hammer rather than a Dragon Abyss Sword as its supreme treasure, Cheng Yu would have fled with his two disciples the moment He Qin went mad.
Unfortunately, there were no such ifs.
The jianghu favored swords.
Cheng Yu spoke coldly. "The rebel ringleader, He Qin, has already been executed. It is time to handle the real business."
He looked at the trembling Jinyiwei.
"You have not forgotten my previous order, have you?"
A veteran Jinyiwei from Qinghe County answered with shining eyes and utmost respect, cupping his fist.
"At Sword-Forging Manor, leave not even chickens or dogs alive! The other jianghu martial artists share the same crime!"
"Leave none alive!"
All the Jinyiwei of Dragon Abyss Path shouted in unison.
The reverence in their eyes when they looked at Cheng Yu surpassed even what they showed the two Assistant Commissioners.
"Go."
In an instant, Flying Fish patterns flashed, Xiuchun Sabers gleamed, and screams rose all around.
The people of Sword-Forging Manor had witnessed Cheng Yu's might and no longer dared curse or shout.
Their courage had completely broken, and all backbone had been beaten out of them.
"Don't kill me! Don't kill me!"
"Lord Cheng, I was wrong! I will never oppose the imperial court again! From now on, I will follow your lead in all things!"
"Spare me, Lord Cheng! Grandfather Cheng!"
More than a thousand martial artists dropped to the ground and surrendered, easier to seize than a thousand wild boars running loose.
Just then, Fan Xiu came over bent at the waist, wearing a fawning smile as he addressed Cheng Yu.
"L-Lord Cheng, I am deeply impressed..."
Cheng Yu smiled.
"Lord Fan, I still prefer the way you were when you had that untamable edge."
"You are a dignified Assistant Commissioner—show some spirit!"