Martial Dao: I Can Enhance My Talents

Fang Han lifted his eyes.

He felt the locked-on killing intent and the immense pressure, but his gaze remained calm. The hand holding his sword only grew steadier.

The nimble and graceful Wind Sword Intent around him quietly condensed and climbed, contending with his opponent’s tyrannical, mountain-like momentum in an invisible domain.

"Slay!!"

Qi Zhen, having gathered his momentum to its peak, let out a deafening roar. His biceps bulged as he furiously chopped down.

A massive Saber Gang, condensed to its limit until it resembled Dark Gold Glaze, shot from his blade. It expanded in the wind, instantly transforming into a terrifying streamer several zhang long.

Wherever the Saber Gang passed, the ground was plowed open into a deep trench by its leaking, sharp aura.

The rubble, splintered wood, and even the distant burning flames were all swept up, torn apart, and extinguished by the violent torrent of air.

This one strike seemed as if it would truly slice open the heavy night sky and grind everything in its path to dust.

Faced with this mountain-shattering, earth-shaking blow, Fang Han moved.

He did not retreat. Instead, he took a step forward.

The Inner Qi of an Early Stage of Second Grade martial artist and his physical strength of 300,000 jin erupted, all of it pouring into his sword.

The Cloud Splitting Sword in his hand let out a clear, high-pitched hum. He pushed his Wind Sword Intent to the absolute limit of his control, perfectly merging it with the exquisite moves of the Sky-Splitting Sword Technique.

His sword rose!

There was no dazzling brilliance, only a thin, dark-cyan line, so condensed its trajectory was nearly invisible.

Following a profound trajectory, it precisely "tapped" a single point in the flow of power within the massive Saber Gang—

not its strongest point, nor its weakest, but the nexus where its Momentum shifted and transitioned.

"TING—!!!"

A strange, crisp sound. It wasn’t a deafening explosion, but an exceptionally sharp noise that pierced through the roar of the Saber Gang tearing through the air.

Immediately after, a scene that left everyone dumbfounded occurred—

The incomparably mighty, Dark Gold Saber Gang, which seemed capable of cleaving through anything, actually shuddered the instant it made contact with the faint Cyan Sword Light.

Then, faint yet dense cracking sounds came from within the Saber Gang. Its surface, once as solid as glaze, was now covered in spiderweb-like fissures.

The cracks spread rapidly, covering the entire Saber Gang in the blink of an eye.

The next moment, the terrifying Saber Gang, dozens of feet long, shattered violently just three chi from Fang Han.

It disintegrated into a sky full of scattering, dark-gold motes of light, like a brilliant and dangerous shower of golden rain. The downpour riddled the surrounding ground with countless pits of varying depths but failed to harm Fang Han in the slightest.

As for Fang Han’s condensed sword light, after "tapping" the Saber Gang to pieces, it dimmed considerably but still stubbornly pierced through the chaotic turbulence and shot toward Qi Zhen, whose expression had suddenly frozen.

Qi Zhen’s pupils shrank to pinpricks.

He couldn’t comprehend how his full-power Saber Gang had been broken in such a manner.

But his combat instincts remained. In his shock, he subconsciously swung his saber back to block.

"CLANG!!"

The residual power of the sword light slammed into the blade, letting out a dull thud.

Qi Zhen once again felt that familiar, piercingly sharp Power in his arm, accompanied by a weaker, but still present, mental sting.

He grunted and stumbled back three steps.

Each step left a footprint an inch deep in the bluestone ground, the surrounding flagstones cracking in a spiderweb pattern.

He barely managed to stabilize himself. His right hand, which held the saber, was so numb it felt like it wasn’t his own, and his entire right arm trembled uncontrollably.

The wound on his waist also flared with a tearing pain from the exertion.

He snapped his head up and looked forward.

In the light of the flames and the dissipating golden motes, Fang Han stood with his sword in hand.

Other than the hem of his cyan robe swaying slightly in the strong wind and a few bluestone bricks under his feet having quietly shattered when he dispersed the force, he stood as steady as a rock. Even his breathing showed no obvious signs of disorder.

In the dancing light and shadows, his young face was so calm it was unsettling.

"N-No... Impossible!"

Qi Zhen’s hoarse voice carried a tremor he himself hadn’t noticed.

Having used a Demon Skill to devour more than ten Upper Three Grades Martial Artists, his Cultivation had already reached the Late Stage of First Grade.

That last strike was delivered with his full power, holding nothing back.

Even another Late-stage First Grade Martial Artist could never have so casually shattered it head-on, let alone do so by using Skill Overcomes Force and emerging completely unscathed.

But this Qingxuan Sect True Inheritor, who looked to be barely in his early twenties, had not only done it, but had even injured him in the counterattack.

"Impossible! You can’t possibly have this kind of strength!"

Qi Zhen roared, his eyes filled with disbelief, fury, and a faint, almost imperceptible trace of... fear.

Fang Han still didn’t answer.

He just lightly flicked his blade, and then, he moved again.

This time, he was the one attacking.

"SWOOSH—"

The cyan figure seemed to melt completely into the night and the wind, blurring until only a faint trail remained.

Fang Han combined the Wind God Step with his Wind Sword Intent, his speed exceeding the limits of what Qi Zhen’s naked eye could track. It was as if he were attacking from several directions at once.

The hair on Qi Zhen’s body stood on end, a sense of crisis washing over him like ice water.

He let out a furious roar, forcibly suppressing the distracting thoughts in his mind.

He poured his dark-gold Inner Qi into his long saber, swinging it to create an impenetrable screen of blade light that sealed off the area around him completely.

"CLANG! CLANG-CLANG-CLANG! CLANG—!"

The next moment, a dense, scalp-numbing storm of metallic clashes erupted like a torrential downpour.

Every collision was accompanied by showering sparks and the muffled explosion of Qi Force.

The Cyan Sword Light and the dark-gold Saber Aura madly entangled and annihilated each other. The two figures moved at high speed within a radius of over ten zhang, weaving, separating, and colliding again.

Rubble, dust, fragments of broken weapons, and even burning planks of wood were swept into the air by the terrifying Qi Force erupting from their clash, only to be ground into powder by even finer bursts of Power.

This formed a murky cloud of dust that shrouded the heart of the battlefield.

Only two blurry figures could be vaguely seen flickering within it at astonishing speeds, and the only sound was a continuous series of booming clashes, each louder than the last.

Inside the dust cloud, the longer Qi Zhen fought, the more shocked and terrified he became.

Fang Han’s sword was too fast! Too vicious! Too sharp!

Every strike seemed to predict the trajectory of his Saber Momentum, stabbing in from the most unexpected and awkward angles.

The tearing force contained within the sword light forced him to be exceedingly cautious with every block, consuming more of his Inner Qi.

But what made him even more uncomfortable was the Spiritual Shock imbued in the sword!

Amidst this high-speed, intense exchange, the continuous, needle-like spiritual interference constantly assaulted his mind.

It made it difficult for him to concentrate, causing his reactions to be just a fraction of a second too slow.

In a duel between experts, that fraction of a second was a world of difference!

"SHLIIICK!"

A cyan sword light bizarrely pierced through a gap in the blade screen and grazed past Qi Zhen’s right arm.

The Arm Guard and the leather lining beneath it split open at the sound. A cold sensation spread across his forearm.

A flash of pain followed, and a shallow, half-chi-long wound appeared, with beads of blood seeping out.

Qi Zhen flinched from the pain, and his Saber Momentum faltered for an instant.

In that very instant, when his old force was spent and new force had yet to rise, Fang Han’s second sword strike arrived.

It was as if it had been waiting for this moment, silently homing in on the imperceptible opening.

This strike was faster and more condensed than any before it.

The cold glint at the sword’s tip rapidly magnified in Qi Zhen’s constricting pupils!

The shadow of death enveloped him in an instant, nearly freezing the blood in his veins.

Under the shadow of death, his Inner Qi erupted beyond its limits.

He threw his body backward in an almost contorted posture, simultaneously swinging his saber back in a desperate upward slash.

The sword’s edge grazed past the skin of his neck.

The sharp Sword Qi left a thin line of blood on his neck, bone-chillingly cold.

But his upward slash was met by Fang Han’s sword, which moved to block with deceptive slowness.

"CLANG—!!!"

This time, the collision was as heavy as two mountains crashing into each other.

Qi Zhen felt an immense rebounding force travel up his saber. The sharp Hidden Force contained within it was unstoppable, surging through the blade, up his arm, and slamming violently into his body.

"BANG—!"

A sweet taste welled up in his throat.

His entire body was sent flying backward as if struck by a heavy hammer, his feet leaving the ground. The long saber was nearly knocked from his grasp.

He desperately gripped the hilt, his feet dragging violently across the ground, plowing two trenches several zhang long and several inches deep.

He shattered several decorative rocks along the way before finally slamming hard into a half-collapsed courtyard wall, barely managing to stop his retreat.

"Cough, cough!"

He knelt on one knee, using his saber to support himself as he coughed violently.

Looking down at his right hand gripping the saber, he saw that the web between his thumb and forefinger had split open, and blood was now dripping from it continuously.

His entire right arm, after that violent collision, was trembling nonstop, so numb it felt like he had lost all sensation.

He raised his head in horror, peering through the swirling dust at the figure before him.

Fang Han stood there holding his sword, his cyan robe merely dotted with dust. His posture, like a green pine or a steep cliff, exuded boundless pressure.

A pair of cold eyes watched his wretched state. His gaze was still serene, as if the furious storm of attacks just now had been nothing more than a casual effort.

The night was deep, the firelight danced, illuminating the devastated battlefield between them. It also illuminated the unconcealable shock in his eyes, as well as a deeply hidden trace of fear.

’This young man... just how strong is he?’

"Qi Zhen is the one at a disadvantage?"

Having retreated to the edge of the battle, Lan Daoxing’s pale face was filled with disbelief.

In terms of age, Qi Zhen was at least more than twice as old as Fang Han.

In terms of Cultivation, Qi Zhen was a Late-stage First Grade Martial Artist. Although Fang Han suppressed the younger generation, standing at its pinnacle as a veritable prodigy, he was only at the Early Stage of Second Grade. There was a gap of nearly two Great Realms between him and Qi Zhen.

But in their fight, the one at a disadvantage wasn’t Fang Han, but Qi Zhen.

The Gang Leader of the Tiejiang Gang, a Late Stage of First Grade expert, was actually being suppressed by a young man in his early twenties.

"The Hundred Treasures Pavilion is saved!"

Lan Daoxing muttered to himself, his voice hoarse with the joy of surviving a disaster.

Seeing a glimmer of hope, he took a deep breath, forced his injured body to move, and rushed to rescue the Hundred Treasures Pavilion guards and Honored Guest Elders, whose situation was critical and on the verge of collapse.

"SWOOSH!"

His figure flickered, and he pounced on a Tiejiang Gang Steward who was about to deliver a killing blow to two Hundred Treasures Pavilion guards.