Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
Even though most of his energy was still channeled to maintain the Saintly Celestial Primordial Sword Formation, the Cangming Swordmaster’s physical body was here and the radiant and all-breaching Saintly Celestial Sword Qi was enough to heap immense pressure upon Luo Qingwu and Zhuge Zhan.
It wasn’t the same as the roaming Saintly Celestial Sword Qi inside the sword formation. They were faced with a supreme elder from Mount Shu was only one step away from finishing his tribulations into the Vipralopa Stage, and a great sword cultivator that had been around since the Middle Ages.
The Cangming Swordmaster stared at Luo Qingwu and Zhuge Gan as his right hand twirled and he slashed out with sword after sword.
The white patches of Saintly Celestial Sword Qi were like the raindrops in a light drizzle, yet they appeared like they could pierce through everything. One single strike seemed to seal off the entire space around them and forced the two of them into a corner with nowhere to run. The only choice they had was to face the Saintly Celestial Sword Qi head-on.
Luo Qingwu’s mantras and her abilities were far greater than normal first-level immortal soul stage cultivators, and Zhuge Zhan was similarly one of the more powerful third-level immortal soul stage powerhouses and his battle prowess was impressive. They combined their efforts to dispel the streaks of Saintly Celestial Sword Qi, but the Cangming Swordmaster’s assaults appeared to have no end as they surged forth with unstoppable force.
Luo Qingwu kept her composure as she teamed up with Zhuge Zhan to withstand the pressure. Even though they were being pressed down by the Cangming Swordmaster, throughout the process of battle, Luo Qingwu’s swordplay and her mantras became smoother and more whole, and the sharpness of her radiance only became stronger.
Faced with the pressure from the Cangming Swordmaster, Luo Qingwu was increasing in power with dazzling speed even though she just entered the immortal soul stage. The speed at which she was improving caused Zhuge Zhan’s eyes to sparkle, and even the Cangming Swordmaster’s brows began to furrow and there was a trace of respect and admiration in his eyes.
“You’re truly good material for cultivating swordplay. I wasn’t as good as you when I first entered the immortal soul stage.” The Cangming Swordmaster’s tone was calm, but his voice was booming like rolling thunder, as always.
As he spoke, his hands began to move faster and faster. “It’s a pity I don’t have time to grind it out with you. The Saintly Celestial Sword is about to be reborn, and I can’t allow you two to fool around inside here.”
The Cangming Swordmaster used his fingers as a sword and changed his stance once more. The sprawling white patches of Saintly Celestial Sword Qi slashed across the void and took a different form as they transformed into something resembling the heavens above as they bore down upon Luo Qingwu and Zhuge Zhan.
The looming sword radiances were a little similar to the layers of green light above the Saintly Celestial Primordial Sword Formation.
They were everywhere, omnipresent and touched everything. The sword radiance appeared like the world itself, and made it incredibly difficult for others to avoid and challenging to deal with. However, the Saintly Celestial Primordial Sword Formation was now mostly used to resist the Tiangang Swordmaster. Before this, most of its strength was used to battle the Tiangang Swordmaster and re-forge the Saintly Celestial Sword at the same time.
The pressure from the sword formation before this that Luo Qingwu and Zhuge Zhan felt was nothing close to the Dark Boundary Sword Technique that the Cangming Swordmaster was casting personally.
It was similar to the Tiangang Swordmaster’s Tiangang Sword Star River and Xin Longsheng’s Greater Sword World. This was a product of the Cangming Swordmaster’s foundations in cultivating the Saintly Celestial Sword Qi, combined with his own understanding of swordplay and of the world. Its origins were in the Saintly Celestial Sword Qi and a powerful swordplay was unleashed.
Heaven and earth were completely covered wherever the sword radiance traveled to. A single streak of light shot up into the sky and connected the skies to the ground.
The pillar of light flashed once and everything in the space between heaven and earth began to collapse together. Heaven and earth worked together to annihilate all beings in between.
Zhuge Zhan roared, “I’ll go horizontal, you go vertical!”
Luo Qingwu immediately understood him and proceeded without hesitation. The Taiji Diagram formed by her immortal soul avatar rotated on the spot, and the Original Spirit Sword of Extremity’s sword radiance transformed into a brilliant pillar of light and surged out directly in front of her.
On the other side, Zhuge Zhan revealed his Divine Sunlight Dao Fruit and raised his Scorching Sun Spear horizontally into the sky. His Divine Sunlight Dao Fruit split apart in the air and appeared in the sky like a tiny sun. Between the blinding rays of light, the Scorching Sun Spear slashed across the heavens and the Sun appeared to detonate as all the endless rays of light were infused into the Scorching Sun Spear.
As Zhuge Zhan slashed the Sun Spear across the sky, a single beam of lustrous flowing light surged across the sky like an enormous golden tide.
This flowing golden beam intertwined with Luo Qingwu’s Original Spirit Sword of Extremity in the air and formed a large cross-like structure in the sky.
This giant cross, under Zhuge Zhan and Luo Qingwu’s control, stood up between heaven and earth as they were collapsing together. This mystical yet powerful strength forcibly secured heaven and earth that were about to collapse and blocked off the Cangming Swordmaster’s Dark Boundary Sword Technique.
The Cangming Swordmaster was expressionless as he shook his head subtly. Even though he had re-formed his sword heart, but he was still a distance away from the peak of his strength all those years ago and he didn’t have the Ancient Cangming Sword with him right now. If not, that single strike would have dealt injurious blows to Luo Qingwu and Zhuge Zhan even if he didn’t achieve victory right away.
However, his mental state didn’t waver and unleashed another intimidating strike of the Dark Boundary Sword Technique after the initial assault.
Luo Qingwu and Zhuge Zhan could only continue defending themselves. It was extremely difficult for them to retaliate as the Cangming Swordmaster’s attack was razor-sharp. They could retaliate and could possibly achieve some results, but it came at a great risk to themselves.
Prolonged defense was bound to fail in the long run, especially when faced with a powerful and stinging sword cultivator like the Cangming Swordmaster. Furthermore, Luo Qingwu and Zhuge Zhan weren’t known for their defensive capabilities.
The two of them attempted to find an opportunity to retaliate, but the Cangming Swordmaster was no longer in a rush to defeat them. He sealed off their paths to escape and began to launch a slower but steadier onslaught.
His gaze landed upon the green sphere of light on the tip of his left hand. More cracks were starting to appear on the surface, and this implied that the Saintly Celestial Primordial Sword Formation was about to be broken through by the Tiangang Swordmaster from the outside.
However, a faint smile broke out across the Cangming Swordmaster’s face. This was because he could clearly feel that the white sphere of light in the center of the sword formation that was formed by the Saintly Celestial Sword was starting to withdraw its radiance.
The Saintly Celestial Sword was about to be reborn!
The Cangming Swordmaster took a deep breath and thought to himself, “This means that I only need the Nine Heavens Sword and the Primordial Sword Stone…”
As thoughts spun in his head, his expression suddenly changed. “Eh?”
Green light and white mist surged around inside the Saintly Celestial Primordial Sword Formation and a rectangular black stone slowly drifted into vision with large amounts of light flickering within.
The lights were like boundless sword radiance as they surged out from within the Primordial Sword Stone. The rectangular black stone became almost transparent as a person could be seen cross-legged within.
The shadow of a giant sword hovered over his head. Beams of light spiraled around the blade, as if all the Dao in the world were congregating into a single point. Nine blood-colored longswords orbited the giant sword. These nine longswords didn’t appear sharp or edged, but they appeared as devilish as ever.
The human figure was Chu Yang. There were other light projections sitting below his cosmic form – it appeared to be a teenager that was about fifteen or sixteen years of age and his features were identical to Chu Yang’s. It was his nascent soul.
Another riveting characteristic of the scene was that Chu Yang’s figure was obscure and could hardly be seen. He was actually a ball of light projection and was still phasing in and out between his human and sword form.
Chu Yang had completely lost his physical body, and only his soul and nascent soul were left.
His expression was calm yet charged with determination, yet it contained traces of clarity and open-mindedness.
Chu Yang’s nascent soul pointed downwards with his hands at his soul. His soul gradually shed its human form and transformed into an ancient sword. The power of his soul was entirely integrated into this sword.
His nascent soul shuddered vigorously as the sword Qi and sword mind inside the Saintly Celestial Primordial Sword Formation began to concentrate inside the Primordial Sword Stone and eventually poured inside and stacked upon Chu Yang’s nascent soul.
Only a single moment had passed as Chu Yang’s nascent soul and his cosmic form became tunneled with holes, yet the ancient sword that phased in and out of reality began to emanate a glorious sword mind.
Even though it appeared virtual as it phased, but the sword’s concept of power was as if all the ways of the world became the sword and the sword itself gave birth to natural law and it didn’t let the Saintly Celestial Sword steal away its brilliance.
The ancient sword hadn’t completely solidified, but its radiance was becoming stronger and swept up Chu Yang’s nascent soul and his cosmic form before it transformed into a brilliant ray of light as it surged around inside the Primordial Sword Stone – it was going to break out!
The Cangming Swordmaster’s eyes sparkled as he said, “How can I let you ruin this great endeavor?”
“The Nine Heavens Sword is indeed powerful. However, it hasn’t been forged yet in the end.” With that, the Cangming Swordmaster left Zhuge Zhan and Luo Qingwu and pointed a finger towards the Primordial Sword Stone.
Green light materialized and the violent quivering of the Primordial Sword Stone settled down instantly.
The ancient sword inside the rectangular black stone and its radiance grew dull. Chu Yang was still inside, but his physical body and his soul had already withered away and all that was left was his nascent soul and his cosmic form. And even those were gradually dwindling into nothingness.
Chu Yang’s expression was still as calm as ever, and there wasn’t a single trace of dejection or grief to be seen.
The Primordial Sword Stone separated itself temporarily from the Saintly Celestial Primordial Sword Formation due to this episode. The entire sword formation began to shake, and the Tiangang Swordmaster immediately detected the changes that were happening within.
The enormous sword star began to collapse together towards the center, as boundless sword radiance and sword minds pressed down against the Saintly Celestial Primordial Sword Formation. The world formed by green light was now full of cracks and scars and appeared like it was going to come apart at any time.
The Cangming Swordmaster’s face turned solemn and his hands pointed into the air once more. The white radiance withdrew from within the sword formation, and a white jade longsword appeared.
The moment this sword revealed itself, Luo Qingwu, Zhuge Zhan and Chu Yang, who was still trapped inside the Primordial Sword Stone, felt an immense increase in pressure.
Even though it hadn’t reached the same intimidating force of the Saintly Celestial Sword all those years ago, it was enough to lump pressure upon everybody on scene.
The Cangming Swordmasters actions directed the half-finished Saintly Celestial Sword to gradually integrate into the layers of green light within the Saintly Celestial Primordial Sword Formation. The vast sword radiances around the sky changed color as a result and became a pure white color.
The green lights dissipated, and heaven and earth became an endless path of white. It was like rolling clouds that surged about, blocking the Tiangang Swordmaster outside.
At this moment, the white jade longsword took over the Primordial Sword Stone as the director of the entire sword formation. Without the influence of the Primordial Sword Stone, the various sword Qi from the other great sword sects gradually returned to their original form – raging flames, vast oceans of starlight and the various powers began to surge around inside the white Saintly Celestial Sword Qi.
However, these various powers were unable to tear themselves away from the Saintly Celestial Primordial Sword Formation. Instead, they were used to attack the Tiangang Swordmaster under the influence of the Saintly Celestial Sword.
The Tiangang Swordmaster’s eyes were like balls of fire as he watched the white jade sword in the middle of the sword formation. He was typically composed and stable, but his emotions were in a mess right now and he didn’t know what to think.
The Cangming Swordmaster made a grab for the Primordial Sword Formation. The final step to complete the Saintly Celestial Sword descended upon the Primordial Sword Stone and the Nine Heavens Sword hidden within.
However, Luo Qingwu and Zhuge Zhan seemed to understand this as well and launched their own onslaught at once.
Both of them were lower in mastery than the Cangming Swordmaster, but their attacks couldn’t be underestimated. The Cangming Swordmaster grunted and stopped in his tracks before he unleashed yet another Dark Boundary Sword Technique against Luo Qingwu and Zhuge Zhan.
Yet, it was this tiny moment of hindrance that caused the Saintly Celestial Primordial Sword Formation to quiver once more, and a brilliant ray of light shot out from within.
This magic treasure wasn’t the Sect-Returning Sword Casket after all. Without the support from the Cangming Swordmaster and the Saintly Celestial Primordial Sword Formation, it was unable to lock in the remnants of the Nine Heavens Sword for long. Between flashes of sword radiance, it was broken through by the Nine Heavens Sword as the latter surged out with Chu Yang inside of it.
