Dusksnow Morningstar was caught on the threshold of becoming a full titled king. It wasn’t a high threshold, but neither was it a low one. At the moment, he felt like he’d suddenly stuffed three massive buns into his mouth after going without food for three days and nights. Delicious and nutritious, however, all were lodged in his throat.
Swallowing them would fill him up, but he was almost choking to death on them instead.
When he saw Netherdragon—the same peak half step king as him—it was like glimpsing water. The dragon would wash down all of the buns for him, freeing him from limbo and ensuring that he could eat his fill!
Thus, a fearsome shower of physical arrows followed the rain of a hundred and eight arrows of light.
Netherdragon was a little startled out of his wits. When powerhouses of their level met in battle, cautious probing was usually the name of the game. They only fought to first tap, not even first blood. Life and death would be on the line if anyone brought out their full strength.
When Dusksnow Morningstar met the venerated enforcer, they’d only exchanged three moves before ending the fight. All possible combinations of victory and defeat had been simulated in those three rounds.
Does this kid want to use me as his grinding stone so he can take that final step?? Netherdragon suddenly understood the reason behind Morningstar’s zeal. “You bastard!”
Whoosh!
Black qi wreathed around him with a shake of his body, giving rise to a huge black dragon shadow that rushed out of the energy. It circled around the rain of arrows and shot at Morningstar. Netherdragon was responding in a no holds barred fashion. If he didn’t want to die in these circumstances, he had to go all out!
“Haha! Well met!” Morningstar shouted with laughter as his longbow flared with the radiance of a star. Points of sword light glinted at the edges of his longbow and sliced down at the black dragon. Though he cultivated the way of the bow and arrow, he was no less than any other half step king when it came to close combat.
The Hongmeng qi outside Starcloud City churned turbulently in the wake of two half step kings clashing against each other. Their combined energy pulses were infinitely close to that of a full titled king, and Starcloud’s defensive formation shook violently as it negated their energy. However, the ripples from their battle were too wild. The formation was being taxed beyond its endurance—something that Netherdragon noted.
He continuously directed Morningstar’s attacks toward the city, making use of the genius to attack Starcloud’s formation. Morningstar’s eyes were red with battle lust; he didn’t care if the city was affected by their battle. So what if Starcloud would be ruined by their fight? Everything else was unimportant as long as he became a titled king.
……
“You caught a king alive?” Di Ling gaped at the Meteorite King presented to her. “It’s the Meteorite King, and… he’s actually a ghost king?!”
“You know the Meteorite King?” Lu Yun blinked.
Di Ling nodded. “It hasn’t been long since my Di Clan left the Hongmeng, so of course we know of the Meteorite King. We never would’ve thought that he’d be a ghost king!”
The immortal dao had existed for six hundred million years, while the Di Clan had left for a lower world three hundred million years ago. Indeed, such a time interval wasn’t long for the Hongmeng—some kings took naps lasting several hundred million years.
“Is there a way to kill him?” asked Lu Yun.
“Di Ling!” All color drained from the Meteorite King’s face when he took a clear look at the girl in front of him.
Though she was just in the inferior realm at the moment since she was barely a creator, the insignificant ant was a terrifying demonic thing in the king’s eyes. Stark fear shone from his eyes.
The Di Clan!
That had been a group of sheer lunatics in the Hongmeng. When they were still in the realm, they’d been able to challenge the Valley of Ten Evils!
After they’d descended to the world of immortals and voluntarily transformed themselves into beings of the immortal dao to protect that dao’s foundations, they’d been targeted by some horrifying existence and exterminated almost overnight.
Regardless, legends of the Di Clan still abounded in the Hongmeng. It hadn’t been that long since their disappearance—just a mere three hundred million years. Who knew if they’d somehow overcome that horrifying existence one day and reappear in the Hongmeng?
And now, here Di Ling was.
“Should… I do it, or you do it?” After the Di Clan revived in the sea of Hell Flowers and became denizens of hell, Di Ling naturally perceived many of Lu Yun’s special abilities.
“Do you have a way for me to kill him?” Lu Yun lit up.
“Yes.” Di Ling nodded and opened her hand, materializing a shortsword with an interesting design. It was half a meter long and floated over her palm. “This sword is called ‘Quiet’. If you refine it, you will be able to kill the Meteorite King.”
“Quiet?!” Lu Yun gasped at the name.
“That’s right, it shares the same source and origin as Tianqi’s Quietus,” Di Ling responded. “The Sword of Chaos in Exalted Major of the world of immortals is also from the same source.
“The number one sword in the worlds, chaos, Hongmeng, and fourth realm is this Quiet.”
Quiet appeared to be a thin layer of sword light and no longer than half a meter, but apparently represented the origin of all swords in the four realms. All swords in existence used it as their blueprint.
“A treasure of the fourth realm?” Lu Yun widened his eyes at Di Ling.
“Yes.” She nodded again. “Of the stars that land in the Hongmeng, some are ancient tombs that fall from that mausoleum, but there are also many that are actual stars from the fourth realm. It’s just that most beings who dwell in the Hongmeng are unable to discern whether something is a star from the fourth realm or an ancient tomb of that mausoleum.
“Quiet fell into the Hongmeng along with a star of the fourth realm, and my clan laid claim to it. It is now yours.”
She gravely pushed the sword to Lu Yun, who didn’t make a fuss or put on a show of refusing such a priceless treasure. He wrapped his hand around it, resulting in a sharp character shooting out of the sword and sinking into his mind.
It was the character that stood for “sword”. This was the first sword of the four realms and the ancestor of all swords.
The will of Quiet rampaged through Lu Yun’s mind. He didn’t use the Tome of Life and Death to subdue it or even call upon his own sword dao. Instead, he projected his mind to the fourth realm, picturing the boundless strength and cultivation level he possessed in that plane.
Whoosh!
Sword light gushed out of the four hundred and eighty million pores of his body, ripping his clothes apart and forming a new snowy-white robe on his body.
A sword robe!
“You…” Di Ling’s eyes widened, finding it incredulous that Lu Yun had won Quiet’s approval so easily.
“There are no sword cultivators within the fourth realm—I’m the first,” he chuckled easily.
“The fourth realm…” Di Ling laughed wryly. “So milord is a powerhouse of the fourth realm. No wonder…”
Lu Yun didn’t explain himself. He could’ve easily killed the Meteorite King with the physical edge of his new sword. He was just as surprised as anyone that he’d so easily tamed the treasure when he mentally projected his fourth realm replica.
No, not tamed. Theirs was a relationship of equals.
Quiet was a weapon of the fourth realm and Lu Yun was the first being of the fourth realm to focus on sword dao. There were those who used swords there, but no one who concentrated solely on sword dao.
