Chapter Twenty-One: Verve
“In other words, so many of us from the Zhao Sword Furnace blamed him needlessly.” Zhao Ce sighed softly. “However, he did not end up well. Worse than my master. My master did not trust people, but he trusted the wrong person.”
Shi Changluo looked noncommittally at him and did not say anything. The battle with Wang Jingmeng changed the trajectory of his life. If there was no such person as Wang Jingmeng in this world, perhaps he would be the first person in the world, the sword idiot of the Ba Mountain Sword Field, and the most powerful genius.
Even though he had failed to assassinate Wang Jingmeng, he had suffered too much damage and slowed down his progress, which had a great impact on his cultivation throughout his life, but it was his own choice. He did not have much hatred towards the man.
Zhao Ce thought for a moment and then asked seriously, “Then, fairly speaking, who did you feel would have won between my master and him?”
Shi Changluo shook his head. “In truth, I think your master. Wang Jingmeng could defeat any attack, could skillfully use any attack, and any move would turn from rubbish to magic in his hands. His sword moves were seemingly made by the heavens, and all the flows of energy in their correct path. But even the most perfect sword moves will be able to be tracked. Your master sometimes used his intuition of the body when attacking, the natural reaction of a swordsman and his energies. But no one can conclude about something like this, one’s thoughts does not mean the result. One swordsman will experience many battles in life. The Wang Jingmeng who fought the three dynasties was different from the Wang Jingmeng who fought to the death in Changling. Think of how old your master was then, and how long Wang Jingmeng had cultivated. If there were ten more years, who would win?”
“You are right, us Zhao Sword Furnace people are too obsessed with this.” Zhao Ce nodded. He lifted his sword across his chest and said to Shi Changluo, “Please.”
When he said this, it meant the true battle had started. A vast and terrifying heat that had been surging in the air disappeared back into his body and sword.
The fire on his sword that had been shining with dazzling light disappeared. The sword turned back to ordinary metal. But he seemed to have consumed all the flames, and his skin gave off a red jade-like sheen. His eyes were the most terrifying, they had turned completely red, crystal clear like rubies, filled with an obsessive and vicious air..
There was no humanity, just a demon nature. In the world of cultivators, if a cultivator fell into a world made from their sword essence, and their mind was trapped, they would go mad. This was a terrifying thing for the cultivator.
But Zhao Ce’s first move was to go berserk. Before his sword essence actually attacked, the world around him and Shi Changluo was filled with his demonic killing intent.
Ordinary cultivators saw in the empty air, large blooms of gray dust started to fall, like gray snow.
A black ripple spread from Shi Changluo’s sword, and then turned to a wave, slamming on the surrounding space. He started to draw his sword. There was nothing in his hand, but his right hand moved deep from his chest height. A black hilt appeared in his right hand, and a ghostly and dense flame appeared at his chest.
The sound of the siege quieted. From a certain point of view, this was another battle between the Zhao Sword Furnace, and the Ba Mountain Sword Field. All the cultivators in and out of the city knew that the battle between these two people had started in the space.
A strange lifebond presence expanded as Shi Changluo drew his sword. Lifebond energy kept on surging out of his chest, and then turned to a sword in his hand. He seemed to be pulling a pitch black out of his body. His movement was very slow.
The scene right now was very odd. It looked like one person was focused on drawing the sword, and the other was quietly going mad. But more and more gray dust fell down in the air.
Finally, the pinch black sword in Shi Changluo’s hand showed its tip. He had finished drawing his sword. The moment the sword tip left his body, it pulled out hundreds of black lines, and then the shadow of a person was drawn out of his body by these black lines. With this sword, he seemed to have drawn out his soul.
All of the gray dust falling through the air and the gray dust on the ground danced madly, surging at Zhao Ce. The gray dust gathered up like a shell, covering him, and turning him to a gray statue. But in the next moment, the eyes of the statue started to burn, showing a pair of blood red eyes.
This statue seemed to be mad.
A cracking sound started from the sword that Zhao Ce held. Dust flew away from the cracks of the sword’s gray shell, and cut off the cultivators’ perception.
Everyone could clearly see that Zhao Ce was standing there, and the shell was cracking and burning, but no one could sense him. First was going mad, and then was to cut off consciousness. This was like the ultimate sword essence of the Spirit Void Sword Sect.
Shi Changluo could not feel Zhao Ce in his consciousness, but he was not affected at all. He knew that his previous attack could not have defeated Zhao Ce completely, and right now, what Zhao Ce was showing was not his strongest.
The black sword in his hand made a soft sound. Many black human-shaped energies surged out. A black dot of light suddenly appeared in front of Zhao Ce and then formed a black bamboo stalk.
A strange power grew with the bamboo, attacking relentlessly at the space where Zhao Ce was in. Crystal light sprayed out like many mirrors were cracking at the same time.
Zhao Ce’s figure completely disappeared.
In the next moment, when he appeared back in everybody’s sight, he was less than seventy feet away from Shi Changluo.
Boom!
The mad light in his eyes had disappeared, but his body and sword burned like never before, exploding out. Then he savagely slashed down, the flames shooting up and forming a true furnace around his body. Then the fire furnace seemed to flow off his sword like a drop of water, the space shaking and enveloping Shi Changluo!
The pitch black sword in Shi Changluo’s hands disappeared. He held up his palm, a fine wisp of smoke dancing where the black lifebond sword had disappeared. He was split in half into black and white. On his left side, he was so black his features could not be seen. But on his right, he was dazzling, shining with light. A terrifying power formed into a line, about to cut this furnace apart!
Zhao Ce frowned deeply. He did not know where Shi Changluo had gotten this ghostly and Yin method that had merged with the Ba Mountain Sword Field’s sword manual. The power was so strange he could not measure it at all.
The moment before the furnace was broken, he just felt an invisible whirlpool appear in front of him. This invisible whirlpool contained two different powers, the extreme Yang and the extreme Yin. Of them, some of the power even came from his sword. He could not defeat Shi Changluo’s attack. He was even sure, at any moment before today, facing Shi Changluo like this, he could not win at all.
But today, he did not think so.
Because just after he had slashed his sword, he seemed to have been on the scene, and caught some of the verve that his master had back then. He had no stray thoughts in his mind, just simply slashed his sword again.
The fire red sword swept the air in front of him and a red sword mark emerged.
