A Pawn's Passage

Zhang Yuelu activated the paper sword in her hand to its fullest extent, so much so that it was even capable of splitting mountains and cracking stone.

To counter, the black-robed elder conjured the Black Hair Armor from the Taiyin 13 Swords. Strands of black hair grew behind his head and moved of their own accord, blocking every strike from the paper sword.

After a fierce exchange, Zhang Yuelu had failed to injure the black-robed elder.

Seeing that she had once again achieved nothing, Zhang Yuelu quickly moved behind the elder and thrust Purple Afterglow toward the center of his back. Sword qi surged like a tidal wave and collapsed, flooding all directions. Countless streaks of purple lightning faintly appeared in the air. In that instant, all the elemental energy in the surroundings was drawn and stirred by the sword qi.

The black-robed elder allowed Zhang Yuelu’s sword to pierce the center of his back and remained utterly unmoved.

Zhang Yuelu’s face flushed red, then abruptly turned deathly pale.

She had already unleashed her full strength with this strike, yet she discovered that her true essence was being continuously siphoned into the black-robed elder’s body, vanishing without a trace.

Zhang Yuelu exclaimed in shock, “The Eclipse Method?!”

By this point, Zhang Yuelu had more or less guessed the black-robed elder’s identity. After all, the Eclipse Method was extremely difficult to cultivate, much like the Xiaoyao Six Void Tribulations. Aside from rare prodigies, it was not something one could master simply by studying texts. Usually, a guide was required. The last person to use the Eclipse Method had been Wang Jiaoying. But this elder was certainly not the Wang brothers.

Zhang Yuelu’s sword strike landed exactly as the black-robed elder planned, so he activated the Eclipse Method to draw in her true essence, converting it into his own.

The black-robed elder chuckled. “Zhang Yuelu, your sword strike is still a little lacking. Zhang Wuliang or Zhang Jucheng might have been able to wound me, but not you.”

Zhang Yuelu said coldly, “Old Sage Sun Heyu, you finally couldn’t sit still any longer, huh? I’ve underestimated you.”

The black-robed elder did not reply. He merely accelerated the circulation of the Eclipse Method, intent on drawing all of Zhang Yuelu’s true essence into his own body. He did not have any concerns about backlash because he had a much higher cultivation than her.

Zhang Yuelu had no choice but to respond in kind. Although she did not have Izanagi’s demonic fire like Qi Xuansu, she had the Xiaoyao Six Void Tribulations passed down by the Earthly Preceptor. Unfortunately, the Xiaoyao Six Void Tribulations had a fatal flaw—it was quite ineffective against those with superior cultivation and even carried the risk of backlash.

Sure enough, once the Six Tribulations entered the black-robed elder’s body, it vanished without the slightest reaction.

Suddenly, the chanting of Buddhist mantras rang out, accompanied by the faint sound of a woman’s singing, causing killing intent to dissipate and violent impulses to vanish and instilling the urge to abandon the fight.

Under the influence of the Buddhist chants, the black-robed elder’s mind wavered, interrupting the Eclipse Method and allowing Zhang Yuelu to break free.

“The Cihang lineage’s semi-immortal objects—the Six Mantra Sword and the Great Thunder Sword!” The black-robed elder immediately began circulating his innate qi to resist. Though he was only momentarily disoriented and quickly recovered, Zhang Yuelu seized that fleeting chance to thrust the paper sword straight toward his throat.

The black-robed elder raised his left hand. His index, middle, and ring fingers unfurled one by one, like petals blooming layer upon layer, catching the paper sword aimed at his throat.

At that moment, the fragile stemmed glass in Star Lord Yuheng’s hand shattered into countless fragments, the red wine within splashing out. In that instant, the glass shards and the red wine lost all color, becoming pure black and white and frozen in their splashing motion.

It was as though time itself had stopped.

The black-and-white hues surged outward like waves, spreading in all directions until everything turned monochrome. Only Star Lord Yuheng and Zhang Yuelu retained all colors.

The paper sword in Zhang Yuelu’s hand transformed into countless tiny paper blades that stabbed toward the black-robed elder’s throat.

At the same time, Star Lord Yuheng flicked her wide sleeve. Disregarding the loss to her cultivation, she used 11 drops of her blood to form 11 black-armored warriors.

The eleven warriors stood in formation, with two shield-bearers at the front—one wielding a large plank shield, while the other a rattan shield. Behind them were two warriors holding wolf brushes, weapons resembling 3-meter-long spears with sharp prongs branching around them. Then, four spearmen covered the flanks of the shield-bearers and wolf-brush warriors. At the rear were two black-armored warriors armed with crossbows.

This was the famous Mandarin Duck Formation, which Star Lord Yuheng had adopted for her own use.

Under the pincer attack from both sides, the Black Hair Armors managed to hold only briefly before completely dispersing.

However, the black-robed elder, who had the higher cultivation, immediately broke free of the restraints. A vast surge of innate qi spread outward in all directions, instantly blasting the paper blades away. At that moment, the black-robed elder seemed like a true Immortal gazing down upon the world.

Soon after, 13 black shadows appeared.

In a sense, practicing the Taiyin 13 Swords was similar to refining corpses. Any misstep could cause backlash on the cultivator. Each sword was interconnected, much like the meridians within the human body. If all 13 swords were mastered, it would be equivalent to fully opening all meridians and forming a complete circulation, smooth and unobstructed. When the sword intention of all 13 techniques converged, it would develop sentience, which was the inner demon. Thus, if the cultivator failed to subdue it, they would become the host and slave of the sword intention, reduced to a walking corpse.

The essence of the Taiyin 13 Swords lay in the profound and mysterious connections between each sword. The more sword techniques one mastered, the greater the power. But at the same time, the sword intention of the Taiyin 13 Swords would also grow stronger. When the power of the Taiyin 13 Swords reached its peak, that was also the moment when the cultivator would struggle to control them. Their mind would erode, ultimately turning them into a sword slave.

Although these sword slaves had become little more than walking corpses, their cultivation in the Taiyin 13 Swords remained intact. As long as someone controlled them, they could still unleash tremendous power.

For this reason, those who practiced the Taiyin 13 Swords were split into two factions—the Sword and the Mind. The sword faction had 12 sword slaves, where the sword master would manipulate the 12 sword slaves, each wielding one sword technique, while the master used the final form to command the other twelve, fully unleashing the complete power of the Taiyin 13 swords.

However, after the Daoist Order was rebuilt, the Holy Xuan integrated the Five Immortal lineages and separated cultivation methods and mystical abilities. As a result, there were far fewer cases of losing control while cultivating the Taiyin 13 Swords. Moreover, since the Daoist Order strictly forbade the creation of sword slaves, the Taiyin Sword Formation had become exceedingly rare.

Thus, no one expected that the Taiyin Sword Formation would reappear in the world.

The very existence of these sword slaves was itself a crime.

Thirteen formless, ever-shifting shadows spread across every corner, roaming unpredictably. They did not require the black-robed elder’s direct control and moved of their own accord.

This was the terrifying part of the Taiyin 13 Swords. If one could fully master them, it was like taming a ferocious beast that could become one’s ally. But if one were devoured by the backlash of the Taiyin 13 Swords, the sword intention would seize both body and soul, turning the person into a puppet of the swords.

When the 13 sword slaves faced Star Lord Yuheng’s black-armored warriors, they cut through the latter like rotten wood. In the blink of an eye, the black-armored warriors were completely wiped out.

That was because those black-armored warriors were formed from Star Lord Yuheng’s blood, while the 13 sword slaves had once been living people, only stripped of their sanity by their inner demons.

At this moment, Zhang Yuelu felt a hint of regret. Qi Xuansu was not present. If he were here, they could once again employ the Twin Sword Union. With Star Lord Yuheng assisting, they truly might have been able to keep this old man here.

At this moment, Zhang Yuelu could only rely on Purple Afterglow. She fully activated the Dragon Tiger Sword Technique and pointed a single sword toward the heavens. The entire sky rippled with purple waves that rapidly expanded outward.

But that was all it amounted to.

Without Green Cloud to complement it, a lone strike from Purple Afterglow still could not unleash the full power of an immortal object and could only summon surging purple qi.

Purple qi covered the sky. At this moment, the heavens resembled an inverted purple lake, continuously pressing downward. The shimmering surface of the lake seemed almost within reach, but instead of green sword light, it transformed into rolling purple lightning.

Zhang Yuelu was activating the Five Thunder Celestial Heart Method.

The black-robed elder raised his head to gaze at the sky, his sleeves fluttering violently in the violent gale.

However, he showed little fear and merely raised his hand slightly.

The 13 shadows raised their swords at the same time, pointing straight toward the heavens.

Lightning swept and cleansed the sky, while shadows piled layer upon layer.

Two tides—one bright, one dark—crashed into each other. Wherever the lightning passed, countless shadows dispersed, vanishing into nothingness.

However, the shadows were unending, reforming continuously after perishing. The Taiyin Sword Formation could not be destroyed.

Light and darkness alternated repeatedly, endlessly canceling each other out.

Though Zhang Yuelu had the support of semi-immortal objects, her cultivation was inferior to the black-robed elder, so she soon began to show clear signs of defeat.

Star Lord Yuheng’s expression turned grim. Her eyes turned dark. At the same time, six circular disks slowly manifested around her, spinning without pause. Each of these disks corresponded to one of the Six Paths of Reincarnation.

As the swordlight faltered, Star Lord Yuheng swept her sleeve. The six disks began to spin at high speed, forming a small world that enveloped the black-robed elder within.

The elder’s swordlight and the thirteen sword-shadows abruptly froze. But on closer inspection, they were not motionless. Instead, they had fallen into an endless loop. No matter how fast they moved, they only spun in place, repeating and returning to the same point again and again.

In a clash between masters, victory and defeat were decided within a hair’s breadth. Star Lord Yuheng used every method at her disposal, forcibly holding the black-robed elder in check just so she could create an opening for Zhang Yuelu.