Firmament Sword

”...” Xu Luo was speechless. The corner of his mouth twitched as he asked, ”Is there any way to deal with it?”

The Chaos Peach Tree said with great seriousness, ”This statue’s power far surpasses the others. It’s the king of the statues. If you want to defeat it, you can only face it head-on, unleash your full strength, and take it down!”

”Obviously! If I had that kind of strength, I wouldn’t need you to tell me,” Xu Luo retorted, rolling his eyes.

”But you have it now.” After saying this, the Chaos Peach Tree fell silent.

Xu Luo was taken aback for a moment. He then recalled that he had just broken through from being a Tier One Sword King to the fourth tier in one fell swoop. Not only had his strength surged, but he had also learned the Tyrant Technique, the powerful Cultivation Technique of the Behemoth Race, the masters of this Earth Palace.

’If I still don’t dare to fight this statue head-on even after all that... it would be pretty pathetic.’

With that thought, Xu Luo gritted his teeth. ’Fine, a fight it is! I’ve never backed down from a powerful enemy, even when I wasn’t this strong!’

Having made his decision, Xu Luo immediately charged forward to activate the statue.

RUMBLE!

The statue, holding an iron rod and looking exactly like the one in the murals, came to life. The rod, as thick as the trunk of a towering ancient tree, came crashing down toward Xu Luo.

It was like a mountain collapsing, bearing down on him!

Lightning coiled around the iron rod, purple electric serpents slithering across its surface in a terrifying display!

A peal of rolling thunder even echoed through the Divine Hall!

”Holy shit!” Xu Luo used the Shaking Light Step to instantly retreat several hundred meters. The statue’s iron rod slammed onto the floor of the Divine Hall, making the entire structure tremble violently.

The floor of the Divine Hall, which had been incomparably hard and never damaged before, was smashed into a massive pit dozens of meters deep. Cracks spiderwebbed out from it in all directions.

From the ceiling of the Divine Hall, massive chunks of stone began to CRACK and fall.

”It doesn’t even follow the script...” Xu Luo’s mouth twitched as he muttered, ”Aren’t you supposed to give a speech before you attack?”

The statue, however, did not appreciate humor. It swung the iron rod in a wide arc, completely unconcerned about the damage its strike might inflict on the ancient Divine Hall.

Xu Luo was getting annoyed. He drew his sword and charged, channeling the Tyrant Technique he had just comprehended. The strength in his body instantly multiplied several times over!

He met the statue’s attack head-on!

CLANG!

The tremendous clash of metal was loud enough to shatter an ordinary person!

Enormous stones rained down from the ceiling, making the main hall of the Divine Hall look like a scene from the apocalypse.

Xu Luo was thrown back several hundred meters, but the statue was also forced back dozens of meters!

The incredibly heavy statue’s feet gouged two deep trenches in the floor. It then used its iron rod to prop itself up and steady its form before letting out a low roar, as if enraged. Then it charged at Xu Luo once more!

WHUM!

Each blow from the incredibly heavy iron rod could shatter a small mountain. Yet, this rod, which must have weighed tens of thousands of pounds, was wielded as effortlessly as a tree branch in the statue’s hands.

In both strength and skill, this statue had reached a pinnacle of sorts!

’If I had activated this statue right after entering the Divine Hall, I probably wouldn’t have even had a chance to escape!’

’It’s just too powerful!’ Xu Luo thought to himself as he battled the statue fiercely.

The power of his Breaking Army Seven Kills had increased tremendously after he reached the Fourth Layer of the Transformation Realm, but he still couldn’t execute its final move, Vibrating Eight Desolates.

Xu Luo had also used Shaking Light Burst several times, and each blast left a massive gash on the statue.

The problem was, the statue was simply too enormous!

Wounds like that would have been fatal to a human several times over, but on a lifeless and massive statue, they did little more than slow its movements slightly!

Xu Luo, on the other hand, felt his blood and energy roil with every clash, bringing him to the verge of coughing up blood.

Fortunately, he had just learned the Tyrant Technique. Combined with the constant tempering from his Kaiyang Star Soul, his physical body was far superior to that of other Transformation Realm Powerhouses. Otherwise, he probably would have been shaken to death by the sheer force of the statue’s blows long ago.

BOOM!

After another head-on collision, Xu Luo finally couldn’t hold back and spat out a mouthful of blood. But in response, his fighting spirit only soared higher!

”So you’re strong, are you? Then I’ll just keep hitting you until you run out of strength!” Xu Luo roared, charging once more at the lunging statue.

The main hall of the Divine Hall was now a ruin. Fallen rocks had rained down and piled up like small mountains, only to be pulverized into dust by their battle!

The Seven Star Sword in Xu Luo’s hand truly lived up to its Spiritual Artifact Level status. As Xu Luo’s fighting spirit surged, the sword grew even sharper, radiating an imperious aura, as if it looked down upon the entire world!

It continuously left deep gashes on the Big Iron Rod in the statue’s hand!

Even a towering ancient tree can be felled eventually. Relying on sheer tenacity, Xu Luo relentlessly attacked his opponent’s weapon.

Finally, during one explosive clash, the enormous iron rod snapped in two!

The statue flew into a rage, letting out a roar like muffled thunder. It threw aside the broken half of its rod and lunged at Xu Luo bare-handed.

Its massive fist smashed down at Xu Luo, like a mountain falling on him from above!

Xu Luo wasn’t foolish enough to sheathe his Seven Star Sword while fighting a statue, especially not when the sentient blade’s own fighting spirit was at its peak.

Xu Luo soared into the air. The Seven Star Sword in his hand unleashed a long beam of Sword Qi, like a rainbow piercing the sun, as he slashed at the statue’s massive fist!

DANG! DANG! DANG!

After a series of loud metallic ringing, two of the statue’s fingers were actually severed by Xu Luo’s Seven Star Sword!

The rest of its hand was left mangled and broken!

”Hahaha! So you’re not invincible after all! Come on, let’s keep fighting!” Xu Luo roared at the statue, his expression savage and blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.

The statue, like an enraged giant, roared back at Xu Luo. Its once-placid face was now contorted with an expression of fury.

”Heh, that’s surprisingly realistic...” Xu Luo sneered.

”You ant! If ninety-nine percent of my power weren’t suppressed, I could kill a tiny, fragile human like you with a single finger!”

The voice, like a clap of thunder, boomed from the statue’s mouth, stunning Xu Luo so completely that he nearly forgot to attack.

”You’re... alive?” Xu Luo stared dumbfounded at the statue. He never expected it to speak, and its voice seemed... so human.

”You will regret letting the Chaos Peach Tree go!” the statue said, ignoring Xu Luo’s question and staring at him coldly. ”Your actions will bring about a terrible catastrophe!”

”Don’t try to scare me. It’s just a tree. Even if it achieves Divinity Transformation, so what?” Xu Luo said.

The statue fell silent for a long moment before muttering, ”This world... it has already changed. Perhaps... you are right. But it’s far more likely that you will die a miserable death with no place for burial because of this!”

Seeing that the statue had stopped attacking, Xu Luo seized the rare opportunity to regulate his breathing. ”You’re not just a statue?” he asked casually. ”Are you one of the Behemoth Race, the masters of this place?”

”I am merely a statue, imbued with a sliver of consciousness. I am not one of the Behemoth Race. Ninety-nine percent of my true power is sealed, which is the only reason you had a chance to defeat me.”

The statue calmed down and said faintly, ”Perhaps my master had a deeper reason for this. You have passed my test. You win.”

As it spoke, the statue began to disintegrate, its body CRUMBLING to pieces.

”Hey... wait! Who’s your master? What test? You bastard... don’t be in such a hurry to die! Answer my questions! Ah... damn it...” Xu Luo watched helplessly as the statue, which had been so vibrantly alive and overwhelmingly powerful just moments before, crumbled into a pile of dust and dissipated into the air in the blink of an eye.

A stomach full of questions was now stuck inside him, a feeling that was even more unbearable than fighting until he coughed up blood.

RUMBLE!

With the fall of the final statue, the entire Divine Hall began to shake and rumble, as if it were about to collapse.

Xu Luo’s expression changed. If the whole Divine Hall came down, he wouldn’t fare well either.

Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly felt a force pull at him. The light before his eyes shifted, and he found himself standing on the peak of an enormous mountain, his back against a purple wall.

’Wait... a purple wall?’ Xu Luo was slightly startled. He tilted his head back and looked up.

A purple peach tree stood there, its trunk reaching from the earth to the heavens. It was so impossibly large it seemed to be propping up the sky, its canopy obscuring the entire world!

It felt as if one could climb this Ancient Peach Tree all the way to the heavens and pluck the stars and moon from the sky.

The mountain itself was also incredibly massive; looking down, he saw that the clouds were gathered at its base.

A chill permeated the high altitude. Xu Luo felt like a tiny ant that had climbed to a peak above the clouds.

”So? Are you stunned now that you’ve seen Master Tao’s true form?”

The smug voice of the Ancient Peach Tree sounded in Xu Luo’s ear. ”Now do you see how powerful Master Tao is? Are you feeling afraid and ashamed for your previous rudeness?”

”Give me back my peach. And what’s the point of being so big? Change back, now,” Xu Luo said nonchalantly. ”You belong to me now!”

This time, it was the Chaos Peach Tree’s turn to be speechless. It had intended to reveal its true form to awe this impolite human brat, but it never expected its grand display to be utterly ignored.

And most intolerably, he had actually said, ’Give me back my peach... You belong to me...’

”What do you mean, ’your’ peach? That belongs to Master Tao! You want a peach, do you? Beg Master Tao, and Master Tao will give you one!” As the Ancient Peach Tree’s arrogant voice boomed, a mountain-sized object came plummeting down from above with a WHOOSH.

It was a purple Peach of Immortality, but its size... was comparable to a mountain peak. It fell straight down, aiming to crush Xu Luo.

Xu Luo sneered. ”Trying to go back on your word?”

As he spoke, the Seven Star Sword in his hand erupted with a blindingly sharp light, and he stabbed viciously at the purple tree trunk behind him!

”Hey, what do you think you’re doing? You bastard! Stop! I’ll make it smaller for you!”

With a cry of alarm from the Ancient Peach Tree, the Chaos Peach falling from the sky rapidly shrank to the size of a fist. The illusion then vanished, revealing a Peach Tree over a dozen meters tall rooted on a large mountaintop.

Other than being moved from a small hillock to this massive peak, nothing else about it had changed.

Xu Luo pursed his lips, took the purple Chaos Peach, and devoured it in a few bites.

”Tastes pretty good. A few more, please!” Xu Luo said indistinctly, chewing on the fruit as incredibly sweet juice dripped from the corner of his mouth.

”You bastard! That’s an absolute waste of a priceless treasure! It’s like a cow chewing on a peony! You’re going to be the death of Master Tao!”

The illusion hadn’t scared him, but he, Master Tao, had been thoroughly frightened by the kid’s crazy behavior. Now, seeing Xu Luo eat an Immortal Peach—one that had taken a century to grow—like some common fruit, Master Tao was so furious he felt like he was going to go berserk.