High Martial Arts: Enlightenment after Practices

Chapter 727: Chapter 696: Shadow Sword Technique

It opened its mouth and let out a low roar.

But Ren Bai did not stop.

He continued moving forward, only halting when he was less than fifty meters away from the Beast King. Then, he raised his head and looked at the massive Tiger-shaped Beast King.

His gaze was as calm as water, revealing no emotional fluctuations. But the moment he looked up, a terrifying aura erupted from him.

That was Will, Spirit, and Heart Image.

Xu Wuyi stood in the distance, clearly sensing that aura. It was so intense that even a Grandmaster of the same level like him felt a sense of dread.

He recalled the scene when he had previously met Ren Bai. Ren Bai had sat cross-legged in front of the Rift, unmoving for three years as if it were a single day. He had asked Ren Bai what Rules were, and Ren Bai replied that Rules were not physical laws, but cognitive manifestations of the Heart Image.

At that time, he didn’t quite understand the meaning behind those words.

Now, he understood.

Ren Bai raised his right hand, holding two fingers together like a sword.

The movement was slow—so slow that anyone could see it clearly. Yet, the instant he raised his hand, Xu Wuyi saw a flash of light. That light flared from Ren Bai’s fingertips. At first, it was faint, so faint it was almost invisible. But soon, the light grew brighter and stronger, ultimately transforming into a pale white sword shadow.

The sword shadow was about ten feet long, its edges incomparably sharp, carrying a fierce Will to sever everything. It hovered just above Ren Bai’s fingertips, spinning quietly, like a moon condensed from pure Will.

Looking at that sword shadow, an indescribable feeling welled up in Xu Wuyi’s heart.

He had seen Su Yueling’s Shadow Sword Technique. Back then, on the arena of the three-school joint examination, Su Yueling had used the Shadow Sword Technique to condense a sword shadow about a foot long, nearly forcing him into a corner. At the time, he thought that sword shadow was already terrifying enough.

But now, seeing the sword shadow condensed by Ren Bai, he finally understood what the true Shadow Sword Technique was.

A ten-foot-long sword shadow, so solid it was almost corporeal. The light on the surface of the sword shadow was not reflected light, but the manifestation of the Will itself. It hovered there, and the surrounding space began to slightly distort, as if unable to bear its sharpness.

Even more terrifying was the Will contained within that sword shadow.

It was Ren Bai’s decades of unwavering perseverance in guarding the Rift, his courage to never back down against formidable enemies, and his undying pursuit of the Sword Dao. All of these elements were condensed into this single sword shadow.

This was the first time Xu Wuyi had witnessed a Grandmaster going all out with his own eyes, especially a Swordsman-type Grandmaster like Ren Bai. Having reached the Grandmaster Realm, what they pursued was naturally no longer just speed. Instead, they would comprehend various Rules, though each person’s understanding differed.

For someone like Grandmaster Ren Bai, his Rule was “Shadow.”

The Tiger-shaped Beast King stared at the sword shadow, and for the first time, despair surfaced in its scarlet eyes.

It recognized this move.

Two months ago, when it first charged out from the depths of the Rift, Ren Bai had used this exact move to block it. Back then, unaware of the move’s terror, it took the attack head-on three times, resulting in one of its front legs nearly being severed. Since then, it had never dared to face this move head-on again.

Now, this move was here once more.

And this time, it simply had no strength left to dodge.

It could only watch helplessly as the sword shadow grew larger, brighter, and closer.

Ren Bai’s fingers gently pointed forward.

The motion was light, so light it looked as if he were just pointing at something. But the moment he pointed, the ten-foot-long pale sword shadow suddenly vanished.

No, it didn’t vanish.

It was just too fast—so fast that it didn’t even leave behind an afterimage.

Xu Wuyi only saw a flash of white light, and then the Tiger-shaped Beast King stopped. It maintained its retreating posture, its mouth agape and its eyes wide, completely motionless.

Then, its body split open from the middle.

It wasn’t cleaved in half, but rather, it fractured from the inside. The instant the sword shadow pierced into its body, it transformed into countless tiny sword glints, destroying all of its vitality from within. Those sword glints pierced through its flesh and blood, its bones and sinews, its internal organs, and finally jutted out from every part of its body.

In just an instant, the Beast King that had ruled this territory for hundreds of years thoroughly lost its life.

Its corpse hovered in midair, the surface covered with dense, tiny holes. Dark red blood continuously oozed from those holes. The blood dripped down, falling onto the churning sea of Energy below, and was quickly completely swallowed up.

Ren Bai withdrew his hand and stood with his hands clasped behind his back. He was still wearing that tattered white robe, his face still pale, but at this moment, his back appeared incredibly towering in Xu Wuyi’s eyes.

This was the complete version of the Shadow Sword Technique.

It was not like Su Yueling’s method of condensing a single sword shadow for an attack, but rather transforming the sword shadow into countless sword glints to obliterate the enemy from the inside. The terrifying aspect of this attack method was that it completely ignored the enemy’s external defenses and struck their interior directly.

Ren Bai turned around and looked at Xu Wuyi. His gaze remained calm, but a hint of approval flashed deep within his eyes.

“Those three spear strikes from earlier were quite good,” Ren Bai said, his voice hoarse yet clear. “It’s truly not easy to reach this step in such a short amount of time.”

Xu Wuyi bowed slightly. “You praise me too much, Grandmaster Ren. That sword strike of yours just now is what truly opened my eyes.”

Ren Bai shook his head. “There is no need to be modest. You only advanced to the Grandmaster Realm a few months ago, so being able to achieve this level is already very rare. That sword strike of mine just now took decades of practice to reach its current state.”

As he spoke, he turned his head to look at the corpse of the Beast King hovering in midair.

“Go, bring that Beast King’s corpse with us,” Ren Bai said. “It’s a very important material. A Beast King Level Star Beast is a treasure trove from head to toe. The scales can be used to make Protective Gear, the bones and sinews can be Refined into weapons, the blood can be used in medicine, and Energy Crystals can be extracted from its internal organs. Taking it back and handing it over to the military will earn a lot of merits.”

Xu Wuyi nodded and strode toward the Beast King’s corpse. After taking only a few steps, he suddenly remembered something. He stopped in his tracks and looked at Ren Bai.

“Grandmaster Ren, your injuries…”

Ren Bai waved his hand dismissively. “They aren’t serious. The consumption was a bit high, but my foundation wasn’t damaged. I’ll be fine after going back and recuperating for a while.”

Xu Wuyi breathed a sigh of relief and continued toward the Beast King’s corpse. Only when he got closer did he truly see the appearance of this behemoth.

It was over fifteen meters long, its entire body covered in pitch-black scales. Each of those scales was the size of a washbasin, with edges as sharp as blades, gleaming with a cold, eerie light.