The Modern Martial Immortal

”Zhao Sheng,” Yaoguang said as he vaulted in through the window. The battle suit was worn beneath his clothes and showed no outward trace, but the Divine Shadow Sword was already clenched in his hand.

”I had been looking for you for a long time,” Yaoguang said.

”You?” Zhao Sheng looked at Yaoguang. ”You came alone? There’s no one behind you?”

”And what about you?” Yaoguang said. ”What stood behind you? The Rebirth Society? The Crimson Star Empire? Or... a race known as daemons?”

When Yaoguang mentioned the Rebirth Society and the Crimson Star Empire, Zhao Sheng’s expression did not change in the slightest. Only when the word daemon was spoken did a flicker of something strange flash through his eyes.

”What are you? A disciple of the Artifact Sect? A descended being? Or a rogue cultivator?” Yaoguang asked with a hint of curiosity in his tone.

”Not answering?” Yaoguang said calmly. ”Forget it. I will just look for myself.”

”What a coincidence.” Zhao Sheng chuckled softly. ”That was exactly what I was thinking too.”

Although Yaoguang’s sudden appearance had been unexpected, the outcome would not change. In the next instant, Zhao Sheng’s body began to swell. At the same time, Yaoguang’s figure erupted forward.

He threw himself in a forward charge, and the moment his foot slammed into the ground, it was as though he had transformed into a saber-tooth tiger. The agility of a feline merged with the ferocity of a prehistoric beast, and explosive speed surged through his body as he lunged like a tiger bursting from its cage.

As he pounced, the blade of the Divine Shadow Sword hummed softly. Its unique structure instantly tore through the air between them, making the strike so fast that a ring of white ripples spread outward from the edge of the sword.

The essence, qi, and psyche throughout his entire body surged to an unprecedented peak, even drawing out his still nascent psychic will. That psychic will fused with the ferocious killing aura born from slaying more than a dozen daemons and staining his hands with dozens of human lives, as though it had taken on tangible form!

If an ordinary person had been standing before him, even without Yaoguang launching an attack, this terrifying, murderous aura infused with psychic will would have been enough to shock their nervous system, send adrenaline flooding through their body, force their heart into overload, and ultimately tear cardiac fibers apart, causing a fatal heart attack.

Even a lion used its full strength when hunting a rabbit! Facing someone like Zhao Sheng, a leader capable of commanding numerous daemons, Yaoguang didn’t dare harbor the slightest contempt. The moment he moved, he unleashed an ultimate technique that nearly exceeded the limits of his current realm: Signless Four Spirits! It fused the essence, qi, psyche, and self as one.

”A fly trying to shake a tree!” Zhao Sheng said with a sneer.

Zhao Sheng’s transformation had only just begun, yet the moment he acted, the qi and blood throughout his body boiled like a volcano pushed to its absolute limit. Power erupted ceaselessly from within, reaching the maximum his current body could withstand. His already expanding physique swelled even faster, and a trace of blood-red seeped through the surface of his skin.

This was the sign of power climbing to its extreme. He compressed and refined his terrifying strength, honed through exquisite technique, into pure fist jin. Then he surged forward to meet Yaoguang’s thrust head-on, neither dodging nor retreating, and threw a punch straight toward the blade.

The afterimages drawn by Divine Shadow Sword failed to distract him in the slightest. Zhao Sheng’s absolute control over jin, his exquisitely precise application of combat techniques, and the razor-sharp awareness of the battlefield surpassed that of ordinary human martial artists by a wide margin. If measured by realm progression, it would definitely be above 90%!

As a result, even though Zhao Sheng had not yet completed his transformation or acquired a true martial-paragon-tier physique, the might of this single punch surpassed that of many newly advanced martial paragons.

What was more, the psychic will contained within his punch clearly outmatched Yaoguang’s. Before fist and sword met, the psychic wills carried within them collided first.

Zong Yan, who had just arrived outside the Xie family manor, and Xie Yusheng, the Saber Absolute, who had already sensed the disturbance within the estate, clearly felt two terrifying auras erupt from the direction of the main building.

One was like a pair of fiendish wings blotting out the sky, its dreadful pressure resembling vast, rolling storm clouds that blanketed the air dozens of meters above the building. The other was like a supreme sword light, carrying peerless sharpness that tore through darkness and pierced straight into the heavens.

At the instant the two collided, even figures as strong as Zong Yan and Xie Yusheng could not help but feel their minds quake.

Deep within their mental worlds, the clash unfolded like the arrival of destruction itself. Though the battle had nothing to do with them, chills ran down their spines, and their bodies instinctively entered a stress response.

It felt as though some supreme fiend god had locked its gaze upon them. Their thoughts stagnated, their minds went blank, and they even forgot how to breathe. As for the ordinary people within the manor, they could not perceive the clash at all. They only felt an inexplicable chill seep into their bodies, accompanied by overwhelming weakness, as though they desperately needed to collapse on the ground and sleep.

This was the psyche-shocking effect caused by the collision of psychic wills, impacting all nearby life. A hundred years ago, it would have been described as losing one’s soul. Not only were ordinary people affected. Martial artists, and even martial masters, were not spared. The only difference lay in how strong the effect would be.

Just as everyone’s thoughts froze and their minds went blank, Yaoguang’s and Zhao Sheng’s attacks finally collided within the main building.

There was a rumble, as though a muffled thunderclap had detonated inside the structure.

Fragile glass and porcelain cracked and exploded instantly, shattering into fragments that sprayed in all directions.

Although both men were still only grandmasters and had yet to break through the limits of the human body, the destruction caused by this all-out clash far exceeded anyone’s expectations.

Inside the main building, the instant Zhao Sheng’s daemon-transformed arm collided with the blade of Divine Shadow Sword, a violent surge of jin burst outward, slicing in all directions. Tables, chairs, desk lamps, and sofas within several meters were shredded by the erupting force, sending wood chips flying everywhere.

Wave after wave of compressed air radiated with the jin, pushing the curtains around like the winds of a tornado. The study, which was larger than thirty square meters, looked like it had been ravaged by a hurricane. Countless books, ornaments, antiques, calligraphy, and paintings were ground into powder by the high-frequency vibrations of jin.

At a glance, the room was in utter ruin. Yet neither of them paid any attention to the aftermath of that clash. As soon as they had made contact, Zhao Sheng had already realized that Yaoguang’s swordsmanship was in no way inferior to his own combat techniques. The circulation of jin even surpassed his.

When he understood that the opponent before him might share the same origin as himself, any trace of arrogance stemming from perceived superiority vanished. In truth, he had never truly underestimated Yaoguang. His earlier arrogance had merely been a tactic to mislead his opponent!

When Zhao Sheng realized that his all-out strike had failed to gain even the slightest advantage, he made a snap decision and inhaled sharply.

The qi and blood within his body, blazing like fire, were completely diverted and surged wildly toward his fully daemonified arm. The violently oscillating internal force, combined with the sheer toughness of that daemonified limb, allowed him to seize the edge of the Divine Shadow Sword that Yaoguang had thrust at him!

The Divine Shadow Sword was a divine weapon, yet it was firmly gripped by Zhao Sheng. At the same time, his other arm swung fiercely. Harnessing the twisting force from his waist, he turned his palm into a fist and smashed it straight toward Yaoguang’s temple.

The fist had not yet arrived, but its momentum struck first! The compressed air waves generated by the punch roared violently, shaking Yaoguang’s eardrums.

”Die!” As Zhao Sheng let out a low roar, the vibration of his voice and the rumbling of his punch synchronized into a single frequency, drilling into Yaoguang’s skull like a sharp needle.

Anyone else would have been instantly stunned and weakened by this kind of combat technique, losing the best chance to counterattack. Unfortunately for Zhao Sheng, he was facing Yaoguang.

This technique, one that could be called the ultimate refinement of marrow-cleansing power, forged to suppress grandmasters or even martial paragons...

”You dare to show these petty tricks in front of a master?” Yaoguang said.

In the next instant, it was as if a spark ignited within Yaoguang’s body. That explosive force wrung out every last bit of his potential, transforming it into boundless power that flooded every inch of his limbs and bones.

This surge instantly altered Yaoguang’s own frequency. At the same time, it shattered the resonant force formed by the interaction between the punch’s jin, the sound waves, and the vibration of his eardrums.

Yaoguang was using Star Ignition, the life-or-death secret technique derived from the perfected third-tier!

At this moment, he clearly did not use it only to break Zhao Sheng’s technique. As power that exceeded the limits of the flesh erupted from within him, the Divine Shadow Sword started humming as vibrations spread across the blade.

Under this vibration, a resonant jin with terrifying penetrative power passed through Zhao Sheng’s arm and slammed directly into his internal organs.

Yaoguang had just used the Signless Five Elements! A true case of repaying him in his own coin. The violent upheaval of his internal organs disrupted the entire internal balance of Zhao Sheng’s body.

Not only could the hand gripping the Divine Shadow Sword no longer hold the blade, but the punch that should have delivered a fatal blow to Yaoguang was also slowed by a fraction of a second.

Crap! Zhao Sheng immediately sensed the danger and tried to retreat. However, it was too late! In a life-and-death struggle between opponents of the same level, any mistake could become the decisive turning point.

Emitting a soft hum, the sword surged forth like a dragon!

Breaking free from Zhao Sheng’s grasp, the Divine Shadow Sword drove straight in, instantly piercing Zhao Sheng’s heart.

Almost simultaneously, Yaoguang’s body, weighing dozens of kilograms, lunged forward. As he closed in, he twisted sideways and slammed brutally into Zhao Sheng’s shoulder, shattering the momentum of the punch aimed at his temple.

The force of the collision merged with Zhao Sheng’s own retreating force, causing his body to spin uncontrollably and fly backward. As he spun and was hurled away, the Divine Shadow Sword embedded in his body was wrenched away by the opposing forces of impact and retreat, tearing open a massive wound.

As a result, even though Yaoguang’s strike had not completely pierced through Zhao Sheng’s body, the combined damage was far more devastating than that of a simple sword strike.

Blood sprayed into the air as Zhao Sheng spun in the air while being flung backward.

”You set a trap and waited for me to walk into it, yet you didn’t transform fully? Where did you get the guts?!” Without giving Zhao Sheng a chance to finish his mid-air rotation, regain balance, and land, the force beneath Yaoguang’s feet erupted once more.

Slightly bending his knees, he shot forward like a cannonball, crashing violently into the retreating Zhao Sheng. Before the daemon leader could react, whether by defending or countering, the sword pierced through his body again. Driven by Yaoguang’s relentless charge, Zhao Sheng was slammed heavily into the wall.

There was a loud crash, and the wall instantly fractured, yet Zhao Sheng’s body did not slide down! He was pinned there, his partially daemonified body held in place by Yaoguang, who gripped the sword with both hands and pressed him against the wall.

They faced each other at a distance of less than three centimeters. Yaoguang stared straight at the daemon leader, whose eyes no longer held the confidence of assured victory, but only unwilling anger.

”You are just like your subordinate... Arrogantly overconfident!” Yaoguang said, making sure to pronounce the last two words slowly.