Unsheathed

The heaven and earth of the first small world had already come together, meeting at a height below the city wall. A huge wave of sword qi exploded outward, appearing like many sword immortals unleashing their flying swords in unison.

How could Chen Ping’an’s measly yin soul possibly withstand this?

Over at the second small world created by the four Heavenly King Dao Manifestations, the true body of the young man who was launching punches as a pure martial artist was already showing signs of wear, with the bones on his shoulders and hands naked and visible. Li Zhen had threatened to reduce him to nothing more than a skeleton, and the little boy clearly hadn’t been making an empty threat.

Even so, the bloody and wounded Chen Ping’an continued to unleash punches, using the Deity Drumming Technique to attack a certain location on the barrier of the small world.

His fists were nothing more than bare bones.

Between each punch, his flying sword, First, would also seize the opportunity to launch an attack.

Fifteenth, which was located in the third small world, suddenly turned its sword tip, seemingly wanting to interact with the sword tip of First.

The two flying swords came together, creating a fissure in the barriers of the small worlds.

The young man in azure unleashed the final punch of the Deity Drumming Technique, paying the price of a broken arm to shatter the small worlds. He continued to charge through the dazzling and colorful explosion, surging toward Li Zhen, the most prodigious youth of the Savage World.

He should have been obstructed when passing from one shattered small world into the next, especially considering the severity of his wounds, meaning that his speed should have theoretically dropped a little.

However, Chen Ping’an’s pinnacle fist intent flowed over him like a waterfall, and it was as if a lofty deity had entered his body, allowing him to travel as quickly as a flash of lightning. He covered more than five kilometers in the blink of an eye, and his golden fist intent collided with Li Zhen’s flowing lunar radiance, causing an explosion that threw the latter backward.

There was a bright glimmer in Ning Yao’s eyes as she kept her gaze firmly fixed on Chen Ping’an, the pure martial artist who was wearing an azure robe but no longer wearing a white jade hairpin. She forced herself not to look at the two heavenly tribulations booming through the juncture of heaven and earth.

Li Zhen’s hands no longer remained open, and he lightly clenched one hand into a fist, following which the blood and flesh on his entire arm peeled off, with even his bones crumbling apart.

He hadn’t imagined that he would need to go as far as to sacrifice an arm and use the celestial tool talisman.

Li Zhen’s entire arm disappeared, and his face also became slightly pale. Hovering in the place of his fist was now a primordial talisman that radiated with an ancient aura.

Chen Ping’an’s arm hung limply by his side, and he shook his left sleeve to retrieve a golden robe. He continued to sprint forward, and the golden robe automatically wrapped around his body at the same time.

In the next moment, a mountain range with three peaks rose above the vast land.

The young man who had changed from an azure robe into a golden robe was nowhere to be seen.

A streak of golden light soared over the Sword Qi Great Wall and raced over the three mountains.

It then hacked apart the small world formed by the bonded flying sword and the flowing lunar radiance, after which it slashed down at Li Zhen’s head.

Li Zhen tossed his sword pellet into the air, and it instantly fused into the glabella of Sword Immortal Guan Zhao.

Sword light instantly erupted from Sword Immortal Guan Zhao’s unstable body, and the puppet that towered more than thirty meters into the air wielded his sword to parry the attack from the golden sword.

Blood poured from Li Zhen’s face, and intense hatred gripped his heart.

That bastard was trying to severely wound him before death!

Only Ning Yao should have had the right to force him into paying such a huge price!

Li Zhen needed to sacrifice one immortal soul and one mortal form for the sake of activating that celestial tool talisman! Moreover, Li Zhen’s initial goal was to use the sword pellet and sacrifice ”Guan Zhao,” who was equivalent to two celestial tools, as well as the Three Mountain Talisman, to ensure mutual death with Ning Yao!

Now, however, he would never be able to truly control Guan Zhao — who wielded a celestial tool and was a celestial tool to begin with — if his sword heart had even a sliver of conflict with Guan Zhao. The puppet would become useless, and Li Zhen’s Dao Heart would also be ruined as a result. Guan Zhao, one of the oldest prisoner sword immortals of the Sword Qi Great Wall who had wanted to fight alongside Chen Qingdu and swore to never emulate Long Jun, deserved to die and comprehensively vanish from this world!

Li Zhen’s eyes widened as he suddenly turned around to look at the juncture between heaven and earth.

There was a white jade hairpin slowly descending from the sky.

The yin soul in white was nowhere to be seen.

In the sky, the golden streak of light that represented Sword Immortal, a celestial tool, collided with the long sword in Guan Zhao’s hand.

Apart from where Li Zhen was standing, the surrounding earth instantly sank several dozen meters.

Quietly hovering between the white jade hairpin and Li Zhen were the two flying swords, Pine Needle and Lightning Devourer, that had been putting on a show from the beginning to the end.

The four of them coincidentally formed a straight line.

Chen Ping’an appeared before the falling white jade hairpin.

In the next instant, Chen Ping’an strode onto Pine Needle before dashing onto Lightning Devourer.

He was accustomed to running along flying swords, having used this as an escape method before reaching the Wing Formation Tier of martial arts.

Thus, Cui Dongshan, Qi Jinglong, and Nalan Yexing had come together to invent this secret technique for Chen Ping’an.

He had first refined Pine Needle and Lightning Devourer into talisman-like flying swords, allowing him to use them as something akin to waypoints in the river of time. This gave Chen Ping’an the ability to instantly retreat dozens or even hundreds of kilometers from the battlefield.

For a pure martial artist like Chen Ping’an, however, these escape techniques would ultimately be transformed into deadly weapons!

In reality, Chen Ping’an’s true body had been hiding in his yin soul the entire time, and he had simply tricked Li Zhen into thinking that he had fled from the thunder pool and left behind his yin soul.

The ”yin soul” had purposely allowed itself to be severely wounded by the eighteen sword immortals amid the two tribulations of heaven and earth, and only at the very last instant had Chen Ping’an and his yin soul hidden inside the jade hairpin on the latter’s head.

Otherwise, if he had entered the jade hairpin too early, it was possible that the temporarily ownerless jade hairpin would have fallen into his opponent’s hands.

As for his four flying swords, First, Fifteenth, Pine Needle, and Lightning Devourer, Chen Ping’an had left them to his yang soul, which had played the role of a pure martial artist and pretended to be his true body. Of course, there was also the celestial-grade Dao robe, Golden Sweet Wine.

Chen Ping’an had simply strived to stay alive on both battlefields, nothing more and nothing less.

Disregarding cultivation bases and sword skills, and only focusing on the many thoughts and considerations in the few short moments, none of the sword immortals on the city wall could compare to Chen Ping’an.

He had done everything for the sake of unleashing a sword strike at this moment.

Li Zhen looked up with a complicated expression. He had unleashed all of his trump cards already, so what else could he do? The worst outcome, the culmination of all the unexpected surprises, had truly come to pass.

Chen Ping’an made a grabbing motion and silently uttered a single word.

He swung his sword down, directly splitting Li Zhen’s body into two.

Li Zhen only had time to slightly tilt his head to the side.

This allowed him to keep his head intact.

The sword in Chen Ping’an’s hand was only a replica sword formed from sword intent. Indeed, he hadn’t been wasting his time and effort during all those training sessions with Zuo You on the city wall.

His celestial tool, Sword Immortal, was still facing off against Guan Zhao.

When scholars looked at the world, all matters could be studied and transformed into one’s own abilities.

The replica sword had already shattered when Chen Ping’an descended to the ground, and he placed a foot on Li Zhen’s head before extending a hand and capturing the little boy’s fleeing soul.

Li Zhen’s soul was already damaged to begin with, and right now, it was held in the hand of a young sword cultivator whose name he still didn’t know. Chen Ping’an lightly raised his hand, using his fist aura, which had the indistinct sound of spring thunder, to firmly imprison Li Zhen’s soul.

Chen Ping’an stomped down and crushed the little boy’s head, and he dug his fingers into his soul and asked, ”Why aren’t you spouting nonsense anymore, you little piece of trash?”

Li Zhen’s soul didn’t put up a struggle, and it pursed its lip and was just about to say something. However, Chen Ping’an immediately obliterated the little boy’s soul and continued, ”I’m begging you to say another word, okay? Are you able to say another word?”

Between heaven and earth, only the astral wind and sword qi caused the young man’s hair and robes to billow in the air.

In the distance, many of the fourteen great demons were itching to make a move.

However, the old man in gray raised a hand, stopping the paramount great demons of the Savage World from targeting the young man. He stepped forward and said with a smile, ”Quite an impressive mental state, young man.”

Not only that, but he even flicked a sleeve and casually shattered Guan Zhao, who had just ingested a celestial-grade sword pellet.

The mountain range summoned by the Three Mountain Talisman also disappeared without a trace.

Chen Ping’an caught the returning Sword Immortal and pointed its tip at the old man in gray, with his action being as provocative as could be. In contrast, however, he said, ”You’re not allowed to take advantage of your age and experience to pick on me, okay? I’m a very timid person.”

The old man in gray smiled faintly and said, ”Don’t push your luck. You can go back to the Sword Qi Great Wall now.”

Chen Ping’an turned around with Sword Immortal in his hand.

Nothing could escape his hands, and he even picked up what others would view as trash. In fact, even the head of the Ascension Tier great demon was thrown into his minimization treasure.

His yin soul jumped out from his white jade hairpin, returning to his body along with the severely wounded yang soul, whose bones could be seen in many places.

Chen Ping’an suddenly stood still on the battlefield, clenching his hand into a fist and raising it high into the air. He then slowly put his hand down and looked at Ning Yao, lightly tapping his chest as he did so. However, this caused him to stumble and cough up a mouthful of blood. Afterward, it was Sword Immortal that flew up and dragged him back to the city wall.

During this, the handsome great demon truly couldn’t contain his urge and wanted to pat his Sword Nurturing Gourd to unleash his sword intent, directly killing that extremely detestable young man.

However, his Sword Nurturing Gourd didn’t respond to his command, and the handsome great demon huffed and retracted his hand after shooting a glance at the old man in gray.

The old man in gray strode forward, standing between the fourteen paramount great demons and all of the sword immortals of the Sword Qi Great Wall. He gestured with his hand and said, ”Chen Qingdu, you can launch a sword strike as per our agreement.”

”You’re acting so haughtily, so how about we strike a deal, and you let me launch two sword strikes?” Chen Qingdu asked with a smile.

The old man in gray retracted his hand and smiled, not offering a response to this stupid question.

Chen Qingdu turned around and beckoned Chen Ping’an forward, saying, ”I can’t let you fight for nothing, so come here and let me teach you a sword strike.”

He then placed a hand on Chen Ping’an’s shoulder.

The sea of clouds dissipated completely, not only from the Sword Qi Great Wall, but for as far as the eyes of the paramount great demons could see.

In addition to this, everything between the great demons and the city wall obediently lay on the ground, including every little speck of sand.

Atop the city wall, an old man in billowing white robes suddenly appeared behind Chen Qingdu and Chen Ping’an, sitting cross-legged on the city wall. He extended his large hand and grabbed a sword, casually swinging it down at the old man in gray without any technique to speak of.

Dust and rocks swirled through the air again.

A short moment later, the dust suddenly settled, revealing the old man in gray. He was still on the battlefield, but he was hovering in the air instead of standing on the ground. His hands were clasped behind his back, and he had upheld his promise and faced a sword strike from Chen Qingdu head-on.

The hearts of many of the fourteen paramount great demons wavered at this moment.

Half of them turned around and glanced back in unison.

The old man in gray turned around and left.

He was the manifestation of the Savage World’s Great Dao, so him facing a sword strike from Chen Qingdu was equivalent to the entire Savage World facing a sword strike from Chen Qingdu. It was entirely negligible.

The Savage World had always been barren and desolate, so what did it matter if this sword strike destroyed countless mountains and rivers?

However, Chen Qingdu’s sword skills had indeed improved after ten thousand years.

This was because a small portion of his sword intent had refused to obey the old man in gray’s command, forcefully striking a stretch of land measuring thousands of kilometers in radius behind the great demons.

Chen Qingdu patted Chen Ping’an’s shoulder and asked, ”Did you get that?”

Chen Ping’an haphazardly wiped his face with his hands, smearing away the blood that had poured out as a result of this lesson. He didn’t answer the old great sword immortal’s question and instead asked, ”Did that little boy not die?”

Chen Qingdu smiled and replied, ”He was never alive to begin with, so how can he die? If we ignore Guan Zhao and only focus on the little boy pieced together by the remnant soul, then he is indeed as dead as can be. And with him dead, Guan Zhao is even more comprehensively dead than before.

”I have some discouraging news for you, though. Guan Zhao’s true sword heart is completely different from Long Jun’s, and it never actually strayed from the Sword Dao. Thus, Holding Moon Mountain is purposely hiding the most important portions of Guan Zhao’s soul, not giving it to that little boy. Otherwise, if Guan Zhao’s true heart reappears in the world and his sword pellet is allowed to fuse together with his sword heart, then Guan Zhao returning to the Sword Qi Great Wall will pose a huge danger to the vile beasts of the Savage World.”

Chen Qingdu pointed at the great demon wearing a ragged robe and explained, ”As for this person, formerly known as Long Jun, he harbors the strongest resentment toward the Sword Qi Great Wall. He didn’t hold back with his attacks on the demons when I dragged him to Holding Moon Mountain back then, and he was also one of the first sword immortals of the Sword Qi Great Wall to seek death in battle.

”He felt like he didn’t owe the Sword Qi Great Wall anymore after dying once, and he most likely wants to challenge the Sword Qi Great Wall as an exiled sword cultivator. I understand this, but I can’t accept it. Thus, some might be able to breach the Sword Qi Great Wall in the future, but this definitely won’t include Sword Cultivator Long Jun.”

A slight expression of surprise appeared on Chen Qingdu’s face, and he remarked, ”Hmm? You don’t feel any sense of guilt toward Senior Guan Zhao? This is quite unlike you, Chen Ping’an.”

”To say nothing of that braindead little boy, I would have also hacked Guan Zhao’s true body to death if he dared to utter such nonsense in front of me,” Chen Ping’an replied calmly.

He turned around and looked toward the south.

Following the old man in gray’s departure, the fourteen paramount great demons and the remaining great demons also retreated.

Chen Ping’an closed his eyes. Bloody hell, he had experienced a fall in cultivation base! Not one tier, but several tiers! Fortunately, he had used his experience from his travels through the Northern Complete Reed Continent to forcefully resist the two tribulations of heaven and earth, so he could offset this fall in cultivation base by striving to elevate his martial arts cultivation base.

Everything would be okay as long as his bridge of immortality didn’t crumble and his four critical bonded items were still intact. He had only been a fifth tier Qi refiner to begin with, so suffering a drop of several tiers wasn’t a deadly blow. In fact, he might receive fortune from misfortune if he relied on the old great sword immortal’s teaching to nurture a genuine bonded flying sword as quickly as possible...

Ning Yao slung Chen Ping’an onto her back.

Chen Ping’an could faintly hear the echo of a horn the moment before he drifted into unconsciousness.

The siege had begun.