# Chapter 615: Li Zhen Is Dead
Li Zhen's brows relaxed. A small surprise, nothing that affected the overall situation.
Li Zhen was the first to walk out of that thunder pool formed by eighteen mountain treasures as the array's pivot points. The Guanzhao manifested by sword intent followed closely behind, with the remaining black-robed immortals following in sequence.
Li Zhen turned his head and said, "A fine feint using yin spirit far travel. This thunder pool, with its heavenly and earthly tribulations, counts as a gift to you."
The cost was not small. Eighteen treasures, eighteen array eyes. After the heavenly and earthly tribulations passed, most of the treasures would have their rank destroyed. Among them, two semi-immortal weapons—the Five Thunder Seal and the imitation White Jade Capital Pagoda—would not be completely destroyed, but they would "fall in rank" to mere treasures.
But he was Li Zhen, the old ancestor's closed-door disciple, so this cost was entirely bearable.
Yet one small surprise followed another. First, this person took Ning Yao's place and left the city wall. Then he never engaged in close-quarters combat, wasting that deadly sword intent cage. Now he had even deceived Li Zhen, leaving only a yin spirit that had traveled far from his body to bear the thunder pool calamity—enough to severely wound a Jade Pure realm sword immortal—all by itself. This ultimately displeased Li Zhen.
Only twelve years old, arrogant in speech and action, looking down on everyone, chattering endlessly, stepping on a great demon's head, standing still to let him attack.
This person hadn't taken the bait at all.
Any other young sword cultivator from the Sword Qi Great Wall—except Ning Yao—would have been dead beyond dead.
Li Zhen couldn't help but turn his head again to look.
That young man in blue robes, after Li Zhen had exposed his trick, no longer bothered to conceal himself. His feet left the ground, sleeves fluttering, drifting slightly away from the earthly tribulation's range. He flipped his wrist to reveal a closed jade-bamboo folding fan, tapped it lightly against his palm, and his robes rippled. The blue robes shed their disguise, becoming a pure white robe. The man met Li Zhen's gaze and smiled: "You've made such a big fuss, only to trap this insignificant yin spirit of mine. Does it hurt? Leaving just like that? Won't you stay in the thunder pool and watch me vanish completely? Aren't you afraid the heavenly tribulation won't kill me, and you'll be left empty-handed?"
He held the fan in one hand and raised the other, revealing the remnant of a green talisman on his palm, like a bit of green mud stuck to his skin.
Just a single talisman, and it cost Li Zhen so many semi-immortal weapons and treasures to fall in rank or be destroyed.
The key point was that his true body had escaped a place of certain death.
The sword immortals on the city wall mostly breathed sighs of relief. A heroic death was still death, after all.
Li Zhen chuckled. "Yin spirit is still yin spirit, not some kind of trick. If it's gone, it's gone. Your cultivation level doesn't seem high, and under thirty years old, how high could you be—higher than Ning Yao or Pang Yuanji? Even with that supreme treasure on you, if by some chance you managed to activate your strange divine abilities to withstand the heavenly and earthly tribulations for a moment, you'd still die. You might even gift me a stroke of fortune. If others gave me something, I might not bother to accept, but if I took it from you, even a broken treasure would feel meaningful to me."
Li Zhen gradually moved away from the thunder pool, turning his head as he walked. "I don't know who the hell you are, or when the Sword Qi Great Wall produced another interesting character like you. But I know about the Sword Qi Great Wall's Ning Yao—I've heard her name so often my ears are calloused. You took the initiative to return Chen Qingdu's courtesy, Ning Yao didn't stop you, and Chen Qingdu dared to bet heavily on you. From that moment on, I knew you had to die. What does it matter if I pay some price? Who knows—killing you might be no less significant than killing Ning Yao."
Li Zhen pointed at the high Sword Qi Great Wall. "Price? From now on, the entire city wall will be my place of cultivation."
Li Zhen looked at the white-robed young man and waved. "Farewell."
The yin spirit collapsed, and from then on his soul was incomplete. For a cultivator, this would leave a root of illness that even immortals would find hard to cure. His combat power would suffer greatly.
That yin spirit smiled slightly, shook his sleeves, and talismans flowed like clouds and water, covering the sky and earth. The talismans he had thrown out earlier had all been crushed by Li Zhen's treasures—but it didn't matter. He had quite a few talismans.
Five Elements talismans, Thunder Method talismans, Snow Mud talismans, the Yang Qi Lantern talisman from the *True Dao Scripture*, the Transmission talisman taught by Qi Jinglong, the Mountain-Searching talisman taught by his student Cui Dongshan—no fewer than twenty types.
It was a pity that the talismans couldn't form an array earlier, but they could still use the residual flow of spiritual energy from the many talisman cores to help observe the subtle flows of qi in the heavenly and earthly tribulations.
Li Zhen suddenly stopped and asked, "Earlier, that look of yours—the one showing you were ready to die—was it deliberately meant to make me reveal this array early?"
The white-robed yin spirit smiled. "Take a guess."
Li Zhen reminded him kindly, "Enjoy those heavenly and earthly tribulations thoroughly. Don't forget, the eighteen mustard-seed sword immortal puppets guarding the treasures will be idle once the tribulations begin. Each of their sword strikes is equivalent to the full-force blow of an Earth Immortal sword cultivator."
Li Zhen looked at a certain spot. "Isn't it time to reveal your true body?"
Earlier, Li Zhen had made a small move on the Gu family sword immortal's head. After that strange talisman that helped conceal his aura was gone, hiding anywhere was useless.
Where Li Zhen's gaze fell, ripples spread like water patterns, and out stepped a young man in blue robes with his sleeves rolled up. Two imitation sword immortal flying swords from the Northern Juzhou Hate Sword Mountain spun around him—Pine Needle and Cough Thunder.
The two flying swords flashed and vanished.
Li Zhen said nothing more. Behind him, two black-robed immortals condensed from sword intent shot forward, sword light like rainbows.
Chen Ping'an stamped his foot and vanished from his spot, dodging two beams of sword light. Two other black-robed sword immortals appeared—one stood holding a sword in front of Li Zhen, while the other dispersed and disappeared.
Only the tall, almost corporeal "Guanzhao," whose sword intent was most solid, stood behind Li Zhen.
A sword cultivator of no high realm, yet also a pure martial artist of no low realm?
What kind of person was this?
Li Zhen's displeasure lessened somewhat.
The great demon Chongguang bent low, standing behind the gray-robed old man, hesitant to speak.
The gray-robed old man chuckled. "Behind closed doors in the Barren Wasteland Heaven, we're all family. It's fine for Li Zhen to suffer a little loss and hardship. It's still too early to talk about victory or defeat now."
Only after suffering hardship would one learn to focus on practicing the sword, and stop inwardly rejecting the identity of "Guanzhao."
The great demon Chongguang smiled ingratiatingly, but suddenly broke out in a cold sweat.
Wasn't Li Zhen supposed to win for sure?
The gray-robed old man said, "He won't lose, that's all."
The great demon Chongguang was drenched in sweat.
The gray-robed old man smiled. "You've stood so close for so long, gathered quite a bit of Dao aura. Consider this your reward for those two minor skirmishes earlier."
Chongguang bowed and retreated, disappearing quietly.
On the city wall, Zuo You did not strike at the heavenly tribulation cloud sea.
Every young sword cultivator from the Sword Qi Great Wall under thirty was, without exception, a genius among geniuses. This was the great era that came only once in several millennia for the Sword Qi Great Wall.
The last time such a great era occurred was during the most brutal battle at the Sword Qi Great Wall, when only Chen Qingdu remained to guard it.
But this time, over the past thirty or forty years, the Sword Qi Great Wall had protected these children extremely well. Of course, the price was that many Earth Immortal sword teachers who shielded them had died.
Pang Yuanji said, "If it were me, with heavenly thunder falling and earthly killing intent rising, I definitely couldn't dodge. I'd have to withstand it head-on, and I'd die."
Gao Yehou's younger sister, Gao Youqing, murmured, "I'd die even faster, probably. That sword formation would kill me."
Dong Huafu said, "That little beast is the closed-door disciple of the Tuoyue Mountain master. Except for Sister Ning, losing to him is just normal. No need to overthink it. Look at us—who can take out so many semi-immortal weapons and treasures at once? So according to Chen Ping'an's way of thinking, when dealing with someone rich, powerful, and well-backed, you don't 'huff and puff and go fight him solo.' You 'let him come fight a group of us.' Then we split the spoils and everyone gets rich."
Pang Yuanji said, "That reasoning is sound, but we also have to see that just being able to control so many treasures at once is something an ordinary person couldn't do. In this duel with Chen Ping'an, it's thanks to Chen Ping'an that none of the little beast's traps worked immediately. In future battlefield confrontations, we need to be especially careful of people like this."
A young sword cultivator who didn't get along well with Ning Yao, Chen Sanqiu, or the Diezhang Wine Shop said a fair word: "If he wanted to fight dirty and play mind games, the little beast picked the wrong opponent."
Ning Yao looked up at the cloud sea of heavenly tribulation and said nothing.
If it had been her, she could block it, but it would have far-reaching effects. Very troublesome.
Chen Qingdu laughed. "Ning girl, if you were in his place, there naturally wouldn't have been that bet. And since I pulled Chen Ping'an onto the city wall, there's no such 'if.'"
Chen Qingdu recalled a rare old memory. "Wu Chengpei once asked A Liang: in this world, who cannot die? Is it related to surnames and families?"
"A Liang had no answer either—answering that kind of question is most troublesome. So in the end, he just made a trip to Tuoyue Mountain and the Yiluoluo River."
Chen Qingdu smiled and turned to Ning Yao. "Of course I value you and Chen Ping'an, but I really don't think you can't die. If we talk about it openly, it gets a bit complicated. Ning girl, do you understand what I mean?"
Ning Yao nodded. "I understand. But I'm very unhappy—not for myself, for Chen Ping'an."
Zuo You sneered, "Count me among the unhappy ones too."
Chen Qingdu smiled even more. Talking with Ning Yao was so easy. And Zuo You's bluntness was also good. "That's good. It's better than not caring about anything. Being unhappy is just fine—otherwise Zuo You would be like a cautionary tale: what sword to practice, why practice the sword, what life and death mean—always going in circles. Until today, he's only just become something like a true sword cultivator."
Chen Qingdu seemed not to hear, muttering to himself, "A true sword cultivator."
A true sword cultivator draws their sword for the world, can forget life and death, and transcend life and death.
This great matter, the deeper one ponders it, the harder it becomes to achieve—yet sometimes it can be achieved without even noticing.
And it was a strange thing: many Middle Five Realm sword cultivators could do it, while Upper Five Realm sword immortals increasingly could not.
The world becomes less beautiful, and one loses heart. The world becomes more beautiful, and one cannot bear to let go. With low sword skill, one has no choice but to die. With high enough sword skill, one can find a thousand reasons not to die—this is also a natural human sentiment, not to be harshly judged.
The human heart—truly the most interesting cage the ancient gods ever created.
As for another cage—it is the human perception of the flow of the river of time. The ancient sages separated heaven and earth, and later generations received invisible protection, watching the scenery from the shore—thus always missing something. So any person, before truly attaining the Dao, even at the Flying Ascension realm, inevitably feels life is illusory. This has been a great problem for the three teachings and the hundred schools of thought for ten thousand years, as they tirelessly seek a final solution.
The pursuit of truth by Immortal realm cultivators, the Confucian grounding of the human heart with righteous qi, the Buddhist breaking of attachment to self, the Daoist return to simplicity—all are painstaking efforts on this matter.
Every person struggles to live, and every person silently seeks death—how contradictory. Hence the need to pursue a state where one walks between heaven and earth, form like the sun at noon, heart like the moon in the sky, seeing all things clearly, bright and pure.
Chen Qingdu said a strange thing to Ning Yao: "Whatever the outcome, don't think Chen Ping'an lost too much in this battle."
Ning Yao was silent.
Chen Qingdu chuckled. "I never asked Chen Ping'an to leave the city wall to 'return the courtesy.'"
On the battlefield, dust flew.
Three illusory black-robed immortals struck with their swords, always standing at different corners, trapping Chen Ping'an in their midst. Sword light blazed, sounding like thunder, with no discernible pattern—just hacking wildly at Chen Ping'an.
One black-robed immortal was struck by a close-range punch and his form scattered, but he quickly re-condensed from sword intent. The dead thing condensed from sword intent merely dimmed slightly, striking as always, sword light extremely fast and heavy.
Another immortal was struck by his own side's sword light, but then rose again as if resurrected.
On the other battlefield, where the disparity in strength was even greater, the cloud sea imbued with the Five Thunder Orthodox Method hung low. The earth was drawn upward by the thunder pool, clearly intending heaven and earth to meet and grind the white-robed yin spirit within.
A third black-robed immortal, who had been hiding in the shadows, appeared and took his position. Without anyone noticing, he stood at one of the four directions.
In the blink of an eye, the earth trembled behind the four black-robed immortals. Divine statues rose from the ground—four Heavenly King dharma images stood erect, like the most vivid painted statues in the world. Then, as the four sword immortals simultaneously formed sword hand seals, the four Heavenly King dharma images opened their eyes at the same time, revealing a furious Heavenly King expression.
One statue, magnificent and dazzling, glowed with golden light. It wore a crown of five Buddha jewels, donned golden armor, and was adorned with jeweled garlands. Its right hand held a victory banner.
Another golden statue wore crimson-purple armor, its face wrathful. Its right hand held a spear, the tip touching the ground; its other hand raised a precious mirror, reflecting the earth.
Another Heavenly King dharma image wore celestial robes, its left arm lowered gripping a blade, its palm holding a treasure.
The last statue had a dragon coiled around its body, its right hand holding a red rope, said to be capable of subduing all dragon kings.
Li Zhen's mind was split in two. He observed the true body of his opponent within the formation, while also carefully watching the white-robed yin spirit within the heavenly and earthly tribulations.
The four Heavenly King dharma images each held their treasures, using their treasure light to re-envelop a small world. After forming the formation, the four black-robed sword immortals dispersed on their own, transforming into strands of pure sword essence.
Chen Ping'an threw a punch—the Cloud-Steaming Great Marsh style—striking the small world's canopy so hard it trembled, temporarily preventing the heavenly might from descending and pressing down on the earth.
At the same time, his flying sword Chu Yi shot out from his lifebound acupoint, shredding the sword intent that approached him.
Li Zhen twitched the corner of his mouth. His opponent certainly had no shortage of trump cards; only now was he forced to reveal them in defense.
Li Zhen's mind stirred slightly. Behind him, the "Guanzhao" stepped forward, like a guardian deity protecting Li Zhen.
A streak of emerald sword light, moving at unimaginable speed, instantly stabbed into the Guanzhao's body, piercing straight through. The sword tip trembled, a mere foot from Li Zhen's brow.
Li Zhen stepped back. The Guanzhao's illusory form became more solid, reaching out with two fingers to trap that insidious flying sword that had attempted to ambush him.
Unexpectedly, the emerald flying sword, having failed its strike, reversed and vanished.
An ordinary person, weak in physique, could not control even a mountain treasure—it would only bring disaster.
Similarly, not every Earth Immortal could fully control a semi-immortal weapon.
And to make a true immortal weapon recognize its master was even harder than ascending to heaven.
But Li Zhen currently possessed immortal weapons—two of them.
Li Zhen raised one palm, revealing the ancestral talisman of all Five Mountain True Form diagrams, called the Three Mountains Talisman.
If he activated it, the cost would be so great that even Li Zhen would bitterly complain. Using it against Ning Yao—Li Zhen would be willing. Against this young man—he was still reluctant.
So Li Zhen instead closed his hand into a fist, and opened his other palm. In the center lay a slowly rotating sword seed—once himself, or rather the Guanzhao's lifebound flying sword. In the battle at Tuoyue Mountain, it had been shattered, but Tuoyue Mountain had nurtured it at great cost for ten thousand years, gradually restoring it to its peak. In every major siege battle in history, specialized great demons would use ancient secret methods to extract the Sword Qi Great Wall's Guanzhao sword intent, secretly sending it to Tuoyue Mountain. Among them, the direct-line great demon of Tuoyue Mountain had personally ventured into danger, trying to steal more sword intent, which was why he was trapped by Dong San'geng and Chen Xi.
Capturing a Flying Ascension realm great demon alive was far more difficult than killing one.
When Li Zhen opened his palm, the sword seed merely trembled lightly, causing the entire space around Li Zhen to distort. The sword immortal Guanzhao, condensed from sword intent, actually turned its head to look. It was a dead thing, but at this moment, it showed a complex expression very human-like.
Li Zhen looked up, clenched his fist again, and smiled at the "Guanzhao": "This is mine, not yours."
The Guanzhao swung its sword lightly, knocking away a suddenly appearing emerald sword light.
Li Zhen stopped paying attention to that elusive flying sword. He strode forward, passing through the Guanzhao's insubstantial form, and continued to watch the battle.
That young man was really not easy to beat. One of the Heavenly King dharma images swung its spear down, and he blocked it directly with his arm. The force drove his legs into the ground up to the thighs.
On the city wall, the young geniuses of the Sword Qi Great Wall continued their silent conversation through spiritual thoughts.
Dong Bude smiled. "Another one-sided fight where Chen Ping'an can't fight back. One-sided, one-sided."
Guo Zhujiu nodded vigorously. "That little beast is really something. He and Qi Shou could be sworn brothers. In the future, when they meet on the battlefield, they can pour out their hearts before fighting."
Chen Sanqiu smiled bitterly.
These seemingly casual and joking words were precisely because everyone's nerves were stretched taut.
Just look at that fearless little girl Lü Duan—her forehead was covered in sweat, her heart wrenched with worry.
In the process of the cloud sea descending and the earth rising, before heaven and earth had fully connected, the entire thunder pool on the ground attracted the cloud sea, sending Five Thunder crashing to the ground. More and more thunderous whips appeared between heaven and earth. Before they struck, they split into countless tiny electric snakes containing true thunder method essence. The white-robed yin spirit was trapped inside, constantly dodging by riding the wind—not only avoiding the crashing Five Thunder pillars, but also the chaotic electric lights that spread like instant branches and leaves.
But when heaven and earth met, the two tribulations overlapped.
There would be nowhere to hide.
Li Zhen chuckled at the four dharma images. "No need to rush. Let this pure martial artist, who was originally so lofty in martial path, slowly turn into a withered skeleton. Let him taste what it's like for a mortal to become a god."
After saying this, Li Zhen looked up at Ning Yao. As he heard from his senior sister at Tuoyue Mountain, the sword cultivators of the Sword Qi Great Wall were most susceptible to this kind of provocation.
That young man, whose yin spirit and true body were trapped in two separate battlefields, was probably one of the few exceptions.
But Ning Yao didn't spare Li Zhen a glance. She just stared at the cloud sea, which was descending faster and faster.
Ning Yao didn't care about Li Zhen's verbal provocation.
Yet on the distant earth, flying swords continued to streak toward Li Zhen, as if a sword cultivator were challenging him.
This time, it was no longer just that one emerald sword light; three came together.
The first was the thin, thread-like Pine Needle.
The Guanzhao struck out with its sword, but the flying sword suddenly changed trajectory and vanished, leaving only a uniform trench on the ground.
The Guanzhao twisted its wrist and struck again—it was the fearsome Cough Thunder. Again, it retreated without engaging, but was grazed by the Guanzhao's powerful sword energy, causing its tip to tilt as it withdrew.
Li Zhen found it amusing.
So those two were just showpieces? On an ordinary battlefield, they could indeed scare people, and at a life-or-death moment, they could change the situation.
But the truly lethal flying sword, Fifteen, arrived from a distance on the flank, carving an arc and rushing straight at the back of Li Zhen's head.
The Guanzhao, now constrained by Li Zhen's current realm and thoughts, couldn't strike purely on instinct. It was not at its peak. The sword immortal Guanzhao couldn't parry in time, so it simply reached out and grabbed the flying sword.
Li Zhen didn't care about this kind of assassination.
Even taking a sword strike would be fine.
Not to mention having the Guanzhao nearby to block the flying sword.
Li Zhen's only concern now was to determine whether the young man's true body was truly his complete true body, or just a yang spirit external incarnation.
If the true body was still hiding somewhere unknown, waiting for an opportunity, it would be another small surprise that didn't affect the overall situation but would make Li Zhen look bad.
After all, this opponent seemed very different from the sword cultivators who liked straightforward attacks.
He should be like Zuo You on the city wall.
Li Zhen thought for a moment. Waiting for both battlefields to settle would be fine, but standing around idle didn't seem right either.
So he activated his lifebound flying sword, hailed as uniquely favored by heaven. It shot into the sky, tracing a white line of light, and eventually transformed into a bright moon over the Barren Wasteland Heaven, vying with the sun.
The full moon hung in the void, moonlight like water, spilling onto the earth, illuminating the battlefield for hundreds of miles. Strand upon strand of ancient sword immortal sword intent, illuminated by the moonlight, mostly slowed down a little.
The thunder pool was a small world, built by piling treasures and relying on his self-admittedly crude talisman array skills.
The four black-robed immortals were both an illusion and not an illusion. After the dharma images rose, they created another small world.
When Li Zhen activated his lifebound flying sword, that was the third small world.
Li Zhen gazed intently. The moonlight spilling on the earth carried the aura of the flowing river of time. So when Li Zhen's mind settled, beyond the two cage-like small worlds, a third small world also came to a standstill. Even the ground more than a hundred feet deep was included.
This proved that the young man had no more tricks up his sleeve—he wasn't hiding his true body elsewhere.
Those three flying swords, real and fake, finally showed some sense and stopped pestering Li Zhen. They just flew around in the distance, like headless flies. Especially those two imitation flying swords, which had been putting on a show—they wobbled pitifully, looking ridiculous.
Within the small world, aside from the sword immortal sword intents that seemed unconstrained by the great Dao of heaven and earth—which merely slowed down—all other countless sword energies were ground to dust within the flowing moonlight.
Li Zhen both breathed a sigh of relief—there were no more small surprises—and yet felt some disappointment.
The flying sword in the Guanzhao's hand had already escaped. Its sharpness was quite remarkable.
But the Guanzhao was unharmed. That emerald sword light, striking again and again, each time returning without success, would ultimately share the fate of its master—when the master died and the Dao vanished, the lifebound flying sword would also shatter.
It and its pitiful master were merely putting up a desperate struggle.
The first small world—the thunder pool—heaven and earth had already met. In the high air between the earth and the city wall, sword-qi waves erupted in all directions, like sword immortals releasing their flying swords all at once.
That tiny yin spirit—
In the second small world, guarded by the four Heavenly Kings' statues, the true body fought more as a pure martial artist. The young man's hands and shoulders were already exposed white bones. Li Zhen had said he would turn him into a skeleton—clearly no idle threat.
Within the second small world, Chen Ping'an, drenched in blood, continued to throw punches without stop—the Divine Man Drums the Heaven style—attacking one spot of the small world's barrier.
His fists were all bone, exposed white.
In the intervals between throwing and withdrawing punches, his flying sword Chu Yi struck again at the same spot.
The flying sword Fifteen, located in the third small world, suddenly turned its tip, as if to meet Chu Yi's sword tip.
The two swords pressed against each other, and a crack appeared in the world barrier.
A figure in blue robes threw one final punch with the Divine Man Drums the Heaven style, at the cost of a broken arm. He punched open the world, and amid a dazzling display of brilliant, colorful light, he shot in a straight line toward the most favored child of heaven in the Barren Wasteland Heaven—Li Zhen.
But just breaking out of one small world meant entering the next. He should have been slowed down, burdened by heavy injuries, and moved slower than before—that would be logical.
Yet his peak martial intent flowed like a waterfall pouring down, as if a high god had descended upon him. Chen Ping'an moved faster than thunder, instantly traversing ten-plus miles. His golden martial intent clashed with the flowing moonlight created by Li Zhen's lifebound flying sword, blasting the latter apart.
On the city wall, Ning Yao's eyes glittered. Her gaze followed the pure martial artist Chen Ping'an, still in his blue robes without the white jade hairpin. She forced herself not to look at the thunder pool tribulation where heaven and earth had met.
Li Zhen no longer held his fist loosely. He clenched one hand tightly, and his entire arm began to separate flesh from bone, the bone shattering.
He hadn't expected to need this immortal weapon talisman to such a dire extent.
Li Zhen's entire arm had already vanished. His face was pale. But where his fist had been, an ancient talisman appeared, suspended in the air, steeped in antiquity.
The young man's left arm hung limp. He shook his sleeve, and a golden robe appeared. He continued to run, but at the same time, the robe put itself on him.
In the next moment, a mountain range with three peaks appeared on the earth, undulating.
The young man who had changed from blue robes to golden robes was nowhere to be seen.
A golden line shot across the sky from the Sword Qi Great Wall.
It passed over that three-peaked great mountain.
It cleaved the small world built from the lifebound sword's moonlight and the flowing river of time, landing directly on Li Zhen's head.
Li Zhen dropped the sword seed in his hand. It instantly merged into the brow of the sword immortal Guanzhao beside him.
The illusory form of the sword immortal Guanzhao exploded in sword light, growing dozens of feet tall. It held a long sword, blocking that golden sword.
Blood flowed from all seven apertures of Li Zhen's face. Great hatred surged in his heart.
Of all times to die, he had to drag me down with him!
Only Ning Yao should have been worthy of making me pay such a price!
To control that immortal weapon talisman, Li Zhen had to sacrifice one soul and one po! And that sword seed, after merging into the Guanzhao's sword heart—
Li Zhen's original intention was to simply discard this Guanzhao, worth two immortal weapons, combined with the Three Mountains Talisman, and use them to trade lives with Ning Yao!
If he didn't, from then on, as long as his sword heart had even slight resistance to the "Guanzhao," it meant he would never truly control a puppet Guanzhao that held an immortal weapon and was itself an immortal weapon—completely useless, and a damage to his Dao heart in this life. What was this about fighting side by side with Chen Qingdu, never learning the Dragon Lord's Guanzhao? What was this about the oldest convict of the Sword Qi Great Wall deserving to die clean and pure?
Li Zhen suddenly turned his head and looked up at the high sky where heaven and earth had collided. He stared wide-eyed.
It was a white jade hairpin slowly falling.
Indeed, there was no longer any white-robed yin spirit.
Above his head, along the line where the immortal weapon sword immortal had come, golden light still condensed without dispersing. It collided with the long sword in the Guanzhao's hand.
Except for the spot where Li Zhen stood, the surrounding earth instantly sank dozens of feet.
Between the white jade hairpin and Li Zhen, two flying swords that had been putting on a show from start to finish happened to come to a halt—Pine Needle and Cough Thunder.
Exactly in a straight line.
As the white jade hairpin descended, a figure appeared—Chen Ping'an.
In an instant, Chen Ping'an stepped onto the flying sword Pine Needle. The next moment, he stood on Cough Thunder.
Before becoming a Wind Riding realm martial artist, one should have a method of escaping by sword flight.
So Cui Dongshan, Qi Jinglong, and Nalan Yexing together researched this secret technique for Chen Ping'an.
First, refine the two flying swords Pine Needle and Cough Thunder into something like "talismans," allowing them to serve as anchor points similar to the river of time, helping Chen Ping'an immediately withdraw from the battlefield by over a hundred miles, even several hundred.
But in the end, for a pure martial artist like Chen Ping'an, any escape method should still be used to fight and kill!
Chen Ping'an's true body had actually been merged with his yin spirit all along. He had simply made his opponent think that the yin spirit had traveled far from his body and withdrawn from the thunder pool.
He deliberately allowed himself to be severely wounded by the eighteen mustard-seed sword immortals within the cloud sea tribulation and the earth thunder pool—but only in the last instant did his true body and yin spirit hide together inside the jade hairpin pinned to the yin spirit's head.
If he had hidden inside too early, there might have been a chance that the temporarily ownerless white jade hairpin would fall into his opponent's hands.
As for Chu Yi, Fifteen, Pine Needle, and Cough Thunder—four flying swords in total—he had left them all to the yang spirit external incarnation, which was his pure martial artist self, along with the immortal-rank dharma robe Golden Nectar.
Both simply needed to stay alive. That was enough.
In the span of just a few thoughts—setting aside realm and sword techniques, and only considering the depth of scheming—even you sword immortals on the city wall were no match for me, Chen Ping'an.
All for this one moment, this one strike.
Li Zhen looked up, his expression complicated. Every card had been played. What more could he do? That worst outcome, that one-in-ten-thousand chance where all small surprises accumulated—it seemed it had truly come.
Chen Ping'an reached out and grasped, silently chanting a single word.
A sword slashed down, cleaving Li Zhen's body in two.
Li Zhen only managed to turn his head slightly.
So at least his head was kept intact.
The long sword in his hand was merely an imitation, a condensed sword intent. Did Chen Ping'an waste his time on the city wall, being taught swordplay by Zuo You again and again, for nothing?
It was not the immortal weapon sword still confronting the Guanzhao.
A scholar observes the world; everything is available for his use.
Chen Ping'an landed. The sword intent of his long sword had shattered. He stepped on the severed head and threw a punch, trapping all the scattered souls that tried to escape in his grip.
Li Zhen's already incomplete and remnant soul was thus held by a young sword cultivator whose name he still didn't know. Chen Ping'an lifted it gently, enveloping it in a fist aura faintly rumbling like spring thunder.
Chen Ping'an stomped the head into pulp. His fingers hooked like talons, sinking into the soul. He asked, "Little trash, not so chatty now?"
Li Zhen's soul did not struggle. It twitched the corner of its mouth, about to speak, but Chen Ping'an exploded it with his fist aura. "Did I ask you to say one more word? Could you even do it?"
Between heaven and earth, only the sword qi and gale winds blowing through the young man's temples and robe.
In the distance, along a straight line, fourteen great demons were stirring restlessly.
The gray-robed old man raised his hand to stop these peak existences of the Barren Wasteland Heaven from acting against the young man. He stepped forward and smiled, "Little fellow, not bad state of mind."
Not only that, the gray-robed old man flicked his sleeve and casually dispersed the Guanzhao, which had swallowed the immortal weapon sword seed.
Not only that, the Three Mountains Talisman's great mountain also vanished.
Chen Ping'an grasped the flying sword immortal as it streaked toward him, its tip pointing directly at the gray-robed old man. The gesture couldn't have been more provocative, but his mouth said, "No bullying the small, okay? I'm the most timid person."
The gray-robed old man smiled. "Settle for what you have and return to your Sword Qi Great Wall."
Chen Ping'an, holding the sword immortal, turned and walked away.
Along the way, he collected everything—even the Flying Ascension great demon's head was not left behind, all put into his dimensional storage.
The white-robed yin spirit emerged from the white jade hairpin. The largely skeletal yang spirit external incarnation merged with Chen Ping'an, reuniting as one.
On the battlefield, Chen Ping'an suddenly stopped. He raised his fist, held it high, then slowly lowered it. He smiled at Ning Yao, tapped his own chest lightly—and coughed up a mouthful of blood. He staggered, then was "dragged" by his sword immortal, which shared his mind, flying up to the city wall.
During this, one handsome great demon could no longer restrain himself. He wanted to slap his sword-nurturing gourd again, to release all the sword qi at once and kill that eyesore of a young man.
But when he slapped it, the gourd did nothing. He glanced at the gray-robed old man and withdrew his hand resentfully.
The gray-robed old man stepped out, standing on the earth between the fourteen peak great demons and all the sword immortals of the Sword Qi Great Wall. He extended a palm. "Chen Qingdu, according to the agreement, draw your sword."
Chen Qingdu chuckled. "Putting on such a grand front. How about a negotiation? Two strikes?"
The gray-robed old man retracted his hand, smiled, and declined to answer.
Chen Qingdu turned to Chen Ping'an and beckoned. "Since you didn't work for nothing, come here. I'll teach you a sword strike myself."
Chen Ping'an was pressed by Chen Qingdu's hand on his shoulder.
Not only on the Sword Qi Great Wall city wall, but also as far as the peak great demons' eyes could see, there was no longer any trace of cloud sea.
Not only that—on the earth between the great demons and the city wall, not even a single grain of sand dared to rise.
Above the Sword Qi Great Wall, behind Chen Qingdu and Chen Ping'an, an old man in white robes suddenly appeared. He sat cross-legged on the city wall, extended a large hand, grasped a long sword, and with no sword technique at all, simply stabbed downward toward the gray-robed old man's head.
Once again, yellow sand rolled.
After a moment, the dust abruptly settled. The gray-robed old man still stood on the battlefield, but his body was suspended in the air, hands always behind his back. He had kept his promise, taking Chen Qingdu's sword strike solidly.
Fourteen peak great demons—most of them were somewhat unsettled in spirit.
Half of them turned to look behind them at the same time.
The gray-robed old man turned and left.
He was the incarnation of the Barren Wasteland Heaven's Great Dao. Taking Chen Qingdu's sword strike was simply the Barren Wasteland Heaven receiving Chen Qingdu's sword strike—it didn't matter at all.
The Barren Wasteland Heaven had been barren since ancient times. After one sword strike, it shattered ten thousand miles of mountains and rivers—so what?
But after ten thousand years, Chen Qingdu's sword skill had indeed improved.
Because there remained a small fraction of sword intent that did not follow the gray-robed old man's decree, still landing forcefully ten thousand miles behind the great demons.
Chen Qingdu patted Chen Ping'an's shoulder. "Did you learn?"
Chen Ping'an wiped his face messily with both hands—all blood flowing from learning the sword. He didn't answer the old sword immortal's question. Instead, he asked, "That boy—is he not dead?"
Chen Qingdu laughed. "He was never really alive, so how can we speak of death? But if we're just talking about that boy pieced together from souls, setting aside the Guanzhao—he could be considered quite dead. With the boy dead, the Guanzhao dies even more. And let me tell you some discouraging news: the true Guanzhao sword heart is very different from the Dragon Lord's. It never deviated from the sword path. So the most crucial piece of the Guanzhao's soul—Tuoyue Mountain deliberately kept it hidden, not giving it to that boy. If the true Guanzhao original heart had manifested, combined with the sword seed fused into the sword heart, and if the Guanzhao had returned to the Sword Qi Great Wall—for the beasts of the Barren Wasteland Heaven, that would be asking for trouble."
Chen Qingdu pointed at the broken robe among the great demons. "As for this one—the former Dragon Lord, who hated the Haoran Heaven the most. Back then, I dragged him to Tuoyue Mountain, and he drew his sword without hesitation. He was among the first sword immortals of the Sword Qi Great Wall to seek his own death. After dying once, he felt he owed nothing more to the Sword Qi Great Wall. He intended, as an exiled convict sword cultivator, to challenge the Haoran Heaven with his sword. I understand, but I do not accept. So in the future, among those who can pass the Sword Qi Great Wall, that sword cultivator Dragon Lord will absolutely not be one of them."
Chen Qingdu let out a surprised "Eh?" and said, somewhat amazed, "You have no sense of guilt toward that Guanzhao senior either? That's very unlike Chen Ping'an."
Chen Ping'an said indifferently, "Don't talk to me about some dimwitted boy. Even if the Guanzhao true body appeared before me and said that kind of thing, I'd still hack him to death."
Chen Ping'an turned his head to look south.
The gray-robed old man had left. The fourteen great demons also withdrew. The other great demons retreated one after another.
Chen Ping'an closed his eyes. Damn it—he had fallen in realm. And it was a fall of several realms in a row. Fortunately, relying on his experience from the Northern Juzhou wanderings, he had tried his best to endure the heavenly and earthly tribulations. He could make up for it later by improving his martial realm. As long as his Bridge of Longevity was not broken, and his four key lifebound objects were all intact, he was currently just a fifth-realm Qi refiner. Falling a few damn realms wasn't too fatal.
As long as he could, by relying on that sword strike taught by the old sword immortal, quickly nurture a true lifebound flying sword—then fortune and misfortune would be intertwined...
Ning Yao carried Chen Ping'an on her back.
In the last moment before Chen Ping'an completely lost consciousness, he vaguely heard the sound of a horn.
The siege had begun.