Chapter 538: Riding a Tiger, Hard to Dismount (First Update!)
Suddenly, Sang Hua seemed to sense something and stopped in her tracks. The demoness ahead also sensed danger and immediately halted. The two women, separated by a mountain that was not tall but steep, each activated their divine abilities. They unleashed their techniques almost simultaneously, their seals imprinting upon the mountain peaks across from them.
The violent divine abilities of the two women collided within the mountain's core, passing through the great mass of rock. After a brief stillness, the mountain suddenly collapsed, dust and smoke billowing like fog.
Within the mist, runic seals began to crumble and disintegrate, turning into specks of light that burst forth like fireworks. Neither woman could see the other; they tumbled and spun amidst the pyrotechnics. Sword pellets and blade pellets flew from their sleeves, circling their graceful bodies like fireflies, while countless tiny flying swords and curved blades danced among their robes.
Sang Hua had learned swordsmanship from her father, the Venerable God Sang Ye. The demoness opposite her was a disciple of the Demon Blade Fulotuo, trained in the art of the saber.
They touched each other in an instant, like two butterflies entangled and fluttering amidst the fireworks. The blade pellets and sword pellets clinked and spun, the minuscule swords and blades clashing, sending out sparks in rapid succession.
"Sang Ye's swordsmanship—you are Sang Hua!"
"Fulotuo's saber arts—you are Bi Yi!"
The two women immediately recognized each other's techniques. Amidst the flashing blades and swords, two maidens as graceful as startled swans unleashed their divine abilities at close range. Blade light pierced through divine power, sword light grazed their hair, and the rolling blade and sword pellets erupted with bright light, illuminating their eyes and revealing each other to one another.
Though their bodies appeared slender and delicate, they harbored strength that surpassed even Qin Mu's. The moment they saw each other, before their minds could react, their bodies had already responded. Their palms, elbows, shoulders, legs, and knees attacked each other like a storm!
Both women grunted, each taking hits, and tumbled out of the fireworks like torn sacks rolling down a hillside. They rolled and bounced for six or seven li before finally stopping their momentum.
Just as they halted, the sword pellets and blade pellets they had launched at each other arrived above their heads. Swords and blades rained down like a downpour, and in an instant, hundreds of curved blades and flying swords from the pellets were fully unleashed.
The two women rolled and scrambled. Sang Hua grabbed her bow from her back, moving like a civet cat. With each roll, she loosed over a dozen arrows. Thirteen li away, Bi Yi also drew her demon bow and returned fire.
Behind them, sword and blade light continued to fall.
They circled a mountain peak, fighting across its ridge. The bowstrings vibrated with crisp sounds, and the mountain was soon riddled with a dozen holes.
They sprinted rapidly, dodging each other's arrows and blades. Suddenly, Sang Hua spotted the massive axe-spears—they had fought their way back to the place where the weapons were crossed.
One woman dashed up the great axe, the other leaped onto the black spear, moving in serpentine paths while attacking each other. When they reached the tips of the two divine weapons, they plummeted like meteors, unleashing deadly techniques mid-air.
"Ah—"
A scream rang out. Sang Hua quickly looked and saw Bi Yi fall into a trap she had set earlier, triggering the sword pellet formation she had laid down!
As the only surviving child of the Venerable God Sang Ye, Sang Hua had everything she wanted. She couldn't refine sword pellets like Qin Mu, but she was never short of them.
She had deployed seven of her sword pellets into her Seven Star Sword Diagram, a sword formation from the Grand Heavenly Realm. The cultivators of the Grand Heavenly Realm were too lazy to cultivate mathematical calculations, so they adopted the simplest method: copying the sword diagrams left by their ancestors and refining treasures according to those diagrams, saving time for cultivation.
The Seven Star Sword Diagram was one such example.
The diagram was not complex, and many cultivators mindlessly copied the formation, resulting in weak power. But adding the power of seven sword pellets made it formidable.
In a life-or-death battle, even being delayed for a moment could decide the outcome, let alone this.
Without a second thought, Sang Hua drew her bow and fired. Countless arrows shot into the sword diagram. Bi Yi struggled to block, desperately defending herself, but the next moment, Sang Hua's sword pellet flew out with a whoosh. The flying swords from the pellet lined up in a single stream. The first sword pierced Bi Yi's brow, the second followed, and hundreds of sword lights passed through her head, exiting from the back of her skull.
Bi Yi's body stiffened, then was overwhelmed by the countless flying swords erupting from the Seven Star Sword Diagram.
"I won?"
Sang Hua was stunned for a moment, then her confidence soared. She collected her Seven Star Sword Diagram and sword pellets, left the area of crossed axe-spears, and began searching for other opponents.
Outside the sand table world, the Venerable God Sang Ye was drenched in sweat. As a deity with keen insight, he could see that his daughter's victory over Bi Yi was merely luck.
After experiencing the massacre of her family, Sang Hua had trained hard recently and fought in many life-or-death battles on the front lines. But compared to Bi Yi, a seasoned demon warrior who had fought countless battles, she was still a step behind, lacking in real-world tempering.
Defeating Bi Yi was lucky, but she couldn't rely on luck every time. If she encountered another demon expert, would his last remaining family member be lost before his eyes?
Suddenly, Sang Ye paused, scanning the sand table world.
Within the sand table world, several more battles had ended. The number of demon experts had sharply decreased to two: Zhe Huali, a disciple of Fu Riluo, and Jiang Yi, another disciple of the True Demon Sumo.
The young experts of the Grand Heavenly Realm still numbered four: Qin Mu, Yu He, Sang Hua, and Shu You. The others had either perished with their opponents or been killed by the superior strength of Yu He and Shu You.
Of course, most had been killed by that "thresher" Qin Mu.
It was because Qin Mu had killed three demon experts in a row that the Grand Heavenly Realm cultivators held a numerical advantage.
Jiang Yi was extremely powerful, but after a fierce fight with his opponent, he was heavily injured and had little combat strength left. This might be Sang Hua's chance to survive.
"But Yu He and Shu You are also injured..."
Sang Ye's heart tightened again as he watched his daughter heading straight toward the blacksmith boy.
At the edge of the sand table world, Zhe Huali carried his demon blade like an ascetic monk, walking step by step forward. He used no divine abilities and moved slowly. His steps were as if measured by a ruler—each stride exactly the same length, neither longer nor shorter.
This was the discipline of his saber technique.
Demon experts were often wild and unrestrained, their techniques grand and unrefined, sometimes bursting with astonishing power.
But Zhe Huali had first studied under the Divine Blade Luo Wushuang, a being who was a god among bladesmen. Luo Wushuang's saber technique was precise and calculating, with strict rules. Every aspect—the angle of the strike, the force, the footwork, the body movement, even the trajectory of every muscle—was rigorously measured, allowing no error.
On a deeper level, the flow of vital energy, the mobilization of the primordial spirit, the intent, and the essence all had to conform to these rules.
Zhe Huali grew up under this teaching. Unlike the cultivators of the Grand Heavenly Realm, to learn Luo Wushuang's saber technique, he had to master mathematical calculations and achieve a high level of proficiency.
Although he was ordered to descend to the Grand Heavenly Realm and study under Fu Riluo, he never learned Fu Riluo's unrestrained boldness. He still adhered to the rules he had learned from Luo Wushuang, rigid and precise, without error.
He arrived before the wall of fire in the sand table world and looked up. He saw Qin Mu, his back to him, holding a sword up to the firelight, examining his craftsmanship.
Unlike his own discipline, he saw in the young man the same unrestrained boldness as Fu Riluo.
The figure of the young man holding up the sword had a unique, heroic charm—a boldness he could never emulate.
Zhe Huali's heart beat faster for a moment, but he quickly steadied his mind. At that moment, he saw the sword-holding youth seem to hear his heart's misstep. The youth lowered his raised head, tilting it to glance at him from the corner of his eye.
But he soon realized the youth wasn't looking at him from the corner of his eye—he was looking at the sword's blade, using its mirror-like surface to observe him.
"Making it look like a sidelong glance is meant to disrupt my judgment. If I attacked then, my misjudgment would let him seize the initiative."
Zhe Huali raised an eyebrow slightly. For experts in techniques like them, misjudging an opponent's subtle body movements could let the enemy seize an opportunity.
Sometimes, victory or defeat hinged on just a tiny mistake!
"Sharp and seasoned beyond his years."
Zhe Huali took a deep breath, his chest swelling. This was the young man his master, the Divine Blade, had always spoken of, insisting that he find him and show him his saber technique!
Zhe Huali suddenly bowed to Qin Mu, saying solemnly, "My master, Luo Wushuang."
Qin Mu turned, placing the sword on the forging table, and said, "I know. I remember him."
Zhe Huali did not rise, continuing, "My master said, if I ever meet you, I am to show you the saber technique he created!"
As he bowed, the demon blade on his back opened its demonic eye. The blood-red eye spun, its vertical pupil fixed on Qin Mu.
Qin Mu smiled, placing his hand on the forging table. Countless flying swords flew like fine sand, gathering under his palm and condensing into a perfect sphere the size of a fingertip.
"I would very much like to see his saber technique."
Qin Mu grasped the sword pellet and said, "You are performing his technique on his behalf, so you bow to me not out of respect for me, but out of respect for him, correct?"
Zhe Huali straightened up and nodded.
Qin Mu smiled slightly. "He wields his blade with one arm. When you learned his technique, did you learn it with one hand or two?"
Zhe Huali's pupils contracted sharply.
Qin Mu did not miss any subtle change in his face, noticing his shrinking pupils, and his smile grew deeper. "Zhe Huali, you may now show me his saber technique."
Zhe Huali immediately felt an invisible pressure bearing down on his Dao heart!
Qin Mu's question—whether he learned with one hand or two—placed immense weight on his Dao heart, because Luo Wushuang was the One-Armed Divine Blade!
Learning with one hand meant his other arm was useless. In battle, that useless arm, no matter what technique or divine ability he used, would never perfectly integrate with his sword-wielding arm, creating a flaw to exploit.
Learning with two hands meant he hadn't truly mastered Luo Wushuang's one-armed saber technique. Using two hands to perform Luo Wushuang's technique would never achieve perfection, never grasp its essence!
Zhe Huali had descended to this realm not only to fulfill Luo Wushuang's wish but also to find a way to perfect his own saber technique under Fu Riluo, to make up for his shortcomings through trials and combat, and to become a young true god of techniques!
And now, in a single encounter, his opponent had seen through his strengths and weaknesses. Whether he drew his blade or not, he was like riding a tiger—hard to dismount!
Outside the sand table world, the Woodcutter Sage's eyes lit up. He glanced at the Black Tiger God beside him and said gravely, "His mental state is clearly incredibly strong. He suppressed Zhe Huali's Dao heart at first sight. Why did you say his mental cultivation was too poor?"
The Black Tiger God flattened both ears against his head and whined quietly, "His mental state is clearly very poor—he's always changing his expression and stuff... By the way, Master, didn't you just say he was too impulsive and his mental cultivation was too poor?"
The Woodcutter Sage's expression remained unchanged. "I did not. Don't talk nonsense. You must have misheard."
The Black Tiger God pouted. A vein bulged on the Woodcutter Sage's forehead, and the Black Tiger God quickly lowered his head, smiling ingratiatingly. "Little Tiger must have misheard."
—Continuing the burst today! This is the first update! Big brothers and sisters, do you have any monthly votes?