Chapter 55: The Battle of the Saint Domain
While the residents of the imperial capital were celebrating the twenty-seventh personal disciple in over five thousand years, in the northwest province far from the capital, Linley and the Saint-level powerhouse 'McKenzie' were enjoying wine and conversation. Tonight, they were preparing for battle.
Tonight, the crescent moon hung in the sky, its faint silver radiance illuminating the earth, covering the entire land as if with a thin gauze veil.
On the mountain path of a small barren hill outside the provincial city of Basil, Linley and McKenzie walked side by side. On Linley's shoulder sat Bebe. No one else had come.
For this battle, the sole spectator was Bebe.
The small barren hill was very desolate, with only low, sparse trees. The mountaintop was completely bare. When Linley and McKenzie stood shoulder to shoulder at the peak, the mountain wind howled, stirring their robes.
Linley and McKenzie exchanged glances, both understanding the other's meaning.
Bebe obediently jumped down from Linley's shoulder. Linley also took off his shirt and directly stored it in his interspatial ring. Then his entire body began to undergo a drastic transformation. Black scales almost instantly covered his whole body. Spikes sprouted from his elbows, back, and forehead. His steel-like dragon tail began to swing. His pupils instantly turned into emotionless dark gold. A cyan halo lurked on the scales, and powerful air currents radiated from Linley's entire body, kicking up a storm of sand and stones.
"As expected of an ultimate warrior." McKenzie's eyes lit up.
"Whoosh!"
Linley and McKenzie almost simultaneously transformed into two beams of rainbow light, flying into the sky above the small barren hill. The two stood in mid-air, facing each other at a distance of about a hundred meters.
McKenzie flipped his hand, and a cyan long spear appeared in it. "This long spear cost me nearly twenty million gold coins. I gathered various precious ores and finally refined it. It's named 'Cyanfire'."
Linley flipped his hand, and a purple soft sword appeared in his grasp.
"This sword I obtained from a dangerous place in the Magical Beast Mountain Range. It's named 'Purple Blood'."
Linley's mastery of the Purple Blood Soft Sword had also reached the fourth level, the 'Wind Essence'. However, regarding the 'Wind Essence', Linley had only comprehended the first layer, 'Wind Ripple'.
But even so, combined with the special nature of the Purple Blood Soft Sword itself, Linley was confident enough to deal with McKenzie.
"The feeling of the Saint Domain. My entire body is filled with boundless power." Linley gripped the Purple Blood Divine Sword, but his heart was filled with sufficient confidence. "In the past, the Purple Blood Soft Sword itself couldn't harm Saint-level experts. It wasn't because the Purple Blood Soft Sword wasn't sharp enough, but because my own battle qi and strength were far too insufficient."
Generally speaking, when it came to sheer sharpness, how could a Saint-level expert's weapon compare to the divine artifact 'Purple Blood Soft Sword'?
The sharpness of the Purple Blood Soft Sword was such that, even without using battle qi, relying solely on the weapon itself, it could break through the defenses of a seventh-rank magical beast. With such terrifying sharpness, what weapon could match it?
And once combined with Saint-level battle qi, its sharpness reached an astonishingly terrifying level.
"Well then, let's begin!"
McKenzie was filled with endless battle intent. The strong wind at high altitude made his long robe flap loudly. With a crackling sound, flames began to emerge from McKenzie's body, and the Cyanfire long spear in his hand also burst into flames.
His entire person was completely enveloped in flames.
Fully shrouded in flames, McKenzie stood in mid-air holding his long spear, like a war god.
"His battle qi has actually reached this level." Linley's eyes lit up.
"Boom~~" Linley's battle qi also exploded. Cyan-black battle qi completely enveloped Linley, also flowing onto the Purple Blood Soft Sword. The originally cyan-black scales, now shrouded in this cyan-black battle qi, made Linley look like a demon from hell.
A faint smile appeared on McKenzie's lips.
Suddenly—
"Swish!"
Linley only saw an afterimage as McKenzie tore through the sky. The flame-burning long spear in his hand seemed to lock onto the space itself, carrying endless pressure as it thrust towards Linley.
At this moment, it was as if the entire world had been reduced to this single spear.
"Clang!"
The demonic purple light easily cut through the spatial lock. The tip of the sword directly collided with the tip of the spear. The violent battle qi of Linley and McKenzie clashed through their weapons.
"Boom!"
A terrifying air explosion erupted with the two at its center. The energy of the two Saint-level experts burst out in all directions. Even the giant rocks on the mountaintop of the small barren hill below shattered as the battle qi poured into them.
The two rapidly separated.
"Hmm?" Linley glanced at McKenzie in the distance. "His battle qi is slightly stronger than mine." The Dragonblood Warrior's talent was too strong. Even a Saint-level initial stage Dragonblood Warrior had battle qi density only slightly weaker than a Saint-level mid-stage expert.
Among the four ultimate warriors, the Undying Warrior had the best defense, the Tiger-striped Warrior had the best speed, the Violet Flame Warrior had the best recovery ability, and the Dragonblood Warrior ranked first in attack.
This was no joke.
"Haha, exhilarating! Take another move from me!" McKenzie's laughter rang out. At the same time, he charged towards Linley at extreme speed, and his figure actually split into three.
"Comparing speed?"
The corners of Linley's mouth curled up slightly.
Linley's body flickered, and he also instantly split into three figures charging towards McKenzie. These were afterimages produced by high-speed movement.
"Ha!"
The originally refined McKenzie was now extremely ferocious and wild. Three figures suddenly became nine, and the long spears in the hands of the nine afterimages were all in completely different stances.
"Pfft!"
The long spears in the nine figures' hands spun, all ultimately thrusting towards Linley.
In Linley's eyes, there were originally just nine spears. But after that final mysterious 'spin' from McKenzie, the entire world before him was filled with countless spear shadows.
Countless spear shadows left Linley with no escape.
"Haha~~~" Linley laughed loudly. At the same time, his entire body transformed into a whirlwind. In almost an instant, Linley became like a tornado, while on the periphery of the tornado, countless demonic purple lights flickered.
The countless spear shadows were forcefully blocked by the countless purple lights.
McKenzie was stunned.
"Whirlwind—Break!"
Linley let out a loud shout. His entire body charged towards McKenzie like a drill. The Purple Blood Soft Sword in his hand seemed to transform from one sword into ten thousand swords.
The sword was light and ethereal, but when McKenzie used his long spear to block it, he felt as if he had been struck by lightning.
Lifting the heavy as if it were light!
"Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!" ...
Linley's entire body transformed into a whirlwind. McKenzie felt that the wind between heaven and earth was helping him. The most bizarre thing was that the long sword in Linley's hand seemed to be able to disappear, then suddenly reappear.
After a series of continuous clashes, McKenzie was forced from the air down to the ground.
"Boom!"
McKenzie landed heavily on the ground. The earth cracked, and dust flew up. The flames burning on McKenzie's entire body grew even more intense, and the battle intent in his eyes became even wilder.
Linley also landed heavily on the ground. Shrouded in cyan-black battle qi, Linley was the complete opposite of McKenzie in terms of aura. One was arrogant and proud, the other mysterious.
McKenzie lowered his head and glanced at his chest.
Blood seeped out from his collar, then was evaporated by the flames. But the bloodstained collar still showed that he had been injured.
"Linley, I can still understand your movements, but I'm a bit puzzled. How did your Purple Blood Divine Sword merge with the wind to such an extent?" McKenzie was an experienced Saint-level expert.
The level of 'force' was about borrowing the power of heaven and earth.
But borrowing it to Linley's extent was terrifying.
"The power of heaven and earth, of course, has its limits. As for making it so that even you can't defend against it..." Linley smiled as he raised the Purple Blood Soft Sword. Then, the Purple Blood Soft Sword bizarrely bent at will.
A sword needed to be sufficiently hard and sharp. When forging one, the requirement was that it couldn't bend.
"This, this is a soft sword?" McKenzie was greatly surprised.
Just now, during the exchange, Linley had already bent the Purple Blood Soft Sword. But through Linley's use of 'force', it gave McKenzie the feeling that the Purple Blood Soft Sword would suddenly disappear, then abruptly appear from another direction.
This was a form of using 'force'.
"Yes, it's a soft sword," Linley said.
"But how can a soft sword clash head-on with my Cyanfire long spear?" McKenzie was very surprised.
The reason a soft sword could stay straight was due to the infusion of battle qi. But relying solely on battle qi infusion, how could it compare to weapons that were naturally straight?
McKenzie's Cyanfire long spear was also a very precious spear.
"This is a divine artifact," Linley did not hide it.
"Divine artifact." McKenzie nodded in surprise, then immediately laughed heartily. "Alright, Linley. Next, I'm going to use my ultimate move. Be careful."
"I also have one last move I haven't used yet," Linley said with great confidence.
At this moment, both were on the ground, facing off against each other.
"Ha!"
McKenzie moved. At the same time, he raised his long spear towards the sky. With McKenzie as the origin, endless waves of fire spread out in all directions.
In almost the blink of an eye, within a range of several hundred meters, it was a world of flames.
And Linley was right in the middle of it. Linley's dark gold pupils calmly observed everything. Within this world of flames, in all directions were McKenzie's figures, all holding the long spear.
Oppressive!
It was as if the entire world was pressing down on him. Linley had nowhere to borrow power from.
"Rumble~~~" A blurry long spear tore through the air, thrusting straight towards Linley. At the same time, a nearly solid fire dragon coiled around this spear, roaring at Linley.
And at the same time—
Behind Linley, McKenzie appeared bizarrely, his long spear also thrusting abruptly towards Linley.
One front, one back. Linley had nowhere to dodge.
"Wind Ripple!"
Linley's entire body moved. The Purple Blood Soft Sword in his hand transformed into countless venomous snakes, crashing against the spear shadows from all directions. Each collision produced a sound like thunder. The awe-inspiring fire dragon was entangled by a large number of nearly solid giant pythons, ultimately exploding.
"Pfft!" The long spear in McKenzie's true body thrust towards Linley from behind.
But that Purple Blood Soft Sword, as if possessing intelligence, bent and blocked the long spear. The bent Purple Blood Soft Sword rebounded, and Linley immediately distanced himself from McKenzie.
"Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!" ...
McKenzie was shocked to discover that a fierce wind had automatically been generated around Linley. The Purple Blood Soft Sword in Linley's hand was even more like a purple lightning whip, turning into streaks of lightning. In almost the blink of an eye, his world of flames was broken.
Linley had already locked onto McKenzie.
"Whoosh!" "Whoosh!" "Whoosh!" ... The Purple Blood Soft Sword in Linley's hand would disappear for a moment, then reappear. In McKenzie's eyes, there were only countless sword tips thrusting towards him.
Too fast, so fast that McKenzie couldn't block. He could only activate his battle qi shield.
Countless sword tips stabbed into the battle qi shield. Each sword strike carried astonishing power. With an explosion, the battle qi shield shattered and broke apart. The ground trembled from the shock, splitting into over a dozen terrifying deep ravines. Dust flew up, and it took a long time for the dust to settle.
McKenzie's clothes were already tattered.
McKenzie looked at Linley, smiled, and nodded. "I lost."
But Linley looked at McKenzie with confusion. "McKenzie, why were all the spear shadows in your world of flames just now illusions? My sword tips broke them so easily. If they had been real, I would have lost."
Linley's realm was now very high. He could tell that those spear shadows could have all been real. That is, those countless spear shadows could have all been genuine. It would have been very difficult for him to block them. But just now, he had easily broken all the spear shadows.
"Haha, if they had all been real, then I would be a Saint-level peak expert," McKenzie said with a laugh. "My current world of flames can only reach this level."
"Your Wind Ripple, how is it so fast? Even more terrifying than at the beginning," McKenzie asked in confusion.
Linley explained, "At the start of our fight, I was just borrowing the power of the wind. But the current Wind Ripple is the Wind Essence I have comprehended. The sword has completely merged into the wind. As long as there is wind, the sword can appear."
Wind Ripple was fast, terrifyingly fast.
Linley had also relied on the special nature of the Purple Blood Soft Sword itself to create this terrifying technique. In an instant, unleashing ten million sword strikes was not a difficult feat.