# Chapter 344: Bone Sword and Broken Sword
Lei Jing and Chen Ying withdrew, standing at a distance, leaving space for Zhang Ruochen and Di Yi to have their decisive battle. Chen Ying's eyes were bright, his expression quite serious, as he said: "With the battle record from Zhang Ruochen's fight against Hongyu Star Envoy just now, it's enough to make his name spread across the Eastern Domain and establish him as a rising star among the younger generation. You shouldn't have let him fight Di Yi. If something goes wrong, the Half-Saints and Saints of the academy will surely blame us."
Lei Jing's fists were hidden within his sleeves as he stood proudly, saying: "Zhang Ruochen is still very young now. He should experience some setbacks. Even if he loses to Di Yi, it will still be a tempering experience for him. If I were to stop him from fighting Di Yi now, it would instead affect his martial arts heart."
Zhang Ruochen's defeat of Hongyu Star Envoy had indeed caused great shock among the major powers of Demon Ridge. However, no one still favored him in his battle against Di Yi.
One must know, Di Yi was a Saint Body, worthy of being called invincible among martial artists of the same generation.
What's more, Di Yi was now at the same cultivation realm as Zhang Ruochen. At the same realm, when a Saint Body fights a non-Saint Body, it's an overwhelming advantage.
"Zhang Ruochen, don't you really want to know where Zhang Tiangui went?" Di Yi said.
"This battle is inevitable. No matter what you say, you won't disturb my mind. It will only highlight the cowardice in your heart," Zhang Ruochen said.
"I have a heart of certain victory. How could I be cowardly?"
Di Yi gave a cold laugh, saying: "Since that's the case, then let's fight."
Di Yi reached his hand toward the back of his neck, grabbing hold of a spine bone at the back of his neck. His fingers dug into the flesh, and with a forceful pull, he slowly dragged a spinal column out from within his body.
Every single bone was like white beautiful jade, radiating brilliant holy light.
Di Yi completely pulled the spinal column out from his body, holding it in his hand. It was five feet long, consisting of nineteen segments, shaped like a white bone sword, emitting an extremely powerful aura.
It seemed as if the phantom image of a Saint with disheveled hair appeared above the white bone sword, wrapping around it.
Looking from afar, one could see layers of inscription patterns floating and sinking on the white bone sword, emitting a frigid aura.
Even before Di Yi had injected true qi into the white bone sword, the cold aura it emitted had already caused water particles in the void to condense into ice and snow, falling from the sky.
Di Yi's fingers gently stroked the white bone sword, saying: "This sword is called Snow River. It was forged by a weapon-crafting master who stripped the spine bone of the Snow River Half-Saint and refined it using Earth Core Flame Fire. It is merely a sword, yet it carries the saintly power of the Snow River Half-Saint. It can be called a human sword."
Using the bodies of powerful martial artists and savage beasts to forge weapons was not a strange thing.
Some people could use a martial artist's meridians to forge into whips; some could use a Half-Saint's leg bone to forge a saintly staff; others could use a Saint's skull to forge an evil cauldron.
The more powerful the martial artist or savage beast, the higher their value for weapon forging.
The bone sword in Di Yi's hand contained the power of a Half-Saint, its might formidable, having already reached the peak of tenth-rank True Martial Treasures, and could even contend with eleventh-rank True Martial Treasures.
Generally speaking, the grades of True Martial Treasures were only divided into nine ranks.
Above nine ranks, they had already surpassed the category of True Martial Treasures and were called "Sacred Artifacts."
However, there were always some weapon-crafting masters who forged high-grade battle weapons that were both far more powerful than ninth-rank True Martial Treasures and yet far inferior to Sacred Artifacts.
Thus, weapon-crafting masters added three more grades above the nine ranks of True Martial Treasures: tenth-rank True Martial Treasures, eleventh-rank True Martial Treasures, and twelfth-rank True Martial Treasures.
Di Yi's pair of fist gloves, "Black Dragon Ghost Claws," could only be considered lower-grade among tenth-rank True Martial Treasures.
This white bone sword, "Snow River," could be called a top-grade among tenth-rank True Martial Treasures, its power far greater, especially in terms of attack power, where it could be considered unstoppable.
Di Yi said: "Three months ago, I used the Snow River Bone Sword and defeated Bu Qianfan, ranked first on the Earth Ranking, in just three moves. Do you intend to fight me using just a broken sword?"
Zhang Ruochen glanced at the Abyssal Ancient Sword, saying: "A broken sword is enough."
"Zhang Ruochen, I have a tenth-rank True Martial Treasure battle sword. I can lend it to you," Chen Ying said.
"Thank you, Palace Master. The broken sword in my hand, although only a ninth-rank True Martial Treasure, is the sword I am most familiar with. Only it best matches me."
The Abyssal Ancient Sword seemed to sense Zhang Ruochen's will, trembling violently and emitting a dazzling light, as if telling the world that it was not a useless sword.
A sword also has spirit.
A sword also has dignity.
"Underworld King Sword Body."
Di Yi's arm swung, and in an instant, icy sword qi rushed into the sky, transforming into a black sword qi cloud.
Within the cloud, streaks of sword qi converged into the phantom image of an Underworld King, emitting a "woo woo" wailing sound, glaring with a pair of huge ghostly eyes as it attacked Zhang Ruochen below.
This was a ghost-grade lower-class sword technique, the Underworld King Sword Technique.
Ghost-grade sword techniques were countless times more profound than spirit-grade sword techniques. Especially when a ghost-grade sword technique reached great perfection, it could shake heaven and earth, move gods and ghosts, and the power it unleashed had already surpassed the scope of ordinary sword techniques.
Seeing Di Yi display a ghost-grade sword technique, everyone standing in the distance changed expression drastically.
"No wonder Di Yi could defeat Bu Qianfan in three moves. With the power of the Snow River Bone Sword combined with the Underworld King Sword Technique, how many in the younger generation can withstand it?"
"This is Di Yi's true strength. If I were to fight him, he would only need one sword strike, and I would be annihilated in both form and spirit," Si Xingkong said.
"I wonder how many of Di Yi's sword strikes Zhang Ruochen can withstand?" Qin Ya held her breath, watching from afar, a look of anticipation in her beautiful eyes.
It wouldn't take much. If Zhang Ruochen could withstand three of Di Yi's sword strikes, his reputation would surely soar.
"I'm afraid it will be difficult for him to even withstand the first sword strike," said Hua Shenyi, an elder of the Demon Sect, with a grave expression.
Martial artists standing a hundred zhang away could all feel a suffocating pressure. The pressure Zhang Ruochen bore while standing beneath the sword cloud was naturally even greater.
A starlike point of light appeared at Zhang Ruochen's brow. His Sword Heart Illumination spun rapidly within his Qi Sea.
"Break!"
Zhang Ruochen pointed his fingertip, and the Abyssal Ancient Sword flew out, transforming into a pillar of light that shot up into the sky, striking the Underworld King formed by the convergence of sword qi above.
Although the Underworld King Sword Technique was profound and powerful, it also had weaknesses.
The weakness was at the brow.
Zhang Ruochen's sword strike was aimed precisely at the Underworld King's brow.
"Boom!"
The Abyssal Ancient Sword struck into the Underworld King's brow, breaking through like splitting bamboo, instantly tearing apart the sword cloud, which scattered into chaotic sword qi flying in all directions, producing a "shua shua" sound in the air.
At the same time, Zhang Ruochen formed a sword seal with his fingers, controlling the Abyssal Ancient Sword from dozens of zhang away, quickly slashing toward Di Yi.
"What? Is Zhang Ruochen controlling his sword from a distance? Am I seeing things?"
"That's right, it's sword control from a distance."
"Doesn't sword control from a distance mean he has reached the Sword Heart Illumination realm? According to legend, isn't that a realm only Half-Saints can achieve?"
"Not necessarily. As long as a martial artist's comprehension is strong enough and they work hard enough, they can achieve Sword Heart Illumination even before becoming a Half-Saint. It's just that such martial artists are too rare, and most of them are Fish-Dragon realm martial artists. Achieving Sword Heart Illumination at the Heavenly Extreme Realm... it's not impossible, but such people are all legends, famous great Saints in history."
"Earlier, when Zhang Ruochen was fighting Hongyu Star Envoy, I suspected he had reached the Sword Heart Illumination realm, but I just didn't dare to confirm it."
"No wonder Zhang Ruochen, though not a Saint Body, still has the strength to contend with a Saint Body. It turns out it's because of his powerful comprehension and profound sword dao attainment."
...
"Sword Heart Illumination" was a realm that made people look up to it. Even powerful experts like Lei Jing and Chen Ying had not reached that realm.
When Zhang Ruochen displayed his sword-controlling technique, the impact it caused could be imagined—how shocking it was.
"Underworld King Chaos World."
Di Yi released his innate demonic qi, striking out with his sword again, sending the incoming Abyssal Ancient Sword flying back.
"Whoosh!"
Di Yi rushed forward swiftly, his body shooting up, both hands gripping the hilt of the white bone sword as he slashed toward the top of Zhang Ruochen's head: "Three moves already! Time to end this. Underworld King City Destroyer."
Di Yi had used only three moves to defeat Bu Qianfan, and he intended to use only three moves to defeat Zhang Ruochen as well.
Without the Abyssal Ancient Sword, how could Zhang Ruochen still block him?
"Boom!"
A powerful sword intent power erupted from within Zhang Ruochen's body, sweeping across the waters for a thousand zhang in all directions.
Within a thousand zhang, all the swords held by martial artists were no longer under their control, trembling incessantly as they flew toward Zhang Ruochen.
"What's going on? My sword..."
"My sword flew away!"
...
From all directions, nearly a hundred battle swords all flew toward Zhang Ruochen, like a myriad of swords paying homage to their sovereign, circling above his head.