Chapter 276 - 161: Sword Intent! Sword Intent
He’d seen this move before.
At his thought, the phantom of the ancient Golden Bell reappeared. Inscribed with crimson patterns, it solidified and enveloped a thirty-foot radius around him. The crimson lines coursed over its surface, radiating an indestructible, weighty aura.
"DONG! DONG! DONG! DOOONG—!!!"
In the next instant, innumerable streams of cyan Sword Qi poured down like a heavenly river, crashing violently against the Golden Bell.
A deafening roar erupted, as dense as the sound of ten thousand drums beating at once.
Visible sonic shockwaves radiated out wildly. Around the plaza, several trees with trunks as thick as bowls were snapped in two by the force. Many disciples cried out, clamping their hands tightly over their ears, their faces contorted in pain.
However, to the shock of everyone—and especially Lu Xuanzhou, whose pupils contracted sharply—the phantom Golden Bell that had endured such a terrifying Sword Rain, despite trembling violently, its crimson light flickering erratically as it hummed under the strain, still... refused to break.
"What?!"
A storm finally raged in Lu Xuanzhou’s heart. ’I used nearly my full power, and I still can’t break his defensive Divine Technique?! Just how powerful is this man’s defense?’
Seeing this, Lu Xuanzhou immediately changed tactics. He retracted his Sword Stance, preparing to gather his power for an even stronger attack.
But Chen Sheng was faster.
"Disperse!"
The Golden Bell phantom instantly dispersed.
With a great shout, Chen Sheng seized the brief lull in the Sword Rain to take the offensive.
His body became a golden afterimage as the light of his saber flashed like spilled ink. No longer simply defending, he sent sharp glints of saber light tearing through the air, rolling back toward Lu Xuanzhou high above.
"You dare!"
Lu Xuanzhou roared and swung his sword to parry.
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM—!"
The two clashed once again. Flashes of saber and streams of Sword Qi crisscrossed the battlefield as they fought from high in the sky down to the ground, then soared back up again. Destructive Qi Force raged in their wake. If not for Bai Qing desperately using her Profound Mastery cultivation to shield the area, the entire clearing in front of the Danxia Sect would have been all but destroyed.
The longer Chen Sheng fought, the more wounds he sustained, and his aura became slightly erratic. Yet, the light in his eyes grew ever more brilliant, as if a fire was burning deep within his pupils.
[Basic Saber Skill Perfection (1999/2000)]
Just one point left.
At this moment, Chen Sheng felt the qi and blood in his body surging like a dragon. The long saber in his hand seemed to have become an extension of his own body. Every slash felt increasingly natural and effortless. A profound, mysterious sense of enlightenment, like a tender sprout breaking through the earth, was beginning to stir in his heart.
As for Lu Xuanzhou opposite him, his expression had grown utterly dark.
The battle had already lasted far longer than a hundred breaths.
He appeared to have the upper hand, but in reality, the feeling was unbearable—like having a fishbone stuck in his throat and spikes at his back.
’If we were in the same realm, I’m afraid I would have lost long ago.’
’This kind of victory won’t wash away the shame. Instead, it just serves as a foil—highlighting Chen Sheng’s terrifying potential and formidable strength.’
’I have to end this quickly.’
A look of resolve flashed in Lu Xuanzhou’s eyes.
The next moment, he used the momentum to retreat abruptly, creating distance between himself and Chen Sheng.
He then swiped two fingers along the blade of his Cyan River Sword, muttering an incantation. The Profound Gang around him began to vibrate intensely at a bizarre frequency.
"Vast Sea Return Flow, Profound Flood Dragon Transformation!"
Lu Xuanzhou roared silently in his mind, and the Cyan River Sword erupted with a blinding cyan light.
Around the blade, the hundred-odd scattered streams of Sword Qi did not dissipate. Instead, like a hundred rivers flowing to the sea, they frantically converged upon the sword, compressing and condensing.
"ROAR—!!!"
Faintly, the roar of a dragon echoed.
A cyan flood dragon, formed entirely from pure, condensed Sword Gang, roared into existence above the tip of his sword.
The Flood Dragon was nearly two hundred feet long, its scales and claws formed of Sword Qi. It coiled above Lu Xuanzhou’s head, emanating a terrifying sharpness and a pressure that could chill one to the bone, its gaze locked on Chen Sheng below.
This was a killing blow Lu Xuanzhou had created himself by fusing the essences of Luoyun Manor’s Cyan Lotus Sword Manual and the Vast Sea Upper Sect’s Vast Sea Returning Essence Technique—the "Sword Qi Transformed into Profound Flood Dragon."
He had originally prepared it for the battle at Wushan Mountain, as one of his trump cards for contending with top-tier opponents like Monk Fazang and Zhang Daoming.
Now, however, Chen Sheng had forced him to use it prematurely.
"Go!"
Lu Xuanzhou pointed his finger.
The cyan Sword Flood Dragon let out a world-shaking roar and, carrying an endless sharpness, dove violently toward Chen Sheng. A vacuum tunnel formed in its wake, letting out a piercing shriek as the air was torn apart.
’This is bad!’
Below, Bai Qing’s expression changed.
She felt a mere sliver of the attack’s power, and her True Essence immediately began to surge. She readied herself to intervene and save Chen Sheng the moment he faltered.
But facing this earth-shattering attack, Chen Sheng slowly closed his eyes.
He wasn’t giving up. In the instant that immense pressure bore down on him, inspiration struck.
The Cold-Intimidating Blade in his hand seemed to become incredibly heavy, yet also as light as a feather.
Scenes of countless days and nights spent practicing the Basic Sword Skills flashed through his mind. The battle at the Qinglin River, the fight against Elder Liu, every single exchange with Lu Xuanzhou... all of it rapidly fused, refined, and sublimated into something new.
The pressure had become the perfect catalyst.
Under the threat of the descending Sword Flood Dragon, the invisible barrier that had held him back for so long seemed to let out a final, crisp crack.
[Basic Saber Skill Perfection (2000/2000)]
.....
[Mental Realm First Level (1/500)]
"VMMMM—!"
Chen Sheng’s eyes snapped open.
The blazing battle intent in his eyes was gone, replaced by a profound calm. And beneath that calm lay an icy sharpness that looked as if it could sever anything.
While Chen Sheng’s aura hadn’t changed, the impression he gave was now completely different.
Standing there, he was no longer just a man, but a peerless Treasure Saber—unsheathed, its brilliant sheen withdrawn, its true sharpness held within.
Raising his head, Chen Sheng looked up at the ferocious Sword Flood Dragon, now just a hundred feet above him, and slowly raised his saber.
There was no earth-shattering explosion of aura, no flashy, dazzling moves.
He simply took a step forward and slashed.
The motion was fluid and natural, as if practiced a million times over.
But the instant he slashed—
Time seemed to stutter for a moment.
Invisible ripples seemed to spread through space.
A thread of Sword Intent—condensed to its absolute limit, pure to its very essence, and seemingly stripped of all external form—emerged from the cold light of his saber and met the overwhelmingly powerful Sword Qi Profound Flood Dragon head-on.
————