Chapter 127: Clash of Swords (1)
The Stadium of Ascension hummed with a tension. Cameras from every major network on Earth were fixed on the center of the arena. Broadcasters had stopped commenting. Analysts had stopped analyzing.
Nobody wanted to miss a single second.
On the opposite side of the battlefield, Mickey Adeyemi was bleeding from a cut above his left eye. Liang Feng stood before the Chinese crystal, earth armor cracked and reforming, blood running from a gash on her forearm. Liu Jiang crouched behind three layers of golden barriers, hands pressed together, sweat streaming down his face as he maintained wall after wall after wall.
Mickey had already burned through fire and lightning. He’d landed clean hits on Liang Feng. But every time he turned toward the crystal, another barrier appeared. Every time he broke through, another one replaced it.
Liu Jiang’s barrier ability is quite annoying.
Mickey wiped blood from his brow. It’s the only reason I haven’t broken their crystal yet.
Liang Feng spat blood onto the grass and straightened. Her mana reserves were still obscenely high because of her perfect core.
Mickey clicked his tongue.
Fifty meters away, Carlos was locked in a grueling stalemate against Li Yang. The summoner had four beasts active now — the serpentine crystal creature Lucian had killed had been replaced by a massive stone gorilla. Carlos’s flames kept the beasts at bay, but every time he pressed forward to strike Li Yang directly, another beast intercepted him.
And Li Yang never stopped smiling.
Near the EASA crystal, Rose knelt with her back against the base, both hands raised. Barriers layered over the cracked surface — seven of them now, each one thinner than the last. Nadia stood beside her, palms on Rose’s shoulders, Ancient Amplification pouring enhancement into her at a rate that was visibly draining Nadia’s color.
Bao Lei slammed his fist into the outermost barrier. Crack. Rose flinched but held. Another punch. Crack. Another.
"Come on," Bao Lei said, rolling his shoulders. "Just let me hit the pretty rock."
Rose’s jaw tightened. Blood leaked from the corner of her mouth. Nadia’s hands trembled against her shoulders.
In the center of the arena, Lucian stood with Primordial Sight burning at maximum output.
The world had become information.
He could see the microscopic vibrations of mana in the air — the residual sword intent from Wei Chen’s domain technique still dissipating in fading ripples. He could see the cellular-level mana flow in Wei Chen’s body — the exact path his circulation took, the millisecond delay between intent and muscle movement, the slight hesitation in his left hand that indicated a mild wrist injury from blocking one of the clones.
Everything. Every detail. Every weakness.
Blood Eclipse Art — Full Activation.
His mana pathways shifted. The circulation pattern changed — blood energy and mana flowing simultaneously through his meridians in the dual-channel pattern the technique demanded. The cost was immediate: his Blood Energy gauge began ticking downward.
But the power surge was worth it.
╔═════════════════╗
║ BLOOD ECLIPSE ART — ACTIVE ║
║ ├─ Spell Power: +70% ║
║ ├─ BE Cost: -15% ║
║ └─ Mana Circulation: +40% ║
║ EXTERNAL BUFF ACTIVE ║
║ └─ Ancient Amplification: +30% all
(Source: Nadia Okafor) ║
╚══════════════════╝
Combined with Primordial Sight’s maximum output — the microscopic perception, the 360-degree radar processing, the cellular-level mana sight — Lucian’s brain was processing more information per second than most people processed in an hour.
He couldn’t maintain this for long. Even with his insane mana reserves and a Transcendent Core’s efficiency, Primordial Sight at maximum output was a mana sink. And Blood Eclipse Art devoured Blood Energy with every passing second.
Let’s end this.
Lucian raised his left hand toward Wei Chen.
"Light that binds the unseen — Light Chain Net."
A massive net of interwoven light chains materialized above Wei Chen’s head — hundreds of glowing links spreading across a fifteen-meter area, then dropping like a falling cage.
Wei Chen didn’t panic. His eyes tracked the net’s descent with perfect calm. He shifted his grip on his sword and dropped into a stance — blade angled backward, weight on his back foot.
"Celestial Severance — Second Form: Falling Stars."
He swung upward in a diagonal arc. Multiple sword slashes stacked and compressed — erupted from his blade in a spreading fan pattern. The slashes sliced through the Light Chain Net like scissors through paper. The net fell apart in sparking fragments before it ever reached him.
Predictable, Lucian thought. Primordial Sight had already mapped that response. The moment Wei Chen committed to the second form, Lucian’s left hand was already moving.
"Light Blade." "Light Blade." "Light Blade." "Light Blade." "Light Blade."
Five concentrated blades of light launched in rapid succession — each one aimed at a different part of Wei Chen’s body: throat, heart, left knee, right eye, solar plexus. They came from different angles, different trajectories, at different speeds.
Simultaneously, Lucian raised his right hand.
"Blood Needle Rain."
Hundreds of crimson needles materialized in the air above and around Wei Chen — a three-dimensional cloud of steel-hardened blood points descending from every direction at once.
Wei Chen’s eyes widened.
What the fuck?
He’d been fighting for so long. His mana reserves, while vast, had been steadily depleted. Lucian should have been running on fumes by now — he’d used clones, Crimson Vessel, Light Shields, multiple spells. A Mid Core Realm cultivator with a standard core would have been at twenty percent capacity at best.
But Lucian’s output hadn’t dropped. If anything, it had increased.
This guy has even more mana than Liang Feng.
Wei Chen moved. He shifted into a wide stance and began rotating — sword spinning in a continuous circle around his body. As he spun, sword intent bled from the blade into the air, condensing into visible slashes that formed a spiraling storm of blades around him.
Shiiiing. Shiiiing. Shiiiing.
The storm expanded outward — a ten-meter radius whirlwind of concentrated cutting force that shredded the descending blood needles and deflected the light blades. Needles hit the invisible slashes and shattered into crimson mist. Light blades struck the storm wall and scattered into harmless sparks.
But not all of them.
Three blood needles slipped through gaps in the rotation — one grazing Wei Chen’s left cheek, one embedding in his right shoulder, one cutting a thin line across his forearm. Two light blades survived long enough to clip his ribs before being consumed.
Wei Chen’s rotation slowed. The storm dissipated. He stood bleeding from half a dozen new cuts, breathing slightly harder than before, and looked at Lucian.
Lucian was walking toward him.
The Moon Shattering Blade hung at his side. But something was gathering along its edge — a dark, shimmering light that bent the air around it.
Wei Chen’s breath caught.
That’s...
He recognized it. Of course he did. He’d spent his entire life pursuing it. Had awakened his Sword Spirit specifically to complement it. Had trained under three masters to refine it.
Sword Intent.
He has Sword Intent?
The dark light flickered — stronger, then weaker, then stronger again. Unstable.
Lucian raised the Moon Shattering Blade above his head with both hands. The dark light intensified — still flickering, still unstable, but concentrated into a narrow line along the crescent edge. Spatial distortion rippled outward from the blade. The air between Lucian and Wei Chen seemed to fold.
Wei Chen’s expression hardened.
He raised his own sword and gathered everything he had left. Sword Spirit blazed behind him — the twenty-meter halo reigniting at full power. Sword Intent concentrated along his blade like liquid starlight.
"Heaven’s Severance."
Lucian brought the blade down.
Wei Chen swung up.
"Celestial Severance — Third Form: Heaven’s Divide."
The two techniques collided in the space between them.