Chapter 254 - 253: The Fight Among Peerless Gods!
"Upper Division General Bracket! Lin Yuan of the Zhao Province versus Jiang Wan of the Jiang Province! Enter the arena!"
The Grand Court held its collective breath.
Lin Yuan stepped off the eastern terrace, his body instantly teleporting into the northernmost upper quadrant. His pristine robes fluttered in the enclosed winds.
A moment later, Jiang Wan materialized opposite him. The peerless sword genius of the Wan Jian Sword Sect stood tall, his hand resting on the hilt of his blade. Jiang Wan opened his eyes. The silver, sword-shaped pupils within them pulsed with the lethal, monochromatic light of his Absolute Severance Sword Intent.
"You spoke of rewriting the cycle, Lin Yuan," Jiang Wan said, his voice cold and flat, echoing through area. "Today, you stand before the absolute truth of my blade. Let us see if your reality bends, or if you simply bleed like the rest."
Since arriving to Sky Jade City, Lin Yuan had meticulously maintained the Great Tortoise Breath Technique. He had compressed his aura, suffocating his true might, playing the role of the lucky Early-Stage cultivator who relied on extortion and trickery.
But the preliminary rounds were over. The main tournament had began, and everything ends here!
"You seek my truth, Jiang Wan?" Lin Yuan asked, a slow, chilling smile spreading across his flawless face.
Lin Yuan closed his eyes. And he let the tortoise breathe.
He released the concealment technique.
BOOOOOOOOM!
The eruption of Spiritual Power was so violent, so conceptually massive, that the Void Refinement spatial barriers surrounding their quadrant visibly bowed outward. A blinding, golden-purple pillar of pure spiritual energy blasted into the sky, tearing the clouds above Sky Jade City into shreds.
The crushing, tyrannical weight of the Supreme Stage washed over the entire amphitheater. It was a pressure so absolute, so suffocating, that thousands of Lower Division cultivators in the front row stands were instantly driven to their knees, gasping for air as their own spiritual seas defensively shut down.
"Supreme Stage?!" the Chu Patriarch screamed, his eyes literally bulging from their sockets as he gripped the stone railing. "He is at the Ninth Step?! That is impossible! He was at the Early Stage yesterday!"
"He wasn’t at the Early Stage!" an elder from the Wan Jian Sword Sect roared in horror. "He has been hiding it! The absolute madman has been playing the pig to eat the tiger! He walked into the Void Ascension Battlefield as a Supreme Stage Expert and let us mock him!"
In the Chu Pavilion, Chu Kuang fell backward out of his chair, his face completely drained of color.
The Half-Step Transcendent heir finally realized, with bone-chilling clarity, just how close he had come to absolute death inside that crater. Lin Yuan had not merely extorted him. He had shown him mercy.
If Lin Yuan had truly intended to kill him, Chu Kuang might never have walked out of that crater alive. With his Supreme Stage cultivation and his mastery of the Dao of Three Rebirths, Lin Yuan possessed a level of strength that made even the so-called Peerless Geniuses of the tournament pale in comparison.
Chu Kuang’s fists clenched tightly.
For the first time, he understood the terrifying truth.
In this tournament, Lin Yuan was beneath no one.
Inside the arena, Jiang Wan’s silver eyes widened in genuine shock, but his peerless foundation held firm. The sword genius did not cower. He drew his blade.
"A hidden foundation does not change the geometry of a cut!" Jiang Wan roared, his monochromatic domain exploding outward.
Jiang Wan launched himself forward, transforming into a streak of pure, silver severance. He swung his sword horizontally, unleashing a massive, crescent wave of sword intent that sought to bisect Lin Yuan and the entire quadrant in half.
Lin Yuan did not dodge. His hands flashed in a blur of seals.
[Cloning Technique].
Lin Yuan’s physical form suddenly fractured. From his Supreme Stage Qi, three perfect, independent clones materialized. The crescent wave of silver sword intent sliced through the center of the formation, cleanly destroying one of the clones, but the remaining two, along with the true Lin Yuan, scattered.
"Tricks!" Jiang Wan spat, pivoting flawlessly and lunging at the closest clone.
Before the sword could connect, Lin Yuan’s true body executed the [Five Elements Escape Technique]. Drawing upon the ambient metallic affinity of Jiang Wan’s own sword domain, Lin Yuan merged flawlessly into the concept of Metal. He vanished from the physical plane, traveling instantaneously through the lingering sword Qi in the air, and materialized directly behind Jiang Wan.
Lin Yuan raised his left hand. "Fall."
[Heavenly Thunder Break].
A concentrated pillar of apocalyptic purple lightning crashed down from the apex of the spatial barrier, striking Jiang Wan squarely in the back. The peerless genius grunted in pain, his protective sword aura shattering as the sheer voltage drove him to one knee, scorching the floor beneath him.
Jiang Wan rolled forward, ignoring the burning agony in his back, and sprang to his feet. His eyes blazed with desperate, unyielding conviction.
"Absolute Severance: Void Lotus!" Jiang Wan chanted.
He spun his blade in a rapid, complex pattern, generating a massive, blooming lotus flower forged entirely of localized spatial cuts. The lotus expanded rapidly, its petals composed of pure annihilation, threatening to consume Lin Yuan’s entire operational radius.
Lin Yuan’s deep purple eyes remained completely serene. He raised both hands, his Supreme Stage Qi violently warping the space around him.
[Heaven and Earth Shift].
The expanding Void Lotus suddenly halted. Lin Yuan grasped the spatial coordinates of the attack and brutally wrenched them sideways. The lethal lotus of sword intent was violently redirected, crashing harmlessly into the transparent barrier of the quadrant, sending violent ripples across it.
"You fight well, Jiang Wan," Lin Yuan’s voice echoed from all directions, carrying the heavy, overlapping resonance of an ancient god. "But you are fighting me."
Such arrogance!!!!
Lin Yuan then raised his right hand toward the heavens.
[Taiyi Divine Thunder] fused with the [Army-Breaking Art].
The clouds above the quadrant turned pitch black. With a sweeping, downward motion of his arm, Lin Yuan did not just summon lightning; he summoned a literal army of thunder.
Hundreds of massive, solid spears forged from blinding Taiyi lightning rained down upon the arena. It was an area-of-effect slaughter designed to eradicate entire legions.
Jiang Wan’s silver eyes darted frantically. He moved with breathtaking speed, his sword a blur of silver light as he parried, deflected, and shattered dozens of the falling thunder spears. But the Supreme Stage density of Lin Yuan’s Qi made every parry feel like blocking a falling meteor. Jiang Wan’s arms began to violently shake, his palms bleeding as the sheer force of the Army-Breaking Art ground his stamina to dust.
"I will not yield!" Jiang Wan screamed, pushing his might to its absolute breaking point.
He pointed his sword directly at Lin Yuan, abandoning all defense for a single, ultimate thrust.
"Then let us limit the board," Lin Yuan decreed.
Lin Yuan stomped his boot against the floor.
[Heaven as Net, Earth as Web].
Invisible threads of Qi erupted from the floor and the ceiling simultaneously, weaving together into a suffocating, inescapable grid. The physical space within the quadrant was instantly compressed. Jiang Wan, mid-lunge, slammed into the invisible web, his momentum entirely halted as the grid locked his limbs in place.
Jiang Wan roared, his sword intent flaring as he tried to cut through the conceptual net, but the Supreme Stage threads held firm.
Lin Yuan immediately extended his right hand, his fingers splayed wide.
[Myriad Swords Return to the Sect].
From his Dao Intent, tens of thousands of flying swords materialized. They were forged from pure rain, crackling, apocalyptic purple lightning, and rebirth essence. They blotted out the sun of the arena, a breathtaking, terrifying spectacle of overwhelming destructive power.
Lin Yuan lowered his hand.
The galaxy of swords descended, as the tens of thousands of swords crashed into Jiang Wan’s defensive aura like a continuous meteor shower. Jiang Wan fought valiantly, his Absolute Severance destroying hundreds of the incoming blades, but he was fundamentally outmatched.
The sheer volume and density of the Supreme Stage assault battered his defenses down. His sword aura fractured. His blade chipped.
With a final, desperate cry, Jiang Wan channeled his remaining life force into a singular, massive spatial cut, attempting to break the web and reach Lin Yuan.
Lin Yuan simply raised a single finger.
[Devour Heaven, Swallow Earth].
A localized vortex of terrifying, overbearing suction manifested at the tip of Lin Yuan’s finger. It grabbed the incoming wave of absolute severance and aggressively devoured it, stripping the attack of its spiritual energy and swallowing it into the void of Lin Yuan’s own foundation.
Jiang Wan staggered, completely drained, his sword dropping to the floor with a dull clatter. The peerless genius fell to his knees, his silver eyes dimming as he looked up at the untouched expert standing before him.
Lin Yuan did not strike the killing blow. He let the remaining thousands of flying swords dissolve harmlessly into mist.
The silence in the quadrant was absolute.
"You... you are a monster," Jiang Wan breathed, blood leaking from the corner of his mouth.
Above them, the massive voice of Chief Adjudicator Xuanji echoed, trembling slightly with awe.
"Match concluded! Victory goes to Lin Yuan of the Zhao Province! Three hundred and fifty merits awarded!"
The Void Refinement barriers dissolved.
The Grand Court exploded into a cheer so deafening it threatened to shatter the floating pagodas of Sky Jade City. The Lower Division provinces wept with joy, realizing that the cultivator was not just a tactician, he was a supreme stage expert walking among them.
Lin Yuan turned his back on the kneeling sword genius and walked calmly out of the arena. He looked up toward the eastern pavilion, his eyes finding Bai Qingyue. He offered her a faint nod.
Everything ends today!