Chapter 157: The Beginning

The sword possessed immense spiritual intelligence, capable of executing intricate sword techniques entirely on its own, even without a master wielding it. Its swordsmanship was peerless, sweeping through the air with majestic momentum and ferocious offensive power.

After all, Xu Zhong’s Void Great Millstone was a technique of his own recent invention; it possessed only form and rhythm devoid of true divinity. Thus, upon the very first clash, it was cleaved in two by that treasured sword.

"The Heart-Sword Stream!" Xu Zhong whispered.

Only swordsmen of the Heart-Sword Stream focused intensely on nurturing the sword itself, demanding the birth of a sword spirit. Their sword hearts were crystal clear, achieving total unity between human and blade. The body was the sword; the soul was the spirit. The sword spirit was an extension of the Qi cultivator.

Therefore, even though Fu Xuan’s entire Niwan palace had been dragged away by the gigantic millstone, this sword was still able to execute a defense independently.

In contrast, swordsmen of the Sword-Wielding Stream, like Xu Zhong, paid little attention to the blade itself. To them, a sword was merely a sword—a consumable item requiring no cultivation of spiritual intelligence.

First, it was not worthwhile; a sword's lifespan depended entirely on the strength of the opponent. If the foe was formidable, a single sword array could exhaust and destroy every single blade they possessed. Conversely, against weaker foes, the swords would last a long time.

Second, consumables had no need for spiritual intelligence. Imagine suffering the loss of dozens or hundreds of precious swords at once. If a sword had developed its own spirit, would it willingly march to its death? Heaven knew if it might rebel during battle and turn its blade against its master.

Xu Zhong flicked his finger forward, shooting several dazzling beams of sword light from his fingertips.

In an instant, a symphony of crisp clashing sounds rang out continuously.

The sword beams projected from Xu Zhong’s fingertips collided violently with that treasured sword. For a moment, the space beneath the Western Gate of Xuanpin became a blinding expanse of white, occasionally punctuated by brilliant sparks the size of bucket lids.

Xu Zhong’s fingers moved with fluid agility, constantly shifting forms.

Now he wiped; now he flicked; now he tapped; now he plinked.

These precise manipulations ultimately landed directly on the treasured sword. In the blink of an eye, the sword’s spiritual intelligence was sealed away by Xu Zhong’s specialized seal technique.

This was the reverse Daoist technique of the Yaoling Return to Origin.

The Yaoling Return to Origin was a spell Xu Zhong used to train the intensity of his own undying spiritual light, operating much like a gear that constantly regulated the potency of the undying spiritual light within his Niwan palace. However, the reverse spell served to seal that very undying spiritual light.

Robbed of its spiritual intelligence, the treasured sword plunged to the ground like a worthless piece of scrap metal.

Xu Zhong gazed down at the blade. Its craftsmanship differed from ordinary swords; it was longer, thinner, and the edge had been repeatedly hammered until it was impeccably smooth and even. Its deeper textures bore the same perfection—devoid of bumps or ridges, free of any metallic fracture lines, and showing no visible seam where the blade met the hilt. Everything about it was utterly natural, born only of supernatural craftsmanship that could forge such a heaven-wrought treasured sword.

As Xu Zhong looked upon the sword, it surprisingly reflected the Heavenly Dao Demonic Phase and the Yin Phase of the Thunder Ancestor that dwelt upon him, though the reflections blurred and faded away after a mere fraction of a second.

Stepping past the fallen sword, Xu Zhong summoned his own blade into his hand.

"Since his Niwan is gone, I shall shatter his Inner Scenery!"

Using the Void Divine Thunder Dragon-Seeking Technique, Xu Zhong probed the Inner Scenery within Fu Xuan’s body.

Fu Xuan’s Inner Scenery was as hazy and indistinct as primeval chaos, making external probing exceedingly difficult.

The next moment, Xu Zhong thrust his Cloud-Swallowing Sword forward.

Instantly, a celestial river poured out from beneath the blade, cutting horizontally across heaven and earth, its aura piercing the highest firmament. Interwoven within this heavenly river were countless stellar manifestations, radiating an absolute divine radiance that felt nearly eternal.

The sword momentum surged forward like a bamboo stalk splitting under a cleaver.

Yet at that exact instant, Fu Xuan abruptly opened his eyes.

A dazzling flash of golden divine light erupted from his pupils. In the blink of an eye, this golden radiance unleashed two waves of fist force that swept across the cosmos, causing the Gate of Xuanpin behind him to tremble violently. The primordial qi was battered by the fist gusts and scattered into the void.

Grievously wounded, Fu Xuan’s physical body rapidly collapsed inward, dented by overlapping fist prints while his bones snapped in a relentless, crackling chorus.

Before Xu Zhong’s sword could strike Fu Xuan’s Inner Scenery, half of the opponent’s body exploded right before his eyes. There was no gruesome scene of flesh and blood flying through the air; instead, the body quietly collapsed inward, ultimately vanishing into nothingness.

Throughout it all, Fu Xuan did not utter a single cry of agony.

"You want to kill me too?" Wisps of demonic mist swirled around Fu Xuan, refined thread by thread into demonic light.

Borrowing strength from the inner demon, he plunged himself into a state suspended between the Dao and the Demonic. Using the Art of Concealment, he arrested Xu Zhong’s sword in the void while simultaneously attuning himself to the Wood-Essence Secret Treasury, coaxing his flesh and blood to regenerate.

"I am here precisely to kill you!" Xu Zhong pressed forward, his hands driving the Cloud-Swallowing Sword downward.

Though he did not know what had transpired between them inside that great millstone, the present moment was undoubtedly an optimal opportunity. Strike while the iron is hot; kick a man when he’s down.

He unleashed his Jade Ruyi, smashing it heavily onto Fu Xuan’s head. The blow left Fu Xuan dazed and disoriented, his mind a blank slate, severing his control over his physical body for the span of a single breath.

And it was precisely within that single breath that Xu Zhong’s hand-drum unleashed its full, terrifying might.

The hand-drum rattled rapidly, bombarding Fu Xuan’s newly returned soul and scattering its fragments, making it nearly impossible for him to coalesce.

A major reason for this was that his Niwan palace was a scarred wasteland, marred by countless fist prints of varying sizes.

These fist prints had not only battered the Niwan until it was sunken and uneven, but they had also embedded themselves like brands, constantly draining the power within Fu Xuan to strengthen themselves, thereby systematically destroying his Niwan palace.

The very fist prints that had just erupted from Fu Xuan’s gaze were nothing less than these branded marks from deep within his Niwan.

The seals generated by the Art of Concealment were as fragile as paper.

Behind Xu Zhong, three hundred and sixty flying swords emerged, circling in a continuous dance to form the Zhou Tian Sword Array, which pressed downward in tandem with him.

Boom!

Xu Zhong’s sword had pierced straight into Fu Xuan’s Inner Scenery.

Overwhelming sword light blazed brilliantly, the forces of destruction saturating the entire Inner Scenery world. The sword radiance cut across the Inner Scenery like a celestial river, connecting the internal and the external, sweeping across mountains and rivers.

For a moment, the mountains within Fu Xuan’s Inner Scenery crumbled, the rivers were severed, the firmament tilted, and celestial stars rained down ceaselessly from the vault of heaven.

The entire Inner Scenery world was plunged into a state of utter devastation.

It was precisely at this juncture that Fu Xuan’s Golden Elixir drifted out from the Inner Scenery.

The shape of his Golden Elixir was likewise a sword; the blade was crystalline and translucent from end to end, brimming with brilliant colors and radiating boundless light.

The moment this sword-shaped Golden Elixir appeared, every mountain, river, plant, and tree within the Inner Scenery morphed into the shape of a sword, surging with terrifying sword qi and sword intent. It transformed into something resembling a sword-shaped black hole, attempting to swallow Xu Zhong whole.

Xu Zhong let out a cold snort as the Zhou Tian Sword Array followed the sword light directly into the Inner Scenery.

The Golden Elixir clashed with the sword array.

The shockwaves of the collision rippled outward like tidal waves, rolling outward through the breaches torn open in the Inner Scenery by the sword light. Crisp, cracking sounds echoed continuously from within Fu Xuan’s physical body.

Out in the physical world, the other three hundred and sixty swords hovering above Fu Xuan’s head had already flown out, forming a miniaturized Jade Pool Sword Array.

Boom, boom, boom!

The waters of the Jade Pool poured down from the nine heavens, and the sword light washed over Fu Xuan’s physical body like a river of stars, suppressing the life force within him and causing the aura of destruction to erupt completely.

The Samadhi True Fire from the Nine-Dragon Divine Fire Cauldron poured entirely over Fu Xuan’s frame.

The sword qi stored within the Purple Jade Gourd roared outward in a torrent—this sword qi was a literal ocean.

Xu Zhong had long since mastered the ability to refine sword qi, starlight, and spiritual qi into liquid form; if he so desired, he could even brew this liquid into wine.

The great tide spewed forth from the mouth of the Purple Jade Gourd, brimming with destructive force.

Fu Xuan’s physical body was nearly obliterated from head to toe, yet still he refused to die.

After all, he was a Qi cultivator of the Inner Scenery realm; how could death claim him so easily?

Fu Xuan re-forged his soul and regained mastery over his physical body.

Threads of undying spiritual light, fine as lotus silk, connected the shattered pieces of his frame.

Various divine lights and sword lights battered his body, grinding away his soul and tearing at his undying spiritual light. Enduring the excruciating agony originating from the depths of his soul and the marrow of his bones, his body shuddered, and in an instant, those lotus-silk threads stitched his flesh and blood back together onto his frame.

He had restored his physical vessel.

"You wish to kill me? With just you?" Fu Xuan shook his body, manifesting the Samadhi True Fire.

With a single breath and exhaled burn, his Samadhi True Fire thrust forward.

Those divine lights and sword lights were instantly shattered and snapped by the Samadhi True Fire, which then surged onward, melting the Nine-Dragon Divine Fire Cauldron into a pool of bronze droplets and incinerating the hand-drum to ashes.

Witnessing this, Xu Zhong hurriedly recalled the Purple Jade Gourd and the Jade Ruyi.

Fortunately, the Purple Jade Gourd and the Jade Ruyi were not as fragile as the Nine-Dragon Divine Fire Cauldron and the hand-drum; they remained completely unfazed under the onslaught of the Samadhi True Fire.

Xu Zhong retrieved the Jade Ruyi along with the three hundred and sixty flying swords hovering above Fu Xuan.

Simultaneously, Fu Xuan reached out and wrenched his Inner Scenery directly out from his own body, utilizing the Samadhi True Fire once more.

The Cloud-Swallowing Sword remained unharmed, but those three hundred and sixty flying swords had been smelted into a heap of scrap metal.

As for the fissures within the Inner Scenery, under the searing heat of the Samadhi True Fire, they rapidly fused back together, barely stabilizing the Internal Scenery enough to prevent its collapse.

Xu Zhong felt a pang of profound anguish.

In that fleeting instant, three hundred and sixty flying swords were utterly gone.

Seizing all his remaining magical treasures, he retreated at maximum speed.

"Trying to run?"

Fu Xuan hurled his Inner Scenery outward.

For a moment, Xu Zhong felt dizzy and disoriented, as though the heavens and earth had turned upside down. The next instant, it felt as if he were gazing upon the Heaven beyond Heavens, having been transported to an entirely different realm.

He had arrived—yet not entirely!

Half of Xu Zhong’s body remained trapped within Fu Xuan’s Inner Scenery, while the other half lingered beneath the Gate of Xuanpin.

Within the Inner Scenery, everything had transformed into a sword.

Every ray of "light" across the entire world morphed into sword light, and every wisp of "qi" turned into sword qi.

In that split second, it felt less like a sword slashing at him, and more like an entire world crashing down to cleave him in two.

Xu Zhong was struck dumb with shock.

This was his first time experiencing the application of an Inner Scenery at such close quarters.

Unlike a domain, an Inner Scenery possessed an inherent will akin to the Heavenly Dao. This will was none other than the soul of the master of the Inner Scenery. Within this domain of Inner Scenery, he was an invincible existence, capable of decreeing life and death with a single word—unless one possessed power sufficient to blast through his Inner Scenery entirely.

Naturally, Xu Zhong lacked such capability.

Yet others did!

Boom!

Before those swords could descend upon Xu Zhong, he witnessed a blindingly brilliant beam of fist light erupt from every corner of the Inner Scenery, puncturing it with countless holes and riddling the domain with breaches.

Riding the wind, Xu Zhong darted out through one of the apertures, escaping Fu Xuan’s Inner Scenery Grotto-Heaven.

The moment he emerged, he caught sight of two unimaginably colossal Dharma Phases clashing in the void.

Fu Xuan’s Dharma Phase stood at a mere six hundred feet. Though the word "mere" was used, in reality, Xu Zhong was too small to even reach the sole of his opponent's foot.

In contrast, Su Jie’s Dharma Phase towered at a majestic six thousand feet.

The height of a Dharma Phase was a direct symbol of one’s strength. Otherwise, Fu Xuan’s Niwan and Inner Scenery would never have been battered into such a wretched state.

As Xu Zhong pondered this internally, he saw a gigantic millstone clutched within Su Jie’s hand.

That millstone appeared to have already been fully refined by him.

The aura of destruction and the aura of tribulation flanked its sides, unleashing divine might in tandem with every movement he made.

Boom, boom, boom!

The void trembled ceaselessly, yet Xu Zhong, sheltered beneath the Gate of Xuanpin, remained untouched by the shockwaves.

Hiding beneath the Gate of Xuanpin, Xu Zhong cast his gaze toward other areas of the battlefield.

The robed man was already dead!

His head had been lopped off, and his Inner Scenery and Niwan had been hollowed out. The identity of his killer was blindingly obvious.

Elsewhere, the Mountain Demon and Chen Taifeng were both dead.

Only Shi Yao and Li Yuanhua remained alive. Like Xu Zhong, they were cowering in terror beneath the Gate of Xuanpin.