The people of Baiyun Mountain Domain were confident in the information they had obtained about Wuling’s newest disciples. They believed that by sending so many Nascent Soul and Soul Transformation cultivators, they could easily overpower the two newcomers, eliminate a future threat, and do so with unbridled arrogance.
When the Soul Transformation cultivator had finished speaking, the other Nascent Soul cultivators chuckled menacingly.
Xu Ziqing frowned slightly and looked toward Yun Lie. “Senior Brother?”
Yun Lie said, “Guard the rear.”
Xu Ziqing straightened. “Yes. I’ll do everything I can. Please be careful as well, Senior Brother.”
Yun Lie naturally agreed.
Xu Ziqing then turned back to the others. “In that case, please make your move.”
Seeing that neither of the two was disturbed, the men from Baiyun lost some of their smugness.
The Soul Transformation cultivator waved a hand. “Two of you, go teach these youngsters a lesson.”
Two particularly vicious-looking men stepped out from among the five Nascent Soul cultivators. The other three retreated onto a boat-shaped magical artifact and withdrew from the pillar’s summit.
Here they come! Xu Ziqing thought.
He felt no fear, merely stepping back to prepare himself fully.
He rubbed his palms together. Emerald light burst between them and spread to both sides. A hundred immense vines suddenly surged up from the ground, each dozens of zhang long, as thick as a water barrel and black as steel.
The two opponents paused in surprise, then sneered. “You dare show off such petty tricks?”
The blue-robed cultivator opened his fingers, revealing a long whip of shifting radiance: a precious-grade artifact!
With a sharp crack, the whip struck the ground, releasing blazing heat. The earth split apart and became scorched black.
The edge of the fissure touched the outermost vine. Flames quickly engulfed it, reducing it to black ash.
What domineering power! This was merely the aftershock, yet the vine could not withstand it!
Xu Ziqing was not surprised. With a thought, he caused an identical vine to grow from the ashes. This was the power of the cycle of life and death.
Plants renewed themselves without end. Did his opponents really think that destroying one vine would settle the matter?
If that were so, his abilities would be rather pathetic.
The other Nascent Soul cultivator wore purple robes, and even his face had a purple cast. He opened his mouth and spat out a cloud of purple radiance that flashed forward like lightning, straight at Xu Ziqing and Yun Lie. Almost the instant the purple light appeared, it was already before them!
The casting speed of a Nascent Soul ancestor far exceeded that of a Golden Core cultivator!
Xu Ziqing narrowed his eyes, not daring to relax in the slightest.
However arrogant these challengers were, a Nascent Soul was still a Nascent Soul. Their language was vulgar, but their fighting skills were anything but crude.
Xu Ziqing’s sharp eyesight caught a cluster of fine needles hidden inside the purple cloud. They were invisible to ordinary sight. Even with spiritual sense, one could barely glimpse the chilly gleam of their tips before ten thousand needles pierced one’s heart!
But Xu Ziqing did not need to act, because Yun Lie had already moved first.
Without shifting his body, he released a long black-gold sword from between his brows. It instantly multiplied into countless blades, forming a chilling sword array.
The purple cloud flew into the array at almost the same moment, but the array changed formation twice and ground it completely to nothing.
This had only been a test by the two Nascent Soul cultivators.
Afterward, their eyes grew much more cautious.
Xu Ziqing formed a hand seal, ready to react immediately to any movement from the enemy.
Yun Lie stood motionless inside the sword array. The ends of his hair lifted slightly, while an icy aura that seemed capable of freezing space spread from him in every direction.
His killing intent flowed like wind and water, making anyone who sensed it shiver from head to foot.
Then the two Nascent Soul cultivators transformed into two blurred shadows and lunged at them together!
So fast!
Xu Ziqing’s heart tightened. With a sweep of his finger, the black vines closed in from both sides, trying to seize the shadows!
The next instant, however, he felt as though a sledgehammer had struck his heart. He grunted, almost suffering an internal injury.
Every vine broke at once, completely destroyed.
The two Nascent Soul cultivators did not slow down. The vines had failed to hinder them in the slightest!
They truly deserved the title of Nascent Soul ancestors.
Yun Lie flashed in front of Xu Ziqing. The sword array moved with him, already covering the entire summit of the heavenly pillar.
There might be tens of thousands of blades, perhaps even more.
They filled the air as densely as a sudden rainstorm.
At that moment, the two Nascent Soul cultivators drew near.
The array suddenly shifted. Countless tiny swords converged on its southeastern and southwestern sides, roaring like floodwaters and seemingly forming two enormous blades that threatened to turn the two men into hedgehogs!
The two froze, then hastily dodged. One swung his long whip viciously, while the other clawed repeatedly with both hands, smashing numerous small black-gold swords.
But in the blink of an eye, those swords formed again, seemingly endless and impossible to stop.
It was… profoundly frustrating.
The two Nascent Soul cultivators could only expend their true essence while desperately searching for weaknesses in the array.
They did not hesitate to unleash their strongest techniques, hoping to break through it directly.
After numerous attempts, the purple-robed cultivator shouted, “This is sword intent that has already taken material form!”
The blue-robed cultivator inwardly cursed.
Sword cultivators greatly surpassed other cultivators of the same realm in battle. If they comprehended sword intent and refined it sufficiently, they could sweep aside all opponents in an area.
And materialized sword intent was unmistakable evidence of an exceptionally deep comprehension of the sword!
If the array had been formed using ordinary magical treasures, however intricate its changes and marvelous its construction, it would inevitably contain weaknesses. One could find a weakness, concentrate all one’s strength upon it, and usually break free.
But how did one defend against an array made of sword intent?
Even finding a flaw was insufficient. Unless they could completely shatter the sword intent itself, its master could repair that weakness with a thought while the intent remained.
Sword intent was extraordinarily troublesome unless one possessed comparable sword intent with which to oppose it.
As this stalemate continued, Xu Ziqing was not surprised by the loss of his vines. He clenched both hands, releasing a burst of green light.
The places where the countless black vines had stood began to churn. Their dried remnants vanished, and almost simultaneously, even thicker blood-red vines shot skyward, larger and stronger than the previous ones.
Without a sound, huge leafy buds the size of vat mouths opened and closed, displaying rows of terrifying sharp teeth.
Xu Ziqing had released Rongjin! The reservations that had once troubled him no longer mattered here.
In an instant, the pillar’s summit resembled a scene from hell, glittering with a ravenous desire to devour people.
Black-gold light flashed between Yun Lie’s brows. Countless slender black-gold swords shot forward like fine needles, sweeping around the two Nascent Soul cultivators like a storm and enclosing them more tightly.
The two were forced to escalate. After exchanging a glance, each struck his own forehead, and a surge of invisible power erupted overhead.
Purple Palace inner worlds!
Two enormous entities appeared suspended in the void, radiating extraordinary strength. Countless traces of the Dao shone within them as they descended, intent on crushing the sword array!
The two cultivators had resolved to use the strength of their inner worlds to break Yun Lie’s sword-intent array!
Clearly, however, they had underestimated Yun Lie.
Black-gold light flashed through Yun Lie’s eyes. Countless small swords merged into two torrents, becoming two gigantic blades as massive as mountains!
The great blades shot out in brilliant streaks, each stabbing toward one of the two inner worlds!
“Boom! Boom, boom!”
The collision of the gigantic swords and inner worlds produced deafening crashes and power so tremendous that the surrounding space seemed ready to fracture.
Because the sword-intent array could change endlessly in response to Yun Lie’s will, he acted even faster than the two men who had summoned their inner worlds. Before those worlds had stabilized, his great swords found the openings and plunged inside, scattering them violently!
But the two Nascent Soul cultivators were ruthless.
Seeing their inner worlds fail to assemble, they knew the battle was turning against them. First, they had no means to break the sword array. Second, gathering their inner worlds again would take time, and could not be done immediately.
They were certain to lose.
Yet how could they accept defeat so easily?
The blue-robed cultivator flicked his whip. Like a living serpent, it stabbed straight toward Xu Ziqing’s chest!
The attack was meant to smash his muscles and bones to fragments. Worse still, the whip was so vicious that a direct hit could destroy even his primordial spirit!
Xu Ziqing took a deep breath. At a thought, Rongjin waved his branches before him as a shield.
Apparently these Heaven-Challenging Battles were not simple sparring matches, and the vicious threats earlier had not been empty words.
Between mountain domains and even fellow disciples, one could take an opponent’s life.
If that was so… he could not afford to be merciful!
Now that the Bloodthirsty Demon Vine had matured, its toughness surpassed even precious-grade artifacts.
The whip was indeed formidable, but striking Rongjin produced only metallic clangs. It could neither break through the vine nor shatter Xu Ziqing’s body and primordial spirit.
Yet the Nascent Soul cultivator’s powerful surrounding aura prevented the vine from approaching him or unleashing its true strength.
Yun Lie’s expression was icy. The sword array surged violently.
Countless blades ground the purple-robed cultivator from every direction, trapping him in the center and cutting him down bit by bit!
Though the cultivator possessed immense strength, layer after layer of his protective spiritual light was severed. Finally, he let out a fierce shout and prepared to self-destruct—
The countless swords before him instantly fused into a single blade, which plunged into his dantian.
Such ruthless sword intent could destroy primordial spirits.
The black-gold sword stabbed the Nascent Soul inside his dantian, sending destructive power upward into his Purple Palace.
One twist of the blade destroyed his primordial spirit as well.
Meanwhile, the blue-robed Nascent Soul cultivator was still locked in a stalemate with Rongjin when countless swords descended upon him.
Looking up, he saw his purple-robed companion falling backward, bleeding from all seven orifices. His pupils contracted, and his movements betrayed the tiniest opening.
Several swords immediately struck that opening, drawing blood.
The Bloodthirsty Demon Vine smelled it and lunged toward the scent, tearing open the blue-robed cultivator’s protective spiritual light.
In the next instant, the vines entered his bleeding wounds, and their immense leafy buds began to suck fiercely—
Within moments they had devoured every scrap of the blue-robed man’s flesh and blood!
A strand of primordial spirit escaped from his Purple Palace, only to encounter a tiny black-gold sword. The blade turned once, and the spirit vanished into smoke.
The entire battle had lasted less than half a shichen. Both Nascent Soul cultivators had been destroyed, primordial spirits and all.
This had been meant as nothing more than a test of the newcomers. Who could have predicted the loss of two Nascent Soul cultivators instead?