Book One: Cloudmist Immortal Palace Arc, Chapter Ninety-Four: Flying Swords Slay the Dragon

Void Dimensional Slash was a peerless immortal technique said to be able to cleave the universe itself. Its power was immense, cutting down everything in its path, and it had no fixed realm of mastery, with no end to its growth. It could sever all things, even influence time and space, wreaking terrifying chaos upon the fabric of reality. Of course, to unleash that kind of temporal and spatial upheaval required strength that had reached the forbidden realm. For ordinary experts, like Dengtu Lang borrowing Zhou Hao’s hand to drive the Yellow Gourd, the Void Dimensional Slash he could produce was only enough to annihilate empty space and tear open the chambers of a cave dwelling.

Buzz!

A flash of white light. A sword gleam fell like a white river, and in an instant the void split apart. The dark space skewed out of alignment, as though heaven and earth had been forcibly separated.

At this moment, Luo Tianyi was in more dire straits than ever before. She had gone from predator to prey, from strong to weak. The Void Dimensional Slash filled her with dread, and the dreadful, invisible sword qi and white sword light gave her nowhere to hide, nowhere to flee.

Zhou Hao had gained the absolute upper hand.

The black stone sword had already been put away. Now he poured all his power into the Yellow Gourd to attack Luo Tianyi. At the gourd’s mouth, light blazed brilliantly, like a little silver-white sun spinning in place, releasing endless torrents of sword qi and immortal radiance. And because Dengtu Lang’s immortal consciousness had merged with Zhou Hao’s, the two were now as one, inseparable. Zhou Hao’s cultivation had temporarily surged to the late Grand Immortal stage; otherwise, he would never have been able to unleash a killing move as terrifying as the Void Dimensional Slash.

“Boy, listen carefully. I am burning the last of my remaining immortal consciousness to merge with your immortal body, and only then can your cultivation be raised briefly to the late Grand Immortal stage. Time is precious. You must kill Luo Tianyi before my awareness vanishes. Otherwise, once I am gone, your body will be crippled by such an immense burden, and you will have no hope of walking out alive.” Dengtu Lang’s voice grew weaker and weaker, as if he might draw his last breath the next second. One could imagine the price he had paid for this.

“Thank you, senior. I understand. Win or lose, my immortal body will be left half-ruined by merging with your immortal consciousness. You are the wick, and I am the oil. When the lamp goes out, the wick breaks and the oil dries up. But this is the best method. Only then can I stand on equal ground with Luo Tianyi. Rest assured—I will not disappoint you!”

A nameless energy burst from Zhou Hao’s entire body. The golden light that had been surging within him suddenly drew inward, and the void beneath his feet rumbled as if it could not bear his weight.

“Void Dimensional Slash, kill for me!”

With the power of a Grand Immortal, Zhou Hao needed only stand there to exude overwhelming majesty. A dreadful Grand Immortal pressure swept across the dark heavens, scattering the violet-black clouds at once. The blood-red lightning within those clouds seemed to have eyes, hurling itself at Zhou Hao in an attempt to strike him apart. Yet he did not move. In the void, an invisible mass of sword qi appeared and ground the lightning to nothing.

“Luo Tianyi, come and die!”

The gourd mouth turned. Zhou Hao had now officially taken over from Dengtu Lang, facing Luo Tianyi head-on for the first time. Before this, it had always been Dengtu Lang using his body to strike.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Sword qi surged skyward. Ten thousand swords launched at once. The blade light pouring from the gourd’s mouth was too terrifying to behold, a blinding white radiance that tore through the void like meteors streaking across this space, brilliant and deadly.

Luo Tianyi narrowed her eyes, her brow furrowing. Her slender hands clenched into fists. Long ago, she had fought Dengtu Lang to the death. Back then, his strength had also stood at the peak of the late Grand Immortal stage, yet even then he could not use this shocking Void Dimensional Slash. She had thought she had escaped the cage today, certain of victory, only to encounter Dengtu Lang’s hidden killing stroke. Her mood was now dark and furious beyond measure.

“Sea of Stars, Sink!”

Faced with the white sword light tearing through the void, Luo Tianyi knew she could not evade it, so she immediately unleashed the immortal martial art she had cultivated to meet it head-on. In front of her, the void actually manifested a strange blue sea. The water was dark and profound, gradually forming a whirlpool with terrifying suction. Everything around it was drawn inward, utterly beyond control.

Puff, puff!

But it was futile. The Void Dimensional Slash ignored space entirely. It vanished before the blue whirlpool and reappeared the next instant, having already pierced through Luo Tianyi’s entire body. Drops of blood floated out from within her and hung in the black space, so shocking it made the scalp tingle.

Aohou!

Within the blue sea whirlpool, a dragon’s roar shook the heavens. Then a long, winding silhouette burst forth from the vortex, its momentum fierce as surging rivers. It was a colossal dragon, opening its bloody maw to swallow the entire space in one gulp. Zhou Hao had not even reacted before he was already within the dragon’s belly.

The dragon stretched for countless li, its end nowhere in sight. Its entire body was blue-black, and from its crimson pupils shot two rays of red light straight into the lower space. Then came a thunderous crash, and the world fell utterly silent.

The cave-dwelling world changed beyond recognition.

That dragon’s strike had been aimed directly at the heart-shaped island on the sea. The island shattered to dust, but from the terrifying mushroom cloud, two beams of light burst out—one white, one red.

“Fireworks, find a place to hide first. The destruction of the heart-shaped island means Zhou Hao is in grave danger. I’m going to avenge him!”

High in the sky, Su Qing wore bright silver armor, and even her hair was white as snow. Between her brows lay a faint blue water pattern.

“Sister Su, what happened to you? Just now, when the island was destroyed, I felt your power suddenly rise to a terrifying level.” Fireworks stared in astonishment. Though she had sensed danger moments before, she had been unable to escape. Fortunately, Su Qing had brought her away from the dragon’s gaze.

“There’s no time to explain. Perhaps this time we’ll both die here!” Su Qing did not answer Fireworks’ question. With a single leap she flew toward the higher, farther reaches of the sky.

Fireworks stood there, staring upward in a daze. In her wide eyes burned two trails of red flame, as though she could see what was happening in the distant firmament.

The heavens above were deathly silent. The boundless sky was vast and remote, like a bottomless abyss.

“Zhou Hao, I believe you will never die!”

Boom, boom, boom...

Far in the heavens, a burst of urgent air-rending sounds rang out. The air exploded. A massive dragon body crossed the void, and in the blink of an eye it had moved countless li.

“Stop right there. Your opponent is me now!”

A cool voice rang out, and another figure appeared in the dark space. White armor fluttered though there was no wind, and a graceful silhouette drew her sword and struck.

It was naturally Su Qing. Her cultivation had also reached the Grand Immortal realm!

“Polar Seal of Ice!”

Her longsword slashed out, gleaming like water. The next instant, water turned to ice, spreading across the sky at a terrifying speed. The chill was so intense it seemed capable of freezing the soul itself.

In the blink of an eye, that space became a silver-clad ice age. Even a Celestial Immortal standing here would be frozen solid!

As the snow and ice swept over the dragon, that vast, mountain-like body was frozen in an instant, becoming an iceberg that would not melt for a thousand years. Stranger still, the dragon had not moved once from beginning to end, as if willingly awaiting judgment.

“Shatter!”

Su Qing tapped the void with her toe and stepped directly onto the dragon’s head. With both hands gripping her sword, she drove it into the frozen dragon skull beneath her feet. The immortal sword cut through the ice as easily as through tofu, and with a thunderous crash the entire frozen dragon was shattered.

Roar!

Yet to Su Qing’s surprise, the dragon’s shattered ice fragments reassembled in an instant. The frost evaporated from its body, and a dragon form large enough to blot out the sky coiled through the void. Its claw thrust out like a demon god’s hand, seizing at Su Qing’s body.

Clang!

A riot of five-colored light burst forth. An exquisite five-colored jade hand swelled with the wind, growing to the same size as the dragon claw. It met the fearsome blue-black claw head-on. The impact was like a bronze bell striking a great cauldron, the deafening sound shattering space as dense black cracks spiderwebbed forth once more.

The Five Elements Hand clashed with the dragon claw. An energy storm radiated from the center of the collision, and divine brilliance illuminated the sky. But as time passed, the Five Elements Hand gradually weakened, its light fading at great speed.

“Pu!”

A sweetness rose in Su Qing’s throat, and blood gushed from her mouth. Her face instantly turned deathly pale. She stumbled backward in the air, retreating several thousand meters, each step causing the void itself to moan.

Pop...

The Five Elements Hand was smashed apart by the dragon claw, dissolving into a rain of five-colored light like bursting fireworks. Yet the dragon claw’s advance did not slow. In the next instant, it was about to crush Su Qing’s tiny body in one grip.

Clang!

Su Qing refused to wait for death. She summoned the immortal sword in her hand. The blade flashed with silver brilliance and cold light, then transformed into a silver rainbow that shot toward the dragon claw.

Not only that, but the blue water-pattern mark between her brows projected a ray of light that fused with the silver arc. At once, multicolored radiance blossomed at the sword tip, dazzling and resplendent beyond compare.

With a boom, the dragon claw was pierced through by the silver rainbow. It burst apart instantly, and the rainbow continued forward like an arrow, aiming straight for the dragon’s neck.

The sword strike was too fast. So fast that the dragon had no time to react at all. In an instant, its neck was punctured by a bloody hole, pierced clean through from front to back.

The dragon roared in fury, the heavens crumbled, and void rifts spread outward. The shockwave of its voice scattered the lightning descending from those rifts. Its crimson eyes locked onto Su Qing, and it opened its mouth, intending to swallow her and the void together.

“Slash!”

At that moment, a familiar voice rang out. It still came from within the dragon’s body. In the same instant, white light pierced through the dragon’s frame, and hundreds upon thousands of massive sword beams, like strands of light, passed through every part of its body. The dragon was dismembered and cut into a storm of blood and flesh.

A figure bathed in dragon blood stood in the dark sky. His white robes were dyed crimson, and even his hair was soaked through with blood. He was covered head to toe, as if he had just walked out of a slaughterhouse.

“You still want to struggle at death’s door? Then I’ll give you one last sword!”

The dragon’s torn flesh drifted in the air before slowly gathering together again. In no time at all, those fragments reformed into shape. A huge blue dragon head emerged, fierce and menacing. It glared at the figure and spoke in human words, repeating over and over that it was impossible.

Sshing!

A streak of dark light shot up, as though it had eyes, and went straight for the underside of the dragon’s jaw. There, a singular scale stood out from the rest. It grew against the direction of the other scales, and it was twice as large as the others. Strange patterns covered its surface—said to be dragon script. Upon the reverse scale was written the dragon’s name.

That streak of dark light was the black stone sword, and the figure was naturally Zhou Hao. He had seen through Luo Tianyi’s attempt to re-form her dragon head, and without the slightest hesitation, he unleashed a fatal blow. The stone sword, mysterious and powerful in origin, struck like an arrow hitting the bull’s-eye. The blue reverse scale was pierced straight through...