Chapter 498: Such a Terrifying Slash
The autumn rain continued to fall.
A single figure appeared suddenly beneath the deep darkness of the night sky. He stood on a lotus-leaf boat, drawing a line through the surface of Cloudcomb Lake as he approached.
The light was dim, but Su Yi’s divine sense could still clearly discern that this was an elder in long white robes.
It was unclear just how old he was. His face was covered in wrinkles, yet his eyes were as bright and clear as an infant’s. However, upon closer inspection, they also seemed as deep as the ocean.
He held a sword case in one hand, and his feet were planted upon a lotus-leaf boat. There was no sign of majesty or prestige about him, and he arrived soundlessly.
However, as soon as Su Yi laid eyes on him, he was certain: this was Huo Tiandu!
A grand elder of Cloudsky Divine Palace with cultivation in the mid-stage Spiritual Manifestation Realm. Two hundred and eighty years had passed since he entered the Spirit Dao, and in the Great Xia, he was honored as the Azure Spring True Sword!
Meanwhile, in the teahouse, Weng Jiu furrowed his brow. “The old-timer really did show up!”
He was well aware of Huo Tiandu’s strength. In the current Great Xia, he was an extremely powerful figure even among Spirit Dao cultivators.
He’d mastered the Azure Spring Sword Intent, and he was an inheritor of one of Cloudsky Divine Palace’s three key legacies, the Sword Classic of the River of Heaven. He was far from comparable to an ordinary cultivator of the same realm.
The ancient sword inside the case had impressive origins too. It was called “Netherworld Frost.” Rumor had it that thirty thousand years ago, it was the ultimate treasure of an ancient sect. Its destructive power was enough to shock the world!
“If that kid Su Yi really dares use that old timer as a whetstone, I’m afraid he’ll break the very edge he’s trying to polish….” Weng Jiu was a bit worried, and he instinctively glanced at Su Yi.
To his astonishment, Su Yi didn’t display even the slightest ripple of emotion. All Weng Jiu saw was indifference to everything around him.
Like the indifference of a god gazing down upon the masses!
Neither happy nor sad, detached from worldly affairs.
When Weng Jiu saw this, his eyes narrowed.?Is such a mental state even possible for a young man!?
“Fellow Daoist Weng, what are you doing?here this late?at night?” Suddenly, Huo Tiandu’s aged voice emanated from the lotus-leaf boat.
Weng Jiu said calmly, “Rest assured; this old man has absolutely no intention of getting involved. I’ve come merely to spectate.”
“Oh?” said Huo Tiandu from his lotus-leaf boat. “Many thanks.”
Weng Jiu slowly sat down, placed the zither in front of him, and rested his fingers on its strings.
“Ancestor!” The purple-robed middle-aged man knelt, visibly agitated and aggrieved. “Thirteen of the Huo Family’s Gathering Stars Realm experts died brutal deaths at that boy’s poisonous hands. I had no choice but to call for you!”
“You should retreat,” said Huo Tiandu calmly. He swept his gaze around the surrounding area and breathed in the stench of blood lingering in the air. Traces of iciness appeared deep within his oceanic gaze.
“A windy, rainy autumn night. This austere beauty and this time of year are undoubtedly the best suited for killing.” As he spoke, Huo Tiandu fixed his gaze on Su Yi.
This famous Spiritual Manifestation Realm sword cultivator’s gaze was calm and indifferent. “The one thing I could never have anticipated was that a paltry little Origin Dao cultivator like you would really dare show up.”
His aged voice was like the austere autumn winds and rain. As it floated over the lake, the nearby skies seemed to condense, as if intimidated by a formless majesty.
“Huo Tiandu, paltry as you are, you’re only fit to serve as my whetstone. How could I possibly be afraid of you?” Su Yi stood there with his free hand behind his back.
He had the look of someone examining a rock; it really seemed as if he were admiring a whetstone.
A Spiritual Manifestation cultivator was already a mighty expert of the Spirit Dao. They were far from comparable to those in the Three Realms of the Origin Dao.
However, in Su Yi’s eyes, Huo Tiandu was at best a bit tougher than Li Miaohong.
Even as a late-stage Grain Avoidance cultivator, with the experience and judgment of his past life, Su Yi was strong enough to duke it out with Spiritual Manifestation Realm cultivators.
Now, he was already an early-stage Origin Palace cultivator, not far from the mid-stage Origin Palace Realm.
Given the circumstances, Su Yi naturally wasn’t the least bit afraid.
On the contrary, he’d long since been eager for a Spiritual Manifestation Realm opponent to temper his edge with.
Alas, when he encountered Li Miaohong at Broken Dragon Cliff and when he faced Old Demon Slaughterer at the Song of the Sandy Creek, others defeated them before he got the chance.
Su Yi couldn’t help but find this an awful pity.
Thus, when Huo Tiandu appeared before him, Su Yi was actually rather delighted.
Furthermore, there was an obscure presence about Huo Tiandu. It seemed like some kind of magic treasure, or perhaps a Daoist art. Although he didn’t sense any danger, it piqued his interest.
“A whetstone?” Huo Tiandu’s eyebrows shifted upward, and he couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re just a tiny little Origin Dao cultivator, yet you dare treat a Spiritual Manifestation cultivator as your whetstone? If word of this gets out, all who hear it will laugh so hard that their teeth fall out!”
His smile faded, and his gaze was suddenly heavy and calm. “Of course, I know that you’re no ordinary person. In just two strikes, you forced outer sect elder Zhang Yuntao to lower his head, and you dared kill disciples of Cloudsky Divine Palace, heedless of the consequences. Your strength and courage are rare; throughout the Great Xia’s world of cultivation, few are your equal in this regard.”
He paused here, his gaze even heavier and graver than before. There was an imposing and oppressive majesty about him. “Take tonight, for instance. In your shoes, few would have dared come here, yet here you are. You even slew thirteen of the Huo Family’s Gathering Stars cultivators in a single attack. To tell the truth, even I’m astonished.”
A moment later, Huo Tiandu shook his head. “It’s a pity that you’ve yet to step into the Spirit Dao, my young friend. You might well be all but invincible in the Three Realms of the Origin Dao, but I’m afraid you cannot possibly leave Cloudcomb Lake alive.”
“Nothing in this world is absolute. That’s true of cultivation too. Determining superiority through cultivation boundaries alone is proof that your horizons are limited. You’ve seen too little of the world,” said Su Yi calmly.
The gulf between the Origin and Spirit Daos was indeed as enormous as the gulf between heaven and earth; they couldn’t be lumped together.
Even so, in the Nine Provinces of the Wilds, there had never been a shortage of unparalleled geniuses capable of crossing that enormous gulf and defeating foes of superior cultivations!
“Hahaha!” Huo Tiandu couldn’t hold back laughter. “The gap between the Origin Palace and the Spiritual Manifestation Realm is simply enormous; they’re further apart than mud and clouds! If you rely on nothing but your own cultivation, killing you will be no harder than turning over my hand!”
“You talk too much. So, you’re worried that I’ll call for reinforcements?” Su Yi smiled dryly. “Rest assured; no one will intervene in what happens tonight.”
“If no one intervenes, I’ll take your life this very night!” Huo Tiandu’s eyes revealed a trace of grief. “If I don’t kill you, how can I do right by my grand-nephew, Huo Yunsheng? How can I defend the prestige of Cloudsky Divine Palace? And how can I vent the fury of the Huo Family?”
His long hair fluttered around him, and his eyes crackled with electricity. His face filled with grief, and a vast, concentrated, imposing air formed around him.
This?was Huo Tiandu, the Spiritual Manifestation Realm Sword cultivator and decisive killer whose name shook the nation!
Clang!
With a sweep of his left hand, the sword case opened, and a spiritual sword glowing with dim, icy light flew into his right hand.
“My sword’s name is Netherworld Frost. It’s fought alongside me for one hundred and ninety-three years. I’ve lost track of how many it’s cut down. Young friend, to die beneath my blade is an honor; you can go to the Nine Springs with a smile on your face.”
Huo Tiandu’s sleeves billowed as the imposing aura of a mid-stage Spiritual Manifestation cultivator spread out around him.
The lotus-leaf boat beneath his feet shattered into powder, and the lake’s surface burst, stirring up a towering wave. The sheer force dispersed the rain clouds filling the night sky.
Shrieks and startled cries rang out on the lakeside. Despite the hour, numerous cultivators had been startled awake, and they now watched the duel from afar.
Even from a distance, the majesty of a Spiritual Manifestation Realm cultivator astonished them.
The depths of Su Yi’s gaze lit up.
It was as if all of his qi had been stimulated, and his energy circulated with unprecedented force, instantaneously soaring to new heights.
Matchless sharpness surged around his tall, lean figure. He was like an immortal sword revealing itself before the world, soaring gracefully through the skies and slicing through the darkness.
“I finally found a decent whetstone….” muttered Su Yi.
Clang!
Practically simultaneously, the Abstruse God Sword swept forth. Its blade, as black as the night sky, produced a clear and melodious hum, as if it longed for a feast of fresh blood.
At that moment, Su Yi seemed to transform. He was like an immortal of the sword, his forceful, majestic air piercing both heaven and earth, free and unbridled.
His blade was endlessly sharp; nothing could stand in its way!
“Excellent!” Over in the teahouse, Weng Jiu’s eyes lit up. The fingers he’d already placed on the strings of his zither shifted for the first time.
Clang!
As the first metallic and imposing note of music reverberated throughout the night sky, Huo Tiandu attacked directly.
Whoosh!
He suddenly swung his sword.
Sword qi descended, like the boundlessly vast river of heaven descending upon the world below. It struck with the force of wind and lightning, vast, limitless, and so majestic that it seemed capable of suppressing all of creation.
Sword Classic of the River of Heaven!
This sword technique was one of the three core inheritances of Cloudsky Divine Palace. Unleashed through Huo Tiandu’s Spiritual Manifestation Realm cultivation, its power was so enormous that the entirety of the enormous Cloudcomb Lake shook. Turbulent currents churned, and countless piles of snow formed!
It was just one slash, but its force blanketed the word, and its majesty startled the nine heavens!
Rumble!
The boundless power of this slash descended furiously downward.
Su Yi’s sleeves fluttered around him, but he didn’t dodge. Instead, he swung the Abstruse God Sword, meeting it head-on. He looked calm and unrestrained, like an immortal performing a sword dance, without any trace of smoke or fire.
After all, his opponent was a mid-stage Spiritual Manifestation cultivator; Su Yi naturally couldn’t get complacent, so he held nothing back and unleashed his entire cultivation.
Thus, when he attacked, a streak of clear, nigh-illusory sword qi shot into the heavens, bringing with it limitless sharpness permeated with the inscrutable Dao Charm of the Five Elements.
One slash illuminated the overcast darkness of the night sky.
Its power was like the sun, radiant and intense!
Boom!
Two starkly different types of sword qi clashed. A shocking scene instantly unfolded on Cloudcomb Lake.
Beneath countless astonished gazes, Su Yi’s strike was like a gale of wind cutting through the waves or an axe cleaving through bamboo. Huo Tiandu’s strike was as boundless as the river of heaven, yet Su Yi cut a perfectly-straight rift right through it!
The rift spread, and the collapsing sword qi fell to the sides and dispersed, scattering a dazzling rain of light.
In the blink of an eye, the sword of the Spiritual Manifestation Realm Huo Tiandu split apart; Su Yi’s sword qi cut through it as easily as a knife through canvas!
This attack was called Splitting Mountains and Seas, and it was from the Rejoicing Sword Sutra. Nothing could stand in its way!
Over in the distant teahouse, Weng Jiu’s fingers quivered on the zither strings. His expression filled with irrepressible terror.
What a terrifying slash!
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