Chapter 473: Inclusion rather than Exclusion
Visible to the naked eye, the blade of the wooden sword turned black.
The black was so dense and cold that several spectators shuddered in horror.
"What’s going on with that sword?" Someone asked.
However, no one had an answer so they could only watch as Yu Nianzhen raised the sword.
"Infinite cyclone." Yu Nianzhen muttered.
At the same time, the sword shone with an eerie glow and thousands of silver sword lights flew towards Gong Han.
"Lightning lance." Gong Han shouted and the sound of thunder filled the atmosphere.
A moment later, Gong Han’s sabre emitted a silver light and a bolt of silver lightning flew towards Yu Nianzhen.
"Kneel for me and I will let you live." Gong Han shouted and laughed loudly.
In his mind, the fight was already over.
Compared to the blue lightning, the silver lightning was weaker.
However, they were both exhausted.
Even if the silver lightning was weaker, it was faster and Gong Han was sure it was enough to deal with the exhausted Yu Nianzhen.
"Fellow Daoist Gong should worry about himself." Yu Nianzhen said and poised himself to block the silver lightning.
As Gong Han suspected, Yu Nianzhen was out of strength.
However, even without qi and sword intent, he had enough skill to avoid a fatal injury.
Most importantly, he had already swallowed several Tree of Life leaves.
As long as the attack didn’t annihilate him in one go, he would win the fight.
Compared to him, Gong Han was in more danger.
At first glance, Yu Nianzhen’s attack was disorganised and easy to defend against.
However, when the sword lights reached Gong Han, they organised into a cyclone with him as the eye.
"How is this possible?" He shouted in anger.
When he first saw the attack, he thought he could avoid or block the sword lights.
Unfortunately, things didn’t work out as planned.
After the sword lights formed a cyclone, their nature changed.
Originally, each sword light was an individual entity but after they came together, an invisible force seemed to be holding them together.
When Gong Han deflected a sword light, the force would act and return the sword light to its proper place.
Seeing this, Gong Han used more strength and instead of blocking, he tried to break the nearest sword lights.
However, for every sword light he broke, two would appear.
In this way, the number of sword lights increased and Gong Han could no longer keep up.
In the blink of an eye, his body was covered in sword wounds and his protective robe was torn to pieces.
Witnessing this, the spectators couldn’t help but be shocked.
"This attack..." Someone started but couldn’t finish.
He swallowed the lump in his throat and turned to the person sitting beside him.
"How can an attack work like this?" His companion was also frightened and confused.
"It doesn’t make sense." Another said.
After all, the power and effect of an attack depended on the force used by a cultivator.
Aside from a few kinds of unique attacks that remained linked to their user after they were unleashed, common attacks weren’t like that.
Once they were unleashed, the attacker would no longer be able to affect their power, speed, or effect.
However, Yu Nianzhen’s attack had broken common sense.
Not only did it organise itself to form a cyclone, but it was also growing without any urging from the original attacker.
"This attack contains more than sword dao." Someone observed.
"That much is evident." Another said in a somewhat irritated voice.
"It definitely contains wind dao but that is not enough to explain everything."
"This Cangxing mountain master Yu, is he a monster?"
"Gong Han is about to lose."
At this, several people turned to the stage and saw Gong Han trying to put up a last fight.
However, everything was for nought.
At this point, the sword cyclone had grown so big that Gong Han’s efforts were like scooping a ladle of water from an ocean.
"It’s over." Someone said and it really was.
Unexpectedly, as soon as Gong Han fell to the ground, the sword cyclone dissipated and a sharp aura scattered to every inch of the martial stage.
Seeing this, everyone’s attention turned to Yu Nianzhen and a loud gasp resounded in the arena.
"Mountain master Yu won." Someone said in a voice filled with disbelief.
"It’s not without a cost." Another said.
Although Yu Nianzhen managed to survive, he was badly burned.
Fortunately, he was a veteran of enduring terrible tribulations.
’I need a rest.’ He thought and looked at Gong Han.
The man was on his last breath and would surely die if nothing was done.
Knowing this, Yu Nianzhen carried him to the edge of the martial stage and handed him to the Cangxing team waiting outside the stage.
After doing this, he returned to the centre of the main stage and sat cross-legged.
With a hesitant look in his eyes, he turned to the first small stage and saw Jiang Yue looking at him.
’I don’t want him to see me like this but I want to have a good look at him before I retreat.’ Yu Nianzhen thought and sighed in resignation.
On the small stage, Jiang Yue looked at Yu Nianzhen with worry in his eyes.
When Yu Nianzhen was only accepting challenges from first and second-level reincarnation realm cultivators, Jiang Yue had nothing to worry about.
Now, things had changed and Jiang Yue couldn’t help but worry.
’Will everything be okay?’ He wondered as he looked at his injured husband.
As if seeing the worry, Yu Nianzhen smiled.
After fighting Gong Han, he realised he had underestimated the situation.
If he was not careful, he would surely die.
However, other than worry, Yu Nianzhen was also excited.
Compared to other fights in the past five years, he gained a lot more from fighting Gong Han.
The fight tested his limits and opened new possibilities he was eager to explore.
’Is it really okay?’ Jiang Yue thought and raised his eyebrow in question.
Seeing this, Yu Nianzhen nodded and a soft light entered his eyes.
’I understand.’ Jiang Yue also nodded and smiled.
Without words, the two perfectly understood each other and Yu Nianzhen closed his eyes to meditate.
’The first thing is to heal my injuries and replenish my body.’ He thought.
At the same time, he took five Tree of Life leaves, one qi replenishing pill, one soul replenishing pill, one rejuvenating pill, and one blood replenishing pill.
Since he was in the reincarnation realm, his body recovered quickly but replenishing his qi, soul power, and sword intent took a bit longer.
Fortunately, his talent was top notch and he returned to peak condition after two days of meditation.
’According to the rules, I can rest for ten days every month. For this month, I still have eight days. I will use three days to absorb my recent harvests.’ Yu Nianzhen decided.
After deciding that, he removed the enlightenment mat from his storage ring and sat on it.
Following that, he refined a clear heart pill to remove distracting thoughts before he began to seriously meditate.
’The Tao gives birth to one, one gives birth to two, two gives birth to three, and three gives birth to all things in the universe.’
’In the same way, everything returns to three, three return to two, two return to one, and one returns to the tao.’
’I pursue the tao of the sword but every tao is related. There is no reason to needlessly limit myself. Taking what I need from other tao and incorporating everything into my way is the truth to transcending all the tao.’ Yu Nianzhen thought.
While thinking, he recalled the infinite cyclone he used against Gong Han.
Originally, the infinite cyclone was a technique he derived when comprehending the Infinite Blizzard sword intent.
However, after infusing it with his comprehension of the immortality dao he absorbed from East Green World’s Ning Jin, the technique became something different.
Theoretically, the sword cyclone could continue growing infinitely by absorbing the natural qi in the atmosphere.
However, Yu Nianzhen’s comprehension was not deep enough to achieve this effect.
Most importantly, allowing such a cyclone to infinitely grow was not only dangerous to himself but also to the world.
Because of that, Yu Nianzhen used soul power to control the technique.
’If I want to use such techniques, I need to continue training my soul power. Otherwise, I may end up causing a disaster.’ He thought.
’Other than soul power, I need to continue comprehending the nature of my origin treasures.’
When he thought of that, Yu Nianzhen couldn’t help but frown.
Although the basic nature of his origin treasures was already integrated into his sword qi, the integration was not perfect.
If it was, he wouldn’t have needed the purple-yellow taijitu to deal with Gong Han’s blue lightning.
’Although I have been comprehending my origin treasures, I have never truly accepted their nature. In my heart, I have always viewed them as ’other tao’ and was reluctant to let them affect my sword tao. I didn’t realise that the purity of tao comes from inclusion rather than exclusion.’ Yu Nianzhen thought and unknown to him, his body began to glow with a purple light.
