Tao Danyang possessed supreme talent in the Sword Dao, ranking among the top three in the history of the Mount Shu Sword Sect. His mastery of the sword had reached the pinnacle of perfection, peerless throughout the world.
Back then, when Li Xiaoke came to visit the Sword Sect, it was Tao Danyang who permitted him to enter the Sword Immortal Precipice to comprehend the Dao.
He had looked down upon Li Xiaoke with considerable disdain, remarking that Li Xiaoke claimed Dual Perfection of Bell and Sword, but if he truly had ability, what need did he have of a bell? With this, he had mocked Li Xiaoke for being unfaithful to the sword, claiming he could never attain the sword's supreme heights.
Yet now, facing this sword strike from Xu Ying, he unexpectedly felt as he had when he first learned the sword—holding a sword while facing the incoming sword light thrust by his master, utterly unable to evade.
He even felt as if he himself had been unfaithful to the sword!
In an instant, countless sword forms flashed through his mind, but whichever technique he envisioned executing, the result was always the same: his technique broken, dying beneath the blade!
He had seen the sword techniques of the Founding Patriarch—exquisitely profound, obscure, and exceedingly difficult to master. Yet the sword technique Xu Ying unleashed was even more exquisite than that of the Founding Patriarch, and even mightier!
Hidden within this sword stance were mysteries that even the Founding Patriarch had never attained. This was the true *Sword Dao Return to Truth Art*.
The Sword Dao Return to Truth Art, dreamed of by countless members of the Sword Sect and sought even by the Founding Patriarch to decipher, was executed to perfection in Xu Ying's hands.
As this strike thrust forward, the great swords carried in the sword caskets upon the corpses on the ground flew out one after another, resonating with the immortal sword as they lunged toward Tao Danyang.
On the peaks of the Sword Sect's seventy-two summits, the iron and bronze swords plunged into the rock faces began to vibrate violently. Suddenly, a flying sword soared into the sky, streaking toward the Ten-Li Precipice.
*Clang! Clang!*
Behind that flying sword, countless others wrenched themselves free of the mountains and surged forth boldly. More and more flying swords merged into torrents of steel, streaming from the seventy-two peaks toward the Ten-Li Precipice.
They converged in midair, forming a hundred-li torrent of flying swords. The dense, teeming blades—long or short, broad or narrow, heavy or light—streamed like endless silver and black carps, whistling through the sky into the Ten-Li Precipice!
Even the sword qi within Tao Danyang's own body stirred restlessly, threatening to burst free from his flesh!
He felt as though his own Primordial Spirit, yuan qi, and divine sense were all about to transform into swords, bursting forth to execute him!
This was the Supreme Sword Dao!
All things could become swords; all things could be transformed into one's own sword. Even the enemy could become a sword to slay the enemy!
The character "Return," which the Founding Patriarch had spent half a lifetime failing to fully comprehend, was displayed to absolute perfection in Xu Ying's hands!
"I cannot withstand this!"
Tao Danyang retreated rapidly, cold sweat beading on his brow. To him, Xu Ying's cultivation and strength were not high. At the second Pass-Breaching stage, no matter how formidable his cultivation might be, it was nowhere near comparable to his own foundation of seventeen thousand cave-heavens.
Yet the Immortal Sword Siwuxie did not rely on Xu Ying's cultivation strength!
The Immortal Sword Siwuxie was an immortal artifact left behind by the Founding Patriarch and had long since birthed its own sentience. It was immensely powerful, capable of attacking on its own and unleashing might unique to an immortal artifact!
Xu Ying wielded it, executing the Sword Dao Return to Truth Art, while it ensured that the art's power was unleashed to its utmost limit!
The enchanting sword light carried the Supreme Sword Dao, carrying the sounds of the Immortal Dao into Tao Danyang's ears. That Dao resonance was maddening, incomprehensible!
Terror gripped his heart. He immediately mobilized the entirety of his cultivation, activating his specialty Sword Dao divine ability to meet the oncoming sword light!
*Sword Sweeps Mountains and Rivers!*
As he unleashed his Sword Dao sword art, a vision of mountains and rivers faintly manifested, only to crumble in the very next instant!
Vast ranges of sword mountains collapsed, and rivers of sword qi were extinguished, shattering into an eddying torrent of sword qi that turned around to strike him instead!
Tao Danyang retreated at lightning speed and shifted his stance once more. Violent magic power surged from his seventeen thousand cave-heavens, condensing into the Heaven-Leveling Sword.
This was the most powerful strike among the sword ways he had pioneered. When pressed down, it was as if a supreme heavenly god held a blade to flatten a world of the heavens!
Yet the Heaven-Leveling Sword, his greatest pride, fragmented under the flashing rays of immortal light—some fast, some slow—only augmenting the might of Xu Ying's strike. Tao Danyang retreated again and changed moves, but each technique was shattered in turn!
He fell back again and again, unleashing all manner of arts in mere moments, yet he still could not breach Xu Ying's sword momentum. The sword qi born from his shattered techniques only fueled Xu Ying's sword momentum, causing it to swell uncontrollably!
"Before him, I cannot use my sword! Any strike I make will be broken, and over time he will borrow my power to gather an unstoppable momentum to execute me beneath his blade!"
Tao Danyang leapt backward into the air. Facing the surging torrent of the Sword Dao crashing toward him, he roared furiously, his sleeves snapping as he thrust both hands forward.
*Whoosh!*
Cave-heavens shifted abruptly from behind him to his front. Violent magic power erupted from seventeen thousand cave-heavens, some spinning like dazzling vortexes large and small, others blooming like lotuses!
Tao Danyang's shout thundered, "You have the Supreme Sword Dao, but I possess supreme magic power! Let us see how you break my cave-heavens!"
This was magic power capable of shaking the heavens, an invincible force that seemed to freeze time and space, summoned for the sole purpose of blocking Xu Ying's sword light!
*Swish! Swish! Swish!*
The Immortal Sword Siwuxie plunged into the barrier. Sword light clashed against the boundless magic power, producing piercing shrieks.
The immortal sword pierced the walls of magic power formed by cave-heaven after cave-heaven, its immortal radiance growing ever more brilliant. Yet its speed gradually slowed, until at last the surging momentum of the Sword Dao was halted, unable to proceed further.
Tao Danyang was just about to breathe a sigh of relief when he saw the torrent of flying swords from the Ten-Li Precipice roar forth like an enraged dragon. Innumerable flying swords shot into his cave-heavens one after another.
He possessed as many as seventeen thousand cave-heavens, and at this moment, hundreds of flying swords were piercing into every single one. As more flying swords arrived from the Sword Sect's seventy-two peaks, their numbers grew relentlessly within the cave-heavens, gradually disrupting their operation.
Tao Danyang grunted. He saw Xu Ying gripping the Immortal Sword Siwuxie, the blinding point of light at its tip burning ever brighter as Xu Ying seized the opportunity to break through his magical seal!
Suddenly, a bronze bell came whistling through the air, accelerating rapidly. It expanded as it flew, resembling a bronze bell-shaped mountain roughly three hundred zhang high. The Dao images of all living things and myriad kinds surfaced upon its bell walls. With an earth-shattering *clang*, it smashed into the magical barrier formed by the seventeen thousand cave-heavens!
Tao Danyang's vital breath violently trembled, and he let out a muffled groan, blood seeping from his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose.
Just as the bronze bell struck, a divine bird flew forward with three legs and golden wings, charging with terrifying ferocity. It dragged a colossal fireball of True Solar Fire several dozen times larger than the bronze bell, slamming into the barrier with a deafening boom.
The three-legged divine bird was savage and ferocious. Its spinning wings turned into flashing sabers, hacking wildly around the magical barrier. At the same time, two divine sabers flew forth, darting in and out from beneath its wings like ghosts!
Countless saber lights cleaved into the magical barrier. Tao Danyang spread all ten fingers and spun his body, pushing his magic power to its limit to condense the barrier into a sphere, with himself standing at its core.
Cold sweat beaded on his brow. Under the onslaught of the bronze bell and the three-legged golden crow, the pressure on him spiked, allowing the Immortal Sword Siwuxie to plunge much deeper into the barrier.
"Fortunately, they have no more helpers..."
Barely had the thought crossed his mind when he suddenly saw a purple weed flailing countless root filaments. Piercing the ears and eyes of the corpses of the Sword Sect experts, it manipulated over two hundred of them to charge in this direction!
*Thud! Thud! Thud!*
These Sword Sect experts battered his magical barrier with brutal strikes—flying knees, face smashes, and heavy fists—piling on even more pressure.
Behind the purple weed, a massive serpent nearly three hundred zhang long flew forward astride sword qi, using its tail like a sword to strike heavily against the magical barrier.
Blood seeped from Tao Danyang's eyes, ears, mouth, and nose. Every single cave-heaven had been pushed to its absolute limit, faltering on the verge of collapse.
His Primordial Spirit also emerged to oversee the void, spreading its arms to keep the magical barrier from breaking.
Yet at this very moment, Shi Yuqing approached, the Bright Moon Wheel floating behind her, glowing brighter and brighter.
In a hoarse voice, Tao Danyang cried, "Qing'er, you are my disciple! Do you still remember how I treated you?"
"I know, but I am the sect master of the Sword Sect."
Shi Yuqing invoked her Golden Core to activate the Bright Moon Wheel. A colossal beam of sword qi shot from the wheel and stabbed into Tao Danyang's magical barrier.
The seventeen thousand cave-heavens faltered for a fraction of a second. A chill gripped Tao Danyang's heart as the Immortal Sword Siwuxie pierced straight through the magical barrier, its sword light thrusting toward the center of his brow!
Tao Danyang's sleeves billowed as he retreated, but a wondrous beam of light shot from the tip of the immortal sword, piercing through his brow.
Struck by this blow, Tao Danyang did not retreat further; instead, he surged forward toward Xu Ying.
Xu Ying immediately shifted his technique, holding the Immortal Sword Siwuxie to execute the second form of the Sword Dao Return to Truth Art. Yet Tao Danyang abruptly veered off. With fluttering sleeves, he met Jin Buyi's twin sabers head-on, forcing Jin Buyi back, before barreling toward the purple immortal plant.
His magic power was truly vast; clashing head-to-head with a being like Jin Buyi, who could battle heavenly gods, he actually forced Jin Buyi to stumble backward repeatedly.
The purple immortal plant hastily yanked back its countless root filaments and dodged far away. Suddenly, Tao Danyang and the corpses of the two hundred-plus Sword Sect experts moved in absolute unison, their actions completely synchronized as they fled outward together!
The bronze bell crashed down from above with a resounding *gong*, sending the corpses stumbling and collapsing in all directions.
Yuan Qi shouted loudly, "Lord Bell, Lord Jin, sever his cave-heavens first to ruin his magic power! His cave-heavens were transplanted; once they are cut away, he will be beaten back to his original form!"
The bronze bell and Jin Buyi realized the truth and immediately surged into the sky toward the cave-heavens, severing their connection to Tao Danyang's Realm of Xiyi!
Cave-heavens moved across the sky like stars, following Tao Danyang as he fled outside the seventy-two peaks.
Xu Ying activated the Extreme Intent Freedom Technique, giving chase like lightning. But in the crowd ahead, a person suddenly exploded, their flesh and blood transforming into a blood-red beam of sword qi that shot into the sky!
Xu Ying realized, "He was struck by my sword and is trying to use a scapegoat technique to dispel my sword intent!"
Realizing this while sprinting forward, Xu Ying mobilized the Immortal Sword Siwuxie. Siwuxie flew from his hand like a streak of flowing light, lunging toward Tao Danyang among the crowd. People in the throng exploded one after another; some even had their Primordial Spirits turn into sword qi as Tao Danyang began treating the injuries to his own Primordial Spirit.
In just a short moment, more than half of the two hundred people had perished, turning into streaks of bloodstained sword qi tens of li long, crisscrossing haphazardly across the sky and among the peaks.
By the time they reached the outskirts of the Sword Sect mountains and had just crossed Jianmen Pass, only a single person remained by Tao Danyang's side. With a sharp pop, that person exploded as well, turning into a blood sword, destroyed in body and soul.
*What was the deal with the Primordial Spirits inside those corpses?* Xu Ying wondered in perplexity.
At that very moment, Tao Danyang's body abruptly exploded with a sharp pop, blood swords flying in all directions.
Xu Ying froze. Hastening his pace, he arrived where Tao Danyang had been, only to find no trace of his corpse or bones; even his Primordial Spirit had been completely extinguished.
He looked up and saw the bronze bell and Jin Buyi still chasing after the cave-heavens in the sky, cleaving them down one by one.
Yet the remaining cave-heavens sped away, flying faster and faster into the distance.
"It's the Great Art of Spirit Splitting!"
The Immortal Sword Siwuxie flew over to Xu Ying. The sword child sat upon the blade, gazing in shock and uncertainty toward the direction where the cave-heavens had fled. "Tao Danyang destroyed his own physical body to take another! Before ascending the mountain, he must have hidden another body nearby."
Xu Ying rose into the air. The cave-heavens whistled as they plunged into the mountain forests, vanishing without a trace.
Jin Buyi flapped its wings and gave chase, attempting to search for where the cave-heavens were hidden. Xu Ying called out loudly, "Lord Jin, come back! Don't pursue him!"
Jin Buyi slowly landed. Yuan Qi and the bronze bell caught up as well. Yuan Qi shouted, "Ah Ying, why shouldn't we chase him?"
Xu Ying shook his head. "We have no idea what Tao Danyang looks like now. Even if we give chase, we won't find his trail."
Just then, a powerful wave of divine sense surged over, exploding into Tao Danyang's voice in midair: "This time, I underestimated you. But the next time I return, you won't be so fortunate."
Xu Ying replied impassively, "You had better survive tonight first before talking. You took a strike from my sword, and even after switching through so many bodies and burning through so much of your Primordial Spirit, you still haven't dissolved the power of that strike. With injuries so severe, aren't you afraid your peers will come looking for you?"
Tao Danyang snorted coldly, and his divine sense retreated.
Xu Ying turned around and inquired of the Immortal Sword Siwuxie, "What is the Great Art of Spirit Splitting?"
The sword child sitting upon the immortal sword replied, "It is a method for refining a second Primordial Spirit and external avatars. Those who cultivate this method must capture Qi Refiners in the Cross-Refinement stage or the second Pass-Breaching stage. Qi Refiners in these two realms have formed a Golden Core, but have yet to refine a Primordial Spirit. By seizing their Golden Cores and wiping away their souls and memories to turn them into vessels, one can refine the Golden Core into their own second Primordial Spirit. That Qi Refiner's body becomes an external avatar. Once cultivated to the Twelve-Story Pavilion stage to form a Primordial Spirit, the second Primordial Spirit and external avatar are complete."
It shook its head. "This technique is exceedingly evil; very few ever practice it."
Hearing this, Yuan Qi said, "Were those two hundred-plus Sword Sect experts just now all Tao Danyang's external avatars and second Primordial Spirits? When did they become his avatars and second Primordial Spirits?"
The sword child said, "Naturally, it was back when they were still Qi Refiners in the Cross-Refinement stage or the second Pass-Breaching stage..."
Saying this, it could not help but shudder.
Those two hundred-plus Sword Sect experts were all elders and venerables of the Sword Sect, its backbone and pillars of strength, as well as the diehards of the orthodox faction!
Back when the Nuo immortal faction and the orthodox faction fought tooth and nail, it was these very Sword Sect experts who battled the Nuo immortal faction to the death!
The reason the Sword Sect's Nuo immortal faction was able to expand so rapidly was precisely because these orthodox masters were repeatedly defeated, causing people to lose faith in orthodox Qi Refinement methods and turn to dual cultivation of Nuo and qi.
"This man is terrifying!"
The sword child murmured, "The next time we encounter him, who knows what guise he will take..."
Xu Ying looked into the distance and said calmly, "He has already been wounded by me, branded with an indelible imprint of the Sword Dao. No matter what guise he assumes, he cannot deceive me."
Chapter 219