In the span of an instant, Wei Yuan and Yinren exchanged seventeen blows. Seventeen new wounds opened across Wei Yuan's flesh; not once had he managed to dodge or parry, nor had he landed a single cut on his opponent.
Yinren's strikes, deflected seventeen times by fortune, had missed Wei Yuan's vital spots, yet they still shattered several thousand strands of azure qi.
Wei Yuan fought under extreme vexation. He could not lock onto his foe at all. The moment Yinren struck, his speed surged exponentially, far outstripping Wei Yuan's reaction time, leaving him practically standing frozen to take the blows.
After enduring seventeen strikes, Wei Yuan finally discerned the trick. Yinren was not simply fast; rather, at the instant he attacked, the flow of time around his body appeared to accelerate. Thus, he could move at an unfathomable speed, even breaching the limits of physical quickness.
Fortunately, though Yinren was a Scenery Command cultivator, the full suppression of the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World reduced his power to less than half of its peak. Otherwise, a mere seven or eight hundred slashes would likely have been enough to hack Wei Yuan to death.
Seeing the eighteenth slash coming, Wei Yuan used his saber as a sword and stabbed down toward the nonexistent ground before him. As the strike fell, Yinren's long saber swept past, striking directly against Qiyue and unleashing a draconic roar that shook a thousand li!
It actually blocked it? Wei Yuan could not help but reexamine the Sword of Ten Thousand Generations and Autumns with newfound respect.
Using his saber as a sword, he immediately brought the blade across his back, pivoted, and unleashed his fiercest lethal technique: Sweeping Away the Four Barbarians! Yet before the blade could even rise above his head, Yinren broke free of the lock-on and shifted a hundred zhang away.
Wei Yuan understood in his heart that the disparity in their cultivation realms was simply too vast, causing even the Sword of Ten Thousand Generations and Autumns—a technique guaranteed to strike true against peers of the same realm—to miss its mark. Wei Yuan was not discouraged. Having forced Yinren back with great difficulty, he naturally intended to seize this opportunity to deliver a vicious blow.
A beam of light plummeted from above, instantly clothing Yinren in shimmering metallic sheens. This was a formation laid down by the divine wood Langya, eroding the interior and exterior of Yinren's dharma body with the true intent of metal.
Yinren abruptly covered his mouth and coughed violently. When he looked at his palm, tiny metallic particles were visible within the coughed-up blood. These metallic specks had appeared not only in his blood, but throughout every part of his body. With every single movement Yinren made, needle-sharp agony racked his entire form.
He circulated his dharmic powers with all his might to combat the true intent of metal and dissolve the metal particles transmuting from his flesh and blood. Consequently, his dharmic power weakened by another measure, and his movements slowed by ten percent.
Yinren felt a touch of surprise. He cast a deep look at Wei Yuan and said, "Three major curses in a row, all of a rank so high that even I cannot resist them. It seems this world of yours possesses quite a few immortal items. Leiling is in for good fortune."
Given Yinren's cultivation, continuous curses cast by Dharma Idol cultivators would generally fail to attach to him and prove ineffective. Yet now, three curses had succeeded consecutively, indicating that the casters were of higher rank than Yinren himself—which left only one possibility: immortal items.
Before his voice had even faded, Yinren was already beside Wei Yuan. The reverse-gripped short blade swept through the air, once again striking Wei Yuan's upright demonic blade, Qiyue. This strike was blocked once more by the End of Ten Thousand Generations.
Wei Yuan's spirits lifted. He clearly noticed a slight sluggishness and dissonance in Yinren's movements. Minute though it was, compared to how Yinren had been before, he was no longer flawless, no longer invincible.
Another wisp of fire descended from the heavens onto Yinren. This, too, was a curse he could not defend against, incinerating his dharma body inside and out. Yet this was not karmic fire; it was pure flame born from the Flame God Flower, capable of melting gold and dissolving iron.
However, when the fierce fire enveloped him, it ended up dispersing the true intent of metal from before. Spurred by the agony of burning flesh, Yinren's killing intent surged drastically, his movements becoming impossibly fast once more. With a single slash, he cleaved away three thousand points of Wei Yuan's karmic luck, piercing straight through the End of Ten Thousand Generations!
Wei Yuan hastily extinguished the fierce fire and reapplied the true intent of metal, only then managing to keep Yinren in check once more.
Yinren's eyes lit up. "A fourth immortal item!"
Wei Yuan gritted his teeth. This Yinren was far too terrifying. No longer holding anything back, he played his trump card: a curse stemming from the Jianmu sapling fell upon him. A sickly green hue washed over Yinren's face, his movements suddenly becoming stiff and sluggish, slowing by a full thirty percent!
Yinren was deeply astonished. "Could this place be the private vault of some immortal?"
As he spoke, several strands of his eyebrows began growing rapidly. Showing no outward emotion, Yinren plucked those brows out. Wei Yuan's heart stirred. The Jianmu sprout resided alone on a deserted island without mortals helping it form an array; it cast its curse relying solely on its own power, possessing an amount of dharmic power roughly equivalent to an immortal plant supported by a ten-thousand-man grand array.
Yet its immortal power possessed the efficacy of promoting growth in all things. Now afflicted by the curse, hundreds upon thousands of points within Yinren's body were desperately growing in accordance with their natural instincts.
In Yinren's view, this was sheer chaotic overgrowth. Left unchecked, he would inevitably end up transforming into a formless puddle of rotten meat. Yet this power of growth was remarkably difficult to fend off. After all, it did not directly assault the body, but rather accelerated the body's own growth. Yinren's dharmic power could not intuitively counter and purge it on its own; he had to exert divine sense to actively suppress the Wood vitality of Jianmu and excise the excess flesh.
Seeing that the Wood vitality had proven even more effective than anticipated, a thought struck Wei Yuan. When it came to growth, he possessed an even fiercer method!
In the blink of an eye, an exceptionally brilliant burst of phoenix fire descended from the heavens. The moment the phoenix fire made contact with Jianmu's Wood vitality, it expanded explosively. Several fleshy lumps immediately sprouted on Yinren's face, writhing from within and swelling rapidly!
The efficacy of the phoenix fire exceeded Wei Yuan's wildest expectations. If this continued and Yinren did not retreat, he would not even last half an hour.
At this moment, Wei Yuan still had the immortal orchid and the celestial laurel tree held in reserve, but it seemed he would not need them after all.
Yinren swung his blade, hacking away the tumors sprouting on his face and body, but the excised flesh began growing anew immediately. He frowned slightly, then offered an unperturbed smile. "It seems time has run out. In that case, accept your death!"
By now, Yinren was afflicted by multiple curses, with a total of a hundred and fifty thousand mortals continuously invoking them in the rear. His burst speed had dropped to less than a tenth of what it once was, and the inside of his body was an utter mess, rife with wildly proliferating flesh and blood.
Having fought to this point, Wei Yuan was no longer in any hurry. He maneuvered incessantly to probe for an opportunity, intending to rely on the unquenchable karmic fire to slowly roast his opponent to death. When he did strike, it was inevitably with Sweeping Away the Four Barbarians, forcing Yinren to evade—in truth using this immensely destructive technique merely to buy time.
Yinren struck Wei Yuan with several consecutive slashes, but as before, they were all deflected by karmic luck. The two sides momentarily fell into a stalemate.
Wei Yuan unleashed another strike of Sweeping Away the Four Barbarians. Expecting it to achieve nothing once again, he unexpectedly managed to lock onto Yinren this time. Yinren dodged with all his might, yet the strike still caught his shoulder; the tremendous power of the blow nearly severed his arm along with his entire shoulder!
Yet even with the blow landing true, Wei Yuan felt not the slightest bit of joy. Instead, an intense premonition of danger welled up within him. A bone-chilling cold gripped his entire body, bringing with it the vivid omen of impending demise!
Yinren bared his teeth in a grin, cold light glinting from his fangs. "Now, you have no karmic luck to protect you!"
Yinren remained standing where he was, yet Wei Yuan knew he had already moved! In a span briefer than the snap of a finger, he vanished and reappeared, moving far beyond what an ordinary Dharma Idol cultivator's divine sense could track.
When he reemerged, both the long and short blades in Yinren's hands were already buried deep within Wei Yuan's body. This time, karmic luck had failed to intervene.
Yinren had unleashed a secret art of his clan. Wei Yuan had previously bestowed his otherworldly fortune and purple qi upon Maiden Yin-Yang, leaving himself with only azure qi. The rank of this secret art was exceptionally high; in the end, the azure qi was thoroughly suppressed by the technique, and Wei Yuan bore the full brunt of both blades.
Having landed the strike, Yinren did not immediately dissipate. Looking around, he muttered to himself, "There is still a little time left. It seems I must slay a few more immortal items, or Leiling will not be able to claim this world. Hmm, I shall start by killing that bald donkey who summons karmic fire!"
By this point, Wei Yuan was completely immobilized. His origin soul had fallen utterly silent, and his very consciousness felt as though it were skewered on the tips of the blades!
Yinren abruptly withdrew his weapons. Surprisingly, Wei Yuan's physical body was completely unscathed, yet perched on the tips of the twin blades was a translucent human figure. Wei Yuan's soul had actually been ripped straight out of his body!
In an instant, the entire Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World was bathed in a heavy, bloody hue. All living beings instantly went berserk. The sea churned violently once more, and countless creatures, large and small, rushed desperately toward the battlefield.
Yinren's expression shifted. The world's reaction had caught him completely off guard. How could the death of this single man drive all living creatures in the world mad? If it was like this, wouldn't they have to slaughter every single living being across this realm just to claim it? But if they ended up with a dead, desolate world, how would it differ from the one they currently inhabited?
Thoughts raced through Yinren's mind, and a possibility suddenly dawned on him: Could this world belong to that man himself, rather than being bestowed by an immortal?
How could that be possible? It defied all common sense!
Right then, Yinren's expression abruptly changed. Maiden Yin-Yang appeared behind him, holding the Scarlet Night Immortal-Slaying Sword, and slashed toward him!
With a flick of his twin blades, Yinren flung Wei Yuan's soul into the sky and spun around to parry Maiden Yin-Yang's sword strike.
With Wei Yuan's soul severed from his body, there was no returning; even without another strike, death was certain. Thus, Yinren could spare no further thought for Wei Yuan, compelled to face this unprecedented foe with all his might.
Blades and sword collided. Yinren's entire frame convulsed violently as flesh and blood erupted from all his wounds, hurling him backward through the air!
In an instant, Maiden Yin-Yang unleashed two more strikes, forcing Yinren to stagger back. Within a breath, he skidded back a hundred zhang, but he managed to endure all three strikes.
Yet Maiden Yin-Yang suddenly shifted to gripping her sword with both hands. From afar, a platinum radiance flecked with crimson fell upon the blade. The Scarlet Night Immortal-Slaying Sword abruptly lengthened by a foot, its aura soaring so fiercely that even Yinren's twin blades began to whimper softly.
Yin-Yang launched a ferocious onslaught, her crimson blade leaving bands of light in the air that coiled around Yinren. In an instant, she unleashed seven consecutive slashes, finally shattering Yinren's defense. Her eighth thrust pierced straight through the back of Yinren's heart, extinguishing the meager trace of life he had left.
At that moment, Yinren looked up and noticed that a full moon had somehow risen to the center of the firmament. From within the moon emerged an impossibly gigantic, three-eyed avian head, which clamped down on Wei Yuan's soul and stuffed it back into his body.
It is useless... For some reason, Yinren felt a deep urge to voice those words. But then, he saw the avian head exhale a plume of profound black qi onto Wei Yuan!
Had Wei Yuan seen it, he would naturally have recognized it as otherworldly fortune. But Yinren wanted to cry out: World source! If only their world possessed such world source...
Alas, he could no longer make a single sound. He could only watch as his body crumbled into silver sand, scattering with the wind.
In his final moments, he caught sight of Leiling—that warrior bathed in golden brilliance, a fighter who remained utterly fearless even when besieged by Longying, dragon guards, and multiple Dharma Idol cultivators.
Just then, a colossal seven-colored sword lotus blossomed beneath her feet, then slowly closed shut. Inside the lotus bud, her golden vitality steadily plummeted. Yet when it had dropped past the halfway mark, countless pale-gold rays of light suddenly burst forth from within the bud, shattering the sword lotus to pieces!
Leiling strode out from amidst a field of immortal swords, every strand of her mane blazing with light. Yet right at the moment she broke free from that desperate plight, transitioning from death back to life, a crimson sword qi swept across her body, while raging red lotus karmic fire ignited upon her form, burning her until she roared in agony.
Finally, a water-blue woman appeared. Holding a short sword, she soundlessly plunged it through the back of Leiling's heart, then twisted it viciously, shredding everything within her body!
From Yinren's petrifying eyes, several grains of sand rolled free.
Leiling...
It seemed as though every person and every creature heard that name echoing deep within their hearts, followed by a heavy sigh.
Wei Yuan shuddered and slowly opened his eyes.
Seeing him open his eyes, the watery woman seemed startled. She immediately released her grip on the sword and stepped back, clutching her chest.
The celestial laurel tree had no idea what kind of madness Bingli was succumbing to this time. It unleashed two more sword qis that crossed a thousand li in an instant, piercing through Leiling's corpse. Leiling showed not the slightest reaction as her body plummeted into the sea. The celestial laurel sword withdrew its qi; these two strikes yielded no bestowal of heaven and earth, serving as nothing more than desecration of a corpse, proving that Leiling was indeed dead.
At this moment, Wei Yuan felt somewhat dazed. Looking around, everything appeared no different from moments before, as though he had merely experienced a brief lapse in concentration. Yet he knew full well that he had genuinely died just now. The Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World had shown signs of imminent collapse, which was why all living beings tied to it had gone mad.
Wei Yuan had never imagined that Yinren's desperate, life-sacrificing strike would carry so high a rank, able to thoroughly suppress human karmic luck and directly attack the soul. Had he not been inside the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, saved by the shadow in the moon, he would truly have perished this time.
The world was vast, with realms as numerous as the stars, home to countless wondrous beings and extraordinary abilities. Now Wei Yuan finally understood why the silver-haired woman, despite having the backing of an immortal, had chosen a death-substituting puppet as her primary safeguard.
At this moment, a speck of immortal light descended from the heavens and settled upon Maiden Yin-Yang, concealing her presence and wiping away all karmic ties from the past span of time.
"My thanks to the Immortal Monarch!" Just as Wei Yuan finished bowing, a thought suddenly crossed his mind. With no time to overthink, he hastily cried out to the firmament, "Immortal Monarch, aid me!"
From the void, a small jade hoe and three silver nails suddenly flew out, followed by the voice of Immortal Monarch Yanshi: "I can delay things for you for one shichen. Go search for treasures and mineral deposits on your own. Any land within a hundred li of the silver nails can be dug up with the jade hoe and kept within your mindscape world."
Wei Yuan snatched the jade hoe and silver nails, rallied all the warriors capable of moving, and charged straight toward the other world, sparing no thought for Leiling's corpse and forgetting completely that he had just died and returned to life.
At any rate, the corpse had fallen into the sea and was not going anywhere, but he had only one shichen to scavenge for treasures in the new world!
Above the Immortal Heavens, two immortals of the Northern Liao gazed at the pale-blue star as its color began to fade, their faces filled with shock. Before they could even react, a fishing line descended and firmly hooked the pale-blue star. True Monarch Yanshi's massive face appeared in the Immortal Heavens, touching the vault above and overlooking the abyss below, wearing an exceptionally radiant smile.
Chapter 733