At his back, he could still feel the lingering chills left behind by that fierce sword qi skimming past him. Li Fan looked down at the mortal city below, which had ceased to exist and had turned into a massive crater, his face twitching slightly.
Fortunately, he had reacted quickly. Otherwise, had he been blasted by that sword light, not only would his physical body have been destroyed outright, but even the foundation of his grotto-heaven might have been damaged.
Fortunately, his luck hadn't been too terrible, and he hadn't been too close. Otherwise, if he had been smothered in immortal-mortal miasma, he might have had to trigger True Reversion right on the spot!
"Even this far from the stone statue, the effect of siphoned luck is already this severe?" Li Fan felt a chill in his heart. He drew luck from the Feather of the Profound Bird to replenish what had been devoured, and quietly circulated his Destiny Domain to prevent further loss of luck.
Below, the smoke and dust gradually cleared, revealing a wooden sword thrust upright into the bottom of the crater.
It looked... somewhat familiar.
"Ah, Fellow Daoist, I am truly sorry!"
Only now did the wooden sword's owner arrive tardily, speaking to Li Fan with a face full of embarrassment and guilt.
"It's all because my skills are lacking—I nearly cost you your life, Fellow Daoist!"
Li Fan looked toward the newcomer. Though the other person didn't recognize him, Li Fan was not unfamiliar with him in the slightest.
It was none other than the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals' illustrious second-generation immortal, the darling son of Immortal Venerable Feixue, who went by the moniker "I Am Invincible"—Shuo Feng!
Yet not long ago, when he appeared during the "friendly exchange sparring" between the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals and the Five Elders Association, he had still possessed Soul Formation cultivation.
Yet looking at him now, Shuo Feng was astonishingly at only the Foundation Establishment realm!
*He hasn't concealed his cultivation. Was he provoked into dispersing his cultivation to start anew?* Li Fan's gaze swept over Shuo Feng, an imperceptible gleam flashing in his eyes.
"So it is Fellow Daoist Shuo Feng!" Li Fan cupped his hands neither humbly nor arrogantly. "I thought some petty scoundrels from the Five Elders Association were stirring up trouble again!"
Shuo Feng blushed slightly.
He wasn't surprised that the other party recognized him, merely explaining hurriedly, "A misunderstanding, truly a misunderstanding. I was meditating and cultivating up in the sky, but for some reason, this wooden sword suddenly slipped out of control. Fortunately, you reacted fast enough, Fellow Daoist, or else I would have incurred needless bloodshed once more!"
"Haha, no matter. I can see you didn't do it on purpose, Fellow Daoist. However, Fellow Daoist Shuo, what happened to your cultivation realm?" Li Fan appraised him, intentionally letting a trace of perplexity show on his face as he asked.
Shuo Feng didn't hide anything either, speaking frankly, "It's nothing, really. I just felt that I took the wrong path before, so I started all over again!"
Although Li Fan already knew, he still feigned a look of shock. He studied Shuo Feng closely for a long while before shaking his head slightly with a sigh of admiration: "The Soul Formation realm is already the ultimate goal that the vast majority of cultivators in this world can only dream of. Yet you possess such courage, Fellow Daoist, to start over the moment you decided to..."
"I am full of admiration, truly!" Li Fan cupped his fists in praise.
Shuo Feng gave a self-deprecating smile and shrugged it off: "I hardly deserve such lavish praise, Fellow Daoist. Where am I any better than ordinary people? I merely rely on having my venerable mother to back me up. Even if my restart fails and I remain a Foundation Establishment cultivator for the rest of my life, how many people in this Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals would dare look down on me? But if an ordinary cultivator failed, it would truly be beyond redemption."
Li Fan smiled, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.
Instead, he turned his gaze to the wooden sword in the giant crater below and furrowed his brows. "Even though you are cultivating anew, Fellow Daoist, you are clearly not someone ordinary cultivators can compare to. From the speed and power of this wooden sword, I fear even typical Golden Core cultivators could be casually slain by it."
Shuo Feng agreed as well: "You have sharp eyes, Fellow Daoist. This wooden sword..."
He paused, then continued, "To tell the truth, this sword is the wonder of heaven and earth I used for my new Foundation Establishment. But even though I successfully established my foundation with it, I still cannot completely control it."
"It gives me quite a headache." Saying this, Shuo Feng pointed downward.
Yet the wooden sword in the crater only swayed gently for a moment, failing to answer Shuo Feng's summons and remaining embedded in the ground.
No matter how extraordinary his poise normally was, an embarrassed look couldn't help but creep across Shuo Feng's face.
Clearing his throat, Shuo Feng cast spells repeatedly, trying three times in succession.
Only then did he finally summon the wooden sword back to his side.
Li Fan looked closely at the wooden sword before him. Calling it "unremarkable" would no longer do it justice.
There were no patterns etched onto the blade, nor did it exude any profound aura.
One could even describe it as utterly crude, resembling a child's toy whittled simply from wood.
Yet judging by that formidable strike just now, Li Fan knew this item was nowhere near as ordinary as it appeared.
Stirred by an idea, Li Fan suddenly proposed, "This sword is rather interesting. As it happens, I have always possessed some insight into the Way of the Sword, but have struggled to find a suitable opponent to spar with. Why don't we..."
Hearing this, Shuo Feng was overjoyed. Clapping his hands in delight, he exclaimed, "I've just broken through as well, and was fretting over finding a suitable partner to spar with. Your words hit the exact spot, Fellow Daoist!"
His expression grew solemn. Shuo Feng lightly grasped the wooden sword and pulled back some distance, pointing it toward Li Fan from afar. "We stop when a touch is scored!"
"Agreed!" Li Fan answered resoundingly.
Yet even before the sound of his voice had died away, nine times nine—eighty-one blue water swords—had already taken shape. Forming a sword formation in midair, they whistled through the wind and flew to Shuo Feng's side in an instant.
This was a lethal move Li Fan unleashed by drawing upon the power of his water-attribute grotto-heaven and taking the profound principles of Cloud Water Heavenly Palace's Sea-Calming Divine Sword as its core. He showed no leniency simply because Shuo Feng was merely a Foundation Establishment cultivator, fully mobilizing the might of an entire grotto-heaven.
"Water Dragon's Chant!"
With Li Fan's shout, the blue water swords suddenly dispersed like sky-filling water dragons, thrusting together toward every corner of Shuo Feng's body.
Confronted with Li Fan's apparent lack of restraint, Shuo Feng was not alarmed, but delighted.
Closing his eyes as the eighty-one water swords closed in on him, he slowly swung out a strike.
Seemingly exceedingly slow, it was in truth swift to the extreme.
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
...
Like a flash of white lightning, it shuttled continuously through the swarm of water dragons across the sky.
Every time the wooden sword struck a blue water sword, it produced a crisp metallic ring.
In the blink of an eye, the wooden sword flitted about, having parried every single water sword one by one.
Shuo Feng pulled back his sword.
As if it had drained all his strength, his arm trembled slightly.
Yet in the next instant, the eighty-one blue water swords that should have been under Li Fan's control actually turned traitor, pivoting around to attack Li Fan instead!
And what was more...
A subtle, even more profound transformation seemed to have been added to them. The azure water dragon they formed appeared in Li Fan's eyes as if it had truly come alive.
Faintly, a dragon's roar could be heard by his ear. Amid crisscrossing sword qi, it came roaring right before Li Fan.
"This is..."
A sharp glint flashed in Li Fan's eyes, yet his reaction was not slow in the least.
The world was instantly illuminated by blue light.
A flash of sword light cleaved out from before Li Fan, tearing the blue water dragon in half down the middle with overwhelming, unstoppable force.
And with its momentum undiminished, in the span of a breath, it slashed right before Shuo Feng's face.
Chapter 657