Karma Sword Domain

Two shadow-recording stones suspended midair gave off a faint, flickering glow, recording everything below. All was quiet— So quiet that the footsteps emerging from the base of the Sword Pavilion were clearly audible. The dark figure in the dust and smoke grew clearer from its initial blur, yet halted in his tracks an instant before stepping forth. Even through the dust, the cold glint upon the hazy silhouette of his sword remained visible. “I don’t need to hold back anymore, do I?” His voice drifted out alongside the pattering rain, calm and cold, devoid of any anger over having taken a sucker punch. Looking at the silhouette veiled in the dust, Xu Yuan dug at his ear with his pinky and chuckled: “I don’t recall you ever wasting words before striking, Xu Changge.” “...” Xu Changge said no more, though judging by the movement of the dark silhouette in the smoke, he seemed to take a deep breath. The rain grew heavier. Xu Yuan narrowed his eyes, waiting for Xu Changge to make his move. He hesitated over whether he should draw a sword of his own. Flashing blades and dancing swords beneath such a torrential downpour ought to have an exquisite aesthetic. Yet after serious consideration for a moment, he abandoned the thought. With his half-baked swordsmanship, he probably couldn’t produce the feeling in his heart. Closing in, even with Void Flash, would most likely just result in getting thoroughly thrashed by Xu Changge, so he might as well end this battle the way a true spellcaster would. The curtain of rain beat against the dust, kicking up ripples, while puddles reflected the gloom of dark clouds. Wisps of bloody qi seeped from the seams of the square black bricks beneath his feet, dispersing to every corner of the sword grounds in virtually an instant. The bloody vapors intertwined, fluttering like grasping hands reaching up from hell. This was an art from the Blood Yuan Heart Calamity Art akin to a domain technique—a domain technique integrating offense, defense, and perception into one. As this sea-of-blood art gradually coalesced, Xu Changge’s figure emerged from the drifting dust. Rain soaked his teal robes. At the corner of his mouth was a wiped smear of blood, yet he remained standing in place without moving. Xu Yuan squinted involuntarily. He was waiting for his art to take form, but what was Xu Changge waiting for? The thought flashed through his mind, and Xu Yuan dwelt on it no longer. Because no matter what, he had to win this fight. He needed this battle to prove his strength to his elder brother, to remind him through defeat never again to second-guess his decisions, and, above all, to beat the hell out of him so his own mind could find peace. Xu Yuan slowly raised a hand. The moment the sea-of-blood art took shape, the rain falling into the sword grounds was no longer clear. It turned a bizarre, vivid crimson, boiling and swelling at Xu Yuan’s movement. A bloody tide descended as dozens of scarlet threads bloomed and shot outward from the ground, lashing toward Xu Changge’s body like steel wires. Xu Yuan had once used this move to bind an avatar of the woman surnamed Wen. Though he had cast it far more covertly back then, he figured that even out in the open, Xu Changge wouldn’t be able to dodge it. After all, this elder brother didn’t possess the eyes of a Saint. Yet in that instant— *Hum—* Without any warning, a line of blood appeared across Xu Yuan’s raised right hand. This sudden development caught him completely off guard. Xu Changge had severed this hand of his, along with the meridians within, and Xu Yuan hadn’t sensed it in the slightest. Thanks to the Dao charm of life, the wound closed almost instantly, but the Source Qi channeled into the art stagnated due to the momentary damage to his meridians. Affected by this, a gap opened in the scarlet threads that were supposed to bind Xu Changge. *Bang!* A puddle splashed. Taking advantage of this opening, Xu Changge vanished from where he stood, turning into an afterimage as he sped through the bloody rain. Xu Yuan let out a soft laugh. It seemed his elder brother also commanded some lethal first-strike sword arts. Though he couldn’t yet fathom how Xu Changge had severed his wrist, as long as the man used it once more, Xu Yuan was bound to spot some clues. No longer acting overconfident, Xu Yuan activated Void Flash—virtually an absolute defense—via the Stacked Inscription Secret Art. At the same time, he swept his palm sideways, and the thousands of missed scarlet threads immediately gave chase to Xu Changge’s sprinting form. And throughout this process, new blood threads continuously formed within the blood domain that blanketed the entire sword grounds. With every step Xu Changge took, the ground he trod upon and the path ahead of him generated over a dozen fresh scarlet threads tangling toward his body. Standing in place, Xu Yuan pointed to his own neck with his other finger and smiled: “You should have gone straight for my head just now, or my dantian.” Had Xu Changge aimed that strike at either of those two vitals, Xu Yuan’s blood domain art would have lost control and collapsed on the spot. In other words, his elder brother was still holding back. At that thought, Xu Yuan narrowed his eyes as he watched the posturing king scrambling in flight, and clenched his raised hand tightly: “Xu Changge, you can’t kill me. Keep holding back, and you really are going to get beaten bloody.” Xu Changge didn’t reply, but his footsteps came to an abrupt halt. Because he had nowhere left to retreat. In the interval of Xu Yuan’s speaking, hundreds upon thousands of scarlet threads had already sealed off every path. The rain poured in sheets. His cool gaze swept rapidly across the tide of magical threads surging from all sides, and the jade sword in Xu Changge’s hand let out a soft hum. *Rumble—* A crack of thunder exploded from the sky, a blaze of white light illuminating everything across the sword grounds. Facing the countless surging crimson threads, Xu Changge cast a calm glance at his younger brother not far away and uttered two words: “Watch closely.” The words fell. A crystalline raindrop tumbling from the heavens was cleaved in two by a glint of cold light. Sword drawn, threads severed. Ripples radiating, cold flashes gleaming, teal robes fluttering. In a space that allowed no room to maneuver, Xu Changge traced picturesque sword dances in the air with the subtlest motions and the smallest amplitudes, fresh sword marks scoring the square dark bricks beneath his feet one after another. The scarlet threads, writhing like a plague of serpents, were severed by his pure swordsmanship into bloody mist that dissipated into nothing. Xu Yuan shook his head faintly. To be honest, Xu Changge’s display surprised him somewhat, yet it remained within the bounds of what he could accept. Without techniques like this, Xu Changge wouldn’t deserve to be called the posturing king. The thought flitted past. Xu Yuan lifted off the ground and casually waved a hand downward. A blood crystal over ten feet long condensed and crashed down, arriving at the center of the sword dance in an instant. *Clang—!* The sound of clashing metal reverberated over the Sword Pavilion. Grasping his jade sword, Xu Changge took the blow head-on. The sharp tip of the blood crystal scraped across his leveled blade, kicking up showers of sparks, the tremendous force shoving Xu Changge back several dozen feet before he came to a stop. Through the translucent blood crystal, Xu Changge gazed up at Xu Yuan. With a slight tilt of his jade sword, the momentum on the crystal was deflected instantly, plunging it into the dark bricks beside his feet. Yet in that very opening, the scarlet threads sprawling across the entire sword grounds coiled back in like maggots clinging to bone. At the same time, hundreds of bloodless crystal lances had already condensed behind Xu Yuan, cascading down like a waterfall toward the teal-robed figure on the ground at the flick of his finger... “If Changge doesn’t find a way to inflict substantive harm on Changtian, defeat is only a matter of time.” Feng Jiuxuan delivered his assessment nonchalantly. Xu Yinhe glanced at the white-robed figure beside him, his voice unhurried: “As the premier sword cultivator of today, do you believe Changge is ill-suited for a war of attrition?” Feng Jiuxuan stared at the sword arts unspooling from his elder nephew’s hands and said softly: “Changge’s idea is sound. Unable to break Changtian’s teleportation art, he aims to wage an endurance fight. “Against an ordinary qi cultivator, using this art-cleaving sword to deflect force, Changge could wear them down until their qi ran dry and their soul was spent. But against Changtian, it won’t work. There is simply too much Source Qi in his dantian.” At that, Feng Jiuxuan gave a cold snort, a glint of sword light shimmering in his narrow eyes: “Had he reached the realm of perfection, it might be worth a try. But Changge’s sword is not pure.” The situation Xu Changge faced was rather like the one Feng Jiuxuan had faced in the Western Desert against the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion Master—or rather, even trickier. Back then in the Western Desert, Feng Jiuxuan and Tianyuan had stood on equal footing. Whether it was one’s sword arts or the other’s spells, a single direct hit meant an instant kill. But Xu Changge was different. Even if he struck Xu Yuan, at most he would only momentarily stall Xu Yuan’s art; he couldn’t inflict substantive damage at all. And Xu Yuan? He only needed to touch Xu Changge once, and Xu Changge’s chances of winning would practically vanish. Xu Yinhe pondered briefly and said softly: “Changge will change his tactics soon.” “Changing tactics won’t help either. Changge’s Karma Sword can be evaded by Changtian’s teleportation secret art, and even if Changge can overcome that, there’s still the Life and Death Dao Domain waiting for him.” Feng Jiuxuan shook his head, sensing the black Source Qi swirling inside and outside his third nephew’s body: “Their margins for error aren’t on the same level at all, and the techniques even counter each other. “This battle is already decided.” “...” Xu Yuan. Listening to the commentary drifting from the distance, Xu Yuan felt an urge to send a voice transmission telling these two fathers to stop jinxing him. Though he knew all these things, popping the champagne this early made him slightly uneasy. Though the situation seemed entirely under control, with his true self occupying an absolutely safe position and the devastating firepower of a spellcaster on full display, and even someone of Xu Changge’s peerless genius could only scramble to defend against wave upon wave of magical bombardment, Xu Yuan was already beginning to feel that something was vaguely amiss. Because Xu Changge hadn’t attacked his true body once. No matter how perilous the situation became, Xu Changge had never again unleashed that lethal first-strike slash. That made no sense. Xu Changge wasn’t a monster like him who could maintain peak condition until his Source Qi was fully depleted. Running cultivation methods at such high intensity for a sustained period would cause wear and tear on one’s meridians. This was a limitation the mortal body imposed on cultivators. As this high-intensity battle dragged on, even if mental focus could stay at its peak, once Xu Changge suffered injury, his physical condition would continuously decline, entering a vicious cycle. What on earth was this fellow trying to do? “Are you flustered?” Xu Changge’s calm voice floated up from below. As he darted and flashed through the torrential spells, he said placidly: “Your spellcraft has grown hesitant.” Xu Yuan didn’t deny it either, replying: “After beating me so many times growing up, you’re bound to leave some lingering trauma.” The father of the house was always busy planning for the future, standing far too distant, but Xu Changge was different. This elder brother’s strength had been etched into the bone over twenty years of companionship. No matter when, this posturing king could always take down his opponents without breaking a sweat. The reassurance of the past had transformed into a mountain-like pressure the moment he became an adversary. In the gaps between sword swings, Xu Changge glanced up at his younger brother out of the corner of his eye, the corners of his lips curving into a faint smile: “Then the shadow left behind in a moment might be even bigger.” The corner of Xu Yuan’s eye twitched, and he grinned: “I toss you a compliment and you actually run with it? If I weren’t afraid of killing you and holding back a bunch of spells, you’d have been kissing the floor ages ago.” “The same goes for your elder brother.” “How many fucking times do I have to tell you? You can’t kill—” Before his words had finished, Xu Yuan suddenly discovered that his body had begun flickering at high frequency without any warning. What was going on? The instant the anomaly occurred, Xu Yuan swept his spiritual vision carefully over his surroundings, yet he could see nothing. No slash. No Source Qi. Not the slightest trace of anything. The Void Flash he had set up was triggered hundreds of times in a single instant! Compared to during his time in the Western Desert, the Void Flash Xu Yuan constructed using the Void-Treading Slash had reached perfection. Back then, the black Source Qi acting as the trigger mechanism could only cover the surface of his body, but now it permeated every corner of his form, inside and out. It ought to have been an unsolvable spatial secret art. The moment Void Flash triggered and Xu Yuan vanished from physical reality, it could purge all ongoing negative status effects and sever an enemy’s Source Qi lock. In a flash of thought, Xu Yuan no longer stayed in place, beginning to teleport through the pouring rain. He wanted to use the properties of Void-Treading Slash to break free from Xu Changge’s bizarre technique. Yet the properties of Void Flash seemed to have failed him in this moment. No matter where he teleported, Xu Changge’s unknown technique followed him like a shadow. The high-frequency flickering caused by Void Flash continuously triggering began to cause the blood domain below to break down. Once cast, such continuous techniques required the caster to supply Source Qi constantly. But due to the teleportation effect of Void Flash, the time Xu Yuan spent in physical space was far too brief; he couldn’t channel such vast amounts of Source Qi in time to maintain the blood domain. As the bloody mist dissipated bit by bit, the falling rain gradually regained its clarity. Xu Changge looked up at the sky, gazing at his younger brother, who had stopped darting about and was simply flickering in and out of view. Holding his jade sword, he asked quietly: “Shall we continue?” At this point, Xu Yuan finally caught on, saying softly: “Is this a Karma Dao Domain?” “A Karma Sword Domain,” Xu Changge corrected softly. Countless threads became visible in his eyes, having wrapped his younger brother tightly from head to toe. Facing Xu Yuan, Xu Changge did not conceal the truth, explaining straightforwardly: “An ordinary Dao domain expands with oneself at the center. Your elder brother’s domain centers upon another. “Every technique I severed just now became a karmic thread wrapped around your body.” Xu Yuan lowered his eyes to glance at his flickering palm and murmured: “Really troublesome... But the consumption must be massive, right?” Xu Changge spoke truthfully: “Just enough to exhaust your Source Qi. And don’t think about using your life Dao domain to endure it either—you will die.” “...” Xu Yuan fell silent. The damage output of Xu Changge’s Karma Sword Domain had already exceeded the upper limit of the Dao charm of life’s self-healing, while Void Flash consumed massive amounts of energy, especially under such high-frequency flickering. Fuck. It actually turned into a battle of attrition. The rain pattered down as time trickled by. The faces of the two brothers grew pale from the intense exhaustion of Source Qi. More than a dozen breaths later, Xu Yuan slowly descended from the sky and dropped to one knee on the ground. He lowered his eyelids, which had quietly blackened from the Dao charm of death, panting heavily. Xu Changge, meanwhile, slowly rolled up his sleeves and walked toward his younger brother through the rain.