A Single Blade Cleaves the River and Sea

An expert! With only a single exchange of glances, he knew that the youth in purple was without question the most powerful person he had ever seen in his life! For within those eyes, there seemed to reside boundless raging fire and a blood-red blade astral qi capable of tearing open the heavens! Raging fire to incinerate the body, blade astral qi to slay deities! A surge like an electric current shot from the base of his spine to the crown of his head and burst, leaving him breathing in ragged gasps. "Brother Wu, what's wrong?" The refined, middle-aged man beside him noticed something was amiss and hurried to ask in concern. This Brother Wu was the head guard he had hired at great expense—a full-fledged Rank Five martial artist! If anything happened to him, the rest of this merchant voyage would be perilous. In these troubled times, the martial world was in constant chaos, infested with brigands and thieves. Without formidable guards, one truly dared not conduct trade across counties and commanderies; otherwise, there was no telling when one might be casually robbed and slaughtered on the road. Yet though he called out twice in succession, Brother Wu seemed completely dazed, offering no response at all. Only when he tentatively patted him on the shoulder did the man snap awake with a start, drenched in cold sweat. "Brother Wu, what came over you just now? It was as if you were possessed!" Seeing that he had recovered his senses, the refined middle-aged man breathed a sigh of relief and asked. Gasping for breath, Brother Wu dared not look directly at the purple-robed youth on the riverbank again. In a voice low with dread, he whispered, "Over there is an expert—an overwhelmingly powerful one! Stronger even than the Rank Three Grandmasters I've seen in the past! Don't stare at him, lest you invite his displeasure." The refined man was startled. Stronger than a Rank Three Grandmaster?! Rank Two? Or Rank One? Heeding the warning, he squinted cautiously toward the bank, caught sight of a young man astride a horse, and hastily jerked his gaze back. "Is it the one in purple?" he asked in an undertone. "That's him!" In his terror, Brother Wu simply turned around, putting his back toward the southern bank where the purple-robed youth stood. Thud, thud! Suddenly, another burst of pounding hooves echoed. From the direction he was now facing—the north bank of the Great Dragon River—a tall, magnificent dragon horse came galloping at full tilt. Neigh—! With a long neigh, the dragon horse reined in by the water's edge. Atop the steed sat a valiant young man, likewise bearing a saber at his waist. Brother Wu's mind jolted. He felt an aura of desolate blade intent wash over him like a celestial blade descending from the heavens, making his knees buckle. "Another expert!" Seeing him nearly collapse, the refined middle-aged man quickly caught him by the shoulder. "Brother Wu, what are you—?" Brother Wu barely managed to steady himself. Not daring even to lift his head, he said nervously, "An expert! Formidably strong!" The refined man was bewildered. Another expert? He quickly glanced toward the river's northern bank and saw only a young man astride a horse with a saber at his waist. Apart from being remarkably handsome, spirited, and mounted on an exorbitantly valuable dragon horse, there seemed nothing extraordinary about him. Apprehensive and amazed, Brother Wu said, "How could we run into two such terrifying martial artists in a single day? And that youth riding the dragon horse looks rather familiar... Wait, that's Huang Tian!" He finally remembered. He had once seen a portrait of Huang Tian that bore an uncanny resemblance to this youth; paired with such unfathomable strength, the answer was unmistakable. "Huang Tian? The Huang Tian who oversees Funing and slew the Demonic Cult's Saint Yin?!" the refined man asked in astonishment. "That's him!" Brother Wu nodded, then muttered in confusion, "I wonder what brings him here. Is he trying to cross the river?" "Hmph!" Just as the doubt crossed their minds, a cold snort detonated by their ears, rattling them so violently that their vision swam with dizziness. "Not the Demonic Cult, but the Sacred Cult." The chilling voice rang out, heard with absolute clarity by everyone aboard the ship. The two men exchanged horrified glances, realizing that the youth in purple had to belong to the Demonic Cult—and that their words had been overheard! Just as they shuddered in sheer dread, Xiahou Yang paid them no further attention. Instead, he turned his gaze toward the valiant youth across the river, his eyes turning even colder as he spoke: "Huang Tian?" Across the wide expanse of the river, Huang Tian smiled and nodded. "That's me." "You are the one who killed my worthless younger brother?" "He deserved to die." "Then you deserve death!!" The moment the words fell, a crisp blade cry rang through the heavens and earth, its piercing tone even drowning out the roar of the Raging Dragon River. A beam of blade astral qi several hundred zhang long, blazing like a celestial meteor, cleaved through the raging torrents and swept horizontally toward the north bank! Clang! A snow-bright saber unsheathed. The instant it cleared the scabbard, a blade of platinum light, condensed as if solid, manifested in the void. In a tenth of a finger-snap, it transformed into a resplendent celestial blade several hundred zhang long. The celestial blade was frost-white, wrapped in the rolling momentum of wind and thunder, as it collided with the dark-red blade light. In an instant, dark red and frost white illuminated heaven and earth, as if two miniature suns had risen over the river's surface, glaring so brilliantly that no one could keep their eyes open. Rumble—! As if a god were beating thunderous drums, shaking the earth to its core, a tremendous roar accompanied a terrifying shockwave that rippled frantically outward in concentric circles. Boom! As though a meteor had slammed into the river, the surging waters threw up colossal waves. Muddy currents, carrying vast amounts of silt and broken stones, surged skyward like an enormous curtain of water connecting heaven and earth! Upon reaching high into the sky, the water curtain collapsed and poured down as a deluge of vast, white foam, as if the heavens had been punctured, cascading waves descending from above! "Madness... sheer madness..." Aboard the deck, both the refined middle-aged man and Brother Wu were struck dumb. For even though they were a considerable distance from where the two were fighting, the colossal shockwaves still churned up a towering wall of turbid water. Teeming with fish, shrimp, and riverbed silt, it swept like a moving rampart, crashing violently toward their ship! "Hold on to anything bolted down! Don't get thrown overboard!" a boatman on the deck shouted at the two dazed men. Before the words had even settled, the towering water wall struck the ship's forward port side with full force. The massive cargo vessel shuddered violently, and waves swept across the deck, dragging fish and shrimp in their wake. Everyone stumbled and collapsed. Those who had failed to grab hold of something solid were flung bodily into the gunwales, battered and dizzy. "Turn the rudder! Use the water's momentum to turn, don't sail forward any further!" another boatman bellowed. They were affected even from this far away; if they drew any closer, the hull might be torn apart by blade astral qi, or completely capsized by the surging waves. At the shout, the boatmen sprang into brisk action. Slowly, the ship turned about, no longer advancing downstream. And at that moment— Rumble—! Above the great river surging like a dragon, two silhouettes clashed at speeds beyond ordinary human sight, leaving trailing afterimages suspended in midair. Dark-red brilliance and platinum blade light collided like two celestial dragons locked in lethal combat. Every clash of claws and fangs unleashed destructive power that slammed violently into the river below. The water's surface cracked with hundreds, thousands of deep fissures, as though the entire river had been cleaved in two. Incalculable volumes of water churned, crashed, and detonated! It was as if countless massive explosives had detonated simultaneously beneath the surface! Thousands of giant waves surged in response! Some reared up precipitously like fortress walls dozens of zhang high, the muddy barricades advancing in all directions with momentum that could crush everything. Others thrust up from the riverbed like mountain peaks, their summits bursting to unleash clouds of silver-white water arrows, cloaking this stretch of the river in silver mist and deafening roars! The two flew and shifted across the river as they clashed, leaving towering waves and incessant thunder in their wake. Viewed from afar, they were truly like two fiendish dragons wreaking havoc upon the river and sea! "Phew..." Aboard the deck, watching Huang Tian and Xiahou Yang recede into the distance along the river, the refined middle-aged man collapsed limp and numb. With lingering terror, he gasped, "We lived... we actually survived! I thought for sure we'd drown in the river today, or be ripped to shreds by blade astral qi..." Brother Wu also showed the relief of someone who had narrowly escaped death. Propping his hands against the drenched deck, he leaned back, speaking weakly: "In the future, I will never watch experts fight up close again. It's too terrifying. One careless moment and you lose your life!" The two looked at each other and burst into hearty laughter together, though neither quite knew what they were laughing at. Laughing until they coughed uncontrollably, it was a long time before they recovered. The refined man sighed with deep emotion. "Only today do I know that human power can truly reshape heaven and earth!" Brother Wu gazed into the distance at Huang Tian and Xiahou Yang vanishing beyond the horizon, his eyes filled with longing. "If one could cultivate martial arts to their level, this lifetime would truly be worthwhile..." Beside the Raging Dragon River, in a village along the water, a sacrificial ritual was underway. Roughly a hundred bare-chested, dark-skinned men gathered by the riverbank, some standing, some squatting on rocks. An old man clad in coarse cloth and leaning on a crutch looked around and declared, "Are the lads from every household here? If anyone's missing, go call them right away! Worshipping Grandfather Dragon God is no trifling matter. Whoever doesn't show up, don't blame me for taking my crutch to his house and beating him out here!" At these words, someone chuckled and responded, "Third Great-Uncle, everyone is here. You'd better put that crutch away." Third Great-Uncle glared at the speaker, who didn't flinch in the slightest, merely scratching his messy hair with a grin. "Hmph!" Snorting irritably, Third Great-Uncle didn't bother scolding him further. He slowly walked over to the water's edge, squatted down, and shakily reached out to scoop up river water, washing his hands and face clean. Then he stood up and approached a wooden raft resting on the shore. In the middle of the old wooden raft sat a raw pig's head, its eyes shut and ears drooping. Beside the pig's head, a live rooster was tethered with a red cord, its comb bright crimson. Seemingly uneasy, it scratched at the raft with its claws, letting out an occasional low cluck. Arranged neatly around the pig's head and the rooster were several fresh fish, about a foot long. Their mouths opened and closed, tails still slapping feebly against the timber—evidently freshly caught. "Bring the incense." Third Great-Uncle called back, and a man immediately stepped forward carrying three lit incense sticks. Taking the incense, Third Great-Uncle bowed devoutly three times toward the surging river, then planted the sticks into the soft soil. "The incense is set. Start burning the paper." "Right." Coarse yellow joss paper was distributed among the villagers. They stepped forward in turn and squatted by the water to burn it; before long, a small mound of ashes accumulated along the shore. When the paper was fully burned, Third Great-Uncle took a bowl from a young man's hands, filled with cloudy rice wine. He sprinkled the liquor from the bowl evenly into the river, bit by bit. Once most of it was poured out, he set the bowl on the ground, faced the great river, bent his knees, and shakily knelt down. Behind him, the dense crowd of men, young and old alike, knelt upon the earth and bowed their heads. Third Great-Uncle kowtowed three times, then said in a hoarse voice, "Grandfather Dragon God, the offerings are prepared. Please accept them, and bless our boats so they suffer no wind or rain, returning with a full catch every time..." After reciting a long prayer, he slowly got to his feet and gently dusted the dirt from his knees. He then nodded to a young man, who took the hint, grabbed a long pole, and shoved the raft laden with offerings out toward the center of the river. Leaving the shore, the raft drifted slowly downstream toward the river's center. The rooster seemed increasingly agitated, scratching restlessly on the timber and crowing more loudly. When the raft reached deeper waters, a colossal shadow suddenly emerged beneath the surface. With a tremendous crash, the entire raft was yanked underwater by a monstrous force, vanishing in an instant. Splintered wood and remnants of the offerings mingled in the churning brown waves, burbling up a few bubbles before disappearing without a trace. "Was that... Grandfather Dragon God?!" The men on the shore all cried out in shock. In that fleeting second, they had glimpsed a gargantuan dark shape breach the surface, overturn the raft, and swiftly dive back into the depths. It was well over ten zhang long, its scales dark and formidable. The surging swells raised by just that brief glimpse of its massive body crashed violently against both banks, sending muddy sprays flying. "Does a Dragon God really exist in this world?" one youth gasped in shock. "Never seen it before. It's the first time for me, too." "Whenever we worshipped Grandfather Dragon God before, nothing ever happened. But today we actually saw... the Dragon God?" "Could it be that our sincerity touched the divine, so the Dragon God came to partake of our offerings?" "Third Great-Uncle, don't just stand there! Was that Grandfather Dragon God just now?" Brought back to his senses, Third Great-Uncle snapped out of his daze. From childhood to old age, having performed the ceremony twice a year, attending over a hundred sacrifices and serving as chief officiant more than twenty times, this was genuinely the very first time he had ever seen the "Dragon God"! So even he did not know whether that creature was truly the Dragon God or merely a gigantic monster of the deep. Just as he hesitated, wavering on what to say, a string of explosive detonations suddenly echoed from upstream! The sound was not thunder, but resembled more the booming resonance of clashing metal vibrating through the air, coming one after another, rapidly approaching from the distance. Startled by the sudden din, Third Great-Uncle and all the men by the bank snapped their heads around to look into the distance. There they saw the great river surging, as though pouring down from the heavens. The murky yellow waters, churning with silt and sand, roared as they raced from west to east. Amidst the drifting mists, two figures crisscrossed and clashed high in the air! The aftershocks of their strikes slammed down into the river, violently caving the water inward into a terrifying crater nearly a hundred zhang across. The surrounding waters surged madly upward into towering water curtains; once their momentum was spent, they cascaded down like a torrential downpour! "Im... immortals?!!" On the shore, the hundred-odd fishermen were left utterly flabbergasted.