Benevolent Sword - Free from Terror!

Although the realm "Above the Mighty Ones" was not universally recognized, the strength of Quan Juehua and Chen Huohai was indeed far beyond that of ordinary Mighty Ones. The most prominent feature of their attacks was an absurd level of destructive power. Quan Juehua viewed the Chen brothers as glass cannons, but in truth, he was much the same; after all, his own defenses were hardly formidable in the face of the Chen brothers' assaults. In essence, their attacks were equivalent to true damage in a video game—and astronomically high true damage at that—making them extraordinarily lethal. "Big Brother!" Spitting a mouthful of blood, Chen Huohai screamed as he stared at Chen Dahai's severed head. In the next moment, Chen Dahai, who had just been decapitated by the mental sword, abruptly opened his eyes. Reduced to nothing but a head, he glared at Quan Juehua as his mental power instantly transformed into blue seawater. The water then coalesced into countless sharp arrows that shot toward Quan Juehua. This was Chen Dahai's hidden trump card: Ocean Azure Waves Intent! The properties of mental power could shift in myriad ways. Its purest application lay in solidifying mental energy to manipulate physical reality—a method commonly referred to as "telekinesis." Previously, Chen Dahai and Chen Huohai had been fighting with pure telekinetic force: formless, colorless, and ever-changing. Unfortunately, Quan Juehua possessed far too much combat experience. Even if his naked eyes could not perceive their mental strikes, he could still "see" them through other means, rendering formlessness and invisibility utterly meaningless before him. Yet mental power possessed other avenues of application as well. One such method was manifesting mental power through intent—a technique the Chen brothers had only learned after joining the Slay-Quan Alliance. Every sapient being possessed memory, capable of comprehending the heavens, the earth, and the cosmic phenomena, taking all things into their heart. That was the very root of intent. Closing one's eyes, recalling the surging waves of the ocean, remembering the infinite forms of water, and ultimately manifesting them with mental strength. Naturally, the manifested water was still fundamentally mental power. It was not real water and did not even contain atoms, yet it took on the properties of water and could be wielded like water. The stronger the mental power, the greater the might. Furthermore, by taking on an attribute, this mental power was no longer a simple psychic or physical attack; it carried conceptual and elemental damage as well. This was no simple matter of one plus one; it was an exponential leap in power, an attack with astronomically elevated stats. Quan Juehua's pupils were instantly engulfed by the blue rain of arrows, and he caught the scent of death. He gripped his saber's hilt tightly and spun on the spot, dragging the nearby Chen Huohai in front of him as a shield. They wanted to kill him? Then kill your own brother first! Quan Juehua glared coldly at the incoming barrage of arrows, certain that Chen Dahai could never bring himself to strike. Having already lost one brother, there was no way he would willingly sacrifice another. Yet Chen Huohai, held as a shield in front of him, suddenly radiated blistering heat. His body disintegrated at blinding speed, erupting into a towering conflagration in the blink of an eye. Flaming Sea Burning the Heavens Intent! If Chen Dahai possessed a trump card, how could Chen Huohai not have one of his own? Though Chen Huohai had been severely injured by Quan Juehua's blade, he had anticipated an ambush. In the very instant he was struck, he had altered the shape of his soul, opening what amounted to a spiritual hole through his chest. He had merely underestimated the ferocity of Quan Juehua's attack, suffering damage from the blade's shockwave alone. "Die, you old dog!" The flames Chen Huohai had become surged toward the inches-away Quan Juehua. In a mere split second, the tables had turned, plunging Quan Juehua straight into a fatal trap. Yet at that very moment, Quan Juehua's vital energy aged precipitously, yet the presence he gave off resembled a dark, bottomless abyss—abstruse and terrifying. A moment ago, Quan Juehua had maintained his persona from his "youth," but now he shifted into the persona of his "middle age." As a consummate actor who surpassed even award-winning performers, Quan Juehua would never break character unless facing a life-and-death crisis. Yet when truly confronted with mortal danger, he would automatically swap personas. At this moment, he transformed from his "young-elderly" form into his "middle-aged-elderly" form. Inside Transcender Whale, he had already revealed this form once before, seeing through Dui Tianji's true nature at a single glance and showcasing unfathomable wisdom and power. If Quan Juehua in his "youth" still had many weaknesses, then in this phase, he possessed none at all. Benevolent Sword: Free from Terror! Though the attacks of Chen Huohai and Chen Dahai arrived with tremendous speed, in Quan Juehua's eyes at this moment, they crept as sluggishly as snails. Without anyone realizing when, the saber in his hand had been replaced by a sword—a bicolored blade of pure black and pure white. One side was stark white, and the other pitch black. It was exceedingly long, stretching roughly three meters, and carried on the style of the Malevolent Blade, Dream's End, tapering to an exceptionally sharp tip. "All sentient beings of form, all formless dreams and illusions—existence and void alike shall be severed!" Quan Juehua raised his hand and chanted slowly, cleaving forward with the greatsword. As the strike slashed out, the Taiji yin-yang fish on the sword's guard spun furiously. In an instant, the void was rendered into stark black and white. Beneath this single stroke, the attacks of Chen Dahai and Chen Huohai were utterly pulverized into ash. "How... is this possible?!" Before his death, Chen Huohai seemed to experience a final flare of life. Watching helplessly as the black-and-white sword energy slashed through, he managed only those few words before his body was thoroughly annihilated by the strike. "Second Brother..." Chen Dahai was no exception. He had time only to cry out two words before his head was swallowed by the sword energy. Benevolent Sword: Free from Terror. Beneath this single strike, all living beings are equal, and all meet their end—free from terror. To put it simply: under this strike of mine, all must die; and since all are dead, naturally no one remains to feel fear or horror. Following Quan Juehua's strike, the void gradually returned to normal. At the Slay-Quan Alliance, silence fell over the Stargazing Platform. The Mighty Ones who had just cheered aloud upon seeing Quan Juehua and Chen Huohai seemingly take each other down were now struck dumb. Longjing Tea had always believed his state of mind was transcendent, devoid of any fear, holding only wariness even toward Quan Juehua. Yet having witnessed Quan Juehua execute this strike with his own eyes, Longjing Tea found his fingers trembling slightly. This sword strike was too terrifying. If it were unleashed toward the Slay-Quan Alliance, the entire secret realm would likely be pulverized along with it. Imperial hegemony? Grand ambitions? Did any of it truly matter? Longjing Tea could not help but ask himself in his heart. After all, before Quan Juehua's attacks, numbers were entirely meaningless, and power was nothing more than a joke. He had previously deluded himself into thinking sheer numbers could bring down Quan Juehua... Yet at this moment, Quan Juehua did not spare the Slay-Quan Alliance so much as a glance. He slowly looked toward his right and said calmly, "Come out. Your ability to conceal yourself is indeed worthy of praise." In the next second, Chen Xiaozhao slowly manifested from the void. Had Chen Dahai and Chen Huohai been alive to witness this, their jaws would have dropped to the floor. "You could actually bring out more of yourself," Quan Juehua said pointedly, looking at Chen Xiaozhao. Sure enough, in the next instant, dense swathes of Chen Xiaozhaos appeared out of thin air, their numbers ballooning madly: one hundred, one thousand, ten thousand, ten million, one hundred million, ten billion, ten trillion trillions, ten trillion trillion quadrillions, ten trillion trillion quadrillions of quintillions...