35: Chapter 35 The Struggle of Sword Cultivators

Seeing Ganie charging forward alone, the black-robed swordsman felt a trace of coldness flash through his pitch-black eyes, and with another gentle flick of his wrist, the second sword qi silently unsheathed.

Layers of sword qi crisscrossed and intertwined, transforming into an airtight sword net that sealed off all paths of advance, retreat, and evasion for Ganie, with the Laws of Destruction entwining every wisp of the sword blade; wherever the sword qi swept, the void shattered into dense, pitch-black lines.

Ganie's white robes fluttered and snapped in the wind, and yuanhong was quietly held horizontally across his chest.

With the Sword Heart Transparent, the trajectory of every sword move made by the black-robed swordsman was clearly reflected in the depths of his eyes.

The clanging sounds of metal striking metal echoed endlessly, and no matter how ferocious the opponent's offensive was, it was steadily and firmly blocked by yuanhong's broad scabbard.

Su Ming saw through Ganie's intention at a glance; he was using the exchange to comprehend the essence of the black-robed swordsman's destructive swordsmanship.

However, the aftermath of the power erupted from their clash spread in all directions, causing thousands of skeletons to instantly collapse amidst the turbulent currents and shatter into flying ash.

Su Ming frowned slightly.

The skeleton army was overwhelming in number, and the battlefield was narrow, leaving no way to avoid the impact of the aftermath, making the continuous losses far too heavy.

Pondering for a moment, he raised his hand to tear open the gate of the divine domain, recalling all hundreds of thousands of skeletons back to the Jiuyou Divine Domain.

The moment the large batch of skeletons entered Jiuyou, Su Ming clearly sensed that the Nether Yin Qi deep within the divine domain was consuming at a rapid pace.

Nearly two hundred thousand skeletons had to swallow massive amounts of Yin Qi every moment to sustain themselves, creating an immense burden.

"At this rate of consumption, the Yin Qi in Jiuyou can support us for at most a month," Su Ming murmured inwardly. "Once we leave the Hanging Pagoda, we must cut down a portion of the skeleton forces, otherwise we simply won't have the strength to support them."

Suppressing these distracting thoughts for now, he focused all his attention on the duel between Ganie and the black-robed swordsman.

Having attacked for a long time without success, the black-robed swordsman gradually grew impatient. His figure suddenly lunged through the air, his long sword slashing continuously like a gale as thousands of destructive sword images cascaded down layer upon layer, weaving an inescapable cage of absolute death meant to trap Ganie to death within it.

Ganie stepped calmly, shattering the void, and as yuanhong lifted lightly, a clear shout resounded through the air: "A Long Rainbow Piercing the Sun!"

A wave-like, boundless silvery-white sword domain spread out horizontally, its majestic sword intent traversing the entire airspace. The all-pervading destructive sword images slammed fiercely into the sword domain, producing continuous, piercing detonations. The sword qi carrying the power of destruction crashed into that sword intent, and was completely torn apart and dissolved away.

The black-robed swordsman's pupils shrank abruptly, never expecting that his large-scale sword move—upon which he relied to break the stalemate—would be resolved so easily. No longer longing for battle, he rapidly retreated while pouring his entire origin of laws into the sword blade.

The previous sword qi attacks had all been dispersed, but at this moment, his sword tip condensed an extremely condensed, heavy, and terrifying destructive sword rainbow, its pressure sweeping across all directions.

Even for Ganie, a trace of solemnity finally surfaced in his eyes.

But he would never sit back and watch the opponent complete their charging.

"Hundred-Step Flying Sword!"

yuanhong trembled slightly, and an extremely condensed silvery-white sword aura broke through the air, spanning hundreds of meters of void to stab directly at the black-robed swordsman.

The speed was extreme to the utmost, leaving only a faint silver trace along the void it passed through.

The black-robed swordsman's expression changed drastically; how could he dare to continue condensing his lethal move? He hurriedly raised his sword horizontally to block, but everything was already too late.

A sharp sword mark pierced straight through the center of his illusory brows. He still maintained the posture of holding his sword in combat readiness, but countless tiny cracks began to spread across his body starting from his brows, shattering with a boom moments later and turning into tiny specks of spiritual light that dissipated into the void.

"He is indeed an opponent worth fighting." Ganie looked at the direction where the opponent had dissipated, nodding slightly, with a bit of recognition for a fellow swordsman hidden in the depths of his eyes.

Su Ming walked step by step to the spot where the black-robed swordsman had dissipated, where a dense, pitch-black ball of light floated in place, with violent laws of the destructive swordsmanship surging and stirring within it.

"A crystal of the laws of destructive swordsmanship." Su Ming's heart stirred slightly; he hadn't expected the spoils of the fourth-layer trial to actually be the origin of swordsmanship. He raised his hand to guide the light ball to float in front of Ganie: "Ganie, are you willing to accept this law of destructive swordsmanship?"

Hearing this, Ganie was slightly startled, then nodded gently.

His main cultivation was the Guigu Zongheng swordsmanship. Although the path of destruction was not his foundation, all swords in the world shared the same origin; comprehending a different swordsmanship could also allow him to draw inferences from one instance and make up for the shortcomings of his own sword intent.

Raising his hand to take the ball of light, Ganie directly guided the laws into his body to refine them.

"How does it feel?" Su Ming asked with a hint of curiosity.

"The harvest is substantial; my foundation in swordsmanship has advanced another step." With a faint smile, Ganie lightly lifted his finger, and a wisp of pitch-black, shattered sword light slowly flowed out from his palm. The sword light brushed past the void, immediately leaving behind spreading, hard-to-heal collapse cracks, and an aura of destruction rushed over them.

Before the two could converse further, spiritual light surfaced in the void in the distance once again, and three illusory figures closely resembling the previous black-robed swordsman slowly materialized.

However, the auras circulating around the three of them were completely different, clearly showing that each had painstakingly cultivated a unique path of swordsmanship.

After the three swordsmen appeared, they did not make a rash move immediately. Instead, they stood in three directions of the void, their cold gazes firmly sizing up Su Ming and his group, waiting for an opportunity to act.

Su Ming turned his head to look at the dependents beside him, assigning the battle lineup in a deep voice: "Wawan, you and A Gui join forces to pin down one; Sargalian, the remaining one is up to you; and the last one will be left to Ganie."

Wawan, A Gui, and Sargalian all acknowledged the order and accepted their missions. Only Ganie shook his head slightly, speaking up to request: "Divine Lord, this subordinate wishes to try alone."

As soon as these words were spoken, Su Ming was stunned on the spot, and Wawan and the other two also looked at Ganie with faces full of astonishment.

Among the three swordsmen before them, the strength of any single one far surpassed the defeated destructive swordsman from just now. Did Ganie actually intend to face all three of them simultaneously by himself?

"Are you sure?" Su Ming's expression turned solemn as he confirmed earnestly.

Ganie's gaze was firm, and he nodded heavily.

Su Ming silently stared at him for a moment, sighing inwardly that all swordsmen in this world were indeed stubborn-minded people. But seeing that Ganie's battle intent was genuine, he finally relented and agreed: "Alright, but you must not push yourself stubbornly. Once you fall into a disadvantageous position, call out for reinforcements immediately."

"This subordinate will remember the Divine Lord's instructions." Ganie bowed solemnly, then with a leap of his figure, he charged straight toward the three swordsmen.

Seeing Ganie attacking alone, the three black-robed swordsmen flashed simultaneously, standing in three separate locations of the void in a triangular formation, locking down all of Ganie's retreat paths from three directions while unleashing their swords to launch an attack at the same time.

The swordsman on the left struck out with his sword first, and a sky-full of gray, desolate, and annihilation sword light swept over overwhelmingly. Wherever the sword qi passed, the silvery-white sword domain opened by Ganie faded rapidly, its energy being continuously worn away and dissolved.

Ganie's yuanhong was unsheathed, and the Zongheng sword intent met the annihilation sword light head-on, two completely different swordsmanship powers violently colliding in the void.

An immense and powerful force rebounded along the sword blade, causing Ganie to take several steps back. On his plain white robes, there appeared several damaged marks corroded by the annihilation sword qi.

Just as he was about to adjust his stance to dodge the offensive, a cold and bizarre mental power suddenly invaded his Sea of Consciousness, leaving his head somewhat dizzy and instantly slowing down his speed in predicting moves by a fraction.

The swordsman on the right had quietly crept close at some unknown time; that soul-disrupting aura from just now originated precisely from this person.

The icy sword blade stabbed straight towards the center of his brows, and at the critical moment of a hair's breadth, Ganie side-stepped to narrowly avoid it, though his shoulder was still grazed by the blade tip. A strong, decaying aura that gnawed at the bones invaded his body along the wound.

Ganie rapidly retreated his figure to widen the distance, his fighting intent completely unabated. The destructive sword intent he had just refined flowed over yuanhong, and a low shout resounded across all directions: "A Long Rainbow Piercing the Sun!"

A grayish-black, fan-shaped sword qi mixed with a pitch-black destructive aura broke through the air, slashing directly at the soul-corroding swordsman who had just ambushed him.

The last swordsman stationed in the center finally moved, lifting his sword to block the path of the grayish-black sword qi. His long sword rapidly danced out layers upon layers of sword curtains, like an airtight iron rampart, blocking all of Ganie's sword move infused with the power of destruction.