260: Chapter 261 Breaking a Sword Barehanded: I'll Just Talk a Little Reason

Facing Sword Saint Ye Qingtian's sword strike that seemed to seal off all things, Lin Qi chose the most inconceivable response.

He struck a pose.

Tai Chi.

In this era of digitization, Tai Chi was regarded as mere calisthenics, possessing zero combat value.

Instructor Su Qing, watching from afar, felt her heart leap into her throat at this sight.

Facing her teacher's sword, which was capable of severing space itself, he wasn't using that "erasure" ability, but instead striking this pose?

Sword Saint Ye Qingtian's expression, however, was unprecedentedly grave.

He could feel that the moment Lin Qi struck the pose, his entire Aura changed completely.

All sharpness and killing intent, once nearing him, would be swept in and dissipated into nothingness.

Interesting.

Too interesting.

The Battle Intent in Sword Saint Ye Qingtian's eyes ignited completely.

His sword became even faster.

The tip of the sword drew a silver line through the air, reaching half a foot from Lin Qi's brow in the blink of an eye.

Just at the moment it was about to touch his skin, Lin Qi moved.

His hands traced a circle with a rhythm that appeared slow, but was actually fast to the extreme.

His palms did not touch the blade.

He merely guided the airflow in front of the sword tip, forming an invisible force field.

"Hum."

Sword Saint Ye Qingtian's sword, capable of piercing through three-meter-thick alloy steel plates, entered this force field, and the tip began to tremble violently and uncontrollably.

An irresistible force enveloped the blade from all directions, continuously unloading and diverting the terrifying power contained within it.

"Dissipating Force?"

A trace of astonishment flashed in Sword Saint Ye Qingtian's eyes.

Ancient texts had recorded such a technique.

Using softness to overcome hardness, borrowing force to strike force.

This was his first time seeing it with his own eyes.

He sank his wrist abruptly, adding force to break through the force field.

Following the momentum of his force, Lin Qi's hands traced another, smaller circle.

The sensation of force being unloaded and diverted grew stronger.

Sword Saint Ye Qingtian's sword had all its power going out with no return.

What alarmed him even more was that the force on the sword was being directed toward another direction.

The next second.

Lin Qi drew a circle with his left hand and pushed forward with his right.

What he pushed wasn't the sword, but that mass of "force" that had been diverted to the side.

"Bang!"

Sword Saint Ye Qingtian felt an incredibly familiar force slam hard into the spine of his sword from the side.

It was the exact force he had thrust out himself.

Borrowing force to strike force!

Sword Saint Ye Qingtian's expression changed; he retreated three steps before stabilizing his stance, neutralizing the backlash.

He looked down at his sword.

The blade was clean and as good as new, but the web of his hand holding the sword was throbbing with numbness.

He looked up, staring fixedly at Lin Qi.

"What a magnificent Tai Chi Dissipating Force!"

"Just how much of these lost things are you still hiding?"

Lin Qi withdrew his stance and looked back calmly.

"This is not a Martial Skill; it is the Dao."

"All things carry yin and embrace yang, all within a 'circle.' Your sword is too straight and too rigid, which is why it could be dissipated by me."

Instructor Su Qing was stunned in the distance.

In her field of vision, her teacher had thrust a sword, the young man had traced two circles in front of him with his hands, and her teacher had stumbled back three steps.

Throughout the entire process, the two hadn't even had any substantial physical contact.

This was even more baffling to her than Lin Qi's previous "physical erasure."

That erasure, she could still attribute to some unknown Law ability.

What Lin Qi was using now was pure technique.

A technique that overturned all her combat knowledge.

"What a magnificent 'Dao'!" Sword Saint Ye Qingtian laughed instead of getting angry, raising his longsword once more. "I have immersed myself in the sword Dao for a hundred years and consider myself to have touched the threshold of 'reason.' Today, I want to see if your 'circle' is rounder, or if my 'straight' is sharper!"

As his voice fell, his entire Aura surged again.

That previous sword strike was "skill."

Now, he was going to use "Intent."

"The second sword, Space-Severing."

The longsword swung out.

It was still a straight thrust.

But this time, where the tip of the sword passed, visible black cracks appeared in space.

He had fused his Sword Intent into the Space Law bestowed by the System.

This sword strike was severing space itself.

Lin Qi's expression also turned serious for the first time.

Conventional Dissipating Force could no longer neutralize attacks containing the power of Law.

But he did not give up.

"All things can be dissipated."

He closed his eyes slightly, his mind sinking into emptiness.

Memories of his past life as a Martial Saint, battling countless experts, flashed by rapidly.

Breaking Spells, breaking Divine Abilities, breaking Domains.

The images froze.

He thought of a solution.

"Protective Aura."

He opened his eyes abruptly, and the liquefied True Qi within his body circulated frantically.

An energy condensed to the extreme surged from within his body, attaching to his skin to form a "membrane" as thin as a cicada's wing yet indestructible.

Ancient Martial Arts, Protective Aura.

After Internal Skill reaches Major Achievement, True Qi transforms from virtual to physical, capable of isolating all Laws.

Pure energy defense, not relying on any System Law.

As the Protective Aura formed, Sword Saint Ye Qingtian's space-severing sword strike arrived.

"Sshhh."

The moment the sword tip, capable of tearing through space, made contact with the Protective Aura, it was blocked.

Where the blade collided with the Protective Aura, a series of spatial cracks and energy sparks erupted.

The blade traced a long white mark on the Protective Aura, but could never pierce through.

Sword Saint Ye Qingtian's face changed drastically.

With this strike, if a fourth-turn expert of the same level tried to take it head-on with a Magic Treasure, the treasure would shatter on the spot.

This young man had held it off purely with a layer of energy attached to his skin?

The "quality" of this energy was ridiculously high.

It existed independently of this world's energy System, reacting with neither elements nor Laws; it was a pure, high-density energy barrier.

"Your sword cannot break my defense."

Lin Qi said, pushing against the sword tip.

His hands moved again.

This time, they transformed into two eagle claws, grasping toward the blade.

Tendon-Severing and Bone-Displacing Hand.

Sword Saint Ye Qingtian's internal alarm bells rang loudly; he wanted to withdraw his sword and retreat, but found the longsword was being held by the Protective Aura, making it incredibly difficult to even twitch.

He watched helplessly as Lin Qi's hands, one left and one right, precisely clamped onto the spine and edge of the sword.

A subtle, vibrating force was transmitted through his fingers into the blade.

"Hum, hum, hum."

The longsword let out a groan of being unable to bear the burden.

Various frequencies of energy beat frantically against the internal structure of the blade.

"Let go!"

Lin Qi shouted lowly, his hands twisting.

"Snap!"

A crisp sound.

Sword Saint Ye Qingtian's legendary longsword—which had accompanied him for nearly a hundred years, was forged from Meteoric Iron, and was claimed to be indestructible—was snapped in half by bare hands.

"Pfft."

With his Lifebound Weapon destroyed, Sword Saint Ye Qingtian spat out a mouthful of blood on the spot and stumbled back.

He looked at the broken sword remaining in his hand, then at the young man opposite him, who held the other half and was completely unscathed.

He had lost.

The sword Dao he prided himself on had been completely crushed.

Lin Qi tossed the half of the broken sword onto the ground, causing a crisp "clang" sound.

The chamber was silent for a few seconds.

"Now, can we talk?"

Lin Qi looked at the pale Sword Saint Ye Qingtian, his tone calm.

He did not press his advantage.

His goal was to get the item, not to kill.

Besides, the other party was Instructor Su Qing's teacher.

Sword Saint Ye Qingtian wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and smiled bitterly.

"What a magnificent 'Dao'."

"I have lost, and I am convinced."

He looked up at the silver cube floating in mid-air.

"You may take the item."

"But I have one condition."