167: Sword Qi in the Mortal World

It walked step by step towards the two, whose minds had long since fallen into despair.

"Do not waste your efforts."

"Today, neither of you... will escape!"

The terrifying Dragon prestige surged forward like a tide; True Lord Jian Chen gritted his teeth against the intense pain in his Divine Soul and stared fixedly at the behemoth before him.

His voice was as cold as ten-thousand-year black ice.

"Was it you who killed my Junior Brother, True Lord Jianxin?"

Upon hearing this, the black Dragon's eyes, burning with Netherworld ghost fire, glanced at the sharp Sword Intent on True Lord Jian Chen's body, which, despite being suppressed, still flickered faintly.

It did not hesitate in the slightest, readily admitting to it.

"It was this Seat who killed him."

Its hoarse voice even carried a hint of reminiscence.

"I must say, that Junior Brother of yours could indeed be considered a decent Sword Cultivator."

"That Sword Bone of his was quite tough."

"It is just a pity..."

The black Dragon shook its massive head, its tone filled with disdain.

"—He was just too weak!"

Boom!

This nonchalant sentence stung True Lord Jian Chen's heart more than any vicious curse!

Weak?

His Junior Brother, who was brilliant and talented, hailed as a once-in-a-millennium Sword Dao prodigy of Myriad Spirits Manor...

Weak?!

"Heh heh..."

True Lord Jian Chen suddenly laughed.

That smile was filled with endless coldness and... determination!

"Very well!"

"Today, I will let you, this vile beast, witness..."

"What a... powerful Sword Cultivator is!"

Before his voice had even faded!

A subtle Divine Thought was transmitted into the mind of Shangguan Jing, who was struggling to hold on!

"Brother Shangguan!"

"Listen!"

"I have been nourishing a 'Red Dust Sword Qi' within my body. I began nourishing this Sword Qi from the day I entered the Dao; it has been 1,132 years, and I have never used it!"

"Once this move is unleashed, I will surely exhaust my life force and be utterly destroyed, body and Soul!"

"But I am confident that I can hold back this black Dragon for a moment!"

"You and I will surely die today!"

"After I die, you must burn your Divine Soul and, at any cost, heavily injure or even... kill that animal, Jia Wenmo!"

"Firstly, this can create an opportunity for Old Niu to escape and bring the news out!"

"Secondly, it can also eliminate this major threat for our East Sea Region!!!"

True Lord Jian Chen's telepathic transmission was urgent and swift, but every word was filled with blood and tears, brimming with a madness determined to perish together!

Shangguan Jing shuddered, and in his eyes, which had long been filled with despair, a raging flame of revenge instantly reignited!

He responded with his Divine Thought without a moment's hesitation!

"Good!!!"

"Brother Jian Chen! You and I, brothers, today... will perish together with this Devil Head!!!"

"—Kill!!!"

Having received a definitive reply!

True Lord Jian Chen hesitated no longer!

He let out a heaven-shaking roar toward the sky!

"Vile beast!"

"—Look clearly!!!"

Hum—!!!

A terrifying aura, indescribable in words, suddenly exploded from True Lord Jian Chen's seemingly weak body!

His full head of black hair turned snow-white in an instant!

His rosy skin was instantly covered in wrinkles!

His entire essence, Qi, and spirit, his entire cultivation, his thousand-plus years of Lifespan...

At this moment, were all transformed into fuel!

All poured into that one, which he had nourished within his body for a full 1,132 years...

—Red Dust Sword Qi!

"—What a Sword Cultivator is!!!"

Following his roar, which seemed to exhaust the strength of his entire life!

A gray sword light, brilliant to the extreme, as if it were about to completely cleave this heaven and earth, suddenly lit up!

It was not cyan, not white, but... the color of the Mortal World!

Within the sword light, there was no sharp edge, no killing intent; there was only a Cultivator, from Mortal to Nascent Soul, the ups and downs of 1,132 years of time, joys and sorrows!

However!

It was this seemingly ordinary sword strike!

Yet it caused the entire Three Seas City to fall into a deathly silence at this moment!

Heaven and earth lost their color because of it!

The wind and clouds rolled backward because of it!

Inside the city, whether Mortal or Cultivator, everyone felt a crisis of death originating from the depths of their Souls!

Even that arrogant black Dragon of the Spirit Transformation Realm, in those eyes burning with Netherworld ghost fire, finally, for the first time, revealed intense... shock and fear!

Crisis!

A fatal crisis... sufficient to threaten its life!

"One sword..."

True Lord Jian Chen's voice resounded through the clouds!

"—Red Dust!!!"

As his voice fell!

That gray sword light, containing the Dao fruit of his entire life, wrapped in the terrifying aura of the Five Decays of Heaven and Man, tore through the barrier of space and time!

One sword strike slashed out!

It aimed directly at the... reverse scale on the black Dragon's throat.

That gray sword light did not carry any heaven-shaking power.

It just quietly, slowly, cut through the long sky.

It seemed not like a peerless killing move capable of slaying gods and destroying buddhas, but rather like a dying old man taking a backward glance at the years of his life.

However!

Yet it was this seemingly ordinary, even somewhat decaying sword strike!

That caused every single scale on the body of the black Dragon, who was a Spirit Transformation Realm existence, to uncontrollably stand on end!

In those eyes burning with Netherworld ghost fire, for the first time, an emotion named "fear" emerged!

Escape?

It could not escape at all!

That seemingly slow sword light had already used a profound and mysterious "Intent" to completely lock down the ten thousand li of Void Realm around it!

This sword strike contained Karma!

It contained destiny!

It was the unavoidable sword strike that True Lord Jian Chen delivered at the cost of his life!

"Roar—!!!"

Under the crisis of life and death, the black Dragon could no longer care about any disdain or posture; it let out a roar filled with shock, anger, and fear toward the sky!

"A mere Nascent Soul wants to kill a god?!"

"Block it for this Seat—!!!"

Boom!!!

Endless Evil Qi, like a bursting black heavenly river, surged madly from its massive dragon body!

This Evil Qi was as thick as ink, and within it were even mixed with countless phantom images of Souls wailing in pain!

In the blink of an eye!

A massive black shield, a thousand zhang tall, incomparably thick, with countless ghost-face runes carved on its surface, stood before it!

Black Spirit Shield!

This was an Innate Divine Ability of the Yin Spirit Clan, refined with endless living Souls and Nine Nether Evil Qi; its defensive power was so strong that it was said to be able to withstand a full-force strike from a Spirit Transformation Realm True Lord!

This was the strongest defense it could use at this moment!

After doing all this, the black Dragon's suspended heart finally settled slightly.

It did not believe it!

It did not believe a mere Nascent...

"Crack..."

A subtle, faint sound, as if porcelain were shattering, rang out abruptly.

The black Dragon's eyes, burning with Netherworld ghost fire, suddenly narrowed!

It saw that seemingly ordinary gray sword light finally touch the indestructible Black Spirit Shield!

There was no heaven-shaking collision!

No intense bombardment of Law against Law!

There was only annihilation!

It was the silent annihilation of time washing away all things, of the Mortal World corroding immortal bones!

That gray sword light, like a brush that had experienced a thousand years of wind and frost, on the pitch-black shield surface, gently...

Brushed across!

"Crack..."

A crack appeared!

"Crack-crack—!!!"

In just one breath!

That tiny crack, like a spider web, spread madly across the entire shield surface!

The ghost-face runes on the shield that were wailing in pain, the moment they touched the gray sword light, were like snow meeting a blazing sun; they let out miserable shrieks and instantly melted and were purified!

"No... impossible!!!"

In the black Dragon's eyes, complete and utter shock finally appeared!

Its strongest defense had actually...

Not even lasted for three breaths!

"Boom—!!!"

Finally, at the end of the third breath!

The massive Black Spirit Shield could no longer hold on; with a sound of unwilling wailing, it exploded and shattered!

Transforming into the purest Evil Qi filling the sky, scattering in all directions!

And that gray sword light, although its radiance had dimmed slightly, still...

Pressed forward with indomitable will!

Passing through the broken shield, passing through the barrier of space!

Under the gaze of the black Dragon's eyes, which were filled with fear and despair, it precisely...

Struck that unique reverse scale on its throat!

"Puchi—!!!"

This time, it was no longer the loud sound of metal clashing!

But the teeth-aching tearing sound of a sharp blade entering flesh!