83: Sword Heart Nirvana
The giant shadow hand emerging from the depths of the rift seemed to be composed of the purest 'darkness' and 'nothingness.' Its mere presence caused the surrounding light to completely vanish, and the structure of space let out a groan of being overwhelmed. With a gentle squeeze, the Chaos Sword Aura that Ye Chen had slashed out with everything he had was crushed like fragile glass! It turned into wisps of Chaos currents and dissipated into nothingness!
Absolute suppression!
The gap between their power levels was simply too vast!
"Pfft—!"
His life-bound sword qi destroyed, Ye Chen felt as if he had been struck by lightning. He violently spat out a mouthful of blood mixed with fragments of his internal organs, and his entire body was thrown backward like a kite with a broken string. His aura instantly plummeted to the bottom, and even the hand holding the guixu sword was trembling violently, nearly losing its grip. He felt as if his Soul had been torn apart by that crushing force, and his consciousness began to blur.
"Ye Chen!" Liu Qingfeng's eyes nearly split from rage. He wanted to help, but he was pinned down by the demon shadow manifested from the Shadow Demon Lord's will. His own Sword Domain was already teetering under the pressure of the opponent's true body, making it impossible for him to break away.
"The strength of a mere ant, yet you dare to swing a sword at a god?" The cold, grand consciousness carried a hint of mockery. After crushing the sword qi, the giant shadow hand did not withdraw. Instead, it changed direction and spread its fingers like a curtain covering the heavens and earth, slowly descending toward the heavily injured and dying Ye Chen!
If this palm strike landed, let alone Ye Chen, perhaps the entire ruins below would be completely erased from the world!
The shadow of death was thicker than ever before!
Ye Chen's vision was blurred as he watched the giant dark palm covering the sky. A deep sense of unwilling and helplessness surged in his heart. Was it... going to end here? His parents' vengeance was unavenged, the academy's crisis was unresolved, and the Dark Hall's conspiracy had not yet been crushed... No! I absolutely cannot die here!
A sense of unyielding anger originating from the deepest part of his Soul erupted like a volcano suppressed to its limit! He felt that within his nearly withered Dantian, the incomplete ancient sword phantasm that had been silent all this time was suddenly ignited by some power!
"Buzz—!!!"
A sword cry that seemed to have traveled from the prehistoric past and the beginning of the world suddenly exploded from the depths of Ye Chen's Soul!
This sword cry was no longer weak or restrained; it carried a supreme majesty that stood above the myriad worlds, severing Karma and destroying all laws!
As the sword cry rang out, the Dark Chaos Sword Intent around Ye Chen, which had originally dimmed, seemed to be injected with infinite vitality and suddenly erupted with an unprecedentedly brilliant light! That light was no longer dark gold, nor was it Chaos; it was a type of... Primal Light that seemed to encompass all colors yet transcended them all!
The guixu sword in his hand seemed to sense the awakening of its true master and emitted an incredibly joyful and excited hum! The dull Chaos luster on the blade quickly receded, revealing a more ancient and profound sword body beneath, which seemed to be woven from the Origin rules of countless worlds! At the hilt, a blurry rune composed of both the stars and the Guixu slowly lit up!
Ye Chen's flame of life, which was about to go out, surged violently like oil poured on a fire under the infusion of this sudden, vast power like a sea of stars! His broken Meridians were instantly repaired and widened, his withered Dantian was filled with endless Sword Essence, and he even began to transform toward a higher level!
His cultivation soared like a rocket!
Eighth level Peak of the Kaiyuan Realm... ninth level of the Kaiyuan Realm... ninth level Peak of the Kaiyuan Realm... the Bottleneck was easily broken through like paper!
Finally, pushed by that vast power, his aura boldly broke through an invisible natural chasm and stepped into a brand new, mysterious Realm—the Spiritual Gang Realm!
And he didn't just enter the Realm; his aura was so thick and pure that he stabilized directly at the first level Peak of the Spiritual Gang Realm! He was only one step away from the second level!
But this was not the end! The greatest change came from his Sword Intent, his... Soul!
The incomplete ancient sword phantasm that had been hidden deep in his Soul finally manifested completely at this moment, achieving perfect Fusion with his Soul! Countless vast and ancient memory fragments, Sword Dao insights, and universal truths poured into his consciousness like a bursting torrent!
He "saw" it! He saw endless seas of stars being born and destroyed under sword light, saw myriad worlds rising and falling within the Guixu, saw immensely powerful existences falling under the blade... That was a glorious era belonging to the "sword," an era where the Sword Dao reigned supreme over the heavens!
And he, Ye Chen, was the Reincarnation of a wisp of the Indestructible True Spirit of the Myriad Worlds Sword Venerable, the one who severed the old era and opened the new! This guixu sword was the core fragment of his personal sword from his past life—the Xue Realm!
The so-called "Moment of Nirvana" was not destruction, but the end of the old era and the... sign of the Sword Venerable's return! He, Ye Chen, was the person in the prophecy who held the "key"!
All confusion and doubt vanished at this moment.
His eyes no longer held the immaturity and struggle of a youth; they were replaced by an indifference and majesty that had experienced ten thousand tribulations and looked down upon all living beings. It was the gaze of a Sword Venerable!
All these changes seemed long, but they actually happened in the blink of an eye!
At this time, the giant shadow palm was already about to cover the top of Ye Chen's head!
"Those who desecrate the sword's majesty shall be executed."
Ye Chen (or rather, Ye Chen who had awakened a portion of the Sword Venerable's True Spirit) slowly looked up at the giant palm covering the sky and spoke cold, majestic words. He didn't even use the guixu sword; he simply pressed his fingers together like a sword and made a gentle stroke toward the giant palm.
A fine thread, seemingly composed of the purest Primal Sword Laws, appeared out of thin air and silently swept across the giant shadow palm.
There was no earth-shattering collision, no explosion of energy impact.
The giant shadow hand, which contained the Shadow Demon Lord's true will and was sufficient to kill an Earth Fiend Realm expert, met its nemesis in this seemingly insignificant sword thread. Starting from the middle finger, it was neatly... divided along a smooth cut line!
Yes, divided! It was like a hot knife through butter, without any resistance!
At the cross-section of the divided palm, there was no energy dissipation, only an absolute "nothingness"! It was as if the concept of its existence had been fundamentally negated by this single sword strike!
"Argh—!!!"
From the depths of the rift came a roar of pain, both shocked and furious, from the Shadow Demon Lord's true body! The severed giant palm instantly collapsed, turning into primal shadow energy, only to be swept away by the Primal Sword Intent contained within that sword thread, completely annihilated and purified!
"Impossible! This is... the Primal Sword Laws?! Who are you?! Just who are you?!" The Shadow Demon Lord's consciousness was filled with unbelievable horror and even a hint of... fear!
Ye Chen did not answer. He took a step forward, his figure seemingly transcending the constraints of this world, and arrived directly before the dark rift. The guixu sword in his hand emitted an excited hum, its tip pointing straight into the depths of the rift.
"This world is not for your filth to lay hands upon."
"Begone!"
He swung the guixu sword once more. This time, the Primal Light on the blade blossomed, turning into a radiant sword qi that spanned the sky. It was not slashed toward the rift, but rather... toward the source of the endless darkness behind the rift—the Shadow Realm itself!
He was going to use supreme Sword Dao to temporarily sever the connection between the two worlds!
"No—!!!"
Amidst the Shadow Demon Lord's shocked and furious roar, the radiant sword qi entered the rift!
"Crack—!!!"
The sound of a mirror shattering echoed through the heavens and earth! The massive dark rift, along with the shadow energy pouring out of it and the Demon Lord's grand manifestation, quickly melted and disintegrated under the impact of the radiant sword light, like ice and snow under the sun, until finally... it completely closed!
The darkness over Liuyun City was dispelled at this moment by that radiant sword light. Long-lost sunlight pierced through the clouds and spilled down.
The demon shadow dissipated, and the rift vanished. Only the remaining, heart-palpitating lingering Sword Dao aura proved that everything that had just happened was not an illusion.
Ye Chen (the Sword Venerable) stood suspended in the air. The Primal Light around him slowly receded, and his aura gradually fell back from that state of reigning over heaven and earth, finally stabilizing at the first level Peak of the Spiritual Gang Realm. The indifference and majesty in his eyes lessened, and Ye Chen's own will reclaimed dominance, but the depth and power experienced after his Nirvana were deeply ingrained.
He looked down at the guixu sword in his hand, its brilliance now restrained yet seemingly life-bound to him. He then glanced at Liu Qingfeng and the many survivors in the ruins below, who were staring at him in shock after surviving the disaster, his heart filled with a mix of emotions.
He knew that from this moment on, he was no longer just the young Ye Chen who fought for his Family and academy.
On his shoulders, he now shouldered... the Sword Venerable's destiny and the responsibility of protecting this world.
The threat of the Dark Hall and the Shadow Realm was far from over.
This was only the beginning.