176: Chapter 176 Xu Ruyu unleashes the Heavenly Sword of Love, and Xiao Nianyin is unusually unsettled.

The blood-red sword light hung suspended three inches before Xu Ruyu's brow, like solidified amber.

The chilling killing intent carried by the sword tip had almost solidified, piercing his skin and causing tiny beads of blood to bloom on his forehead.

This sword strike, bought by Lin Feng burning a century of his Lifespan, though not equal to the strike of a true Nascent Soul Cultivator, had touched the edge of that level—it was a power of qualitative change, absolutely not something that could be resisted by the Qi Refinement Stage.

Time seemed to be infinitely stretched.

Below the stage, Zhao Yan's eyes were blood-red, and a beast-like low growl rumbled in his throat.

Time and again he attempted to break through the human wall formed by the enforcement Disciples, only to be pinned firmly in place by several binding spells, forced to watch helplessly as that blood-red sword light inched closer to Xu Ruyu's brow.

" Senior Brother Xu—! "

Qingyan's wail was heart-rending; she desperately tried to crush the escape talisman in her hand, but under the shroud of Nascent Soul-level pressure, that jade talisman remained motionless, as if it had become an ordinary stone.

The veins on the back of Ning Caihe's hand, gripping his sword, bulged, and his fingernails dug deeply into the scabbard.

He stared fixedly at the stage, biting his lip until it bled—that was the moon-white robe he had personally arranged for Xu Ruyu three days ago, now torn in several places by Sword Qi and stained with spots of blood.

Inside the high pavilion, Xiao Nianyin picked up a freshly replaced teacup again, her ice-blue eyes calm and waveless.

She even gently blew on the steam floating on the surface of the tea, as if enjoying a play whose ending she had long foreseen.

" It is over. "

She whispered to herself.

Yes, it should be over.

For a Qi Refinement Stage Disciple to hold out until now against the siege of six Late Golden Core Stage Senior Brothers, and even force Lin Feng to burn his Lifespan—this was already a miracle.

But miracles, in the end, cannot withstand an absolute disparity in power.

A Nascent Soul strike means certain death for the Qi Refinement Stage.

This is an iron law of the Cultivation World.

However—

Just at the moment when the blood-red sword light was about to pierce Xu Ruyu's brow.

Xu Ruyu suddenly closed his eyes.

Not out of despair, not out of resignation, but... frantically retracing in his mind the scene he had witnessed half a month ago in the Ancient Hall of Love and Heaven.

That Little Girl in a white dress, who chased after him calling him brother, dancing with a sword amidst a sky full of falling flowers.

The sword moves were very slow, very gentle, as if she were not practicing swordsmanship, but combing through threads of emotion, recalling the past, and... gently conversing with all things in this heaven and earth.

At the time, he did not understand.

He only felt that the trajectories of those sword moves were profound and difficult to decipher, and those flowing rhythms were obscure and inexplicable.

But now—

Under the pressure of life and death, before Lin Feng's Nascent Soul sword strike born of burning Lifespan—

Xu Ruyu suddenly understood.

Those trajectories were not the trajectories of sword moves.

They were the trajectories of "Karma".

Those rhythms were not the rhythms of Sword Intent.

They were the rhythms of "Karmic Tribulation".

The One Sword of Emotional Heaven was never created for the purpose of killing.

It was created for... "severing".

" So that's how it is..."

Xu Ruyu murmured to himself, his voice so soft that only he could hear it.

The next moment, he opened his eyes.

There was no fear in his eyes, no determination, not even any Battle Intent.

Only a calmness as profound as an ancient, deep pool.

Then, he slowly raised his right hand.

His index and middle fingers pressed together, forming a sword finger.

The movement was very slow, so slow that everyone below the stage could see every detail—the fingertips slightly pale from blood loss, the knuckles turning blue from excessive force, the torn sleeves fluttering as his arm rose.

But the moment the sword finger formed—

A wisp of invisible "Intent", quietly flowed out from his fingertips.

It was not spiritual power, not Sword Qi, not any substantial energy.

It even had no color, no shape, no temperature.

It was just like a wisp of breeze, a thread of moonlight, a piece of... forgotten memory.

But the instant it appeared—

Time, truly, stood still.

The blood-red sword light hung suspended two inches before Xu Ruyu's brow, the sword tip trembling slightly, yet unable to advance even a fraction further.

Lin Feng's pupils suddenly contracted to the size of needle points.

He felt that the "link" between himself and that blood-red sword light had been... severed by some incomprehensible power.

It was not a severing of spiritual power transmission, not a severing of Divine Sense control, but a severing of the link on a deeper, Karmic level.

This sword strike should have struck Xu Ruyu.

This was the "Cause".

But now, the "Cause" had been severed.

Therefore, the sword stopped.

" What... what is this?!"

Lin Feng's voice carried an unprecedented tremor.

Xu Ruyu did not answer.

He merely maintained the sword finger posture, the wisp of invisible "Intent" at his fingertips slowly circulating, wrapping around the blood-red sword light like threads of emotion.

Very light, very soft, as if a lover's fingertips were brushing against a cheek.

But the blood-red sword light began to... dissipate.

Not shattering, not exploding, but like dewdrops under the sun, evaporating bit by bit, melting away little by little, finally turning into the purest specks of light, drifting away into the air.

Three breaths later.

That blood-red sword light, capable of slaying a Nascent Soul, completely disappeared.

As if it had never existed.

The Law Execution Platform was plunged into dead silence.

Below the stage, everyone stared with wide eyes and open mouths, yet no sound could escape their throats.

What had they seen?

A Qi Refinement Stage Disciple, with one finger, a gentle tap, had... erased a Nascent Soul-level attack?

" Sword Intent..."

After a long while, an Elder below the stage uttered two words in a trembling voice:

" This is... Sword Intent Micro-realm!"

" Impossible! Sword Intent Micro-realm requires at least the Golden Core Peak and a profound understanding of the Dao of the sword to even touch! He is just a Qi Refinement Stage..."

" But that was clearly Sword Intent just now! And not ordinary Sword Intent, it was... it was Sword Intent that severs Karma!"

Inside the high pavilion, the teacup in Xiao Nianyin's hand fell to the floor with a "clatter".

Porcelain shards scattered, and the scalding tea splashed all over her, but she was completely unaware.

She just stared fixedly at the finger Xu Ruyu still held in the sword finger posture, her ice-blue eyes churning with unprecedented shock and... greed.

" One Sword... of Emotional Heaven..."

She whispered to herself, her voice hoarse.

These four words, like a magic spell, echoed frantically in her mind.

One Sword of Emotional Heaven!

The signature technique of the Hehuan Sect's founding Ancestral Master, Hehuan Fairy!

This unique skill had been lost to the Hehuan Sect for many years, a supreme Legacy that even the successive Sect Masters of the Hehuan Sect had exhausted all their efforts to find but failed!

To think... it appeared on the person she was trying every possible way to get rid of, a thorn in her side?!

" No... impossible..." Xiao Nianyin's voice began to tremble, "How could he have mastered the One Sword of Emotional Heaven? That requires someone with an 'Inner Demon Tribulation Body' or someone who is 'True to Emotion and Nature'... He is just a Transmigration, how could he..."

However, the facts were right before her eyes.

That invisible, intangible, yet Karma-severing Sword Intent could be explained by nothing other than the One Sword of Emotional Heaven!

On the Law Execution Platform.

Lin Feng stumbled back three steps, his face as pale as paper.

The backlash from that blood-red sword light being erased was far more severe than imagined.

The Nascent Soul strike he had purchased by burning a century of Lifespan had not only failed to kill Xu Ruyu but had been resolved by the opponent in a manner bordering on humiliation—the impact of this on his Dao Heart was almost devastating.