182: Chapter 182 You have every reason to be proud that you could force me to use 30% of your true essence of the laws.

Xu Ruyu's face was pale, his body trembling violently under the weight of unimaginable pressure.

His kneecaps made an overwhelmed "creak," as if they would shatter and hit the ground in the next second.

But he remained standing.

Because the jade pendant on his chest erupted at this moment with its final and most blazing light!

Inside the jade pendant, that strand of Sword Qi which had been dormant for three hundred years seemed to be thoroughly enraged.

It was no longer passively defending; instead, like an offended monarch, it released a sliver of the sharp edge it possessed during its prime!

"Zheng—!"

This time, the sword's cry resounded through the heavens and earth!

It wasn't a subtle vibration, but a clear, impassioned, and metal-shattering true sword cry!

An illusory sword shadow, its outline almost impossible to see clearly, flashed out from the jade pendant and vanished into Xu Ruyu's body.

In an instant, Xu Ruyu felt his "perception" elevated to an incredible level!

He "saw" it. Not with his eyes, but with his "heart," with his "intent."

He saw the countless interwoven, flowing "Law Lines" within the Profound Ice True Intent pressing down from the sky.

They were dense, complex, and profound, forming the essence of this web of destruction.

He saw the most original "Love Silk" Sword Intent of the "One Sword of Emotional Heaven" within the crumbling Sword Intent Domain surrounding him—they should have been as silent as spring rain nourishing things, as lingering as threads of affection, but now, because of his weakness and lack of understanding, they had become stiff, dull, and riddled with holes.

More importantly, through the glimpse of "guidance" from the jade pendant's Sword Qi, Xu Ruyu had a sudden moment of insight and instinctively reacted.

He raised his sword finger and slightly adjusted the angle.

It wasn't an attack, nor a defense.

It was... "resonance."

"One Sword of Emotional Heaven—First Form: Love Silk Entwinement!"

He spoke the name once more.

But this time, his voice was very soft, as soft as a sigh.

Upon his sword finger, that speck of faint light erupted for the last time.

There was no world-shaking momentum, no dazzling sword light.

There were only countless "energy threads" as thin as hair and so faint they were almost invisible, "flowing" out from the tip of Xu Ruyu's sword finger in an incomparably natural and gentle manner.

These threads were different from before.

They no longer tried to "entwine" or "impede" that majestic Profound Ice True Intent—that would have been as futile as a mantis trying to stop a carriage.

What they did was "follow."

Following the flowing trajectories of the Law Lines within the Profound Ice True Intent, they gently "clung" to them, like vines clinging to a great tree, like water currents following a riverbed.

They followed the flow of the Law Lines, moving upstream toward the source—toward Xiao Nianyin, winding their way forward.

Their purpose was... "perception," and an extremely weak "interference."

Perceiving the core operational nodes of the Profound Ice True Intent and interfering with its smoothness by a ten-thousandth.

"Oh?"

Xiao Nianyin let out a slight sound of surprise.

She felt that her "Frozen for Ten Thousand Miles" technique had encountered an extremely subtle "stagnation" at the critical point where it was about to completely crush Xu Ruyu.

It was like a flawless piece of silk suddenly having a few invisible fine threads added to it; although they couldn't tear the silk, they made the tactile sensation less smooth.

What surprised her even more was the essence of the Sword Intent contained within those fine threads—that lingering quality that overcomes hardness with softness and points directly to the Great Dao made her instantly certain of her previous guess.

"It really is... the Ancestral Master's Sword Intent!"

The light in Xiao Nianyin's eyes surged, greed and killing intent intertwining. "This boy can actually trigger the Ancestral Master's lingering Sword Intent in the jade pendant for protection... that jade pendant must be the Ancestral Master's personal keepsake!

The secrets of the Legacy contained within are likely far beyond imagination!"

However, she also keenly perceived Xu Ruyu's limit.

"The Sword Intent is wonderful, but the sword wielder is too weak," Xiao Nianyin sneered inwardly. "The Sword Qi in the jade pendant consumes a massive amount of energy and is like a tree without roots.

The boy's own True Qi has already hit rock bottom... he won't last three breaths."

And indeed, that was the case.

After Xu Ruyu performed that "improved version" of Love Silk Entwinement, his entire being felt as if all strength had been drained from him. His vision went black in waves, and he nearly fainted.

After reaching its peak, the heat of the jade pendant on his chest began to rapidly recede, becoming lukewarm, and finally returning to a cold silence.

That fleeting illusory sword shadow had long since dissipated without a trace.

To help Xu Ruyu withstand that lethal blow, the Sword Qi in the jade pendant had exhausted its last bit of power and fallen back into the deepest slumber.

Perhaps it would never wake again.

"Crack—crack—"

The cracks in the Sword Intent Domain became more numerous and dense.

The Domain's range was compressed to less than a foot, clinging tightly to the surface of Xu Ruyu's body.

The Profound Ice True Intent was less than three feet away from his body.

The bone-chilling cold had already penetrated the Domain barrier, causing frost to condense on Xu Ruyu's eyebrows and the tips of his hair.

His blood flow was slowing, his thoughts were becoming sluggish, and even his heartbeat became heavy and difficult.

Death was close at hand.

But at this moment, Xiao Nianyin's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly, and a trace of hesitation flashed deep within her eyes.

It wasn't that she couldn't crush Xu Ruyu immediately.

With her Saint Realm cultivation, if she exerted herself fully, even with that jade pendant's Sword Qi blocking her, adding at most another ten percent of her strength would be enough to turn Xu Ruyu along with that broken Sword Intent Domain completely into ice shards.

But she didn't.

Because she faintly felt that there was still some extremely subtle "discordance" about Xu Ruyu.

It wasn't his cultivation, nor his technique, but... lines of fate? Lines of Karma? Something so profound and mysterious that even she, a Saint Realm Cultivator, couldn't fully grasp.

More importantly, the fact that the jade pendant could autonomously trigger Sword Qi to protect its master showed that its spirituality was extremely high, and it might even still have some connection with Fairy Qing Tian.

If she destroyed it violently, would it trigger unpredictable consequences? For example... offending the Hehuan Fairy, who might still have a sliver of true spirit remaining in the void?

Xiao Nianyin naturally didn't know that the so-called Hehuan Fairy was merely a minor Disciple under Fairy Qing Tian.

And Fairy Qing Tian was still very much alive.

This thought caused Xiao Nianyin to unconsciously hold back half a portion of her strength when she struck.

What she wanted was the complete Legacy and the potentially greater secrets hidden within the jade pendant, not a completely destroyed corpse and a shattered piece of jade.

Of course, to an outsider, this half-portion of restraint still appeared to be an irresistible killing move.

Xu Ruyu's defeat and death seemed to be only a breath away.

And this half-portion of restraint also became the only insignificant yet real... crack of variables in this desperate situation.

"It ends here," Xiao Nianyin's voice rang out coldly, like a judgment. "You can be proud of forcing me to use thirty percent of my Law True Intent."

She looked down at the swaying figure below, her jade-like hand slowly clenching, about to press down completely and end this farce.

However—

"All Elders, hear my command!" Xiao Nianyin's voice suddenly turned sharp, resounding through the area. "Form the 'Nine Nether Soul-Locking Grand Array'!

Seal off everything within a hundred miles and block all prying eyes!"