On the three-foot thin sword, holy qi flowed rapidly, emitting a counter-vibration force that surged towards Zhang Ruochen’s arm, shocking his arm to the point of pain, and his feet crushed the mountain path, falling all the way down to a few dozen feet below before he could once again stabilise his stance.
“Worthy of being a top powerhouse in the Fish Dragon Eighth Transformation, this woman’s strength is quite impressive.”
Zhang Ruochen held the Valley Water Sword in both hands and mobilised his entire body’s True Qi.
Just now, the force of the recoil caused Qi Fayu to take a step back as well.
She was even more surprised in her heart, not having expected that the strength of a newly promoted Sacred Transmission disciple in the district would be so powerful. One must know that many cultivators of the Fish Dragon’s Ninth Transformation would have a hard time blocking a sword that she stabbed out with all her might.
“Not bad.”Qi Fayu praised.
Zhang Ruochen spoke in a cold voice, saying, “Who exactly are you?”
Qi Fayu didn’t reply and swept out, on the cliff face, as if she was walking on a flat surface, executing a sword stance that erupted with powerful might, stabbing Zhang Ruochen straight in the heart.
“You’ve already cultivated Sword One to the eighth level of the realm?”
Zhang Ruochen’s eyes narrowed, revealing an unprecedented look of gravity.
The sword technique displayed by this woman was a few degrees more advanced than him, seemingly just stabbing out a sword, but it erupted into hundreds and thousands of sword qi, leaving one with nowhere to dodge.
“Boom boom.”
The two fiercely exchanged blows, battling dozens of moves in a row, leaving dense sword marks on the cliff wall, and countless debris falling down the mountain.
Suddenly, Qi Fei Yu’s figure, quickly changed, her feet stomped on the cliff wall, recoiled, condensed a ball of blood red holy qi into the three foot thin sword, and fiercely slashed down with the sword.
“Boom!”
Zhang Ruochen blocked the sword horizontally, and his body flew uncontrollably sideways towards the bottom of the cliff for a distance of tens of feet, falling down.
In a moment, his body, was engulfed in white clouds.
Qi Fei Yu was as if she didn’t have the slightest weight, lightly landing on top of a protruding rock, her long black hair slowly fluttering in the wind, making her look exceptionally beautiful and dusty.
She glanced towards the bottom of the cliff, not seeing Lin Yue’s figure again, and muttered, ”In the Second Heavy Mountain, even if the Sword Dao realm is high, it’s impossible to perform the Sword Royal Art. Falling down from here, I’m afraid that even a cultivator of the Fish Dragon realm would have a hard time escaping death. Everyone should think that Xu Changsheng killed him.”
The three-foot-long thin sword slowly retracted into her fingers.
It was still a pair of flawless jade hands, but who would have thought that such beautiful hands would be so terrifying when it came to killing.
She was about to leave, when suddenly, sensing a fluctuation of aura, a soft eek escaped from her mouth, and she looked towards the bottom of the cliff.
Only to see, a golden glow, flew up from below the cliff.
In the golden glow, an icy voice resounded, ”Senior sister Qi, I don’t have any grudges against you, why are you trying to kill me? You want to leave without giving a reasonable explanation?”
Only to see that on Lin Yue’s back, a pair of golden dragon wings actually grew, breaking through the clouds and flying back above the mountain path, landing in a position above Qi Fayu.
Qi Fayu was only slightly surprised at first, but soon became extraordinarily calm and said, “To kill someone, you still need a reason?”
Zhang Ruochen said, “Even if you don’t say it, I can still roughly guess.”
“Oh! Is that so?”
“The Two Elemental Sect has always been a neutral force, and has rarely crossed paths with other forces. So, which side are you an undercover agent planted in the Two Eyes Sect? Although, your aura is light and elegant and dusty, I can smell a scent of blood on you. So, could you be an Immortal Blood Clan?”
Zhang Ruochen’s eyes became quite sharp as he observed Qi Fayu’s change in expression.
Qi Fayu first caught up to Xu Changsheng and startled him away.
Afterwards, she began to pull Zhang Ruochen in, until she failed to do so, and then she very decisively killed him.
Obviously, a genius like Lin Yue had to be killed if he couldn’t be drawn in. This was the “extermination of seedlings”, in the Two Element Sect, any genius that had the potential to become a saint was the target of her assassination.
Anyone who would do such a thing could only be a rival force of the Two Element Sect.
Eight hundred years ago, the Sacred Brightness Central Empire had united with all the major clans and saintly sects, and it had taken ten years to expel the Undying Blood Clan overseas and seal it on Barbarian Iso Island.
At that time, the Two Yi Sect was on good terms with the Sacred Brightness Central Empire, and had contributed manpower and material resources in the battle to expel the Undying Blood Race.
There were Undying Blood Clans lurking in both the Black Market and the Eastern Region Sacred Academy, and even if the lurkers were found in the Two Eyes Sect, it would not be a strange thing.
“Immortal Blood Clan? Senior Brother Lin, don’t wrong me. It’s well known that I’m the heir of the Qi family, so how could I possibly be involved with the Immortal Blood Clan?”Qi Fayu said.
Zhang Ruochen smiled coldly, “Then, why do you want to kill me? Don’t tell me that you just wanted to test my cultivation.”
“The reason why I made a move to kill you is that I just wanted to remove an opponent in advance, and I would be able to save some effort during the Sword Dao Competition.”Qi Fayu said.
Zhang Ruochen naturally did not believe her words and said, “Is that so? I think it’s better to report to the Sage Ancestors and let them verify your true form.”
Her eyes chilled as she stared at the pair of dragon wings on Zhang Ruochen’s back and said with a smile, “Are you really Lin Yue? It’s absolutely impossible for Lin Yue to possess a pair of dragon wings, or else I’ll report it to the Sage Ancestors as well, so that they can verify your true identity as well.”
The two of them were on the cliff, facing each other.
Below, a silhouette could be seen faintly, rushing towards the top.
Obviously, another person had broken through the first level of the second mountain, and this person was getting closer and closer to Zhang Ruochen and Qi Fayu.
In the end, Zhang Ruochen took the Dragon Wing back into his body, and Qi Fayu also put away her Sacred Qi, and the two of them did not continue to make any moves.
“Don’t let me find evidence, if you let me determine that you are from the Immortal Blood Race, I will send the evidence to the Law Enforcement Academy at the first opportunity.”Zhang Ruochen did not have any good feelings towards the Immortal Blood Clan.
The reason why Zhang Ruochen chose to compromise was not just because, his cultivation level was inferior to Qi Fayu’s.
More importantly, if he told Qi Fayu’s secret to the Sage Ancestor, Qi Fayu was bound to spill his secret as well.
At that time, it would be a situation where both would die.
Of course, Qi Fayu wanted to kill and silence him, but she was clear that it was easy to defeat Lin Yue, but quite difficult to kill him.
Thus, because the two of them were holding each other back, they could only stop at the same time, so as not to both reveal their identities.
“Could Qi Fei Yu be someone from the Demon Sect and Black Market?”
Although, earlier, Zhang Ruochen had spoken with vigour, in fact, it was all entirely a test for Qi Fayu, and there was no way to be sure that Qi Fayu was an Immortal Blood Clan.
One had to know that Qi Fayyu was the heir of the Qi Family, which in turn was a Medieval Family.
How could the heir of a medieval family be an Immortal Blood Clan?
If one shifted their thoughts, the Qi family was yet likely to be the black market or the devil cult’s forces in the open. If Qi Fayu was a member of the Evil Dao or the Devil Dao, there was also a certain possibility that she would make a move to kill Zhang Ruochen.
“After breaking into the Ancient God Mountain, send a message to Mu Lingshi and the Orange Moon Star Envoy so that they can look into the details of the Qi Family.”
Zhang Ruochen no longer thought much about it, temporarily emptying his mind of thoughts as he quickly walked towards the waist of the second mountain.
Silkworm Winter broke through the first barrier at the foot of the mountain and chased after him, seeing that the surrounding crags were covered in sword marks, clearly having experienced a fierce battle.
A puzzled look appeared in his eyes as he stared towards Qi Fayu and said, “Xu Changsheng struck out at Senior Brother Lin?”
Qi Fayu looked extraordinarily elegant as she gently nodded and said, “You don’t need to worry about Senior Brother Lin, I’ve already repelled Xu Changsheng.”
Afterwards, Qi Fayu joined Silkworm Winter and travelled towards the mountainside as well.
The second mountain, like the first, was also nine thousand metres high.
Zhang Ruochen travelled until he reached four thousand metres and arrived at the mountainside, finally seeing a row of silver-coloured palaces built on the steep stone walls, seventy-two palaces in total, lined up in a row, and each one of them exuded a powerful Saint Might that inspired awe in the hearts of the people.
Of the seventy-two palaces, only the door of the first palace was closed, so it didn’t take any guessing to know that it must be Xu Changsheng who was breaking through inside.
Zhang Ruochen chose to walk into the second palace.
Qi Fayu chose the third palace, and Silkworm Winter chose the fourth palace.
Right in front of the second palace, there stood a jade statue of a middle-aged Taoist priest, and underneath the Taoist’s feet, there was a black eagle.
Both the middle-aged Taoist priest and the giant black eagle were lifelike, as if they would come to life at any moment.
Zhang Ruochen came to the bottom of the jade statue and bowed to the middle-aged Taoist priest.
“Wow!”
The jade statue emitted a layer of white light, and on its surface, a single text emerged. The words were sinking and floating rapidly, and in the same location, every single moment, a different word would appear.
In the palace, a voice resounded, ”The statue of the Saint has recorded a total of nine Sword Scrolls of the Heart, all of the words, all of them, have been disrupted in order. The intruder must collate at least one piece of the heart method within one hour, and create his own set of sword techniques according to the heart method. Time limit, one hour.”
The second level of the second mountain tested the cultivator’s eyesight, perception, and also creativity.
Its difficulty, far exceeded the second level of the first heavy mountain.
It was impossible for a cultivator to break through this level without reaching the top level in any point of their eyesight, perception, and creativity.
Zhang Ruochen didn’t waste any time and immediately sat down on the bottom of the jade statue, concentrating, his eyes fixed on the top of the jade statue.
At the same time, he mobilised his spiritual energy and covered the jade statue.
Any words that appeared on the surface of the statue were instantly memorised by him.
When one third of the time had passed, Zhang Ruochen finally collated the first Sword Script’s Heart Technique.
Just after he had successfully collated it, a particle of light immediately flew out from above the jade statue, like a rain of light, showering down on Zhang Ruochen’s body.
In this instant, Zhang Ruochen felt the Heart of Sword Intent in his Qi Sea become even more crystalline and radiant, reaching a critical point that seemed like it would break through at any time.
“Collating out a Heart Technique is actually able to raise the Sword Dao Realm. If I were to collate a second Heart Technique, wouldn’t it be able to raise the Sword Dao Realm some more?”
As if Zhang Ruochen had discovered something interesting, a hint of joy appeared on his face.
His Sword Dao Realm was on the verge of a breakthrough, and as long as it improved a little more, he would be able to break through to the high level of Sword Mind.
As long as he broke through, the Sword Dao Realm would be able to take a huge step forward, reaching a realm that would make even Half-Saints incomparably envious.
