Chapter 316: One Sword

Lin Suri's gaze sharpened!

He looked Chen Lingxi up and down, a flash of astonishment crossing his eyes.

"Daoist Brother, might I ask what your current cultivation is?"

"Dao Foundation Middle Stage."

The astonishment in Lin Suri's eyes deepened!

It had been less than ten years since the Weiji Grotto-Heaven shattered. In a mere decade... Daoist Brother Chen had actually stepped into the Dao Foundation Middle Stage?

This left Lin Suri even more amazed.

But then he recalled Chen Lingxi's performance in the Weiji Grotto-Heaven, and his state of mind gradually settled.

'Daoist Brother Chen was already a genius. It isn't actually a surprise that his cultivation progress is so fast,' he thought, yet he slowly shook his head.

"Your cultivation is profound, Daoist Brother. I admire it," Lin Suri said. "It is just that... you probably haven't taken a close look at this secret realm yet."

"There are five cultivators at the Dao Foundation Middle Stage in this secret realm. Each of the five has their own backing, and each cultivates two Great Divine Abilities and two Profound Roots. They guard their respective domains, keeping each other in check. None of them dares to make a reckless move."

"And behind that solitary peak in the southwest of the secret realm, there is a cultivator at the Dao Foundation Late Stage. This secret realm has its own mysteries; only cultivators below the Dao Foundation Late Stage could enter it. However, that person was merely at the Dao Foundation Middle Stage upon entering, and has now broken through to the Dao Foundation Late Stage."

"That person... is a figure from the Yutai Bai Family. He hails from an immortal clan and possesses an extraordinary foundation."

"If we want to fight our way out... I'm afraid it won't be easy."

Chen Lingxi's gaze shifted slightly, and he nodded.

"Five at the Dao Foundation Middle Stage, one at the Dao Foundation Late Stage." Lin Suri sat opposite him. "Daoist Brother, I didn't tell you the whole truth just now."

"I do have some cards to play, but at most, they can only keep me alive. At most, they can allow me to walk out of here when the secret realm opens."

"If you want me to hold these people back and protect you so we can take this serendipity away together, it is absolutely impossible for me to do it alone."

Saying this, he raised his eyes and looked at Chen Lingxi.

"Since the situation is like this, you should just claim this serendipity first and leave the moment the secret realm opens."

"Don't worry about me. I can naturally escape on my own."

Chen Lingxi frowned in thought, then shook his head.

"Daoist Brother Lin! As a disciple of the Under-Dao Academy, you naturally have some foundation. But the figures in this secret realm must also have extraordinary backgrounds. How do you know they don't have their own foundations? If you cannot escape this secret realm, won't you die here?"

Chen Lingxi spoke softly, and Lin Suri immediately fell silent.

Night had gradually fallen by now. The impenetrable layer of spiritual mist outside the secret realm shrouded the highest peaks, filtering the daylight into a hazy gray-blue.

Within that stretch of ancient woods, a nocturnal bird would occasionally startle into flight, its wings brushing against the branches with a rustling sound.

Right at that moment, Chen Lingxi suddenly chuckled.

He stood up, facing the night wind blowing from the southwest of the secret realm, and raised his eyes toward the solitary peak.

Two clusters of pale gold lightning slowly lit up in his eyes, faintly exuding a chilling intent.

"Daoist Brother Lin, you don't need to say all that yet. I am going to test this Dao Foundation Late Stage expert and see exactly what kind of strength he has. We need to know what he is capable of before we decide our next move in this situation."

Before Chen Lingxi even finished speaking, cloud qi surged beneath his feet, and he ascended into the air.

Without waiting for Lin Suri to speak, he urged his intent, and like a long blade drawn from its sheath, he streaked straight from the bluestone bank toward the western sky.

"Daoist Brother Chen!"

Lin Suri hastily called out, but when he looked up, he only saw a faint cyan-gold streak of light suddenly rising into the sky.

In that instant, the night was violently torn apart by that streak of light.

Since he was currently undergoing an absolute evolution, Chen Lingxi did not restrain his aura.

Seventy-two streams of qi flowed out from his Dao Platform simultaneously, slowly swirling around him!

Above the Plundering Dragon Dao Platform, the branches and leaves of the Thunder Prison Profound Root surged. The Weiji Thunder Radiance cascaded out along the veins of the leaves, dyeing his entire body in a layer of pale gold!

The layer of gentle, pale gold patterns on the Heavenly Statute Profound Root also lit up, with the faint sound of edicts flowing from within.

He pushed his foundation to its absolute limits. It was like someone violently pulling an ancient sword out of a deep pool where it had lain for years; the sword light pierced the sky, and before the water even rippled, the surrounding wilderness had already heard its ring.

The sound of thunder rolled across the clouds, heading straight west. Wherever it passed, the night dew on the mountain vegetation was shaken loose, rustling to the ground!

The streak of light that Chen Lingxi had transformed into was incredibly fast.

Within the secret realm, people in all four directions moved at the disturbance!

The first to react were those few Dao Foundation Middle Stage cultivators scattered across the mountains, each guarding their own territory.

In a mountain hollow to the east thick with spiritual energy, a cultivator gathering herbs suddenly threw his head back. His hand froze in midair over a half-plucked spirit fruit as he abruptly stood up.

His Dao Origin condensed around him, and his divine sense unfurled from between his brows, sweeping toward the direction of the rumbling thunder.

Above a mountain stream to the south, a figure who had been sitting quietly all day also opened his eyes.

Beneath a stone cliff in the north, two cultivators stood up from their meditation mats almost simultaneously. One grabbed the hilt of the longsword hovering beside him, while the other snapped shut the ancient tome open in his palm, clutching it tight.

Four streams of divine sense arrived from all directions, sweeping across the same stretch of sky and brushing against each other where the cyan-gold streak of light passed.

"Who is this person?"

"I've never seen him before... The aura on his body doesn't belong to anyone from the three families."

Those words, formed of divine sense, intersected above the firmament like a few night clouds pushed together by the wind, only to drift apart again.

Then, someone saw clearly where the streak of light was heading.

"He's heading west."

That transmission of divine sense suddenly carried an indescribable tone.

"West..."

"Sunset Glow Mountain?"

A dead silence fell.

The cultivator gathering herbs in the eastern hollow slowly snapped off the half-plucked spirit fruit and slipped it into his sleeve. Watching the streak of light, the corner of his mouth twitched upward.

"Courting death."

The man above the southern stream, however, slowly shook his head.

"The one on Sunset Glow Mountain is from the Yutai Bai Family. He has been in secluded retreat for years, and the moment he emerges, he will be at the Dao Foundation Late Stage. He is currently in a death-seclusion retreat to stabilize his Dao Platform, yet this person dares to go and disturb him?"

Of the two in the north, one sheathed his longsword and brushed the cold dew from it, his tone carrying a hint of pity.

"What a pity for that impressive aura. His foundation isn't weak. It would have been good to form a friendly tie with him outside the secret realm. Yet of all places, he had to go to Sunset Glow Mountain today. What is he going there for? To disrupt the quiet cultivation of that Bai Family Dao Foundation Late Stage expert?"

The streams of divine sense clashed, and then fell quiet again.

Because that cyan-gold streak of light had already shot past the first mountain ridge.

Sunset Glow Mountain was located in the extreme west of the secret realm.

It was the tallest mountain in the secret realm, its steep slopes winding upward layer by layer from the base.

Within an array formation at the summit, a Bai Family cultivator sat peacefully.

It was exactly that Dao Foundation Late Stage figure, Bai Huan!

Bai Qieyun, meanwhile, had been standing guard in a hollow on the eastern side of Sunset Glow Mountain for several days.

He was a disciple of the Bai Family's main branch, and since childhood, he had known the relationship between his branch and his younger clan brother, Bai Huan.

This younger clan brother of his possessed exceptional talent. He was an outstanding figure among the Bai Family's current generation, highly valued by the clan.

And Bai Qieyun was the one by his younger clan brother's side, handling everything for him.

At this moment, he sat cross-legged in the hollow. On the stone surface in front of him rested an old piece of jade, carved with extremely precise Qi Observation patterns. Within those patterns, a faint trace of cyan aura flowed down from the summit of Sunset Glow Mountain, landing on the jade like a silk thread.

He sat here every day, using this thread of aura as a medium to monitor the progress of Bai Huan's seclusion.

Tonight was no different.

Until the night, originally as still as deep water, was shattered by a low roll of thunder rising from the eastern sky!

Bai Qieyun opened his eyes.

He didn't immediately stand up. He merely withdrew his divine sense from that thread of aura and slowly raised his eyes, looking toward the cyan-gold streak of light sweeping toward them from the eastern horizon.

In that instant, the peaceful expression he usually wore completely faded away.

He let out a cold snort.

"How dare someone disturb my clan brother while he stabilizes his cultivation?"

As his words fell, he had already stood up. His robes billowed as he took an item from his sleeve and tossed it into the air.

It was a jade boat, no larger than a finger.

The jade boat expanded the moment it left his hand, transforming in the blink of an eye into a jade-colored flying skiff about three zhang long. The hull was a translucent white, engraved with extremely complex cloud patterns. A faint wisp of cloud qi flowed through every single pattern. At the bow stood a mast with no sail, suspending only an impossibly thin curtain of cloud.

Bai Qieyun stepped onto the clouds and stood at the bow of the skiff. He brought his palms together lightly in front of him, fingers interlocking as he formed an extremely intricate hand seal.

The moment the seal was formed, his Dao Origin abruptly flared.

Great Divine Ability, [Thousand Cloud Convergence]!

This divine ability used the cultivator's own Dao Origin as its core and all the cloud qi between heaven and earth as its body—gathering to form a solid shape, scattering to become a tidal wave.

Within a thousand zhang around Bai Qieyun, the night clouds that had been quietly floating among the mountains were suddenly gripped from all sides by an invisible hand. They surged madly toward the front of the jade skiff, condensing in the blink of an eye into a cloud screen tens of zhang thick!

The cloud screen was completely seamless, grayish-white in color, and completely devoid of floating patterns. It simply sat there like a true mountain, stretching from the sky to the ground, completely severing any path from the east to the west.

At the same time, behind that cloud wall, layers upon layers of cloud qi surged in from all directions, linking this cloud screen tightly to the jade skiff. Its momentum grew stronger, its form heavier; it seemed that with a single thought from Bai Qieyun, the entire cloud screen would come crashing down from the heavens.

Bai Qieyun stood upon the jade skiff, his robes flapping loudly in the night wind.

He looked at the cyan-gold streak of light sweeping in from the eastern horizon and spoke slowly.

"Sunset Glow Mountain is the secluded retreat of a figure from my Bai Family. If you insist on forcing your way through, then you will have to get past me first."

Chen Lingxi did not reply.

He looked at the cloud screen, gazing at the aura blocking the front of Sunset Glow Mountain and completely sealing off the path. The layer of pale gold lightning in his eyes slowly grew a bit brighter.

And then...

The Abyssal Heaven Spiritual Sword in his hand was already unsheathed. The residual patterns of the hundred restrictions on the blade lit up simultaneously, and a sword intent skyrocketed from the edge of the blade, tearing the night wind in two!

Chen Lingxi stood holding his sword, his right hand slowly rising.

That sword was like a jade tiger reaching its front claws out from the heavens, suddenly slashing down right at the cloud screen.

Jade Tiger Rebellious Sea Sword Light!

Sword light erupted from the edge of the Abyssal Heaven Spiritual Sword. One divided into ten, ten into a hundred, a hundred into a thousand. In the blink of an eye, a thousand cyan-gold sword rainbows stretched across the sky. Lightning surged upon the rainbows, and sword qi crisscrossed violently. Wrapped in an incomparably fierce momentum, they slashed straight down at the cloud wall.

When those thousand sword rainbows crashed toward the cloud wall, Bai Qieyun's heart chilled.

He could clearly sense that the killing power coming at him was far, far stronger than he had anticipated. The sheer purity of the thunder intent and the condensation of the sword qi contained within those thousand sword rainbows was more than just a cut above any cultivator of the same realm he had ever seen.

'What is this person's background?'

The thought flashed through his mind, but he suppressed it in an instant.

He violently pushed his palms forward. The cloud wall swelled from the center, crashing head-on into the thousand sword rainbows.

Right at that moment, Chen Lingxi spat out a single word.

"Edict."

The moment the word fell!

A wisp of profound spiritual light faintly bloomed in the void, flowing from the depths of his Dao Platform. It transformed into an edict carrying only the intent of "forbid" and "halt," bypassing the cloud wall and landing directly in front of Sunset Glow Mountain.

Heavenly Statute Edict.

[Cloud qi of this place, you are forbidden from entering]!

The Thousand Cloud Convergence cloud wall that Bai Qieyun had personally summoned was fundamentally rooted in "cloud."

The night clouds gathered from all sides, the mist floating up from the mountains, and even the unformed cloud qi in the void—the instant the Heavenly Statute Edict fell, they were forcibly severed from the area in front of Sunset Glow Mountain.

The clouds Bai Qieyun had summoned could no longer cross into that sliver of space before Sunset Glow Mountain.

"This... what kind of divine ability is this?"

Bai Qieyun was struck with inexplicable horror!

Chen Lingxi had already swept his way in.

The aura around him swirled, all the thunder intent and sword qi within it completely restrained, taking only a defensive posture!

Thunder Prison Heaven unfurled around him. The area within dozens of zhang became a domain of lightning. The lightning formed a thin protective shield outside his body, shredding and annihilating any residual clouds and mist that passed by.

When he burst out from the cloud wall, there was no cloud qi beneath his feet.

Nor could he ride the clouds.

Under that Heavenly Statute Edict, all cloud qi was forbidden from entering, so he couldn't circulate the Cloud Soaring Technique!

Yet Chen Lingxi's eyes were unusually calm!

The instant the layer of cyan cloud qi beneath his feet vanished, the phantom of the Great Sage deep within his Sea of Consciousness suddenly opened its dragon eyes. A majestic surge of vital energy flooded from the depths of the palace, washing over his skin, muscles, and bones.

A ridge of bone resembling a dragon's spine faintly arched up on his back and shoulders, and his qi and blood surged like a rushing river!

With another ruthless thought, the pool of Dao Origin in his Qi Sea suddenly surged from the bottom up, lifting his entire body and launching him into the air.

He shattered the air with his physical body alone!

The black-clad figure swept over the top of the cloud wall, arriving swiftly. He was just as fast as the cyan-gold streak of light from before, diving down from the sky straight toward Bai Qieyun on the jade skiff.

Bai Qieyun's pupils instantly shrank.

He violently clapped his hands together in front of him. The severed cloud wall swept in rapidly from behind, wrapping all the surrounding cloud qi back together to form a heavy cloud barrier a full zhang thick around him!

With a flip of his other hand, he pulled another magical treasure from his sleeve. It was a half-open cloud fan. The surface was engraved with ancient patterns in silver thread. When it opened, a layer of heavy cloud qi spilled from the fan, overlapping outside the cloud barrier.

Dual protections were in place.

He was confident that even an attack from a Dao Foundation Late Stage expert could be blocked once!

However, Chen Lingxi's Jade Tiger Rebellious Sea Sword Light erupted from the blade once more, terrifying sword light overflowing in all directions!

Before that sword edge, the heavy cloud qi on the cloud fan barely held for half a breath before it was pierced right through the center!

The zhang-thick cloud barrier only managed to block for an instant before it crumbled away in all directions!

The sword edge punched through Bai Qieyun's two layers of cloud barriers.

Bai Qieyun only had enough time to hold the jade fan horizontally in front of his chest.

The Jade Tiger sword edge slashed down forcefully onto the jade fan. Only then was the momentum of the sword mostly dissipated by the cloud patterns on the fan, leaving only a single thread of sharp edge to pierce straight through his body.

Standing upon the jade skiff, Bai Qieyun's body faintly stiffened.

He opened his mouth, wanting to say something.

Yet before he could even exhale that breath, the three-zhang-long jade skiff in front of him had already split perfectly in two.

The jade skiff came from the Bai Family and was no ordinary item. But pierced through by the Jade Tiger Rebellious Sea Sword Light attached to Chen Lingxi's strike, the cloud patterns on the hull snapped inch by inch. The two halves of the skiff fell away to either side, shattering into a sky full of jade dust in midair and drifting down like snow into the ancient woods beneath Sunset Glow Mountain.

Bai Qieyun's figure plummeted along with the two halves of the shattered boat.

He fell from a height of a hundred zhang, crashing through the branches of the ancient woods and smashing into a pile of jagged rocks, shattering a boulder to pieces and kicking up a cloud of dust.

Within the secret realm, the four streams of divine sense from all directions had stopped dead in their tracks.

Silence...

"He killed Bai Qieyun in a single sword strike?"

The crowd remained completely silent.