Chapter 399 - 218: On a Hair Trigger

Chapter 399: Chapter 218: On a Hair Trigger

The rain of swords descended with brutal speed.

Xue Yue was already at a complete disadvantage, entangled by the Sword Step Master’s two incredibly fast Flying Swords. He could neither fend them off nor create any distance. In an instant, dozens more Flying Swords had caught up, threatening to cut him down.

No hint of triumph appeared on the Sword Step Master’s cold face. Instead, his gaze sharpened as he spurred on his Sword Technique. He seemed to have activated a Secret Technique, for the speed and killing power of his swords increased dramatically as they surged forward for the kill.

Xue Yue’s heart jolted, and he instinctively reached for a silver ring on his left index finger.

"Do not panic." Before he could cast his spell, a voice called out from afar. It was followed by several flickers of faint light as the Faceless Saint Child leaped out, casually extending an open palm.

ROAR! A black light flared in his palm, and a colossal, armor-skinned monster suddenly leaped forth. It wrapped its claws around them, forming a bulwark that shielded them both. The rain of swords descended but failed to leave a single scratch.

It all happened in a flash. In that instant, the Faceless Saint Child had protected Xue Yue. A faint smile was just gracing the Celestial Demon Child’s lips, but it froze solid.

His profound cultivation granted him an extraordinary intuition. He sensed a terrifying threat approaching from the ether. His pupils constricted. Before he could cry out a warning, the next instant was upon them.

The Faceless Saint Child seemed to sense it too, looking up for some unknown reason.

On the Magic Altar, the Daoist Child chanted an incantation, holding the Vermilion Gourd high with both hands. A sword beam suddenly burst forth from it. For a moment, it seemed the only thing left between heaven and earth was that single streak of cold light.

"So fast!" It wasn’t just the Demon Sect cultivators; even the members of the Tai Su Sect, watching intently from the various Magic Altars, felt their hearts clench.

The sword beam was like lightning or morning dew, gone in an instant. It revealed no sharp edge, yet in the Spiritual Sense of powerful Cultivators, it moved like a thunderclap and a tempest, fast as a lightning strike, as it galloped across the surface of the sea.

A moment later, the sea abruptly split open, from the base of the Magic Altar all the way to the hundred-mile perimeter. The water on either side of the chasm cascaded down like a waterfall, and the gap failed to close for several breaths.

"Faceless!" The Beilan Saint Child was shaken to his core.

The armored monster that had been protecting the Faceless Saint Child and Xue Yue was sliced clean in two by that single sword strike, dissolving into a murky torrent. But the two figures inside were gone. ’Did they escape, or were they... annihilated, without even a corpse left behind?’

The incantation the Xuzhuang Daoist Child had chanted was merely a moment of wicked fun, but that sword strike was the first time the Taiyi Rainbow Sword had been drawn against an enemy since being forged into a weapon of pure killing Sword Qi. It was, in truth, an attack with his full power.

The Beilan Saint Child didn’t know the full extent of its power, but that streak of light was so fast it seemed quicker than the birth and death of a single thought!

’If I were in his shoes,’ the Beilan Saint Child thought, ’I’m afraid I wouldn’t even have time to cast a spell in reaction. My only sliver of hope would be to gamble on finding life in the face of certain death.’

The Beilan Saint Child stared fixedly at the scene. The Faceless Saint Child was conceited and arrogant, but he had survived and clawed his way up through the brutal Demon Sect to this point. He had to have something up his sleeve.

The Beilan Saint Child figured it wasn’t impossible for someone like the Faceless Saint Child to have found that one sliver of a chance for survival.

And sure enough, in the next instant, a faint light flickered. From it emerged a Nascent Soul, feet planted on a murky cloud, a Demon Python coiled around its arm. Its shockingly ugly face was etched with terror as it shrieked, "Brother, save me!"

It was him.

A Nascent Soul is the condensed essence of a Cultivator’s spirit and qi, their Primordial Spirit Infant. It is never shown lightly. For a Nascent Soul to leave the body meant that the situation had become a matter of life and death.

The Faceless Saint Child had indeed abandoned his physical body—and even Xue Yue—to escape with his life by releasing his Nascent Soul.

A complicated look appeared in the Beilan Saint Child’s eyes as a thousand thoughts raced through his mind.

On the one hand, they were both Saint Children of the Manifestation Sect. Though they shared no friendship, their cultivation levels were comparable. Seeing the Faceless Saint Child fall so easily to Xuzhuang’s sword, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of shared grief—the sorrow of a fox for a fallen rabbit.

’But since his Nascent Soul escaped, I’m afraid...’

’This battle has passed the point of no return!’

All Demon Sect cultivators are forbidden from coming within a hundred miles of the formation gate. Violators will be executed!

The Tai Su Talisman still hung above the formation gate, its decree clear to any Cultivator who perceived it with their Spiritual Sense.

’How could Xuzhuang let the Faceless Saint Child trespass and then leave so easily? Not even if he’s now just a Nascent Soul with his path to the Dao severed!’

’But the Celestial Demon Child personally promised to support him. With so many of our Demon Sect brethren watching, how could he possibly go back on his word...?’

On the Magic Altar, Xuzhuang had risen to his feet at some unknown point and now raised a finger from across the distance.

The Celestial Demon Child’s expression darkened. "Save him," he said flatly.

In response, a figure shot out from behind the Celestial Demon Child and sped toward the Faceless Saint Child’s Nascent Soul. At the same moment, the Celestial Demon Child turned his gaze toward the distant Magic Altar. He raised a sleeve and lifted his hand, palm up, as if cradling something.

As he moved, the Demon Cloud beneath his feet suddenly surged, flooding out for a hundred miles like a great deluge, rolling straight for the Magic Altar established by the Tai Su Orthodox Sect.

Xuzhuang’s eyes grew cold, a flicker of lightning in their depths. Without hesitation, he stopped his cultivation, flicked a finger, and shot a dozen bolts of lightning straight at the Faceless Saint Child’s Nascent Soul. Then, he swept his sleeve over a jade seal and shouted, "Senior Brother Yue, I’ll ask for your help!"

Before the last syllable left his lips, a sky-shattering beam of sword light erupted from the Magic Altar to the left. It seemed to cleave through layers of space itself, appearing instantly behind the Faceless Saint Child’s Nascent Soul.

"Yue Junlan!" The rescuer’s expression changed. He immediately unleashed his Magical Artifact and cast a series of techniques, but the sword light was unpredictable, shifting between corporeal and incorporeal, tangible and intangible.

It weaved and dodged, passing through the barrage of techniques like a body through a rainstorm, emerging completely untouched. It pierced through the layers of spells, striking the Faceless Saint Child’s Nascent Soul and instantly—obliterating him!

"Damn it..." The man’s furious shout died in his throat as the dozen lightning bolts arrived. He scrambled to turn his Magical Artifact to block them. The impact felt like a thunderbolt to the head, staggering him for a moment. In that instant, Yue Junlan had already redirected his sword beam and was lunging for the kill.

Meanwhile, Xuzhuang had already looked away. He watched the approaching Demon Cloud, his expression unchanged. But his aura howled like a storm as his Gangyun rose. Boundless Magical Power surged from him, coalescing into a dense vapor that gathered and swirled until it formed actual waves.

The Thousand Jin Dharma Qi had gathered into a sea!

"Go!" With a flick of Xuzhuang’s Spell, the great sea of Dharma Qi surged with furious waves, crashing down as if to blot out the sky, aimed squarely at the Celestial Demon Child’s encroaching Demon Cloud. The pure white sea of qi instantly collided with the roiling black Demon Cloud, threatening to obscure the heavens in a chaotic, murky haze.

The sea of qi and the Demon Cloud ground against each other like two colossal millstones. As they churned, the spiritual energy in the air erupted violently. For miles around, the ocean surface began to surge, its waves raging like a monstrous, sky-blotting tsunami.

’What?’ The Celestial Demon Child’s gaze flickered. He possessed the Celestial Demon Eye and had long ago, without anyone’s knowledge, determined that Xuzhuang’s cultivation had reached its peak; he was but a single step away from the Nascent Soul Third Layer. ’However, a single step away is still not the same as having arrived. Whether one has reached completion or not makes a difference. The amount of Magical Power might be similar, but there are disparities in its quality, circulation, recovery, and use in casting spells. The difference might not seem great, but in a battle between experts, it is a chasm as wide as a thousand miles! Therefore, I wasn’t being arrogant. Even if I considered Xuzhuang a genius on par with Liu Zhuo, this difference in layer was still a fact. But I never imagined Xuzhuang actually had the strength to contend with me—and even faintly suppress me!’

As Xuzhuang circulated his profound art, wild undercurrents surged within the sea of Thousand Jin Dharma Qi. It churned ceaselessly, its infinite power grinding away at the dense Demonic Qi, pushing the Demon Cloud back ten miles in a matter of moments.

"Damn it..." The Celestial Demon Child raised a hand to shield his eyes and forehead, but a crazed smile played on his lips. "No wonder he’s so famous..."

"Is that bastard Ye Xuanzhang this strong?"

"Is that monster Qiu Qinghai this strong?"

"Damn it, damn it. Since the heavens saw fit to birth a demonic prodigy such as myself, why did they have to create so many unsightly rivals to get in my way! How truly, truly—"

"...maddening!" The Celestial Demon Child suddenly dropped his hand. His eyes were blood-red, radiating raw killing intent. "Attack."

The Demon Sect members’ hearts jolted. Before they could react, the Celestial Demon Child had already leaped forward. A long roar was heard as the venomous dragon behind him broke free from the pagoda, and with the Celestial Demon Child on its back, charged fearlessly toward the Tai Su Altar.

In the next moment, more than a dozen elders of the Innate Demon Sect immediately followed. Only one, a Kun Dao, glanced askance at the others. "The Celestial Demon Child has made his move," she asked coolly. "Fellow Daoists, what are you all waiting for?"

The Beilan Saint Child’s expression flickered for a moment before he made his decision. "Go!" he yelled.

Whether spurred by the Kun Dao’s words or the Beilan Saint Child’s action, not just the other few true disciples of the Manifestation Sect and their subordinate elders, but everyone else moved as one. They each unleashed their Divine Techniques. In an instant, it was as if a demonic gale had kicked up, sending demonic flames soaring to the heavens amid the wails of ghosts and the howls of gods!