Chapter 422 - 398: Song Zhao, the Peerless Celestial Pride

In the sky, Beichen Sword Immortal attacked with his sword and taunted his foe.

Blades of light crisscrossed the sky, his words as sharp as daggers.

He was showing off for the crowd, getting his fill of trash talk.

"If you make a bet, you accept the loss. The defeated dies! Is there anything wrong with that?"

"If you can’t handle losing, then you shouldn’t have shown up!"

"Some peerless Celestial Pride? Challenging the entire Human Race’s Celestial Pride List? That little lion was shameless, and you, Old Demon Liu, are shameless too! The true peerless Celestial Pride is our Human Race’s Song Zhao!"

"She defeated him fair and square, in a head-on battle! So what if he was killed? How dare you, Old Demon Liu, have the gall to ask our Human Race’s Celestial Pride to show mercy? When your little lion was running his mouth, did he show mercy to anyone?"

"He was scum who deserved to die. Now, get lost!"

As his final words fell, eighty-one crisscrossing sword beams converged to form a complete sword diagram.

The white-haired Old Demon Liu, who had been desperately resisting the assault of the sword light, could no longer hold on. A horrified expression appeared on the old demon’s face, and in the next instant—BOOM!

A heaven-shaking roar exploded from within the boundless sword light.

The sea of endlessly growing white hair that filled the sky finally retracted, raining down in shreds. Old Demon Liu’s figure vanished.

A thousand miles away, the old demon’s furious voice left one parting shot: "Beichen Sword Immortal, I have seared today’s humiliation into my memory! I will repay this debt one day! AHH—"

In the end, however, his threat ended in a pained scream.

It turned out that Beichen Sword Immortal had struck again, sending a slash across the void. The attack cleaved down, its light appearing a thousand miles away.

The old demon instantly teleported far away, his boasting silenced.

The sword light in the sky receded, revealing the clear sky once more.

Down below, the spectating Cultivators, who had been holding their breath for a long time, finally let it out in a collective rush.

Then came wave after wave of thunderous cheers: "Fantastic! We won!"

"The Human Race won! Song Celestial Pride won!"

"Some peerless Celestial Pride? That little lion? The true peerless Celestial Pride is our Human Race’s Song Zhao!"

"Song Zhao! Song Zhao!"

Amid the joyous shouts, some were naturally cheering for Beichen Sword Immortal as well: "The Immortal Venerable is mighty! The Immortal Venerable is invincible!"

"The Demon Race’s Celestial Pride has a mighty expert to protect him, but our Human Race has Beichen Immortal Venerable!"

"Pah! What mighty expert? He couldn’t even withstand a single casual strike from our Human Race’s Beichen Immortal Venerable!"

"To have witnessed the battle of Celestial Prides and seen the Immortal Venerable himself draw his sword... whatever happens now, this life has not been lived in vain..."

As he said this, the man was overcome with joy, and suddenly, he opened his mouth and spewed a great spray of fresh blood!

The people beside him were shocked and immediately shouted, "Brother! Brother, are you alright?"

"This is bad! His Cultivation is too low, but he forced himself to watch the battle. The shockwaves must have damaged his internal organs! Quick, help him down! Take him to Wangxian Medical Clinic and see if he can be saved!"

"Damn it, we can’t move him! It’ll only make things worse!"

Amid the chaos, one voice cut through the noise. A man shouted, "Put him down, put him down now! Don’t try to carry him, it’s no use. I’m a physician from Wangxian Medical Clinic. I’m at the Late-stage Qi Refining, and I’m telling you right now, this man is a lost cause..."

...

So, it seemed this Cultivator, who had ignored his own weak Cultivation and forced himself to watch, was really going to die for it.

To think he’d get himself killed just by watching the show!

What kind of bizarre story was this?

But set against the backdrop of the battle between Celestial Prides, this bizarre tale only added to its legendary mystique.

Some sighed and shook their heads in secret; others clicked their tongues in amazement, their voices tinged with pity.

"A world-shaking battle is bound to have its strange occurrences. This man... this man... sigh."

The sigh hadn’t yet faded when someone was seen riding the wind under the clear sky.

The man who had been sighing tilted his head back, his mouth hanging open, unable to close it.

He raised a trembling finger, breaking out in a sweat as his teeth chattered. He looked both shocked and overjoyed. "H-h-her... It’s... it’s Song Celestial Pride!"

The girl riding the wind was none other than Song Ciwan. She didn’t get too close to the crowd, instead hovering in mid-air. When she was about thirty feet from the injured man on the ground, she paused and extended a finger, pointing gently down at him.

With that simple gesture, a plume of light, as clear and shimmering as water, descended upon the injured man.

It was the Recovery Spell, which Song Ciwan had learned from the Five Thunders True Method Exorcism Chapter!

It might have seemed as if Song Ciwan had only recently learned the Recovery Spell, but during her seclusion, she had actually sold off hundreds, even thousands of years of Cultivation time.

Even though Song Ciwan had to divide that vast amount of time among practicing various Techniques—including her Cultivation of the Sutra of Sitting and Forgetting, as well as using the Spirit Mimicry Technique to simulate Alchemy and Artifact Refining—she had by no means neglected her practice of the Recovery Spell.

By now, she had long since achieved a state of Mastery with this Talismanic Spell.

She didn’t even need to resort to Drawing Talismans and Chanting Spells; a simple point from afar was enough—

As the light fell upon the injured man, he first groaned in pain. Then, the groaning subsided, replaced by a soft hum...

’That humming doesn’t sound painful at all. In fact, he sounds... extremely comfortable?’

Then, in the next moment, the injured man on the ground let out a cry and suddenly performed a perfect kip-up.

Just like that, he was on his feet.

And not only was he on his feet, but as the surrounding crowd hastily backed away, he effortlessly steadied himself.

Then he burst into roaring laughter. "I’m healed! I’m healed? I’m not dead! I’m not going to die! HAHA, HAHAHA..."

His booming laughter stunned the crowd once more.

From within the stunned crowd, someone cried out in sudden realization, "It was Song Celestial Pride who saved him! I can’t believe it, not only is she incredible in battle, but her healing abilities are this amazing too!"

"Wangxian Medical Clinic said he was a lost cause, but Song Celestial Pride saved him with a single, gentle point of her finger. What kind of skill is that?"

"Could it be a Divine Technique? A new Divine Technique?"

The crowd was in an uproar again, surging forward, trying to get closer to Song Ciwan.

"Song Celestial Pride! Song Celestial Pride!"

"Huh? Wait, where did Song Celestial Pride go?"

...

In the blink of an eye, Song Ciwan had vanished.

Not only had Song Ciwan disappeared, but Beichen Sword Immortal was gone as well.

The wind blew gently at the foot of Cyan Feather Mountain. If it weren’t for the shattered bricks and stones strewn everywhere, and the entire landscape bearing the scars of battle, one might have suspected the great war was nothing more than a collective hallucination.

The now-vanished Song Ciwan was being overwhelmed by the various energies surging within the Heaven and Earth Scale.

The most prominent among them, of course, was the Death Qi from Gu Peng!

[Death Qi: From the death of a Celestial Pride Level Golden Lion Demon, which was parasitized by an Ancient Divine Insect Race Golden Core. Weight: Five catties, nine taels. Tradable.]

[Malice: Generated from the death of a Celestial Pride Level Golden Lion Demon, which was parasitized by an Ancient Divine Insect Race Golden Core. Weight: Six catties, one tael. Tradable.]

A death can be lighter than a feather or heavier than Mount Tai.

Although Beichen Sword Immortal had derisively called Gu Peng a "little lion," and it seemed he hadn’t made any great contribution, from the Demon Race’s perspective, he was an incredibly important figure.

As a shocking Celestial Pride who had become famous overnight, the weight of Gu Peng’s death was substantial.