Chapter 680: Facing Mister Bai Head-On

"Eh, it's hard to explain. Just go see for yourself. Earlier, Senior Brother Zhao, who's at the Golden Core realm, got indignant and tried to teach that fellow a lesson. A single sword stroke knocked him flat."

"I heard that too. That guy looks like he's only at Qi Refinement. You think that's possible? He must be an infiltrator who snuck into the sect. I'm telling you, he's not here for anything good."

"Hurry up, or we'll miss the match."

Amid the clamor, Li Fan followed the crowd to a sparring ground.

At the same time, his host body's memories crystallized in his mind.

Ji Zhaoxuan. Golden Core cultivation. An inner disciple of the Heavenly Sword Sect.

A man of few words, uninterested in socializing, wholly devoted to the sword path.

"Good match, Senior Brother Chen!"

The pleasant voice jolted Li Fan's body, snapping him back to the present.

He knew that voice all too well: Mister Bai!

Li Fan followed the sound and found a cultivator with a plain, unremarkable face, nothing like Mister Bai's.

But the aura slipping inadvertently from the man instantly convinced Li Fan that this was Mister Bai himself.

He must have changed his appearance. His original look draws too much attention.

But... when was this? Why was he posing as an ordinary man, and what business did he have joining the Heavenly Sword Sect?

Questions piled up in Li Fan's mind.

Still confused, he kept watching the arena.

The Golden Core cultivator named Chen showed no sign of distress after his defeat at the hands of Mister Bai, who appeared to be only at the Qi Refinement realm.

Instead, he cupped his hands and said, with sincere admiration, "Thank you for the guidance, Senior."

Then, with a faint delight on his face, he pushed past the crowd and vanished, off to meditate in seclusion on what he'd learned.

The watching cultivators erupted into an uproar.

They all understood that this "Qi Refinement" cultivator was nothing like he appeared.

That was when Li Fan finally noticed it.

His gaze locked onto the wooden sword in Mister Bai's hand.

This sword...

Shock quaked through Li Fan's heart.

He quickly asked the disciples around him and learned that Mister Bai had had no suitable weapon when the match began. So he'd simply snapped a branch off a nearby tree and shaped it into this wooden sword.

Hearing that, Li Fan's mind reeled through another wave of shock.

No mistake. This is the very wooden sword Shuo Feng will wield in the future.

The Curio of Heaven, Sword!

How is this possible? Mister Bai made a Curio of that level on a whim?

What… what realm has he reached, exactly?

The discovery threw Li Fan's thoughts into chaos.

The Curio of Heaven, Sword, was the convergence of the world's Sword's Law. In theory, only the power of heaven and earth could conceive it.

Yet here it was, in Mister Bai's hands, made as casually as a child's toy.

How deep did Mister Bai's understanding of the sword path, and of heaven and earth itself, actually run?

Li Fan couldn't fathom it.

While he stood there, nearly stupefied, a Nascent Soul sword cultivator arrived on a beam of sword light. He unleashed a set of forty-nine mother-and-child swords, which flew like a storm of pear blossoms, straight at Mister Bai.

Mister Bai raised his hand and swung his sword lightly.

Instantly, all forty-nine swords turned back on their master and tangled into a chaotic mess.

The sword cultivator was defeated in a moment.

"Did you notice? He's even stronger than when he fought Senior Brother Chen!"

"He's definitely hiding his cultivation, just toying with us!"

"Now Big Senior Brother will have to step in. I wonder if he's sobered up yet."

Amid the crowd's clamor, memories of the Heavenly Sword Sect's Big Senior Brother flooded Li Fan's mind.

The Eternal Great Disciple of the Heavenly Sword Sect. His seniority even surpassed that of the current sect leader.

But by nature he was indolent, disliked managing affairs, and loved only drinking. Using the flimsy excuse of being "the eternal Big Senior Brother to all junior disciples," he'd stubbornly clung to the title.

His name was Situ Yao.

In his day, Big Senior Brother Situ Yao was famed as the strongest in the world, and battle-hungry cultivators challenged him one after another.

Annoyed beyond measure, Situ Yao procured two massive boulders and set them at the mountain gate.

He carved two lines into them with his sword: "Idlers, Halt Your Step" and "Those Who Come, Cease Your Arms."

Legend had it that once he'd finished carving, he downed an entire jug of fine wine on the spot, laughing heartily, and declared that things would be peaceful from now on.

And indeed, after that, most challengers couldn't even get past the two giant boulders at the gate. The instant they grasped the chasm in strength between them and Situ Yao, they slunk away in defeat.

***

Tsk. So this Situ Yao was no ordinary figure after all.

Recalling that those boulders were now Curios of Heaven and Earth, Li Fan couldn't help but think that.

But clearly, he still fell far short of Mister Bai.

One was only a Curio of Man. The other had reached the level of a Curio of Heaven.

Truly beyond belief.

Situ Yao's legend only draped another layer of mystery over Mister Bai.

At present, the unfathomably strong Mister Bai did not refuse any Heavenly Sword Sect disciple who challenged him. He defeated each in a single move.

The defeated showed no chagrin. Instead, they looked elated, as if they'd gained much from the "sparring."

Recognizing a rare opportunity, disciple after disciple stepped eagerly forward.

Li Fan's heart stirred. He seized the moment and positioned himself before Mister Bai, ahead of everyone else.

He could look upon all living beings of the Xuanhuang World with indifference, but standing before this profoundly mysterious Mister Bai, he couldn't quite suppress a trace of nervousness.

He was possessing a body in the Fallen Immortal Realm, so he couldn't use his own divine abilities.

Taking a deep breath, Li Fan called up his host Ji Zhaoxuan's technique: an obscure method for condensing pill energy into swords.

But understanding one method opened the door to a hundred. Using the energy sword as his medium, he could unleash a fraction of his divine ability, the Heaven-Breaking Heart Sword.

"Please enlighten me, Sir."

Li Fan's voice came out deep.

In the next instant, several sword intents, thick with black baleful qi, materialized around Mister Bai. The black swords let out a keening wail, as if about to slice him into countless pieces.

"Not bad. The creativity is there. But is your heart one with your sword?"

Just as the black swords were about to strike, they froze, halted in midair.

Somehow, time itself had gone still.

A whisper reached Li Fan's ears, carrying Mister Bai's pleasant voice.

"If you treat the sword as a tool, the sword will treat you as a tool in return."

Boom!

Like lightning splitting fog, countless inspirations exploded through Li Fan's mind. Every possible derivation of the Heaven-Breaking Heart Sword appeared before him all at once.

It left him dizzy, unable to choose.