Chapter 447 - 311: The Enraged Sword Venerable

Chapter 447: Chapter 311: The Enraged Sword Venerable

P.S. Well, I vented a bit and I’m feeling better. It’s all good now. Everyone, please carry on as usual—vote with your recommendation tickets and your monthly tickets. The world is a beautiful place, yet I’m so cranky. Please, bury me in monthly tickets until I calm down ^_^

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"Hmph! Playing tricks on this old ancestor!"

Unconvinced, Zhe Wanqian waved his hands, once again sending two fire dragons hurtling toward Ling Xiao’s phantom! "Even if it’s just a shadow, this old ancestor will blow you to smithereens!"

After he spoke, Zhe Wanqian was stunned to see a wicked smile languidly form on the lips of the Ling Xiao phantom.

Zhe Wanqian suddenly felt a chill run through him. From the moment he had arrived in this great city, he’d sensed something was wrong, though he couldn’t put his finger on it. But he was confident in his overwhelming power; he believed there were very few people in this world who could actually trap him!

Unless the Holy Sanctuary Gate opened and people came from there, Zhe Wanqian didn’t believe anyone else had the power to hold him!

If an expert at the Sword Venerable Realm wanted to leave, who could possibly stop him?

That was why he had charged in fearlessly. With just one wave of his Spiritual Power, he had destroyed half the main street of this beautiful, new city. Zhe Wanqian planned to kill that Ling Xiao, slaughter everyone in this great city, and then unleash the sword technique he had cultivated to the Peak Realm to turn the entire place into a pile of rubble!

’Haha, what a wonderful thing that would be!’

Zhe Wanqian had planned everything perfectly. And while that boy’s strength was surprising—so much so that he couldn’t quite see through him—how could a mere brat, not even twenty years old, possibly possess more power than himself?

’What a joke!’

The two enormous fire dragons, baring fangs and brandishing claws, roared as they surged toward Ling Xiao’s phantom to ensnare it!

POP! Like a bubble pricked by a needle, Ling Xiao’s phantom shattered into countless motes of light that filled the air and refused to disperse.

Having lost their target, the two fire dragons became entangled and exploded with a deafening BANG!

Zhe Wanqian’s eyelid twitched uncontrollably. His gaze flickered as he suddenly stood still, calmly surveying his surroundings.

In recent years, he had often felt as though he was on the verge of falling into cultivation deviation! This wasn’t due to insufficient Mental Cultivation, but because Zhe Wanqian’s end was near!

Zhe Wanqian was only a little over four hundred years old. Logically, it was common for someone at the Sword Venerable Realm to live from five hundred to a thousand years. Some experts at the Sword Emperor Realm even lived for over five hundred years!

But the Zhe Family was different! The sword technique passed down through their ancestors was God-tier, Lower-grade! Furthermore, it was explicitly stated that no one without exceptional talent should ever practice it!

This was because the sword technique was simply too tyrannical! The higher one cultivated it, the greater the damage to one’s body! It was said that only by breaking through to the Sword Saint realm and entering the Holy Sanctuary could one find a way to heal the physical trauma!

Therefore, those without exceptional talent must not cultivate it recklessly!

Consequently, most members of the Zhe Family practiced a Saint-tier, Middle-grade sword technique. Zhe Wanqian, however, was deemed to have exceptional innate talent since childhood, possessing a Martial Artist’s foundation seen in only one in ten thousand. Only he was permitted to begin cultivating this particular technique from a young age.

In his youth, Zhe Wanqian’s growth was incredibly fast. By the time he was in his fifties, he had already become a High-tier Sword Sect. Relying on this technique, he had indeed defeated countless opponents, including the old ancestor of the Sea Domain Song Family, Song Xi! This was why he looked down on everyone!

But for the past hundred years, Zhe Wanqian had made no progress on his Martial Dao! This caused his heart to grow impatient, and he was no longer able to dedicate himself to his training as he once had.

After so much stillness, he yearned for action and felt the urge to take a stroll through the Mortal World. However, his status was too high; he was already regarded as an old ancestor in the Zhe Family. Although he could have easily made an excuse to travel the Mortal World, Zhe Wanqian disdained lying, believing it to be a sign of incompetence!

That was why he used this opportunity to blow the matter out of proportion, storming off in a rage with Zhe Shixun. In reality, he was secretly laughing inside!

Zhe Wanqian had never imagined that what awaited him would be something so inexplicable and mysterious.

He knew full well that he was trapped, but Zhe Wanqian did not believe for a second that he would die here! In fact, he suddenly had a feeling that if he could break free, his realm... would actually improve!

The thought was so startling that even Zhe Wanqian himself found it hard to believe, yet his intuition told him it was the truth!

"I shall counter all your tricks by standing still, brat! If you have the guts, come out and kill me!" Zhe Wanqian declared, then let out a few boisterous laughs and casually sat down on the ground!

Positioned at the eye of the array, Ling Xiao had a perfect grasp of everything happening within it. Hearing Zhe Wanqian’s words, Ling Xiao gave a cold sneer and muttered to himself, ’Counter all my tricks by standing still? Use stillness to overcome motion? Heh, in that case, I’ll just have to make you move!’

As he spoke, Ling Xiao’s body erupted in a brilliant white light! Strands of True Essence flowed from him, coalescing into innumerable copies of himself, each holding a Demon Blood Red Lotus Sword, accompanied by nine hundred and ninety-nine Cold Iron Short Swords! He summoned the Urgently Cold Treasure Cauldron!

Countless True Essence Clones of Ling Xiao suddenly appeared before Zhe Wanqian. Innumerable streams of Sword Qi slashed viciously toward his vital points! The Urgently Cold Treasure Cauldrons abruptly expanded, and the Cold Iron Sword Array shimmered with light...

Enraged by this blatant harassment, Zhe Wanqian let out a furious roar. His right hand shot out from his sleeve, holding what appeared to be an extremely ordinary Hundred-refined Steel Sword!

The sword did indeed look ordinary, but it hadn’t been refined a hundred times. It had been refined... one hundred thousand times! Back then, it had taken a full three years to forge this sword, consuming an immeasurable amount of steel and cold iron!

The Swordsmith who forged it had vomited blood and died the moment it was completed.

One could say that while this sword appeared ordinary, it completely surpassed those Cold Iron Swords! It was, without a doubt, a treasured sword!

Zhe Wanqian casually swung his sword, and a crescent of fiery red light shot out to meet the countless Ling Xiaos, countless Cold Iron Swords, and countless Urgently Cold Treasure Cauldrons!

"BOOM... BOOM... BOOM!"

A series of violent explosions rang out, accompanied by incessant flashes of light so bright one could not open their eyes!

Ling Xiao’s clones, manifested from mere slivers of True Essence and a bit of his spiritual power, had almost no real killing power against an expert of Zhe Wanqian’s caliber!

But killing power wasn’t what Ling Xiao was after!

With his own strength, trying to kill a Sword Venerable—a Tier Two Sword Venerable, no less—was asking the impossible. However, inside this Four Symbols Grand Array, Ling Xiao was a god! If he were fighting outside, Ling Xiao wouldn’t have dared to show off such abstruse tricks against an expert of the Sword Venerable Realm. Forget a Sword Venerable; even against a High-Tier Sword Emperor, using such petty tricks would be an insult to both his opponent and himself.

But things were different here. Ling Xiao couldn’t care less about Zhe Wanqian’s emotional state, be it anger or madness; it was impossible for him to escape the Four Symbols Grand Array! Meanwhile, Ling Xiao, safe within the eye of the array, could continue to cultivate while harassing Zhe Wanqian with his True Essence. Ling Xiao was resolved: even if it was just harassment, he was going to drive this old bastard from the Zhe Family insane! He had to find a way to kill him!

Besides, he had entered through the Life Gate!

The Life Gate was easy to enter but difficult to leave, its main purpose being to ’trap.’ Within the Life Gate, no powerful attacks would manifest unless the master of the grand array actively launched them!

Of course, if Zhe Wanqian went mad and blundered into the Ming Sect, the illusions alone would be enough to annihilate him completely!

This was because the more powerful a person was, the more potent the illusions they saw, and the more intense the attacks they would suffer!

As for the Extermination Gate... in the Four Symbols Grand Array that Ling Xiao had built, the Extermination Gate was merely for show... because he wasn’t strong enough to power it! If Ling Xiao were at the Nascent Soul Stage, he might have been able to barely manage all four gates simultaneously. At his current Golden Core Stage, just managing three was already an incredible feat!

Of course, if he only wanted to trap his enemy, Ling Xiao could leave right now, and there would be absolutely no way for Zhe Wanqian to escape!

The problem was... Ling Xiao wanted to kill him!

He had never imagined that such a big fish from the Zhe Family would appear. A Sword Venerable! An expert at the Sword Venerable Realm! Forget ordinary people; even among the reclusive families and sects, countless clans had never laid eyes on an expert of this caliber!

Even someone like Song Mingyue, who came from a family with a Sword Venerable, had barely seen one a few times in her entire life.

’An expert of this level, killed by me!’

’How domineering would that be? What kind of power would that represent?’

Ling Xiao’s move to annihilate the Zhe Family was perfectly justified, leaving no room for gossip!

Besides, a group of experts from the Zhe Family had come to the Mortal World to "bully" a young man; Ling Xiao already held the unbeatable high ground in the court of public opinion! No one would sympathize with the Zhe Family!

This was true revenge! Open and honorable!

If he also killed this Sword Venerable from the Zhe Family, who would dare to provoke him anytime soon? Forget the near future; for decades to come, the death of this Sword Venerable would deeply shake the hearts and minds of countless people from the great families and sects!

"You little bastard! You despicable, shameless villain! Villain! Get your ass out here! Do you dare take one strike from my sword?! If you can take one strike, all grievances between you and the Zhe Family will be wiped clean! Come on... you gutless little animal, haha, do you dare? Do you dare come out?"

Zhe Wanqian roared violently as he frantically slaughtered Ling Xiao’s endless True Essence Clones. His eyes were bloodshot, and several shallow, bloody scratches had appeared on his delicate, baby-like face!

He didn’t want to waste any time on these illusions, so he tried letting his opponent’s swords strike him. He never expected that... fuck, the swords felt real, and the streams of Sword Qi actually hurt when they hit him! What’s more, they had actually managed to scratch his face!

Now, he didn’t dare to be the least bit careless. Instead, he cursed wildly, hoping the boy would lose his composure and come out to fight him.

But to his surprise, the young man was as cunning and composed as an old fox, utterly refusing to answer him! This only enraged Zhe Wanqian further.

An endless aura suddenly erupted from his entire body! None of Ling Xiao’s clones could get near him anymore, self-destructing one after another! Zhe Wanqian gave a furious roar as his body released a magnificent radiance, and the hundred-thousand-refined treasured sword in his hand also burst forth with a dazzling light.

Zhe Wanqian roared, "Furious Dragon Absorbing Water!" As the sound echoed, his body began to spin like a spiral, madly rotating until it instantly formed a massive tornado!

And within that tornado churned an endless, murderous killing intent! (To be continued. If you want to know what happens next, please log on to www.qidian.com. More Chapters, support the author, support official reading!)