I Cheated While Cultivating

Chapter 341: Chapter 61: A Sword that Shook the Heavens and Earth, The Impenetrable Pagoda of Ten Thousand Laws

Hum!

The void trembled, as if time and space had been frozen, with an ancient and vast charm spreading within this thread of Xuanhuang energy.

A thirty-three-story pagoda appeared above Zhou Heng’s head, where the Xuanhuang energy gathered, thick and misty like strings of jewels, draping down and enveloping him completely.

At that moment, Zhou Heng seemed like an ancient Immortal manifesting, embracing all things, accommodating all breaths, as if hiding the roots of the great Tao, the beginning of all beings.

“Flamboyant tricks, die!” He Yanghui, already burning with rage, had only killing intent in his eyes. The Taoguang Sword in his hand was no longer dull; it burst into dazzling light, revealing its sharp edge!

The Taoguang Sword is a blade meant for honing. He Yanghui had nurtured this sword for ten years, and in those ten years, he had never used the Taoguang Sword in battle.

To not strike is one thing, but to strike is to shake the heavens and earth!

When He Yanghui slashed down with this sword, it was like a Milky Way of endless sword edges falling from the sky, the cyan light cutting across the universe, forcefully splitting heaven and earth.

In an instant, within a hundred li, countless flying birds and running beasts were as if thrown into a mill, ground into dust, with the power of destruction completely pervading the area.

Mountains shook, and rivers boiled in response!

If one could look down from high above, they would see, above the already dispersed clouds and below the roaring winds, layers of upper atmosphere still lingering. He Yanghui’s strike even drew in this atmosphere, its movement unknown.

It was like drawing a long straight line on a blank sheet of paper, and on either side of the line… the winds and clouds surged violently, like towering waves in the ocean.

A literal changing of the heavens and earth.

In the towns close to the mountains of Southern Jin, hundreds of thousands of citizens looked up to the sky, feeling as if the high dome above had been forcibly slashed open by a gigantic wound, an incredibly terrifying sight.

And that was merely the aftermath.

The core of this sword’s power lay in that river-like blade of light.

This strike gathered the edge nurtured over time by the Taoguang Sword, condensed He Yanghui’s entire body of Dharma principles, interwoven with the rationale of his Dharma Phase cultivated over decades!

Immensely powerful!

Truly terrifying!

Even amongst the peaks of Sect Fifth Rank, faced with such a strike, one would have to retreat three feet!

It was dozens of times more powerful than the so-called “Heavenly Heart Realm” of the Divine Soul World!

Under normal circumstances, no Martial Artist of the Secret Sixth Rank could possibly withstand this strike with any Martial Arts or Taoist Formulas!

Clang!

The sword struck the thirty-three-story Xuanhuang pagoda that had manifested above Zhou Heng’s head, emitting an extremely clear and resonant ting.

Lan Ying and Qiu Yu both instinctively stopped fighting and looked this way.

Upon finding that his sword had hit the target, He Yanghui’s expression first showed elation, then turned to confusion, and finally became extremely shocked and incredulous.

“How is this possible?! What Taoist Formula is this?!”

He exclaimed in shock, and at the same time, a terrifying force of backlash surged in, instantly shattering the river-like sword light, and the Xuanhuang energy, wrapped around endless edges, rushed towards him.

He Yanghui had no time to react before he was engulfed by this surge of Xuanhuang Qi. The sword light that he had released, with its sharp edge, washed over him, slashing at him thousands of times in an instant!

However, after all, he was a Grandmaster who was just one step away from reaching the Absolute Fourth Rank; even faced with such rebounding force, he was only startled at first.

Although in pain and seriously injured, he soon regained enough composure to prepare to use an Escape Skill to flee from this rebounding force.

But, as He Yanghui was about to wield the Taoguang Sword and cast a spell, a “crack” sound suddenly came to his ears or perhaps his mind, clear as day, like a lament, as if crying.

Clang!

The Taoguang Sword trembled violently. A deep crack appeared in the center of the blade and spread quickly and elongated, stopping only when it reached the part near the hilt.

The once brilliantly shining edge of the sword dulled in an instant. This deep crack almost split the Taoguang Sword’s body in two, a shocking sight to behold.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

“What?!”

He Yanghui was dumbstruck; his eyes wide open as he stared blankly at the Taoguang Sword in his hand. So astonished was he that he had no time to care about the severe injuries caused by the rebounding sword light.

“Pfft!”

The young Grandmaster from the Heaven Sword Sect of Southern Jin suddenly spewed out a large mouthful of blood, tinged with a golden glow, then fell from the sky.

“Junior Brother!” Qiu Yu was shocked and, disregarding Lan Ying’s barrage of Magic Weapon attacks, immediately broke away and turned into a streak of light rushing toward the falling He Yanghui.

Practitioners from the Heaven Sword Sect follow a path where the swordsman and the sword are one; the stronger the sword, the stronger the person. With the sword intact, the person survives; without the sword, the person perishes. Now, although the Taoguang Sword wasn’t destroyed, it was severely damaged and nearly crippled, and He Yanghui was in a similar plight.

“My sword, my, my sword! No, no!” He Yanghui lay in Qiu Yu’s arms, his eyes fixed on the Taoguang Sword in his hand, muttering continuously, “How is this possible, how could this be… Uh! Ah!”

With a scream, he spat out another mouthful of blood, staining Qiu Yu’s chest red, and then he passed out, unconscious.

“This ends here! You’ve won!” Qiu Yu’s face was frosty as her gaze swept over Lan Ying, Lan Yingzhi, and finally rested on Zhou Heng, her teeth clenched tightly. “Well played, Zhou Heng, well played, reincarnation of a great being. We shall meet again!”

With that, she turned into a streak of escaping light and flew towards the south, breaking through the sky.

“Congratulations! You have defeated the formidable opponent ‘He Yanghui’. Fortune Bag [Silver] +3.”

The reward prompt sounded.

Zhou Heng let out a long sigh of relief, simultaneously dissipating the Xuanhuang Pagoda floating above his head. His complexion turned slightly pale, his blood and qi nearly boiling inside, his whole body barely able to stand steadily.

“Truly worthy of the real Sect Fifth Rank, not those shoddy Heavenly Heart Realm imitations from the Divine Soul World. Even with strength forcibly enhanced by thirty times, this is the state it leaves me in.”

Although he seemed to have won easily just now, in reality, he had fully exerted himself.

The Heavenly Demon Disintegration Technique, combined with the Eight Gates of Life and Death, directly increased his strength by thirty times, pushing his body to its limit.

Moreover, in such a state, Zhou Heng could do very little; not to mention using Martial Arts or Taoist Formulas to attack, even moving was extremely difficult.

It was also because of this reason that he had only used the Xuanhuang Pagoda to defend, without making any offensive moves—not that he didn’t want to, but because he truly could not.

This ordeal had made Zhou Heng fully realize his own strength.

If fighting a common Sect Fifth Rank, he still had a relatively high chance of winning. Still, facing a Grandmaster who was close to the Absolute Fourth Rank, he was still somewhat lacking.

However, if he could refine the Nine Dragons God Fire Cover and temper true Gang Qi, this situation should improve.