The Prime Tower was shaking within his lifebound space, causing boundless white light to seep out and around his body, then concentrate at his back, covering his bloody wounds and speeding up his regeneration.
By now, the Grand-Orient Sword had fused with the blood of the Li Saint Clan's ancestors, as well as Tianming's own. He could feel his bloodline linked to the sword. Now, it was no longer just a sword, but a part of his body through which his blood flowed.
Despite his spine having almost been broken, he still managed to stand up and grip the tip of the sword tightly with his left hand. Yueling Long couldn't thrust it in, nor could she pull it out. Her expression changed as she noticed that Tianming came out changed from his deathly trial. The unwavering fighting spirit within his eyes was about to burst out.
"Yueling Long! We’re but mere mortals with the highest of ambitions, but there's no need to think that we must be able to dominate everything. The Grand-Orient Sword, an item passed down through the Li Saint Clan's bloodline, represents our spirit! It's not something you can subdue, as we are eternal and forever!"
Even if one generation falls and the generations that follow wallow, all it would take is one bright soul to bring the clan back to the top. One generation could die, but the clan’s combined will still remained. No matter what kind of obstacles, those of the Li Saint Clan learned from their ancestors and inherited their spirit to continue fighting unrelentingly against their fate. They would never stand alone, for all of them stood together across the generations.
Tianming wasn't fighting alone. In him flowed the blood of countless ancestors that came before, and their wills still survived within the Kunpeng Sacred Seal. Over the past thousand years, Heaven's Elysium had dominated the Grand-Orient Realm and suppressed the Li Saint Clan so heavily they were almost exterminated.
But today, one of the dying clan's members had managed to charge into the Realm War and revive the blood of his ancestors at a time of great crisis and injury. His gaze now burned with the spirits of his forebears; they glared as one at Elysian Long, who was trying to dominate the Grand-Orient Sword.
The words 'eternal and forever' shook her to the core like a hammer to her head. Her world was shaking and creaking. She had thought it was a mere hallucination, but it was still so terrifying that she felt her grip weaken. It was as if her psyche was teetering on the brink of collapse.
At that moment, Tianming pulled the sword into his own hand. What kind of strength did that take? Now, the Prime Tower and Grand-Orient Sword were finally gathered on a single person once again. This hadn’t happened for the past tens of thousands of years. In Tianming's body was a lightningsource, infernalsource, and a third energy, a force that contained a mysterious black savagery as well as gold domination. His strength immediately skyrocketed.
The sword was still as heavy as before, yet he had the power to wield it properly, making the heaviness of the sword a strength, rather than a weakness. The white light of the Prime Tower covered his whole body, recovering most of his spinal injury and leaving nothing but flesh wounds.
Tianming stomped on the head of the torch dragon so hard that it caused the ground to crack. After that, he raised the glowing sword and charged.
"You think your little make-believe act will scare me? You're not wrong that I'm temporarily unable to dominate the Grand-Orient Sword. Using it will only tire me out. However, I need to thank you for reminding me that using my own weapons will make killing you much easier!"
Had she not insisted on using the Grand-Orient Sword, Tianming would've long been killed already. She’d repeated Tianming's mistake, and that had allowed him to turn the tables once more. She came back at him with Azure Skyfire and Violet Skyfire, fighting in her top form and full of confidence.
"This is a move I just mastered. There’s nothing more fitting with which to end this pointless fight!" She still had a few trump cards remaining, and they were by no means weak. Using both swords at the same time, she condensed her sword ki into two flaming flowers. The azure and violet flowers combined, forming a dense sword formation.
"Annihilation Formation!" she yelled as she combined Azure Heartslay and Violet Soulsmite together into the formation. Like a chaotic flower descending from the sky, it came rampaging toward Tianming with countless explosive sword ki blasts. The might of the move was enough to shock the seniors watching in the Elysium Battlefield.
Her immeasurable talent had once more shocked the audience. Had she used this move to begin with, she would've been able to dominate Tianming long ago. She was no doubt a most terrifying foe to have.
Yet, Tianming was even scarier right now. The sword intent from Myriad's only was supposedly enough to take on her twin-sword strike, but Tianming hadn't had enough beast ki to use it at that level. However, he watched calmly with the Grand-Orient Sword in hand as the flower of death came. His blood burned in his body and the sword, causing their heroic souls to pulse. All of his fighting spirit was focused into that divine artifact.
He raised the sword with both hands and ascended into the skies once more. The clouds swirled around him in a mystical manner. Within the clouds, the Annihilation Formation seemed just as powerful. If he were close enough, it would tear him to shreds. However, Tianming closed his eyes.
"O ancestors of yore, your descendant Li Tianming shall carry on your wills, bloodline, and soul in the pursuit of benevolence, prosperity for our people, the continuation of our legacy, and the ushering in of peace! With prime as my heart and Grand-Orient as my destiny, the Lifesbane clan shall never be extinguished!"
In the next moment, he slashed with the sword; it was ten thousand slashes for the price of one. The arcane and domineering sword ki from the Grand-Orient Sword came surging out, forming tens of thousands of black and gold greatswords that pierced through Annihilation Formation in one instant. The flickering black and gold swords were ethereal, yet eternal. They swallowed Yueling Long up in an instant; even Yueling Long herself was shocked by what had happened.
At the very last moment, she finally came to understand one thing: Tianming had managed to dominate the Grand-Orient Sword. Yet she didn’t know that that realization couldn't be further from the truth. It wasn't domination, but resonance between his bloodline, spirit, and the sword. She would never understand the truth, for there was nothing but destruction, subjugation, conquest, taking, and endless slaughter in her worldview. As long as she continued killing, there would be none that would grow to supersede here. This was her way, her path of unceasing slaughter.
As they continued fighting, she had begun seeing Tianming as a dead man who simply wouldn't lay down and die. Instead, he relied on his black left arm to block many fatal strikes. Yet that was what allowed her to be swallowed up by Myriad's Only as executed by the Grand-Orient Sword.
Azure Skyfire and Violet Skyfire fell to the ground with audible clangs. Wasn't... wasn't I the main character? That was the last burning question on her mind as she fell. Am I really going to die? The pain she suddenly felt caused her to tear up. At the last moment, she cried in endless despair, but it was already too late.
She had been pierced through thousands of times. Though she still retained a humanoid form, not even the gods would be able to save her. The only part of her that remained pristine was her head. When she fell, it was as if she was still looking at Tianming with her wide-open eyes. Even if she had anything left to say, she no longer had a chance.
She had fallen down and climbed back up thousands of times, but there would be no more next time. Her story was over and set in stone. Her rushed, heartless ending had left everyone watching stunned and pale. The whole audience was dead silent for a long time as they watched the fallen girl, the sword, and the white-haired youth.
More than three hundred thousand people simultaneously forgot to breathe and blink. They merely watched as the white-haired youth decapitated one of the Skyscorch Torch Dragons that had fought and struggled to the very end, crying endless streams of tears for its master as it persisted. Tianming might not have chased them down had they simply ran away, but they persisted heroically. Tianming joined Ying Huo and Meow Meow and cut off the heads of the torch dragons they were fighting.
Rivers of blood flowed through the battlefield. When the blood of dragons flowed to the feet of Weisheng Ruosu, Jun Tianyi, and the rest, the elysian children cried in terror. Tianming's allies were pale and at a loss, but they shed tears of relief.
After everything had ended, an unprecedented roar rang out throughout the Elysium Battlefield. The members of Heaven's Elysium were going rabid and insane. Many cried literal tears of blood as they felt swords pass through their hearts, having witnessed a descendant of the Li Saint Clan defeating all seven elysian children in the Realm War and even killing a monstrously talented member of their sect.
Tianming stomped on the dragon's carcass and raised his sword to the skies as he proclaimed, "After a thousand years, the Grand-Orient Sword has returned to the Li Saint Clan!"