A commotion was heard from the audience high above the Dimensional Battlefield when Gu Shaoyu's head rolled. He had made some name for himself.
"He must be quite daring to kill right at the start of the faction battle."
"Who is it? I saw his sword split in two. Is it some kind of tribulation artifact?"
"We can't see the tribulation patterns, but it definitely has more than one, given that it even shattered the Unparalleled Slasher."
"How can a mere empyrean saint have a tribulation artifact with more than two tribulation patterns?"
They couldn't tell that Tianming was just a sky saint from afar, for auras could only be discerned from up close. This battle had drawn quite a lot of attention from the rest.
However, that level of power still didn't warrant any attention from the disciples in the Earth and Heaven Branches. As for his Hexapath Samsara Sword, none of them had actually seen it in action before. Not even Jian Wuyi could tell for sure whether that was the first strike of the strongest sword art on the continent.
The show was only beginning.
......
In a dark corner was the white-clad Xuanyuan Yuheng. He had his back against the wall as he opened his third eye and spotted the white-haired youth in the illusory formation. "It seems like he's trying to cause trouble for my faction, Muxue."
There was a girl standing behind him. Her dress fluttered elegantly, highlighting her beauty. She seemed to be eighteen years of age, but her gaze was as enchanting as a mature lady’s. Her finely chiseled nose and the dimples at her cheeks were only further highlighted from the light that reflected off the sparkling snow. She also had a third eye between her brows, but it was icy blue. It was as if a stare from that eye was enough to freeze someone's soul.
"Big Brother Yuheng, is he the one Her Eminence brought back?" Xuanyuan Muxue asked.
"Yes."
"A sky saint?"
"He was when I first saw him. He's probably an empyrean saint now."
"How can he defeat a fifth-level empyrean saint if he only just broke through?"
"I don't know, but he surely has some special quality since he’s so valued by Her Eminence."
"That makes sense. But if he's only an empyrean saint at his age, he seems a little weak. That means his parents weren't at the Samsara stage when they gave birth to him. He probably started training at the Beast Vein stage. Without talented parents, there's practically no way for children to change their fates."
"We'll see." Xuanyuan Yuheng's golden third eye seemed to strike fear in others. That was part of the reason why nobody else was around them. Nobody dared to disturb those two, the highest ranked disciples in the faction.
"Big Brother Yuheng, do you dislike him because he is valued by Her Eminence?" she gently asked.
"You can't put it that way. I'm just skeptical about his potential for growth. Not to mention, I don't like how rambunctious he is. Her Eminence is too sacred and doesn't know the ways of lowly people. I am simply afraid that he’ll besmirch the name of our sect and sway others in devious ways using Her Eminence's name."
"Brother Yuheng, you've been with the Godservant Hall Lord since your youth to protect the divine blood. Your shock after seeing Her Eminence can't be helped, since she’s the object of your faith," Xuanyuan Muxue said.
"That's right. Her Eminence isn't in a good position right now. We have lots of trouble ahead of us. Before meeting Her Eminence, I thought that you were the prettiest, Muxue."
"There's no way I can compete with Her Eminence. She’s the one you've been idolizing since your childhood, so you should know better."
"But in the end, an idol of worship definitely deserves it. Only after seeing her did I know that kind of goddess existed...."
"Brother Yuheng, you should watch your words." Her expression was cold as ice. Though she was young, she was known in the sect for her cold ruthlessness.
"That's right. To be honest, you should get your brother to stop hanging around the Human Branch after the faction battles. It's a waste of his time. So what if he's the faction lord of a hundred thousand disciples? Can a hundred thousand pieces of trash match up to a samsaran?" Xuanyuan Yuheng said with discontent.
"Well, all people have their own places and roles to play. If he joins the Archaion Army in the future, our house will promote him to general and prepare him for the battlefield. We need excellent leaders on top of powerful elites to keep the divine realm stable, after all."
"Guess we'll have to see how he performs in the faction battles. You're right, everyone has their own role to play."
After a period of silence, Xuanyuan Muxue said, "Brother Yuheng, the Deepstar Pool of the Old Deepstar Path will open soon. I’d like to fight for the opportunity."
"Is there anyone that can compete with your talent?"
"Most of them are older than me."
"Then do your best. It's said that one can form the strongest empyrean gold body within the pool. I hope you’ll be able to gather thousands of stars in your body one day."
"I will do my best."
"The body-refining technique using the pool will be really painful. You’d better be prepared." He reminisced and smiled confidently. "The more pain you can take, the better off you'll be."
......
Tianming didn't actually leave after his previous encounter. He kept the Grand-Orient Sword away and used the razor-thin Brightnight instead as he dashed across the snowy ground. There was a black cat zipping across the ground with him while a colorful flaming phoenix perched on his head. Lan Huang alone had returned to the lifebound space, because of its size, and was playing with the fourth egg. Lately, they had fallen in love with hide and seek. One time, the egg had hidden on Lan Huang's back the whole day without being spotted.
"You're too fast.... Wait for me," Lin Xiaoxiao said with ragged breath.
"Go back if you can't keep up," Tianming said.
"No!"
"Then stop complaining." He streaked across the ground and saw two people ahead of him in the deep valley. "Those are Dragonmight's scouts." With so many of them, it hadn’t taken him long to spot them with his Insightful Eye.
"Are you going to seek them out and kill all their scouts?" she asked.
"Yes. Once their scouts are spread out, they'll be separated from the main force. We'll have ten thousand of them to pick out, and won't have to return to our faction. Instead, we'll tail the scouts. I want to practice my swordsmanship with all ten thousand of them until they stop sending them out."
If he could really do that, Dragonmight would be flying blind. He was deeply impressed by the power of the Hexapath Samsara Sword during his previous fight, but he had only executed it in a daze. He wasn't familiar with the details, so he came up with the method of training the strike against all ten thousand scouts.
I'm also training my Imperial Will while I'm at it. It grew a lot during the battle at the Divine Capital, after all. Even my godfather managed to become an empyrean saint after killing a hundred thousand enemy troops, so why can't I? His eyes burned with passion as he zeroed in on his target.
"You're a hell of a weirdo," Lin Xiaoxiao mused.
"What was that?!"
"Umm... nothing." She avoided his gaze.
"Watch and learn, young one," he said as he gave her head a pat.
"Ouch, it hurts!" The moment she looked back up, he was already gone. He charged toward the two scouts with Meow Meow and Ying Huo. No matter how powerful they were, Tianming somehow managed to use Brightnight to overcome them with his new sword art.
"Striking out with the will of all sentient beings with one sword, huh?" It just so happened to fit his Imperial Will, which was related to all life. After all, Omnisentient Will could be converted into Imperial Will. As such, he had a much easier time training the first strike, compared to other arts. It was as if the Mortal Dao Sword was created for him. As for the rest in the series, he had no idea where to start.
Brightnight cut through the wind with an audible whoosh."Who is it?! Aaaah!" But by the time they noticed him, it was too late. The thin sword was already pointed at their throats before they could react. They immediately placed their Scarletflame Tomes against their chests and surrendered.
Tianming's strike shifted and knocked them flying. He simply turned and left. "That wasn't the right move. I have to try again."
This was only his first step. If it were that easy, he would have learned much more than just the first strike.
"Six cycles of reincarnation, Six realms of rebirth.... The human realm is the realm of mortal dust." Now, he was a training demon who thought of nothing but the sword. "Next one. To crush ten thousand people, I have to take on a thousand per day, meaning five hundred pairs."
With there being so many others still on the battlefield, he didn't really have to rely on his Insightful Eye. There were opponents no matter which direction he went. Now that he could even kill Gu Shaoyu, few others could take him on. Thus began his swordsmanship-honing journey.
He dragged Lin Xiaoxiao along and kept appearing around Dragonmight's main force. Soon, two more Scarletflame Tomes were ignited.
"No, this isn't right either! That's not how it felt when I fought Gu Shaoyu!"
Like a ghost, he haunted the battlefield and scared the living piss out of everyone he encountered. While there were other disciples that also defeated Dragonmight's scouts, they weren't nearly as fast, as they neither had the Insightful Eye nor did they dare to go too far. Though, Tianming’s third eye was only a small help. He mainly relied on his power to take out the scouts.
"Xuanyuan Xixi and Gu Qingyin?" he muttered when he finally found the next group. That evening, he had crushed more than five hundred scout pairs, killing five in the process who had wanted to fight him to the death. They didn't even bear a grudge against him and only knew what he looked like, but that hadn’t earned them Tianming's mercy and he killed them all the same.
Gu Qingyin was the acting chief of the Greenmaple Chapter, as well as one of the scouts. While Xuanyuan Xixi wasn't part of Greenvoid Hall, she was probably working with him in a pair.
"Li Tianming, you have to die today! I’ll crush your bones to ash and scatter them! You won't even have a burial! I will avenge my sister!" Gu Qingyin raged on like a mad demon, despite being only a fifteen-year-old youth.