As he stepped over the ninety thousandth sword-pattern, a dragon's roar and a phoenix's cry suddenly echoed from the void.
The brilliant sword light transformed into a phantom emperor wearing a twelve-stringed crown, and the majestic sword intent forced all the surrounding rune arrays to bow down.
Qing Feng looked at the ancient seal script that was disassembling and reorganizing itself, and suddenly understood why his Master always said that the inheritance method of the Mystic Maiden Palace went against the true heart of a sword cultivator.
A bloody confrontation was unfolding in the Sword Mound Mystic Realm a thousand miles away.
Within the Heavenly Cycle Star Array formed by the seventeen True Disciples of the Purple Rock Sword Lineage, the twin sun and moon wheels illuminated each other with the thunderous rune-swords, and the immense sword qi caused the thirty-six Trial Sword Peaks to resonate and tremble.
However, when that golden dragon sword-qi, imbued with the emperor's purple aura, pierced into the array's core, the entire star map shattered with a roar, like a glazed lamp falling to the ground.
Luo Tianyi's black battle robe flapped, and the ancient sword "Chengying" in his hand traced a strange arc.
Ten feet away, Men Shao's innate spirit sword shattered inch by inch, and the fragments of the blade curled back, piercing into the wielder's major acupoints.
As the last identity jade slip turned to dust, this prodigy, once ranked seventh on the Latent Dragon List, looked at the golden sword qi flowing through his meridians and finally understood the true meaning of "one sword severs longevity."
Lyu Le half-knelt in the rubble, propped up by his broken sword, the Purple Rock Peak insignia on his chest stained with blood.
Not far away, Wang Chong leaned against a broken sword scabbard, and as the two exchanged glances, they both saw horror in each other's eyes.
Within the cracks of their protective jade slips, Luo Tianyi's residual sword qi still lingered, that trace of purple-gold dragon pattern still scorching their divine consciousness.
Amidst the wreckage of the Dragon Yang Peak's Twelve Golden Sword Array, Luo Tianyi's black battle robe flapped.
In the gully his sword blade carved into the ground, the emperor's sword qi, not yet fully dispersed, still pulsed.
Only now did the Disciples of the Seven Lineages realize that the so-called gap at the peak of the Golden Core Realm was like an insurmountable chasm before this prince, who bore the Ziwei destiny.
The Law Enforcement Elder observing the battle suddenly crushed his teacup; with every step the young man took, a phantom of the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams appeared beneath the cloud-patterned soles of his boots.
How could this be an ordinary Golden Core cultivator? He was clearly an uncrowned Human Emperor inspecting his territory; the legend of the Emperor's Sword Dao, dormant for three hundred years, had actually reappeared in the world before the Seven Lineages' Sword Discourse.
As Luo Tianyi's sword struck the last restriction, his pupils suddenly contracted into vertical slits. Within the seemingly empty inheritance hall, a bright yellow halo hovered above the "Purple Extreme Emperor Scripture."
The Nation-Suppressing Sword in his hand let out a dragon's roar, its sword momentum like Mount Tai pressing down: "Who goes there, you petty thief!"
The figure with his back to him chuckled and turned around, the face beneath the nine-stringed crown causing Luo Tianyi's blood to surge.
The nemesis he had pursued for three days and three nights three years ago, yet failed to slay, now with a light touch of his fingertip, dispelled seventy percent of his emperor's sword qi: "Good boy, your father has been waiting for you for a long time."
A metallic clang suddenly echoed in the bloody sword domain, Luo Tianyi's pupils contracted into slits, and the Dragon-Slaying Sword in his hand emitted a deafening clear hum.
Only now did he realize that the originally stable inheritance space had been torn open with cracks; the figure that should have been obliterated by the sword array now stood perfectly intact ten feet away.
"You actually cultivated the Soldier Dissolution Dao Body?" The black battle robe moved without wind, Luo Tianyi's fingertips grazed the sword's spine, creating sparks. The Nine Cauldrons at the core of the inheritance suddenly trembled, and the ancient seal script of the "Great Void Sword Canon" engraved on their bodies began to peel off piece by piece.
Qing Feng approached step by step, treading on the cracked void, and with each step, a phantom of an ancient bronze bell materialized.
The dragon-binding chain wrapped around his right arm shattered inch by inch, revealing dark red patterns on the inside: "Does the Seventh Prince know why the Northern Suppressing King carved three thousand six hundred spirit-sealing seals on the Chengying Sword back then?"
The sky full of sword qi suddenly froze, and Luo Tianyi was alarmed to feel a tearing pain from his innate sword embryo.
A bloody trigram appeared on the dome of the inheritance space, an abnormal phenomenon of Heavenly Weeping that only triggered upon the death of a Sword Master.
"You tampered with the core of the Great Evolution Sword Array!" Golden-red blood beads seeped from the gaps in his black armor, Luo Tianyi forcefully circulated his true essence, but it only caused a more violent backlash.
He suddenly understood that the other party had not forced his way in, but had laid down karma thirty years ago; when he chose to inherit the Nation-Suppressing Sword Dao, he had already stepped into this meticulously designed game.
Half a broken jade slip appeared in Qing Feng's palm, perfectly fitting with the other half suspended on the inheritance altar: "When you took my sword bone back then, did you ever consider that the Heaven-Bearing Sword Intent is most averse to flaws in the Dao Heart?"
As he spoke, the nine bronze cauldrons exploded with a roar, and the streams of light containing a thousand years of sword intent surged towards his Heavenly Spirit like a hundred rivers returning to the sea.
Qing Feng approached Luo Tianyi step by step, his body's aura solidifying, the pressure descending like a collapsing mountain.
Luo Tianyi's legs trembled violently, the bluestone ground cracked like a spiderweb, and as his knees slammed down, his consciousness flew out like a kite with a broken string. The Emperor's Sword Mark traced a brilliant light path in the void, pushing the defeated out of the Mystic Realm.
The golden, flowing inheritance sword intent hovered in mid-air, flickering as if scrutinizing.
Qing Feng's brows slightly raised, and deep within his sea of consciousness, his Nascent Soul transformed into a black crown, while the dream threads wrapped around his fingertips wove a nine-dragon imperial robe.
The resisting golden light, as if encountering its master, gradually calmed its agitation and transformed into a docile stream of light.
The sword spirit's phantom danced in the air, each move carrying the power to shake mountains and rivers.
Qing Feng gazed at the true meaning of the sword forms that looked down upon all beings, vaguely seeing nine layers of palaces toppling under the sword's edge, and the four seas' dragon veins prostrating themselves with the sword's cry.
As he comprehended the final form, "All Living Beings as Scabbard," a voice transmission from Dao Lord Zisu happened to come from the jade pendant at his waist.
"Have you cut down your inner demons?"
"Like a butcher carving an ox."
Dao Lord nodded and looked towards where Qin Yue was forming her Golden Core; the Qi refining vortex had already condensed into an amber-colored Golden Core embryo.
Qing Feng stroked the not-yet-dispersed emperor's sword qi, and suddenly noticed something unusual: "May I ask Shibo, this lineage's commanding presence, and Heaven Sword Peak's ethereal sword intent seem to be different paths?"
"This is an ancient sword art inheritance," Dao Lord Zisu recalled, gently stroking his scabbard. "At that time, cultivators rarely fought to the death; encounters were mostly for sparring and discussing the Dao.
Only our Beast Taming Sect Disciples preferred to explore ancient ruins and Mystic Realms, honing their edge in those battlefields sealed by time.
This set of sword techniques is said to have been obtained by a former Sect Leader from an immortal's abandoned dwelling. It's strange to say, that Cave was clearly a reclusive immortal's place of pure cultivation, yet it contained such an imperial conquest Dao sword intent."
As the Chief of Zhijian Peak, Zisu was intimately familiar with the Sect's sword classics. He had personally studied every cultivation method recorded in the Bi An Realm, and even simulated casting swords with the intent of an emperor.
"Immortal's dwelling?" Qing Feng's eyes moved slightly. Since the celestial dao's anomaly, traces of immortals had become increasingly ethereal, and legends of ascension had long become distant myths.
"Don't bother thinking too much about it," Zisu shook his head. "After the drastic changes in heaven and earth, not only are mountain and sea beasts on the verge of extinction, but most immortal cave heavens have also been annihilated in spatial rifts."
"Where is the ruin that the Beast Taming Sect Senior discovered now?"
"It's long been thoroughly searched, only a 'Guang' character in ancient seal script was found on the stone wall, perhaps the name of the cave's owner." Zisu's fingertips condensed golden runes, outlining ancient characters in the air.
Qing Feng secretly noted it down, intending to explore this secret once his cultivation advanced.
While he was pondering, he suddenly heard a wolf-like howl shaking the clouds, and looking up, a giant beast tens of feet tall was enveloped in surging malevolent aura, yet it gradually transformed into the appearance of a divine dog beneath a Buddha's seat amidst the golden light of Buddhist chants.
"He broke through!" Qing Feng could not hide his joy.
Today was truly a day blessed with good fortune; first, he publicly taught Luo Tianyi a lesson, and then his Senior Sister and spirit beast successively broke through.