Lu Yun’s sword surged in power and manifested an ocean of sword aura. He stood at its heart, wreathed by endless sword energy.
“Ready?” grated the voice. “I can give you some time to prepare, or you may cultivate another thousand years.”
Frowning, Lu Yun looked over his shoulder before realization dawned. Just like in hell, passage of time on this misty white path was essentially frozen. A thousand years here would be but the blink of an eye outside.
“No need.” He turned back with a cool response. “I don’t need to make any preparations in order to kill you.”
He couldn’t comprehend what this space was; in fact, a sense of surreality had descended as soon as he set foot on the white path. However, that didn’t affect his intent to bulldoze all obstacles. He would kill this furry monster!
If he didn’t, the cultivation path would never be restored. Previous geniuses who’d attempted the fix had left their footprints behind as splatters of blood on the path, and they’d not yet dried!
Qing Han, Wu Tulong, Zi Chen, and Mo Qitian were all focused on repairing the void realm and couldn’t tear their attention away from the task at hand. They’d be lambs to the slaughter if the monster reached them.
Without another word, the hairy monster lunged at Lu Yun with its bloody axe, moving so quickly that it became a blur. There were no tricks or flourishes, just a simple and unassuming swing that seemed to embody some sort of heavenly dao.
The greatest dao was of the simplest form! One swing was enough to kill a man!
Sword energy churned and a giant dragon roared within the ocean of swords.
Vast Dragon Seaturner!
When the cerulean sword dragon met the axe head-on, the snarling dragon vanished in a silent puff while the black flash of the axe continued on without stopping, aimed at Lu Yun. Peng from Kun and Starstream Stroke followed up with their own blows at the black light.
The two sword techniques that’d so shocked the world of immortals and defeated all comers seemed incomparably fragile in the face of that simple axe attack. It was a swing that incorporated the dao itself.
Clink!
Clang!
The kunpeng and stream of stars simultaneously shattered as well. Moreover, the axe had split Lu Yun’s sword ocean. Volatile power cascaded through the opening and bore down on Lu Yun with a torrent of great ferocity.
Clash!
He’d leveled the Sugato Sword in front of him to block the coming attack, and sparks sprayed from the sword in the brutal collision. Heat rising in his chest, he flew off his feet and crashed to the ground. However, the tower remained intact and the Sugato Sword still gleamed with light.
But when Lu Yun tried to struggle to his feet, he slumped back down to the ground. The attack had been so powerful that it not only hacked through his sword aura, but also injured him with the tremendous impact, preventing him from recovering his stance.
So powerful!
If he hadn’t been tempering his body with a daily regime of elemental power after Qing Han’s suggestion, that attack would’ve crushed him.
“You have taken one hit from me. That makes you stronger than those I’ve killed before,” spoke the hairy monster, or not at all. The voice itself seemed to be an illusion. It moved again, raising its great axe for another swing. Still just a simple stroke, the move was three times more powerful than its previous attack.
An enormous mountain loomed over Lu Yun. At that moment, he didn’t feel like a cultivator who could soar into the sky and dive under the earth. He was just a mere mortal, one that could die so easily.
“Open!!” Roaring ferociously, Lu Yun released the Sugato Sword and channeled all of his inner energy into the weapon. It rotated with a hum and expanded violently, transforming into a pagoda three hundred meters in height to shield its master.
Bam!
At almost the same time, the monster’s axe clashed with the newly transformed sword. The pagoda trembled, flying out backwards as the sword intent it was comprised of scattered. Lu Yun was blasted away with the pagoda, his body covered in blood.
Bloodlust shone in the eyes covered by the monster’s matted hair. How dare a nascent realm weakling survive two attacks?! It’d encountered cultivators with great defensive treasures before, but it was still able to kill them with a single blow, tearing through them with the impact of its hit alone.
“Roar!!” Snarling, its black hair shifted to a dark crimson and the hand around its axe turned into the claw of a beast.
Another axe stroke!
One that, despite its unbearable crudeness, contained an unstoppable force that pierced through the sky like a man chopping firewood. It was the strength of a cultivator rather than an immortal, of that Lu Yun was sure of. Yet this simple attack had already left him helpless and severely injured.
“Go!!” White shirt now stained red, he mustered his remaining energy and commanded the Sugato Sword to block the axe.
Once again, the sword hurtled away from the force of impact and Lu Yun suffered another serious wound. Nonetheless, he’d managed to get a clearer look at the monster’s attack with the help of the Tome of Life and Death.
“There’s something about the trajectory of that axe swing!” He perked up. Again, he was thrown off his feet and landed on the ground with a heavy thud, fresh blood splashing over the white path.
The Sugato Sword clattered to the ground beside him, Lu Yun’s brand of ownership on it shattered by the forceful attacks. He could no longer activate the sword to block the axe. Without sparing the weapon a glance, Lu Yun struggled to his feet and manifested Violetgrave.
“Grrrah!!” The monster was truly enraged after his third attempt to kill Lu Yun failed. Its axe burst into crimson light, here came the fourth swing!
Rumble!
The entire path trembled. It was again as simple as a swing to cut firewood, but it was ten times stronger than the first stroke and followed the same trajectory.
“There must be something special about it.” With the assistance of the Tome of Life and Death, Lu Yun’s senses were a thousand times more sensitive than usual. He could even picture the trajectory of the axe in his head.
He raised Violetgrave and slashed it through the air with no flourish or additional aura. The exploratory move was as simple as a child swinging a wooden stick in a mock fight. Looking closely, however, one could detect a trace of greater meaning in the motion.
Thud.
Axe and sword clashed, and Lu Yun flew backward, spitting out a mouthful of blood.
The greatest dao is one of simplest truth. It’s simple and pure! My attempt wasn’t completely stripped of other intent, I just haven’t reached the pure simplicity of the greatest dao!
He’d managed to block the monster’s axe with his own power, but at the cost of another great injury. More importantly, the imperfect riposte had drained eighty percent of his inner energy and he could barely move.
“Impossible....” The monster was stunned. The nascent realm human had imitated it and struck a blow that was infinitely close to the great dao! “Die!” Putting aside its shock, the monster strode to Lu Yun and swung again.
Clang!
Violetgrave made an arc that followed a special trajectory and blocked the attack, but just barely. Lu Yun had exhausted the last twenty percent of his inner energy; however, his eyes grew even brighter.
“You’re a cultivator, not an immortal. You’re not an ancient immortal with your cultivation suppressed, either!” he declared weakly, “Your weapon follows a strange trajectory, and it doesn’t exhaust you like mine does. Is that because of the void realm?”
The monster was a void realm cultivator! Its internal energy seemed endless, impossible to exhaust; such was the realm of heaven and earth!
“Die!” Refusing to grace Lu Yun with a response, the monster slashed downward again, but abruptly whirled around and finished the stroke in an arc behind him.
Clang!
It tore a soldier in golden armor to pieces. Another two soldiers appeared and rushed at the monster, then even more emerged. Every crimson sparkle of the axe that whipped through the air brought down another golden-armored soldier.
With the bought time, Lu Yun took pills to recover the inner energy he’d exhausted.
Whoosh.
At that moment, the monster swiveled around and ignored the bean soldiers’ attacks, scything its crimson axe at Lu Yun. It wanted to catch the human by surprise so that he wouldn’t be able to block it!
Bam!
A dramatic tremor passed through the entire path.
“How… is that… possible!!” howled the hairy monster, its covered eyes brimming with fear. “No origin dao immortal should’ve been able to enter....”
Its hoarse voice still grated on the ear, and it didn’t understand how the nascent realm human had suddenly become a peak origin dao immortal! This was the path of cultivators; no immortal could set foot on it!
Lu Yun rose to his feet. Violet light circled about him as the power of peak origin dao immortal coursed through his body. All of his injuries had healed, and he’d recovered to peak strength.
“I didn’t want to cheat, but like I said, I have to kill you.” Lu Yun had channeled the corpse puppet within Violetgrave to grant himself the power of a celestial emperor. No matter how powerful the monster was, it was a cultivator, a mantis in front of the charging chariot known as an origin dao immortal!