Chapter 171 — Eleven

Above, the wild wind grew ever more bitter and fierce, and the might of the Slaying Immortals divine sword grew greater still. From some unknown moment, as though a voice from the realms of heaven and the courts of the underworld had come, softly chanting a mysterious incantation, it began to echo between heaven and earth.

That blazing white light suddenly rose into the air and came to rest upon the hilt of the radiance-flooded Slaying Immortals master sword. Almost at the same moment, the Slaying Immortals formation was loosed: with the force of one splitting the sky, that mad sword came howling forth—slow-seeming in its approach, yet between heaven above and earth below there was nowhere left to hide.

Meeting a god, it slays the god; meeting an immortal, it slays the immortal!

In all the world today, nothing else possessed such momentum.

The wind rolled up the scattered clouds and sent them all flying. No one would ever know what thoughts filled the Beast Sovereign's heart as he faced that mad Slaying Immortals sword.

Only—he showed not the slightest fear, not the least thought of retreat. Into the wind, into the light, the Beast Sovereign's enormous frame leaped up with all its strength, and he flew straight at the mad Slaying Immortals sword.

Heaven and earth seemed to fall silent; the primeval world held its breath. The people stared slack-jawed at the blue sky above, where black and white streaked across the heavens and crashed together with a thunderous roar!

No one could describe the scene that followed. The sky split, the earth cracked; the Canglan Mountains trembled three times in a single day, and this time was the worst. Amid the towering peaks and sheer cliffs, countless fissures yawned open, and countless boulders tore loose from the mountainsides and came crashing down. In the cold jade-green pool atop Heaven-Reaching Peak, the waters churned and surged, and from the once-smooth surface columns of water kept shooting up several fathoms into the air.

And atop the Canglan peaks, the cultivators of the righteous path and the remnant beast-demons alike were struck dumb with fear. The beast-demons especially—those creatures neither beast nor quite otherwise—were terrified beyond measure, restless and frantic, roaring in madness.

Yet beside that earth-shaking spectacle in the sky, all of it seemed as nothing, and no one paid it any mind.

The vast Slaying Immortals master sword streaked across the vault of heaven and came thundering down. Where it passed, the air hissed with a shrill keen note, and all things along its path were utterly annihilated, leaving not a trace behind. Along the outer edge of the mad blade's keen edge, moreover, one could see a faint dark red rim beyond the white light—whether from the violent friction of the air, or from the blade's own excess of fury, none could say.

That sword came crashing down with a roar. The Beast Sovereign threw back his head and howled to the heavens; all his arms drew together before his chest, his monstrous eyes glaring wide. At the very instant the Slaying Immortals master sword stabbed down, black qi suddenly surged enormously and his monstrous hands flexed and stretched—and with a thunderclap that rolled across the sky, he had caught that divine sword, which could have split the very heavens, in his bare grip.

In an instant, heaven above and earth below were struck with awe.

Yet then white light soared up in ten thousand fathoms of radiance, and the vast Slaying Immortals master sword gave forth a rolling thunder—and from among those dozens of black hands, clamped like iron hoops, it thrust down, starkly and slowly, all the same!

An inch, an inch, and another inch.

One black hand after another was swallowed by the blazing white light and dissolved away. That mad sword now looked like some supreme evil god, claws bared and fangs displayed, taking life, and with endless murderous intent it drove down, little by little, toward the Beast Sovereign's chest.

Black qi flickered; a shrieking cry rose to the skies; black blood sprayed forth. The Slaying Immortals sword had at last pierced the Beast Sovereign's chest, and was already sinking in, fraction by fraction, while the blazing white light flashed violently, like lightning careening across the sky, striking against the Beast Sovereign's skin.

Skin and flesh alike quietly fell away, and that enormous frame seemed to grow vague and insubstantial, as though about to be broken into the void by this earth-shaking power. The light in the Beast Sovereign's eyes grew weaker and weaker; at last he could not withstand such a peerless divine sword.

His form beneath the Slaying Immortals sword grew smaller and smaller—yet somehow, as though the collision of powers were consuming itself, as the Beast Sovereign's body shrank, the once-vast Slaying Immortals master sword too began to shrink, until only that halo of light remained, still so bright and dazzling.

This went on until at last the Beast Sovereign had returned to the size and shape of an ordinary man. The black qi shrouded him a moment, then burst apart with a roar, and all could see plainly that he had changed back into that youth's form—only now his face was ashen, his hair wild and disheveled; clearly, defeat was certain.

And more importantly, almost at the same moment the black qi dispersed, the Slaying Immortals master sword too dissolved—but that halo of light congealed before the Beast Sovereign, flickering without cease, and at last gathered between the two of them, taking shape as that ancient Slaying Immortals sword, neither quite stone nor quite jade, which now stood planted in the Beast Sovereign's chest, run clean through.

Daoist Zhenren Daoyan's figure slowly emerged from the light, though his face no longer wore its former air of immortal elegance; instead it had grown harsh and savage, and his eyes were shot through with blood red.

The Beast Sovereign gasped great breaths, coughing again and again, his lips trembling slightly as he looked down at his chest.

The Slaying Immortals sword stood planted in his heart, and the blood that flowed from its center was not red.

He smiled a bitter smile, gave a long sigh, and said, "Remarkable... re... markable!..."

Suddenly, scarce had the words fallen when he brought his hands together. His body had by now returned to the form of an ordinary man, his arms as those of any man—yet with that single clasp he had trapped the ancient Slaying Immortals sword between his palms, and at once black qi came surging and poured straight into the ancient blade of the Slaying Immortals sword.

"Crack!"

A sound so faint it could scarce be heard came from the blade of the ancient Slaying Immortals sword. Daoist Zhenren Daoyan's expression changed drastically, and he looked swiftly—and there upon the ancient sword a crack stood out clearly, running across the Slaying Immortals blade.

Daoist Zhenren Daoyan was shaken beyond measure. He gave a great shout and, summoning all the strength in his body, drew the sword out. Almost at the same instant, at the very moment the ancient Slaying Immortals sword was pulled from the Beast Sovereign's chest, as though a piercing agony had struck his heart, the Beast Sovereign too gave a great cry—a bitter, shrill sound—and his whole body leaped into the air, flying backward.

At that moment Daoist Zhenren Daoyan felt only that qi and blood surged in his mind like towering waves, and a murderous, savage qi churned back and forth as though it would burst through his chest. But his cultivation ran deep after all, and he knew that under no circumstances could he let the tiger return to the mountain. All the more so since he had forced open the Heaven's Mechanism Seal; the earth-vein spiritual energy was too abundant, and it had already placed too great a burden on the ancient Slaying Immortals sword—and now that beast-demon's dying blow had left a crack in it.