Azure Nether Sword Casket, Yanri!
Those words struck like a bolt of thunder on flat ground, detonating in Lin Ziyan’s ears.
She possessed the complete inheritance of the Azure Nether Sword Emperor, yet the one thing she lacked was the divine weapon he had wielded when he roamed the Desolate Ancient Continent.
Legend held that it was an ancient, unadorned sword casket, plain on the outside but containing a world within.
Eight divine swords were hidden inside the casket.
Yanri was one of them.
“How did the Azure Nether Sword Casket end up in your hands?”
Lin Ziyan said gravely.
“Want to know? Defeat me, and I’ll tell you.”
Jiang Wuhen sneered.
“Hmph! So arrogant!”
“So what if you hold the Azure Nether Sword Casket? You are not the Azure Nether Sword Emperor’s successor, and you possess no techniques to match it. Even with such a divine weapon in your hands, how much of its power can you actually unleash?”
“In this battle, I will not only crush you utterly, I will… take back the sword casket and reclaim what was rightfully mine!”
As she spoke, Lin Ziyan spread her arms and released her hold on the treasured blade.
In an instant, the purple longsword took on a life of its own, hovering in midair and radiating waves of pure sword intent.
Jiang Wuhen grinned.
“Well then. Have at it!”
The words left his mouth as Jiang Wuhen swept his hand out. Answering his summons, the Yanri Sword transformed into a piercing crimson streak of light, unleashing a force that crushed everything in its path as it shot toward Lin Ziyan.
But when the Yanri Sword was still a zhang from Lin Ziyan’s body, a barrier of interwoven purple and azure sword runes unfolded abruptly.
For all its peerless killing power, the Yanri Sword was held at bay outside the barrier.
And the next instant—
“You hold a divine sword, yet you don’t know how to wield it. That is nothing short of blasphemy against the sword!”
“Jiang Wuhen, watch closely. This is what true… sword dao looks like!”
At that moment, Lin Ziyan seemed a different person entirely. The complex, arcane azure brand at the center of her brow resonated in waves with the purple treasured blade.
Suddenly, a pillar of azure light surged into the sky, piercing through to the highest heavens.
Following it, the phantom of a colossal sword plummeted from the azure pillar and plunged straight into the earth.
Lin Ziyan formed seals and chanted, sending runes streaking into the treasured blade one after another.
“Nether spring sword formation, open!”
With her crisp command, sword gang surged outward in all directions like rolling waves.
In an instant, it engulfed the ground beneath Jiang Wuhen’s very feet.
Auras of destruction and death radiated outward!
“A single Yanri won’t be enough to stop my nether spring sword formation!”
Lin Ziyan said coldly.
Jiang Wuhen scoffed.
“Who told you I only have the one Yanri?”
Before the words were fully out, the Azure Nether Sword Casket burst fully open. Waves of sword gang swept forth from within and shot skyward.
Duanshui, Zhuanhun, Xuanjian, Jingni, Miehun, Quexie, Zhengang!
All seven swords emerged at once, gleaming in chorus with Yanri as they orbited around Jiang Wuhen.
Endless sword qi crisscrossed and interwove.
Jiang Wuhen seemed the Azure Nether Sword Emperor reborn, his every gesture radiating unparalleled sword intent.
“That’s… the complete Azure Nether Sword Casket!”
Lin Ziyan’s eyes narrowed, and her gaze grew only more resolute.
On the other side, Jiang Wuhen faced the surging nether spring sword formation. Spreading his arms, the eight swords orbited and spiraled upward.
Bands of radiant light wove together, and a profound, arcane momentum rose to life!
“Who told you the Azure Nether Sword Casket… can only be activated by the Azure Nether Sword Emperor’s sword dao techniques?”
“Since I had the fortune to obtain this treasure, I have the ability… to create a sword art of my own to match it.”
“Watch closely!”
With a light shout, the eight divine swords blazed with resplendent light in every color.
The earth beneath their feet seemed to split apart. Centered on Jiang Wuhen, countless pitch-black, ferocious chains erupted outward, sealing the space in every direction.
In an instant, heaven and earth became a hellscape.
And the eight swords of Azure Nether, wreathed in blazing light, transformed into eight colossal blades a hundred zhang long. They descended from the sky and plunged into the blackened earth.
Iron chains coiled all around. Ancient, dim, ferocious. Like blades of judgment.
Nether god sword prison, descend!
At that moment, cold and chaotic sword qi raged like crashing waves, utterly suppressing and grinding the nether spring sword formation Lin Ziyan had unleashed.
This was a battlefield that Jiang Wuhen commanded!
Lin Ziyan stood within it, the azure nether sword seal at her brow radiating searing green light.
The purple sword spiraled back and returned to her hand.
“Such a dark and ferocious formation is no technique of the Azure Nether Sword Emperor. Where did you learn it?”
Lin Ziyan said coldly.
She did not believe Jiang Wuhen was capable of creating such a profound and exquisite sword technique on his own.
“I already answered that question.”
“If you refuse to believe me, why ask again?”
Jiang Wuhen’s voice boomed like a great bell, rising from every corner of the nether god sword prison.
“Hmph! Utter nonsense!”
“Whatever dark arts you used to drive the Azure Nether Sword Casket, I can tell you this with certainty: this is not the sword dao of the Azure Nether Sword Emperor!”
“You have strayed onto a crooked path. If you refuse to see reason, sooner or later you will fall into qi deviation!”
Lin Ziyan looked around and spoke bluntly.
“How narrow-minded.”
“There are three thousand great daos. The path the Azure Nether Sword Emperor walked is but one slender branch of the sword dao. You may be his successor, but you are nothing more than an inexperienced girl who has barely set foot in the world. How many people have you met? How many events have you witnessed? How many paths have you walked? What foundation do you have? And you presume to judge that another’s path is crooked?”
“Behind this, is it that you paint with too broad a brush, or that you simply cannot see past the tip of your own nose?”
“As I see it, the one walking a crooked path is you!”
Jiang Wuhen said with a cold, contemptuous sneer.
“Insolent whelp!”
“You dare sow chaos in my sword heart!”
“Then I will crush you utterly with the true Azure Nether orthodox path! I’ll make you see just how laughable and fragile the dao you cling to truly is!”
The words left her mouth as Lin Ziyan twisted her wrist. The purple sword traced an arc.
SCHLICK!
The purple sword sliced across her palm, and blood sprayed out.
At the same moment, the azure brand at her brow blazed with brilliant light. The drops of blood sank into that green glow, and faintly, a phantom figure materialized behind her.
That phantom had sharp, swordlike brows and bright, starlike eyes. It wore azure robes and bore a sword, long hair cascading down. The way it held the blade mirrored Lin Ziyan’s stance exactly.
“Well then. Behold… the Azure Nether Sword Soul True Form!”
BOOM!
As the words rang out, her aura detonated.
The phantom behind her had grown nearly solid, and swelling in the wind, it transformed in an instant into a green giant dozens of zhang tall.
It raised its hand and struck with its sword.
In an instant, sword gang surged, and the entire nether god sword prison trembled.
Not far off, Jiang Wuhen watched the scene and narrowed his eyes.
“Interesting. This person’s strength has likely reached a level invincible below the life and death realm.”
“And this deep into the battle, with her dao heart at stake, if she loses… it may well wound her dao heart.”
Jiang Wuhen thought to himself.
As the saying went: killing was permissible, but destroying the heart was not.
It was an unwritten rule of the cultivation world.
For Jiang Wuhen, however—
If I can kill the body and shatter the heart… wouldn’t the reward double?
And to suppress a Lin Ziyan in this state, there was only one way—
“System. Spend one hundred thousand villain points to raise the nether god sword prison to peak heaven grade!”
The instant that thought took shape, a wave of arcane momentum descended like an epiphany from on high.
In a heartbeat, the eight divine swords blazed with dazzling radiance, and wreathed in coiling iron chains, they looked all the more ferocious.
At the same time, light converged behind Jiang Wuhen. In the space between lightning and flint, a prison-suppressing devil god materialized and opened its deep, murky eyes.
At that moment, Jiang Wuhen’s aura blazed with peerless dominance. His great hand swept out, gathering the radiance of the eight swords into a cold yet brilliant blade.
Simultaneously, at the devil god’s feet, a colossal sword over a hundred zhang long, like the blade of heaven itself, coalesced into being.
In this instant, Jiang Wuhen’s bearing was supremely domineering. His silhouette stood as the sole arbiter of the ages.
“Behold. This is what true… nether god sword prison looks like!”
