“Manifesting the Dharma Body, is it?”
Deng Tianyu took a deep breath, his palm holding an empty grip. Instantly, Four Seasons Sword Intent condensed into an incredibly sharp, four-colored sword rainbow. The piercing cry of the sword rang out continuously.
“Chiiing… Chiiiing…”
Following that, he took a step forward and explosively drew his sword in a slash!
Heaven-Severing Sword-Drawing Art!
It was a grand killing art condensed from Sword Intent, the strongest strike within the Drawing Sword Art.
The deeper one’s comprehension of Sword Intent, the more terrifying its killing power.
Fourth Aunt had once told him that if the Heaven-Severing Sword-Drawing Art was cultivated to its very limit, it could truly sever Heaven and Earth.
And right now, that four-colored sword rainbow instantly swelled to a hundred zhang, carrying a terrifying might that seemed to tear everything apart as it slashed down viciously.
This sword strike was fast to the extreme and sharp to the ultimate degree.
It caused the entire void to warp and distort, the spiritual energy turning unimaginably berserk.
In just a fleeting instant, this single sword pierced straight through the Manifested Dharma Body that Qu Yun had evolved.
“Buzz!”
The cloud layers in the sky were completely dispersed. This hundred-zhang phantom figure was wiped out into nothingness along with them.
Immediately following, a figure plummeted from mid-air, smashing into the ground and kicking up a cloud of smoke and dust.
“Pfft…”
“How is this… possible!”
Along with a mouthful of fresh blood, the ashen-faced Qu Yun stared deathly at that silhouette.
Her hair had been completely shorn off by the razor-sharp Sword Intent. Her entire body was a bloody, mangled mess. She had become a figure of pure gore.
She was at the Third Heaven of the King-Sealing Realm, while the opponent was merely at the Ninth Heaven of the Divine Ability Realm.
The barrier between the King-Sealing Realm and the Divine Ability Realm was an unbridgeable chasm.
Yet what of this opponent?
He had severed this chasm with a single sword strike and had nearly annihilated her.
If not for her protective magic tool actively shielding her at the critical moment, she would have fallen on the spot!
But even so, her protective magic tool had been shattered, her Manifesting the Dharma Body had been obliterated, and she was severely wounded on the spot.
Even now, the residual might of that single sword had yet to cease. It actually slashed further into the isolating barrier projected by the small pagoda.
“Crack… Crack…”
With successive muffled sounds, the hazy barrier developed numerous crisscrossing fissures like a spiderweb.
Though it didn’t shatter immediately, the light of the small pagoda floating in mid-air had become extremely dim. It clearly couldn’t last much longer.
“Qu Qirong, you traitorous bitch… cough!”
“Do you dare to defy the clan’s will? Aren’t you afraid the Clan Leader will settle accounts later?”
Qu Yun, now completely immobilized, her expression turning hideously contorted, shrieked hoarsely at the breathtakingly beautiful, mature woman.
Once she was defeated, the situation would almost certainly collapse one-sidedly.
She couldn’t accept the failure of this plan. What she could accept even less was—losing to the person before her.
“Ever since I was born, everything about me was arranged.”
“From cultivation, to managing the family’s industries, then being implanted with the Heart-Controlling Gu, being married off like a piece of merchandise, waiting for my Spirit Nurturing to be extracted to complete Father’s goal of controlling the entire Spirit Treasure Sect, and finally, waiting for my vitality to wane and leave this mortal world.”
“Perhaps it was fate’s will, but I escaped that calamity.”
“I struggled so hard to come here, hoping for ordinary days. But Father? He still won’t let me go.”
“Since that is so, I shall personally sever my ties with the family, sever that nauseating blood kinship with him!”
Qu Qirong’s expression was indifferent, as if recounting a matter that had nothing to do with herself.
Only Deng Tianyu, standing nearby, looked at Aunt Rong with pained sympathy.
Though her words contained not a trace of emotion, he could feel the desolation and sorrow within them.
For a father to exhaust every means to exploit his own biological daughter for greater gain, even sacrificing her life without hesitation—what cruelty and heartlessness was this?
Such a ruthless person was worse than a beast!
“Hahaha… cough!”
“You think just because you pulled out the Heart-Controlling Gu and defeated me, you’ve escaped the family?”
Qu Yun clutched her chest, suppressing the intense pain throughout her body, and burst into wild laughter, a laugh brimming with mockery.
Hearing this, Qu Qirong’s elegant brows furrowed. “What do you mean?”
Qu Yun looked at Qu Qirong venomously and retorted, “Do you think just the Heart-Controlling Gu could control someone of Luo Chengyun’s profound cultivation?”
Luo Chengyun was the former Sect Leader of the Spirit Treasure Sect.
In his youth, he was the most outstanding Heaven’s Pride within the Mysterious Spirit Sect lineage.
Whether cultivation base, innate talent, or comprehension, he suppressed his entire generation, leaving them unable to lift their heads.
Under such dazzling brilliance, Luo Chengyun naturally became the Sect Leader of the Spirit Treasure Sect.
Naturally, his cultivation didn’t lag behind. It was said that before his fall, he had already reached the Eighth Heaven of the Imperial Sovereign Realm.
The Imperial Sovereign is without boundaries—this realm’s cultivators are known as Mighty Ones!
These words caused Deng Tianyu’s expression to turn dark. “You mean, besides the Heart-Controlling Gu, there was another method planted within Aunt Rong, all to achieve complete control over Luo Chengyun?”
“Clever, no wonder this slut took a fancy to you!” Qu Yun gave him a surprised look, then spoke with malicious glee:
“Besides the Heart-Controlling Gu, a curse mark was sealed inside her body!”
“This curse is called the Sleep-Sealing Curse Mark! Once she consummated her union with Luo Chengyun, the curse mark would transfer to him.”
“A pity, though. Luo Chengyun died unexpectedly in a Secret Realm. The Clan Leader’s grand plan fell through. But the Sleep-Sealing Curse Mark remained in your body.”
“Now, after so many years, the sealing restriction is almost dissolved.”
“When the Sleep-Sealing Curse Mark erupts, you will become a complete and utter crazed devil… Hahaha!”
Qu Yun laughed with unbridled arrogance, as if already envisioning Qu Qirong’s miserable, tragic future.
“Sleep-Sealing Curse Mark, is it?” Qu Qirong’s expression was complex. An icy chill filled her heart, granting her an even deeper understanding of her father’s vicious and ruthless methods.
“This curse mark isn’t insoluble!”
Suddenly, a familiar and gentle voice sounded by her ear.
When she lifted her head, her gaze met a pair of familiar eyes.
“Mm!” Qu Qirong smiled softly. A warm current flowed through her heart.
Regarding others, she might have harbored doubts, but for the person before her, she had nothing but trust!
Naturally, Deng Tianyu wasn’t just offering empty comfort.
What was the Sleep-Sealing Curse Mark?
When it erupted, it would disrupt the opposing balance of Yin and Yang within the body, causing the flow of meridians and pulses to reverse against each other, thereby plunging the afflicted into a state of madness, driving them to commit insane, devilish acts.
Why did he know this so clearly?
It was because the Sleep-Sealing Curse Mark, like the Profound Dark Curse Seal, were both techniques originating from the Yin-Yang Law Heaven force.
The difference was that the former belonged to the Eight Curses of Yang Veins, while the latter belonged to the Eight Curses of Yin Veins.
The distinction lay in the fact that one was formed from Baleful Yang Energy, the other from Yin Sha.
Since he could inhale the Yin Sha erupting from his Shizun Ning Wan’s Profound Dark Curse Seal into his own body for refinement, would the same logic apply to the Baleful Yang Energy of the Sleep-Sealing Curse Mark?
Following this train of thought, Deng Tianyu felt it was feasible.
However, there was still one point he hadn’t figured out.
Yin-Yang curse techniques belong to the Yin-Yang Law Heaven faction. How did the Clan Leader of the Tongbao Merchant Guild, Aunt Rong’s father, know how to use them?
What exactly was the relationship between the two?
Deng Tianyu felt as if he was being drawn into an invisible whirlpool…
