Chapter 898: Defeated!

Li Yun slowly climbed out of the rubble. Blood showed at the corner of his mouth, and he wiped it away, his expression now completely serious.

Yuan Zhenhai stood several miles away, and he had not come through unscathed either. Several thin sword cuts crossed his robes, and a small wound ran across his cheek, with blood flowing from it. He touched the wound and then laughed.

“Hahaha! Excellent. It’s been a long time since anyone at the same cultivation level managed to hurt me.” He looked at Li Yun. “You truly deserve to have cleared the second floor.”

Li Yun raised his sword, and the six thousand precious swords gathered behind him. He understood now that using the Myriad Sword Spirit Command Art in the ordinary way would not defeat Yuan Zhenhai, and that even five separate formations were not enough. So he would use the same method that had beaten the Old Fisherman. He would bring everything together.

The six thousand swords began to move. One layer formed, then another, until hundreds of layers had gathered and all six thousand blades had converged into one colossal sword formation.

His five Intents surged and flowed toward the same center, and the swords began to resonate. A massive sword cry shook the mountains.

The center of the formation turned crimson, and its edge turned pale. Black destructive patterns covered the body of the sword, dark devouring currents revolved around it, and five-colored elemental light formed an enormous ring around the whole formation.

Li Yun raised the Profound Origin Sword, and Yuan Zhenhai’s expression turned grave. He clearly sensed the danger.

“Is this the attack you used to clear the second floor?”

Li Yun nodded. “I beat the second-floor guardian with this.”

Yuan Zhenhai tightened his grip on the violet saber. “Good. Then use it.”

Li Yun’s eyes sharpened.

“Myriad Sword Spirit Command. All Daos Converge Into One.”

The six thousand swords flew forward and became one. A colossal sword tore through the mountain range, and mountains split apart before it even reached them. The ground collapsed, and space warped.

The five Intents reinforced one another. Slaughter destroyed everything in its path, and Immortality preserved the formation’s power and sharpness. Destruction obliterated defenses, Devouring consumed any energy that resisted it, and the Five Elements kept everything structured and balanced.

This time, even Yuan Zhenhai could not rely on movement alone. For the first time, he planted both feet firmly on the ground, and Golden Roc Skystride disappeared. His Blade Domain spread outward and then suddenly contracted, pouring into his body and then into his saber.

Yuan Zhenhai closed his eyes, and for one brief instant his aura vanished completely. Li Yun’s heart tightened as an overwhelming sense of danger washed over him.

Yuan Zhenhai opened his eyes, and something about him had changed. The saber in his hands no longer felt separate from him, and his body and blade seemed to have become one. His Domain and his Intent had merged, and his essence qi flowed without any boundary between himself and the world around him. Everything had become one.

Li Yun’s pupils shrank. ‘Dao Resonance?’ No, it was not truly that. Yuan Zhenhai had not entered that realm, but for this single moment, he had touched its threshold.

Yuan Zhenhai raised his saber.

“Li Yun, this is the difference between us right now. You have more Intents, stronger techniques, and extraordinary potential. But I’ve spent centuries standing in front of a threshold that you’ve only just started to approach.”

His saber came down slowly.

“Half-Step Dao Resonance. Heaven and Blade Become One.”

There was no enormous explosion and no gigantic blade light. There was only a thin violet line moving forward, and that was all.

Li Yun’s colossal sword formation collided with it, and the spectators held their breath. The two attacks touched, and silence followed. For one breath, nothing happened.

Then there was a crack as one precious sword broke, and then another. Crack after crack followed as hundreds of swords began to shatter.

Li Yun’s expression changed. His Slaughter Sword Intent was still active, Immortal Sword Intent was still preserving the formation, Destruction Intent was still attacking, Devouring Intent was still absorbing, and Five Element Intent was still in balance. None of it was enough.

Yuan Zhenhai’s blade existed at an entirely different level of application. It was not simply stronger; it was more complete. The violet line resonated with heaven and earth, and every bit of power Li Yun released was answered with a more refined form of control.

A thousand swords collapsed, and then two thousand, and the colossal sword began to fall apart.

“Devour!”

Li Yun pushed Devouring Intent to its limit, and a dark vortex expanded to swallow the violet blade force, but the vortex was sliced apart.

“Destruction!”

Black light surged, but the violet line passed straight through it.

“Five Elements!”

Layers of elemental defense formed, and they were cut through.

“Slaughter!”

Crimson Sword Qi erupted, and it too was cut apart.

“Immortal!”

The pale sword edge tried to endure, and even it began to crack.

For the first time, Li Yun watched all five of his Intents being broken one by one by a single attack. It was not because Yuan Zhenhai had higher cultivation, since their cultivation had been equalized inside the Astral Battle Realm, and it was not because he had overwhelmingly more raw power.

The reason was much simpler. Yuan Zhenhai stood too close to Dao Resonance, and his understanding of how to use power had gone beyond Li Yun’s current level.

The Myriad Sword Spirit Formation finally shattered with a boom, and six thousand precious swords exploded outward. Li Yun’s eyes widened as the thin violet line kept coming toward him. He tried to move, and he tried to recall the swords, but it was too late for both. He reached for Fast Sword and then for Slow Sword, and each time it was already too late. The blade had arrived.

Li Yun froze as a thin violet line passed through his chest. Behind him, the mountains silently came apart, first one, then ten, and then dozens, as every peak along the attack’s path was cut cleanly in two.

Li Yun looked down and saw a wound open across his body, and his vision began to fade. Then the Astral Battle Realm took effect, his body vanished, and the battle was over.