Chapter 114: The Pinnacle of the Martial Dao

By now, the flames rising from the dense mountain forests burned so fiercely that their glow could be seen even from the distant Longxing County.

The radiant light tore through the heavy clouds, clearing the night sky to reveal a bright, silvery moon. Its glow bathed the earth, illuminating the shattered ruins of a resplendent golden temple. The wreckage now sat in the center of a deep crater, where Kongzhi leaned against a section of broken wall.

Drip.

Blood dripped down. Every single Sanskrit character densely covering Kongzhi's body now bore a fresh, bleeding slash. These wounds were the true reason the temple had collapsed.

This was a secret art from the Augmentation Division, one of the Brahma Nation's four dharma divisions, known as the Vajra Great Bright Mantra.

The mantra consisted of over a hundred Sanskrit characters carved into the flesh using magical power. When activated, it allowed the caster to do exactly what Kongzhi had just done—transform the very ground he stood upon into a Buddhist sanctuary.

Within this sanctuary, not only was Kongzhi's magical power as a Brahma Cultivator amplified, but his physical body also recovered at an accelerated rate. At the same time, any enemy stepping into its bounds would be struck by various curses that weakened their condition. As one declines, the other grows; under these shifting tides, even an opponent of the exact same cultivation level would be easily suppressed.

Yet, the old saying held true.

There was no invincible spell in this world. Against Chenlong, Kongzhi's technique failed to work, and the reason was incredibly simple—Chenlong was just too fast.

Moving at a hundred times the speed of sound, Chenlong's figure was almost impossible to track.

Especially since the Coiling Dragon Formation-Breaking Blade in his hands inherently possessed the ability to shatter magical power, making it incredibly difficult for the sanctuary's curses to even touch him.

The result was a slow, grueling butchery.

Within the ruined temple, Kongzhi pressed his hands together. He didn't look angry; his expression remained as placid as an ancient well. He merely lowered his eyes, as if surrendering.

Meanwhile.

On the other side, Chenlong continued his sprint. His speed kept climbing, and the natural anomalies triggered by his sheer velocity grew ever more massive.

This was the difference between him and Wang Ping. Wang Ping's acceleration relied entirely on his own Divine Intent, which meant that once he broke into the realm of a hundred times the speed of sound, it was very difficult for him to change course; he could only deliver a straight, linear slash. Chenlong, however, achieved this acceleration through the profound Art of War held within his divine weapon.

The advantage of this method was that it conserved his Divine Intent.

Because he didn't have to pour his Divine Intent into driving his physical body, he had plenty of leeway to control his velocity, allowing him to freely shift direction and alter his trajectory even at ultra-high speeds.

The drawback was the limitation of the divine weapon.

Because the Vermilion Dragon Boots' Art of War relied on accumulating speed and power, he couldn't hit maximum velocity in the blink of an eye like Wang Ping.

Instead, he needed time to build it up.

Moreover, if he stopped halfway, he would have to start all over again—and that exact moment of halting would be when his condition was at its worst and his situation at its most dangerous.

Therefore, when he launched that fierce, meteor-like charge and shattered the temple, Chenlong had already prepared to reaccelerate if his momentum was forcibly halted. Yet the result was Kongzhi's total defeat. Not only was the temple destroyed, but the monk had also failed to arrest Chenlong's momentum.

Under these circumstances, Chenlong undeniably held the upper hand.

He could continue to accelerate, pushing toward a thousand times the speed of sound or even re-entering the sub-light speed realm, while Kongzhi was now missing a crucial trump card.

And yet—

Something isn't right...

Within that high-speed realm, Chenlong pushed his Divine Intent to its limits. The cognitive acceleration granted by his Divine Intent offset his extreme physical speed, allowing him to think clearly even as he sprinted.

He was indeed the one with the advantage.

Thanks to his absolute speed, Kongzhi couldn't fly away or escape. With his sanctuary broken and no magical artifacts in hand, the monk could only stand there and take a passive beating.

As time passed and his speed climbed ever higher, the scales of victory would only tip further in his favor. If he played it a little safer, he could just keep skirmishing until he built up enough speed to unleash another sub-light slash, securing an absolute victory.

But... it felt wrong.

Chenlong's brow twitched. This was a warning from his Divine Intent. His intuition as a martial artist of the Grandmaster Rank was telling him that if he dragged this out any longer, his life would be in danger.

Death was rapidly approaching.

Naturally, Chenlong wouldn't ignore this instinct. After all, having reached the Grandmaster Rank, where one achieves Seeing Divinity and Indestructibility, intuition was sometimes far more reliable than the naked eye.

A second later, Chenlong made a decisive choice.

"Break!"

The sprinting streak of fire violently changed course. Abandoning any further acceleration, the meteor plummeted straight downward just as it scraped the edge of a thousand times the speed of sound.

Rumble!

In an instant, the seething flames erupted once more, swallowing an area thousands of miles across. The intense tremors felt like an earth dragon rolling over as shockwaves swept through the forests.

Countless wild beasts were vaporized by the heat. Shattered rocks rode the boiling waves of fire, propelled into distant lands by the ultra-high-pressure shockwave. Some debris even flew as far as the outskirts of Longxing County, smashing a massive hole in its city wall. The deafening crash startled countless sleeping residents awake.

This was the second time tonight.

In the distance, Wang Ping, who was observing the battle, hadn't even found his footing before the howling shockwave slammed into him. He stumbled, nearly sent flying through the air.

"Is it over?"

Wang Ping gazed into the distance, rapidly extending his spiritual sense. He quickly laid eyes on a battlefield that resembled a massive meteor crater, the dust still thick in the air.

The air maintained a blistering heat.

The sheer temperature distorted the entire combat zone into a blur. Every blade of grass and tree had melted away, leaving behind only the scorched black scars of a thermal rampage.

This is too terrifying...

Seeing this, Wang Ping completely abandoned any thought of reaching a thousand times the speed of sound using only his physical body. That kind of speed was absolutely beyond what flesh and blood could endure.

With this level of destructive power, just the aftershocks would be enough to vaporize him in his current state.

Honestly, a hundred times the speed of sound is already absurd. Without the Internal Force cultivated from the Martial God Pictorial Record bearing the pressure, it would be impossible to reach with just my physical body.

Yet a thousand times the speed of sound was a realm that remained impossible to touch—even with a qualitatively transformed body, backed by Internal Force pushed to the limit via Heavenly Demon Disintegration, and reinforced by the Courage of the Noble Gentleman. Even exhausting every single method, he couldn't reach it. The only way to achieve such a feat was by relying on the power of a divine weapon.

"Unimaginable..."

On the other side, Ji Wuhen wore a similarly complicated expression. As the third-ranked martial artist on the Armament Manual, he had always been quite confident in his ability to break through to the Martial Dao Grandmaster Rank.

But even if he became a martial grandmaster, could he ever unleash destruction on this scale?

How could that be possible!

Ji Wuhen asked himself, then firmly shook his head. He had met martial grandmasters before; he had even assassinated one. Though he had been outmatched back then, he had still managed to retreat in one piece.

Yet not a single martial grandmaster he had fought was anything like Chenlong. If they were, what would be the point of fighting? They could have vaporized him with a twitch of their fingers.

"Looks like we won't need to step in," Ji Wuhen said lightly, looking over at Wang Ping. However, he found the man's expression still gravely serious, his eyes glued to the meteor-crater-like battlefield without blinking.

...No way, right?

Ji Wuhen swallowed hard and immediately spun around, staring at the battlefield in disbelief. As the dust cleared, the scene within gradually revealed itself.

...

The intense heat of the battlefield had not dissipated, making the inside of the crater an absolute dead zone for any living person. Yet, both Chenlong and Kongzhi stood there with perfect composure.

Chenlong hauled back on the reins, guiding his Crimson Dragon Steed a few steps in retreat. The raging flames surrounding him dimmed, leaving only the blazing white brilliance of his Heart-Protecting Mirror still shining brightly. However, his prior state—having just surged toward a thousand times the speed of sound—had been forcibly interrupted. The apocalyptic momentum was gone.

"Impressive."

Meanwhile, Kongzhi stood equally solemn. Behind him towered a majestic, two-faced, four-armed Buddha phantom—but a fresh blade wound now marred its chest.

I used a secret art of the Pacification Division to commune with the Great Brahma Heaven, intending to summon the Mighty Heavenly Dragon Arhat to aid me. Had I succeeded, this man would have undoubtedly died just now.

Kongzhi let out a sigh.

Chenlong had reacted with godlike speed and acted with utter decisiveness. Not only had a single slash severely damaged his Desire Realm Heavenly King Phase, it had also severed his connection to the Great Brahma Heaven.

In that clash, the two sides had essentially fought to a draw. Chenlong interrupted the trump card Kongzhi had meant to use for a fatal blow, while Kongzhi used that same opening to halt Chenlong's acceleration. In fact, looking at the result, Kongzhi was slightly better off; as a cultivator, he held more cards in his hand than Chenlong did.

"I will not give you another opportunity, Benefactor."

Kongzhi exhaled a long breath. Chenlong had only been able to sprint all the way to a thousand times the speed of sound earlier because the monk had lacked prior intelligence and failed to react in time.

Now, things were different.

Locked on by his spiritual sense, Kongzhi could catch and interrupt Chenlong the instant the martial artist showed any sign of accelerating, effectively neutralizing his ultimate killing move.

"You have a total of five magical artifacts on your person, Benefactor," Kongzhi smiled. "Your helm can conceal your aura. Your leg armor allows you to accelerate and float in the air. Your blade can cleave through magical power. Your arm guards enhance your physical strength."

"As for the breastplate, I presume it is the primary reason you could withstand that extreme speed just now... The combination is actually quite reasonable. Individually, they are of little use, but together they form a perfect set. However, they are suited for a martial artist and hold no value for a cultivator. No wonder you have lived to see this day."

After all, if they were truly exceptional divine weapons or magical artifacts, they would have long been marked by the Immortal Gate, who would have dispatched disciples to retrieve them from the Eight Trigrams Furnace.

He's figured out almost all my secrets...

Chenlong gave a bitter smile. This was the flaw of the martial dao. In extreme areas, it might rival or even surpass cultivators, but it was nowhere near as comprehensive.

Once his secrets were exposed, his chances of winning plummeted.

Therefore—

I have to kill this man even more now!

Chenlong slowly let out a breath, a cold glint in his eyes. "Extraordinary person, you said earlier... it has been a hundred and twenty years since you last witnessed the Great Shun Martial Dao, correct?"

"Indeed."

Kongzhi nodded. "Although the Great Shun Martial Dao had a few exquisite points back then, no one had ever reached your level of achievement."

"Haha!"

Hearing this, Chenlong immediately burst into laughter. "So that's how it is. Then you truly are ignorant and ill-informed... You missed the sixty years where the martial dao completely shed its mortal shell."

"So be it."

With that said, Chenlong lightly wiped the edge of his blade, blood-like flames igniting across his body once more. "I'll let you witness it for yourself—the pinnacle of the martial dao."

Clang—!

A resonant ring of the blade seemed to drift in from afar, as thin as a mosquito's hum, yet it simultaneously exploded right by the ear, deafening and clear. The polished edge reflected a single thread of white light.

In that instant, all creation seemed to lose its color. Heaven and earth were reduced to stark black and white. Or rather, everything was collapsing toward Chenlong. Even Kongzhi's spiritual sense couldn't reverse the flow; it was forcibly frozen on that single thread of white light, unable to shift away by even a fraction!

What is this?

Kongzhi abruptly widened his eyes.

Immediately after, he heard a harsh, cold snort echo by his ear, as if announcing something. Then, that thread of white light violently erupted.

"Divine Communion, Manifesting Divinity—"

Wherever the white light passed, all things were cleaved in two. It was as if the canvas of reality had been peeled back, allowing something entirely new to fill the void and paint itself over the world.

Kongzhi looked around in astonishment, but all he saw was a solitary peak.

Its height was immeasurable. Looking down revealed a boundless, ethereal abyss, while looking up showed the summit rising like a divine edge, piercing straight into the heavens and slicing through the sea of clouds.

Impossible.

This was the only thought in Kongzhi's mind... because, even though its outward manifestation was different, he keenly perceived the fundamental nature of this place.

"Are these... Divine Powers???"

A mere martial artist who didn't cultivate magical power—how could he possess Divine Powers!?

It was lonely at the top. The summit of the solitary peak was battered by unending, freezing winds year-round. Nature's uncanny workmanship had polished it into a blade edge capable of slicing through gold and severing jade.

A second later, Chenlong's voice drifted over faintly:

"—Heavenly Blade Peerless Slash."