Chapter 172 - 157: Daoist Leader VS Demon Sect Leader!

Chapter 172: Chapter 157: Daoist Leader VS Demon Sect Leader!

The misty drizzle dyed the vast sky above the reed marshes into an ink-wash painting.

The storyteller suddenly looked as if he were facing a formidable enemy.

With his wise, spirited eyes fixed on the figure standing with his hands behind his back, he said in a calm tone, "Mr. Yuan, if you wish to witness my Martial Arts, I’m afraid this is neither the time nor the place. Long Zaitian and the Daoist Sect Master are the main characters of this battle at Copper Mountain. If we were to fight, it would inevitably steal their thunder."

The man with his hands behind his back thought for a moment and said, "Would it?"

He looked deeply at the storyteller.

The pressure in the storyteller’s heart increased by a First Layer as he replied, "Both you and I, Mr. Yuan, were invited by Long Zaitian to watch the battle. If what he says is true, things might not be so simple during this fight. Don’t you think that is the real matter at hand? Until then, neither of us should be distracted."

The figure standing with his hands behind his back stopped speaking. Instead, he looked up at the vast expanse of the sky and muttered to himself, "The road ahead is vast and hazy. I hope Long Zaitian can show me something."

At this moment, the storyteller clearly felt the spiritual and mental pressure slowly dissipating. Knowing that the person in front of him had lost the will to fight, he could not help but feel slightly relieved. He said, "I heard from Wang Zaixiang that you have taken a half-step further than the rest of us. You must have seen a different scenery. Do you really still feel that the road ahead is vast and hazy?"

A half-step. It sounded like a mere short distance. However, on the path of cultivation and Martial Arts, every additional step taken revealed an entirely different world.

"I am just a pure Martial Artist," the figure said calmly. "The so-called difference in Realms is just people’s different understandings of ’martial’. To me, true martial lies within that half-step... such a tiny distance. When you say I have taken a half-step further than you all, I actually haven’t. Everyone is the same.

"To stop the halberd within a half-step—that is martial..."

The storyteller chewed on these words in his heart, vaguely understanding a bit from the literal meaning. To stop the halberd was to be martial. To stop was that half-step; it meant getting in close because a half-step was a distance of a mere two feet. The halberd represented weapons and slaughter... To stop the halberd within a half-step—if this was the true meaning of the word ’martial’ and he had consistently applied it, that was exactly how he became invincible in the world. Then, did that mean the person standing before him was the only true Martial Artist in the world? And everyone else could not even be considered true Martial Artists?

"Thank you for the guidance," the storyteller shook his head and smiled bitterly. "It is just that Mr. Yuan’s Realm is too profound. Even if I can understand a fraction of it, I am unable to achieve it." He was afraid there was no second person in the world who could achieve this step like the man before him. That was why he was unique. That was why he was invincible.

"Everyone has their own path. The Dao has no superiority or inferiority; it only depends on how far one can walk." The figure with his back turned said softly, "Compared to the opportunity Long Zaitian mentioned, I am actually more looking forward to seeing Dao Yi Sect Master Chen Sha’s path. Dao Yi Mountain’s Great Yellow Court can be said to be the best Foundation Establishment skill in the world. It absorbs the strengths of a hundred schools and smelts them to forge one’s own path.

"Although everyone cultivates the same Great Yellow Court, it results in different Martial Arts in the end. It can truly be called an Enlightenment Marvelous Skill tailor-made for the world’s Martial Artists."

Hearing the man mention Chen Sha, the storyteller said, "There are only two days left until the fifteenth of August. I hope this trip will not be in vain for any of us. I will take my leave now." With that said, he bowed slightly, holding an oil-paper umbrella, and turned to walk back to Xiaowang Village.

Two days passed in a flash.

Inside the only inn in Xiaowang Village, the proprietress was doing the accounts at the counter. Suddenly, she heard a commotion outside. People were bustling about, all pointing at the sky.

"Waiter, go quickly and see what’s going on..."

At the proprietress’s words, the inn’s waiter hurriedly took a few steps outside. Less than half a cup of tea’s time later, he returned and shouted loudly, "They say the Dao Yi Sect Master has arrived! He flew right across the sky and headed straight for the peak of Copper Mountain!"

"Is that true?" The proprietress hurriedly dropped her abacus and said, "Did you see clearly? People say that young Daoist can fly in the sky."

The waiter said excitedly, "I saw it with my own eyes! He flew right over Xiaowang Village. Just like the Jianghu legends say, he was standing on the back of a man with wings on his ribs, soaring across the sky. It was truly the means of an Immortal!"

Hearing this, the Jianghu Martial Artists in the inn immediately got up one by one to settle their bills.

"Dao Yi Chen Sha has already arrived!"

"Hurry up Copper Mountain! If we’re late, we might miss the battle!"

At this time, on the peak of Copper Mountain.

The expansive rocky plateau spanned a thousand to a hundred zhang wide. Chen Sha leaped down from Teng Zijing’s back and landed on the central rock at the peak. Looking up, he saw rolling mountains in the distance. Only the rock beneath his feet was flat and wide. Faintly, it actually looked somewhat like the Qilin Cliff he had seen in the Cosmic Light Fragments. He had never been to Copper Mountain, so this was his first time seeing its environment.

He surveyed the surroundings and thought, "This place... really does look a bit like Qilin Cliff. Could it be..." He could not help but begin to speculate.

If this was the very Qilin Cliff where Zhang Daoxuan once preached the Dao, then... wouldn’t the relationship between the two worlds truly be one of chronological succession?

He pondered, "Are Zhang Daoxuan, Sister Taie, and the others also people of the Divine Land World? Did they simply achieve Ascension in the distant past, leaving a gap in history?"

Thinking about it carefully, the current Divine Land Dynasty and Martial Arts only had about six or seven thousand years of recorded history in books. Yuan Country was the most ancient Dynasty, and it only had a history of five thousand years. Before that was the unrecorded savage Ancient Era. It was said that they didn’t even have a written language back then.

He wondered, "The Ninth Tribulation... the Ninth Tribulation... to call it a Tribulation, could it mean the world went extinct?"

Chen Sha chewed on these thoughts, trying to connect the dots.

However, while Chen Sha was alone on the thousand-zhang wide rocky peak, silently pondering the questions and speculations in his heart, shortly after his arrival...

CLOP CLOP CLOP!

Many Martial Artists waiting on the various rocks at the peak to watch the peerless battle heard the impassioned sound of horse hooves. Surprisingly, a carriage was driving all the way from the foot of the mountain up to the peak.

"Long Zaitian!"

"It’s Long Zaitian’s carriage!"

This Demon Saint Sect Master’s carriage had always been a symbol of his identity. The Martial Artists in the Jianghu had witnessed it many times. Wherever this carriage appeared, the current Demon Saint would surely be there.

Watching from afar as the carriage came up the cliff, the storyteller’s eyes turned solemn. "He’s here." However, as he looked around, he noticed many Martial Artists—such as the Demon Saint’s Direct Disciple, Ma Rulong—gathered in a Lin on the peak of Copper Mountain. Yet, he could not see where that entity from the South Sea was.

At this time, Chen Sha also heard the hoofbeats. Standing with his hands clasped behind his back on the mountain peak, he looked over. It was a driverless carriage making its way up the mountain path, stopping thirty zhang in front of him. Instantly, the world abruptly fell silent. The hidden observers all over could not help but hold their breath. For a moment, the man and the carriage standing opposite each other became the focal point between heaven and earth.

SCREECH!

Suddenly, the cry of an eagle from the sky broke the silence. The carriage curtain opened without any wind, and a robust man clad in luxurious clothes stepped out.

He appeared to be only in his thirties or forties. His looks were strikingly handsome to the point of being almost demonic. His shiny black hair was parted down the middle and cascaded over his broad shoulders. His entire being exuded an aura as deep as an abyss and as towering as a mountain. Though he hadn’t spoken, his lightning-like gaze had already fallen upon Chen Sha. He said nothing. Yet, his mere presence made everyone staring intently across the thousand-zhang sky feel a strong sense of unease. They were all deeply unnerved by an indescribable, demonic charm radiating from him.

"That is the Demon Saint Long Zaitian of this generation."

In the shadows, Jiang Chengzi and a few Daoist Sect experts, who had arrived on Copper Mountain early on, gasped upon seeing Long Zaitian reveal himself. Even though he was the True Martial Sect Master and a Great Innate of his generation, he could not help but feel a Moo Ming sense of alarm just looking at the man from afar.

Looking back at Chen Sha, who was standing opposite him, Jiang Chengzi thought, "He has grown stronger again." His heart beat faster. "The rate at which this kid’s strength increases is simply inhuman!" It hadn’t been long since they parted ways with Chen Sha in Zhao Country. Now, even from a distance, he could feel the faint aura exuding from Chen Sha. It was truly as if the True Martial they revered had descended to the mortal realm. The transcendent, divine aura of the Daoist Sect was not at all inferior to Long Zaitian’s demonic charm.

In the center of the cliff.

Chen Sha had one hand behind his back and the other in front of his chest. The mountain breeze fluttered his Daoist Robe and hair. His eyes were tranquil as he looked at Long Zaitian. "The timing of our battle is actually somewhat surprising to me. You injured my mother, so I should have sought you out myself. I didn’t expect you to take the initiative to arrange a fight."

Long Zaitian said indifferently, "To you, today’s battle might be about avenging your mother and eradicating Demons for the Daoist Sect. But in my eyes, it is purely a life-and-death showdown, having nothing to do with any grudges. I hope you will go all out, Sect Master Chen."

As his words fell, his robes fluttered without wind, and his sleeves rolled up. With his black hair dancing wildly, his feet pushed lightly off the ground, and he slowly levitated into the air. Then, he suddenly thrust his five fingers toward Chen Sha.

Many people hidden in the dark were moved. They originally thought that when the supreme leaders of the Daoist and Demon sects met, they would exchange many verbal blows before the battle began. They did not expect Long Zaitian to be so straightforward. After merely two sentences, he didn’t waste any more words and attacked!

BOOM!

Under Long Zaitian’s strike, the weather, which had been drizzling continuously for the past two days, suddenly changed. With a loud rumble in the sky, a torrential downpour cascaded down. It was unclear whether it just happened to rain at this exact moment, or if Long Zaitian’s move had directly triggered the Power of Celestial Phenomenon.

CRACKLE!!

Bolts of lightning slithered through the clouds like electric snakes. The boundless rain and mist falling on the cliff peak surprisingly converged toward Long Zaitian’s palm strike.

Demon Heaven Tribulation!

The Water Tribulation surged, turning the natural Power of Celestial Phenomenon into his own use.

But immediately after, before this surging mist of rainwater could reach Chen Sha, the rain at the peak of Copper Mountain shockingly turned into ice crystals, and snowflakes fluttered down piece by piece. The boundless raging waves of water vapor, gathered and squeezed by Long Zaitian’s five fingers to strike at his opponent, actually began to freeze bit by bit in the void. It even caused a First Layer of rapidly freezing traces to appear on Long Zaitian’s clothes...

The speed of the freezing matched the falling of the snowflakes. In an instant, a large expanse of ice sculptures and icicles formed at the peak of Copper Mountain. They smashed downward, producing a crisp sound like shattering glass.

The Martial Artists from all over the world were stunned. They did not see Chen Sha make any movements. Facing Long Zaitian’s attack, he had not even moved from his spot. Yet, just by standing motionless, he caused the world to snow and freeze... Using unbelievable Immortal methods, he easily blocked a move from Long Zaitian’s Demon Heaven Tribulation.

CLATTER!

The freezing energy of the rain and snow rolled and spread from the peak of Copper Mountain.

"One turns the power of the torrential rain into his own use, while the other absurdly makes it snow in August. Are these two... really just Martial Artists?" Just their initial exchange of moves made Jiang Chengzi’s heart pound in fear. He thought, "Martial Arts in the hands of these two have completely become like Divine Abilities."

Meanwhile, the storyteller secretly thought, "Long Zaitian’s Martial Arts is the Demon Heaven Tribulation, which can turn the power of natural Myriad Phenomena into his own use. It is not surprising that he can control water vapor on a rainy day. But how exactly did the Dao Yi Sect Master do it? It seems to be killing intent? Can killing intent reach this step?" Even he could not understand Chen Sha’s Martial Arts abilities.

Following closely.

BOOM!!

It seemed that behind the boundless water mist, ice crystals, and the freezing energy of the swirling snow, an explosive sound like a bolt from the blue erupted from the collision of a fist and a palm. Fist and palm met. After their natural celestial phenomena clashed, the two collided in close quarters.

Who was truly the strongest between the Daoist and Demon sects?