World's No. 1 Swordsman-Chapter 490: The Battle to Annihilate Immortals (III)

Their shared moment of confusion lasted only an instant.

Wang Sheng had just found an opening and was about to charge forward when Ziyun switched stances. With a turn of her hand, she unleashed one immortal art after another.

The two clashed repeatedly amid flashes of lightning and immortal light as Yaoyun secretly guided Wang Sheng toward the array. Before long, they had reached its outer edge.

Ziyun had clearly begun to lose her composure. She was growing restless and unfocused. Seizing the opportunity, Wang Sheng steeled himself and pressed his advantage to shake her Dao Heart.

He mockingly asked, "Have you ever heard of the Heavenly Court? To tell you the truth, my master used to be one of its immortals. The legacy he left me is beyond your imagination."

Ziyun's eyes narrowed slightly, her eyebrows knitting together, but she didn't seem shocked in the slightest.

She was clearly unfamiliar with the name. That meant she was unaware of what the ancient battlefield outside truly was, even though she and the other cultivators here relied on it to survive.

Cultivators have short memories just like mortals, huh? Wang Sheng thought, feeling an odd sense of ease.

He had feared that Earth's cultivators would venture beyond their world before they were strong enough to face the endless space, drawing the attention of the Heavenly Court's enemies and getting themselves wiped out. With that heavy concern now seemingly fading, his counterattacks grew fiercer.

Tens of thousands of years could be short for a true immortal, but how many of them truly existed? If they could overcome this predicament, leave Earth, and keep a low profile, it shouldn't be too difficult to survive.

With that burden lifted, Wang Sheng felt unexpectedly exhilarated. He even burst out laughing.

To Ziyun, that laughter was pure mockery; it taunted her. Her composure faltered further, and one flaw after another appeared in her defense. Eventually, Wang Sheng began considering a close-range attack.

"Be careful, it might be a trap," Yaoyun warned.

"It has to be," he replied calmly.

He gave her a few quick instructions and then darted through the lightning, launching a barrage of attacks. Each flash of lightning brought him closer to Ziyun, making her responses grow increasingly unsteady. She truly seemed to have lost her focus.

A bolt of lightning cleaved straight at her, and Wang Sheng appeared within the lightning itself. Ziyun, who was already disheveled, jerked her head up, and the wooden cauldron in her left hand glowed bright green and fired a beam of similar color at the end of the lightning bolt. Just as Wang Sheng reappeared, it curved around his sword radiance and hit him squarely in the chest. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Wang Sheng had unleashed seven beams of sword radiance, while Spiritless had conjured countless sword phantasms that enveloped Ziyun. The sword radiance churned wildly, drawing blood.

However, Ziyun unleashed immortal light as a square seal hit Wang Sheng in the chest with crushing force. Using the impact to propel him backward, he retreated with all his might. Lightning burst behind him as he was flung away.

Before Ziyun's next attack could land, he barely managed to use Lightning Flash and reappear above the ridgeline of a circular mountain range. He prepared to use Lightning Flash again, but green light enveloped him, making him falter and plunge. On his neck, a green beetle clung motionless.

Ziyun's expression turned cold and triumphant, her eyes filling with killing intent. Unhurried and confident, she slowly advanced and hovered above Wang Sheng. More than a dozen treasured artifacts orbited her as she swiftly unraveled their seals, gathering the power for the killing blow.

What she didn't notice was that when Wang Sheng had fallen to the foot of the mountain, his right hand still gripped Spiritless in reverse, its blade driven deep into the rocky ground.

***

Temporary command center near Mount Dajian.

Xiaomiao could no longer stay seated. She stood up, eyes fixed on the screen displaying the female immortal's energy signature.

Her energy levels were rising rapidly, while Wang Sheng's energy storm had stopped moving. More troubling still, Ziyun's had entered the section of the lunar map marked as the array's range.

Coincidence? Or is this Big Brother's plan?

Xiaomiao nervously bit on her nails as she waited for what would happen next.

After several tense seconds, the energy storm flared violently. A vast new mass of Wang Sheng's cyan energy storm appeared out of nowhere at the same moment, blanketing the entire display.

The array had been activated!

The instant it opened, a green energy storm blocked the readings of the two figures inside, making Xiaomiao nearly curse aloud.

***

On the lunar surface, just as Ziyun unleashed her full power to eliminate Wang Sheng, hundreds of beams of light suddenly rose from every direction around the circular mountain range. They instantly converged above her.

The smile on Ziyun's lips disappeared. Having survived countless brushes with death, she reacted almost on instinct. She discharged immortal light and shot toward the last unsealed gap, which was above her.

But a bolt of lightning struck from the side, and Wang Sheng emerged from its end to block her. The phantasm of a white-robed fairy flew silently behind him, closely following his every move.

Since it was already too late to use a full sword technique, Wang Sheng just let Spiritless complete its downward cleave. However, he poured everything he knew about the Dao of the Sword into that one strike.

Unyielding before power, undaunted by gods or immortals. He had become one with Yaoyun!

Imbued with indescribable Dao Rhythm, the seemingly simple slash clashed against the immortal light above Ziyun. Thunder broke the silence, and lightning scattered across space.

The sword strike forced Ziyun's immortal light straight back down, cutting off her last chance to escape the array. Meanwhile, Wang Sheng was blasted backward enough to clear the array walls just as they sealed shut, escaping by a hair's breadth.

A dome covered the ring-shaped mountain, and thousands of buried celestial crystals released a vast surge of spiritual power. Moments later, the barrier faintly rippled as the trapped female immortal began pounding at them with all her might.

Wang Sheng, who had been flung dozens of miles away, swiftly turned back and landed at the edge of the array. Sitting cross-legged, he removed the celestial insect from his neck, crushed it in his hand, and exhaled slowly. He then closed his eyes to meditate.

Since his cultivation level was lower than Ziyun's, their battle demanded so much effort.

Strands of spiritual power flowed back into Spiritless. Wang Sheng's unification with Spiritless didn't tire him as much this time since he only managed to unleash one strike. Now that he was an Ascended Immortal Realm—the lowest rank among all immortals—he could sustain Yaoyun's spiritual power for longer.

Yaoyun telepathically asked, "Was this all part of your plan?"

"No, it was a gamble and luck," Wang Sheng replied. "How long before she breaks free?"

"Considering how fast and strong she's hitting the array, about an hour, two at most."

Wang Sheng nodded gravely. His Pure Yang Immortal Power forced out wisps of green smoke from the bite wound on his neck. Fortunately, he had tempered his Dao Body using heavenly tribulation, and his Pure Yang Immortal Mantra protected him. Otherwise, he would've had a much harder time trapping Ziyun.

He had planned to feign weakness and engage Ziyun head-on. Afterward, he would pretend to be gravely wounded and fall into the array, luring her into its core. The strange celestial insect was not part of his calculations.

For a brief moment, Wang Sheng had lost control of his body. Luckily, his Dao Body was strong enough to endure, and he managed to recover in time to use Heavenly Tribulation Lightning Flash to block her escape.

The recoil blasted him out of the array by pure accident. As he had said, he had been lucky.

Wang Sheng didn't rest for too long. After five or six minutes of meditation, he purged the remaining toxins, restored his spirit and focus, and steadied his mind. Sword in hand, he rose and walked toward the dome.

The array worked much like those on Earth, allowing entry but not exit.

The difference was that this one relied solely on Spirit Stones for spiritual power, while the three arrays on Earth could draw directly from Earth's primal qi.

Wang Sheng asked, "If I go and disturb her, how long would it take her to break through?"

Yaoyun answered, "That depends on how much of the array's spiritual power she drains."

Wang Sheng snapped his fingers, took a deep breath, and then leaped into the array. His sword fired a beam of sword radiance, dozens of meters long, at the furious and desperate Ziyun.

The female intruder froze for a moment, then finally realized why he had gone to such lengths to lure her here: he simply feared that she would escape.

And what was humiliation, if not this?

Ziyun dodged sharply, causing his attack to miss completely. Before Wang Sheng could recover and use Lightning Flash, she raised a hand and made a gesture.

Coldly, she said, "Brother Pi, you and I share no great enmity. We're only fighting because of some treasure. How about we call a truce? I can swear on the Great Dao itself that I will never act against you, never reveal the secrets of this realm, and never expose a single detail about you."

Wang Sheng didn't reply. With his back to the endless space and the array wall, he charged forward.

When she had the advantage, she considered my death as my unfortunate destiny. Now that she's trapped in here, she's suddenly saying we have no enmity and even dared call a truce? What makes her think she's entitled to every favorable outcome?

The flash of lightning that burst from Wang Sheng's sword said everything. Having already tested him, Ziyun no longer spoke. She gathered all her immortal arts, ready to pay any price to destroy the Ascended Immortal.

Ziyun finally realized that he seemed to have seen through every step she had taken.

When she was trapped, she had crushed a message talisman meant for her two companions, yet there was no response. He had likely already caught Lin and Feng in his schemes.

Perhaps she, too, would fall in this nameless realm.

Now, all she could think of was how to escape alive—not how to kill Yaoyun or seize treasures and souls. Profit and loss no longer mattered.

Their battle to the death resumed.

Having taken a brief rest, Yaoyun and Wang Sheng had returned to their peak condition. Their unity was growing stronger, too. The next time they became one, they wouldn't just launch a single strike.

They'd fight as one until the battle was over!!