World's No. 1 Swordsman-Chapter 492: The Battle to Annihilate Immortals (IV)

The one who captured everyone's attention the most was Shen Qianlin. She abandoned the golden roc and targeted the twin-saber immortal.

She dropped headfirst from the sky as straight as a high-powered beam of light.

Still in midair, she unleashed a crushing palm strike. The Asura phantasm behind her imitated it.

Feng was slammed into the ruins of the Shu Sword Sect. The rubble caved in around him. Wrapped in devilish qi, he sank into the ground, the collapsing earth completely pinning him.

Two seconds later, a surge of blood light erupted.

Feng roared and lifted his twin sabers, but Shen Qianline, who was inside the blood light, acted as quickly as a phantom. Her blood saber cut through Feng cleanly, splattering immortal blood everywhere.

At that same moment, the roc dove from the sky at the edge of the array. In desperate need of fresh blood, it shot toward the dozens of weaker cultivators, who had no time to escape after serving as bait. Only by absorbing their blood could it regain enough strength to break out of the array alive.

Unlike Feng, who just kept growing wilder the longer he fought, Shen Qianlin's pursuit had terrified the old man and the roc. The bird's ferocity now came purely from survival instinct. It spread its wings and snapped its beak open to feed faster.

Paralyzed by immortal pressure, the cultivators could only watch death descend. However, right before the beast reached them, Shen Qianlin dropped with her blood saber raised.

A brilliant golden radiance erupted outside the array wall to the left of the roc, locking onto it in midair. A man burst through from the light and raised his right fist, leaning forward as though he had just rammed straight through the array. His clothes exploded apart as he charged at the bird's flank.

His shadow on the ground looked like a dragon rising from the sea! A genuine draconic roar even echoed in the array!

The radiance made the speeding roc freeze, and fear flickered in its eyes as the shining man approached. Facing such overwhelming force, it forgot how to struggle or scream.

Who is that? The gravely wounded Lin, who was lying on the bird's back, wondered just before the punch connected.

Soon, he got a clear view of their new opponent: a young monk coated in fine gold dust. A glowing Buddhist swastika symbol was in the middle of his bare chest.

The punch looked nothing out of the ordinary, yet at that moment, it was the strongest attack between heaven and earth.

It hit the roc's neck, hurling the bird sideways. It had barely been blasted a hundred meters when golden light burst along its neck, and half of its entire body exploded into pieces. The old man clinging to its back also blew up.

Amid the ruins of the Shu Sword Sect in the distance, Shen Qianlin stood silently, enveloped in blood light. The blood saber in her hand faded into drifting motes. Behind her, Feng split open from brow to chin, his broken sabers slipping from his hands. His divine soul had been destroyed.

The arhat had subdued the dragon, and the Asura had shattered the saber!

At the array's edge, Huai Jing pressed his palms together.

"Namo Amitabha," he chanted, the words echoing across the valley.

Within the ruins, the blood-red glow around Shin Qianlin had already vanished. Her long black hair settled, and her cold expression regained its blank calmness. Right after, her wooden staff flew back into her grasp.

In the valley, the swirling yin-yang qi faded, and Mu Wanxuan rose into the air. Seeing Huai Jing standing before the horizon, she tilted her head in surprise.

Startled by Huai Jing's sudden arrival, Xi Lian's jaw dropped slightly. She then breathed a sigh of relief. "Good grief, the cultivation world is full of surprises these days."

With his hands behind his back, Nameless greeted from afar, "Oh, it's you, Dragon-Subduing Arhat. Pardon my manners."

After casually revealing his identity to everyone, he offered Huai Jing a Daoist salute. Huai Jing smiled helplessly, then looked at the Buddhist seal on his chest and the gold dust covering him.

He felt as though he had taken a loss.

Had he known that the immortal would be defeated so easily, he wouldn't have used every bit of his crushed bones. Half would have done the job.

"I told you already. I'm not a tank."

He smirked, returned the bows from the Daoist sects' cultivators below, then shouted, "Deactivate the array!"

He shot toward the Shu Sword Sect ruins and landed in front of Xi Lian.

Since he had already used his golden body, he had to make the most of it. He had waited until the last moment before entering the array, not out of reluctance, but because he had calculated its duration carefully.

The golden body had a time limit, and once it ended, he would be bedridden for days. Hence, he had decided early on that even if delaying it caused heavy casualties inside the array, he would still hold off. This was the only way for him to still have enough time to reach the Moon and support Wang Sheng in slaying the strongest of the three intruders.

"Big Sister," Huai Jing whispered.

Xi Lian swiftly replied, "What?"

"Go help Fei Yu. I'm worried I won't be strong enough alone. If we go together, our chances go up. Considering how fast I am right now, we can reach him in about half an hour."

Realizing he had called her for a serious reason, Xi Lian stopped complaining and quickly swallowed two alchemical pills.

Nameless flew over. "I'll come with you as well."

Huai Jing asked, "Do you still have enough spiritual power, Senior?"

"I can muster one last good attack for Fei Yu."

"Then our odds just improved," Huai Jing said. He then murmured, "Amitabha."

He grabbed the sword spirit's scabbard with one hand and Xi Lian's arm with the other.

"I can't leave the Small Nether Realm for long," Lady Meng whispered from nearby. "I'll stay and guard Earth instead."

Huai Jing nodded. Around them, the array had started falling apart.

Mu Wanxuan gracefully flew over from the side, a soul lamp in her hand. Her eyes were filled with worry.

Fortunately, the flame in her soul lamp remained stable, which meant Wang Sheng was still safe. Hence, Mu Wanxuan managed to keep her tone steady. "Bring me!"

Seeing Huai Jing hesitate, Xi Lian immediately reasoned, "Little Xuanxuan can be a powerful support."

"Fine. Big Sister, if Fei Yu starts blaming people later, you'll have to take the fall," Huai Jing muttered.

He let go of Xi Lian's arm and took out his purple-golden alms bowl. Light shimmered across it, and it instantly expanded to a full meter in diameter.

"Hop on, we are running out of time! My golden body works like an Ultraman transformation; it has a time limit."

Mu Wanxuan and Xi Lian immediately jumped onto the alms bowl. Afterward, Huai Jing hoisted it onto his shoulder and tossed the old sword upward. He then leaped across a hundred kilometers, landing on a deserted mountain peak.

Moments later, a burst of golden light erupted from the peak, and three shockwaves spread out in all directions.

From the rapidly collapsing mountain, the monk shot into the sky with his bowl, leaving behind a trail of golden light.

****

Huai Jing had originally planned to use his golden body the moment the three immortals and the roc fell into the array. It didn't matter now if he revealed his identity anyway, since he already had close ties with Wang Sheng, the Pure Yang Sword Faction, and the cultivation world.

But the roc had been too fast. Even if he had used his golden body and gone all out, he knew he still wouldn't have been able to catch it. Even in his previous life, he simply wasn't good at sprinting.

Finally, Ziyun's decision to head to the Moon Palace with Wang Sheng had forced Huai Jing to make this decision.

He knew Wang Sheng was about to face a Primordial Immortal, but he also noticed from afar that Ziyun's heavenly fate was faint green. Thanks to his understanding of heavenly fate, he wasn't particularly worried.

Considering she only had a tiny bit of heavenly fate, wanting to take out Fei Yu, who was wrapped in great fortune, was nothing short of delusional.

Over the years, Huai Jing had thought of ways to help Wang Sheng conceal his heavenly fate, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't come up with any. As far as he knew, most rising stars with great heavenly fate died while on the path of cultivation, either because their heavenly fate backfired or because some expert disliked their fortune enough to crush them.

The few who survived long enough to become powerful had all kept a low profile during their early years and emerged only after they had completed their foundation.

When he heard that Wang Sheng was going to investigate the Realm of Exiled Immortals' gate, he didn't worry about Wang Sheng exposing his heavenly fate. They were in a remote location that barely had any Heavenly Immortals. The chance of running into some ancient monster that could read fate was also very low. Hence, he didn't stop him.

Huai Jing was still a Buddhist cultivator at heart; he believed in destiny and wouldn't forcefully interfere with it. Still, this situation had gone far beyond his expectations. It made him regret not persuading Wang Sheng to stay.

Carrying the purple gold alms bowl, Huai Jing flew out of Earth and reached the Moon in just over half an hour, which was extremely fast compared to the average travel time. However, when they reached the array site, they failed to find Wang Sheng. Instead, a devastated battlefield greeted them.

Parts of the crater had collapsed, and its center had been split open, revealing the grand protection array that guarded the outer layer of the Small Immortal Realm deep underground.

Broken Spirit Stones were scattered everywhere, and a sword intent they all recognized lingered. They also found sword radiance that was yet to disperse, evidencing that the battle had just ended.

Mu Wanxuan turned pale.

They split up to search and soon found a series of traces: shattered treasured artifacts, blood-soaked dust, and massive greatsword marks in the pattern of the Big Dipper.

As Mu Wanxuan grew more anxious, Huai Jing transmitted through Buddhist light, "There's a message here. I believe it's from Fei Yu."

They flew over at once. Nameless and Xi Lian gave Mu Wanxuan the best position.

Someone had carved a square frame into the stone surface. Inside was a paragraph hurriedly etched with a sword intent they all knew well: Wang Sheng's Heavenly Ziwei Sword Intent.

With the aid of the trap array, I heavily wounded Primordial Immortal Ziyun on this battlefield. She escaped using a secret technique, but I'm chasing her now. Don't worry. I'll return after killing her.

Just a few simple strokes, yet they spoke of how brutal the fight had been. Even so, everyone breathed a small sigh of relief.

"It really is from Fei Yu," Huai Jing commented.

Looking down at his golden body, he couldn't help but wonder if he had just wasted a lot of his crushed bones.

Seeing Mu Wanxuan staring blankly at her soul lamp, he added, "I still have some Buddhist power left in my golden body. I can use an art that replays past events if it would reassure you, Bu Yu. You'll have to drag me back, though, Big Sister. I'll collapse as soon as my golden body runs out of time."

"Just do it," Xi Lian urged.

Huai Jing used a Buddhist art that had a similar effect to Yaoyun's Rewinding Light Art. The images it produced had a gold tint.

Soon, the battle that had taken place here slowly played before the Daoist, the Buddhist, the fox, and the sword.