Cohabitation with Sword Spirit

Chapter 539 - 40: Demo Version

As the Azure Heaven Sword Seal emerged, the inside and outside of the arena fell into complete silence.

Inside the arena, the Heaven and Earth Spirit Wind halted completely, with not the slightest hint of movement remaining, making it feel like a vacuum, suffocating for the cultivators. Under the suppression of the Sword Seal, no matter how many spells the middle-aged sword cultivator tried, he could no longer circulate his True Essence, and his Primordial Spirit began to freeze... Just one Sword Seal sent a great sword cultivator in the True Essence Realm spiraling towards a slow death.

Outside the arena, upon witnessing the magnificent Sword Seal bloom instantly, all the cultivators held their breath, desperately trying to memorize the profound patterns on the Sword Seal.

Even those naturally biased against the Sword Dao couldn’t resist the surge of passion for immortal cultivation upon witnessing such a transcendent and magical Sword Seal structure.

It’s an inherent impulse that no qualified cultivator could resist, especially for those from the Cyan Lotus Academy who are at the forefront of Immortal Dao theory. This Sword Seal, containing a million patterns yet devoid of any redundancy, was an indisputable miracle from the heavens.

After ten minutes of silence inside and outside the arena, a muffled "puff" sound suddenly erupted inside.

The head of the middle-aged sword cultivator exploded like a watermelon hit with a stick, red and white matter splattering everywhere. Upon closer inspection, each fragment of the explosion had neat edges, as if cut by a Divine Weapon. The exploded brains had some parts evaporate instantly at high temperature, others froze into ice, and some turned purple-black, with various other changes.

"This..." some researchers exclaimed with wide eyes, finding it absolutely unbelievable.

The Sword Seal, though evidently possessing boundless power, hadn’t even reached the phase of power eruption yet. Normally, such an external Sword Seal would only fully unfold its power after going through phases of construction, display, reinforcement, and descent. But in the arena, the Sword Seal was only at the display phase when the opponent couldn’t withstand the pressure and died from a head explosion!

This situation was akin to going blind from witnessing overly intense light; when witnessing incredibly profound, astonishing Divine Techniques, a cultivator’s body, True Essence, and Primordial Spirit are intensely shaken, leading to utter disintegration if they can’t endure it.

However, this kind of disparity usually only occurs when there’s a massive gap in realms between two sides, like if the Sect Leader from Saint Sect were to demonstrate supreme skills to Shen Qingming, causing Shen Qingming’s Primordial Spirit to potentially collapse. But just now, in the arena, the opponents were clearly at the same True Essence Realm, and the other party was the one who had long immersed in the Sword Dao!

The researchers outside saw a filtered version of the Sword Seal, without lethal power, making it unimaginable how many Divine Techniques the Azure Heaven Sword Seal displayed inside the arena contained.

Meanwhile, Zhu He looked in disbelief at his mortal enemy who had just perished before him.

The Azure Heaven Sword Seal from moments ago was promptly constructed and completed by Bai Jian after extracting his True Essence. Zhu He witnessed this supreme Sword Seal’s entire formation process firsthand... Every step seemed unfathomable, breaking conventional logic.

Having worked part-time in the Sword Group for decades, despite hardly using a sword himself and having mediocre Sword Dao talent, his theoretical expertise was extremely solid. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say he was at the forefront of Xiangzhou’s Sword Dao. Yet he couldn’t comprehend Bai Jian’s process of constructing the Azure Heaven Sword Seal with limited True Essence from start to finish!

But the result was crystal clear; the formidable enemy he saw as unbeatable had his head explode just by looking at the Sword Seal, and his childhood friend didn’t even hold the ’honor’ of exploding, fainting instead.

In the next moment, time reversed, and the red and white matter on the ground returned to form a complete head. The Sword Seal in the sky dissipated, resetting everything to the start of the battle.

This time, Bai Jian still led him to act first.

Without channeling the slightest bit of True Essence, he charged at his opponent like a puppet using his meager physical strength.

His speed wasn’t fast, nor was his momentum strong. During the charge, Zhu He wore a face full of panic, but when Bai Jian attacked, the choice of timing was exquisite, and the outlines of the profound Sword Path rendered his opponent’s once confident defense a joke.

Wherever Bai Jian passed, all spells scattered, unrelated to the Divine Sword’s material; merely evaluating the swordsmanship itself directly disrupted spells constructed with True Essence.

The intricately constructed layers of defense of the opponent were breached effortlessly. Within a blink of an eye, Zhu He, holding the White Sword, pierced through his enemy.

A rush of blood spouted from his opponent’s chest, drenching him head to toe. The hot splash on his face made his throat incessantly gulp.

Before he had time to savor the taste of that straight stab, the arena reset once more.

Bai Jian led him into action again, blending True Essence with muscles, causing his arm to swell instantly. Then the longsword harnessed this burst of composite force and flew from his hand, directly blasting the opponent’s head...

The one-sided slaughter continued in the arena for half an hour.

Wang Jiu, hand-in-hand, led Zhu He through over a hundred different methods of brutally killing his old rival—Azure Heaven Sword Seal, Straight Sword Impact, Meteor Sword, Five Elements Sword... The plethora of techniques dazzled even the researchers who specialized in Sword Dao.

Though the adversary had superior hard strength, Zhu He, merely due to the involvement of Celestial Divine Sword, gained an overwhelming advantage, as though ridiculing his opponent into complete humiliation.

During this process, Zhu He gradually grasped a sliver of the essence of sword usage.

Initially, Wang Jiu absolutely dominated each Sword Dao Divine Technique, extracting strength from Zhu He’s body like manipulating a puppet to complete the feats. But eventually, Zhu He felt he could barely follow along with his partner’s steps. In employing certain sword techniques, he could already contribute an unremarkable share of power.

And this feeling of being personally involved magnified the exhilaration of victory in battle.

Seeing that long-time nightmare of an opponent being utterly defenseless in his hands, ruthlessly beaten out of shape, Zhu He indeed felt an unprecedented sense of satisfaction.

It was as if a deep-seated illness of decades healed overnight; as Zhu He wielded his sword, he felt as free as the open sea and sky.

He only hoped that this process could continue forever.

——

In the Illusory Arena, the 140th battle began.

Accompanied by a flash of jade-colored light, with Wang Jiu’s assistance, Zhu He successfully employed the Sword Stealing Technique, taking control of his opponent’s sword with his own, allowing the Jade Longsword to sever its owner’s limbs, and then, like a stake, pierced the heart, pinning him to the ground.

The sword’s owner immediately spat blood and broke down, struggling to speak, "Spare, spare my life, I don’t dare anymore..."

Zhu He hesitated for a moment, realizing that the opponent didn’t die in one hit as in the previous 139 battles... Indeed, the swordsmanship led by himself was far less lethal than when led by the White Sword. Yet, to achieve this result already felt dreamlike.

The prior Sword Stealing Technique was 70% his own effort and only 30% from the White Sword. Considering his opponent was also clad in Divine Armor, he could essentially say he relied on his strength to defeat a formidable opponent, overturning decades of nightmares.

At this moment, Zhu He did not rush to kill but stepped on his love rival’s head, sneering, "Spare your life? Why should I? You took my beloved, cut off my arm, and forced me into exile for decades, not daring to go home. After I joined the Cyan Lotus Academy, you bragged to everyone about stealing an academy cultivator’s lover. With these decades of humiliation, why should I spare you!?"

"I know I was wrong, I’ll divorce her right away..."

Zhu He furiously pointed a Sword Qi that cut off the opponent’s ear.

"Is this how you beg for mercy? Throwing me a worn shoe to save your life!?"

"No, no, she, after years of my guidance, has become very skilled in various techniques, she’s indeed a rare gem..."

Zhu He was so enraged that he felt faint, as if struck by an extremely powerful Primordial Spirit impact: "You, how dare you say that!? I’ve known her since childhood, and I’ve never even kissed her, and yet after just one day you..."

"Wait, although she’s been with me for a long time, we have a young daughter, she’s just 16 this year, a genuine maiden..."

"You throw me a worn shoe, and now you want to be my father!?"

"No, no, how about this, whoever you fancy, I’ll marry her first, and then you can take her to settle the score?"

"Go to hell! Even near death, you still want to gain from me!"

Zhu He roared furiously, striking his enemy on the ground into pieces.

Then, looking at the bloodied remains on the ground, Zhu He only felt his inner rage quickly transform into a sense of refreshing clarity, coursing through his body, making him feel completely at ease.

Just as the academy head said, human nature indeed contains a desire for destruction, completely unrelated to later education. Zhu He had been honest and steady for 80 years, cultivating at the Cyan Lotus Academy, yet the satisfaction from personally slaying his enemy far exceeded that of reading any book!

"So, this is... the beauty of the Sword Dao." Zhu He released the White Sword in his hand, turned seriously, and bowed to Wang Jiu behind him, "Headmaster, I now understand the allure of the Sword Dao you spoke of. These past eighty years, I truly lived in vain."

This statement immediately caused a stir among the Sword Group researchers on the spot.

The old bachelor Zhu He had been the flag bearer of the anti-war faction for decades, hating fighting all his life, yet today, after being personally instructed by the new headmaster, he immediately abandoned his beliefs!

Seeing this, these high-intelligence, high-quality researchers immediately became passionately enthusiastic.

"Headmaster, let me try too!"

"Headmaster, take me, take me too!"