The Soul-Shattering Art Revealed

The lightning bolts in the air were the fastest to arrive. In an instant, they slammed into the vast Water-Fire Lotus that enveloped Ji Ning and Mu Northson.

The lotus formed by the Water-Fire Lotus was blooming layer by layer. The lightning continuously extinguished three layers of lotus leaves before completely dispersing, unable to harm Ji Ning and his junior brother at all.

“It actually broke through three layers of lotus leaves.” Ji Ning was secretly alarmed. Over the past three years, his highest attainments had been in the Dao of Rainwater and the Dao of Blazing Fire. He frequently went to ponder the Black-White Diagram… which allowed this Water-Fire Lotus to maintain six layers of lotus leaves at the same moment. If the enemy’s power were twice as strong, it would have broken through.

Even as Ji Ning felt alarm, he was already staring at the nine cyclone-wheels that were the first to attack.

“Thorns Everywhere!”

The flying jade sword-blade seemed to be moving very slowly, as if it were encountering countless obstacles, struggling to pierce through layer after layer of resistance. As this jade sword-blade passed… every Wanxiang Adept in the area—Beihe Zhou, Jihe, Dong Yi, and the others—could sense it. This single sword-strike made all of their faces change.

“Who said Ji Ning was only good at close combat?” The six Wanxiang Adepts all cursed inwardly.

Wherever the sword-blade passed, it directly cut apart the enveloping Cold Fiend aura.

Then this jade sword-blade clashed with the nine cyclone-wheels in the air.

“BOOM~~~” The nine cyclone-wheels stirred up an endless gale in the air. They had already formed a magic treasure formation, combining their power to encircle and kill that jade sword-blade. But the jade sword-blade was too fast… Although everyone could sense it, its speed surpassed every single cyclone-wheel.

After a brief, thunderous exchange, all nine cyclone-wheels were sent flying backward. The jade sword-blade, however, had become dim and weak.

“Swoosh~~~”

In the face of the overwhelming three thousand white threads of the horsetail whisk, the jade sword-blade dissipated.

“Impressive. He actually managed to break Dong Yi’s ‘Cold Fiend’ and then Xu Manquan’s ‘Wind Cyclone Formation’.”

“If he can control a sword-blade this powerfully, what would it be like in close combat?”

Beihe Zhou and the others were all shocked.

They did not know that Ji Ning was equally shocked: “The Lesser Thousand Sword Formation is already nearly the most powerful technique at the Zifu level, and I used the second stance of the Three-Foot Sword on top of that. Yet I barely managed to fight two of them at once? It seems my foundation is too weak. After all, Xu Manquan and Dong Yi were both Wanxiang Adepts at perfection.”

Those two had each unleashed a Cold Fiend that rivaled a divine ability, and the other had used a full magic treasure formation.

And both were at the Wanxiang perfection level. Ji Ning had single-handedly broken the attacks of two such enemies; in truth, this was already heaven-defying.

“Serpent Swallows the Heavens!”

“No Sword, No Self!”

The two black swimming serpents, linked head to tail, formed a massive circle that directly enveloped the nine sword-blades. The nine blade-streaks, which resembled flowing rivers, were being controlled by Beihe Zhou to frantically attack the serpent-circles.

For a time, they were locked in a stalemate.

“Both of these Black-White College disciples are formidable. Their foundation is so much weaker than ours, yet they can still withstand our attacks.” Dong Yi sent a mental transmission. “Everyone, focus your strength and kill them!”

“Kill!”

Meng Liuqing, Nong San, and the others all exerted their utmost power, not daring to be careless.

“Eh?” Ji Ning suddenly noticed that the gray currents spreading through the area were beginning to affect his mind. Although his divine soul was extremely powerful and he didn’t care, his junior brother did. Indeed, Mu Northson’s brow was furrowed, and the power of his black serpent puppet began to decline. His mind was being affected.

“Die.”

A terrifying killing intent exploded from Ji Ning’s gaze.

Within his sea of consciousness, the divine soul sat cross-legged. In front of its chest, a cyan seal imprint was condensing—the Soul-Shattering Seal! With this seal as the nexus, his powerful divine sense erupted outward. The released divine sense was like rolling tidal waves, layering upon one another, surging in all directions.

He deliberately avoided Mu Northson, who was right next to him, and crushed outward toward the surroundings. The rolling, mighty divine sense instantly touched the six Wanxiang Adepts.

It was like a massive wave that had been building for a long time finally crashing against a shore.

BOOM!!!

The violent divine sense instantly erupted with an inconceivable shockwave.

“What…” The Snowdragon Mountain Wanxiang Adept ‘Dong Yi’ felt the terrifying impact and was instantly filled with terror; then his mind went fuzzy.

“This…”

“I…”

Each and every one of those powerful Wanxiang Adepts, struck by the Soul-Shattering Art that Ji Ning had unleashed, all sank into a dazed state at the same time.

In truth, the Soul-Shattering Art was meant to shake an enemy’s divine soul and weaken their combat power. It generally would not make them as confused and dazed as they were now. However, Ji Ning’s divine soul had already reached the ‘Divine Sense’ level—it was as if a Primal Daoist was using this technique, so it naturally made all of them dazed.

The six of them began to fall downward.

“Kill!” Ji Ning willed it, and the jade sword-blade formed by the ninth layer of the Lesser Thousand Sword Formation swept outward.

“Junior apprentice-brother, attack now.” Ji Ning also transmitted.

“Understood.” Mu Northson also noticed that the six Wanxiang Adepts had suddenly fallen into a dazed state.

The first one to be struck by the jade sword-blade was the leader, Beihe Zhou.

“HUM!” A layer of sword-qi suddenly appeared around Beihe Zhou’s body. The sword-qi was extremely tough, and it managed to block Ji Ning’s jade sword-blade strike.

“Protective sword-qi?” Ji Ning was startled. “Must be a life-saving treasure left by a senior of his sect.”

The moment he was attacked, Beihe Zhou also woke up. His face instantly filled with terror.

“KILL! KILL! KILL!”

The Lesser Thousand Sword Formation’s jade sword-blade struck three times in quick succession, directly breaking through the protective sword-qi. Before Beihe Zhou, who had just woken up and had not yet had time to control his magic treasures, could react, Ji Ning’s sword cut him in two.

“CHI CHI CHI~~~” Mu Northson’s black serpent circle also directly strangled the one called ‘Jihe’. This Jihe did not possess any protective items.

At this moment, the other four Wanxiang Adepts also woke up.

They were, after all, Wanxiang Adepts at the late stage or perfection. Their divine souls were also powerful, and their Dao-hearts were firm. It was already quite something that a Soul-Shattering Art from a ‘Primal Daoist-level’ soul could make them dazed for even an instant.

“Not good. Jihe and Beihe Zhou are already dead.”

“Let’s go.”

“They know a powerful divine sense secret art.”

The other survivors—Dong Yi, Meng Liuqing, Nong San, and Xu Manquan—all frantically tried to flee. In the blink of an eye, two of their number had died. This completely destroyed their will to fight… They understood that one of the two Black-White College disciples had a powerful divine sense secret art. But they were also baffled: although divine sense secret arts were rare, they were not invincible. Only when one’s divine soul was very powerful would such a secret art be truly formidable… The two had been cultivating for a very short time; how could they be this powerful?

“Flee?” Ji Ning smiled coldly.

BOOM~~~

His powerful divine sense, like rolling tidal waves, crushed outward in all directions again. The four who were about to flee, even though they were psychologically prepared, were still shaken into a daze by the powerful divine sense impact. Their speed plummeted.

“Junior apprentice-brother, kill them.” Ji Ning held his Northsea Swords as he charged directly toward the Snowdragon Mountain disciple, Dong Yi. At the same time, he controlled the sword-blade of the Lesser Thousand Sword Formation to attack the one called Xu Manquan.

“On it.” Mu Northson’s two black serpents, which had been linked tail-to-mouth into a circle, instantly scattered and transformed into two giant snakes, attacking Nong San and Meng Liuqing respectively.

“Soul-Shattering Art!”

Ji Ning repeatedly used the Soul-Shattering Art, wave after wave continuously assaulting the four Wanxiang Adepts.

“Snowdragon Mountain? Die!” The Northsea Sword in Ji Ning’s hands transformed into a streak of flowing light, chopping directly at Dong Yi.

“BANG!”

A layer of black light appeared on Dong Yi’s surface, wrapping around him heavily like a cocoon, protecting him.

“BANG!” Ji Ning struck again, but still could not break it.

Under the continuous waves of divine sense attacks, Dong Yi gritted his teeth so hard that blood seeped out between his teeth. His eyes were bloodshot, and he looked completely mad. He felt like a drowning man… being submerged by the tides of divine sense attacks again and again. Yet his powerful Dao-heart of an immortal cultivator made him desperately wish to live.

“Burn!” Dong Yi forcibly maintained a sliver of clarity and activated a Blood Escape technique.

SWISH!

A flash of miserable, bloody light appeared in the high sky, instantly vanishing into the distance.

“SWISH~” In contrast, Xu Manquan, who was being chased by the sword-blade of Ji Ning’s Lesser Thousand Sword Formation, managed to maintain his clarity, but before he could flee, he was beheaded by the sword-blade.

“One escaped.” Ji Ning shook his head. He waved his hand to collect all the corpses that were falling through the air.

Ji Ning turned his head. Mu Northson flew over, saying helplessly, “Senior apprentice-brother, I let that Meng Liuqing get away. But I did kill Nong San.”

“Six enemies, four dead.” Ji Ning laughed. “Not bad at all.”

“Not bad? It’s incredible.” Mu Northson looked at Ji Ning in surprise. “Senior apprentice-brother, what technique did you use just now? They all looked dazed. It should be a divine sense secret art, right? Our Black-White College has three secret arts: one Soul-Shattering Art, one Mind-Confusing Art, and one Soul-Slaying Art. Which one did you use?”

“The Soul-Shattering Art, of course.” Ji Ning did not hide it.

“Incredible, incredible. Senior apprentice-brother, your divine soul is at the Divine Sense level! And the power of the Soul-Shattering Art is astonishing; you beat them without any chance to fight back… In truth, they were very strong. Any one of them was roughly my equal.” Mu Northson exclaimed. “I’ve just been cultivating too short a time.”

“Let’s check what they left behind.” Ji Ning said.

“Right.” Mu Northson was also full of anticipation.

The two of them first flew back onto the dragon-headed warboat. The human slaves on the boat were still terrified; they had no idea what had happened outside.

Ji Ning and Mu Northson ignored them and began to refine the storage magic treasures.

Although the four who died were all Wanxiang Adepts, their storage treasures were not all Earth-ranked. Three were Human-ranked, and only one was Earth-ranked. Storage treasures… the grade didn’t really matter, so not many cultivators bothered to replace them.

After refining for a moment.

“Senior apprentice-brother, whose magic treasure is this? So much Primordial Liquid. I’d estimate this bottle has five hundred jin!” As soon as Mu Northson discovered it, he became overjoyed.

Ji Ning was also delighted. Five hundred jin of Primordial Liquid… a huge amount. Ji Ning quickly understood: “He was probably at Wanxiang perfection, preparing to break through to the Primal Daoist stage. Breaking through to the Primal Daoist stage requires a massive amount of Primordial Liquid; five hundred jin is just a fraction of the total.”

“Reasonable.” Mu Northson nodded.

Ji Ning began to grow expectant. If just one Wanxiang Adept’s storage treasure yielded five hundred jin of Primordial Liquid, perhaps with this opportunity, he could make a breakthrough to the Wanxiang Adept stage!