The Sword That Shattered the Trap

“Impossible! There’s no way he’s an Empyrean God or True Immortal. If he were about to undergo his Tribulation, there’s no way our Seamless Gate could have missed it.” The twelve surviving Celestial Immortals, including the Violetgrass Immortal, scattered in panic, fleeing in all directions. Ji Ning’s overwhelming power made them believe he had to be at the Empyrean God or True Immortal level—but that was impossible!

It didn’t make sense!

Ji Ning might have the Eight-Nine Arcane Art, which could conceal his immortal aura, but as long as he underwent his Tribulation, there was absolutely no way he could have kept it hidden from the Seamless Gate! In fact, it could be said that no living being in the entire Three Realms could undergo their Tribulation without the Seamless Gate knowing.

“Ahh!” A fleeing Celestial Immortal with a thick beard was using a huge gourd to block the attack, but beneath the sword finger, the gourd was sent flying and he was directly slain, his life and Dao extinguished.

“How can Ji Ning be this powerful?” A Celestial Immortal let out a roar of grief and fury, but the sword finger that spanned the heavens and the earth annihilated him as well.

“The intelligence was wrong. Wrong!”

“How could this happen!”

“I won’t accept this!”

These Celestial Immortals were all elites of the Seamless Gate. Every single time they struck, they had precise intelligence; after all, knowing oneself and knowing one’s enemy ensured victory. They had never before experienced such a massive miscalculation! At their level, a mistake of this magnitude came at the cost of their very lives.

Ji Ning activated his Three Heads, Six Arms technique. Six sword fingers simultaneously shot towards six Celestial Immortals. However, this time, Ji Ning used the Starseizing Hand along with the power of Sword Force for his six-armed attack. At his current level—the seventeenth stage of the Crimsonbright Diagram—using the fourth-stage Starseizing Hand already made him a pinnacle Celestial Immortal in close combat. When augmented by Sword Force, he was no weaker than a Tonghe-level Celestial Immortal.

This meant that each of Ji Ning’s six sword fingers was equivalent to the full-force attack of a Tonghe Celestial Immortal.

The enemy’s formation had already collapsed, and they were all fleeing. There was no need to waste Heartforce now. The consumption of Heartforce was immense; a full-power sword finger strike consumed one-fifteenth of his total reserves. He could only unleash fifteen such strikes. Naturally, Ji Ning had to save it for critical moments.

“Hmph.” A cold light flickered in Ji Ning’s eyes as he killed without mercy.

The six sword fingers instantly slew five Celestial Immortals, but one strike aimed at a woman failed.

“Oh?” Ji Ning glanced at the woman in surprise.

A dense layer of azure light had appeared around her body. The azure light protected her, blocking the sword finger strike Ji Ning had just unleashed.

“He’s far too powerful. The intelligence was completely wrong.” The Violetgrass Immortal felt a surge of fear, but then two talismans appeared in her hand. One was a Greater Teleportation Dao-talisman. However, activating a Greater Teleportation Dao-talisman required time, and given Ji Ning’s attack speed, that brief period was enough for him to attack over a dozen times.

Crack! Crack!

Crushing the summons talismans was far faster. The Violetgrass Immortal immediately crushed the talismans given to her by two powerful experts who could save her at this moment. Aside from super-exceptional Celestial Immortals like the Blackflame Celestial Immortal, she had two Empyrean Gods and True Immortals protecting her due to her special status within the Seamless Gate: the Seamless Gate Lord himself, and her brother-in-law, the “Floatcloud True Immortal.”

…

In the distant Fifth World.

Within a majestic hall, the Seamless Gate Lord, the Lord of the Ten Thousand Demons Cave, and the Lord of the Bloodcloud Tower were watching a large number of watery mirrors floating in mid-air. These mirrors displayed scenes from various locations—battle images from several strongholds in the Grand Xia world, transmitted there by Pure Yang treasures.

Most of the images constantly shifted between different places, but over a dozen watery mirrors remained fixed on specific scenes. The purpose of observing these dozen-plus battles was ‘killing’.

“This is bad.”

“An accident at Anchan City.”

“It’s Ji Ning.”

The three leaders’ expressions changed simultaneously as they focused on one of the watery mirrors. The mirror showed a young man breaking through the air, his single sword finger sweeping across heaven and earth, directly shattering the Tortoise-Serpent Formation. They could see the young man’s cold face, the sharp, chilling aura, and even the silver-white light at the tip of his sword finger—it all made them tremble with fear.

“This Ji Ning’s aura is far more terrifying than it was eighteen years ago.”

“The edge on his sword finger… is that Sword Force?”

“Has he truly comprehended the Grand Dao of the Sword?”

The three leaders were all shaken. They had already guessed that Ji Ning’s strength might have increased somewhat after enduring the Karmic Hellfire and not dying. But that was the Realm of Annihilation, a place where one could not comprehend the Dao. Logically, Ji Ning shouldn’t have made much progress in his Dao comprehension, and since he hadn’t undergone his Tribulation, his increase in power should have been limited. But the facts had slapped them in the face!

They never imagined that Ji Ning could have independently devised a method to utilize Heartforce!

“Greenfox, what do we do?” The Lord of the Ten Thousand Demons Cave and the Lord of the Bloodcloud Tower both looked at the Seamless Gate Lord.

The green-robed woman said softly, “The battle is already lost; there’s no saving it. However, the Violetgrass Celestial Immortal has the backing of the Floatcloud True Immortal. When she faced mortal danger, she certainly crushed the summons talisman Floatcloud gave her. I believe Floatcloud will step in to save her. With Floatcloud there, that’s enough. Right now, I’m wondering… what are we going to do about this Ji Ning?”

“Ji Ning…” The man in the fiery red Daoist robe and the gaunt, old man both frowned.

“I predicted that he would one day become an obstacle to our conquest of the Grand Xia. But I never imagined that, without even undergoing his Tribulation, he would already be this powerful. Once he does undergo his Tribulation and becomes an Empyrean God, what then?” The green-robed woman shook her head. “I really don’t know who his master is, to have raised such a monstrous genius.”

The birth of an unparalleled monster required not only a solid foundation but also a good master. What they didn’t know was that behind Ji Ning stood the Three Realms’ most mysterious Daofather, ‘Patriarch Subhuti’, and the supreme divine ability ‘Starseizing Hand’, created by the long-dead Daoist Threelives and renowned throughout the Three Realms for its overwhelming power!

As the saying goes, ‘The master leads you to the door; the rest is up to you.’ But first, the master had to lead him through the door! Ji Ning was indeed a peerless Sword Immortal prodigy, but without the ‘Starseizing Hand’ technique, he wouldn’t have been this monstrous. Without Houyi’s archery technique, he likely wouldn’t have been able to comprehend the method for utilizing Heartforce. Without these, he would have been just a very powerful Sword Immortal, nothing more. Of course, a master and a disciple complement each other; both are indispensable. Several people had had the opportunity to learn the Starseizing Hand, and many more had learned Houyi’s archery technique, but who among them had achieved what Ji Ning had?

…

“Unbelievable.”

The Tonghe Immortal had survived the calamity and was utterly shocked by Ji Ning. For a moment, his heart was a complex tangle of emotions.

“Where do you think you’re running!” The Tonghe Immortal quickly regained his senses, letting out a furious roar. He immediately manipulated his Extermination Immortal Sword, joining the chase to slay the fleeing Celestial Immortals.

Yu Wei and the Diancai Immortal, who had caught up from behind, were also stunned.

They were both shocked and overjoyed.

Shocked because… Ji Ning’s strength was absolutely terrifying! Far too strong!

Overjoyed because… the stronger Ji Ning’s strength, the better!

The situation had completely reversed. It had gone from eighteen Celestial Immortals besieging and slaughtering the Tonghe Immortal to them turning around and hunting down those Celestial Immortals.

“Kill.”

Ji Ning showed no mercy. His initial full-power sword finger strike had swept away six Celestial Immortals. After killing another five, only seven Celestial Immortals remained alive.

Three Heads, Six Arms! Starseizing Hand!

Six sword fingers swept across the long sky, crushing everything in all directions.

“Die.” The Tonghe Immortal also manipulated his Extermination Immortal Sword, hunting down the survivors.

“The great tribulation has arrived. Yesterday, I killed men; today, men kill me.” An emaciated Celestial Immortal closed his eyes as his magic treasure was sent flying. Within his eyes was only tranquility. In this great tribulation that swept through the Three Realms, even Ji Ning, the Tonghe Immortal, and Yu Wei all had to be prepared for death.

Thus, one had to seize every single opportunity. When the chance came to weaken the enemy, one showed no mercy whatsoever.

Kill! Kill! Kill!

As each Celestial Immortal fell, one of Ji Ning’s six sword fingers continued to strike at the Violetgrass Celestial Immortal.

“Boom~~~” The azure light barrier around the Violetgrass Celestial Immortal managed to resist the blow once more, but it trembled violently.

This time, however, Ji Ning’s six sword fingers had only killed three Celestial Immortals. Aside from the Violetgrass Celestial Immortal, two others had also survived.

“I have to live. I have to live.” A Celestial Immortal with triangular eyes had a twisted expression and a terrifying look in his eyes. An Immortal estate suddenly appeared around him, and he vanished inside.

Another Celestial Immortal also hid within an Immortal estate as well.

“Kill.”

The Extermination Immortal Sword slew another Celestial Immortal.

In an instant…

Of the eighteen Celestial Immortals in the air, only three remained: the Violetgrass Celestial Immortal and the two who had hidden inside their Immortal estates.

“Fools.” The Violetgrass Celestial Immortal couldn’t help but curse inwardly. Their intelligence was detailed; it had long recorded that Ji Ning had killed two Celestial Immortals of the Shaoyin clan, one of whom was the ‘Goldenbell Celestial Immortal’. That divine bell had fallen into Ji Ning’s hands. Now that Anchan City was in danger, as long as Ji Ning wasn’t stupid, he would have lent that divine bell to his Dao-companion or his master. That divine bell was fully capable of suppressing and trapping them!

“Senior apprentice-sister.” Ji Ning sent a mental message.

“Got it.” Yu Wei waved her hand, and a divine bell flew out. The divine bell rapidly expanded until it was the size of a small mountain peak. The space at its base twisted, and the two Immortal estates were powerless to resist as they were drawn inside. The bell then shrank and returned to Yu Wei’s hand.

Ji Ning smiled.

This divine bell was the Shaoyin clan’s greatest heirloom, second only to their World-Trapping Pagoda. It was a Pure Yang magic treasure, which could only be used by Celestial Immortals. Given the imminent danger to Anchan City and the arrival of the great tribulation, how could Ji Ning only think of himself? He naturally found ways to increase the strength of those important to him, which was why he had given the divine bell to Yu Wei.

Those two Celestial Immortals had hidden within their Immortal estates to buy some time to activate their Greater Teleportation Dao-talismans.

If Ji Ning and his group hadn’t possessed a divine bell capable of suppression, they might have actually let them escape. After all, they couldn’t break the Immortal estates, which were life-preservation treasures of two Celestial Immortals, quite formidable in power. However, since Ji Ning had the divine bell, the moment the two Celestial Immortals hid inside their estates, the estates themselves offered no resistance and were easily sucked into the bell. The divine bell’s interior completely blocked all spatial escape techniques. Once trapped inside, there was no way out.

Thus, the Violetgrass Celestial Immortal had called them fools.

But those two Celestial Immortals knew this perfectly well! In their desperate situation, they were merely gambling. They were gambling that Ji Ning was selfish and hadn’t given the divine bell to someone else.

…

“Only one left now.” Ji Ning’s gaze fell upon the Violetgrass Celestial Immortal. With a thought, all six of his sword fingers streaked across the sky, descending upon her. Although this description seems slow, their battle was swift as lightning!

“You can’t kill me!” The Violetgrass Celestial Immortal was terrified. How could her escape compare to the speed of the sword fingers?

Six sword fingers spanned heaven and earth, piercing through the void, simultaneously converging upon her from all directions.

“Stop!”

A roar, infused with the power of a Pure Yang True Immortal, thundered out.

BOOM!

With the shattering of the external sealing formation, the roar resounded in the ears of Ji Ning and his companions.

“BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!” The six sword fingers simultaneously struck the Violetgrass Celestial Immortal. Her azure light barrier could no longer hold and shattered with a bang. Beneath the six-thousand-zhang-long sword fingers, the Violetgrass Celestial Immortal was instantly ground to dust, her life and Dao extinguished!