The Baside Ancient Divine Spear

Xiao Chen was swinging his broken blade purely by spiritual instinct, striking wherever danger lurked.

Blazing sword-mist and radiant sword-light interwove into waves of energy that rampaged through the night sky, blotting out the stars and the moon entirely. The air was thick with murderous intent, and the light of the blades was dazzling.

Amid thousands of sword beams, Dugu Jianmo roared, "The Heaviest Under Heaven!" Legend held that the Dugu clan possessed the heaviest sword technique in all the world.

With the fastest sword art withdrawn, Dugu Jianmo's figure reappeared. His iron sword pressed down as slowly as an entire mountain—clearly visible, yet impossible to evade.

The heaviest sword under heaven—a single stroke sealed all ten directions!

"Boom!"

The invisible domain was crushing. The earth split open, nearby palace halls exploded one after another, and a colossal beam of light seemed to pierce the very heavens. That was the sword-beam of the heaviest strike!

Xiao Chen's expression was extraordinarily grave. He dared not show the slightest negligence. Slowly, his mind settled, becoming a blank slate. Everything before him vanished—even Dugu Jianmo disappeared. In his eyes, only that one slowly advancing sword remained.

Slowly, Xiao Chen pushed his broken blade forward. It was not one of the Four Killing Hands, nor the Imperishable Seal. This was a strike born purely of instinct, immersed in that state of emptiness, ascending to a mysterious, wondrous realm—a stroke of divine inspiration.

It could only be sensed, not expressed—a product of combat instinct in this unique environment. By pure intuition, this would be the most devastating stroke.

Both men moved with extreme slowness. The iron sword and the long blade drifted toward each other.

In this moment of life and death, they seemed to be standing outside themselves, watching from afar.

"Neither glory nor disgrace stirs the heart; watch the flowers bloom and wither before the court. Neither go nor stay cling to the mind; gaze at the clouds unravel and gather across the sky." Such was the feeling.

Neither man was hurried or anxious. No worry in their hearts, no fear on their faces. The heaviest sword under heaven and the blade Xiao Chen had pushed forth in that empty state finally met.

At that instant, an ineffable oppressive sensation sealed all ten directions. Sword-light and blade-mist shot into the high sky, blazing brilliantly in the night. Everyone in that part of Heavenly Emperor City saw the celestial phenomenon.

"Boom, rumble..."

It was as though thunder from beyond the heavens were crashing down! The sky-piercing blade-mist and sword-light were no different from true lightning, truly seeming to connect heaven and earth.

The two colossal light-pillars would have leveled the Dugu estate if they had not shot entirely into the sky.

Even so, many buildings shattered, and even the ancient, towering walls were riddled with huge cracks. A world-shaking attack! Both Xiao Chen and Dugu Jianmo were blasted backward, coughing blood, falling like withered leaves, limp and prostrate in a pool of gore.

But both men's eyes burned unusually bright. At almost the same moment, they sprang to their feet.

Broken blade against iron sword—Xiao Chen and Dugu Jianmo clashed again.

The ring of metal rang out without cease. Xiao Chen once more sank into that mysterious realm, completely abandoning the Four Killing Hands. He struck by pure instinct. Blinding, snow-bright blade-light tore through the night like surging, roaring rivers rampaging across the sky.

Dugu Jianmo was equally valiant. The invincible ancient sword art passed down from his ancestors flowed from his hands. The sword-intent he unleashed with his iron sword was no longer confined to the Dugu style—it had already transcended that category. He had fully walked his own path of the sword.

Sword light blazed. Cold glare pierced the eyes. Countless beams of radiance bloomed in the night—gorgeous, resplendent, yet equally fearsome and dreadful. Every sweep of his sword could tear apart a great palace and annihilate any obstruction.

The fierce battle raged on. Amid blade-mist and sword-sea, Xiao Chen and Dugu Jianmo fought for hundreds of exchanges without a victor.

Sinking in that mysterious realm, Xiao Chen's freely expressed sword-intent was in no way weaker than the Four Killing Hands. It was the release of combat instinct, the sublimation of martial will, the transformation and breakthrough of his own battle ability.

This was not to say that sword-intent in that realm surpassed the Four Killing Hands—only that, in this situation, it exerted its greatest power, most suited to this kind of intense combat.

There were no invincible techniques; everything depended on the person wielding them. On the battlefield, circumstances shifted by the moment. Only by deploying the appropriate moves could one maximize their power. Even the simplest technique could become a fatal stroke.

They were evenly matched! The domain against the Sealing Divinity light screen was ineffective. They fought on pure Mortal-Shedding cultivation. Dugu Jianmo's will was firm, his might unparalleled. His sword had suppressed the Southern Wastes, and he had never met a true match—this was inseparable from his childhood experience.

The sword was his life!

They had already fought for a full hour. Both men were drenched in blood. When blade and sword moved, aside from thunderous sounds and rolling energy, they generated a tremendous pressure that burst the capillaries in their skin. Neither knew how many mouthfuls of blood they had coughed up. Yet both were men of iron will; neither would waver. It was a battle to the death.

"Clang!"

Blade and sword struck together. The broken blade and iron sword flew from Xiao Chen's and Dugu Jianmo's hands at the same time. The bones in their hands were fractured—equally severe injuries.

Xiao Chen's eyes blazed with divine light. In his view, the Dugu clan excelled with the sword. With the iron sword gone, it was as if Dugu Jianmo's fangs had been pulled.

Surging life force flowed toward his fractured right palm. With a series of cracking sounds, the palm bones reconnected. They could not instantly heal perfectly, but it was enough for him to strike. He lashed out like a bolt of lightning toward Dugu Jianmo.

A similar sound came from Dugu Jianmo's hand. In the same instant, he set his injured palm, striking back with unflagging combat power.

"My body is my sword!" Dugu Jianmo sneered coldly. "No sword in hand? The sword is in my heart. All the world—every blade of grass, every tree—can be my divine weapon!"

With that, Dugu Jianmo's body rose eerily, moving with incredible speed, then his hands came together and he charged at Xiao Chen.

In that instant, Xiao Chen was stunned. An illusion appeared before him: Dugu Jianmo's entire body had transformed into a divine sword, glowing with sacred radiance, cleaving toward him.

Dugu Jianmo could not truly turn his body into a sword. This was merely an early manifestation of a future divine art, a rudimentary form that created a certain illusion. But it was enough to demonstrate how terrifying the Sword Demon was at this moment.

It had to be said that Xiao Chen was truly gifted in combat. The more dangerous the situation, the calmer he became. His mind rapidly settled, and in an instant, he ascended into that empty, ethereal state.

Everything in heaven and earth vanished before his eyes, leaving only the invincible divine sword ahead, standing alone in his vision. All the world seemed to slow down, including that cleaving Dugu Sword!

Xiao Chen was terrifyingly calm, utterly motionless. Only when the divine sword was upon him did he lightly trace a palm-blade with his left hand—a remarkably graceful, ethereal stroke, completely unlike his usual wide, open, domineering techniques. It was like a banished immortal wielding a divine art—ethereal beyond compare, supremely graceful.

A mysterious, unfathomable palm-blade, born of pure instinct—a stroke of transcendent detachment!

"Clang!"

The palm-blade collided with the divine sword formed by Dugu Jianmo's body. Both men were blasted apart.

Wiping the blood from his lips, Dugu Jianmo roared coldly, "My body is not the only sword. All heaven and earth are my divine swords! Kill—kill—kill—kill—kill!"

The shattered ruins—every shard of tile, every foundation stone, every broken rafter—all floated into the air, then erupted with murderous intent, transformed into sword-light, and shot toward Xiao Chen.

All the world: every blade of grass, every tree, was a divine weapon!

If any other Ninth Heaven expert had fought for an hour and then faced such overwhelming might, they might have had no strength left to fight.

But Xiao Chen remained terrifyingly calm. His heart was empty and serene, his body cold as a blade's edge. His body moved with his mind; his consciousness and will commanded his flesh.

An empty heart, indifferent to all things. Watch flowers bloom and wither, listen to rain patter on banana leaves—forget worldly honor and disgrace. It was a very strange state of mind. His heart seemed to have flown beyond the battlefield, his soul standing on the ethereal clouds, gazing down upon it all with the detachment of one who has transcended the world.

But his body was moving—moving with extraordinary fluency. Mysterious hand-seals, ethereal palm-blades, graceful footwork—like sweet rain falling on a desolate desert, like the morning sun rising over an empty plain.

Everything was so nimble, so harmonious, so perfectly appropriate!

The palm-blade, airy and otherworldly, did not miss a single shard of tile, a single boulder, a single broken rafter—all tangible objects that had turned into swords were precisely shattered and swept aside! The splendors of the vast world faded, leaving only infinite stillness. Xiao Chen's state of mind was exactly like that—extraordinarily calm and indifferent, as if standing outside the scene himself.

Yet with one stroke, he broke a hundred! He completely shattered the thousands of divine swords formed from every blade of grass, every tree, all the things of heaven and earth!

Dugu Jianmo beckoned, drawing the iron sword back to his hand. He stared coldly at Xiao Chen, sensing that this would be the most dangerous battle of his life. The threat of death pressed down on him heavily.

Having broken the "Ten Thousand Swords," Xiao Chen stood facing the wind, his long hair flowing without a breeze, calmly gazing at Dugu Jianmo before him.

"Kill!"

Dugu Jianmo prepared his final strike. Success or failure depended on this one move!

The domain emitted by his iron sword pressed down. Xiao Chen's Sealing Divinity light screen blazed forth, resisting the sword domain.

Dugu Jianmo's thick black hair stood on end. On his iron sword, wave after wave of sword-mist surged toward Xiao Chen like terrifying tidal waves.

Xiao Chen remained in that empty state. His palm-blade guided and deflected the onrushing, blazing sword-light. Though he was in grave danger, he appeared unhurried and composed. Vaguely, he felt that this state was the threshold to the Spirit-Treasury realm.

Suddenly, an extremely ill foreboding surged into Xiao Chen's heart. Even immersed in this mysterious, wondrous realm, his calm, well-like mind could not remain placid. The shadow of death rose in his heart.

Without a moment's hesitation, Xiao Chen's body shot sideways, graceful as a banished immortal.

But he was still too late! A blood-red divine spear, blazing with terrifying light, as though endless fresh blood burned around it, had stained half the sky crimson. It flew in as a beam of blood-light.

"Pfft!"

Though Xiao Chen avoided his chest, the blood-drenched divine spear pierced through his left ribs from behind. The enormous force carried him flying over a hundred meters before pinning him heavily to the ground.

Blood sprayed, staining the earth red.

The divine spear, its blood-red light flickering violently, trembled fiercely for a moment after striking the ground before settling. Xiao Chen was nailed to the ground!

"The Baside Ancient Divine Spear?!" Dugu Jianmo cried out in shock, then turned to stare into the darkness nearby.

A brown-haired youth stepped heavily, slowly emerging from the shadows. His body was stout, muscles bulging like coiling dragons, one bronzed arm bared, a cold sneer on his chiseled face.

"You guessed right. This is the Baside Ancient Divine Spear—a spear that has once slain gods!" The brown-haired youth walked forward, his voice cold. "More than one god's blood stains this spear. Even now, those bloodstains have not dried. They flow forever on the spearhead."

The Baside Ancient Divine Spear that had pinned Xiao Chen to the ground was truly a sinister divine weapon. Its material was unknown, but its whole body was blood-red, covered in ancient divine script, with streaks of blood-light flowing through it. Most terrifying of all, fresh blood constantly dripped from the spearpoint, flickering with an eerie, crimson gleam—the flowing divine blood of the Baside Ancient Divine Spear, its droplets never drying!

"Why did you strike from behind?" Dugu Jianmo showed no gratitude.

"Because he must die. He cannot be allowed to live through this night. The divine spear points the way for me to slay the demon!"

"I have only heard that the divine spear once slew gods. I have never heard that it slayed demons. Is Xiao Chen a god then?" Dugu Jianmo sneered, undisguised contempt in his eyes for the brown-haired youth's backstabbing. He planted his iron sword in the ground and stood on guard coldly.

"In any case, he must die. Tonight, my elder brother and I searched for him separately, but he was too fast—moving from battlefield to battlefield. Only now have I found him."

At that moment, an icy voice rang out from ahead: "You have an elder brother? Good—the two of you will descend to hell together and not be lonely!"

Xiao Chen's hands were covered in blood—whether divine blood or his own, unknown. He pulled the Baside Ancient Divine Spear out of the ground with force, then slowly rose to his feet. The ancient spear passed through his ribs, quivering with every movement.

"You are still alive?!" The brown-haired youth was very surprised, then his face turned cold. "Then I will send you to death myself!"

"Pity—since your first strike failed to kill me, you will not have another chance." Xiao Chen stood up, twin beams of cold light shooting from his eyes. His voice was chilling, like a demonic tone from the underworld: "You... and your elder brother... will both die!"