Chapter 167: Ride the Blue Sparrow

Lightning flashed and receded; sword clouds gathered and dispersed.

The incessant rumbling sounds of Huanpu Mountain collapsing echoed in their ears.

The trees on the high mountain had all slid down the slopes. Jiuying's sharp claws left extremely deep marks on the mountain cliffs. As Lu Jiajia's sword plunged and Jiuying's nine heads, like scimitar-sharp claws, descended, the entire mountain accelerated its collapse.

The mountain-water array, which connected the Sect Master's Hall to the four peaks, also cracked inch by inch, and dark springs burst forth from beneath the ground.

As massive boulders tumbled down, Lu Jiajia pressed Jiuying's head downwards with her immortal sword, Minglan. The sword's edge pierced Jiuying's scales, with half the blade sinking into its flesh.

Jiuying's mouth was bared, revealing rows of pale, distinct, and tightly packed teeth. It tried to open its mouth, but Lu Jiajia's sword pressed its entire head down into a deep arc.

The other eight heads lunged, biting towards Lu Jiajia's position.

Where Lu Jiajia's sword edge held firm, the snowy-white, spiraling sword energy was shattered by the air currents from the other eight sides. The central head of Jiuying, which had been suppressed by the sword energy, suddenly lifted, its fearsome fangs clenching open, and its roar echoed through the mountains.

The closest head struck first, and the sword domain around Lu Jiajia cracked audibly after the snake head's impact.

Her white robes swayed violently, but her hands pressed tightly on the sword hilt. The blade had cut through Jiuying's skin; she wanted to follow the cut and slice all the way through, directly shattering its brain.

But the attacks from the other eight heads were equally relentless and torrential.

Some snake heads continuously slammed into the sword domain, causing Lu Jiajia's wind-filled, billowing sword robes to constantly indent. Other snake heads extended directly in front of Lu Jiajia, opening their gaping maws. In the center of their mouths, black or white spiritual energy condensed like points of light, and after forming into tangible orbs of light, they shot forward like torrents of water towards Lu Jiajia.

Even ordinary water can cut through steel when it reaches a high enough speed, let alone such pure spiritual power.

Lu Jiajia's protective sword domain was instantly torn away by more than half.

A fierce wind lashed her face, her long hair streamed backward, and her clothes pressed against her skin as if pricked by needles.

Lu Jiajia braced herself with the sword, her body slightly bent. She struggled against the surging demonic power, her body forced back inch by inch. Meanwhile, Jiuying's eight heads bickered incessantly like shrewish women. With the sword domain no longer obstructing them, these voices continuously sounded, sometimes like shrill cries, other times like profound divine whispers.

"Why don't we just let her chop off this head? It has a damned tumor in its brain, and that tumor wants to control us..."

"I think you have a tumor in your brain too! How much cultivation would we lose if it dies? Do you want to be killed by this young woman and then sleep for thousands of years again?"

"Then let's kill this woman and eat this head..."

"You're still so disgusting..."

"Once we leave this place, we'll eat every woman in white robes in the world!"

"Shut up!" A painful, low growl came from the central head. Its voice was clearly much deeper, each syllable seeming to overlap with the last, carrying the weight and depth of history: "No wonder you died so quickly after I died a thousand years ago. So many years have passed, and you're still like frogs in a well! Can't you sense that new gods now sit upon the throne of the firmament?"

"What?"

"Those ruined palaces?"

"Or a new divine kingdom?"

"Who are these new gods? And why do they sit in the heavens?"

The words of the giant heads exploded again, and for a short time, they even relaxed their attacks on Lu Jiajia.

True Immortal Hanchi finally temporarily regained control of Jiuying. Using Jiuying as its vessel, it spoke in a low voice: "Currently, there are still twelve supreme Archgods. They reside in their divine kingdoms, taking turns guarding the human realm. Our existence is no longer tolerated by heaven and earth. Today, we must finish this quickly and retreat into the void secret realm, otherwise, if the divine envoys of the God-King's kingdom arrive, we will surely die!"

"What..." Some giant heads seemed unable to bear this blow, feeling that if they had been resurrected but couldn't roam unchecked, what meaning would a god's life have?

"Twelve Archgods? Guarding the human realm? Have they become pawns of the Heavenly Dao for power?"

"What about Ancestral Dragon, Heavenly Treasury, and Nether Monarch? Did those ancient great gods inherit their divine positions?"

"As far as I know, they have all perished," True Immortal Hanchi's voice resonated, impossibly distant.

"What about Yuánfú Heavenly Lord? Can such a powerful being also be killed?"

"Great God Yuánfú is still alive," True Immortal Hanchi said. "Three years from now will be the year of its divine kingdom."

"I never expected he would also become a blade of the Heavenly Dao..."

After a chaotic exchange among Jiuying's giant heads, they launched an even fiercer assault on Lu Jiajia.

Listening to the gods' whispers, Lu Jiajia found it difficult to maintain her serene Dao heart. The sword energy she unleashed to contend with Jiuying also reached its critical point. After her power crossed that critical line, Lu Jiajia was violently thrown backward in a series of sonic booms.

Meanwhile, the immortal sword Minglan remained deeply embedded in Jiuying's flesh.

Jiuying's head rose high, roaring wildly like a sky-supporting pillar. True Immortal Hanchi's consciousness was once again brutally suppressed by Jiuying.

After reaching the Purple Court realm, one could traverse the void as if on flat ground. Lu Jiajia's figure, after retreating at high speed, suddenly came to a standstill.

She had no sword in hand, yet the sword intent radiating from her body surged like a torrential flood. With a sweep of her finger before her, a phantom sword trail appeared where her finger passed. This was a sword technique she had learned from the old fox at Qifeng Lake that day. At that time, unleashing even one strike was extremely strenuous for her, but now, countless dense sword shadows materialized in an instant with every movement of her hands and feet.

Against the backdrop of Jiuying's massive body, Lu Jiajia's figure appeared incredibly tiny, like a wisp of cloud inadvertently brushing past a towering peak.

Yet this cloud, undaunted, collided directly with the towering peak.

As her figure moved swiftly, the phantom sword shadows multiplied from one to ten, then to a hundred, and in the blink of an eye, they obscured the sky.

Jiuying's terrifying roars were like a series of explosions. Lu Jiajia advanced against these explosions, and the lingering sword clouds once again transformed into her swords.

The cloud crashed into the mountain.

The white cloud did not dissipate, nor was the mountain peak shattered by the impact.

No matter how dense the sword shadows were, like a swarm of locusts crossing the sky, they ultimately appeared minuscule compared to Jiuying.

They left numerous small wounds on Jiuying's body. Not a single drop of blood seeped from these wounds. Its spectral body was now like an immortal one, repairing its injured form at a speed faster than Lu Jiajia's attacks.

Despite Lu Jiajia being only in the initial stage of Purple Court, the intensity of her sword energy far exceeded Jiuying's expectations.

"What is this? How can she transform her body into ten thousand swords?"

"This is Sword Spirit Unity! Has your mind become so dull?"

"This is no mere Sword Spirit Unity! This is clearly... this is clearly a Divine Weapon Body!"

"Divine Weapon Body?"

"Don't you know where congenital sword bodies come from? Back then, the Ten-Phase Kingdom, which resided in the sun, forged eighty-one sword embryos and scattered them across the human realm. Any infant who obtained a sword embryo became a sword body, but only a Divine Weapon Body could truly forge a sword embryo into a sword!"

"The method of forging swords was lost in our era, why would she..."

"Kill her!"

Lu Jiajia noticed their conversation and vaguely understood the origin of her sword body. A thought suddenly flashed through her mind: Could the Golden Crow also be a divine artifact of the Ten-Phase Kingdom they spoke of, from a thousand years ago?

But why would it acknowledge Ning Changjiu as its master?

Lu Jiajia, of course, would not let her mind wander to ponder these things at this moment. Her current sword intent also far exceeded Jiuying's estimations.

The two continuously clashed in the air. Jiuying's fierce attacks, using its heads as claws, made Huanpu Mountain shrink lower and lower. They fought from the mountain peak down into the clouds, and then continued to collide and intertwine within the mist, like a deadly chase in the deep waters beneath the sea.

Lu Jiajia and Jiuying continuously collided and rebounded. Countless scales, like osmanthus flowers gently shaken loose by a breeze, fluttered down. Beneath the scales, some parts were flesh and blood, while others were