Chapter 205: The Blade of Faying

The night, dark as ink, was stirred by the wind, sweeping across the land, coming from chaos and heading towards desolation.

Arbiter was quietly imprisoned on the punishment rack, like a white bird unable to spread its wings.

The murderous intent and coldness had faded from her eyes, and the strands of hair brushing her cheeks made one want to reach out and tuck them behind her ears.

This vulnerability emanated from within, making her appear like a noblewoman, whose country had fallen and family perished, now adrift in an enemy land, her features unchanged, but her demeanor forlorn.

Ning Changjiu opened his hand and extended it towards Arbiter.

Ye Chu sat on Bloodfeather Lord's back, a sincere smile on his face.

Bloodfeather Lord recalled the humiliation of that night and wanted to hurl a few harsh words at Arbiter, but the atmosphere was rather solemn now, so it wisely kept silent.

"Take me away from here first," Arbiter said, glancing at the teeming city below. She closed her eyes slightly, biting her lip. "Somewhere else..."

"No," Ning Changjiu shook his head.

"Are you not satisfied until I'm completely disgraced?" Arbiter said weakly.

Ning Changjiu was not moved by her softness or vulnerability. He calmly stated, "First, swear an oath and sign the Spirit Pact. Then I will let you down."

A thread of icy resolve reappeared in Arbiter's eyes, only to quickly fade.

"Alright." After a moment of silence, Arbiter nodded gently.

The crowd in Severed City craned their necks, watching the events unfold above. Everything that had happened earlier had stirred their blood, and this scene was like a corrupt official finally apprehended by the authorities, to be sent to the execution ground in autumn, enduring myriad cuts under the public eye. The surging public anger transformed into fervent joy; they reveled in the victim's plight and cheered the executioner's ruthlessness.

However, after reaching its climax, the crowd gradually quieted.

They realized the punishment seemed to be ending, and those few individuals were actually chatting.

Because the night served as a curtain, they couldn't clearly see what was happening. They only saw white clothes versus a white dress, the white clothes seeming to threaten, and the white dress seeming to concede, appearing somewhat like a matching pair of scoundrel and harlot.

From their perspective, it was the female sword immortal in red who, on behalf of heaven, severely punished and admonished the demoness. Yet, this young man, entangled with a feather shadow, flew around in the air, creating a commotion that not only obstructed their view but ultimately flew up on his sword and stopped the red-dressed hero from continuing the whipping.

What kind of nonsense was this?

Could the souls and lives of half the city's inhabitants be repaid with a few lashes?

Disgruntled murmurs began to rise from the crowd.

Ning Changjiu, at this moment, naturally paid no attention to these public grievances. He also wanted to kill Arbiter, but she held the last hope for defeating the Sin Lord.

"Begin," Ning Changjiu extended his hand.

He took Arbiter's black sword and used his authority and spiritual power to forcibly pry open the Judgment Nail from Arbiter's left hand. As authority clashed with authority, Ning Changjiu's fingertips were blackened by the burning Judgment Nail.

He paid no attention.

Arbiter's left hand, which had been nailed for six full days, finally broke free.

Her arm dropped limply, a bloodied hole from the nail still on her wrist. No blood flowed out, making it look like a perforation on a pristine piece of porcelain.

To prevent her from slipping off the punishment rack, Shao Xiaoli had wrapped red ropes around her body several times, binding her tightly to the cross. The ropes, passing beneath her clothing around her chest, made her breasts appear even more prominent.

Arbiter offered no further resistance.

She weakly extended her hand, pressing her fingers together.

"You do it yourself," Ning Changjiu said.

He was, of course, referring to the spiritualization process.

Arbiter quietly hummed in acknowledgment. She was, of course, most familiar with the ritual of summoning a spirit. And if she were to become a spirit, she would be the strongest spirit Severed City had ever known.

Thinking of herself acting as both an envoy and a spirit, Arbiter couldn't help but let out a fleeting, faint smile.

"Spirit to the nine heavens, soul to the nine abysses, the Spirit Pact is sealed, till death do us part..." Arbiter slowly began, her clear, cold voice singing softly with long, undulating waves of sound.

Their palms met, and a spiritual white light illuminated from their hands, like a moon crafted by hand. Unable to hold it, the moonlight spilled out between their fingers.

As Arbiter chanted softly, an invisible thread, their spiritual energy, grew from within each of their bodies.

The two spiritual energies intertwined, like copulating white snakes.

"What are you doing?!" Suddenly, Ye Chu's smile vanished, and he demanded sharply.

Ning Changjiu also opened his eyes, fury blazing in his pupils as he looked at Arbiter.

Arbiter, however, wore a faint smile.

This was the Spirit Pact she had personally designed, in which the positions of master and spirit were subtly reversed.

Earlier, when Ning Changjiu used the authority of fate to make Shao Xiaoli strike that sword, and then made the black snake swallow itself from head to tail, she had actually guessed that Ye Chu had become his spirit.

Although many subsequent events had exceeded her expectations and truly almost shattered her Dao Heart, how could she, having governed as a divine official for a thousand years, yield because of a shadow on her Dao Heart and a few mere words?

She had been waiting for this moment.

She had finally seized it.

Arbiter raised her head, hoping to see fear and terror in Ning Changjiu's eyes.

But she only saw a pool of deep autumn cold water, icy and clear, faintly reflecting her own pale and weak face.

Was this feigned composure, or... was all of this still within his expectations?

Ning Changjiu was indeed well-prepared.

The process of forming a Spirit Pact is a convergence of both parties' minds and consciousness.

And at the slightest error, he could have the Spirit of the Sword Scripture immediately sever his own mental connection.

But now, he had already cultivated the Asura Divine Record, making his spiritual power far stronger than before.

Arbiter did not know this; like the initial Ye Chu, she would never believe that anyone could cultivate the Asura Divine Record in a month.

But Ning Changjiu was an exception, and how could the intensity of his spiritual power now compare to Arbiter's, who had been severely tortured?

In Arbiter's divine consciousness, Ning Changjiu's mental thread, which had originally been roughly equal in thickness to hers and intertwined with it, suddenly thickened several times, as if a slender snake had abruptly transformed into a flood dragon emerging from the sea. In an instant, it reversed roles, forcefully coiling around the spiritual power she had intended to subjugate.

A strong sense of oppression transmitted into her mind. She let out a low moan, her body leaning forward, her tightly bitten red lips about to bleed.

The current scene was like a bandit, who had patiently endured for years and mastered peerless sword techniques, taking advantage to rob the hero who had once harmed him. He tied the hero up, believing the opponent couldn't use their marvelous sword moves and he could do as he pleased, only to see the opponent sneer. From the red mark on their brow, flying swords shot out, swiftly piercing the bandit into a beehive.

It turned out that while he had been diligently training, the other party had already begun cultivating immortality!

Arbiter's current mood was similar to that bandit's, lying in a pool of blood.

She had hidden for so long, thinking she was enduring hardship to reverse her fortunes, only to be forcefully suppressed by a single dominant power, rendering the Spirit Pact unable to advance even an inch.

Even more terrifyingly, Ning Changjiu's spiritual power had seized the opportunity to invade her divine consciousness. That spiritual power was like a torrent, and her divine consciousness now was merely a village of wooden huts, ready to be razed at any moment.

"I'm giving you a chance to remain yourself, but you insist on becoming a soulless puppet?" Ning Changjiu said expressionlessly, as the torrent of spiritual energy surged into Arbiter's divine consciousness.

Arbiter, like a white bird struck by an arrow, arched her delicate neck and let out a tragic cry. Her last murderous intent was crushed, her brain feeling as if hundreds of ants were crawling and biting, and it seemed she might at any moment become an unconscious porcelain doll or a self-degrading plaything.

"Wait! Wait!" Arbiter didn't want to become an idiot. She squeezed Ning Changjiu's hand with sudden force, her fingers interlaced, veins bulging like small snakes, and her slender forearm trembling constantly.

Ning Changjiu looked at her coldly and said, "If you don't want to live, there's nothing I can do."

Arbiter's voice was somewhat hoarse. She trembled and convulsed, pressing tightly against the cross, her already straight legs tensed even further.

Arbiter felt as if her brain was being torn apart, and her carefully prepared Spirit Pact was shattered and incoherent by the other party's assault. She gasped continuously, finally unable to bear it, and pleaded hoarsely, "Spare me... let... let me go..."

Ning Changjiu slightly eased his grip, staring at her coldly, and asked, "Do you understand your mistake now?"

This condescending question made her extremely uncomfortable, but at this moment, she couldn't care less: "Ye-yes... I understand..."

The intense pain somewhat subsided, and Arbiter finally caught a breath. She whispered, "If you turn me into a puppet, the authority of time will also be greatly diminished. You... you will regret it."

Ning Changjiu sneered, "Still daring to threaten me?"

"Ah—" Arbiter let out a short, pained moan. She tried to pull back the hand clasped with Ning Changjiu's, but her convulsing fingers had no strength.

"I'm sorry! I'll agree to anything... anything... ah!" Arbiter was already speaking incoherently.

Ning Changjiu said, "What should you call me then?"

In the midst of intense pain, Arbiter found it difficult to think but still instinctively said, "M-Master!"

Ning Changjiu nodded gently, then slowly released his hand.

Arbiter's body suddenly relaxed. She had been like a small deer caught by a tiger's neck, and at the brink of death, the tiger finally withdrew its fangs.

The lingering taste of pain still made her dizzy.

This spiritual dismemberment was many times more agonizing than Shao Xiaoli's physical whipping and lashing.

Her mind was originally very difficult to invade, and this time, during the Spirit formation, she had personally initiated the contact. Unfortunately, evil was a step ahead of good; her spiritual power was crushed by the opponent, and the small opening in her spiritual world was exploited.

She was utterly exhausted, leaning limply on the punishment rack, her unusually cool skin damp with sweat. With every gust of night wind, the chill made her shiver.

Her hair clung to her cheeks, her ice-like eyes were bloodshot, and cold breaths escaped her cherry lips, her breath barely discernible.

Ning Changjiu said, "Say it again."

This moment was different from before; her consciousness was now clear, and she could feel everyone's gaze.

Ye Chu's smile, Shao Xiaoli's disdain, the ugly chicken's elation, and Ning Changjiu's coldness.

Arbiter lowered her head weakly and whispered, "Master."

Ning Changjiu looked into her eyes, confirming that her spirit had been completely subdued, then grasped her hand again. "Begin. If you play any more tricks this time, I won't let you off."

Ning Changjiu could now directly refine her into his puppet, but as Arbiter had said, her authority might be greatly diminished if her divinity was lost.

Arbiter no longer resisted.

This was her weakest moment in seven hundred years.

Seeing her in such a state, Ye Chu couldn't help but sigh with emotion.

Just as the Spirit Pact was about to truly begin, a voice suddenly rang out:

"A tiger in decline, a flood dragon out of water... Is this all there is to a Divine Official of the Divine Kingdom?"

The voice came from the crow perched on the golden cross.

No one had noticed it before.

And it had merely been mechanically pecking at Arbiter's divinity, showing no sign of intelligence. But now, just as everything was about to settle, this black-feathered crow suddenly spoke.

Ning Changjiu looked at it, his gaze sharp, a trace of belated fear arising in his heart.

The black-feathered crow cawed, saying, "A dignified Divine Official, willing to be a slave and a maid, truly ridiculous, ridiculous, ridiculous..."

It kept repeating the last syllable, its voice sharp and grating.

"Shut up!" Arbiter snapped, a searing pain once again shooting through her mind.

Ning Changjiu gripped her hand tightly and said, "Form the pact! Otherwise, we'll both die!"

As he spoke, he even drew his sword and severed the nail in Arbiter's right hand.

But it was already too late.

The crow on the golden cross looked behind them.

Ye Chu sighed and turned back, knowing it was too late.

Midnight had not yet arrived, but the Sin Lord had.

He broke free from the realm of absolute flowing time, descending from the sky and appearing before them.

The Sin Lord was still draped in his extremely dark robe. On the right side of the robe was a massive tear; his entire arm, along with his shoulder and half of his torso, was gone. At the edges of the robe, faint flames still flickered and burned.

That was the wound Ye Chu had inflicted on him with all his might.

Limited by this world, even the Sin Lord could not fully recover from such severe injuries in a short time.

He did not look at Ye Chu, the culprit of his injuries, but instead gazed at Ning Changjiu.

Ning Changjiu also quietly watched the Sin Lord.

"So it's you," the Sin Lord suddenly said.

Ning Changjiu asked, "Who am I?"

The Sin Lord didn't answer directly, but instead said, "Shouldn't your soul have long ago entered the endless cycle of reincarnation in the Immortal Realm? Who pieced you back together?"

He could hear genuine confusion in the Sin Lord's words.

The Lord of the Divine Kingdom was mysterious and powerful; every extra word he spoke would slightly diminish his status. Only truly unknown phenomena could cause him to be so perturbed.

The Immortal Realm was the domain of the Lord of the Divine Kingdom, Lei Lao.

How powerful must one be to snatch a soul from the hands of the Lord of the Divine Kingdom?

That person, and the one who killed the ruler of this Divine Kingdom, should be the same individual.

There could absolutely not be any power in this world that surpassed that of the Lord of the Divine Kingdom, and Outer Fiends were mere legends, having vanished tens of thousands of years ago. Even these ancient gods had never seen them.

Who exactly was that person?

The Sin Lord looked at Ning Changjiu, mist swirling within his black robe, slowly filling the void.

The confrontation was extremely brief; Ning Changjiu would never stand by and watch the Sin Lord slowly recover from his injuries.

Ning Changjiu had no time to form the Spirit Pact with Arbiter. After muttering "North" to Shao Xiaoli, he gripped his black sword and charged directly towards the Sin Lord.

"Blasphemer, death is your due," the Sin Lord quietly pronounced to the young man in white, then he moved.

His speed was several times faster than Ning Changjiu's.

At the same time, a flash of lightning streaked across the sky, illuminating the entire city clearly, followed by a resounding clap of thunder that shook heaven and earth.

The people of Severed City had never seen lightning nor heard thunder.

And this was not true lightning.

This was divine punishment.

The Sin Lord extended his hand and caught the bolt of lightning streaking across the sky.

The bright electrical current was held in his remaining left hand, strands of electricity writhing in his palm, spitting out sparks.

That was his Blade of Judgment.

Meanwhile, other lightning bolts struck down towards Ning Changjiu; this was the judgment upon Ning Changjiu, relentlessly pursuing the judged until death.

Arbiter's eyes were illuminated by the lightning.

The Judgment Nails were pulled from her body, and since it was her night, the entire night seemed to surge like a tide, bringing spiritual power and cultivation back into her body.

As the lightning descended, she laboriously pressed her hands together, her opened thumb and forefinger clasped, forming a rhomboid space between her hands.

"Flow back," Arbiter cried weakly.

After several days, she could finally wield her authority again.

But nothing rewound.

The Sin Lord glanced at her indifferently.

Arbiter's spiritual power was too low now, making her authority fragile as porcelain, breaking at a touch.

Ning Changjiu did nothing superfluous; he simply drew his sword and slashed at the incoming lightning bolts. The sword light cut through the electric light, sparks scattered in a circle, and the strike headed towards the Sin Lord.

The Sin Lord held his lightning sword, his movements appearing very casual, even somewhat like a feather drifting, but each swing of his sword left a trail of bright lightning afterimages.

Speed and slowness, motion and stillness, all seemed to be but a thought away.

The wheel-like sparks were shattered, turning into scattered points of light.

Lightning relentlessly pursued him from his side and back. Ning Changjiu, holding his black sword, adopted a defensive stance, using the blade and sword energy to deflect some of the Judgment Power. He extended his other hand, taking a regular long sword handed to him by Shao Xiaoli, and continued to gather strength to strike the Sin Lord.

An ordinary sword, of course, couldn't last long. In a brief clash, this sword was twisted into scrap metal, and the sword fire upon it was ripped away.

Ding, ding, ding—

Ning Changjiu, again holding his black sword, clashed with the Sin Lord's lightning sword.

The Asura Divine Record was activated furiously, pushing his physique and spiritual power to the utmost limits tolerable by this world.

In the outside world, he would have directly broken through the bottleneck of the Long Life Realm and advanced into the Violet Palace.

In terms of spiritual power strength alone, he was not much inferior to the Sin Lord at this moment.

The clashing of swords echoed continuously above Severed City, like the funeral bells rung by the undead.

Those bolts of judgment lightning continued to pursue him like relentless assassins from his side and back. Ning Changjiu, using the authority of fate, drew them towards the cross, the black snake, or other structures, but this was only a temporary measure; without killing the target of judgment, the Judgment Power would never dissipate.

Ning Changjiu felt as if he was back on that long street in the rainy night. He wielded his sword just as before, with no superfluous movements, following only the simplest routes, yet the sharpness he projected was enough to cut through gold and shatter jade.

But the Sin Lord's sword was in no way inferior to his.

After a few breaths of confrontation, lightning filled the sky, completely engulfing Ning Changjiu's sword shadows and pushing him back.

Crack—

A bolt of lightning struck Ning Changjiu's side, directly hitting his ribs.

The lightning exploded on his body, the pain scorching, leaving black marks on his exceptionally tough Asura physique.

Ning Changjiu's sword faltered slightly, slowing by half a beat.

The Sin Lord cut into his opening, and the amassed lightning, like a pool of water, pressed down fiercely.

Ning Changjiu was forced to hold his sword horizontally to block, but his sword domain was shattered before it could fully form. His figure was struck by the massive lightning, falling like a meteorite.

The crowd on the ground had long since scattered.

Ning Changjiu crashed into a house, and the rising dust was immediately illuminated by the electric light, individual particles clearly visible.

Ning Changjiu gritted his teeth and stood up, briefly using his black sword to deflect a few clinging lightning bolts, but he was forced out of the ruined house by several others pushing against him.

Meanwhile, above, Shao Xiaoli looked anxiously in Ning Changjiu's direction. She carried Arbiter on her back, secured the golden cross with red ropes, and rapidly descended with her, using the black snake's body below as a cushion, then leaping to the ground.

Arbiter groaned softly, slowly accumulating strength, offering no further struggle.

And Bloodfeather Lord, seizing the opportunity during their battle, frantically fled with Ye Chu on his back, putting as much distance as possible between them.

Ning Changjiu's white robe was scorched, his arm exposed, his muscles, though not exaggerated, were lean and powerful under the electric light.

Gripping his dark long sword, he looked at Shao Xiaoli, who was running towards him, and shouted, "Stand back!"

Shao Xiaoli paused slightly, and out of trust, she retreated a few steps.

The next moment, a sword made of lightning descended between them, plunging into the ground.

The Sin Lord's figure emerged from behind the sword.

He stood with one hand resting on the sword, facing Ning Changjiu and with his back to Shao Xiaoli, his black robe fluttering. Beneath his beak-like hood, all was darkness, and his eyes, indifferent as the Dao of Heaven, were hidden within that darkness.

Ning Changjiu looked at him, feeling an insurmountable sense of defeat.

The Sin Lord was far more powerful than he had imagined.

Even with fate and the Asura Divine Record, fighting him at his peak, he still couldn't defeat the injured Sin Lord.

The Sin Lord turned and glanced.

At that moment, Shao Xiaoli felt she couldn't breathe. An invisible fist struck her lower abdomen, causing her to double over and slide backward violently, crashing into a large stone pillar. Arbiter, on her back, groaned in pain, struggling to circulate spiritual power to dissipate the impact.

"Imprison," the Sin Lord uttered a single word.

The originally golden cross suddenly melted, transforming into ten thousand golden specks, falling like rain. It was like an inverted Manjusaka flower, its coiling golden petals, just as its symbolism suggested, formed a golden, inescapable prison.

Shao Xiaoli and Arbiter were both trapped inside, the black crow perched on the cage, cawing eerily like a chilling jailer.

It was not just a puppet following commands.

It was fortunate that Ning Changjiu and Arbiter hadn't truly formed the Spirit Pact earlier, otherwise, at a critical moment, this black crow would have infiltrated and stripped both of their consciousnesses.

Ning Changjiu was now powerless to help them.

He had to draw the Sin Lord away.

For the remaining matters in the city, he could only hope that Shao Xiaoli would be able to break through the prison.

He wondered if this girl could be relied on...

Ning Changjiu's figure flickered, spiritual energy surged, and his white robe glided along the ground as he fled towards the city's outskirts.

Although he had prepared several small flying arrays outside, the Judgment lightning relentlessly pursued him, and he didn't even have time to draw a single array now.

The Sin Lord extended his hand and drew a perfect circle in front of him.

As the circle was completed, the darkness at the open city gate condensed infinitely, forming a barrier to prevent Ning Changjiu from escaping first.

Then, the Sin Lord moved swiftly, his lightning sword trailing behind him, catching up in an instant.

The clanging of swords echoed like the urgent beats of a night watchman's drum in the deep hours.

Ning Changjiu's white robe was scorched by the lightning, stained with many black marks.

As he neared the city gate, the Sin Lord's figure suddenly paused slightly.

The lightning sword in his hand instantly elongated several times over.

At the same time, a hissing sound came from the side of his black robe; this was the world's backlash against the Sin Lord as the world's laws were forcefully broken.

In Ning Changjiu's eyes, that sword magnified exponentially. As it approached, he simply didn't know how he could block it, able only to rely on his Asura physique to endure the impact.

The sword energy slammed into Ning Changjiu's body.

He was sent flying like a fired Roman candle, suddenly crashing into the darkness at the center of the city gate.

After crashing into the darkness, his falling speed slowed—that darkness was as thick as a marsh.

This, too, was a prison.

"I can't win..."

A disheartening thought suddenly flashed through Ning Changjiu's mind.

The Sin Lord was too powerful; what chance did he have?

That was the Lord of the Divine Kingdom...

So tired...

Despair, like swarms of bats, fluttered through his sea of consciousness, blotting out the sky.

"Wake up! Don't fall into the Sin Lord's trap!"

Inside him, the Spirit of the Sword Scripture suddenly roared, "You can die if you want, but don't take my life with you!"

Ning Changjiu's thoughts wavered slightly.

"Ning Changjiu, don't you understand yet? There are no supreme laws in this world; there is only power that crushes everything. Outside, the Sin Lord possesses such power and can crush you like an ant, but it's different here. Everything he is using now is his limit!"

"His laws are not unbreakable, and judgment is never truly endless."

"It can be severed, it can be erased, as long as you possess equal or superior power!"

"Wake up!"

Within his heart's lake, the words of the Spirit of the Sword Scripture stirred up a tempest.

Ning Changjiu's spiritual power, which had been eroded by the darkness, instantly cleared.

In his eyes, a golden light erupted like a rising dust storm.

Within his Violet Palace, the Golden Crow had long been coveting such darkness, but earlier, his mind had been disturbed by the Sin Lord, and he hadn't noticed.

The Sin Lord stood before the city gate's dark curtain, intending to send his lightning sword through to completely dissipate Ning Changjiu's power, then extract the truth of those ancient events from a millennium ago.

But the next moment, a bright golden light tore through the thick darkness.

The black night curtain was ripped open.

Ning Changjiu's black sword blazed with golden flames, like a sharpened blade, piercing through the entire night and emerging.