Chapter 616: This Sword, How Is It?

Gou Wuyue's eyes shone brightly as he gripped his renowned sword in a backhand grip.

At that moment, everyone could sense that the last shred of discord between the renowned sword and the Sword Immortal had finally vanished. Harmony, at the very least, was the only word those present could find to describe the connection between the Sword Immortal and his blade.

"Ba Zun'an!" Gou Wuyue held his sword, his eyes brimming with fighting spirit, and his aura steadily rising.

"Back then, I didn't know you were behind the White Cavern, so I brought many people," he stated. "Yet you slaughtered my subordinates, using that as an excuse to constantly restrict me. Chang Yi's actions reminded me, and the Cosmic Spirit Droplet enlightened me... This battle should end now; at the very least, I won't let you do as you please anymore."

He advanced, one step and one sentence at a time, pressing closer. Everyone felt as if the very air in the arena was about to burst under his immense aura.

"Shhh..." Within the Fragrant Homeland domain, gorgeous flower buds burst open and turned to powder. Their energy was about to feed back, but it was instantly crushed by the Sword Immortal's intent. Wisps of sword intent rose from the shattered flowers. Forget about feeding back; all the petals in the entire arena instantly withered and crumbled under Gou Wuyue's aura at that moment. Wherever the Sword Immortal's presence reached, nothing could withstand it!

Haitang'er's expression subtly changed. No Sword Immortal had ever personally visited the Seven Disciplinary Prohibitions of the Northern Region, nor had he ever witnessed a Sword Immortal's true power. That was why, within this domain, he had even wanted Gou Wuyue to draw his sword earlier to test the true limits of his own domain. But now it seemed... Was there even a need to draw a sword?

Just as Gou Wuyue had implied, his opponent was never Haitang'er himself. Haitang'er was still a step away from the Grand Void realm. No matter how strong his domain, if it was to be broken, why would it need a Sword Immortal's blade? A single thought would suffice!

Gou Wuyue's mind was not on breaking the domain at all. Even with the white-clad individuals completely trapped, his opponent had always been only Ba Zun'an.

"Are you going to kill me?" Ba Zun'an asked.

"You've really changed..." Disappointment flickered in Gou Wuyue's eyes. He looked at the wine gourd lying solitary on the ground and sighed: "You've abandoned your former beliefs, lost your will to fight decisive battles, and are merely living on human relations and shrewd calculations, pushing and shoving... You!"

Gou Wuyue's voice rose, "You bear the name of Ba Zun'an, but you no longer possess the soul of Ba Zun'an!"

Ba Zun'an smiled faintly, neither affirming nor denying. "People speak highly of me, but I am who I am..." he said. "'You are not a fish, how can you know the joy of a fish?' And you are not me, so how dare you presumptuously claim I lack my former soul?"

"But the Ba Zun'an of old would not waste words like this when challenged by a swordsman!" Gou Wuyue was furious. The Voice of Nulan pointed directly at the person before him, and sword intent surged through the void.

"Boom!" With a loud bang, the Fragrant Homeland exploded amidst surging sword intent. The so-called replica of the Seven Disciplinary Prohibitions' Imperial Domain was annihilated in an instant, like a joke, under the Sword Immortal's wrath.

Space shattered into crystalline fragments, and the domain collapsed. "Pfft!" Haitang'er was thrown backward, his mouth gushing with blood. As blood splattered, sword qi flickered.

The sword intent materialized from thought, and through the domain, it backlashed onto its master, erupting as sword qi on Haitang'er's body. "Shhh shhh shhh..."

The enraged Gou Wuyue hadn't even unleashed a single sword strike, yet Haitang'er, at the peak of the Pathsevering realm, was already a blood-soaked mess from the sword intent.

"Brother Haitang'er!" The Storyteller cried out in alarm, rushing to fly towards him. But just as he was about to move, his steps abruptly halted. "Sword qi?"

A solemn expression appeared on his face. The Storyteller immediately formed a hand seal. But by then, his counter-defense was already too late. The white sword qi surging from his Sea of Qi, from its very inception, had burned intensely.

In an instant, like a sapling growing into an ancient tree, it suddenly broke through his Sea of Qi, piercing vertically through his entire body. "Ugh!" The Storyteller arched his back, and his entire body was lifted into the air by the sword qi, a complex, dazed expression on his face. "Pain... pain..." he gasped, "Go easy!"

Gou Wuyue, however, seemed as if he had only just begun his move. His renowned sword hadn't even shifted slightly from pointing at Ba Zun'an, as he muttered: "Silent Sword Art, Silent Sword!" The renowned sword, Voice of Nulan, suddenly gleamed with a bluish hue. Immediately, beneath the blade, a faint blue sword phantom vaguely emerged. Gou Wuyue lightly spun the hilt, and the blue sword phantom trailed a faint mark as the Voice of Nulan circled. When the sword tip settled downwards, the sword phantom merged into the blade, rippling gently through the void. "Passive Flow, Path Inheritance Chapter One!"

With a soft whoosh, Gou Wuyue simply pulled his renowned sword back, with barely any sound. Yet the Storyteller's eyes rolled back, and his entire body convulsed and trembled violently. He looked even worse than Xu Xiaoshou on drugs!

"Ugh—!" With a loud cry, as Gou Wuyue pulled his renowned sword back, the white sword qi erupting from the Storyteller's body was forcibly pulled back into his form. Again, these wisps of sword qi were drawn away, thread by thread, towards Gou Wuyue.

"Zzzz!" The sword qi turned from white to blue, and accelerated as it returned to Gou Wuyue's renowned sword. And as the sword qi shot out of his body, the Storyteller's body trembled like a sieve, completely stained red by countless threads of blood that emerged with it.

The blue sword threads, trailing blood, returned directly to Gou Wuyue's renowned sword, and were then devoured by the blue sword phantom beneath the blade. The sword phantom became even more blurry and dim.

"Silent Sword Art?" Xu Xiaoshou was utterly stunned. Ever since Gu Qingsan had thoroughly schooled him on the knowledge system of ancient sword cultivators at the City Lord's Mansion, he had subsequently caught up on some knowledge.

Although records of ancient sword cultivators' systems were scarce, the renowned Nine Great Sword Arts were still widely known. The Silent Sword Art was one of them.

This sword art was exceedingly difficult to cultivate. To even begin, one needed to use sword intent to sense and condense the semi-illusory, semi-real "Silent Sword"—which was the blue sword phantom. It could be said that, for most ancient sword cultivators, this initial first step alone was enough to stump them for half a lifetime. This was because the path of manifesting sword intent into substance was remarkably similar to the formation of sword thoughts. How difficult were sword thoughts? Only the Eighth Sword Immortal, unparalleled throughout history, could create them; their difficulty was self-evident. Therefore, to achieve this step, one needed at least Grandmaster-level sword intent, a condition that required both top-tier sword dao aptitude and comprehension.

For most people, even if they reached the Sword Dao Imperial Seat, they might not even be able to grasp the first step of the Silent Sword Art. And as one of the Nine Great Sword Arts, all subsequent directions and techniques of the Silent Sword Art were built upon this "Silent Sword." Without the first step, one couldn't even get the stepping stone to enter the Silent Sword Art's gate; everything that followed would be empty talk. Consequently, the Silent Sword Art, hailed as arguably the most difficult sword art to cultivate, was generally not chosen by ancient sword cultivators. After all, it was simply too difficult!

Xu Xiaoshou had never imagined that the Sword Immortal Wuyue would master this exceedingly rare Silent Sword Art.

"Silent Sword..." His gaze focused on the blue sword phantom.

Xu Xiaoshou understood that the power of this Silent Sword was truly terrifying! Its manifestation as a conceptual entity between reality and illusion allowed the Silent Sword to bypass all physical and spiritual defenses. At the same time, when dealing damage, it could also inflict dual, unusual attacks. Who could withstand this?

A simple move of sword intent possessing a body, where the person became the sword, and then extracting sword qi from the human body... Xu Xiaoshou believed he could also do what Gou Wuyue did. But he wasn't confident that such a small trick could injure the Storyteller to that extent!

"Old Gou..." The Storyteller's body directly withered into fragments in the void. On the other side, the several external avatars that had been blasted away earlier were also panting and cursing, but none dared to approach!

The Storyteller also knew that the most terrifying aspect of the Silent Sword Art wasn't the damage from its remote blue Silent Sword qi, but its close-range attacks. A Sword Immortal with absolute and undefendable attacks—the devastating damage they could inflict was beyond external comprehension!

Gou Wuyue withdrew his gaze from the dissipating external avatars, not bothering to deal with the other versions of the Storyteller. This fellow was equally troublesome. Even if he expended more effort, he might not be able to locate the main body.

The external avatars were too miraculous! This was clearly a technique only Half-Saints could master. Since the Storyteller genuinely knew it, he shouldn't be the first target to be eliminated.

"You, Ba Zun'an, can attack the subordinates I value, and use that as an excuse to prevent me from drawing my sword, but have you considered this?" Gou Wuyue said, looking at the person before him, his voice full of chilling coldness: "What you value, in my eyes, is equally worthless!" As he spoke, he flicked his sword tip, creating overlapping blue sword phantoms in the void, and pointed his sword at Cen Qiaofu!

"Gou Wuyue, have you forgotten what you owe me?" Ba Zun'an's eyes turned cold upon hearing this.

"Public matters are public, private matters are private," Gou Wuyue stated, his Dao Heart unshaken, not stirring the slightest ripple. "My task today is to apprehend the Holy Slaves. As for the private debt I owe you... at worst, I can always rescue you from the Holy Divine Palace's prison later."

"Are you tired of living?" Ba Zun'an's four fingers trembled, curling slightly. Gou Wuyue shifted his gaze, noticing the other's small movement. The corner of his lips curved, as if in a smile.

"Ba Zun'an, if the path you've chosen is sealing your sword, do you really think I'd believe you... could draw it now?" With that, Gou Wuyue tapped his toe, drifting past Ba Zun'an's side with leisure. He even had no defense whatsoever as he held his sword and thrust towards Cen Qiaofu.

"Haitang'er, escort the Chief out first."

"This old man will cover your retreat!" Cen Qiaofu roared, and, wielding his axe, he charged forward. He raised his axe into the air.

Facing Gou Wuyue's preemptive sword strike, his eyes showed no fear as he brought down his axe with mountain-splitting force. A Sword Immortal, simply put, was merely a Grand Void realm cultivator. No matter how divinely they were portrayed by the world, they were nothing more than Grand Void cultivators with slightly stronger attack power, and that was all. And as for Grand Void cultivators...

He, Cen Qiaofu, feared no one! After all, there weren't many Grand Void cultivators in the world who were his age.

In his eyes, Gou Wuyue was merely of the great-grandson generation!

"Coiled Immortal Axe, Yin-Yang Severing Dawn!" With one swing of the axe, the sky was directly cleaved from light to darkness. All the spectators suddenly found it difficult to discern the situation on the field. But the darkness lasted less than an instant before a golden light suddenly flashed, piercing upwards into the clouds.

"This is..." Xu Xiaoshou seemed to see a golden heavenly ladder rising into the sky. The layered phantom of the ladder, each step several zhang high, connected to the heavens in the darkness, as if one could step into the Immortal Court from it.

"Ladder-Picking Style!" The crowd suddenly erupted. Some of the white-clad individuals immediately grew excited, "It's Senior Wuyue's Ladder-Picking Style!"

"Uh, what's that...?" Some were excited, while others were perplexed. "You idiot, you don't even know 'Ladder-Picking Style'?" someone scoffed. "No wonder you just carry a sword and aren't a true sword cultivator. Listen closely. Our headquarters, Mount Guizhe, has a super restricted area called the 'Heavenly Ladder.' Do you know about it?" "Uh-huh?" "The Heavenly Ladder connects to the Divine Realm, but it also carries immense divine pressure. Even an Imperial Seat struggles to move an inch there, and a Pathseverer probably can't take many steps either. At the very least, if they do walk, it's a visible progression among mortals, witnessed by all. But back when he first entered the Sword Immortal realm, Senior Wuyue went to the Heavenly Ladder to temper himself. He even created a unique move, 'Ladder-Picking Style,' which with a single sword stroke, shattered all the immense pressure beneath the clouds and allowed him to step into that uninhabited realm. No one knows where he ultimately went, because that might have been the dwelling place of the gods. But 'Ladder-Picking Style' has endured and been passed down!"

The white-clad individuals discussed animatedly, and Xu Xiaoshou listened, captivated. But soon, his attention was drawn back to the battle.

After all, he was one of the few present who could glimpse even a fraction of the battle within that darkness. Cen Qiaofu's axe strike, which had overturned heavenly principles, under Gou Wuyue's light "Ladder-Picking Style" sword strike, had its myriad forces redirected, as if the immense pressure of the Heavenly Ladder had been picked and returned. The momentum of Taiji reversed and surged upwards.

The moment the golden Heavenly Ladder ascended step by step, Cen Qiaofu's entire body's power went completely out of control. Both his body and the Coiled Immortal Axe were simultaneously launched into the air. He couldn't even hold onto his weapon for a moment. His move was broken. Heavenly principles returned to normal, and light returned. Everyone immediately looked sideways, only to see Gou Wuyue make a casual sword point.

"Tsk!" A thin black line etched open in the void. Xu Xiaoshou's pupils contracted. Pointing Path! He might not have known about "Ladder-Picking Style," but he had personally experienced "Pointing Path" from the Three Thousand Sword Dao through Gu Qingsan.

Back then, that fellow couldn't control his power, and even a Pointing Path as thick as a water bucket was enough to send Xu Xiaoshou scrambling for cover. Now... If it weren't for his "Perception" skill's keen insight, Xu Xiaoshou wouldn't even have observed the appearance of that faint line from Gou Wuyue's Pointing Path.

The seemingly effortless flick and point contained how many years of cultivation! Xu Xiaoshou was utterly shocked. The battles of Innate experts were always earth-shattering and awe-inspiring.

But observing Grand Void battles... Either the Cosmic Spirit Droplet was shattered in one move, or Gou Wuyue defeated his enemy with two swords. This truly was like "moistening things silently"—subtle yet profound! Indeed, battles between the weak were all thunder and no rain. Battles between the strong were fleeting, unpredictable, changing from downpour to clear skies in an instant!

Without a shred of surprise, Cen Qiaofu, whose body had been launched into the air, couldn't control himself at all. Amidst his horrified expression, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his glabella. The next second, his entire head exploded.

"Boom!" Along with Cen Qiaofu's exploding head, the entire void for several miles around also detonated. Gou Wuyue slowly retracted his sword.

The fragments from the shattered void had surprisingly been pre-threaded by the blue Silent Sword qi in the darkness. With this retraction, they were pulled back together in sequence. Breaking the sky, then mending the sky!

A person of quality wouldn't leave battle debris at the fight scene. The power, controlled to the finest degree, seemed to have been calculated multiple times.

The blue Silent Sword qi flowed back, simultaneously mending the sky, and then shot directly into Cen Qiaofu's body, which had just unleashed Grand Void power to try and escape. Then, dragging his body, it pulled him back at light speed towards where Gou Wuyue was retracting his sword. Gou Wuyue turned, looking at Ba Zun'an, his expression calm and unruffled.

His renowned sword smoothly rotated in his hand, leaving multiple blue afterimages in the air, then he inverted it, the blade resting beneath his elbow, the tip pointing backward. "Shhh shhh shhh..."

The blue Silent Sword qi flowed back into the Voice of Nulan, and Cen Qiaofu's body was also brought to Gou Wuyue's back.

"What do you think of this strike?" Gou Wuyue's gaze remained on Ba Zun'an as he asked softly, leaning back slightly.

"Thud!" With that lean, the tip of the renowned sword was plunged into the heart of Cen Qiaofu's headless body.