Chapter 1345: 连毙两人

The Wen Dao Academy was a gathering place for extraordinary talents. Gongsun Yan, Deity Yu Jun; Wei Suifeng, Emperor Yunluo; Su Muzhe, the Village Chief; along with Yun Juanshu and Yu Chenzi, were all rare geniuses.

At that moment, the Village Chief was playing chess with Prince Youming, while also discussing sword arts. Yu Chenzi sat observing the game. When Xiao Chujue entered, the Village Chief stood up, messed up the chessboard, and chuckled, "Everyone, this is Xiao Chujue, a peerless genius I recently discovered! His sword mastery is truly divine!"

Prince Youming was displeased. He grumbled, "You're always playing tricks when you can't beat me in chess. Yu Chenzi, tell us who was winning this game."

Yu Chenzi humbly replied, "My chess skills are too meager to tell. However, Xiao Chujue is indeed a remarkable sword prodigy. He once visited Dao Master Lin Xuan, and he managed to comprehend the Dao Sword of our sect up to its seventeenth chapter in just half a year. Dao Master Lin Xuan also greatly praised him."

Prince Youming looked Xiao Chujue up and down. "That formidable?" he asked.

"His performance is comparable to Jiang Baigui's back then."

The Village Chief was also very satisfied with Xiao Chujue. He took the stack of books from Xiao Chujue's hands and said, "Chujue's aptitude and comprehension are exceptional. Back then, Jiang Baigui learned the Dao Sword and Buddhist principles with ease, mastering them through analogy. That's why he became the Sword God."

Prince Youming thought of Qin Mu and asked curiously, "Comparable to Jiang Baigui? That's the aptitude of a sage born once every five hundred years! So, how does Chujue's aptitude and comprehension compare to Celestial Venerable Mu's? Celestial Venerable Mu is also a genius of the sword path; I've seen his sword techniques, they're incredibly formidable. I heard he even created Sword Eighteen and Sword Nineteen!"

"Mu'er's aptitude and comprehension aren't top-tier; they're slightly inferior to Jiang Baigui's and Chujue's."

The Village Chief continued, "His strength lies in his immense curiosity. He must investigate anything unknown."

He opened the texts, realizing they were all his own works, detailing insights into the Sword Twenty Forms and the Sword Domain.

Although Xiao Chujue was a peerless genius among Yan Kang's younger generation, he was relatively young. Yan Kang's sword arts and sword path were evolving rapidly; new techniques emerged as soon as he learned the old ones, making it difficult for him to master everything in a short period. This was especially true for the sword path.

Yan Kang boasted countless sword art divine abilities. The mastery of the sword path there was incredibly astonishing, and the most formidable among them was Su Muzhe, the Dean of the Wen Dao Academy, who was Celestial Venerable Mu's enlightenment teacher in the sword path.

Village Chief Su Muzhe's sword path reached an unprecedented height after Kai Huang traveled through Yan Kang and brought the Sword Twenty Forms back to the region. His improvement was particularly significant after the Dao Realm concepts also spread to Yan Kang. He became the Dean of the Wen Dao Academy also because he authored books to propagate knowledge. His work, "Comprehensive Explanation of Basic Sword Forms," clearly explained Sword One through Sword Twenty.

In addition, he authored "The Sword Canon" and "The Sword Domain," and co-authored "The Dao Realm" and "The Dao Domain" with the Butcher and the Deaf Old Man. Decades ago, these books would have been considered secret manuals capable of inciting widespread chaos! Even if brought to the Heavenly Court today, they would be enough to cause bloody turmoil! If they were to spread throughout the myriad worlds, the killing calamity they would unleash would be unimaginable!

However, the Village Chief and his companions circulated these texts, not prohibiting others from reading them. In Yan Kang, anyone studying at an academy, once their skills reached a certain level, could enter the library to read and learn. As for whether one could master them, enter the Dao and the Dao Realm, achieve the Dao through the sword, or cultivate a Dao Domain or Sword Domain, that depended entirely on individual ability.

This young deity named Xiao Chujue had been at the Wen Dao Academy for over a year. His talent in the sword path was astonishingly high, yet even so, he had not mastered the Sword Twenty Forms nor comprehended the Sword Domain. This was why he sought guidance from the Village Chief.

The Village Chief opened the texts, found the section on Sword Twenty Forms, and explained, "Sword Twenty was created by Kai Huang Qin Ye, who comprehended it from Sword Eighteen and Sword Nineteen. When you mastered Sword Nineteen, you should have realized that merely learning Sword Nineteen allows one to enter the Dao through the sword. Among hundreds of millions of divine arts practitioners in the world, only about a hundred can master Sword Nineteen. However, Sword Twenty Forms demands even more. It requires cultivating the Sword Domain first, achieving mastery of the sword path domain, before Sword Twenty can be mastered."

As soon as he finished speaking, Yu Chenzi, Prince Youming, and the others were bewildered. Prince Youming muttered, "Brother Su, isn't your 'Comprehensive Explanation of Sword Forms' supposed to be the most basic book? Why do you need to cultivate the Sword Domain first to master it?"

"Wrong!"

The Village Chief chuckled, "To master the 'Comprehensive Explanation of Basic Sword Forms,' you first need to practice the 'Sword Domain' book. To master 'Sword Domain,' you first learn 'The Sword Canon.' And to master 'The Sword Canon,' you still need to study one thousand two hundred and eighty-two scrolls of sword path classics."

Everyone present was appalled.

The Village Chief chuckled, "However, Chujue has already achieved entering the Dao through the sword, so his fundamental groundwork is very solid. What he lacks isn't the basics, but a deeper comprehension of the sword path. And for that, he needs a top-tier grandmaster of the sword path."

He drew his sword and said calmly, "Xiao Chujue, let me be your whetstone and help you advance further in the sword path. Draw your sword!"

Xiao Chujue bowed, took a step back, and resolutely drew his sword! The sword light shot straight into the sky. His sword path was grand and magnificent, exuding an extraordinary aura, as if he meant to rule the world and command all authority!

Prince Youming and Yu Chenzi cheered in unison, praising, "What a splendid bearing!"

Just then, a ray of arrow light streaked in. Before the three powerful figures could react, the arrow light had already pierced through Xiao Chujue's sword and struck his glabella!

Boom—

Xiao Chujue's body violently exploded. Freed from the constraints of his physical form, his primordial spirit suddenly expanded, appearing like a Great Emperor personally descending to command the Heavenly Emperor!

The second, third, fourth, and fifth arrow lights followed in quick succession, their speed almost too fast to react to! Prince Youming, being one of the earliest existences in the Emperor's Throne realm, instinctively manifested his Black Tortoise primordial spirit. He was about to intercept the incoming arrow lights when he saw the primordial spirit erupting from Xiao Chujue's body. He froze, gasping, "Heavenly Emperor—"

The Village Chief's sword was already parrying the second arrow light when he heard Prince Youming's gasp. He forcibly stopped, his heart filled with inexplicable dread: "The Heavenly Emperor's primordial spirit? This Xiao Chujue is..."

Boom, boom, boom—

The other four arrow lights struck the Heavenly Emperor's primordial spirit in the forehead. Four colossal bangs erupted in the sky, each louder and more distant than the last. Outside the Terrestrial Virtue Palace, an incredibly terrifying tremor suddenly arose. Those five arrow lights propelled Xiao Chujue out of the Terrestrial Virtue Palace, their power fully unleashed, casting dazzling light that illuminated the entire palace, leaving almost no shadows!

Inside the Terrestrial Virtue Palace, Yan Kang's powerful figures rose into the air one by one, watching the dazzling light erupting in the distance with startled uncertainty, their hearts inexplicably shaken.

Gongsun Yan, Deity Yu Jun, pressed her palm downwards, and a canopy of green leaves linked the sky, shielding the Terrestrial Virtue Palace and the people living on the land. Her mind stirred slightly, and she looked towards Yan Kang's Upper and Lower Capitals further away, where another terrifying surge of power was erupting.

Gongsun Yan activated her true form, and primordial wood branches swayed, completely shielding both the Upper and Lower Capitals. She asked, "What happened? Who attacked Yan Kang's Upper Capital and the Terrestrial Virtue Palace?"

No one could answer her.

Suddenly, Yu Chenzi flew up and landed before Gongsun Yan. He bowed and reported, "Deity Yu Jun, this matter likely involves a split soul of the Heavenly Emperor that reincarnated in Yan Kang to steal the fruits of our reforms. A Celestial Venerable from the Heavenly Court detected him and thus shot and killed the Heavenly Emperor's reincarnated body. This has nothing to do with our Yan Kang."

Gongsun Yan breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Since it has nothing to do with Yan Kang, there's no need to investigate further. You may all continue with your respective duties."

Everyone assented, but the scene was truly shocking, leaving them unsettled for a long time.