Chapter 538: Riding the Tiger

Suddenly, Sang Hua paused, as if sensing something. The demoness ahead also sensed danger and instantly halted. Separated by a low but steep mountain, the two women simultaneously unleashed their divine powers, imprinting them onto the opposing slopes.

Their fierce divine powers clashed within the mountain, and after a brief silence, the peak suddenly collapsed, billowing smoke and dust like a thick fog.

Amidst the swirling mist, runic imprints fractured and dissolved into glittering specks, like bursting fireworks. Unable to see each other, the two women darted and weaved through the sparkling chaos. From their sleeves, sword pills and blade pills emerged, flitting around their lithe forms like fireflies, while countless tiny flying swords and curved blades danced between their robes.

Sang Hua, a disciple of her father, Revered God Sang Ye, specialized in sword techniques. The demoness opposite, however, was a student of the Demon Blade Fuluotuo and practiced blade arts.

They clashed almost instantly, like two butterflies entwined and soaring through the fireworks. Blade pills and sword pills spun, clinking as countless minuscule blades and swords collided, sending showers of sparks flying.

"Revered God Sang Ye's swordplay... you are Sang Hua!"

"Demon Blade Fuluotuo's blade arts... you are Biyi!"

The two women instantly recognized each other's techniques. Amidst a blur of blades and swords, two agile figures, like startled swans, unleashed their divine powers at close quarters. Blade light tore through their abilities, while sword light brushed their hair. The spinning blade pills and sword pills glowed brilliantly, illuminating their eyes and revealing each other's faces.

Though their physical forms appeared slender and delicate, they concealed power that even surpassed Qin Mu's. The instant they saw each other, before their minds could register, their bodies reacted, launching a furious flurry of attacks with palms, elbows, shoulders, legs, and knees.

The two women groaned, each taking a hit, and tumbled out of the sparkling chaos. They rolled head over heels like sacks down a hillside, covering six or seven li before finally coming to a stop.

The moment they halted, the sword pills and blade pills they had launched at each other arrived overhead. Swords and blades rained down, and in an instant, hundreds of curved blades and flying swords erupted from the pills.

Both women continued to roll. Sang Hua, rolling like a civet, grabbed her bow and arrows from her back, firing over a dozen arrows in a single swift movement. Thirteen li away, Biyi also drew her demonic bow and returned fire.

Meanwhile, behind them, streams of blade light and sword light continued to fall.

They circled a mountain peak, fighting across the terrain. As bowstrings vibrated with crisp sounds, the mountain was instantly riddled with over a dozen holes.

They sped along, evading each other's arrows and blades. Suddenly, Sang Hua spotted the massive ax-spear; they had unknowingly returned to the nexus where the ax-spear and black spear crossed.

One woman scrambled onto the great ax, the other leaped onto the black spear. They advanced in a serpentine dance, attacking each other simultaneously. Upon reaching the apex of the two divine weapons, both women suddenly plummeted like meteors, simultaneously unleashing potent attacks in mid-air.

"Ah—"

A shriek echoed. Sang Hua quickly looked, only to see Biyi tumble into a trap she had laid earlier, immediately triggering the sword pill formation.

As the sole surviving child of Revered God Sang Ye, Sang Hua lacked nothing. While she couldn't refine sword pills to Qin Mu's level, she possessed a considerable number of them.

She arranged seven of her sword pills within her Seven Star Sword Diagram. This particular diagram was common in Tai Huang Heaven, where divine ability users, disinclined to study arithmetic, favored a straightforward approach: they simply copied sword diagrams left by their ancestors to refine treasures, dedicating the saved time to cultivation.

The Seven Star Sword Diagram was one such example. It wasn't complex; many divine ability users merely copied the established formation, so its inherent power wasn't great. However, combining it with the might of seven sword pills made it formidable.

In a life-or-death battle, even a brief delay could be fatal, let alone...

Without hesitation, Sang Hua swiftly drew her bow and fired, sending countless arrows streaking into the sword diagram. Biyi frantically parried, desperately trying to block the onslaught. But the next instant, the sword pill in Sang Hua's hand whistled forth. Flying swords from within it linked together in a line: the first pierced her glabella, followed immediately by the second, and then hundreds more, passing through her brow one after another, emerging from the back of her head.

Biyi's body stiffened, then was instantly overwhelmed by the myriad flying swords erupting from the Seven Star Sword Diagram.

"I won?"

Sang Hua stared blankly, then felt a surge of confidence. She collected the Seven Star Sword Diagram and sword pills, left the intersecting ax-spear area, and began searching for her next opponent.

Outside the sand table world, Revered God Sang Ye was drenched in sweat. As a seasoned deity, his sharp eyes clearly saw that his daughter's victory over Biyi was nothing short of a fluke.

Though Sang Hua had diligently trained and faced numerous life-and-death battles and charges since the tragic massacre of her clan, she still fell short compared to a battle-hardened demon expert like Biyi, having far less experience in the crucible of life-or-death combat.

Defeating Biyi had been a lucky break, but luck wouldn't always prevail. If she encountered another demon expert, wouldn't his last remaining kin be lost before his very eyes?

Suddenly, Revered God Sang Ye paused, his gaze sweeping across the sand table world.

Within the sand table world, several more battles had concluded. The number of demon experts had sharply dwindled, leaving only two: Zhe Huali, a disciple of Furilo, and Jiang Yi, another disciple of True Demon Suma.

Meanwhile, among Tai Huang Heaven's young experts, four remained: Qin Mu, Yu He, Sang Hua, and Shu Yao. Other participants had either perished with their opponents or been decisively eliminated by the superior power of Yu He and Shu Yao.

Of course, more had been slain by Qin Mu, the one who had been threshing grain.

It was Qin Mu's consecutive elimination of three demon experts that granted Tai Huang Heaven's divine ability users a numerical advantage.

Jiang Yi was incredibly powerful, but his head-on clash with an opponent had left him severely wounded and with limited remaining combat strength. This might be Sang Hua's opportunity to survive.

"However, Yu He and Shu Yao, those two formidable experts, are also injured..."

Revered God Sang Ye's heart clenched once more as he watched his daughter head directly toward the young blacksmith.

At the edge of the sand table world, Zhe Huali, with his demonic blade strapped to his back, advanced like an ascetic monk, one precise step at a time. He employed no divine abilities, and his pace was unhurried. His footwork was so meticulously measured that each step was identical in length, not a fraction more or less.

This precision was the cornerstone of his blade technique.

Demon experts often fought wildly, with sweeping, unrestrained moves, often exploding with astonishing power when least expected.

Zhe Huali, however, first trained under Divine Blade Luo Wushuang, a peerless master of the blade. Luo Wushuang's blade technique was meticulously calculated and strictly disciplined. Every aspect of each strike—its direction, force, footwork, body movement, and even the trajectory of every muscle—was precisely measured, leaving no room for error.

Even deeper, the circulation of vital energy, the activation of the primordial spirit, one's intent, and vital essence all had to conform to these rigid rules.

Zhe Huali grew up under such instruction. Unlike the divine ability users of Tai Huang Heaven, he had to master mathematics to an exceptionally high degree to truly grasp Luo Wushuang's blade technique.

Although he was ordered to descend to Tai Huang Heaven and became a disciple of Furilo, he never adopted Furilo's unrestrained and extravagant style. Instead, he continued to govern his every action and word according to the strict principles he learned from Luo Wushuang, maintaining flawless precision.

He approached the fiery wall of the sand table world and looked up. Qin Mu stood with his back to him, holding a sword against the firelight, scrutinizing his handiwork.

In stark contrast to his own rigor, he observed that the young man possessed a free-spirited and unrestrained swagger, much like Furilo.

The sight of the young man raising his sword held a distinct grandeur; this carefree act of admiring a blade before the flames was a flair he could never emulate.

Zhe Huali's heart involuntarily quickened, but he swiftly regained composure. He then noticed the young man, who had been holding the sword aloft, seemingly reacting to his momentary lapse. The youth lowered his head and subtly eyed Zhe Huali from the corner of his eye, his face slightly turned.

However, he soon realized the young man wasn't using peripheral vision directly; he was using the sword's bright, mirror-like surface to observe him.

"He feigned looking from the corner of his eye to disrupt my judgment. If I were to seize that moment to strike, my miscalculation would allow him to gain the initiative."

Zhe Huali's brow subtly arched. For masters of divine arts like them, misinterpreting an opponent's subtle bodily movements could be instantly exploited.

Sometimes, victory or defeat hinged on the slightest error!

"He's too shrewd for his age."

Zhe Huali inhaled, his chest expanding. This was the young man his master, the Divine Blade, had frequently mentioned, instructing him to seek him out and demonstrate his blade technique.

Zhe Huali suddenly bowed to Qin Mu, saying in a low voice, "My master, Luo Wushuang."

Qin Mu turned, setting the sword on the smelting table. "I know him," he replied, "I remember."

Zhe Huali remained bowed. "My master said," he continued, "if I met you, he requested you observe the blade technique he created!"

As he bowed, the demonic eye on the blade strapped to his back suddenly opened. The blood-red eye swirled, its pupil slitted vertically, its gaze fixing on Qin Mu.

Qin Mu smiled, placing his palm on the smelting table. Flying swords, like fine sand, swirled and converged beneath his palm, forming a perfect, finger-sized sphere.

"I'd very much like to see his blade technique," Qin Mu said, gripping the sword pill. "You're demonstrating his blade technique on his behalf, so your bow isn't out of respect for me, but for him?"

Zhe Huali straightened up and nodded.

Qin Mu smiled subtly. "He wields his blade with one arm. When you learned his technique, did you master it with one arm or two?"

Zhe Huali's pupils instantly constricted.

Qin Mu missed no subtle shift in his expression. Noticing the constricted pupils, his smile widened. "Zhe Huali," he said, "you may now demonstrate his blade technique for me."

Zhe Huali instantly felt an invisible pressure settle upon his Dao heart!

Qin Mu's question about mastering the technique with one or two arms exerted unparalleled pressure on his Dao heart, precisely because Luo Wushuang was the One-Armed Divine Blade!

Mastering it with one arm implied his other arm was useless; in combat, that dormant limb, regardless of the divine abilities or Dao techniques employed, would not perfectly integrate with his blade-wielding arm, thus revealing a discernible flaw.

Mastering it with two arms meant he hadn't truly learned Luo Wushuang's unique One-Armed Divine Blade technique. Using two hands to execute Luo Wushuang's style would invariably fail to achieve perfection and would miss the essence of his blade art.

Zhe Huali's primary objective for this descent, beyond fulfilling Luo Wushuang's wish, was to find a way to perfect his blade technique through Furilo. It was also to rectify his deficiencies through trials and combat, allowing him to advance and become a young true god in divine arts and Dao.

Now, with just one glance, his opponent had seen through his strengths and weaknesses. He was caught in a dilemma, unable to advance or retreat, whether he struck or not.

Outside the sand table world, the Woodcutter Saint's eyes gleamed. He cast a glance at the Black Tiger God beside him and intoned, "His mental state is clearly absurdly powerful; he suppressed Zhe Huali's resolve the moment they met. Why did you claim his mental cultivation was so poor?"

The Black Tiger God's ears flattened against the back of his head with a soft *swish*, and he whimpered, "But his mental state really is terrible; he constantly changes expression... And didn't you just say, my lord, that he was too impulsive and his mental cultivation was poor?"

The Woodcutter Saint's expression remained unchanged. "I did not," he asserted. "Don't talk nonsense; you misheard."

The Black Tiger God pursed his lips. When a vein throbbed on the Woodcutter Saint's forehead, the Black Tiger God quickly lowered his gaze, conceding with an apologetic chuckle, "Yes, Little Tiger misheard."