Chapter 595: How Could This Happen

"What a formidable divine ability!" Qin Mu couldn't help but feel excited. Before the Nine-Headed Phoenix even arrived, the hurricane unleashed by the supreme divine ability's power had already ripped open the tie holding his hair, sending his black hair flying straight back, pulled taut and straight.

His facial skin was also blown into wrinkles, and the intensely hot air made it difficult for him to breathe.

Zhe Huali was on par with Qin Mu, yet Qi Jiuyi attacked both of them simultaneously, clearly demonstrating his confidence.

He was confident he could take down both Zhe Huali and Qin Mu, two formidable young masters, at the same time.

As a disciple of an ancient Celestial Court entity, he was exceptionally outstanding even in the Celestial Court's exalted realm. Although he appeared gentle, polite, and well-mannered during his mission to the lower realm, treating both allies and enemies with courtesy, he secretly disdained the powerful individuals of this world, considering them mere bumpkins.

This time, his divine ability had been brewing for a long time. Using the opportunity of probing Zhe Huali, he finally perfectly unleashed the formidable divine art, "Nine Phoenixes Perch on the Firmiana Tree."

This was a supreme divine ability from an Emperor's Throne cultivation technique. Once it was formed, it was enough to defeat any opponent of the same cultivation level, truly unparalleled!

He intended to subdue both Qin Mu and Zhe Huali simultaneously to establish the Celestial Court's prestige and show the lower realm bumpkins the true might of the heavens!

Qin Mu's blood boiled. Qi Jiuyi had attacked both of them simultaneously, yet Qin Mu felt as if he was facing Qi Jiuyi's assault alone. Clearly, this youth from the Celestial Court was an unprecedentedly terrifying opponent; he had never encountered such a formidable foe!

Although Qi Jiuyi's supreme divine ability required time to shape and condense, its power thrilled Qin Mu beyond measure!

He had never seen such a terrifying opponent!

He couldn't help but let out a long roar. Dragon roars resonated within him, eight of them in an instant. After the Eight Sounds of the Ancestral Dragon echoed, the Three Elixirs Overlord Body Art also completed a cycle!

The Nine Phoenixes flew in with a roar, shimmering with brilliant light, both dazzlingly beautiful and exuding astonishing power!

The moment this Nine-Headed Phoenix flew down from the tree, it appeared before Qin Mu. While on the tree, it had seemed incredibly vast, but as it approached Qin Mu, it had shrunk to less than a foot in size.

Though its form diminished, its power and threat became even greater.

Simultaneously, Qi Jiuyi struck with a hand seal, and the Firmiana tree swept down towards the demonic blade. Blade and tree collided, sending waves of vibrations in all directions. The hurricane, filled with flames and flickering blade lights, roared through, engulfing the surroundings.

The ground instantly melted into lava, and within the lava, blade lights flickered everywhere. The moment these two supreme divine abilities collided, demonic blades leaped out of the lava. Each demonic blade employed a different blade art, and a demonic eye grew on the hilt of each blade, making them exceptionally strange. These demonic eyes tightly locked onto Qi Jiuyi, and the trajectory of each leaping demonic blade seemed to be controlled by these bizarre eyes.

Simultaneously, tiny Firmiana trees emerged within the lava, resisting the demonic blades. There were phoenix nests on the trees, emanating a radiant glow that shattered the demonic blades flying out of the lava.

At the same time, Qin Mu's sword pellet flew up, hovering between his brows. With a gentle tap of his sword finger to his brow, the small sword pellet, composed of eight thousand swords, rapidly transformed.

The eight thousand swords morphed into a single beam of sword light. As he pointed his sword finger, the sword light instantly became incredibly intense, gathering all his power and energy, and thrust towards the Nine Phoenixes.

*Swish—*

The sword light collided with the Nine Phoenixes. The moment the sword light erupted from Qin Mu's fingertip, it was as thick as a pillar, but after shooting forth from his sword finger, it became incredibly slender, like a cold glint.

However, upon closer inspection, Qin Mu's slender cold gleam seemed to contain a myriad of grand phenomena.

His first move of the Calamity Sword was called "Opening Calamity Sword." This sword primarily used the Worry-Free Sword, whose blade had eight facets. On these eight facets, runes of Qin Mu's Three Elixirs Overlord Body Art appeared, radiating brilliant light.

The sword light projected the runes onto the subsidiary swords, activating their power. The light then reflected from one subsidiary sword to another. Each sword's body was like an eight-faceted mirror; in just a brief moment, all eight thousand swords would be illuminated, unleashing their full power!

The positions of the eight thousand swords were constantly shifting, each with a different trajectory. Ultimately, all the power of the eight thousand swords converged onto the Worry-Free Sword.

This was the profound mystery of the Opening Calamity Sword.

Superficially, Qin Mu merely tapped his brow and thrust out a sword, appearing incredibly simple. Yet, behind this apparent simplicity lay his lifelong cultivation insights, encompassing his physical body, primordial spirit, Daoist arts, divine abilities, and all his power.

Both the Butcher and Bound-Sun Luo had spoken of simplifying complexity. Qin Mu felt a profound resonance with this concept precisely because he had reached this stage!

In contrast to Qi Jiuyi's supreme divine ability, which required time to prepare and was slow to activate, Qin Mu's own supreme divine ability, his Calamity Sword, activated with exceptional speed!

This was the difference between self-creation and learning. Qin Mu had embarked on the path of integrating cultivation techniques into the Dao, self-creating his Calamity Sword, which resulted in incredibly swift reaction speeds.

Zhe Huali followed the path of integrating blade arts into the Dao. Although his blade art was self-created, his cultivation technique belonged to others, having learned both Luo Wushuang's technique and Bound-Sun Luo's demonic art. Thus, his Dao-infused blade art activated slightly slower than Qin Mu's.

But even being slightly slower, it was still faster than Qi Jiuyi's supreme divine ability.

Where Qi Jiuyi surpassed both of them was in his cultivation technique: an Emperor's Throne technique from the Celestial Court, whose divine power was incomparably formidable and rarely seen in the world. In terms of raw power, it surpassed true divine techniques by an immeasurable margin!

However, his supreme divine ability was split into two: the Nine Phoenixes attacked Qin Mu, while the Firmiana tree attacked Zhe Huali, effectively dividing the power of this ability in half!

*Whoosh—*

Qin Mu's sword light pierced through the Nine Phoenix's head. The Worry-Free Sword passed through the body of the Nine Phoenix, which was formed by this divine ability. Though the Nine Phoenix appeared small, it was composed of countless sub-abilities, and these abilities instantly exploded within its body!

However, the power of the eight thousand swords contained within Qin Mu's strike also erupted. The eight thousand incredibly tiny swords leaped at barely perceptible amplitudes, executing various sword techniques, severing the divine abilities within the Nine Phoenix's body.

In that brief moment of collision, the Nine Phoenixes were annihilated, and the slender sword light shot directly towards Qi Jiuyi.

Qi Jiuyi's divine ability was broken, and he let out a muffled groan. Suddenly, flames erupted behind him, and with a twist of his neck, eight long necks sprouted around it. These necks were covered in tiny phoenix feathers, each feather exhibiting seven colors.

At the end of each neck was a phoenix head, adorned with plumes, like the king of birds. One after another, the phoenix heads pecked down, striking Qin Mu's sword light with successive *ding-ding-ding* sounds.

Just as he was distracted dealing with Qin Mu's Opening Calamity Sword, Zhe Huali's pressure lessened. The countless demonic blades that had leaped from the lava suddenly clashed *zheng-zheng-zheng*, merging into one. The demonic blade then slashed straight down at Qi Jiuyi!

Behind Qi Jiuyi, magnificent wings unfurled, their two blades like knives, their feathers like swords, meeting the incoming slash.

Qin Mu followed closely behind his sword light, his feet moving, creating a thunderous roar. He unleashed a punch, instantly sucking the air from around Qi Jiuyi and compressing it onto his fist!

Around his fist, streaks of lightning burst forth in all directions!

Qi Jiuyi raised a hand to meet it, while on the other side, Zhe Huali rushed forward, striding like an enraged demonic god. A demonic incantation erupted from his mouth, instantly unleashing a surge of blood and qi, and he slammed out with a palm strike!

Qi Jiuyi met him with his other hand, forming a seal, simultaneously countering both. Two incomparably terrifying forces collided, and two tremendous explosions erupted at the same time.

Qi Jiuyi let out a muffled groan, and all nine of his heads simultaneously spat blood.

Qin Mu opened his other hand. The flying swords, which had been scattered by the eight phoenix heads, reformed into a sword pellet and landed in his grasp. With a forceful clench, a dazzling sword pillar, formed by eight thousand swords wildly rotating, swept towards Qi Jiuyi's neck, poised to sever his nine heads.

The rotating sword light emitted a *whirring* sound as it cut through the air. If this sword were to sweep past him, Qi Jiuyi would be shattered, dismembered into the finest bits of flesh!

Zhe Huali reached out and grabbed the blade. With a *clang*, the demonic blade met Qin Mu's sword. Streaks of blade light erupted, dispersing Qin Mu's sword light, and he sneered, "He's mine. Cult Master Qin, it's best you don't interfere."

Both their bodies trembled violently, their arms numb. The demonic blade and sword pellet were shaken from their respective grasps. Qin Mu reached out with his other hand, snatching the demonic blade. His feet crisscrossed, and he swung the blade down, sneering, "Zhe Huali, you're too senseless. This person is a formidable enemy to both of us. We must kill him first before we can fight each other in peace!"

His strike was grand and magnificent, inheriting the Butcher's wild dominance in blade arts. Its power was surprisingly not much inferior to when it was in Zhe Huali's hands.

Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through his palm. The demonic eye on the hilt of the blade had grown a mouth full of sharp teeth and bit into his palm, drawing blood.

At the same time, Zhe Huali grabbed the sword pellet, startled slightly, and almost dropped it. He hadn't expected Qin Mu's sword pellet to be so heavy; he nearly failed to hold it steady.

Zhe Huali clenched it tightly, and the sword pellet's light suddenly surged. He had little mastery in sword arts, and with eight thousand swords within the pellet, it was quite difficult to control. The individual thin swords were hard to manage. He could only swing the sword light to meet Qin Mu's incoming demonic blade, stating expressionlessly, "He is my opponent, just like you. Both of you must die by my blade!"

The instant sword and blade collided, Zhe Huali let out a muffled groan and stumbled back. Qin Mu was proficient in blade arts, and even though he had been bitten by the demonic blade, his moves were still immensely powerful. Furthermore, his magic power was far more profound than Zhe Huali's, making it difficult for Zhe Huali to resist.

Both their blade and sword were flung from their hands. The demonic blade vibrated in mid-air, and countless blade lights danced wildly around the three figures, clashing with each other.

Qin Mu immediately used his own magic power to control the sword pellet. Its light soared to the sky, transforming into a magnificent Scroll of Mountains and Rivers that roared down, engulfing all three of them.

"Sword Tread Mountains and Rivers!"

"You're outrageous! How dare you ignore me!"

Qi Jiuyi was both shocked and enraged. His body swayed again, instantly revealing his nine-headed human form with bird feet and two wings. Just as he was about to unleash his full power to kill both of them, Qin Mu and Zhe Huali struck together, severely wounding him.

Qi Jiuyi bled profusely. Qin Mu and Zhe Huali circled him, trying to deliver killing blows to each other, engaging in a fierce melee. Whenever Qi Jiuyi put up even a slight resistance, he was immediately heavily wounded by both of them. However, whenever Qin Mu attacked him, Zhe Huali would block it, and whenever Zhe Huali aimed a killing blow at him, a defiant Qin Mu would block it.

Qi Jiuyi was covered in blood, feeling a mix of fear and bewilderment. Facing either Qin Mu or Zhe Huali alone, he would have had a complete chance of victory, but against their combined assault, he could only endure the beating.

"How could this be?" He was utterly perplexed.