Chapter 174: Chapter 172: Sword Immortal Becomes a Brute

’Not even the top-tier Heavenly Demon Dissolving Techniques of the Demon Path, like the Self-Sacrifice Technique or the Reversed Blood Heaven Attack Skill, could produce such an effect...’

Meng Shigui was no ignorant Loose Cultivator; in his memory, no Secret Technique could instantly boost one’s strength by so much.

Moreover, the strange Light White True Flame burning on that man didn’t scorch physical objects. A single touch of it would head straight for one’s Sea of Consciousness.

If he hadn’t been carrying a Tier Three Talisman specifically to protect his Sea of Consciousness, the pain would have already cost him most of his combat strength.

He had burned nearly half his Liquid Magical Power to launch the usually unstoppable Hidden Sky Strike with his Willow Leaf Sword, yet it had failed to achieve its full effect.

The man had ignored the sword wound, caught the Flying Sword with his bare hands, and severely damaged its Spiritual nature. No matter how Meng Shigui tried to command it, it wouldn’t respond.

’Even the Undersea Stone Turtle, famous for its defense, doesn’t have this kind of physical toughness...’

He didn’t bleed, felt no pain, possessed unparalleled Divine Power, and was wreathed in that Light White True Flame. A chill crept into Meng Shigui’s heart.

’Without my Willow Leaf Sword, my strength has dropped by at least thirty percent... I won’t gain anything by continuing to fight this brat. I should retreat, regroup with the Elder, and then we can come find him again!’

As the thought of retreat arose, his will to fight plummeted.

Meng Shigui’s fingers tapped quickly across his body to stop the pain. At the same time, he tore a Talisman, and a roaring torrent surged forth, forming a hundred-foot-tall wave.

He took out a spare Flying Sword, and a silver Sword Light shot up, streaking toward Zengguang Immortal City.

’Trying to run? Not a chance!’

Bai Zichen felt as if the power within him was endless, with no sense of exhaustion at all.

He also transformed into an identical silver Sword Light, and with a clap of thunder, he burst straight through the wave, rapidly closing the distance he had lost.

This time, the injured Meng Shigui’s Sword Flight speed was no match for Bai Zichen’s, and the distance between them shrank rapidly.

"Brat, don’t push it... Don’t think I don’t have a way to risk it all!"

Meng Shigui shouted, blustering but cowardly inside. In reality, he didn’t have many trump cards left.

The Youlong Sect had only been established for a few hundred years on the scraps left behind by the fallen Fish Dragon Sect. How much of a foundation could it possibly have?

The finest Treasures of the Fish Dragon Sect had all fallen into the hands of the Dragon Monarch and the Great Demons who had helped him.

"I’m afraid you won’t dare to risk it all!"

Bai Zichen divided his attention, unleashing a brilliant, impenetrable web of Sword Light. He wasn’t trying to deal a fatal blow, only to slow the Black-Faced Cultivator down.

Once they were close, the Light White True Flame also ignited on his Celestial Xin Sword, increasing its flight speed by another thirty percent.

Bai Zichen rammed his Sword Light directly into Meng Shigui. The two became a tangled mass in the air, plummeting rapidly.

Faced with a string of Water Bombs hurtling toward him, he merely tilted his head, letting them explode against his body while he used the opportunity to throw three full-power punches.

The first punch shattered a Tier Three Protection Talisman on Meng Shigui.

The second punch was met with the crisp sound of breaking bones. Even the most abundant Magical Power melted away when burned by the Light White True Flame.

With the third punch, Meng Shigui went completely limp, like a torn cloth sack leaking from all sides.

SWISH!

The Sword Light wheeled around with a peal of Jade Sound thunder, and a head flew into the sky.

After crashing to the ground from a thousand feet up, Bai Zichen got up as if nothing had happened. He had four or five new sword wounds, and in the bloody, corroded holes blasted open by the Water Bombs, one could faintly see bone.

His Sword Light crisscrossed, striking the mangled body of the Black-Faced Cultivator twice more, while the Light White True Flame leaped onto it and burned a full circle.

Normally, a Foundation Establishment Cultivator’s Divine Sense was weak; without a physical body to anchor it, it was impossible for it to survive.

But Bai Zichen wouldn’t take that risk. Who knew if the man had some hidden Secret Technique to cling to life as a wisp of a Soul, only to cause him trouble in the future?

Once he confirmed the Black-Faced Cultivator was as dead as could be, Bai Zichen used his Sword Light to pick up the blue storage pouch from his waist, as well as the Celestial Xin Sword that shared the same origin as his own.

He poked the corpse a couple of times with his Flying Sword to make sure there was nothing else, then quickly dug a deep pit and buried the Black-Faced Cultivator inside.

He immediately found his bearings, transformed into a Sword Light, and flew away without a moment’s delay.

Who knew how soon the man’s companions would arrive? The sooner he left, the safer he would be.

Bai Zichen didn’t expect such a crude method of hiding the body to work for long. A Perfect Foundation Establishment Cultivator was an important disciple even in a Nascent Soul Major Sect, so his death would surely attract a Core Formation True Man to investigate.

Even if the body was burned to ashes, they would still have divination and tracking methods to find the location of their fellow sect member’s death from the slightest clue.

「Five days later, a large Flying Ship descended.」

Several Cultivators emerged, holding Oil Lamps, and scattered to search.

The lead Cultivator’s face was stiff, like a death mask, devoid of any expression.

He took a few slow steps, then suddenly strode to a pile of rubble. With a wave of his hand, the ground was torn open ten feet deep, the displaced earth forming a mound to the side.

Underground lay a headless corpse. The flesh was a mangled pulp, and there were signs of slashes from a sharp weapon.

"Elder Kang, I think that’s Senior Brother Meng’s body..."

Junior Brother Sheng, who had appeared at the gates of Zengguang Immortal City with Meng Shigui, followed behind and spoke with a trace of terror.

"That day, Senior Brother Meng said he thought he saw a trace of the Sound Bamboo Sword and suspected it was a remnant of the Fish Dragon Sect, so he gave chase immediately... Who would have thought he would fall here."

’The hinterlands of the mainland are indeed more dangerous than the Outer Sea. No wonder the Elder told us to restrain our tempers.’

Junior Brother Sheng felt a lingering fear. Meng Shigui was far stronger than him, yet he had met such an end.

He didn’t know if Meng Shigui had really run into a Fish Dragon Sect remnant or had just provoked someone he shouldn’t have.

"Nephew Meng was beaten to death by incomparably powerful fists. Every bone in his body is broken... The killer is a Body Cultivator at Foundation Establishment Perfection, most likely from a Nascent Soul Major Sect, who has mastered extraordinary Divine Techniques."

Elder Kang concluded after examining the corpse, his dead-man’s face impassive.

"The sword wounds were inflicted after Nephew Meng’s death. They’re just a smokescreen, intended to make us think Nephew Meng died at the hands of a Sword Cultivator and mislead our investigation."

"How could such a petty trick fool you, Elder Kang... So, by your reckoning, the killer probably isn’t a Fish Dragon Sect remnant? The Fish Dragon Sect’s core Cultivation Techniques don’t include any specialized Body Refining Techniques."

Junior Brother Sheng asked curiously, laying on a bit of flattery.

"It’s hard to say. We can’t rule out the possibility that a Fish Dragon Sect remnant joined another Sect to learn their arts... There are too many coincidences here. I suspect the person Nephew Meng saw that day was very likely a Fish Dragon Sect remnant."

Elder Kang felt a twinge of regret. If it really was a Fish Dragon Sect remnant, then he had missed a huge opportunity.

"Unfortunately, I was speaking with a fellow cultivator from the Du Family that day and wasn’t paying attention to the sect members’ Oil Lamps. Otherwise, if I had discovered Nephew Meng’s Divine Soul Annihilation sooner, I might have had a chance to catch the killer. Now, several days have passed; the culprit is probably tens of thousands of miles away."

"First, we return to Hornless Dragon Island and report this to the Sect Leader... Since this involves a remnant of the Fish Dragon Sect, it must be reported to the Dragon Monarch."

Elder Kang’s expression was grave. The five Core Formation Level Sects that currently held power in the Ten Thousand Stars Islands had all risen after the destruction of the Fish Dragon Sect.

To be able to dominate a region of the Outer Sea Islands, which teemed with powerful figures, in just a few hundred years, their backing was none other than the Tier Four Shapeshifting Great Demon from the deep sea.

The Dragon Monarch!

...

Bai Zichen focused solely on Sword Flight, having no time to consider anything else.

The Black-Faced Cultivator’s origins, the contents of the storage pouch, the feud with the Fish Dragon Sect... all of these were matters to be contemplated one by one only after he was completely safe.

’The Glazed Fire Divine Body lasts for one hour. I must find a sufficiently safe place within that time.’

Right now, Bai Zichen’s Magical Power was abundant and his spirit was high.

But he knew in his heart that this was just a facade. Once the Glazed Fire Divine Body wore off, he’d be lucky to even be able to take care of himself.

’The Cultivation Technique only says that self-detonating the Glazed Body will drop my Realm back to the first layer. It doesn’t mention any other side effects... But even without severe aftereffects, the injuries on my body alone are enough to take half my life!’

Bai Zichen had over a dozen wounds all over his body, the most serious of which was the sword wound that had nearly run him through.

Ancestor Ge Cang possessed a Celestial Spiritual Root, allowing him to learn any Cultivation Technique instantly and comprehend any Divine Technique with a single touch. He was even able to push his Cultivation of the Primordial Yang Divine Thunder to its highest Realm, the Qiantian Primordial Yang Divine Thunder Net. Yet even he had taken twenty years to master the second layer of the Five Crystal Glaze Body.

For an Abnormal Spiritual Root Cultivator, it would likely take forty years at a minimum.

An ordinary Foundation Establishment Cultivator might need close to a century to finish cultivating the second layer of the Five Crystal Glaze Body.

That was why in the records of the Transmission Hall, there was no experience from any senior who had self-detonated their Glazed Body.

Bai Zichen even suspected that, aside from the founding ancestor who might have tried it, he was the first Foundation Establishment Cultivator to ever self-detonate his Glazed Body and experience the Glazed Fire Divine Body.

’The strange thing is, the Cultivation Technique states that the Glazed Fire Divine Body incinerates all things... but the Light White True Flame burning on me only scorches Divine Sense. Why did it change?’

The thought flashed through his mind, and he filed it away.

Now was not the time to study the matter; he could only investigate it slowly later on.

After flying nearly a thousand li in one breath, Bai Zichen sensed that his Glazed Fire Divine Body had little time left. His Sword Light descended upon a desolate, uninhabited mountain peak.

He circled around and found a cave with a large snake coiled inside, as thick as a water bucket.

He slew the great snake with a single sword strike, then set up a breath-concealing and sound-insulating Array before collapsing to the ground.

He deliberately left the cave entrance unblocked, so that anyone passing by would just assume it was an ordinary Snake Cave.

The Spiritual Qi on this mountain was thin, so it was unlikely any Cultivators would pass through.

Soon, a wave of exhaustion and weakness washed over him. The red, glazed texture on his skin rapidly faded, returning to its normal color.

Bai Zichen could feel that the Glazed Body he had forged had completely vanished, and the Glazed Fire Jade in his Sea of Consciousness had not re-formed.

His Five Crystal Glaze Body had regressed to the first layer.

’The side effects of self-detonating the Glazed Body are complete exhaustion and the drainage of half my Essence Blood... Compared to the power boost, that’s actually quite merciful.’

Bai Zichen’s face instantly turned deathly pale, and his hands were completely bloodless. He looked as if he were terminally ill, devoid of any vitality.

Losing half his Essence Blood in an instant would take at least a year or two to recover from.

But when he thought about the Demon Path’s Heavenly Demon Dissolution Secret Techniques, which were less effective than self-detonating his Glazed Body but came at the cost of a lowered Cultivation Realm or even death by self-implosion, he felt much better about his situation.

"PFFT!"

Bai Zichen spat out another mouthful of Essence Blood as the sword wound on his chest burst open, a lingering trace of Sword Qi hovering over it.

It had been thoroughly suppressed by his previously powerful physical body, only to erupt now.

At the same time, the pain from all the wounds on his body came rushing back, nearly causing him to pass out.