The Prodigies War-Chapter 2716 Sword for Sword

Shen Zaidao’s arrival filled the crowd with awe and shock. Qin Wuyu’s brow furrowed, his face darkening. This was only the first duel, but they had already sent out Shen Zaidao. It was obvious they weren’t planning to give Lin Xun the slightest chance!

Though he was initially reluctant to accept Lin Xun joining the Ninth Peak, this was now a fact he could not change. Therefore, seeing his own successor being openly targeted like this left him seething with unease.

The Ninth Peak had languished at the bottom for years. Hadn’t Qin Wuyu ever thought of changing that? Unfortunately, it was not something that could be accomplished overnight.

As he watched Lin Xun being singled out, Qin Wuyu couldn’t help recalling how, in the last Nine Peaks Dao Contest, the disciples of the Ninth Peak had also been ruthlessly suppressed.

“They’ve gone too far!” Rage churned in Qin Wuyu’s chest.

Someone had clearly orchestrated this behind the scenes. Otherwise, with Zhuang Shiliu’s limited authority as examiner, there was no way he could have brought in a peerless sword master like Shen Zaidao.

“How could it come to this...”

Nearby, Qin Ruoling and the other Ninth Peak successors who had come to support Lin Xun were already bristling with anger at the arrangement.

“Why not? Becoming a core disciple isn’t supposed to be easy.” A sneer came from somewhere nearby.

Qin Ruoling and the others were about to retort when Ye Chunjun cut in first. “Don’t waste your breath, junior brothers and sisters! The fact they’ve done this shows they don’t dare to fight Junior Brother Lin lightly. Yes, Shen Zaidao is frighteningly powerful, but if he loses, his reputation will be shattered here!”

At this, Qin Ruoling and the others fell silent, their expressions unsettled. Could a peerless giant like Shen Zaidao really...be defeated?

On the Heaven-Derived Dao Arena, facing Shen Zaidao, his first opponent, Lin Xun spoke calmly, “Whether you came here on orders or by choice, it doesn’t matter. Since you’ve stepped forward, you must be prepared to lose.”

His words were not only for Shen Zaidao, but also for those pulling the strings from the shadows. To the onlookers, those words were jarring. He had actually told Senior Brother Shen Zaidao to prepare for defeat? Where did Lin Xun find the confidence to speak with such arrogance?

“It seems Junior Brother Lin Xun thinks I’ve come just here to suppress him?” Shen Zaidao chuckled, his expression calm as drifting clouds.

The next moment—Shua!

He struck without warning. A stream of sword qi burst forth from his hands and pressed straight toward Lin Xun’s face, almost unimpeded by the spatial barrier. This strike was like the first ray of light at the dawn of creation, chasing sun and moon, suffused with the profound mysteries of heaven itself.

With a snap of his fingers, Lin Xun shattered the three-foot sword qi into fragments, dispersing it into nothingness before him.

“Show me your real strength. Stop wasting time. If I defeat you, I still have two more duels ahead of me,” he said calmly, his tone indifferent.

Many onlookers felt their hearts tighten.

Stop wasting time? In your eyes, just what do you think Brother Shen Zaidao is?

Clang!

In front of Shen Zaidao, an illusory, transparent sword manifested. His robes billowed in the absence of wind, rattling sharply. The sky above him suddenly dimmed, as if gathering momentum for what was to come.

A commotion spread through the battlefield. Shock rippled across the faces of many as they realized Shen Zaidao’s next strike would be a sword capable of shaking the ages, a blow to kill across eternity.

“Junior Brother, I cultivate the Formless Sword Consciousness. It cuts down the spirit and slays the mind. If you can’t withstand it, I advise you to admit defeat quickly. Otherwise, your spirit will be annihilated and your mind crushed,” said Shen Zaidao indifferently.

In that moment, he seemed to have become a peerless heavenly sword, merging with heaven and earth, one with the great dao. He was heaven itself. He was god

Rumble!

All at once, the arena was swallowed by pitch-black darkness.

“Circulate your cultivation at once!”

“Don’t try to peer into it! That’s the Formless Sword Consciousness! It kills the mind and extinguishes the spirit!”

Cries of alarm rang out from the spectators. Even those outside the arena felt a sharp, invisible sword power pierce their minds and spirits. Shen Zaidao’s sword intent was unstoppable, inescapable, impossible to deflect.

A wave of dread swept through them. No matter how they resisted, it was as if they would still be obliterated. Their thoughts, will and everything of them would be crushed beneath that sword!

Some powerful figures acted swiftly, shielding the disciples from the dangerous fluctuations leaking out of the Heaven-Derived Dao Arena. Only then were the others spared the brunt of the impact.

When several Immortal figures turned their gaze back onto Shen Zaidao, their expressions were shaken. This youth’s mastery of the Formless Sword Consciousness had already reached an unprecedented level!

At this moment, Lin Xun felt his surroundings blur into nothingness. He could see nothing, sense nothing, and even his spirit sense seemed sealed away.

It wasn’t that the world had gone dark. Rather, Shen Zaidao’s sword qi had imperceptibly blinded every one of his senses: eyes, ears, nose, mouth, body, mind and spirit.

He no longer knew where he stood, nor even where his own body was.

Within the endless darkness, Shen Zaidao’s voice echoed, “This sword will decide the outcome.”

Silently, a streak of sword light emerged from the darkness. In that instant, time ceased, space ceased, and thought itself ceased. That single strand of sword light became the only eternal existence.

Lin Xun made no move to resist. The instant his eyes fell upon that sword, its might and mystery were already acting upon his spirit. In other words, the true essence of this sword was a spirit-slaying sword art: formless, without substance, killing unseen, impossible to defend against, and terrifying beyond comparison.

If it was anyone else of the same cultivation stage, their spirit would have collapsed in terror, their will crushed, and leaving them like prey. Despite that, when that sword pierced into Lin Xun’s mind sea, it was suddenly blocked.

Boom!

The spirit dharma that had long sat in his mind-sea like a cauldron suddenly blazed with light. In that instant, it evolved into myriad daos and reflected myriad arts, radiant and boundless, eternal and unmoving through the ages.

When the sword qi struck, it was instantly suppressed beneath the cauldron-like spirit dharma, pinned motionless and then mercilessly ground to nothing. Then the boundless darkness quaked, and all the visions vanished without a trace.

Outside the arena, no one could tell how grave Lin Xun’s situation had been at that moment. All they saw was Shen Zaidao, who, after unleashing his sword strike, suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood. His face turned ashen and his eyes brimmed with disbelief.

“This sword might work on others, but against me, it’s no use.” Lin Xun’s eyes were dark and cold. On his path to the supreme, his body, mind and spirit had each reached their ultimate supreme peak. Even in a battle of spirits, he could not be shaken so easily!

The arena fell utterly silent. The gathered figures all wore stunned, uncertain expressions. It was clear that Shen Zaidao’s Formless Sword Consciousness hadn’t harmed Lin Xun in the slightest. On the contrary, it backfired, causing the wielder to suffer a backlash! This was without a doubt something beyond belief.

“Now, it’s my turn.”

Lin Xun made his move, pacing calmly through the void. At his fingertips, a wisp of sword intent coiled before drifting forth in a light thrust.

No Escape!

When he used this sword strike, a long-lost sense of nostalgia stirred within his heart. Passed down by Battle Emperor Mo Yang, this sword condensed his lifetime of cultivation into a single strike, unparalleled in its sharpness. Years ago, it had helped Lin Xun crush countless formidable foes.

Now, as he unleashed this sword once more, he was already a supreme All Daos Ancestor, and the sword’s true essence had transcended what it once was. This strike was his No Escape sword, infused with the profound essence of the Great Genesis Heart Sutra, the Emperor Scripture forged by his third senior sister.

This sword too struck directly at the mind. Tooth for tooth, eye for eye, sword for sword! In the eyes of others, Lin Xun’s sword seemed plain and ordinary, devoid of any imposing force.

However, the expressions of some old antiques changed. The reason this sword appeared so plain was because its essence was refined to the utmost, concealing every trace of its true profundity!

In the distance, Shen Zaidao’s pupils shrank sharply, his expression shifting. The moment he tried to dodge, a blade of sword intent suddenly erupted within his mind. It burst forth with an unmatched, razor-sharp aura, slashing straight into his inner world.

Boom!

Darkness swallowed Shen Zaidao’s sight. His head seemed to burst apart as every thought was drowned in unbearable pain, as if he were plummeting into a bottomless abyss...

His state of mind was equally unparalleled, yet beneath this sword strike it seemed to split into fragments, showing signs of shattering. Indescribable bewilderment and terror surged through his body and mind like rampant weeds.

From outside the arena, Shen Zaidao stood frozen like a clay statue, yet his expression shifted endlessly. At times twisted in pain, at times lost in confusion, and at times consumed by terror...

A chill that was cold and unshakable crept into the hearts of the onlookers.

Was Lin Xun’s sword really so terrifying?

“Zaidao, compose yourself!”

Suddenly, an aged voice rang from outside the arena. Yue Wuchou, the master of the First Peak, bellowed, his words imbued with obscure and mysterious dao sounds that forcibly stabilized Shen Zaidao’s state of mind.

After a moment, Shen Zaidao’s ever-shifting expression finally calmed, and he slowly opened his eyes. However, his face was ghastly pale, his robes drenched in cold sweat, and his eyes brimming with fear and dread.

That sword strike had been aimed directly at his very state of mind! If Yue Wuchou had not acted in time, he could not help but wonder whether he might have been crippled beyond repair!

The arena fell into a heavy silence. Not a sound could be heard. Everyone was shaken by the scene before them.

From the start of the duel until now, Shen Zaidao had attacked twice. His first strike of sword qi was effortlessly shattered by Lin Xun. His second, his most powerful technique, the Formless Sword Consciousness, had not only failed to gain the slightest advantage, but also backfired, leaving him to suffer a devastating backlash.

Lin Xun, on the other hand, had acted only once from the start. With a single sword strike, Shen Zaidao was utterly defeated!

Everyone understood that if Yue Wuchou hadn’t intervened, Shen Zaidao, a peerless figure ranked among the top five core disciples of the Nine Peaks, would most likely have suffered a disastrous setback!

“You’ve lost.”

Lin Xun did not strike again. Even though the opponent’s state of mind had been preserved, like Li Zhongyuan, Shen Zaidao’s dao heart was left marred by cracks and shadows that would greatly hinder his chances of attaining immortality!

Shen Zaidao’s expression was bleak. Without a word, he turned and left. The crowd’s emotions surged like a turbulent tide. Before the duel, everyone believed that Shen Zaidao’s appearance would ensure Lin Xun’s defeat, leaving him with no hope of fighting a second or third match.

Unfortunately, reality struck them like an invisible slap across the face. With a single sword strike, Lin Xun completely suppressed Shen Zaidao! That terrifying might made the successors of the nine peaks visibly blanch, and when they looked at Lin Xun, their eyes involuntarily revealed deep dread and shock.