Tome of Troubled Times-Chapter 841: This World Now Belongs to You

It felt almost as if Yue Hongling’s actions were a direct rebuttal to what Han Wubing had said earlier.

Han Wubing had believed that because Yue Hongling cultivated through the legacy of the Sword Emperor, her meeting him face-to-face would inevitably bring disaster, just as Yuxu had once been overwhelmed by the Dao Lord. That was why he had warned her.

Yet Yue Hongling, by her very conduct, proved the exact opposite. Faced with the Sword Emperor’s arrival, she not only showed no fear but instead issued a bold challenge of her own.

Facing hardship without retreat, advancing without stopping—this was the backbone of a true swordsman.

Han Wubing admired her for it. He himself was the same. And naturally, so was the Sword Emperor.

“I have no interest in breaking the Four Idols Formation,” the Sword Emperor said lightly. “I choose the second option. If you lose, I will take White Tiger with me.”

He said it so naturally as if it were only proper and right.

Lady Three and the others exchanged strange looks. He was under no obligation to accept the challenge. He could have simply refused. Yet to everyone’s astonishment, he actually agreed without hesitation.

The third-ranked ancient demon god, the very embodiment of swordsmanship across the mortal realm, was willing to duel a young woman barely in her twenties! A girl who had likely eaten fewer grains of rice than the number of swords he had wielded!

Just what is up with the brains of these swordsmen?

There was no longer any need to restrain the maddened White Tiger. Han Wubing himself stepped forward and easily subdued him, dragging him to the side. Under Han Wubing’s hand, the once-raging White Tiger behaved like a tame kitten, obedient and docile.

The others spread out discreetly, forming a faint perimeter in case of unforeseen events, while Yue Hongling stood quietly in the center of the field. Her posture remained the same, one hand holding the sword in a reverse grip, her other hand held forward in salute. “Senior, please.”

The Sword Emperor studied her again with great interest, and after a moment, he asked, “With such sword bones... In the world today, if we talk in terms of swordsmanship alone, are you the most outstanding?”

Yue Hongling glanced toward Han Wubing. She had never fought him, not as he would be after merging with White Tiger, so she could not speak with certainty.

She simply said, “If we set White Tiger aside, then yes.”

The Sword Emperor’s curiosity only deepened. “Have you fought them all, to be so sure?”

Yue Hongling replied, “In today’s world, there are many who wield swords across the jianghu, but few who, at the level of Profound Control, remain pure swordsmen. Most have already broadened their arts across many paths. My husband, for instance, is overall stronger than I am, but his sword is merely one of his tools. Wanzhuang and Chichi are the same. If we speak purely of the sword, I can think of no one else worth mentioning.”

This time, the Sword Emperor looked genuinely surprised. “Husband? A true swordsman takes the sword itself as husband or wife.”

Yue Hongling smiled faintly. “Wherever my sword points is where I go. There is not one single path, and there is no need to be bound by a single form, senior. That would be no different from clinging to appearances.”

“Well said!” The Sword Emperor laughed, truly delighted. “Come then. Let me see the sword of one who has a husband.”

“Forgive me, senior,” Yue Hongling said calmly. Her reverse grip shifted to a standard grip in one smooth motion, and her sword extended outward. A plain, unassuming thrust went straight for the Sword Emperor’s chest.

It was Welcoming Pine, a courtesy strike and a traditional gesture at the beginning of a formal duel.

Perhaps there had been such customs in the ancient era as well. The Sword Emperor found it slightly amusing, but his hand turned his sword over and pressed down lightly, easily deflecting her thrust.

As expected, he had restrained his cultivation to the early second layer of the Profound Control Realm, precisely matching Yue Hongling’s level. And yet, even so, her sword was effortlessly pushed aside. The slight tilt in strength and angle, the redirection of force... were all textbook fundamentals of swordplay. It was basic like a sparring exercise among beginners, but none of the onlookers were deceived.

They knew that within this seeming simplicity, hidden in the most rudimentary offense and defense, lay the true, distilled essence of swordsmanship, a return to the source of it. At this level, even a minor lapse in concentration or gap in understanding could mean death several times over.

The two seemed to move by tacit agreement, trading blows within that foundational framework.

The Sword Emperor was testing the girl’s grasp of the sword; Yue Hongling was using the Sword Emperor as her touchstone, seeking to verify her own understanding for flaws or weaknesses.

And the results were plain for all to see. Yue Hongling’s grasp of the sword was flawless, matching the Sword Emperor’s own mastery.

Each clash of their blades saw the Sword Emperor subtly drawing and absorbing a trace of Yue Hongling’s force. The more they fought, the greater his strength grew, like a gathering storm. But against Yue Hongling, this ploy was utterly meaningless. It was almost as if she was more familiar with the technique than he was.

The onlookers could hardly miss it. After all, their husband had used these very tactics once, having learned techniques belonging to the Sword Emperor himself.

As they exchanged strikes, the Sword Emperor found himself chuckling. “You don’t just understand these moves, you are... extremely familiar with them.”

Yue Hongling gave a slightly embarrassed smile. “Yes. Extremely familiar.”

“If I’m not mistaken,” said the Sword Emperor, a flicker of amusement playing across his otherwise calm face, “you inherited a trace of my sword intent from my later years. The Sword of Primal Slaughter you’re using was part of my early style. It’s something I have long since discarded. How did you come to be so familiar with it?”

Yue Hongling answered without hesitation, “That set of techniques once greatly aided my husband. For a time, it was one of his primary techniques in battle.”

“So your husband was the one who took the sword imprint legacy I left at the outer perimeter of my tomb? He was the one who shattered the protective vicious sword I left behind?”

“Yes,” Yue Hongling replied.

“I had thought my legacy would pass to him. After all, that was my true, structured inheritance. As for you... Well, it’s unexpected. Quite unexpected.” He smiled faintly, then nodded and added briskly, “Prepare yourself.”

With a resonant clang, the two swords clashed once more, both combatants recoiling slightly from the force.

Then, the Sword Emperor’s ancient sword abruptly cleaved downward, like a guillotine descending from the heavens.

Far in the distance, atop the snow-capped mountains, the first light of dawn painted the sky.

The sun was slowly rising, but the Sword Emperor’s strike, descending from above, seemed to suppress even the sunrise itself. It was as if the sun, struggling to ascend, was crushed under the weight of that blade.

This was not raw power; suppressed to the second layer of Profound Control Realm, he could not truly command such might. This was intent.

This was the vertical stroke of the ultimate cross—cutting the heavens, rending the skies, severing reality itself.

The earlier exchanges had been a test of sword comprehension. Now, it was no longer a test of mere technique. It was a confrontation of true power, of one’s understanding of heaven and the world itself.

To those standing within the duel’s range, the sword’s descent felt absolute. It felt as if there was no escaping it. It was as if the very laws of the world bent to its will.

Yue Hongling knew this sword well. Her own Setting Sun Ravages the Sky was born of the Sword Emperor’s realization, a sentiment he had left behind at the end of an era. But now, his strike was a step beyond that. There would be no sunset, no light at the end of the day, because there would be no dawn to begin with. The sun would never set because it would never rise in the first place.

This was the Sword of Destruction!

Yue Hongling’s foot brushed the earth, drawing a shallow line as she retreated. And then, in the very next breath, she and her sword became one, shooting forward like a streak of lightning.

No longer the fading twilight, but a newborn sunrise, brimming with vitality and indomitable will.

It mattered not whether her opponent was the living embodiment of the sword. It mattered not whether he was an ancient figure, a distant mentor.

The sword of today must surpass the sword of yesterday. No legacy dictates that a successor must kneel before those who came before.

You have only the sword and you claim that it alone must be one’s husband or wife. But I have my husband, and we are not the same. What talk then is there of suppression?

Clang!

The Sword Emperor’s sword slashed downward just as it leveled parallel to the ground. At that instant, Yue Hongling’s sword struck the very tip of his.

A shockwave of sword qi erupted at the point of collision, scattering outward like a torrential rain of blades, filling the sky with a glittering, lethal storm.

A thread of blood trickled from the corner of Yue Hongling’s mouth. She was injured.

As all the spectators involuntarily held their breath, hearts tightening at the sheer force of the exchange, the air suddenly twisted.

A slender hand reached out to seize White Tiger, and at the same moment, a faint, near-invisible sword qi stabbed toward Yue Hongling’s exposed back.

Ye Jiuyou moved to steal away White Tiger while Snow Owl launched a sneak attack!

There truly was not a single decent soul among them.

Lady Three instantly summoned a shield behind Yue Hongling, while Xia Chichi and Huangfu Qing simultaneously struck toward Snow Owl. Huangfu Qing’s flames erupted, igniting a brilliant blaze meant to obscure the Sword Emperor’s line of pressure on Yue Hongling.

Compared to White Tiger, Yue Hongling’s life was infinitely more important. At that moment, no one had the mind to chase after White Tiger anymore.

However, things did not end there. The void distorted again. A massive saber came cleaving down upon the Sword Emperor from above. In an instant, there was a bloody roar, and the Milky Way cascaded down.

“To think I took you for a respectable senior. I never thought you’d stoop so low!”

Scattering the Gods and Buddhas! Zhao Changhe!

Lady Three and the others had done everything to safeguard Yue Hongling, but there remained one fatal threat. If the Sword Emperor chose to strike Yue Hongling at this moment of weakness, none could have saved her.

Yet just then, Zhao Changhe arrived.

In his first glance, he understood the situation fully. Without hesitation, he unleashed his fiercest blow directly toward the Sword Emperor!

The Sword Emperor’s wrist flicked subtly, his sword light splitting into multiple threads. One branch intercepted Zhao Changhe’s saber, another pressed down on Yue Hongling’s sword, and the last slipped through the blazing flames and whipped toward the rear, slashing straight at Snow Owl.

Zhao Changhe: “?”

Snow Owl: “?”

Snow Owl twisted desperately, attempting to dodge, but the Sword Emperor’s strike no longer bore the limitations of the second layer of the Profound Control Realm.

This was his full strength, unrestrained. At his peak, the Sword Emperor’s blade was not something mortal reflexes could evade. Snow Owl’s form blurred into illusion, flashing dozens of zhang away, but the sword qi remained locked on him as if fate itself decreed it and, in the next breath, cleaved him cleanly in two.

“Who gave you the gall to interfere in a duel of swords?” The Sword Emperor’s voice was icy cold, utterly devoid of the earlier warmth he had shown Yue Hongling. “No wonder this little girl said there was no one in this world worth mentioning in the Dao of the sword. I wondered why you were not counted. Now I see that you truly are unworthy.”

Snow Owl’s body had already been split apart, yet the aura of darkness within him, his core, still stubbornly coalesced, refusing to dissipate.

The shadow howled in rage, “If Yue Hongling is allowed to live, you will no longer be the Sword Emperor! Utter foolishness!”

The Sword Emperor gave a cold, disdainful laugh, not even bothering to reply.

Huangfu Qing’s flames had already roared to life, engulfing the roiling shadows. Dark Oblivion screamed, thrashing wildly within the inferno. Fire, the natural nemesis of darkness, pinned him down ruthlessly. After a final struggle and a series of wretched cries, he grew silent, his fate uncertain.

Yet even as the battlefield shifted here, Ye Jiuyou, who had moved to steal away White Tiger, also met unexpected resistance.

Just as her hand seized White Tiger’s shoulder, attempting to drag him away, Han Wubing vanished from his original position. The next instant, the maddened White Tiger abruptly looked up. And within the madness that filled his gaze... there shone a terrifying, pure sword qi.

Ye Jiuyou froze for a split second.

And when that split second passed, Han Wubing and White Tiger had already merged seamlessly.

A sword pierced straight toward her abdomen, the sword qi roaring with a force that vastly surpassed even those produced during the earlier battle between Yue Hongling and the Sword Emperor when both were suppressed at the second layer of the Profound Control Realm.

The third layer of the Profound Control Realm!

For all his long deception, Han Wubing was no helpless target to be seized and dragged away. With this sudden fusion, he now struck with a power sufficient to kill even third-layer experts in a single blow.

Of course, Ye Jiuyou was no ordinary third-layer cultivator. She let the sword qi pierce through her abdomen without flinching. At the same time, her jade-like hand pressed against Han Wubing’s forehead. Perhaps this strike would wound her, but if she could touch his Tianling point, she could turn White Tiger into her puppet, a prize well worth the pain.

Yet at that critical instant, a swirling purple qi arose between them, and the sword seemed to pierce into endless mountains and rivers, never reaching its target. Likewise, Ye Jiuyou’s palm struck nothing solid, her power of life and death dissipating harmlessly into an infinite earth.

Between them, a figure appeared, breathtaking in beauty, her voice calm as she spoke, “Trapping Changhe and me in the abyss was all so he would miss this battle, didn’t you? But unfortunately for you... Changhe saw through you from the very beginning.”

It was Piaomiao.

White Tiger slipped free from Ye Jiuyou’s grasp. Furious, she snapped, “And this is what you call him helping me?”

Piaomiao replied coolly, “You schemed against him first. You forfeited his aid yourself. Now, you blame others? Besides...”

She paused, smiling gently as she said, “Perhaps he didn’t wish to see you hurt. This reckless exchange of injury for White Tiger’s capture... I think you’d best abandon such thoughts.”

Ye Jiuyou flared in anger. “Whether I get hurt or not is none of your damn business! Don’t think that just because you’re standing there I can’t deal with you. Move aside, or I’ll take you down, too!”

Piaomiao ignored her threats, turning instead toward Han Wubing. Han Wubing had halted his attack. He stood there, lost in thought, his gaze fixed upon Zhao Changhe’s figure. In the distance, a saber was cleaving toward the Sword Emperor.

He neither spoke nor fled.

In the blink of an eye, the situation shifted. The Sword Emperor had slain Snow Owl, and the once-chaotic battlefield was suddenly eerily quiet.

Far away, the sun finally crowned the mountain peak.

Everyone’s eyes turned toward Yue Hongling. Blood still stained the corner of her lips. Her complexion was pale, yet she smiled brightly and without fear. “The distractions are cleared. Shall we continue, Senior?”

Everyone present understood. Yue Hongling’s injury did not mean defeat. On the contrary, it indicated a form of victory. The wound was proof that the Sword Emperor, compelled by instinct, had unconsciously pushed beyond the agreed limits of his suppressed power. It was pure instinct, and that instinct had been triggered by a sense of danger!

As for the duel itself, in the clash of sword intents, the Sword Emperor’s sword had sought to suppress the rising sun, while Yue Hongling’s sword had become the dawn itself, pressing upward.

The sunrise cresting the mountains confirmed that in the realm of intent, Yue Hongling had the advantage.

It was true she had leveraged the natural momentum of heaven and earth, while the Sword Emperor had chosen to defy it, but victory was victory, no matter how it came.

Of course, holding the upper hand did not mean the duel was over. Battles swayed constantly, and the distance between temporary advantage and true victory remained vast. Snow Owl’s interference had interrupted the match; whether it resumed now depended on the Sword Emperor’s will.

The Sword Emperor gazed thoughtfully at the blood at Yue Hongling’s lips. After a long silence, he spoke slowly, “Is there still any need to continue? Since you have forced me to draw upon strength beyond what was agreed, you have already won.”

Had this been an ordinary duel upon the jianghu, anyone with honor would concede thus.

Yet the Sword Emperor’s ambitions were no trivial thing. He had laid plans spanning entire eras, planting doubts, manipulating Snow Owl, burying his schemes across generations. Could it all end so simply?

Yue Hongling, slightly surprised, asked, “But, senior... what of your true objective?”

The Sword Emperor turned to glance once more at Ye Jiuyou and Han Wubing. Then, without further explanation, he turned and began to walk away. “My objective is already fulfilled. Combining my own will with the White Tiger’s intent, it is clear that you have already achieved what I sought. As for how to further claim the White Tiger’s legacy... That will be your path to tread. Your sword intent has already told me all I need to know. You are the rising sun, this world now belongs to you.”

“Senior...”

The Sword Emperor only lifted a hand behind his back, a gesture of farewell. “Your husband carries the legacy of Lie, yet his very soul is suffused with Ye Wuming’s will... That, too, is an amusing thing. When the late autumn comes, meet me again in the southwestern wilderness.”

With that, he vanished without a trace.

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