A Sword From One’s Own Lifeforce
The hands must be fast, the mind must be fast, the Spirit Essences must be fast, the Qi Channels must be fast!
Li Chang Zai’s heart was thumping extremely hard, he felt as though his thoughts could no longer catch up with Su Yun’s words.
He had always thought that as long as his hands, mind and sword could be as one, he would be able to unleash the fastest sword in the world! He had used this as a goal to keep on advancing, but now, he realized that he was wrong!
His sword was not the fastest, much less the strongest. He finally understood that his knowledge on all of his effort, strength and even his sword, had been too little.
“I have to admit Su Yun, you have attained a realm even higher than mine! But as a swordsman, how can I admit defeat so easily?”
Li Chang Zai spoke weakly, he raised the broken sword in his hand and took a deep breath, then retrieved a crystal glass from his spatial bag. After shattering it, he grabbed the powderlike light aura and scattered it all over his sword.
His eyes revealed a trace of decisiveness!
It was a technique of last resort.
Su Yun watched on quietly, not taking the opportunity to launch an attack at Li Chang Zai.
Seeing that, Li Chang Zai’s eyes revealed gratitude: “Thank You, Su Yun, you have given me the dignity of a swordsman.”
“There is no need to thank me, I just want to know the limit of your sword.”
Su Yun kept Desolator and held Immortal Mystical Scarlet Blood Sword in one hand as he watched Li Chang Zai calmly.
“The limit of my sword?”
Li Chang Zai revealed a pale smile: “You definitely can’t imagine it!”
Upon saying that, Li Chang Zai’s expression suddenly became sinister, he grabbed onto the hilt of the sword that had been smeared with the strange powder and directly thrusted it into his heart.
Puchi!
The sword ripped his chest open and blood flowed out.
Hua!
All the spectators flew into an uproar as countless of them stood up, everyone looking at Su Yun in shock, confusement and loss.
“Why did he do that?”
“Is he committing suicide? What is Li Chang Zai doing?”
“Li Chang Zai, don’t give up!”
“Li Chang Zai, I placed my bets on you, you have to win, you have to defeat Su Yun!”
Roars came out as the spectators encouraged Li Chang Zai.
In truth, according to his current state, he could simply lie down and feign a heavy injury and he could admit defeat, countless of participants had used such a method, but for his dignity, he had thrown such methods aside.
Furthermore, he still wanted to fight! Fight for a chance of claiming victory!
Li Chang Zai stared at Su Yun intently, his eyes filled with determination and unwillingness to lose. His hands that were holding onto the sword started to move, the sword following his hands that pulled the sword out, slowly shifted out of his body.
“That seems like..?” Su Yun focused, he realized that Li Chang Zai’s actions were extremely similar to one of his own movements… Which was when he took out the Contracted Victory Sword from Ling Qing Yu’s body, it was exactly the same!
As expected.
Li Chang Zai’s hands continued to move further from his body as the sword left his chest. What surprised the spectators was that the gash caused by the sword had completely healed and a blood red sword had slowly separated from his chest.
The participants at their seats were all shocked as they looked at Li Chang Zai, stunned.
Finally!
Whoosh.
The blood red sword finally came out from his body. In that instant, the stage was filled with a heavy stench of blood, the sky darkened as fervent gales rose up, as though some world-shocking ferocious beast had descended!
“What a powerful and baleful aura! What sword is that?”
Su Yun held Immortal Mystical Scarlet Blood Sword tightly and asked.
“Cold Yang Savage Blood Sword! A mythical sword refined by offering my own lifeforce!”
Li Chang Zai gasped for breath as he pointed the sword straight at Su Yun: “Today, Su Yun, I must defeat you, if not, it will be my eternal regret!”
“I will do my best against you.” Su Yun replied. It was no longer simple respect he had for Li Chang Zai, but respect towards an enemy that had challenged him!
Li Chang Zai’s wounds started to heal while the skin on his entire body started to reveal many blood red lines that looked like poisonous snakes climbing on his body, the luster of the lines were identical to the Cold Yang Savage Blood Sword and in a few seconds, Li Chang Zai had already recovered to his state prior to the battle, the current him was even stronger than before!
“Did he combust his own lifeforce?”
Beneath the stage, Xiao Zi Ru stood up as she exclaimed out with shock.
“Participant Li Chang Zai, by doing this, you are decreasing your own lifespan! Doing so will cause your cultivation to drop, you can reverse it if you stop right now! Quickly stop right now!!”
“Cultivation can be cultivated and with a high cultivation, who cares about lifespan? If I do not defeat Su Yun today, I will definitely have a mental demon in me, improving will become difficult in the future!” Li Chang Zai roared.
Hearing that, Xiao Zi Ru frowned.
Her words had been heard by the spectators, who exploded into uproars.
“Combusting his lifeforce? Has Li Chang Zai gone mad?”
“A person’s lifeforce is his own three Yang spirits and seven Yin carnal forms, upon over exhausting them, he will definitely die, does Li Chang Zai really want to win against Su Yun that badly? Isn’t that a price too high to be paid?”
(TN: Researched about the term san hun qi po, the difference between the hun and po, is more of Yang Spirit and Yin Spirit in the body, Yang Spirit as a spiritual form of the human while Yin Spirit represents the seven instincts.)
“The gains for Li Chang Zai recieves by doing this doesn’t make up for his losses at all.”
Countless of people were disagreeing with Li Chang Zai’s actions, they were shaking their head in pity. Without his talent along with his receding cultivation, he would eventually lose everything.
For a genius to fall like that, regardless of whether Li Chang Zai was the victor or loser of the round, he would still be the ultimate loser.
But despite all the voices and clamor all around him, Li Chang Zai did not care. In his current state, he only had Su Yun in his eyes, with only one thought in his mind: To defeat him!
Finally… Li Chang Zai could no longer suppress his emotions.
With a sinister look, he flew forward like a gust of wind, his sword parallel to the ground as he thrusted at Su Yun, but just as he was about to approach Su Yun, his body suddenly froze…
~No! He isn’t frozen! It was an afterimage! An after image formed by an instantaneous burst of speed!~
Su Yun’s pupils tightened.
When Li Chang Zai got near him, he suddenly increased his speed by more than 10 times, forming an afterimage that made it look as if he was in front, but in fact, he had long appeared behind Su Yun.
~So fast!~
Compared to his previous self, Li Chang Zai’s speed had increased countless of times!
Su Yun immediately turned and used Immortal Mystical Scarlet Blood Sword to block his back.
Clang!
Two blood red swords clashed.
Although it was just one move, but the current Li Chang Zai was many times stronger than his previous self and his speed was equally matched with Su Yun’s speed!
“Su Yun, it’s not over yet, receive my next move!” Li Chang Zai said eerily as his figure disappeared.
Whoosh.
Many sword images suddenly surrounded Su Yun from above.
~What a powerful momentum!~
Su Yun’s figure exploded as he directly shifted himself to the side to avoid the attack.
Li Chang Zai landed and at that moment, the blood lines on his entire body had light auras as though they were imbuing endless of energy into his body, strengthening him.
Su Yun took a deep breath, he did not panic as he stared at Li Chang Zai, then he suddenly extended his hand out and danced with his blood sword.
Sou sou sou sou sou
A multitude of terrifying Sword Qi flew out towards Li Chang Zai.
However, even though Su Yun reacted and moved fast to release the Sword Qi, the speed of the Sword Qi’s flight was extremely slow, so before they had even arrived at Li Chang Zai, Li Chang Zai had already shifted his position.
All over the stage, Li Chang Zai’s afterimage could be seen, his original body had long since arrived at a different location, no one could see where the real Li Chang Zai was!
On the stage, Sword Intent was produced constantly, the sharp Spirit Qi flowing all over the place made it feel as though they were in the center of a storm!
Although Li Chang Zai’s attacks were powerful, he was in the same state as Su Yun, it was difficult for him to touch his opponent! Su Yun was not slow either, everytime Li Chang Zai’s attack approached, Su Yun was able to avoid them with ease.
Li Chang Zai had tried attacking consecutively a few times, but to no avail. He knew that he could not maintain his current state for too long, thus he stopped and bellowed: “If this continues, it will only waste our time, Su Yun, I will be using my ultimate technique!”
“Ultimate technique?”
Su Yun frowned.
Li Chang Zai suddenly retreated to the side of the stage as he stared at Su Yun while thrusting the Cold Yang Savage Blood Sword straight into the ground.
Whoosh.
The blood red sky suddenly split apart and a dazzling red beam of light to descend straight at Su Yun!
A powerful destructive force descended from the sky and inside the light aura was over a billion thin swords that looked like needles flying down from the sky with intent to kill!
Anyone who looked at the light would immediately be drowned in fear!
Su Yun immediately dodged, when the beam of light struck the stage, it instantly produced a hole right into the ground that was bottomless!
“What destructive power!”
“It’s too terrifying, if a person is struck by it, will they become ashes? Will their Spirit and Soul dissipate?”
“Is this the might of a Lifeforce Weapon? I think that a sixth stage Spirit Master cultivator will not even be able to withstand one strike from it?”
All of the spectators spoke with lingering fears, a few of the participants who were near the stage immediately turned and fled back to their own seats which were situated further away, afraid to lose their lives.
When the attack did not hit, Li Chang Zai held onto his sword again and activated the attack, the blood red sky dome released yet another beam!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The sword beams came down endlessly, as many more holes were produced in the center of the competition grounds, the entire place was filled with the desolation of a disaster, causing the spectators to feel that their scalps turned numb.
The power of the technique was too strong and was not something anyone could withstand.
Su Yun who was constantly dodging looked up to the sky, his mind quickly formulating plans.
Right at that moment, a gale of wind suddenly blew over.
Su Yun tensed up and immediately raised his sword to block.
Clang!
His sword seemed to have struck something hard, when he looked, he realized that Li Chang Zai had unknowingly attacked him!
While controlling the bizarre mystical technique to unleash the beams to attack Su Yun, he would hold onto his sword and attack. His sword attacks became faster, while the frequency of the beams also became faster!
Slowly, Su Yun started to feel that it had become taxing, he had to dodge the sword beams while parrying Li Chang Zai’s attacks. The burden on him was too strong and in such a situation, it was not enough for him to rely on his reaction time and sight.
~If this continues, I’ll lose.~
Su Yun’s expression became solemn, he stared at Li Chang Zai who looked to be going crazy and no longer held back.
He took a deep breath, after parrying the sword in front of him, he immediately leapt back and maintained a distance, he then raised the blood red sword in his hand, and levelled it with his eyes… Then, Su Yun closed his eyes
“Huh?”
Li Chang Zai was stunned.
~Why is he closing his eyes at such a time? Has he given up and wants to die?~
But just when he was thinking that, the powerful Profound Spirit Qi around Su Yun completely vanished.
~What’s going on?~