A Pawn's Passage

Li Changge felt a slight sense of regret. The Six Annihilations Sword’s strength lay precisely in its unpredictability. Since Sun Heyu harbored fear toward Li Changge, believing that the boy could truly harm him, the Six Annihilations Sword took root as the truth. Thus, no matter what methods Sun Heyu employed, the sword could still injure him, as it was something Sun Heyu himself deeply believed in. In essence, it was using Sun Heyu’s own conviction and strength to slay himself.

The deeper the Six Annihilations Sword wounded its target, the more firmly the injured person believed in its lethality, and hence, the greater the killing power of the sword. This formed a self-reinforcing cycle. If one could not shatter their belief, then even an indestructible golden body would be destroyed by a single sword strike.

Conversely, if one did not believe that this sword could harm them, then the Six Annihilations Sword would be like stabbing the moon in the water, unable to inflict the slightest injury. The mindless sword slaves were proof of this.

However, the ability to see through this technique varied from person to person.

If it were the Imperial Preceptor wielding the sword, then even if Sun Heyu fully understood all the principles and mysteries behind it, he would still find it difficult to break the belief and would still be cleaved in two.

While Li Changge lamented his missed opportunity, Sun Heyu was both furious and shaken by fear. He had been heavily wounded earlier in Lion City, and his injuries had yet to heal. This was why he had fallen into Li Changge’s trap.

Although Sun Heyu’s life was not endangered, this sword strike had damaged his Middle Dantian. The Middle Dantian was the central hub for the circulation of innate qi throughout the body. Once it was injured, the flow of qi everywhere would be affected. At this moment, even if he formed the Taiyin Sword Formation, he still could not sustain a prolonged battle with Lin Yuanmiao and the Three Prodigies. If he failed to disengage within a short time and became bogged down in a stalemate, the situation would turn extremely dire.

In the end, Li Changge was still only at the Wuliang stage and had not truly stepped into the Zaohua stage. Thus, if he were to face Sun Heyu head-on in a one-on-one confrontation, he would still be outmatched. Having achieved his objective with a single strike, he immediately withdrew.

At this moment, Lin Yuanmiao replaced Li Changge in battle.

Lin Yuanmiao was at the Pseudo-Immortal level. Without him holding the line, the Three Prodigies would have been shredded by Sun Heyu’s Taiyin Sword Formation.

The Daozi Sword that Lin Yuanmiao condensed multiplied into 100 swords. The sword tips glittered like scattered stars, resembling a rain of light or a thin mist, making it difficult to discern what was real and what was illusory.

Sun Heyu let out a cold snort. Without any visible movement from him, the twelve sword slaves responded in unison. The yin fire on their twelve longswords drew streaking trajectories through the air, interweaving into a massive net that descended right on Lin Yuanmiao.

Lin Yuanmiao neither dodged nor evaded. With a single sword strike, he tore the descending net apart from the center, his figure flashing forward as he charged straight toward Sun Heyu.

Sun Heyu retreated backward, and the 12 sword slaves moved accordingly, shifting from an encircling formation into a ranked formation, positioning themselves between Lin Yuanmiao and Sun Heyu.

Lin Yuanmiao pushed forward with a single strike of the Divine Palm Technique. One sword slave braced himself by holding his sword horizontally in front of his body. While he gripped the hilt with his right hand, he used the index finger of his left hand to press against the spine of the sword to forcefully block Lin Yuanmiao’s palm strike head-on.

The yin fire clinging to the blade could not harm Lin Yuanmiao in the slightest. Instead, the longsword in the sword slave’s hands bent inward into a terrifying arc, his feet lifting off the ground as he was continuously forced backward.

However, there were more sword slaves behind him. Two other sword slaves used the same stance to support the first; behind those two came four more, and behind the four stood another five.

As the number of sword slaves increased, Lin Yuanmiao’s forward momentum slowed until he was finally forced to a complete halt.

Finally, the combined strength of the twelve sword slaves succeeded in blocking Lin Yuanmiao’s palm strike.

In life, every one of these sword slaves had been a Heavenly Being. It was only because they went astray while cultivating the Taiyin 13 Swords that they were reduced to sword slaves. In particular, the leading sword slave had the highest cultivation, far surpassing the others in strength. Thus, he served as the sword tip to resist Lin Yuanmiao from the front.

Lin Yuanmiao’s arm shook. Driven by the Chongjiu Martial Arts, the Divine Palm Technique gave rise to another vast surge of power, forcing all twelve sword slaves to retreat simultaneously.

Sun Heyu formed a sword seal with his hand, and the sword formation abruptly transformed.

In Lin Yuanmiao’s vision, the number of sword slaves increased, as did the number of swords. They stacked not only front to back but also above and below. The men and swords were interwoven, like a mountain of blades, completely obscuring Sun Heyu’s figure.

Lin Yuanmiao’s response was equally straightforward. Sun Heyu had suffered repeated injuries, so his cultivation had been greatly diminished. Being weaker than Lin Yuanmiao, he could be dealt with by breaking technique with sheer force.

Lin Yuanmiao charged alone into the mountain of swords, surrounded by enemies on all sides. Even so, he advanced with unstoppable momentum. In the blink of an eye, more than 100 sword slave phantoms vanished like smoke.

However, new sword-slave phantoms continued to emerge. As long as the twelve foundational sword slaves remained alive and their vital energy was unbroken, these phantoms would be endless.

At that moment, Zhang Yuelu revealed her Spiritual Body. Behind her, thousands upon thousands of swords spread open like a peacock’s tail. When joined together, they formed a luminous halo, like a bright full moon blooming behind her head, illuminating all directions.

This Guanyin Spiritual Body stood about 5 meters tall and glowed with a moon-white radiance.

While the sword slaves focused all their strength on dealing with Lin Yuanmiao, Zhang Yuelu struck from the flank. Countless paper swords converged on a single point, blasting one sword slave into pieces, which then dispersed into specks of yin fire.

When the Taiyin Sword Formation was intact, the sword slaves could not truly die. The sword slave that had turned into yin fire quickly reformed into a corpse once more. Its chest rose and fell as it sucked in a breath, seemingly on the verge of returning to the yang realm.

Even so, this inevitably caused the Taiyin Sword Formation to stall for a brief moment.

Lin Yuanmiao seized the opportunity and launched a fierce assault. The mountain of men formed by countless sword slaves collapsed with a thunderous crash. The countless phantoms flickered like candles in the wind, extinguishing one by one, until Sun Heyu’s figure was gradually revealed.

Sun Heyu shifted the sword formation, invoking the Blue Tide Bright Moon Technique. A vast, brilliant moon manifested out of thin air.

Under the moonlight, Sun Heyu’s figure grew increasingly faint, almost vanishing from sight.

Relying on the superiority of his cultivation, Lin Yuanmiao did not slow in the slightest as he tore open a narrow fissure within the boundless moonlight.

In the blink of an eye, Lin Yuanmiao was already before Sun Heyu. His speed was astonishing, and his momentum overwhelming. Howling winds rose, and the ground was ripped apart. The sheer force resembled a sweeping storm that left devastation in its wake.

All twelve sword slaves struck simultaneously, yet their sword tips were not aimed at Lin Yuanmiao. Instead, they pointed toward Sun Heyu himself.

Sun Heyu gathered the strength of all twelve sword slaves. The sword qi surging from his body was vast and majestic, soaring straight into the heavens before crashing down in a single overhead strike at Lin Yuanmiao.

Lin Yuanmiao channeled the full extent of his cultivation and met the blow with his sword, his own sword qi likewise surging skyward.

In the end, it was Lin Yuanmiao who held the advantage, forcing Sun Heyu to retreat repeatedly. The Yin-Yang Torch Dragon Seal in Sun Heyu’s hand tugged the twelve sword slaves along with him.

The twelve sword slaves, like puppets pulled by invisible strings, formed a web of swords that stood between Sun Heyu and his opponent.

Lin Yuanmiao did not cease his attacks.

In terms of sheer speed, Lin Yuanmiao was naturally faster. Yet the twelve sword slaves held the advantage in numbers—each unleashed a sword strike, totaling twelve swords. Unless Lin Yuanmiao could strike at more than ten times their rate, it would be difficult to break through the sword net they formed.

Lin Yuanmiao altered his move, no longer distinguishing individual targets. Instead, he slashed at all the sword slaves at once.

The sword momentum of the twelve sword slaves instantly collapsed into chaos.

Sun Heyu had already abandoned maintaining the formation. Without it, he still had room to retreat. If he persisted with the Taiyin Sword Formation, he would not be able to maneuver and would be forced into a fight to the death with Lin Yuanmiao. Under normal circumstances, Sun Heyu would not have feared such an outcome, but with his injuries not yet healed, he lacked that confidence.

Moreover, Sun Heyu stood alone, while Lin Yuanmiao had the help of the Three Prodigies. If they fought together, the Three Prodigies far surpassed ordinary Zaohua-stage Heavenly Beings and could not be judged by conventional standards.

With a single slash, Lin Yuanmiao knocked aside Sun Heyu’s longsword and severed one sword slave’s sword-wielding hand cleanly at the wrist.

When the sword slaves were not within a complete Taiyin Sword Formation, they were not undying. As long as Lin Yuanmiao seized the chance to kill several of them, Sun Heyu would no longer be able to keep up the formation. This forced Sun Heyu into a dilemma—fight desperately to the end, or sacrifice a part to save the whole.

In the end, Sun Heyu chose the latter. He sent two sword slaves to attack Lin Yuanmiao and seized the opportunity to flee with the remaining ten sword slaves.

The two sword slaves did not engage Lin Yuanmiao in a sword duel. Instead, they detonated themselves. One employed the Cloud Sweep Technique, where countless sword qi resembling shadowy black winds ran rampant. The other transformed their blood into a pair of blood-red Omniscient Eyes.

Lin Yuanmiao did not dare underestimate them. He withdrew his sword to defend, dissolving the two sword strikes that the sword slaves had unleashed at the cost of their lives.

At that very moment, Yao Pei charged in, revealing her Great Witch True Form. Relying on her Great Witch bloodline, she once again used the Staff of Eternal Heaven to immobilize Sun Heyu.

Zhang Yuelu and Li Changge then seized the opportunity to slay the remaining sword slaves.

This way, Lin Yuanmiao had already neutralized the assault of the two sword slaves and once more closed in on Sun Heyu.

Driven into desperation, Sun Heyu let out a piercing shriek.

He spread his arms apart and plunged all ten fingers into the void at his sides. His palms seemed to vanish into thin air. When he withdrew them, ten slender yin-fire longswords were drawn from the void at his fingertips. With a sweep of both hands, he thrust them toward Lin Yuanmiao’s body.

Lin Yuanmiao stood motionless and towering, like a mountain. Only when the yin-fire longswords were about to strike did the six small swords of the Six Mantra Sword merge into a single longsword. Appearing slow yet actually swift, the Six Mantra Sword traced a circle in midair, forcibly redirecting the trajectories of the ten yin-fire longswords. Before the large circle was fully drawn, the Six Mantra Sword thrust forward again, shooting straight toward Sun Heyu.

Startled, Sun Heyu immediately unleashed the Taixuan Sword Heart Series. The ten yin-fire longswords shifted with the changes in his innate qi, expanding and contracting unpredictably, bending and extending in various transformations.

Meanwhile, Lin Yuanmiao used the Dragon Tiger Sword Technique bestowed by the Heavenly Preceptor to block all of Sun Heyu’s attacks.

The two fought faster and faster. Sun Heyu moved like a specter, with countless afterimages indistinguishable from reality. His ten swords shifted endlessly with the movements of his ten fingers, leaving trails of black flame. However, Lin Yuanmiao’s sword techniques remained strictly structured. Even when Sun Heyu’s strikes became too fast to discern, Lin Yuanmiao responded with calm composure.

Since his cultivation had been damaged, Sun Heyu could not gain an advantage.

No matter how Sun Heyu changed his moves, Lin Yuanmiao always countered the myriad changes with constancy. Each time he counterattacked, the Dragon and Tiger Sword Qi seeped into Sun Heyu’s body.

Suddenly, Sun Heyu roared. The ten yin-fire longswords in his hands scattered and transformed into a stream of yin wind, drifting and swirling into the shape of a sword of varying lengths. Some were as long as a flood dragon, and others were as short as a koi fish, crisscrossing unpredictably, entangling both fighters so completely that their forms became indistinguishable.

At that moment, Lin Yuanmiao let out a roar that sounded like it came from both a dragon and a tiger. Sword qi shot out in all directions from within the yin wind and mist. In an instant, the clouds parted and the fog dispersed, revealing the sun. The two figures reappeared, facing each other from afar.

Lin Yuanmiao’s expression was calm. The Six Mantra Sword in his hand hung downward, its tip slanting toward the ground. Droplets of blood slid off the blade.

Sun Heyu’s forehead, throat, chest, and lower abdomen each bore a single red point, from which blood slowly spread.