Firmament Sword

If Xu Luo hadn’t already mastered the Jade Balance Demon Sound, forget contending with the old man—a single roar from his opponent could have been fatal!

This was precisely why Xu Luo had to heavily injure his opponent at all costs. Otherwise, if the man broke free from the suppression of the Jade Balance Demon Sound, the one driven mad would very likely have been him!

This elder from Tianquan was no pushover; he was a terrifying predator.

His previous attack on Li Wenxi and Qiushuiduan had merely been a warning. If he had truly used his full power then, even if he couldn’t have roared the two Transformation Realm Sword Kings to death, he could have at least inflicted severe injuries.

However, this kind of attack consumed a tremendous amount of Spiritual Power, far more than an ordinary person could possibly imagine.

Attacking an opponent this way also meant enduring the immense pain of one’s own spiritual exhaustion.

So it wasn’t that the Tianquan elder was kind-hearted, but rather that he felt it was unnecessary to use such a killing move on Li Wenxi and Qiushuiduan, with whom he had no deep-seated hatred.

When he discovered someone in Merak’s group who had also mastered such an attack, the elder’s killing intent flared.

The words he had spoken to Xu Luo were infused with his full power!

He wanted to kill Xu Luo in a single blow!

Unfortunately, the Jade Balance Demon Sound was not only incredibly potent offensively, but also formidable defensively. He failed.

But Xu Luo had also consumed a massive amount of Spiritual Power. His subsequent counterattack was a life-or-death gamble.

If that one strike had failed, then when the opponent counter-attacked, Xu Luo would have suffered grievous injuries and might even have been doomed beyond recovery.

Only Xu Luo himself truly understood the danger involved.

After all, he had only been cultivating the Jade Balance Demon Sound for a short time. To have reached this stage was already quite remarkable.

He shared an innate affinity with the Seven Star Souls in his Dantian. This allowed him to master the Cultivation Technique with incredible proficiency the moment he obtained it, as if he had practiced for many years. Without this advantage, he most likely would have met with disaster today.

Right now, the light of the Jade Balance Star Soul in Xu Luo’s Dantian had become extremely faint. It looked like a candle in the wind, on the verge of being extinguished at any moment.

Meanwhile, Xu Luo’s mind was a complete blank, filled with a pain that no ordinary person could ever endure.

But to others, aside from appearing somewhat weak and exhausted, Xu Luo showed no other symptoms.

Especially those few disciples of the Grand Elder; the gazes they now directed at Xu Luo were all filled with terror.

Before, they had been plotting how to scheme against Xu Luo during the trial portion of the Sect Assembly. Now, they were only thinking about how to stay as far away from him as possible when they entered the Ancient Ruins for the trial.

Killing without a trace—it was too terrifying!

Master Mao had also completely sensed the danger Xu Luo had just been in. He sent a telepathic message to Xu Luo, ”Kid, that was too dangerous. Don’t be so reckless in the future. If that old man had been even a little bit stronger, you would have been in deep trouble!”

”Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” Xu Luo replied via telepathy. ”That old man clearly had no good intentions toward us. With someone like that watching us all the time, we’d be having nightmares in our sleep! Sound attacks are all-pervasive and extremely difficult to defend against. I can only hope that not too many people have mastered this kind of Cultivation Technique...”

”This type of Cultivation Technique is extremely difficult to practice and places immense demands on one’s Spiritual Power. Not just anyone can master it,” Master Mao said seriously. ”Among Spirit Beasts, there are a few species that are born with this ability. You must be careful if you encounter them in the future!”

Xu Luo nodded silently, circulating the Shadow Shaking Heart Method to slowly recover his massively depleted Spiritual Power.

Li Wenxi and Qiushuiduan were also well aware of the pressure Xu Luo had just been under. At the same time, they were both utterly shocked by his methods.

That elder from Tianquan was simply terrifying. With a single sentence, he had made two Transformation Realm Sword Kings feel as if they were about to vomit blood and have their eardrums burst. Yet such an expert had been driven to madness and forced to flee by Xu Luo.

The final scene, where the Tianquan elder attacked empty space, was clearly the result of an illusion. No one would believe that Xu Luo had nothing to do with it.

Qiushuiduan looked at Li Wenxi and said softly, ”Looks like you’ve really found a treasure this time!”

Li Wenxi gave a wry smile and didn’t respond, thinking to herself, ’Xu Luo is a treasure, that’s true, but he doesn’t belong to Merak...’

Previously, Li Wenxi might have entertained the thought of keeping Xu Luo in the sect. But after witnessing his power today, she understood that a monstrous talent like him was not someone Merak could ever hope to keep.

’I hope he can bring some change to Merak!’ Li Wenxi thought.

...

Meanwhile, the Tianquan group walking ahead was shrouded in silence.

Almost everyone had yet to recover from the silent confrontation that had just occurred.

The way their own patriarch had fought against that boy, Xu Luo, had completely overturned their understanding of combat. Only now did they realize that there were methods to directly attack a person’s mind.

To make matters worse, this technique was in the hands of an enemy. Their own strongest patriarch was no match for it and had been driven mad, forced to flee...

This blow was devastating to everyone in Tianquan.

”That person... I will kill him!” Fang Jing said through gritted teeth to a person beside him who was dressed all in black and wearing a conical hat.

This person had been with the Tianquan group the entire time, but he had never once stepped forward from beginning to end. Even when the Tianquan patriarch went mad and fled, this person had no reaction.

Anyone who didn’t know better would have mistaken him for an ordinary disciple of Tianquan.

”You are not his match,” the man in black said faintly.

”As long as I don’t give him a chance to speak, I’m one hundred percent confident I can kill him!” Fang Jing said with conviction. ”That boy’s realm isn’t high; it’s just that his attack methods are too peculiar...”

”His realm isn’t high?” The man in black scoffed. ”I have to say, Sect Leader Fang, your judgment is truly poor.”

Fang Jing asked, somewhat unconvinced, ”What makes you say that?”

”If you don’t believe me, you can wait here, intercept that boy, and try fighting him,” the man in black said mockingly. ”Then you’ll find out whether his realm is high or not!”

”That... How is that possible?” Fang Jing spoke quite informally with the man in black, a look of disbelief on his face. ”He’s clearly just an ordinary boy from the secular world. No matter how strong he is, how strong can he be? Can he really compare to people from a super-sect like yours?”

The man in black fell silent for a moment, then nodded. ”If I’m not mistaken, his realm is already approaching the Transformation Realm. Actually, just now, if those two Transformation Realm Sword Kings hadn’t been there and we had made a move, we very likely could have killed him. A pity...”

”Are you saying his realm is high? But the fight with the patriarch just now left him very weak?” Fang Jing frowned. ”Why didn’t you say so just now?”

”I just did. Did you dare to try? Besides, those two Transformation Realm experts on their side aren’t just for show. With just the two of us, it would be difficult to break through their defenses, because that person in white hair and white clothes is very powerful! Not to mention, no one could guarantee whether that boy still had the ability to attack!” said the man in black.

”Yes, I admit it, I was a little scared just now. It’s truly hard to imagine that... the secular world could produce such a monstrous young talent,” Fang Jing said, somewhat dejectedly.

”No. Even if he grew up in the secular world, his strength was definitely not cultivated there! This kind of person can only be nurtured by a super-sect, or... the Ancient Race!” After saying those two words, the man in black abruptly fell silent.

But Fang Jing understood his meaning. His heart jolted, and a cold sweat broke out on his back. He mumbled, ”If that’s really the case, then aren’t we in danger?”

The man in black sneered. ”It’s nothing. Once we’re at the Sect Assembly, I have plenty of ways to make him fall. He’s just a young genius; he hasn’t fully matured yet.”

”We absolutely cannot let someone like that fully mature. Otherwise, it would be too terrifying!” Fang Jing said, his heart still pounding with fear.

”Rest assured, with me here, you’ll be fine,” the man in black said, full of confidence.

”By the way, those Ancient Ruins mentioned for this Sect Assembly—was it really your sect that discovered them?” Fang Jing asked.

The man in black nodded. ”That’s right. It’s just... that place is too terrifying. It’s less like Ancient Ruins and more like a bizarre, horror-filled dimension!”

”What do you mean?” Fang Jing looked at the man in black.

The corner of the man in black’s mouth twitched slightly. He sighed softly and said, ”We dispatched many people at the time, hoping to claim the place for ourselves. We never expected it to be filled with a large number of terrifying, top-tier Spirit Beasts. And... there even seem to be some even more powerful Holy Beast cubs! As soon as they detect outsiders, those beasts swarm out, then... kill the intruders and devour them!”

”They eat people?” Fang Jing was slightly startled. He then asked, ”And there are Holy Beast cubs?”

The man in black glanced at him. ”You can forget about those. Even a Holy Beast cub possesses unimaginable power, enough to destroy heaven and earth. From a distance, I saw a bird that looked like a great roc, glowing with a golden light. It wasn’t large, only about a dozen meters long, but with a casual flap of its wings, a mountain peak snapped in half...”

HISS—

Fang Jing couldn’t help but draw a sharp, cold breath, looking at the man in black in disbelief. ”Do such powerful beasts really exist?”

”Forget you... even I wouldn’t have believed it was real if I hadn’t seen it myself!” The muscles on the man in black’s face, hidden beneath his conical hat, twitched violently, as if he was reluctant to recall the events of that day.

”Otherwise, why do you think our sect would publicize the existence of a set of Ancient Ruins? Since we have no hope of taking it all for ourselves, we might as well gather the strength of all the sects and give it a try. We might have a chance that way, and our chances would be better than anyone else’s!” the man in black said. ”After all, we know more about that place than they do!”

Fang Jing nodded and said, ”Since that place is so dangerous, then what about us, Tianquan...”

The man in black said faintly, ”How can there be growth without tempering? Being too protective of your disciples will eventually destroy your entire sect!”

As he spoke, the man in black glanced at Fang Zhou, who was being carried on someone’s back in the distance, and said faintly, ”Like that good-for-nothing son of yours, for example.”