Firmament Sword

First Kill of Breaking Army Seven Kills—Broken Tendons and Bones!

An image suddenly materialized in Xu Luo’s mind.

It was a vast, starry sky, filled with a bleak and lonely aura. The cosmos was frigid, devoid of any warmth, giving the impression of a dead land.

Just as Xu Luo was feeling puzzled, the scene abruptly changed. A battle unfolded before his very eyes!

It was a colossal beast of strange appearance, with the head of a dragon and the body of a tortoise. Its four limbs were like celestial pillars, and its body was incomparably massive. The surrounding stars weren’t even as large as one of its eyes!

’Could this be... the legendary Ancient Divine Beast, the Bixi?’ Xu Luo’s mind reeled in shock.

Ancient Divine Beasts were beings even more powerful than Holy Beasts, creatures that existed only in legends. It was said that an Ancient Divine Beast could perform Godslaying, but no one had ever seen one, let alone confirmed their existence.

Yet now, as Xu Luo was having an epiphany about Breaking Army Seven Kills, one had unexpectedly appeared in the world of his Sea of Spiritual Consciousness.

At this moment, the Bixi seemed to be in a frenzy, letting out a terrifying roar. Though Xu Luo couldn’t hear the sound, he could see countless stars shattering into dust under the force of its bellow!

’My God... is this the power of an Ancient Divine Beast? It’s horrifying!’ Xu Luo couldn’t help but murmur to himself.

Suddenly, a figure appeared before the Bixi. This figure was also extremely tall. Although only its back was visible, it projected a sense of magnificence and boundless majesty, inspiring an irrepressible urge to worship it!

Though this figure was tall, it was dwarfed by the Bixi’s sheer size, like the difference between a cat and a tiger.

However, upon seeing this person, the frenzied Bixi acted as if it had encountered a grave threat. It opened its mouth and spat out a celestial river. The sight of this apocalyptic flood made Xu Luo realize for the first time just how powerful water could be—he never imagined it could reach such a level!

That celestial river ravaged the entire Cosmic Void, washing away countless stars like helpless pebbles in a flood...

The figure, showing only its back to Xu Luo, executed a footwork pattern that was incredibly familiar to him. It dodged the celestial river, then casually threw a punch...

’Ah... isn’t that the Shaking Light Step? And what he’s using is... Broken Tendons and Bones!’

Xu Luo’s eyes flew wide open. He stared at the scene in disbelief, not daring to blink, afraid he might miss the slightest detail.

BAM!

But there was no sound. The figure’s fist landed silently on the Bixi’s incomparably thick shell.

Yet the sight made Xu Luo’s heart pound. A sudden realization dawned on him—the greatest sounds are silent!

Even though not a single sound reached him, the impact felt as thunderous as a great bell in his soul!

”ROAR!”

The Bixi’s dragon head opened its cavernous maw and let out a shriek of ultimate agony. Then... its enormous shell began to crack like a spiderweb, the pieces falling with a silent crackle into the endless abyss of the cosmos!

Next, the intricate network of meridians within was revealed. Every single one was massive beyond compare!

To Xu Luo’s horror, every one of those colossal meridians then snapped, spraying blood like celestial rivers in all directions.

The final image seared into Xu Luo’s eyes was the beautiful yet ghastly blood of the Divine Beast, staining the bleak depths of space.

The image in his Sea of Spiritual Consciousness faded to black, and the scene vanished. But the memory of that magnificent figure’s domineering strike was now etched into the depths of Xu Luo’s soul!

”Shaking Light... was that scene... real? Who was that person?” Xu Luo knew that the only one who could have shown him such a vision was Shaking Light.

”Have you... grasped its essence?” Shaking Light didn’t answer, instead posing a question of its own.

”I... I was just in awe...” Xu Luo said, ashamed. He had indeed been too shocked to truly comprehend it.

”Then comprehend it properly. You will gain something from it,” said Shaking Light.

Xu Luo then began to recall the vision. It was simply too staggering. The soul-shaking power of it was impossible to forget.

He carefully savored the movements of the figure, comprehending every action, every minute detail.

Then, he began to practice it himself, emulating the figure’s method to develop his own technique.

The scene before him changed, and Xu Luo found himself standing in that same boundless, starry sky!

”Where is this?” Xu Luo asked, stunned. He was astonished that Shaking Light could actually send him to such a place.

”The starry sky,” came Shaking Light’s bleak, cold voice.

”ROAR!”

With a roar, a colossal Bixi appeared before him—dragon-headed, turtle-bodied, and terrifyingly real. Its roar shook the surrounding stars, making them tremble on the verge of falling!

”Holy shit!” Xu Luo blurted out instinctively.

Facing it in person was a completely different feeling from just seeing it in his Sea of Spiritual Consciousness!

A drop in the ocean... he was that drop!

This Bixi was the exact same size as the one in the vision, but he... he was just his normal size. Compared to this beast, he wasn’t even a speck of dust!

And yet, this terrifying Ancient Divine Beast seemed to have spotted him. Its planet-sized eyes shot out a cold glare, locking onto Xu Luo’s position.

He wasn’t sure if it was his imagination, but Xu Luo absurdly felt an intense hatred in the Ancient Divine Beast’s gaze!

’Damn you... I don’t even know you!’ Xu Luo had the sudden urge to turn and flee.

’Is this some kind of joke? Did it bring me here just to get me killed?’

”Its power is less than one hundred-millionth of the real thing’s. It’s all form and no substance. What are you afraid of!” Shaking Light’s cold shout echoed in Xu Luo’s Sea of Spiritual Consciousness. The last sentence was so forceful it made his spiritual sea churn.

’Duh, who wouldn’t be afraid?!’ Xu Luo was by no means a coward, but courage depended on who you were facing.

”Enough nonsense. Either be exiled here forever or defeat it!” Shaking Light declared with cold indifference. ”You are only allowed to use one move: the First Kill of Breaking Army Seven Kills, Broken Tendons and Bones!”

”Holy hell, I still have to attend my brother’s wedding!”

”Hey, Shaking Light, you can’t do this!”

”Asshole! Dammit... Great God, I wasn’t talking about you...”

Xu Luo yelled frantically. He couldn’t stop himself from using the Shaking Light Step to dodge the behemoth’s attacks. With a long face, he cried, ”I don’t even have enough meat on my bones to get stuck in your parasites’ teeth! Why are you targeting me?”

The Bixi roared, ignoring Xu Luo’s pleas, and attacked him with the fury of someone facing their father’s murderer.

A barrage of water-based attacks bombarded Xu Luo one after another.

”In this space... time is frozen. No matter how long you are in here, it won’t affect the outside world. Therefore, you have only one path: defeat it! Defeat it with Broken Tendons and Bones!” Shaking Light’s voice reached Xu Luo’s Sea of Spiritual Consciousness.

”What if I die?” Xu Luo roared while frantically executing the Shaking Light Step.

His opponent’s attack range was too large—despairingly large. No matter how he dodged, he couldn’t completely avoid its attacks.

”If you die, you will be resurrected...”

In truth, Xu Luo already knew this, even without Shaking Light saying it. Because just a moment ago, he had already died once...

The moment of death had felt like his very soul was being incinerated. Finding humor in his misery, a thought flashed through Xu Luo’s mind: ’So this is what death tastes like?’

Shaking Light said no more. Xu Luo understood now. He had to pass this trial to get out. Otherwise, he might really be exiled to this place forever, just as Shaking Light had said.

”Damn you! It’s not like I’m your father’s killer! I’m not even a big enough snack for the lice on your back... Why are you trying so hard?” Xu Luo grumbled, but his movements didn’t slow in the slightest. He used the Shaking Light Step and charged desperately toward the massive Ancient Divine Beast, raising his fist to strike with Broken Tendons and Bones. ”I’ll fight you to the death!”

But before he could even get close to the Bixi’s body, he was obliterated into nothingness by a torrent of power!

Brother Luo died once again.

”Aargh... I refuse to believe it! I swear I’ll kill you today!” Xu Luo was completely enraged. His eyes were bloodshot as he charged the Bixi again.

Even though he knew he wouldn’t truly die in this mysterious space, the sensation of death was something you wouldn’t want to taste even once, let alone over and over. That feeling of despair and darkness was simply unbearable!

BOOM!

A chunk of ice larger than a planet smashed down, crushing Xu Luo to dust.

Xu Luo was gloriously sacrificed once more.

And so it went. Xu Luo lost count of how many times he died. It felt as if millennia had passed in this boundless, starry sky. In the end, he became numb. His mind was consumed by a single thought: ’Get close to it. Punch it!’

After an unknown amount of time and an unknown number of deaths, Xu Luo could finally get close to the behemoth. When his first punch landed on the Bixi’s incomparably hard shell, the numb Xu Luo felt like he could burst into tears of joy. But in the next moment, he really did burst into tears—of pain.

”HISS... Dammit, why is it so hard?! It hurts like hell!” Xu Luo roared, hopping on his feet and rubbing his fist. His punch had landed on the Bixi’s shell, which seemed completely unaffected, but Xu Luo himself felt like his own bones were about to shatter.

”Is this ’Broken Tendons and Bones’ for the enemy... or for me?!” Xu Luo wailed, feeling that Shaking Light had completely screwed him over.

’I just wanted to master the Cultivation Techniques I’ve learned... Does it have to be like this?’ Xu Luo, a man who had never known what it meant to give up, actually felt the urge to quit. It wasn’t that he couldn’t persevere; it was that he couldn’t see a single shred of hope.

”If you desire perfection, this is the only way. The size of your body and the amount of your strength are not the decisive factors. The only thing that determines the power of your technique is the depth of your comprehension!” said Shaking Light, its voice unheard for a long time, now tinged with a faint hint of exhaustion. ”A perfect Broken Tendons and Bones, even if executed by someone with no strength to speak of, is enough to unleash earth-shattering power!”