Chapter 516: Chapter 509: An Unexpected Surprise
The Strongest in the Far East.
It was an almost inconceivable title.
Scholars may never agree on who is the best, but in the martial arts, there is no second place. To have earned such a title in that chaotic era was undeniable proof of this man’s strength.
One could say that the rise of the modern Tianhe Country, which culminated in its war of aggression against the entire Far East Continent, stemmed from two main sources. One was its ever-growing national power following modern reforms. The other was the sudden emergence of this very man.
Beichuan Xuanxin.
He had served as the martial arts instructor for two generations of the Tianhe Royal Family. The greatest trump card of the Tianhe Empire Army wasn’t its tanks or cannons, but Beichuan Xuanxin—a man of flesh and blood.
Beichuan Xuanxin’s entire life was dedicated to embodying the so-called samurai spirit. He was a sharp blade in the hands of Tianhe Country, fighting campaigns far and wide during the war. One of his main battlefields was none other than Donghua, Tianhe Country’s largest theater of war in the Far East Region.
For the Donghua Martial Arts Realm of that time, Beichuan Xuanxin was a nightmarish existence who loomed over them for nearly a decade.
Countless Martial Artists had fallen to his blade, and it was stained with the blood of innumerable ordinary citizens.
A mountain of blood debts!
The Chief Commissioner and Chen Qingmu could never forget what they had experienced during that era. On the eve of Tianhe Country’s defeat and surrender, aside from the two super bombs that had exploded on its soil, another crucial reason for their downfall was Beichuan Xuanxin’s severe injuries.
By gathering the strongest powers in the nation’s Martial Arts Realm at the time, three Saint Awakenings who had crawled out from the mountains of corpses and seas of blood of the war joined forces. At the cost of their own lives, and by leveraging the crushing weight of the nation’s power, they inflicted an incurable injury upon Beichuan Xuanxin. This forced him to withdraw from Donghua and return to Tianhe, accelerating the end of the war.
Among those three Saint Awakenings was Chen Qingmu’s master, Yuan Shuwen—a legend in the Martial Arts Realm known in his time as the "Heaven-Reaching Divine Wood."
Afterward, Beichuan Xuanxin’s injuries never healed. Three months later, he fell into a long-term coma, a vegetative state. He remained bedridden for twenty-five years before the news of the legendary Sword Saint’s death was finally announced.
After receiving the news of Beichuan Xuanxin’s death, the Chief Commissioner and Chen Qingmu, who were representatives of the Donghua Martial Arts Realm at the time, made inquiries through multiple channels. They even activated their undercover contacts in Tianhe Country and ultimately confirmed his passing.
But to their astonishment, the man once known as the Strongest in the Far East had not died after all. Instead, he had returned to the world in a much younger form.
Watching the figure on the screen rapidly approach Zhou Yuanjue as if using Shrinking Inches, the expressions of the Chief Commissioner and Chen Qingmu grew grave.
The appearance of such a figure was completely beyond their expectations. In a way, Beichuan Xuanxin’s status in the Tianhe Martial Arts Realm was similar to that of Zhang Dongwei in Donghua Country.
They couldn’t imagine what level of power such a being would possess after undergoing the Celestial Demon transformation.
...
...
「Tianhe Country.」
For the Tianhe Martial Arts Realm, Beichuan Xuanxin’s appearance was nothing short of a seismic shock.
The ordinary people of Tianhe Country might not recognize Beichuan Xuanxin, but for those within the Tianhe Martial Arts Realm, his face was by no means unfamiliar, especially for the older generation.
Countless figures in the Tianhe Martial Arts Realm had grown up reading his biography. Beichuan Xuanxin was the goal they strived for, their guiding light. Some in the Martial Arts Realm even treasured black-and-white photos of him from his youth, worshipping him like an idol.
This man was the pride of countless Tianhe Martial Artists, an undisputed legend.
And now, this fallen legend had returned to the world.
"My God, is that really him?"
"He’s actually still alive?!"
"Latest news! The successor of Beichuan Destruction has officially confirmed it! The man we’re seeing is the legendary figure himself. He didn’t die back then. On the verge of death, he was preserved by the higher-ups using a special method and was only recently revived with the latest technology from Starry Sky Country. Now, this legend is at his absolute peak! He will definitely defeat his powerful opponent on the world stage!"
"Only an opponent this powerful can truly highlight the strength of our Tianhe Martial Arts Realm!"
"..."
A wave of excitement swept through the Tianhe Martial Arts Realm, as if they could now see a hope of defeating their formidable opponent.
At that moment, every member of the Tianhe Martial Arts Realm believed they would soon have a reason to feel proud!
...
...
「The Great Satan Desert.」
Seated cross-legged on the ground, Zhou Yuanjue slowly opened his eyes. His gaze fixed on the figure approaching with the speed of Shrinking Inches, and a brilliant light suddenly flared within his eyes.
He could clearly sense the pure, powerful aura emanating from his opponent, and an incredibly sharp will.
’To think such an aura could come from a human who has transformed into a Celestial Demon.’ Other than Zhang Dongwei, this was the first time he had sensed a similar will from any of the other Celestial Demon People.
’This is an opponent worth taking seriously.’
"I didn’t expect to find someone like this among the ranks of the Celestial Demons. What a pleasant surprise."
Zhou Yuanjue slowly rose to his feet. At this point, few beings aside from those at the King Level were worthy of his notice, but now, one had appeared.
’The whole reason I’m standing so brazenly in the world’s spotlight is, on the one hand, to draw out the Celestial Demons’ forces, and on the other, to find an opponent who can match me and stimulate my will and inspiration, isn’t it?’
Beichuan Xuanxin came to a stop in front of Zhou Yuanjue. They stood facing each other, nearly fifty meters apart.
Their gazes locked, and neither spoke a word.
But as the cameras recorded, sparks of electricity seemed to crackle in the desolate air between them.
RUMBLE!!
The sound of muffled thunder actually rolled through the arid desert. What little moisture there was in the sky gathered, yet it couldn’t form storm clouds. Instead, it condensed into wisps of white that spread out above their heads.
The Celestial Phenomenon was changing.
The next moment, Beichuan Xuanxin moved. Despite being Tianhe’s greatest Sword Saint, he carried no weapon.
His hands simply hung at his sides.
Suddenly, Beichuan Xuanxin made the first move.
He formed his right hand into a blade and swung it sharply upward.
WHOOSH!!!
A visible arc of pale silver light, shaped like a crescent moon, shot toward the sky before swiftly crossing the distance to strike at Zhou Yuanjue.
The move was effortless and fluid, seemingly without any killing power.
This was not an attack in the physical sense. The arc of light was purely a concentration of his personal Magnetic Field Power.
’A pure magnetic field attack, condensed to this degree?’
Zhou Yuanjue narrowed his eyes slightly. The attack reminded him of the "True Martial Magic Sword" that Zhang Dongwei had wielded during their final battle—a blade forged from pure, condensed magnetic field.