Free Web NovelChapter 233: Chapter 222: The Battle Begins 4
"Heh heh... Shouldn’t you be at your Nine Dreams Sect? What are you doing running all the way out here?" Han Sanmian chuckled.
"I have my own important matters to attend to, of course. But for a vital combatant like Grand Elder Han to desert his post... that doesn’t seem quite right," Master Yunxia said pointedly.
"You juniors learn a few new words and toss them around indiscriminately. How do you know I’m not fighting an enemy from without?" Han Sanmian countered.
Master Yunxia’s mind raced as she tried to figure out why the Grand Elder Blood Progenitor was here.
This area was far from the battlefield, and this Grand Elder of Taixu was the type who never made a move without a clear prize in sight. In fact, not a single one of the Grand Elders ever did anything without a specific, calculated purpose.
Every single person who managed to cultivate to their level was both a genius and as cunning as they come.
After all, a Blood Progenitor’s blood heart didn’t increase their power. Only by devouring the strong could they slowly grow stronger.
’Wait... Devour?!’
Master Yunxia recalled his flight path. Like her own, it was pointed directly toward Qingfeng Temple.
A faint suspicion began to form in her mind.
"In that case, I won’t disturb you any longer, Grand Elder." Master Yunxia didn’t dare jump to conclusions, so she reined in her aura and continued forward.
’I’ll see for myself what this Grand Elder of Taixu is really after...’
As she moved, Han Sanmian, who was flying above, also continued forward.
After flying for several minutes, they both realized they were heading in the same direction.
SWISH!
Han Sanmian’s figure flickered, dodging an invisible wave of Void Power that shot up from below.
"Master Yunxia, what is the meaning of this?" He raised an eyebrow. He’d investigated her before and knew she had joined Qingfeng Temple to study Martial Arts. But he’d never expected that a Supreme like her would be willing to attack him for the sake of the temple.
’Interesting...’
"Grand Elder, I should be asking you that. Qingfeng Temple is where I now cultivate. You... surely you don’t intend to..." Standing on the ground, Master Yunxia’s right hand was already wrapped around a long, slender, dark-gold blade covered in hieroglyphs.
This was her famous personal sword, the Mingde Sword. It was also a top-tier Divine Weapon she had forged with her own hands.
As the most skilled blacksmith among the Inner City’s Mingji, she naturally never skimped on her own equipment.
When she sparred with Lin Hui before, she had been overconfident and hadn’t brought a suitable weapon. The Golden Sparrow Saber and the Mingde Sword were her most-used top-tier weapons. After all, it was just a spar, not a life-or-death battle.
But this time, after settling matters with the Nine Dreams Sect, she had rushed to Qingfeng Temple at the first opportunity, worried that some trouble might arise here.
Sure enough, she had run into major trouble on the way...
"I have long taken note of the Qingfeng Temple’s Observatory Master’s talent and strength. He is a junior whom I’ve always admired. If you have an issue, state it plainly. Why must you act like this?"
Han Sanmian looked at Master Yunxia with a gentle expression.
"Could it be that you have some misunderstanding about me?"
"A misunderstanding?" Master Yunxia’s thoughts raced. With her experience, she had naturally already determined that he was heading straight for Daoist Master Lin Hui.
The question now was, should she stop him?
To stop a Grand Elder Blood Progenitor, she would have to reveal her full strength, and even then, she might not succeed.
But if she didn’t stop him, she worried that Lin Hui would think less of her afterward.
Especially that miraculous True Body Seal. Whether the seal took effect was determined by one’s sense of belonging to Qingfeng Temple, which had a touch of the metaphysical about it.
’From the pure perspective of a Qingfeng Temple disciple, if I didn’t have my Nine Dreams Sect identity, would I intervene if I encountered him?’ Master Yunxia asked herself this question.
And the answer was self-evident.
HSSS....
She slowly drew her sword. Her Inner Strength and Void Power erupted, spreading out to cover the surroundings, turning the several-hundred-meter radius into a lake of Inner Strength.
"Oh? You intend to move against me?" Han Sanmian raised his eyebrows in surprise. He truly couldn’t imagine what Lin Hui of Qingfeng Temple had given Master Yunxia to make her willing to take such a huge risk and draw her sword against a Grand Elder of Taixu like himself.
"I don’t intend to fight. I just wish to ask Grand Elder Han to remain here for a short while. I have long admired you, Grand Elder, and I would like to take this opportunity to ask for some guidance." Having made her decision, Master Yunxia’s face broke into a calm, composed smile.
"Interesting." Han Sanmian raised his right hand. "Very well. I can’t recall how many years it’s been since a rising star dared to challenge one of us."
HUMMM!
A vast expanse of pure white light from his Inner Strength radiated from him, forming a massive jade disk in mid-air that mirrored the lake of Inner Strength on the ground below.
"Then you’d best be careful. Since I dare to issue a challenge, I naturally have some confidence..." Master Yunxia raised her Mingde Sword, holding the blade horizontally before her.
"Then let’s see what you’ve got." Han Sanmian smiled, also raising his right hand.
In that instant, a brilliant white light flared in both their eyes.
At the same time, the same thought flashed through both their minds: ’Temporal Perception: Myriad Genesis!’
The two of them were actually using the same divine art domain.
Two immense and terrifying streams of Mental Power materialized in that instant, forming two vast Temporal Perception Domains that each covered several kilometers.
In the same instant, both of them vanished from their spots.
And in that same moment, the two Temporal Perception Domains smashed into each other.
The invisible domains rapidly squeezed, clashed, and canceled each other out in mid-air.
Soon, Master Yunxia’s Temporal Perception Domain clearly began to falter. Compared to the Grand Elder, the gap in their accumulated Mental Power was simply too great. The disadvantage was clear from the first moment of impact.
But she didn’t care. From the very beginning, her Temporal Perception Domain was only meant to temporarily counteract his.
And she had never intended to rely on the temporal domain to defeat her opponent.
Inside the temporal domain.
Everything around them was a riot of color. There were no concrete contours, only countless colorful light-flames burning like fire.
They filled the surrounding void, extending up, down, left, and right in all directions.
There was no mist, no earth, no sky.
Master Yunxia and Han Sanmian stood within this space of burning, colorful flames.
Without wasting words, they both charged toward each other at the first possible moment.
’My temporal domain can only hold for a minute and a half at most. I have to decide the outcome within that time!’ Master Yunxia mentally calculated the collapse rate of her domain. Her expression remained unchanged as her Mingde Sword stirred up gusts of wind, and she lunged at Han Sanmian.
She immediately used the Gale Swordsmanship she had just learned, right here inside the temporal domain.
"Trying to end this quickly?" Han Sanmian saw through her intentions. Smiling, he lightly tapped his own temple.
"Then let’s see you try. Mingji!"
RRIP! His entire body rapidly swelled, ballooning from his previous height to over four meters tall in the blink of an eye.
Blue-black scales sprouted across his skin, and a twisted, crown-like ridge of muscle grew on his head. His body morphed into a three-headed, six-armed form. His six hands—one forming a seal, one a fist, and another an open palm—simultaneously executed three different Martial Arts. A mixture of Void Power and his transmuted True Power instantly erupted into three tidal waves of platinum-gold energy, crashing down on Master Yunxia.
’Mingji!’ No longer hesitating, Master Yunxia also tapped her temple and entered her own three-headed, six-armed ultimate martial state!
A massive amount of Inner Strength converted into True Power, combining with Void Power to form a gale behind her. Propelled by her Gale Swordsmanship, she rapidly accelerated and charged forward.
BOOM!!
The two collided brazenly in mid-air.
The next moment, as if struck by lightning, Master Yunxia was sent flying backward. She tumbled for over a hundred meters through the air before finally managing to stabilize herself.
"That’s some kick!" Floating in mid-air, she wiped away the blood trickling from her nose and mouth with one hand, her gaze fixed on her opponent.
"We both used Mingji, but you are truly a Grand Elder. It seems the experts and geniuses you’ve devoured over the past seven or eight hundred years have all gone into forging this tempered ultimate martial form, haven’t they?"
"True Power is already limitless. The only thing we can do is expand the quality of our Heart and Spirit and enhance the strength of our physical bodies. That is all," Han Sanmian said.
"Do you want to continue? As a Supreme of the Nine Dreams Sect, your opponent should not be me."
"Who’s to say who my opponent must be?" Master Yunxia straightened up.
"Interesting. It seems you still have some tricks up your sleeve." Han Sanmian paid no mind to her taunt. "But what do you intend to use to break this ultimate martial body I’ve spent centuries forging?"
"I’m not sure if it will work either, but... if I don’t try, I’ll never be able to live with myself..." Master Yunxia raised her Mingde Sword high.
"Be careful, Grand Elder Han... From now on... I won’t be holding back."
"Holding back? Are all juniors these days so arrogant?" Han Sanmian chuckled, speechless.
But in the next moment, he watched as Master Yunxia’s ultimate martial form, already over three meters tall, began to swell and grow even larger, stretching higher.
Furious gales of wind swirled around her at high speed, as if she were the natural eye of a hurricane.
"Hm? What is...?"
Han Sanmian’s six eyes widened at once.
The next instant, a light flared in his field of vision.
A pure white, slender, and sharp glint of a sword!
"Wind!!"
Only then did Master Yunxia’s high-pitched roar reach his ears.
SHHNK!
A gash suddenly split open on Han Sanmian’s chest.
"Die!! HAHAHAHA!!" With a maniacal laugh, the three-headed, six-armed Master Yunxia swung her Longsword. Aided by the raging winds, she circled Han Sanmian, slashing at him with incredible speed!
"A very powerful Secret Technique... to instantly increase your power by so much... Is it a life-burning technique?" Black-blooded wounds continuously split open all over Han Sanmian’s body.
But he seemed completely unfazed and even had the leisure to comment on her move.
SQUELCH!
The next second, the Mingde Sword pierced his chest from behind, right where his heart should be.
But Han Sanmian showed no reaction at all, merely looking at Master Yunxia, who was now right in front of him.
"Not going to answer me?"
"What does Grand Elder Han want to hear? Some end-of-life comfort?" All six of Master Yunxia’s hands gripped the sword. With a sudden burst of force, she brutally dragged the blade to the left, tearing open a massive, half-meter-long gash in Han Sanmian’s wound.
Blood gushed out, but before it could spray even half a meter, it seemed to come alive and flow back into Han Sanmian’s mouth and nose on its own.
Only then did Master Yunxia notice that inside the wound she had cut open, there were no internal organs to be seen.
Furthermore, her Mingde Sword was nearly two meters long, but having pierced through Han Sanmian, its tip was nowhere to be seen on his back!
It was as if she had stabbed into a black hole!
"Young friend Yunxia, has no one ever told you not to get too close to a Blood Progenitor?"
Han Sanmian’s six hands had now all seized Master Yunxia.
Their immense powers began to clash.
He wanted to tear her to shreds.
But Master Yunxia was empowered by the True Body Seal, which boosted her strength by half. In this direct confrontation, they were actually locked in a stalemate, for the moment.
But soon, cracks began to spiderweb across Master Yunxia’s ultimate martial form with audible CRACKS.
Under the immense pressure of their struggle, her True Power was the first to give out.
"It seems I’m going to win," Han Sanmian said with a slight smile.
He gripped Master Yunxia tightly, a flash of hunger in his eyes as he watched the fissures of True Power cracking across her body.
"Oh well. A little dessert before the main course wouldn’t be so bad," he said, lifting Master Yunxia and holding her above him.
"Who do you think you’re eating?"
A voice suddenly sounded from behind him.
A look of surprise crossed Han Sanmian’s face, and he started to turn around.
SHHNK!!
The next instant, all six of his arms fell off without a sound.
Bloody lines also appeared on the necks of his three heads.
And behind him, a woman in a white dress with a white veil over her face stood in a corner of the temporal domain, having appeared from who knows where. She looked up at Han Sanmian and Master Yunxia in the air.
It was Han Xiaoyue!
