Chapter 26: The Sword Emerges Like a Dragon
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When the dignified City God heard the other man's words, his expression changed drastically.
He pointed at him and shouted furiously, his voice low and thunderous. “Yang Zhao, you deserve to die.”
As he spoke, the three-foot ritual sword in his hand erupted with brilliant radiance. Razor-sharp sword qi surged through the courtyard, filling every inch of space around them.
The sword's tip was aimed at Yang Zhao's head.
“Give me your life.”
Before the words had even faded, the City God shot forward like an arrow and arrived before Yang Zhao in an instant.
Facing that fierce sword strike, the scholar's expression did not change in the slightest. He merely raised a hand, and from all eight directions, clouds of black smoke drifted forth.
The smoke reeked of blood and corruption. It transformed into chains that rushed toward the City God from every direction.
At the sight of this, most of the City God's fury ebbed away. He instantly regained his senses.
He spun around and swung his sword with tremendous force. A dazzling golden sword light exploded outward, and the entire courtyard trembled faintly. In an instant, it severed one of the chains, which writhed like a venomous serpent.
He followed with another strike. Sword qi swept in every direction, cutting all the remaining chains apart.
Turning back, the City God glared furiously at Yang Zhao.
His hands never paused for even a moment. He brought his sword crashing down toward Yang Zhao's head, and because the strike was so swift, it was accompanied by a series of shrill sonic booms.
Yang Zhao moved with graceful lightness, swiftly turning aside and narrowly evading the blade.
Looking down, he saw the veins bulging on the City God's sword-wielding hands. The ritual sword had torn a trench four or five inches wide through the ground.
The scholar slipped aside, and a spirit brush appeared in his palm. Dipped in spiritual ink, it swept through the air.
In moments, a golden character appeared. It suddenly blazed with light, transforming in midair into a small mountain that descended upon the City God with crushing force.
In the blink of an eye, the mountain landed atop the City God's head.
His waist bent sharply beneath its weight, while explosive cracks rang out from his golden body in rapid succession, like beans popping in a pan.
His face flushed crimson, and his expression became ferocious.
He immediately roared, “Break!”
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The instant his voice fell, dazzling golden radiance burst from the City God's entire body. His form continued to grow taller and more powerfully built.
In less than a moment, he had transformed into a towering divine being four or five zhang tall. Brilliant golden light flickered in his eyes, his countenance was solemn and majestic, and golden radiance coiled around his body. The ritual sword in his hand had grown enormous as well, making his golden form appear even more imposing.
With a casual punch, the City God shattered the small mountain above his head. It exploded into countless stones, each the size of a fist, that flew in every direction.
When everything finally settled, the small courtyard had been reduced to ruins.
The City God fixed Yang Zhao with eyes as bright as torches.
After taking two steps, each one making the ground tremble, he appeared before Yang Zhao and swept his sword horizontally.
Only a corpse remained on the ground.
The City God raised his head and looked toward a certain part of the sky beyond the city walls. After drawing a deep breath, he shot into the air and hurried toward the battlefield.
After the Twelvefold Soul-Refining Formation was broken, the righteous cultivators seized their opportunity and surged into the city like a raging tide.
Their momentum soared like a rainbow. By contrast, the demonic cultivators had already revealed signs of decline in the battle beneath the walls, and the first hints of collapse had appeared.
Now, facing the high-spirited righteous cultivators, they were actually beginning to shrink back, fighting as they retreated.
Five people were battling fiercely in midair.
On the righteous side were four supreme experts: Lord Liu of the Demon-Suppression Office, Qin Hong of Qingyang Academy, Everlasting Daoist of Sanyang Temple, and the wandering sword cultivator Xu Qingzhi. Together, they surrounded and attacked Xu Mu, the Ninth Tower Master of the Longevity Pavilion.
Terrifying forces thundered through the sky like muffled explosions. Several figures crossed and interwove at astonishing speed, dazzling the eyes of all who watched.
Cultivators of lesser attainment could barely keep their minds steady merely by approaching this battlefield, much less participate in a clash of such a level.
In midair, Lord Liu attacked with ruthless precision. Dressed in black official robes, he moved with vigorous agility. The talisman blade in his hand hummed, while the two seal-script characters on its hilt shone brilliantly and transformed into two dragons, each more than thirty feet long, that harried his opponent.
He himself wielded the long blade, its radiance spreading through the air like a bolt of silk, unbroken and seemingly endless.
Qin Hong, vice-dean of Qingyang Academy, followed close behind. Elegant and graceful, he wore a blue robe that snapped loudly in the wind. In his hand was a folding fan. His seemingly casual movements sent howling whirlwinds tearing through the air, as though even the void itself were being ripped apart, and they rushed toward the man dressed in white.
Everlasting Daoist of Sanyang Temple traveled through the sky. His Daoist robes billowed in the fierce high-altitude winds. Thirty-six talismans formed a ring before him, while the incantations he chanted were obscure and difficult to understand. A scorching aura seemed to spread through the surrounding air.
As he dripped blood onto each talisman, they suddenly writhed like serpents before his eyes, transforming into a ferocious flaming dragon that lunged toward his opponent.
The sword cultivator Xu Qingzhi was like a bolt of silver lightning. Sword light crisscrossed at a speed that left one gasping, giving his opponent not the slightest chance to breathe. Of the four righteous experts, his killing power was unquestionably the strongest.
Facing the combined assault of the four men, Xu Mu's white robes fluttered freely. A bone sword more than a foot long, glowing with a soft radiance, hovered around him.
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Sword light continuously circled around him, swift as flowing radiance and leaving behind countless afterimages. Each time, it blocked the enemy's attack with perfect precision.
For a time, fighting one against four, he actually held his own.
Even as he battled the four supreme righteous experts, he spared part of his attention to observe the fighting below.
By now, the Demon-Slaying Office had become unstoppable, and the collapse of the demonic cultivators was inevitable.
The Demon Gate forces could only retreat into the city. Fierce fighting raged along the walls, while violent clashes had also erupted at the various Demon Gate strongholds throughout the city.
Thinking of this, Xu Mu understood all too clearly that his side had lost the overall advantage.
A desire to retreat gradually arose in his heart.
Just then, a sword light shaped like a soaring dragon erupted from within the city. It illuminated the dark moonlit sky with dazzling brilliance before shooting straight into the heavens. Its radiance was so blinding that everyone turned to look.
Feeling that terrifying aura, the demonic cultivators of the Demon Gate were instantly overcome with fear.
In the next moment, Xu Mu's expression changed drastically as the sword light struck him. His entire body was hurled backward through the air, and he spat out a great mouthful of bright red blood.
A short while later, accompanied by a thunderous boom, he crashed heavily into a small mountain beyond the city.
Then a majestic figure appeared in the sky.
It was the City God, who had just slain Yang Zhao.
His eyes were sharp as a hawk's as he looked toward the ground. Before long, he found the place where Xu Mu had fallen.
The several experts each employed their own methods, arriving at the spot where Xu Mu had crashed almost simultaneously.
A crater more than thirty feet across scarred the ground. A white ritual robe lay scattered within it, but the Ninth Tower Master of the Longevity Pavilion was nowhere to be seen.
Lord Liu's expression darkened. “He got away.”
The furious City God swung his sword, instantly shearing more than thirty feet from the height of a nearby hill.
The group returned to Fengyang City. Since the true culprit had escaped, these underlings would remain here forever.
An even more brutal slaughter was unfolding throughout the city.
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