The Domineering Blade, peerless and absolute.
The Swift Blade, as fleeting as a galloping horse.
The Deceptive Blade, strange and unpredictable.
One after another, Xu Zimo displayed these blade techniques. The two clashed, blade and sword, fighting from one end of the plain to the other.
“You… are impressive,” Xie Changliu finally spoke first.
Xu Zimo only smiled, his blade bursting with overwhelming might as it struck downward.
This pure contest of sword and blade had run its course.
It was time to end it.
Where his gaze fell, the edge of the blade followed.
The explosion of power forced Xie Changliu back.
He drove his sword into the ground, retreating more than ten meters, carving a deep scar in the earth before he could steady himself.
Rising, he stood straight and proud, eyes fixed ahead. He twirled his longsword, forming a dazzling flower of steel.
“Through the winds of time, let the song be free,” he whispered.
He fell backward, his sword circling over his head in a great arc. Terrifying sword intent erupted with it.
He stepped forward, then again.
Instantly, sword aura thousands of meters long tore into the heavens, his blade crashing down toward Xu Zimo.
“Kill!”
Xu Zimo did not evade. Raising Shadow Tyrant, he met the strike head-on, releasing his boundless blade intent.
“Dirge of the Sword!”
“Nineteen Forms of Dao-Seeking: Samsara Reversal!”
Their shouts rang out at the same moment.
Xie Changliu’s sword seemed to weep with emotion, singing a sorrowful dirge that merged with the howling winds.
Movement, sword, and storm became one.
On Xu Zimo’s side, heaven and earth split into yin and yang. Black and white energy swirled over his blade.
The cycle of samsara lay like a kingdom in his palm, only to be cut down in a single strike.
Both were driven back several steps.
Xie Changliu wiped blood from the corner of his mouth, then charged again with a cold snort.
“Waves Pursue the Eternal Peak!”
He raised his sword.
Behind him, sword aura surged into towering waves, vast as mountains, rising into the sky.
He himself became as unshakable as the eternal peak amid the storm.
“Whales Rage, Fish-Dragons Roar!” he bellowed.
Within the monstrous waves, the phantom of a creature appeared, part whale, part dragon, swimming through the storm.
When Xie Changliu’s sword fell, the fish-dragon, the eternal peak, and the raging tides all converged into one.
The power condensed into the sword, which then came crashing down.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The blade split the current as it collided with Xu Zimo’s Shadow Tyrant.
“Nineteen Forms of Dao-Seeking: Heaven Burial!”
Two overwhelming torrents clashed, shaking half the void itself.
The shockwave forced them apart.
Xie Changliu stepped into the air, standing upon the void, overlooking the plain below.
“When whales rise, myriad dragons sink. When waves fall, heaven and earth perish.”
As the words fell, he vanished completely.
In all the heavens, only one sword remained.
That sword soared arrogantly through the sky. Sometimes a blade, sometimes a fish-dragon surging.
Finally, with thunder and lightning raging, the colossal sword tore through layer after layer of void, cutting toward Xu Zimo.
“What a magnificent sword technique,” Xu Zimo praised.
He raised Shadow Tyrant, his expression solemn, blade-tip aligned with the heavens.
His gaze and the blade became one straight line.
Softly, he whispered, “Nineteen Forms of Dao-Seeking: God Desolation.”
At once, his purple robe and black hair billowed upward without wind. His long hair danced, his robe cracked like thunder.
From him spread the breath of the ancient god-desolation, covering the wild earth.
In his past life, he had created the Nineteen Forms of Dao-Seeking. This move, God Desolation, had been born only from inspiration.
But in this life, after traversing forbidden grounds and even overturning divine relics, he had refined and completed it.
Shadow Tyrant rose, then fell, infused with god-desolation.
Darkness consumed the world.
In that darkness, only one blade and one sword clashed.
For a fleeting instant, a single streak of light split the heavens.
Their figures crossed.
The world returned to normal.
They stood back to back, each lowering their weapon.
The void shattered again and again, the earth collapsing into ruin.
Blade and sword intent raged for a long while, annihilating everything.
Only after more than ten minutes did calm return.
Xu Zimo slowly turned around. Opposite him, Xie Changliu turned as well.
But as he turned, his legs gave way, broken at the shinbones.
He collapsed to the ground.
“What burden rests in your heart?” Xu Zimo asked.
For one with hesitation, the sword could never remain pure.
“Do not kill Fairy Myriad Flowers,” Xie Changliu said with difficulty.
“Why?” Xu Zimo asked.
But at the question, Xie Changliu fell silent.
Xu Zimo frowned, his gaze stretching beyond Ten-Mile Slope to the lands ahead.
He glanced back once at Xie Changliu.
The Sword God now seemed a man in decline, his brilliance fading.
He lifted his head and walked away into the distance.
Xie Changliu raised a hand, as if to speak again.
But when his lips parted, no words came.
Blackwater Lake, the largest body of water in Heaven's End, Ocean's Edge.
It began from East Gate Pass, stretched across half the world, and emptied south at South Martial Pass.
Its waters were infamous, black as ink.
All year round, the lake was turbulent, waves crashing ceaselessly.
Ordinary cultivators found it nearly impossible to cross.
And the closer one drew to South Martial Pass, the more few dared approach.
It was said a Dragon King lived there.
It survived by devouring humans, vicious and unimaginably powerful.
After passing endless plains, Xu Zimo finally reached Blackwater Lake.
Looking up, he could see Chaos Cloud Ravine in the distance.
There, mountain ridges stacked like stairways to the heavens, vanishing into the sky.
Without pause, Xu Zimo stepped onto the waters, walking across the waves.
The surging tide rose to meet him, one wave after another.
With a wave of his hands, time and space froze.
The waves hung still in the air, as if frozen in ice.
Xu Zimo advanced swiftly across the lake.
But just then, a colossal figure erupted from below.
The frozen space shattered. The beast broke the surface, opening a gaping maw.
The stench of blood filled the air.
It lunged to swallow him whole.
Xu Zimo frowned slightly, pressing his foot against its fang and retreating back in a flash.
With a deafening boom, torrents of water exploded into the sky, waves crashing together.
The massive beast plunged back into the depths, vanishing beneath the surging surface.
Xu Zimo steadied himself, eyes scanning the waters below.