The world's experts gathered their gazes at the gap in the tomb gate, attempting to use their divine senses to pierce through and see the situation within.
Unfortunately, heaven does not always grant human wishes, and within the Emperor's Tomb, the situation remained obscured.
Energy surged wildly and dust billowed through the air.
Even the eyes of a saint found it difficult to see the true form of what lay inside.
Some, anxious to protect their children, attempted to tear open the corner of the crack to forcibly intervene.
However, when their divine abilities struck, the gate remained unblemished, while they themselves nearly suffered a backlash.
Across the Black Sand Sea, hearts were filled with panic and unease.
...
In Fanzhou.
Deep underground, within a certain abyss, a pair of crimson giant eyes constricted as an expression of agonizing fury was revealed.
With a violent retch, golden liquid erupted like a fountain, falling as a golden rain that splashed across the ground.
The golden liquid hissed and sizzled as it touched the bottom of the abyss, burning through the earth and stone.
The crimson eyes stared fixedly at the illusion before them, which had long since lost its image, falling silent for a long time.
He attempted to peer through again and project the image once more, but the vision before him never responded.
Yes.
At that very moment, his connection with the Twilight Burial Realm had been severed.
This meant that the wisp of obsession he had left in that world had been extinguished.
"How could this be?"
"It was not supposed to end like this."
He spoke to himself, muttering under his breath.
His thoughts began with disbelief, transitioned into a chaotic mess, and finally ended in a chilling realization.
"Did he think of this step long ago?"
He had tried to steal a chicken only to lose the rice, and in his entire life, he had rarely suffered such a loss.
To stumble because of a tiny mortal being was an unprecedented first for him.
In his original plan, he would select the most talented being in Fanzhou and bestow a blessing of eternal life upon them.
He would let them break his seal in the near future so he could ascend to the heavens.
A thousand years, five hundred years, or perhaps even shorter and faster...
But now, his plan had been utterly crushed, which was both unexpected and beyond all reason.
For a moment, he found it difficult to tell if the youth had seen through his intentions or if those old fellows from the past had anticipated today's events.
Perhaps they had laid this trap specifically for him.
He did not feel the discouragement of failure, nor did he abandon himself to despair because his plan was ruined.
He had many methods and had experienced many failures.
He was not afraid of failure; he never had been.
What he felt was merely the exasperated rage of being thwarted by a mortal being.
He recalled everything that had just happened.
The killing intent in his eyes grew increasingly turbulent, and for a moment, he even forgot that he was once the high and mighty Undying Great Emperor.
It was a tower, a thousand-foot-tall tower, as white as jade.
With a single strike of sword intent from that twelve-story tower, it had shattered his wisp of obsession and severed the connection between the Twilight Burial Realm and himself.
The sky had collapsed, the mountains and rivers had shaken, and the surging sword intent had instantly swallowed everything.
Even though it was only a wisp of obsession and he had not been there in person, the memory of it still left him with a lingering fear.
That single sword strike had unearthed a fear that had been buried deep within his heart for a long time.
He asked himself a question.
Even during the Battle of the Fallen Emperors in the Era of Ancient Immortals, when he fought against a hundred Immortal Kings and over a dozen Immortal Emperors alone, no one had ever been able to unleash such a sword strike.
He was undying and indestructible, with an unperishing body and an immortal soul.
Yet, a certain aura within that wisp of Celestial Sword Intent had made him smell death.
He had once traveled across the Star Sea and dominated the Cangming Realm for a time, possessing immense knowledge and having heard countless legends.
The beings of the heavens often said that all things in the world balanced each other; where there was darkness, there was light, and where there was cold, there was fire.
He wondered if the world that had given birth to him had also produced a person or an object specifically meant to counter him.
Today, he seemed to have seen it.
Was it that tower? Or was it that youth?
His thoughts grew deeper, and his aura became increasingly violent.
"The Heavenly White Jade Capital."
"Has that legendary man returned through reincarnation?"
"Since you cannot be used by me, then I cannot allow you to remain..."
...
Within the Twilight Burial Realm, the world was a vast expanse of dust, and the residual sword intent still drifted in the wind, continuing to sweep across the wasteland.
A bone bowl wobbled amidst the dust and yellow sand.
It was covered in numerous cracks that crisscrossed over its surface.
The surrounding area for ten miles had been razed to the ground, with not a single hill or bone in sight.
The monarch was gone.
The golden throne and the golden long table had also vanished.
They were mere delusions that scattered with the wind.
However, the white jade radiant cup on the ground still stood upright, and the golden liquid within it had not spilled a single drop.
Inside the bone bowl, the beings who had been bound by chains lay in a disorganized heap, having fainted.
In the middle of the crowd, a youth lay flat on his back, his face deathly pale as he stared blankly at the sky.
The wind and sand gathered and dispersed, and as the dust settled, his vision slowly cleared.
From his perspective, he saw a hole torn through the twilight sky.
A beam of light fell through the hole.
It was white.
It illuminated the entire world.
It felt as if he were inside a pitch-black box and someone had poked a hole in it; looking out from the inside gave him the sensation of a frog at the bottom of a well.
His thoughts and divine sense were similarly immersed in the scene that had just occurred.
It was difficult for him to snap back to reality.
Even though he had experienced it personally, it was still unbelievable.
'I am still alive?'
'Am I really this awesome?'
These two questions flashed through his mind incessantly.
His thoughts wandered aimlessly.
It was not until the little book spirit hovered before his eyes, flying back and forth while chirping incessantly, that Xu Xian finally forced his thoughts back to the present.
For a moment, he still could not hear clearly what the little book spirit was saying.
Because the humming of the sword still echoed in his ears and mind.
After a good while, he finally heard the little fellow's words in fragments.
It said that if his performance just now were rated out of ten, it could only give him an 8.6.
Because he seemed to have died a little bit.
Xu Xian was speechless; did the spirit think it was being humorous with its daily jokes?
Well, he admitted it was a little funny.
However, his entire body currently felt as if it were falling apart.
His head was buzzing, and he truly could not bring himself to laugh.
He struggled to climb to his feet and sat cross-legged, raising a hand covered in blood and dust to vigorously pat his own head.
He also dug at his ears.
He opened his mouth wide to stretch his jaw and took out a pill to swallow, and only after his symptoms eased slightly did he exhale a breath of turbid air.
"Phew..."
He looked up at the little book spirit and asked flatly, "Did you not say there was only one strike?"
The Celestial Sword Intent remained within the sword stele, and those who gained enlightenment from the stele would also inherit this Celestial Sword Intent.
When the new master encountered a life-or-death crisis or an irresistible force, the sword intent would feed back into the new master and automatically release to resolve the crisis.
Those were the little book spirit's original words.
Was it a lie that there was only one?
Could the sword intent kill an immortal?
That was also a lie.
That strike just now was more than enough to kill not just an immortal, but even the old tortoise.
The little book spirit feigned ignorance and said, "Is that so? I do not think I ever said that..."
Xu Xian gazed at it calmly.
The little book spirit guiltily tried to fix its mistake. "Then I might have remembered incorrectly. There were two strikes. Yes... there were two."
After a brief pause, the little book spirit's expression turned lonely as it sighed.
"What a waste. A Celestial Sword Intent capable of slaughtering a god immortal was actually used to kill a mere wisp of obsession. Sigh... what a waste of a heavenly treasure."
Rate on N.U.
