Chapter 164: Disassembly
From the Hidden Qilin Cloud Cavern to the central region, the terrain was not complex. After passing through a small canyon, Song Yan, on the verge of elimination, barely stepped back within the barrier.
“Phew—”
That was close.
Looking at the jade token in his hand, with only a sliver of spiritual light remaining, Song Yan felt a lingering chill of fear.
He had nearly been eliminated early—that would have been a devastating loss.
Once back within the barrier, the spirit markings on the token would slowly recover.
But the Sword-Tempering Competition was already nearly halfway through, and his spirit markings still stood at only five.
He needed to move faster.
“Perfect…”
Song Yan hung the token back at his waist.
On the cliff before him, there were three targets.
His divine sense, far exceeding that of ordinary cultivators, had already gathered all relevant information about the three of them.
Their current positions, possible movements, and their respective strength.
“Qi Refining eighth level, two at the seventh level.”
In truth, Song Yan still harbored doubts about his own combat strength.
After all, he had rarely faced opponents of true caliber at the same cultivation level.
No reasonable comparison could be drawn.
He estimated that he was perhaps on par with an ordinary ninth-level Qi Refining cultivator.
With full effort, overturning these three nameless figures before him should pose no problem.
After all… numbers did not guarantee perfect coordination or seamless cooperation.
Under the fierce onslaught of the Sword Dao, a one-against-many engagement could often be disassembled into countless one-on-one duels.
And since Song Yan had never ceased circulating the Cloud-Traversing Intent, his seventh-level Qi Refining cultivation was plainly visible to the three.
“This person…”
The cultivator surnamed Guo felt that this figure seemed strangely familiar.
But now was not the time for recollection. The other two cultivators cast questioning glances toward their leader.
The instant Song Yan stepped past the barrier, the tip of Guo’s finger twitched slightly.
At once.
Three streams of spiritual light, long poised to strike, erupted from three different angles!
From the left, a wind-element technique’s blade; from the right, a fire-element technique’s fire crow; and from the front, a yellow flying sword pierced through the air.
The three’s combined assault sealed every angle of evasion in an instant.
What no one could have expected was that Song Yan did not immediately flee. Instead, he posed a question.
“Fellow Daoists…”
“How many markings do your spirit tokens record?”
“?”
All three were taken aback by the question.
But soon, they sensed that something was wrong.
Song Yan’s wide Daoist robe sleeves stirred without wind, and two torrents of majestic green sword qi surged forth from within.
At the same time, from the sword box on his back, eighteen white sword shadows cascaded downward like a waterfall.
The central yellow flying sword met the sword shadows head-on. The spiritual light upon it faltered violently, then erupted into a chaotic ripple of spiritual energy.
Its trajectory began to waver erratically.
“!?” Guo’s pupils contracted sharply.
When he saw these dividing sword beams, he understood why this figure seemed familiar, yet he could not place him.
Because the information about this person had come from his junior sister’s lips.
“A dark teal sword box, dividing sword beams, green sword qi…”
This person…
Was Song Yan!
Guo now knew precisely whom they had encountered, but the other two seventh-level cultivators were utterly bewildered.
The two green sword qi streams, one left and one right, scattered their techniques with contemptuous ease.
How strange.
This man’s cultivation was undeniably at the seventh level of Qi Refining, and even now, there was not the slightest change.
He had not concealed his realm—so how could his sword qi possess such overwhelming might?
It made no sense.
There was no time to explain. Guo rapidly altered his hand seals.
The jade pendant at his waist suddenly burst forth with blinding golden light, coalescing before him into three tortoise-shell-shaped spirit shields.
He bellowed, “Run!”
This had been his idea, and he intended to buy as much time as possible, letting the two juniors escape first.
A man of principle, it seemed.
But… run?
The two froze at the command. Song Yan heard it and smiled.
Those two were thinking that even if this man had some tricks, he was still only at the seventh level of Qi Refining. Surely he could not—
When they turned their heads, they found that the Sword Trial Peak disciple had vanished from where he stood.
“?!?”
Between one breath and the next, the white Daoist robes had materialized behind the person on the left, billowing without wind.
“Ah Long!”
Too late.
Song Yan showed no mercy. Sword qi erupted from his sleeve, shattering the other’s protective spiritual aura into nothing.
“Ugh…”
On the other side, the seventh-level cultivator seemed to sense something faintly.
But six white sword shadows had already circled to his side.
Sharp light surged.
Hiss.
At nearly the same instant, the spirit marking jade tokens at both their waists were severed and fell.
Song Yan extended a hand. “Come.”
The two tokens dropped into his palm, and two streams of spirit light slowly drew forth from them, merging into his own token.
The number upon it shifted.
“Eighteen.”
Even as the white light of teleportation enveloped him, the person on the right still stood frozen in his spell-casting posture.
He seemed to find it difficult to accept that he had already been eliminated.
And Guo, seeing that both his junior brothers had already been teleported away, ceased his futile resistance. Spiritual energy surged frantically throughout his body, warding off the encroaching sword qi from every direction.
Then he produced an ordinary escape talisman, intending to flee the area.
But Song Yan had no intention of letting him go.
All eighteen sword shadows surged forth at once, and the Green Snake Within the Sleeve was driven with equal ferocity.
Green sword qi swept toward this man like a violent storm.
But three tortoise-shell spirit shields still guarded Guo’s body, and the chaotic sword shadows could not breach them quickly.
The opponent had devoted every ounce of his strength to defense. If this stalemate persisted, the man might actually escape.
Song Yan brought two fingers together into a sword seal. Without hesitation, the sword qi within his Town-Dao Sword Manor poured forth in a torrent.
Upon the white sword shadows, the sound of wind and thunder hummed resonantly. Twelve of them swiftly gathered in the sky above.
At one precise moment, Song Yan softly exhaled.
“Descend.”
A beam of sword light, concentrated to its utmost limit, flashed between heaven and earth for a single instant.
Boom!!!
The three spirit shields crumbled one after another.
In the final image Guo beheld before teleportation, he saw that figure descend lightly to the ground, its wide sleeves stirring without wind.
The eighteen sword shadows were slowly drifting back into the sword box behind him. His fingers beckoned once toward Guo’s position.
“…”
The jade token at his waist was already flying toward him.
Spirit light exchanged, and the number upon it shifted once more.
“Twenty-six.”
A flash of white light, and Guo was teleported away.
Now, Flowing Cloud Cliff was utterly silent.
Only a young cultivator remained, gazing at the number on the jade token in his hand, lost in thought.
“Still far too few.”
Over sixteen hundred cultivators had entered the Sword Tempering. As Granny Qin had said, at least six hundred to eight hundred of them would have no interest whatsoever in entering the barrier’s inner zone.
Their goal was to survive while gathering as many valuable spiritual herbs as possible.
Now that the assembly was already halfway through, the deeper one ventured into the barrier’s territory, the more dangerous it became.
Many cultivators who disliked conflict would voluntarily step beyond the barrier, waiting to be teleported out.
Others might have been caught in skirmishes outside the barrier, their token’s spiritual light depleted, eliminated with a “substantial” number of spirit markings—but beyond the safety of the barrier.
The time and prey left for him were, in truth, dwindling rapidly.