Chapter 195: Overlapping Blades
Only when the colossal tiger demon stood upon level ground did the others truly perceive how massive its monstrous form truly was.
It moved with the ponderous gait of a small mountain, its enormous shadow casting an oppressive canopy that seemed to blot out the sun even to the eyes of cultivators.
The might of its demonic aura crashed down upon them like a physical weight.
“Late first-stage demonic beast…”
In terms of demonic cultivation alone, it rivaled a cultivator at the tenth level of the Qi Refining Stage.
Should they come to blows, an ordinary cultivator would surely perish.
The very flesh and fur of a demon cultivator constituted a formidable artifact of both offense and defense.
What was more…
Behind the tiger demon’s back rested a long saber.
Though the blade remained sheathed, Song Yan had already gleaned its nature through observation.
It followed the standard horizontal saber design, yet its blade proved slightly longer and broader than convention dictated. Both hilt and scabbard bore the dark stains of dried blood.
Song Yan’s sword qi surged about his body as his cultivation aura unfurled. He spoke in a low, steady voice: “Go intercept the one called Su Li. Be careful.”
Against this demon, he could not afford to divide his attention to protect Liu Xincheng and Ju Luyi.
“Yes, Senior.”
“Xiao He, you go watch them as well.”
“Hssss~”
Liu Xincheng and Ju Luyi hurried toward the valley mouth, seeking to thwart Su Li’s binding formation.
“Qi Refining Stage, eighth level.” A glint of delight surfaced in the tiger demon’s eyes.
For the demon, a cultivator at the eighth level of the Qi Refining Stage represented the most “palatable” of blood offerings.
A cultivator at this realm could be slaughtered and consumed with ease by its own strength.
At the ninth or tenth level, while not vastly different, it would still require additional effort.
This inevitably introduced an unpleasant “grinding against the teeth” quality to the entire feeding process, diminishing the experience.
The demon tilted its neck, producing the sharp crack of shifting bone, and unleashed a thunderous roar of excitement: “ROAR—!”
The wrathful cry of the mountain’s sovereign reverberated throughout the entirety of Qing Valley. Every bird and beast, every chicken, dog, and domestic creature fell silent in trembling.
BOOM!
The massive body hurtled toward Song Yan like a cannonball, without the slightest warning.
The demon’s claw trailed an afterimage as it reached for his skull, as though in the next instant it would pluck his head free.
As effortlessly as plucking a fruit.
The broad demonic palm rapidly filled his field of vision. Song Yan activated his Cloud-Stepping Art, shifting his weight and sidestepping.
He evaded the strike.
The tiger demon’s gaze narrowed. It had not anticipated that its opponent would dodge, let alone with such effortless ease.
The assault did not abate. The tiger’s palm rotated slightly as its claws swept horizontally.
The sharp edge of the sword within the Town-Dao Sword Manor Repository shattered under the impact. Simultaneously, a sliver of keen edge coalesced silently at Song Yan’s fingertip.
His eyes remained clear and calm, fixed intently upon the tiger demon’s movements.
The tiger palm bore down upon him, carrying a putrid, violent wind!
In the Young Lord’s mind, this human was already dead.
Yet at that precise moment, the opponent’s arm shot upward, his fingertip pointing from afar toward the center of the descending palm.
Pfft.
A beam of golden light pierced through the dense demonic flesh.
Before the tiger demon could even register confusion, the torrential sword qi encapsulated within that golden beam violently hurled it backward through the air.
The tiger demon twisted mid-flight, stabilizing its form.
It then drove its left paw into the ground, sliding several feet before landing.
With an expressionless face, it raised its left palm. A hole, punched clean through, was slowly knitting itself shut under the influence of demonic energy.
“…”
It turned its palm over and over, gazing at the wound that was even now closing and vanishing, seemingly unable to believe what it saw.
What had that been?
It had pierced through its fur and flesh with such ease.
Song Yan never begrudged the expenditure of his Sword Dao true essence, nor did he hoard it as some “trump card.”
This had been especially true since he had comprehended sword intent and forged his complete natal flying sword.
Using it early meant he could condense another sooner. Should the battle drag on, he might even manifest a second strike.
It had to be said, this single finger strike had left the Young Lord somewhat dazed.
If this human could unleash such devastating spells at will…
The tiger demon shook its head and laughed at itself in self-mockery.
How could that possibly be?
It gazed at its palm, already healed in the span of a breath, and clenched it tightly, baring its teeth in a grin.
“Interesting,” it rasped.
Its right hand drifted toward the saber hilt behind its back, and simultaneously, a wisp of bloody energy gathered rapidly in its palm.
The tiger demon’s eyes turned crimson. Its left hand began forming a series of mystical hand seals.
“Void!”
Hummm—
A concentrated blade of saber energy surged forth. In Song Yan’s eyes, the tiger demon had merely taken a single step forward, yet it had already arrived before him.
The Cloud-Stepping Art allowed him to evade the blade energy, but the tiger demon now stood directly before him.
The saber’s edge swept across in a horizontal arc, irresistible in its momentum.
In a single blink, the Observing Void Sword Eye activated. Within his wide sleeve, the Azure Serpent sword qi coiled and ready to strike. A streak of black-and-white sword light descended with blinding speed, unleashing a deluge of torrential sword qi.
Severing Tide.
His sword finger pressed downward as the ink-like sword qi poured forth like a celestial river cascading from the heavens.
A pair of tiger eyes fixed with sudden intensity. Neither dodging nor retreating, a expression of savage ferocity surfaced upon its face.
With a wild roar, crimson blood energy and demonic power transformed into a raging gale of demonic wind.
Saber met sword, and sword qi collided with the demonic tempest.
BOOM—
The piercing clang of steel meeting steel was submerged beneath the cataclysm. A shockwave radiated outward in all directions.
The tiger demon’s grotesque face contorted into a savage laugh as the flesh and sinew across its body began to churn and swell.
It gently suspended the saber aloft, then reversed its grip and slashed downward with savage force.
Hummm—
A ring of blade energy, laden with demonic power and blood aura, radiated outward in a devastating circumference.
Simultaneously, threads of demonic energy flickered across its body, and its entire physique began to expand rapidly.
In that fleeting instant, demonic blood erupted.
Song Yan drove the Cloud-Stepping Art to its limit, stepping forward against the tide of blood to evade the circular blade energy.
Yet by this point, the tiger demon’s transformation had already completed.
Its body had swollen to an enormous size within the erupting demonic blood, muscles and sinew knotted like iron and stone.
A casual swipe of its saber no longer concentrated its force, but instead dispersed into dozens of crimson torrents that twisted and raged toward Song Yan like vipers.
Song Yan’s pupils contracted slightly as he maneuvered the Cloud-Stepping Art at full speed, weaving his body through the chaotic storm of blade energy.
“A mere human cultivator at the eighth level of the Qi Refining Stage!” the tiger demon bellowed.
Its saber strikes grew ever more frenzied: “You presume to contend with this Lord in strength?!”
Humans were fragile beyond compare!
They deserved only to serve as blood offerings for the demon race!
A sweep of his sword finger, and two flying swords shot forth from the sword case upon his back, gliding like fish entering water.
The Untethered Vessel descended between Song Yan and the tiger demon, plunging vertically into the earth.
His dark Daoist robes billowed without wind as sword qi from the Town-Dao Sword Manor Repository surged forth in an overwhelming torrent.
The spiritual energy within the valley converged like a vortex, pouring into the sword formation and transforming into sword qi.
Above the black-and-white flying swords, a frigid moon disc coalesced.
Crescent Moon.
The Twin-Branch Sword split into three crescent arcs that swept across with lightning speed, annihilating every trace of the crimson blade energy.
The sword’s momentum did not dissipate.
The tiger demon swung its saber to block, only to watch the crescent sword light twist with uncanny unpredictability—the blade cut through empty air!
Shhhk—
Sword qi carved into the demonic flesh, sending demonic blood spraying.
“Hm?”
The crescent strike had not inflicted devastating injury upon the tiger demon, yet it discovered with considerable astonishment that wherever the sword qi had cut, a lingering sword mark remained!
The demon race’s innate fleshly regeneration proved incapable of dispelling it, and wearing it away with demonic energy required an excruciatingly slow process.
Fortunately, the sword marks carried little residual power—they merely irritated him.
“Son of a…”
He cursed under his breath, but before he could raise his saber for another strike, the second sword had already arrived.
Upon the blade of the Spirit-Sacrificing Qilin, moonlight blazed with sudden intensity.
Song Yan gathered his sword fingers, and a crescent-shaped sword light rose from within the formation, spanning its entire breadth.
The tiger demon had no time to evade. Its entire being condensed its demonic energy into a shield of blood aura.
Yet the sword light cleaved through, and the shield disintegrated instantaneously.
The moonlight shattered, but it still transformed into multiple strands of sword qi that landed upon the tiger demon’s body.
The tiger demon roared, its eyes nearly splitting with rage, its heart brimming with murderous intent.
It ignored the lingering sword marks upon its body and charged toward Song Yan.
This human was too uncanny. The intense sensation of crisis compelled it to fight with all its strength. To trade wound for wound, to wager life against life.
He was but a single human—he would surely perish!
This was the confidence inherent to the demon race.
Yet at that very moment, the Untethered Vessel rose from the earth, and ascending alongside it was the cold, luminous moon disc.
Song Yan’s golden sword eyes remained as placid as an ancient well, gazing with cold detachment upon the demonic figure charging toward him at furious speed.
He spoke softly.
“Moonfall.”
His sword finger pressed down.
The Untethered Vessel’s pale, keen edge descended in an inverted arc. The instant its tip touched the tiger demon’s thick, resilient fur, it paused for the briefest heartbeat.
Then, without the slightest resistance, it pierced through the demon’s body.
Pinning it to the ground.
The tiger demon roared and struggled ceaselessly, striving to break free.
But then it saw light descending from the heavens!
The moon disc hung high in the sky, and its frigid radiance transformed into countless slender streams of sword light that rained down like a cascade.
The flying sword that pinned the demon’s body remained utterly immovable. The tiger demon could not escape.
Innumerable strands of sword qi fell like moonlight upon the demon’s monstrous form.
Shhk shhk shhk…
The ceaseless whisper of sword qi slicing into flesh persisted without end. Demonic blood burst forth like a fine mist.
The tiger demon’s massive body deflated like a punctured balloon, reverting to its original state.
The demon race’s secret technique of explosive blood energy had been ground into nothingness by the Moonfall sword light.
ROAR!!!
The tiger demon’s roar still carried the weight of defiance and hatred.
Until the last rays of moonlight fell and the sword qi dispersed.
Song Yan flexed his sword fingers, and the Twin-Branch and Spirit-Sacrificing Qilin swords returned to the sword case.
The Untethered Vessel was summoned back to his side.
As though the battle had concluded.
The demonic shadow trembled faintly. The once majestic tiger body now appeared wretched and broken.
It propped itself up with both palms and actually managed to stand, though with agonizing slowness.
A pair of crimson tiger eyes fixed upon Song Yan.
Sensing this human’s profoundly depleted aura, it bared its teeth in a cruel grin.
“Heh heh heh…”
“Can you still… challenge me now?”
Its right hand gripped the saber hilt as the remnants of its blood energy and demonic power slowly gathered.
Watching the opponent sheath his flying swords and stand with hands at his sides—as though resigning himself to fate—the tiger demon finally allowed itself to relax.
Until Song Yan suddenly raised one hand.
A faint wisp of sword qi emerged from his fingertip.
“Hm?”
The tiger demon froze in place, then instantly sensed an overwhelming crisis.
Yet it could not evade.
The three strikes of the sword formation moments ago—especially the final Moonfall—had left countless sword marks upon its massive demonic body.
Now, under the influence of that seemingly feeble strand of sword qi, every single mark erupted with sudden keenness.
“?!”
In the span of a single breath, all the sword marks detonated simultaneously!
Hummm—
A concentrated blade of sword light flashed across the tiger demon’s body for an instant, then vanished.
As though it had never existed.
The colossal tiger form collapsed to the earth, its demonic blood staining the surrounding ground a deep crimson.
Its pupils had gone slack. Life had already departed.
Song Yan walked forward at a measured pace. The Observing Void Sword Eye scanned the demon’s body for a moment, then he directed the Untethered Vessel to carve open its abdomen and extract a pearl the size of a lotus seed.
A demon core.
Unlike the golden core of human cultivators, demon cultivators condensed a core of demonic energy and vital blood within their bodies from the moment they awakened spiritual intelligence and embarked upon the demonic path.
This core grew gradually in tandem with the demon cultivator’s strength and cultivation.
Such was the demon core.
A demon core from beneath the Foundation Establishment stage held little actual value.
But this tiger demon had been a late first-stage demonic beast, its demonic energy profoundly condensed.
Its demon core had already reached the maximum size attainable by a first-stage demon, and its mere sale alone would fetch a considerable number of spirit stones.
It could also serve as a marginal ingredient in the refinement of certain specialized elixirs.
Song Yan regarded the tiger demon’s ruined pelt with a silent lament.
The technique he had employed to activate the sword marks was no new sword move, but rather a Sword Dao skill recorded within the Spirit Transmutation Chapter.
Being a skill, it could be incorporated into the Cloud Sword, the Azure Serpent within the Sleeve, and even into sword formations.
This technique was called Overlapping Blades.
In truth, this was not the first time Song Yan had employed it in combat.
During the decisive rounds of the Sword-Tempering Competition, he had used the Overlapping Blades technique to activate sword marks and shatter Li Yi’s protective spiritual energy.
Yet at that time, his mastery of the skill had been quite rudimentary—simply mimicking the form in a moment of desperation.
Later, during the process of studying sword formation techniques, he had pondered and practiced it at length for several months. Now, he had finally achieved the ability to perfectly integrate this technique into his sword moves and formations.
Song Yan silently congratulated himself. Had he not broken through to a higher cultivation realm before departing the sect, and had he not mastered the sword formation…
This battle would likely have ended in a bitter defeat and death.
However, now was not the time for inventory or reflection. He still had one vital hypothesis to verify.
He collected the tiger demon’s carcass and the fallen horizontal saber, then strode toward the valley mouth.
…
Outside Qing Valley, the villagers had gathered.
Liu Xincheng lay upon the ground, his face ashen, his robes torn, his ribcage a mangled ruin of blood and flesh.
Su Li stood with an air of leisurely composure before the earth god shrine at the valley’s entrance, a trace of mocking contempt playing at the corner of his lips: “Brother Liu, why must you be so stubborn? With your sect’s immortal stalling the demon, you might have enjoyed a few more sticks of incense. Why court death so eagerly?”
Liu Xincheng’s heart filled with cold despair.
Ever since the disappearance of Steward Hu, he had harbored a secret hope and failed to report it to the sect, yet he had continued his own investigation.
Whether rogue cultivators or mortals, the number of disappearances near Qing Valley had only multiplied.
It was only recently that he had uncovered a few faint traces.
He had never imagined events would escalate to this present catastrophe.
“Su… Li!” Liu Xincheng ground his teeth. “Conspiring with demons, slaughtering innocents, murdering fellow cultivators—does your Profound Abyss Sect fear no retribution?!”
“Fear what?” Su Li’s gaze was cold and detached. “If you are all dead, who would ever know?”
Suddenly, among the assembled villagers, an old farmer rushed forward in tears and collapsed at Su Li’s feet: “Immortal Su! Did you not say the demon calamity had been quelled?!”
He reached out to grasp the hem of his robe.
“Get away!”
Su Li’s expression darkened. With a casual flick, a wind blade severed the old farmer’s outstretched hand at the wrist.
“Aaaahhh—”
Watching the man writhe and scream in agony before him, Su Li’s lips curled into a cruel smile.
This was it.
This sensation of holding the power of life and death over others…
How exquisite it was.
If not for the Young Lord’s preference for fresh blood offerings, every last person here—without exception—would have been toyed with, played with to exhaustion, and then permitted to die in exquisite pain.
Ju Luyi channeled her spiritual energy, slowly tending to Liu Xincheng’s wounds.
Su Li observed this with an expression of visible impatience.
He raised his hand and sent a wind blade cleaving toward the pair.
Ju Luyi braced herself, ready to deploy her artifact in defense.
At that moment, an unexpected change erupted.
Swoosh—
A single azure-green leaf flew from somewhere, intercepting the wind blade in midair and shattering it.
“Who?!”
Su Li’s heart jolted. He spun around to look.
Among the trembling, prostrate villagers, a young girl crouched in perfect stillness.
Her eyes were opened wide, fixed unblinkingly upon Su Li.
Her gaze made his skin crawl.
(End of Chapter)