Chapter 1029 - Contest of Dao Techniques

The moment Liu Wuxie unleashed the Golden Flame Strike, Steward He sensed danger surge toward him. In that instant, he realized the young man standing before him truly had the power to threaten his life.

If Liu Wuxie hadn't broken through to the third level of the Spirit Profound Realm, he would have ordered Miao Jianying to take the two women and flee.

Liu Wuxie hurled the Golden Flame Strike straight at Steward He's head.

Steward He summoned a heavy blade just in time and used it to block the attack.

"What a fine blade," Liu Wuxie said, his tone sincere.

As a lover of blades, he didn't hesitate to offer praise when faced with a weapon of such outstanding quality.

Steward He ran his hand along the blade and replied, "Indeed. It has accompanied me through hundreds of years of war and slain thousands."

Liu Wuxie understood that sentiment more than anyone.

But the tension between them only grew thicker. Steward He had no intention of showing mercy just because Liu Wuxie admired his weapon. Praise meant nothing here, certainly not enough to spare a life.

The two charged at each other again, their movements blurring into streaks of light as blade auras filled the sky.

With each clash, their speed intensified. Before long, their pace exceeded what the naked eye could follow.

Even Miao Jianying struggled to track the battle. He could barely make out their figures, let alone tell them apart.

"Big Brother Liu will win!" Xu Lingxue declared with unwavering conviction.

From Azure Billow City until now, Liu Wuxie had relied on strength, not luck, to reach his current level.

Murong Yi gave a silent nod. Though she hadn't known Liu Wuxie as long as Xu Lingxue had, their shared brush with death had given her an even deeper understanding of who he was.

Sparks burst in all directions as the two figures shot into the sky. They clashed from the heavens to the earth, tearing through the landscape with every blow.

Waves of blade aura surged outward, forcing Miao Jianying and the others to retreat tens of thousands of meters. Even the aftershocks from their battle could annihilate any ordinary Earth Profound Realm cultivator.

Their true essence collided with a deafening roar and exploded into a twin storm that hurled both fighters into the air.

Moments later, they streaked across the sky like comets and landed in the distance. Steward He lowered his blade while Liu Wuxie pointed the Heretic Blade toward the sky.

They had traded tens of thousands of blows already.

"I underestimated you," Steward He admitted, his expression darkening.

Only now did Steward He truly grasp the depth of Liu Wuxie's combat strength.

All the reports he had relied on came secondhand. Without facing Liu Wuxie himself, no amount of description could capture the essence of his dao techniques. It took a direct clash to understand just how terrifying they truly were.

"Are you still planning to kill me?" Liu Wuxie asked, his expression grim and his guard unrelenting.

Steward He's strength had stirred a real sense of danger in him.

Though they had already exchanged thousands of blows, both men knew they had only been testing each other. The actual battle had yet to begin.

"I can spare you, but only on one condition," Steward He said.

To everyone's surprise, he had changed his mind at the last moment. If Liu Wuxie agreed to the terms, Steward He would spare his life.

"Speak," Liu Wuxie said in a steady voice, curiosity flashing in his eyes.

"Submit to the City Lord Mansion, and you are forbidden to leave Northern City from this day forward," Steward He said.

Liu Wuxie smiled faintly.

"Divine Thunder Physique, come forth!" he roared.

He had already made up his mind. There was no path where the two of them could coexist.

𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

The Divine Glazed Cloth wrapped around him, transforming him into a figure like a deity descending to the mortal world. The cloth erupted with arcs of terrifying lightning that surged outward without restraint.

Shock flickered across Steward He's face. None of the reports he had received ever mentioned the Divine Thunder Physique. Now, he understood that killing Liu Wuxie wouldn't be easy, not with a physique that powerful.

He raised his blade and gripped it with both hands, sending a burst of blade aura streaking into the sky.

Liu Wuxie mirrored his opponent, gripping the Heretic Blade with both hands and shifting into the Origin Sword stance.

Most sword and blade techniques shared overlapping principles, and the Origin Sword's true essence lay in its lack of fixed form or trajectory. It earned the name "origin" because it unified all forms into one.

Both men unleashed powerful techniques, their blade intents colliding with such force that sparks exploded from every clash.

Then, they vanished again.

This time, the battle escalated to a whole new level, dozens of times more intense than before. Both fighters had finally brought out their true combat strength. With every exchange, the blade aura surged outward, sweeping across the land and reaching tens of thousands of meters away.

Liu Wuxie activated Ghost Eye and instantly revealed the flaws in Steward He's blade technique.

"Liu Wuxie, I'm at the fifth-level Earth Profound Realm," Steward He sneered. "Even if you can see the flaws in my technique, you'll never get close enough to exploit them!"

He fully understood that Liu Wuxie possessed a mysterious ability to perceive the weaknesses in an opponent's attacks. But what did it matter? No technique, no matter how refined, could close the vast gap between their cultivation levels.

"Is that so?" Liu Wuxie replied, his voice eerily calm and devoid of emotion.

Without warning, he raised his right hand and shouted, "Great Five Elemental Palm!"

He knew blade techniques alone wouldn't be enough to kill Steward He. Since his opponent already knew of this dao technique, there was no need to hide it. He would let Steward He experience its full power.

Liu Wuxie summoned a massive millstone into the sky, blotting out the heavens. Darkness fell as the Great Five Elemental Palm pulled in all laws, including space.

Liu Wuxie hadn't been idle in recent days. While practicing the Ancient Breath-Concealing Art, he had devoted the rest of his time to deepening his understanding of dao techniques.

As the Great Five Elemental Palm descended, Steward He remained composed. He suddenly made an unusual gesture with his blade.

Then came a bizarre scene: Steward He shattered the blade into countless fragments, unleashing a torrent of blade aura that surged upward to meet the falling palm.

"Blade aura transformation!" Steward He shouted.

His blade aura suddenly shifted, manifesting in countless forms that left Liu Wuxie visibly shocked.

He hadn't expected a cultivator from Northern City to grasp such a profound dao technique. Had Steward He been from the Central Plains, it wouldn't have surprised him nearly as much.

Manifesting blade aura was one thing, but transforming it was something else entirely. That level of control required deep comprehension. Part of the reason Liu Wuxie had been able to defeat Yin Xue and repel Master Yi was that they, too, came from Northern City. Their understanding of laws and the purity of their true essence had never reached his level.

The transformed blade aura latched onto the Great Five Elemental Palm and eroded it piece by piece.

For the first time, Liu Wuxie witnessed someone dissolving his dao technique, not by meeting it head-on, but by breaking it down from within.

There were thousands of dao techniques in the world, each with its own reason for existence.

The blade aura devoured the Great Five Elemental Palm, tearing it apart from within.

"Liu Wuxie, this is the Celestial Umbrella Art," Steward He said. "It's a dao technique designed to counter, not attack. And as it happens, your Great Five Elemental Palm is one of the techniques it neutralizes."

Liu Wuxie said nothing as he watched his Great Five Elemental Palm unravel and dissipate. He understood the truth that it wasn't that the Celestial Umbrella Art was overwhelmingly powerful, but rather that his technique remained incomplete.

"Spatial Dao Art!"

"Great Dragon Aspect Art!" he roared, unleashing the two dao techniques in rapid succession.

He activated the Spatial Dao Art first, using it to suppress Steward He's speed. Then, he followed up with the Great Dragon Aspect Art. Even if the attack couldn't kill Steward He, it would throw him into disarray.

Massive waves of energy erupted in the sky. Their battle had long since reshaped the ground beneath them into a vast canyon.

Liu Wuxie's combined dao techniques crashed down on Steward He, slamming him beneath their weight.

Part of that pressure came not just from the techniques themselves but from the fact that Liu Wuxie's true essence and comprehension of laws already rivaled cultivators at the third or even fourth level of the Earth Profound Realm.

"Great Golden Moon Bell!" Steward He roared, summoning a massive bell into his hand.

Steward He hurled the bell forward, expanding it rapidly, then slammed his palm against it as it hovered in the air. A deep, resonating sound burst forth, sending powerful sonic waves rippling in all directions.

Even from a distance, Miao Jianying and the others felt their eardrums on the verge of rupturing. They had retreated just in time. Any closer, and their primordial spirits would have shattered under the force of the waves.

"Brother Liu, watch out!" Miao Jianying shouted. "The Great Golden Moon Bell can damage the primordial spirit!"

The Great Golden Moon Bell's power was immense. It didn't merely unleash sonic attacks; the force of the waves could also dismantle other dao techniques.

Under the pressure of the sound waves, the Heavenly Dragon Seal trembled slightly in midair.

Though powerful, the Heavenly Dragon Seal was most effective against average Earth Profound Realm cultivators. The Great Golden Moon Bell, however, was an actual earth-spirit artifact. In contrast, the Heavenly Dragon Seal ranked only as a dao artifact, an entire level beneath it.

Liu Wuxie reacted swiftly, summoning the Soul Shield to protect his primordial spirit from the impact. Even without it, he still had the Heavenly Dao Book as a means to guard his primordial spirit.

Undeterred by the bell, the Heavenly Dragon Seal continued its descent.

The Great Dragon Aspect Art had fully taken shape, manifesting as a colossal dragon that roared through the sky. It hurled itself at the Great Golden Moon Bell again and again, hammering it with relentless force to break through its defenses.

But each impact triggered another blast of sonic waves, giving Liu Wuxie no opening to launch a follow-up attack. For the first time, he had met an opponent this troublesome.

Steward He kept striking the bell with his right hand, amplifying the sonic waves that rippled out in all directions.

The situation grew increasingly dangerous. If Liu Wuxie couldn't break through the Great Golden Moon Bell soon, he would be in grave peril.

The overlapping sonic waves began to merge, building into a second, more powerful wave of attack.

Though the Soul Shield continued to protect Liu Wuxie's primordial spirit, he knew it couldn't last forever.

The sonic waves tore apart the Great Dragon Aspect Art, scattering the colossal dragon into fragments.

The Heavenly Dragon Seal let out a sorrowful cry before it withdrew back into Liu Wuxie's hand. Steward He overwhelmed him in this clash of dao techniques.

"Liu Wuxie, give up. You're no match for me," Steward He said coldly.

No dao technique could bridge the absolute gap in strength between them.