Chapter 1116 - Got It

Liu Wuxie spent half a minute decoding the war blade's spiritual arrays. He unraveled the runes with ease.

His next step was to penetrate the core and seize control of the war blade.

Ji Yuzhen advanced steadily, each step bringing him closer. The surrounding cultivators held their breath. Though reluctant, none dared to interfere.

On the True Martial Continent, strength decided everything. If they had the power, they would have fought for the blade as well.

"Faster—move faster!" Liu Wuxie urged, anxiety gnawing at him.

Ji Yuzhen closed in fast. If he reached the blade before the artifact spirit secured control, Liu Wuxie would lose more than the weapon. He would lose the Heretic Blade's spirit as well.

Without its spirit, the Heretic Blade would become nothing more than lifeless steel.

Liu Wuxie had spent years nurturing it to its current level. Forging an artifact spirit demanded time and painstaking effort, which he couldn't replicate overnight.

Ji Yuzhen moved forward at a measured pace. Bai Wensheng had withdrawn, so no one stood in his way.

Meanwhile, the artifact spirit pinpointed the Jadecloud Thunderlight Array's core but couldn't breach it. Lightning cloaked the array, threatening to kill any spirit in soul form.

A single lightning bolt could completely shatter the artifact spirit.

Liu Wuxie clenched his fists, anxiety etched on his face, but there was nothing he could do.

When Ji Yuzhen closed in to within ten meters, he suddenly halted and frowned. Something felt off. The war blade's aura had shifted, as if someone had meddled with it.

"Damn it!" Liu Wuxie snarled and forced the artifact spirit into the spiritual array.

Having refined the Thunder Saint Pearl, he could shield the artifact spirit from the lightning's wrath. The divine dragon plunged deeper. Minor arcs of lightning posed little danger, as they only needed to evade the main bolts.

Suddenly, Ji Yuzhen dashed toward the war blade.

Bai Wensheng followed closely, uncertain about what had changed.

"Did you feel that? The war blade's aura... It's different from before," someone in the crowd whispered.

The blade's aura had once been pure. Now, something else had merged with it.

"Could it be that someone secretly took control of it?" muttered an Earth Profound Realm expert.

None of them had seen anyone approach. They had been watching the blade the entire time.

Inside the array, the artifact spirit took heavy damage from the lightning. It needed time to recover.

The spirit flicked its tail and flung the lightning bolts aside as it dove into the Jadecloud Thunderlight Array's core.

Even Ji Yuzhen couldn't have cracked that array so quickly, but Liu Wuxie had already done it.

As Ji Yuzhen stretched his hand out to grasp the blade, the war blade unleashed a terrifying aura that blasted him backward.

A heaven-spirit artifact could release an aura powerful enough to tear apart a Heaven Profound Realm cultivator's body.

He swept his hand to break apart the blade aura, but his expression grew grim.

"What's happening? Why is the war blade moving on its own? I thought its artifact spirit was destroyed!" someone cried.

When Bai Wensheng had tried to claim it earlier, the blade had briefly resisted, but it hadn't unleashed such a violent aura.

Ji Yuzhen's face turned grim. It was one thing for Bai Wensheng to fail, but even he was pushed back.

He stepped forward again, but slower this time.

Heaven Profound Realm laws surged from him and pressed heavily against the war blade. Liu Wuxie could feel the weight of that pressure. The blade's artifact spirit also sensed danger.

"Rise!" Liu Wuxie barked without hesitation.

The war blade erupted with blinding force and launched into the sky. Even Ji Yuzhen and the onlookers recoiled in shock.

Bai Wensheng stood frozen, stunned by what he saw.

"Where do you think you're going?" Ji Yuzhen yelled, realizing the war blade was trying to escape. Heaven-spirit artifacts possessed formidable spirituality; no one could easily subdue them.

His true essence surged, forming a giant palm that reached for the blade.

"Cut him down!" Liu Wuxie roared.

The war blade swung downward, and its aura rivaled Ji Yuzhen's might.

No one could understand what they were seeing. Why was the war blade attacking on its own?

Its aura struck fear even into Ji Yuzhen, but he didn't hesitate. He raised his sword to meet the attack. If he failed to resist, the force would drive him back, allowing the blade to escape.

He had no choice but to fight, or he would have to forfeit the heaven-spirit artifact.

The blade aura came crashing down on him. With the artifact spirit in control, the war blade moved at Liu Wuxie's command.

Each attack drained the artifact spirit. The artifact spirit needed immense soul power to control a heaven-spirit artifact.

The Heretic Blade's artifact spirit remained at the dao artifact level; it hadn't reached the earth-spirit level yet. Controlling a heaven-spirit artifact was tantamount to suicide.

If it had been any other artifact spirit of the earth-spirit artifact level, it wouldn't have stood a chance. Even if it infiltrated the war blade, it still couldn't wield it.

The blade aura sliced through Ji Yuzhen's sword with a crisp snap.

Ji Yuzhen's heart sank.

He had used that sword for decades, and it had suffered no defeat—until now.

A single strike had just shattered it, leaving it broken in two.

𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Far off, Bai Wensheng stared in disbelief. His eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. He had experienced Ji Yuzhen's sword firsthand. Although it wasn't a heaven-spirit artifact, it had reached the pinnacle of earth-spirit artifacts.

Despite that, the war blade shattered it with a single strike.

That strike alone proved the war blade's terrifying strength, but the attack wasn't over just yet.

The blade aura continued its descent.

Ji Yuzhen, with his sword destroyed, had to retreat. However, the retreat handed the war blade the upper hand.

The blade aura remained in the air like a ghost.

A streak of blood split the sky just then, but Ji Yuzhen was a step too late.

The world seemed to freeze in that moment. Then, the war blade spun around and streaked away. The artifact spirit reached its limit. One more attack, and it could shatter completely.

Everyone watched as the war blade cut through the air and sped toward Liu Wuxie.

Ji Yuzhen's gaze tracked its path and quickly landed on a familiar figure. The moment the war blade stopped before Liu Wuxie, the crowd around them froze in shock.

"What just happened?" gasped a few cultivators nearby, their faces pale.

At first, they thought the blade was about to strike Liu Wuxie down.

However, what happened next left them completely stunned.

The war blade hovered for a breath, and then it slipped into Liu Wuxie's interspatial ring.

Without hesitation, Liu Wuxie turned around and fled.

Ji Yuzhen recognized him immediately but remained motionless. He stood rooted to the spot, blood streaking down his left cheek where the blade aura had wounded him after catching him off guard.

The gash stretched several inches across his face, distorting what had once been a handsome appearance.

"You won't get far, Liu Wuxie!" Ji Yuzhen wiped the blood from his face and disappeared.

He moved dozens of times faster than Liu Wuxie, displaying the power of the Heaven Profound Realm—the ability to move freely through space.

Bai Wensheng followed closely behind. He and Ji Yuzhen had fought each other to the death over the war blade, only to watch it fall into the hands of an insect. Each time the thought crossed his mind, he would clench his teeth in fury.

Within a few breaths, Ji Yuzhen had already narrowed the distance. He would catch up at any moment.

"Liu Wuxie, die!" Ji Yuzhen roared.

He had always maintained the image of a cultured gentleman, but now he revealed his true self, ruthless and violent.

His actions completely contradicted his earlier words. After all, it was Ji Yuzhen himself who had declared that the blade would go to whoever could claim it.

Upon seeing Liu Wuxie take it for himself, Ji Yuzhen pursued him with murderous intent.

He aimed a palm strike at Liu Wuxie's back, unleashing an overwhelming wave of power. If the strike connected, it would instantly kill Liu Wuxie.

However, Liu Wuxie wouldn't have dared seize the blade without an escape plan.

"Ghost Eye—now!" Liu Wuxie shouted. In an instant, the world around him transformed. The gray, misty void consumed the mountains, replacing them entirely.

The moment his vision changed, Liu Wuxie shifted directions and took a step backward, startling everyone.

The onlookers saw the move as suicide, but reality hit them like a slap.

Liu Wuxie vanished, disappearing completely from their sight.

No one knew where he went; he seemed to have vanished into thin air.

"He disappeared?" Those who arrived just afterward stood frozen, completely confused. They couldn't explain how Liu Wuxie had vanished all of a sudden.

Unbeknownst to them, Liu Wuxie was nearby, standing motionless. He was hidden in plain sight.

"Spiritual arrays construct the structure inside the heavenly coffin," Bai Wensheng explained, stepping forward. "Everything around us is an illusion. I never expected Liu Wuxie to use the formation as his escape route."

He had long since understood the structure of the coffin's internal space, but he had no way to manipulate it.

The spiritual arrays had turned everything they were seeing into an illusion.

"What? None of this is real? We've been inside an array this entire time?" several cultivators exclaimed as realization dawned on them. They suspected as much, but they had just confirmed it.

"So Liu Wuxie's the one controlling the array now... and we're the ones caught inside?" said an expert at the peak of the Earth Profound Realm, stunned.

"You could say that." Bai Wensheng nodded. "He hadn't created the array, but he had seized partial control of it."

And that alone allowed him to do what no one else could...