Vol.3-Chapter 21 – Breaking the Core

“Break!”

Zhao Jiuge didn’t give Lei Lei any time to react. He liked this spell more and more. After seeing that smiling buddha, he was certain he would slowly unveil the mystery of the Sanskrit Divine Body.

One punch covered in golden light directly smashed into the dim spirit formation. Cracks began to spread and the jade disk in Lei Lei’s hand shattered into dust. The blood-colored cracks on the surface of the disk disappeared as well.

Lei Lei’s face immediately turned pale. The disk contained his blood essence, so he suffered backlash from it. He also felt heartache when the jade disk was destroyed, as it was one of his biggest killing moves!

How could he know that not only was Zhao Jiuge’s cultivation higher, his spirit core was also grade-8? Not to mention, Zhao Jiuge had tempered his body in a rank-2 spirit vein, so the result was not surprising at all.

Looking at the Zhao Jiuge who was like a war god covered in a layer of golden light, Lei Lei felt a chill and regretted coming to Dong Yang City. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have met a freak like Zhao Jiuge.

However, even though he felt remorse, he could not stop Zhao Jiuge, who was rushing at him with killing intent.

Lei Lei didn’t even have time to feel heartache over his treasure being broken. He saw Zhao Jiuge rush toward him and panicked.

“You've gone too far!”

Then Lei Lei let out a roar. Facing Zhao Jiuge, who wouldn’t stop, Lei Lei’s sense of uneasiness became even more tense. He knew that if he made one mistake, he could lose his life.

After letting out a roar, his voice didn’t dissipate and continued to spread. A soybean-sized blue spirit core emitting a beautiful glow was already floating before Lei Lei.

Facing a threat to his life Lei Lei had to release his spirit core. Unless he was pushed into a corner, he wouldn’t use such a dangerous method.

His blue spirit core was grade-5, which was pretty good. This meant that Lei Lei had a promising future and was qualified to be arrogant.

However, this grade-5 spirit core had not been tempered in a spirit vein and contained no attribute. Otherwise, his strength would have gone through a qualitative change. It was a pity he had come across Zhao Jiuge.

When Zhao Jiuge saw Lei Lei release his spirit core, there was a hint of worry in his eyes. He was worried that Lei Lei might explode his spirit core, which could be dangerous.

When the golden Sanskrit Divine Palm collided against the grade-5 spirit core, the golden light was immediately shrouded by the soft blue. The moment the two touched, the spirit core shined brightly.

Even with the Sanskrit Divine Body at its limit, Zhao Jiuge was still knocked back a few steps by the powerful outburst from the spirit core. He felt a loud ringing in his ears.

There were holes on the ground where Zhao Jiuge’s feet landed, and there were cracks extending from those holes all the way to the people watching.

Those people watched as the cracks extended, then they quickly retreated. Fortunately, these two Spirit Core cultivators were fighting using the simplest methods of controlling spirit force. They hadn’t used any treasures, and most of the force had been resisted by Zhao Jiuge. If they had used treasures or were at higher cultivations, the holes created might be over a dozen meters deep.

Lei Lei’s face eased a bit. He could finally relax a bit. It had only been a short period of time since Zhao Jiuge began his attack. If he had been careless, he could have died at any moment. Now he was finally able to suppress Zhao Jiuge’s offensive with his spirit force. However, he didn’t feel good about it. After all, a spirit core was very important to his future cultivation.

Zhao Jiuge’s looked at the grade-5 spirit core before him in excitement. He was not frustrated at all that he had been forced back. This was the first time he had come into direct confrontation against someone else’s spirit core, and this allowed his combat experience to increase.

“Since my Sanskrit Divine Body can’t defeat your spirit core, then I’ll use my life-linked??flying sword!”?Zhao Jiuge’s eyes contained a hint of excitement. The more difficult it was, the more Zhao Jiuge liked it. During his time at the Mysterious Heaven Sword Sect, he hadn’t had many chances for actual combat experience. Either the enemy was too strong for him to do anything, or they belonged to the same sect and therefore neither side could go all-out. There was no sense of passion or danger like a real life-or-death battle.

His left foot kicked off and he jumped forward. His black robe fluttered and his eyes revealed a cold flash. When he pulled the Cold Underworld Sword from behind his back, there was a layer of light around its blade. Zhao Jiuge didn’t have a purple palace yet in his dantian. Otherwise, if he had refined his life-linked flying sword with his purple origin fire, he would be able to control the sword with his thoughts.

Although he hadn’t refined his life-linked flying sword yet, just the aura a spirit treasure gave off already made Lei Lei panic. Not to mention a sword was a killing-type treasure that gave off a powerful offensive aura.

At this moment, Zhao Jiuge’s mentality was slowly changing. He had always maintained his own heart, so his sword art was even more fierce, filled with endless determination.

It was different from the time he killed Han Songcheng. His mentality changed again when he killed Lei Lei.

I have a sword that can kill all evil-doers in the world.

I have a sword that can destroy the mountains and rivers.

I have a sword that can pierce the heavens and go anywhere.

Zhao Jiuge released three strikes at once with his Cold Underworld Sword in hand. The indestructible sword energy flew toward Lei Lei.

If 10,000 people cultivate the sword art, there would be 10,000 different understandings of the sword art. Some people had low self-esteem, so their sword art was focused more on hidden attacks. Some people were more brave and strong, so their sword art was focused on powerful, direct attacks. Some people feared for their lives, so their sword art was better for defense.

When Zhao Jiuge confirmed his dao heart, he already knew what he wanted to do. He wanted enough strength to protect his loved ones, right the wrongs in the world, and kill all evil-doers. This caused his sword art to walk the path of becoming an unstoppable force.

Thinking about all those innocent people and evil-doers, Zhao Jiuge could not hide the killing intent in his heart. At this moment, his sword art became a lot stronger. This showed that his understanding of the sword art had became more profound.

Lei Lei felt like needles were stabbing at his skin. The spirit force containing the cold attribute made it feel like he was frozen in place. He briefly lost consciousness, his mouth was slightly open, and his eyes widened as he stared at the incoming sword energy. He simply couldn’t react, and he felt that even if he could react, he wouldn’t be able to resist this attack.

A soft, crackling sound slowly echoed. It wasn’t loud, but it was particularly harsh in this silence.

The crowd watching saw the floating, blue spirit core break, but it didn’t dissipate.

The three rays of sword energy directly broke Lei Lei’s spirit core. A spirit core was the essence of a cultivator. Without a spirit core, a cultivator would have no chance of reaching the Nascent Soul Realm, and it would be impossible to continue cultivating.

Zhao Jiuge was filled with content. This was the joy of his first victory. This was the first time he had fought to the death against a cultivator of similar strength. He wasn’t the only one shocked that he had shattered Lei Lei’s spirit core with one move—Mo Longjie was even more shocked.

Perhaps most ordinary people and low-level cultivators were only here to watch a show, but as a Spirit Core Realm cultivator himself, he knew how difficult it was.

At this moment, his feelings were somewhat complicated. He felt glad and melancholy at the same time. He was glad that he had helped this youth back then.

A miserable cry broke the silence. Lei Lei felt his spirit core break and his connection to it disappear. He immediately let out a miserable cry like a madman, his hair scattered all over his shoulders. It looked like he had aged 10 years, his expression was bleak, his eyes were lifeless, and he was filled with pain.

Losing his spirit core didn’t mean he would die, but he had lost all his cultivation and was now no different from an ordinary person. Those lacking in character wouldn’t be able to accept this and would rather die instead. Looking at Lei Lei’s appearance, he was clearly this kind of person.

The surrounding crowd didn’t know what had happened. However, looking at Lei Lei’s expression, they felt some pity.

Out of the four leaders of the Xiao family that came today, two had died, one was seriously injured, and one had gone crazy.

From beginning to end, Zhao Jiuge was the only person who had done anything. Only Lei Lei had put up any sort of fight, everyone else had been defeated in one move.

At this moment, everyone looked at the young man wielding the flying sword.

𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Old Yao had a smile on his face and felt gratified. Mo Shouyi’s eyes were filled with worship—he didn’t expect Zhao Jiuge to be even more powerful than his father. Mo Linger was also happy, and her face was even slightly red. However, when she saw the peerless beauty beside Zhao Jiuge, her eyes became dark.

Zhao Jiuge looked at Xiao Zhan and said in a cold voice, “Xiao Zhan, you can scram. Go tell Xiao Yi that if your Xiao family dares to come to the Mo family again, I’ll kill them as they come. If you don’t believe me, you can come and try.”

He originally intended to kill all the people here and then directly go to the Xiao family. However, he suddenly changed his mind. Rather than taking the initiative, it was better for them to come to him. Then he would be able to deal with them all at once to prevent any problems in the future.

After seeing how powerful Zhao Jiuge was, Xiao Zhan didn’t even have the courage to look at him. He immediately tried to leave the Mo mansion with his injured body. However, due to his serious injuries, he couldn’t move that well, but he was worried that Zhao Jiuge would change his mind. This combination put him in an embarrassing state.

In the blink of an eye, all that was left was two dead bodies, the crazed Lei Lei, and the calm Zhao Jiuge.

Zhao Jiuge looked at the crazed Lei Lei, who was laughing one second and crying the next, with a cold gaze. These people deserved what was coming to them. Although Zhao Jiuge was a kind person, he never sympathized with evil-doers. Today’s result was Lei Lei paying for all the evil he had done. As for Hei Yingzi, Xiao Zhan, and the others, he would kill them sooner or later.

The area became silent.

The people watching had seen Zhao Jiuge’s figure and heard his overbearing words. The feeling they had was indescribable. Some didn’t understand how the mighty Xiao family had ended up like this, nor how all of this had happened because of his young man.

At the same time, the people watching erupted. They knew the best parts were still to come. The fight between the Xiao and Mo family would end with one of them being destroyed. Originally, the Mo family was about to be destroyed, but the arrival of this strange young man had changed the tide.

After hearing Zhao Jiuge’s words, the people watching and the forces near Dong Yang City were all looking forward to the outcome of the final battle. How would the Xiao family, who had suffered a heavy blow, react? After all, they still had the titan that was the Flowing Cloud Sect behind them.

While everyone was wondering about what would happen, a beautiful woman standing at the entrance of the Mo mansion had a big smile.

A smile that could topple a country.

1. A change in term from life to life-linked to be a bit more descriptive