Chapter 705 - Five-Finger Mountain, Will Shattering Fist, Mountains and River Army, Lifeline Divinination - Part 1

The four towers of the Tang Sect stood tall at the cardinal points, piercing into the clouds, their silhouettes faintly visible in the pale mountain mist of early dawn.

The clatter of hooves echoed as the northern wolf riders arrived, their mounts snarling with restless energy. These riders wore no armor, only rough animal hides to ward off the lingering spring chill. Each one was built like a bear, all muscle and menace, and their sharp eyes were locked firmly on the mountain gate ahead.

They made no effort to hide their approach, didn’t slow down an inch. The column surged forward like a tidal wave, as though intent on crashing through this southern seat of power in a single charge, shattering it, slaughtering the men, enslaving the women, and pillaging everything of value.

At the front rode a bearded man in a blue robe. Without warning, he drew his blade. A single slash flew out and then came the explosion. An invisible wave burst into golden light, surging forward and transforming into a gleaming arc like a crescent moon. It streaked toward the two Tang Sect disciples guarding the gate, who had only just noticed something was wrong.

To those who mattered, these two gatekeepers didn’t even have names. And in the face of such a lethal ambush, an extraordinary one, no less, they were doomed to be the first casualties. Nothing more than cannon fodder. The appetizer before the banquet of war.

They barely had time to react before the golden crescent reached them before death reached them.

CRACK!

A strange sound rang out.

But the two young guards didn’t die.

Suddenly, a man appeared in front of them. Hair disheveled, clothes torn, looking more like a beggar than a savior. With just two fingers, he pinched the arc of golden blade energy in midair and crushed it as easily as snapping a twig.

Still, the cavalry didn’t stop. They thundered on like a flood, utterly ignoring him, as if he weren’t even there.

The man calmly grabbed the two dazed disciples by their collars and flung them backward like sacks of rice.

The disciples landed a good distance away, and only then did they snap out of their stupor, screaming, “We’re under attack! Enemy attack!!”

As the wolf cavalry stormed past, the man stood alone, hands clasped behind his back, facing the tide of riders.

His eyes remained fixed on six figures who had quietly slowed, drifting from the front to the rear of the formation.

He smiled faintly and beckoned, gesturing for them to come at him.

The tall, lean man at their head stepped forward with a cold, steady voice. “You didn’t go to the Jade Capital?”

The moment he spoke, the expressions of the other five shifted subtly.

They all knew exactly who

you

referred to, knew what kind of threat they were up against.

They were only here because that man was supposed to have left for the Jade Capital. With the tiger gone from the mountain, they thought they could finally take it. If the Tang Sect fell, chaos would erupt in the south. And their mere three hundred riders could set the whole land ablaze.

Li Yuan glanced at them. The combat power of these six was impressive. Their ranges stretched from 200 to 900. The tall man who had spoken was 300~800, and the two brothers behind him, nearly identical in appearance, both read 250~900.

He didn’t answer the question. Instead, he offered a reminder: “The Tang Sect’s elites are on their way. Lady Yu, Grand Matron Tang, they’ll all be here soon. Once they arrive, you won’t have a chance.”

“Arrogant, aren’t you?” sneered the tall man. “Let me, Tuoba Yin, see if you’re really as strong as the rumors claim.”

The bearded man in the blue robe, Tuoba Yin, leapt down from his wolf, gripping his long blade in one hand. With a sudden jolt of his arm and a roar from deep in his chest, the blade surged with golden light, swelling in length and size with two booming pulses.

In mere moments, a modest blade of barely a foot had stretched into a colossal saber over ten feet long, gleaming like a god’s weapon.

Tuoba Yin raised the giant golden blade and pointed it straight at Li Yuan.

Li Yuan’s eyes fell on the weapon, brows lifting slightly in thought.

So Qi can even be turned into a weapon...

Then another realization clicked.

Well, of course. If this energy is drawn from the mountains and rivers themselves, then it naturally can manifest as anything that exists within them.

Tang Zhuo’s feathers work the same way

, he mused,

though hers seemed to be conjured from nothing, while this feels...different. Tangibly different.

But the details would only become clear after a fight.

As Tuoba Yin drew his weapon, the surrounding wolf riders seemed to sense something. They quickly pulled back, clearing a wide space for the battle. But instead of charging elsewhere, they stayed put, silent and watchful, waiting to see how this clash would end.

Floating into the air, Tuoba Yin brandished the massive golden saber and called out a phrase like a battle hymn.

“Blazing Dance of the Land!”

The weapon responded instantly, spinning above him like a burning wheel of judgment, before plunging downward with terrifying force.

Li Yuan still didn’t move. He simply lifted his left hand, brought two fingers together.

The golden wheel, brimming with violence and momentum, met those two fingers.

PING!

It was deflected with a single flick.

Tuoba Yin’s eye twitched. But he didn’t slow down. He dove after the blade, already following up with another strike. Another golden arc whistled through the air, half a crescent moon cleaving toward Li Yuan.

Before the blade even touched down, the very earth around the mountain gate began to tremble. Dust and broken stones scrambled out of the way. Even the insects that had been chirping seconds ago fell completely silent.

Li Yuan’s long hair whipped backward in the forceful wind, but he remained where he stood, calm and unmoving.. Once again, he raised his fingers and struck.

KLANG!

The golden wheel rang out, deflected again.

The secret lay in his fingers. His mastery of the Lesser Insight Realm had granted him a level of defense that bordered on the absurd. Not even the famed Thousand Leagues Iron Wall could breach it. In the face of such power, two fingers were more than enough.

Tuoba Yin’s blade may have been knocked aside, but he twisted mid-air like a taut bowstring snapping, and his saber came back around with even greater ferocity.

He roared, wild and primal, slashing faster and faster, caught up in his own fevered rhythm. The longer the fight went on, the more excited he became, as if war itself were his drug.

And the blade answered him.

It grew, swelled, and fed off his madness. From ten feet, it lengthened to nearly twenty, its edge wide as a door and glowing with an even fiercer light.

At the height of this frenzy, Tuoba Yin let out a thunderous bellow.

“Blade Demon, Sever the Head!”

All the golden light vanished and collapsed inward until it was swallowed entirely by the blade.

𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

This was his peak. In that instant, Tuoba Yin had pushed everything to the absolute limit. Man and blade became one, a streak of lightning slashing toward Li Yuan with devastating finality.

There was no more golden light. The blade had shrunk again.

However, Li Yuan could feel it.

This strike was different, more dangerous than anything before...

I had it wrong

, he realized.

This isn’t about shaping weapons from Qi. It’s about pouring that power into an ordinary weapon and pushing its lethality to monstrous levels.

The light of the blade bloomed like a silver disc, and in the blink of an eye, it came crashing down like a galaxy falling from the sky.

BOOOOM!

A long, resounding hum echoed across the mountains, like the chime of a temple bell struck by the hand of a god. And it did not fade.

The silver disc vanished.

All that remained was the blade, the man holding it frozen in disbelief, and Li Yuan.

Li Yuan casually gripped the blade with his left hand. He glanced at Tuoba Yin, who still stood dumbstruck on the other end of the blade, and offered a mild critique.

“Blazing Dance of the Land. Blade Demon Sever the Head. Not bad names. But I think the real issue is that you haven’t mastered them. If you had, you should’ve been able to hide the Qi inside the blade itself. Strike without warning, kill in a single moment. That way, even someone extraordinary wouldn’t stand a chance.”

He nodded thoughtfully. “It’s actually a promising set of skills. Could very well be the foundation for a new school of assassins. Hit fast, kill faster. Even transcendents wouldn’t be safe.”

Then he let go of the blade like it was a broken twig and turned to wave lazily at the five who were still watching from the back.

“One at a time, please. A war of attrition would wear me down, and those lurking nearby might get a clean shot if I’m tired enough. But if you all come at once...that wouldn’t be any fun.”

For a moment, the others were too stunned to speak.