Chapter 216: And Another One

Flying Sword? In Shang Xia’s eyes, it was nothing but a flashy technique.

He had long since learned how to do something like that. Due to his insistence to train in multiple sword manuals, he gained a strong insight into the way of the sword. He couldn’t be bothered with a sword technique that only focused on outward appearances. It might look cool to shoot a sword at their opponent, but it had no practical use!

For a sword cultivator who hasn’t congealed their divine sense or reached the realm of becoming one with their sword, throwing out a sword like that was basically giving their weapon away. Unless the opponent was a lot weaker than them, they could forget about dealing any sort of substantial damage.

At that point, even if one managed to send out the sword containing their divine sense, it would be kind of useless too! The further the sword traveled, the weaker the cultivator’s divine sense would be!

Since the sword would be traveling extremely quickly, it wouldn’t take long for it to leave the radius of a cultivator’s divine sense.

Even with precise control over their sword, sending their weapon away from them wouldn’t be the chest choice either. If anyone carried out a sneak attack or got close to them, they would be defenseless!

If everything that was said earlier applied to Martial Intent Realm experts, there was nothing much to say for those at the Martial Extremity Realm.

Ma Qi looked really cool as he charged over, but Shang Xia was confident of shattering his technique with a single strike before the flying sword could arrive.

However, his rationality got the better of him. Ma Qi dared to attack Shang Xia even after witnessing the battle between Li Xi and himself. There had to be something backing his confidence if he still tried to exchange pointers with Shang Xia!

As such, Shang Xia was fairly certain that Ma Qi’s fighting style would quickly transform. That was also the reason why he hadn’t moved to intercept the flying sword yet.

Indeed. When it was nearly thirty feet away from Shang Xia, the frosty light surrounding the sword separated to form hundreds of rays of sword light. They rained down on Shang Xia like a summer’s drizzle.

“Void and reality qi? Or is it something else?” Shang Xia questioned in his heart. Even though he didn’t know what type of qi his opponent was using, the attack was already on him! He had to react.

It took a mere thought for him to transform his qi again. Instead of the Jade Creek Sword, the Jade River Sword returned to his hand.

A flurry of sword light emerged from Jade River as they scattered like petals in a flower field. They landed accurately on the sword light sent by the other side.

Seeing as their attacks were about to clash, the white-robed cultivator increased his speed. He raced behind his sword light and reached out his hand to casually tap at the void before him.

The hundreds of rays of sword light converged in an instant. A sword light measuring a hundred feet in length surged forward.

“Fusion and separation…” Shang Xia muttered to himself as he recognized it right away.

He was no stranger to the dao of fusion and separation. After all, he had witnessed Liu Qinglan using it against Ran Biluo during the war on the Tongyou Peak.

Even a powerful expert like Liu Qinglan who was at the Martial Extermination Realm only dared to separate her senses into seven parts to control her seven segmented whip previously. Shang Xia couldn’t help but sneer when he saw how many parts Ma Qi separated his senses to.

While the thoughts ran through his head, Ma Qi’s sword light was still flying towards him at a terrifying pace. Everyone present thought that Shang Xia would be helpless when faced with the sudden change when his scattered sword qi gathered to form a screen between Ma Qi and the sword qi he controlled!

When Ma Qi gathered his sword qi to form the giant sword, he managed to shatter some of the sword light coming his way. However, his actions were completely useless as the sword light possessed the properties of void and reality!

With the formation of the screen, Ma Qi could no longer effectively command his sword light! The connection between them seemed to be broken as the giant sword light started to tremble in mid air.

Without his weapon, Ma Qi’s attempt to break through the screen of sword qi became an uphill battle. The sudden shift in the battlefield truly caught him off guard.

As a somewhat experienced cultivator, he knew that the most important thing he had to do was to recall his weapon! However, his flying sword was surrounded by the hundreds of sword lights he summoned earlier. How was he supposed to call it back?

The screen that separated them didn’t stop his flying sword from advancing towards Shang Xia. In the split second that he realized the connection was broken, his flying sword had already reached the limit at which he could control it! The trembling of the blade became even more obvious.

With a slight wave of his sword, Shang Xia scattered Ma Qi’s sword qi. Jade River wrapped itself around the sword mercilessly as Shang Xia dragged it towards himself.

By the time the screen of sword qi disappeared, Ma Qi discovered that his connection with his weapon had already been broken. He saw Shang Xia holding two swords in his hand, along with a toothy grin plastered on his face.

It went without saying that allowing one’s opponent to obtain your weapon was utterly humiliating.

As the blood drained from Ma Qi’s face, Shang Xia casually flicked his wrist to send the man’s sword flying back to him. Even though the battle had just concluded, another youth in the crowd stood out and pointed the tip of his sword at Shang Xia. “It’s easy for you to obtain victory against Brother Ma. Why did you humiliate him that way? Hmph. I am Yang Chao of the Yanmen Institution. I hope to receive your pointers too!”

What the fuck is going on today?!

Shang Xia sighed inwardly. Disciples of three institutions had already appeared and all of them were sword cultivators at the grand completion stage of the Martial Extremity Realm!

How could things be so coincidental?

Weren’t the five institutions supposed to be on the same side? Couldn’t they see that the Shang Clan’s convoy was in a precarious situation at the moment with enemies all around? Why the hell were they trying to exchange pointers with him?

It was fine if they didn’t step out to help the Shang Clan out of the dangerous situation. With so many of them challenging him, they were basically hitting the Shang Clan when they were down! Were they trying to declare war on the Shang Clan or something?

Shang Xia might be extremely suspicious about their motives, but he didn’t dare to be careless when facing the incoming sword intent.

The feeling he got from his new opponent, Yang Chao, told him that the man was probably at the same level as Li Xi.

Shang Xia drew an imaginary circle in front of him with his Jade River Sword and it quickly split into twelve formless rings that rose into the air.

Facing Shang Xia’s interesting defense, Yang Chao stepped slightly in the air and his body traveled several feet forward. In the same instant he moved, the twelve formless rings summoned by Shang Xia locked down the space around them and the void became a little more solid than before.

As long as he took a single wrong step, he would be trapped in a quagmire of softness and strength qi.

Shang Xia unleashed the sword intent he comprehended after fusing both softness and strength qi together in one of the earliest sword arts he practiced. The martial intent was called Sword River, similar to the name of the sword policy he practiced.

.

Unfortunately for him, his opponent dodged in time.

Yang Chao clearly wasn’t a weakling. The moment he avoided being trapped by Shang Xia’s Sword River, he launched his counterattack. When his feet touched the ground below, he twisted his body in a strange fashion before stabbing his sword forward to dissipate his momentum. His body froze unnaturally in mid air as though he was waiting for something to happen!

Shang Xia’s expression changed drastically when he noticed Yang Chao’s actions. In the instant Yang Chao’s body froze, the twelve rings that were converging towards where Yang Chao was supposed to be missed!