“The Red Sun Everlasting Treasured Body? You actually mastered the ‘Red Sun Everlasting Treasured Sutra’? How is that possible?”

Chao Haisheng was even more shocked than the crowd was.

“Why not? I’m a genius. The common sense of ordinary folk does not apply to me!” Xiahou Qi said slowly.

“You—the arrogance!” Chao Haisheng’s shock quickly morphed into anger.

Most of the spectators wore ugly faces as well. After all, Xiahou Qi was basically insulting them as well.

“I have the right to be arrogant. You, do not.” Xiahou Qi declared arrogantly, “Now, stop wasting your breath and show me what else you have. Otherwise, you won’t get a second chance.”

“You—!”

Chao Haisheng turned beet red with anger, but he had to admit that Xiahou Qi was speaking the truth. A practitioner who forged the Red Sun Everlasting Treasured Body possessed internal organs like the blazing sun, vigor like red beams, and a body like profound gold. So long as he was standing under the sun, his vigor was endless and inexhaustible. That was why his “Rising Tide Sword Art” could not threaten Xiahou Qi at all.

“If you’re not going to move, then I will.”

After waiting for a bit and receiving no response from Chao Haisheng, Xiahou Qi took one step forward and closed the distance in an instant. Then, he threw a punch.

Red light writhed like roots. His fist was like the sun, and the sun was like his fist.

Chao Haisheng crossed his sword in front of him and gathered his will. It was as if the sea itself was protecting him.

Boom!

There was a loud bang. Xiahou Qi didn’t move, but Chao Haisheng turned so red it was like he was wearing a blood makeup. The flawless, azure blade of Rising Tide was covered in scorched marks, and steam was rising all around him.

The next moment, Chao Haisheng flew backward and fell into the sea. The sea water within tens of meters around him actually started bubbling like it was boiled water.

“Gasp!”

Countless people gasped when they saw this. Clearly, the sea water was boiling because of the Red Sun Everlasting Force.

Xiahou Qi hadn’t just sent Chao Haisheng flying with his punch. He had also injected the Red Sun Everlasting Force into his opponent’s body. The Red Sun Everlasting Force was a force of supreme yang, which was why the seawater had boiled in an instant.

“You can’t even take a single hit? Trash.”

Xiahou Qi shot the boiling sea a glance and let out a cold hmph. Then, he turned around to leave.

“Xiahou Qi… do you really think I can’t threaten you?”

It was at this moment an angry roar erupted from the sea.

Before Chao Haisheng even finished talking, a moon slowly rose from the sea.

When the moon ascends, the tide rises.

In fact, the tide was rising together with the moon.

When the moon was halfway up the sky, the sea water within three hundred meters of Chao Haisheng had risen two hundred meters above sea level. It looked as if the sea was hovering in the sky.

When the moon appears on the sea, the sea stands equal to the sky itself.

“This is the sword I learned after meditating for ten years straight on my Canglang Island, Xiahou Qi. Can you take it?”

Chao Haisheng’s voice came from the moon.

It was a sword, but not just a sword. It was a Magia, but not just a Magia either. It was a combination of both.

When Chao Haisheng reached the adept level in the “Rising Tide Sword Art” and invented “Joined With The Sea”, he keenly felt that he had reached an unassailable wall in way of the sword, much less his cultivation. For a time, he was greatly troubled by it.

One night, he discovered that he was plagued by insomnia and decided to sail out into the sea to alleviate his worries. Suddenly, he saw a moon rising into the sky, and the seawater with it. When the moon reached the top and illuminated the world in silver, the sea too became as tall as the sky, magnificent and spectacular. It was a sight that left a permanent mark in his heart, and he did not hesitate to enter secluded cultivation and practiced for ten years straight. Day and night regardless of the weather, he observed the rise and fall of the moon and the ebb and flow of the tides. Finally, he invented a sword where his sword intent was the moon, his sword qi was the catalyst, and his sword force was buried deep within the sea. When he unsheathed his sword, the moon would appear on the sea, and the sea would stand equal to the sky.

That was why he named the technique, “Rising Moon”.

If the seventy two techniques of “Rising Tide Sword Art” and “Joined With The Sea” transformed his sword qi and sword intent into tidal waves resembling the sea, the “Rising Moon” was a technique that actually borrowed the sea; the power of heaven and earth and the might of nature.

For obvious reasons, “Rising Moon” was many times more powerful in the sea than it was on land. This was why he had chosen to challenge Xiahou Qi beside the sea, and why he dared to issue the challenge in the first place.

“Get back!”

“Get back now!”

Looking at the sky level tidal wave and the terrific power that permeated heaven and earth, everyone felt as small as an ant. Stunned and terrified, they hurried to back away from the seashore.

“This technique of Chao Haisheng is quite impressive be it in terms of execution or concept. It is good.”

Feng Qingyou did not move. Despite the crowd rushing to get away from the shore, not a single person touched her for some reason. It was quite strange.

“It’s too bad he’s still no match for Xiahou Qi.” Beside her, Ye Qing shook his head with pity.

Meanwhile, Xiahou Qi was slowly turning around to stare at the gigantic, towering tidal wave. For the first time, a true smile appeared on his arrogant expression. He said, “Now this is a sword; one that is worthy of my saber.”

“Hahaha! Show me how strong the ‘Nine Blades That Melt The Sun’ is!”

Chao Haisheng let out a mad laugh, and the moon descended. The sea began falling as well.

The sea was the sword, and the sword was the sea. They plunged as if threatening to destroy heaven and earth.

“Well met!”

Xiahou Qi’s eyes brightened a little. He straightened his palm and pointed it toward the ground.

When the sea descended, Xiahou Qi lifted his hand about one meter.

The next moment, a saber flashed, and the world darkened.

𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

It wasn’t because the saber was dark, but because it devoured all the light in the area in an instant. In fact, it wasn’t just light. It had stolen everyone’s vision, hearing, touch, and other senses. That was why it felt as if the world had suddenly plunged into darkness.

By the time the crowd regained their senses, and light returned to the world once more, they saw that the falling sea was shifting unnaturally toward the left and the right. At the center was a straight line that divided the sea in half.

The moon suspended in the sky slowly dimmed until Chao Haisheng was revealed.

“The ‘Nine Blades That Melt The Sun’ deserves its fame.”

Chao Haisheng asked as he slowly descended from the sky, “May I know which move this is?”

“The first. It is called the Lightless Sun and Moon.”

Xiahou Qi withdrew his hand and said indifferently, “It is the only move you deserve.”

“If only I’m stronger…”

Chao Haisheng’s pupils slowly dilated. Before his voice faded, a bloody dot suddenly appeared on his forehead.

The next moment, the bloody dot stretched all the way down to his crotch. Just like that, Chao Haisheng was split into two, dead in both body and mind.

It was only after Chao Haisheng had perished that the sea suspended high above the sky fell. Even so, its two halves remained separated for a long, long time. It showed just how deadly the attack was.

“The ‘Nine Blades That Melt The Sun’, huh? Impressive,” Ye Qing praised while sensing the terrifying saber intent lingering in the air. “I wish I could see the rest of the moves. They must be incredible.”

The “Nine Blades That Melt The Sun” was a saber art invented by the Martial Sovereign, Xiahou Zun. Derived from the will to melt the sun and moon with his saber and the intent to devour the nine heavens, it was as potent as it was profound; as brutal as it was lofty. It was one of the greatest saber arts in the world.

“Xiahou Qi’s ‘Nine Blades That Melt The Sun’ is potent, but limited in intent and by far inferior to Xiahou Zun’s. If you truly wish to witness the ‘Nine Blades That Melt The Sun’, you should meet with Xiahou Zun instead,” Feng Qingyou teased him smilingly.

“Ahem… maybe someday.”

Ye Qing rubbed his nose. He didn’t have a death wish.

“What Junior Martial Sovereign? He has no martial ethics at all!”

Xiahou Qi was turning around to leave when suddenly, a complaint broke out from somewhere. “He could’ve defeated Chao Haisheng without killing him, but he didn’t. What a brutal, virtueless man!”

This would’ve been a perfectly normal remark in a sea of people. The problem was that the scene was completely silent because everyone was absorbed in Xiahou Qi’s final attack. As a result, the remark sounded unusually loud and sarcastic.

“Hmm?”

Xiahou Qi paused in his tracks and looked.

Mutter mutter mutter…

That section of the crowd immediately parted ways to reveal a couple of scholars wearing white Confucian robes and square hats.