Chapter 271. The Decisive Battle of the Great War of Good and Demonic (1)

The battlefield was silent.

No one opened their mouths.

The scene unfolding before their eyes was simply too shocking.

It was even more unbelievable than when the Heavenly Demon had first appeared, destroying and turning the Martial Alliance's key players into a complete mess.

One Sword Seven Kills Zhi Yiguang doubted his eyes as his jaw dropped, his demeanor changing so swiftly that one might have wondered if he had gone and sold his aura to a traveling merchant.

"R—"

Someone's voice leaked out.

This time, it wasn't the roar of the Demon Cult.

It was the Martial Alliance that roared.

A roar from those who had lost hope and were in despair, just waiting for their deaths.

RAH!!!

It was a roar so loud that it felt as though it could shake the world off its axis. Even though half of the gathered martial artists were injured, their roar was loud enough to rupture eardrums.

Some of the warriors were so emotional that they cried out with hot tears in their eyes.

"Senior Brother...?"

Luo Xiaoyue looked at the back of the person she thought was dead, and tears rolled down her cheeks. A small smile spread across her lips.

If it weren't for the situation, she would have immediately hugged him from behind, burying her face in his back while crying and laughing simultaneously.

She looked at Zhou Xuchuan, holding back an impulse that she absolutely couldn't act on.

"...is this real?"

Tang Hui, standing next to her, blinked in disbelief.

"Let's postpone the joy of our reunion until later."

Zhou Xuchuan turned his head back to greet the familiar faces, then returned to his original position and looked ahead.

"Damn, that really is a lot."

The Demon Cult still numbered three thousand. That wasn't a small number.

When he thought about the Vice Cult Leader, the Northern Death Guardian, and the Eastern Illusion Guardian, he suddenly felt a weight settle upon his shoulders.

"It's really fortunate that you came."

Zhou Xuchuan glanced at Sword Demon Wu Qu and felt relieved.

While he could do something about the Heavenly Demon, it felt like it would have been too much if he had to also worry about the others. It was a good thing Wu Qu was here.

"I'll leave everyone other than the Heavenly Demon to you."

"Is that okay?"

"That's more than enough."

Wu Qu stepped aside.

"This is really getting interesting."

Heavenly Demon put away his sword for a moment and laughed.

"I never thought the hero of the Righteous Faction, whom I only heard about through rumors, would be alive and well... aren't you supposed to be dead?"

"While they say that there isn't an order to death, even so, it's still too early for me to leave this world when I have such a bright future ahead of me."

"Ahahaha! Really, how funny!"

The Heavenly Demon burst into laughter in a cheerful voice.

"I thought that you were just some brat who became famous by leveraging the Blood Monk's secret technique, but seeing you in person, that doesn't seem to be the case."

The eerie glare in his eyes, even more chilling than Blood Demon's, shone calmly.

"I don't know if it's because the recent battle stimulated me or if my eyes are lying to me, but your cultivation truly is fascinating. If what I'm seeing right now is real, then there's no need to wait for the Taiji Sword."

The Heavenly Demon licked his lips with his tongue and grinned.

"I won't speak too much."

Rumble!

"Let's go."

Boom!

It was as if a storm had erupted from within him.

Before Zhou Xuchuan could say anything, the Heavenly Demons' figure shot forward.

To others, it seemed as though he had disappeared and suddenly reappeared.

However, Zhou Xuchuan, who was in the same cultivation realm as the Heavenly Demon, saw something different. He could clearly see the Heavenly Demon's movement.

The Heavenly Demon's sword swung down from above.

Zhou Xuchuan held Longyuan straight and then swung his sword straight up from below with all his might, colliding with Heavenly Demon's sword, which was about to split his head.

Claaaaang!

There was a long metallic screech.

BOOM!

Then, at that very moment, when the enormous imbued force contained within each sword clashed, a shockwave erupted from the epicenter, rocking the surroundings.

Both Zhou Xuchuan and the Heavenly Demon couldn't help but be surprised.

As expected of the Heavenly Demon!

Zhou Xuchuan had swung that single blow with all the power he could muster. But even so, he couldn't push the Heavenly Demon back.

His teeth even chattered from the incredible backlash of the Heavenly Demon's qi.

On the other hand, the Heavenly Demon was equally surprised.

"They say that there are as many hidden experts within the Central Plains

murim

as there are grains of sand, but if they all are as strong as you, the Central Plains would have been ruined long ago. Even after exchanging blows with you, I still can't believe it."

As one knew, the Demonic Path's martial arts, otherwise known as demonic arts, had a stronger force and dominating power than regular techniques. Moreover, their destructive power was high to match, too.

In addition, considering the user right now was the Heavenly Demon, the strongest of the Demonic Path and an absolute master on the level of the Seven Empyrean Overlords—there was no need to say anything. Even if the other members of the Seven Empyrean Overlords were gathered together, none of them would be able to defeat the Heavenly Demon in a contest of pure destructive power alone.

No matter which one of the Seven Empyrean Overlords it was, a direct confrontation with the Heavenly Demon was something to be avoided. That was why the Heavenly Demon was so surprised that Zhou Xuchuan had accepted it so nonchalantly.

"Heavenly Demon."

Zhou Xuchuan's gaze turned to the Heavenly Demon.

"Did you fight the Dark Heavens Association Lord?"

The Heavenly Demon didn't answer and just smiled.

"No, let's change the question."

Zhou Xuchuan's voice was as cold as ice.

"Did you become Warped Valor?"

The right-hand man of the Dark Heavens Association Lord and one of the Ten Empyrean Overlords in his own right, the Sword Demon, had joined the association surprisingly late in Zhou Xuchuan's previous life.

While the exact time was unknown, it was before the Dark Heavens Association had shown up. In other words, his recruitment had happened either during the Seven Swords War or the Great War of Good and Evil.

Still, considering that the Warped Valor Division of the Seven Stars Division had existed for a long time, questions arose from here.

Why had the Dark Heavens Association left the previous Warped Valor position alone and approached a random martial artist known as the Money Crazed Sword Ghost to propose becoming Warped Valor?

To most of the

murim

, the title of the Money Crazed Sword Ghost didn't have a good reputation.

Martial artists were looked down upon, and their reputations diminished when they got too involved with money.

At the time, Wu Qu had been running around to save Wu Zhenhua and was obsessed with money, leaving his true strength underestimated.

Zhou Xuchuan wasn't sure how the Dark Heavens Association Lord had found him, but the Lord had managed to locate him and convince him to become Warped Valor.

Especially considering it would have been the Dark Heavens Association prior to revealing itself, there was no way that they would have made such a gamble willingly.

Thus, the most plausible scenario came to mind.

Even though the Dark Heavens Association had a character of calculating and planning thoroughly, it would be too much of a stretch to assume that even this was a part of the plan. What's more, doesn't Blessed Existence make sure he knows the personality and behavior of every person within the Seven Stars Division before he makes a move?

The Dark Heavens Association Lord wouldn't have made such changes to the already small number of executives just because he was fond of Wu Qu's cultivation.

What's more, especially not to Warped Valor, the symbol of power of the association. Even if Zhou Xuchuan didn't know who Warped Valor would be, he definitely had to be a master second only to the Dark Heavens Association Lord.

Changing someone like that so easily... that wasn't the Blessed Existence or the Dark Heavens Association that Zhou Xuchuan knew.

If I had to guess, there's definitely a reason... it's highly likely that the position grew vacant after the original Warped Valor's lifespan ran out. That was probably why they had come looking for the Elder in my previous life.

Not even an absolute master could overcome one's lifespan.[1]

In this case, no matter how different the future was from what he knew from his previous life, this was something that definitely had to happen.

The Dark Heavens Association inevitably had to fill the void left by Warped Valor, and it was because of this that the shadow of Blessed Existence appeared in Demon Cult.

With that understanding, there was only one conclusion that could be reached.

The Heavenly Demon was defeated by the Dark Heavens Association Lord and became Warped Valor.

It wasn't difficult to make the Heavenly Demon submit if one had the strength so that part wasn't a problem.

"I'll answer you if you make me happy."

With an answer that was almost absurd, the Heavenly Demon disappeared from sight using the Heavenly Demon Hidden Form Art and approached Zhou Xuchuan.

Shing!

The piercing wave that split the air was fierce and destructive at the same time. It was amazing that he could attack with such power so quickly and without any sound.

"That's what I wanted to say!"

Clang!!!

The Heavenly Demon's attack aimed for his jugular without any warning. However, Zhou Xuchuan had experienced such stealthy and rapid movements before.

He thought it was fortunate that he had been training with The Valley of Phantoms regularly.

Screech

.

The clashing swords shook as if they were speaking to each other.

Zhou Xuchuan looked at the demonic eyes beyond the swords and tried to ask a few more questions but was stopped by another attack.

"If you want to know so much, then prove your strength first."

Rustle.

The sand grains under his feet rose one by one and began to spiral around the Heavenly Demon's body.

"The winner will have everything, and the loser will have nothing!"

The black streaks, clearly visible to the naked eye, were so evil that just looking at them made him feel gross.

"Ha!"

The Heavenly Demon, who was riled up, didn't shout any of his techniques' names.

Instead, he just swung his sword while shouting.

When he unleashed the first form of the Heavenly Demon Three Swords, a dark light obscured his vision.

The optic nerve was the part of the body that received information, allowing one to see.

Zhou Xuchuan's brain belatedly realized the principle of the Heavenly Demon Three Swords.

It's a dense saturation of qi that radiates outward!

Looking inside the mass of qi, he saw an ignorant amount of energy swirling within.

Every strand of qi within that mass was a shining strand of qi aura. The dark thing wrapped around the Heavenly Demon's sword was a seemingly endlessly produced qi, which condensed and hardened to become sword aura.

As the Heavenly Demon swung his sword, he spread the aura thinly and widely before piling on a few more layers.

Normally, aura was condensed qi, meaning that it should have grown smaller. However, the concentrated amount of qi that the Heavenly Demon was emitting was so vast that the aura itself overflowed and seemingly proliferated.

What a brutish bastard!

Zhou Xuchuan clicked his tongue and fixed his body with the Thousand Catty Ballast and the Ten-Thousand Jin Sword.

The pressure of the sword pressing down on his head was so great that his legs dug into the ground up to his ankles.

Violet Haze Dawnbreaker! Arc Flower Rain!

A defensive qi barrier alone wouldn't be enough to hold out. So, knowing that he couldn't stay still, he counterattacked.

The first form unfolded, and before it could bloom, it transformed into a fan and collided head-on with the Heavenly Demon's Three Sword Forms.

Wooosh!

The wind blew.

The wind became a gust.

The gust soon turned into a storm, howling fiercely and covering the surroundings.

BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG!

The purple and black radiance mixed together, then burst out in all directions, running wild. The space between the aura distorted and tore apart, leaving scars in the air.

𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Even the tens of thousands of grains of sand that had been flying into the air were swallowed up by the storm of radiance and disappeared without a trace.

BOOOM!

An explosion shook the ground to its core. The surrounding air quaked violently from the sheer force of the shockwave.

The battlefield wasn't unscathed.

Even the absolute masters facing each other were forced back, unable to withstand the impact.

Zhou Xuchuan, whose body was lifted into the air a zhang high, spun around and flicked his fingers three times.

Violet Haze Finger!

The beams of light shot from his fingers, drawing straight lines as they poured down like arrows at the point where the Heavenly Demon was falling.

"Ho!"

The Heavenly Demon responded to the Violet Haze Finger with a Breaking Heaven Asura Palm, blasting forward with his palm instead of his sword.

A dark light flashed from his palm just like before, and a palm wind several times larger than his body shot into the air, colliding with the Violet Haze Finger.

Boom!

The Violet Haze Finger was swallowed up by the chaotic blast and disappeared.

In the meantime, Zhou Xuchuan landed as if he were a sword being stabbed into the ground. Kicking off the dirt, he thrust his sword forward.

Shing!

A straight sword, piercing through the air as if leaving a hole in space, aimed for the neck of the Great Demon of the Hundred Thousand Mountains, attempting to cleave him at the throat.

Claaaaang!

But unfortunately, the sword strike did not meet flesh. Just before it could cut through his skin, the Heavenly Demon blocked it with his sword.

"Heup!"

He sucked air deep into his lungs. His dense muscles grew tense, and his qi surged from his dantian.

A powerful force like a great sea spread through every part of his meridians. His physical abilities instantly increased as he unleashed his bodily strength alongside his attacks.

Bang, bang, bang, bang!

It didn't matter if his attacks failed. If he fell, he just had to get up and attack again.

Metallic clangs that made one's head ring echoed repeatedly. In an instant, their swords flashed dozens, even hundreds of times, falling like meteors.

They were both using swift sword techniques that not even Harmony Realm Masters could dare to follow!

Swish, swish, swish!

No one knew how many times they both attacked.

It all happened within an instant. In the blink of an eye, Zhou Xuchuan and the Heavenly Demon had exchanged attacks and moves hundreds of times.

The sheer pressure of their swords pushed their hair back and then forward as if blowing with the wind.

This was a space where only Absolute Masters could exist.

Their constricted pupils moved around to follow the movement of the swords as their hands moved faster than even their eyes and flung out sword strikes.

"Hahaha!" the Heavenly Demon burst out laughing as if in a good mood.

1. I've seen some questions about this. Reaching the end of one's lifespan is NOT ascension. ☜