Chapter 650: Li Yuqing's Dao!

Li Yuqing spoke with earnest conviction, her expression austere and cold.

The sword intent radiating from the massive silver-white sword behind her slowly intensified, generating a peculiar sizzling sound.

Silver-white sword light appeared like agile fish, freely weaving through the bizarre mist before her as if darting through a real sea.

No energy existed within the bizarre mist, regardless of murky energy or the spiritual qi.

Despite this, these sword lights exuded a sense of vitality as if brimming with life.

"Please enlighten me." Li Yuqing cupped her hands in a bow, her gaze sharpening with unwavering focus.

The amused expression on Qi Xu's face vanished with the emergence of the silver-white sword light.

As her eyes, interwoven with crimson lightning, fixed on the fish-like sword lights, an inexplicable sensation surged within her.

It was as though the sword lights were...herself.

Qi Xu was like a lone traveler drifting through the vast river of fate, struggling against the tides of the mortal world, enduring the relentless wash of its currents.

A narrow river appeared like a scene from a dream, stretching from Li Yuqing to Qi Xu.

It was not dazzling or grand, but ethereal and faint, like a hazy mirage.

Pang Jian did not sense any blinding sword light within the river, only the overwhelming presence of the sword intent.

This was the first time Pang Jian had seen such a technique constructed from sword intent and Dao.

He originally intended to dissuade Li Yuqing, to tell the young prodigy that he could escape with his teleportation technique. However, he hesitated out of concern that Li Yuqing would become trapped here alone.

While he wavered, Li Yuqing had already struck with her sword!

Her sword technique bewildered Pang Jian.

Pang Jian thought his master, Li Zhaotian, had imparted every profound sword technique of the Sword Pavilion to him.

Jiang Ran's Celestial Gate Sword carried the grand ambition of opening a gate in the barrier. Qi Qingsong's Blue Dream Sword drew upon the most beautiful dreams within his heart, manifesting them into his Dao of Sword.

His master had either mentioned or demonstrated the many different Dao of Swords, hoping to inspire him.

After all, he cultivated the Chaos Sword Technique and had a Primordial Chaos Spiritual Sea.

Thus, he believed he had assimilated nearly all the sword techniques across the Abyss.

The emergence of Li Yuqing's sword intent proved this wrong.

The divine sword, the Heaven-Splitting Sword, was renowned for its unparalleled sharpness.

Pang Jian had assumed that Li Yuqing's Dao of Sword also pursued a similar edge, a razor-sharpness that could cleave through all obstacles.

Now, he knew he had been gravely mistaken.

Like his master, Li Yuqing had concealed her true Dao.

Her Dao of Sword was unlike anything Pang Jian had ever heard of. Perhaps it had never even appeared in the Abyss before. It was the peak of swordsmanship!

The sword intent took the form of an ethereal river. The faint sword light from earlier suddenly appeared in the current like schools of darting fish.

One by one, the fish seemed to transform into Qi Xu of the Flame Race, shifting into a sequence of vivid images.

The ethereal river that flowed from Li Yuqing was unraveling the entirety of Qi Xu's life.

Majestic palaces stood tall in a grand noble estate of the Flame Race.

A young, beautiful Flame Race woman cradled an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes, tears of joy streaming down her face. Beside her, a towering Flame Race warrior gazed at them with boundless affection in his eyes.

This was the beginning of the river of sword intent.

The river then unfolded into the girl's journey, from her childhood under the watchful care of her father to her relentless tempering of her bloodline.

When her budding talent slowly bloomed, her aging father was filled with deep relief, her mother beamed with pride, and the Flame Race rejoiced in her brilliance.

Not long after, her father perished in battle against the Ghost Race, and her mother, stricken with grief, passed away soon after.

The delicate young girl turned graceful maiden did not hesitate to join the Flame Race's army.

She fought as fiercely as any man.

Marching alongside the army, she waged war against the Ghost Race, clashed with the Horned Demon Race, and engaged in brutal battles against the Bat-Winged Race.

The river of sword intent was filled with blood-soaked battles, violence dominating its waters as it had her life.

She was a warrior born for battle, never knowing exhaustion and thriving in the heat of war. Only in rare periods of solitude would she clutch her parents' keepsakes and reminisce about days long past.

Strong, battle-hardened, and razor-sharp, Qi Xu regarded the men of the Fifth World as insignificant.

She was the rising star of the Fifth World before Xuan Ying. Few warriors of her generation could stand in comparison.

For a time, she looked down on all men.

She was already become a Rank Nine warrior when the once-in-a-hundred-millennia grand event was about to befall the Abyss. At that time, Fire God Yan Lie took notice of her and personally guided her in the Dao of Fire.

When a surge of Corruption emerged, Yan Lie personally protected her, aiding her ascent to Rank Ten.

The river of sword intent flowed onward, revealing the brilliance of Qi Xu's past up to the present.

Following Yan Lie's command, Qi Xu descended into the bizarre mist from the Dark Abyss Continent in the Third World.

After a short conversation with Pang Jian, Li Yuqing arrived.

This was the present.

The river of sword intent finally came to a halt.

Qi Xu watched her entire life unfold within the ethereal river of sword intent.

The scenes reflected in the river were more vivid than her memories. Even the parts she had long forgotten were laid bare in striking detail.

This radiant river of sword intent left her in awe.

She never imagined that her life could manifest within a single sword strike.

This was beyond miraculous. It was divine!

Qi Xu did not realize that her gaze, her trip down memory lane, had actually kept the river of sword intent flowing forward.

This sword strike only prevailed because of her unwavering focus, resonating with the depths of her emotions. The sheer weight of her will anchored the ethereal river to reality.

"Why did it stop?" Qi Xu asked, eager to see what lay ahead.

At some point, Li Yuqing had positioned herself at the forefront of the river of sword intent that stretched toward Qi Xu. The Heaven-Splitting Sword had shrunk to fit in her small hand.

She did not look at Qi Xu. Instead, her eyes remained fixed on the motionless river of sword intent, her expression unreadable.

The final image of Qi Xu in the river mirrored the Qi Xu standing outside. Both stared at Li Yuqing with identical looks of confusion.

"This river of fate ends today. There is no future beyond this point." With that, Li Yuqing swung her sword.

The endless radiance, flowing scenes, and past Qi Xus within the ethereal river of sword intent all transformed into sword light!

The river then reversed its flow!

An overwhelming force swept away the past and present while also crushing the future!

𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

"Your future ends here!"

Qi Xu spat out a mouthful of blood.

Unbeknownst to her, focusing on that ethereal river had filled her with sword intent.

It was an attack meant to sever her future!

Li Yuqing's Dao allowed her to use Qi Xu's past and present to cleave apart her future.

This Dao was not something she had to gain insight into, but something she was born with!

It was like the heavens themselves had ordained it!

Qi Xu hastily retreated into her Fire World. Desperately taking out her divine artifact, the Flame Star, she ignited a drop of blood that Yan Lie had bestowed on her!

A blazing star appeared above Qi Xu's head, from which fiery streams cascaded downward.

The blood that conjured the fiery star ignited the sword intent that had invaded her bloodline, bones, and blood!

Manifestations of Qi Xu within the river of sword intent seemed to travel in reverse before bursting into flames and turning to ashes.

The past and present were no longer forces aiding in the destruction of Qi Xu's future.

Although gravely wounded, she did not die.

Li Yuqing's sword arm split open, snow-white skin bursting apart in a crimson spray before quickly being reduced to a scorched length of exposed bone.

Her skin, muscles, and tendons were stripped away in an instant.

Despite this, she seemed to feel no pain. She simply gazed at Qi Xu as the river of sword intent faded.

"My Dao is strong, but my cultivation realm is low. With my strength, I cannot push my Dao to its final form to sever her future," she murmured. "I couldn't sever the river of fate with a single strike. That means I am the one who will die."

She turned to shoot Pang Jian a helpless smile.

With the river of sword intent destroyed, her delicate body rapidly weakened, and her vitality visibly drained away.

Her eyes were filled with exhaustion, as if about to slip into an eternal slumber.

Li Yuqing's Dao was truly transcendent. It allowed her to recklessly wield the power of fate, sever an opponent's future with a sword, and defy the heavens to alter life and death.

Such a Dao could not be taught. It was something she had possessed since birth.

Pang Jian was born with the Primordial Chaos Spiritual Sea, while Li Yuqing was born with the Dao of Fate.

She had not yet ascended to the True God Realm and had only just stepped into the Immortal Realm. Even with this difference in power, Qi Xu almost died in a single strike.

If not for the drop of blood Yan Lie bestowed on Qi Xu in case of emergencies, the Rank Ten powerhouse of the Flame Race would have died.

Blood streamed uncontrollably from her mouth as she stared at Li Yuqing.

In her eyes, Li Yuqing seemed like the most terrifying being in existence.

"Fate!" Qi Xu shrieked, gasping for breath, her throat whistling as if torn open.

Suddenly, she recalled something Yan Lie had once told her.

In the boundless starry skies, there was a Sovereign so fearsome that even the Sovereign in the Abyss dreaded them. That being had risen to dominance in the Hall of Gods through this same Dao.

This Dao could not be comprehended through cultivation. It was something one was simply born with.

Now, in the Abyss, on the eve of the once-in-a-hundred-millennia grand event, a mere human girl had awakened to that terrifying Dao!