One word fell, and heaven and earth went still.
The river god was first stunned, then flushed with humiliation and rage. A mere Foundation Establishment Realm Daoist dared spout such outrageous words before him!
Were all Daoists from Penglai this arrogant?
"You're courting death!"
The river god flashed into view before Jiang Sheng, bringing his enormous pointed fork down with surging spiritual power.
It was like a waterfall weighing countless tons crashing down!
Jiang Sheng's expression remained unchanged as a three-foot blade appeared in his hand.
Spiritual power surged around Jiang Sheng, and the spiritual sword in his hand erupted with astonishing might. An azure sword radiance howled forth.
Thirty feet of Sword Qi collided with the river god's fork. The churning spiritual power exploded with a thunderous roar, shaking everything for hundreds of feet around.
Jiang Sheng and the river god were both driven back over a thousand feet.
The river god had already regained his composure. That probing strike alone had told him that Jiang Sheng was nothing like an ordinary Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator!
"Is that a spiritual artifact in your hand?" the river god asked.
Jiang Sheng did not answer. Instead, he surged forward again. Qing Feng flashed in his hand, and azure spiritual light tore through the air.
The river god snorted and swung his fork to meet him head-on. With his Purple Mansion Realm cultivation, he naturally had no fear of Jiang Sheng, a mere Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator.
In the sky beyond Qingping Mountain, azure and blue spiritual lights collided again and again.
Howling Sword Qi ripped through curtain after curtain of water, while the surging waves transformed into water arrows that blotted out the sky and rained down.
At the foot of Qingping Mountain, the common folk looked up at the fierce battle in the distant sky. Every heart rose into its owner's throat. They feared that if Jiang Sheng lost, they too would die without a place to be buried.
Xu Xiao and Qiao Xuan seized the chance to retreat into the mountain and join Zhang Qing and Zhang Qingyun.
"Where are Wang Tianfang and the others?" Zhang Qing asked.
"Hmph. Once they used their trick and saw that it wasn't the river god they'd bound, they scattered and ran," Xu Xiao snorted, disdain written across her face.
Zhang Qing nodded. That had not been beyond her expectations.
Looking up at the two streaks of spiritual light flashing across the sky, Zhang Qing exhaled a warm breath. "Now it all depends on Daoist Jiang's abilities."
Xu Xiao's expression was complicated. "Yes. We can only count on Daoist Jiang now."
Meanwhile, as Jiang Sheng fought the river god, his expression remained as calm as still water, but his eyes were utterly solemn.
This was his first battle against a Purple Mansion Realm being since leaving the mountain.
The river god placed considerable pressure on him, but that also allowed Jiang Sheng to unleash his full strength.
Streaks of azure sword radiance crisscrossed the air, slicing through the surging curtains of water.
The river god curled his left hand around empty air. Endless water vapor gathered in his palm, finally becoming a roaring column of water.
The surging column reached Jiang Sheng in a few breaths. Its violent water spiritual energy seemed capable of destroying everything. Its approach alone made it difficult to breathe.
Spiritual power churned within Jiang Sheng. He flashed aside to evade the column, catching sight out of the corner of his eye as it smashed into a small mountain peak behind him.
A thunderous boom rang out, and dust billowed. The mountaintop was blasted apart, sending countless huge rocks tumbling down.
Jiang Sheng's expression did not change. His left hand formed a spell seal, then he drew two joined fingers along the blade. In the next instant, he moved even faster.
Man and sword seemed to become one. Azure sword radiance streaked across the sky, flashing from east to west like a thunderbolt.
The river god instinctively twisted aside. Everything in the azure light's path was sliced apart along a thousand-foot stretch from east to west.
It was an incomparably sharp sword strike—fast and merciless!
"What a swift sword," the river god could not help praising. Even judging by the standards of his former cultivation as a False Core True Person, such a strike from a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator was dazzling.
Jiang Sheng emerged from the azure light. "Don't be so quick to praise me, river god. Doesn't your face hurt?"
The river god paused and touched his face. Only then did he discover the deep slash across his cheek.
His body was stone, after all, animated solely by the power of incense offerings and his divine sense. Injured stone felt nothing, so naturally the river god could feel no pain.
He instinctively channeled the power of incense offerings to heal the wound, only to discover in astonishment that a lingering sword intent blocked it upon reaching his cheek.
Until he wore away that sword intent, he could not heal the wound on his face.
"This god underestimated you."
Ignoring the sword wound on his face, the river god gripped his fork in his right hand and drove the power of incense offerings within him to its fullest. He had already realized the problem.
On his journey from East River Town to Qingping Town, he had destroyed five towns and an unknown number of villages. He had also fought Xu Xiao and her companions twice. The power of incense offerings within him had been severely depleted!
Most importantly, driving the waters of the Taiping River to flood six towns had consumed an enormous amount of that power.
Now he was already beginning to regret it in secret. By the time this battle ended, the power of incense offerings in this incarnation would likely be exhausted.
At the thought that refining his mortal body and condensing an incense-powered golden core might be delayed by several years, the river god's gaze filled with venom as he looked at Jiang Sheng!
"This god will give you no further chances."
As he spoke, the river god drove the power of incense offerings within him to its fullest. The river water raging across the ground was drawn up around him, forming a soaring curtain of water that divided heaven from earth.
The surging curtain linked earth and sky, obscuring the heavens and blocking the view of everyone on Qingping Mountain.
All they could see was a thick wall of water stretching before the mountain, as though heaven might collapse and earth cave in at any moment.
The river god swung his fork. The sky-blotting curtain behind him swept toward Jiang Sheng with the weight of countless tons.
The surging water spiritual power made every drop within the curtain as sharp as a knife.
Anyone caught in its sweep would have all the flesh stripped from their body, perhaps leaving not even bones behind.
The curtain roared toward him, blotting out the sky and sun like a celestial river pouring down to drown the mortal world.
Watching the curtain sweep toward him, Jiang Sheng had already grasped a yellow talisman with his left hand inside his sleeve. It was a Bright Li-Fire Talisman he had drawn himself.
As the water closed in, he activated the yellow talisman.
The river god watched Jiang Sheng disappear beneath the curtain. Before he could even breathe a sigh of relief, a clear dragon's cry rang out.
"Roar!"
The soaring dragon cry sounded from within the water. In the next instant, a great swath of the roaring, immensely heavy waterfall evaporated into empty air.
A fire dragon emerged from the curtain, complete with whiskers and tail, its scales and claws spread wide. Jiang Sheng stood within one of its claws!
The true dragon formed from blazing fire circled through the air, staining the surrounding dark clouds into clouds of flame.
Looking at the hundred-foot fire dragon, the river god recalled the information Huang Shiren had given him: Jiang Sheng of Qingping Mountain was adept at fire arts.
From what he saw now, this fire dragon was Jiang Sheng's trump card.
Jiang Sheng had defeated the Eight Wolves of Dongjun with a fire dragon before, and now he wanted to use one to defeat him as well.
"A mere fire art! Do you think you can withstand the waters of the Taiping River?"
The river god sneered and drove the power of incense offerings to its fullest. Endless water vapor gathered around him, forming rain clouds that covered dozens of miles.
"Let us see whether your fire is stronger, or this god's water!"
As the river god swung his fork, the water vapor filling the sky became countless water arrows, blotting out the sky and sun as they shot toward Jiang Sheng.
The densely packed arrows formed a dark mass with no end in sight, and every one carried the power of a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator.
With so many arrows falling, sheer attrition would be enough to wear Jiang Sheng to death.
But under Jiang Sheng's direction, the hundred-foot fire dragon let out a cry and spewed scorching flames. The searing fire surged outward, turning even the surrounding dark clouds into burning clouds of flame.
The incoming water arrows burst apart one after another. Water spiritual power collided with fiery energy, canceling each other out and raising great clouds of scalding steam that fell as a pattering hot rain.
The common folk on Qingping Mountain watched the skyful of water arrows pour down, only to be stopped entirely by a majestic fire dragon. Their eyes widened.
Only now did they realize that Daoist Jiang possessed such abilities!
Xu Xiao stared at the fire dragon in wonder. "Daoist Jiang's fire art truly is extraordinary!"
"The fire dragon has horns and whiskers, a full set of scales and claws, and such lively movement. Daoist Jiang has clearly cultivated this fire art to great mastery. Otherwise, he could never conjure such a wondrous fire dragon!"
Hearing Xu Xiao's praise, Zhang Qingyun hurriedly asked, "Then does that mean Daoist Jiang can defeat that demon?"
Xu Xiao shook her head. "It's hard to say. Purple Mansion Realm beings open a purple mansion between their brows and begin developing Divine Abilities. Their spiritual power is also far beyond that of the Foundation Establishment Realm."
"Even though driving the river along the way to flood almost half of Qingshan County consumed a good deal of his spiritual power, he is still a Purple Mansion Realm being. As for victory or defeat, I can only say their chances are evenly matched."
As they spoke, the battle in the sky suddenly changed again.
Seeing that his water arrows could not overcome Jiang Sheng, and feeling the power of incense offerings draining within him, the river god finally revealed his trump card.
As he swung his fork, the water vapor filling the sky converged, ultimately forming an enormous fish over a thousand feet long.
The river god swept his fork, and the thousand-foot fish rolled through the air toward Jiang Sheng.
Its tremendous bulk was like a hill. The shadow cast by this fish of water spiritual energy covered nearly half of Qingshan Town, and the aura it gave off was utterly terrifying.
Xu Xiao even felt that if this great fish fell upon Qingping Town, it would be enough to make the entire town vanish in an instant!
Compared with the great fish, Jiang Sheng's fire dragon was only a hundred feet long, less than a tenth of its size.
Though its scales and claws were complete, both its imposing presence and the fluctuations of its power were far inferior to its opponent's.
Qiao Xuan stared gravely at the two combatants in the sky. "Daoist Jiang is in danger."
"What?!" Zhang Qingyun and Zhang Qing cried out together, their hearts already growing cold.
Xu Xiao's expression was equally grave. "That demon has used a Divine Ability. This great fish should be the Divine Ability he began condensing in the Purple Mansion Realm, though it has not yet fully formed. Even so, it is not something a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator can withstand!"
Just then, the fire dragon let out a sky-shaking cry. Jiang Sheng actually sent it straight toward the thousand-foot fish of water spiritual energy.
Everyone watched anxiously as the small, weak fire dragon charged at the hill-like, towering fish, like an egg hurled against a rock.
But in the next instant, the fire dragon exploded. Surging flames expanded and swallowed the great fish whole.
A deafening explosion roared out. Flames churned, and the great fish struggled endlessly within the surrounding blaze.
Clearly, the fire dragon condensed from the sun's essence had severely wounded the fish of water spiritual energy.
Dust billowed and dark clouds rolled. As the river god continually replenished the water vapor, the great fish twisted and thrashed, finally extinguishing the flames filling the sky. Clouds and rain shrouded the heavens once more, and Jiang Sheng had vanished without a trace.
"In the end, this god has won!"
But before the river god could rejoice, a tiny glimmer flickered within the clouds and rain.
In the next instant, a dazzling azure sword radiance cleaved the heavens, stretching ten thousand feet from west to east!
Here is the second update. Another full six thousand characters today, offered with all sincerity~
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