Such Powerful Sword Qi!

Such Powerful Sword Qi!

Above the river, the River Demon finally revealed its full form. It was a giant snake dozens of meters long.

Its body was wrapped in a layer of silver scales. No wonder the people on both banks called such a monster the River God—no one could do anything to it.

Those scales were impervious to blades and spears. With such an enormous body and the advantage of its home waters, a monster like this was nearly unstoppable in the river.

"Dear mother, what kind of monster is this? How did it grow so huge?"

After probing a few times and finding no danger, the giant snake came charging toward the passenger ship like a dragon crossing the river, intending to coil around it head-on and overturn it.

Yet in Heroine Hong Yuan's eyes, the River Demon had opened its blood basin of a mouth and was rushing straight at the ship.

"My life is over." In her panic, Heroine Hong Yuan drew her sword, shut her eyes, and stabbed at the River Demon.

Behind her, everyone in the cabin saw something different. They saw the gaping maw bearing down on Heroine Hong Yuan, while she drew her sword and bravely fought the demon that churned the river.

The giant snake's bite could swallow the bow of the ship in one gulp. The small figure drawing her sword looked so frail, yet all the more awe-inspiring and great for it.

Heroine Hong Yuan thrust her sword at the demon. At the same time, a flash of light pierced through the river's surface, and with a thunderous boom, tore through the giant snake's body.

The giant snake shrieked in agony and fell into the river.

Following that sword light were the stunned gazes of everyone present.

"This is... Sword Qi?"

The brilliant light blinded everyone, raising billowing waves in their hearts.

Their formerly frantic, uneasy hearts settled, leaving only indescribable excitement behind.

"Such powerful Sword Qi!" the men sighed.

"Heroine Hong Yuan really can wield Sword Qi!" the women cried out.

"Is that snake demon dead?" The boatmen cared only about this.

"I... cultivated Sword Qi?" Not only the passengers and sailors aboard the ship were stunned—even Heroine Hong Yuan, Tang Yao, was dumbfounded.

First came disbelief, then wild delight filled her chest.

Looking at the sword in her hand and the River Demon struggling violently as its blood dyed the river red, Tang Yao seemed to swell with confidence. For the first time, she realized she was actually this formidable.

The giant snake had suffered grievous wounds, but it was not yet dead. With a shriek, it plunged beneath the water.

Heroine Hong Yuan climbed back onto the bow. Dashing and heroic amid the cold wind, she followed the feeling from before and slashed her sword beneath the water once more.

The motion so frightened the giant snake that it dove sharply toward the riverbed, its tail whipping up enormous waves that crashed onto the deck.

Yet Heroine Hong Yuan gripped her sword and found that nothing had happened.

The crowd, eagerly awaiting the heroine to Slay Demons and Exterminate Devils, was equally baffled.

The air fell utterly silent.

"Why didn't it work?"

At that moment, the Daoist stepped out from the crowd.

In the distance, a streak of sword light flew back, circling around the Daoist before transforming into a round wheel.

It was the Azure Dragon Guardian.

The Daoist stretched out his hand, and Azure Dragon entered his palm, its cold light reflecting across the great river.

The cold wind made his Daoist robe flap loudly, yet the Daoist was like a sword planted upon the river, standing unmoved and towering.

"Daoist priest?" Those who had exchanged a few words with Gao Xian called out one after another.

"What exactly is going on?" Quite a few female students stared at one another.

"No way..." Some people faintly guessed Gao Xian's true identity, and their faces changed drastically.

Everyone realized that the twists and turns of this night had already surpassed their imagination. Their minds could no longer process what was happening.

But the great snake in the water would not wait for them. Driven by hatred, it launched another counterattack.

The severely wounded snake surfaced again, appearing directly at the stern. It coiled around the ship, trying to drag it underwater.

In an instant, the ship tipped over like a seesaw, tilting and capsizing toward the river beyond recovery.

Once they fell into the water, they would become meat in its mouth. Not one of them could escape.

The Daoist turned and rose, gliding beneath the moon like a flying immortal before landing atop the cabin.

The sword light twisted and scattered across the river's surface.

Boom!

One sword stroke split the great river and severed the snake's tail where it was coiled around the stern.

Enormous waves surged across the river, washing the giant snake's head, hidden beneath the water, into view.

The River Demon, which had roamed the great river with impunity and wreaked havoc on both banks, finally realized that its opponent was an existence utterly beyond its reach. Terror rose in its heart, and it tried to flee.

But the immortal's sword had already struck again.

A sword descended from atop the cabin. To those aboard, it was as though the Milky Way had fallen from the Ninth Heaven.

The River Demon's shriek made everyone's ears ache and their heads spin, yet it could not affect the immortal in the slightest.

This time, there was not the slightest error. Neither deviating nor straying, the strike nailed the giant snake's head precisely in place.

With that single sword, the River Demon that had run rampant through the great river and plagued both banks for untold years perished. Only its enormous corpse remained, sprawled across the river's surface.

Heroine Hong Yuan, clinging to the railing atop the tilted bow, saw it most clearly. She had written this scene in Romance of the Sword Immortal, and had replayed countless times in her dreams just how astonishing this sword strike would be. It was an immortal's swordsmanship.

In her imagination, it should have been filled with an immortal's carefree grace—the ease of roaming the North Sea by morning and Cangwu by evening.

But when she truly saw it, she discovered it was unlike what she had imagined.

There was no dashing ease, only coldness and lonely desolation.

This was a true immortal dwelling above the Ninth Heaven. It was as if she saw the long river of time flowing endlessly onward, while he alone sat unchanged since time immemorial atop a heavenly palace of clouds and rosy mist.

Only then did the people aboard the ship stir again. They finally understood that the one who had hidden his true brilliance was not Heroine Hong Yuan, but the quiet Daoist who had concealed himself among the crowd.

Only then did the Daoist turn around. His divine power appeared, and the Daoist mark that had vanished from his forehead emerged once more.

Hong Yuan looked at Great Immortal Kongchen's face, and her own face turned deathly pale.

Not only her—even the others aboard the passenger ship guessed who the man before them was.

Thinking of everything she had done recently, Hong Yuan felt as though she had fallen into an icy hell. She knew this man did not merely Exterminate Demons and Protect the Dao; the corpses outside Silver Flower Palace on West Gate Street had been piled up like mountains.

"It's over, it's over! I even said right in front of him that my Sword Qi method was no worse than his Sword-flying Technique."

"No, that's not right—I also exposed that I'm Hong Yuan. He knows Romance of the Sword Immortal was written by me."

"This time, my little life really is over."

In despair, Heroine Hong Yuan closed her eyes and stretched out her neck to be slaughtered.

Yet the immortal merely glanced at her and said nothing more.

They had already entered Jiangting Commandery, and there was not much road left.

With his identity exposed, Gao Xian no longer had any desire to remain aboard the ship.

The cold light withdrew, but the waves upon the river did not cease. General Donkey, who had been dozing at the rear, leaped out at that moment and prostrated himself before Gao Xian.

The Azure Dragon Sword, embedded in the River Demon's head, was not retrieved. It carried the giant snake's corpse across the river as though it had come back to life.

The donkey dropped down, landing squarely atop the giant snake's head, and headed into the distance.

"The ship has arrived. This poor Daoist, Kongchenzi, shall take his leave."

I discovered that some reader big shot cast fifty-five recommendation votes...

Why does anyone have so many recommendation votes? I only have five.