Ling Taixu's condition was deeply troubling. Though his Dao resonance was like a dragon, pure and keen, a savage beast seemed to lurk in the King Sea within his dantian, constantly devouring, gnawing away at, and annihilating its essence, suppressing it to the utmost.
"You truly have a sharp eye, young brother. Seven years ago, Water Earl Tian Wu came in person, intending to sacrifice a nearby Sword Dao sect to demons. When I heard, I rushed over and fought him fiercely. But my skills fell short, and he gravely wounded me. Ever since, Tian Wu's power has coiled endlessly around the King Sea in my dantian. My cultivation fell, and I have never been able to recover!" Ling Taixu sighed.
Had he not lost his cultivation, he would never have become a tiger stranded on the plains, bullied by a few Demon Heaven juniors.
"What was your cultivation before you were injured, senior?" Xiao Chen asked.
"The Seventh Heaven of the Emperor Realm."
"And Water Earl Tian Wu's at the time?"
"The Sixth Heaven of the Emperor Realm."
"The Sixth Heaven of the Emperor Realm?" Xiao Chen was startled.
Sword cultivators were like dragons, their killing power unmatched. Among those of the same realm, they were all but invincible.
The Heaven-Defying Demon Slayer Art was also the natural bane of demons.
Yet Ling Taixu, at the Seventh Heaven of the Emperor Realm, had fought Tian Wu at the Sixth Realm and been beaten half-crippled. Did that not mean Water Earl Tian Wu possessed world-shaking power to fight above his realm, with foundations so profound they defied heaven?
"To my shame, for many years, I considered myself an extraordinary genius, virtually without equal in my realm. Only when Water Earl Tian Wu came in person and crushed me in ten