"The person Elder Pu was talking about was him!" Ting Lanyue's mind was shaken as she stared blankly at the figure in midair, riding the thunder across the sky with thunderbolts in hand, like a god of lightning from legend.
In the Scripture Hall, Elder Pu had said that only one person had received his true inheritance. All the disciples had assumed he was talking about themselves. In the end, Ting Lanyue defeated everyone else and emerged victorious, winning their admiration and making them believe that she was the person Elder Pu had mentioned.
Ting Lanyue alone had never crossed swords with Zhong Yue.
Zhong Yue had been extremely clumsy when practicing the Thunderclap Sword Art. At the time, Ting Lanyue had not seen anything unusual about his swordsmanship, so she too had believed that she had received Elder Pu's true inheritance.
But now, seeing Zhong Yue in midair visualizing thunder, riding the thunder across the sky, and displaying the Thunderclap Sword Art, with spring thunder booming and thunder rolling, Ting Lanyue finally understood that only this level of Thunderclap Sword Art could be the true inheritance!
Spring thunder broke open the cold winter, and lightning illuminated the Nine Provinces!
Zhong Yue's Thunderclap Sword Art differed vastly in its movements from the one Elder Pu had taught. When that thunder tree cleaved down, every branch and twig was sword qi of thunder. There was no such move in the Thunderclap Sword Art, yet Ting Lanyue could see the same spirit and charm Elder Pu had imparted.
What was the true inheritance?
This was the true inheritance!
Learning something in the closest possible likeness was merely learning. True inheritance meant comprehending the essence and spirit, turning what one's teacher had taught into one's own knowledge, integrating it completely without being confined by form!
What shocked Ting Lanyue most was not Zhong Yue's Thunderclap Sword Art, but the phantom of Suihuang behind him. It was the form of Suihuang that he had manifested and condensed with his mental strength.
That majesty was so overbearing that, with one distant glance, Ting Lanyue felt it could crush all the heavens and make everything submit!
"But isn't he being far too bold?"
Ting Lanyue's heart pounded. "That Mutated Abyssal Demon was born with totem patterns coiling around its entire body. How could it possibly be so easy to deal with?"
She was still far from Zhong Yue. Below, she saw the Mutated Abyssal Demon's arms sweeping through the air, transforming into dazzling blades of light. The totem patterns surfacing beneath its skin grew brighter and brighter. Its face twisted ferociously as it actually leaped into the lightning and charged at Zhong Yue in midair like a bolt of lightning, neither dodging nor evading, its attack overwhelmingly domineering!
Crack!
The thunder tree struck the Mutated Abyssal Demon, ripping its flesh apart. Its exposed muscles and skin were charred black, a horrifying sight.
But Ting Lanyue secretly cried out that something was wrong. The Thunderclap Sword Art was extraordinarily effective against demons like the Abyssal Demons—but only ordinary Abyssal Demons. An ordinary Abyssal Demon's heart was wrapped in a bone sac that even blades found difficult to pierce. Only thunder transformed into sword light could stab into it without the slightest hindrance and kill it.
But Mutated Abyssal Demons were different. Every bone in a Mutated Abyssal Demon's body, including its bone sac, had been completely replaced by incomparably pure Mysterious Iron. Mysterious Iron conducted thunder, channeling it into the bones formed from Mysterious Iron throughout its body, so its heart would remain unharmed!
Not only could its heart not be injured, even its brain could not suffer the slightest damage. The Mutated Abyssal Demon's brain was surrounded by a skull formed from Mysterious Iron, and the Thunderclap Sword Art simply could not pierce it!
Zhong Yue's Thunderclap Sword Art was several times more powerful than when Ting Lanyue used it, but it still could not possibly threaten the Mutated Abyssal Demon's life.
Moreover, when Ting Lanyue saw the phenomenon behind Zhong Yue and the thunder-tree sword light visualized through his mental strength, she knew that although the power of Zhong Yue's Thunderclap Sword Art was immense, it also consumed a tremendous amount of mental strength!
With such consumption, he could not maintain it for long before his mental strength was exhausted!
Once his mental strength ran out, the Mutated Abyssal Demon could kill Zhong Yue with ease!
"Junior Brother Zhong is using the Thunderclap Sword Art against the Mutated Abyssal Demon. That's extremely dangerous!"
Sure enough, although the Mutated Abyssal Demon had been struck by the thunder tree, its momentum did not diminish in the slightest. In the next moment, it reached Zhong Yue's feet, and its razor-sharp blades slashed at him like lightning!
At that moment, lightning crackled beneath Zhong Yue's feet, sparks flying in every direction as the electric light shifted his figure smoothly more than thirty yards through the air, avoiding the Mutated Abyssal Demon's twin blades.
Crack!
Another thunder tree cleaved down, striking the Abyssal Demon as it fell from the sky. Its skin burst apart all over its body, and it tumbled uncontrollably toward the ground.
Zhong Yue could no longer continue riding the thunder across the sky. His body also fell downward, while his hands crossed and one thunder tree after another successively cleaved down, striking the Abyssal Demon.
Ting Lanyue sprinted forward, thinking, "Junior Brother Zhong has only just entered the Upper Academy and hasn't endured much battle tempering. His combat awareness is weak. Using a technique with such tremendous consumption, he probably doesn't have much mental strength left. I hope I can still save him in time..."
Boom, boom.
The human and demon landed one after another. Then came the rumble of thunder and the Abyssal Demon's roar, followed by the sounds of collision, the earth shaking, and rocks flying everywhere!
Zhong Yue and the Mutated Abyssal Demon had landed in a mountain hollow. In her haste, Ting Lanyue could not see the actual battle and could only see Suihuang, formed from Zhong Yue's mental strength, moving rapidly. Zhong Yue was probably constantly shifting his body as he fought the Mutated Abyssal Demon.
"Once Junior Brother Zhong lands, he'll suffer badly. The Abyssal Demon can't fly, so he can suppress it from the air. But once he lands on the ground, the Mutated Abyssal Demon's speed will become astonishing. With his speed, he won't be able to evade the demon's attacks..."
Just as she had thought this, she suddenly saw Suihuang, formed from Zhong Yue's mental strength, spring high into the air. Zhong Yue's body sprang up with it, shooting out of the mountain hollow like a meteor, as if he had been struck by a heavy blow!
Seeing this, Ting Lanyue's heart sank. Zhong Yue had clearly been hit hard by the Abyssal Demon and sent flying out of the mountain hollow!
The Mutated Abyssal Demon possessed tens of thousands of pounds of divine strength. It could probably crush Zhong Yue with ease!
She rushed over, only to see Zhong Yue stagger as he landed, his feet constantly shifting backward as he dispersed the force of the Mutated Abyssal Demon. He had not suffered the severe injury she had imagined.
Instead, intensely blazing Thunder Pattern Totems surfaced around Zhong Yue's body. These Thunder Pattern Totems, formed from mental strength, combined together into a thunderous dragon that coiled around him!
"Dragon Totem Body Coiling Art?"
Ting Lanyue sped closer, her heart shaken once again. "He fused a body-tempering method with the Thunderclap Sword Art Elder Pu imparted, using the power of thunder to strengthen his body. No wonder he could withstand the Mutated Abyssal Demon's heavy blow without dying..."
Only now did she realize that Elder Pu's words about Zhong Yue receiving his true inheritance had not been exaggerated in the slightest. Zhong Yue had not only grasped the essence of the Thunderclap Sword Art, he had even drawn inferences from it and combined it with other body-tempering techniques!
At the same time, the Abyssal Demon leaped from the mountain hollow and pounced straight at Zhong Yue, its roar shaking the heavens and its momentum terrifying.
But Ting Lanyue saw that the Mutated Abyssal Demon was covered in blood. Its speed and strength were far lower than before, its power reduced by at least half. It no longer possessed that previously invincible air.
Its skin had been stripped away completely by the several thunder trees Zhong Yue had brought down earlier, exposing flesh beneath. All the Abyssal Demon totem patterns on the surface of its skin had been destroyed!
"That's it! Junior Brother Zhong just now endured the tremendous consumption of mental strength to unleash those thunder trees in order to destroy the Mutated Abyssal Demon's totem patterns!"
Realization dawned on Ting Lanyue. In this brief span of time, Zhong Yue had brought her one shock and delight after another, battering her mind repeatedly.
Only now did she understand that Zhong Yue's earlier use of that highly consuming technique had not been pointless. He had been destroying the Abyssal Demon's totem patterns and weakening its power!
"Junior Brother Zhong's combat awareness is frighteningly strong. He doesn't look like a rookie who has only just entered the Upper Academy at all!"
Ting Lanyue swiftly drew closer. Zhong Yue and the Abyssal Demon were still fighting. The human and demon clashed, the Abyssal Demon pressing forward step by step as its two enormous scythes swept wide and high. The demon stood six or seven feet tall, and each scythe blade was seven or eight feet long, forged entirely from Mysterious Iron and incomparably sharp. Looking down from above, it gave off an astonishing sense of oppression!
Zhong Yue kept retreating, a lightning dragon coiling around his body. With a point of his finger, the lightning around him cleaved out smoothly, transforming into lightning swords that shot toward the Abyssal Demon!
The attacks of both human and demon were frighteningly fast. In the brief time it took Ting Lanyue to approach, each had launched over a hundred attacks, and Zhong Yue had nearly been cut several times.
Suddenly, Zhong Yue could not dodge in time and was kicked flying by the Abyssal Demon. The demon leaped into the air and actually followed close behind, bringing its two enormous scythes down at Zhong Yue, one after the other!
Ting Lanyue nearly cried out, but at that moment, the human and demon met in midair. Lightning flared brilliantly, its radiance so dazzling that even she could not see what was happening within. When the lightning dispersed, Zhong Yue and the Abyssal Demon fell from the air, crashing down not far in front of her.
Ting Lanyue hurried over and saw Zhong Yue stagger to his feet. The Suihuang phenomenon behind him collapsed, and the thunder dragon coiling around his body also shattered. The Abyssal Demon, meanwhile, lay on the ground with blood flowing everywhere. It had already breathed its last.
"Dead?"
Ting Lanyue stared blankly, looking at the Abyssal Demon's corpse in disbelief. A tiny hole had been broken open in the Mysterious Iron bone sac around its chest. Zhong Yue's thunder sword qi had pierced through its heart, and it had bled to death!
"The thunder from the Thunderclap Sword Art is dispersed throughout the body by the Mysterious Iron bone sac along the bones, so it can't injure the heart. How did Junior Brother Zhong pierce through that Mysterious Iron bone sac?"
Ting Lanyue's thoughts turned as swiftly as lightning, and she immediately understood. "He struck the same spot on the Abyssal Demon's chest with over a hundred swords just now, stabbing it repeatedly and using the thunder's high temperature to melt a tiny hole through the Mysterious Iron bone sac. Then, with the final sword, he pierced through its heart!"
By making flexible use of the Thunderclap Sword Art, destroying the Mutated Abyssal Demon's totem patterns, stabbing the Mysterious Iron bone sac over a hundred times, and piercing through its heart, Zhong Yue had made this battle so thrilling that Ting Lanyue's heart had pounded. She also looked at him with newfound respect.
"That little girl saw you visualizing Suihuang. You have to silence her."
In Zhong Yue's sea of consciousness, Xin Huo suddenly spoke in a low voice. "Otherwise, if word gets out, it will be disadvantageous to you. You are still extremely weak. Carrying such marvelous techniques, you will certainly arouse the covetousness of others!"
Zhong Yue was startled. "Kill Senior Sister Ting?"
"Not killing her would work too."
Xin Huo tempted him, "Knock her down and mate with her. Once the rice has been cooked, she will devote herself to you and won't spread the word."
"Mate?"
Zhong Yue's face darkened. He secretly glanced at Ting Lanyue. She was only a few months older than him, around fifteen years old as well, yet her body had already developed perfectly. Heroic and spirited, her curving figure was extremely alluring.
When Ting Lanyue saw him looking over, her gaze turned somewhat strange. Understanding dawned on her, and she said solemnly, "Junior Brother Zhong, are you worried that I will spread word of you cultivating another technique? You can rest assured. Although my Sword Gate nominally forbids disciples from cultivating the techniques of other races, many older-generation qi practitioners have cultivated the techniques of other races, and quite a few disciples do the same. There's no need to worry."
Zhong Yue let out a sigh of relief and smiled. "Then please don't tell anyone, Senior Sister."
Ting Lanyue nodded. "I'm not a blabbermouth. I won't say anything recklessly."
"I still think silencing her—or mating with her—would be safer."
In the sea of consciousness, Xin Huo continued tempting him. "I can keep watch for you. You make your move!"
Zhong Yue simply pretended not to hear.
Before you continue