More than ten breaths passed. Seeing that the corpse lying on the ground still did not move, the spectators in the tavern finally understood what had happened.
"An Upper Void... died?"
The Cheng Clan had struck too high a note and taken too great a stride; their Taixu's display had been far too exaggerated.
After Xiao Wanfeng's calm, effortless sword strike...
The Upper Void fell.
The Upper Void could not rise again.
This was far too dramatic. Had the Cheng Clan become a laughingstock? "No, impossible..."
Cheng Xie's face alternated between green and white, disbelief written all over it.
He understood the Heart Sword Technique, knew the Hidden Sword Art, and had some grasp of the Emotion Sword Art. Yet even adding them all together, he could not produce such a swordsmanship effect.
"Heart Lake?"
"This is Ancient Sword Arts? How is this Ancient Sword Arts?!"
Heart Lake's effect was nearly on par with Prajna-Nothingness, yet fundamentally different from it.
It relied solely on the application of the Heart Sword Technique, supplemented at most by the first realm of the other major sword arts.
But could the fusion of first realms yield the destructive power of a second realm?
"Is it that surprising?"
Sheathing his sword and standing solemnly, Xiao Wanfeng found it only natural.
His years of understanding, questioning, overturning, and rebuilding the Nine Great Sword Arts might have been nothing more than armchair theorizing when he had not drawn his sword.
But after truly earning Xuancang's recognition, Xiao Wanfeng had confidence:
The road was not wrong. So long as one fixed their eyes upon the destination, the process depended only on how one chose, how one walked, and whether one persevered.
He stared steadily at Cheng Xie, at every rule-bound ancient sword cultivator like Cheng Xie, drew a