A Single Slash

To put it aptly, that could no longer be considered a "person."

From afar, he looked like a skeleton—a skeleton wrapped in nothing but a layer of dark skin. There seemed to be not a shred of flesh anywhere on his body, yet it appeared exceptionally taut.

More vividly put, he resembled a piece of air-dried cured meat.

The clothes wrapped around that "skeleton" had long since faded from the passage of time. Or perhaps they had always been a grimy gray. They were riddled with tears and tattered beyond measure.

White bandages for treating wounds were wrapped around the skeleton's arms, breastbone, thighs, and other areas. Faintly, one could still make out traces of blood that had dried and been weathered away by the years.

Those white strips of cloth showed beyond the tattered gray garments, making the skeleton appear somewhat miserable and steeped in the vicissitudes left behind by time.

The skeleton sat leaning against the cliff face, its head slightly bowed, looking as though it were deep in thought and meditation.

His sharply defined face, as though carved by blades and axes, bore features so gaunt they made one's heart ache.

Within those sunken eye sockets was a pair of hollow, dim gray eyes, like those unique to an elderly man at death's door—utterly lifeless.

Yet those very eyes were so deep that a single glance sent terror rising from the depths of one's heart. It was as though they possessed some dreadful magic capable of devouring a person alive, flesh by flesh.

This gaunt, bone-thin figure sat there silently in a contemplative posture. No one knew how many years he had remained seated there. Judging from the weathering of the black Saber Sheath standing beside him, it had been at least ten years.

Tang Yuan found it difficult to imagine that someone could remain utterly motionless for such a long stretch of time.

And that person was actually his father.

Had Bai Ju not repeatedly insisted that his father was still alive, Ling Tian would certainly have taken this first glance as the sight of a corpse.

Yet judging by the state of this "person," he did not look like a living man no matter how one looked at him.

But neither did he look like a dead man who had been dead for a long time.

Bai Ju led Ling Tian before the utterly motionless Ling Xiao. He then took three corpses from his storage artifact, shattered the clothes on their bodies, and placed them one by one before the skeleton.

His movements were so practiced that this was clearly not his first time doing it.

Ling Tian recognized the three dead men. They were members of the Blade Sect forces who had previously taken part in hunting him down, every one of them possessing strength above the third breath of the Heaven Soul Realm.

He simply could not understand what Bai Ju intended by killing these three men and bringing their corpses here.

Could it be that these men had a grudge against his father?

Very soon, Ling Tian understood why.

The three corpses placed before his father suddenly began to emit wisps of eerie green aura, which flowed into the bones throughout his father's body.

Ling Tian could not help but be greatly horrified.

Although he sensed that this strange phenomenon seemed to be caused by a peculiar aura emanating from his father and was something done voluntarily, he still could not suppress the shock in his heart.

As the lingering life essence within their bodies was devoured, the three corpses decayed at a speed visible to the naked eye, as though shifting forms and changing shadows. In the blink of an eye, they had become three desiccated corpses.

In exchange, Ling Xiao's figure gradually took on a little more of a human appearance. Though his bones were still wrapped in dark skin, there now seemed to be faint traces of flesh within, as well as spiritual energy circulating through him.

Most importantly, there was now a thread of human vitality that had either not existed before or had not been so apparent.

Only when Ling Tian sensed that aura did he finally become certain that the figure before him—his biological father—was truly still alive.

It was just that this way of surviving was far too bizarre for him.

To put it bluntly, he had to live by sucking the vital essence out of corpses.

Ling Tian found that difficult to accept for a time.

As the three corpses decayed, a faint gleam of spirit gradually appeared within Ling Xiao's hollow eyes.

Immediately afterward, an enormous phantom as towering as a mountain emerged above his shattered, battered skeleton.

The phantom was identical to the eerie green aura that had risen from the three corpses. At first glance, it looked like the lingering soul of an undead spirit, radiating a chillingly oppressive force.

Feeling the soul fluctuations within that phantom, so powerful they had reached the utmost extreme—

Ling Tian understood that this phantom should be formed from his father's life soul.

Upon seeing the phantom appear, Bai Ju's entire demeanor became extraordinarily solemn. Even his stance turned more restrained, utterly lacking the bold spirit with which he had previously cowed the major forces with a single slash.

If Ling Tian had not known him, he might even have taken him for nothing more than an ordinary old man missing an arm.

And when the phantom entered that skeletal body—

Bai Ju's expression grew solemn and reverent to the extreme. He bowed slightly toward the figure, like an old servant welcoming his master out of seclusion, his respect beyond words.

Crack—creak—crack—

As the figure rose, dull cracking sounds rang out from his bones again and again.

Ling Tian stared blankly at the scene. For a moment, he did not know how to react, looking wooden and at a loss.

Killing people was easy for him. Acknowledging kin—especially a father he had never met—was somewhat difficult.

He did not even know how he ought to get along with this father of his, or what he should say.

Amid the repeated cracks of bone, Ling Xiao rose to his feet. A sharp gaze swept over Ling Tian from within his sunken eye sockets before settling on the Sprout Saber at his side.

It was only a glance, yet Ling Tian felt as though every secret he possessed had been seen through. That gaze was so cold and fierce that it made his heart tremble, yet it also contained a restrained warmth.

"Very good!"

Ling Xiao's bony hand abruptly beckoned toward the saber. The Sprout Saber instantly leaped into his hand like an obedient fish, trembling faintly as though expressing the joy of a long-awaited reunion.

As for Ling Xiao's "very good," spoken in that low, hoarse voice as though his throat were full of earth, no one knew whether he was praising the Sprout Saber for remaining as fine as it had been in the past, praising Bai Ju for the merit of this journey—

Or expressing his satisfaction with Ling Tian's growth into adulthood.

In any case, when the two heard Ling Xiao's words, both could not help but feel joy in their hearts.

Bai Ju felt relief at having lived up to his entrusted duty and completed the mission of that year.

Ling Tian, meanwhile, felt a sense of recognition he had never experienced before. It was the first time in his life he had ever felt such an emotion.

He vaguely seemed able to understand how those children in his childhood memories had felt when they performed well and received their parents' praise.

"Watch this slash carefully."

There were no excessive words, nor any restrained sentiment of a father and son reunited. Ling Xiao simply gripped the Sprout Saber and walked to an open area nearby.

The next moment, dark-red soul flames circulating with Saintly Essence covered the blade, making the entire Sprout Saber appear exceptionally bewitching and beautiful.

Before the horrified eyes of the two men, Ling Xiao lightly swung the long saber in his hand toward the sky above the cliff behind him.

With one slash, the cliff was instantly cut in two like tofu, its cross-section as smooth and level as a calm water surface.

The saber radiance shot straight into the clouds. Like Bai Ju's slash that had severely wounded Yong Ye, it forcibly split apart the clouds overhead.

But unlike Bai Ju's slash, Ling Xiao's strike surpassed it many times over, whether in might or in the imposing aura it gave off.

Although the clouds split overhead likewise formed a long, continuous gash, Bai Ju's slash had quickly faded into calm. Ling Xiao's strike, however, seemed to have truly cleaved open the sky itself, and no sign of restoration appeared for a long while.

As the bewitching dark-red soul flames poured forth with the saber radiance, they seemed to draw a long dragon of flaming seas across the horizon.

The originally compact clouds no longer looked as though they had merely been cut apart. Instead, they looked as though they had been forcibly torn asunder, their original form ruined as they billowed and spread toward both sides like steaming vapor, as though fleeing for their lives.

The sight of the sky being torn into two shores by that single slash lasted for a long time.

Suddenly, the torn clouds began to flow backward like a river, crazily surging in from both sides into the split saber mark, as though trying to fill in and extinguish that sea of flames.

Dark clouds rolled and churned around the two wings of the fiery sea, occasionally erupting with thunderous roars. Heaven and earth darkened, while dazzling light flashed brilliantly.

Viewed from below, it was indescribably magnificent and majestic.

With one slash, heaven and earth lost their color, and all things fell silent, as though the apocalypse had come to cleanse the dust and the world was about to be destroyed in an instant.

Ling Tian was once again left rooted to the spot in shock. Before he had fully comprehended the insight Bai Ju's slash had brought him, he was plunged into a new and different realm of realization, engraving this earth-shattering strike firmly into his mind.

What he saw in this slash was distinctly different from Bai Ju's. He no longer confined himself to the form of the strike, instead immersing himself more deeply in the intent it radiated.

From this slash, he felt a supreme, domineering artistic conception: advancing courageously without turning back, facing death as though returning home, and cleaving heaven and earth alike with a single blade. It was as though nothing in this world could possibly obstruct it.

From the familiar opening stance of this slash, he also recognized the saber technique he had understood by heart since childhood—the Demonic Blade Art. Yet it was completely different from what he knew, giving him the illusion that the Demonic Blade Art he had cultivated through endless suffering all these years was merely the foundation and entry point of this single slash.

It was as though even the final level of the Demonic Blade Art he had cultivated was only the opening move of this complete saber technique.

Bai Ju stood to one side, his eyes likewise filled with the supreme splendor of Ling Xiao's slash.

Like Ling Tian, he stood there in a daze and entered a subtle state of meditation, comprehending the mysteries of this strike.

He knew that besides passing on instruction to his son, Ling Xiao had also fulfilled the request he had made to him back then, helping him as promised to advance his Knife Dao realm, which had been shackled for many years.

It could be said that this slash contained Ling Xiao's lifelong insights into the Knife Dao. Even Bai Ju would find it difficult to fully comprehend them all.

But even the slightest fragment would be an enormous improvement for him.

The influence of Ling Xiao's slash extended far beyond the two of them. Even Lu Feng and his group, who were extremely far away, sensed this saber radiance piercing into the sky and felt the domineering artistic conception of being the sole sovereign beneath heaven and earth, utterly unmatched.

For a time, nearly every human and soul beast throughout the Triangle Region was frozen in place by that slash. Myriad beasts lay low, not daring to cry out.

Sky Shuttle and his group had nearly left the Triangle Region, yet they were still shaken by the aura emitted from that single slash.

Feeling the holy intent contained in the sky, everyone no longer held the slightest doubt that Demon Blade Night Monarch was still alive.

Yet what no one had expected was...

This slash was Ling Xiao's final slash, struck with all his strength.

After that slash—

Demon Blade Night Monarch existed no more in this world!