Zuo Qianhu stood there in a brand-new suit of silver-white armor that made him look as straight and tall as a spear. The key point was that his aura clearly showed he was only at the peak of the Golden Immortal Realm—he hadn't even touched the threshold of the Taiyi Realm. Yet his gaze was so calm it made people uneasy, as if the person standing before him weren't a mid-Taiyi expert, but a tree waiting to be chopped down.
Zhao Hu's face stiffened. He took a deep breath, and the long saber in his hand thrummed. Pale yellow spiritual power surged up from beneath his feet, instantly coalescing behind him into the phantom of a mountain ten zhang tall.
This was the "Saber Intent Dharma Aspect," which could only manifest after cultivating the Mountain Splitting Saber Art to a profound level. Though it was still only a rudimentary form, its mountain-like oppressive weight was already enough to make many of the new recruits at the edge of the field catch their breath.
"Instructor, forgive me!" Zhao Hu growled. He merged with the phantom mountain, raised his saber high above his head, and watched as its length instantly swelled to five zhang. Carrying the force to split mountains and shatter stone, it came crashing down toward Zuo Qianhu!
As the saber fell, the air across the entire training ground twisted. Ripples like waves spread through the space in its path. The bluestone slabs underfoot cracked with a series of sharp snaps, spiderweb fractures racing across them as chunks of stone were swept into the air and ground to powder by the saber energy.
A Taiyi cultivator could draw upon the spiritual power of heaven and earth to strengthen himself. This strike had drawn on a measure of the power of