The black energy dissolved bit by bit within the golden light, letting out piercing screams like countless vengeful ghosts wailing.
The old man held his right hand out, palm upward, his fingers loosely curled.
A longsword appeared in his hand out of thin air.
The sword was azure from end to end, its blade shimmering like seawater. Its edge was as thin as a cicada's wing, almost transparent.
Blue-green threads wound around the hilt, with seven blue-green gems the size of rice grains embedded between them in the shape of the Big Dipper.
Holding the longsword, the old man calmly regarded the still-churning black energy ahead, then swung.
"Azure Sea, Blue Firmament—cleave."
With the sword in his right hand, he slowly swept it from left to right.
Wherever the blade passed, space seemed to freeze. The surging waves solidified in midair, and the flying spray hung motionless.
Beneath that single stroke, heaven and earth became a frozen painting.
Then a rift slowly spread through that motionless painting.
Beginning at the tip of the Azure Sea, Blue Firmament Sword, the rift raced forward along the sea's surface like a bolt of lightning.
Wherever it passed, space was sliced cleanly apart, revealing the dark void beneath.
The rift grew longer and deeper, stretching from the coastal waters into the distance for a hundred li, splitting the entire sea shrouded in black energy in two.
Struck by the rift, the black energy let out an earth-shaking howl, like a great beast having its belly torn open.
Black mist frantically billowed from the rift, trying to close the wound, but the golden sword intent lingering within it shredded the approaching energy like rows of sharp blades.
The rift continued to spread.
A hundred li away, at the source of the black energy, a palm-sized