Ruthless Blade

"Rumble rumble!"

The heavenly tribulation raged violently, cascading down like a waterfall. The dark clouds were instantly scattered by the lightning, transforming into brilliant radiance as lightning spread everywhere.

Heaven's Will transformed into a blade, plunging into Xu Changqing's body. It was a blade constructed from the Origin Great Dao, capable of severing everything in the world, leaving nothing unbroken.

Xu Changqing guided his state of mind to draw the Heaven's Will Saber, aimed it at his own origin, and then slashed down without hesitation.

With a pfft, his origin was split apart in an instant. Excruciating pain filled his limbs and bones, the Great Dao within him shattered, and those several threads of Emotional Origins were annihilated by Heaven's Will Saber Art in a single moment.

"Heavenly Tribulation as a furnace, Heaven and Earth as fire, refine my own body!"

Enduring the searing pain, Xu Changqing sat cross-legged in the void, letting the sea of lightning engulf him. White flames began to flicker in the surrounding void, eventually gathering into a blazing mass.

"Rumble rumble!"

A lightning waterfall descended. The violent thunderbolt struck Xu Changqing in an instant, splitting his flesh open, blood spraying everywhere, his skin charred black.

"Chi!"

At that moment, red light burst from Xu Changqing's body. It was his Dao Artifact vibrating, flying straight out from his Sea of Bitterness into the sea of lightning to undergo tempering.

The crowd saw Xu Changqing's artifact.

It was a snow-white bone saber, as beautiful as mutton-fat jade, as if carved from translucent gemstone. The blade's edge was dark red, exuding Sha Qi.

This saber was long, over one meter six. When both hands gripped the hilt, a large portion still extended beyond. The blade had a jade-like texture.

It wasn't straight but slightly curved. Patterns spread along the spine of the blade, like Dao Order or naturally carved jade carvings.

This saber had followed Xu Changqing for over three hundred years, accompanying him from his mortal period through all his battles.

Back when he joined the army, he used a blade—one he forged himself in a blacksmith shop, just ordinary iron.

But he had killed many on the battlefield. The blade shattered many times, and Xu Changqing had no good materials to repair it, yet he couldn't bear to discard his old comrade who had fought alongside him for years.

So he fused the dead from the battlefield with the blade, tempering them together.

In the end, he used it so much that he grew accustomed to it, and the blade thus became a bone saber.

Within Xu Changqing's brow, a dark red Nascent Soul appeared. It was the result of killing too many people and cultivating some demonic art, creating an evil Nascent Soul.

But at this moment, the Nascent Soul actively entered the furnace formed by the Myriad Great Daos, evaporating all the Sha Qi within it. Those dense Sha Qi and killing intent all merged with his Ruthless Blade.

In that instant, the dark red Nascent Soul began to turn crystalline and translucent, like a mirror, or like a milky white porcelain doll.

At this moment, Xu Changqing also walked his own path.

Under the gaze of the crowd, nine colors surged out from his Crown of the Head—that was his Origins of Emotion.

Then, everyone saw Xu Changqing form hand seals with both hands, guiding these Emotional Origins into his Five Viscera and Six Bowels. They also saw the Blade of Heavenly Will absorbed by him.

After severing his emotions, Xu Changqing's face lost all expression. His eyes were deep and profound, like a secluded spring under the moon. The entire person became silent and cold, icy and emotionless.

Moreover, his hair visibly turned white. The thick black strands were gradually eroded by white.

Xu Changqing turned his head to look at the Woman in White. He saw her forming hand seals, the Great Dao Treasure Bottle above her head growing more solid. Finally, the treasure bottle directly swallowed the Dao Slaying Heavenly Tribulation.

She looked down at the protective formation of the Feathered Dynasty, knowing that this time she couldn't severely wound it. So she carried the tribulation and fled into the cosmos.

Xu Changqing did the same. The two vanished into the universe, submerged by the lightning tribulation.

Mu Miaomiao stood on the street, watching Xu Changqing with worry. She couldn't accept him severing his own emotions.

"Master, Changqing is undergoing his tribulation under everyone's gaze, trying to destroy the Feathered Dynasty. Those Old Immortals will definitely interfere. Can you help him?"

Mu Miaomiao's silky black hair swayed gently, tears swirling in her large eyes.

Mu Miaomiao's master was silent for a long time, observing Xu Changqing from the shadows. Then she spoke in response: "I'll help only once—let the two of them escape. Because the Feathered Dynasty is no simple matter. I've sensed at least two Quasi-Emperors there."

"I can block the Quasi-Emperors for them, but the Great Sages are beyond me. That depends on their luck."

Mu Miaomiao's face lit up with surprise. "If Master can block the Quasi-Emperors, that's enough. I believe the Great Sages can't kill them."

In the cosmos, many experts had already arrived. Most were from the Big Dipper Star Domain. Some were from the younger generation, others from the older generation, all watching the two Mortal Bodies undergoing their Dao Slaying Heavenly Tribulation.

"Xu Changqing's emotional fluctuations are slowly fading..." an elder sighed. Xu Changqing's experiences were things they had never gone through, never imagined.

Those Divine Bodies and the younger generation—before Xu Changqing, they were like flowers in a greenhouse, never weathered by storms, lacking in state of mind.

Such people often collapsed when defeated.

They had heard that Xu Changqing had been defeated too—once in a secret realm by a disciple of a Holy Land. But he didn't sink into despair or loss. Instead, he found endless motivation.

In Xu Changqing's view, however, that didn't count as being truly defeated. If you couldn't even accept your own failure, that was real failure.

True success lay in learning from failure.

"Boom!"

The massive lightning tribulation was dazzling. Even a wisp of its aura made some Dao Slaying Experts present tremble in fear. If they entered, they might be blasted into nothing.

The cosmos was not dark but blazing to the extreme. Lightning filled every corner, and all kinds of tribulations rare throughout history descended continuously.

The crowd saw the Woman in White's tribulation change. They saw humanoid lightning emerge from within the tribulation. Some of those humanoid lightning had weapons hanging above their heads, others held bone clubs or bells in their hands.

"That... that is the figure of an Ancient Emperor Supreme!"

"That's the Kirin Ancient Emperor!"

"And a Weapon of an Ancient Supreme—what kind of tribulation is this? I've never heard of it!"

All the living beings watching the tribulation were stunned speechless. This was a tribulation they had never seen, one they had never even heard of.

The vast lightning sea stretched endlessly. The woman in white roamed alone beyond the domain, battling numerous Humanoid Lightning figures, and finally clashing with the weapons of Ancient Supremes using ultimate Dao methods.

But clearly, she was also wounded. Her white robes stained with blood, her originally exquisite and flawless face now bore scars, the corner of her eye cracked open by a Dragon Stele.

Surrounded by thunder, she extended her fair jade hand and gently patted that Dragon Stele. With a bang, terrifying energy radiated outward, and that Dragon Stele shattered under her palm!

"Hiss, that Dragon Stele was the weapon of an Ancient Great Emperor, and the Female Demon shattered it with her bare hands!" No one could believe it. That seemingly delicate and elegant physique actually contained terrifying power.

At the same time, even more weapons appeared. A Purple-Gold Bell emerged, and with a single gentle chime, it shook people's souls unstable, plunging them into an endless illusion.

A black cudgel also crashed down from within the tribulation, smashing the woman in white directly into the lightning sea, splashing up great bursts of lightning and blood.

"Boom!"

In the distance, a massive bronze cauldron descended with an overwhelming heavy aura. That cauldron seemed to transcend the Limits of Time, slamming directly into the woman in white, breaking her ribs and twisting her arm.

"Look, over at Xu Changqing's side—there are figures too!"

The crowd saw several vague figures appear beside Xu Changqing. Some saw a tall phantom holding a club charging at Xu Changqing, while others saw a figure holding a Heaven Measuring Ruler.

"That's the Fighting Saint Emperor and the Demon Emperor!" Everyone was left gaping. The Female Demon's side was already outrageous enough, but Xu Changqing was no different.

They had never imagined that two Mortal Bodies would trigger a World-Shocking Tribulation.

Soon, they realized there weren't just two Heavenly Tribulation Great Emperor Figures—there were nine in total.

On the woman in white's side, an Immortal Gold Green Tear Tower appeared, along with two women. One was the Queen Mother of the West, and the other was unknown to the crowd.

"Their Dao Slaying Heavenly Tribulation is the tribulation replicating the Dao Marks of those past Great Emperors."

The crowd understood now. These tribulation figures weren't imprints left by the Great Emperors themselves, but rather the tribulation replicating the marks they left behind when they crossed their own tribulations.

And everyone knew that Xu Changqing and the Female Demon's Daos were too heaven-defying. The Female Demon seemed to truly embody the essence of Dao Slaying, Recklessly Slaying the Dao, while Xu Changqing was Slaying the Self, cutting away his own emotions to Equalling the Dao.

One sought to stand Above the Dao, the other wanted to Be Brothers with the Dao—or Be Big Brother.

It looked like Xu Changqing's Dao was slightly weaker than the Female Demon's, but in reality, that wasn't the case. Many Great Emperors had failed to escape the Limitations of the Dao.

They appeared to transcend all Daos, yet they remained under the Dao's control. Their inability to overcome the Immortal Ascension Tribulation was also a manifestation of the Dao, and tribulation itself belonged to the Dao.

"Hum!"

The next moment, nine blurry figures appeared before Xu Changqing, each holding a weapon.

Some held an Immortal Cudgel, some held a Heaven Measuring Ruler, others radiated golden light without any weapon, and still others wielded Immortal Swords or Heavenly Sabers.

"That's Emperor Yuhua!"

Someone on the woman in white's side cried out in shock—it was someone from the Feathered Dynasty.

"To fight Ancient Great Emperors as a Mortal Body is an honor, but from this moment on, I will fear no one, and I will lose to no one!" Xu Changqing stared coldly at the phantom Great Emperors before him.

He was continuously struck by the Chaos Divine Thunder from the sky. The Ruthless Blade flew over from the Depths of the Lightning Sea, hovering beside Xu Changqing.

The Bone Saber radiated an intense killing intent and battle will. It had long given birth to a divine spirit, following Xu Changqing for Over 300 Years, from before he even opened the Sea of Bitterness all the way to now.

From the moment it was forged, it had never been abandoned. Even when its body was Shattered, Xu Changqing repaired it every time.