One Sword Falls, the Great Emperor Injured

"I... am strong?"

Ji Wuchen snapped his head up. The bloodshot hue in his eyes had yet to fade, but a trace of bewilderment had crept in.

Qin Wangchuan did not speak, merely watching him in silence.

Ji Wuchen was, of course, strong. Had it not been for those idle whispers, he could have gone very, very far.

Most importantly, he dared to challenge the high mountains; that alone put him ahead of the vast majority of people.

Calling him a powerhouse was no exaggeration.

The wind whipped up dust and smoke, sweeping between the two of them.

Suddenly—

Some warm liquid streaked across his cheek.

It wasn't until he heard a soft "drip" that—

Ji Wuchen realized with a start that he was crying.

He raised his hand in disbelief, catching a teardrop with his fingertip.

As his finger trembled slightly, the bead of moisture swayed in the moonlight, reflecting his shattered reflection.

Ever since he first heard the name Qin Wangchuan at the age of five, he had spent eight years in bitter cultivation, never once slacking off.

Ji Wuchen had thought he had long since forgotten the taste of tears.

Yet now, a single word of acknowledgment from Qin Wangchuan had brought him to tears.

What fell was not just tears, but a release of his obsession.

"Ah, I suppose I really can't compare to you."

Ji Wuchen smiled with relief, his expression appearing exceptionally clear and bright under the moonlight.

He raised his hand to wipe away the damp tracks on his face, his fingertips still trembling slightly.

As the words left his lips, even he was surprised by the lightness in his tone.

The inner demon that had dogged his every step for eight years had vanished into thin air at this very moment.

He looked at Qin Wangchuan, his eyes no longer holding the stubbornness and resentment of the past, but instead filled with a different kind of emotion.

The night breeze brushed past, stirring his loose black hair.

Ji Wuchen slowly knelt before Qin Wangchuan, his fists pressed hard against the ground, his knuckles turning white from the force.

"Qin Wangchuan, you are truly strong..." His voice was muffled by the dust, yet carried an unusual sense of resolve. "Ten years!"

"Let this be a ten-year pact—"

As he spoke, Ji Wuchen suddenly looked up. His forehead was stained with blood and dirt, but his eyes were startlingly bright.

"Ten years from now, please fight me again!"

"I beg you..."

In a person's life, there is no time more arrogant than one's youth.

Ji Wuchen was not only kneeling on both knees, but he had even uttered the word "beg."

The members of the Ji Clan watching from afar saw their pupils constrict; several of the elders even stumbled back half a step.

"He... he actually knelt down?!"

"That is a boy who would rather break than bend, even when facing punishment from the Clan Head!"

A white-haired elder's beard trembled, his aged eyes brimming with tears. "Young Master... the Young Master has finally overcome this hurdle."

Qin Wangchuan's gaze flickered.

He saw it—a towering phantom emerging behind the kneeling youth.

The Taixu Halberd was resonating and trembling, and even the stars in the sky seemed to shine a little brighter.

Ji Wuchen had conceded, but not entirely.

He was unwilling to take a detour, nor was he willing to stop here—

Instead, he chose to use the mountain as a whetstone to sharpen his edge.

Qin Wangchuan knew that this person would become stronger.

But it didn't matter.

Because he, too, would become stronger—stronger than anyone else could ever imagine.

"Agreed."

A single word, yet it caused the entire plaza to fall into sudden silence.

Qin Wangchuan's gaze deepened. "Ten years from now, don't expect anyone to be able to protect you like they did today."

As he spoke, he glanced at the Ji Clan guard standing nearby who had intervened earlier.

The guard let out a dry, awkward laugh.

Ji Wuchen's pupils contracted slightly, as if he hadn't expected Qin Wangchuan to agree so readily.

He opened his mouth, his Adam's apple bobbing as if he had words stuck in his throat, but in the end, he only lowered his head deeply, pressing his forehead against the cold ground.

"Thank you..."

"Thank you."

He repeated these two words several times; they weighed heavier than any oath.

It was not submission, but a transformation.

The night wind swept by, scattering Ji Wuchen's loose hair and revealing the slight upturn of his lips.

And, a soaring battle intent.

But just at this moment.

"Qin Wangchuan!!"

The Emperor's voice was like thunder, shattering the clouds for ten thousand miles.

A giant hand, shrouded in Chaos Qi and covering the sky, pressed down ferociously. Wherever it passed, space collapsed inch by inch, revealing the endless turbulent void behind it.

A mere wisp of the aura it leaked was enough to instantly turn the ancient trees surrounding the plaza into powder.

The true body of a Great Emperor required time to descend. Though only a hand had arrived in this emergency, this was a genuine Great Emperor!

"Not good!" The expressions of several Qin Clan elders changed drastically. "He intends to forcibly seize the prisoners!"

On such an important occasion, the Qin Clan naturally had a Great Emperor's true body guarding from afar.

But in the eyes of the mysterious person behind this—

With both sides being Great Emperors, paying the price of one hand to take these people away was not a fantasy.

Of course, all of this was predicated on the condition that he did not intervene.

He was gambling, gambling that the Qin Clan's Heavenly Emperor would not interfere.

Otherwise, a mere Great Emperor could be extinguished with the flick of a finger!

Meanwhile, above the Longevity Nine Heavens of the Qin Clan, inside the Longevity Pavilion.

"Ancestor... this is?" The several Qin Clan Great Emperors guarding the area had long since sensed the anomaly and were even aware that someone was watching from the shadows.

After all, what stood here was not a Dharma body, but a true body!

Their Emperor auras surged, and they should have moved to suppress the threat from the start, yet they had been stopped by the suddenly appearing Ancestor.

Qin Taiyi stood with his hands behind his back, a flicker of profound amusement crossing his eyes. "What's the rush?"

He raised a hand and tapped lightly at the void, causing several invisible barriers to descend silently upon the younger generation of the Qin Clan below.

These barriers completely isolated them from the Emperor's might radiating from that sky-covering giant hand.

"Give the juniors a chance to show their mettle." Qin Taiyi's voice was calm, yet it carried an unquestionable majesty. "Besides—"

His gaze turned cold as he looked into the depths of the void:

"It is time to let those rats hiding in the shadows see the true foundation of my Qin Clan."

Before his words had even faded, the ancestor's figure vanished from where he stood.

—The next instant, he had already stepped into the Tenth Heaven.

This was no ordinary small world, but a complete, vast Great World, boundless and filled with perfect Laws.

Yet, in this massive world, only one person sat enthroned.

It was an old man dressed in grey robes, his aura as deep and vast as the sea. Merely by sitting there, he seemed to suppress the order of the entire world.

—He was none other than the Ji Clan Heavenly Emperor.

Beneath Longevity Heaven.

Just as the giant hand reached down, at this critical moment—

"Big Brother! Look up! An enemy!" Qin Xuanji suddenly stepped forward and pointed at the firmament, his voice carrying a rare hint of excitement.

Looking at him, it was as if he were saying: Go on! Sick him!

Qin Wudao stood with one hand behind his back, his white robes snapping in the Emperor's might.

He tilted his head slightly, gazing at the hand that blotted out the sun and sky, his tone as calm as if he were critiquing a clumsy painting:

"Mm, I see it."

"I see it very clearly."

Before the words had finished, his left hand, which had been hanging at his side, suddenly formed a sword gesture.

This simple movement caused the entire world to suddenly freeze.

"Clang—!"

A clear, resonant sword hum echoed from beyond the nine heavens.

It was not the sound of metal clashing, but the Great Dao itself trembling!

A faint glimmer lit up at the tip of Qin Wudao's finger.

That light was no larger than a firefly at first, but in a thousandth of a blink, it surged into a brilliant galaxy that spanned the heavens and the earth.

Countless stars were born and perished within it, each one containing the power to slash down the sun and moon.

"This is...?!" The exclamations of the crowd at the banquet erupted.

It was another supreme secret technique of the Qin Clan—

"Taichu God-Burial Sword!"

The galaxy surged upward, colliding head-on with the descending giant hand of chaos—

There was no earth-shattering explosion.

There were no world-destroying shockwaves.

There was only a cut, smooth as a mirror, spreading silently along the palm of the giant hand.

"Sshh—"

It was like a hot knife slicing through grease.

That Emperor hand, capable of crushing mountains and rivers, was actually severed clean at the wrist by this galaxy!

At the severed end, golden Emperor Blood poured down like a bursting celestial river.

Each droplet of blood was as heavy as a mountain, emitting a clanging sound like metal striking metal as it fell through the void.

Great Dao Runes swirled across the surface of the blood droplets, and one could vaguely see countless worlds being born and perishing within them.

Before the severed giant hand could even fall, it disintegrated in mid-air into billions of Law fragments, illuminating the night sky like a rain of fire.

"Desolate Ancient Sacred Body—!!!"

A heart-wrenching howl echoed from the depths of the void.

The residual Emperor Might shook violently, causing the stars beyond the heavens to tremble.

The entire banquet, both inside and out, fell into a deathly silence.

Everyone's pupils contracted, their throats seemingly gripped by an invisible hand, their breathing stalling for a moment.

"What did I just see?"

An elder of an ancient clan spoke with a trembling voice. The jade cup in his hand shattered with a snap, and the wine dripped through his fingers, yet he remained completely unaware.

"To actually... slash an Emperor while being only a Quasi-Emperor?"