Neuvillette's Judgment! One Sword Strike from the Hydro Dragon, and the Heavenly Tribulation Dispersed!

After he finished speaking, Tang San bowed deeply.

His words sounded righteous and noble.

Everything seemed to be for the sake of brotherhood.

But to Gu Rong, they grated worse than the wind at Jialing Pass.

"Bullshit!"

Gu Rong swore outright. The phantom of a Bone Dragon flickered around him, and he was clearly furious.

"Tang San, have you no shame?"

"What do you mean, he's used to wielding a sword with his left hand?"

"So Old Chen's arm isn't made of flesh and blood? So we're just supposed to sacrifice ourselves for your brother?"

"We saw it in the Sky Screen just now. The two of us old bones even gave our lives to save you in the future!"

"And now you're scheming over a single fruit?"

Gu Rong's voice boomed, making the hall vibrate.

Tang San remained bowed. He neither straightened up nor argued.

It was a pose.

And a way of forcing their hand.

He was taking a gamble.

A gamble on the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's current predicament.

A gamble on Ning Fengzhi's sense of the bigger picture.

The Spirit Hall was now powerful, and there was also the unfathomable Skywater City.

The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect had already been crippled. Without relying on him, Tang San, and without relying on a god from the future, they had no chance of turning things around.

Ning Rongrong looked at the unfamiliar Third Brother before her and felt cold all over.

She wanted to speak, to curse at him.

But it felt as though a lump of cotton were lodged in her throat.

Just then.

Ning Fengzhi, who had been silent all this while, stepped forward.

The refined and gentle sect master now wore an expression of utter complexity.

He looked at Chen Xin, then at Tang San.

At last, his gaze settled on the future situation.

After a long while,

Ning Fengzhi sighed and slowly closed his eyes.

"Uncle Jian."

That call sounded especially heavy.

Chen Xin's body jerked, and he whipped around to look at Ning Fengzhi.

In the eyes of the child he had watched grow up, he saw a kind of resolve.

A coldness that would sacrifice anything for the sect's interests.

"Fengzhi, you..."

Gu Rong looked at Ning Fengzhi in disbelief.

Ning Fengzhi did not look at Gu Rong. He only lowered his head, his voice somewhat hoarse.

"Ma Hongjun is also one of the Shrek Seven Devils, and he has exceptional talent. If he can recover, he'll be a great asset in the future."

"With the great battle at hand, we need every bit of strength we can get."

"Uncle Jian... this immortal fruit... let Sect Master Tang have it."

His words fell.

Like a sharp knife, they stabbed into Chen Xin and Gu Rong's hearts.

Ning Rongrong's eyes widened, and tears spilled out.

"Dad! How could you do this?"

"That's Sword Grandpa's arm!"

Ning Fengzhi turned away and said nothing more.

Tang San straightened up. There was little joy on his face; instead, he looked solemn.

"Thank you for your understanding, Sect Master Ning."

"Thank you for your generosity, Senior Chen Xin."

He held out his hand, waiting for Chen Xin to give him the fruit.

Chen Xin looked at the warm immortal fruit in his hand and suddenly felt it turn unbearably cold.

He laughed.

His smile was desolate.

This was the sect he had protected his entire life.

This was the "hope" he had saved in the Sky Screen, even at the cost of being torn to pieces.

"Fine."

"Very well."

Chen Xin casually tossed the fruit to Tang San.

As if he were throwing away a worthless stone.

"Take it."

Tang San caught it steadily, a glint flashing in his eyes.

"Thank you, Senior."

The sight chilled everyone present.

However,

before the oppressive atmosphere could settle in,

a terrifying surge of energy came from the distant horizon, making their very souls tremble.

Rumble—!

Everyone turned at once and looked toward Skywater City.

The sky, which had been blanketed in tribulation clouds, now presented a strange sight.

The thunder filling the heavens should have symbolized the destruction of all things.

Yet before that deep-blue power, it seemed so insignificant.

The colossal sword formed from nine converging water dragons was no ordinary weapon. It was condensed from pure laws.

It hovered in midair, and the space around it warped faintly.

The heavenly thunder seemed to be enraged as well. It became a purple thunder dragon and roared as it charged down.

The two collided.

There was no earth-shattering explosion.

Only silent annihilation.

The people watched in horror as the colossal water sword merely trembled.

It was a judgment from an ancient age.

Water was yielding to the extreme.

And also unyielding to the extreme.

At Neuvillette's command, the floodwaters filling the heavens seemed to become the sharpest instruments of punishment.

Crack—

The imperious thunder dragon was split clean in two by the water sword!

Lightning burst apart, dissolving into specks of starlight.

Then the water sword surged upstream, plunging straight into the thick tribulation clouds.

It swept through them.

It shuddered.

In an instant, the dark clouds filling the sky vanished without a trace.

Sunlight fell upon the earth once more.

The water sword did not disappear at once. Instead, it became a shower of sweet rain that fell over Skywater City.

Above the City Lord Mansion,

Neuvillette put away Iudex's Cane and straightened his sleeve.

His expression was indifferent, as though he had merely brushed away a speck of dust.

"Silence."

Those two simple words traveled across the vast distance, yet seemed to resound in the hearts of everyone.

Back at Jialing Pass,

the hand Tang San held the Dao Body Immortal Fruit in trembled despite himself.

He watched the strange sight fade, and for the first time, deep fear welled up in the depths of his eyes.

Could even a heavenly tribulation... be judged?

What kind of power was that?

As Chen Xin watched the scene, a strange light suddenly gleamed in the dead ashes of his eyes.

That was what it meant to be strong.

That was a god truly worth following...!

The moisture in the air had yet to disperse.

Atop Jialing Pass's walls, a deathly silence reigned.

It was as if an invisible hand had gripped everyone by the throat. All they could manage were sharp gasps.

What was that?

Was that even within the limits of human power?

The heavenly tribulation, which had just been poised to destroy everything, had seemed as fragile as paper before that seemingly feeble sword of flowing water.

One strike.

It split the thunder dragon and shattered the tribulation clouds.

At that moment, Neuvillette was no mere man. He was the only order in all the world.

Chen Xin remained where he stood, still in the pose he had held when tossing the fruit.

But his once-cloudy eyes now shone with an alarming brilliance.

He stared fixedly toward Skywater City. The corners of his eyes had even split from the strain, and blood trickled down.

But he felt no pain.

All he felt was a tremor.

The kind of tremor that made one feel that hearing the Dao in the morning was worth dying for by nightfall.

"Was that... a sword?"

Chen Xin murmured to himself.

In his eyes, it was more than mere mastery over water.

It was a sword.

A peerless sword with the heavens as its sheath, rivers as its edge, and judgment as its intent.

By comparison, the Seven Kill God Sword in his hand, despite its name, seemed so contrived, so narrow.

He had spent his whole life pursuing the pinnacle of swordsmanship.

He had thought the pinnacle meant sharpness, meant slaughter.

But after seeing that person's strike, he finally understood: he was like a frog at the bottom of a well.