Kill Match!

He casually flicked his right hand, as if brushing away dust.

The God-Splitting Spike turned into an almost imperceptible black shadow and vanished from his fingertips, leaving only a faint, nearly inaudible whistle through the air.

Yin Mingchen ran at the front, leaving Chu Lingtian far behind. He felt slightly relieved.

He had always believed in one principle: when fleeing for your life, you did not need to outrun your pursuers. You only needed to outrun your companions. And Chu Lingtian was his best "stepping stone."

But at this moment, a trace of sorrow welled up in Yin Mingchen's heart. A dignified member of the Royal Clan had actually been reduced to preserving his life this way.

The thought had barely arisen when an extremely faint sound of something slicing through the air came from behind him.

Yin Mingchen instinctively looked back. There was nothing behind him. Wang Xuan was still far away and had not caught up at all.

Yet Chu Lingtian, who was off to the side behind him, suddenly stiffened. Every movement stopped dead in that instant. The savage expression of gritted teeth and desperate flight remained on his face, but his eyes instantly went vacant, his pupils losing all focus. His body staggered forward a few steps from inertia before crashing heavily onto the beach, kicking up a cloud of sand.

Yin Mingchen's pupils shrank to pinpoints. His steps abruptly halted, the corner of his eye twitching wildly as he stared fixedly at Chu Lingtian's neck.

A dark, short spike was embedded there, with only a small section exposed. The rest had completely sunk into the flesh, and not even a drop of blood seeped from the wound.

"God-Splitting Spike?!"

Yin Mingchen's mind buzzed. His heart nearly leaped from his throat, and even his voice changed pitch.

"How can it be the God-Splitting Spike?!"

He immediately understood. Every hair on his body stood on end, and a chill shot up from his tailbone to the crown of his head.

The other members of the Royal Clan also turned around. When they saw the short spike in Chu Lingtian's neck, their eyes widened in terror.

"It really is the God-Splitting Spike!"

"It belongs to Mu Huacheng! That trash not only gave away the Xiantian Qi, he couldn't even keep the God-Splitting Spike!"

"Once we get back, we absolutely can't let him off!"

"Stop talking! Run!"

At that moment, all the dignity of the Royal Clan and all thoughts of mission merit were thrown beyond the clouds. There was only one thought left in their minds: flee, flee for their lives.

By the time Wang Xuan landed beside Chu Lingtian's corpse, those members of the Royal Clan had already vanished without a trace.

Only a corpse that still retained some warmth as it slowly cooled, a strangely shaped longsword stuck diagonally into the sand, and a God-Splitting Spike turning gray-white and petrified, already cracked into fragments, remained on the beach.

The sea breeze carried a faint smell of blood as it gently brushed across his face, bringing the salty chill unique to the shore.

He raised a hand and made a grasping motion through the air.

The strange longsword immediately shot through the air and landed steadily in his palm.

The instant he held it, a gentle yet vast surge of life force flowed into his body through the hilt. It was even stronger than the life force cultivated by the Divine Illumination Scripture. A clear, slightly cool aura traveled through his meridians and spread through his limbs and bones, instantly sweeping away the exhaustion left by the fierce battle.

The System Panel displayed a prompt at the right moment:

[Item: Frost-Ling Sword (Complete Form)]

[Material: Sword body: Ten Thousand Year Ice Spring; sword essence: blood of the Demon Sword Remnant Clan; sword soul: Nine Dragon Stone]

[Description: The Heart Sword infuses life and is sharpened with righteous qi. The Demon Sword infuses death and is sharpened with tempered blood. One saves lives, the other takes them. United as one, they command life and death!]

"Frost-Ling Sword." Wang Xuan softly spoke the sword's name.

Of course he knew this sword. Legend claimed that it could grant immortality. Now, it seemed that the rumors had indeed been exaggerated, but its life-nourishing effects were absolutely real.

This was likely what the Heart Sword's infusion of life meant. He held the sword horizontally before his eyes and examined it carefully. Scarlet and blue patterns slowly flowed along the sword's ridge like two intertwined ribbons. A cold gleam flickered from the blade's edge, and the slightest touch of his fingertip brought a bone-piercing chill.

When he lowered his head and looked at Chu Lingtian's corpse again, the God-Splitting Spike in his neck had already turned completely gray-white, like a weathered stone that had endured a thousand years. The moment Wang Xuan's gaze fell upon it, the spike cracked into several pieces and scattered across the sand, utterly devoid of luster and completely stripped of its lethality.

Wang Xuan raised his hand again and activated the Energy Absorption Technique. Chu Lingtian's corpse, along with the clothes on it, was instantly drained into a cloud of gray-white powder. It drifted from between his fingers, and a single gust of sea wind scattered it without a trace.

He tore the Storage Bag with its gold base and black patterns from Chu Lingtian's waist and sent his senses inside. The bag was filled with miscellaneous items. After casually searching through it for a moment, his fingertips soon touched another cold, dark object: another God-Splitting Spike.

The corner of Wang Xuan's mouth curled upward. He took out the intact God-Splitting Spike and tucked it into his clothes, softly singing, "No guns, no cannons, the enemy makes them for us."

He also stuffed the Storage Bag into his clothes before turning his gaze back to the System Panel.

Chu Lingtian had contributed quite a few martial arts this time, but most were unremarkable. Wang Xuan skipped over them after a glance. Only three techniques caught his eye: Ten Thousand Swords Return to Origin, Sword Separating the World, and the Holy Spirit Sword Technique.

All three were pinnacle Divine Arts of the sword path, enough to form a complete sword cultivation system.

[Ten Thousand Swords Return to Origin] came from the High Martial Arts Wind and Cloud Plot World. It was the Sword Sect's treasured inheritance and a supreme secret art coveted by countless swordsmen. In the Wind and Cloud Plot World, it was considered an early-stage Divine Art. Before cultivating it, one had to cripple one's own martial arts; otherwise, the practitioner would feel as though countless sharp swords were piercing through their body and would be reduced to pieces in a single move.

After crippling one's martial arts, ten thousand qi would arise naturally, and a strand of sword qi would be born within the body. This sword qi could control swords, nourish the spirit, heal injuries, and protect the heart meridians. It was equivalent to an unparalleled internal cultivation method. But to rapidly recover or increase one's cultivation, one needed to use sword qi to pierce through the crippled acupoints, absorbing others' internal power to reopen those sealed points. Yet it had a fatal limitation: the absorbed internal power had to be expelled immediately after use, or the remaining foreign internal power would backlash against the user.

As for why it was called an early-stage Divine Art, aside from its overly finicky cultivation methods, its actual combat performance never reached the level of a pinnacle Divine Art. As a result, this Divine Art was mostly famous in name only and became nearly useless in the later stages of the plot.

But for Wang Xuan right now, it was already an unparalleled Divine Art. Combined with his immunity to side effects, it could serve as the foundation of his sword path.

Next was [Sword Separating the World]. This technique came from the High Martial Arts Magic Sword Life and Death Chess world. It shared the same origin as the Xiantian Qi he had obtained before. Both were inherited martial arts of the Murong Clan. One was the strongest shield, while the other was the strongest spear.

To cultivate it, one first had to cultivate the "Inner Sword," forging sword qi from powerful, unyielding internal power. This sword qi was sharper and more penetrating than ordinary internal power;

Then one cultivated the "Outer Sword," using a physical sword to release the power of the Inner Sword. When inner and outer became one, the sword qi unleashed was something ordinary internal power could never resist.

But its side effects were also immense. Sword Separating the World required extremely fierce internal power to condense sword qi, and the meridians could barely withstand it. Repeated use within a short period caused irreversible damage. The more it was used, the worse the backlash became. At best, one's meridians would all shatter, turning one into a cripple. At worst, one's internal power would lose control and cause the body to explode.

Chu Lingtian had only slashed once before refusing to attack again because his meridians could not bear it. This sword art did share something in common with Ten Thousand Swords Return to Origin: both transformed True Qi into sword qi.

Last was the Holy Spirit Sword Technique.

Wang Xuan stared at the description of this sword technique, his breathing unconsciously growing heavier. This was the true Divine Art, the true Ultimate Art.

The "Holy" came from Sword Saint Dugu Jian, while the "Spirit" came from Miyamoto Xueling. The two had jointly created this perfect sword technique and named it after themselves.

Sword One through Sword Eighteen were swords of emotion. Sword Nineteen through Sword Twenty-Two were swords without emotion. The final Sword Twenty-Three was further divided into three realms: Heaven-Destroying Earth-Extinguishing Sword Twenty-Three, Sentient Heaven and Earth Sword Twenty-Three, and Six-Extinction Sword Twenty-Three.

What Wang Xuan valued most was Sword Twenty-Three, especially Six-Extinction Sword Twenty-Three.

He simply did not know whether pushing this sword technique to its limit would allow him to reach that realm. Of course, he would have to wait until he reached a High Martial Arts World to try. For now, he could only cultivate these three sword-path martial arts to the utmost limit this world could endure.

With a thought, all three martial arts were raised to their maximum simultaneously.

Several lines of text burst onto the System Panel:

[Technique: Ten Thousand Swords Return to Origin (Sixth Layer!)]

[Technique: Sword Separating the World (Inner Sword, Sixth Layer!)]

[Technique: Holy Spirit Sword Technique (Sword Eighteen!)]

Wang Xuan felt an incomparably pure strand of sword qi emerge from the sea of qi in his dantian, as deep and boundless as the Return Ruins. It flowed through all his meridians and rapidly grew stronger.

As for crippling my own martial arts and using sword qi to pierce crippled acupoints, go talk to my Unique Rank talent!

With a thought from Wang Xuan, he transformed into a streak of sword light and shot into the sky. This method of turning one's body into sword light truly deserved its title as the highest realm of [Ten Thousand Swords Return to Origin] swordsmanship.