Sword Light Like Rain

In the mountain forest, Yin Mingchen darted through the trees like a hurricane. The dead leaves were whipped into a frenzy by the air currents surrounding him, only to flutter back to the ground in a rustle.

He suddenly braked, his toes lightly touching a thin leaf. His posture was as steady as a rock, not moving an inch. The other members of the Royal Clan saw this and hurriedly reined in their momentum, drifting slightly over the treetops before barely managing to stabilize themselves.

"Something's wrong." Yin Mingchen lowered his head, rubbing the mission panel repeatedly. He pressed his fingertips down with force, his voice muffled and heavy. "The mission target is right above our heads."

On the mission interface, a scarlet dot was perfectly overlapping with the green marker representing them, flickering with a cold light.

Unlike the first plot world, where they had to rely on a Brass Compass to slowly pinpoint a location, this time, Wang Xuan had already been placed on the kill list by the Waste Disposal Bureau. The mission panel could lock onto his position directly, saving them a lot of trouble.

Everyone hurriedly looked down at their own panels, their faces turning pale in unison.

They jerked their heads up to look at the sky, only to see blue skies and white clouds, so clear that there wasn't even the shadow of a bird, let alone a human figure.

"Yin Mingchen, the mission panel can't be wrong." A member of the Royal Clan swallowed hard, his voice tight and his eyes filled with panic. "Since he's been following us and hasn't made a move yet, why don't we just lead him to rendezvous with the main force?"

Yin Mingchen sneered, his tone tinged with disdain. "I'm afraid that's exactly what that guy is counting on."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over the panicked crowd before him, his tone turning grave. "Chu Lingtian died at his hands, so he must have seized that peerless sword technique. Combined with Xiantian Qi, Clone Demon Shadow, and that movement technique we know nothing about, I'm afraid no one in this plot world can beat him. Even with our numbers, given his speed and movement, he can attack or retreat at will; we can barely pin him down."

He looked up at the empty sky, his brows knitted together. After a moment of contemplation, he spoke. "For this guy to overlap with our position, he's either hiding underground, which is impossible. It's more likely that he has practiced Chu Lingtian's Ten Thousand Swords Return to Origin to the point of turning his body into sword light, and he's hiding in the clouds. I can't think of any other possibility."

After saying this, he felt a wave of shock in his own heart. He knew better than anyone what martial arts Chu Lingtian had chosen.

Ten Thousand Swords Return to Origin was known as the highest realm of swordsmanship, profound and mysterious. With the resources of the Royal Clan, using internal energy to break through blocked meridians wasn't difficult, but that was only the entry level.

To truly master it, besides having astonishing comprehension, one needed a vast amount of time to practice. Chu Lingtian clearly didn't have that patience, so when he originally chose his martial arts, he prioritized Sword Separating the World, with Ten Thousand Swords Return to Origin merely as a secondary study.

"Then what do we do?" one of the Royal Clan members couldn't help but roar in a sharp voice. "Only by meeting up with the main force will we be safe! If we split up, we'll be picked off one by one sooner or later!"

Yin Mingchen's brows were locked tight. He suppressed the anxiety in his heart and deliberately raised his voice, shouting, "The main force is in Haining Prefecture, not far from here. We have no choice but to head that way. It just depends on whether he dares to stop us from reaching them!"

He appeared calm on the surface, but he had no confidence inside. These words were intentionally spoken for Wang Xuan in the sky to hear, using a provocation in the hopes that the other party would let them pass to Haining Prefecture.

Chu Lingtian was dead, and the other party had at least one God-Splitting Spike. If they were hit by that thing, even if they weren't killed out of the plot world, the agony of the soul-splitting effect would be enough of a headache to deal with once they returned to the Bureau and their families.

These people were all disgraced members of the Royal Clan who had been demoted for grave mistakes; their families might not be willing to spend resources to stabilize their souls and offset the damage caused by a God-Splitting Spike.

Internal competition within the Royal Clan was already brutal; they never showed mercy, even to their own.

"So, you're all heading to Haining Prefecture."

A voice as faint as a mosquito's hum suddenly drilled into everyone's ears. The sound was as light as a feather, yet its penetrating power was immense. Although not a single figure could be seen, every word was heard clearly. The voice was also wrapped in a trace of bewilderment, like demonic whispers filling the ears, stirring panic in their hearts and throwing their thoughts into disarray.

It was the Sound Transmission Soul-Searching Technique!

The expressions of the Royal Clan members changed instantly. This minor mental distraction wasn't enough to shake their foundations, but what truly terrified them was the sky full of sword light suddenly pouring down from above. The sword light was like rain, dense and thick, instantly shrouding the entire mountain forest.

"It's Ten Thousand Swords Return to Origin! Watch out for the God-Splitting Spike!" Yin Mingchen roared, his body suddenly leaping into the air.

His right leg exerted explosive force, and the wind energy erupted with a boom. His robes snapped violently in the gale as he unleashed the Wind God Leg technique, "Wind Sweeps the Tower Ruins"!

The Zhouliu Wind Energy within his body drove the Wind Control Art, and his S-rank talent, "Son of the Wind," was activated to its full potential. In an instant, the air currents in the surrounding world turned chaotic, and a massive tornado rose from the ground, sweeping soil, stones, and trees into the clouds.

The gale howled like an angry ghost, forcibly building an indestructible wall of wind in front of the group.

Thousands of sword rain crashed into the tornado, the clanging sounds ringing out incessantly!

Most of the sharp sword energy was shredded and dissipated by the gale, but the sword light was endless, as if it would never stop.

The other Royal Clan members didn't have time to think; they could only desperately drive their own martial arts to resist the sword light falling from above, while struggling to stabilize their footing, fearing they would be sucked into the center of the battle and die in vain.

"I didn't expect Yin Mingchen's Wind God Leg to be so powerful?" one Royal Clan member whispered in amazement while swinging his blade to block the swords.

"I heard that before he was demoted to the Bureau, he had already comprehended Wind Without Form, and his Wind God Leg was already near perfection. As long as he comprehends Cloud Without Constancy and achieves the union of wind and cloud, he can master Mahayana Boundless!" another member replied, his tone full of surprise.

"So that's it. We really underestimated him; he hid his strength so deeply. Poor Chu Lingtian, always acting so arrogant and thinking he was the strongest. If he weren't dead and saw this, he'd probably be slapped hard in the face!"

"Not necessarily. Would Chu Lingtian not know about Yin Mingchen's strength? I think he knew. Yin Mingchen's talent leans toward the wind attribute, so comprehending Wind Without Form isn't hard, but who knows how long it will take to comprehend Cloud Without Constancy."

Before their discussion could finish, a drastic change occurred in the center of the battle!

A beam of extremely brilliant sword light suddenly tore through the firmament. It was as thin as a crack on the horizon, yet it concentrated all the sharpness of the sky-filling sword rain, carrying an unrivaled, resolute force as it crashed toward the wall of wind!

"Oh no, it's Sword Separating the World!"

The exclamation was instantly swallowed by the gale. That sword light, which had broken through the limits, pierced into the core of the hurricane in an instant!

The wind energy around Yin Mingchen suddenly stalled, and his body stiffened in mid-air.

The massive tornado that connected heaven and earth saw its momentum dissipate at a speed visible to the naked eye. The gale gradually subsided, and the trees and stones that had been swept up came crashing down with a clatter. Dust and smoke filled the air, instantly obscuring the entire world.