"What kind of opponent was worth nurturing a single sword for ten thousand years? Don't tell me even you could no longer hold back?"
Upon a stretch of pitch-black earth, a young man clad in a monk's robe walked barefoot across the ground, while boundless demonic qi rolled endlessly over the land.
Yet when that demonic qi, enough to destroy all things, encountered him, it actually began to retreat of its own accord, as though it feared him beyond measure.
The young man seemed to sense something. Slowly, he raised his head and looked into the distance.
"I'd like to see who forced you into such a state."
As soon as he spoke, boundless golden light erupted around him. The rays intertwined, forming an enormous golden lotus.
The young man stood barefoot at the very heart of the golden lotus.
"Amitabha."
With a Buddhist invocation, he took one step forward. The golden lotus blossomed, and streams of golden light spread across the earth, purging all the endless demonic qi.
With every step he took, a vast expanse of demonic qi was dispelled.
At the same time, billions of star-miles away.
Beyond Dragonhead City, billions of star-miles away, lay a vast ocean. Its waves surged wildly, occasionally raising colossal waves ten thousand zhang high. Before such waves, everything seemed pale and powerless.
Yet amid those turbulent waters, a small boat floated quietly upon the sea.
No matter how the enormous waves churned around it, they could never affect the little boat.
"What powerful Sword Intent. It seems you, too, have taken that step."
A figure sat aboard the small boat, dressed in coarse hemp robes, wearing a battered rain hat, and with a pair of worn cloth shoes on her feet.
The next moment, she lifted her head. Beneath the battered