Xi Ping'an stiffened.
He had nearly forgotten that he had hunted the Great Sun Sword Heir through the Great Sun Sword Sect back when the heir was still at the Golden Core stage.
He had thought the other man had forgotten too.
"Consider yourself dead."
"There's no saving you now."
Jiang Ding drew his sword inch by inch and said coldly, "Everyone who wants to kill me must die, whether they wanted to in the past, want to now, or will want to in the future. That cannot change."
"Not even the king of heaven himself could change it."
"No one can."
Clang!
The sword came free.
He was about to cut down this fragment of the golden sword soul.
And he would not stop there. One day, he would hack its true body and divine kingdom to pieces and reduce its soul to ash.
"Cannot change?"
Xi Ping'an looked calm, as though he could not see the sword poised to cut him apart.
"I have the Great Sun Sword Heir's inheritance. A Spirit Transformation-level inheritance."
Whoosh!
The Supreme Clarity Flying Sword came to a steady stop against his brow, not advancing another hair's breadth.
Jiang Ding regarded the soul fragment before him with wary uncertainty.
"Ming Guangzi was not a sword heir corrupted by the Eastern Extreme Demon Sect, like you."
Xi Ping'an smiled easily. "He would not fear a successor surpassing him and seal away his inheritance just to keep the lead for himself.
"The Great Sun Sword Sect could not safeguard a Spirit Transformation inheritance, so he left the Sword Pavilion's Spirit Transformation inheritance with me. He held on to the faint hope that a true sword heir might one day emerge from the Great Sun Sword Sect."
"Incense-fed deities live long lives. Even if, after ages