Roar!
Boom! Boom!
The sky over the Thunderflame Domain seemed ready to shatter completely!
The Innate Thunder Dragon roared and howled. It was a sword-spirit-like creation formed when a sword cultivator of the Thunder-Yang Heaven Sword Realm inheritance fused body and sword and unleashed the last of his reserves through the Pure-Upper Thunderbolt Soul-Nurturing Sword Talisman. Its might was terrifying beyond measure. It could easily slay a cultivator at the peak of Void Refining, even one who had taken several steps beyond the limits of Void Refining.
Yet under the bombardment of hundreds of thousands of Annihilation Cannons from that steel city, the Innate Thunder Dragon was driven back again and again. Like a battered ball, it was smashed into the earth, grievously wounded every time.
The gulf in strength was plain for all to see.
Everyone knew the only reason the Light-Thunder Heavenly Lord was still alive: the Pure-Upper Thunderbolt Soul-Nurturing Sword Talisman.
This secret art, a cornerstone of the Immortal Order's power, was boundlessly terrifying. It gave him chance after chance. Make a mistake, and he could try again. Fail, and he could start over. From the outset, he stood on unequal footing with other sword cultivators.
For a sword cultivator of ordinary origins, one mistake, one failure, had to be paid for with his life.
But even this secret art of the Immortal Order had its limits.
As he suffered grievous wound after grievous wound, the mana and divine sense accumulated in the Pure-Upper Thunderbolt Soul-Nurturing Sword Talisman over thousands of years drained away like a flood. The Light-Thunder Heavenly Lord's body was no longer swollen; it began returning to a normal human shape. Sword intent surged from him, and his swordsmanship seemed to be improving, drawing closer to the pinnacle of the Sword Realm.
If the