Above the Eastern Sea.
The Nine-Bend Cloud River Formation continued its slow rotation. Jimeng's Great Dao of Wind and Rain erupted from within it at intervals, tearing apart vast stretches of clouds, only for fresh cloud rivers to surge out of other layers of space. Neither side showed any intention of stopping.
Outside the formation, however, the battle that truly drew countless eyes was now the one between Qiongxiao and Xingtian.
Xingtian stood bare-chested, his broad shoulders and back like a mountain wall. Blood vitality rose endlessly around him, its pressure faintly warping even the surrounding void.
He had not picked up the Giant Axe planted in the sea.
Simply standing there, he exerted a pressure greater than that of many Great Luo cultivators wielding their treasures at full power.
Qiongxiao stood tens of thousands of feet away, the Mystic Origin Immortal-Slaying Sword held across her front. No dazzling sword light shone along its edge, only a barely visible thread of azure radiance flowing slowly.
Neither struck immediately.
The rogue cultivators watching from afar held their breath first.
A Taiyi cultivator could not help lowering his voice. "Is Xingtian really going to take her sword bare-handed?"
An old man from the Great Wilderness Continent beside him replied gravely, "The Great Shamans of the Witch Clan have formidable bodies to begin with, and Xingtian is among the very best. Even a full-power strike from an ordinary high-grade innate spirit treasure might not break through his flesh completely."
"But that sword Fairy Qiongxiao is holding..." Another cultivator swallowed. "That's a supreme-grade innate spirit treasure, isn't it?"
The people around him fell silent.
A supreme-grade innate spirit treasure.
Wielded by a sword cultivator who had just condensed her Great Luo Sword Dao fruit.
Just how sharp would that strike be?
No one could