One Blade Cuts the Throat, Hundred-Pace Flying Sword

"Cloud Shuttle, Pure Frost!"

The two flying swords, one azure and one white, transformed into streaks of light.

Like a green snake entwined with a white snake, they twisted together and attacked the blood-colored swarm of bats flying toward them.

The two leading bats shifted at the sound and sensed the danger, trying to dodge. Unfortunately, their bodies could not keep up with their senses or the speed of the flying swords. Their bodies were instantly pierced by the swords carrying sword qi.

The flying swords did not slow down. Before the bats could fall, seven or eight more were struck.

Qin Xuan remained expressionless and shouted again, "Finger-Circling Softness, Jade Ruyi, Phoenix Flute, Red Leaf, Butterfly, Shadow Severance, Calamity Breaker, Life Slayer."

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Eight more flying swords shot out.

Together with the Cloud Shuttle and Azure Frost from before, there were now ten swords, reaching the limit of what Qin Xuan could currently control.

The sword qi in the air instantly surged. Ten vortices of sword qi pressed horizontally toward the swarm of blood-colored bats.

Wherever they passed, boulders shattered, and the stalactites hanging above the swarm broke apart and fell.

Under the combined sweep of the ten flying swords, the blood-colored bats were torn apart, their corpses plunging into the abyss.

The swarm of blood-colored bats rapidly dwindled.

Before long, the swarm of over a thousand had been reduced to fewer than fifty.

Qin Xuan knew that the Dark-Gold Three-Headed Bat King could recover its injuries and regrow its damaged heads by devouring these blood-colored bats. Moreover, it could only be killed by cutting off all three heads at the same time.

Therefore, he had no intention of letting the swarm escape. After spending a little more effort, he wiped out every last blood-colored bat.

The ten flying swords circled Qin Xuan one after another before returning to the sword case.

He let out a long breath. "This thing is useful, but it consumes far too much Soul Power."

"Just now, controlling ten flying swords at once consumed nearly forty percent of my Soul Power in a mere quarter of an hour. Adding what I used in the Hell Slaughter Arena, I have less than half my Soul Power left. If I didn't have this, I really wouldn't dare play around like that."

Qin Xuan put away the Wushuang Sword Case, took out a Power-Recovery Pill from his storage Soul Tool, and swallowed it. His Soul Power instantly returned to full, and he continued onward.

The rest of the Hell Road was dangerous but uneventful.

Facing the Dark-Gold Three-Headed Bat King, which had lost its minions and hung upside down beneath the narrow path, Qin Xuan had no intention of tangling with it.

He used the Wushuang Sword Case to release six flying swords, piercing its wings and cutting off its escape route. Then he finished it with a single Eight Directions Throughstrike, severing all three heads at once. The Dark-Gold Three-Headed Bat King soon died beyond any doubt, its corpse falling into the abyss.

As for whether it would revive in the Bloody Mary beneath the Hell Road, that was none of his concern.

Qin Xuan put away the Wushuang Sword Case and continued forward. When a rustling sound came from ahead, he could not help breathing faster.

The Everbright Sword inside his body released itself automatically and fell into his hand.

Qin Xuan looked ahead again, as if he were gazing at an unparalleled beauty.

That was right. He had found one of the greatest targets of this journey—the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent.

A dark-red body lay coiled across the narrow path ahead.

It was impossible to see how enormous its body was. Only the general shape of a snake could be made out, while the nine protrusions on its head were especially distinct, resembling fleshy tumors.

Beneath the tumors, a pair of fiery red eyes met Qin Xuan's gaze, revealing the same emotions: greed, hostility, and bloodlust, along with the desire to claim the other as its own.

Clearly, the man and the snake both regarded the other as their prey.

Both sides sensed the other's hostility. Amid the rustling sound, the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent could no longer restrain itself. Its dark-red body began slowly slithering forward, gradually drawing closer.

Qin Xuan knew exactly what the snake was planning. His grip on the Everbright Sword tightened as Soul Power poured into it, dyeing the surface of its scarlet blade with a faint red glow.

When the distance between them was less than twenty meters, the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent finally attacked. It let out a strange sound like a baby crying, while the nine fleshy tumors atop its head radiated a golden-red light.

Its enormous maw abruptly opened, and a fiery red beam shot out. Carrying a powerful stench, it transformed into flames that spread rapidly along the narrow path toward Qin Xuan.

"Let me see whether your poisonous flames are more powerful, or my Vermilion Bird's Flame."

Qin Xuan had been prepared. As the cry of a phoenix rang out, he did not launch a slash. Instead, he turned sideways and angled the long sword toward the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent along the narrow path.

The Vermilion Bird sealed within the Everbright Sword transformed into flames no weaker than those of the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent and surged toward it.

An astonishing scene unfolded.

The Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent actually ignored Qin Xuan's Vermilion Bird's Flame. Its head, which had been lying along the narrow path and spewing fire, suddenly lifted, sending both itself and the rapidly spreading flames along the path toward Qin Xuan.

Qin Xuan leaned backward and narrowly dodged it, then performed several backflips to retreat beyond the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent's attack range.

The Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent, on the other hand, remained completely unharmed after being engulfed by the Vermilion Bird's flames. There was not even a trace of scorching on its skin.

Bathing in the Vermilion Bird's flames, the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent hissed and lightly flicked its tongue at Qin Xuan, seemingly mocking his powerlessness and inability to injure it in the slightest.

"As expected of the primordial variant species, the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent. It actually possesses the ability to immunize itself against flames. However..."

Qin Xuan held the sword upright in his right hand while gently stroking the blade with the index and middle fingers of his left. He murmured thoughtfully, "However, my Everbright Sword possesses more than just the fire attribute."

As soon as he finished speaking, the flames covering the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent began to fade, then suddenly erupted into blue lightning. Under the flames' glow, however, the lightning quickly turned scarlet.

The Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent had no immunity to lightning. At such close range, it convulsed from the electricity, its body briefly paralyzed as its head thrashed and it roared madly.

"Now."

Qin Xuan narrowed his eyes. A blue thunder dragon was summoned in an instant, and all his power condensed into the sword. With an extremely strange technique, Qin Xuan hurled the Everbright Sword forward.

His entire body followed behind the sword's hilt, his feet leaving the ground as he rode the sword. His speed was so great that it actually surpassed the flying swords within the Wushuang Sword Case.

This was another supreme sword art from the Ghost Valley Vertical-Horizontal Sword Arts, the first one Qin Xuan had displayed before the readers since the beginning of the book: One Blade Cuts the Throat, Hundred-Pace Flying Sword.

The figures of the man and the snake crossed paths. Although the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent quickly recovered from the lightning, it was already too late.

At the critical moment, the blue thunder dragon pinned down its ten-meter-long red body. The Everbright Sword fused with Qin Xuan himself, briefly reaching the realm of the Martial Soul Avatar, and passed through its mouth at an incomprehensible speed.

Drip—

Scalding blood dripped down. The Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent tilted its head toward the sky and let out an unwilling roar. Its tumor-covered head exploded beneath the Hundred-Pace Flying Sword, which contained terrifying lightning.

The nine small, tumor-like heads exploded at the same time. They transformed into a golden-red liquid that strangely merged together, becoming a golden-red sphere the size of an egg, floating above the corpse of the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent.

"Phew—" Qin Xuan let out a long breath, a trace of fatigue appearing on his face.

After swallowing another Power-Recovery Pill, his Soul Power instantly recovered most of the way. Only then did he walk toward the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent.

P.S. First update.