Above the battlefield, the golden crow sank in the west.
Heaven and earth should naturally have only one sun, just like this moment.
The sea of fire that burned the heavens had already been annihilated, the scorching and steaming sea breeze suddenly turned cool, and the boiling sea surface slowly calmed down, as the terrifying might that had been enough to burn mountains and boil the seas just a moment before seemed as though it had never descended at all.
Everyone's gaze focused on the figure in white stained with dust at the center of the battlefield.
A single blade of grass slew the sun, moon, and stars!
He truly achieved it.
With ninety-four ranks of Ultimate Fire, the ninth soul skill unleashed with all his strength was cut down by a single sword strike.
His Sword Dao had advanced yet again.
At this moment, Xu Ming, whose Martial Soul Avatar had been shattered, gasped heavily. His Martial Soul was dim, his entire cultivation thoroughly crushed in the face of that sword light which transcended the mortal realm just now, and even his Soul Power was unable to sustain itself.
He raised his head to look at the young man before him, his eyes holding nothing but ultimate bewilderment and despair!
He lost far too quickly.
The moment before, he still felt that he was certain to win, yet the next second, his very own Martial Soul Avatar was slashed to pieces.
It was merely a single sword strike.
From beginning to end, he could not comprehend why he had lost so thoroughly.
Clearly it was a suppression of levels by a Tier 3 Titled Douluo, clearly it was the clear attribute advantage of fire overcoming wood, clearly it was a battle where victory was in the bag, yet in the end, he was staged a counterkill in a desperate situation by his opponent, who settled the cosmos with a single sword.
Damn it all, I really respect these so-called sword cultivators.
These people who play with swords are the most sinister. You ask him whether he won or lost, and he comes back with, "I have attained enlightenment!"
How is one supposed to fight this? You attained enlightenment, fine, but you shattered me with a single sword?!
Xu Ming was utterly dazed.
Yet what he did not know was that the mind of Ye Jian, standing at the center of the battlefield at this moment, was likewise undergoing a crisis that he found impossible to accept.
Those familiar with him all knew that his temperament was gentle, mild, and understated. He did not chase after power, disliked killing and slaughter, and had hidden his sharpness for many years, willingly blending into the mortal world to transform into an ordinary Sword Dao lecturer at a soul master academy.
For several years, he resided in a corner of the academy, reading books by day and comprehending the sword by night, single-mindedly cultivating his mind and nature to settle his Sword Dao.
He always firmly believed that the pinnacle of Sword Dao lay in the heart, in stillness, and in peace.
At times he could vaguely sense the Sword Dao Transcendence, but he was always stuck at the grand completion peak and unable to touch it for a long time.
Years of settling made his foundation grow increasingly profound, his state of mind increasingly gentle and translucent, and his theoretical understanding, detail dissection, and artistic conception speculation of Sword Dao had long reached a height that peers could not hope to match.
Yet the bizarre thing was that the more he cultivated his mind, the more peaceful he became, and the more quietly he comprehended, the more impossible it was for his Sword Dao realm to advance even an inch.
Countless days and nights of sitting in meditation and comprehending the Dao, holding the sword in quiet cultivation, were forever unable to puncture that thin realm barrier.
That step of Sword Dao Transcendence was like being separated by a heavenly abyss-it could be seen but never reached. No matter how he polished his state of mind and settled, he could ultimately only remain at the grand completion peak of the integration of man and sword, unable to advance an inch.
Years of shackles, years of bewilderment, years of being without a solution.
Yet at this very moment, these shackles thoroughly shattered, and his path of Sword Dao had already reached completion.
He was not particularly excited.
A gentle breeze swept past, stirring his slightly disarrayed white hair and clothes. The scorched marks left by the fierce fire on his robe hem remained conspicuous, and his eyes carried an unprecedented bewilderment.
In the past, his goal was very clear to him, so he was forever calm, and his eyes were forever clear and translucent.
At this moment, Ye Jian lowered his gaze to look at that seemingly ordinary piece of Blue Silver Sword Grass in his palm. Within it, the sword intent flourished like the flowers of spring-this was the strength of Transcendence.
He finally understood.
His path was wrong; his personality and his Martial Soul were two extremes.
His nature was gentle and soft, and he liked a quiet mind of non-action and peaceful comprehension of the Dao, his heart warm and jade-like;
Yet his Martial Soul was the Blue Silver Sword Grass!
It was a top-tier Mutated Martial Soul, unseen in ten thousand years within the Blue Silver Imperial Clan, which discarded all flora vitality and gentleness, reversed its origin, and birthed the supreme and ultimate attribute of destruction!
The Way of Destruction fundamentally ran counter to peace, tranquility, and non-action.
His Blue Silver Sword Grass required continuous battle, continuous slaughter and destruction, before his sword intent could become increasingly powerful and robust!
Yet he happened to possess an inherently gentle, peaceful mind that disliked contention, which could be considered two extremes compared to the destructive Sword Dao that carried ultimate tyrannical slaughter and pierced through everything.
This was the fundamental crux of his years of shackles and inability to break through the realm!
The more peaceful his disposition, the more suppressed his Sword Dao;
The more gentle his state of mind, the more introverted his destruction.
Xu Ming's ninth soul skill under that overwhelming Soul Power output just then, that level of battle, had thoroughly shattered his self-imposed shackles of many years, forcing out the most primal power of destruction deep within his Martial Soul, allowing him to achieve sudden enlightenment in a single day and step into the Sword Dao Transcendence that countless sword cultivators craved throughout their lives!
Thus, he understood, yet he was also bewildered.
Ye Jian murmured softly, his voice clear and shallow, carrying the insight of great enlightenment, his emotions complex to the extreme.
His path required battle, required slaughter and conquest.
Yet his nature was born to love tranquility and hate contention.
A supreme Dao that required endless slaughter happened to reside within a gentle and detached original heart.
The Dao and the heart contradicted each other, and nature and the path opposed each other.
At this moment, Ye Jian possessed both the wild joy and clarity of breaking through the realm into Transcendence and the bewildered helplessness of his future path running in opposite directions.
Should he follow his original heart, return to peace, and allow his Sword Dao level to regress once more?
Or should he follow his Martial Soul, shed his gentle inner self, and transform into a sword Asura who enjoyed endless slaughter?
This contradiction was deeply entangled within Ye Jian's mind, causing his Dao heart, which had just broken through its shackles, to ripple with layers once more and plunge into a new dilemma and contemplation.
The Myriad Realms Sky Screen still hung high, and hundreds of millions of viewers remained immersed in the shock of Sword Dao Transcendence. The danmu scrolled continuously, and powerful beings across the heavens endlessly expressed emotion over the heaven-defying and uncrackable nature of this sword strike.
Just as everyone was feeling emotional and deep in thought, amidst the scrolling danmu of the Sky Screen, a somewhat glaring and arrogant comment abruptly flooded the screen:
[Douluo Continent · Resting Fire Phoenix Ma Hongjun]:
" Luck! Pure luck!
This brat truly has great luck!
He had a burst of power in a desperate situation and happened to comprehend the Sword Dao. What is there to be so arrogant and celebratory about!
If he hadn't broken through, he'd probably be either dead or crippled from that strike just now!"
As soon as this danmu appeared, it instantly drew the gaze of the entire netizen base.
Never did anyone expect that even now, Ma Hongjun would still dare to publicly provoke this top-tier expert who had just sealed himself as a divine swordsman and comprehended Sword Dao Transcendence.
Previously, Ma Hongjun had wantonly taunted the Blue Silver Empire on the Sky Screen, insulting the totem of the Blue Silver Empire with frivolous words and an arrogant attitude. At the time, he had been rebutted by Ye Jian a few times.
Yet at this moment, even though Ye Jian displayed such heaven-defying strength, he still refused to mend his ways and stubbornly provoked him-he truly did not know how the word "death" was written.
In truth, Ma Hongjun's heart was already feeling somewhat hollow and his back was chilling at this moment.
He never imagined that the seemingly unremarkable ordinary lecturer whom he had previously rebutted would actually be a Titled Douluo, and moreover a supreme prodigy capable of comprehending supreme Sword Dao.
However, since he had already offended this Ye Jian beforehand, asking for forgiveness now would be terribly lacking in face, so he could only walk down this single path to the dark.
He felt guilty, wary, and lingering fear, but none of it could overcome his love for face.
Thus he talked tough until now, resolutely refusing to bow his head.
Before you continue