Human-Blade Unity!

Hoooooh~~~~~~~~

Inhale~~~~~~~

Yang Yu gripped his blade with both hands, his fingertips white from the force. As his chest rose and fell, his breathing took on a strange rhythm... as though he were following a particular method to regulate the workings of every organ in his body!

Earth-shattering changes were taking place inside Yang Yu as well.

Every muscle fiber twisted and trembled, channeling strength along specific paths!

That strength converged... all those scattered strands of power flowed into the Yama Battle Blade, which shimmered with bloody light.

At that moment, Yang Yu even forgot his own safety and who he was.

Time seemed to freeze... his mind, his soul, everything he was merged into that battle blade.

Human-Blade Unity!

This was a profoundly mysterious realm of blade mastery, one that an expert could only enter with immense difficulty after fully integrating and mastering the fundamentals of bladework, then surviving countless battles to the death!

Yang Yu was the inheritor of the Insect Race!

The inherited knowledge within the Insect Codex contained countless extraordinary cultivation arts.

There were plenty of secret blade manuals, too!

Through constant exposure to them, combined with a body strengthened to perfection, both his strength and his comprehension were extraordinarily high!

He had also faced life and death earlier, even fighting a prolonged battle against Elder Xu, whose power stood an entire rank above his own!

Relentless, high-intensity combat and countless kills... the pressure had been immense!

Between life and death lay great terror, but also great breakthroughs!

Yang Yu pushed himself to his absolute limits and finally, through a stroke of luck, entered a state of enlightenment... in that state, his bladework advanced by leaps and bounds. All those factors combined, allowing him to break through in a single stroke.

His blade technique advanced to true proficiency, shattering the formidable barrier to Human-Blade Unity!

The path of cultivation isn't just about increasing physical strength... mastery of combat techniques, the quality of cultivation arts, differences in supernatural abilities and secret techniques, even disparities in weapons and treasures—all of them affect a cultivator's strength.

And their effects are substantial!

The improvement in my blade technique has brought me straight into the realm of Human-Blade Unity that countless people dream of reaching.

Yang Yu stopped thinking, an intensely fiery light flashing in his eyes. Slowly, he raised his head... and looked toward the charging Elder Xu with surging battle intent. At that moment, Elder Xu looked like a war god descended upon the world, his strength unleashed and heightened to its peak. His sheer presence would have made an ordinary Earth Rank expert tremble, unable even to hold a weapon steady!

Yet Yang Yu showed no fear before that overwhelming, chilling might!

"Come on!"

"Now that I've attained Human-Blade Unity, the power of my bladework has soared!"

"Win or lose, I'll offer you to my blade today... to celebrate this unexpected breakthrough!"

The seconds ticked away.

One second—

Two seconds—

Before the third second arrived, the power gathered within the Yama Battle Blade in Yang Yu's hands reached its peak, unable to increase any further.

At the same time... Yang Yu sensed that every nerve and muscle in his body, all his Cosmic Force, Life Energy, and even his Fate Soul power were burning and straining to their limits.

All his power converged into one at that moment. It could rise no further.

His body absolutely could not withstand any more, either!

Yang Yu felt that even one additional trace of power entering his body would make that immense force tear him apart, bursting his body and killing him!

After all, he had no external aid like Power Frenzy Magic.

He was amplifying himself entirely through his mastery of bladework and his body's own strength... this was the utmost limit of his limits!

Yang Yu drove his foot into the ground. With a thunderous crash, the earth behind him collapsed and sank.

Whoosh—

Yang Yu's speed soared to its limit, leaving countless human-shaped afterimages in the air.

Rumble~~~~~~

His speed kept climbing, and his blood-red blade radiance tore through every obstacle before him, surging forward without hesitation!

Within barely half a breath, a terrifying boom followed, loud enough to nearly rupture human eardrums.

Then white mist billowed across the air just above the ground!

He had broken the sound barrier!

At such extreme speed, breaking the sound barrier generated tremendous air pressure, compressing the moisture in the surrounding air until it condensed into clouds of mist.

"Kill!"

Yang Yu roared, his entire body turning into a blazing streak of blood-red blade radiance, trailing a long plume of white vapor. In the blink of an eye, he met the imposing Elder Xu head-on, and they collided violently!

The wind, the rain.

The sounds of battle!

The anxious screeches of the twenty Giant Mantis Beasts nearby all fell silent at that moment.

Everything was drowned out!

For an instant, the whole world seemed to turn blank...

Then!

An unimaginably terrifying explosion rang out!

All the tangled sounds returned.

Along with that earth-shaking blast, they crashed wildly together in the air and reverberated violently!

At the center of the battlefield where Elder Xu and Yang Yu had collided head-on!

In the next second, a vast spray of blood filled the air. Yang Yu was flung away like a kite with its string cut, unconscious, his fate unknown! His body became a fiery streak of light as he was blasted into a lake hundreds of meters away. Blood streamed from his mouth, nose, eyes, and ears... in that savage, head-on clash with Elder Xu, Yang Yu had ultimately been unable to endure.

Yang Yu was still only at the Human Tier.

Elder Xu, meanwhile, not only stood an entire realm of power above him, but had also used a Strength Frenzy Scroll to raise himself to a level infinitely close to a Heaven Tier expert.

Such a vast disparity in strength was ultimately more than Yang Yu could fully bridge with technique and explosive bursts of secret arts!

His defeat was only natural!

On the other side, Elder Xu was hardly unscathed... his horror grew as he stared at the lake where Yang Yu's fall had thrown up a towering spray. Blood seeped from the corner of his mouth, and his lips moved, but for a moment he was utterly speechless.

Elder Xu's face alternated between ashen and flushed.

Pfft—

After holding out for a moment, he could no longer suppress his internal injuries. Blood surged into his throat, and he spat out a great mouthful!

There were even small fragments of internal organs mixed into the blood.

Clearly, this was no minor injury.

That last attack from Yang Yu had dealt an immensely heavy blow to Elder Xu, despite his seemingly unharmed exterior!

"I'm injured?" Elder Xu could not accept it.

He wiped beneath his lips, and his hand came away covered in blood.

"A little brat at the Human Tier actually pushed me this far?"

"How could this happen?"

Elder Xu muttered to himself. The immense aura within him began pouring away like air escaping from a punctured balloon!

His strength and presence were draining away at a terrifying speed.

Pfft!

He spat out another mouthful of blood.

"..."

Weakness and complicated emotions filled Elder Xu's gaze as he looked toward the lake where Yang Yu had fallen. Ripples spread across its surface, and a string of bubbles rose from below.

And Yang Yu?

He still had not surfaced. There was not even the slightest sign that he would emerge.

His injuries were far more severe than Elder Xu's.

Hiss—

In the distance, the Giant Mantis Beasts, which had been watching silently, went utterly wild.

They raced toward the lake where Yang Yu had fallen, leaping into the water one after another in an attempt to rescue him.

"Trying to save him?" Elder Xu made no move to stop them, a trace of regret on his face.

"In the end, he's only a little brat at the Human Tier. His physical foundation was still a little too weak. Though his secret arts and blade technique amplified his strength beyond anything I imagined, that last blow... probably shattered every bone in his body. All his internal power must have collapsed into the most violent, chaotic primal force, severing every meridian in his body and shredding them to pieces."

"In that state, not even the greatest immortal could save him."

"Even if they manage to fish him out, he'll be crippled if he isn't dead." Elder Xu shook his head and stopped paying attention to Yang Yu.

He sat cross-legged, intending to circulate his energy, regulate his breathing, and heal.

But suddenly, a terrifying aura came from afar, making every hair on his body stand on end.

"Hm?" Elder Xu looked southeast in alarm.

That was... the residential district where Yang Yu had lived.

At that moment, a dazzling purple streak cut across the sky above that area.

A piercing cry imbued with overwhelming power carried from the distant sky.

The sound echoed through the air for a long time, even containing a trace of strange soul-attacking power... Elder Xu felt as though his mind had been pinned beneath a colossal boulder, leaving him unable to breathe!

"What... is that?!" Elder Xu's eyes widened!