Taiqing Mystic Sect's Formless Sword Qi

"It's useless. Once my Golden Light Pendant is activated, it lasts for some time. Your Formless Sword Qi cannot break through my defenses. With my next strike, I'll cut off your head as an offering to my brother's spirit in heaven."

Watching Li Yu's dying struggles, Ying Feiyun shook his head and pronounced his death sentence.

Li Yu glanced at the Golden Light Shield, recalling how even his strongest attacks, Yi Light Condensing Edge and Yi Xiao Mystic Thunder, had failed to threaten it. He knew Ying Feiyun was telling the truth.

If that was the case, he could only take a gamble.

Li Yu looked up at Xu Wei's right hand and the Lesser Clarity sword falling from midair, then reached out to catch them.

"Junior Sister Xu, let me borrow your sword."

Li Yu spoke to Xu Wei, who was kneeling on one knee on the sea not far away, clutching the wound where her arm had been severed.

Although she had evaded Ying Feiyun's lethal strike, her failed attempt to give Lesser Clarity its edge had drained all the true essence in her body. She had effectively lost all ability to fight.

"Fellow Daoist, Lesser Clarity was forged with our sect's secret sword arts. Outsiders cannot wield it. If you try to force it, you may suffer a backlash." Grateful to Li Yu for saving her life, Xu Wei hurriedly warned him.

"As long as you agree, Junior Sister."

Li Yu smiled faintly, removed Xu Wei's right hand from Lesser Clarity's hilt, and tossed it over to her. After catching it, she immediately sprinkled medicinal powder over the severed hand's wound to preserve it, then carefully placed it in her storage pouch.

Cultivators tempered their bodies far beyond the limits of mortals. If a severed arm was treated in time, it could potentially be reattached.

With Xu Wei's right hand no longer in the way, Li Yu finally grasped Lesser Clarity.

To save your master today, please release your restrictions, Sword Spirit, and unite your mind with mine!

Knowing that Lesser Clarity contained the sword intent of the Taiqing Divine Sword, Li Yu immediately appealed to its emotions.

His unspoken words seemed to reach the depths of the sword. As he circulated Micro-Yi Qi Control, the spirit sword, which had been trembling violently, gradually settled in his palm.

At the same time, information about the sword began flowing through Li Yu's mind.

In just a few breaths, Micro-Yi Qi Control had refined Lesser Clarity. The clear light lingering at the wound on his foot was also absorbed by its blade.

Holding the sword, Li Yu gave it a casual swing.

The sea instantly parted.

Xu Wei's eyes widened at the sight, disbelief filling her face.

She had kept Lesser Clarity close since childhood, and it had taken six years before she could draw it. To swing it as casually as Li Yu did would take another six.

Even at that pace, her talent was already considered above average in Mount Lao's history.

"Junior Sister, aside from refining it with blood essence, are there any other ways to give this sword its edge?" After testing Lesser Clarity's power, Li Yu turned to ask Xu Wei.

"There are three methods. Refining it with blood essence is the lowest. The middle method is to sharpen its blade with the keen resolve in its wielder's heart. The highest is to condense its edge with heaven and earth's killing aura." Xu Wei hesitated, but still revealed the secret methods for giving Lesser Clarity its edge.

Li Yu burst out laughing. "So that's how it is! This sword was destined to receive its edge from me. Perhaps even your ordeal today, Junior Sister, was meant to bring this about!"

As Li Yu laughed, Ying Feiyun finally finished catching his breath. With the Golden Light Shield protecting him, he no longer needed to worry about the pain of using Sword Escape with his physical body. He could raise his speed to an unprecedented peak.

Crackle, crackle, crackle!

Even more fierce golden lightning lit up all over Ying Feiyun's body. He shone above the sea like a golden meteor.

"This strike will send you to the next world!"

Holding the Golden Light Sword, Ying Feiyun rose into the air. He built the momentum of Sword Escape to its utmost limit and pointed at Li Yu, his aura reaching a height it had never attained before.

Boom!

Golden light erupted, instantly connecting Ying Feiyun's hovering figure to Li Yu's position. Like a colossal sword cleaving the sea, it parted the waters and swept the sky clear.

Clang!

The crisp ring of clashing blades resounded over the sea.

Li Yu held Lesser Clarity horizontally before his chest.

Before him, Ying Feiyun gripped the Golden Light Sword, its blade striking directly against Lesser Clarity.

One horizontal and one vertical, the two swords formed a cross above the sea. Under the high-speed impact of Sword Escape, Li Yu was driven backward without pause. Even crashing into a reef could not stop him.

But soon, Ying Feiyun's eyes widened, his face filled with shock.

He saw a tiny bronze fragment fly past his eyes.

That fragment had broken off his Golden Light Sword.

The fracture lay where it clashed with Lesser Clarity.

Once the first fragment broke away, a crack soon spread all the way through the Golden Light Sword.

Snap!

Lesser Clarity severed the Golden Light Sword.

With Sword Escape propelling him forward at extreme speed, Ying Feiyun could not stop himself. He could only watch helplessly as Lesser Clarity's blade, shimmering with flowing light, cut toward him.

I still have the Golden Light Shield. It can block...

Ying Feiyun pinned his hopes on his protective treasure, but at that instant, he saw the Golden Light Shield surrounding his body sliced open effortlessly, as though it did not even exist before Lesser Clarity.

"This... impossible..."

Ying Feiyun stared blankly as Lesser Clarity swept through his body and split him in two.

"Fellow Daoist, this strike will send you to the next world."

After cutting Ying Feiyun down, Li Yu stood beside him and lightly flicked Lesser Clarity, shaking the blood from its blade.

"What... sword is this? Why wasn't it this powerful in her hands?"

Half of Ying Feiyun's body began sliding into the sea, but he still had one last breath left. Looking at the sword that had cut him down, he could not help asking.

"The sword is called Lesser Clarity. According to Fellow Daoist Qin, it is one of the sword embryos used by the Taiqing Divine Sword to select its wielder. Fellow Daoist Xu's cultivation was a little too shallow, so she hadn't been able to give it its edge. Since I happened to have the ability, I simply did it for her."

After speaking, Li Yu swung Lesser Clarity once more, cutting the head off Ying Feiyun's upper body as it slid into the sea, ensuring that his formidable enemy was dead beyond doubt.

As for the storage pouch hanging at the waist of the lower half, he naturally did not let it go, accepting it without ceremony.

With that done, Li Yu held Lesser Clarity, unwilling to put it down.

His guess had been correct. When Yi Light Condensing Edge fell upon Lesser Clarity, it had indeed given the sword its edge. Once sharpened, Lesser Clarity was the most powerful spirit artifact he had ever seen.

I really wish I had a sword like this!

As Li Yu marveled

inwardly, Lesser Clarity trembled slightly. Then a stream of clear light suddenly followed Micro-Yi Qi Control into his spiritual sense.

Just as Li Yu thought the Mount Lao Sword Sect had left some safeguard in Lesser Clarity to prevent outsiders like him from wielding it, that clear light suddenly transformed into a sword art and appeared in his mind.

"Taiqing Mystic Sect's Formless Sword Qi!"