"In the next round, just do your best. There's no need to fight these monsters to the death."
Little Martial Aunt Lu Rushuang nodded and reached out to pat Xu Taiping gently on the shoulder.
She deeply understood what Xu Taiping meant. After all, she had participated in the Golden Scale Assembly herself and knew full well that before true natural talent, all effort crumbled at a single blow.
"Boom!"
Just then, another piercing qi explosion rang out on the Golden Scale Platform.
Looking back at the Golden Scale Platform, they saw that Jueque's sword qi and the True Martial Great Emperor's aura had already divided it into two sharply distinct halves.
The two auras had been locked in a stalemate for less than two breaths when Zhu Qiongmo abruptly formed the Palms-Together Mudra, then jabbed a finger down at Ji Ye and roared-
"Sword, forth!!!"
The instant his voice fell, a sword cry like a dragon's roar rang out, and rings of light suddenly blazed upon the Junque Sword. A magnificent sword intent, ten times vaster and weightier than before, thundered down toward the phantom of the True Martial Great Emperor below, with a force that seemed poised to cleave this stretch of heaven and earth apart.
"Bang!"
At the very moment Jueque slashed down, the strings of the guqin resting across Ji Ye's legs all snapped after sounding their final note.
Immediately, the countless phantoms of soldiers in formation shattered, turning into strands of blue-green gang wind that swiftly gathered between the True Martial Great Emperor's loosely cupped hands. Finally, they became a longsword shimmering with cold light, held in the phantom's grasp.
"In heaven above and earth below, there is nothing I, Zhenwu, cannot cut down!"
A deep, hoarse voice seemed to travel through the long river