Bang!
The blade light cleaved straight into the golden body's domain. This was the first time it had been breached; even the Indestructible Scripture could no longer stop this strike. It hacked into He Xian's shoulder, biting deep into the bone, and silvery-gray blood flowed.
"Hiss." He Xian winced in pain, his gaze turning savage. "Take a strike from me, too."
He let the demonic blade sink into his snow-white bone, then clenched his five fingers and drove his fist straight through his opponent's chest. Next, he swung the golden heavenly blade he had condensed, its blade light every bit as tyrannical beneath the heavens.
Both blade strikes were terrifying. With a heavy thud, Heavenly Blade's body was pierced as well.
Heavenly Blade's eyes flashed viciously. Completely disregarding his injuries, he actually thrust himself forward, letting the attack pierce deeper. His five fingers sprang out like five little demonic blades, blade light erupting in an instant as he plunged them savagely into He Xian's heart, seeking to trade injury for death.
"Pfft!" Blood spilled from the corner of He Xian's mouth. Unfortunately for his opponent, his flesh was still far too powerful, trapping the fingers outright.
This sudden, vicious strike inflicted the worst injury He Xian had ever suffered. Flesh was gouged from his chest, blood spurted high, and the bones inside were plainly visible.
Though this was only the second great battle he had ever fought.
"Get away!" He Xian barked.
Then he abruptly raised his arm and blasted a punch at Heavenly Blade, unleashing a supreme fist intent!
Boom! The punch was terrifying. Its magnificent radiance resembled a great star destroying the world, a colossal meteor plummeting down and smashing into Heavenly Blade. Half his body was blasted apart, flesh and blood flying everywhere as he hurtled backward.
The sight was unbearable. Even his blade-wielding hand trembled.
"Indestructible Golden Body." Seizing this moment, He Xian gulped down the essence of heaven and earth to mend himself, his flesh rapidly regenerating.
"Nine Mantis Immortality Art." Heavenly Blade likewise had his own life-saving secret art. He let out a long howl, and the half of his body that had been blasted away rapidly recovered. This was a supreme Ancestral Art that burned life force to ensure he could keep fighting.
The two clashed again, their battle already reaching its fiercest moment.
Pfft! Another tremendous collision.
Both flew backward.
"Let's settle this!" He Xian murmured. His pupils shone with a supreme silvery-gray light.
"Let's decide the victor!" Heavenly Blade growled. He had the same intention; even the most heaven-defying life-saving secret art had its drawbacks.
"One blade form, one with its wielder; in this world, the Heavenly Blade stands unrivaled."
Heavenly Blade seemed to transform into a blade, man and weapon becoming one. From an immeasurable height, a blade of the Dao seemed to descend, gleaming white and bitterly cold. This strike could cleave heaven and earth, shatter eternity-splendor pushed to its utmost.
The blade descended, terrifying beyond belief, intent on ending the battle once and for all.
"Immortal-Slaying." He Xian answered with only a cold utterance.
The cross-shaped marks within his eyes grew ever more brilliant. With a sharp hiss, a dreadful sight unfolded.
Four sword embryos fell from his eyes!
This was an Ancestral Art inherited from his father, the greatest trump card of the Crane Clan's lineage, a peerless divine ability with the fiercest offensive power.
Its slaughtering aura surged to the heavens.
The four sword embryos slashed toward that lone heavenly blade, suppressing all Dao and principle!
At the same time, He Xian's eyes lost all their radiance, becoming as hollow as hell. A mysterious force emerged, dragging at Heavenly Blade.
The four swords fell. "Ah!" With a scream, Heavenly Blade was knocked straight out of that special state and fell to the ground.
The victor had been decided.
He Xian bathed in emperor blood once more, an invincible momentum gradually taking shape around him.
There could be only one true young supreme among the younger generation, and that could only be him-He Xian of the Crane Clan.
He Xian's golden hair danced wildly. Like a rising sovereign, his soaring battle intent split the heavens. Emperor blood burned and surged throughout his body, forbidden Dao rhythms flowed around him, and his eyes were as intimidating as cold lightning.
"I alone reign supreme, invincible beneath the heavens."
He looked down at the fallen Heavenly Blade and made his icy declaration. A terrifying will took shape; his eyes seemed capable of piercing the void, of making rivers of blood flow across the earth with a thought, of piling corpses into mountains with another.
"Congratulations, young ancestor, on winning great battles in succession." Even Elder He could not help being shaken, crying out repeatedly.
The members of the Heavenly Blade Tribe wore ashen expressions, their auras like demons and smoke, but not one of them made trouble.
This was the Foreign Realm. Elders would not bully the young here, because they all firmly believed their own tribe was invincible-it was merely their descendants who fell short.
"Hahahahaha!" Heavenly Blade laughed wildly from the ground.
"I lost this battle-a frog at the bottom of a well gazing at the sun and moon. But that doesn't mean you can keep beating me. When we reach the Supreme Domain one day, I'll fight you again, and I certainly won't lose! There's still one divine ability I haven't comprehended!"
Heavenly Blade panted, intense unwillingness flickering in his eyes. He deeply regretted it, but he did not lack the courage to start over.
He was a martial fanatic.
"Hahaha, well done, my boy! A moment's victory or defeat means nothing." The middle-aged man from the Heavenly Blade Tribe who had appeared at the beginning laughed, suddenly materializing and taking Heavenly Blade away. Only He Xian and his old servant remained.
Though the Heavenly Blade Tribe would not intervene and bully the young, they would not welcome them anymore, either.
And so He Xian left the Heavenly Blade Tribe's ancestral land.
"Where to, young ancestor?"
"Home. I need to enter seclusion," He Xian said weakly.
He was not in nearly as good a condition as he appeared!
Several days later.
He Xian sat cross-legged in an ancient site, growing ever more transcendent. The chaotic golden light on his skin seemed to extend to the farthest reaches of creation. His body grew increasingly immortal, as though blessed by the mighty power of heaven and earth.
He resembled an Immortal Saint Emperor.
Life-and-death battles truly are the best shortcut to a breakthrough, He Xian murmured inwardly. All his secret arts had advanced another step.
The Indestructible Scripture, in particular, had become ever more complete.
Unfortunately, the Indestructible Scripture his father had brought back was missing a corner.
He closed his eyes again. Resonant sounds of the Great Dao rang out from his body, and heaven and earth trembled ceaselessly as primordial qi gushed forth. Brilliant golden light began streaming endlessly from every pore, ten thousand rays in all, seeming to wrap around him and form a cocoon.
Breaking free of the cocoon to become a butterfly, sublimating to the utmost.
At the same time, the tendons and meridians within his body began to rumble and stretch, as though tempered by heaven and earth and merging with the Great Dao. In a haze, hundreds upon thousands of great hammers seemed to pound away, honing his tendons and bones.
Rumble!
The next moment, his meridians expanded and primordial origin qi surged. Two streams of qi, seemingly born at the very beginning of creation, appeared within his flesh, linking with the Dao marks suffusing heaven and earth and merging into them. They strengthened the divine essence and richness of every inch of his blood and vital energy. Divine radiance shimmered, like a river of stars flowing through his blood.
Meanwhile, outside, as He Xian cultivated, vast swaths of Dao marks in the Crane Clan Ancestral Land were drawn toward him, forming streaks that filled the sky and circled outside. Gods and demons chanted scriptures and danced, shaking heaven and earth.
Vast swaths of immortal light also rose around He Xian's place of seclusion, illuminating more than half the Crane Clan Ancestral Land.
"What kind of phenomenon is this, filling the sky with visions and chants resounding across the land?"
"Who is cultivating? Could a supreme be making a breakthrough? Otherwise, how could there be such a magnificent sight?"