A massive claw, powerful, razor-sharp, hard, and covered in beautiful scales, stepped onto the city gate tower. Brick and stone broke like thin paper beneath its foot as the Immortal Lord looked down upon the tiny county town.
It had been more than seventy thousand stellar cycles since it had last seen these pitiful creatures.
They piled fragile things like gravel, earth, grass, and wood into fragile shapes, linked them into clusters, then surrounded them with an equally fragile barrier.
Then, perfectly happy, they hid their fragile bodies inside-bodies that nature's wind, water, thunder, and fire could shatter with a touch-and thought themselves safe from danger.
After all this time, these little things were still so innocent and delicious.
They were so clever. When they ate those little things they called river snails, did they never see their own reflection in them?
Still, they gathered together so obligingly. The wonderful memory of swallowing just such a construction in one mouthful more than seventy thousand stellar cycles ago came surging back.
Its golden eyes lifted slightly. These eyes did not regard the world through human vision. In the dragon's pupils, the entire town separated into several different layers, stripped of every secret.
On the other side of town stood a servant vessel, with a little appetizing remnant on its shoulder-the leftovers from last night's splendid feast.
Some little things beneath its feet looked up and saw it. They froze for a moment, then scrambled back into their little shells, emitting sound waves that interfered with one another.
The only thing that put it on its guard was that the thorn from the future remained exceedingly elusive. Ordinarily, five "lines" would certainly suffice to draw out the true target, but this time was different: they had branched.
Two extended in one direction, two more in another, while the last wavered indecisively.
But it hardly mattered.
Once the dragon flesh had been distributed, it would have hundreds upon thousands of "scouts." This fog would soon be lifted.
And even destroying this entire construction along with them would take little extra effort.
It gently raised its hand-
Suddenly, a brilliant glimmer appeared in the dragon's vision.
This was the layer in which it observed "energy," a sea of stars scattered with countless points of light, bright and dim, large and small.
And now, among those stars, a blaze of light rushed straight toward it.
Ah, yes... there were always a few of these among them.
Through human eyes.
Ming Qitian swept across the sky above Fenghuai, a fleeting white shadow. The True Qi lingering in her wake slowly dispersed like drifting white feathers.
Then a single stroke of her sword raised a raging wind.
Ming Qitian's sword was always ethereal and breathtaking, like a gray heron, a white cloud, a long rainbow drawn into a single line. Rarely did it display such grand, roaring force.
The air over half the town seemed to come sweeping toward her, compressed and twisted into a furious column of wind that charged straight at the towering body.
The "Wind Earl and Rain Master Sword-Sacrificing Manual," which Ming Qitian had learned while testing her sword at the Greater and Lesser Cloud Mountains six months earlier, commanded wind and rain not by truly praying to those two nonexistent immortals, but by manipulating the world's Profound Qi to influence nature. In a sense, it already touched the threshold of the sky tower realm.
Ming Qitian used this sword technique now not to inflict harm, but to force this creature, radiating dangerous pressure from head to toe, away from the county town and shift their battlefield.
The gale swept overhead, its aftershocks lifting countless roof tiles, toppling jars, and shaking trees. The little town seemed caught amid ocean waves.
Yet faced with that violent, roaring wind, the Immortal Lord did not retreat. Instead, it charged headlong into it.
The wind column, condensed almost into solid substance, shattered upon impact. The speed at which that body struck the column was even greater than the speed at which the wind rushed toward it!
However fierce the wind, how could it move a hill? However tightly condensed, how could it be harder than steel?
The vast gale was crushed like rotten wood and withered grass. That majestic body hurtled straight toward her, openly displaying its strength to its opponent.
Human realms had never been able to define it. But if this power had to be classified, then it was "sky tower."
The wind column shattered section by section. At its far end, a woman of immortal grace stood upon the wind, one hand holding her sword behind her back, the other forming a seal. Her bright eyes lifted to meet its gaze.
Their eyes met, one pair aloof and lofty, the other calm.
Then, as though a painted scroll had unfurled behind the woman before it, both entered the painting.
The Immortal Lord's vision turned entirely white. At this moment, dragon pupils were no different from human eyes.
[Sword Domain: Great White]
When Xing Zhi had asked whether she had a way to deal with a sky tower opponent, she had answered no. It had not been a lie.
When her meridian tree was at fourth growth, she could already defeat an eighth growth opponent in a head-on sword fight-not some aging martial artist picked at random, but a senior fellow disciple who had legitimately earned the "Immortal Tree-Hung Sword" qualification on Cloud Lang Mountain.
And when her meridian tree reached eighth growth and she was about to enter the profound gate, many masters on the first jade step were already no match for her.
But now, even standing at the very summit of the summit of the jade steps of the mystic gate, she could not challenge the realm above it.
Advancing within the profound gate realm was like climbing mountains. Once you reached a summit, it did not matter; there was always a higher mountain in the world for you to climb.
But when you pressed boldly onward, climbed the highest mountain beneath heaven, and even leaped onto the sturdy pine growing atop a high rock at its peak, where was the next realm when you looked around?
In the sky.
The gap between the profound gate and sky tower was the gap between mountain and sky.
Even if you stood atop the highest mountain beneath heaven and leaped with all your strength, how could you reach the sky?
That was why Ming Qitian had said, "No."
But that did not mean she could attempt nothing at all.
In fact, before she descended the mountain this time to test her sword against the world, the Sword Lord had discussed this very question with her.
"Ever since childhood, you've faced opponents several times stronger than yourself. Now that you stand at the mountain summit of the profound gate, how can you expect every opponent to come from beneath your feet?"
"Of course, I know that isn't an enemy you can defeat. But the real world isn't Cloud Lang Mountain. No one will specially choose opponents you can just barely beat by giving everything you have," the man said. "What if you do encounter one?"
"I'll die," Ming Qitian answered, frank and honest.
"Try not to die, if possible." The man smiled faintly. "Today, I'll teach you one of the Seven Luminaries Sword Domains. Should you encounter such an enemy, I hope it gives you a chance of victory, even one in a hundred or a thousand."
Chapter 77: Slaying the Heart
For the vast majority of people, "Sky tower" was an unfamiliar term. Unlike the life meridian realm, it was not discussed with relish; unlike the profound gate realm, it was not gazed up at in awe. It belonged to those who truly held power, the deepest bones of this world. Even the Immortal Platform maintained no ranking for this realm.
For the smaller number who knew the term, "Sky tower" was synonymous with profound majesty that brooked no trespass. Through their status, family background, sect, position, or other circumstances, they had directly or indirectly encountered some great figure, and those great figures were often bound to the words "sky tower."
Only for a very select few was "sky tower" a realm they could assess, and Cloud Lang Mountain's current Sword Lord was clearly one of them.
According to the Sword Lord, sky tower was certainly powerful in every respect, but its greatest strength lay in the words "Heaven and Earth Share the Same Strength."
Only after "dissolving nature and life into heaven and earth" could one enter this realm. Those who ascended had, in truth, become the darlings of heaven and earth; with a wave of their hands, the world moved with them.
And this Great White sword domain severed those inside it from heaven and earth, returning the outcome of the fight to the two combatants' own strength.
Of course, this was no unfailing remedy against sky tower opponents. It was merely an attempt that might prove effective-some could dismantle the sword domain with a casual gesture, while others needed time. Perhaps only a tiny fraction would be forced to clash head-on with Ming Qitian inside it.
Ming Qitian did not know which kind the Immortal Lord was.
In any case, the instant the sword domain unfolded, her sword tip had already raised True Qi. This strike abandoned the divine beauty of an immortal maiden from Mount Gushe. Instead, it was dangerous, bluntly austere, even lowly.
It was like the sword thrust of a commoner who had swallowed his blood for twenty years, suddenly rising in the street to assassinate the high and mighty, killing intent nearly spilling over his brows.
His shoes were woven straw, his clothes ragged hemp, his hair disheveled, his expression dull and indifferent. His sword, too, was rusty, with only one edge honed gleaming bright.
This strike sought no beauty, discussed no principles of the sword, contained no sword intent. It strayed from—even defiled—the words "Sword Dao." No great master of the Sword Dao would think it worthy of notice.
Hysterical, seeking only to kill.
[Commoner's Sword], recorded in "Zhuangzi's Sword Exegesis": when a commoner's anger erupted, blood splashed five paces.
And the Great White star governed slaughter.
At this moment, perhaps Ming Qitian was the one for whom "Heaven and Earth Share the Same Strength." The entire sword domain thrilled and exulted for this strike.
Ming Qitian pressed onward without retreat.
A commoner assassinating the high and mighty would not care which limb the guards severed as he thrust his sword, nor whether he could survive the assassination. He wanted only the life of the person before him, even in exchange for his own.
Ming Qitian likewise had no intention of dodging the opponent's Netherfire, mystic frost, or violet lightning. She would not let the slightest fraction of her momentum falter.
And if her opponent again used its ability to make flesh flow like water, she had prepared a second strike for that as well.
Yet this time, the Immortal Lord used none of those abilities.
The troublesome Frostfire from last night's clash, those golden pupils circling her state of mind like flies seeking cracks in an egg, the flowing flesh—all were absent.
It had never intended to call upon heaven and earth. It had even abandoned its various powers.
Whether or not this Great White sword domain had unfolded, it had never intended to change its response.
Simply go over, then eat.
At a speed taken to the utmost extreme, its tall, powerful body bore down before Ming Qitian's eyes with an explosive crack.
Ming Qitian had prepared to be hard-pressed in their clash, struggling to fend off attacks from every side. But this speed denied her even the chance to struggle.
She immediately abandoned the [Commoner's Sword] in her hand, whose momentum had already reached its peak, and drew her spirit, Qi, and intent entirely back into Heart-Slaying Glaze.
The glazed blade swept back to guard her, tracing a semicircle-
A fist had already arrived.
The mirrorlike defense had barely taken shape before that punch shattered it utterly.
Heart-Slaying Glaze jolted violently out of her hand.
Ming Qitian fell from the sky, drawing a swift white line. Her body bounced after crashing into the earth, then smashed through seven or eight buildings before finally coming to rest half-buried in the ruins.
Only one punch.
The words "sky tower" had never been able to define it.
Strength that could destroy cities and shatter mountains, drawn from its own body rather than the support of heaven and earth; infallible battle instincts; eyes that saw through everything-none of these were things a human sky tower cultivator could possess.
Yet Ming Qitian's decision to cut off heaven and earth and engage the Immortal Lord in physical combat could not be called a mistake.
Because although she could not win even after severing that connection, without doing so, Ming Qitian would not even have been able to commune with heaven and earth. She would have had no chance whatsoever.
In fact, during that brief exchange, she had already made the most fitting, decisive, and exquisite response, pitting her greatest strength against her enemy's greatest weakness.
But even when a mosquito pierced a person's throat, it left only a small red bump.
The white sword domain collapsed at the same time. The Immortal Lord raised its hand, aimed at the body lying among the ruins below, and prepared to claim this delicacy.
But in its energy vision, countless points of light suddenly erupted all around it.
-The fragments left by the shattered sword domain had not dispersed. Instead, they had become myriad strands of razor-sharp Sword Qi, like frost and snow!
There were certainly fewer than ten people on the Crane List who could transform and seamlessly redirect their control of True Qi to this degree.
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