Heaven-Slaying Art

Li Dalong studied the Jade Slip in his hand, sat cross-legged, and sank his Primordial Spirit power into it to read the Heaven-Slaying Art. He soon committed it to memory. After carefully pondering it once more, he formed seals with both hands and half-closed his eyes, a powerful aura radiating from his entire body. Cultivating the Heaven-Slaying Art required him to condense his Spiritual Power to its utmost limit and attain the state of mind-body unity.

Li Dalong sank his consciousness into his Dantian and controlled the circulation of his Spiritual Power. As it flowed through his meridians, an invisible force began coursing through his body. He felt an immense energy surging through every cell, as though an invisible dragon were thrashing within him.

As his cultivation deepened, Li Dalong's body began to tremble slightly, and sweat dripped from his forehead. Yet he did not retreat in the slightest, his Primordial Spirit power intently guiding the flow of Spiritual Power.

Time in the Forbidden Grounds seemed to have stopped. Only the communion between Li Dalong and his Spiritual Power continued. His breathing grew increasingly steady, and his Spiritual Power formed an enormous vortex within him, spinning faster and faster.

Suddenly, a streak of Sword Qi burst from Li Dalong's body like a bolt of lightning, tearing through the darkness and illuminating the sky. Sword light filled the Forbidden Grounds.

Li Dalong opened his eyes, a glimmer flashing within them. He sensed the changes in his body. His cultivation of the Heaven-Slaying Art had reached perfection.

He took a single step and instantly appeared atop a towering mountain thousands of miles away. With a thought, the Azure Cloud Sword appeared in his hand. He raised it and gazed at the sky, mentally activating the Heaven-Slaying Art as Spiritual Power surged through his body. With a sweep of the Azure Cloud Sword, an incomparably brilliant streak of sword light tore across the heavens and shot straight into the clouds.

The sword light enveloped the entire sky, and all fell silent. Then a thunderous explosion rang through heaven and earth. Cracks appeared in the spatial barrier ahead, and the sky seemed to tear apart. Boundless spatial storms surged from the void, reducing several enormous peaks below to nothingness.

Even Li Dalong was stunned by the might of the Heaven-Slaying Art. He truly realized that even the system's description had understated its power.

After testing his newly learned Heaven-Slaying Art, Li Dalong lingered no longer. He turned and vanished, leaving behind several mountains whose summits had been annihilated. They could no longer be called mountains, only a handful of plateaus.

Li Dalong had left the scene with carefree ease, but he had terrified every cultivator within five thousand miles of where he had tested his sword.

They had no idea what mighty expert had unleashed that sword light. Even thousands of miles away, they could hear the tremendous explosion. The sword light seemed capable of destroying everything, cleaving even space itself with a single strike. The resulting spatial storms had annihilated several enormous peaks. Not destroyed-annihilated. It was far too terrifying! Everyone speculated about who this formidable figure might be, while the nearby demons and monsters were too frightened to remain, immediately fleeing far away.

Successfully cultivating the Heaven-Slaying Art also raised Li Dalong's cultivation from the early to the middle stage of Spirit Transformation, bringing an enormous improvement to his overall strength. The Heaven-Slaying Art had multiplied his offensive power several times over and more. Across the entire Cultivation World, there were truly few who could withstand his Heaven-Slaying Sword Strike.

His days of cultivation passed in teaching Zhou Tianlong and training diligently. Yet the situation in the Cultivation World grew increasingly chaotic. Every faction and cultivator could see that great changes were imminent, and all desperately amassed strength. The powerful fought frantically over territory and resources and recruited more people, while the weak sought allies, hoping to band together for protection. Tiny Lineages huddled within their own territories to reduce the risk of their homes being ruined and their families slaughtered.

Troubled times bred heroes, and amid this chaos, some rose above the rest. The newly rising Heaven-Severing Church was one of the finest examples. It had originally been an obscure, third-rate faction, developing its influence on a few islands off the eastern coast of the Heavenly Origin Continent. Ever since its first leader founded the Heaven-Severing Church, its members had rarely appeared on the continent, confining their activities to those eastern islands.

The vast ocean and its islands, scattered like stars across a chessboard, were extraordinarily rich in resources. Some islands were even composed entirely of spirit stone deposits. Sea beasts abounded in the deep waters and on islands large and small, so there was no need to compete for cultivation resources on the continent.

Though resources were plentiful, danger was ever-present: all manner of powerful sea beasts, strange and perilous ocean conditions, natural disasters, hurricanes that could devastate heaven and earth, and volcanoes that suddenly erupted ten thousand meters high from beneath calm seas. This harsh environment had also forged the Heaven-Severing Church's fierce, combative character and its disregard for life and death.

After the spiritual energy of the Heavenly Origin Continent became exceptionally dense, the sea beasts in the ocean's depths began evolving faster and faster! All kinds of rare natural treasures unique to the region also appeared in increasing abundance. In particular, over the past decade or so, gigantic deep-sea beasts had begun appearing frequently near several large islands, attacking cultivators.

They inflicted tremendous casualties on the islands' human cultivators, and survival began to grow difficult. Zhan Tian, the Heaven-Severing Church's current leader, was immensely powerful. He possessed both the authority of a church leader and the Heaven-Severing Church's fearless defiance of death. He was a resolute and cold-hearted man, skilled in all manner of martial techniques and swordsmanship. He also had a keen strategic eye and excelled at analyzing situations and devising tactics, always securing victory at critical moments.

After taking over as leader, he began invading and infiltrating the offshore islands. He either brought powerful forces under his command or struck them down and annihilated them. Thus, in less than a century, the Heaven-Severing Church became the unrivaled power in the eastern seas.

Thanks to the abundant resources supplied by the boundless ocean, Zhan Tian, leader of the Heaven-Severing Church, had already reached the late stage of Spirit Transformation. Under him were two deputy leaders at the middle stage of Spirit Transformation, Long Tian and Jingbian Shihuang, along with eight guardians at the same stage and elders at the early stage. A few islands could no longer contain Zhan Tian's ambitions, and he began planning an expansion onto the Heavenly Origin Continent.

Though isolated overseas, the rich and unique resources produced by the boundless ocean drew frequent visits from many merchants and adventurers from the continent. Thus, exchanges and information among cultivators were by no means cut off.

Through the intelligence agents he dispatched, as well as traders and adventurers, Zhan Tian kept track of every movement on the continent. Through threats, inducements, and other means, he also gradually gained control over a large stretch of continental territory near the islands.

Zhan Tian's strategy was to first occupy a foothold on the continent without a sound, then nibble away at the surrounding factions. Once firmly established, he would launch large-scale operations to swallow up the various powers.

As Zhan Tian acted, many small and medium-sized sects on the continent were wiped out. In some, the sect leaders and elders suddenly disappeared, replaced by members of the Heaven-Severing Church.

As the Heaven-Severing Church's influence on the continent expanded and more sects were swallowed up, the continent's various factions began guarding against this rising power. Those that had not yet been absorbed all felt their own lives were in danger. The small and medium-sized factions were especially terrified, trembling at the thought of the Heaven-Severing Church coming to their doors.