It Was That Slash (Everyone, Please Come Back Tomorrow to Keep Reading)

The door god portrait unfurled, revealing itself in full within the ancestral hall steeped in baleful yin energy. Jiang Wei's likeness stood imposing and majestic upon it.

The instant the portrait of Door God Jiang Wei appeared, waves of black mist and baleful energy erupted from the Ghost General, blotting out the entire entrance to the ancestral hall. Its pale mouth stretched wide as it let out a roar that tore at its throat!

During the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han dynasty, Deng Ai had secretly crossed Yinping and launched a surprise attack on Shu, accomplishing the unparalleled feat of destroying a kingdom. Yet Jiang Wei feigned surrender to Zhong Hui, bringing ruin to three worthies with a single scheme.

Afterward, Deng Ai died unjustly. Before his death, he roared, "The cruel fate of Bai Qi has appeared again today!"

Now, wherever the black mist and baleful energy reached, the stench of decay spread. Plaster peeled ceaselessly from the walls with a sizzling sound, and the entire ancestral hall seemed to tremble.

The Daoists of Shangqing Dao all shuddered involuntarily. They watched that man grip the door god portrait in one hand and slowly draw his saber with the other as he advanced, his back resolute and unyielding.

His qi circulated, and Chen Yi's eyes shone brightly.

Enraged beyond measure, the Ghost General lifted a foot and stepped into the ancestral hall, great spear in hand. The stone tiles beneath its foot cracked.

Baleful energy enveloped him in an instant. The Red-Gold Sarira against Chen Yi's chest blazed with light, immediately surrounding him. The surging baleful energy vanished the instant it touched the Buddhist radiance.

With the Red-Gold Sarira suppressing evil, the saber in Chen Yi's hand could kill men and cut down ghosts alike.

The Ghost General strode close and swung its great spear down from above, bringing it crashing down with unstoppable force.

Chen Yi felt the ground tremble beneath his feet. He twisted sideways and seized the opening to slash diagonally. His keen blade drew sparks across the Ghost General's armor, leaving a deep gouge in the bloodstained ghostly plates.

Its blow missed, shattering the blue stone paving slabs. The Ghost General Deng Ai pulled back its spear, gripped it at the middle, and swept it across. The fierce wind of the spear suddenly whipped up a great cloud of dust.

Yet Chen Yi neither dodged nor evaded. Instead, he pressed close beneath the Red-Gold Sarira's radiance. Clenching the door god portrait in his left hand, he drew his five fingers together and drove out a fist without any flourish!

The Cangshan Fist thundered out alongside Jiang Wei's portrait. Baleful energy receded like the tide, and six great cracks split the supposedly indestructible armor beneath that single punch.

The Daoists of Shangqing Dao stared at the sight in astonishment.

Yin Weiying's gaze was complicated. Instinctively, she glanced at Min Ning beside her. The young hero who should originally have been her Golden Lad now had eyes blazing like torches, shining intensely.

The person who should have been her dao companion now had her heart set entirely on that man...

The Goddess of Mount Taihua felt a bone lodged in her throat, as miserable as though she had swallowed arsenic.

The Ghost General burst into a roar, shifted one foot, and twisted its mountainlike frame. In an instant, its spear struck. Explosive cracks rang through the air, and the spear's wind surged wildly, forcing Chen Yi to bow his body slightly beneath its pressure.

The spear shot forth like a dragon, hurtling straight toward his face. It seemed Chen Yi's head would shatter in the very next instant.

Chen Yi abruptly raised his hand and channeled qi into his arm, making it instantly as hard as iron and stone. The sharp spearhead struck his arm squarely with the clang of iron against stone. It sank three inches into his arm, blood flowing freely as the spearhead pierced straight between the two bones.

Had this thrust gathered the Ghost General's baleful energy and sent it surging back along the spearhead, Chen Yi would probably have been crippled within half an incense stick's time, if not killed.

But the Red-Gold Sarira and the portrait of Door God Jiang Wei, two objects that suppressed evil, drove back wave after wave of the baleful energy that should have struck him.

The Ghost General let out a furious roar of defiance.

It yanked its spear free and swung it through a full arc, bringing down a diagonal slash like a thousand-jin weight plummeting, as though to cleave Chen Yi in two with one stroke!

Chen Yi raised his saber and employed his footwork to step forward. The spearhead missed, but the shaft slammed into his shoulder. A faint crunch sounded from his shoulder, and he endured the pain to slash at a crack in the armor.

Cold light flashed. Beneath the Red-Gold Sarira's radiance, the already damaged armor was instantly cut open. Eerie baleful energy surged out, but Chen Yi raised the door god portrait, and it all retreated like a petty sorcerer confronted by a great master.

The Ghost General grew even more furious. It unleashed a hoarse, indescribable roar that nearly shook their eardrums bloody. Retreating several steps, it shifted its foot once more, its body moving first as it abruptly drew back its spear. Baleful energy erupted from its pitch-black arm as it swung a heavy, powerful arc and suddenly slashed downward. The fierce wind cut a half-foot fissure-such an utterly hard, utterly fierce, domineering spear strike!

At that moment, time seemed to slow.

Chen Yi bowed his body slightly and lowered his head a fraction, gripping the Embroidered Spring Saber in both hands together with the door god portrait. At first, its cold gleam remained subdued within the gloomy ancestral hall.

He first pushed both hands behind him. True qi gathered in his sea of qi, surged through Shenque, then circulated along the Hand Shaoyang Sanjiao Meridian. His rear foot pressed hard against the ground, cracking the blue stone paving slab.

The blade moved slowly, seemingly without force at first. Then, as it reached behind his waist, veins bulged along both his arms. He stamped down heavily and stepped forward into a slash, meeting that domineering spear strike head-on!

Boom!

The saber's gang energy surged with unstoppable power, rushing like thunder, roaring like an azure dragon soaring into the heavens. A fine line abruptly appeared across the stretch of space before him. Against the direction of the descending strike, he swept upward with a reverse slash, severing the Ghost General's thick arm together with that utterly hard, utterly fierce spear strike!

Wind- and Rain-Scattering Saber.

Only after the saber light had passed did its quivering ring resound through the ancestral hall, half a beat late. The entire building trembled as well.

The Ghost General's gray-white eyes widened, as though in horror.

Then Chen Yi sheathed his saber.

He walked toward the horrified Daoists. Behind him, the enormous Ghost General collapsed like a small mountain, shaking the ancestral hall with a thunderous crash. A few breaths later, everything fell silent again.

Min Ning watched, her eyes wide and shining.

It was that slash...

She clenched her hands.

The Daoists of Shangqing Dao shivered as they stared at this warrior who resembled a god of slaughter. For a moment, they even forgot to speak. The Goddess of Mount Taihua's lips had lost their color and trembled, unable to form a single word.

Only Min Ning strode forward to meet him.

Min Ning began to smile.

She was happy, and she did not know why she was so happy.

Perhaps it was because the slash Chen Yi had used to slay the Ghost General was precisely that slash of hers.

Min Ning's hands trembled slightly, and hot blood surged within her. Her breathing quickened. Yes, that was precisely the slash she had taught him, a slash grounded in principle, scattering wind and rain. In this man's hands, it seemed capable of carving an indelible mark across the vast martial world, of carving out a place among the top ten of the Martial Ranking. The thought that this slash of his had come from her own hands-such glory was more than a young hero like her could bear.

She seemed to have gone mad. She was about to go mad!

Even if it truly drove her out of her mind, so be it, because now she finally wanted to kiss him!

Min Ning suddenly stepped forward, wrapped her arms around Chen Yi's neck, pulled his head down, and kissed him without a care for anything else.

Chen Yi stopped and gently wrapped his arms around her waist.

At the sight, Yin Weiying's pupils contracted sharply. Her body swayed as though she were about to fall, and her knuckles turned white from clenching her hands.

The Daoists of Shangqing Dao were shaken to their souls. They looked at Yin Weiying, then at Min Ning, watching this shocking, convention-defying scene without understanding why.

Tomorrow is crucial for advancing to the next round. Please, everyone, be sure to come back tomorrow and keep reading!