"No, this is just a test."
"A test? I can't believe my eyes, this is clearly a kill shot!"
"No, they're both holding back. Neither of them is using their full strength."
Many monks were discussing it.
really...
After another collision, the Five-Crown King sheathed his sword and held it across his chest, his gaze falling on Lin Fan: "You really didn't disappoint me."
" Lin Fan, unleash your full power."
The Five-Crown King took a deep breath, and his aura suddenly surged, like a volcano that had been suppressed for a long time finally beginning to stir.
He gripped the sword hilt, and a dark golden pattern shone on the blade.
From the hilt to the tip, it was as if an ancient, sealed rune had awakened. "Let me see if the legendary Immortal Qi is truly that powerful."
The moment he finished speaking, he moved.
With a single sword strike, the Sword Qi pierced the sky, like a long silver river descending from heaven.
This sword strike was completely different from the previous ones, carrying an ancient aura that was almost the very essence of law, like a wisp of true meaning peeled away from some extremely distant era.
" Emperor Dao Divine Ability."
Someone blurted out, their voice trembling, "This is the foundation of the Five-Crown King across five eras! He has fused the Sword Dao he has accumulated over five eras into one, that is true Emperor Dao Divine Ability!"
Then he unleashed three sword strikes in quick succession.
The first sword strike was as fast as lightning.
The second sword strike was as heavy as a mountain.
The third sword strike was as light as a feather.
The three swords intertwined, like a net woven from light and shadow, forcing Lin Fan to cover all his escape routes.
"He's getting serious!"
Everyone held their breath. "Can the Imperial Prince stop him?"
Lin Fan narrowed his eyes slightly as he watched the incoming Sword Qi.
The Five-Crown King truly deserves to be called a prodigy who has dominated five eras!
Lin Fan's casual strikes could easily kill Quasi-Emperor, yet the Five-Crown King remained calm and composed. If he didn't take it seriously, it would be somewhat disrespectful to his opponent!
"Good.
"You want to see Immortal Qi? Then I'll show you!"
He raised his right hand, joined two fingers together, and a wisp of extremely fine and faint chaotic light, intertwined with ethereal, cloud-like Immortal Qi, emerged from the tip of his finger.
There was no sound, no movement.
There is only a lightness that is almost ethereal, impossible to be captured by any law.
Immortal Qi.
He made a light stroke.
That Immortal Qi shot out from his fingertips, meeting the Five-Crown King's Emperor Dao Sword Qi.
The scene seemed to slow down at this moment...
All eyes followed the movement of that Immortal Qi, watching it traverse the void and come into contact with the Sword Qi...
"Pfft."
A very faint sound, like a needle piercing a bubble.
The Emperor Dao Sword Qi split open from the middle, shattering and disintegrating into countless specks of light and dust that scattered in all directions.
And this Immortal Qi continued to advance!
Although it lacked the intense impact of before, it felt like a red-hot iron needle piercing through thin ice, silent and unstoppable.
"Is this the Immortal Qi?"
The Five-Crown King's pupils dilated suddenly as a powerful pressure from the Great Dao swept over him. His Sword Intent Domain shattered like ice being pierced by a red-hot iron.
He hadn't felt this suffocating sensation in a long time!
He parried with his sword, the dark golden rune on the blade flashing wildly, the Law of the Emperor Dao condensing into a thick layer of defense on the sword's surface.
But the moment that wisp of Immortal Qi touched the sword, a crack appeared on its spine.
The Five-Crown King was shaken back tens of thousands of feet.
The steps beneath his feet made a continuous cracking sound as he stepped off.
He steadied himself, glanced down at his right arm, where his sleeve was torn and a deep bloodstain stretched from his wrist to his elbow.
"Holy crap?!"
" The Five-Crown King... is injured?!"
"Just one move! Just one move!"
"No, not just one move, it seemed to be that Immortal Qi of immortal energy that utterly crushed the Five-Crown King's Emperor Dao Divine Ability!"
The cultivators below the Immortal Ladder erupted in uproar: The Imperial Son had truly refined Immortal Qi! That was something even Quasi-Emperor might not be able to achieve in a lifetime!
"He cultivated to the Sage King Realm?"
"Only those peerless geniuses of the Immortal Ancient Era could achieve this, right?"
"Who among his peers can fight him?"
All eyes were focused on the highest point.
The Five-Crown King looked down at the extremely thin sword wound on his chest, then at the cracked sword in his hand.
He remained silent for a moment.
Then he laughed.
There was no resentment in his smile, only a sense of almost relieved joy. "Okay."
He said, " The Immortal Qi is indeed well-deserved, but my journey is not yet over."
The Five-Crown King suddenly plunged the broken sword in his hand upside down into the steps, formed a hand seal, and his aura surged once again, reaching a new level.
"What I learned on the Legendary Ancient Road was not just about swordsmanship."
"There is also a Immortal Dao Divine Ability."
He raised his head, his eyes reflecting the eternal golden light at the end of the sky. The Sword Qi around him intertwined and merged with another completely different power, bursting out with an ancient and profound Immortal Dao aura.
" Lin Fan, take my final sword strike."
He raised his hand, his five fingers together, and a dark golden light sword condensed in his palm.
He took a deep breath, raised the cracked longsword in his hand again, and a new layer of power began to shine on the blade.
Its aura is completely different from the laws governing the Immortal Ladder!
It carries an ancient Daoist charm that severs cause and effect Chaos time and space... It is the Immortal Dao Divine Ability he comprehended on the Legendary Ancient Road.
"This sword technique is something I gleaned from the remnants of that sword immortal from the ancient era..."
The Five-Crown King pointed his sword at Lin Fan, his voice low and solemn. "I call it Parting in the Mortal World."
The sword is drawn.
This sword strike is no longer an attack, but a separation.
It was as if wherever the sword's edge passed, everything was stripped from its place. A fallen leaf from the ancient immortal era was severed from the branch it should have fallen on by this sword, and a momentary echo of breakage rose in the river of time.
"Then I'll give you a sword in return!"
"That's interesting."
Lin Fan's eyes lit up.
He raised his hand and formed a sword with his fingers. The Chaos Immortal Qi in his dantian was no longer a wisp, but transformed into a spiral, condensing into shape at his fingertips.
Heaven-Slaying Sword-Drawing Technique!
At the same time, Chaos Qi and Immortal Qi merged in his palm, giving birth to an unprecedented power.
He made a light stroke.
This sword light was thinner than a strand of hair, paler than moonlight, and lighter than a speck of dust.
But the moment it collided with the Five-Crown King's " Parting in the Mortal World," the entire sky above the Immortal Ladder was sliced in two.
Time, space, laws, cause and effect...
Everything was crushed in that instant.
Then it exploded.
At that instant, countless cracks appeared on all the steps below the ninety-ninth floor.
The Five-Crown King was sent flying backward from the burst of sword light.
His ancient sword broke in two, and the fragments reflected his bloodshot eyes as they tumbled in the air.
He crashed to the edge of the hundredth step, kneeling on one knee, his longsword hilt broken to support his body, blood dripping from his right arm onto the transparent steps.
"I lost."
He said.
The sound wasn't loud, but it stunned everyone still watching on the entire Immortal Ladder.
Defeated?
Five-Crown King, unparalleled across five eras, a prodigy who swept aside his peers—he's defeated just like that?
Two moves.
No, Lin Fan crushed him in just two moves. That Immortal Qi and the Heaven-Slaying Sword-Drawing Technique took only a few breaths to execute.
"The Imperial Prince... is truly unmatched among his peers!"
Someone murmured, " The Five-Crown King has lost... Who can beat him?!"
Who else?!
Someone whispered and repeated that sentence.
No one answered.
Everyone was looking at the white-clad figure high up, standing at the top of the Immortal Ladder, with flowing silver hair and fluttering robes, before whom stood the futon that shone with the brightest golden light.
Lin Fan stepped forward and walked towards the highest prayer mat.
Just as he was about to sit down, he suddenly felt a barely perceptible stinging pain between his eyebrows. A sliver of cold light silently pierced through the void, as fast as the first frame of a nightmare, heading straight for his brow.
Silent, colorless, formless.
The laws governing the entire Immortal Ladder froze for a moment.