The storm took human form, its features blurred and its figure immense. Bamboo leaves became a sword, which the figure seized and swung at her!
Sushang drew the Radiant Sun Sword!
The two sides launched into a fierce... how could it possibly have been a fierce battle?
Bang!
Sushang was sent flying!
Bang!
Sushang was sent flying again!
Bang!
Sushang was sent flying yet again!
After this happened over and over, the little girl's psychological defenses completely collapsed.
"Master, save me!"
"No one will come to save you even if you scream your throat raw."
"Your throat raw!!"
"Hey, isn't that joke a little too old?"
Xie Feng quipped while Sushang fled in tears. With no hope of help, she could only go back to fighting through her tears.
This bamboo belonged to the Xuanji Sect and possessed intelligence. Xie Feng had instructed it to train her, and it knew how to hold back. It would not truly hurt the little girl.
The days went uncounted as she practiced the sword.
More than two months had passed since the Heavenly Ranking released its rankings.
During that time, winds rose and clouds surged.
The deaths of Mu Shuangling, the Sword Patriarch of the Heavenly Sword Holy Land, and Liu Zhen, its Second Venerable, shocked the holy land.
They wanted revenge!
Rumor had it that they had ruined the Azure Dragon Clan's young master's plans and seized his fortune, enraging Qu Jiangxuan.
The Azure Dragon Clan had struck to kill.
Given this clan's long-standing reputation for ferocity and tyranny, even killing the lord of a holy land was entirely possible.
The Heavenly Sword Holy Land went to demand an explanation from the Azure Dragon Clan.
The Azure Dragon Clan simply killed the Heavenly Sword Holy Land's envoy!
The two great powers went to war!
One was a holy land with deep foundations, the other an ancient Supreme-grade clan. The flames of war raged for two months!
On this day!
The Heavenly Ranking revealed itself to the world. Bells reverberated, and a thunderous voice rang out-
"The Heavenly Ranking has been updated once again!"
The golden ranking appeared, startling everyone beneath the heavens, who all turned to look.
Names shifted on the ranking.
Everyone stared unblinkingly, as though their throats had been tightly seized!
Name after name shone.
At last!
"Look! Tenth place is now Lu Xiuluo!"
"Has someone new made the ranking?"
"Third place has changed!"
"Third place is actually Qu Jiangxuan!"
Countless people cried out in shock.
[Third place] Name: Qu Jiangxuan Physique: Ancestral Dragon Formless Demon Physique Assessment: With the Ancestral Dragon's Root Bone and a formless demon, tread upon heaven and earth, transcend the mortal realm; only upon entering the demonic path does he become supreme!
The former third place on the Heavenly Ranking had been Guixu Changying, but now...
The Immaculate Body had lost!
Everyone was utterly shocked. Qu Jiangxuan had gone from ninth to tenth to third, achieving a rise against the heavens!
"Have you heard? The Heavenly Sword Holy Land lost!"
"The Azure Dragon Clan washed the holy land in blood and dug up its million years of fortune!"
"The Heavenly Sword Holy Land wasn't weak, but after Mu Shuangling fell, its pent-up internal conflicts erupted. The war also came too suddenly, so the holy land lost!"
"So he dug up someone else's fortune to improve his own physique! How utterly shameless!"
Amid the uproar, a video appeared on the Heavenly Ranking-
Thousands of troops and horses swept past in a mighty procession. A figure sat atop a heaped mound, trampling all living beings.
Heaven and earth became a blood-red day!
Blood flowed into an ocean, and the phantom of a black dragon rose from the ground!
A dragon's roar rang out, piercing straight into eardrums and the depths of souls, filling people with utter terror.
The Ancestral Dragon Formless Demon Physique!
Everyone was scared witless.
The Heavenly Ranking issued its reward-
[Third-place reward] Formless Demon Pill.
An Immortal Grade treasure pill!
It contained boundless demonic power, its might reaching the heavens!
The Azure Dragon Clan.
"Hahaha!
"I, Qu Jiangxuan, have finally parted the clouds and seen the sun!
"Third on the Heavenly Ranking! Hahaha!
"The Human Emperor Physique, Immaculate Body, Azure Luan Immortality-nothing more than that!"
In a blood-red land, Qu Jiangxuan, dressed in scarlet like a specter, stared at the Heavenly Ranking. His face was hideous and terrifying, one side human, the other demonic!
He let out a terrifying laugh.
The currents around him churned chaotically, and demonic Qi towered into the sky.
Just then, someone shouted sternly, "Quickly rein in your mind! You must not lose yourself!"
Xuan Tugu!
Qu Jiangxuan shuddered all over.
Regaining some clarity, he immediately circulated his mental cultivation method and gradually calmed down.
Xuan Tugu said, "Who knows where the rumor that our Azure Dragon Clan killed Mu Shuangling came from, but that crooked shot hit the mark, delivering a holy land into our dragon's maw!
"Killing that Heavenly Sword envoy was your wisest decision. But in this battle, your father, the Azure Dragon King, was lost!
"You are the next successor. Now, the king of our clan should be you, Qu Jiangxuan!"
Leaning on her staff, Xuan Tugu slowly bowed her head and said solemnly, "This old woman pays respects to the new king!"
The Heavenly Secrets Pavilion.
"He employed some means to fuse the Ancestral Dragon Great Dao Bone with the fortune of a million-year-old holy land, raising his Ancestral Dragon Bloodline to sixty percent. But his Blood Qi was excessive; a single thought led him into demonhood!"
The purple-robed Heavenly Master Qi looked at the Heavenly Ranking.
He murmured to himself.
Just then, a woman in smoke-gray robes slowly approached.
She moved with light, graceful steps, her bearing profound. The gray veil covering her eyes fluttered, adding mystery to her frailty.
Qi Wuyan!
She held an exquisite Fate Cauldron in her hands.
She said, "Two sides play a game, with many spectators watching. One spectator moved a piece, and so the state of the entire board changed!"
Heavenly Master Qi said, "Such is heaven's mandate!"
Qi Wuyan nodded, then suddenly coughed several times. Heavenly Master Qi said worriedly, "Wuyan, your body is growing weaker!"
Qi Wuyan's expression was serene. "This is the price of calculating all heaven's secrets."
Heavenly Master Qi suddenly said, "My constant regret has been that my strength cannot advance, that at most I can divine the Heavenly Dao.
"You understood my regret, so you strove to enter a realm I could not reach. But when I learned that this power came at the price of consuming yourself a hundred, a thousand times faster, I would rather you were just an ordinary heavenly calculation master, not calculating some Great Dao or practicing some Numinous Heavenly Calculation!"
Stroking the Fate Cauldron, Qi Wuyan said softly, "In my destiny, a benefactor will come to save me."
Heavenly Master Qi said, "Will such a person appear in this era? Have you... have you calculated it?"
Qi Wuyan nodded.
Yet a trace of bitterness lay in her heart.
Had she calculated it?
She could calculate any person, event, or thing, but she alone was beyond her own calculations!
Those within the game were blind!
In a mere twenty years, she had brought the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion from an ordinary sect to one whose reputation rivaled the great holy lands, even attaining a standing that commanded respect and dread from all quarters. She had overdrawn far too much of herself!
Her body was growing weaker and weaker...
She could only deceive her closest kin with a lie.
She simply did not know how long this lie could last...
The Sacred Continent.
Amid a vast expanse of snow.
A man with ink-black robes and ink-black hair stood out starkly against the snow.
He practiced swordplay empty-handed. Each rise, each withdrawal, each move, each form-there was no sword in his hands, yet Sword Intent surged around him!
Chu Shanjun!
At that moment, the Heavenly Ranking stretched across the sky.
He finished his movement and looked at the Heavenly Ranking, his narrow eyes squinting slightly.
"Perhaps my good intentions did harm?
"I meant to redirect the conflict so that woman could avoid clashing with the Heavenly Sword Holy Land. Now it seems I let the Azure Dragon Clan seize the opportunity and handed him a bargain!
"Ah, I'll never do such a rotten thing again. Still, that woman wielding the Radiant Sun Sword did have quite a presence!"
Chu Shanjun murmured to himself.
Suddenly!
As if sensing something, he abruptly turned and looked a hundred meters away.
A figure appeared!
The newcomer was tall and slender, standing silently and motionlessly, yet giving off a suffocating sense of oppression!
As Chu Shanjun looked at that person, it was as though he saw a stretch of chaos! So blank, so illusory!
He sensed an enormous threat!
Who... was this newcomer?!