At these words, Chu Yuechan and the green-dressed girl behind her both froze, clearly never having expected Lin Xuan to say something so arrogant.
Take a strike from you?
Do you know who stands before you?
Hum-!
Yet before she could voice her mockery, Lin Xuan suddenly slashed out, forcibly cutting off the words on the tip of her tongue.
"Interesting." Chu Yuechan truly did find Lin Xuan rather interesting. He was so weak, yet so confident.
But very soon, she realized that things...
Did not seem quite so interesting after all...
At first, she had thought nothing of this strike. Such an ordinary slash probably could not even break through her protective Sword Gang.
But... only when the sword light Lin Xuan unleashed came within a hundred feet of her did Chu Yuechan finally notice something amiss.
Terrifying Sword Intent that made her scalp prickle erupted from within that sword light!
"This is... Sword Intent?"
Her red lips parted slightly. The composure on Chu Yuechan's face vanished, replaced by profound shock. She was all too familiar with the presence contained within this sword light.
Because she too had comprehended Sword Intent, she was particularly sensitive to it.
What stunned her was that the sword light not only contained Sword Intent, but Sword Intent far stronger than the first level she had comprehended!!
How was this possible?
In the paltry Seven Moon-Reflecting Kingdoms, someone had actually comprehended Sword Intent below the King Realm?
And judging by Lin Xuan's age, he should be under thirty. This...
Or was this person not from the Seven Moon-Reflecting Kingdoms? Did he come from beyond the seven kingdoms, just like her?
There was no time to think. Lin Xuan's strike had already reached her, and Chu Yuechan raised her sword, likewise blasting out a streak of Sword Gang!
At this moment, she dared not underestimate him in the slightest. She put her full strength into this strike.
Boom-!!
With a thunderous crash, Chu Yuechan's slender body shot backward like an arrow loosed from a bow, blood spraying ceaselessly from her mouth!
The sight left the green-dressed girl nearby dumbstruck...
What had she just seen?
Sent flying by a single sword strike?
This was completely different from what she had expected!
Sister Chu, the peerless heavenly genius she had always seen as someone to catch up to, had actually failed to withstand a single strike from that man?
The green-dressed girl even wondered whether her eyes were playing tricks on her, whether she was hallucinating.
"Pfft-!"
Sent flying far away, Chu Yuechan clutched her chest. The shock in her heart was no less than the green-dressed girl's, and was even greater!
At the last moment, knowing full well that she could not withstand this strike, she had crushed a life-saving jade talisman without hesitation.
Yet this jade talisman, powerful enough to defend against a full-strength attack from someone at the King Realm Third Layer, had failed to stop that man's single strike...
What kind of... monster was this?
Tribulation Realm Ninth Level? Unleashing a sword strike that surpassed a full-strength attack from someone at the King Realm Third Layer?
Even those in the Mystic Ranking's top ten would struggle to achieve such strength, would they not?
Her father had always warned her that there were always people beyond people and heavens beyond heavens, and that she should never underestimate anyone. But a genius like her had never taken those words much to heart.
Today, however, she had truly grasped their meaning.
What level was such terrifying Sword Intent?
The second level?
Definitely higher!
Second-level Sword Intent could never be this terrifying.
The third level!?
Very likely!
Tribulation Realm Ninth Level, and he had not only comprehended Sword Intent, but third-level Sword Intent. Even if she told others something so outrageous, no one would believe it, would they?
Yet she had witnessed it with her own eyes!
And that was far from all. Even with third-level Sword Intent, someone at the Tribulation Realm Ninth Level could not possibly unleash that supremely powerful strike that surpassed a full-strength attack from someone at the King Realm Third Layer.
This man was simply a monster.
Remembering how she had previously told him to withstand a strike from her, Chu Yuechan felt like laughing. With a self-mocking laugh, she cupped her fists toward Lin Xuan, then left with the green-dressed girl without lingering any longer. Today had dealt her quite a blow.
As she left, the green-dressed girl remained dazed, clearly still caught in the shock of Lin Xuan defeating Chu Yuechan with a single strike, unable to recover for a long time.
Watching the two women leave, Lin Xuan withdrew his gaze and looked at the spirit spring below.
"If this spirit spring were in the outside world, its value would probably be impossible to estimate."
The Heaven-Burning Mystic Realm truly lived up to its reputation as the place where a Venerable had fallen.
Of course, his own luck had also been heaven-defying. Even across the entire Heaven-Burning Mystic Realm, this spirit spring ranked among the most precious things.
"Next, it's time to break through to the King Realm!"
A trace of fervor flashed through his eyes.
After several years, he had reached this point once again.
Only this time, things were completely different from before.
Last time, he had attempted to enter the King Realm directly through the Sword Dao, but had failed.
This time, he had already comprehended twenty-two Great Daos!
Sitting cross-legged, Lin Xuan began circulating his Saint Grade cultivation method, the Azure Emperor Scripture!
Above, dark clouds massed and thunder rolled! It was as though the end of the world had come.
Below, the water in the spirit spring turned into streams of mist that flowed into Lin Xuan's body.
A crystal-clear spirit pill flew out of his storage ring, and Lin Xuan swallowed it. This pill was the Heaven-Gathering Mystic Pill!
After he swallowed the Heaven-Gathering Mystic Pill, the speed at which Lin Xuan absorbed the spirit spring soared once more! The spirit spring was also diminishing at a rate visible to the naked eye.
"This lightning tribulation..."
Looking at the sky shimmering with violet-red lightning, Lin Xuan's heart tightened slightly.
This display was countless times greater than when he had last attempted to break through to the King Realm.
The violet-red lightning tribulation radiated immense pressure, as though it would blast everything in the world into dust.
Boom!
As the first bolt of violet-red tribulation lightning struck, the ominous night sky lit up instantly. Lin Xuan blasted out a sword strike, slashing straight at the incoming tribulation lightning!
For a moment, heaven and earth shook!
Lin Xuan's arm bent slightly, and a muffled grunt escaped his mouth.
"Again!"
Boom-!
The second bolt of tribulation lightning followed close behind, even more terrifying than the last!
Above the oasis, a figure frantically underwent the baptism of the lightning tribulation.
One heart-palpitating bolt of tribulation lightning after another poured down without cease. They had only one target: Lin Xuan!
They sought to erase Lin Xuan from the world completely!
Only after an unknown length of time did the tribulation clouds slowly disperse.
A ray of sunlight broke through the clouds and fell upon the utterly bedraggled Lin Xuan.
Yet bedraggled as he was, the hint of a smile on his face betrayed his mood at that moment.
"King Realm First Level Perfection!"