All Eyes Turned Their Way

"If you can take the sixth form, I'll count this as your win today."

Chen Cuo closed his eyes and raised a hand slightly.

The Divine Intention and celestial phenomena within a ten-mile radius surged toward him and entered his saber.

Countless towering waves churned and poured into it like a torrent, and a terrifying saber intent erupted!

After that brief eruption, it quickly withdrew, until not the slightest trace of its presence could be sensed, even by "Spirit."

The more it withdrew, the more heart-stopping it became.

This was a saber strike that gathered the very strongest of one man's martial arts!!

Martial arts possessed "Spirit"; this was the greatest difference between a Divine Intention Great Grandmaster and an Innate cultivator.

The saber intent withdrew, leaving no trace of its presence.

Above the whole of White Lotus Abbey, only that saber remained.

It rose, then fell!

A streak of azure saber light slashed out, too fast for the naked eye to follow!

"Formless Body!"

Sensing the threat of death, Shen Guan's eyes nearly split as he roared.

Shen Guan brought his Divine Intention and true essence to their absolute limits!

A towering, illusory figure with three heads, six arms, and no face rose from the ground, shielding Shen Guan within it.

The three-headed, faceless fiend god seemed to let out a roar aimed at "Spirit."

At the same time, it raised all six arms to block the saber light that abruptly fell upon it!

As one of the three supreme arts of the Formless Spirit Refinement Method, it combined offense and defense and was the Formless Dao's strongest technique.

But Shen Guan had not fully mastered it, and its power was correspondingly lacking.

Sizzle!

The saber light swept past, severing all six arms of the Formless Body's illusory figure, then struck the phantom body shielding Shen Guan.

Boom!!

A figure flew backward in a sorry state and slammed into a distant mountain peak.

"Formless Body?"

"You've made some progress, but your mastery isn't deep enough."

Chen Cuo put away his saber, lowered his eyes, and shook his head slightly.

"The sixth form was enough to deal with you."

"As for the seventh form, if you want to see it, come along too."

With that, he stayed no longer. Without speaking to Bai Lianxin, he strode toward the Mystic Yang Sect.

From beginning to end, Bai Lianxin had neither spoken nor shown any intention of helping.

If Shen Guan's skills were inferior and he died under that saber strike, it would be because he was too weak.

"If you're not dead, go back on your own."

She glanced at the pile of rubble beneath the mountain peak, coldly tossed out those words, and vanished in a flash.

"Cough, cough, bitch!"

Shen Guan crawled out of the rubble, his face dark, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth and his robes in tatters.

He stared after the two departing figures, his fists clenched tight, deeply unwilling to accept the result.

If he had not nearly mastered the Formless Body, that saber strike really would have killed him here today.

Phew~

He let out a breath, took out a Minor Restoration Pill, swallowed it, and followed them.

He wanted to see the full power of Chen Cuo's Seven Sea-Overturning Forms for himself.

He would wash away today's humiliation, no matter what!

The Mystic Yang Sect.

On a boulder atop a cliff at the summit.

Xu Fan sat cross-legged as wisps of the spiritual essence of heaven and earth entered his body, until, at a certain moment, he broke through a threshold.

"Qi Refinement Third Layer, the eight extraordinary meridians."

Phew~

He breathed out a mouthful of turbid air and slowly opened his eyes.

Only now had he opened all eight extraordinary meridians, bringing his martial cultivation to Innate Major Accomplishment.

Compared to his cultivation realm, his Divine Sense was his greatest strength.

It was also one of the things that gave him the confidence to fear no Great Grandmaster.

"Has he come?"

A "Spirit" containing terrifying saber intent had already locked onto him from a thousand miles away.

Like wave after wave surging in, it charged straight at his Divine Sense.

"Hmph!"

Xu Fan snorted coldly.

With a movement of his Divine Sense, he struck back along that "Spirit."

He took a step and appeared in a flash before the sect gates.

In the distance.

As Chen Cuo strode forward, an illusory azure sea spread along with him.

With every step he took, the illusory waves rose another level, and his presence grew a fraction stronger.

"Brother Xu, be careful."

Yang Haitian came to Xu Fan's side, gave him a quiet word of caution, and stepped back.

"Don't worry."

Xu Fan nodded slightly and stepped into the air.

He swept his Divine Sense over the area outside the Mystic Yang Sect's gates. The place was already buzzing with voices, with numerous powerful figures gathered there, as well as a few familiar faces.

Two people had come from the Clearwater Sect.

Lan Ci and a girl with twin ponytails.

"Senior Sister Lan Ci, do you think Xu Fan can win?"

Xia Qianqian looked up at Chen Cuo as he approached from afar and could not help swallowing.

If Senior Sister Lan Ci had not been shielding her from that imposing force, she feared she would have already collapsed.

And it was not even directed at her.

That showed just how powerful Saber-Nurturing Valley's seventh True Disciple was.

"Hard to say."

"Chen Cuo just fought someone, and it looks like he won."

Lan Ci, her face covered by a light veil, shook her head slightly.

"Chen Cuo isn't Han Tianling. He's a gifted disciple who truly received Saber-Nurturing Valley's true teachings, and he's at the Divine Intention Peak."

"Xu Fan's cultivation is unknown, though it probably hasn't exceeded the sixth revolution of true essence yet. When he killed Han Tianling last time, all we learned was that his Divine Intention was formidable."

"Now Chen Cuo will certainly be on guard. I'm afraid trying to decide the fight with Divine Intention won't work, so..."

Xu Fan was indeed extremely powerful, and his Divine Intention in particular far surpassed that of an ordinary Great Grandmaster.

But Chen Cuo had been famous for many years and had a formidable reputation.

He also came from Saber-Nurturing Valley and had tremendous combat strength.

With him on guard, she still thought Chen Cuo had the edge.

Even if Xu Fan was suspected of possessing a Celestial Person's inheritance, the gap in their cultivation was there for all to see.

A Great Grandmaster's true essence underwent nine revolutions, and with each revolution, its abundance doubled.

Whether in endurance or destructive power, Xu Fan held no advantage.

Only in Divine Intention.

But that was not enough.

"So, Senior Sister, you think Xu Fan might lose?"

Xia Qianqian's eyes widened as her gaze kept shifting back and forth between Xu Fan and Chen Cuo.

"I think that since Xu Fan dared to stay, he must be confident."

With her cultivation as an Innate Grandmaster, she could not make out the finer points. She simply had an inexplicable feeling that Xu Fan was confident.

Lan Ci smiled helplessly and tousled the girl's twin ponytails, knowing that her junior sister was simple-hearted.

Almost everyone in the seven nations knew that Chen Cuo had issued a challenge.

In particular, with the Hidden Dragon Ranking having just been updated, many challenges were bound to follow.

A man ranked eleventh on the Hidden Dragon Ranking, with Fu Yuanwu, the twelfth-ranked Primal Core great cultivator, involved, naturally drew considerable attention.

Even though Fu Yuanwu had not come in person and had merely sent Chen Cuo, a seventh True Disciple at the Divine Intention Peak and ranked twenty-eighth on the Hidden Dragon Ranking, to test Xu Fan on his behalf, it was still enough to draw plenty of attention.

Elsewhere.

Tie Shan, the Lingnan Circuit's Pacification Commissioner, stood shoulder to shoulder with Huang Tianfu, the Imperial Astronomical Bureau's Wuguan Lingtai Official. Their gazes were likewise fixed on the two men before the sect gates.

"Chen Cuo just defeated Shen Guan of the Formless Dao. I hear his self-created Sea-Overturning Saber Technique has become even more refined. I'm afraid even someone at the Divine Intention Peak couldn't withstand it."

Tie Shan remained stern and unsmiling.

"In that case, Chen Cuo's chances of winning today are excellent?"

Huang Tianfu raised an eyebrow, his gaze falling on the figure surrounded by illusory waves.

"Judging by what both sides have shown, that is indeed the case."

Tie Shan nodded slightly. After a moment's thought, he continued:

"It's just that I can't see through Xu Fan. He is a Celestial Person's inheritor, after all. He may have some means at his disposal."

"The means of a Celestial Person are beyond the likes of us to fathom, just like the Celestial Person Divine Weapons they left behind."

Relying on Celestial Person Divine Weapons, those major sects had flourished for ten thousand years.

Even when they withdrew from the world, they would emerge again within a few centuries, witnessing countless dynasties fall and rise.

As a result, in ten thousand years, the Divine Continent of the Vast Land had never had a dynasty that unified it all. Now, seven nations stood side by side.

His Majesty was wise and mighty, and already had the resolve and means to achieve unification. Huang Tianfu had also traveled from place to place for that purpose, hoping only to see that day.

"Let's hope Xu Fan can surprise us."