His Bearing Was Quite Impressive, but His Strength Was a Little Lacking
Baili Chang'an, Wen Yuyang, and the others fared no better.
They were in a sorry state, covered in wounds.
They knelt weakly in the deep crater or lay there, gasping for breath.
Ineradicable shock and bitterness lingered in their eyes.
It was only a casual strike, yet it possessed such terrifying power!
Just how strong has he really become...
For the first time, Baili Chang'an could not help feeling a profound sense of helplessness.
The gap was too vast!
It was a gap he could neither bridge nor close.
And under that indiscriminate attack,
Nangong Yue and Qin Mofeng, who stood to the side, had not escaped either.
Though the two were not in such miserable shape,
they did not seem entirely at ease.
Their Qi was in disarray, and both wore solemn, grave expressions.
The power within that divine sword had been so mighty as to be nearly impossible to match, leaving them deeply shaken.
It also made them abandon any thought of crossing swords with Gu Xuanjin.
A contest could only be called a spar when the two sides were not too far apart in strength.
If someone knew the gap between them and their opponent was too great, yet insisted on going up only to make a fool of themselves,
that was asking for a beating.
As for Xu Lingxi, who had long since guessed this outcome,
the moment the divine sword took shape, she had already flashed farther away.
She had not been caught in much of the aftermath.
Xu Lingxi smiled radiantly.
Like a fairy breaking into a smile, she set hearts fluttering.
"Everyone says the Divine Son is unparalleled beneath the heavens, his divine might unmatched in the world! Now that I have seen you today, it is indeed true."
Gu Xuanjin gazed impassively at the Jade Pool Saintess.
He kept feeling that there was something strange about her.
Her beautiful eyes, bright as stars, revealed traces of world-weariness and wistfulness that she could scarcely conceal.
The way she looked at him also seemed somewhat odd.
It was like old acquaintances, familiar yet unfamiliar to each other, meeting again after a long separation.
She seemed to want to become acquainted again, yet feared the embarrassment of being rejected.
Gu Xuanjin said calmly:
"Does the Saintess also wish to spar with this Divine Son? But this Divine Son will not hold back."
Xu Lingxi shook her head slightly and smiled wryly.
From her storage ring, she took out a clump of the Law of the Sword Dao, about the size of an egg and brimming with a sharp presence.
She held it out to Gu Xuanjin.
"How could Lingxi be a match for the Divine Son?
I only wish to make friends with a peerless prodigy like you.
I wonder if the Divine Son would be willing to give me a chance?"
The Gu Clan lacked no ordinary treasures.
And if the Gu Clan did not have something, her Jade Pool Holy Land was even less likely to have it.
She had spent the three months since her rebirth searching for this small clump of the Law of the Sword Dao,
and had only found it a few days ago.
"With your current strength, Saintess, you are not qualified to be this Divine Son's friend."
Gu Xuanjin shook his head slightly and did not accept the clump of laws.
His words were mild, yet full of arrogance.
Gu Xuanjin's answer disappointed Xu Lingxi somewhat, but she was not surprised.
"In that case, surely the Divine Son would not refuse a gesture of goodwill?"
After pondering for a moment,
"If I were to refuse again, it would make this Divine Son seem too unfeeling."
Gu Xuanjin accepted the clump of the Law of the Sword Dao and tossed it into the system space.
[Obtained 1% of the Law of the Sword Dao]
He then took out a wisp of subordinate flame from the Red Lotus Karmic Fire and gave it to Xu Lingxi as a return gift.
"This is... the legendary Red Lotus Karmic Fire?!"
Looking at the wisp of flame in her hand, bewitchingly red as blood and shaped like a lotus,
a flicker of surprise passed through Xu Lingxi's beautiful eyes.
Then joy could not help welling up in her heart.
She could even clearly sense its powerful ability to burn away sin and karma.
A clump of the Law of the Sword Dao that was of little use to her
had won her the goodwill of Gu Xuanjin, the young sword immortal, as well as a wisp of the legendary Red Lotus Karmic Fire.
It was an incredible bargain!
At that moment,
the sound of immortal music suddenly came from the void.
An otherworldly fragrance drifted through the air as Dao intent surged between heaven and earth and laws rippled.
In the distant sky,
a strange beast approached at an unhurried pace.
A single horn rose skyward from its forehead, its fur was dark ashen, and it resembled a black ox.
A youth sat on its back.
He looked to be about fifteen.
His face was fair as jade, with bright eyes and pearly teeth. His expression was serene, and his gaze mysterious and profound.
He wore a black yin-yang Daoist robe and held a jade-handled horsetail whisk.
An air of Dao following nature flowed around him, as though he had become one with heaven and man, reaching a transcendent state.
He stood apart from the mortal world, bearing the grace of an immortal and the bearing of a sage.
The Dao Child of the Supreme Purity Palace, Li Xuanji!
Each step the black ox took carried it an immense distance.
Before long, it had entered Jade Pool Square.
Xu Lingxi looked at the young Daoist, a flicker of surprise passing through her eyes.
The Supreme Purity Palace was a hegemonic power in the Mystic Origin Dao Domain.
It also stood foremost among the countless Daoist sects of the three thousand Dao Domains.
Apart from the most mysterious Gu Clan,
it too was a superpower that had stood at the pinnacle of the Xuanhuan Great World for endless ages
without ever declining.
Unlike Gu Xuanjin, who had revealed his sharp edge and dazzled the world as soon as he emerged,
this Dao Child had been extremely low-key and mysterious in her previous life.
Yet he was anything but ordinary.
He possessed the Innate Primordial Dao Body.
At six, he had debated the Dao and subdued numerous Daoist sect masters and patriarchs; at ten, he had done the same to the master of the Supreme Purity Palace.
He was hailed as the reincarnation of the Dao Ancestor.
In her previous life, on the Immortal Ancient Battlefield,
apart from Gu Xuanjin,
he was the only peerless prodigy who, at the Great Emperor Realm,
could turn the tables on ten Immortal Realm beings attacking him at once and even slay them all!
After he and Gu Xuanjin fought their way into the Immortal Realm,
they had ultimately crossed endless ages together to reach that age of myth.
Gu Xuanjin gazed calmly at the robed youth on the black ox's back.
"You are Li Xuanji, the Dao Child of the Supreme Purity Palace known as the reincarnation of the Dao Ancestor?"
"Your bearing is quite impressive, but your strength is a little lacking."
Li Xuanji smiled serenely. "I am already deeply honored to have the chance to test myself against the Divine Son."
Behind them, Nangong Yue, Qin Mofeng, and the others could not help feeling bitter and helpless.
It seemed
that even this Dao Child, hailed as the reincarnation of the Dao Ancestor,
was probably still not qualified to make Gu Xuanjin draw his sword.
Gu Xuanjin and Li Xuanji gazed at each other.
In the void,
sword intent raged and Dao intent surged.
Two immense presences, one sharp and the other serene, clashed fiercely.
But the serene presence was gradually being shredded.
The whole world had grown oppressive and heavy.
The intense pressure was more than many of the prodigies nearby could bear, forcing them to retreat farther away to watch.
A moment later,
Li Xuanji stepped forward.
Before him,
a mysterious yin-yang taiji diagram appeared at the same time.
Endless laws of the Dao flowed across it.
A transcendent and mighty presence rippled outward!
Black and white lay in order,
as though containing the secrets of the origin and birth of all things in the myriad worlds of the heavens.
The next moment,
Li Xuanji waved his horsetail whisk.
The yin-yang taiji diagram came crashing down on Gu Xuanjin to suppress him.
In an instant,
the void rumbled violently, and the sounds of the Dao resounded through heaven and earth.
The taiji diagram grew until it blotted out the sky and sun, as though a vast expanse of the heavens were overturning!
It shattered the yin and yang of heaven and earth, swept away the eight directions and four seas, and overturned the nine heavens and ten lands!
This was a supreme divine ability of overwhelming, heaven-towering might!
Gazing at the yin-yang taiji diagram as it fell like a corner of the heavens,
the expressions of the Primordial Saint Son, the young master of the Extreme Dao Demon God Palace, and the other peerless prodigies all changed.
They had known this Dao Child was no ordinary person,
but they had not expected his strength to be so terrifying.
Even an ordinary Dao Integration Realm cultivator could not withstand this attack!
Even they
would have to pay a grievous price to take it.
However,
though this mysterious Dao Child was powerful,
he had not reached Gu Xuanjin's level, where all they could do was look up to him.