Chapter 481: Master, keep going!
"Alright, I, Nie, shall write the agreement!" Sword Immortal Nie Yun carefully examined the blood-red contract that appeared out of thin air. After finding no loopholes or traps, he bit his finger, forced out a drop of crimson blood, and let it fall directly onto the blood-red contract. With Sword Intent surging, he wrote with a flourish, revealing the two characters 'Nie Yun'.
"Good, the contract is made." Shen Anyu smiled slightly. With a wave of his hand, the blood-red contract in the air fell into his grasp, burst into red light, and vanished.
Sword Immortal Nie Yun felt his heart sink, a strange premonition coiling in his gut, as if invisible shackles had just been clasped around his very soul. A deep, instinctual certainty washed over him: if he were to violate this contract, he would surely face dire, unimaginable consequences. The power behind the oath felt ancient and absolute, a force that transcended mere mortal promises.
'What a powerful magical contract. This young man, Shen Anyu, is not ordinary.' Sword Immortal Nie Yun's gaze on Shen Anyu sharpened, a flicker of profound strangeness in his eyes. He had witnessed countless prodigies in his long life, geniuses who could master a single path to an astonishing degree. But he had never seen, or even heard of, a genius who was terrifyingly proficient in the sword Dao, possessed an unbreakable tempered body, and commanded arcane arts of such a high order. This wasn't a prodigy. This was a monster in human skin.
'Wine Sword Immortal Nie Yun has fallen into the trap.' A razor-thin smile flashed in the depths of Shen Anyu's eyes, gone as quickly as it came. The so-called contract was nothing more than a theatrical prop, a meaningless fabrication conjured for a single purpose. The true prize was the fresh drop of blood from the Sword Immortal himself. With that single drop, he could activate the God-level Blood Curse Technique—a horrifying art that could not only curse Nie Yun to a gruesome, inescapable death but could also trace his lineage and annihilate his blood relatives up to five generations removed.
The thought sent a pleasant warmth through Shen Anyu. He was in an excellent mood. A faint, almost gentle smile played on his handsome, jade-like face as his gaze settled on the seasoned swordsman before him.
"Senior is a guest," Shen Anyu said, his voice calm and even. "Please, make the first move. And this time, I implore you, do not hold back. Otherwise, I will not give Senior a second chance to renege."
Wine Sword Immortal Nie Yun's old face flushed a deep crimson at the subtle jab. He let out a dry cough, his pride pricked. "This time, I will most certainly not regret it," he declared, his voice firm. "I, Nie, also have my pride."
As his words fell, the air around him changed. Nie Yun wasted no more time on ceremony. With a flick of his wrist, his sword hummed, eager for battle. He then snatched the gourd of fine wine from his waist, drained the last of its contents in one long swallow, and tossed the empty container aside with a resonant clatter. A long, sharp cry ripped from his throat, a sound that was half battle cry, half unrestrained liberation.
"Fight!"
In that one instant, Nie Yun transformed. He moved like a drunkard, swaying unsteadily, his steps a chaotic stagger. Yet his figure blurred, covering the distance to Shen Anyu in a single, impossible stride that seemed to fold space itself. The ground shrank beneath his feet. Simultaneously, the Sword Qi erupting from his longsword surged violently, screaming into existence as a blade of pure energy several feet long.
This was not a simple strike. The Sword Qi was alive. Like a nest of dragons and snakes dancing in a wild frenzy, the stream of energy twisted upon itself, contorting nine times in mid-air. Each bend was a perfect, impossible angle, a geometric nightmare designed to defy any block or parry. It shot towards Shen Anyu with a sharpness that felt like it could slice the very atoms of the air, an unstoppable force of refined killing intent.
A storm of pure Sword Qi exploded outwards, a hurricane of invisible blades that chilled the air and pressed down with crushing weight, enveloping the entire vast training ground. Liu Ruyan, Yang Luoluo, Ye Liyou, and Ye Linyuan felt their skin crawl and their lungs seize. A primal fear gripped them, and they scrambled back, their faces pale with horror, not stopping until they were more than ten meters away.
"Is this the true strength of Wine Sword Immortal Nie Yun?"
Seeing the cataclysmic display, everyone was frozen in shock. This was the master they had only heard of in legends. The Wine Sword Immortal, in this moment, was the very picture of a peerless swordsman—a man invincible with a blade in hand, a force of nature unto himself.
"Can my husband do it?" Liu Ruyan gently bit her tender lower lip, her alluring eyes filled with a storm of worry as she stared, unblinking, at the unfolding duel. Her hands were clenched so tightly her knuckles were white.
"Senior… Senior can definitely do it!" Ye Liyou whispered, her own small hands balled into nervous fists at her side, her gaze locked on the battlefield. She was practically holding her breath.
"Senior Brother, come on! Senior Brother, come on! Charge, charge, charge!" Yang Luoluo, ever the ball of energy, pumped her small fists, her face alight with an almost manic excitement as she cheered for Shen Anyu.
Across from them, Ye Linyuan and Long Hao also stared intently, but their expressions were twisted with a dark, venomous hope. A silent, vicious prayer echoed in their minds, wishing for Shen Anyu to be skewered, to die a tragic and brutal death right before their eyes.
"Good swordplay!"
A clear, ringing laugh cut through the tension. Shen Anyu's voice boomed with a surge of heroic spirit, his eyes blazing with exhilaration. In an instant, a flash of emerald light erupted from his hand as the Qinghong Sword was unsheathed.
Shhhiiiing!
The Qinghong Sword, a golden-tier reward drawn from the Destiny Plundering System, was a masterwork of ethereal beauty and deadly function. Its blade pulsed with a vibrant green light, so perfectly forged it was said a single breath could sever a strand of hair laid upon its edge. More importantly, its conductivity for True Qi and Martial Dao True Essence was unparalleled, in no way inferior to the Sword Palace Lord's own inherited blade, the Seven-Foot Sword.
The moment the Qinghong Sword cleared its scabbard, Shen Anyu's vast reserves of Martial Dao True Essence poured into it like a raging river breaking a dam.
In that instant, the world turned green. It felt as if heaven and earth had been consumed by an emerald sword light. This incandescent green radiance formed a colossal longbow of energy that spanned the void, stretching for more than ten zhang. The sword momentum it projected was not sharp or subtle; it was a physical force, a raging tsunami of power that roared and surged, crashing down in overwhelming, unstoppable layers.
There were no fancy, intricate sword moves. There was no elegant artistry. There was only pure, unadulterated power—an immensely heavy and boundless sword momentum aimed to directly crush Nie Yun's impossibly subtle and complex attack into dust.
A single hundred-year Zhu Fruit was more than enough to allow a peak Grandmaster to shatter their limits and ascend to Great Grandmaster. It was an elixir that was profoundly beneficial even to Great Grandmasters and Heavenly Human experts. Shen Anyu, who had consumed dozens of them, along with countless other rare medicinal pills, possessed a foundation of Martial Dao True Essence so profound, so terrifyingly deep, that at the Heavenly Human level, no one could even begin to compare. He left all his peers in the dust.
This was the ultimate expression of breaking all techniques with brute force.
'What profound Martial Dao True Essence! What an overbearing sword momentum!'
Wine Sword Immortal Nie Yun, facing the crushing wall of green light head-on, felt a jolt of alarm shoot through his core. He had never expected that the young Shen Anyu, this multi-talented prodigy, would possess a reserve of Martial Dao True Essence even more profound than his own—and he was an old master at the peak of the Heavenly Human stage.
But Nie Yun was a veteran of a thousand battles. He was not flustered. The long sword in his hand became a blur, dancing wildly in a pattern that looked like a child's chaotic scribbling. Yet from this seemingly random motion, streams of sharp Sword Qi burst forth, one after another. They were like a swarm of phantom butterflies, flitting through the air with impossible grace, striking Shen Anyu's overwhelming tsunami of power from every conceivable angle, expertly and precisely disintegrating it from the inside out.
Boom!
A sound like a sudden, violent thunderclap ripped through the sky. The two opposing forces of Sword Qi collided. A terrifying shockwave of pure energy raged outwards in all directions. The training ground, cast with special cement rated to withstand cannon fire, was torn asunder. Deep, bottomless cracks spiderwebbed across the surface, and entire sections of the ground buckled and shattered. Gravel and chunks of concrete were blasted into the air like shrapnel.
Liu Ruyan, Ye Liyou, Yang Luoluo, and the others were thrown back by the force, staggering and crying out as they retreated again and again. They were already a hundred meters away, yet the raw power of the clash made them feel as if two terrifying behemoths were fighting to the death. Their hearts hammered against their ribs, filled with a primal, overwhelming shock.
"Who won?" The few of them widened their eyes, peering through the settling dust with a mixture of shock and awe.
"Hahaha, Senior, I accept your concession." A handsome man, gentle as jade, was seen standing amidst the wreckage, laughing heartily.
"My husband is amazing!" "Senior is so powerful!" "Senior Brother, victory!" The three women were all overjoyed, their beautiful eyes sparkling with relief and adoration.
Shen Anyu won!
In stark contrast, Ye Linyuan and Long Hao both wore expressions as sour as vinegar, their faces dejected and grim.
'This Shen Anyu is so strong… how am I ever going to win Senior Sister back from him in the future?' Ye Linyuan felt a sharp, painful pang in his heart.
Wine Sword Immortal Nie Yun clutched his chest, his gaze falling downwards. A shallow, clean wound was cut across his chest. If the blade had gone just a few centimeters deeper, it would have pierced his heart. It was clear the other party had held back at the last moment.
"I, Nie, have lost!" Nie Yun sighed, his voice thick with admiration. His gaze at Shen Anyu was now filled with genuine surprise and respect. "Young Master Shen, I, Nie Yun, accept my defeat. I will serve you for ten years!"
He had lost even after giving it his all, while his opponent had shown mercy. If not for that restraint, he would be a corpse. Nie Yun was truly and utterly convinced.
He wasn't too disheartened by the loss; in fact, a strange sense of pleasant surprise was blooming within him. The younger generation pushes the older generation forward. With a prodigy like Shen Anyu leading the way, the future of the Martial Dao and the Sword Dao would not be a lonely one.
Moreover, in that brief, intense battle, he had gained new insights. The elusive threshold of the Land Immortal realm, a barrier he had been stuck at for years, now seemed almost within reach, though its form was still hazy and indistinct.
Shen Anyu smiled slightly and slowly said: "Senior Nie, your Martial Dao True Essence at the peak of the Heavenly Human stage has accumulated sufficiently. However, you still lack the necessary refinement of that True Essence and, most importantly, the Divine Intent required to reach the Land Immortal stage."
Wine Sword Immortal Nie Yun was stunned upon hearing this, his eyes widening as if a bolt of lightning had just illuminated his mind.
[Ding! Detected that the host has invested in and enlightened Wine Sword Immortal Nie Yun, causing him to have an Epiphany. Anticipated return: Land Immortal Rank Wine Sword Immortal Sword Intent!]
...
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