Chapter 43

On the sparring platform.Zhou Jian looked like a complete fool after watching Jiang Chen instantly move far away from him.

He didn’t have the insight of Xiao Hongyi and Zhang Lingfeng. To him, everything that had just happened was like seeing a ghost. Jiang Chen had disappeared in a “swoosh”!

After a long while, Zhou Jian finally came back to his senses: “Worthy of the Jiang Family, the movement skill you just used must be of a high grade, right?”

“Guess?”

Jiang Chen grinned.

Guess my foot!

Zhou Jian cursed in his heart!

He had never experienced such an absurd fight. Despite going all out, he was being suppressed by someone at the Human Origin realm, and even his spirit sword had broken!

That was a high-grade spirit sword!

It was the spirit sword rewarded to him by Zhang Lingfeng when he broke through to the Earthly Origin realm!

When he got this sword, he was so excited about it for a long time…

Thinking of this, Zhou Jian glanced at the Flame Blood Dragon Sword in Jiang Chen’s hand, filled with both envy and hatred!

Why was there such a huge gap between people?

With a ‘clang’, Zhou Jian threw the broken half of his spirit sword onto the platform.

“Are you surrendering?”

Jiang Chen frowned.

“How could that be?”

Zhou Jian shook his head and said, “The spirit sword is broken, and it won’t have much power if I continue to use it, but I still have a way to defeat you.”

Could it be that this guy still has an ace up his sleeve?

Jiang Chen raised an eyebrow.

Thinking this, he immediately straightened his expression and became alert.

In his nine cycles of reincarnation under the influence of the villain’s halo, his opponents always gave him some unexpected ‘scares’, so no matter what they said, he never underestimated anyone.

“Whoo—”

Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Zhou Jian slowly exhaled a breath while his left hand gently touched the spirit ring on his right index finger.

“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!”

More than ten sword lights shot out from the spirit ring, hovering in the air.

Jiang Chen glanced at the more than ten spirit swords in the air, his brow slightly furrowed.

Apart from one mid-grade spirit sword, the rest were all low-grade. Due to the lack of nourishment from the Purple Mansion, the sword lights of these spirit swords were clearly dim.

Afterward, gathering all the vital energy in his body once again, Zhou Jian formed a hand seal with both hands and shouted loudly:

“Fall!”

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh—

Over ten spirit swords fell to the ground at the command, forming a circle around Jiang Chen and embedding themselves into the stone tiles of the arena.

Taking advantage of the moment, Zhou Jian brought his fingers together as if holding a sword and drew a streak of sword light in the air before pointing at the spirit swords.

“Buzz—”

In an instant, the spirit swords trembled simultaneously, their sword cries echoing nonstop, never leaving the ears.

With the sword cries, the blades of the spirit swords suddenly expanded more than tenfold under the enhancement of Sword Qi!

Such a spectacle had already elicited gasps from the audience.

But it wasn’t over yet. Zhou Jian let out a loud shout, activating his Innate Sword Body.

Vital energy emerged from his pores, enveloping his figure, and eventually formed a giant sword of spiritual energy.

Under the influence of this giant spiritual sword, the surrounding giant swords encircling Jiang Chen suddenly shone dazzlingly bright, and Sword Qi spread out like silk in all directions.

In the blink of an eye, a visible Sword Qi net wall formed around Jiang Chen at the center!

“This is the Crossing Calamity Sword Formation!”

Li Fadu, watching from below, was extremely shocked! Sᴇaʀᴄh the NʘvᴇlFɪre.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

He knew that Zhang Lingfeng had passed this sword formation onto Zhou Jian, but he hadn’t expected Zhou Jian to have already mastered it!

The ‘Crossing Calamity Sword Formation’ was a superior sword formation. It wasn’t just Jiang Chen, with his Human Origin cultivation, but even an ordinary Heavenly Origin cultivator could be trapped for a long time!

The difficulty of cultivating a sword formation was far greater than that of sword techniques, especially a superior sword formation. Even if one succeeded, the difficulty of controlling it was equally great.

Li Fadu understood it in an instant.

The reason Zhou Jian could refine the ‘Crossing Calamity Sword Formation’ so quickly was due to his innate talent in the Way of the Sword.

The reason he could control it so effortlessly was because of his Innate Sword Body!

“Haha! Jiang Chen, you’ve lost!”

Li Fadu laughed out loud.

Zhou Jian thought the same.

Although the sword formation could only trap Jiang Chen and not defeat him directly, with Jiang Chen’s current strength, he would have to wield the Flame Blood Dragon Sword with all his might if he wanted to break free.

Doing so, however, would deplete his vital energy.

By then, he would be nothing more than someone waiting to be slaughtered.

And even if Jiang Chen didn’t use brute force to break the formation and just waited it out, the Crossing Calamity Sword Formation was, after all, a killing formation!

The gathered Sword Qi would continuously press down on the person within the formation.

Although not very powerful, it would eventually deplete Jiang Chen’s vital energy!

Thus, Jiang Chen would still inevitably face defeat.

“Jiang Chen, I must admit that you have the strength to fight me, truly worthy of being the number one true disciple of the Ninth Peak! But your defeat is certain today!”

Zhou Jian smiled confidently, already assuming the posture of a victor.

Seeing Jiang Chen with a grim face, he added.

“You don’t need to be discouraged. In this fight, I had the advantage of a higher realm. I probably would have been defeated long ago if you were also at the Earthly Origin level.”

Hearing this, the surrounding audience nodded in agreement.

The fact that Jiang Chen had fought to this extent was already far beyond their expectations.

How to put it…

It was a glorious defeat!

Setting aside his character, Jiang Chen’s strength was indeed worthy of being the Eldest Senior Brother of the Ninth Peak.

As for Xiao Hongyi and Zhang Lingfeng, shocked time and again, both remained silent.

After all, Jiang Chen’s performance was too mysterious, and even they dared not determine the outcome.

“Jiang Chen, won’t you surrender? It’s better to surrender now than to be defeated in a sorry state after your vital energy is exhausted.”

Li Fadu taunted from below.

“If you’re willing to surrender, I can say it was a draw to the outside world.”

After a moment’s thought, Zhou Jian chimed in.

After all, he knew that he was a whole major realm above Jiang Chen and also specialized in the Way of the Sword.

Even if he ‘barely’ won, there was nothing to be proud of.

His words undoubtedly offered Jiang Chen a way out.

Just when Zhou Jian thought that Jiang Chen would surely be grateful and immediately surrender…

“Is that it?”

The silent Jiang Chen finally spoke, “Is this your trump card? I was on guard just now, and here you are, making jokes?!”

“?”

Zhou Jian blinked in confusion.

He wondered if Jiang Chen was unable to grasp the situation.

Li Fadu let out a cold smile with his arms crossed. Though he didn’t speak, his disdain was obvious.

“This is not a trump card. It’s a self-made trap.”

Jiang Chen spoke again, his voice soft, “I wanted to keep a low profile, but my strength wouldn’t allow it. Today, I will show you what a real trump card is!”

A real trump card?

Upon hearing this, both Zhou Jian and Li Fadu were taken aback.

They then remembered.

During his battle with Lin Mubai, Jiang Chen seemed to have been brewing a powerful move all along!

And judging by the time it took to prepare, the power of this move must be extraordinary.

But what of it?

Even if Jiang Chen’s move could break through the Crossing Calamity Sword Formation, his vital energy would still be depleted!

Wouldn’t the outcome be obvious by then?

Thinking this, Zhou Jian crossed his arms and shook his head.

His lazy posture and slightly raised eyebrows clearly conveyed to Jiang Chen. “Do what you want!”

“If you don’t surrender, you might die.”

Jiang Chen’s gaze turned icy.

“Thank you for the concern, but I do not believe you.”

Zhou Jian shrugged his shoulders.

Jiang Chen glanced at Zhou Jian and said no more. With his left hand behind his back and his right hand holding the sword, his eyes narrowed slightly.

Suddenly, spiritual energy surged wildly around him, and a chilling sword intent emerged from within him!

Xiao Hongyi and Zhang Lingfeng’s pupils shrank when the sword intent appeared.

Then, an extraordinary phenomenon occurred.

As Jiang Chen’s aura became more stable, the sword intent grew more pronounced. And then, an image of an old swordsman with white hair and a crane-like complexion like a figure of an immortal appeared behind him!

The moment the old man appeared,

“Buzz——”

Swords within a hundred li vibrated, emitting a sky-shaking sword cry!

At the same time.

The wind rose like a sword, slicing the sky. Clouds surged violently, as if they contained the shadows of swords.

The fierce wind caused the trees to sway back and forth, and with each movement of the trees, it was as if a Sword Grandmaster was dancing with his sword, filling the surroundings with an aura of solemn killing intent!

Suddenly…

“Thump thump thump!!!”

The sword case on Zhang Lingfeng’s back also began to shake violently!

His eyes snapped open, his body tensed, and he shouted anxiously, “Zhou Jian! Surrender quickly!!”

His words awakened Zhou Jian, who had already turned pale with fear!

Zhou Jian didn’t understand what was happening, but the increasingly intense sense of life-threatening danger was undeniably real!

“I surre…”

He hurriedly shouted in anger.

But it was a step too late.

“Ancient Swordsmanship, First Form: Skybreaker!”

Jiang Chen’s murmuring voice rose.

As his voice fell, he and the white-robed elder behind him swung their spiritual swords simultaneously.

The sword technique was simple and unadorned, yet it produced a hundred-zhang Sword Qi!

The hundred-zhang Sword Qi instantly broke through the sword formation, its power undiminished, and swept forward with unstoppable force.

Under the influence of the Sword Qi, the solid and sturdy platform below was split in half, and the dark clouds overhead were also cleaved into two!

Zhou Jian could only watch helplessly.

He watched as the Sword Qi drew closer and closer to him! His expression went from shock and horror to despair and pallor!

Under the influence of the heavenly might and the hundred-zhang Sword Qi, he was not only unable to speak but had even lost control over his body!

All he could do was wait for death. At this moment between life and death.

Zhang Lingfeng appeared beside Zhou Jian.

He opened his sword case, gripped the ancient longsword, and with all his might, swung it towards the incoming hundred-zhang Sword Qi!

Due to the urgency of the moment and lack of preparation, even he couldn’t completely neutralize the hundred-zhang Sword Qi, only managing to slightly alter its trajectory.

In the end, the hundred-zhang Sword Qi grazed past Zhang Lingfeng and Zhou Jian, slashing towards the uninhabited mountains of the Jiuyan Sect behind them.

The scene that followed would be unforgettable for all who witnessed it.

As the hundred-zhang Sword Qi swept across, the majestic mountains were cut in half as if by a single stroke!

This was, indeed, ‘One Sword Splits the Mountain!’!

“This act, I finally pulled it off.”

Looking at his own masterpiece, Jiang Chen smiled with satisfaction.

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