Chapter 214 (1)

"Hmm?"

After receiving a silent Eye Sword Technique from Qiao Mu, Taoist Qingzhuo’s pupils slightly shook, then calmed down. For the first time since he arrived, his face showed a hint of surprise.

He has never paid attention to Qiao Mu. Since he came to this city, his attention has mostly been on Earth Sword Immortal.

A member of the Qiao family? This kind of mortal family practicing martial arts is only worth Dao Zhen’s attention; it is nothing to him.

But if Qiao Mu actively offends him as an elder of the Immortal Gate, that’s a different story.

"Showing off one’s skills to the wrong audience."

"This matter has nothing to do with you ordinary folks, yet you insist on seeking a path to self-destruction."

He didn’t know much about Qiao Mu’s background, nor did he care. He had only heard that Qiao Mu claimed to be a defender of the city, so he assumed he was one of the old soldiers in the city.

Taoist Qingzhuo frowned and sighed heavily.

"Lu Yannan, I am doing this for your own good. The path to immortality is filled with hardships, and one must first sever earthly ties."

"If you won’t sever them yourself, then today I shall assist you in severing your earthly ties. After all, you have already intervened to help the soldiers in the city, breaking the agreement we made initially. Now that I have come to fulfill my part, I shall aid in the liberation of the soldiers and civilians in this city…"

Taoist Qingzhuo looked down at the empty city below him and drew a talisman in the air in front of him with a casual flick of his hand.

He had just roughly scanned the entire city with his divine consciousness, but only to find the trace of Earth Sword Immortal, not to search for the mysteriously disappeared ordinary people of this city.

Although he didn’t know where the other civilians of this city were hiding, this isolated city was enveloped by the Immortal Gate formation. Where else could they hide without it?

It’s nothing more than hidden cellars and mud forts built in the city…

Taoist Qingzhuo didn’t care where they were hiding, because wherever they hid was the same result.

And at the moment he had the thought in his mind, the sky suddenly turned black.

Qiao Mu instinctively looked up at the sky, holding the stone sword beside him, and felt a sense of confusion in his heart.

The whistling wind passed by his ears, and the rolling yellow sand in the boundless desert seemed to be manipulated by invisible hands, as the heavy sand rose into the sky, giving a feeling of blocking the sun.

The endless yellow sand swept in, and the lingering smoke in the empty city was instantly scattered by the strong wind, erasing all the silence of the empty city.

The houses on both sides of the road instantly collapsed, and whether it was soil, stone, or wooden beams, they were all swept into the air in an instant, and then broke into pieces in the sharp wind blades like knives.

The blood-red setting sun was already covered by the yellow sand, and the whole sky became dark, leaving only Taoist Qingzhuo in his robe standing in the air, with his robe fluttering.

Such a storm seemed like it could swallow this lonely city in an instant.

Hiss… Qiao Mu instinctively wanted to take a breath of cool air, but accidentally breathed in a mouthful of dusty sand. He quickly closed his mouth, but couldn’t hide his overwhelming shock.

People often say ‘Inhuman Disaster, Inhuman Disaster’ in the Zhong Province Imperial Capital. They say that disasters caused by inhuman beings are comparable to natural disasters like earthquakes, floods, and heavy rains, and are disasters that humans cannot resist.

Before, Qiao Mu actually thought this was a metaphor, indicating the difference between immortals and mortals. The immense power of immortal cultivators is something that ordinary humans cannot contend with. But now, it seems that it’s just the simple literal meaning.

Back in the past, at the Xuantian Sect’s mountain Taoist temple, although Xuantian Sect Elder Tianxing’s Heavenly Thunder was terrifying, its power was limited to the square area in front of the temple. But the Elder Qingzhuo before them, could really create a disaster that could almost destroy the city?

What kind of profession is a ‘martial artist’… Qiao Mu cursed silently in his heart.

"Unfortunately, I only have one Iron Spiritual Root…"

"This city was destroyed because of all of you." Taoist Qingzhuo’s voice pierced through the roaring storm, echoing in Qiao Mu’s ears.

"All this talk about ancestors and descendants… they are all mortals, just dead people."

"Your ancestors are lying in the cemetery on the mountainside outside the city. Where are your descendants?"

"The path to immortality is straight and clear. When will you, Lu Yannan, stop being lost?"

At first, Taoist Qingzhuo didn’t want to use force, only hoping to wake up the stubborn Earth Sword Immortal.

But now he has mostly given up on this fantasy.

Earth Sword Immortal is actually a person with an unwavering heart, and Taoist Qingzhuo knows it well.

So he focused his attention on Qiao Mu, looking for a breakthrough.

These two people guarding this lonely city must have a deep connection.

With the techniques of the Elder of the Immortal Gate, it is easy to destroy the physical body of a mortal, and killing Earth Sword Immortal is not difficult either.

But it’s better to destroy his fighting spirit instead of killing him… perhaps that can change his mindset.

"This will help you sever your worldly attachments…." His gaze intensified, an invisible gust of wind swept through, directly aiming at Qiao Mu standing alone on the city gate tower.

Taoist Qingzhuo reacted very quickly, so fast that Qiao Mu didn’t even have time to use the Heavenly Demon Disintegration Method.

In a flash, Qiao Mu instinctively swung the stone sword in his hand forward, unleashing his full strength as usual.

But this time, something was different.

When the internal strength surging through Qiao Mu’s limbs and bones infused into the stone sword in his hand, he immediately felt something unusual.

The blazing sword energy emitted by the stone sword swept past at this moment.

The sword energy, spanning dozens of meters, swiftly sliced through the coming sharp wind blades like a blade itself, briefly dissipating the swirling yellow sand in the air in front of the city wall.

"Dozens of meters of sword energy…" Qiao Mu looked down at the stone sword in his hand.



It was then that he realized that the sword in his hand was not actually a real sword but the Earth Sword Immortal, who had once been the leader of martial arts and had transformed into the shape of a sword.

"Superb rank?" he asked in astonishment.

Even if at the 1st rank of Spiritual Refining Period, the range of internal strength projection is only up to ten meters. Once separated from the body, it quickly weakens. That’s why martial artists have limited attack range, unless they use hidden weapons.

Even Qiao Mu, who has accumulated more than a hundred years of martial arts strength, cannot break this iron rule.

His internal strength is extremely powerful and pure, but it differs in quantity rather than quality compared to Spirit Refining martial artists’ internal strength. It may be slightly purer, but there is no qualitative change.

But it was clearly different just now.

"I’ve told you before, your internal strength and mine are completely different… Don’t get distracted."

The voice of Earth Sword Immortal came from the stone sword in his hand.

The stone sword in his hand seemed like an amplifier with intelligence. It could transform and elevate the internal strength he inputted, allowing him to release attacks in mid-air in a way that Qiao Mu didn’t yet understand. The sword light rushed dozens of meters… but obviously, it also required Earth Sword Immortal’s efforts and cooperation.

"Unfortunately, we are not truly united, and we still need to adapt." Earth Sword Immortal sighed.

"Heavenly Slashing Swordsmanship only has the power to strike once. If not adapted, it would be a dead end."

He and Qiao Mu each held a sword and waited for Elder Qingzhuo at the city gate tower, naturally not wasting time.

They had been preparing and clearing their minds, waiting for the right moment.

But it wasn’t enough yet.

While they were talking, the howling wind suddenly roared fiercely, engulfing the sword light in an instant and sweeping Qiao Mu, who was standing on the city gate tower, away in the storm.

The wind was like a sharp knife.

Without Qiao Mu on the city gate tower, the dilapidated gate tower was quickly consumed by the storm. The stone walls, built with bricks, were torn open by the strong wind, and then collapsed with a thunderous boom, turning into rubble.

The wall collapsed! The gate tower collapsed too!

The earth, stones, and debris were swept back into the wind, disappearing into the gloomy sky.

Captain Hai and others inside the earthen fort outside the city couldn’t help but feel a sense of sadness.

The fort was hidden among sand dunes, and Taoist Qingzhuo’s attention was only on the empty city. He didn’t seem to notice them, so they were temporarily safe.

But at this moment, they felt a sense of sadness in their hearts.

They had guarded this city for forty years, from a hundred thousand soldiers to three hundred elderly soldiers. Generation after generation, they had defended the city without ever being conquered.

But today, when Elder Lao from the Immortal Gate arrived, the walls they had defended for forty years were easily swallowed up by the storm. They knew they were powerless to stop it.

"Although we knew we were no match for the inhuman opponents, the difference is just too great…"

"And how can Elder Lao stop…" Captain Hai sighed.

They knew that the powerful cultivators within the Immortal Gate could turn the fertile Zhong Province into a hundred miles of yellow sand. It was an unimaginable ability for ordinary people. But they didn’t know that just one Elder from the Great Dao Sect could use magic to create a sand disaster and destroy their city.

For the past forty years, their lives had actually been hanging by a thread, dependent on the Immortal Gate’s other plans. This lonely city was nothing more than a puppet theater to them.

And now, this puppet theater was about to collapse.

When the city wall fell, the city behind the wall was exposed to the swirling yellow sand.

The raging storm scattered the cooking smoke, and the yellow sand crushed the houses on both sides of the street, like a yellowish devouring monster that swallowed everything, leaving only rubble on the ground. Searᴄh the nôvelFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Taoist Qingzhuo was searching for the surviving residents in this city. He thought these people were hiding in a corner of the city, so he had the idea of destroying the city.

Captain Hai and the other old soldiers were not locals of this city, but they were trapped here for half of their lives. They guarded the city from their youth until old age, leaving their footprints on every street in the deserted city.

Now all the footprints and memories have disappeared in the swirling yellow sand, and only the old Taoist standing in the howling wind is left in the field of vision.

"Yes… unstoppable." Qiao Xiaoming suddenly spoke from beside him, softly saying,

"But even if it’s unstoppable, we still have to resist."

"Isn’t that how we’ve spent the past forty years?"

Qiao Xiaoming is actually Qiao Mu, so when Qiao Xiaoming speaks, it’s Qiao Mu speaking. At the same moment, Qiao Mu also stood up from the sandstorm.

He held a stone sword and stood up from a pile of rubble.

At this moment, he had dozens if not hundreds of bloodstains on his body, his wounds were covered with a layer of shallow yellow sand. He looked dirty and disheveled.

"Heavenly Demon Disintegration Method."

The energy that permeated his body turned into a blood-red color. Right now, Qiao Mu’s entire body was filled with hundreds of years worth of internal strength.

Under normal circumstances, Qiao Mu already had over a hundred years of internal strength. This is something that ordinary martial artists could never achieve even in their whole lives, and it was also pure "Pure Yang Wuji Skill".



Under the Heavenly Demon Disintegration Method, new strength surged within his limbs and bones, multiplying several times over.

The blood-colored aura swirling around his body seemed to make the wind and sand retreat. Qiao Mu grasped the stone sword, and the blood-red sword aura on the blade was as fierce as the sun.

With a swing of his long sword, the yellow sand in front of him instantly cleared, allowing Qiao Mu to catch a glimpse of Taoist Qingzhuo fluttering in the wind for a brief moment.

He faced the direction where the storm was coming and silently charged forward.

"The struggle of ordinary people…" Taoist Qingzhuo didn’t pay much attention to it.