Chapter 416: Sweeping Away the Old and Welcoming the New

The swishing sounds of the Sword Qi never stopped, as if made by thousands of arrows dashing through the sky. However, when one tried to focus and have a clear glimpse of the situation in front of them, all they could see was a few blasts of Sword Qi that were either pure white or giving off a dark and gloomy energy.

It was not until the mist in the surroundings was gradually dispersed that the multiple blasts of Sword Qi were outlined in most of the onlookers’ minds. It was also then that they realized how powerful and terrifying that attack was. If they were to withstand an attack like that, their weapons would all be broken and their bodies pierced by the Sword Qi, or maybe worse, to the point that every explosion of the Sword Qi would tear their bodies up at once.

Facing such penetrating Sword Qi, Yan Chong advanced to attack instead of retreating. A slash of his saber was filled with overwhelming energy and fierce intent. It turned the surroundings even murkier, as if forming a tsunami to devour He Jiu.

With such an aggressive Saber Momentum, Yan Chong wiped out dozens of blasts of Sword Qi that were directed towards him while his saber defiantly clashed with some of it.

Faced with an attack like this, he had no choice but to passively fend for himself by parrying with an Exterior movement.

Xuan Zhen raised his left hand and repeated “Amitabha” to himself, then slowly pushed out his right palm to create an attack that seemed surreal.

As unhurried as the movement seemed, it still was able to concentrate the airflow in the surroundings at the center of his palm and in the blink of an eye, the entire world seemed to be contained within the palm momentum.

Multiple blasts of Sword Qi from all directions changed their routes to aim at Xuan Zhen immediately, pouncing onto his right palm as if they could never escape from it.

Under the recurring chants of Sutra, the Sword Qi was cleansed of viciousness and velocity. The wisdom in Xuan Zhen’s palm attack had shattered all illusions, returning the surroundings back to its most original and purest form.

He then pressed his right palm down. A faint golden glow covered his fingertips, giving off the energy that repressed and destroyed the Sword Qi at once!

That was the highest realm of the Prajna Palm technique at Dharmakaya level: to encompass the entire universe with one palm, and exert the impact of a mountain with just five fingers!

Master Lotus Liu Su squinted a little, as if sensing the incoming assault by the shower of arrows. Suddenly, he retracted his sword as if he were a bud about to bloom.

His surroundings immediately changed as well. Covered by a faint emerald glow and spotless among the dust, Liu Su was like an immortal who had descended from Heaven, elegant and unfettered by any troubles of the secular world.

As he began displaying his sword art, each of his movements was like a flower blooming while the faint emerald glow transformed into flower petals. It was not only a display of powerful swordsmanship, but also a breathtaking and surreal scenery to be indulged in.

Every Sword Qi was perfectly blocked by the Lotus petals from Liu Su’s sword upon the clashing sounds.

How spectacular it was to parry dozens of blasts of Sword Qi with only one stroke of sword!

The illusory change in the environment was magnificent, and so was the sword art itself!

That was one of the Exterior movements from Sword Art of Immortal-given Longevity- Hymn of the Lotus technique!

Seeing the Sword Qi aimed at him, Meng Qi shouted as he sliced with his saber, initiating an attack that was imbued with both the heaviness of thunder and emptiness of Heaven, forcing the airflow around Sword Qi to collapse and form an indestructible defense.

He did not use Violent Thunder Shocking the Sky technique, but activated his Heaven Inflicted Pain with the essence of Five Thunder Bombardment of Sky.

Blasts of Saber Qi were released and the lightning dancing around his saber transformed into a monstrous thunder dragon that aggressively pounced onto the Sword Qi, as if about to crush it with its claws.

The green tiles on the roof shattered and the ground was scorched by the heat of the lightning. Traces of lightning could be seen faintly bouncing in the air.

Upon the aggressive clashing, both the Sword Qi and the Thunder Dragon were dispersed as a tremendous amount of energy burst out, creating an air wall in between.

Instead of striking the remaining Sword Qi aiming at the other four masters, the aftershock of the momentum created by Heaven Inflicted Pain went straight towards the spectators watching the battle.

Having noticed the incoming Knife Momentum, Hong Qian gently patted his Star-breaking Sword that was on the table a couple of times. He was a middle-aged man with a very thin face. His expression was rather cold and indifferent, but his eyes were sharp and observant.

As his sword was pulled out of the sheath in a flash, all incoming Sword Qi and momentum were smashed, leaving no trace. It was as if an invisible sword shield was formed to protect Hong Qian.

Sitting at a different position, Wang Ruizhi smiled as he pointed at a spot unaffected by any Sword Qi, dispersing all energy released by the Sword Qi immediately.

Meanwhile, the eunuch next to Crown Prince stepped forward to unleash a shock wave that shattered all incoming lighting and Sword Qi in no time.

“Humph!” Determined to not lose to the others, Eunuch Feng who was protecting Prince Jin released multiple traces of precise and impactful energy that was like innumerable fine needles, consecutively breaking the assaulting Sword Qi and lightning.

Thanks to all the Exterior masters present, the hall was spared from being destroyed by the aftershock of the attacks by He Jiu and his opponents.

Outside the hall, thunders rumbled as silver lightnings lit up the darkening sky, heavy rain started pouring and the whole area was filled with the uninterrupted sound of raindrops hitting the ground.

He Jiu’s clothes were already ragged and torn with numerous holes in the shape of a perfect circle. Only the most concentrated and powerful Sword Qi was able to leave such marks on his soft and fine clothes.

It was truly amazing that He Jiu was able to withstand all of the killer moves from Meng Qi, Yan Chong and the others all by himself with countless traces of Sword Qi whizzing through all his major aperture points!

“Now’s the time to attack.” Hong Qian suddenly whispered to Jiang Zhiwei.

Jiang Zhiwei first looked deep in thought, then leaped over the table and drew her sword out of the sheath in one continuous movement.

Her sword flashed a blinding and concentrated light that enveloped the hall in a dismal atmosphere, and pierced through all traces of Sword Qi towards the middle of He Jiu’s eyebrows with no intention to retreat, and the desire to kill.

Instead of using Anatta Sword technique, she used Yama’s Invitation technique. Nonetheless, her analysis of the situation and timing to attack were both very accurate, which allowed her sword to land smoothly in front of He Jiu, taking advantage of the open area created by others during the fight.

All traces of He Jiu’s Sword Qi were dissolved. Being surpressed by Meng Qi and the others, he seemed to have no choice left but to surrender, unless any of the Exterior masters would lend him a hand right now.

There was an old man in a black cloak with a wrinkly face sitting not far behind him. A long sword was thrust into the ground in front of him. Judging by the look of the sword, the old man was Gongyang Hao, the guard of Happycloud Heights, and one of the elders in charge of the external affairs of Eastsea Sword Village.

As blood started rushing up his twisted face, Gongyang Hao laid his hand on his sword hilt.

The threat of death made He Jiu feel like he was falling into an abyss of darkness. His whole body felt empty, and there was a stabbing pain at midbrow. Undoubtedly the explosion of Sword Qi had caused him to be in his weakest condition.

Although he would only need one more breath to gather back his energy and explode the Sword Qi around his body two more times, the sword pointing at him midbrow left him no chance to launch a counterattack.

He felt the despair and pressure that he had not experienced for quite a long time.

He forgot that there were still Exterior elders.

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At this moment, the middle of He Jiu’s eyebrows split open with a crack, revealing a dark and deep fissure that no one dared to set their eyes on. A streak of crimson Sword Qi blasted out of it and hit the tip of Zhiwei’s sword with a clang.

At the same time, all streaks of scattered Sword Qi became active again, as if establishing their connection with He Jiu once more. They streaked through the air with immense energy, taking different routes towards all directions. Even the vital energy in the surroundings seemed to have transformed into streaks of Sword Qi!

Tiles were penetrated into pieces and raindrops were smashed before they even fell onto the ground, such was the impact of the Sword Qi!

Pillars in the hall were also broken into two parts, but since it all happened in a flash, the top parts were still supported by the bottom and there was not a single sign that the hall was going to collapse.

“Has he broken through to a new level?” Meng Qi drew a circle with his saber to absorb all Sword Qi in his surroundings. Liu Su, Xuan Zhen, Yan Chong and the others also used all the tricks they had to counteract this change in natural phenomena that He Jiu had triggered.

When Meng Qi was about to put his saber back into the scabbard, Wang Siyuan left his seat and drew out his dark Deliberation Sword, then thrust his sword towards He Jiu without any fancy moves.

As he had just reached out with his sword, he used stealth skill to shift in front of He Jiu immediately. At the moment when the crimson Sword Qi hit Zhiwei’s Sword of the Sun-Penetrating Rainbow, his Deliberation Sword jabbed He Jiu midbrow with no deviation.

“Is he going to kill the young heightslord?”

Gongyang Hao was frightened by the situation, no one would have thought that the young master of the Wang family of River East would do such an unthinkable thing on this occasion.

Under the command of his mind, he unleashed his swordwill.

“Clang!” Upon hearing the sound of an invisible collision, he saw Wang Ruizhi pointing a finger.

He Jiu’s eyes widened while his surroundings seemed to come to a stop. All streaks of Sword Qi suddenly started flowing back to his body!

The sky was immediately lit up by the silver lightning, allowing people to get a clearer glimpse of the dark clouds and the pouring rain.

Compared with the lightning, the fireworks were so much less magnificent, as if it were merely light from fireflies!

“BOOM!”

The silver lightning penetrated the roof, directly falling towards He Jiu.

This was Heaven’s Punishment!

Many of the onlookers were in tremendous shock, including the Exterior masters. It seemed that He Jiu broke through the realm of Nine Apertures and Oneness of Heaven and Men directly to reach the Exterior, hence he had drawn the Heaven’s Punishment towards himself!

Meng Qi was also in complete surprise upon witnessing this situation, yet since he always had some weird ideas, he started thinking, “If I trigger the thunderbolt mark now to draw another Heaven’s Punishment, I believe even the Exterior masters here would not have the time to save He Jiu, and he would be destroyed to ashes…”

Wang Siyuan also kept his Deliberation Sword. He was standing next to He Jiu like a guardian, his eyebrows were light but his eyes were deep and profound.

He Jiu let out a loud cry that drowned even the thunderclaps. Countless streaks of Sword Qi exploded to activate the energy in his surroundings, including the living and dead. He could no longer be seen among this immense amount of energy, which was aggressively rushing towards the thunderclaps.

“Bang!”

The Thunder Light was destroyed and the Sword Qi was dispersed upon such an impact, He Jiu could not be seen anywhere.

“Is he dead?” That was what came to many people’s mind at first.

However, everyone sensed something wrong in the surroundings. There seemed to be a streak of shapeless Sword Qi wandering around, impossible for one to locate. Even Hong Qian’s expression changed slightly upon realizing the current situation.

He Jiu then abruptly appeared in front of the others. He slowly fell into the center of the hall, his clothes already full of holes torn by his Sword Qi.

A surreal atmosphere suddenly enveloped the entire hall, which made Meng Qi develop an inexplicable thought that at this moment, no one could escape from the assult of He Jiu’s shapeless Sword Qi if he gave the Sword Qi his order!

Wang Siyuan now said with a laugh, “Brother He, may I borrow your Heaven’s Punishment for a moment?”

He started giving off a distant and mysterious vibe as the middle of his eyebrows gradually opened, showing a golden Eight Diagrams to absorb the Thunder Light from Heaven’s Punishment.

At the same time, multiple blasts of Yin fire started burning under Wang Siyuan’s feet. They instantly set his flesh and soul on fire, as if intending to burn him into ashes.

“That’s the Punishment of Yin fire! Is he also going to break through the Nine Apertures and Oneness of Heaven and Men stage to reach the Exterior straightaway?”

Eight Diagrams started spinning as the energy of Thunder Light was concentrated once more, it then struck the Yin fire with unstoppable momentum.

A golden glow illuminated the hall as Wang Siyuan was enclosed by multiple symbols from Eight Diagrams.

“This fella was really hiding his true capabilities… Maybe he’s in an even higher realm than He Jiu…” Meng Qi thought as he was in shock. In order to step into the Exterior straightaway, He Jiu needed others to activate his potential during a fight, but Master Wang, who was much more at ease during this process, only needed to withstand the Heaven’s Punishment by using the chance created by He Jiu.

“Anyway, that’s what tricksters always do. They never allow others to have clear expectations of what they do, and never stand out in a crowd…”

By the time Eight Diagrams disappered, Wang Siyuan was no where to be seen.

“Ahem, thank you Brother He.” Wang Siyuan’s voice was heard all of a sudden.

It was until then that many onlookers, including some Exterior masters, realized that Wang Siyuan had already returned to his seat without the others noticing, and was giving a toast towards He Jiu. He seemed to have not changed at all, and was still that seemingly weak man with eyes like that of a lady. It was as if others would forget about his presence if they were not attentive enough.

It would be a lie to say that Meng Qi was not jealous of He Jiu and Wang Siyuan, now that both of them had reached the Exterior from the nine-acupore stage straightaway. However, instead of enviousness, excitement and an urge to fight were what mainly occupied his mind at that moment.

“These kind of masters are the opponents I wish for! Only by beating them in a battle would I feel a greater sense of achievement!”

“If the people around me are all mediocre, I won’t feel the ecstasy even if I rise to the top among them!”

“Without opponents like you, my saber and sword would always be desperate for a good fight!”

Meng Qi was not feeling inferior to them at all. When He Jiu and Master Wang had opened Nine Apertures, he probably had not opened any aperture yet. Now when they reached the Exterior, and he had already opened eight apertures. Hence, he was absolutely confident that he would catch up with them soon!

“Given more time to train, I will definitely be able to beat that trickster Wang!”

The thunderstorm stopped and the dark clouds scattered. As fireworks illuminated the clear sky, the splendid scenery welcomed a whole new year!