Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

Chapter 904 – Between Three Seconds

The petals drifted about in the wind, so dense that they seemed like a sea.

Bie Yanghong’s figure appeared in the center of the sea of flowers, his feet stepping on air as he struck at the blue-clothed visitor.

Back when the Demon Lord entered Mount Han and the Elder of Heavenly Secrets informed the world, Bie Yanghong had been in the distant Ten Thousand Years Pavilion in the south, but he ended up being the first to arrive.

Even amongst the experts of the Divine Domain, he was the strongest in terms of speed and long-distance attacks.

Seeing the sky full of red petals sealing off his retreats, the blue-clothed visitor knew that his chance had passed.

If he could not forcibly repel Bie Yanghong, he would assuredly end up being endlessly pursued with no chance of escape.

The visitor roared, circulating the methods he had spent his entire life developing, and turned to deliver two swift palms.

Countless rays of awe-inspiring blue light shot out of his palms, transforming into extremely sharp flying edges that shrieked through the air at Bie Yanghong.

As the blue edges flew through the sky, they howled like a hurricane imbued with an aura of extreme cold and gloominess. They even caused the air to almost instantly grow more humid, forming beads of water and causing rain to fall.

It had all the horror and terror of a fierce storm at sea.

To experts of the Divine Domain, ordinary weapons, excepting truly divine weapons like the Frost God Spear or the Heaven Shrouding Sword, were far inferior to the power of weapons formed from their own star radiance or true essence. For instance, for anyone so unfortunate as to even brush against these flying edges suffused with awe-inspiring blue light, even a Star Condensation expert with a body that had undergone a perfect Purification would end with their bones snapped and flesh flayed, their sea of consciousness fractured, and their Ethereal Palace cleaved into ruins. Without even a chance to counter, they would already be dead.

Bie Yanghong did not recognize the blue-clothed visitor, but he knew that they were both of around equal strength, so he would naturally act with prudence.

His right hand plunged into the sea of red blossoms, gripped something, and pulled it out.

Star radiance of incomparable brightness seeped out from his face and his grayed temples.

What he pulled out from the sea of flowers was actually an illusory sword condensed from star radiance.

A sword glow of startling brightness and purity illuminated the sea of flowers, cleaving out countless eddies of true essence as it slashed towards the blue-clothed visitor.

No matter how furious your stormy sea is, let’s see if it can block my sword!

……

……

The blue-clothed visitor had lived on the Great Western Continent for many years. Although separated by a vast sea, he had always kept an eye on the experts of the continent. With his authority and the assistance of White Emperor City, he had secretly gathered all sorts of intelligence, giving him a deep understanding of the fighting style and most powerful techniques of the continent’s experts.

As Bie Yanghong’s sword slashed, at least seventeen ways to counter it had appeared in his sea of consciousness.

But those seventeen ways were all based on what he knew of Bie Yanghong. To put it more accurately, it was the Bie Yanghong from the coup of the Mausoleum of Books.

Today’s Bie Yanghong was clearly much stronger than the Bie Yanghong from his intelligence reports and in his mind.

Like that fist of Bie Yanghong’s that had broken through the combined sword style of Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong.

And there was his little red flower as well. No one had expected that when bereft of its string, it could become a sea of flowers and seal off the uncountable paths in the world.

These moves were clearly new Daoist techniques that Bie Yanghong had become enlightened to after the coup of the Mausoleum of Books.

If that were all, the blue-clothed visitor would still be confident in his ability to push back Bie Yanghong. Perhaps he would pay with a few injuries, but he would at least not be delayed here.

But today, the greatest difference between the Bie Yanghong of now and his past self was not in the profundity of his Daoist techniques or in the mysticism of his moves. It was in the change to his fighting style.

In the minds of cultivators, Bie Yanghong was a gentle and composed senior. Even if he attacked, he would always act with the greatest propriety, his aura always one of justice and moderation.

Today, Bie Yanghong’s eyes were still calm, but his expression was anything but gentle. As he lunged through the sky, countless streams of true essence surged out of his sleeves. Every one of his movements seemed to be imbued with the strength to move mountains, and every one of his techniques seemed to have borne witness to the world, and to life and death. He was absolutely unrestrained, incomparably fierce.

Why was this?

The blue-clothed visitor saw Bie Yanghong’s eyes and realized that in the deepest parts of those still pools was an absolute determination to kill.

And then, he saw the white streaks running through Bie Yanghong’s hair.

The visitor understood the reason, and his heart slightly sank. He let out a roar!

Those countless blue edges shattered into powder at this roar, and then reformed into a long halberd!

This halberd had a dark luster, and its head was topped by three extremely sharp points that let out an awe-inspiring and fear-inducing aura.

This was highly likely to be a reconstruction of the weapon spirit of the Great Western Continent’s divine weapon: the Sea-Pacifying Halberd!

Bie Yanghong appeared unmoved. The sword of star radiance in his hand slashed towards the blue halberd!

This illusory sword had been pulled from the sea of flowers and did not have a physical presence. Thus, it could have absolute sharpness and smoothness, just like Chen Changsheng’s Stainless Sword.

But for some reason, a most vividly colored petal had stuck to this sword, its presence dazzling.

……

……

The sword of star radiance and the dark blue halberd met in the sky.

A ball of Qi emerged from their clash, its surface crisscrossed by white streams. Almost immediately after, this ball of Qi was torn to shreds by the boundless light and heat erupting from the clash.

Waves of Qi, light, and heat swept in all directions. The rocks on the cliffs began to rustle down while several hundred ancient trees snapped and then began to burn.

The cultivators on the plateau found it impossible to see just what was happening in that blazing light. They could only vaguely make out two figures.

The Prince of Xiang quietly watched, his brows slightly arched, his thoughts inscrutable.

Wuqiong Bi did not turn to look, but she could sense the transformations from that area. In her shock and unease, her hand slowed.

With a rip, the threads of the horsetail whisk binding the metal blade began to snap. A tear also appeared on the sleeve of her robe.

The light in the sky remained blinding.

The bright red petals danced and retreated, a beautiful rain of flowers.

A stream of golden blood trickled down from Bie Yanghong’s ear.

But he seemed completely unaware, his calm gaze remaining fixed on the blue-clothed visitor.

The sword of star radiance and the dark blue halberd remained in the same place.

The unimaginably vast reserves of true essence and Qi of these two experts of the Divine Domain were currently in a most perilous clash.

Suddenly, the bright red petal on the sword of star radiance suddenly exploded into powder.

This petal originated from the little red flower. It contained limitless divine might and was implicitly in accord with the laws of the world, but it had been pulverized by the clashing true essence of these two experts!

The powder from this petal shot towards the blue-clothed visitor, each grain as swift and sharp as an arrow, but carrying far more power.

The visitor was still using his halberd to fight with Bie Yanghong and could not dodge. He grunted, relying on his body’s cultivation to receive these blows.

With a dense collection of cracks and pops, the visitor’s bamboo hat was shot through with holes. It scattered into pieces and was blown away by the wind, revealing the savage copper mask beneath. And many marks appeared on his body through which blood began to seep out.

Bie Yanghong was certainly not willing to let this chance go. He whistled and the petals in the sky all flew back like lightning, assailing the blue-clothed visitor.

The visitor grunted, his true essence exploding out. While worsening his injuries, he succeeded in jolting off Bie Yanghong’s sword. His sleeves flapped as he took off into the blue sky, looking just like a massive seabird.

The sky of red petals had already been summoned back by Bie Yanghong. He only needed to avoid the last strike to successfully escape into the sky.

He had finally found a chance to escape from Bie Yanghong’s attack. It appeared that many things had happened, but it was only an extremely short span of time.

If some person had a timepiece and was keeping watch, they would know that there was still a brief sliver of time before three seconds elapsed.

The blue-clothed visitor had also silently been keeping count. He was sure that he had made no error.

The sky of petals had already reformed into the little red flower, which was now flying like a lightning bolt to slam into the visitor’s back.

There was a crack as quite a few of the visitor’s ribs snapped. He vomited blood, but he seemed unfazed. Without even a grunt, he wielded the halberd and shot into the sky.

He pushed his speed to its limits, swiftly turning into a black dot in the eyes of the crowd that could melt into the sky in the very next moment.

But in that next moment…

The black dot began to increase in size, gradually revealing a figure.

The blue-clothed visitor had returned.

He had been forced back by a blade from the sky.