Chapter 1220: Burning Heavens And Scorched Earth
It wasn't just the creation and destruction of life, it was about the creation and destruction of the great Dao.
The intense power of Xiao Yan's Flaming Taiji Diagram struck the Cangming Swordmaster with fear.
His attacks were all blocked by the Heavenly Catastrophe's red light, and Xiao Yan's Heaven Fire Lotus launched against him mercilessly.
The frightening power contained within the roaring flames destroyed the world created by the green sword radiance and even damaged the Cangming Swordmaster's Saintly Celestial Sword Qi and his True Fruit of the Vast Heaven Saintly Sword and their very roots.
The Cangming Swordmaster could acutely feel the sensation of annihilation that accompanied the pouring flames as they expanded continuously.
Large amounts of light patterns glimmered atop the Cangming Ancient Sword, but these lights patterns were like fuel to the fire as they burned up one after another.
Light patterns appeared on the Cangming Swordmaster's own immortal soul, but they were also burned into dust by the raging fire.
This great sword cultivator that had his own achievements since the Middle Ages began to feel his consciousness go blurry and murky as if everything around him were moving away into the distance.
Everything happened in an instant, but it felt unbelievably long and the agony was inexplicable. However, he felt a deep-seated feeling of irrevocableness and a hopelessness that couldn't be resisted.
"That's enough, bastard!" The Cangming Swordmaster roared as his left hand pointed towards the Saintly Celestial Primordial Sword Formation.
He couldn't be bothered with the Tiangang Swordmaster anymore and all he wanted to do was use the Saintly Celestial Primordial Sword Formation to aid him and decapitate Xiao Yan once and for all.
However, he realized after pointing his finger upwards that the Saintly Celestial Primordial Sword Formation was being preoccupied by the Tiangang Swordmaster and it just wouldn't descend.
The Cheng Heaven Great Void Celestial Light infused into the Saintly Celestial Primordial Sword Formation in the sky had been completely removed by the Tiangang Swordmaster, and the sword formation was also being gradually suppressed.
The Tiangang Swordmaster's lips were glued together as his consciousness echoed between heaven and earth. "Stay your hand, Cangming!"
"We have always been different, Tiangang. There is nothing else to be said between us. The efforts of our ancestors and my thousands of years of travail were all for naught in the end? Bullshit!" The Cangming Swordmaster's voice was like rolling thunder. "I will eliminate this bastard even if I have to die today!"
"The Celestial Sect of Wonders have to pay a price for stepping over Mount Shu in their rise to power!"
The Cangming Swordmater's left hand gestured into the air as he did all he could to point towards the Saintly Celestial Primordial Sword Formation. The sword formation suddenly entered a state of silence.
The permeating sword mind and sword Qi seemed to freeze and solidify in this very instant.
The mountain defense formations of the other eight sword sects suddenly calmed down as well and itw as if everything that transpired before never happened at all, leaving the Lightning Swordmaster and the Heavenly Master Swordmaster clueless.
The Tiangang Swordmaster's expression changed as he stood before the Saintly Celestial Primordial Sword Formation. His consciousness rippled through the void, "Cangming, you've gone crazy!"
His Tiangang Sword Star River couldn't be bothered with too much anymore and curled backwards inside the void as it crashed down toward the Saintly Celestial Primordial Sword Formation with dazzling speed.
Just as the Tiangang Swordmaster's sword radiance collided with the Saintly Celestial Primordial Sword Formation, the entire sword formation began to tremble violently.
A beam of radiance shot out from within the Saintly Celestial Primordial Sword Formation and caused all the clouds around to condense around it - there was a white jade longsword inside the ray of light, and it was the Saintly Celestial Sword.
The Saintly Celestial Sword quivered in the sky before it released a streak of flowing light that swept up the people from Mount Shu towards a faraway location before it descended down towards the Cangming Swordmaster.
The other magic item inside the sword formation, the Primordial Sword Stone, exploded into smithereens!
The rectangular black stone became uncountable rays of light and they shot out in all directions.
The various other big sword formations that were feeding power into the Saintly Celestial Primordial Sword Formation also trembled with unprecedented rhythm as all their sword Qi began to congregate towards Mount Shu with a kind of hopeless hysteria.
The Heavenly Master Sword Sect, the Lightning Sword Sect and the Vast Sea Sword Sect were still able to hold on. The Sword of Radiance Sect, the Starry Sword Sect, the Intense Flaming Sword Sect and the Great Barren Sword Sect as well as Mount Shu's own sword formation within the Saintly Celestial Primordial Sword Formation collapsed at the same time.
The Primordial Sword Stone directed everything as voluminous amounts of sword Qi and sword mid burst outwards in an instant.
The frightening force of this explosion made even the Tiangang Swordmaster stop in his tracks. However, what made him even more sullen was that the Cangming Swordmaster reached out with his left hand and caught the Saintly Celestial Sword in midair before he slashed down towards Xiao Yan.
Even though it was not fully complete, the Saintly Celestial Sword's terrifying aura and its permeating sword Qi finally protected the Cangming Swordmaster, who was heavily wounded.
The Cangming Swordmaster gripped the Saintly Celestial Sword tightly and withstood against the barrage of searing flames as he went straight for Xiao Yan - as he would till the end of his life.
There appeared to be a human figure standing proudly and with a tinge of arrogance within the sea of flames that was Xiao Yan's Flaming Taiji Diagram, and he was staring at the Cangming Swordmaster with a pair of chilly eyes.
"You wish to fight to the death then let's get started - we'll see who dies first," Xiao Yan growled. The flames that formed his Taiji Diagram grew dull after the second Heaven Fire Lotus but sparkled once more at this moment.
The remnants of light patterns and broken pieces glimmered above the Taiji Diagram. Under the radiance of the fire, they became whole once more and new runes and glyphs began to aggregate once more.
The rolling red lights around Xiao Yan's immortal soul rippled before they started to condense and actually formed a light shadow in the sky that appeared half-real and half-virtual.
The bright red light shadow was like a giant stone pillar that supported the skies and erected itself between heaven and earth.
However, this red pillar of light that seemed like a sky pillar that reached into the heavens gave people an unsettled feeling. Instead, it gave people an ominous feeling and made them even more unsettled and casted a haze of terror over all.
This flowing light pillar was just a projection, but its appearance and the concepts embodied within were extremely similar to the extreme evil of the Netherworld Sea's destiny-level magic item, the Heavenly Catastrophe.
The Cangming Swordmaster and the Saintly Celestial Sword stabbed onto the bright red pillar that appeared like the Heavenly Catastrophe. The sharp tip of the sword seemed to draw upon the entire world to become its edge as it lunged forward, and the white jade tip of the sword pierced through the red light pillar and gradually pushed forward.
However, the Cangming Swordmaster's pupils suddenly contracted.
The Saintly Celestial Sword had been born, but it was ultimately still incomplete and didn't have the true glamor of a destiny-level magic treasure. The Cangming Swordmaster himself was on the last ounces of his strength and couldn't pierce through the Heavenly Catastrophe's projection in one stab.
Even though the Saintly Celestial Sword's tip was breaking through the red light pillar continuously and was getting closer to Xiao Yan's immortal soul, it was as far as the edges of the world in the Cangming Swordmaster's eyes.
Just as the Heavenly Catastrophe's projection condensed into a red light pillar, Xiao Yan's third Penta Fire Lotus silently drifted into vision.
The raging flames from before hadn't dissipated entirely and were still dancing around in the skies and annihilated all things that they came into contact with.
A more ferocious ball of flame detonated once more. While it brought a new instance of calamity and disaster, the roaring flames from before condensed at the same time and exploded in unison. Its power was like the tides of an ocean, wave after wave and it didn't seem to have an end and didn't seem it would ever rest.
The Cangming Swordmaster roared in fury. He didn't care about the flames that were assaulting his body as he gave his all to push forward with the Saintly Celestial Sword towards Xiao Yan - he wanted to perish together with his opponent.
Xiao Yan's Flaming Taiji Diagram rotated in midair as the red lights sparkled once more. The red light formed by the Heavenly Catastrophe's power projection explosively unleashed the fearsome power contained within and launched its own retaliation as it swept towards the Saintly Celestial Sword and the Cangming Swordmaster.
The Heavenly Catastrophe's power and the power of the roaring flames spiraled around one another as they heaped onto the Cangming Swordmaster and the Saintly Celestial Sword with an earth-shattering force.
The Cangming Swordmaster had already been injured before this, and his immortal soul immediately started cracking apart. What made him even more devastated was the fact that, under the violent contortions from the two different forces, a single crack appeared on the perfect white jade blade of the Saintly Celestial Sword.
"No!!" The Cangming Swordmaster roared as the tip of the Saintly Celestial Sword couldn't withstand the immense pressure and finally cracked open.
It was almost at the same time that all logic and rational thoughts inside the Cangming Swordmaster's mind abruptly stopped as his immortal soul was completely laid to ruin, and was consumed by the ocean of fire and the red lights.
Luo Qingwu, Chu Yang and Zhuge Zhan had already retreated to a distance far away and watched the world that was now consumed by with solemn eyes.
The Tiangang Swordmaster sighed heavily in the void as the Saintly Celestial Primordial Sword Formation exploded and intertwined with the sea of fire. This caused even the borders of Divine Lands to be damaged, and Mount Shu's original location was now reduced to nothing and had become a patch of destruction and annihilation.
A single human figure gradually appeared in the endless rings of fire as he sauntered out from the flames. He wore a black robe and was clad in purple clothes, and he was tall and dignified - it was Xiao Yan.
At this moment, there were remnant embers that drifted around his body, but they weren't burning on his body - they orbited him.
Xiao Yan continued walking as he casually smacked on the embers around his body. His expression was cold and calm as he stepped through the raging flames, as if he was an emperor that was walking out from a hell of fire.
The Cangming Swordmaster was nowhere to be seen inside the boundless ocean of fire.
The Tiangang Swordmaster stared at Xiao Yan without a word and Xiao Yan returned his gaze. He withdrew the Tiangang Ancient Sword as he raised his palm into the sky and a shadow flew out from the sea of fire - except it was dull and didn't reflect any light at all.
It was a white jade longsword, the Saintly Celestial Sword. However, what astonished everyone was that the tip of the white jade blade had been broken off and was nowhere to be found.
This sword was once known as the supreme sword of the world. It was being re-forged, and right before it was complete, it was severely damaged once again and cracked under the combined pressure of Xiao Yan and the Heavenly Catastrophe.
The Cangming Ancient Sword shared a reputation with the Tiangang Ancient Sword, but it had already sustained heavy injury before and was completely destroyed when it shared the burden of the previous strike with the Cangming Swordmaster.
Xiao Yan forcefully murdered a great sword cultivator in the Cardinal Tribulations Beginning Stage whow as only one step away from reaching the Vipralopa Stage, the supreme elder of Mount Shu, the Cangming Swordmaster and he even broke the re-forged Saintly Celestial Sword.
Even though the Saintly Celestial Sword was still a distance away from becoming a destiny-level magic treasure once more, it outmatched Mahayana-level magic treasures and if Xiao Yan's achievements were spread throughout the world, the entire Grand Celestial World would be shaken.
Xiao Yan made his own imperative step after Wang Lin and Zhu Yi. It gave him complete clarity about his path of cultivation in the future and moved him closer to the heart of the stage that was the Grand Celestial World.
The Tiangang Swordmaster watched Xiao Yan in silence. Xiao Yan was just standing in midair and he said nothing either. Heaven and earth was devoid of human voices and there was only the crackling and searing sounds from the remaining flames that continued to burn.