Volume 3, Chapter 55 – Blow Them All to Pieces

The giant Buddha outer Aspect that Bai Xiang manifested was indeed terrifying, but Lu Qingning, worthy of being the Suzhen Sword Head, wasn’t frightened into retreat. Instead, she was already calculating how to launch her attack.

For this campaign, she had invoked the Immortal-Martial Decree to requisition several veteran Divine Fetus cultivators from the nearby regions. The three old men were named You Bo, Kong Tianbao, and Wang Ziming, and there was also an armored soldier called Tong Zhong.

Among them, You Bo came from the Jinlin Sword Dao. Seven years ago he had already faked his death under the Immortal-Martial Decree, shedding his identity and lying low in the surrounding area, waiting there specifically for the court’s summons.

The requisition of Kong Tianbao, on the other hand, had been much more troublesome. She had clearly given the order for him to fake his death, but he had dragged his feet and dawdled over the arrangements, so that once she took him away, all of Xuzhou was thrown into an uproar. Everyone thought their Dao Lord had disappeared, and it only calmed down when his eldest son, Kong An, succeeded him as the Jingzhu Dao Lord.

Wang Ziming came from the Shangqing Sword Dao, and his situation was basically the same as You Bo’s.

As for Tong Zhong, he had nothing to do with the Nine Circuits. He was a dark piece the court had planted in Zezhou to begin with, sent there to prevent Shangqing Sword Dao’s Li Sheng and that Shenming Bai Xiang from forming any kind of collusion. This time he had simply been transferred over together with the others.

The only unexpected factor was that woman in the crimson dress.

To be honest, Lu Qingning didn’t know her name. The two had met out in the wilds; when the other side learned she was the Suzhen Sword Head, she not only refused to bow, but actually drew her sword and spoke to her in an insolent tone.

That woman was also at the Divine Fetus realm. Lu Qingning figured she must be some old fossil out traveling from the Red Dust Sword Dao. After all, the people of that Dao had always been known for having “no brains” and being “true to their temperament.” As for which one she was specifically, Lu Qingning had no interest in the people of the Red Dust Dao. Once she’d forcibly requisitioned her with the Immortal-Martial Decree, she didn’t even bother to ask.

Anyway, once she was in Lu Qingning’s hands, she counted as a piece of armament. Given how the woman had spoken to her earlier, she hadn’t planned to honestly release her even after the mission was over.

She just hadn’t expected that there would be someone who knew even less when to show respect than she did.

Bai Xiang of the Shenming Sword Dao—only seventeen or eighteen years old, and already a genius who had cultivated to the Qi-Support Earth-Aspect realm.

What was even more frightening was that there was solid information showing she had Entered the Dao less than a year ago. Which meant she had, in under a year, crossed the fifteen minor realms and three major realms from Entering the Dao, Nurturing the Spirit, Forging the Sword, Visualization, Divine Union, Condensing the Aspect, and nine turns of the Purple Core, achieving the Divine Fetus realm and letting her edge blaze forth.

Lu Qingning had seen plenty since she was a child. On top of that, as the Suzhen Sword Head, she had heard many secrets from within the Dao, and knew which legends were real and which were fake.

She had originally assumed Bai Xiang’s “legend” was fake as well. She herself had spent ten years of bitter cultivation to finally reach the Divine Fetus realm, and even so, her master had praised her as a once-in-many-centuries peerless genius. So she simply couldn’t understand: how could there possibly be someone in this world who walked in one year the road that had taken her ten?

But one day, her master, Wu Mengzi, called her over and told her, “The name Bai Xiang—everything beneath it is true.”

In other words, everything she’d heard so far under that person’s name, all the so-called truth hidden beneath that towering reputation, was no different from the rumors at all.

Lu Qingning was, without a doubt, dealt a heavy blow. So when the Immortal-Martial Decree later fell into her hands, she had been very excited.

She finally had a chance to suppress the genius she was most jealous of.

The most gifted female cultivator of this era could only be her!

Her peach blossom eyes were stained with rage, the deep violet demonic power in her pupils spreading like eyeshadow over the world around her. Lu Qingning also brought her sword up in salute and pinched a sword seal; a figure leaped out behind her, and on closer look, it was identical to herself in every way.

Oh?

Bai Xiang had been watching her movements the entire time, and was a bit surprised by the sight.

Up to today, she had faced quite a few cultivators, and things had always been just as she believed: every cultivator’s outer Aspect manifestation was tied to a Demon Pool—they abandoned the “self” to pursue borrowed power.

This giant Buddha, of course, was not Bai Xiang’s true outer Aspect. It was merely a completely new way of using changes in qi-force, formed from combining the qi-control approach Bai Zhuqing had given her with the Splitting-Light Multiple-Images Sword Formula.

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Now that she’d learned this technique, unless she was really too lazy to move at all, things like sword-Qi dragons and sword-Qi tigers could retire in most situations.

Bai Xiang’s true Aspect was, of course, herself.

The “self,” the “true self.”

Up to this point, Lu Qingning was still the first person she had seen whose outer Aspect manifestation was her own self. She immediately developed a strong interest in Suzhen’s root method.

“Parlor tricks from a fake god…!” Lu Qingning controlled the five puppets to surround Bai Xiang. Counting herself and her outer Aspect clone, she now had a total of seven Divine Fetus-level combatants.

What level of force was that?

Divine Fetus immortals were called “warfare-class” by the overseas federations. The implication of that label was “enough to interfere with, even decide, the outcome of a war.”

Seven Divine Fetus cultivators here in person! Even if their realms and combat strength weren’t identical, how could they possibly fail to suppress a wild-path rogue?

Never mind crushing that fake-Buddha sham of Bai Xiang’s! With this luxury lineup, it would be enough to suppress an entire federation-level nation!

“Clouds, come!” Lu Qingning pulled a talisman from her bosom and flicked it up toward the heavens without even looking. While drawing Bai Xiang’s attention, she began to softly chant under her breath.

“By the Supreme Decree… Heaven and earth, lend me your law… Immortal-Martial as the guide… ferrying the gods home at this hour…”

Pfft, pfft, pfft—!

No one knew what strange method she had used, but the five puppets all spat out a mouthful of blood at the same time, and their qi presence changed in an instant.

The wide-brimmed hats of the three old men were knocked aside, revealing withered faces that rapidly filled out.

The armored young man was the same. Although his appearance didn’t change much, his chest suddenly swelled, and his eyes and brows grew so sharp they were frightening—one look and you could tell he had returned to his youthful peak.

The crimson-dressed woman was the only one who was hard to read. While the others’ qi presence soared, greatly increasing the threat they posed to Bai Xiang, only hers grew weaker and weaker. Her Divine Fetus aura dissipated all the way down, actually dropping to the Purple Core realm.

Because of the cultivation method?

A flash of insight shot through Bai Xiang’s mind.

This strange technique seemed to allow people to temporarily “Return to the Innate,” but this red-dressed woman’s aura had instead plummeted. Was it because she cultivated the Red Dust Dao, and the root method of the Red Dust Dao required accumulated experience?

Lu Qingning’s expression was a bit hard to maintain. She muttered “trash root method” under her breath, then hesitated no longer and used the Immortal-Martial Decree to drive everyone forward in a single surge.

At the Divine Fetus realm, there was no need to insist on clashing blades in close quarters anymore.

She had so many people. If each of them went all out and unleashed a big divine ability, they’d just blast Bai Xiang to death, simple as that!

For all that Lu Qingning’s mind was full of emotion, in truth, from the moment Bai Xiang manifested the giant Buddha to the moment she finished brewing this killing move and attacked, not even five seconds had passed.

You Bo drew his sword; his demonic power turned into a storm of golden sand.

Kong Tianbao took the same stance Kong An had used back then, and also flung his sword out, turning it into a thick, towering tornado.

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Wang Ziming pointed at the sky, calling the wind and clouds; dark clouds churned and gathered, and bolts of violet lightning crashed down onto his blade, which stabbed toward Bai Xiang’s eyes in an instant.

Tong Zhong plunged his war sword into the ground. In that moment, it was as if a dragon turned over within the earth—heaven and earth shook, eaves and cliffs collapsing all around.

That crimson-dressed woman was completely unreliable now, so Lu Qingning simply charged in herself. She used the “Cloud-Misty Immortal Sword,” a true core inheritance of her Dao, to seize the thunderclouds overhead, scooping them together along with the lightning roiling inside, wrapping and shaping them into a sword form that crashed down over the world.

Her clone went all out as well, burning away over half of its own essence as the price to spit out a mouthful of Three-Lives Tribulation Fire as its driver. The blazing orange light swept across, sealing off the last path of retreat in the encirclement!

Like this, enemies came from all directions; there was no door left to heaven or earth!

What use was that flashy outer Aspect?

Delight glimmered in Lu Qingning’s eyes.

What bullshit Buddha statue!

Still putting on an act in front of her!

And at that moment, the giant Buddha’s eyes opened.

They opened together with Bai Xiang’s own. On its half-transparent body, dyed over much of its surface with blood-red, a pair of “Buddha eyes” shone with a faint golden light. Facing divine abilities coming from all directions, from heaven and earth both, it not only made no move to block, but actually brought its four gigantic manifested arms together in front of its chest, as its master intoned a Buddha’s name.

“Amitabha—”

The Buddha’s voice didn’t sound like a human voice, yet it felt as though it could shake endless time and space.

Then those arms finally parted.

Four became eight.

Eight became sixteen.

Layer upon layer… in the span of a heartbeat they multiplied into hundreds and thousands of arms, just like the dharmic image of a true Buddha, all reaching out!

Boom!

One fist met Wang Ziming; from the moment his sword’s edge touched that colossal fist, it bent violently, and in the next instant the fist slammed into his body, blowing him apart in midair!

Boom!

Another fist rammed into the exploding tornado, bracing and tearing it apart, and even the Cloud-Misty Immortal Sword inside was ripped to pieces!

Boom, boom, boom, boom!

In the blink of an eye, countless punches blasted out. The air tore; fine dust was ground to nothing. All those so-called divine abilities—golden sand, violet lightning—crumbled and collapsed under the suppression of absolute power!

W-what on earth is that???

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Lu Qingning stared, dumbstruck.

Was that thing not just a decorative frame?

Bai Xiang’s counterattack was too fast, too violent. In an instant, the encirclement was crushed by her. Wang Ziming was blown apart, Kong Tianbao was slapped flying, and You Bo was pounded into a mess of bloody mince beneath dozens of fists. In a heartbeat, Tong Zhong was the only one left with any combat strength worth mentioning.

Lu Qingning couldn’t accept it!

She couldn’t even bring herself to believe the gap between them was this vast!

A shadow loomed overhead—the dense mass of gigantic fists pressing down.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl. Lu Qingning gritted her teeth and spat blood, eyes bulging as she dragged Tong Zhong in front of her. She used his war sword to stir up dust and rubble, making it swell and rise into a wall of earth and stone.

Boom!

But it was useless. In the blink of an eye, the barrage of fists smashed that earthen wall to bits, and Tong Zhong was destroyed right along with it!

Now it was her turn to be surrounded!

Pfft!

At the critical moment, a vicious light flashed through Lu Qingning’s eyes. She yanked her outer Aspect clone over and drove her sword through it. The clone’s face twisted and writhed, and its entire body turned into a jade-colored human-shaped ginseng, skewered on the blade and struggling nonstop.

By the Supreme Decree…

Five-Dragon Golden Light Shield…

She barely managed to complete this secret art, and the jade-colored ginseng turned into golden light that enclosed Lu Qingning.

Boom!

The fist slammed hard into the shield—but the shield didn’t so much as budge.

Only then did Lu Qingning let out a breath.

But very soon—countless fists crashed down one after another from all sides, like endless waves of the sea, unbroken and inexhaustible. With booming impacts that never stopped, the golden shield shuddered, and cracks spread across its surface with a sharp, splintering sound.

“Wait!”

Lu Qingning forced herself to shout.

“I am the Suzhen Sword Head, you can’t kill me—”

Crack!

The light shield shattered.

In the space of a heartbeat, a rain of hammer-blows slammed into the ground, shattering the earth and sending dust billowing. Between heaven and earth, only that rolling thunder of explosions remained.

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Bai Xiang could no longer be bothered to keep controlling the qi-formed giant Buddha. She drifted through the air to a nearby spot and swept the dust aside, revealing a spread of dark red mud on the ground.

It really did look like someone kneading dough after adding water.

Her brows drew together slightly. Somewhat unwillingly, she used those giant hands to knead through the mud, and finally found a white jade token.

The token glowed faintly white, completely unscathed even after the Buddha’s bombardment.

Bai Xiang reached out and took the token. The instant she did, she felt something invade her body.

“You’re finished!”

Lu Qingning’s furious roar sounded by her ear.

“I’m going to seize your body! Then I’ll use it to slaughter the people you cherish most!”

Is that so.

Bai Xiang raised an eyebrow, gathered her clear qi inside, and twisted. Another miserable scream rang in her ears as Lu Qingning was utterly destroyed, body and Dao both erased.

After dealing with this biggest source of trouble and even absorbing and refining her divine soul along with it, Bai Xiang finally turned to study the token.

But before she could figure anything out, a figure drifted down beside her.

“Red Dust Dao, Han Yinshuang. I thank my lord for saving my life.”

It was the crimson-dressed woman.

Lu Qingning had thought she’d be a burden, so she hadn’t allowed her to join the attack, which had ended up letting her cling to her life. She hadn’t even suffered the slightest injury.

“Do you know Kong Tianbao?” Bai Xiang asked her without even lifting her head.

Han Yinshuang nodded nervously.

“Bring him back.”

Han Yinshuang bobbed her head repeatedly and hurried to obey.

She wasn’t usually this obsequious.

But that last scene she’d witnessed…

That giant Buddha…

Was far, far too terrifying.