Volume 4, Chapter 172 – Multiplied Attack (Two-in-One)

What a tremendous expenditure.

Before she had even personally experienced the Godslaying Sword Array’s actual power, Bai Xiang was already marveling first at how much it must have cost.

As a gift, a lower-grade sacred weapon was something presentable even among the Venerable ranks—this much was obvious from the fact that Meng Qiaosheng of the Silver Sea Merchant Guild had given her one. Its value was absolutely not low.

And yet within this Godslaying Sword Array, there were more than a hundred of these treasures—precious enough that a single one could let an ordinary Venerable advance another step from an already lofty height.

More than a hundred swords at the level of lower-grade sacred weapons, plus four at the level of middle-grade sacred weapons… Under the lead of that golden sword at the front, they came winding like a dragon, with the golden sword taking the lead in colliding against the thunder sword held by the thunder Buddha.

Bai Xiang did not dare underestimate that sword. She suspected it might well be the legendary upper-grade sacred weapon, and that old bastard Zhang Dai’s many years in seclusion had likely been for the sake of refining this very thing. She more or less drove the Qi-Forming Thunder Buddha at full power. A hundred of its arms all swung thunder swords, so fast that they looked like the afterimages produced by the foremost arm, slashing in sequence against the leading golden sword within impossibly short intervals.

Clang—!

With one slash, the leading golden sword shattered the foremost thunder sword.

Skrrt—!

The second slash followed immediately after. The leading golden sword paid it no mind, allowing the thunder sword to strike its edge, only for the sharpness and solidity of its own body to shock the thunder sword apart.

Boom—!

Then the third, the fourth… and countless demon-subduing pestles formed from Forbidden-Method Tribulation Lotuses continued to fall. Only then did the thing lift its “head” slightly, then suddenly rear up as though enraged, its whole body beginning to spin violently.

As it spun, the swords following behind it immediately accelerated and surged forward. They collided with the sea of thunder in midair, and the sight completely washed away the world’s inherent colors.

In the eyes of the scar-headed old monk as he climbed back to his feet, the upper left was occupied by the thunder-light Buddha, by endless thunder swords, Tribulation Lotuses, and thunder pestles that were exploding and reforming at every moment.

In the lower right, meanwhile, was the river of swords led by the golden sword. The blades were packed so densely that every single one had been coated on the outside with a faint golden sheen from the golden sword.

Boom!!!

The two sides collided like torrents, setting off a massive explosion that spread for a thousand meters through the air. In the shattered lightning, Tribulation Lotuses could be seen being cut apart from time to time, and swords blasted flying away—but so long as a sword was not completely destroyed, the golden sword would immediately sweep another layer of golden light over it, and it would leap back into the fray as lively as ever.

To have refined most of the Godslaying Sword Array into his own tan-art, and then to have increased its power with so many sacred swords—Zhang Dai could truly be called unprecedented.

Watching the thunder Buddha gradually start to be suppressed by the sword array, and the generation speed of the Tribulation Lotuses fail to keep up with the efficiency of the river of swords rolling back over them, the old monk could not help showing some wariness.

He called himself an inheritor of Jinguang Temple, but in truth he only held the name. He knew very well that the inheritance he had obtained was incomplete. All he had were a few supreme arts such as the Golden Wheel Golden Body, the Golden Bell Roar, and the Great Hand Seal of Golden Light.

And even the Great Hand Seal of Golden Light was incomplete, with only three privately held remnant pages. Whether in terms of personal strength or the force he commanded, his “Jinguang Temple” was nowhere near equal to Zhang Dai and Tianfu Mountain.

Yet Zhang Dai was still willing to treat him with courtesy, even placing him in a position almost on the same level as himself. Earlier, when rebuking Bai Xiang, he had even elevated him a little, saying Bai Xiang should “first go to him to atone,” and only then “return under Tianfu Mountain’s command”… The reason for this, aside from Zhang Dai’s own hypocrisy and his fondness for using such gestures to draw people’s hearts back to the human path, had a great deal to do with his wish to find more Jinguang Temple ruins through this side.

Ruins…

Thinking of the coordinates for those ruins that had appeared on the final page of the Great Hand Seal of Golden Light after Zhou Yi deciphered it upon joining them, a trace of heat flashed through the scar-headed old monk’s eyes.

Even Zhou Yi himself had never known of this. He had merely cultivated by rote. Even if he had gone back to Zhengtian Dao and told the truth of it, that old Ten-Extremes Daoist would not have been able to understand in such a short time what mysteries were hidden within it.

And Zhang Dai… hmph!

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For all Zhang Dai acted polite to him on the surface, he knew perfectly well that Zhang Dai viewed himself as the “foremost of the human path,” and regarded the rebuilt “Jinguang Temple” as one of his subordinate forces.

But how glorious had Jinguang Temple’s history been?

Even when Yao Yu had once sealed heaven and cut off earth, the Golden Light Treasure King Buddha had still moved freely across many regions, and there were still so many legends and murals about it… All of that was enough to prove one thing: that Buddha had been at least at the Great Saint realm. It was unquestionably a true Sage!

If that ancestral legacy were excavated by him, then he dared not speak of reaching Great Saint, but Venerable Saint should at least be guaranteed, no?

If I had the cultivation of a Venerable Saint, then what would Zhang Dai amount to… and what would Wentian Dao or Tianfu Mountain amount to?

At that point, it should be me leading the new Jinguang Temple as the foremost of the human path!

I will lead the human path, slay demons and exterminate devils, put an end to the Demon Court’s brutal rule, and restore a bright and clear heaven and earth to the world!

And that Bai Zhixing too…

Influenced by his tan-art, killing intent and evil thoughts swelled in the scar-headed old monk’s eyes at the same time.

Candle-Attending Bodhisattva?

Heh. That old bastard Zhang Dai may be a hypocrite, but the proposal he made was surprisingly apt…

The scar-headed old monk leisurely entertained his own thoughts. And as he watched, the thunder-light Buddha was increasingly enveloped and suppressed by the river of swords. The positions of the two sides had already reversed, with the river of swords now in the upper right and the thunder-light Buddha in the lower left.

This sword array really was formidable.

Bai Xiang too had recognized the array’s excellence from just a few breaths of fighting.

With the golden sword as its array core, so long as the sword did not fall, the formation would not break. No matter how many times it was scattered, it could forcibly reverse its flow and reassemble. The hundred-plus swords were moreover endlessly variable: each one could actually deploy ten different sword arts, and those arts could coordinate neatly with each other, further magnifying their shredding power.

If she were only comparing “output,” then with the golden sword not entering the battle, she felt this sword array was probably about on par with her evolved Qi-Forming Thunder Buddha.

If the golden sword were added on top of that, then it should be able to completely suppress the Qi-Forming Thunder Buddha.

As expected of a sword array controlled through the combined cultivation of a hundred people.

As for Zhang Dai… if he could completely repair this sword array, refine it to its utmost limit, and expand its scale a bit further, then even if he did not reach the combat power of a Venerable Saint, he would not be far from that realm.

At this moment, Tianyuan was being consumed frantically along with the clash between the two sides. Even though this place lay in the wilderness, where Tianyuan was naturally abundant, it still could not withstand Bai Xiang burning through it so extravagantly.

According to Zhang Dai and the others’ prior estimates, if the sword array pressed down like this for a few more breaths, then the thunder-light Buddha with its sky-shaking momentum would be wiped out completely, exposing Bai Xiang’s true body.

According to Cui Yuanhao’s account, he had clearly stabbed her with the Tianxuan Sword at the time, only to suddenly lose all connection with the sword.

With the golden sword anchoring the formation, Zhang Dai’s attention strayed for a moment, and he recalled the special report Cui Yuanhao had given him before they set out this time.

“That demon woman possesses many bizarre secret methods. She can lock a sacred weapon down with her fleshly body, and her Golden-Pupil Illusory God can throw people’s minds into chaos.”

“When Venerable Lord goes this time, you must take extra care.”

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The Golden-Pupil Illusory God should come from the Xuandi Scripture, or from Xuandi bloodline.

Zhang Dai understood.

But that secret technique for locking down weapons with the fleshly body sounded more like she had additionally cultivated another tan-art.

She had not yet reached Venerable Saint, yet she already dared cultivate different kinds of tan-arts on top of her existing ones, and did not even merge that tan-art into a field-dao.

Shaking his head inwardly, Zhang Dai lowered his appraisal of Bai Xiang slightly. This was because there were certain shared understandings in the Void Realm, among them the principle that “it is best not to cultivate different tan-arts before reaching Venerable Saint.”

If one truly insisted on doing so, then the new tan-art also had to be capable of blending with the old tan-art, forming what was known as a field-dao tendency.

For example, Chang Hongyuan’s Great Luo Heavenly Abyss, Yang Chen’s Heaven-Weaving Chessboard, and his own Godslaying Sword Array. Naturally, that also included Bai Zhixing’s Forbidden-Method Tribulation Lotus and Thunder-Light Buddha.

A field-dao could be formed by blending together the rules of many divine tans. The order within it might be chaotic, but it was also unified, so it would not spiral out of control. It could still be called safe.

According to Zhang Dai’s observations, Bai Xiang’s “Tribulation-Lotus Buddha” possessed at least three kinds of divine tan rules: Tianyuan transformation, sword-qi manipulation, and a vibrating-space interdiction domain.

The actual names might differ somewhat, but the meanings were roughly the same.

All of those tan-arts could be blended into the Buddha, and every force they produced was directed toward a fixed result. The final product of all that was the Buddha itself.

But if, beyond that, she had also cultivated some other tan-art…

Hm. If the contamination had already sunk deep into her spirit-soul, then even if they captured her fleshly body, it could no longer be used.

Zhang Dai’s distraction lasted only a moment. Most of his mind was still tied to the Godslaying Sword Array.

Thanks to Cui Yuanhao’s warning, he was also being extremely cautious. Even though he plainly could have thrown the golden sword into the fight as well, he deliberately kept it in reserve, allowing it to serve only as the array core. This was because he feared Bai Xiang’s mysterious tan-art might seize that sword away too.

After all, they already had the lesson of the Tianxuan Sword as precedent.

Before the battle, he had made preparations for both possibilities. If the Tianxuan Sword could still respond to his summons and control, then that mysterious tan-art needed not be feared.

But the Tianxuan Sword simply refused to obey.

In that case, Zhang Dai had to be much more careful. He had no desire for the upper-grade sacred weapon he had spent so many years refining to be inexplicably snatched away by Bai Xiang.

That would not only destroy his sword-array tan-art in one blow; it would also make his cultivation drop viciously from its current level, enough to disqualify him from being the foremost of the human path.

Clang clang clang clang—!

At the center of the battle formation, the thunder-light Buddha had been completely engulfed and wrapped up by the river of swords. From all around, hundreds upon thousands of swords brushed over it with golden light, ceaselessly slicing and scraping against the Buddha’s body.

The Tribulation Lotuses had already been cut away until not a single blossom could be seen. The thunder Buddha was getting smaller and smaller and smaller, and at last it began to dissipate under the delighted gazes of Zhang Dai, Cui Yuanhao, and the scar-headed old monk.

It worked…?

I didn’t expect it to go just as easily as planned…

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Whoosh!

Without any warning, the thunder-light Buddha vanished all at once.

Zhang Dai’s brows lifted slightly, because according to his senses, there should still have been some Tianyuan left in the surrounding area—not nearly so little as to force the thunder Buddha to completely disperse.

That was the weakness of this kind of field-dao, one that needed Tianyuan to activate. It only had short-term explosive power, and in a fight against truly powerful opponents, its limitations were severe.

Zhang Dai did not care too much about this. He merely assumed Bai Xiang was deliberately playing tricks, gathering a bit of Tianyuan to make a final desperate struggle.

So he pretended not to notice Bai Xiang’s intentions and controlled the river of swords to coil downward in a spiral. Sure enough, in midair he caught sight of a snow-haired woman seated in lotus posture with her eyes closed, seemingly nurturing her spirit.

Where were her two swords?

Zhang Dai instinctively felt something was wrong, and then he caught sight of the gesture Bai Xiang was making with her hands… It was unmistakably a finger-seal technique from the same root and source as the Great Hand Seal of Golden Light!

Not good!

Zhang Dai’s scalp went cold with danger. He urgently yanked his attention away from the battle and back to his own surroundings, only to instantly sense two incomparably sharp killing auras darting out from the void behind him, about to behead him in the very next moment!

At the critical instant, the golden sword serving as the array core suddenly shifted through space back into his hand. He raised it and caught both strikes in succession, but the impact forced him to give up his arrogant seated posture. His stance was shattered in midair, and he fell somewhat awkwardly to lower altitude.

Bai Zhixing—

Feeling that he had lost face before everyone, Zhang Dai glared at the two swords as they flew off in rainbow streaks. His gaze tracked them all the way back to the seated Bai Xiang, and in his heart he wished he could hack her into a thousand pieces.

But very quickly, he noticed that something was off.

Bai Xiang reached out and caught both swords. Suspended in the air, she undid her lotus posture, stood there, and opened her eyes.

Something about her bearing was wrong.

Cui Yuanhao’s brow twitched.

As the only person present who had previously crossed blades with Bai Xiang, he suddenly recalled the feeling of being utterly slain by her at that time.

When sword qi had descended onto his body and he had struggled beneath it, he had forced himself to look up at Bai Xiang. What he had seen then was exactly this same pair of cold golden pupils, as if she regarded him as nothing more than an ant blocking the road, never placing him in her eyes in the slightest.

If I hadn’t been enraged by that attitude at the time, how could I have lost my composure so badly?

And now, he was seeing that same look again.

Instinctively, Cui Yuanhao felt that something was wrong.

He wanted to warn Zhang Dai, but Bai Xiang had already moved first.

Earlier, she had obtained a set of the Yuling Thirty-Two Constellation Array Diagram from Zhu Yunsheng. Among its formations, the Yuling Dragon-Gathering Constellation Grand Array could coordinate and mobilize the cultivation and output of everyone inside the formation, then multiply it on top of that.

Its root method did not require a specific number of people, however. Instead, it calculated the multiplier according to the Heavenly Gang order of Yuling Heaven. At most it could light up thirty-two stars and increase one’s output thirty-twofold. It had been the proud tan-art of the ancient cultivator Daoist Lingquan.

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Naturally, after obtaining this method, Bai Xiang had studied and improved it. And she had an idea—one that she could test at this very moment.

She stepped forward first.

The step was not large, but the movement itself was bizarre.

Clearly her foot had not yet landed in the empty air, yet her figure had already appeared in the position where it was supposed to arrive.

It was as though the process of taking the step had been reversed, causing the rules of the void to be disturbed and thrown into disorder.

The change happened far too fast, far too suddenly.

In the space of a single breath, Bai Xiang had stepped a thousand meters, crossing through the sword array as if through empty ground and appearing before Zhang Dai in an instant, her body already pitched forward in a diving assault.

The layering of force simulated in accordance with the Yuling star array.

Added to that, the copying and replication of the Splitting-Light Sword Formula handled by the Jade Spirit.

One hundred and sixty-four hidden orifices. Four clearly refined great meridians throughout her body. Every last result Bai Xiang had accumulated since beginning body cultivation. In this moment, under the coordinated mobilization of the Three Origin Orifices and the Heavenly Pillar Meridian, all of it was condensed into a single torrent, which she poured into the twin swords in her hands by way of the momentum of her turning body.

That kind of outward manifestation… was the hallmark of power having reached a certain absolute level!

But how could it appear on her…?

What in the world is this…?

Zhang Dai’s eyes and mouth opened slightly, his heart filled with endless shock and incomprehension.

By instinct, he raised his sword to block the slash coming from Bai Xiang’s left arm.

At the instant of contact, Zhang Dai’s own expression did not change at all. But every onlooker, including Cui Yuanhao and the scar-headed old monk, saw that his hand was simply gone.

It had exploded outright…! Completely blown into a cloud of blood mist! The golden sword flew straight out of his grasp, and even the void behind it was dragged into a black scar by the force of that slash!

Bang-crack!

With the sword in her left hand, Bai Xiang blew apart Zhang Dai’s right arm through the golden sword, forcing his center wide open in the same motion. Then came her next sword strike—Feixiang Heaven, held in her right hand, thrust straight into the middle of Zhang Dai’s chest, and the bursting vibration force shattered his entire body into minute grains of blood-dust.

Bzzz—!

The first strike… an invisible sword qi released by the Tianxuan Sword shot past in an instant, grazing half of Cui Yuanhao’s body and nearly cutting him clean in two. Yet its momentum still did not diminish. It tilted and rotated slightly in midair, shifting from a diagonal slash into a level streak of sword-light, then hissed through the ranks of countless people and continued on into two towering mountain peaks more than a thousand meters behind them.

And the second… the sword qi thrust out by Feixiang Heaven was like a piercing beam cannon.

The void twisted, dragging black-edged tears in its wake.

Only after everything along that line had been crushed into powder did the survivors finally react.

And when they looked at Bai Xiang, their expressions at last changed drastically.