Daoist Master of Qing Xuan

Even though Chen Jianmei’s sword will filled the whole void, it did not stop Shen Lian from casting his prowess.

As the saying went, ‘Accumulated soil could form mountains to start rain and storm; accumulated water could form deep pools to breed water dragons’. Shen Lian’s Mark of Mountains and Rivers could not only summon the mountains and waters, it also possessed the magical power to summon wind and rainfall. The dark water in the void was seen to be carrying a high mountain. As the mountainous rain approached, a strong wind had caught up to it first.

The clinging of clashing swords could be heard in the air. Layers of formless sword auras vibrated through the air and came facing the strong wind. It then formed a stance like forces of many rivers and gathered towards Shen Lian.

Shen Lian remained smiling casually and unfazed at this sight. The fictional huge mountain followed the flow of the dark water and clashed with the sword aura.

The sword aura appeared out of thin air with flashing lights, and it rushed through the void like a meteor rain, which was a rare and beautiful sight. Previously, Chen Jianmei’s sword aura was not in pairs. It was simple and clean. Now, it was rather fancy.

This did not mean that Chen Jianmei’s swordcraft had fallen back, but it was an appearance of the understanding of life and death. Death would appear to be pale and naught, whereas life would be filled with fancy colors.

Moreover, Chen Jianmei also possessed the technique to turn life to lifelessness. As the sword aura was at its brightest, it combusted and everything returned to void, including Shen Lian’s mountain.

With the disappearance of the mountain, the Mark of Mountain and River was automatically overcomed.

Shen Lian was rather overjoyed. As compared to life and death battle with others, this contention of techniques with Chen Jianmei was rather fun. They could hold no reservations to release any technique or prowess that they could think of, without the stress of caring for one’s wellbeing, which was quite relieving.

Until now, Chen Jianmei had not released his real swordcraft yet, but his swordcraft had reached the level where he could use it whenever he intended to, way past the realm of saints. It was not an exaggeration to say his one sword style could overcome plenty of other techniques.

Shen Lian’s coverage was comparatively wide, as he mastered most techniques from the Taiwei Pavillion. Now as if meeting a close friend, he could demonstrate all the techniques he learned, releasing all sorts of them in the void. Some mysterious, some large, and some handy. All these were showcased by Shen Lian with ease.

Yet, Chen Jianmei could calmly use his sword aura to point out the weak spots in Shen Lian’s techniques.

Shen Lian also learned a lot from this duel. Even though his cultivation of techniques was complete, they were still not applied in real battlefield yet. Hence one could not notice its shortcoming in real life. With the guidance from a top swordsmith like Chen Jianmei, Shen Lian could finally learn the inadequacy in his own skill sets.

Even Chen Jianmei showed his long-lost expression of joy. Ever since he mastered the Dao of sword, anyone who could withstand one movement from his sword was considered rather strong.

None of them would release other technique as skillfully as Shen Lian. Even though he detected many weak spots in Shen Lian’s techniques, he never caused any harm to Shen Lian with these shortfalls. Shen Lian had also achieved a higher level, the ‘Shefa’ level.

As Shen Lian was armed with bountiful of techniques, he could even jump out of the frame and separate himself from his own techniques, where he could learn the shortcomings of each one without inflicting much damage to himself.

This duel had gone on for a very long time. Shen Lian’s inventory was quite limited, but he not once showed any signs of despair. He could even think of many unique ideas during combat which turned into more prowess and a better understanding of Chen Jianmei’s swordcraft.

All these newly formed techniques had more hidden weak spots, which started to show more strength over Chen Jianmei’s sword spirit.

Suddenly, Shen Lian said, “Senior Apprentice Chen, as your sword reacts to almost anything, can you please try if you can match with Shen Lian’s sword?” Shen Lian pulled out a long sword out of nowhere. It was quite normal looking, whereby its tips showcased a unique pathway, which then ascended from the sword into a stream in the air, almost without any pause. This Milky Way stream signified immortality and a never-ending flow.

Shen Lian pointed towards Chen Jianmei with his sound and said calmly, “This technique is called ‘Ten Thousand Miles Written into Heart’.” The milky way stream erupted towards Chen Jianmei with the strength capable of overcoming any other swordcraft.

At this moment, Shen Lian’s Dao heart also turned turbulent and excited, yet this excitement did not disrupt his only heart which was growing in burning desire.

Ever since he decided to overthrow Yinshang for Xia, he could not suppress much of his excitement, and all this excitement now turned into the majestic sword aura which would not turn back.

Chen Jianmei was slightly shaken. This ‘Ten Thousand Miles Written into Heart’ had discarded any other tricks, and showed no weak spot.

Even this majestic eagerness which pushed the Milkway Way Sword to its limit reminded him of his duel with the monk previously.

These emotions appeared and then vanished instantly. In no time, Chen Jianmei had transformed into a unique realm, whereby his sword was no longer touchable, without the sword will, sword aura and killing aura, turning him into a normal human.

In the void, Chen Jianmei smiled as a drop of blood appeared between his eyebrows. The milky way then disappeared a bit.

Then came another drop of blood, and then another bit of the Milky Way disappeared.

It was as if an unexplainable force had appeared out of nowhere to diminish Shen Lian’s sword aura.

This was battle of force at its core. However, strangely enough, Shen Lian could figure out where this power came from. He only knew that this was going to sacrifice itself to kill off the Milky Way sword aura.

As five drops of blood emerged between Chen Jianmei’s eyebrows, not a trace of the Milky Way sword aura was found. Even the void had gone. What was left was the original state where the lotus pond was, and Chen Jianmei’s eyebrow blood had turned deeper in color.

He told Shen Lian, “You really did not disappoint.”

Shen Lian replied with a question, “Yet I never figured out which technique you used to break my sword aura and my Taixu technique.”

Chen Jianmei said, “One should not mention it. Have you forgotten what is the meaning of ‘becoming one with Dao’?”

Shen Lian thought for a while and then clapped, “Now I see it. Senior Apprentice Chen, you actually managed to use your own killing sword will and merge it with one of the sources of Dao.”

Chen Jianmei shook his head, “I have just only borrowed the blood sea of Asura and this Asura body. I would never dream of achieving this in real life.

Shen Lian nodded. He knew this scenario very well, just like the time when he joined forces with Lingbao Tianzun to intercept part of the Dao source. Chen Jianmei also used a similar approach, with the help of external source.