Legend of Swordsman

“Emperor Yun, even you stand with this Emperor Xiao against me too?” Emperor Leng regarded Emperor Yun with anger and surprise flaring in her eyes.

“We are all fellow disciples of our Teacher, Junior Sister. As your Senior Brother, I will usually side no one but just order. But you have crossed the line this time. Not even our Teacher will rest at ease at the sight of the atrocities you have committed.” Emperor Yun replied coldly.

The Four Emperors of Tang Empire of the East were all fellow apprentices of the Tang Emperor.

Emperor Yun was the oldest amongst the four, being the eldest Senior Brother of his younger siblings in arms and tutelage, followed by Emperor Qing and Emperor Xiao. Emperor Leng was the fourth amongst them, the youngest Junior Sister.

Then again, Emperor Qing wielded the greatest strength and power among the four, followed by Emperor Xiao by a mere hair’s breadth. Emperor Yun and Emperor Leng have always been equal in combat.

“Our Teacher? Hmph! For many years, the Teacher has yet to show himself. None could say if he still lives. But I would hardly flinch even if he is here before us today. All that I have done is for the good of the Tang Empire!” Emperor Leng retorted loudly.

“Insolent fool! Still until now, you have no remorse of what you have done!”

With a stare turned cold as steel, Emperor Yun declared solemnly, “As the most senior of our Teacher’s students, I will exact judgment in his name today and cleanse anew the name of our following.”

“Judgment? You? We will see who will have the last laugh!” Emperor Leng sneered and turned to the soothsayer beside her, saying simply, “I will leave everything to you, National Master.”

“Hahaha…” The soothsayer grinned strangely as he stepped forth slowly.

Up in the sky, Emperor Xiao and Emperor Yun were floating abreast in the air, watching as the soothsayer stepped forth. Their faces turned hard and intense as the older man approached.

“Is this the National Master which you have so much fear for, Junior Brother Xiao?” Emperor Yun asked in a low voice.

“He is.” Emperor Xiao replied with a nod before he continued seriously, “I have had the upper hand during my last duel with the bloody woman. It was he who had a hand in my loss. Despite fighting with the blasted woman against me, I am sure that he is very much stronger than I am. Moreover, his methods and techniques are strange and unusual.”

“Despite being well-prepared this time, that I have even implored to you for help, I am afraid we have only three tenths of a chance to defeat him.”

“Three tenths of a chance?” Emperor Yun uttered incredulously with shock and dismay.

“Let me see how capable this National Master is!”

With a cold and deathly glare, Emperor Yun leaped into the air before he finished, gliding away with the grace of a floating cloud.

“Whoosh…” A gust of wind blew suddenly in the air, sending fo”Whoosh!”rth a forceful surge of air.

“Open!”

Proud and stern, Emperor Yun’s voice rang out from the air as he remained at the center of the raging winds around him. Without warning, he cast forth a blow from his palm.

The blow from his palm ripped through the continuum of Space before him, causing a huge black hole to appear. Spanning more than hundreds of feet wide, the black hole grew vehemently at impossible speeds, drawing in all mass and matter upon itself while it engorged hungrily at everything it could draw.

The growing mass of darkness hurled itself at the old soothsayer, threatening to devour him whole.

“Hahaha… Interesting…”

The soothsayer gave a sinister giggle as he remained standing, waiting patiently for the black hole to bore down upon him. It had grew to more than a thousand feet wide as its jaws descended on him.

Just then, his hand raised and tapped at the center of the mass of darkness gently with a finger.

Simple and yet ordinary was his stroke, yet it held a power mysterious and strange.

The humongous cavity of pure darkness which had grown into more than a thousand feet immediately screeched painfully like a howling animal in agony before it collapsed and disintegrated into nothingness. The magic of the black hole had been undone even before it had unleashed its powers!

The collapse of the blackhole caused a huge vacuum that brought about turbulent and chaotic winds pouring from all directions. This generated a space rift in the skies overlooking the entire imperial city, laying waste to the once-illustrious city, leaving many structures and buildings in the city crushed and crumbled.

The horrific display of power by the soothsayer left the fighting Dao Masters and warriors, including those watching from the outskirts of the imperial city, awe-struck.

“With such ease, he had undone my magic?” Emperor Yun gasped in horror as all color had left his face.

Suddenly, everything around them turned completely pitch-black.

The entire world was shrouded by utter darkness that tolerated not even one glimmer of light.

A terrifying reign of literal darkness endured as a strong and unmistakable aura of bloodthirsty malice simmered in the air, sending fear and shivers down the spines of everyone around as if they had stepped through the frightening Gates of Hell.

The stares and glares of everyone around instantly rested upon the origin of the hateful aura, Emperor Xiao himself.

Emperor Xiao scoffed once. Suddenly, his saber swung forth dangerously with the force that he had been channeling.

So powerful was the stroke that it could even send tremors across the Heavens and Earth.

The blade shone with a pale, deathly flash as it clove the skies and earth into a half, sending a bright flash across the eerie scrim of darkness that persisted in their surroundings and blinded those who had tried to look.

The terrible flash of light tore through the air, the speed of its travel unfathomable and beyond comprehension.

Yet, faced with such a terrible stroke, the same assured grin remained upon the gnarly face of the old soothsayer who stood and waited for his adversary’s stroke to fall upon him.

“Whoosh!”

This shining brilliance from Emperor Xiao’s stroke sliced through the figure of the old soothsayer, exiting through his body and continued its way to the huge palace in the city.

The flash of light of the aura of Emperor Xiao’s blow crashed into the huge and massive palace complex, reducing the countless of sections and adjacent buildings and the palace itself, once the jewel of the imperial city, into nothing but dust and debris. Desolation and devastation was everywhere that even the Earth had been flipped over.

With only one stroke from his saber, Emperor Xiao had brought down the once majestic and imposing palace complex of the Tang Empire, leaving nothing but filth and grime.

But the soothsayer, having being hit by the stroke earlier, was hardly injured as his figure reformed. Floating in the air, the old soothsayer continued wearing a sinister grin as he remained unfazed as if the stroke had barely grazed him.

“How is this possible?” Emperor Xiao stammered with shock.

He had known that the old soothsayer was strong and powerful, but never had he expected such a monstrous difference between their strengths.

Instead, the soothsayer had appeared to be even stronger than he was during their previous encounter.

“Emperor Xiao and Emperor Yun, two of the Four Emperors of the Tang Empire of the East!”

There was an inexplicable and yet distinct twinkle in the soothsayer’s eyes as he spoke casually, “You have done well to reach such remarkable heights as Dao Masters. You both might have been able to defeat me if you both had joined hands in our previous encounter. But I am afraid… things are completely different now!”

“After all, my strength has recovered much after those years.”