Chapter 525: Swordless Sword
Chapter 525: Swordless Sword
Translator: Yukidaruma Translations Editor: Yukidaruma Translations
Lilia's sword attack was as fast as a falling meteor. With a single thrust, sound explosions rang out continuously. Everywhere her sword passed by, it seemed to have created a vacuum passageway in the air, and her sword's speed reached 15 times that of supersonic speed.
From this one sword attack, one could tell that Lilia had improved tremendously during this past period of time. In fact, she was never one who lacked passion in sword arts. It was just that her talent had been insufficient and she had no great teacher to provide her with guidance. That was why there had been a limit to her strength.
However, she then managed to get guidance from a grandmaster of sword arts like Fang Xingjian, and she also received the mystical prints to increase her aptitude. With these, in addition to her passion and hard work which were not lacking, Lilia had improved at a tremendous rate.
In particular, due to Fang Xingjian’s influence on her, Lilia had chosen the Windstorm Sword Hero for her first transition and the Gale Wind Sword Deity for her second transition. Her speed bested the second transition experts who were of the same level as her.
Her current attack lashed out at 15 times that of supersonic speed, and the space within a 100-meter range seemed to have been sliced into two by this sword.
Lilia's rate of improvement was already very fast, and she was also one of the higher ranking ones amongst those of the same level as her. However, she was facing a Demigod with three tiers of perfection.
As the person who was ranked third in the National Selection, Asto's talent was undeniable. Furthermore, he had even signed the Hell's Map and gained the power representing 'nihility' amongst the 36 Hell's Maps. With that as his foundation, working together with his sword arts cultivation, he had created his unique Killing technique, the Swordless Sword.
Currently, Asto had not moved an inch. The tip of Lilia's sword was just one A unit of length (one zhang = 3.3 meters) zhang 1 away from Asto's body when she let out a stifled snort. Then it was suddenly as if she had collided into a mountain. Her longsword was shattered, and she was sent flying out while splurting a mouthful of blood.
Lilia rolled over ten rounds on the ground before the power from Asto was neutralized. She lifted her head to look at Asto, thinking, "What was I hit with earlier?"
Asto's Swordless Sword was a power which could change ceaselessly between the illusionary and the real world.
When he managed to turn his own power into an illusionary one, his sword force would neither affect nor be affected by anything in the actual world.
Streams of sword force continued to linger within one zhang around him, neither affecting the physical nor being affected by the physical world.
It was when Asto transformed this surge of sword force into part of reality that the sword force began to affect the physical world.
As the illusions were unaffected by the physical world, he could apply a spinning sword force around himself. Unaffected by the physical world, the spinning sword force would not weaken, and it would forever circle around Asto's body until it was turned into something real one day.
Therefore, while it seemed as if there was nothing at all within one zhang around Asto, there were, in fact, countless illusionary spinning sword forces being stored there. The amount there was probably countless times beyond Asto's limits.
Relying just on the Swordless Sword within the one zhang range around him, it would be no problem for him even if he had to forcibly take on a Divine level expert's attack. Furthermore, having reached the level of perfecting brain regeneration, someone with his level of defense was rare in this world.
Asto looked at Lilia and said, "It's a death penalty for one to assault one of the country's Conferred Knights. Die."
As he spoke, Asto tapped out with his finger, sending forth a gush of sword force which was around him. He turned it from something illusionary into a part of reality, shooting toward Lilia.
The terrifying sword light compressed the air, leaving behind streams of white force in the air which struck toward Lilia's head like a laser beam.
Anderson's countenance changed, and streams of black shadows flashed, appearing before the sword force. There were shadow blades slashing out from each shadow, trying to fend off the white force in the air.
However, although it seemed that Asto had launched a casual attack, the sword force he had transformed was comparable to a full power attack with the strength of his physical body. With that being said, how could Anderson possibly be able to fend it off?
The shadow blades were crushed, and Anderson dropped to the ground, with blood flowing out from his seven apertures.
The sword force did not weaken in the least and continued to strike toward Lilia.
Just as the sword force was about to shoot through Lilia's head, Lilia raised up her right hand, extremely skillfully forming sword fingers and slashing out. It split the sword force into two, passing by Lilia on each of her side. The split sword force pierced through the forest for several kilometers, leaving behind two long trails of ruins.
"Hmmm?" Asto frowned. He could not understand how Lilia had managed to fend off this move.
On the other hand, Lilia was a little stunned as well. Just then, Fang Xingjian's voice rang out in her mind, "Don't be afraid. Just act in accordance to my instructions."
Amidst the spatial gaps, Fang Xingjian stood right next to Lilia. Simultaneously, he transmitted hints of sword intent into Lilia's brain, giving her instructions on the actions she should take.
Lilia said excitedly, "Master! You've come out from your seclusion?"
Fang Xingjian replied nonchalantly, "Focus. We'll talk after dealing with this person."
Lilia nodded and wiped off the blood from the corner of her lips. She formed sword fingers with one hand and pointed at Asto while leaving her other hand behind her back. This was a standard pose expressing that she was ready to take on her opponent.
Asto smiled. "Interesting. Let me see how many more moves you can manage to receive from me."
As he spoke, Asto launched out another attack with his hand, sending over 1,000 streams of sword force gushing out and heading toward Lilia like a violent storm.
Then Lilia felt as if her body was being grabbed onto by someone, like there was a big and strong hand grabbing her wrist from the void. Even though over 1,000 streams of forces were encompassing her, she felt no terror at all. There was only serenity in her mind.
She waved around continuously with her sword fingers, creating many afterimages and connecting them to form many vortexes.
The over 1,000 sword forces, which had struck toward her, seemed like wanderers who had returned home. They become a great tornado, spinning on the tip of Lilia's fingers.
"What?!" Asto looked at this scene in disbelief. To think that the other party had not only just fended off his sword forces, but she had even turned them into her own power!
"Excellent, excellent, excellent. I hadn't expected that you're another genius. However, for you to dare to challenge the Empire's authority so easily, don't blame me for being vicious."
As Asto spoke, his surroundings trembled a little. Those were the fierce sword forces he had transformed. Over 10,000 streams of sword forces gushed forth. In terms of both speed and strength, they far surpassed the standard of a level 29 Conferred Knight.
The unleashed power could be said to be earth-shaking and world-changing.
The sword forces had merely just appeared when violent sound waves gushed forth toward the entire Sacred Land.
However, the sword forces did not extend outward. They were condensed at one spot and launched in an attack toward Lilia like a light needle.
The speed of the explosive attack made it seem as if Lilia would be crushed within one-thousandth of a second. It created a ten-centimeter-wide vacuum passageway which extended several tens of kilometers behind her and was charging through everything material.
This attack was one that purely utilized one's achievement level to bully others. With Lilia's five attributes, there was no way that she would be able to react. Moreover, even if she could react to it, there was no way that she would be able to fend it off.
However, right now, Lilia had Fang Xingjian backing her up.
Therefore, when the sword forces were just about to strike Lilia's chest, Fang Xingjian also activated the Infiltrating Void. This caused an explosive force to burst at Lilia's arm, forcing Lilia's sword fingers point toward Asto's sword force.
With this collision, the sword forces seemed to have turned from a violent wild beast into a gentle sheep. They continued to throb on Lilia’s palm, no longer showing any signs of attacking.