The changes occurring to Liang Tingyu in the arena were undoubtedly extremely bizarre.

Everyone was completely unprepared, already staring dumbfounded at this moment. Hearing her riddle-like words, they felt even more puzzled: that technique?

It sounded as if these two had previous contact, even previous combat. And in this encounter, Liang Tingyu should not have gained any advantage, thus becoming very wary of Jian Chou’s “that technique.”

But the problem was, now Liang Tingyu was saying Jian Chou didn’t know it?

Things suddenly became confusing and mysterious.

Everyone’s gazes wandered between the currently deadlocked Liang Tingyu and Jian Chou, faintly sensing that taut string between them—

A string that could snap into battle at any moment!

Jian Chou’s body stiffened for an instant, though not obviously.

But only she herself knew what tremendous waves were churning in her heart at this moment!

That technique – she indeed didn’t know it yet.

In the Night Sailing Ship’s dungeon, facing that lofty power, combined with the inherent stimulation of the Deer-Cutting Blade itself, she had achieved enlightenment in that moment, thus producing that blade strike that amazed even herself.

Afterward, returning to the inn, though she had experimented and studied many times, she had only grasped the superficial aspects, able to imitate merely one or two parts of its aura.

Liang Tingyu had a reputation and considerable strength. Her previous wariness, even fighting with hands and feet bound, could largely be attributed to the deterrent effect of this blade.

She didn’t think she had a chance of winning and had to constantly guard against this technique.

But now, this perceptive opponent had already realized where the problem lay.

Her strength was terrifying, and this insight was no less formidable!

Not to mention her current state.

Jian Chou gazed at Liang Tingyu’s pair of pitch-black, lightless eyes, her already heavy mood becoming even more grave. Things were clearly developing in a direction she hadn’t anticipated and couldn’t prevent…

The current opponent reminded her of that statue from that day.

It also reminded her of a secret technique she had once seen in the old mansion in the City of Wrongful Death—

This secret technique originated from Buddhism and was called “Descent.”

All Buddhist disciples chanted sutras and worshipped Buddhas daily, offering incense to the Buddhas of various heavens. Using secret methods to pray, they could invoke the descent of Pure Land Buddhist power to possess mortal bodies.

This power was not of this world. At its smallest, it could strengthen mortal flesh; at its greatest, it could cleanse earthly hearts and guide ordinary people into the supreme Pure Land.

Later, because Buddhism had connections with the Extreme Domain regarding reincarnation matters, this technique gradually passed from Buddhism into the Extreme Domain. Ghost cultivators in the Extreme Domain who possessed secret methods could invoke the power of Extreme Domain demons and ghosts to possess them, even borrowing the power of the Eight Palace Kings of Hell.

The statues Jian Chou had seen in the Extreme Domain at that time might have served this purpose.

Though she had never truly witnessed this kind of technique, what she had seen that day – the statue in the Night Sailing Ship’s great hall and the bizarre changes occurring to Liang Tingyu before her – inevitably led her to this connection.

Liang Tingyu alone, she actually didn’t fear.

But if this heart-palpitating divine and demonic power was added, victory or defeat would be difficult to predict.

“Heh, why aren’t you speaking?”

Seeing Jian Chou’s body tense and standing silently in place for a long time, Liang Tingyu’s mood seemed to improve somewhat, laughing with a hint of triumph.

“Don’t tell me I guessed correctly?”

Guessed correctly?

She had indeed guessed correctly, but how could Jian Chou admit it? After all, there were so many people present. Apart from herself, who could be one hundred percent certain whether she knew it or not?

With one part uncertainty, there would be one part wariness; and this one part wariness could very likely become her chance for victory.

So, though the Deer-Cutting Blade in her hand quietly tightened, Jian Chou’s expression didn’t look so heavy. She even showed a somewhat relaxed smile, turning the question back to Liang Tingyu: “Whether I know it or not, why don’t you try again and find out?”

The cracked scar on her cheek was crimson.

The blood flowing down slowly crawled over Liang Tingyu’s somewhat pointed chin, outlining a brilliant line that greatly contradicted her own style.

At this moment, the contrast between cold desolation and passionate intensity reached its extreme.

Jian Chou’s words were ambiguous yet seemed very confident.

No one knew whether Liang Tingyu believed them. Everyone only saw that after hearing Jian Chou’s response, she slightly narrowed her eyes, and the black qi-covered patterns on her face twisted accordingly.

“Then let me give it a try!”

Her left hand gently raised, bringing the mandarin duck battle-axe already showing blood-red mandarin duck patterns to her lips, lightly licking it. In this instant, a bone-chilling feeling transmitted through this image to everyone’s hearts!

Jian Chou’s reaction was already at its limit!

But faster still was Liang Tingyu’s leaping strike!

The totem-like runes covering her body writhed, mysterious power had enveloped her entire being, elevating her overall state to a level ordinary people couldn’t understand or reach.

In the swirling black qi, her left hand was already raised high!

A chopping strike fell!

“Swish—”

A dazzling red moon!

The blade surface, thin as a cicada’s wing, rubbed against the suddenly cold air on the Isolated Shore Platform, leaving a series of ear-piercing sharp sounds. The bright blood-red mandarin duck patterns on the blade surface blurred in the howling wind like ink dispersed by water!

Jian Chou, who had previously been able to easily block her opponent’s attacks, at this moment could only manage to raise her blade to block at her brow!

“Clang!”

Sparks flew brilliantly!

That round of blood moon brought by the mandarin duck battle-axe wasn’t at all as light and nimble as it appeared, instead revealing an extremely viscous heaviness and stagnation.

The moment the Deer-Cutting Blade collided with it, it was like crashing into a quagmire.

Yet within the quagmire, myriad star-stream-like explosive violent forces were accumulated, instantly shocking Jian Chou’s palm numb.

An aura from primordial antiquity coldly descended with the falling “blood moon,” covering her. Cold, ruthless, and indifferent, viewing all things in the world as if they were ants.

Apart from this power itself, there seemed to be nothing in the world that should exist higher than It!

Jian Chou couldn’t help but be dazed for an instant.

Immediately, a sharp stabbing pain came from her brow – it was her hand holding the Deer-Cutting Blade that had trembled, and a fierce aura overflowing from that blood moon immediately slashed down!

“Hiss!”

A vertical blood-red scratch immediately crossed Jian Chou’s brow, seeping out a rouge-like brilliant color. If Jian Chou hadn’t turned her head to avoid it, her entire skull would probably have been pierced by this aura!

What a thrilling scene!

No one had expected that Liang Tingyu, who had previously been suppressed to the point of being almost unable to resist, would have such an amazing improvement in strength after those symbols appeared on her body!

Many people cried out in alarm because of this.

But Jian Chou in the arena could no longer afford to be surprised.

Strong!

The current Liang Tingyu was actually several points stronger than she had anticipated. Not only in terms of power itself, but also in the aura this power carried.

An overwhelming aura!

Fierce everywhere, suppressive everywhere!

Even someone as determined as Jian Chou, under the shroud of this aura, couldn’t help but feel a oppressive gloom, showing just how powerful and strange this aura was.

Startled, she immediately activated her “Human Artifact” body cultivation power to its full ten-tenths, also unreservedly manifesting her Dragon Scale Dao Seal, trying to hold on under such pressure, or at least hold on a bit longer.

But unexpectedly, at this moment, a strange smile spread across Liang Tingyu’s lips.

Jian Chou suddenly felt her scalp prickle!

As that ominous premonition struck her heart, behind her, an aura carrying deathly silence and danger was already crashing toward her back.

Only then did Jian Chou notice that the other mandarin duck battle-axe that should have been held in Liang Tingyu’s left hand had somehow disappeared without trace!

And in her spiritual consciousness perception, in that originally calm void behind her, ripples suddenly spread.

That other mandarin duck battle-axe that had vanished from Liang Tingyu’s hand actually appeared out of nowhere after these ripples, blooming with golden radiance as dazzling as the sun!

Golden sun and blood moon!

At this moment, they hung high before and behind Jian Chou. Golden light and blood qi intertwined and reflected each other, faintly seeming to have some wonderful connection and resonance.

At this moment, Jian Chou was like being trapped in a golden-red cage with no escape!

Mandarin duck battle-axes were originally a pair.

But not a single person could explain how this second mandarin duck battle-axe had mysteriously appeared behind Jian Chou, nor could anyone react further to this.

Everyone could only stare dumbfounded at this instantly reversed scene!

Surging power pressed down like countless mountains and valleys!

Jian Chou, in the dangerous situation, knew she could neither advance nor retreat a step, and could only endure Liang Tingyu’s strike head-on!

“Rumble!”

The two mandarin duck battle-axes closed toward the center, pinching from front and back, about to grind Jian Chou within into a blur of flesh and blood.

But at this critical moment, brilliant starlight actually scattered between the blazing golden sun and blood moon!

“Hum!”

That was the sound of spiritual qi from all directions stopping its flow due to a strong resonance. But immediately after, it was attracted by some powerful force, flowing toward the starlight in the gap between the golden sun and blood moon.

The more spiritual qi gathered, the more brilliant and magnificent the starlight in the crevice became. Eventually, it gradually gave people a sense of magnificence!

Large amounts of starlight quickly overwhelmed the radiance of Liang Tingyu’s mandarin duck battle-axes!

In the blink of an eye, it spread out flat, transforming into a huge battle disc!

Equal-sided octagonal shape, with myriad Kunxian lines within, intersecting and crisscrossing like a huge chessboard. Golden dao pieces fell on the nodes where Kunxian lines intersected, like scattered chess pieces.

The central Tianyuan position showed a strange lustrous purple jade glow.

In this instant, Qu Zhengfeng in his elegant chamber was stunned, Shen Yao watching from the sidelines was stunned, and Bai Yin, who had just given Xiao Jin directions and was now worried about the battle, was also dazed…

The entire Silver Tower fell into shocked silence at this moment!

Because every Kunxian line on this suddenly appearing battle disc was bright, representing that the disc’s owner had opened every meridian in their body before Foundation Establishment; because this suddenly appearing battle disc had a diameter exceeding three zhang; because the master of this battle disc was Jian Chou, currently in a life-and-death crisis!

And according to their knowledge, Jian Chou’s current strength was merely mid-stage Nascent Soul!

Mid-stage Nascent Soul, with a battle disc over three zhang?

What did this mean?

Countless people felt as if they had been blinded, unable to believe what they saw!

Realm couldn’t fully represent a cultivator’s combat power, but a battle disc could!

Back when Yashan’s eldest senior brother Qu Zhengfeng, now Tomorrow Star Sea’s new Sword Emperor, had been stuck at late-stage Nascent Soul for many years without advancement, his battle disc was only just over three zhang!

This Jian Chou, how many years had she been cultivating?

How could she possibly possess such a terrifying battle disc?!

Countless doubts and shocks assailed everyone’s hearts.

At this moment, they almost forgot they were watching a thrilling battle, only wishing they could immediately rush up and ask this monster on the Isolated Shore Platform how she could possibly cultivate like this!

Even Liang Tingyu, who was fighting Jian Chou, couldn’t hide her horror.

She was currently at late-stage Nascent Soul cultivation. Though she hadn’t revealed her own battle disc in combat, she knew very well in her heart.

Her current battle disc was only two zhang and six chi.

Looking across the Nineteen Continents, such cultivation matched with such battle disc size was absolutely one in a thousand outstanding!

But this Yashan Jian Chou currently trapped in the middle, not only was her cultivation a small realm below hers, but her battle disc was so much larger than her own!

Even if she herself were fortunate enough to break through to Spirit Separation someday, her battle disc would at most be two zhang and eight chi.

To reach three zhang was almost impossible!

This Yashan Jian Chou…

Liang Tingyu was immediately shrouded in gloom: today they were enemies. Now she had invoked Lord Shaoji’s power to possess her body, barely able to battle Jian Chou. With the talent and strength the opponent had displayed, if she couldn’t kill her today, she would surely become a giant figure in the Nineteen Continents someday!

When that time came, where would there be any path for her survival?

Must kill!

Must die!

If Jian Chou were allowed to walk out of the Silver Tower alive, it would definitely bring endless disaster!

In those pitch-black, lightless eyes, a strange dark red light quietly flashed, transforming into the suddenly blazing killing intent in Liang Tingyu’s heart.

The power granted by the statue in that great hall enhanced all her perceptions and excavated her deeply hidden potential!

“Die!”

The gloomy voice emerged from her throat, hoarse like a rainy day due to extreme tension. Among the countless black runes on Liang Tingyu’s face, threads of blood light actually began to shine!

Along with the appearance of this blood light, the golden sun and blood moon that had been dimmed by Jian Chou’s battle disc starlight immediately brightened again.

Surging spiritual power, through Liang Tingyu’s connection with the mandarin duck battle-axes, poured into them.

The huge and oppressive aura immediately intensified, continuously pressing toward the very center!

Jian Chou’s upright figure had at this moment become only a blurred moon-white shadow. As Liang Tingyu’s attack pressed tighter and tighter, she looked as if she might turn into powder at any moment.

Outside, no one could see the cold sweat streaming down her forehead.

She could feel Liang Tingyu’s substantial killing intent more clearly than anyone.

Even the battle disc beneath her feet wasn’t something she had deliberately revealed. Rather, because the pressure from Liang Tingyu’s attack this time was too heavy, she had no choice but to rely on the battle disc’s natural power of communication with heaven and earth to offset this pressure!

Trapped in this continuously shrinking cage, Jian Chou only felt that suffocating sensation growing heavier. Being confined within, she could also clearly perceive that this “cage” was continuously shrinking.

When it shrank to its limit, would be when she died!

Life, or death?

Everything lay in this brief moment of thought—

This was perhaps an even more strange and treacherous scene than the bizarre transformation that had occurred to Liang Tingyu earlier!

On the Isolated Shore Platform, after the two mandarin duck battle-axes developed those mandarin duck patterns, they had a mysterious connection with each other. They jointly emitted trembling sounds, and in their trembling, burst forth even brighter radiance!

That huge sphere frantically pressed inward in this resonance!

“Bang!”

Only hearing an explosion-like tremendous sound!

Jian Chou trapped within seemed to finally lose all resistance, and the huge sphere suddenly crushed inward!

But in this instant, neither any miserable screams could be heard, nor any splashing blood could be seen, let alone the blurred flesh and crushed bones Liang Tingyu had envisioned!

In this instant, there was only dense ink, surging out like a raging tide!

As if within that huge sphere Liang Tingyu controlled, what was hidden wasn’t a living person, but such endless ink!

After the sphere was crushed, this ink frantically poured out.

The pitch-black ink tide momentarily shrouded this narrow area in the arena.

It blocked the radiance of Liang Tingyu’s two mandarin duck battle-axes, making them appear somewhat dejected and dim in the ink qi’s embrace; it also absorbed the skylight cast down from the firmament, placing the entire Silver Tower in strange shadows.

A heavy dark wind quietly blew past, and almost everyone felt inexplicably cold in their hearts.

The frantically churning ink tide, appearing for only a moment, then swiftly retreated. Like a whale sucking water, it appeared as quickly as it disappeared.

With a “whoosh,” as they contracted back, they recongealed into a figure!

“Gasp!”

The moment everyone in the arena clearly saw this figure, they finally couldn’t help but collectively emit an incredulous exclamation!

It was actually Jian Chou’s figure!

The churning ink tide had disappeared without trace. She in her moon-white long robe now had a pale complexion, even the fingers hanging at her side trembling slightly, clearly not having gained any advantage from Liang Tingyu’s previous strike.

But those observing carefully made a keen discovery: besides the Deer-Cutting Blade in her right hand, her left hand actually held a strange long sword.

The sword was over three chi long, entirely pitch-black.

But the sword body was covered with honeycomb-like holes, densely packed and countless. The entire sword’s shape appeared extremely bizarre.

Moreover, this sword’s material was extremely rare – few could tell whether it was stone or jade.

Strange indeed, didn’t she already have a blade?

This sword was…

Many people were puzzled, but the clever ones had already guessed this sword’s purpose – how thrilling and exciting had that previous scene been?

Clearly seeing the cage close in, with Jian Chou inside seemingly doomed to die.

But at the critical moment, she had actually transformed into that surging ink tide, becoming thousands upon thousands of streams, escaping death in a completely inhuman way!

Such a bizarre technique was unheard of and unseen by the crowd.

And at this moment, this equally bizarre sword appearing in Jian Chou’s hand was probably the key to this technique.

For a time, even Liang Tingyu’s dark gaze couldn’t help but focus on this sword: “I’ve long heard that Yashan’s eldest senior sister Jian Chou uniquely chose to use a giant axe as her weapon. Never expected that today I wouldn’t see the axe, but instead witnessed a sword. However, how long can you barely survive?”

Everyone could see that in the critical moment just now, Jian Chou’s activation of this technique had already consumed enormous spiritual power. And in the previous exchange, her displayed weakness made Liang Tingyu believe that defeating Jian Chou at this moment was completely not difficult!

She had Lord Shaoji’s power in her body. If she couldn’t “keep” Jian Chou here today, how could she qualify to be this chief libationer?!

In her eyes, that deep pitch-black became heavier, like the universe’s primordial long night, impenetrable to any light.

Liang Tingyu’s fingers lightly clicked, and the mandarin duck battle-axes that had flown through the air after that failed strike returned to her hands, flowing with gentle radiance, alternately bright and dim, seemingly having some strange resonance in the darkness.

This was a familiar sense of danger, and Jian Chou immediately felt the situation becoming thorny.

Her body’s reaction was even faster than her brain’s reaction!

Just as Liang Tingyu raised her hand to attack again, she immediately leaped up, simultaneously opening the apertures throughout her body, allowing the breeze in the air to flow through every corner of her body, letting that rhythm resonate with the Wind-Swallowing Sword in her hand.

As if this sword had already become part of her body.

Thus, at this moment, even she herself dispersed into such wind, transforming into an endless ink tide…

This was a technique she had comprehended when facing life-and-death crises in the Extreme Domain, extremely bizarre, relying on Jian Chou’s ability to sense nature.

In that deep alley battle, or in that eighteenth level of hell combat in the Extreme Domain, this technique had achieved surprising victory.

But at this moment, such bizarre arts could only become a means of desperate dodging!

Liang Tingyu had never been any kind of soft touch.

After determining that Jian Chou couldn’t resist, her attacks fell like violent storms, the mandarin duck battle-axes in her hands rising and falling, each radiance brighter than the last!

Often when one axe had just shot from her hand, the other was already across Jian Chou’s neck!

Too fierce, too dangerous!

Jian Chou had to retreat again and again. After several exchanges, like Liang Tingyu before her, she was actually forced to retreat to the edge of the Isolated Shore Platform!

Only three steps away from falling from this hundred-zhang high platform!

“Bang!”

Heavily stepping on the Isolated Shore Platform’s old rock, Jian Chou’s figure once again condensed from the ink tide, relying solely on this stomp to barely stop her momentum.

But at this moment, her complexion had already turned pale to the extreme.

In outsiders’ eyes, Liang Tingyu’s airtight attacks had beaten her powerless to fight back, and repeatedly using the Wind-Swallowing Sword to activate the ink tide had put her under tremendous consumption.

Very obviously, in such a state, she completely lacked the strength to resist Liang Tingyu’s next move!

“Is this all?”

Mocking words rang out from before Jian Chou, faintly carrying an indescribable disappointment. Liang Tingyu gripped her two mandarin duck battle-axes, gazing at Jian Chou with cold-blooded eyes.

“I thought you would have some trump card you hadn’t used…”

Trump card?

Jian Chou took a deep breath, her gaze fixed on her opponent, motionless, appearing as if she hadn’t fallen into a life-and-death crisis and wasn’t afraid of what was about to happen.

Liang Tingyu gazed at her like this, also feeling her eyes that contained indescribable silence within calmness, suddenly feeling a familiarity.

Thus, she suddenly laughed.

“Your eyes remind me of my past…”

“…”

Liang Tingyu was undoubtedly someone with a story, but Jian Chou actually had no interest in her story. But strangely, a string in her mind inexplicably trembled.

At this moment, she didn’t respond.

Liang Tingyu’s black robe and unattractive features, contrasted by that bloody scar, even looked somewhat fierce.

But at this moment, the smile on her lips became gentle again.

Even carrying a hint of gossamer-like melancholy.

“Mandarin duck battle-axes, mandarin duck battle-axes…”

“Without mandarin duck souls, they cannot become mandarin duck battle-axes!”

“Do you know? When I killed my husband and took his life blood and soul to forge these axes, the way he looked at me was just like you…”

Rough fingers bearing several scars, as if caressing a lover, slid across the water-smooth blade surface of the mandarin duck battle-axe.

A shallow ripple immediately spread.

Thus, the two mandarin duck patterns on the battle-axe suddenly blazed bright, myriad bloody light and shadow immediately gathered together, condensing into the phantom of a male cultivator in Dao robes, holding a pill furnace, with clear and handsome features, gazing at Liang Tingyu with infatuation.

In this instant, Jian Chou suddenly felt not a trace of warmth.

She gazed at Liang Tingyu finally revealing her ultimate trump card, also gazing at this strange male cultivator emerging from the mandarin duck battle-axe. In her mind, that line of poetry suddenly surfaced.

Rather die as paired fish than live as immortals alone…

But why did the people she encountered always do the opposite? After all this time, here was another “Xie Buchen.”

Jian Chou also slowly smiled: “How coincidental, you also remind me of an old acquaintance.”