At the moment the long sword pierced through his body, Xie Buchen’s eyes suddenly carried a trace of confusion.

The sword.

Pitch black and lightless.

Grasping the tail of an azure serpent, several inches of emerald peaks at the tip.

The three-foot azure blade slowed down in his vision, and all memories instantly flowed backward…

In the farmhouse courtyard, with bare walls and poverty, only on that one wall hung the sole precious sword he had brought from home—

Later, he named it: Seven Parts Soul.

The Human Emperor Sword was pitch black, while Seven Parts Soul was snow-bright.

Yet at this moment, the two swords overlapped together just like this.

He seemed to see that inch by inch of cold light, accompanying his slow sword-drawing motion, pouring out from the scabbard.

Cold.

Without temperature.

Reflecting his cold yet struggling eyes.

Yes.

Struggling.

Xie Buchen suddenly blinked, and in the next moment, the world in his eyes turned completely blood red!

“Puff!”

It was the dull and blunt Human Emperor Sword, piercing into his body like stabbing tofu, the sound of breaking through his bones!

It was the sound of his heart shattering accordingly, the sound of all the blood in his body becoming chaotic!

He saw Jian Chou before him, and also saw himself reflected in her eyes!

Today’s her, yesterday’s him.

Today’s him, yesterday’s her.

Almost identical expressions, only the roles had been reversed.

The cold blade, the scalding blood!

They merged together almost instantly.

The blunt sword without an edge appeared incomparably sharp at this moment, and after piercing through his chest, it actually emerged from his back!

Xie Buchen only felt the sword’s momentum was terrifying, as if she had concentrated all her strength upon it, crashing down like Mount Tai!

“Bang!”

His back slammed hard, and he was actually carried by this sword strike to crash into the enormous Buddha statue behind him!

Xie Buchen, who had originally been executing the River Flow Sword technique in mid-air, was met by Jian Chou’s Human Emperor Sword attack, also in mid-air. Her sword thrust was perfectly timed, directly pinning Xie Buchen to the Buddha’s palm with one strike!

The compassionate Buddha gazed down upon the world, raising the preaching palm upright, as if holding the blood-stained Xie Buchen in the palm.

A tiny figure against the thousand-foot giant Buddha.

That momentary scene made one involuntarily feel the urge to bow down in worship.

Except…

Not including Jian Chou.

The moment the Human Emperor Sword pierced through Xie Buchen’s chest, the stormy waves in her heart suddenly calmed down, becoming extremely indifferent, extremely peaceful.

She gazed at Xie Buchen with a pitying look, not knowing whether she pitied him or her former self.

Xie Buchen’s seemingly puzzled words naturally reached her ears.

Even with three thousand storms raging across the lake, they couldn’t mask this vague sentence.

Jian Chou’s five fingers still rested on the Human Emperor Sword, slender and pale, without a trace of weakness.

Profound spiritual power flowed through these slender fingers like wave after wave, continuously surging into Xie Buchen’s body that was already approaching collapse, showing no mercy whatsoever.

Killing an ordinary person would certainly be simple.

But today, Jian Chou wasn’t trying to kill an ordinary person.

That spiritual power was completely unlike that of a female cultivator, fierce and domineering. Transmitted through the Human Emperor Sword, it ravaged throughout his entire body with his chest as the center!

His meridians throughout his body shattered inch by inch!

His flesh and blood throughout his body became blurred piece by piece!

It was a pain almost like lingchi torture, like being cut by a thousand knives.

Xie Buchen’s entire body was about to curl up from the pain, yet he was precisely pinned to the Buddha’s palm, unable to avoid it even slightly.

The entire world stained with wind and rain completely turned blood red in his eyes!

Even Jian Chou before him was tinted with a layer of blood color. Even after blinking three times, he couldn’t remove this layer of blood-red shadow from his vision.

In the past, he killed his wife to prove his Dao. Today, she would kill him to prove her Dao!

How similar it was!

It was revenge, and also a cycle nearly resembling fate.

She was as cold as he had been back then, yet without his hesitation and struggle from those days.

“Heh…”

It was a laugh mixed with extreme pain, suppressed in his throat, extremely muffled.

Xie Buchen had to use almost all his strength to raise his trembling palm and grasp the Human Emperor Sword that was still surging with countless spiritual power—

“Drip!”

Blood immediately flowed and fell!

Xie Buchen’s palm tightly gripped the Human Emperor Sword’s blade, preventing it from advancing another inch into his chest.

But the dull, edgeless blade strangely cut through his palm. The wind and rain fell from above, sliding down his hand, and when it fell to the lake below, it was already thick with blood!

A tremendous force of resistance, following where his hand gripped, rolled back madly toward Jian Chou who held the sword!

Xie Buchen slightly curved his lips, and in those eyes, flames blazed fiercely. A faint blood color, accompanied by that hint of mockery and vague madness, slowly spread!

“You want to… kill me to prove your Dao?”

The hoarse, dry voice seemed to be ground out from his throat. Though mixed with the sound of wind and rain, it was eerily clear…

At that moment, when Jian Chou met such eyes, she felt a bone-chilling cold rise from her feet!

Something was wrong!

“He’s got a trick!!!”

Almost simultaneously with Xie Buchen raising his hand, a desperate shout finally came from below!

Jian Chou instinctively looked back, and it was actually the azure lamp below the Buddha statue.

The flames flickered, seeming ready to be extinguished by the wind and rain at any moment, yet every time they were about to go out, a force would emerge from the lamp wick to steady them.

Four azure lamps still stood firm in the wind and rain!

At this moment, one of the azure lamps blazed with great light, and vaguely, a figure could be seen struggling within the flame!

It was Zuoliu!

That voice was his, that figure was also his!

Though trapped and bound within the Three Thousand Zhang of Red Dust, perhaps because a Buddha pagoda had collapsed, Zuoliu and the others, though within the realm, could see the scene above the heavenly lake through a corner of the sky.

From the moment he saw Jian Chou and Xie Buchen resume their battle, Zuoliu’s heart had been pounding with alarm.

Unfortunately, after the eighteen bronze figures before him disappeared, eight bald-headed vajras appeared, blocking his path.

He actually had to kill one to light one azure lamp!

For a while, Zuoliu couldn’t break free.

The seals on his jade folder were running low, and most of the Dao seals on his body were learned from others. After fighting several rounds, he was struggling and couldn’t continue.

Half his lifetime of cultivation depended on those people he had seen and admired. Now that even their abilities were helpless, how could he defeat these vajras before him?

At that moment, Zuoliu even wanted to lie down and surrender directly…

But…

How could he give up?

How could he surrender?

Among the transformation seals, Xie Buchen’s abilities were quite strange, yet during his fierce battle with Jian Chou, he hadn’t revealed them at all.

Without even thinking, Zuoliu knew there was a trick!

He had no choice, he couldn’t think of any solution.

All the techniques learned from others had been exhausted. Only Jian Chou’s words echoed in his mind—

Don’t be like me, just be yourself.

In his mind, a ray of light like opening heaven and earth appeared.

Zuoliu raised his seemingly ordinary fist and actually smashed a vajra with one punch!

Thus, an azure lamp lit up, actually burning like a fire basin with roaring flames.

Under the scorching of these flames, the Three Thousand Red Dust Realm actually cracked open a fissure.

It was this fissure that finally gave Zuoliu the chance to speak!

At the moment when Jian Chou’s Human Emperor Sword had pierced through Xie Buchen’s chest, seemingly having victory in hand; at the moment when Xie Buchen raised his hand again, even showing a smile!

A critical moment!

There’s a trick!

An earth-shaking roar surged out from that thin lamp wick, not only attracting Jian Chou’s attention, but even causing Xie Buchen a moment of confusion.

When masters fight, how could they tolerate such a moment of confusion?

In an instant, ten thousand changes had occurred!

Though Jian Chou didn’t know where exactly the trick lay, she chose to trust without hesitation, suddenly withdrawing her sword. When the Human Emperor Sword was pulled out, it even drew a bloody red line falling from the sky.

Her figure burst backward, about to distance herself from Xie Buchen in the blink of an eye.

But Xie Buchen’s killing move had been brewing for a long time, almost waiting for this extremely close moment when anyone would find it difficult to escape!

The moment Jian Chou burst backward, in his eyes slightly tinted with blood, finally revealed that long-hidden ray of golden light.

The golden light curved into line after line, condensing into a flickering Dao seal!

Xie Buchen’s gaze fell upon her, and at that moment, the space centered on her actually showed a strange fluctuation, like a small area of a calm lake suddenly beginning to boil.

Only such a narrow area, yet it precisely trapped Jian Chou within!

“Fight!”

The lips turned bluish-purple from blood loss moved slightly, and a clear single word came from Xie Buchen’s mouth.

Too clear, like thunder crashing on level ground, exploding in Jian Chou’s ears, in Jian Chou’s heart!

“Rumble!”

What exploded along with it was the three-zhang space around her!

Like being struck by a sword, marking the ground as a prison!

The three-zhang space instantly froze, and Jian Chou within it was like a fish frozen in the lake’s heart.

The moment Xie Buchen’s word “Fight” left his mouth, between heaven and earth, it was as if a heavy hammer crashed down, and as if the frozen space itself exploded, terrifying spatial fluctuations swept away, instantly burying Jian Chou!

Space collapse!

Jian Chou’s mind buzzed with a tremor, feeling her body, along with the entire space, being torn apart and exploded together!

Her flesh and blood, jade-like bones, profound spiritual power, all shattered completely!

In just this instant, she in mid-air had already become a blood person!

No longer could the original color of her clothing be seen, only a sheet of blood red…

The real her finally completely merged with the her in Xie Buchen’s eyes.

The Human Emperor Sword flew from her hand, flying back to Xie Buchen’s hand.

“Cough…”

He coughed weakly, watching Jian Chou’s instantly defeated figure.

The Dijiang Wings could no longer support her, shrinking back into a Dao seal hidden on her shoulder blade.

Blood-covered Jian Chou fell from the sky like a stone, heavily crashing onto the lotus platform where the Buddha sat, splashing up blood droplets.

Xie Buchen glanced at the azure lamp not far away, forcibly suppressing the blood that had surged to his throat, pressing one hand against the continuously bleeding sword wound on his chest.

Having reached the Golden Core realm, damage to the flesh and blood body was no longer so critical.

The most terrifying damage from Jian Chou’s sword just now was the destroyed meridians and the spiritual power that had been devoured…

His steps slightly unsteady, he held the Human Emperor Sword as if he had never been separated from this sword, leaping down from the Buddha’s palm and landing on the lotus platform, looking from afar at that woman who looked like a blood person.

Everything had become blurred, with some wounds even deep enough to see bone.

Never had any battle made him exert himself so completely, revealing all his trump cards; never had any battle left her so disheveled, with her life hanging by a thread!

He was only ten steps away from her.

Looking at her from this not-too-near, not-too-far distance, his eyes showed a trace of reluctance, yet also carried a kind of loneliness as if all dust had settled.

This was his “Human Emperor Dao,” wasn’t it?

The highest position is the loneliest.