A Thread of Sky was already extremely fast, yet her speed was actually a thread faster than A Thread of Sky! By rights, reaching out her hand at this moment should have allowed her to grasp this sword no matter what, yet unexpectedly she grasped nothing but air!

The sword, the sword had actually become a sword shadow!

The sword that should have been here had, in this flash of lightning, moved without warning to a place three zhang away from Jian Chou! Just like a cultivator’s instant movement, with barely detectable spatial fluctuations still lingering in the void!

This sword!

Jian Chou’s pupils contracted slightly, already startled.

Before she could recover from this bizarre and unpredictable change, A Thread of Sky’s blade suddenly turned, moving and changing shadows like a phantom, aiming at her!

Its edge fully exposed!

At this instant, Jian Chou felt a bone-chilling sensation all over!

For the qi that locked onto her entire body at this moment, for the killing intent emanating from the sword body at this moment, and for that sharp crimson that reflected into her eyes!

In this void that was nearly a hundred zhang higher than the highest snow peak of Yashan’s armory, one person and one sword faced each other in silent confrontation from opposite sides!

In the cold wind, killing intent was about to explode!

However, Qu Zhengfeng below showed no intention of intervening. He merely casually sheathed his sword, landed on another nearby cliff, sat at the cliff’s edge, took out a wine jug, and watched while drinking.

Being Yashan’s strongest sword, the sword with the heaviest killing intent, and a sword that no one had ever drawn in thousands of years, how could it be so easily taken?

Famous swords have the temperament of famous swords.

Taking a sword from the armory depends on that bit of courage in one’s heart!

Jian Chou understood this principle.

So although when directly pointed at by this sword, she felt a bone-chilling sensation throughout her body, even feeling that the flow of spiritual energy within her was hindered in this instant, she felt no fear whatsoever!

If she feared, she wouldn’t be standing here today!

In the past, her opponents were enemies; today, her opponent was this sword!

The sword hadn’t moved, but she moved first!

The Wanxiang Battle Disc spread out the moment she moved, golden Dao seals flashing with thousands of streams of light. In a blink, her Wind-Thunder Wings spread, stirring up wild winds and chaotic lightning, yet her figure vanished in an instant!

However, that sword could easily detect her movements and folded backward!

“Clang!”

The sharp sword cry sounded like a crane’s call!

The six-foot-long sword body should have appeared somewhat inflexible due to its length, yet when folding backward, it was as nimble as a feather, completely lacking the heavy feeling it gave when its killing intent was at its deepest.

It was almost like it had become a different sword!

Caught off guard, the sword edge penetrated the void, its slightly curved blade with wave-like undulations trembling lightly, actually tearing apart Jian Chou’s wind-riding artistic conception hidden in the wind in an instant, forcibly compelling her out of the void and revealing her movements!

“Swish!”

The sword edge grazed past her ear, leaving a thin, long bloody mark!

Jian Chou was truly startled into a cold sweat. Even in her more than eighty years of stormy battles, she had rarely encountered such danger!

And her opponent was merely a masterless sword!

If it had been earlier times, if it had been someone else, they would likely have already weighed their own strength and developed thoughts of retreat. But she had fought her way through everything with sheer determination, so how could she bow her head and admit defeat before this sword!

She immediately said “Well done!” and instead of retreating, advanced. Channeling power to her palm, a flash of pale gold crossed her brow, and her hand was covered with golden scales. Her five fingers suddenly curved, actually grasping at A Thread of Sky just as it was about to leave but hadn’t yet!

Perfected mastery, Dragon Scale Dao Seal!

A Thread of Sky’s qi was strong, but Jian Chou’s move was no less formidable!

With a “clang,” her hard claw failed to successfully grasp the sword hilt but had already touched the sword body, like metal striking metal, neither yielding to the other.

But A Thread of Sky’s formidability was something she had never experienced before.

The sword was clearly grasped in her hand, and the terrifying attack released between her fingers and palm had already disrupted the surrounding spatial fluctuations, preventing any spatial movement from being used here. Yet A Thread of Sky still escaped from her grasp.

This time it wasn’t instant movement or teleportation, but slipped away like a snake!

The unbreakable sword body actually twisted the moment Jian Chou’s claws touched it, transforming into a soft sword. The thread of blood red extending from the sword tip gave people an eerie and sharp feeling like a venomous snake’s forked tongue!

The sword tip that had been behind her suddenly turned!

At such close distance, it barely stirred the wind. Jian Chou could only rely on her dispersed spiritual consciousness to sense it.

At this moment, instinct was faster than perception!

Just as the sword edge turned to target her throat, Jian Chou had already suddenly tilted to the left at this critical moment, actually spinning in midair!

The curved blade like ripples almost grazed past her neck!

She was now a Void Returning great power!

Even facing Treasure Vase Dharma King, whose realm had been higher than hers, she had shown no fear and hadn’t fallen into disadvantage, even slaying him with formidable strength!

Yet before A Thread of Sky, she was everywhere constrained!

Danger everywhere!

This sword’s formidability far exceeded Jian Chou’s understanding of all swords in the world! Both imposing and evil, with such varied changes and complex ingenuity that it was overwhelming!

“Whoosh!”

Wild wind swept in, cooling the thin sweat on Jian Chou’s forehead.

Without hesitation, she seized this momentary opportunity and forcibly teleported out of midair, wanting to distance herself from this sword to gain a moment’s breathing space and buffer.

However, when she appeared on another ice plain, A Thread of Sky’s extraordinarily long six-foot dark shadow had already followed closely, appearing before her without warning!

Truly ghost-like!

The crane-like nimbleness from before was gone, the snake-like eeriness was also gone, replaced by mountain-like heaviness!

Jian Chou only felt that the long sword cleaving toward her seemed like a precipitous mountain suddenly toppling. Before contact, it already emanated the force of ten thousand jun!

Clearly it had changed from a light sword to a soft sword, then to a heavy sword!

The nimble sharpness suddenly changed to heavy and solid, losing the previous deceptive flourishes, having only the most formidable power, and the pressure it brought suddenly multiplied!

Where was this fighting with one sword?

This was clearly fighting with a thousand swords, with ten thousand swords!

A Thread of Sky was born from the nurturing of countless swords’ qi and intent. Through thousands of years of subtle influence, it condensed the most reluctant thoughts and most unresolvable feelings of Yashan cultivators before death!

Naturally, it also included each sword’s most proud variations!

However many swords had existed in this armory, A Thread of Sky could derive that many variations!

“Bang!”

“Bang!”

“Bang!”

Three consecutive swords struck down with lightning speed and fierce force. Even Jian Chou, who had cultivated the “Human Weapon” technique, couldn’t completely resist its power. Under these three consecutive strikes, she was directly cleaved into the deep ice layers!

“Clang—”

The long sword hum rose again. This time A Thread of Sky’s temperament changed once more, the sword body covered with a layer of deep dark blue. The originally heavy and weighty aura withdrew, actually rippling out sword light like deep ocean waves, rushing in like a tsunami, rolling into a mass, charging into the ice layers!

Jian Chou only felt her entire body’s qi and blood obstructed, the circulation of spiritual energy throughout her body nearly scattered by those three previous strikes. Fortunately, she possessed the special Void Emptiness physique and could still endure it.

But seeing A Thread of Sky’s latest transformation, she couldn’t help but curse inwardly!

Having seen Qu Zhengfeng fight, how could she not recognize this? This was clearly the Sealight Sword! She and Qu Zhengfeng hadn’t even had time to complete their previously agreed duel, but now by coincidence, they were first having an indirect confrontation through this sword!

She hadn’t thought much of it before, but once this attack unique to the Sealight Sword appeared, Jian Chou’s competitive spirit was aroused, and she was unwilling to retreat even one step!

In this Yashan armory, Buddhist chanting suddenly resounded!

She actually directly summoned the Eight Divisions Heavenly Dragon Dharma Body at this time and place, in her confrontation with a sword!

The person was under the ice layers, and the totem was also under the ice layers.

From the outside, it looked like some sage or divine Buddha was about to emerge from within the ice layers.

The next moment came a “boom” as she exploded, using some division of the Eight Divisions Heavenly Dragon to forcibly blast out a thousand-foot-deep crater in the ice plain! The terrifying pure power directly blasted A Thread of Sky to the bottom of the deep crater!

“…”

Qu Zhengfeng, who was still leisurely drinking wine on the opposite cliff, seeing this situation, finally moved his eyebrows slightly, inevitably generating the associations any normal person would have: Was her suddenly formidable attack really not because A Thread of Sky had transformed into the Sealight Sword?

The wine in his throat was quite strong. He didn’t speak and continued watching.

From the moment the Eight Divisions Heavenly Dragon Dharma Body was activated, the following battle situation became unstoppable. Jian Chou and A Thread of Sky could be said to each display extraordinary techniques, neither yielding to the other, like destined enemies, using all their abilities to deal with each other.

Sometimes sword light, sometimes sword qi, sometimes sword humming.

Jian Chou’s responses also showed no willingness to retreat, completely confronting A Thread of Sky head-on!

However, while she could avoid falling into disadvantage initially, as time went on, her disadvantage gradually became apparent.

No matter how spiritual A Thread of Sky was, it was ultimately just a dead object, while Jian Chou was a living person. Moreover, her eyes seemed damaged, and she had experienced that fierce battle in the snow domain. Though she had recovered some battle strength on the way back, time was ultimately limited—how much could she recover?

The more she fought, the more she felt stretched thin.

Conversely, A Thread of Sky, after that period of seamless attacks, gradually showed more formidable oppressive power and gradually had fewer varied forms.

Jian Chou keenly sensed that perhaps this was the sword’s true nature!

Cold, imposing, even hiding some sorrowful ferocity—it was a sword king that wanted all swords under heaven to bow before it!

All attacks pointed to one word!

That was—

Kill!

Since beginning her cultivation, Jian Chou had never seen such intense and pure killing intent, yet it lacked the sinister horror common to other heavily murderous weapons in the world.

Its killing intent came openly and honestly!

The birth of swords was originally for killing! Killing was the most essential truth of the “sword” path!

She began to feel that terrifying oppressive power from this sword, as if it wanted her to completely kneel and submit before it.

Its attacks became increasingly difficult to resist.

But this time happened to be her best chance in over eighty years to obtain this sword. Once missed, who knew if there would be a next time?

She dared not miss it, and could not miss it!

In her eyes veiled with a layer of gloom, sharp fighting intent flashed past, and Jian Chou’s expression actually showed a trace of desperate ruthlessness!

“Bang!”

Her foot sank deep into the hard mountain rock, her retreating figure stabilized at this moment, landing on the mountainside, while A Thread of Sky in midair had already turned its edge with incredible speed!

The thread of crimson dyed with fresh blood was piercingly bright in the blue sky.

The sword body trembled lightly, actually rippling out thousands of sword shadows in the void, with different forms and completely different sword qi!

But the moment the sword edge realigned with Jian Chou, the thousands of sword shadows merged into one, and the thousands of sword qi also merged into one!

Between heaven and earth, there was vaguely the sound of long singing!

Heroic to the extreme, yet filled with desolation!

At this moment, having shed all clever and deceptive appearances and stripped away all strange and bizarre exteriors, only the sword itself remained!

All external things slowed down; only this sword was fast!

A Thread of Sky, six feet of edge!

Getting closer and closer! Yet Jian Chou showed no intention of temporarily avoiding its sharpness. The moment the sword edge attacked her, her eyes burst with intense brilliance and the determination to succeed!

At this moment, Qu Zhengfeng, who had been observing, contracted his pupils and stood up abruptly in shock!

But what terrifying speed did A Thread of Sky possess?

Before he could react at all, there was only a “puff” sound of blood spattering, and that deep black, rust-stained six-foot sword body had already penetrated deeply into Jian Chou’s chest like lightning without obstruction!

Hot blood from within her chest immediately flowed out, covering the sword edge.

Her complexion instantly became deathly pale!

Countless silent swords throughout the armory began to hum lowly at this moment, as if moved by this sword’s sharpness, and as if unable to bear witnessing this cruel scene…

Yet Jian Chou suddenly laughed.

Surging sword qi carried deadly killing intent, rampaging within her body, and the sword body also violently trembled, as if wanting to withdraw after piercing her chest!

But where could it withdraw even half an inch!

Her scalding heart’s blood sprayed out, spreading into entangling blood threads that forcibly wrapped around the sharp sword body. Her body refining technique was instantly pushed to its limit, and though her jade-like bones were cut by the sword edge, their powerful regenerative ability completely transformed them into a prison, trapping the full six-foot length of A Thread of Sky!

No matter how unwilling or reluctant!

When Jian Chou, blood hanging from her lips, tremblingly reached toward the sword hilt, it couldn’t escape even half an inch!

“Click.”

The moment her fingers touched the sword hilt and completely grasped this sword, all that unruly sharpness was restrained. Whether moved by her determination to grasp it regardless of everything, not hesitating to risk her life, or resonating with her scalding blood that refused to retreat, the originally extraordinarily long six-foot sword body silently contracted at this moment, becoming the most easily gripped three feet!

Jian Chou’s five fingers tightened forcefully, pulling this cold blade from her chest, bringing spattering fresh blood!

She was already exhausted, yet the hand gripping the sword was extremely steady.

Under the skylight, at this moment all swords in the armory cried out together! The thread of crimson on A Thread of Sky’s ridge, stained by her red blood, was startling!

Qu Zhengfeng watched her with an indescribable gaze.

She only gazed at this sword.

Half her body stained with blood, having risked her life in combat, now holding only this sword, her face pale, she sincerely praised: “What a domineering sword!”