Chapter 62: Sword Dao Genius (Final) |
Imperial Sword Dynasty
Su Chen was in seclusion when the token at his waist suddenly flared with crimson light.
"Not good—Nianjian is in danger!"
He summoned Dustreturn. The space before him shattered like cracked glass. A vast, overwhelming aura swept across ten thousand li above the imperial palace. By the time Su Chen arrived, his expression had turned extremely grim.
Shen Nianjian was not dead. But his cultivation had been crippled.
"Grandfather…"
Shen Nianjian's voice was feeble. The Heavenly Yang Shattering Sword Body had vanished entirely. He was no different from a mortal now.
Su Chen carried Shen Nianjian back to the Imperial Sword Dynasty. In a towering rage, he launched a thorough investigation, determined to uncover who had dared to ruin his grandson's cultivation!
The crippling of Shen Nianjian dealt a devastating blow to the dynasty. When the search yielded no results, Su Chen turned his suspicions toward the Great Jing Dynasty. Back then, he had used them as a tool and left them with heavy losses. The Jing Emperor had nursed that grudge for centuries.
The Jing Emperor cursed furiously.
"Shen Chen, you madman!"
Out of nowhere, the accusation came that he had sent people to cripple the crown prince of the Imperial Sword Dynasty. Ever since Su Chen had emerged from the Scaled Crocodile Clan, the Jing Emperor had done everything possible to avoid provoking that star of calamity. Why would he stir trouble now?
Desperate to clear his name, the Jing Emperor arranged a meeting with Shen Chen. Three hundred years had passed since the two sworn brothers last met.
"Sworn brother, this matter truly was not my doing!"
The Jing Emperor tried to explain.
Su Chen responded with a cold laugh. "Sworn brother? You still dare call me that? Was it not you who incited the Scaled Crocodile Clan, Spirit Shark Clan, and Ice Turtle Clan, causing the deaths of over a hundred billion subjects of my Imperial Sword Dynasty?"
The Jing Emperor's heart sank. He had never expected Su Chen to uncover that old scheme.
"From today onward, you and I are no longer brothers. Our bond is severed—gratitude and obligation alike!"
Su Chen swept his hand outward.
A wave of absolute terror surged through the Jing Emperor. He turned to flee, only to be cleaved in half by a single sword stroke. His blood sprayed across the sky. Every guard in the palace was cut down by the Sword Guards.
Taking advantage of the ensuing chaos in the Great Jing Dynasty, Su Chen sent troops pouring across the border. Not many days later, a figure riding an immortal crane appeared above the imperial palace of the Imperial Sword Dynasty. The power standing behind the Great Jing Dynasty had finally intervened.
"Shen Chen, your actions have gone too far!"
Su Chen answered with a single sword strike.
"When I act, what right do you have to point fingers?"
Su Chen's conduct had grown far too overbearing. Yet with Cao Tianming's support, most powers could only turn a blind eye.
In the end, Su Chen claimed half of the Great Jing Dynasty's national fortune before withdrawing his forces.
With Shen Nianjian unable to cultivate, Su Chen had no choice but to seek new heirs. But for the next four hundred years, no new innate martial physique appeared in the Imperial Sword Dynasty.
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In a quiet rural field, a frail, hunched old farmer pushed open the wooden door of his thatched cottage. He saw his grandson being held in the arms of a middle-aged man.
"Brother Pian'an, long time no see."
Shen Ping'an looked at the face that remained so similar to the one in his memory. The only difference was the added majesty, the unfathomable depth.
"I never thought you would still find me like this."
Shen Ping'an gave a bitter smile.
Su Chen smiled gently and spoke to the small child in his arms. "Great-Grandfather will take you to enjoy endless glory and riches—would you like that?"
Shen Ping'an's expression darkened instantly. "Brother, he's still just a child. He's too young!"
The smile vanished from Su Chen's face.
"Innate Imperial Sword Body—you understand what that means."
Shen Ping'an stepped in front of Su Chen.
"No matter what, I will not let you take this child."
Su Chen's expression remained blank. With a single palm strike, he suppressed Shen Ping'an to the ground, rendering him completely immobile.
This matter was not up for discussion.
Shen Ping'an coughed twice. Fragments of his internal organs mixed with blood foam. He remembered the first time he met Su Chen. He still recalled the words the young man had spoken from afar.
"From now on, if anyone dares to bully you, your big brother will use the sword in his hand to kill them for you."
But now, the only one who had ever truly bullied him…
"was you."
Shen Ping'an burned what little lifespan remained, struggling desperately against Su Chen's suppression.
It was futile.
Su Chen carried the child away and gave him the name Shen Daoyuan. He had already granted Shen Ping'an centuries of peace.
Ten years later, another sword dao genius emerged in the world. Shen Daoyuan entered Heavenly Sword Sacred Land.
That same year, a cataclysmic event shook the realms. The living beings of the Western Regions launched a full-scale war against the Southern Barbarian Lands. To hasten the arrival of a great era, the West sought to shatter the South and plunder its fortune. After all, one always pinches the softest persimmon.
"In the Western Regions, an ancient existence seeks to break through to the Great Saint realm, but the qi and fortune there are insufficient to support such an ascension."
This war was both a gamble and a contest. Yet what Su Chen never anticipated was that, in the midst of this conflict, Cao Tianming would fall—slain by an ancient freak from the Western Regions.
Su Chen witnessed the battle with his own eyes: two near-saint beings clashed, tearing heaven and earth apart.
Cao Tianming burned his entire sword dao to the last spark, yet he was still defeated. When reinforcements from Heavenly Sword Sacred Land arrived, they were blocked by mighty powers of the West.
"So even a divine physique like his can die."
A long-buried sorrow welled up in Su Chen's heart after so many years of iron resolve. The world was never short of geniuses. Timing and fate were crueler than talent.
In that war, Su Chen survived by sheer luck, but he was gravely wounded. The Western Regions gained no true advantage either; the would-be Great Saint's breakthrough was forcibly interrupted.
Su Chen reached one thousand years of age. His cultivation stood at the sixth layer of Void Refining. After the war with the West, the already declining Southern Barbarian Lands sank even deeper into ruin.
It felt as though the age of dharma-ending had truly arrived: saints no longer appeared, and even prodigies had been severed from the lineage. No one rose to carry the banner. An era without saints, where Nirvana realm cultivators had become exceedingly rare.
Inexplicably, Su Chen had become one of the few remaining overlords. The Imperial Sword Dynasty grew into one of the handful of truly dominant powers.
The grief in Su Chen's heart vanished in an instant. A dharma-ending age was perfect. His first act was to annex the Great Jing Dynasty. Over the next two hundred years, he swallowed three more dynasties in succession. His cultivation soared to the ninth layer of Void Refining.
Su Chen entered seclusion to attempt the breakthrough to the Nirvana realm. Only three hundred years of lifespan remained. He was staking everything on this throw. The gamble failed to produce any movement.
White-haired and aged, Su Chen's eyes burned with unwillingness! He discovered that the laws of the Southern Barbarian Lands had become incomplete. Restoring them would take another two or three hundred years. He could not break through to Nirvana.
"I hate this!"
Damn it—after finally touching the threshold of Nirvana, after seeing the path to becoming a Venerable open before him, the heavens had slammed the door shut?
Su Chen met Shen Daoyuan once more. A sudden, dark thought surged in his mind. If he slaughtered every last member of the Shen bloodline, would that perhaps allow him to force the breakthrough to Nirvana?
...
Shen Daoyuan stood before him, sword in hand, facing Su Chen.
"Great-Grandfather, allow me to send you on your final journey."
Su Chen laughed. "You want to avenge your grandfather?"
Shen Daoyuan struck. His sword dao was purer than Su Chen's ever had been—Su Chen saw the shadow of Cao Tianming in every stroke.
They battled for three days and three nights.
Aged, qi and blood in decline, and having failed his breakthrough, Su Chen was defeated. Before Shen Daoyuan's eyes, he threw himself into the melting furnace.
"This is the reincarnation. Daoyuan, I will forge a sword for you. I only hope your sword dao will never become like mine."
One thousand five hundred years. Su Chen perished.
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