Chapter 119: Senior |
After the bronze sword was wrenched free, it swept through the water of the deep pool with effortless ease, tracing several flowing arcs with its blade several zhang in length.
In an instant, surging waves rose and crashing white water erupted in every direction, churning the pool floor into a roiling, ceaseless tumult as though mountains were being overturned and seas upended.
Seeing this, Li Musheng gave a slight nod from where he floated in the distance, saying, "This sword is on the large side, but it's not completely unusable. And it actually handles quite smoothly."
At the same time, the two elderly eunuchs and the members of Qingshan Tower all made their moves simultaneously to deal with the shards of bronze chain flying toward them through the surging waves.
Two long dragons of dark, icy True Qi shot out from the sleeves of the two elderly eunuchs, shattering the enormous bronze fragments and sending them all blasting away.
A surge of overwhelming Northern Qi Dark Energy then formed a breathtaking arc of water, like a blazing sweep of blade light cutting horizontally outward, spreading at tremendous speed from around the Qingshan Tower members in all directions. Every bronze shard it touched was shattered and swept away in an instant.
Once all of this was done, everyone immediately turned their gaze toward the bronze sword that had been so suddenly wrenched free of the water.
But at that very moment, the bronze sword that had been churning up great waves adjusted its blade, and like a bronze vessel cutting through water it cleaved through the pool and shot at great speed toward where Li Musheng and his companions were.
"So it was you all along!"
The next moment, the True Qi around his entire body erupted in an instant, and he drove his palm across a stretch of water dozens of meters wide directly toward Bu Chengyang.
In the blink of an eye, a massive palm conjured from rolling black energy silently took shape in the water above Bu Chengyang's head, and a terrifying Heaven-Human aura locked onto and enveloped him as a tide of crashing waves came thundering down.
Bu Chengyang, caught in this disaster through no fault of his own, felt his expression turn dark as he cursed inwardly, "Old fool, as blind as ever!"
It had clearly been Li Musheng who had made the move, yet the man had turned around and pinned the blame squarely on him. Anyone treated so unjustly would find it difficult to swallow.
With that thought, Bu Chengyang's eyes grew cold, and his entire being exploded with a surge of domineering sword energy that shot toward the heavens.
He raised a single hand with two fingers pressed together, and a vast, silver sword shadow materialized in the water above his head, then cleaved upward with a violent slash.
The sword shadow tore through the waves with a thunderous roar, and dozens of sword energy vortexes rose in the surrounding expanse of water, sweeping up columns of tremendous water dragons that charged in unison toward the massive black energy palm crashing down from above.
The two forces collided with a thunderous impact, and the powerful shockwaves from the clash surged outward in every direction, sending towering waves crashing all across the pool floor, raging and roiling in all directions, causing the entire deep pool to tremble violently.
Meanwhile, after striking Bu Chengyang from across the distance, the violet-robed elder did not press his attack further. Instead, he turned and led the rest of the Qingshan Tower members in throwing everything they had into seizing the bronze sword.
Their purpose in coming here had been the Imperial Dragon Divine Sword, and everything they did was naturally centered on claiming it.
The palm the violet-robed elder had just sent out may not have been enough to kill Bu Chengyang on the spot, but it was more than enough to hold him off for a while.
This moment of delay was undoubtedly their best opportunity to seize the sword.
Of course, the two elderly eunuchs had the same idea.
Having dealt with the flying bronze shards, they immediately moved to reclaim the bronze sword at the first opportunity.
Having been charged with guarding this place, they absolutely could not allow the Imperial Dragon Divine Sword to suffer any mishap or fall into the hands of these aggressors before them.
At this moment, although the bronze sword was moving through the water at great speed, the members of Qingshan Tower and the others each held nothing back.
In but an instant, every one of them seemed to move through the water without the slightest resistance, surging forward until they were right before the three-zhang bronze sword.
Immediately, their faces lit with excitement, and they channeled their thick martial True Qi, condensing it into claws as they lunged and snatched at the enormous sword.
The two elderly eunuchs also wore urgent expressions, reaching out across the distance in unison as two long-dragon-like streams of cold, icy True Qi coalesced above the bronze sword and coiled downward to envelop the blade, intent on trapping it in the pool for the time being.
But just at that moment, the bronze sword, which had already been moving through the water at tremendous speed, suddenly accelerated even further, shooting forward like a thunderbolt.
The Qingshan Tower members and the two elderly eunuchs were all stunned at once. Those who had been just moments away from grabbing or ensnaring the blade could only watch helplessly as the bronze sword vanished from before their eyes in an instant.
It then became a streak of cyan afterimage, cleaving through the pool water and heading toward a young man floating in the water not far away.
Seeing this, everyone turned their heads at once.
They saw the bronze sword come to an abrupt halt beside Li Musheng, hanging quietly suspended at his side without the slightest movement.
Beneath the sword that stood as tall as three or four storeys, Li Musheng's frame looked somewhat small, yet the relentlessly surging waves all around him were utterly unable to move him or the bronze sword at his side by even a fraction.
"This sword is mine now. If any of you try to take it again, that would be rather impolite."
Li Musheng swept a casual glance over the Qingshan Tower members and the elderly eunuchs, and spoke with complete composure.
Then the bronze sword at his side seemed to be slowly gripped by an invisible giant, and was gently tilted level, its massive tip pointing directly at the assembled crowd in an unmistakably threatening manner.
At this point, the Qingshan Tower experts including the violet-robed elder, along with the two elderly eunuchs of Great Li, all fixed their gazes on Li Musheng not far away, their expressions gradually shifting and uncertain.
By now they had finally worked out that the one responsible for having earlier bypassed the True Qi barrier set up by the two elderly eunuchs and wrenched the bronze sword free was, without question, the young man standing before them.
That he had been able to seize the sword right out from under a gathering of powerful martial experts indicated that his martial Dao cultivation was no small matter, and might even surpass their own.
Yet what left them unsettled and incredulous was that he was far too young. None of them could quite fathom how the martial world could possibly contain someone so young with such a terrifyingly profound cultivation.
The violet-robed elder at the head of the Qingshan Tower group studied Li Musheng for a moment, then narrowed his eyes and cupped his hands from across the distance, saying, "May I ask which senior of the martial world you are? Why do you conceal your true appearance?"
Hearing this, Li Musheng raised an eyebrow and was just about to respond.
At that moment, Bu Chengyang, his entire body wreathed in swirling sword energy after deflecting the violet-robed elder's strike, turned a furious glare on the Qingshan Tower members and said in a low, stern voice, "You ignorant rabble, why waste time asking? If you want to keep fighting over the Imperial Dragon Divine Sword, then come and try your luck and see whether the sword in my hand agrees."
"And if you don't dare, then every last one of you had better get out of my sight this instant, before you make yourselves any more of a nuisance!"
Having taken the violet-robed elder's palm for no reason, Bu Chengyang had naturally been struck into a fury, and his stance was now fiercely aggressive as he squared off directly against the Qingshan Tower members and the others.
Beyond wanting to reclaim his dignity and vent the anger in his heart, what mattered more was this: from the martial Dao strength Li Musheng had just displayed in seizing the sword from across the distance, Bu Chengyang could now see things plainly, and was certain that with himself and Li Musheng joining forces, the people before them were nothing to fear at all.
His earlier so-called cautious approach had, in truth, been entirely unnecessary.