"Kill!"
The murderous intent in Han Yi's eyes erupted violently, surging in an instant.
With a flick of his wrist, the Black Light Broken Sword leaped from his Storage Ring. A gentle flick sent it colliding with the azure-blue sword light ten meters away.
Simultaneously, Han Yi's figure blurred as he retreated dozens of meters.
This was the first time the Return to Simplicity Sword Control Technique had been unleashed in actual combat.
As Han Yi released his sword, the echoes of Li Yuanyi's earlier Sword Burst still reverberated through the air.
Yet, for Han Yi, there was an eerie silence. The blacklight emitted by his Broken Sword appeared utterly ordinary, devoid of any divine aura, and moved with agonizing slowness.
But this apparent slowness was a deceptive illusion. In reality, the Black Light Broken Sword moved far faster than Li Yuanyi's azure-blue longsword.
This paradoxical sensation left Han Yi feeling disoriented.
The sword seemed like a mortal's blade, slow and ponderous, yet possessed an overwhelming momentum capable of piercing through the heavens themselves.
The blacklight, though released later, struck the azure-blue sword light first.
A thunderous explosion shook the air, like a firework bursting in mid-air.
A wisp of blacklight pierced through the dissipating explosion, revealing the full form of the Black Light Broken Sword—clear and visible to both combatants.
However, the sensation of perceiving the sword artifact with crystal-clear clarity and finding its movements astonishingly slow created a stark contrast to the reality of its speed. It felt as if their senses had been inexplicably accelerated countless times over.
The ability to see the sword artifact in its entirety and perceive its slowness stood in stark contrast to its actual velocity—a speed so great that only Golden Core cultivators could track it as it flashed past, shattering Li Yuanyi's sword artifact in an instant.
This was the Return to Simplicity Sword Control Technique.
Though only one level higher than Peak Perfection, the difference in power between these two stages was as vast as the gulf between heaven and earth.
The higher the skill level, the more challenging it became to advance. Yet each breakthrough unlocked entirely new realms of power.
"What?!" Li Yuanyi roared, his bloodshot eyes widening in disbelief. The crimson patterns on the lower half of his face intensified instantly, spreading so densely they seemed poised to engulf his entire visage.
No, more than that. Tendrils of these blood-colored patterns had already begun to stretch upward toward his eyes and outward across his temples.
His sword artifact was a peerless Top-Grade Magic Artifact, forged from the finest materials and having slain countless Late Foundation Establishment cultivators. Yet it had been utterly annihilated upon contact with his opponent's blade.
Li Yuanyi had never anticipated that Han Yi of the Heaven's Will Sect would possess such formidable cultivation and such a powerful Magic Artifact.
But...
He had now staked everything on the Li Family's survival, gambling his own immortal path. If he failed to kill Han Yi, the Li Family would be annihilated, and he himself would meet certain death.
The terror between life and death loomed large.
Most people would be paralyzed with fear in such a moment, but Li Yuanyi was different. Under the influence of the Bloodline Curse Technique, the eerie patterns spreading from his Blood Eyes had already consumed ninety percent of his face, stopping only at the Hall of Impression between his brows.
"Kill! Kill! Kill!"
His eyes were completely consumed by murderous intent. Roaring hoarsely, he pulled a second sword artifact from his Storage Pouch—a rare green longsword.
The moment the green sword appeared, Han Yi's pupils constricted sharply. Its aura was identical to that of Yuan Changtian's Golden Light Shuttle, a Magic Treasure of similar grade to the one Han Yi had recently sold.
Back then, Han Yi had barely managed to block the Golden Light Shuttle by exerting every ounce of his strength and desperately vomiting blood.
But that was when he had just entered the Early Foundation Establishment Stage. Now, his cultivation realm had advanced to the Mid-Foundation Establishment Stage, and more crucially, his Sword Control Technique had broken through to a higher level.
Han Yi's breakthrough in the Sword Control Technique to the Return to Simplicity stage amplified his combat prowess far more significantly than his advancement in cultivation realm.
A fierce glint flashed across Han Yi's face.
His Spirit Sea churned, Mana surged, and within his Sea of Consciousness, his Divine Soul transformed into a towering pagoda.
The Black Light Broken Sword, which had previously shattered the Azure Sword Artifact with a deafening blast, now trembled violently. To the naked eye, its speed remained deceptively slow, maintaining its languid pace. However, this was merely an optical illusion.
In reality, the Broken Sword's velocity had instantly doubled, surpassing even the capabilities of a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
A flash of blacklight.
The Broken Sword surged ahead, slamming into the Green Magic Treasure sword artifact barely three meters from Li Yuanyi's grasp.
Fast.
Too fast.
So swift that Li Yuanyi couldn't react. His newly activated Magic Treasure sword artifact hadn't even begun to unleash its power when the blacklight's impact struck.
The Divine Sense embedded within the green sword had barely begun to fuse with the artifact, its magical prowess yet to awaken. Deprived of its true power, the blade relied solely on its inherent material hardness to withstand the Black Light Broken Sword's force.
Clang!!
The magic sword shattered. Li Yuanyi's eyes bulged, one of his eyeballs bursting outright. His face twisted into a mask of utter horror.
But that wasn't all.
It wasn't over yet.
The Broken Sword, having shattered the Green Magic Sword, pierced Li Yuanyi's forehead with seemingly slow, yet unerring force.
Then, in a flash, it vanished from sight.
This strike was Han Yi's most powerful technique, second only to the Seven Stars Kunwu Sword. More importantly, it was the first time he had fully unleashed his Sword Control Technique after breaking through to the Return to Simplicity realm.
Even Han Yi himself couldn't control the sword's speed. It instantly disappeared beyond the range of his Divine Sense, meaning it had traveled over eight kilometers in an instant. Such was its velocity.
To put it in temporal terms: a finger snap encompasses twenty moments, each moment contains twenty thoughts, and each thought lasts for a kshana.
In reality, from the moment Li Yuanyi drew his sword to Han Yi's explosive counterattack—the Black Light Broken Sword shattering the Azure Blue sword artifact, shattering another Magic Treasure, and piercing Li Yuanyi's skull—all that transpired in a single moment.
It was so fast that Li Yuanyi barely had time to retrieve his Magic Artifact, let alone fully activate it.
It was so fast that Han Yi's Divine Sense, which had been guiding the Black Light Broken Sword, lost contact with the blade before he could command it to stop.
It was so fast that the battle ended almost as soon as it began.
Dozens of meters away, Han Yi hovered in the sky, his heart tightening as blood rushed to his head.
No, it wasn't entirely over. The duel between him and Li Yuanyi had concluded, but a new battle was just beginning.
The scene unfolded in the arena.
In the next instant, Han Yi's expression shifted from disdain to alarm. His figure blurred as he swiftly retreated over a hundred meters, a pale violet sword artifact materializing in his hand: the Seven Stars Kunwu Sword.
He hadn't initially drawn this Magic Treasure because using it would expend nearly all his strength in a single, devastating strike. Afterward, his power would dwindle to less than a tenth of its original level. If any hidden cultivators were lurking nearby, or if he faced pursuit after the attack, his situation would become perilous.
Another reason was Han Yi's confidence in his newly enhanced Sword Control Technique. He believed he could vanquish any opponent short of a cultivator with one foot in the Golden Core Stage or a true Golden Core True Person.
His confidence had proven justified. The Black Light Broken Sword's divine might had shattered Li Yuanyi's Azure Blue Sword Light with a single, all-out strike. It shattered his magic sword and pierced through his body.
Yet Han Yi now brandished the Seven Stars Kunwu Sword because Li Yuanyi, despite the fatal wound to his forehead from the Black Light Broken Sword, showed no signs of death. Instead, a bizarre transformation had begun, sending a chill down Han Yi's spine.
After all, Li Yuanyi's condition had seemed unnatural from the start. Moreover, Han Yi had recently encountered three Preaching Envoys, one of whom was a Southern Border Evil Witch. The soul-corroding shamanic art and two consecutive Substitute Death Arts had left him deeply shaken.
He couldn't afford to let his guard down.
Across from him, Li Yuanyi's forehead had been pierced through, his eyeballs burst, and blood-red patterns had spread across his entire face.
But it wasn't just a matter of the blood spreading across his face.
To Han Yi, the bizarre blood-red patterns seemed alive, seizing the opportunity created by the hole in Li Yuanyi's forehead. They surged forward, hissing and scrambling to burrow into his brain.
Terrifying and grotesque.
In the next instant, an eerie aura emanated from Li Yuanyi's body. His head, which had been tilted slightly back, snapped upright, his gaze locking onto Han Yi.
That gaze was chillingly indifferent, devoid of all emotion.
The hairs on Han Yi's back stood on end, a wave of icy dread washing over him.
Meeting that gaze felt like staring into the eyes of Death itself. Han Yi knew this was no longer Li Yuanyi, but another entity—perhaps not even human.
Han Yi remained silent, but the Seven Stars Sword in his hand glowed with a faint violet light, poised to unleash a devastating strike.
In that instant, the small hole in Li Yuanyi's forehead suddenly bulged outward. The surrounding flesh and blood coiled and coalesced, instantly forming a blood-colored eyeball.
The blood-colored eyeball swiveled smoothly, its gaze locking onto Han Yi, as if some terrifying entity were peering at him across immeasurable distances.
At that single glance, Han Yi's Divine Soul within his Sea of Consciousness Space shuddered violently. Instinctively, it coalesced into a Soul Tower, but in the next instant, even the Soul Tower crumbled under the overwhelming pressure and shattered completely.
In mid-air, tears of blood streamed down Han Yi's frozen face. Li Yuanyi, his forehead now bearing a grotesque blood-red eye, twisted his lips into an unnatural, forced smile—a malevolent sneer that sent chills down the spine.
With a casual flick of his wrist, the Broken Sword Magic Treasure, which had been shattered by the Blacklight and sent plummeting, levitated back into his grasp.
He stepped forward, the ordinary magic sword he had been standing on for support falling away into the abyss.
Like a Golden Core cultivator, he drifted leisurely through the Void, his blood-red eye gleaming ominously, his malevolent sneer fixed on his face, and the Broken Sword clutched in his hand, advancing toward Han Yi.
Within Han Yi's Sea of Consciousness Space:
Though his Divine Soul had yet to fully coalesce, a mortal sense of crisis pulsed through it, causing it to tremble violently.
I'm going to die.
I'm going to die.
I'm going to die.
This sudden, overwhelming danger ranked among the most lethal he had ever faced.
If I don't act now, I'll die.
No!
Gather yourself! Quick, quick, quick! Concentrate!
Within the Sea of Consciousness Space, amidst the shattered fragments of his Divine Soul, a frantic thought roared with furious intensity, a desperate cry for survival.
In a sudden flash of inspiration, Han Yi instantly activated the Ninefold Soul Tower.
Buzz!
A terrifying suction force erupted, violently swirling the surrounding grayish-white qi and drawing it into the fragmented remains of his Divine Soul.
In the next instant, the Soul Tower reformed. This time, however, it was no longer merely the first layer that solidified; the second layer also materialized.
The Ninefold Soul Tower, Second Layer.
Simultaneously, the second chapter of the Soul Technique, inherited from the Soul Hall, surged into his mind, granting him instant comprehension and mastery.
In the outside world, Han Yi's blood-teared eyes snapped wide open, a ferocious glint igniting within them.
His near-death experience had revealed the truth: the sinister entity residing within Li Yuanyi's body far surpassed his own power. Without resorting to a desperate, all-or-nothing gambit, he would surely perish.
As the ferocity bloomed, Han Yi's Spirit Sea trembled violently. His mana poured out in a torrent, draining completely as he solidified the second layer of the Soul Tower. The tower hummed resonantly, and his Divine Sense surged forth.
In his bloodshot gaze, the Seven Stars Kunwu Sword thrust forward.
An indescribably terrifying sword strike.
Before him, the void had transformed from emptiness into something resembling a solid sponge. The Seven Stars Kunwu Sword pierced through the center of this "sponge," collapsing it and extending toward Li Yuanyi.
As the sword tore through, the "sponge" recoiled violently toward Li Yuanyi.
In essence, the sword had solidified the void, knitting it together and compressing it toward Li Yuanyi.
To be continued.
Han Yi's eyes burned with ferocity. Gritting his teeth, his body trembled uncontrollably—not from fear, but from the catastrophic drain on his mana and Divine Sense. His physical form was barely able to withstand the strain.
At this moment, the Seven Stars Kunwu Sword under Han Yi's command surpassed even Yuan Changtian's Golden Light Shuttle in power. Though still a Low-Grade Magic Treasure, it stood at the pinnacle of its class.
This was Han Yi's most formidable strike.
Normally, a Peak Foundation Establishment cultivator could wield a Low-Grade Magic Treasure, but only to a limited extent. They could unleash a few strikes before their mana and Divine Sense ran dry.
Only upon reaching the Golden Core Stage could one perfectly control a Magic Treasure.
A Mid-Foundation Establishment cultivator cannot fully unleash the power of a Magic Treasure.
However, the percentage of power they can wield depends on their mana and Divine Sense.
Han Yi possessed a Divine Soul Foundation Establishment, his Spirit Sea and Divine Soul having expanded eighty-eightfold beyond their original capacity. Purely in terms of mana and Divine Sense strength, he now rivaled even Peak Foundation Establishment cultivators.
Combined with his Sword Control Technique's breakthrough to the Return to Simplicity stage, he feared virtually no one below the Golden Core Stage.
This was why he had been able to shatter multiple Magic Treasures with a single sword strike, shatter Li Yuanyi's magic sword, and pierce through Li Yuanyi himself.
The sword strike he was now unleashing had pushed the Seven Stars Kunwu to its full potential, making it more than ten times stronger than the strike he had used against the three Preaching Envoys of the Fragrant Teachings when he blasted the bearded giant Guang Jinglong into pieces.
One could say that earlier, he had merely activated the Seven Stars Kunwu Sword, conserving some reserve power.
But this current strike was an all-out, no-holds-barred expenditure of power. In a sense, it was equivalent to the ultimate strike a Golden Core cultivator could unleash with the Seven Stars Kunwu Sword.
Originally, Han Yi had reserved this strike for desperate situations, such as facing a surprise attack from a Golden Core cultivator with no escape.
Now, facing this bizarre entity, Han Yi could no longer afford to hold back.
Li Yuanyi, walking through the void with a sinister grin, suddenly felt his crimson eye twitch. He had noticed a savage glint flickering in Han Yi's previously bewildered pupils.
Then—
The Seven Stars Kunwu Sword erupted with power, instantly appearing before Li Yuanyi.
His sinister smile remained unchanged, but a flicker of emotion, distinct from his usual cold indifference, crossed the crimson eye between his brows.
Before this nascent emotion could fully form, a strange spatial distortion rippled through the space above the battlefield, shaking the very fabric of reality. Some higher entity was attempting to focus its gaze upon them.
But before the space could further warp, the Seven Stars Kunwu Sword, guided by the Return to Simplicity Sword Control Technique, had already reached Li Yuanyi.
Space momentarily paused, then the sword continued its relentless advance.
Thud!
The Seven Stars Kunwu Sword pierced Li Yuanyi's crimson eye at the Hall of Impression point between his brows. Space paused again, and when the sword reappeared, it was already behind him.
With a final flicker, it vanished without a trace.
Only after the magic sword disappeared did the full force of its strike erupt.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Explosions detonated, each more devastating than the last.
A tremendous explosion erupted, centered on Li Yuanyi, unleashing a furious shockwave in all directions.
Li Yuanyi's Immortal Boat, parked nearby, was engulfed in the blast and pulverized into ash.
Han Yi, who had unleashed the devastating sword strike, was also hurled backward. His magic robe flickered with Spirit Light as he coughed up blood uncontrollably. Blood flooded his eyes, tinting his vision with a crimson haze.
Moreover, he was too weak to even maintain flight.
Crashing to the ground like a fallen star, he choked on blood and struggled to rise. One eye had gone blind, while the other remained veiled in blood.
Frantically, Han Yi retrieved Heavenly Net Pills, Mind Gathering Pills, Soul Pills, Qi Nourishing Pills, and Gold-Silver Pills from his Storage Ring, shoving them all into his mouth.
With immense effort, he lifted his head.
Only after a moment did the knot in his chest loosen slightly.
The explosion high above had dissipated. Li Yuanyi's body had been reduced to dust by the ultimate sword strike. Farther above, the gaze that had threatened to descend seemed to have lost its target or been restrained. After hovering for three breaths, it gradually faded away.
"What kind of entity was that?"
Han Yi's face remained etched with horror, his heart still pounding wildly. He tried to summon his sword for flight, but his severely weakened state made even that simple task impossible.
With no other choice, Han Yi retrieved the Green Ripple Sword, which had been flung away by the shockwave and landed just a few dozen meters away, sheathing it behind his back.
He resumed his sprint, but his weakened condition limited his speed to that of a Qi Refining Sixth Layer cultivator.
After about fifteen minutes, he finally found the Blacklight Broken Sword lying on the ground. A crack now ran along the blade, stretching from the hilt to the broken cross-section. This sword, once a treasured spirit sword of a Sword Immortal and a gift from Yuan Shun, had been downgraded in quality after breaking and was now on the verge of complete destruction.
Han Yi realized the Broken Sword must have suffered a backlash when it shattered Li Yuanyi's Green Magic Treasure. Without time to dwell on it, he quickly stored the Broken Sword in his Storage Ring and continued onward.
Another fifteen minutes passed before he located the Seven Stars Kunwu Sword embedded in an ancient tree, its hilt buried deep within the trunk.
After securing both swords, Han Yi oriented himself, activated his Disguise Technique to assume the appearance of a rugged man, and suppressed his aura to the Third Layer of Qi Refining.
Verifying his direction once more, he resumed his journey toward Shu Capital. This marked his third return to the capital.