Chapter 170 — The Divine Sword

And beneath his feet, across the vast earth, the mighty Canglan range rumbled; the ground began faintly to tremble, and the seven peaks of Mount Canglan that pierced the clouds—Tongtian, Longshou, Zhaoyang, Luoxia, Fenghui, Dazhu, and Xiaozhu, all seven without exception—from their green hills and deep valleys, their towering cliffs and giant boulders, began to give forth golden light, stronger and brighter, gradually gathering into form, blazing gold, as though projected from the very depths of the mountain-range's spirit peaks; or as though these many mountains themselves were alive, and in that dazzling golden radiance the vast peaks slowly breathed.

And amid the swaying, dazzling golden light, seven immense golden patterns of differing shapes at last coalesced, hovering above the earth and the mountain peaks, facing from afar that ancient Slaying Immortal Sword in the heavens.

Blazing across the heavens!

Resplendent and magnificent!

Even the Beast Lord was struck with dread!

The Slaying Immortal Ancient Sword trembled ever more violently, and the taiji diagram congealed from fresh blood that it pierced had already spun so fast it could no longer be seen clearly. On the face of Daoist Daoyan, gold and green flickered in turn, and suddenly he snapped open his eyes and bellowed:

"Break!"

The moment the word "break" left his lips, the countless sword-shadows filling the sky swayed and shook violently; the vast reaches of the heavens darkened utterly, wild winds drove the stones before them, the mountains quaked and the earth heaved, strange rocks came crashing down one after another, and the golden pattern of the Seven Veins, once so solemn and majestic, seemed to be torn apart by some colossal force and began slowly to come apart.

Almost at the same instant, the radiance upon the ancient Slaying Immortal Sword grew ever more intense, its white glare so dazzling that it wrapped even the figure of Daoist Daoyan entirely within it. And amid this earth-shaking, heart-stopping spectacle, the seven-colored strange lights that had risen from the peaks of the Seven Veins suddenly vanished. At the same time, the countless sword-shadows in the sky likewise gradually faded away, leaving only that seven-colored master sword within the Slaying Immortal Sword Formation, which blazed all the more brilliantly.

"Boom!"

A thunderclap resounded through heaven and earth, the ground shook more violently still, and the golden halos upon the peaks of the Seven Veins had reached their final moment—at last they dissolved completely and were seen no more.

The rolling thunder seemed to surge and swell across the horizon like the tide, yet the earth beneath their feet suddenly fell quiet, stirring no more, splitting no more. Then, almost at the very same moment, strange lights of every hue, more than ten times stronger than before, rose with a rumbling roar, surging skyward, and once again converged upon the ancient Slaying Immortal Sword.

In an instant the searing brilliance blazed across heaven and earth as if in an explosion, shooting out in all directions; an inconceivable light enveloped the whole of the sky and the earth, and above the ancient Slaying Immortal Sword Formation there remained only the vast colored master sword. But at this very moment, the majestic beams of light reflected from the ancient Slaying Immortal Sword, one by one, before the stunned and horrified gaze of countless people, the seven-colored master Slaying Immortal Sword, from its flowing, many-hued glory, gradually merged, gradually became a single-colored gigantic sword of blazing white light, its radiance ten thousand fathoms long, shining over all the world.

********

In that instant, countless people woke from their shock, and gazing at that incredible spectacle in the sky, they all seemed intoxicated by it; wild cheers rose and fell, filling the slopes of Mount Canglan.

Every one of them suddenly revived from despair, and in the blink of an eye seemed filled with confidence, as though it were plain that evil could never after all prevail over good—entirely heedless that this contest of sorcery was still not over, that victory and defeat were not yet known.

Only, amid such a frenzied crowd, every face turned up to the sky, and so no one noticed that in the midst of the madness, a figure in white had quietly slipped away from the crowd and was speeding swiftly toward the deep mountains behind.

The wind brushed her cheek, seeming to carry a thread of cold—but how could it conceal that blazing fire burning deep in her heart?

Upon Lu Xueling's snow-white face there faintly showed a light blush; she bit her lip tightly, and deep within her eyes she had already gone to that far, deep place in the rear mountains!

At the horizon, wind and clouds were gathering fast!

But who still cared?

A faint ancient song, a whispered word of the heart—all of it drifted away with that fluttering white robe, borne off on the wind, racing toward that unknown distance.