Chapter 224 — Striking at the Heart
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 6 of 7
Tian Buhui's sword thrust struck empty air, but the crimson flame did not weaken—it blazed higher. In midair it twisted, sweeping across the heavens like a rainbow piercing the sun, then curved back and drove straight at Dao Yan the Perfected One.
Dao Yan the Perfected One swayed and evaded again, and said with a cold laugh, "What, can you take up the sword again? Have you settled your principles and morals, then?"
Tian Buhui gave a cold snort, halted, and held his sword level, saying sternly, "Your merits are peerless, but you have indeed committed a grave wrong. I fight because the command of the past patriarchs demands it. If you die by my hand today, I shall take my own life in atonement."
Ming Li's body gave a slight shudder. He glanced at Tian Buhui, puzzled for a moment, but in such haste who would explain it to him? Then Tian Buhui gave another long cry, and the crimson flame blazed fiercely, spreading across heaven and earth with matchless momentum. Seeing it, Ming Li frowned; after a moment's hesitation he too flew up to attack.
With two great masters assailing him, Dao Yan the Perfected One's cultivation—which in times past had reached the very heights of creation—was at last revealed in full. His sword incantation pointed and swept, and at the same time that layer of dark yin ghost-qi, thick as ink and black as lacquer, shifted without fixed form, able both to attack and defend. In midair he fought two alone and held Tian Buhui and Ming Li off, not falling short in the least.
In the midst of the fierce battle, Tian Buhui brought his sword down with the force of a mountain splitting and the sea overturning, so mighty that even one as strong as Dao Yan the Perfected One had to give way before it, drifting back three feet. Seizing that brief opening, Tian Buhui seemed suddenly to remember something and shouted to Ming Li, "Old Seven, be careful—he still has the Immortal-Slaying Sword!"
Ming Li's heart gave a sudden start. The power of the ancient Immortal-Slaying Sword was something he knew to the marrow of his bones. Yet a moment later, those three words—Immortal-Slaying Sword—seemed to sear through his heart like boiling oil, and the blood in his whole body seemed to boil.
Ten years ago, atop the Canglan Mountain—that green figure that fell!
In an instant Ming Li's eyes went blood-red. With a great roar he charged in, every stroke and art a desperate, all-or-nothing stance. Tian Buhui was startled, then seemed to understand something, sighed inwardly, and gave chase.
Ming Li's sudden recklessness was something Dao Yan the Perfected One had not anticipated, and for several exchanges these two left him somewhat flustered. Yet his cultivation was truly beyond the sage and into the holy. Facing Ming Li's desperate assault and Tian Buhui's sword that grew fiercer with every stroke, Dao Yan the Perfected One still stubbornly turned the situation back little by little. Though for the moment he could gain no advantage, neither could any sign of decline be seen in him.
The longer Tian Buhui fought, the more his heart quailed. He had always known that this senior brother of his, the sect master, was a rare genius such as the world seldom sees, his ten years of cultivation far surpassing Tian Buhui's own. He had come at great risk to stop Dao Yan the Perfected One largely because, according to the dying words handed down by the past patriarchs, once the Immortal-Slaying Sword entered demonic ways, its wielder's power ought to decline greatly. Even so, Tian Buhui had in truth prepared himself to perish together with him.
But after this succession of exchanges, Dao Yan the Perfected One's divine cultivation only filled Tian Buhui with boundless admiration. He even began to wonder—could it be that his senior brother's cultivation had truly grown so high that the Immortal-Slaying Sword could affect his mind but no longer his cultivation?