History's Number 1 Founder

The surface of the longsword in Han Yang’s hands seemed to crack open on the surface. The crack became increasingly obvious and flashed with red light that resembled long rivers of blood. Behind the layers of thick black mist, the blade became less and less visible and all that could be seen was the streaks of flashing red light.

Zhao Mingxiu could feel that her connection with the Red Sky Sword had been completely severed, and the sword mind and sword Qi embodied within the Red Sky Sword had disappeared as well. All that was left was a ferocious black sword that was vastly different from what it was before.

Han Yang was calm as he gripped the hilt of the black sword, titled it to the side and knocked away the Green Void Sword that was still in the air.

Zhao Mingxiu retrieved the dull-looking Green Void Sword as she bit her lip tightly and glared at the black longsword in Han Yang’s hands.

She could tell that Han Yang was not using his full strength, and perhaps even restrained the power of the Sword of Fatality, Xiongchong. Otherwise, he could have snapped the Green Void Sword in two with just one strike.

"A fine sword," Han Yang glanced at the black sword that was still quivering in his hands. This faint trembling was not caused by the clash with the Green Void Sword – the Red Sky Sword was still trying to resist the control of the Sword of Fatality. However, this tremble was getting weaker and weaker, and quickly disappeared entirely.

However, Han Yang released the imprisonment of the Sword of Fatality and the black light dissipated as they surged back into his right hand like a wave of water. The Red Sky Sword returned into existence, and Han Yang wasn’t about to wait for it to cause him any more trouble and tossed the sword back in front of Zhao Mingxiu.

Zhao Mingxiu did not take this "opportunity" to launch another assault at Han Yang. Instead, she retrieved the Red Sky Sword with an inscrutable expression.

"Forgive me," Han Yang clasped his hands together in greeting and said quietly, "Good fight, my friend."

Zhao Mingxiu closed her eyes and kept away the Red Sky Sword and the Green Void Sword. After a moment of tasting the bitterness in her mouth, she said, "I’m not as powerful as you – fine skills you have there, Han Yang."

Xiongchong, the Sword of Fatality was indeed stronger than her Red Sky and the Green Void Swords. However, Han Yang was practically able to snatch the Red Sky Sword with his bare hands and this was enough to display the gap between their abilities and level of mastery.

Han Yang grinned and watched Zhao Mingxiu with amusement. "You’re too humble. My duel with you confirmed one thing – the Great Void Sect’s swordplay does in fact incorporate some of the profundities of Mount Shu’s Saintly Celestial Sword Qi."

"When the Founder slammed Mount Shu till they sealed off the mountain, the Yu Yuan Holy Woman travelled to Mount Shu immediately afterwards. Even though she was only there for a short while, from the looks of it, she did not return empty-handed."

Zhao Mingxiu nodded her head quietly and denied nothing. Even though the Great Void Sect was not too keen on spreading something like this, but it was not important enough to be kept a secret and they were not sensitive to the outside world knowing about this.

Han Yang laughed and shook his head. "The Essentials of the Great Void Tao is indeed impressive."

The Mount Shu Sword Sect dominated all other swords with one of its own, and masked the truth as it permeated its own sword mind across the entire world while the various swords of the universe fed the Saintly Celestial Sword in return with their own essences. The sects who were adept with swordplay and ‘received’ the influence of the Saintly Celestial Sword found their paths toward excellence obstructed by an invisible force, and it was a waste even if these sects produced top-level prodigies and talented cultivators. At a certain level, the more they tried to break through to the next level, the more energy they fed to the Saintly Celestial Sword, and was an impossible endeavor unless they did everything from the start by erasing their foundations.

When the Great Void Sect obtained inspiration from the Saintly Celestial Sword Qi, they simply incorporated it into their own Daoist lineage.

Before the birth of the Heavenly Classic of the Way’s Virtues, the Essentials of the Great Void Tao was touted as the most profound and powerful Dao encyclopedia in the Divine Lands.

There was no need for complete incorporation and assimilation. One simply had to extract anything from the book that was useful for personal cultivation, whichever part that allowed their own swordplay to grow to the next level.

Even though Han Yang was only in the Aurous Core Stage, he had his own insights about swordplay and it was only natural that he could see that Zhao Mingxiu’s limiting factor was her level of mastery. Her understanding regarding the more sophisticated and higher-order ways of the sword of the Great Void Sect was but the tip of the iceberg.

He was sure that there were other more powerful sword cultivators with much deeper understandings about the way of the sword in the inner circle of the Great Void Sect.

Zhao Mingxiu glanced at Han Yang’s right hand and asked, "The spell that you just used... Does your sword not have a tangible form?"

Han Yang’s eyes returned to their original composure and the sharpness evaporated. The same lazy smile reappeared on his face and he replied, "My sword is called the Sword of Fatality, Xiongchong. In normal times, it doesn’t have a material form. However, anything that I touch can be converted to become the physical form of the Sword of Fatality."

"No matter the size, and no matter the shape. Anything can be converted – but unfortunately, I have yet to reach the level where I can convert literally anything into the sword and I am truly regretful. For now, it’s better if I use something with the shape of a sword as the mold."

The Spiritual Energy Hurricane in the inner world of the Crucible of the Divine Lands started to subside and Heaven and Earth returned to their original states – mountains and rivers appeared once again, and flora and fauna returned into existence.

Han Yang reached out towards a tree a distance away and snapped off a branch through the air, which returned into his right hand.

It was a normal tree branch that could be broken off by normal individuals using their bare hands. However, black light flashed again in Han Yang’s right hand and the mass of black glyphs crept up the tree branch before enveloping it completely.

In the next moment, the shape of the tree branch remained unchanged, but the surface flickered with black light and a small crack appeared on the surface. Fearsome blood-red light could be seen flowing within, and an evil aura permeated outward that shattered the void all around.

A seemingly normal and weak tree branch became an extremely powerful Nascent Soul Stage magic item in the hands of Han Yang.

However, Zhao Mingxiu could feel that the Sword of Fatality that was currently in Han Yang’s hands was fearsome and terrifying, but was incomparable to the state it was in when it corrupted the Red Sky Sword.

The act of transforming the Red Sky Sword into the Sword of Fatality, Xiongchong, seemed to combine the powers of both the Sword of Fatality and the Red Sky Sword together.

While Zhao Mingxiu was unable to detect the existence of the Red Sky Sword, the ripples of power were much more obvious and overbearing than they were now.

The Sword of Fatality, with the Red Sky Sword as the foundation, could be said have a destructiveness and power that surpassed that of any other nascent soul stage magic item; its level was far greater than any other nascent soul stage magic item could achieve.

"No wonder you said your sword will be in its truest and most powerful state when it’s using another nascent soul stage sword as a mold," Zhao Mingxiu muttered under her breath as her eyes returned to the tree branch in Han Yang’s hands that no longer looks like a tree branch, and suddenly asked, "your sword – is it forged using the body of the Hua Gui?"

Han Yang retracted the black light of the Sword of Fatality as he heard her words and the tree branch returned to normal. He tossed the branch to the side, smiled at Zhao Mingxiu and said, "The teachings of the Great Void Sect have broadened your horizons. You are right – I defeated and killed a demonic lord stage Form-Stealing Demon."

The Hua Gui were extremely rare and was also known as the Form-Stealing Demon. They had a fixed physical form in their infant years, but with the passage of time and growth, their mature form no longer had a fixed form and their physical appearance resembled something like a dull-grey floating shadow.

Its natural talent was that it could attach itself to other beings, usually demons but sometimes even humans, and take control of its targets body. The Hua Gui did not steal the souls of their targets, but it was a corruption of the physical body.

Hua Gui in the undying demon soul stage were not only able to corrupt beings with form, they were also able to infect their targets’ immortal souls and undying demon souls.

Once attached, the Hua Gui were unable to channel the spells and mantras of the targets, and were unable to extract things like memory and thoughts. However, they were able to control bodily movement, and were able to "borrow" the target’s demonic energy or spiritual energy to channel the Hua Gui’s own spells and mantras.

The success of this attachment was related to the difference in strength. In normal times, as long as the target was slightly weaker than the Hua Gui itself, it would have a relatively high chance of success.

Due to this extremely powerful natural talent, the Hua Gui Tribe had stirred waves inside the Barren Expanses before.

However, because of this very fact, they were like the Blood River Faction and the Puppet Sect of the human race. The Hua Gui racked up enemies and incurred the wrath of many, and were typically unwelcome inside the Grand Celestial World and were thus perennially poached and killed.

This was the reason why the Hua Gui were very near extinction today, and hardly seen anywhere in the world.

The Hua Gui that was defeated and executed by Hua Yang was in the demonic lord stage, and this meant it was even more rare and exotic.

Han Yang’s Sword of Fatality, Xiongchong was forged using the remains of this Hua Gui King, including its demonic soul, and the Formless Divine Metal as the main materials. Luo Qingwu sought Xiao Yan’s help to forge it, and even managed to obtain some Qiong Qi blood essence from Shi Tianhao and added some Blood River Primordial Water as well.

The Qiong Qi’s natural talent was the ability to channel waves of black and dirty water with effects that were similar to the Blood River Primordial Water; both were able to contaminate the adversary’s mana, and were sometimes able to gain control over the opponent’s mantras or magic treasures.

Besides the combination of these materials, Luo Qingwu and Han Yang even attempted to incorporate the essence of the Heaven-Destroying Sword Qi. This nearly destroyed the set of original materials, and great risk was endured before the sword was completed.

Even if Han Yang used a tree branch as the mold, the Sword of Fatality would still be ranked amongst the most powerful Nascent Soul Stage magic items in the entire world. It was far more powerful than Zhao Mingxiu’s Red Sky Sword and the Green Void Sword.

When the Sword of Fatality used the Red Sky Sword as its mold, it became much more ferocious and domineering.

Han Yang got excited suddenly and asked, "When the three clouds appeared, you said ‘Senior Chen’. Are you referring to Chen Xingyu?"

He did not even wait for Zhao Mingxiu’s reply and laughed, "Tsk tsk, now I am beginning to find the Wan fella a little too irritating. If only we were there for Chen Xingyu and the other two."

Zhao Mingxiu’s mouth hung open but was momentarily at a loss for words. She wanted to chide Han Yang for his outrageousness, but immediately recalled the entire process of their duel and developed a feeling that Han Yang wasn’t being that outrageous after all. She grew a little conflicted.

As they conversed, the ground beneath their feet trembled and the inner world of the Crucible of the Divine Lands started to shake violently – the mountains shook while the earth quivered.

"What’s happening?" Both Han Yang and Zhao Mingxiu could feel chills shoot down their spines.

Outside the Crucible of the Divine Lands, Lin Feng’s Thunder Dragon Avatar extended a claw while the Zheng Yi Holy Man reached out with his own hand, and both grabbed the edge of the Crucible of the Divine Lands at the same time.

The Avatar of Ares had the Two Elements of Creation Formation above its head and was standing right next to the Thunder Dragon Avatar with his hands behind his back and watching the Zheng Yi Holy Man at the same time.

Shi Tianhao and Wang Lin’s Great Satanic Avatar were standing behind Lin Feng as well. The Xuan Lin Holy Man was standing beside the Zheng Yi Holy Man, and both sides were in a state of preparation to get into action at any time.

Lin Feng’s Avatar of Ares tilted his head to the side and Shi Tianhao nodded his head before he sprang into action and leaped into the Crucible of the Divine Lands.

The eyes of the Zheng Yi Holy Man and the Xuan Lin Holy Man sparkled as the energies of the Great Void Pavilion permeated outward.

Lin Feng’s Avatar of Ares and his Thunder Dragon Avatar continued to watch them with inscrutable expressions while the Two Elements of Creation Formation continued to rotate in the void above. The Cang Heaven Spell Blade started to take physical form beside Wang Lin’s Great Satanic Avatar as well.

The Zheng Yi Holy Man and the Xuan Lin Holy Man decided not to take any action in the end. They turned their gazes turned towards a spot in the starry sky in space, at the lonely gate to the Starry Sea.

The Gate of the Starry Sea glimmered in the void and followed the flow of spiritual energy in the Starry Sea. It seemed as if the gate was about to disappear forever.

The Zheng Yi Holy Man said slowly, "Leader of the Celestial Sect of Wonders – care to share some love?"