Chapter 49: Tantai Yuxian
“Step back.”
Fu Yuying also sensed that overwhelming sword intent.
She knew that Shen Tian had already used one of his trump cards.
Her figure leapt out from the tree trunk.
With a light shake of her slender wrist, the small bronze bell hanging there gave off a crisp chime that rippled outward like an ancient, resonant toll, echoing through heaven and earth.
A silver moon rose behind her, enormous and radiant, spanning nearly three zhang in diameter.
It illuminated the surroundings in dazzling light, like a divine halo impervious to all laws, holding her within its center.
At the same time, her hands formed seals while her lips murmured incantations.
Silver divine runes faintly surfaced from beneath her snow-white, delicate skin.
In an instant, her entire aura became holy and transcendent, like a celestial maiden descending from the Ninth Heaven, inspiring reverence and awe.
“‘Nine Nether Star Prayer Art.’”
“The Saintess is using a forbidden art—everyone, retreat immediately! Do not get caught in it!”
The old woman accompanying Fu Yuying instantly sent out a voice transmission to command the others.
This was a forbidden technique recorded within the ancestral temple of Luofu Cloud Cavern.
Only the Saintess of each generation was qualified to cultivate it.
It demanded exceptional talent and constitution, and its power was terrifying—indiscriminate between friend and foe.
In the next moment, starlight descended around Fu Yuying.
Endless streams of silver radiance surged forth like falling jade, forming a cascading Milky Way.
The brilliance spread across the heavens, turning into countless beams of dazzling light.
It was breathtakingly beautiful and dreamlike, yet anyone who felt it could sense the bone-piercing killing intent within.
This was a domain of stars—each strand of light could easily pierce through boulders, turning them into sieves.
Any flesh and blood body within would be no different from tofu.
“How stubborn this fellow is.”
“But as I expected, Fu Yuying used this forbidden art. At her current stage, she still hasn’t broken through to the Fourth Rank, Heavenly Nightmare Realm. After all, she’s still young, and her cultivation time is short.”
“To fight beyond her rank, she must rely on a forbidden art to forcibly elevate her realm. But afterward, she’ll be severely weakened for at least three months. Without heavenly treasures to nourish her body, it might even harm her foundation.”
On a treetop not far away, Shen Yanzhou had been silently observing the battle.
Shen Tian was even more tenacious than he had anticipated.
The forbidden art Fu Yuying had used was also recorded in the original story—during her battle for Luofu Cloud Cavern against the Demon Suppression King, Shen Jingxiao, she had forcefully elevated her realm.
Of course, she had lost that battle—and lost miserably.
At that time, she had already reached the Fourth Rank.
But the Demon Suppression King, Shen Jingxiao, was hailed as the War God of Great Qian—that title was not undeserved.
With a mere lift of his hand, he had effortlessly suppressed her.
In his eyes, Fu Yuying was merely a little girl who relied on the accumulated blessings of Luofu Cloud Cavern’s predecessors to reach her current realm.
Her foundation was far inferior to those true prodigies who advanced step by step through their own strength.
Boom!!!
Countless threads of starlight cascaded down, transforming into an ocean of stars that collided with Shen Tian’s strand of protective sword qi.
In an instant, a hurricane swept across the area.
The thick mist scattered.
Trees and rocks in the surroundings were plowed apart, leaving deep ravines and countless holes.
Many cultivators of Luofu Cloud Cavern who had failed to retreat in time groaned in pain, their bodies covered in fine cracks of blood, as if slashed by a thousand blades—blood-soaked and miserable.
Fu Yuying, who stood at the center of the battlefield, fared no better.
She let out a muffled groan, blood seeping from the corner of her lips, dripping from beneath her mask onto her robe.
Behind her, the protective silver moon exploded, scattering into dust.
The bronze bell around her wrist gave a sharp crack and broke apart, losing its protective effect.
Her cultivation was only at the Fifth Rank, Ghost King Realm.
To forcibly use a forbidden art and withstand a strand of Sword Immortal sword qi had already pushed her to her limit.
Soon, she pulled out a jade bottle from her robes, poured out a round violet pill, and swallowed it beneath her mask.
Moments later, her breathing steadied.
“There’s still one more strike.”
Fu Yuying’s gaze was cold and clear as she looked at Shen Tian—his body battered, robes torn, face and limbs covered in blood.
Shen Tian’s cultivation was merely Sixth Rank.
Without the protection of that strand of sword qi, he would never have survived Fu Yuying’s forbidden art.
Now, he was severely injured, his energy nearly depleted.
He continuously swallowed healing pills, yet clearly hadn’t prepared as well as Fu Yuying—his aura remained weak.
“The last strand of sword qi bestowed by my master… I refined it into my Martial Soul to temper its strength.”
“Unless it’s a matter of life and death, I cannot use it.”
Shen Tian’s face was pale from blood loss, yet he forced himself to stay calm.
How could he accept dying here like this?
He hadn’t yet reunited with his father.
He hadn’t yet called Yu Chenyu “mother.”
He hadn’t yet reclaimed his title as the Heir of the Demon Suppression King…
A surge of unwillingness welled up in his heart.
Fortunately… from that last clash, the formation laid here had been destroyed.
As the fog dispersed, the once-murky night sky became much clearer.
“The rain has stopped.”
Shen Tian looked up, and a faint smile appeared on his pale face.
The next moment, a long, piercing cry echoed through the forest night.
Suddenly, fierce winds howled as a massive shadow swept down from the sky.
The spread of its black wings sliced through the trees like blades.
“Chuidian…”
When Shen Tian saw the approaching black roc, the weight in his heart finally lifted, and he exhaled softly.
He had been waiting for this moment.
Although he hadn’t called for Chuidian, they had grown up together—their bond was deep.
Faced with such danger, how could Chuidian not sense it?
“Good thing you came.”
Shen Tian leapt upward to grab the enormous black roc descending toward him.
But in the next instant, a miserable scream echoed.
Before he could even see clearly, a massive bird’s head fell from the sky.
Hot blood splattered down, steaming in the air—yet it felt like a basin of cold water poured over his head.
“Chui… Chuidian…”
The hand Shen Tian had reached out with froze midair.
His face went rigid, his pupils contracted as he stared in disbelief at the enormous severed bird head lying at his feet.
Those dark, lustrous feathers were now drenched with hot blood—blindingly bright.
Moments later, a headless, gigantic bird corpse crashed behind him with a thunderous boom, splashing mud in all directions.
Chuidian was dead?
Right before his eyes—just like that?
Shen Tian stood motionless, unable to believe what he was seeing.
“Chuidian…”
He took a few unsteady steps forward, crouched down, as if needing to truly confirm that the massive black roc lying before him was indeed the companion who had been with him for so many years.
However, at this moment, from that clean, mirror-smooth cut, boiling blood continued to gush forth, quickly dyeing the luminous black feathers red, soaking them into the muddy ground.
Chuidian could no longer respond to him.
“Ah…”
Shen Tian roared toward the sky, bloodshot veins bursting in his eyes.
His fists clenched tightly, and his whole body trembled as if an uncontainable, heaven-shaking fury was about to erupt from his chest.
“Who was it? Who did this?!”
He glared toward Fu Yuying and the others, his gaze blazing with killing intent and fury that seemed enough to shatter the heavens.
The experts of Luofu Cloud Cavern were equally shaken.
None of them had expected that the black roc, which had suddenly swooped down from the sky, would be decapitated in an instant.
That was a beast of no low grade.
Just from the smooth cut, it was clear that the creature had been sliced apart by an invisible sword edge—so fast it hadn’t even had time to react.
They hadn’t sensed any sword qi fluctuations at all.
Whoever had acted must have possessed an unimaginably profound mastery of swordsmanship.
“Could there be a hidden expert lurking in the shadows?”
Everyone from Luofu Cloud Cavern was greatly alarmed.
Only Fu Yuying seemed to realize something.
She instinctively glanced toward the ancient tree where Shen Yanzhou was hiding.
She recalled Chu Xiuer once mentioning that she had seen countless beasts slain in that gorge—each killed by a single sword, their wounds clean and smooth, as though executed by a true sword master.
It now seemed… that this sword master was most likely Shen Yanzhou himself.
“Before this, I didn’t sense any inner energy or qi flow from him. How did he manage this?”
“Young Master Shen truly hides his depth well.”
Fu Yuying was secretly astonished.
Behind the thick tree trunk, Shen Yanzhou leaned quietly against it, withdrawing his fingers that had just formed a sword gesture.
“With my current martial realm, using the Selfless Sword Heart again has indeed changed its power dramatically.”
“Shen Tian’s black roc mount carried traces of Golden-winged Great Roc bloodline—its hide tough as iron, its feathers like armor scales. Ordinary blades could not even scratch it. Even several Sixth Rank martial artists might not be able to handle it.”
“I thought it might at least block one of my strikes—but it still died instantly.”
Shen Yanzhou nodded slightly, quite satisfied with the result.
At present, his Selfless Sword Heart had only reached the stage of Minor Accomplishment.
If he later improved it to Perfection, it might even threaten Fourth Rank opponents.
“I now have an offensive technique. Next, I’ll need to find martial arts focused on movement and defense…”
“Since I cultivate both the Martial and Dao paths, Daoist mental methods and divine arts should adapt to me easily.”
Shen Yanzhou began planning his next steps.
Given the current situation, unless Shen Jingxiao or Tantai Yuxian personally appeared, no one could save Shen Tian.
……
“Who was it? Who did this?!”
Shen Tian roared again, his voice filled with rage.
Yet no one paid him any heed.
In the cold, rainy night, the dispersing miasma carried a bone-piercing chill.
His partner Chuidian, who might have helped him escape, was now dead.
Tonight, it truly seemed to be a dead-end situation.
Shen Tian was unwilling to accept it.
“Has heaven abandoned me?”
“To think I fell into that wastrel’s trap…”
“Shen Yanzhou! Get out here now!”
Shen Tian laughed miserably, like a dying beast at the end of its road—his voice thick with despair.
Naturally, Shen Yanzhou did not appear.
He knew Shen Tian still had tricks left.
This act of hopeless rage was meant to lure him out and drag him down together.
Fu Yuying also stared coldly at the raving Shen Tian and motioned for the Luofu Cloud Cavern members not to move forward.
She remembered Shen Yanzhou’s warning—Shen Tian carried three strands of sword qi.
He had used two already, meaning one remained.
That man’s mind was deep.
His apparent madness over his mount’s death was just an act—to lower everyone’s guard.
That final strand of sword qi was Shen Tian’s last hope of turning the tide.
“Heh heh…”
Shen Tian tilted his head back and laughed wildly, his hair disheveled, his eyes deranged.
“In that case, all of you—die with me!”
“Even if I must burn my Martial Soul to ashes, I’ll drag you all down to hell!”
In the next instant, his aura surged explosively.
From the crown of his head, radiant light spilled forth—blinding, fierce, and sharp enough to pierce the heavens.
A small, indistinct figure—almost identical to his own—emerged from within him.
It was his Martial Soul.
Though it was only palm-sized, its presence was so overwhelming and forceful that it seemed capable of crushing mountains and rivers for ten thousand li.
Compared to the two strands of sword qi Shen Tian had released before, the sword intent within this Martial Soul was far purer and far mightier, carrying an indescribable sense of spirit and consciousness.
“In the original story, Shen Tian never used this strand of sword qi.”
“Because he had never faced such a true life-and-death crisis.”
Shen Yanzhou narrowed his eyes.
“This strand of sword qi is not simple…”
“There’s intelligence within it—it’s not a mere protective sword qi.”
At that moment, the voice of Martial God Lin Qingcang echoed in his mind.
“So it’s happened after all—the worst-case scenario…”
Shen Yanzhou frowned deeply.
Fu Yuying also sensed something amiss.
Though she had remained cautious all along, she could now clearly feel something strange.
This was not ordinary protective sword qi—there was the aura of a living being within it…
“Not good…” Her expression changed slightly.
She had miscalculated.
The next moment, a sharp crack sounded—Shen Tian’s Martial Soul split apart.
The air grew hazy, and a faint, glowing path appeared—stretching across the distant heavens toward a serene pavilion suspended beneath the bright moon.
Moonlight flowed like water, and from that pavilion descended a slender, graceful woman in white.
She held a long sword in her arms.
Her black hair fluttered like silk, her bearing ethereal and transcendent, her aura pure and immortal.
Yet her eyes were cold and distant, as though she had stepped down from the far reaches of the Ninth Heaven—isolated, untouched by mortal dust.
With each step she took, the void trembled faintly.
In a blink, she descended before everyone.
“Ten-Thousand-Mile Sword Court, Pure Pavilion — Tantai Yuxian.”
Fu Yuying’s heart tensed as though facing her greatest foe.
For the first time, her usually calm and cold face showed a look of grave solemnity.
For all cultivators of the present age, regardless of their path, Tantai Yuxian was a legendary figure.
Even Emperor Mingde of Great Qian dared not show her the slightest disrespect.
The First Rank had long been extinct, and Tantai Yuxian—standing at the pinnacle of the Second Rank—was the undisputed Sword Immortal of this world.
“Mas… Master…”
Shen Tian had intended to burn his Martial Soul in mutual destruction, but he never imagined that within it resided a trace of his master’s consciousness.
He froze for a moment, then joy flooded his face.
His master had often told him not to reveal their relationship to anyone.
Shen Tian had always remembered this, never speaking a word of it.
The master who had raised him since childhood was none other than the Sword Immortal of the Ten-Thousand-Mile Sword Court herself.
And there was no doubt—his master’s power made him fearless of any danger in this world.
Especially with three strands of protective sword qi bestowed upon him.
Now, in his moment of mortal peril, his master had manifested to save him—how could he not be overcome with gratitude and emotion?