For the martial artist Cao Ci, it was his fist.

For the sword cultivator Ning Yao, it was her sword.

They seemed to possess a mystical and profound grandeur of heaven and earth.

This was different from Chen Ping’an’s first natal flying sword, “Caged Bird,” and Qi Jinglong’s flying sword, “Rules,” which he claimed to have cultivated through reading. Both of them could create a small world with their flying swords’ innate abilities, but it wasn’t the same as the former two.

So, when Ning Yao took the lead, holding that Sword Immortal, about to break the formation,

the already faltering demon army began to retreat involuntarily. This led to an even denser and more unwieldy concentration of forces on the front line.

Perhaps this was the innate nature of all things, how they responded to the changes of heaven and earth, just as humans sense the changing seasons and temperature.

Chen Ping’an was also looking forward to Ning Yao’s unrestrained swordplay. He had never seen the true Ning Yao on the battlefield.

As for that Sword Immortal, which Chen Ping’an had painstakingly tamed, it had a terrible temper in his hands, like a demanding master. But in Ning Yao’s hands, it was as obedient as a little girl, which Chen Ping’an didn’t mind at all.

Ning Yao slowly walked forward, not in a hurry to deliver the first sword strike.

The Sword Immortal in her hand glowed with golden light, combined with the golden battle robe that already attracted attention on the battlefield, making Ning Yao seem like a supreme deity walking among mortals at that moment.

Taking this opportunity, Chen Ping’an used telepathic communication to inquire with Chen Sanqiu and Yan Zhuo about the battlefield details of the previous formation breaking. For example, the approximate number, appearances, spells, and natal treasures of the Dragon Gate Realm and Golden Core Realm demon cultivators who were of high enough level and not severely injured. During the previous retreat, Chen Ping’an was more focused on searching for those hidden sword cultivator assassins, so there were bound to be many omissions.

Asking Die Zhang or Dong Huafu would be pointless. They had been hacking and slashing all the way, their flying swords colliding randomly. These two probably couldn’t even remember a rough estimate of their battle merits.

Chen Ping’an used rapid telepathic ripples to remind everyone: “For the upcoming formation breaking, don’t focus too much on killing enemies on the spot. Fan Dache and I will follow up with a few sword strikes. Except for Ning Yao opening the formation, don’t think about anything else. The most important thing for the four of you, Sanqiu, is to rely on wide-ranging ‘collateral damage’ to force those assassins to reveal themselves. I will point out their identities and locations one by one. If the timing is right, you can solve them yourselves. Fan Dache and I will still act according to the situation and follow up. If there are any that we can’t handle, listen to my reminders, adapt to the circumstances, and strive to kill them together.”

Fan Dache was actually a little nervous, ultimately worried about becoming a burden to these friends. At this moment, after listening to Chen Ping’an’s detailed formation arrangement, he felt slightly relieved.

“Dache,”

Chen Ping’an only spoke to Fan Dache: “How can a heroic spirit, even if it’s pretended, not be a heroic spirit?”

Fan Dache took a deep breath and smiled, “You’re right.”

Dong Huafu’s appearance was now between that of a young boy and a young man. There were only wrongly chosen names by parents, and no wrongly given nicknames by friends in the martial world. Dong Black Charcoal was indeed a bit dark. He probably wouldn’t be able to shake off this nickname in his life. Dong Black Charcoal, who spent money like water, and Dong Huafu, who never haggled.

He happened to take that most feminine-sounding and “gentle” style sword, Red Makeup, the sword body as slender as a willow branch.

Die Zhang held Town Mountain. The one-armed female manager, who was actually graceful and had delicate features, wielded a broadsword.

Dong Huafu and Die Zhang, who had the strongest killing intent, would closely follow Ning Yao, one on the left and one on the right, to help Ning Yao, who was spearheading the attack, to tear a larger opening in the demon army as much as possible.

If Ning Yao’s sword strikes determined the speed at which this group of sword cultivators broke the formation, then Die Zhang and Dong Huafu also had important responsibilities. If the overall killing power of the seven-person sword formation was not large enough, even if they succeeded in breaking the formation and approached the golden river guarded by the Sword Immortal as quickly as possible, it would not be of much significance to the overall battlefield situation.

Chen Sanqiu and Yan Zhuo, who were roughly positioned behind Dong Huafu and Die Zhang, needed to be responsible for helping the former two stabilize the battle line and kill more demons on the lateral battlefield.

The formation was about to open.

Chen Ping’an also restrained his expression, his mind immersed. He always controlled his sword to stay only a few feet above the ground. His identity might not fool some of the assassin sword cultivators, but it would have a hidden use. Once those sword cultivators, in order to seek stability and consolidate the battlefield situation, used telepathy to inform important demon cultivators other than the assassins, then as long as one or two pairs of eyes accidentally glanced at the “young sword cultivator,” Chen Ping’an could take the opportunity to find one or two more key enemies.

To do big business, one had to be meticulous.

As the six sword cultivators moved forward,

Chen Ping’an, who was in charge of guarding the rear, unknowingly found himself at the very back of the battlefield and suddenly smiled.

Indeed, Ning Yao looked best in that golden robe, Golden Li.

As for previously disliking that young master Pu Yu for wearing a snow-white robe, that was completely forgotten.

Of course, Ning Yao was on the battlefield, so any disguise was actually useless. First, her sword cultivator friends were all young geniuses of her age, and more importantly, Ning Yao’s own swordplay was too obvious.

After all, people like Chen Ping’an, who advocated having as many skills as possible, would rather use four ounces of strength to kill an enemy than half a pound. Someone who was ruthless enough to cover his face with a woman’s skin, or even pretend to be a demon inside agent, was indeed rare.

Ning Yao flashed past, instantly darting forward dozens of feet, sweeping her sword horizontally.

On the front line of the demon army, the battlefield, hundreds of feet wide, was all cut in half by that golden sword light.

A Nascent Soul Realm demon cultivator in charge of supervising the battle issued orders from the rear, using a spell to smash dozens of retreating demons who were afraid of battle on the front line.

Ning Yao floated forward, in a straight line. After delivering a sword strike, she didn’t bother to strike again, using that sword light to slaughter demons. She only used her vast sword qi to clear the way. In a subtle way, she was very similar to Zuo You, who had the highest sword skills. The sword qi was too much, the momentum was too strong, it was simply an indestructible small world sword formation. If you wanted her to target someone with a sword strike, you had to see if you were worthy of her attention.
The demon cultivators, unwilling and even more fearful of passively awaiting death, hurled dozens of spirit artifacts and several natal magic treasures frantically towards the swirling vortex of sword qi. They had no time to consider whether this would affect the demon army on that front. Their only hope was to wear down that unparalleled sword qi domain as soon as possible. Otherwise, with Ning Yao breaking through their defenses like this, their losses would be even greater, and their forces would be depleted at an alarming rate. A war that encompassed the grand scheme of things, a sweeping and overwhelming conflict, could be won by sacrificing lives to accumulate victories, but on certain specific battlefields, that might not be the case.

Especially not when facing Ning Yao.

They simply had to regard Ning Yao as a sword immortal, regardless of her actual cultivation realm.

It was irrelevant whether she was a Golden Core or Nascent Soul cultivator.

This was a universally acknowledged truth within the wildlands.

In an instant, Ning Yao had directly traversed the battlefield littered with corpses. Those demons touched by the sword qi were pulverized, their souls shattered along with their bodies. Previous magic treasures and spirit artifacts were either damaged or shattered, unable to impede her advance. Ning Yao, wielding her sword, had instantly arrived alone in the heart of the demon army. With one hand, she slightly increased the force with which she gripped the golden light-entwined sword. With the other hand, she made a sword gesture with two fingers casually pressed together. The golden rays of light emanating from the immortal sword instantly scattered, and within a radius of several miles on the battlefield, everyone died except for the Golden Core cultivators who managed to escape in time and those who used a protective natal item to shield themselves.

Chen Ping An, watching that scene from afar, felt as if a golden lotus had bloomed in his heart.

In another instant, Ning Yao’s figure disappeared hundreds of feet away, heading towards a distant Golden Core demon cultivator. She cleaved down with her sword and simultaneously glanced into the distance, softly saying, “Come here.”

That demon Golden Core cultivator, who was frantically directing his troops, never imagined that he would be “so lucky” as to bear the brunt of her strike. He immediately sacrificed a natal magic treasure, an ancient weapon resembling a spear-halberd, engraved with golden light talismans. The Golden Core demon cultivator gripped the weapon with both hands and spun it around, transforming it into a light golden talisman disc resembling a mountain-protecting array. Furthermore, a string of faint golden cloud-like runes flowed backwards from the spear-halberd, covering his entire body, like the effect of wearing armor made from refined military pellets.

He defended himself with the talisman array, wore armor that seemed to be bestowed upon him by a military god, and possessed an inherently resilient physique.

That magic treasure, both offensive and defensive, was undoubtedly a precious immortal treasure of extremely high quality.

In the Great Harmony world, even Nascent Soul cultivators would probably be envious and eager to possess it.

Unfortunately, after a golden line descended from above, the talisman array, golden armor, and demon Golden Core cultivator were all split in two.

The earth beneath was even carved with an extremely long gully by the still-terrifying force of the golden line.

Shattering the talisman array, breaking the golden armor, and cleaving the body was just a casual strike from Ning Yao.

When Ning Yao paused briefly, appearing on that battlefield, the surrounding demon army had already retreated frantically. But when she casually uttered the words “Come here,” strange phenomena arose.

Around Ning Yao, in four directions, four strands of ancient, pure sword intent that roamed between heaven and earth, as if commanded, fell straight to the ground. These originally wispy threads of sword intent, as if gaining life and spiritual connection, were not only being commanded for the first time to appear by a later generation sword cultivator from the Sword Qi Great Wall, but were also able to absorb the abundant sword qi between heaven and earth. These four strands of refined sword intent, reaching from the sea of clouds above to the deepest depths of the earth below, continuously expanded, like pillars supporting a grand house.

Finally, in the four directions of the heavens and the earth, four pillars of sword intent connecting heaven and earth were erected.

Then, in an instant, countless extremely fine threads of sword intent were divided and crisscrossed, covering the entire domain.

This time, no one survived on the battlefield around Ning Yao, and all the demon army’s bodies, souls, natal treasures, and weapons were turned to mush together.

Ning Yao advanced once more, widening the distance from the sword cultivators behind her again.

The four strands of sword intent retracted again, each into a single line, following her like shadows, encircling Ning Yao.

Therefore, Ning Yao had sword intent outside the sword qi array.

The golden longsword in her hand truly did not have many opportunities to be used.

Even Fan Dache, despite being on their side, felt his scalp tingle after seeing this scene from afar.

If Lin Junbi had the chance to see this, he would probably tell himself that he had lost with honor, and would not feel the slightest bit of sadness or disappointment, but rather be quite happy.

In the path of the sword, what was shameful about losing to Ning Yao?

Just ask Pang Yuanji, Qi Shou, and Gao Yehou, did they have the ability to have Ning Yao personally take action?

Looking back.

Before Ning Yao became a Golden Core sword cultivator, perhaps when she was on the battlefield, her primary goals were to practice her swordsmanship and kill enemies, while also taking care of her friends’ safety as much as possible.

But after Ning Yao traveled through the Great Harmony world and returned to the Sword Qi Great Wall, after three battles, it seemed like she was just helping Diezhang and Chen Sanqiu improve their swordsmanship.

It seemed that she had no sword to practice herself.

Far behind Ning Yao.

The battlefield was empty. Some small fry demon cultivators and those demon soldiers who had not yet developed intelligence, were easily killed by Diezhang and Dong Huafu, who were desperately trying to keep up with Ning Yao.

Dong Huafu even had the leisure to scratch his head and muttered softly, “Sister Ning, at least leave some for us.”

Diezhang twisted her body and swiftly threw the Mount Suppressing Sword in her hand, directly chopping down a demon Sea Gazing cultivator. Then, with a wave of her hand, without retrieving the sword, she pointed her toes and rode the sword towards Ning Yao. She and Dong Huafu were still over a hundred feet away from the nearest strand of sword intent to the south.

She turned her head and complained, “What are you muttering about? Keep up. At this rate, we won’t even be able to see Ning Yao’s back.”

Diezhang would of course not complain about Ning Yao, but complaining about Dong Heitan was fine.

Chen Sanqiu and Yan Zhuo, who were further behind Diezhang and Dong Heitan, naturally had even less to do.

Chen Sanqiu was inherently lazy and did not mind the awkward situation of being invincible with no one to kill. Yan Zhuo minded a bit, but there was nothing he could do.

Fan Dache was just focused on riding his sword forward.

Chen Ping An, who was trailing behind at the very end, at most just rode his sword around, wandering about, picking up a few things, but not gaining much.
Actually, Chen Ping’an felt the most helpless. It seemed there was no difference whether he watched the battlefield or not. The clues he painstakingly managed to discern would either lead to the enemy fleeing in utter disarray, or if they were a bit slower, to their utter demise before he could even warn anyone. However, it wasn’t entirely without merit. The distance to Ning Yao was too great, so Chen Ping’an decided to use his mind to communicate with Chen Sanqiu, hoping he could relay the message to Dong Heitan, and finally to Ning Yao. He needed to warn her to be careful underground, as a demon cultivator, at least at the Golden Core bottleneck, or even a Nascent Soul realm entity, had finally lost patience and was about to strike.

But Chen Ping’an was just about to speak when, on the distant battlefield where she was constantly deploying her formations alone, Ning Yao finally stopped once more. She used her sword as a walking stick, lightly pressing down on the hilt. The golden longsword instantly vanished into the earth, disappearing without a trace.

Clearly, she had already sensed the subtle signs of the Nascent Soul demon.

The ground beneath Ning Yao’s feet cracked and split. The golden sword was the first to engage the enemy. Nearby, sword Qi poured down like torrential rain, rapidly seeping into the ground. She didn’t even bother to expend energy on precisely locating the hiding place of the hidden demon cultivator.

She glanced at a few demon cultivators with decent cultivation levels at the edge of the “sword formation” and said calmly, “Again.”

Four more wisps of ancient sword intent, coveted by countless sword cultivators throughout the millennia yet eluding their grasp, manifested in the world simply because this young woman uttered those two words.

Adding to the previous four wisps, a total of eight strands of ancient sword Qi formed an even larger cage of sword formations around Ning Yao.

Within the array, countless perished.

Even so, Ning Yao still felt it wasn’t enough.

She formed an ancient sword incantation with her fingers, and with a slight thought, the eight sword intents seemingly coalesced into flesh and blood with sword Qi, and formed bones with sword intent, conjuring eight ethereal sword immortals in white robes. The eight cold-faced sword immortals, their white robes fluttering, stood several zhang tall. Each reached out and grasped a longsword formed from nearby sword Qi, and they all turned, their backs to Ning Yao who had commanded them into existence, and scattered in all directions, simultaneously drawing their swords to kill the enemy.

These ancient “sword immortals,” devoid of sentience, naturally couldn’t return to their peak state. In terms of combat power, they were merely equivalent to Golden Core sword cultivators. Of course, they lacked the natal flying swords and divine abilities.

However, the combat power of eight Golden Core sword cultivators, and the fact that even if their “bodies” were shattered by the demon army of the Savage World, they would simply condense the battlefield sword Qi again, endlessly regenerating, tireless, and unburdened by life and death, without needing to worry about accumulating spiritual energy, made it easy to wipe out the battlefield. As long as Ning Yao’s mental energy wasn’t excessively depleted, and the eight pure sword intents, acting as the “foundation of the Dao,” weren’t forcibly severed from their connection with Ning Yao by Nascent Soul sword cultivators or upper-fifth realm sword immortals, the eight ancient sword immortals could exist on the battlefield indefinitely.

“Ning Girl’s swordsmanship, sword intent, and sword path will reach very high levels given time, and not much time at that.”

This was what the eldest sword immortal, Chen Qingdu, had said himself.

Why was it that no one in Sword Qi Great Wall, a place overflowing with talented swordsmen, called Ning Yao a genius? Because if she was considered a genius, then Qi Shou, Pang Yuanji, and the other young sword cultivators would all have to be demoted a level, not even worthy of being called geniuses.

Ning Yao.

She was always in a league of her own.

From the first day Ning Yao practiced swordsmanship as a child, no one of her age, or even so-called geniuses a generation older, were willing to spar or exchange pointers with her.

There was no need.

The ground beneath Ning Yao’s feet, where she had been standing earlier, was already in ruins, collapsed and shattered.

Ning Yao was now hovering in the air. She even turned her head to look behind her, probably to see if Diezhang and Dong Huafu had kept up.

After only a few blinks, when the Nascent Soul cultivator was found by the golden sword, Ning Yao’s figure plummeted and disappeared.

By the time Diezhang and Dong Huafu reached the edge of the large pit, Ning Yao had already reappeared at the southernmost end of the pit, sword in hand, and continued to deploy her formation southward.

Because she had already found a Jade Purity Realm sword cultivator acting as a suicide soldier.

But the opponent had chosen to retreat without a fight.

Facing south, Ning Yao raised her hand and wiped away a cut on her face caused by a Dharma blade. It was only a slight scratch.

Diezhang glanced at the bottom of the pit. Inside the pit was a Nascent Soul demon who had revealed his true form, a gigantic ape, seemingly of the ancient Mountain Moving lineage. Its fate could be described as being dismembered into eight pieces, with golden sword Qi lingering in the gaps between its corpse.

Clearly, it had been killed by the celestial weapon in Ning Yao’s hand, the sword immortal, before it could even destroy its Golden Core and Nascent Soul by self-detonation.

At the bottom of the pit, beside the corpse, a slender, bright white knife, like an embroidery needle compared to the massive body, hovered quietly, its blade light flickering, quite conspicuous.

Dong Huafu was about to go down and retrieve the treasure, but Diezhang glared at him, “Idiot?”

Dong Huafu grunted in agreement and quickly flew south on his sword with Diezhang.

Chen Sanqiu and Yan Zhuo followed the edge of the pit, heading south. The only use of their natal flying swords and the swords they wielded as flying swords was to collect as many battle merits as possible from the left and right battlefields. It was better than nothing, to avoid seeming like they had nothing to do. The two were like picking grains of wheat from the ground into a bowl, one grain at a time, and they hadn’t even filled the bottom of the bowl yet.

Fan Dache was a little confused.

What happened to me being the bait?

After Fan Dache reached the southern end of the pit, he looked back. Second Shopkeeper was squatting there, picking up scraps, his movements quick and neat, even having a hint of pleasing style.

Fan Dache was closest to Chen Ping’an, and since he was acting as bait, a little distraction was fine. So Fan Dache knew very well that Second Shopkeeper had been accumulating little by little all the way south. Even broken copper and iron were collected, and the shattered fragments of spiritual tools and magical treasures that hadn’t been turned to dust but were scattered all over the ground were not missed. So the quantity was still considerable. He estimated that after finishing this trip around the pit, even the quality of the magical treasures would improve.

Chen Ping’an flew away from the pit on his sword, his mood complicated. It didn’t seem right to just pick up scraps like this.

It seemed that those demon sword cultivator suicide soldiers didn’t even have the courage to launch a surprise attack.

Chen Ping’an had to use his mind to remind Chen Sanqiu and Yan Zhuo, “I guess we can’t keep up. Find an opportunity to kill the Golden Core demons whose identities are obvious. If there are Nascent Soul demons, work together to intercept them, and don’t let them escape to other battlefields.”
Unexpectedly, Ning Yao, at the southernmost reaches, had taken action even earlier. She caused that ancient Sword Immortal to cease the brutal suppression of the demon horde on the north-south battlefield, and instead, begin hunting down those Golden Core and Nascent Soul demons attempting to flee to the flanks. Upon discovering them, she would slightly slow her southward path of formation-breaking, and wielding her immortal sword, detour to hunt them down.

That Jade Purity Realm sword cultivator seemed extremely adept at concealment, following a similar path to Grandpa Nalan. Ning Yao didn’t overthink it, simply avoiding him.

As a result, Diezhang and Dong Huafu finally managed to catch up with Ning Yao.

Chen Ping’an scratched his head.

Subsequently, this group of sword cultivators continued southward.

It was estimated that the band of demon deathsworn originally believed that Ning Yao would eventually reach a point of mental exhaustion. However, they never imagined that she would continue south, constantly opening the way ahead, without showing any signs of mental fatigue or spiritual energy depletion.

Furthermore, two more Golden Core sword cultivator deathsworn, and one Nascent Soul demon sword cultivator, were successively slain. Ning Yao personally executed the Nascent Soul, while the remaining two injured Golden Cores were left to Diezhang and the others to deal with.

Ning Yao didn’t even bother to feign anything, disdaining to bait her opponents into attacking.

*I can find you, therefore, you can die.*

This was Ning Yao’s sword.

Compared to that infamous Second Shopkeeper, the two were on completely different planes when in the thick of battle.

And so, they continued southward.

Near that golden river, a Sword Immortal greeted Ning Yao with a smile.

Ning Yao gave a slight hum, nodding her head in acknowledgement to the Sword Immortal senior.

Then Ning Yao finally stopped, and the seven sword cultivators, for the first time, managed to gather together.

Ning Yao looked at Chen Ping’an and asked, “Shall we return? Diezhang and the other three together, switch to another battlefield and return north. I, you, plus Fan Dache, the three of us take another route. Is that alright?”

Chen Ping’an smiled, “What’s not alright about that?”

Diezhang, Chen Sanqiu and the other two departed for a different battlefield, turning around to head north from the south, back to the Sword Qi Great Wall.

Following along this entire way, everyone was without the need to unsheathe their blades, there was no chance to use them, it was quite awkward.

Ning Yao accompanied Chen Ping’an and Fan Dache, the three of them returning north towards the Sword Qi Great Wall.

Fan Dache felt increasingly superfluous.

Chen Ping’an ceased flying on his sword, stowed the Sword Workshop longsword behind his back, and flicked his sleeves.

Fan Dache took the initiative to fly north on his sword, but dared not create too much distance between himself and the two behind him.

After Fan Dache tactfully left.

Ning Yao suddenly asked, “Being the Concealed Official, is it tiring?”

Chen Ping’an laughed, “It’s neither tiring nor not tiring right now.”

Ning Yao hesitated for a moment, feeling a little awkward, but still softly voiced what was on her mind, “Anyway, when you’re by my side, you can think less.”

Then Ning Yao raised an eyebrow.

That was the truth, after all.

What was there to be embarrassed about?

Chen Ping’an turned around, raised his hand, gently wiped the wound on her face with his thumb, and then pinched her cheek, softly smiling, “Who says it isn’t?”