As for a person like Zhong Li Yan…

You may mock his repeated defeats, his unwavering stubbornness, his overestimation of his own capabilities. But you cannot mock his effort, nor his inherent talent and aptitude. Be it the orthodox cultivation path or the path of martial arts, he has reached the pinnacle of his generation in both!

The strength of his Huang Liang Sword Art, within the Divine Arrival realm, is absolutely no less than any top-tier sword canon. Unlike Zhang Xun’s extreme condensation of sword qi into threads, his sword qi manifests as another form of solidification, a unification of power and intent.

Yet, in this moment, it shattered. Along with the very sword style he was unleashing.

And Jiang Wang had merely drawn his sword!

Before it blooms, a divine ability is but a divine seed. After it blossoms, then it is truly a divine ability.

Counting on my fingers, it has been fully half a year since a true Sword Immortal figure last appeared before the masses. This is the half-year of rapid growth after entering the Divine Arrival realm. This is another half-year that Jiang Wang has not wasted.

The audience seated around the arena today are undoubtedly blessed to witness this. There are few who have seen Jiang Wang fully display the might of a Sword Immortal, and the vast majority of them… are already dead.

In this moment, Zhong Li Yan’s single sword strike, his beautiful dream of Huang Liang, split the very space into pages, forming a book of Huang Liang.

And at the spine of this book, Jiang Wang drew his sword.

His sword unleashed the myriad laws of a divine ability, and in an instant, light exploded everywhere.

Falling from the high heavens was a magnificent city, carved from the very essence of flame. Or perhaps, that city was not truly magnificent. But its bricks and mortar were real, its smoke and fire palpable. For it bore memory, shining with the light of fire, appearing thus especially radiant.

Often contemplating old friends in old cities, he poured this style into the mortal world!

A murmur of low cries rippled through the viewing platform. Zuo Guang Lie, in times past, truly shook the borderlands and was renowned throughout the grasslands. He had long ago created the Flame Blossom, making it the world’s most famous basic fire element dao technique. The concept of a city burning with Flame Blossoms already had a prototype then. Not until he first used it in battle at nineteen did it leap to become his most representative dao technique. Many recognized this technique. Of course, all of them had only heard descriptions.

At this moment, the Flame City reappeared, burning within the Cang Lang Fighting Arena. It was like a legend re-enacted, stirring memories of fleeting years.

By the side of the arena, Huang She Li was momentarily lost in thought. She involuntarily recalled the scene from Guan He Tai the previous year, when she had half-squatted by the martial arts stage watching the battle — that young man in green, placing a beautiful Flame Blossom upon the face of that ‘Xiang-someone’ who was exhibiting the Swallow Thief Overlord Body, pressing him to the ground.

It was precisely that scene that allowed her to escape from those dazzlingly beautiful appearances and witness the beauty of the so-called Jiang Immortal Child. The beauty of a divine presence.

And how similar was that time to this moment? The young man then already possessed might like a god, and the Flame Blossom then had already constructed a magnificent city.

This flaming, magnificent Flame City directly crashed down. It instantly shattered the momentum of the Huang Liang sword, struck the dream back to reality, and sent Zhong Li Yan, person and sword alike, plummeting from the high heavens, causing that streak of qi and blood dragon to let out a burst of wailing!

Zhong Li Yan spat out a large mouthful of blood, but it seemed as effortless as spitting saliva. He only fell a few zhang before flipping his body upright, like a dragon soaring from an abyss. He was still full of divine might, his qi and blood surging. The strong physique of a martial artist is their greatest reliance in battle, and it is the fundamental reason why Zhong Li Yan, despite repeatedly challenging Dou Zhao, could still leap and bound about.

In this very moment, terrifying flame flow and qi and blood mingled and burned together, and in the air, a kind of indescribable scorched smell permeated.

Jiang Wang, amidst the fragments of space, merely held his sword horizontally!

This smell instantly expanded to the extreme, like a surging sea, filling Zhong Li Yan’s sense of smell in an instant. Even with a will as firm and tenacious as his, he experienced a moment of daze.

A martial artist’s divine soul, qi, and blood are condensed into one. Especially a powerful expert like Zhong Li Yan, who has stepped upon the twenty-first level of the martial arts heaven. Although he cannot project his spiritual sense outwards to interfere with reality, it is almost impossible to injure him on a soul level. If one were to rashly intrude into a martial artist’s primordial spirit sea, they would likely be burned to death by their qi and blood first.

Therefore, the Six Desires Bodhisattva that Jiang Wang unleashed with this sword strike did not originate from the primordial spirit sea, but rather used spiritual sense to interfere with reality, guiding the “smell” of the six desires. Its might was naturally far less than a soul-level attack, but sometimes the application of a dao technique lies more in its “suitability.”

With its smell, strike its heart, and then step closer.

Jiang Wang drew his sword horizontally, yet the wind rose and clouds surged. The seven constellations’ spirits appeared simultaneously, causing violent yuan qi to flow chaotically, directly slashing onto Zhong Li Yan’s body!

This time, Zhong Li Yan’s fall was no longer delayed. He was like a meteorite, smashing heavily into the ground, causing the ground bricks, engraved with strong array patterns, to emit cracking sounds as if unable to bear the force. Centered on where his back struck the ground, the city-defense-level ground bricks were subtly sunken. The pain of torn skin and burst flesh was nothing to him, and internal organ injuries were merely commonplace.

What Zhong Li Yan was most unwilling to admit was that in this moment, as his flesh struck the ground bricks, he felt a kind of pressure. A pressure almost akin to facing Dou Zhao!

It was not that Jiang Wang’s power had an overwhelming advantage. Although his techniques, divine abilities, and sword arts were all very strong, Zhong Li Yan was not someone who had seen nothing, nor was he without corresponding means. But that feeling of being restrained everywhere, of having the initiative seized step by step, made him quite stiff and restrained during the fight. He had a body of strong physique and top-tier sword art for this realm, yet he could only be beaten down.

It seemed as though his every move was within the opponent’s prediction. Or rather, he was always walking within those forced choices. Like a fish flapping in a net, utterly unable to struggle free from that invisible giant net.

Clearly, when they first met in the Mountain Sea Realm, he had felt confident that he still held a hidden edge. Today, how many times stronger was he than on that day? Yet, he couldn’t even find half an opportunity.

Such a result… how could he accept it?!

*Ka ka ka ka.*

The sound of his bones exploding, section by section. His spinal column, the great dragon, liberated to the twenty-first section, unleashing the power of the twenty-first heaven! A sound like a bowstring pulled taut made the air solidify. That was his muscles, tensing at terrifying speed, block by block. Like precise puppet parts, instantly completing their coordination, every part of his fleshly body was erupting with power.

That hidden trembling of the void, like a fierce beast roaring, was the roar of his blood flow. This power expanded to its limit, already distorting space. And that streak of qi and blood dragon soared up, burning with blood-colored flame light outside his body. This blood flame was not at all malevolent; instead, it was majestic and bright, fierce like a proud sun, possessing a stern dignity.

This blood flame also boiled on Zhong Li Yan’s body surface. In this moment, they seemed to be one, already connected.

The qi and blood dragon sharply shrank, suddenly folded down, pounced onto the Nan Yue Sword, winding around the sword hilt. Like an illusory blood rope, it intertwined Zhong Li Yan’s palm and the sword hilt, and then disappeared.

Between heaven and earth, it was as though dao sounds rang out.

*Ka cha.*

The ground bricks where Zhong Li Yan’s back was pressed spread out in spiderweb-like cracks!

All the majesty, grandeur, and excitement… in the end, were merely an extremely soft “sound.” The bow was drawn taut, the arrow left the string.

He rushed towards Jiang Wang once again with astonishing speed. This process was so fast that it was fundamentally impossible to capture with sight.

But *rumble*!

Welcoming him was another seat of Flame Blossom Burning City.

Too precise, too appropriate. All of this happened almost simultaneously. The feeling it gave people was that Zhong Li Yan had suddenly burst forth, then wildly and truly struck the Flame City with his physical body.

Zhong Li Yan, who had completely liberated the power of the twenty-first level of the martial arts heaven, at this moment, actually bore the Flame City directly. Blue veins bulged on his arm like dragons, and the Nan Yue Sword, bearing the force of the spatial distortion, emitted a humming sound.

Person and Flame City, fixed in mid-air!

For a time, people could not distinguish whether the red flames of the Flame Blossom Burning City were more blazing, or Zhong Li Yan’s surrounding blood flames were more boiling.

But Jiang Wang had no intention of distinguishing.

The figure in green walked within the city of flame, seeming like a celestial Sword Immortal, walking within his immortal realm. In the brilliant firelight, within the familiar street scenes, his sword light still flew.

In this moment, it was completely impossible to see how many swords he had struck. People could only see a flood of techniques and divine abilities—

That grey-white light was the light of rotten wood. The red light was the Three Flavors True Fire. Jealousy Fire, Anger Fire, Bi Fang Seal. The single-footed divine bird raised its head and flapped its wings. A hundred birds facing the phoenix, chirping, thus the Eight Sounds Burning Sea emerged. The dim light of the Calamity Seal appeared.

The sword light rose again, already abruptly slashing out the Bu Zhou Wind! Under this flood, Zhong Li Yan continuously fell, continuously fell, swinging his sword a hundred, a thousand times, yet still could only continuously fall—

He once again smashed into the ground, and he smashed back into the exact spot where he had previously fallen, his whole person seamlessly embedded. The ground bricks that were already cracked were now directly turned to powder, floating up in the wind!

Around the viewing platform, it was eerily quiet for a time.

Wu Yan Lan Zhu’s heart leaped to her throat, almost wanting to cry out, but amidst the surrounding silence, she bit her lip tightly. And it was only then that she discovered her hand was already pinched blue and white by her good sister.

Amidst the complex and varied gazes of the spectators, the last wisp of frosty white Bu Zhou Wind folded abruptly before Zhong Li Yan’s neck, then already returned.

Jiang Wang sheathed his sword into its scabbard. With a single hand pressing down the Calamity Seal, he flattened the surrounding chaotic yuan qi flow, chaotic sword qi, blood qi, and even the spatial fragments. His frost wind scattered, his red flames disappeared, and the wheel light of the Heavenly Mansion retracted into formlessness.

For a time, the sky was clear, the ground pure, all around peaceful. Only the green-robed figure, calm as water, stood with outstanding wind-like demeanor in the human world. As if the battle against heaven and earth, the magnificent everything that was roasted… had never happened.

Only Zhong Li Yan, lying on the ground, already exhausted, his eyes appearing dazed… could still explain a few points of the battle’s intensity. Could still describe a few points of his mood.

He had never truly underestimated the heroes of the world, nor would he ever underestimate himself. No matter when, no matter how miserably he lost in front of Dou Zhao, he had never given up on himself. The Great Chu has been established for several thousand years, and human history spans ten thousand years, producing countless extraordinary individuals. He believed that he always had a place. He believed that he necessarily possessed extraordinary talent, necessarily had an extraordinary mission, and necessarily could defeat all.

But even if there was a heaven-born Dou Zhao, so be it. How could there also be a Jiang Wang in the world? Someone even younger than Dou Zhao, bringing him a pressure yet similar to Dou Zhao’s. The entire battle, he was completely and utterly suppressed, unable to find even half an opportunity, to the point of being unable to generate unwillingness!

At this time, a hand reached out to him. Followed by the face of the Great Qi’s Marquis Wu An, a face that seemed more immortal, looking at him very calmly. No mockery, no pity, just very ordinary… similar to “seeing someone fall on the road, reaching out to help them up.” Such an ordinary emotion.

“This thief is still not quite the same as Dou Zhao. Dou Zhao, at this kind of time, would generally still step on you…” Zhong Li Yan inexplicably thought.

Suddenly, he slapped away the hand in front of him. Zhong Li Yan flipped over and jumped up, leaping out of the human-shaped pit, indignantly saying, “This time I wasn’t careful for a moment and let you take advantage. Just you wait, next time I’ll show you!” And then, with a defiant look around, he strode away. Looking at that swaggering posture, it was as if he were the victor.

Jiang Wang looked at his back with some surprise. Of course, he was not surprised by this guy’s attitude, but surprised by this kind of recovery power… If their positions were reversed, with this kind of injury, he couldn’t recover well without recuperating for several days. Zhong Li Yan, however, just patted his backside, as if nothing had happened.

He couldn’t help but remind himself in his heart—later, if fighting to the death with a martial arts cultivator, he must never give them an opportunity to recover their qi. If you can kill them, then kill them. If you can cripple them, then cripple them. First, dismantle all possibility of resistance, then talk about other things.

The beautiful host of the Cang Lang Fighting Arena, named Bian Qiang, was still announcing the result with overflowing enthusiasm. But Jiang Wang had already turned around and left the Qing Ya Platform with graceful ease.

The Great Chu, of course, has outstanding people, with generations of heavenly talents emerging. To be able to claim a name in Chu country, Zhong Li Yan is absolutely not ordinary. But for today’s Marquis Wu An, winning a Zhong Li Yan is no longer something to be proud of.

The huge arch doors on both sides of the Qing Ya Platform once again fell, cutting off the figure of the Qi country’s heavenly talent. The entire Qing Ya Platform boiled. Although the audience on the viewing platform were either rich or noble, they didn’t necessarily have to be so reserved in the fighting arena. There were whispers, loud arguments, and some people were shouting Jiang Wang’s name, their expressions fanatical. Some people were still not satisfied, asking the people of the Cang Lang Fighting Arena when Jiang Wang’s next match could be arranged.

Huang She Li didn’t care about any of that. What nobility or not, in her eyes, it was all the same view—just some paying clients, that’s all. Of course, one should be enthusiastic about clients. But clients who have already paid…

She tightly gripped the memory stone in her hand and joyfully left her seat.