Chapter 85 The Second Sword Strike—Emptying Karma!

The “Infinite Sword Skill” was a top-notch cultivation method in the world, and it was an essential foundation that the Cui Family had relied on for thousands of years to be one of the richest and most powerful families of the empire.

 

Few people could survive from the Dujie Sword of the Cui Family, which was known for its overbearing power.

 

However, the Dujie Sword could only be considered as the branch, the flower, or the fruit of a plant.

 

In contrast, the “Infinite Sword Skill” was like the trunk of a plant, which deeply rooted in the earth and played a vital role in delivering nutrients to the branches.

 

The “Infinite World Skill” could be divided into nine levels. Though Cui Zhaoren was only at the fifth level, he had already become a great figure in Xifeng Empire. During the three years after he took over the Department of Supervision of the empire, he established many illustrious military exploits and was highly regarded by the royal family of the empire.

 

In his twenties, Cui Zhaoren had reached the height that many people had to spend all their lives’ efforts to achieve. In fact, lots of elder people of the Cui Family, who were between forty and fifty, or even between sixty and seventy, still found it hard to go beyond the third level to reach the middle stage, a more mysterious and profound stage.

 

Li Muyang wanted Cui Zhaoren to die, and Cui Zhaoren also wanted to kill him.

 

Before Cui Zhaoren finished speaking, he had already produced 100,000 phantoms.

 

The moment when Li Muyang heard him pull out his sword, the Dujie Sword in his hand had already turned into countless swords shooting toward Li Muyang.

 

When Su Rong wielded his Mountain-moving Fist, he punched Li Muyang with his five phantoms. So, only the punch thrown by him was the real fatal blow.

 

Unlike Su Rong’s phantoms, Cui Zhaoren’s 100,000 clones could launch real attacks, though they were also virtual images.

 

Li Muyang had to repel all of them, for he would turn into fly ash if any of Cui Zhaoren’s clones successfully wounded him.

 

Now, Li Muyang was confronting so many clones and must fight against the sword attacks from these 100,000 enemies. How could he make that alone?

 

When the 100,000 figures gathered together, they covered half of the sky. Moving about freely in the sky, the sword Qi coming from the 100,000 swords actually blocked the rainstorm and thunder.

 

Since the heavy rain couldn’t get in and thunder couldn’t be heard, it seemed as if this area were in a vacuum now.

 

While the other areas were still under the dark clouds, continual flashes of lightning and rolls of thunder, this place was pitch-black and peaceful without any noise.

 

The might of this sword strike was invincible!

 

The first sword strike of the Dujie Sword—Cutting off Bonds!

 

This was the first of Dujie Sword’s greatest sword strikes and also the move that Cui Zhaoren could do the best.

 

Li Muyang was still suspending in the air, exuding a very mature aura as if he had gone through numerous ups and downs since ancient times. And he gave people a feeling of coldness that seemed to come from the ancient glacier era.

 

With his pair of blood-red eyes, he looked at countless shadows made by the 100,000 swords and a trace of confusion emerged in his heart, “Why would I have a familiar feeling to this sword strike?”

 

He tried hard to think, but couldn’t figure out where the feeling came from.

 

It was fantastic, but meanwhile, Li Muyang felt quite distressed.

 

The familiar feeling forced Li Muyang to think about the question of who exactly he was.

 

Li Muyang felt a sense of oppression, which came from the inside and outside of his body.

 

The threat from outside was the momentum of these swords, and his internal stress was caused by fear.

 

Li Muyang had already felt how horrifying this sword strike would be and was fully aware that it could cut all his ties to the past.

 

He turned into a ball in the cyclone, which might be crushed into a meat pie or torn into pieces by the two powerful forces at any time.

 

He stood in the wind, his black hair flying and his white robe fluttering.

 

Just a few months ago, Li Muyang was a good-for-nothing who looked as dark as a piece of charcoal. But now, he actually became powerful enough to fight with the high-level master of the empire!

 

Li Muyang closed his eyes.

 

Suspending above Li Muyang’s head, the black scale that came out of his body turned into something like a diamond-shaped black inkstone.

 

It looked truly radiant with its glittering surface.

 

With a closer look, a tiny flash of lightning was darting around in the scale. However, being trapped there, it just could not find a way out.

 

Cui Zhaoren’s black robe and shadows of swords enveloped Li Muyang who then disappeared from the sky.

 

When the others on the river looked up, they saw that Cui Zhaoren had turned into a huge Buddha whose figure filled the sky.

 

“Boom!”

 

He was shining with golden light.

 

Then, a beam of light shot up into the sky, and the entire surface of the river was lit up as bright as day.

 

No, that was not right. In fact, the hot sun was originally high in the sky. It was the sudden change of weather and torrential rain that made the day as dark as the night.

 

Because of the big movements and the shocking fight scene of them, all those merchants and university students, who were running for their lives by wooden planks, looked up into the sky in surprise. However, they did not know what exactly had happened.

 

The dazzling light beam even turned the area around it golden.

 

At this moment, half of the sky in sight became golden.

 

Li Muyang disappeared, and so did Cui Zhaoren, along with the 100,000 copies that he produced.

 

However, the golden color seemed to be as steady as the solidified pigments. Neither could the fierce wind blow it away nor could the heavy rain wash it away.

 

Only time could dilute and fade it.

 

As time went by, the golden light gradually darkened and then disappeared.

 

The sky fell into darkness. The rain began to pour violently down, and the rolling black clouds also showed up again.

 

Li Muyang was gone, and so was Cui Zhaoren.

 

“Puff!”

 

There was a sound on the river. With the long sword in his hand, Cui Zhaoren, who was in a black robe, jumped up from the depths of the river.

 

Once again, he stopped in the air. His handsome face looked as cold as an iceberg, and there were traces of blood trickling down from the corner of his mouth.

 

He took out a white handkerchief from his pocket and carefully wiped the bloodstain on the corner of his mouth.

 

Then, he let go of the handkerchief in his hand. In the heavy rain, it soon got soaked and then was blown away by the strong wind.

 

Like the handkerchief, Li Muyang was nowhere to be seen.

 

Cui Zhaoren was worried because he could not find Li Muyang.

 

If Li Muyang was dead and gone, he would not give a damn. But now, the fact was that Li Muyang was missing, and alive.

 

Cui Zhaoren felt that Li Muyang was not dead.

 

He used the first sword strike “Cutting off Bonds” and squeezed Li Muyang into a small white dot from all directions. With that, he thought that he could resolve the big trouble and relieve his worries from then on.

 

But when his Sword Qi was about to touch Li Muyang’s body and the momentum from the 100,000 swords was going to crush Li Muyang into dust, the black jade-like scale floating in front of Li Muyang suddenly sped up to spin, and then burst open.

 

A bolt of lightning broke out of his body and shot toward Cui Zhaoren with a booming sound.

 

It moved utterly without fear and looked unstoppable with its awesome power.

 

Peremptorily, it shuttled back and forth among the countless shadows and barriers as fast as a flash of lightning. Like a hoodlum, the scale smashed the 100,000 Cui Zhaoren into numerous pieces without mercy.

 

Dashing around madly through the sky, it broke down the sword momentum that Cui Zhaoren had paid considerable efforts to gather. After this heavy blow, Cui Zhaoren lost the upper hand.

 

After all, the scale attacked abruptly and appeared to have an awful lot of force.

 

Cui Zhaoren, who concentrated on applying his sword skill, found it hard to resist it, so he intended to avoid its powerful offensive. But unexpectedly, the power of the sword Qi and the aftershock of the explosion pushed him into the silt at the bottom of the river.

 

However, where did Li Muyang go?

 

On high alert, Cui Zhaoren was waiting for Li Muyang to fight back against him.

 

He knew that he would definitely return.

 

Then, Li Muyang descended from the sky above Cui Zhaoren.

 

He came down slowly from a higher and more distant place in the sky.

 

Once again, he stopped right in front of Cui Zhaoren.

 

Such a distinct way of reappearing greatly dissatisfied Cui Zhaoren, who was inflated with pride, and gave him a very strong sense of crisis.

 

Cui Zhaoren was well aware of the power of the big explosion, so he wondered. “How could he easily rise deeper into the sky instead of being taken down by the aftershock?”

 

Merely judging by this move, Cui Zhaoren could tell that Li Muyang was more than one realm higher than him.

 

“But which realm have you achieved exactly?” Cui Zhaoren asked while cursing in his heart. “Can’t you talk nicely? Can’t give me honest answers to my questions? If even you don’t know which realm you are in, I suppose only God knows the answer.”

 

“Now, I remember.” Li Muyang looked at Cui Zhaoren and said with a cold, deep voice, “You once attempted to kill me.” It sounded as if he even felt a little happy to recall the past.

 

“When? Where?” Cui Zhaoren looked puzzled. He was absolutely sure that it was the first time he had met Li Muyang, so he could not possibly have tried to kill him.

 

If he had failed to kill Li Muyang last time, how could he be so stupid to repeat this mistake?

 

At the very least, he should have called together the elites and strongest experts of his family and brought them to ambush him.

 

“You failed.” Li Muyang added with the corners of his mouth lifting slightly—he gave him a mocking smile.

 

“…”

 

Cui Zhaoren fell into a great rage.

 

He didn’t like to be slandered, although he often did that to others. It was generally known that the Department of Supervision was very good at incriminating others. If it didn’t frame up innocent people, there would be no need for it to exist at all.

 

He particularly hated to be looked down upon by others. As a descendent of the Cui Family, an influential family, he was overweeningly arrogant and could only see great things like the moon, the stars, or the Milky Way. How would he pay attention to those ordinary people who were like worthless dirt in his eyes?

 

However, Li Muyang had done the two things that he hated most.

 

“I’ll kill him,” Cui Zhaoren thought to himself.

 

“I’m sure you’ve got it wrong,” said Cui Zhaoren. He wanted to cough very much because his throat was not comfortable, but he didn’t want to do that. Instead, he forced himself to suppress the cough. In his view, it was disgraceful to cough. Moreover, he thought that Li Muyang, a person of low position in his eyes, would be very likely to sneer at him. In fact, Cui Zhaoren had known how sarcastic this sharp-tongued b*stard would become when he sneered at others. “If I had tried to kill you before, I would have never tried it once more. If I had failed to kill you the first time, I would have realized the gap between you and me and would have found a better way or a more suitable person to get rid of you. I never make the same mistake. This matter has nothing to do with my honor, but I can’t allow it to insult my intelligence.”

 

“In my opinion, there was no difference between the so-called good and bad people, but there is a big difference between smart persons and fools,” Cui Zhaoren said, revealing a very annoyed expression, “Compared with bad people, I hate stupid people more. So, don’t take me as one of those fools.”

 

“It was not you,” Li Muyang said, “But the person used the same sword skill. What’s the name of your sword?”

 

“Dujie Sword,” Cui Zhaoren said.

 

“The Dujie Sword—few people can survive from the Dujie Sword.” Li Muyang muttered to himself with a thoughtful look on his face. “I can’t remember from which ancient scroll that I saw this sentence. Alas, I have lived for such a long time and have read so many books that I can’t remember it clearly.”

 

“…” Cui Zhaoren blew his top.

 

He blurted out in his heart. “If you continue acting arrogantly like this, I will be too furious to focus on fighting with you!”

 

“How old are you? How dare you say that you have lived for too long and have read too many books?”

 

“Do you think I’m an idiot?”

 

“As a smart person, I know that I should leave here immediately,” Cui Zhaoren said aloud. “If I want to escape, you can’t stop me.”

 

“I can’t.” Li Muyang sighed.

 

“But I choose to stay.” Cui Zhaoren smiled lightly and said, “I’m really curious about how far you can go. The first sword strike is called “Cutting off Bonds”, but you survived from it. Now, I’ll launch the second sword strike—Emptying Karma! Take it, please.”