Martial Cultivator

Chapter 966: Crossing Swords Amidst the Sea of Clouds

As soon as he said it, he acted. Yu Xiyi quickly replaced the academy dean, who had been locked in fierce battle for a long time and was already showing signs of fatigue.

This young great sword immortal hovered above the sea of clouds, looked at the demon princess before him, and clicked his tongue. “Where did you sneak off to steal and learn a whole body of sword dao skills? How shameless."

Though his words sounded flippant, in truth Yu Xiyi’s heart was already in turmoil. The structures of demon cultivators and human cultivators were different, so whether it was human cultivators trying to study demon techniques or demon cultivators trying to cultivate human techniques, it was famously extremely difficult.

And the path of the sword was even harder than ascending the heavens. Even among human cultivators, only one in a hundred could become a sword cultivator. It had long been common knowledge that ordinary cultivators found cultivating the Dao easy, but comprehending the sword difficult.

But a sword cultivator that even human cultivators struggled to achieve had actually appeared among the demons? One would already be shocking enough, but this one had silently cultivated all the way to the great sword immortal realm. Just mentioning such a thing would make many people drop their jaws, yet at this moment Yu Xiyi was seeing a demon great sword immortal with his own eyes.

Demon, woman, great sword immortal.

These three terms should never have come together.

Autumn narrowed her eyes and looked at the young human great sword immortal before her. Although Yu Xiyi’s name was not as resounding as Chen Chao’s, among the demons it was still as thunderous as ever. Among the younger generation of human powerhouses, he had risen from behind, surpassed Liu Banbi, and become the undisputed number one in sword dao.

“Fine. Killing a scholar isn’t very interesting anyway.”

Autumn spoke calmly, her words filled with absolute confidence.Yu Xiyi clicked his tongue. “You really think Your Father is easy to bully?!”

He came from the Sword Sect. Ever since he had taken away the Hundred Year Sword, Wild Grass, from Sword Qi Mountain, his name had shaken the world, and he had never been looked down upon. Now that he had stepped into the great sword immortal realm at such a young age, who in the world still dared to speak to him like this? Only this demon woman before him.

Yu Xiyi picked at his ear, making up his mind to stop wasting words. In an instant, sword qi crisscrossed the sea of clouds, slicing it into neat, tofu-like blocks.

The sword qi spread out in an instant, turning this entire sea of clouds into Yu Xiyi’s domain.

Then the great sword immortal beckoned, and those divided clouds slowly gathered, forming flying swords. In the blink of an eye, countless flying swords had already formed ranks behind Yu Xiyi.

If someone were to look up at the sky now, they would see countless flying swords arrayed across it, like a swarm of locusts blotting out the heavens.

But after forming, Yu Xiyi did not direct the flying swords toward Autumn. Instead, with a wave of his hand, countless flying swords suddenly fell.

As if from the ninth heaven, a rain of swords poured down!

Countless flying swords fell, and the demons still climbing the city wall had nowhere to hide, nowhere to evade. In an instant, they were nailed and killed by these flying swords. The lucky ones were simply pierced through the heart and died on the spot.

Those less fortunate were not struck by just one flying sword, but pierced through by several at once, their bodies torn apart by the blades, bursting into clouds of blood.

In addition, large chunks of shattered flesh fell from the top of the city wall.

On the walls of Pine Pavilion Pass, streams of fresh blood were now flowing continuously from top to bottom.

Patches of blood were everywhere.

Even more flying swords fell into the demon army below. Large numbers of demon soldiers were cut down by these flying swords.

A rough estimate put the number of demon soldiers slain by these swords at several hundred.

And Liu Xiang could only block a small portion of the flying swords. Most of the time, he could only watch helplessly as they continued to fall, crashing into the army.

Whether it was a war between two nations or anything else, in many cases, as long as one side had a sufficient number of powerful figures, they could often change the course of a battle.

Autumn looked expressionlessly at Yu Xiyi not far ahead. “Is this interesting?”

Yu Xiyi narrowed his eyes and nodded seriously. “I really do find it quite interesting.”

Killing demons, slaughtering so many with just a wave of his hand, how could that not be interesting?

Autumn said nothing. She glanced up at the cloud sea filled with sword qi, and in an instant her figure turned into a rainbow streak as she shot forward, entering Yu Xiyi’s domain to cross swords with him.

As the demon princess, she naturally could not tolerate Yu Xiyi slaughtering her people like this.

Yu Xiyi was somewhat surprised that Autumn dared to step so casually into the sea of cloud despite knowing that it was his domain. But after a moment, he calmed his mind, took a deep breath, and planted countless blades of wild grass within the sea of clouds.

The sky was reflected in a shade of green.

In response, Autumn simply thrust out her sword. Strands of sword qi wrapped in demonic qi blossomed within the cloud sea, gradually spreading throughout it. Wherever they passed, they were like a violent gale, pressing down the vast expanse of wild grass.

Among all things in the world, wild grass is the most ordinary and the most lowly. If it grows in a farmer’s field, it is casually pulled up and discarded. In the wild, it can be seen everywhere, never drawing attention.

When strong winds rise, the seemingly boneless wild grass simply follows the wind, bowing its head into the soil.

And yet, even such wild grass, when heavenly lightning stirs earthly fire and a field of it is burned to ashes, will send forth tender green shoots from the blackened ash after a spring rain the following year, stubbornly breaking through the soil once more.

Again and again, without ever tiring.

At this moment, Autumn’s sword qi surged with overwhelming force, and Yu Xiyi seemed to be at a disadvantage. But as the young great sword immortal solemnly took a deep breath, within the sea of clouds, countless blades of wild grass suddenly rose up, gradually straightening amidst the raging wind. Strands of sword qi blossomed within each blade of grass, then surged upward, forming countless streams of sword light that spread toward the heavens.

Now, above the sea of clouds, what could be seen with the naked eye were streak after streak of brilliant white light. Looking down from above, they resembled scattered stars.

And within the cloud sea, Autumn’s expression had turned extremely grave.

Around her, sword lights came one after another. Each carried terrifying sword qi, forming sword formations within inches of space, binding and restraining her.

As a great sword immortal, Yu Xiyi had, over all these years, often presented himself with laughter and ease. But among the younger generation, why was it that he could rise from behind and surpass Liu Banbi? Why was he the only one who could battle the Sword Sect’s Sect Master within the Nepenthe Realm and defeat him? Naturally, it was because of his innate talent in sword dao, as well as his relentless, unseen dedication to studying the sword.

These methods he displayed now were not yet in his grasp back when they besieged and killed Daoist Wuyang. And how much time had passed since then? Although Yu Xiyi had not yet broken past the end of Nepenthe to reach an even higher level of sword dao, within the end of Nepenthe, he had steadily advanced several steps forward.

This sword could truly be called one of his proudest works.

Yu Xiyi was even confident that with this sword, he could battle ninety-nine percent of cultivators at the end of Nepenthe in the world without defeat. Those qualified to defeat him in this realm were likely only two or three people.

After completing this sword, Yu Xiyi nodded in satisfaction, yet also shook his head with a trace of regret, sighing, “If that girl Xiao'an could see her master’s skill, wouldn’t she wholeheartedly devote herself to learning the sword?”

He laughed it off.

Yu Xiyi’s figure flashed and vanished from where he stood. When he reappeared, he was already beside the nearest strand of sword light at Autumn’s side. Holding Wild Grass in reverse grip, he slashed down with a single strike.

A sharp sword cry rang out.

Autumn raised Autumn Beyond the Tower horizontally and collided with Wild Grass.

Vast swathes of sword qi interwove as the two flying swords moved, clashing and cutting through each other in fierce combat.

But purely in terms of sword qi, the Autumn before him was indeed inferior to Yu Xiyi.

Very quickly, her situation began to collapse like a landslide defeat.

However, if Autumn were merely a demon sword cultivator who had relied on luck to step into the great sword immortal realm, then she could not possibly be the existence that Chen Chao spoke of - an existence even more terrifying than Yun Jianyue among the younger generation.

On several occasions while drinking with Chen Chao, when that young Lord Warden Commander spoke of the powerhouses of the world, especially among the younger generation, he always said that only Autumn was someone against whom he never had absolute confidence in victory.

At the time, Yu Xiyi had laughed and asked, if it were a life-and-death battle, could he not at least trade one life for one?

Chen Chao shook his head and said it was impossible. Whether it was Yu Xiyi or Yun Jianyue, if they fought him in a life-and-death battle now, he had the ability to kill them even at the cost of severe injury. But only with Autumn, every time they fought, he believed their chances of victory were 50/50.

Even though he had completely defeated Autumn once in the desolate north, if she were to make a comeback, he still would not have the confidence of certain victory.

Yu Xiyi had asked at the time why.

Chen Chao thought for a moment and gave his answer.

That whether it was Yu Xiyi or Yun Jianyue, both were rare geniuses in the world, and their cultivation talent was naturally no weaker than Autumn’s. But a life-and-death battle was not cultivation, within it, there were too many fleeting opportunities that had to be seized in an instant.

In this regard, Autumn far surpassed the two of them.

In the end, Chen Chao solemnly warned Yu Xiyi that if one day he encountered Autumn on a narrow road, he must not hesitate, he should go all out with his sword from the very beginning.

It was precisely because of these words that Yu Xiyi had, from the very start, unleashed his proudest sword.

But at this moment, Yu Xiyi was already somewhat puzzled. Was the Autumn before him truly the woman Chen Chao spoke of, the one who was not easily defeated?

In the next instant, Autumn herself gave the answer. Though she had fallen behind in the clash of sword qi, she suddenly lifted her sword. Demonic qi surged out from another set of apertures within her body, charging forth at an extremely terrifying speed. In a split second, she erased the gap between herself and Yu Xiyi. Not only that, she then began to take the offensive. Her sword slanted forward, demonic qi advancing like a force that crushed everything in its path, shattering large swathes of Yu Xiyi’s sword qi.

Yu Xiyi frowned slightly. His figure dissipated, and when he reappeared, he was beside a strand of sword light behind Autumn.

The ingenuity of this sword lay precisely here. It was as if Yu Xiyi had constructed an enormous chessboard within the sea of clouds, and he could, by sheer intent, appear at any node on this vast board. The countless strands of sword light were the nodes he had planted.

In this way, unless the opponent who entered this place could shatter this sword of his, they would inevitably remain at a disadvantage.

In a short span of time, Yu Xiyi had already delivered several hundred strikes. Every single strike was terrifying, and on several occasions, he had nearly inflicted heavy wounds on Autumn.

Yet in the end, under these perilous hundreds of strikes, Autumn remained completely unscathed.

At this point, Yu Xiyi’s expression grew increasingly grave.

If before he had still harbored some doubt, now he truly no longer dared to underestimate this demon princess before him.

Autumn’s expression remained indifferent. After seven hundred strikes, this genius woman of the demon race seemed to have already discerned Yu Xiyi’s attack patterns. In the dozens of strikes that followed, Yu Xiyi found it increasingly difficult to attack, almost losing the initiative entirely.

After more than a hundred additional strikes, Yu Xiyi could no longer gain any advantage.

This forced him to raise his sword and retreat, finally coming to a halt beside a more distant strand of sword light. Taking a deep breath, he directed those sword lights that had shot straight into the sky to turn back, all crashing toward Autumn.

Countless streams of sword light engulfed Autumn in an instant.

Yu Xiyi, meanwhile, raised his head to look at the sky. He released the flying sword Wild Grass from his hand, letting this century’s finest sword hover before him, and then the young great sword immortal muttered softly, “Little Chen... this woman is not easy to deal with.”