novelraw Chapter 122
Chapter 122
Chapter 122
They watched the moment Gu Yang had slain the Sword Spirit Sect elder with a single stroke. The Chu Emperor’s eye twitched. Good heavens… even I felt pressure from that strike. This kid… he’s grown far too fast!
The black‑robed elder standing beside the Emperor also showed astonishment in his gaze.
“Such fierce sword intent,” he murmured. “That sword technique is peerless—at least a Heavenly‑rank sword art.”
“Seventeen years old? Could there really be such an unparalleled prodigy in Chu?”
As they marveled, the remaining twenty‑four Yuan Sea experts abandoned any sense of honor and prepared to strike together, giving Gu Yang no chance. The Emperor and the black‑robed elder frowned.
“Royal Uncle, we need your help!” the Emperor called.
The black‑robed elder smiled calmly. “Don’t worry. A prodigy like this must not be snuffed out so soon.”
A strange ripple of energy rose from him as he readied to act. Then an utterly terrifying aura thundered in from nearby, freezing his movement. The black‑robed elder’s cloudy eyes widened in shock. “This is…”
High above Flowing Cloud Sect, just as everyone expected Gu Yang to be crushed beneath the onslaught of true essence, Gu Yang stood untroubled and erect. He slowly swung the spirit sword in his hand.
“You think you can kill me?” he said in a low, cold voice.
In the next instant, an unimaginable, terrifying sword intent erupted from within him—an intent that felt transcendent and independent, unlike any sword intent he had used before. The very air seemed to be cleaved.
It was the Great Perfection Sword Intent.
That world‑shaking intent poured into the spirit sword in Gu Yang’s hand. The blade rang out with a mournful keening, as if it could barely bear the weight of the intent.
“One sword… cleave the heavens.”
He swung. A terrifying tide of sword intent burst forth like a roaring sea; sword qi surged like waves.
In midair, the techniques the twenty‑four Yuan Sea experts unleashed collided with that razor‑sharp sword qi.
Rumble! Crack! Hiss!
Explosions rocked the sky. No matter how powerful the Yuan Sea experts’ techniques were, before the sword qi infused with Great Perfection intent they were like blank paper. One by one, terrifying forces were cleaved in two by the blade. Strange, metallic, and shattering sounds echoed through the air.
Faces among the Yuan Sea experts drained of color. They realized with horror that every method they had thrown at Gu Yang could not stop this one stroke. The sword qi cut through all defenses and continued forward, unabated, sweeping toward them.
They reacted together, unleashing their true essence to form a massive protective shield around themselves, hoping to block the blade. But the Great Perfection sword strike was incomparably fierce. When the sword qi struck that enormous true‑essence shield, a violent tremor rang out across the sky.
Clang!
An invisible ripple rolled outward; space itself quivered. A chorus of retching and blood‑spitting rose—Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!—as the combined shield shattered under the impact. The residual force of the sword qi sent most of the attackers coughing up blood; two Yuan Sea Third‑Layer elders were even blasted dead on the spot.
“Twenty‑plus Yuan Sea experts, and yet this is all?” Gu Yang said calmly.
Silence fell. The entire sky dropped into a stunned stillness. Spectators gaped, their faces frozen in expressions that words could not capture. They had seen what no one expected: Gu Yang had, with a single sword, shattered every technique the twenty‑four Yuan Sea experts had used. He had forced many to vomit blood and retreat, and he had even killed two Third‑Layer elders outright.
Gasps and sharp intakes of breath rose from the crowd. They were dumbfounded—utterly stunned. If they had not seen it with their own eyes, they would never have believed such an absurd thing could happen: a First‑Layer Embracing Origin cultivator standing alone and holding his own—indeed dominating—against twenty‑four Yuan Sea experts. It sounded insane, but it was the truth.
Within Flowing Cloud Sect, disciples stared in disbelief. Chu Liuyun and the other two sect masters stood frozen, mouths agape, their expressions slack with shock. The Emperor and the black‑robed elder, who had intended to intervene, also stood motionless.
“This… this…” the Emperor stammered, unable to form a sentence. He felt shaken to his core. One sword had driven back twenty‑four Yuan Sea experts. Was this Gu Yang’s true strength? He had thought Gu Yang’s ability to one‑shot a Fourth‑Layer Yuan Sea expert was already extraordinary—he had underestimated him.
Prodigy. Monster. Not human.
Even the widely experienced Emperor felt a storm of emotions he could not calm. The black‑robed elder’s face shone with astonishment. “I never expected… in my lifetime to see the Great Perfection Sword Intent again, and from a seventeen‑year‑old.” His cloudy eyes glittered with a fierce light.
“G‑Great Perfection Sword Intent?!” the Emperor’s eyes widened. He knew the legend: the Great Perfection was the highest realm of sword intent. To comprehend it was to make cross‑realm strikes effortless. Great Perfection and Lesser Perfection were entirely different—Great Perfection crushed Lesser Perfection in every respect. Yet Great Perfection was nearly impossible to attain; many cultivated for millennia without success. Those who did were unparalleled geniuses, almost never under a hundred years old. For a seventeen‑year‑old like Gu Yang to grasp Great Perfection was inconceivable—yet he had done it.
The Chu Emperor could not find words; his expression twisted with complexity and he finally managed only, “This is… unimaginable.”
In the sky, Murong Baifeng and Xia Pingyi stared at Gu Yang in horror.
“Great Perfection Sword Intent! It’s the Great Perfection!”
“That brat… what kind of monster popped out of nowhere?”
“Great Perfection… wasn’t that the pinnacle only Danxu Realm masters could even touch? How could he comprehend it!?”