Chapter 34

Chapter 34: Jia Yi Divine Sword

Bai Yuan’s home had been destroyed by earlier Trialists. He and Bai Xiao were staying somewhere not far from Wang Jie now.

Under dim streetlights, Bai Yuan stood upstairs and looked down into the dark, expression unreadable.

A knock sounded.

“It’s me, Dad.”

Bai Yuan turned, forcing a smile onto his face. “Come in.”

Bai Xiao entered with a bowl of warmed porridge.

“Good girl,” Bai Yuan said gently. “Dad isn’t hungry.”

Bai Xiao didn’t listen. She guided him to sit and began kneading the stiffness from his shoulders. “Do you have confidence for tomorrow?”

Bai Yuan chuckled. “Of course. Your dad never loses.”

Her hands paused. “If you said you weren’t confident, I’d feel better.”

Bai Yuan fell silent. “Xiao Er… I’m sorry.”

Bai Xiao’s voice turned light, almost too light. “Dad, I’m in love.”

Bai Yuan shot to his feet. “Who?”

Bai Xiao smiled mischievously and slipped out of the room. “I’ll tell you tomorrow. This time tomorrow.”

Bai Yuan stood there, mouth half open, then let out a bitter breath.

This time tomorrow…

He could only hope he’d still be alive.

—

The five extremes of the three gods—the first people on Blue Star to cultivate after the apocalypse and reach a certain height—had been a myth built to hold the world together.

But each new batch of Trialists shattered that myth further.

Only one figure still stood unbroken.

Bai Yuan.

He had slain a Trialist from the second batch with a single sword strike. Even Wen Zhao had been startled.

If Yun Lai wanted to conquer Blue Star, he had to crush Bai Yuan first.

—

Outside the Shang Jing City base, Yun Lai stood with one hand behind his back, the picture of relaxed elegance.

Behind him, ragged tents and ruined streets made the contrast almost cruel.

Aside from the cultivators guarding key points, everyone came.

More than a hundred thousand people gathered inside and outside the walls.

Yun Lai liked it.

In Jia Yi Sect, he would never get this kind of attention. Even if there were crowds, they wouldn’t be watching him—they’d be watching those true inheritors, the senior brothers and senior sisters who felt like monsters.

“I thought last night wouldn’t be peaceful,” Yun Lai said lightly, smiling at Bai Yuan.

“You’re even stupider than I expected.”

Bai Yuan drew his sword and tightened his grip. “Maybe. But you’re not as smart as you think.”

Yun Lai’s smile thinned. “Then move.”

Bai Yuan walked forward.

Slowly.

So slowly it looked like a stroll.

In the crowd, Bai Xiao hugged a black cat close to her chest, face pale.

Wang Jie and the others watched in silence.

How much of Yun Lai’s strength could Bai Yuan force out?

Bai Yuan stopped in front of Yun Lai and slashed.

The movement was so fast it barely looked like a strike at all—more like a gesture.

Yun Lai didn’t move.

A heartbeat later, Bai Yuan’s sword came fully into view.

A crack crawled along the blade.

With a sharp snap, it shattered.

Bai Yuan stared at the hilt left in his hand and exhaled slowly.

So it didn’t work.

Yun Lai smiled. “Quick Shadow is fast. You condensed all your lockforce into the blade. Against an ordinary Ninth Seal, that strike would have been lethal.”

“And you should be able to swing at least three times. That means you could defeat every other Trialist from my batch.”

He tilted his head. “For a native, that’s impressive.”

“Too bad you met me.”

Bai Yuan let the broken hilt fall. It hit the ground with a soft clink.

A wave of despair swept through the crowd.

Blue Star’s strongest… had lost.

Only now did they realize how strong Bai Yuan truly was—and they learned it from the enemy’s mouth.

“Do you still need me to act?” Yun Lai asked.

He lifted his right hand and slowly curled his fingers. Beneath his palm, something small formed—like a miniature bow and arrow, aimed straight at Bai Yuan.

It was tiny.

But the moment it appeared, a chill swept the entire base, sinking into every spine.

Bai Xiao’s face went white.

Bai Yuan spoke calmly, “I still have one sword.”

Yun Lai’s patience frayed. “Don’t test me.”

Bai Yuan stepped back, eyes still on Yun Lai. “Little brother. I told you I could help you reach A-rank. Why rush?”

Yun Lai’s voice went cold. “If all you have is Quick Shadow, you can swing a thousand times and it won’t matter. There’s a gap between us you were born with.”

Bai Yuan looked up at the sky projection. “I’ve watched it for years. So many swords.”

“There’s one figure up there,” he said quietly, “whose sword I couldn’t understand. Even after mastering Quick Shadow, I still couldn’t understand it.”

“I watched him for ten years.”

“Ten years,” he repeated, gaze distant. “In those ten years, I cultivated nothing else besides Quick Shadow. I only watched that figure.”

He lowered his eyes and smiled. “And on the day you arrived—when Heavenstone surged and imprint power flooded the world—I finally understood.”

“This sword is strong.”

Yun Lai frowned. Impossible. Quick Shadow ranked near the top of the Eighteen Ultimate Techniques. How could someone master it yet still spend ten years unable to understand a single sword strike?

Bai Yuan reached into his storage ring and drew out a second sword.

It wasn’t metal.

It wasn’t even steel.

It looked like plastic—wide-bladed, strange in shape, almost like a toy.

The moment it appeared, Yun Lai’s expression changed.

Wen Zhao stiffened.

Even the Trialists hiding outside the base—disguised among Blue Star people—went still.

They had seen that blade before.

In the giant statue’s hand outside Jia Yi Sect.

Wen Zhao whispered, stunned, “Impossible…”

Wang Jie glanced at her. “What is it?”

Yun Lai’s pupils flickered. “Impossible. You actually saw Jia Yi Divine Sword?”

At the same time, within Jia Yi Sect, a disciple watching the trial at the waterfall went pale and rushed to report: Jia Yi Divine Sword had appeared.

Above the waterfall, both sides of the chessboard were empty. The old man and the girl were gone.

Bai Yuan held the wide blade with both hands and slowly traced its edge. His aura compressed, heavy and restrained.

Wang Jie stared, confused. “Jia Yi Divine Sword?”

Wen Zhao’s voice was solemn. “The Eighteen Ultimate Techniques each have their strengths. Your Jia Eight Steps and Bai Yuan’s Quick Shadow—what you’ve learned is only the surface.”

“Natives learning them in the trial isn’t impossible.”

“But among the Eighteen Ultimate Techniques, there’s one that stands above the other seventeen.”

“Jia Yi Divine Sword.”

“The sect itself was founded around it. It’s the Sword Method of the sect’s founder.”

“Even within Jia Yi Sect, it can take many years before a genius appears who can truly learn it.”

“And throughout every trial in history… no native has ever learned Jia Yi Divine Sword.”

Wang Jie looked up toward the sky projection.

Now that Wen Zhao said it, he remembered.

There was a figure up there who used a wide-bladed weapon just like this. Wang Jie had noticed it once, been curious, then dismissed it—there’d been no way to find a blade like that, and he couldn’t make sense of the movement.

So that was Jia Yi Divine Sword.

Sister Tang’s voice was tight. “Does that mean he can win?”

Wen Zhao didn’t give false comfort. “Hard to say. Yun Lai mastered Eight-Cloud Arrow and earned the sect’s recognition. What you natives learned, you learned without guidance.”

“It depends on how far Bai Yuan has cultivated Jia Yi Divine Sword.”

Yun Lai looked at Bai Yuan differently now. Anyone who could touch Jia Yi Divine Sword was no simple opponent.

Bai Yuan tightened his grip. “See? I told you. When I break through to the Ninth Seal, I’ll hand you an A-rank path.”

Yun Lai understood the implication immediately.

If a Ninth Seal native wielding Jia Yi Divine Sword fought him, and Yun Lai won… that might actually be worthy of A-rank.

Because it was Jia Yi Divine Sword.

But the thought also burned.

Why should a native have this?

Yun Lai had joined the trial and clawed for A-rank for one reason—to enter the Scripture Pavilion and earn the right to cultivate Jia Yi Divine Sword.

And this native already held it in his hands.

Bai Yuan saw the shift in Yun Lai’s eyes and felt cold dread.

This man wasn’t merely arrogant. He was small-minded in the worst way—vindictive, the kind who would do anything once he decided something offended him.

Bai Yuan lifted the blade. “Come. Let me see how strong Eight-Cloud Arrow really is against Jia Yi Divine Sword.”

Yun Lai didn’t wait for Bai Yuan to break through anything.

An arrow formed in his palm and fired.

It crossed distance as if distance didn’t exist—appearing at Bai Yuan’s face with killing intent sharp enough to cut.

Bai Yuan dodged by a hair.

Then he moved.

He gripped the wide blade with both hands and pressed it down.

Imprint power was sucked out of him in an instant. It poured into the blade in a strange, impossible way, expanding the edge outward—hundreds of times, thousands, tens of thousands, millions—until a colossal blade descended like a mountain.

The sky vanished beneath it.

Everyone who saw it froze, unable to breathe.

Such an enormous sword edge—yet it fell with the same speed as a normal strike.

No matter how fast Yun Lai was, he couldn’t dodge it.

He twisted, faced upward, and drew his bow.

Eight arrows flickered into existence.

He fired.

Eight-Cloud Arrow.

The arrows struck the gigantic blade—

And slid.

No deafening explosion. No shattering clash. Only distortion, as if the arrows couldn’t find purchase and were forced away. The eight arrows split off, scattering in every direction.

Three punched through the city wall, collapsing stone.

The others cratered the earth into unfathomable pits.

Yun Lai’s eyes narrowed. He slapped out with his palm. Countless tiny arrows sprayed out, turning into a rain of blades.

They slid as well, scattering outward, tearing up the surrounding ground.

Bai Yuan’s colossal sword edge stalled in the air, held back—not fully pressing down.

Then Yun Lai flicked a finger.

A sharp gust pierced Bai Yuan’s body.

Bai Yuan stumbled. Blood sprayed from his mouth.

The massive sword edge vanished in an instant, as if it had never existed.

“Dad!” Bai Xiao screamed, running forward to catch him before he fell.

Sister Tang and the others surged in, shielding Bai Yuan as they glared at Yun Lai.

Even Lian Qin was shaken. Yun Lai’s arrows had breached Tian Fu Base and struck Jin Ling Base from across Hua Xia—yet Eight-Cloud Arrow couldn’t stop that blade.

That wide, toy-like weapon… that technique… it was terrifying.

Yun Lai stared at Bai Yuan, expression dark.

It really was Jia Yi Divine Sword.

An Eighth Seal native had challenged him—a Ninth Seal—and forced even Eight-Cloud Arrow to fail.

Only Jia Yi Divine Sword could do that.

This man had to die.

Bai Yuan leaned heavily against Bai Xiao, face bitter.

He had still lost.

He had thought that strike might be enough.

Yun Lai brushed dust from his clothes and spoke calmly.

“You lost.”