Chapter 211

Chapter 211: Waiting for a Miracle

Ren Gu’s long blade hacks straight down.

Li Li and Li Shuang form a strange seal at the same time.

Two seals resonate. The Sword Spirit’s Azure Dragon coils along the sword.

Li Shuang swings without fear and meets him head-on.

As she cuts, Sword Qi becomes five claw-shaped arcs, and a mighty dragon’s pressure blankets the arena.

Ren Gu’s body shudders.

This strength is not Li Shuang’s own. It comes from the stone.

She and the Sword Spirit have just reached the threshold needed to drive it.

It is the power of a dragon.

Moved by the Hidden Dragon Stone, Li Shuang and her Sword Spirit briefly step into Unity of Heaven and Man. With each strike, Dragon Breath bursts forth.

For a moment, Ren Gu cannot overcome her.

Watching through the eagle, Elder Ling’s lips curve in the faintest smile.

She laughs softly.

The Hidden Dragon Stone… interesting.

She had not seen it was also a Transmission Stone.

It is Sixth Tier and holds dragon power. That is not rare.

What is rare is that it also stores a Joint-Strike Sword Technique.

When a sword cultivator and a Sword Spirit reach a high enough fit, they gain its inheritance, learning this joint secret art.

Li Shuang should not be able to touch such a secret art yet.

But because she and her Sword Spirit are Purple Affinity, and because of a lucky chance, they have grasped early a technique usually learned only after reaching Man and Sword as One.

The Hidden Dragon Stone was meant for Li Shuang.

But Elder Ling frowns.

The stone’s energy is limited.

At most, the joint strike can last half a stick of incense.

After that, what then?

Everyone can see this.

Yan Zhong He is tense for a moment, then relaxes with a calm smile: “Sect Master Meng, your disciple is not simple. Sadly, between the Golden Core Stage and the Divine Transformation Stage, there is a gulf no one can cross. Even if she drags this out, she will still lose in the end.”

The stronger Li Shuang looks, the more delighted he will be when she is destroyed.

Li Shuang and Li Li quietly savor the feeling of perfect unity. Joy stirs in both hearts.

She had not planned to forge the Hidden Dragon Stone into her sword so soon.

But when she raised the Black Abyss Sword to Fourth Tier, she used the Rhythm Method while also drawing in Lunar Starlight.

That may have triggered some condition, letting her touch the stone’s secret early.

From then on, the Sixth Tier stone became her trump card.

In this fight, its energy will likely be spent.

Afterward, it will slowly refill, and it will take about a year to be full again.

But if she can win, it is worth it.

Ren Gu’s voice turns cold: “Fine, you have many cards. But every card runs out of energy. You are only struggling before death, Li Shuang.”

Li Shuang’s face stays calm.

She knows the Hidden Dragon Stone alone cannot win.

She awakened it to buy time.

The more Ren Gu attacks, the more miasma he gives off.

All of that miasma rushes into her sea of consciousness to temper her Soul Lotus.

Under heavy pressure, the Azure Lotus shines brighter and brighter.

[Almost there.]

[So close.]

[Just one more step until the fourth petal opens.]

Once her soul power breaks through to the Divine Transformation Stage, with the Soul Lotus boosting her, her soul will be no weaker than Ren Gu’s.

Then it will be her turn to strike back.

The longer the fight goes, the deeper she is invaded by miasma.

Ren Gu snarls inside. She wants to stall.

Let her stall.

The more time passes, the more it benefits him.

Heaven Severing Blade is famous for growing stronger the longer it fights.

He admits her will is strong.

By now her soul should be torn ragged by miasma; anyone else would have shown flaws long ago.

But Li Shuang keeps holding on. Each move still looks untouched.

Even so, in the face of absolute strength, willpower is useless.

When the miasma passes the limit, Li Shuang’s death will arrive.

[More. More.] He silently urges. [Let even more miasma come.]

At this moment, Li Shuang and Ren Gu share the same thought.

Both are waiting for the instant when miasma swallows Li Shuang’s sea of consciousness.

Inside that sea, endless miasma charges the Azure Lotus.

With each extra breath of miasma, the Lotus’s hidden strength is forced out a little more.

The Hidden Dragon Stone’s power is almost gone.

Miasma Tempering the Soul reaches its most critical point.

Ren Gu notices and smiles with ease: “Your energy is almost spent? After so much struggling, what is the point?”

He calls out, clear and cold: “Heaven Severing Blade, second form: Fiend Calamity Break.”

At his words, the long blade sweeps the sky, and at the same time in Li Shuang’s mind, all the miasma suddenly condenses.

As his blade chops at her, the miasma forms a red blade in her sea of consciousness and hacks at the Azure Lotus.

Li Shuang’s pupils tighten.

Ren Gu’s lips curl in triumph.

Condensed miasma, striking together with the Heaven Severing Blade, and Li Shuang already at her limit; there is no way she can stop it.

A Golden Core Stage fighting him to this point is truly outstanding.

But it ends here.

His blade falls, aimed straight at her brow.

At that exact breath, Li Shuang lifts her head.

Ren Gu’s face changes.

He sees an Azure Lotus phantom bloom on her brow.

Three petals are fully open, one is half real and half illusory, and five are faint shadows.

The instant the phantom appears, the half-real petal spreads wide.

Four petals hum in strange harmony.

Li Shuang’s voice rings out: “Soul Severing.”

Before Ren Gu can react, his spirit spins with dizziness. The blade that should have cleaved down stops at her forehead.

In the next instant, Li Shuang thrusts with Black Abyss. The spiral Azure Dragon roars and dives straight into Ren Gu’s dantian.

“Explode,” she says.

A deafening blast erupts.

Blinding light floods the whole arena.

Who won?

Who lost?

Everyone stares at the stage.

They are all waiting for a miracle.