Chapter 56

Chapter 56: Fissure

In the blinding golden sword light, Li Shuang’s figure almost vanished. Ye Zhao Zhao’s lips curved with a hint of pride.

[The Dragon Roar Sword has this power only because Li Shuang raised it, but so what? When I followed Li Shuang, Long Yan kept stalling and refused to sign a contract. Now he took the initiative to sign the harshest master and servant pact with me, and he even struck at Li Shuang without hesitation. That alone proves how badly Li Shuang has failed.]

[Now it is time to enjoy the look on her face when she loses.]

Ye Zhao Zhao gripped the Dragon Roar Sword, eager to see Li Shuang’s despair.

Long Yan guided the Dragon Roar Sword, carrying the might of a golden dragon, and thrust hard toward Li Shuang. This was his final move. When the Dragon Roar Sword advanced to Fourth Tier, Li Shuang had struggled to find a True Dragon Stone. After she forged it into the hilt, the sword’s power rose again. In normal strikes it held a trace of True Dragon Force, and if that force was stored for long enough, it could be released in a single deadly blow.

For years, Li Shuang had never drawn on the True Dragon Force. Now, that just made things easier for him.

Of course, pulling on the True Dragon Force was not simple. At the moment, Ye Zhao Zhao’s spiritual power was suppressed at the Foundation Establishment Stage, so she could not use it. Long Yan could only burn his own Spirit Body to unleash this earthshaking strike.

The cost was heavy.

Once, his spirit was dense and solid, hardly different from a real person. But now, because of Soul Ignition, his once solid form had turned faint. With careful rest he might barely keep a body for a while. If anything else went wrong, he would slip straight into Reversion to Void.

He paid all this so he could defeat Li Shuang openly.

[Let everyone see it. I, Long Yan, was never just a shadow clinging to Li Shuang. I changed masters, and the Dragon Roar Sword is still a peerless weapon. I am still a peerless Sword Spirit.]

[Closer. Closer.]

[Right now, I will defeat Li Shuang!] Long Yan trembled with excitement, and Ye Zhao Zhao was already smiling like a winner.

Then, at that very moment, within the golden glare, Li Shuang lifted her hand, and her sword moved. Ye Zhao Zhao froze, her pupils tightening.

All at once, she felt as if ice locked her in place. A terrible cold flowed off Li Shuang.

Then she saw a sight she would never forget: a lotus made of ice and snow blooming slowly on the ring. The flower was clear as glass, with petals of ice and a center of frost. Its beauty was deadly, and its danger was just as deadly.

The instant the Lotus in Ice appeared, shocking ice Sword Qi shot to the sky. Black Abyss seemed to turn into an ice blade and, in a flash, struck the golden dragon’s head.

The dragon circling in the air gave a sad cry and burst apart into a rain of gold.

As the dragon shattered, the True Dragon Stone set in the Dragon Roar Sword’s hilt began to shake. With a sharp crack, it turned to powder. The wind blew the dust away, and a thin fissure slowly appeared along the sword’s blade. The sword’s glow dimmed at once.

Long Yan’s face went paper white.

The Dragon Roar Sword had downgraded. Once it had been raised by Li Shuang into a Fourth Tier treasure. But now the True Dragon Stone was broken, the Sword Spirit’s body had gone hollow, and the sword could no longer support that power. The Dragon Roar Sword fell to a Third Tier treasure.

The Ice Lotus bloomed. Li Shuang stepped out of the ice and walked toward Ye Zhao Zhao. She swung her sword; lotus petals circled Black Abyss, and a biting chill poured out in waves.

“Ye Zhao Zhao,” Li Shuang’s voice sounded frozen in snow and ice as she said: “Long Yan lost. Everything he used came from my Way of the Sword, all from me. And you? Where is your Way of the Sword? Come. I will give you a chance. Show me.”

She leveled her sword at Ye Zhao Zhao.

Ye Zhao Zhao’s face turned pale. Her lips trembled. Fear surged up inside her.

[Li Shuang! How could she!]
[Li Shuang! How dare she!]
[The winner is supposed to be me!]

In the wordless link between Sword Cultivator and Sword Spirit, she screamed: “Long Yan, what are you doing! Strike again! Use that move again! I do not believe Li Shuang can bloom a second Ice Lotus!”

Long Yan’s spirit form shook. He answered weakly: “Zhao Zhao, the True Dragon Stone shattered. I cannot use that move again. Even if it were still there, my spirit is unstable. I could not use it a second time.”

“So what if your spirit is unstable? If you cannot beat Li Shuang, what use are you!” Ye Zhao Zhao’s voice turned harsh with spite as she said: “Hurry, think of something! Will you just watch while Li Shuang humiliates me!”

She was on the edge of madness.

Since she transmigrated, everything had gone her way. Even the former Heaven’s Proud Daughter had been dragged off her altar bit by bit. So what if Li Shuang was the Heavenly Dao’s chosen heroine? She herself was a Transmigrator. She had the help of another world’s knowledge. How could she lose to a native?

Whenever she looked at Li Shuang, she held a quiet sense of superiority. No matter how she acted on the surface, in her heart she always gazed down from above. But now the person she had never taken seriously rose from a dead end, remade herself, and pushed her to this point.

[No. This cannot be. It absolutely cannot be.]

“Long Yan, keep attacking!” she shouted again through the spirit link.

Long Yan stayed silent.

Rage boiled up in Ye Zhao Zhao, and she cursed wildly. The ugly words rang in Long Yan’s ears until he felt dizzy.

[It should not be like this.]

When he first saw Ye Zhao Zhao, she wore a sweet smile. Her eyes curved like a little moon. Though he was a Sword Spirit, she treated him like an Immortal. She worried if he was tired, racked her brain to tell him stories from far and near, and always caught the smallest change in his mood.

But now?

Had she not seen that his spirit was thin as smoke? Had she not noticed that his face was as white as paper?

He knew his Zhao Zhao was not as harmless as she looked. Otherwise she would not have hinted that he should kill Li Shuang. Back then he only thought that this bad side of Zhao Zhao was a little cute.

Zhao Zhao said she wanted to get rid of Li Shuang for his sake, that she wanted to be with him day and night, so she aimed at Li Shuang. Those sweet words still echoed, but her sharp, frantic curses yanked him back to the present.

Long Yan’s lips trembled. Dazed, he looked toward Li Shuang.