Chapter 658: Sparring With I Am Invincible
Chapter 658: Sparring With I Am Invincible
Behind him, he could still feel the biting chill of the sword light as it scraped past. Li Fan looked down at the vast crater where the mortal city had once stood, now utterly obliterated. His face twitched.
Thankfully, his reflexes were quick. If that sword light had struck him directly, not only would his physical body have been destroyed, but the very foundation of his grotto-heaven might have been damaged as well.
He was also lucky not to have been too close. If he'd been drenched in that Immortal-Mortal Miasma, he might have truly Returned to Truth on the spot!
I'm this far from the stone statue, yet the effect on my providence is already this strong? Li Fan's chest tightened. From his Xuan Bird Feather, he drew forth and replenished his devoured providence, then silently activated his Heaven's Will Domain to guard against any further loss.
Below, the smoke cleared. At the bottom of the great pit, a wooden sword stood embedded upright in the earth.
It looked... oddly familiar.
"Oh, my apologies, Fellow Daoist!"
At that moment, the owner of the wooden sword arrived belatedly, his face a mask of embarrassment and guilt as he addressed Li Fan.
"It's all my lack of skill. I nearly cost you your life!"
Li Fan turned to look at the newcomer. Though the man didn't recognize him, Li Fan was no stranger to this person at all.
This was none other than the famously renowned second-generation immortal of the Myriad Immortals Alliance, the obedient son of the Scarlet Snow Immortal Venerable, who went by the alias I Am Invincible, Shuo Feng!
Not long ago, when he had appeared during the friendly exchange between the Myriad Immortals Alliance and the Five Elders Council, he had still been at the Spirit Transformation realm.
But looking at him now, Shuo Feng seemed to have fallen to the Foundation Establishment realm!
He's not concealing his cultivation. Was he so shaken that he dispersed his cultivation and started over? Li Fan's gaze swept across Shuo Feng, and a barely perceptible light flickered in his eyes.
"So it's Fellow Daoist Shuo Feng!" Li Fan cupped his hands, neither obsequious nor arrogant. "I thought it was some petty scoundrel from the Five Elders Council causing trouble again!"
Shuo Feng's face reddened slightly.
He wasn't surprised that this man recognized him, and simply explained quickly, "A misunderstanding, truly a misunderstanding. I was cultivating up in the air when somehow this wooden sword suddenly went out of control. I'm just glad you reacted fast enough, Fellow Daoist, or I would have added needless slaughter to my hands again!"
"Heh, no harm done. I could tell you didn't mean it. But, Fellow Daoist Shuo, what's the matter with your cultivation realm?" Li Fan scrutinized him, deliberately letting a hint of confusion show on his face before changing the subject.
Shuo Feng didn't hide it, confessing openly, "It's nothing, really. I just felt that the path I was walking before was wrong, so I'm starting over from scratch!"
Though Li Fan already knew this, he still put on a show of shock. He studied Shuo Feng for a long moment before slowly shaking his head and sighing in admiration. "The Spirit Transformation realm is already the ultimate goal that the vast majority of cultivators under heaven dream of. Yet you, Fellow Daoist, possess such boldness that you casually decided to start over...
"You have my respect!" Li Fan cupped his fists in praise.
Shuo Feng let out a derisive laugh, dismissive of the flattery. "I don't deserve such high praise from you, Fellow Daoist. What makes me better than anyone else? I'm just relying on my mother to back me up. Even if I fail at rebuilding my cultivation and remain a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator for life, how many people in the Myriad Immortals Alliance would dare look down on me? But if an ordinary cultivator fails at this, they will truly fall into an abyss with no return."
Li Fan smiled, neither agreeing nor refuting.
Instead, he turned his gaze toward the wooden sword in the pit below and frowned. "Though you have restarted your cultivation, Fellow Daoist, you are clearly not on the same level as an ordinary cultivator. From what I saw of this wooden sword's speed and power, it could probably cut down an average Golden Core cultivator without effort."
Shuo Feng agreed. "You have a sharp eye, Fellow Daoist. This wooden sword..."
He paused, then continued, "To be honest, this sword is the current Dao Foundation Curio I’m using. Even though I succeeded in building my foundation with its aid, I still can't fully control it.
"It's rather troublesome." As he spoke, Shuo Feng pointed downward.
But the wooden sword in the pit simply shuddered for a moment, refusing to answer his summons, and remained embedded in the earth.
Even a man of his bearing couldn't stop a flicker of embarrassment from crossing his face.
Clearing his throat, Shuo Feng cast his art three times in succession.
Only then did the wooden sword fly back to his side.
Li Fan studied the sword closely. The word "unremarkable" no longer sufficed to describe it.
The blade bore no patterns, nor did it carry any aura of mystery.
It could even be called crude, like a child's toy whittled from a piece of wood.
But judging from the incredibly powerful strike he had just witnessed, Li Fan knew this object was far from ordinary.
A thought stirred in him. "This sword is interesting. As it happens, I've always had some insight into the sword path, but I've been suffering from a lack of suitable opponents to spar with. Perhaps..."
Shuo Feng's face lit up with delight. He clapped his hands. "I too have just broken through and was fretting over finding a worthy training partner. Your suggestion hits the mark perfectly, Fellow Daoist!"
His expression turning serious, Shuo Feng gently grasped the wooden sword, retreated several paces, and pointed it at Li Fan. "To the first touch!"
"Excellent!" Li Fan declared loudly.
But before his voice had even faded, eighty-one blue water swords had already materialized, forming a sword array in the air that howled as it flew straight toward Shuo Feng.
This was a killing move Li Fan mimicked and executed, drawing upon the power of his water attribute grotto-heaven and the essence of the Cloudwater Palace's Sea-Calming Sword Art as its core. He held nothing back even though Shuo Feng was only a Foundation Establishment cultivator, pouring the full force of an entire grotto-heaven into the attack.
"Water Dragon's Roar!"
At Li Fan's loud cry, the blue water swords scattered in an instant like a sky full of water dragons, thrusting toward every corner of Shuo Feng's body at once.
Faced with Li Fan's apparent all-out assault, Shuo Feng was not alarmed but delighted.
Closing his eyes, he swung his own sword slowly as the eighty-one water swords bore down on him.
It seemed slow, yet everything happened in a blink.
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
Like a bolt of white lightning, it wove through the swarm of water dragons.
The wooden sword met each blue water sword in turn, and the ring of clear metallic collisions filled the air.
In the blink of an eye, the wooden sword had darted through and clashed with every single water sword.
Shuo Feng withdrew his sword.
His arm trembled slightly, as if the effort had drained him of all his strength.
In the next moment, the eighty-one blue water swords that should have remained under Li Fan's control turned traitor, reversing course to attack him instead.
More than that, they seemed to have undergone some profound and subtle change. The azure water dragon they formed appeared to come alive before Li Fan's eyes. He could even faintly hear the dragon's roar in his ears.
The sword qi shot out in all directions, howling as it bore down on Li Fan.
What is this?
A glint of sharp light flashed in Li Fan's eyes, yet his reaction was in no way slow.
In an instant, the world between heaven and earth was lit blue.
A streak of sword light lashed out from Li Fan, splitting the blue water dragon cleanly in two. It looked capable of breaking through any obstacle, smashing through any resistance.
Its momentum did not falter. In the span of a single breath, it flew straight toward Shuo Feng's face.