A Martial Odyssey

“Yin’Er, from today onward you will be known as the Ascension G.o.ddess. That will be your honorific name in the Ascension Sect.” An old man who was her grand protégé master said slowly.

Ye Yin was startled as she stammered, “Master! Are you serious? In the entire Ascension Sect, only the Axis and Eclipse Heaven G.o.ddess are known as ‘G.o.ddess’! Moreover, I have just been initiated into the sect and…”

Her grand protégé master interrupted with a smile as he placed a finely engraved long sword in front of her, “This is a divine sword and its name is the Despairing Heavenly Divine Sword. From now on, this divine sword and you are one. Never, never lose it or your future attainment will surely be greatly affected.”

Ye Yin was stunned, “Master, this is a divine sword? I do not deserve such grace! There will surely be many that will want to take it from me. I don’t have the strength to safeguard such a precious gift…”

Her grand protégé master was solemn, “Then you will surely perish and unable to ascend to the Celestial Realm. That will be your destiny. On the other hand, if you able to keep this divine sword with you all the way, then you will be able to ascend to the Celestial Realm and a greater destiny awaits you!”

Ye Yin gasped softly and she was almost in tears, “Master, please advise me what to do. I am really at a loss. What is going on? What is my greater destiny?”

Her grand protégé master replied slowly, “Yin’Er, you will undergo the most gruesome celestial trainings ever, even more than what the Axis and Eclipse Heaven G.o.ddess had gone through. It is because the Despairing Heaven Divine Sword is one of the two most difficult divine swords to gain mastery over. We are placing all our future hopes on you.”

Ye Yin was once again startled, “Master, what do you mean? Why is everyone placing their hopes on me? I am really afraid…”

Her grand protégé master said, “You must tell no one about this. It is only known to the patriarchs of the Ascension Sect. The divine swords of the Axis and Eclipse G.o.ddess had been completely shattered and they can no longer ascend to the Celestial Realm. We have searched for you for over a thousand years. Unfortunately, we have only found you and still did not find a suitable celestial pract.i.tioner for the Perpetual Darkness Divine Sword. These two divine swords are a pair and cannot exist without the other but at the same time, cannot co-exist without destroying each other. Therefore you should be wary when that day comes.”

Ye Yin murmured, “So that means in the future, I may be killed by the owner of the Perpetual Darkness?”

Her grand protégé master nodded, “I do not know yet but these two divine swords are bonded to each other. Today, I am going to instruct upon you the Divine Harmony Skill. That will unite the divine sword and you into one ent.i.ty. In the future when you are able to ascend, you will be able to transmigrate together with your divine sword to the Celestial Realm! When that time comes, you will be omnipotent and you will give the Ascension Sect a head-start among the many celestial clans!”

Ye Yin gasped softly, “I can ascend together with my divine sword!?”

Her grand protégé master nodded, “The Ascension Sect has a secret celestial art that is pa.s.sed down by an Ancient Celestial. But your celestial training will be tens of times more arduous than the others. Are you willing to take in the hardship?”

Ye Yin nodded, “I have not repaid grand protégé master for taking me in yet. I am more than willing…”

Her grand protégé master said, “Even if it means abstinence from all worldly emotions, indulgences, desires and affections? Even if it means devoting your entire self to the cause of the Ascension Sect?”

Ye Yin pondered silently for a while before she gave a determined reply as she pledged, “I will! I will dedicate my cause to the Ascension Sect. My mortal body, my spirit to the Ascension Fire!”

Her grand protégé master was pleased with her reply as he continued, “You must understand that this is for your own good that I am asking you to do so. The Despairing Heaven Divine Sword encompa.s.ses several epitome divine skills that only you may be able to interpret one day…”

Ye Yin was stunned, “Master, you are not teaching any celestial skills to me?”

Her grand protégé master replied weakly for he was very old, “Only the basic and the Divine Harmony Skill. If I teach you the more advance celestial skills, it will only distract you from the divining the mysteries of the Despairing Heaven Divine Sword. And it will take you a very, very long time and your heavenly tribulations will be more severe than the rest the longer that you will stay here. Remember, you are picked because of your inherent potential and we have waited thousands of years for your coming.”

She had strong innate energy sense. In time to come, she had realized that why she was the destined one for the Despairing Heavenly Divine Sword. Her divine art was the immaterial and was defensive in nature while her opponent was the material divine art which was offensive in nature.

She had often smiled bitterly to herself, “My divine martial skill is the weakest. Almost everyone can defeat me…”

One day, her grand protégé master said to her, “You seem trouble? You have been practicing for the past five hundred years and yet you have not been progressing as fast as we hope. Why is that so?”

She finally vented, “Why didn’t the elders teach me any of the epitome martial divine arts? Is it fair to me? The Ascension Sect has dozens of such epitome divine arts and hundreds of celestial pract.i.tioners. Yet none of these epitome skills are being taught to me…”

Her grand protégé master said solemnly, “You are right. However, how many of these epitome skills are able to aid the celestial pract.i.tioner to ascend to the heavens?”

She said tearfully, “Yet, there are many of our predecessors that have already ascended to the heavens. Among these divine skills, is your Divine Rejuvenation Force…”

Her grand protégé master said, “While I do know this divine skill but it is destined for someone else to succeed my mantle. Yin’Er, you don’t need to feel sad. Your destiny isn’t as unfortunate as me.”

She asked puzzled, “Oh?”

Her grand protégé master said, “Despite all my martial learning and practice, I can never ascend to join my grand protégé masters before me. My destiny is to aid you and the others to ascend to the Celestial Realm. That is the destiny of most of the elders in the Ascension Sect. For us, death awaits but for you, a new beginning will start for you.”

She was silent. It was because she knew that her grand protégé master was using a divine skill known as the Divine Ascension Sight to reveal the mysteries of the Celestial Realm. But this skill had a heavy price to pay for and destroys the celestial practice of the user!

She protested weakly after a while, “But I am the weakest now. Surely you can see it…”

Her grand protégé master said firmly, “Who says you are the weakest? Your innate energy sense is already the strongest here. In time to come, you will surely reach the highest level of the energy stratosphere. When that time comes, you will be the nemesis of the sword energies pract.i.tioners and you will be able to turn their strengths into their weaknesses! When that time comes, all the other divine arts of the Ascension Sect won’t matter to you. Why didn’t you have faith in yourself and your divine sword?”

Ye Yin saw the disappointment in her benevolent grand protégé master’s eyes and knew that he had restrained from saying his disappointments aloud. This conversation also revealed something that she had never realized before; she saw the sadness in her grand protégé master’s eyes for the first time when he had mentioned that he could never be able to ascend. To the majority of the celestial pract.i.tioners, to be able to ascend was their ultimate goal and not able to do so was as good as death itself.

Therefore from that day onward, she further refined her energy sense and energy reading ability to the point of perfection.

In time to come, her martial strength and level begun to improve rapidly. In less than a thousand years, she had successful ascended to the Celestial Realm to the astonishment of the elders of the Ascension Sect. It was because most celestial pract.i.tioners required a thousand years or more before they could ascend and her celestial ascension was supposedly to be several times more arduous!

In the Celestial Realm, she had quickly established her position as a Supreme Celestial and had quickly risen in the ranks of the Celestial Ascension Sect. In a hundred years’ time, she had already defeated many of the top celestials and was quickly ranked as one of the newly seven most powerful celestials!

She had never forgotten about Shen Xingyue who she thought would be her eternal foe. She had met Shen Xingyue who had just been initiated into the Ascension Sect to be the successor of the Perpetual Darkness.

She had disliked Shen Xingyue the Dark Enchantress from the very start for several reasons. First, her grand protégé master had showered her with much care and had taught her several epitome divine skills like the Big Dipper Hands and the Divine Rejuvenation Force. Secondly, it was because a duel between them was inevitable in the future! That was the destiny of their awakened divine swords!

Her stance towards Shen Xingyue was softened only when she realized that she had lost the Perpetual Darkness Divine Sword and her attention was shifted immediately to Lie Qing the Heavenly Temptress as she thought, “Is she my destined opponent?”

It was because she had almost lost her life in the duel against Lie Qing when the Ultimate Dragon Vortex phenomenon had suddenly occurred.

Her grand protégé master had reminded her, “In time to come, you will encounter a most difficult heavenly tribulation that may take away your life. No matter what you do, be wary of the wielder of the Perpetual Darkness. The Perpetual Darkness Divine Sword and your Despairing Heavenly Divine Sword have the same origin but this same origin is also your bane in the future. Both divine swords will attempt to destroy each other.”

She had asked her master for advice to avert this deadly heavenly tribulation of hers but he had simply told her to seek a righteous man, “These two dark divine swords are once used by the most powerful of the Dark Celestials. There is darkness in the recess of these two divine swords. The divine swords by itself aren’t dark in nature but they are destined to clash again. Only through the will of a righteous man can the darkness of these two divine swords be dispelled.”

And that righteous man was Yi Ping! She knew it the instant when she had seen him and her doubts were completely dispelled when he had destroyed the Ultimate Dragon Vortex phenomenon!

That was not the end. She was completely captivated by him and was suddenly interested to know everything about him!

She had secretly decided that he was the man that she wanted to be with!

And today it was going to be her wedding to him but today she was also facing one of the most difficult foes that she had ever met!

The Immortal Sword Aegis Sage was considering the use of his most powerful sword technique, the Inverting Eternal Occurrence because he had realized that this Ascension G.o.ddess was nullifying all his energy attacks one way or another!

He was actually reluctant to use this secret divine sword technique in the presence of so many but the Immortal Saint of Swords had willed to him, “It is alright. Use the Inverting Eternal Occurrence. Her Denunciation Force is the nemesis of our sword energies. However, it is not omnipotent.”

The Immortal Sword Aegis Sage willed back, “But Esteem Master, if I use it she will surely die! I am not afraid of killing her but that will cause us to be at odds with the Holy Ascension Sect!”

The Immortal Saint of Swords willed, “I know that you are unwilling to use it on a junior and in the presence of the others but if we lose this duel then we got more to lose.”

The Immortal Sword Aegis Sage nodded and executed the Inverting Eternal Occurrence sword technique immediately!

When the Ascension G.o.ddess saw the Inverting Eternal Occurrence, she was immediately alarmed as she thought, “Is this the end of me?”

She was immediately met with exploding beams of sword energies shooting from the ground and from the top as she cried aloud with her eyes full of defiance, “Yi Ping!”

Yi Ping had heard her as he rushed forward but he was soon met with multiple explosive shockwaves that rippled in all directions that sent him flying backward!

The Ascension G.o.ddess and the Immortal Sword Aegis Sage both became a small blur and the sword energies halo was so bright and disparaging that all the celestials felt their life forces was being drained away!

All of a sudden, the exploding sword energies were exploding upward in all directions!

Yi Ping raised his martial power and displayed the Asper Continuum Horizon Hands, dissipating and imploding the incoming sword energies as he shouted in anguish, “Don’t die please. I haven’t got to know your real name yet!”

He immediately coughed out blood for he was too near to the center.

All the maidens had all rushed forward at the same time!

Yu’Er and Mei’Er gasped aloud, “Master!”

Lie Qing had already drawn out her divine sword and stepped in front of Yi Ping as she deflected the sword energies bursts one after another, shouting with concern. “Ping’Er, it is far too dangerous! I am sure the Ascension G.o.ddess will be alright. Wait and see…”

Despite his best efforts, he was once again thrown backward. He was immediately caught by the Universal Old Man and Shen Xingyue.

Shen Xingyue panicky asked, “Ping’Er, are you alright?”

Yi Ping shook his head and he could only grit his teeth and waited for the energies diaspora to be cleared while Yu’Er, Mei’Er, Lingfeng, Yixian, Lele and Youxue were all deflecting the energy bursts one after the other!

An energy burst struck Lele as she coughed out blood but the harmful sword energies was quickly purged out by Yixian who had quickly hit her on her vital channels, “Lele, step back!”

But she herself had coughed out blood; she had not recovered from her internal injuries yet and had used the Divine Emerald Skill forcefully…

Shen Xingyue immediately lifted her Divine Rejuvenation Force as she dissipated the sword energies burst directly in front of Lele and Yixian, “Leave it to me…step back!”

Lingfeng, Youxue, Yunzi and the Stellar Heaven Fairy were forced to take evasive actions for the sword energies bursts were simply too much for them to bear.

Lingfeng thought, “I hope that no one sees this…”

Everyone, it seemed was so caught out in battling this sword energies storm and for their own survival to take notice of anyone else except for their own group who was extremely protective of one another. For that, she was secretly appreciative as she thought. “This is…real friendship?”

As the debris slowly cleared, she looked up to see Yu’Er, Mei’Er and Lie Qing were still battling the unabated martial force; they were breathless and were looking extremely drained.

From the time the Inverting Eternal Occurrence had occurred, only ten blinks of an eye had gone by and it seemed to be a long eternal for everyone!

For Yi Ping, it seemed like eternality!

Yi Ping rushed forward once again, displaying his martial force to clear the dusty remnants aside while muttering nonsensical to himself. “I didn’t even get to know your name and today is supposed to be our wedding day…”

As he staggered forward, the Ascension G.o.ddess was lying on the ground motionlessly and she was covered in a blood bath; her entire white golden garment was soaked with her blood!

As for the Immortal Sword Aegis Sage, he was also lying on the ground but he was feeble for the Ascension G.o.ddess had run through him with her Despairing Heavenly Divine Sword. Other than that, he was still breathing.

When Yi Ping witnessed the scene he exploded in anger as he yelled aloud; there was a thunderous martial force that instantly exploded outward and the ground beneath him collapsed one foot underneath!

He rushed forward to cling to the Ascension G.o.ddess and he was weeping uncontrollably aloud!

Yi Ping began to reminiscent the times when he was with the Ascension G.o.ddess, however brief it had been. He was muttering, “You didn’t say goodbye…I still want to drink with you…”

Xuan Wei and Xuan You were seriously wounded in the aftermath of the Inverting Eternal Occurrence but that did not stop them from rushing forward with Xuan Kong and Xuan Qian as well. Their golden eyes were mixes of red and they were trembling with shock.

The Immortal Sword Blitz Sage rushed to his fallen protégé brethren as he shook his head while saying, “This is a fair duel and no one is to be blame. We have won…”

The Immortal Sword Zealot Sage had quickly rushed forward as well but before he could do so, Shen Xingyue had raised her divine sword to attack him!

The Immortal Sword Zealot Sage said angrily, “Maiden, have you forgotten that we have an agreement and that you must surrender the Blue Heavens Divine Sword to us!”

Shen Xingyue flew towards him in an instant, “I have never heard of such a laudable and thick skin request. I have only seen the two of them lying on the ground and you have the audacity to proclaim your side as the victor? It is really the most laudable thing that I have ever heard!”

With that, she raised her fingers and displayed the Starlight Divine Fingers. Five beaming flashes of light appeared in front of the Immortal Sword Zealot Sage but it was quickly parried by his sword fingers!

The Immortal Sword Zealot Sage hummed coldly, “Don’t blame me from being merciless. You have attacked me first. You deserve it. I shall seize the Blue Heavens Divine Sword from you and teach you a hard lesson…”

Shen Xingyue changed her offensive stance to a sword stance, displaying dozens of quick lethal sword strokes as she said coldly. “You have to ask my Starlight Divine Strokes first!”

The Immortal Sword Zealot Sage was startled as he quickly moved back, drawing his precious sword at the same time to parry the attacks! It was because he could feel that her martial power had suddenly increased and that all the strokes had been imbued with sword energies!

There were dozens of brilliant blue lights as Shen Xingyue attacked nonstop in three different directions!

Even Lie Qing was startled at her martial display as she had never seen Shen Xingyue displayed her Starlight Divine Strokes before, “She is never serious in the past?!”

The attacking speed of her sword strokes was insanely fast!

Even the Immortal Sword Blitz Sage who was renowned for his speed attacks were in awe as he thought, “I have never seen such speed attacks before. Did she really calculate all her attacking steps beforehand? Because this attacking speed is too wanton, it can also be broken very easily by any super exponents…”

But his attention quickly returned to the Immortal Sword Aegis Sage as he panicky tried to save his life.

The Immortal Sword Zealot Sage parried steadily as he released one sword energies after another at Shen Xingyue, “I will let you have a taste of my Negative Ley Sword Energies…”

Shen Xingyue had raised her other hand at the same time as she exploded the air thunderously in front of her, “Exploding Big Dipper Hand!”

The Immortal Sword Zealot Sage was taken off guard at her startling martial power. He quickly raised his hands to accept her blow.

There was an explosive thunderclap that reverberated aloud many times when they exchanged their blows.

To the astonishment of all the onlookers, the Immortal Sword Zealot Sage coughed out blood and he was flung backward!

The martial power of the Big Dipper Hand exceeded the martial power of the Immortal Sword Zealot Sage!

Almost immediately, the Immortal Sword Zealot Sage was caught by a celestial with a hegemony air!

This celestial looked ancient with long white hair and beard but he was also youthful looking. Behind his back was a white and black long sword. There was no doubt about it that he was the Immortal Saint of Swords!

He said coldly, “You shouldn’t have done that. If the Immortal Sword Zealot Sage isn’t injured, you don’t have a chance. Maiden, don’t force my hand and surrender the Blue Heavens and the Heavenly Earth Celestial Sword quietly.”

Many of the surviving celestials were gasping, “So he is the Immortal Saint of Swords…so that is what he looks like…”

The Immortal Sword Zealot Sage coughed weakly, “Grand Patriarch, I have disgraced you…alas…”

Shen Xingyue replied coldly, “I don’t care who you are. You have not won and the Heavenly Earth Celestial Sword isn’t part of the agreement.”

Lie Qing had also stepped forward and her eyes were extremely red, “I may be a lowly celestial but if you want to bully one of my sisters then you have to fight me first!”

Shen Xingyue muttered, “Lie Qing…”

Yu’Er had also stepped forward with her sister Mei’Er as she said coldly, “And us too!”

Lingfeng and Youxue were also staring coldly at the Immortal Saint of Swords!

Lingfeng smiled coldly, “You are not the only Ancient Celestial here. Who says you have won?”

She secretly stole a glance at Yi Ping who was inconsolable as he wept aloud while clasping the Ascension G.o.ddess tightly.

The Universal Old Man said coldly, “Don’t forget there is still an old man around here.”

The Immortal Saint of Swords answered coldly, “Are you sure about this? You may not win. Surely you know that my martial skills are above you. And…”

He took a look at Lingfeng before saying, “And the Heaveness seems to be weaker now. Recovering from your heavenly tribulations perhaps?”

He was suggesting that everyone else in this grand hall was not his match and that he was the supreme here!

No one, nothing could stop him!

Not even the Celestial Star Annihilation Formation! The power of the Inverting Eternal Occurrence alone could break it!

All of a sudden, the Immortal Sword Aegis Sword coughed out more blood and he was gasping to say something. But before he could say a word, his pupils had turned white and his breath had expired!

The Immortal Sword Blitz Sage was clasping his fists and beating his chest, “Protégé Brother! You have pa.s.sed on! You have pa.s.sed on! Your destiny is supposed to be in the G.o.ds’ Realm and not here!”

The Immortal Sword Zealot Sage was equally stunned as he stammered speechlessly, “Protégé Brother has pa.s.sed away…?!”

Even the Immortal Saint of Swords was startled but that only lasted briefly for his eyes had suddenly turned murderous!

Yi Ping laughed aloud hysterically, “So who is the victor now? All this for a meaningless fight? Can a life be returned from the dead?”

He was trembling and looking at everyone, pointing at the numerous fallen celestials. “Half of the people in this hall are alive earlier but they are now all gone…at what price? At what cost? Is it for honor or for personal gains? Can anyone answer me?”

The Deadly Wanderer had barely survived the aftermath of the Inverting Eternal Occurrence and he was severely injured. He could be one of the dead here today and if another fight were to break out, he really had no confidence of surviving another battle …

Not only him, the surviving celestials were all quiet…

Ch30 End