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Chapter 40: Folding the Sword
The name of the Yan Madman, Li Caitian, was crazy to start with.
Since ancient times, even the emperors treated the heavens as above them. Many people had the "heaven" character in their names, but most were used as "respect to heaven", "peace heaven" and so on. But names like "heaven opening" or "heaven creating" were somewhat unorthodox.
Originally, Li Caitian was an unnamed paper cutting child of a seal paper workshop. Yet, when he started cultivation, he named himself "Caitian", meaning cutting the heavens. He was really mad.
However, people would frequently feel helpless at the madness of some people.
Li Caitain was not just the fastest cultivator in the last fifty years of the Yan Dynasty. When he reached realm seven, he had taught almost every elder in the Xieling Seal Sect a lesson.
Even more importantly, all of the elders he had fought respected him.
He had changed almost all the seals that the elders knew, and after his modifications, these seals increased greatly in power.
The end result was he was recognized as the top seal master in the Yan Dynasty. He also frequently held open cla.s.ses in the Xieling Seal Seal, and never avoided discussing the seal path with people who were not part of the sect. Most of the Yan cultivators had received his teachings. So in the Yan Dynasty, most people respectfully called him "Teacher Xie", meaning he was the most respected representative and teacher of the Xieling Seal Sect.
People like him did not have just powerful cultivation. His unorthodox madness and powerful comprehension gave him extraordinary creativity. In any person"s eyes, he was a treasure of the Yan Dynasty.
The Yan Dynasty was already surprised that they were the first to attack. It was even more incomprehensible that he was the person.
The emperor of Qi frowned deeply.
In reality, he had paid a great price in order to learn who would follow Emperor Yuanwu onto Deer Mountain. He had an understanding of Fang Xiang. He should have leaked some information to the emperor of Yan or Li Caitian as the Yan Dynasty was the first to attack, but he still abided by the words of the man in black robes to watch, and remained silent.
The emperor of Chu combed his beard thoughtfully.
He felt that even if the Yan Dynasty was going to show goodwill to the Chu, they did not need to pay such a price. If so, then this was a matter of the Yan Dynasty.
What kind of game was the Yan Dynasty playing?
When grandmasters fought, even when they had not yet acted and were just acc.u.mulating power, it was enough to cause a change in the world.
On the sky by Fang Xiang"s side, blue energy slowly invaded the white clouds, and caused multiple clouds to twist like blue scales.
Over by Li Caitian"s sky, a white line slowly appeared like an opening had been cut in the blue sky.
The mountain peaks around Deer Mountain were completely silent. The air was almost frozen, unable to flow. No wind blew through the mountains.
Li Caitian was mad in personality. Facing Fang Xiang"s bow, he only looked up at the sky and said softly, "Fighting like this is a pleasure. But it is a regret that I cannot learn from Emperor Yuanwu."
Fang Xiang camly straightened, looked at him and said, "To me, you are already the best opponent. So I have no regrets and have won slightly."
Li Caitian shook his head and said, "I have no regrets or ties. I have bathed and cleansed my body. My mind is at my peak, so we are equal."
Fang Xiang nodded.
Boom!
As he nodded, the air between the two suddenly showed a clear ripple which spread towards both sides. While it resounded a deafening roar, the ripple was just bright light and intangible.
"Thought Sword Art!"
Numerous grandmaster-level people here had their own mysterious and profound moves. But when they saw this bright but intangible ripple, more than half of them changed expression, and knew they were not a match for the two.
Using mental power to form a sword, was to be fast. But the attack from Fang Xiang"s thought sword seemed almost close in power to a true flying sword. This kind of move was very rare in history books. However, Li Caitian forming a seal with a thought was similarly astounding.
"Please." Fang Xiang reached out with a hand as he spoke.
A flat and dark sword light appeared in his hand, stabbing towards Li Caitian.
Hearing his words, it appeared as though the thought sword attack just now was only a test and not a true attack in his mind.
The sword movement was normal, but carried a power able to cleave mountains. The straight and sharp sword energy cut through many streams of primal energies of the universe. Many of the Yan Dynasty seal masters paled. In front of this seemingly ordinary sword, they would not be able to even make a complete seal.
Li Caitian had never encountered such a sword attack before. He frowned slightly, and a jade-like square seal silently appeared on the fingertips of his left hand.
With a soft poof, a pure wave of energy sprouted out of this blue seal.
His body suddenly disappeared from its spot and appeared behind Fang Xiang.
Uncontrolled gasps sounded.
Li Caitian"s movement appeared extremely simple, but under the pressure of this kind of sword energy, his simple drawing contained laws on the primal energies most realm sevens could not understand.
The sword was advancing forward, but Li Caitian was behind the sword. If this sword missed, Fang Xiang would undoubtedly be defeated.
However, the exclamations were not due to Li Caitian, but due to Fang Xiang"s sword.
Fang Xiang"s advancing figure did not change at all.
A dot of light appeared at the tip of his sword.
His sword pa.s.sed through this dot of light and the blade bathed in this layer of light.
All of the sword energy ahead of the blade disappeared.
Countless white turbulent flows appeared behind his body.
Each white stream of turbulence was pure sword energy. These white streams completely shrouded Li Caitian"s figure.
Li Caitian"s expression remained calm as a yellow seal paper flew out of his hand and crashed to the ground.
All of Deer Mountain shuddered slightly. Millions of yellow grains of dust appeared from under his feet.
When the white turbulent flows and the yellow dust came into contact, time seemed to slow. Heavy power filled the air like multiple giant mountains. The white turbulent flows and the yellow dust did not change, but Fang Xiang"s body suddenly shook; his face paled and blood dripped from his nose.
This momentary confrontation ended with his injury, but his left hand was already rising behind him.
A blue sword energy flew out of his index and middle finger like a cl.u.s.ter of dragon scales. It flashed and disappeared from everybody"s perception.
There was a soft sound.
A hole appeared in Li Caitian"s left shoulder. Much of the yellow dust was stained by the splash of blood.
"A good sword!"
Li Caitian"s expression was aloof as he looked at Fang Xiang"s back.
Fang Xiang turned around, looked at him and said gravely, "Good seal."
Both were injured, both were complimenting each other, but their attacks did not stop for a moment.
The moment Li Caitian said "good sword," a giant shadow was already falling through the air.
Fang Xiang"s black longsword was missing from his hand.
Both of his hands were empty.
The enormous shadow falling through the air was an enormous mountainous sword.
This was an incredible scene.
Those on the peak of Deer Mountain, and even on the peaks surrounding Deer Mountain could clearly see this giant sword.
In other words, each of them clearly saw a giant dragon.
As the surrounding vital energy flooded in, the dragonscale sword expanded greatly. Each of the scale scripts on the blade turned into enormous black stones. If this was just all, everyone would feel that the sword was made from giant rock boulders, but there were two wisps of yellow flame at the tip of the sword.
The two yellow flames flashed with cold and violent emotion.
A powerful presence, completely unlike Fang Xiang, looked down on the world from the two flames.
This was a presence that only the powerful demon beasts would possess.
When demon beasts reached a certain level, they could no longer be described as demons.In the long history of humankind, they would dread, revere and bow to it.
Many of the serpent-dragons existing in the world now had a similar presence.
So this was the true dragon breath.
The story of legend was true. Fang Marquessate Establishment"s Dragonscale Sword had been refined with dragon blood, and had a.s.similated the vital energy power of a kind of dragon.
The emperor of Qi looked up at the giant sword, his eyes widened to their limits, his mind completely filled with shock and emotion.
Even though he knew beforehand that the legend had been true, he could not have imagined a sword transformation like this, or that Fang Xiang would be able to wield such a sword.
"So this is your true power."
"No wonder Emperor Yuanwu had you accept the fight."
Li Caitian looked at this giant sword, and sighed softly in understanding.
The item in his hand gave off the presence of a lifebond item; appearing in his hand was a slightly yellow seal paper.
Everybody sank into greater shock.
The seal paper in his hand had no seals. This was just an ordinary piece of yellow seal paper.
The lifebond item of the top sealmaster of the Yan Dynasty was a seal paper that could but cut into any shape, and did not hold any power in itself. Now, Li Caitian was going to use his lifebond item.
What kind of shape would he cut this seal paper into?
Unexpectedly, Li Caitian did not cut this unfinished seal paper into any shape.
He just simply folded the paper.
He folded the seal paper in half.
Translator Ramblings: The earliest Sword Dynasty chapters will be slowly edited. A new edit of chapter 1 is now up.