Chapter 619 – Killing Zhou (The Middle of the First Season)
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
In the autumn of last year, on the first day of the All-School Martial Exhibition, in front of the Orthodox Academy, Chen Changsheng broke through Zhou Ziheng's Star Domain in a single strike. Using the unexhausted sword energy, he brought Tang Thirty-Six and Xuanyuan Po to take a carriage and intrude upon the alley of the Northern Military Department. Arriving at this courtyard of falling crabapple blossoms, they straightforwardly demanded that Zhou Tong release Zhexiu.
At the time, Zhou Tong had expressionlessly gazed at them, and they saw a sea of blood.
Both he and Tang Thirty-Six found it impossible to bear this mental pressure and pain and almost fell apart. Even long after they had departed this courtyard, they still could not forget the fear and terror brought by that sea of blood. Furthermore, Zhou Tong had only released a part of his might at the time, not like now where he immediately attacked.
It must be known that when Zhou Tong displayed the full power of his Great Crimson Gown, even if his opponent were an upper level Star Condensation expert, only an abnormal human like Painted Armor Xiao Zhang, who was constantly insane, would not be affected in any way. Even someone like Liang Wangsun would choose to temporarily protect his heart.
Chen Changsheng was just at the peak of Ethereal Opening. No matter how stable and formidable his spiritual sense, how much progress he had made in this one year, how could he oppose the sea of blood?
It now seemed that either his mind would be shattered by Zhou Tong's mental strike or he would maintain his consciousness by sheer fluke and be forced to draw back his sword, doing his utmost to retreat.
To cultivators, if they could not escape Zhou Tong's sea of blood, this sea of suffering, they could only sink within.
But if he chose to sheathe his sword and retreat, could he really escape this courtyard?
What happened next, no one expected.
Chen Changsheng's face was very pale, but he did not choose to escape, nor did he collapse.
His body went from illusory to real, his speed becoming many times slower, but he still gripped his sword and stabbed forward.
It was like he was advancing forward, waist-deep in a sea of blood. Although difficult, although slow, he pushed forward without stopping.
Seeing the light gradually tearing through the sea of blood, the approaching clear sword glow of the Stainless Sword, Zhou Tong narrowed his eyes!
Why was Chen Changsheng's spiritual sense at such a formidable level!
A bit more than two years ago, the Orthodox Academy only had Chen Changsheng.
In the library when fixing his Fated Star, his spiritual sense flaunted itself in the heavens above for nine days until it reached the depths of the sea of stars.
At the time, the Divine Empress and Mo Yu had a conversation on the Dew Platform.
His spiritual sense was very powerful, but not overbearing. The true aspect of his spiritual sense that was different from anyone else's was that it was very serene.
Only with serenity could one achieve great goals.
Could one travel great distances.
Now, his spiritual sense was not just serene, it was tenacious.
In this one year of time, he had borrowed the ten thousand sword intents within the Vault Sheath to hone and wash his spiritual sense innumerable times.
His spiritual sense had passed through that ocean of sword intent countless times before touching that black stone monolith on the other shore, never once having lost its bearings.
How could Zhou Tong's sea of blood possibly have the ability to make his spiritual sense sink down?
His wrist still bore a string of stone pearls. There were not many of them, but each one was a Heavenly Tome Monolith. Those stone pearls were now exuding faint threads of light, protecting his Dao heart.
Besides the reasons described above, the most important reason still lay within his body.
His current mental state was currently at the absolute highest it had ever been in his seventeen years of life.
He knew that he was about to die, so he walked towards death.
He faced death to live, and once he grew calm, there was nothing to fear.
Very rarely were there people who had his sort of experience. Of course, there was presumably no one that would want to have this sort of experience.
It could even be said that at least for these few days, he had already seen through life and death.
So he could resist the attack of Zhou Tong's mental technique, could persist forward in this frightening sea of blood that clung to him, until finally, the sword glow illuminated the room, the sword energy finally cut a path through the sea of blood, and he arrived in front of Zhou Tong!
Zhou Tong's dark and deep eyes were illuminated by this sword glow, a hint of remorse faintly visible within.
He knew of the masterful level to which Chen Changsheng had cultivated the sword, so he did not wish to contend with Chen Changsheng on this aspect. He only wanted to use his most powerful technique and resolve this all in the shortest amount of time. As a result, he allowed Chen Changsheng to raise his sword intent to its maximum extent while he directly used his mental technique to cut off space and strike. However, he had not expected for Chen Changsheng's spiritual sense to be so powerful, able to firmly resist his Great Crimson Gown and crash through the sea of blood, thus bringing that incomparably sharp sword right in front of him.
A tinge of wariness appeared in Zhou Tong's eyes.
Even as an upper level Star Condensation expert, he could not disregard the sword in Chen Changsheng's hands.
From the snowy plains to Xunyang City, from the capital to Mount Han, from Xue He to Liang Hongzhuang, from Lin Pingyuan to Zhou Ziheng, far too many Star Condensation experts had lost to Chen Changsheng's sword.
But there was still no fear in Zhou Tong's eyes. He was no ordinary Star Condensation cultivator, he was a peak-level Star Condensation expert!
The gap in cultivation between him and Chen Changsheng was too great, so even if a problem occurred with his response and Chen Changsheng's sword arrived before him, he still had nothing to be concerned about.
Because in front of him was his world.
Countless specks of starlight lit up within his blood-colored official's robe. They were not silver, but also the color of blood.
The ocean of blood enveloping Zhou Prison suddenly fell back like the ebbing tide, condensing into a ball of blood.
This ball of blood was incredibly real as if condensed from actual, fresh blood.
The crabapple tree in the courtyard regained its green leaves, yet like it had been afflicted by some illness, it shed countless leaves.
Countless dried husks of insects appeared in the cracks of the stone steps.
Zhou Tong's body was immersed within this sphere of blood, presenting an extremely bizarre sight.
This sphere of blood was his Star Domain.
This was his world.
Zhou Tong's face was very pale, flickering in and out of the blood, sinking down and floating back up.
The blood began to seethe, releasing an unpleasant and bloody scent. For anyone who smelled this scent, their soul would easily become discouraged and descend into madness, all the way until the soul left the body and died.
Only after Cheng Jun retreated to the back of the room was he able to remain free of its effects. As he watched this sight, his eyes were filled with fear.
Chen Changsheng had bathed in dragon blood, and his stainless constitution had its own special characteristics, so he was not affected and continued to stab towards the ball of blood.
Zhou Tong's pale face in the mist of blood was even more distinct. He gazed upon the sword glow and Chen Changsheng with eyes of absolute indifference.
The Star Domain of a peak Star Condensation cultivator could be said to be infinitely close to perfection. It possessed almost no weak points, let alone any gaps.
How could Chen Changsheng's strike break through this sea of blood?
The Stainless Sword was clearly stabbing towards Zhou Tong's throat, yet no one noticed that in the space above Chen Changsheng was another sword glow!
Whoosh! The sword glow pierced through the sea of blood and stabbed at his left eye!
Zhou Tong's cruel and thin lips issued a harsh whistle as his two sleeves swiftly danced!
The crimson official's gown violently shuddered like a turbulent sea of blood. The immortal birds and monsters woven into the official's robe seemed to come alive, and from the abyss of the sea of blood came an uncountable number of formless wailing souls. With mournful shrieks of resentment, they hurled themselves at the sword image.
This bright sword glow easily tore those wailing souls into pieces and continued to advance forward, stabbing at Zhou Tong's left arm!
With a squelch, a spurt of blood shot out!
The perfect Star Domain of a peak Star Condensation cultivator was actually broken!
Gazing at this absolutely impossible scene, Cheng Jun's face paled, his body trembled, and he was utterly powerless to speak.
Yes, this had originally been an absolutely impossible matter, but when Chen Changsheng was wielding the sword, this matter seemed to become comprehensible.
It could be said without exaggeration that in the countless years between now and the most distant past, he was the one that had accomplished the feat of an Ethereal Opening cultivator breaking a Star Domain the most times.
Because in the Mausoleum of Books, he had understood the relationship between the multitudinous stars in the sky and the Star Domain of cultivators, and because in the desolate lands of the north, the sword styles that Su Li had passed down to him had conferred upon him two intelligent eyes that could see through a Star Domain.
The Intellectual Sword was a sword style, or method of battle, that was extremely taxing on the spiritual sense, exhausting on the mental faculties. It was a method Su Li had passed on to him specifically for breaking through Star Domains.
The focus of this sword style was to comprehend the relationship between the starry sky and living beings, from this calculating the gaps in a cultivator's Star Domain.
Chen Changsheng's experience of comprehending the Heavenly Tome Monoliths in the Mausoleum of Books was unique, so although his calculation abilities were lacking compared to Xu Yourong and Su Li, his comprehension of the Intellectual Sword was not.
From the Plum Garden Inn to here, he had been constantly calculating, all for the purpose of finding, or guessing at, the weak points of Zhou Tong's domain of blood.
His sword had long since been unsheathed, so how could it miss?
Blood was sent flying as the sword intent erupted, and the temperature of the courtyard rapidly climbed. Chen Changsheng knew that the difference between him and Zhou Tong in terms of actual cultivation level was enormous, so to succeed, he did not dare tarry. He used his spiritual sense to ignite the radiance in his body and transform it into an unimaginable amount of true essence which he poured into the Stainless Sword to propel it forward!
The Stainless Sword glowed even brighter, exuding sacred white rays of light and heat, ready to destroy Zhou Tong's life in the next instant. Yet at the moment of truth, this scene did not occur…the real sword clearly pierced through the sea of blood and stabbed into Zhou Tong's body, yet it seemed to stab into nothingness, nothing beneath the edge of the sword!
Zhou Tong's real body was not in the sea of blood!
The great crimson official's robe gently swayed in the night wind. At some point, he had drifted into the air, emitting a blood-soaked and monstrous might!
A sphere of blood appeared in the palm of his right hand. Was it his Star Domain of blood?
The Star Domain was the most powerful defensive tool of Star Condensation cultivators and could be considered their personal world. Just who would be willing to leave their own world and then place this world in the palm of their hand?
Chen Changsheng had seen such records in the Daoist Canon, but he had never encountered it in an actual battle. This was his first time seeing such a scene.
Zhou Tong had left his own world and made the sea of blood that was his Star Domain a ball of blood in his palm.
This also meant that despite the countless complex and challenging calculations engaged in before using the Intellectual Sword to break through the Star Domain, it was already impossible for him to harm Zhou Tong's body. On the contrary, his sword had entered the sea of blood, which meant that it was now under Zhou Tong's control. It was impossible to continue stabbing forward.
From the feeling transmitted by the edge of the sword, Chen Changsheng very quickly confirmed this heart-chilling fact.
Zhou Tong looked down on him from above and expressionlessly asked, "This is that sword?"
From the moment he determined to kill Chen Changsheng, even before the summer of last year, he began to gather all the information concerning Chen Changsheng. That carriage had always been parked inside Hundred Flowers Lane, so he knew what Chen Changsheng had done in the wilderness and in Xunyang City. He knew that Su Li had taught him three sword styles, and even that one of these sword styles was focused on calculation.
Since he knew, as one of the most famous schemers of the continent, an important personage who planned and schemed, how could he not calculate that Chen Changsheng would use this sword?
The domain of blood that he had spread was real, that it had been broken by Chen Changsheng was real. His response was very risky, even if he had already prepared a backup plan.
All this was for a single objective.
He wanted to shatter Chen Changsheng's sword.