Boom!
The sword-wielding arms of the two God Kings bulged with power as divine might collided head-on.
A deafening clang tore through the cosmos.
A visible shockwave spread outward in rings, pulverizing every stellar remnant along its path into dust.
Under the recoil,
both figures were blasted backward, the void twisting wherever they passed.
"Li Zhexian, you are worthy of forcing me to unleash the Seven Asura Absolutes."
As the Asura God's words fell,
a crimson divine pillar shot skyward, its killing intent illuminating an entire starfield.
Far away, the watching gods all changed color. Those with weaker divine power were so shaken by the murderous aura that their souls wavered.
"The Asura God King is getting serious!"
"Ten thousand years ago, when the Seven Asura Absolutes first appeared, a sea of blood covered half the Divine Realm for three months without dispersing!"
"To think the Sword Lord could actually seize the upper hand—unbelievable!"
Qian Renxue stood alone upon a fragment of stellar debris, gazing at the youth who had forced the Asura God to fight with full strength. A trace of pride curved her lips.
This was the man she had chosen.
Even after ascending to the Divine Realm,
he still shone like the rising sun.
"What a man, this Li Zhexian!" Ji Dong clenched his hand unconsciously and exclaimed in astonishment:
"He actually forced Asura to strike first with a sword technique!"
The God of Destruction narrowed his eyes. "The Asura Sword is the foremost killing super-divine weapon in the Divine Realm. For the Sword Lord to reach this point is already something he can take pride in."
At this moment,
the Qinglian Sword in Li Zhexian's hand began to hum.
Eleven strands of sword intent surged skyward from his Great Vertebra Sword Bones.
Refined further by divine power, the annihilating force flowed along the blade's edge.
"I wield authority over all weapons. The Asura Sword is among them."
His white robes billowed as Li Zhexian pointed the Qinglian Sword at Asura, his voice carrying the weight of heavenly law:
"I declare—"
"The Asura Sword shall lose its edge."
With the support of the Bai Ze's Ability: Destiny is Mine,
the Authority of All Weapons descended.
From the void,
the sound of law-chains echoed.
The crimson pillar piercing the galaxy abruptly dimmed. The divine radiance of the Asura Sword vanished, blotches of rust spreading across its blade.
"Hmph!"
The Asura God's eyes erupted with sharp crimson light.
"I govern slaughter and judgment. This sword is a weapon of judgment—how could it be allowed to gather dust?"
"Its edge shall return!"
The rust flaked away inch by inch.
Crimson divine light surged once more.
In the unseen depths,
law-shaking roars resounded, making all gods tremble.
Countless dark-gold and blood-red chains of law collided in the void—this was the clash between the Authority of All Weapons and the Authority of Judgment.
The gods fled in panic, retreating several stellar remnants farther away.
A clash of God-King-level authorities—mere collateral was enough to annihilate both body and soul.
"The Sword Lord can command all weapons—if we were to face him, wouldn't our arms be rendered useless?!"
"Why would the Divine Realm's laws grant such a tyrannical authority?!"
"Could it be that the laws recognize the Qinglian Sword as the supreme weapon of all weapons?!"
At this moment, although the Asura Sword had regained its sharpness, a layer of law-chains still coiled around its body.
Meanwhile, blood-red light also shrouded Li Zhexian.
The two authorities restrained one another, locking the battle into a stalemate.
The Asura God said nothing more.
He raised the Asura Sword, its spine resting lightly against his brow.
Three pairs of crimson pupils focused simultaneously, like six blood moons reflected upon the blade.
Clang!
Killing intent condensed into substance,
whipping his blood-red hair into a wild frenzy.
"Asura Seven Absolutes, First Form—Sword Rises, Slaughters the Heavens!"
The Asura God's deep voice rolled across the void.
In the next instant,
the demon sword descended.
A crimson thread, thin as a silken filament, extended from the blade's edge.
Where it passed,
space was cleaved cleanly in two,
revealing an even deeper, more primordial chaos beyond.
All stellar debris, asteroid fields, and even a beam of distant starlight were annihilated the moment they touched that crimson line.
This was a strike capable of slaying gods.
Carrying the domineering will of the Authority of Judgment,
it slashed straight toward Li Zhexian.
Faced with this sword of the Asura God—
Not only was there no fear in Li Zhexian's eyes—there was instead a flash of long-forgotten fervor.
He could no longer remember
how long it had been since he last wielded his sword with everything he had.
In the mortal world below, tempering his heart amid the red dust, he retraced his former path and reclaimed his past sword intent—reviewing the old to understand the new, its power rising to yet another level.
And after ascending to the Divine Realm,
his Spirit Power transformed into divine power. Driving sword intent with this supreme force, even Li Zhexian himself felt his blood surge with excitement.
"Good timing!"
"I'll meet your slaughter with slaughter!"
"Qinglian Sword Song, Sixth Form — Blood Pagoda!"
Li Zhexian drew his sword and slashed.
Centered on him,
the light of this entire cosmos seemed to be drained away, turning into a darkness deeper than the void itself.
Then—
the outline of a blood-colored pagoda condensed out of nothingness.
This was no tower built of bricks and stone!
It was a construct of laws, manifested from the purest essence of slaughter!
Across the pagoda's body, sword patterns flowed.
Each and every pattern was a slaying sword intent brought forth by countless cuts!
Facing that streak of crimson sword light,
the Blood Pagoda came crashing down.
Wherever it passed,
the void let out groans under the unbearable strain.
In the next instant,
the crimson sword light and the Blood Pagoda collided head-on.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
The void was like a pane of glass, suddenly riddled with countless cracks before shattering completely.
Streams of slaughtering sword intent
were like blood-ink splashed across pure white parchment,
spraying throughout the entire star region. Any stellar remnant they touched exploded instantly.
The residual sword intent whipped up cosmic storms that swept outward, forcing the watching gods to retreat dozens of stellar remnants farther away.
Before they could even recover from the shock of the collision—
Clang!
Another ear-splitting clash rang out.
Two figures burst straight through the crimson sword intent and once more locked into close combat.
"Seven Asura Absolutes, Third Form — Blood Sea of Mortal Existence!"
Tidal roars echoed through the void.
An endless sea of blood surged forth, swallowing the entire star region in an instant.
Every single drop of that "seawater" was formed from the Asura God's sword intent.
"Qinglian Sword Song, Eighth Form — Cleansing Glaze!" Li Zhexian's sword momentum shifted.
Clear, crystalline sword light split into billions of strands, condensing at the heart of the blood sea into a Qinglian Sword whose blade shone like a polished mirror.
Purifying sword intent swept in all directions. Wherever its light reached, the blood sea evaporated.
Li Zhexian's figure flashed.
He stood atop the handle of the glass-like sword.
His foot stomped down hard.
Buzz!
The mirror-bright blade erupted with radiance, reflecting a sword light capable of purifying all things as it slashed straight toward the Asura God.
The Asura God didn't even look. He raised his sword and cut horizontally, dark-crimson sword light shattering the purifying blade ray inch by inch.
In just a few breaths of time,
their figures crossed again and again.
Their blades had already collided dozens of times.
Each explosive clang caused stars to flicker and fade, and the laws themselves to wail in distress.
As far as the eye could see,
this cosmic graveyard had become a complete dead zone.
Countless stellar remnants turned into dust clouds stretching tens of thousands of miles.
The void looked like a sheet of paper crumpled by a child and then spread flat again, crisscrossed with fractures.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
The battle raged on.
Li Zhexian and the Asura God each unleashed a sword strike at the same time—
the clash between Qinglian Sword Song, Ninth Form — A Thousand Autumns Depart,
and Seven Asura Absolutes, Fifth Form — Godfall Dusk.
Invisible ripples spread outward from the hazy sword light Li Zhexian had unleashed.
Where the ripples passed,
time and space flowed backward.
Stellar remains reassembled.
The fracture-ridden void healed as if new.
Even the stars that had been annihilated in the battle appeared to be dredged back up from the river of time—turning from illusory to real, lighting up once more.