Chapter 200: Self-Detonation
Above the Gale Pavilion, dark clouds gathered, and lightning flickered.
Chen Chang'an stood with his sword, his robes fluttering. Blinding lightning coiled around the sword's edge. The Nine Heavens Thunder Movement Sword Art was pushed to its limit. Every strike was accompanied by deafening thunder!
He was no longer the same novice from ten years ago who had never even been in a fight.
"Boom!"
The sword light, like a dragon, slashed directly at Monk Miaoyin!
Miaoyin's expression changed drastically. He held his demon-subduing vajra horizontally to block, and the Buddhist light surged, forming a golden barrier.
However, Chen Chang'an's sword momentum was too fierce. The lightning exploded, and the barrier shattered in an instant!
"Puchi!"
The sword's edge swept past, and a ferocious bloody gash opened on Miaoyin's chest, blood spraying out. He staggered back, his eyes filled with horror.
"Senior brother!" Monk Miaodao shouted fiercely, his palms clasped together. The Buddhist light around him condensed, forming a Vajra phantom that fiercely suppressed Chen Chang'an!
Chen Chang'an sneered. He turned his sword's edge, and the lightning suddenly contracted, forming a thin line that instantly pierced through the Vajra phantom!
"Crack!"
The phantom shattered, and Miaodao grunted, blood spilling from the corner of his mouth.
"Is this all you have?" Chen Chang'an's tone was indifferent, but his sword momentum grew even fiercer. "You so-called Guiding Envoys are nothing special."
The three monks exchanged a glance, a ruthless glint flashing in all their eyes.
"Form the array!"
They all formed seals at the same time. The Buddhist lights intertwined, actually condensing a giant "swastika" Buddhist seal in the air, which suppressed Chen Chang'an!
Chen Chang'an looked up, the fighting intent in his eyes like a raging fire.
"Break!"
He let out a long roar, his sword pointing straight at the sky. The Nine Heavens Thunder Movement Sword Art erupted with all its might!
"Rumble—!"
Above the firmament, the thunder clouds churned. A pillar of lightning as thick as a water bucket suddenly crashed down, merging with the sword light to form a sky-reaching thunder sword that fiercely slashed at the Buddhist seal!
"Nine Heavens Thunder Movement—Myriad Calamities!"
"Bang!"
The Buddhist seal trembled violently, cracks spreading across it. The three monks simultaneously spat out a mouthful of blood, their faces ashen.
"Impossible!" Miaoyin's eyes widened in disbelief. "We are both at the Heavenly Human Realm. How can he possess such power?!"
Chen Chang'an wasted no words. He turned his sword's edge, and the lightning divided, instantly transforming into two sword shadows that respectively slashed at Miaoyin and Miaodao!
"Puchi! Puchi!"
Two heads flew high into the air, blood gushing like a fountain.
Two headless corpses fell from the sky, heavily crashing to the ground.
"Junior brothers!" The remaining monk's eyes split, his heart filled with grief and anger.
Chen Chang'an approached with his sword, saying coldly: "It's your turn."
The monk gritted his teeth and suddenly let out a ferocious laugh: "Did you think this was the end?"
He swiftly formed a seal. The corpses of Miaoyin and Miaodao suddenly glowed with a golden light, actually transforming into two golden lotuses. The lotus petals slowly bloomed, emitting a terrifying fluctuation that made one's heart palpitate!
"Hmm?" Chen Chang'an frowned, sensing the destructive energy contained within the lotuses.
"These two lotuses contain supreme Buddhist power. Once they explode, they are enough to flatten the entire Gale Pavilion!" the monk laughed wildly. "The tens of thousands of disciples, from top to bottom, will all die because of you!"
Chen Chang'an sneered: "Don't even think about morally blackmailing me."
His sword pointed directly at the monk, his tone icy: "Even if they die, it will be because of you."
The monk's expression changed. He had not expected Chen Chang'an to be so decisive. He no longer hesitated, grabbing Wang Shouzhi and turning to flee!
"Want to leave?"
Chen Chang'an's figure flashed, instantly catching up, and he struck with his sword!
"Chi!"
The sword energy, like a rainbow, instantly severed one of the monk's arms! Amidst the spraying blood, the remaining force of the sword energy did not diminish, directly piercing Wang Shouzhi's heart!
"Ugh!" Wang Shouzhi's eyes widened, blood overflowing from his mouth as his life force rapidly faded.
The monk, however, paid it no mind, continuing to flee with Wang Shouzhi's corpse.
A pierced heart did not necessarily mean death. Since he was following a formula, he would see it through to the end.
Just as Chen Chang'an was about to continue the pursuit, the two lotus flowers behind him suddenly bloomed with a blinding golden light!
The instant the two golden lotuses bloomed, the world suddenly lost its color.
First came an extreme silence—as if even the wind had been sucked away. Then, the heart of the lotus burst forth with a blinding white light, like a scorching sun from the nine heavens falling to the mortal realm. Everyone who directly looked at this light had their eye sockets instantly burned and weeping blood!
"Boom—"
The first shockwave exploded in a ring.
The thousand-year-old pines on the main peak of the Gale Pavilion snapped in half, their bark directly carbonizing in the high temperature.
The light shield of the grand protective formation, which had just been repaired during the day, shattered like an eggshell. Countless inscribed formation bricks turned to dust, drifting down like a gray snow flurry.
The people of the Gale Pavilion, who had run out to watch secretly after hearing the commotion, only now realized that disaster was upon them.
Some turned to flee, only to find their legs sinking into suddenly liquefied stone slabs—the ground was turning into scorching magma.
The lower-ranking servant disciples bled from all seven orifices, clutching their heads and rolling on the ground. Their Violet Mansions were being crushed by the residual force of the Buddhist power.
"I'm going to die..." a female elder of the Gale Pavilion slumped beside a corridor pillar, watching the overwhelming golden waves of fire rolling in from the distance.
Her meticulously manicured nails were curling and blackening, yet she could not even feel the pain—the aura of death had already seized everyone's throat.
At this critical moment, a figure in a plain white robe dove down against the torrent of destruction.
Chen Chang'an's plain white robe rustled in the high temperature, the ends of his hair beginning to burn, but it could not hide the sword in his hand that was growing brighter and brighter.
"Heaven-Defying Single Sword!"
The sword's edge traced a mysterious trajectory, seemingly slow but in reality faster than time itself.
When the sword tip touched the first golden lotus, it was as if the entire spacetime had been severed—
To the left was an apocalyptic explosion: the second golden lotus was releasing tens of thousands of golden rays, each ray carving a bottomless trench into the ground as it passed. To the right, it was eerily calm and peaceful, with even a single leaf frozen motionless in mid-air.
"Zheng—"
A clear sword cry resounded through the clouds.
Chen Chang'an's figure blurred into a streak of light at the center of the explosion. The transparent barrier formed by the Heaven-Defying Sword Art stretched across the heavens and earth like an insurmountable chasm. When the golden waves of fire crashed against the barrier, they shattered like sea waves crashing against a reef!
The shockwave pushed Chen Chang'an back three zhang, the soles of his boots plowing two charred trenches into the ground.
Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, and the palm of his sword-holding hand was split open, but he did not retreat a single step further.
The people of the Gale Pavilion stared dumbfounded at this scene.
In an instant, they saw Chen Chang'an glance back—those eyes, reflecting the explosion of the golden lotus, actually held a hint of impatient disgust, as if to say: "Troublesome."
When the last wisp of Buddhist fire dissipated, half of the front mountain of the Gale Pavilion had vanished.
Chen Chang'an flicked the golden flames from his sword's edge and turned to look at the survivors.
"What are you looking at?" He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. "Next time, don't gather to watch this kind of excitement."
Feng Wuheng fell to his knees with a thud. This Longevity Realm expert was now trembling like a sieve.
Behind him, hundreds of elders and disciples knelt in unison. Some even began to kowtow to Chen Chang'an—that single sword from moments before had already carved a divine mark in their hearts.
Chen Chang'an, however, suddenly frowned and looked into the distance. The auras of the monk and Wang Shouzhi had completely vanished.
...
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