The Demon Lord's Invasion

Chapter 37: The Five Spirits Sword

Watching Jiang Tang take his seat from afar, a young man standing beside Yuan Tian said, “Brother Tian, Jiang Tang’s so-called Dragon Palm seems pretty powerful! Should we…” “No need,” Yuan Tian said, shaking his head. “It’s merely a matter of fragmenting spiritual energy into a gong and piecing it together with mental awareness. It has the form but lacks the power; in fact, it’s much weaker in hardness than a rounded gong, and it’s fragile. It’s only good for scaring people—and it wastes mental awareness.” “Brother Tian, your insight is extraordinary; I can’t hold a candle to you,” the youth said admiringly. “Once your cultivation reaches the late stage, you’ll see right through it at a glance,” Yuan Tian said expressionlessly, watching as a disciple from the C-Rank list on the arena was defeated in an instant by a disciple from the B-Rank list. “In Xian Zong’s Grand Tournament, strength is certainly important, but strategy is the key to victory. If Jiang Tang were to use all his moves, he would undoubtedly lose the next match. However, I don’t think he’s the type to give up easily. Watch closely to see how he uses his weakness to overcome a stronger opponent!” “If he wins, wouldn’t that make him even stronger than Brother Tian?” the youth asked, somewhat incredulously. “Now that you’ve joined Xian Zong, you shouldn’t think that way. Martial artists compete to determine a winner, but cultivators compete to see who can live the longest!” The young man was a bit bewildered and couldn’t quite grasp the meaning of this at first. Jiang Tang played with a crystal stone in his hand, slowly absorbing and refining its energy to restore his spiritual power. Qiong Sang flew back from who knows where, perched on Jiang Tang’s shoulder, and chuckled as he transmitted his voice: “Your opponent has been decided—Gao Heng of the Xuan Kong Cave.” “Why is it the Xuan Kong Cave again? And she has the same surname, Gao—could she be here to seek revenge?” Jiang Tang frowned. Qiong Sang chuckled, “Nine times out of ten.” “Tell me about her abilities,” Jiang Tang sighed. “Xuan Kong Cave is full of masters of spells and techniques, and this woman is no exception. From what I observed in her previous matches, she appears to be using the Five Spirits Sword.” “Five-Spirit Sword? A Sword Cultivator?” Jiang Tang was a bit confused. “She’s likely a Spirit Sword Cultivator. The Five Spirits Sword is a sword formed through magical arts. To cultivate it, one must first nurture a先天剑体灵胚—a spiritual embryo of the innate sword body—capable of absorbing the Five Elements’ energy to transform it into a true sword. This energy can come from oneself, the heavens and earth, or even an opponent. The five sword techniques are exquisite: Slicing Metal, Severing Wood, Flowing Water, Blazing Fire, and Shattering Earth. Cultivating them is exceptionally difficult—and they’re very hard to deal with!” “What about its weaknesses?” Jiang Tang asked. “There are no weaknesses,” Qiong Sang chuckled. “That’s impossible!” Jiang Tang refused to believe it; he’d never heard of a cultivation technique or spell without a weakness. Qiong Sang said with a sinister grin, “The weakness is spiritual energy—but for you, that’s no weakness at all!” At the same time, in a corner of Pingding Peak far from the stands,a tall, coldly beautiful woman strode with long strides toward Gao Rongsheng, who was sitting cross-legged in meditation. Just as Gao Rongsheng opened his eyes to speak, the woman suddenly kicked out, sending him flying a zhang away. She then took a few steps forward, stepped on Gao Rongsheng’s shoulder, and looked down at him with an icy, merciless gaze, saying, ““How many times have I told you? Your Ice Wind spell serves both offense and defense. While defending, never forget to attack. Have you been ignoring me all this time?” Gao Rongsheng spat a mouthful of blood onto the woman’s black boots and cried out in pain, “Sis, you saw it yourself—that Golden Dragon…” “Even a mere shell can be repelled by my spiritual energy. The journey to Spirit Island is of the utmost importance to our Gao family, yet you’ve actually been defeated here by an Early Qi Martial cultivator. You foolish good-for-nothing.” Grinding her teeth as she spoke, the woman suddenly exerted force with her long legs, and her black boot crushed Gao Rongsheng’s left shoulder into the stone and soil below! The sensation of his bones shattering caused Gao Rongsheng to involuntarily cough up another mouthful of blood. Only then did the woman pull her foot back and flick it, sending all the blood on the shoe’s surface splashing onto Gao Rongsheng’s face. She turned, took two steps, and tossed a pill over her shoulder, saying, “Get out and train. Don’t come back to Xuan Kong Cave for ten years.” “Sis…” Gao Rongsheng picked up the pill, feeling like crying but having no tears. As he watched his older sister’s graceful figure disappear, he suddenly threw himself to the ground. Trembling, he slowly raised his upper body, raised his arms, and shouted, “Twenty-five years! A full twenty-five years! Waaah… I can finally go out and have some fun. I’ll never be bullied by that violent she-demon again, hahaha… Ouch, my shoulder!” Ten challengers from the Ding List took on the Bing List—not a single one won. Ten from the C-Rank challenged the B-Rank—only Jiang Tang won! This shows that Xian Zong’s classification system is quite accurate—except for that outlier, Jiang Tang! “The first match of the cross-rank challenges: Jiang Tang of Black Reef Island versus Gao Heng of Xuan Kong Cave.” As the elderly emcee finished reading aloud, the entire arena fell into a moment of silence! They never expected Jiang Tang to make it this far—and to do so with such apparent ease! “Give it your all!” Hua Mo Leng patted Jiang Tang on the shoulder. “If you lose, I’ll make your life miserable for ten years,” Ji Yukui warned. “I’m a man who aims for first place,” Jiang Tang said, flicking his curly hair as he stood up and strode confidently toward the stage. Gao Heng followed him onto the stage. She, too, made no use of any special movement or teleportation techniques, simply taking calm, measured steps with an elegant stride. When she reached the stage, she stood there casually, radiating unparalleled grace! “Those legs are a sight to behold…” Jiang Tang’s flirtatious gaze slowly traced upward from Gao Heng’s black boots, lingering on the slit in her white robe as he let out a series of loud, admiring “tsks.” “Have you had enough?” A handsome young man in the western stands stood up and snapped coldly. Jiang Tang shot a cold glance around and realized it wasn’t just this guy—many male disciples were shooting him threatening glances, while the women mostly looked at him with disdain! “Leering at a beauty—it really is the most character-destroying thing one can do. I’m sure I’ll be receiving plenty of challenges during the internal trials from now on,” Jiang Tang thought to himself. With that, his gaze returned to its usual calm, and he gave Gao Heng a slight bow. Gao Heng returned the gesture but remained motionless, maintaining a pose as she stared intently at Jiang Tang. She was the first to wait for Jiang Tang to make a move, so he didn’t hold back either, returning her gaze without the slightest hesitation. Their eyes locked—and before they knew it, a quarter of an hour had passed! “What are you looking at?” “Fight! Go ahead and fight already!” “Don’t waste time—just fight already!” “By buying so much time for the senior brothers competing later, Senior Sister Gao and Junior Brother Jiang must be raking in quite a few crystals, right?” “Oh, right. I thought they’d locked eyes—turns out they were just stalling! That’s clever!” “I’d love to, but can’t you see this woman has no weaknesses?” Jiang Tang was truly frustrated. Gao Heng had actually pushed her strength to the absolute limit, just like him—a habit typical of martial artists who strive for the realm of “still as a mountain, swift as thunder.” Jiang Tang waited—waited for this woman’s energy to wane. Once that happened, her next move would inevitably be half a beat slower. Don’t underestimate that split-second delay—as long as Jiang Tang kept her under constant pressure, Gao Heng would never again be able to unleash her spiritual energy at will! But he hadn’t expected Gao Heng’s concentration to be so formidable—a quarter of an hour later, her aura hadn’t changed in the slightest! Unable to hold back any longer, Jiang Tang suddenly blinked—and in that very instant, Gao Heng moved! In that split second, Jiang Tang leaped to his feet and fired a spear with a flick of his wrist toward the spot where he had been standing! At the same time, Gao Heng’s figure appeared below. A swirl of flame in her hand instantly formed a Blazing Sword. She spun and slashed upward; the spiderweb projectiles immediately split into two streams of flame. As they passed by her, the Blazing Sword in her hand transformed into a crimson streak of light, appearing before Jiang Tang in the blink of an eye. “So fast!” Jiang Tang was startled. He extended an unremarkable hand, and just as it seemed he was about to grasp the Blazing Sword, his palm suddenly contorted into a ferocious grimace! He swiftly executed the second rotation of the Cold Iron Hand technique, snatching out with an eagle’s claw—only to seem to strike at thin air! The Blazing Sword suddenly vanished without a trace, as if a lamp had been extinguished! Jiang Tang’s expression turned grim in an instant. He unleashed his spiritual energy without reservation; in that split second, a golden light blazed around him. As his spiritual energy surged forth, a barely perceptible thread of fire was knocked away by the force—only to transform into a slender Blazing Sword. It spun a few times before piercing Gao Heng’s palm and vanishing. “Damn it!” The moment Jiang Tang touched the ground, he rapidly drew the gongqi surrounding him back into his body. Facing Gao Heng as she charged toward him, he felt an overwhelming sense of dread. He knew he’d been careless during their earlier clash, but fortunately, having cultivated the Golden Gāng True Qi, he could absorb the energy even after releasing it, preventing the complete waste of that spiritual power. But even so, his opponent had effortlessly forced him to defend with all his might; after a dozen or so moves, he would inevitably run out of energy! “So what if it’s just Gāng Qi!” Jiang Tang’s gaze hardened. Instead of retreating, he charged forward toward Gao Heng. With a flick of his palm, his curved blade sliced through layer upon layer of wind and turbulence, slashing toward Gao Heng. To his surprise, Gao Heng’s lips curled into a smirk; though he held no sword, he struck at the curved blade with a sword-grip stance. “Sword of Metal-Cutting!” Accompanied by a cold shout from deep within Gao Heng’s heart, an invisible sword suddenly struck the curved blade. “Clang!” A massive force exploded between the blade and the sword, causing both their robes to flutter wildly—especially the split in Gao Heng’s long robe, where her long legs, completely exposed above her boots, flashed so rapidly they made one’s eyes spin. “Flowing Water!” As Gao Heng sidestepped, the Five Spirits Sword shifted once more; the intangible sword that had withstood the curved blade’s force now flowed past the edge like water, slashing toward Jiang Tang’s shoulder. As Jiang Tang planted his scimitar on the ground to steady himself and somersaulted to evade the “Flowing Water” strike, he swept both legs upward toward Gao Heng. Gao Heng leaned back to dodge the kicks, then spun around and unleashed a punch through the air, aiming straight for Jiang Tang’s face. Instantly, a five-colored glow flashed, and a sense of imminent danger left Jiang Tang feeling as if he were suffocating! As he withdrew his sword and retreated explosively, the gale-like energy surrounding Jiang Tang surged forth once more—but the moment it appeared, it was instantly shattered into countless golden crystal shards by the multicolored sword beam. Jiang Tang’s expression darkened. He swept his palm through the air, gathering millions of golden crystals and condensing them into a single golden dragon that twisted and intertwined with the multicolored sword light. At the same time, facing Gao Heng’s relentlessly advancing fist, the moment he swung his right fist, a deafening tiger’s roar met Gao Heng. When her fair, slender fist collided with the tiger-head fist, the multicolored radiance emanating from her fist suddenly engulfed Jiang Tang entirely. Yet at that very moment, Gao Heng’s slender body flew backward like a kite whose string had snapped, crashing into the stone bricks and tumbling uncontrollably. Just as she was about to reach the edge of the ring, she struck the ground with her palm and flipped back to her feet. At the same time, Jiang Tang—his body drenched in blood—broke free from the multicolored glow and charged fearlessly toward Gao Heng. Gao Heng’s beautiful eyes faltered for a moment, but her gaze regained its brilliance in an instant. With a slight curve of her lips, she waved her hand, unleashing a stream of multicolored light—resembling silk but in reality a terrifying cascade of swords—that swept toward Jiang Tang. The marvel of the Five Spirits Sword lay in the fact that no matter what spell one used to defend against it, it would be countered by the sword’s power—or even transformed into the sword’s own energy, amplifying its might—making it a true headache! “Let’s see just how many swords you have!” Facing the torrent of swords, Jiang Tang actually charged into it wielding a single broadsword. In an instant, the glint of blades and the clanging of steel echoed across the entire Pingding Peak, leaving the disciples on all three sides of the stands utterly dumbfounded. Jiang Tang wasn’t courting death! Rather, he had uncovered the “weakness” that wasn’t actually a weakness of the Five-Spirit Sword! Having spent a year on Black Reef Island dissecting demon beast materials, Jiang Tang knew full well that the use of mental perception was not limitless! A single sword can be wielded with ease—its strikes are unpredictable and graceful, making them impossible to guard against. But ten swords, a hundred swords… even if your cultivation is exceptionally high, you’re still only at the peak of the Foundation Establishment stage among cultivators. How powerful could your spiritual perception possibly be? Could it truly rival my own? After several near-death experiences, Jiang Tang could perceive every trajectory of the Five Spirits Sword’s slashes, cuts, stabs, and thrusts with crystal-clear clarity. Whether out of consideration for their fellow disciple’s friendship, sect rules, or simply a touch of sentimental compassion, Gao Heng’s attacks never targeted his vital points. Since that was the case, why shouldn’t Jiang Tang take advantage of it? The frenzy he had displayed while facing countless small bone spiders resurfaced in Jiang Tang. Though he struck with only a single stroke, it was as swift as a bolt of lightning. The blade’s wind swirled around him so densely that not a breath of air could pass through. Every Five-Spirit Sword shattered and crumbled the instant it collided with that wind.