"Li Yun, accept your fate."
Mo Yuanxiu grew more and more excited. He had spent months preparing for this. He had hidden his identity, studied Li Yun’s behavior, and waited for the right opportunity.
He had even set up the entire cooperation against the Glacier Titan just to make Li Yun lower his guard. Now everything had reached the moment he wanted.
The vines held Li Yun’s arms and legs tightly, and the battle had already used up a good deal of his essence qi. As far as Mo Yuanxiu could see, resistance was impossible.
His hands shook with excitement. Very soon, everything Li Yun had would belong to him. Li Yun’s opportunities would become his opportunities, Li Yun’s secrets would become his secrets, and even Li Yun’s body would become his body.
While Mo Yuanxiu was picturing his future, Li Yun slowly raised his head. There was no panic in his eyes, and there was no despair either. His expression was frighteningly calm.
"Mo Yuanxiu."
Hearing his real name spoken so calmly made Mo Yuanxiu’s smile stiffen.
Li Yun looked straight at him.
"Do you really believe you’ve cornered me?"
Mo Yuanxiu’s pupils shrank, and then he sensed something. A faint pressure was coming from Li Yun.
At first it was barely noticeable, but it kept growing until a terrifying aura erupted with a boom. The vines wrapped around Li Yun began to shake violently.
Mo Yuanxiu’s expression changed.
"What?"
Li Yun did not answer.
For a long time, he had deliberately kept large parts of his strength hidden, showing different methods against different opponents. Sometimes he relied on his physical body, sometimes he revealed a single Sword Intent, and at other times he used one particular sword technique.
Even against extremely strong opponents, he had rarely shown every path he had comprehended at the same time, because there had never been a reason to.
This situation was different. Mo Yuanxiu had spent months plotting and had concealed his identity. He had deliberately waited until Li Yun appeared to be weakened, and he had built a trap specifically around the abilities he believed Li Yun had.
Since Mo Yuanxiu had gone this far, Li Yun no longer intended to hide anything. For the first time, he would reveal all five of his major Intents at once.
Li Yun closed his eyes, and the first power emerged. It was Slaughter Sword Intent.
Crimson sword light burst out around his body with a boom, and the atmosphere changed completely the moment it appeared.
To Mo Yuanxiu’s senses, the frozen valley seemed to vanish, and an endless crimson battlefield took its place. Corpses covered the earth, broken blades and shattered spears stretched to the horizon, and rivers of blood flowed beneath a dark red sky. Li Yun stood at the center of it all.
His Slaughter Sword Intent did not feel like simple murderous intent. It carried the concept of ending. Whatever entered its path would be severed, and whatever opposed the sword would die. It was cold rather than furious and deliberate rather than chaotic, like an execution that had already been decided.
Mo Yuanxiu’s expression changed.
"Xiantian Stage Slaughter Sword Intent..."
Before his shock could settle, another power appeared. This one was Immortal Sword Intent, and its pale sword light emerged beside the crimson aura.
If Slaughter Sword Intent stood for the inevitable end of something, Immortal Sword Intent stood for the opposite principle. It represented endurance and continuation, an existence that refused to disappear no matter what happened. The pale sword pressure felt ancient and endless.
It had no explosive brutality, yet it seemed impossible to truly snuff out. When it was suppressed, it returned, and when it was weakened, it endured. Even if heaven and earth changed, the sword itself seemed determined to remain.
The two Sword Intents should have felt contradictory, but they strengthened each other instead. Slaughter gave Li Yun’s edge the power to end whatever stood before him, and Immortality made sure that the edge would not fade first.
Mo Yuanxiu stared in disbelief.
"Two Xiantian Stage Sword Intents?"
Then the third Intent appeared. It was Destruction Sword Intent, and black light spread outward from Li Yun.
Slaughter Sword Intent carried the concept of cutting off life and opposition, but Destruction Sword Intent attacked the very foundation of existence. The frozen ground under Li Yun began to crack, and the air warped. Even the corrupted vines that bound him started to crumble at their edges.
Slaughter could kill, while Destruction made it impossible for its target to remain whole. Structures collapsed, connections broke, and foundations vanished.
Mo Yuanxiu’s excitement finally disappeared, and his expression turned grave.
Then the fourth Intent emerged, which was Devouring Intent. Darkness gathered behind Li Yun, and a vortex slowly took shape. The spiritual energy in the area began flowing toward it at once.
Snow was pulled through the air, loose fragments of ice rose from the ground, and the lingering essence left by the battle with the Glacier Titan was swallowed up. Even some of the energy inside the vines began to leak away toward the vortex.
Devouring Intent was different from the first three. It did not simply resist or destroy, because its nature was to take. The greater the power that opposed it, the more energy there was for it to consume.
Mo Yuanxiu’s face grew paler and paler. He was looking at four Xiantian Stage Intents from four different paths, and all of them belonged to one person. Even with the experience of his previous life, he found the sight hard to accept.
Then Li Yun opened his eyes, and five-colored light shone within them. Mo Yuanxiu’s heart sank, because it meant there was still another.
It was Five Element Intent, and five different forces appeared around Li Yun. Metal carried incomparable sharpness. Wood carried growth, vitality, and endless transformation.
Water flowed without any fixed shape and adapted itself to everything around it. Fire burned fiercely and represented both destruction and rebirth through flame. Earth stayed stable beneath them all, bearing and connecting the other four powers.
The Five Elements did not stay separate, and they revolved around Li Yun in a cycle. Metal generated Water, Water nourished Wood, Wood strengthened Fire, Fire returned matter to Earth, and Earth gave birth to Metal once again.
Then suppression began within the same cycle. Metal restrained Wood, Wood penetrated Earth, Earth controlled Water, Water extinguished Fire, and Fire melted Metal.
Unlike Li Yun’s other Intents, Five Element Intent did not overwhelm through one absolute principle. Its strength came from balance. Every element changed according to the others, every weakness could be covered by another force, and every strength could become the foundation of something new.
A vast five-colored ring slowly formed behind Li Yun, and at that moment the scene became almost impossible to describe.
Crimson Slaughter Sword Intent filled one side of the frozen valley with the certainty of death. Pale Immortal Sword Intent stood beside it like an eternal blade that could never truly be extinguished. Black Destruction Sword Intent made the surrounding space and matter lose their stability.
The vortex of Devouring Intent kept consuming the energy around Li Yun. Five Element Intent revolved around all the rest and created balance among forces that should have torn each other apart.
There were five Xiantian Stage Intents from five entirely different paths, and every one of them belonged to Li Yun.
The Profound Origin Sword began to tremble in its sheath, and a clear sword cry hummed across the valley.

Comments

Loading...