“Qingping Sword!”
Upon seeing the Qingping Sword, Red Essence’s expression turned nasty. He waved his hand and threw out an ancient but simple black bell. It floated in midair, tinkling. Instantly, the white region of the black-and-white world began to boil over as immense white flames rose up. The black side appeared like stirring black waters.
The white flames and black waters swirled as though they were about to devour Qin Yun.
Clearly, Red Essence was forced to use all his strength.
“I have cultivated arduously for so many years before figuring out the Water Fire Yin Yang Array. Even if he has the Qingping Sword, I believe I can fend him off,” thought Red Essence.
“I never expected you to figure out such an array after so many years of reclusive cultivation.” Qin Yun laughed loudly. A wisp of misty rain flew out from his fingertip as it split into three. The three flying swords circled around, forming a world in and of itself. Regardless of the interspersing Yin and Yang or the engulfment of the water and fire… it did not affect Qin Yun’s Misty Rain Array at all.
Back in his battle at Mt. Three Blades, Qin Yun’s Misty Rain Array was able to withstand Patriarch Blood Sea’s combat body.
Now that his cultivation had been consolidated after so many years, together with his fusion of the Seven Stars Great Dao, the might of the Misty Rain Array was even more powerful. Red Essence’s array could do nothing to it.
Furthermore, the blurry drizzle emanated the surroundings.
The Misty Rain domain seeped into the fire and water array and held back Red Essence.
The spheroid rock was only a thousand plus kilometers away from Qin Yun and Red Essence.
That distance was usually nothing worth mentioning to them under normal circumstances, but both parties were trying to obstruct each other.
“Crack as I command!” Qin Yun’s eyes had a sharp glint.
“Puah Puah Puah…”
As he conjured the Misty Rain Array to protect himself, he attacked with the Qingping Sword using his full strength.
Rifts were formed by sword flashes that appeared in midair.
One strike, two strikes, three strikes…
It formed the shape of the Big Dipper.
It was Qin Yun’s strongest move to date, the Seven Stars Combo. After centuries of accumulation, the Seven Stars Combo was even more powerful. He didn’t use it in its entirely back when he dealt with Sagedemon Nine Phoenix, but he followed through to the seventh strike this time.
Rip!
When the final sword flash that made up the Big Dipper appeared, the entire water-and-fire, black-and-white world seemed to be sliced through like a piece of cloth. After the sword flash tore through the black-and-white world, it stopped right in front of Red Essence’s glabella.
“It’s over.” Red Essence immediately felt his heart palpitate as he did not dare move.
The tip of the Qingping Sword was just an inch away from his glabella. It left his heart chilled.
If Qin Yun had any greater intention to kill, all the sword tip would need to do was move a few inches forward to wipe out his Essence Soul. Then, he would be finished! Even if the Heavenly Lord of Primordial Beginning was mighty and powerful, he would not be able to save him in time in such a pressing moment.
“I’ve lost,” said Red Essence softly. He no longer had any intention to vie for the rock.
However, Qin Yun took a step forward and transformed into a stream of light that flew towards the spheroid rock.
The three flying swords around him flew out and surrounded the spheroid rock as its protectors.
“With the Misty Rain Array protecting it, even if Red Essence were to call for reinforcements, sending more experts from Jade Void Palace, they can forget about snatching it away.” Only when Qin Yun had the spheroid rock fully encased in his Misty Rain Array did he heave a sigh of relief. He also pulled away the Qingping Sword at Red Essence’s glabella.
Red Essence instantly felt relieved when the Qingping Sword flew away.
Although he knew… Qin Yun was unlikely to kill him while they vied for treasures, but having his glabella targeted still left his heart chilly.
“I never expected my Water Fire Yin Yang Array that took me years to figure out would utterly fail to fend off your Qingping Sword.” Red Essence shook his head gently. “If you wanted to kill me, you could have cracked my array in a blink of an eye and finished the deed.”
“Fellow Daoist Red Essence, your means are sufficiently powerful. Even if you were to fight Sagedemon Nine Phoenix, you would probably not be much weaker,” said Qin Yun.
“Didn’t she nearly die after a few strikes from you?” Red Essence shook his head. “An old man like me sure is useless. I’m being surpassed by juniors all the time.”
His junior, Yang Jian, was already stronger than him without using the Divine Eye of Destruction. After all, the Eight-Nine Arcane Art was basically invincible. There was no need to elaborate if he used the Divine Eye of Destruction.
It was the same with Qin Yun!
It was a trouncing!
“Even if you did not use the Qingping Sword, you probably could have defeated me with your three flying swords, right? It’s true that the wave behind impels the wave before, until the wave before dies on the shore.” Red Essence sighed.
Qin Yun laughed when he heard that, but he thought to himself, “If I had not used the Qingping Sword… I’d probably have needed a few seconds to take down Red Essence. Those few seconds might have resulted in unexpected twists, such as more experts from Jade Void Palace arriving. I did not dare take that bet! After all, it might very well be a Connate Cardinal treasure.”
While Qin Yun had this in mind, he looked at the spheroid rock with a burning gaze. The spheroid was slowly cracking, emitting Chaos auras.
The aura was mysterious and shocking to the heart.
Even the Heavenly Dao of the Three Realms was slowly receding away from it.
The spheroid rock floated that like it was supreme. Even the Heavenly Dao avoided it.
“What treasure would this rock give birth to when it cracks open?” Qin Yun stood in midair beside the rock while staring at it.
The spheroid rock was about ten feet wide, and was not much bigger than a person.
Now, the cracks covered the entire rock.
It was as though the cracking speed was accelerating after the asteroid was cleaved apart by Qin Yun’s Sword Qi.
“I came because I was intrigued with the report my disciple gave to me. I never expected my casual investigation would lead to such a treasure. I thought it was fated to be mine,” said Red Essence. “but from the looks of it, it’s fated to be yours. I wonder what’s inside. Could it be a Connate Wonder or a Connate Cardinal treasure?”
“We will know when it’s out.” Qin Yun stared at it. “Even if it’s a Connate Wonder, it would probably be something impressive.”
Meanwhile, he was also concealing the heavenly secrets with his mystic arts to prevent spying from anyone.
It was difficult to spy with the naked eye in the Three Realms.
The heavenly secrets were blurred to begin with, and he was working hard to conceal himself further. Perhaps only the Dao Ancestors could spy on the situation.
“Why are you concealing it? At least let me take a look,” said Red Essence.
“You’ll know when it’s out.” Qin Yun continued concealing it.
“Haha, this rock… does remind me of something. There was once a huge rock in the Three Realms. A monkey jumped out when it cracked open,” said Red Essence with a laugh.
“Are you talking about that monkey?” Qin Yun was enlightened as he looked at the spheroid rock.
This was a huge opportunity for himself.
Please do not produce a monkey or something like that. That would be heart-wrenching for him.
…
“Indeed, Sword Immortal Qin won the battle with Red Essence. Furthermore, he won really quickly.” Jiao Yong, who was watching far away, saw the entire battle. “If Sword Immortal Qin wanted, he could have quickly slain Red Essence. And yet, Red Essence’s array formation sure is terrifying. I would be helpless against it.”
Few in the Three Realms noticed this battle.
Firstly… the battle happened in the cosmos. Mighty figures were just too far away.
As for the battle between Qin Yun and Nine Phoenix, it happened in the Heavenly realm. It made all the mighty figures in the Heavenly realm sense it. As for the mighty figures outside the Heavenly realm, they only learned of it after being informed by their friends.
The Changyu dominion’s Disarray Star Sea had warped space, attenuating the stirs from the battle completely. Furthermore, Qin Yun and Red Essence had the intention to vie for the treasure, so they naturally concealed the heavenly secrets to not stir anyone else. Few people in the Three Realms knew of their battle.
…
Qin Yun sealed the surroundings with the Misty Rain Array as he stared intently at the spheroid rock.
As it was cracking at an accelerated pace, Qin Yun only waited for about an hour beside it.
“Ka Ka Ka!”
The entire spheroid rock finally produced a chain reaction. It continued cracking internally as it produced cracking sounds.
Finally, the cracking sounds reached a crescendo.
The entire rock shattered and revealed what was inside.
“That is—”
Qin Yun’s eyes immediately widened. He was even somewhat shocked.