pjbooks Chapter 140 is almost here.
Chapter 140 is almost here.
The seventieth level was occupied by a Shadow Demon capable of freely switching between illusory and real forms. Its body had no fixed shape, sometimes transforming into a swirling cloud of black mist, sometimes coalescing into a solidified blade, attacking Wang Kai from all angles. Wang Kai used thirty-one breaths, closing his eyes and using his divine sense to capture each gap in the Shadow Demon's shift between illusory and real forms. The instant it transformed from illusion to reality, he struck with his sword, piercing its core. Under the erosion of chaotic power, the Shadow Demon's body began to disintegrate from its core. The black mist, illuminated by pure white light, evaporated completely in an instant, like snow thrown into a furnace.
The seventy-fifth floor was a humanoid apostle projection formed from pure dark golden light. Its size was similar to that of a normal human, but the oppressive aura it exuded was stronger than all the previous gatekeepers combined. Its eyes were two burning dark golden flames, and deep within its pupils was reflected the cracked Azure Cloud Sword in Wang Kai's hand. A highly human-like, mocking smile appeared on its lips.
"A chaotic spiritual root. The legacy of the Demon Ancestor from thirty thousand years ago. A seventeen-year-old human boy, in three months, cultivated from a mortal to the Golden Core stage." Its voice was deep and hoarse, like sandpaper rubbing against an iron plate. "Kahn said you were worthy of his personal protection. But in my opinion, you don't even deserve to make him open his eyes."
Wang Kai did not answer. He gripped the Azure Cloud Sword, pushing his arc-like footwork to its limit, his body drawing a pure white arc in the void, the blade aimed straight for the humanoid apostle's brow. The apostle projection raised its right hand, its index and middle fingers joined together, gently clamping the blade. Its two fingers, like iron clamps, firmly locked the Azure Cloud Sword in place; Wang Kai could neither pull the sword back nor push it forward.
"Too slow," the apostle projection said, twisting its fingers slightly.
The blade of the Qingyun Sword began to twist from the point where it was clamped. The crack extending from the tip of the sword suddenly widened under the force of the twisting, spreading from halfway down the blade to the edge of the guard. The two characters "Qingyun" on the blade shattered within the crack, turning into countless tiny, silvery-white specks of light that scattered. Wang Kai felt his right hand's web between his thumb and forefinger tearing, the skin on his palm burning, and his knuckles cracking—the exact same scene as three months ago when Astra twisted Zhou Tiance's broken spear.
But Wang Kai didn't let up. He squeezed the power of the pure white golden core in his dantian to its limit, and chaotic energy surged from his palm, flowing along the hilt into the blade, gathering, compressing, and exploding within the cracks. Under the impact of the chaotic energy, the blade exploded from the inside, countless tiny silver-white fragments flying in all directions, each fragment carrying the residual energy of chaos, drawing pure white trajectories in the void.
The apostle's projected fingers weren't holding the blade, but rather the air. The blade of the Azure Cloud Sword shattered into fragments between its fingers, but the hilt remained in Wang Kai's hand, with a three-inch-long remnant of the blade still attached to the end. The cracks on the remnant emitted a blinding pure white light under the infusion of chaotic power, illuminating the entire void as if it were daytime.
Wang Kai gripped the broken root and stabbed it towards the center of the apostle's projection's brow.
The moment the severed root pierced the apostle projection's brow, dark golden flames erupted from the wound, engulfing Wang Kai's entire right arm in flames. His sleeve turned to ash, and the newly formed skin charred, cracked, and peeled off again in the flames. But he did not stop. He poured all the chaotic power within him into the severed root, and pure white light exploded from it, tearing the apostle projection's head apart from the inside.
The apostle's projected body froze in place. Its head was mostly shattered, with only half of its face still hanging intact on its neck. The eyes that had been burning with dark golden flames went out at that moment, and deep in the pupils was reflected Wang Kai's face, which was shrouded in light and shadow by sweat, blood, and chaotic power, as well as the pure white pillar of light in his hand that was re-condensing from its remaining fragments into a sword shape.
"Interesting." A final, extremely human smile, tinged with approval, appeared on the half of the apostle's projected face. "Kahn is right, you deserve his personal protection."
Its body began to disintegrate from its brow. Dark golden light spots surged from the cracks and drifted in the void. Wang Kai stood there, his right hand gripping the pure white pillar of light that was reforming into a sword shape, watching the last wisp of dark golden light from the Apostle's projection dissipate at the edge of the Primordial Sword Light Shield, panting heavily.
His right arm, from shoulder to fingertips, was charred black by dark golden flames. New skin was repeatedly burned and regenerated in the flames, each rebirth more resilient and fire-resistant than the last. Chaotic power surged within him, repairing, strengthening, and reshaping the meridians damaged by the flames layer by layer. He felt his golden core expanding at a visible rate, growing from the size of a fist to the size of an infant's head, the golden patterns flowing on its surface several times more complex than before.
"Brother Chen." He turned around, looking at Jiang Chen, at the reflection of his charred right arm and the pure white sword shape that was reforming in Brother Chen's eyes, which were like a deep pool. His lips curled into a grin, revealing the same uncontainable excitement and ecstasy he had shown three months ago when he punched a cement slab in the abandoned factory. "The Qingyun Sword is broken. But my hand is still here. My sword is still here."
Jiang Chen looked at him, at his charred right arm, at the pure white pillar of light in his hand that was reforming from the remnant into a sword shape, and at the pure white pattern on his palm that was emerging from under his skin and was extremely similar to the Primordial Sword Mark. The corners of his mouth turned up slightly.
"The natal flying sword of the Chaos Spiritual Root is not forged from iron, but from your Dao Heart. The Azure Cloud Sword is shattered, but your Dao Heart remains. So the sword remains."
From the 79th to the 89th floor, Wang Kai did not let anyone take over.
His right arm was burned and regenerated time and again in the battle. The new skin changed from charred black to pale white, and then to a strange color that was almost transparent, revealing the pure white spiritual energy flowing beneath. The pure white sword shape in his hand, re-formed from the remnant of the Azure Cloud Sword, grew longer, wider, and closer to the form of a complete sword under the infusion of chaotic power. Its blade was not metal, but a light blade condensed from pure chaotic power; its hilt had no stars, only a constantly flowing pure white pattern that was extremely similar to the Primordial Sword Mark; its hilt was not wood, but the skin and flesh of Wang Kai's palm, fused with the light blade, inseparable.
The guardian of the eightieth level was an abyssal ice dragon, its body covered in ice-blue bone armor, its size comparable to a mountain. Its breath was not fire, but an extreme icy mist capable of freezing the soul. Wang Kai used forty-seven breaths to pierce the weakest gap in the ice dragon's jawbone armor with a blade of light formed from chaotic power. Chaotic power surged in through the wound, negating and evaporating the ice-blue power within the dragon's body layer by layer from the inside. Under the erosion of the chaotic power, the ice dragon's body began to disintegrate from the inside, its ice-blue bone armor peeling away piece by piece, turning into ice-blue specks of light that drifted away in the void.