Eternal Time and Space

Chapter 16 Golden Blade Light

Two swords, one thrusting, one slashing, one aimed for the brow, the other for the throat. Yuan Ming's sword represented the ultimate in death, while Ji Du's sword represented the ultimate in swordsmanship. The two had never joined forces before, but their coordination in this instant was flawless, as if they had rehearsed it a thousand times.

Zi Chen did not retreat. If he took a step back now, both swords would simultaneously block all his escape routes.

With a flick of his right hand, the Hundred-Year Ruler flew out from Zi Chen's sleeve. The moment the amber-colored ruler landed in his palm, Zi Chen's aura changed.

Zi Chen's gesture of holding the ruler didn't look like he was holding a ruler, but rather like he was holding a knife.

The image of Pangu's axe that separated heaven and earth flashed through Zi Chen's mind.

In the midst of chaos, that axe cleaved down, tearing the chaos apart, separating the clear from the turbid, splitting time and space, splitting the past from the future. That axe was not power, but a transcendence over all things.

Zi Chen escaped to the past, and the axe light remained there; he escaped to the future, and the axe light remained there; he escaped to the end of time, and the axe light was already waiting for him there.

Zi Chen will never forget that axe blow.

Since you can't forget it, then master it.

On the Hundred-Year Ruler, all one hundred markings lit up simultaneously, and golden light surged from them, transforming into a blade of light—a golden blade of light that was domineering to the extreme.

Zi Chen gripped his sword and slashed down.

The moment the blade struck, the world lost its color. The golden blade light, like a blazing sun falling to earth, swallowed up the gray sky, the black swamp, and the pervasive death aura. With a single strike, all things were thrown into chaos.

Yuan Ming's death sword light was split in two, and Ji Du's pitch-black sword light was cut in half.

The blade's momentum continued unabated, cleaving a massive chasm across the swamp.

The power of a single strike is so domineering.

The ghostly fire in Yuan Ming's eyes suddenly intensified. Zi Chen's slash was extremely crude, but the intent to sever everything within it made him feel a long-lost fear.

Daring not to hold back any longer, Yuan Ming's Ten Death Sword trembled violently, and seven gray-white sword lights, like seven poisonous dragons, simultaneously devoured Zi Chen from seven directions: his brow, throat, heart, dantian, back of the head, spine, and life gate.

Seven swords were drawn simultaneously, their deadly intent filling the sky.

Ji Du moved simultaneously, his sword less flashy than Yuan Ming's. A jet-black sword light transformed into a straight line, piercing directly towards Zi Chen's back. This sword strike was incredibly fast; even before the light arrived, the chilling aura emanating from the blade had already seeped into his very bones.

Two powerful immortals, one sealed them with death, the other stabbed them with a swift sword.

Zi Chen did not retreat an inch. His right hand, the Hundred-Year Ruler, transformed into a golden blade of light, shattering the three deadly sword lights in front of him with a single strike. Before the blade's momentum was exhausted, he swung his backhand and cleaved the dark sword light of Ji Du behind him in two.

The flashes of the blades wove a golden curtain of light in front of and behind him, so dense and impenetrable that not even water could get in.

The sounds of clashing swords were as dense as a torrential rain. Golden blade light, gray-white death sword light, and pitch-black fast sword light—the three colors of light fiercely clashed in the void. Each collision exploded into a burst of brilliant flames, like countless stars being born and dying in the same instant.

Zi Chen flipped his left hand, and the Nine Nether Cauldron flew out.

The cauldron opened wide, and a ghostly light, like a waterfall, descended upon Yuan Ming.

The Netherworld within the cauldron unfolded, transforming into a colossal hand, its five fingers like five Netherworld mountains, fiercely grasping down upon Yuan Ming.

Yuan Ming snorted coldly, and the seven swords of the Ten Death Swords merged into one, a gray-white sword light soaring into the sky and slashing into the palm of the giant hand.

The death ray and the ghostly light collided, emitting a hissing sound of devouring, tearing at each other and annihilating one another.

Taking advantage of this moment, Jidu thrust his sword at Zichen's back.

This sword strike was even faster than before; so fast that the sword light had barely appeared before the blade touched Zi Chen's back.

Time seemed to flow by in Zi Chen's eyes. Without turning his head, he swung his sword backhand.

Golden blade light and pitch-black sword light collided behind Zi Chen. The sword light was shattered, and the blade light was also cut by the sword's edge.

Ji Du dodged the remaining force of the blade with a swift movement, and the second and third swords followed one after another, each one faster and more ruthless than the last.

The blade curtain around Zi Chen spun faster and faster, the golden blade light transforming into a golden vortex, shredding Ji Du's swift sword piece by piece.

Sparks from clashing swords rained down like a storm, each spark burning a hole through the void.

On the other side, Yuan Ming's body suddenly expanded, then became ethereal, his flesh and blood dissolved, his bones turned to ash, and his whole body turned into a pure gray-white death light.

Having abandoned the physical form, the primordial darkness transformed into death itself.

The vast, grayish-white death light surged towards the Nine Nether Cauldron like a long river of death, and the eerie light on the enormous hand peeled away layer by layer, like flesh corroded by acid.

Zi Chen caught a glimpse of this out of the corner of his eye, frowned, and with a slash of his right hand, he drove Ji Du back, while his left hand struck the Nine Nether Cauldron from a distance.

The cauldron suddenly trembled, and the Nine Netherworld fully unfolded. The ghostly path of the Yin and Yang transformed into the howling of ten thousand ghosts, and the darkness of the Netherworld transformed into an endless dark tide. The two sources of death intertwined and faced the long river of death formed by the Primordial Netherworld.

The two forces of death collided violently in the void.

One is pure, the other is vast. The River of Death rushes into the Netherworld, and wherever it passes, ghostly shadows dissipate and dark tides surge back. But the Netherworld is too vast, so vast that the River of Death is like a sword piercing into the ocean, piercing deeply but never reaching the bottom.

Just as the two were locked in a stalemate, Zi Chen moved, forcing Ji Du back with a backhand strike. The power of time froze Ji Du in place. With a single step, Zi Chen plunged into the core of the collision between the River of Death and the Nine Netherworld.

A golden light suddenly shone on the centenarian's foot.

The imagery of Pangu's axe strike was clearer in my mind than ever before.

Zi Chen's hand holding the knife trembled slightly.

The knife fell.

The golden blade light, like a divine ray that split the heavens and earth, cleaved through the middle of the River of Death, dividing it in two and severing death itself.

The death light that Yuanming transformed into emitted a silent scream. The death light began to disintegrate and dissipate, retreating from "death" to "death energy," and from "death energy" to nothingness.

Yuan Ming's form reformed from the disintegrating death light. The withered old man's face was twisted to the extreme, with ghostly flames flickering wildly in his eye sockets, filled with disbelief and deep fear.

"What kind of knife is that...?"

Before he finished speaking, the mouth of the Nine Nether Cauldron suddenly expanded, swallowing Yuan Ming along with the disintegrating source of death.

Yuan Ming's cries lasted only a moment before abruptly ceasing.

The strongest of the Four Netherworlds, Yuanming, has fallen.

As the Nine Nether Cauldron's energy surged and it devoured the Primordial Netherworld, the Netherworld within the cauldron expanded once more. The four origins of death—the ghostly path of Yinming, the darkness of Youming, the annihilation of Guming, and the death of Yuanming—intertwined and merged, transforming into a truly complete world of the dead.

Just as Yuan Ming fell, a black shadow flashed by.

It is Ketu.

Ji didn't attack Zi Chen. Instead, at the very moment Yuan Ming was swallowed up, he used his extremely fast sword light to grab the hilt of the Ten Deaths Sword and snatch this top-tier innate spiritual treasure from the edge of the Nine Nether Cauldron.

Zi Chen slashed with his sword, the golden blade light chasing after Ji Du's figure, cleaving a ten-thousand-mile-long rift in the void behind him.

But Jidu was too fast; Zichen's sword light couldn't catch up with Jidu.

Standing on the edge of the rift, Jidu held the Ten Deadly Swords in his hand, his gaze as calm as ever.

"We'll meet again in the future."

As soon as the two words were spoken, Ji Du's figure flashed and disappeared into the horizon.