Martial Cultivator

After shattering several maple trees, the tremendous inertia still sent the young martial artist flying back hundreds of feet, but at the last moment, Chen Chao bent his waist, plunging his broken saber into the ground, preventing himself from crashing onto the ground.

The middle-aged daoist nun narrowed her eyes, fairly satisfied with the current outcome of the battle. Instead of seizing the opportunity to pursue further, she turned her gaze towards Xie Nandu. Her earlier declaration of intending to kill Xie Nandu was not just a casual remark. With a swift movement of her hand, the maple leaves falling from the sky were already coated with frost. Now, the falling maple leaves resembled flying swords, heading towards Xie Nandu. If nothing unexpected happened, Xie Nandu would be pierced by these maple leaves, meeting a fate akin to being pierced by a thousand arrows.

Xie Nandu, who had remained motionless all this while, wore an expressionless face. Only after the maple leaves attacked did the sound of a sword cry sound out beside her. Then, a flying sword abruptly appeared, cutting a bloody path through the icy landscape, and intercepting the maple leaves.

It was the flying sword First Snow that suddenly left its sheath.

Carrying a fierce sword aura, the flying sword First Snow appeared amidst the countless maple leaves, instantly shattering numerous of them.

The middle-aged daoist nun narrowed her eyes slightly, somewhat surprised. How come? Was this young girl before her a sword cultivator?

Actually, it was not entirely her fault. Many foreign cultivators already knew that this final disciple taken in by the academy's Dean was a talented sword cultivator. However, since her arrival in the Divine Capital, she had only been paying attention to Chen Chao. Thus, she had not paid attention to this matter and was unaware that Xie Nandu was also a sword cultivator.

After a moment, the middle-aged daoist nun noticed that Xie Nandu's sword qi was not particularly fierce, so she just stopped paying attention after laughing coldly.

The girl before her had not yet stepped into the Bitter Sea Realm, so she posed no threat to her.

Thus, the middle-aged daoist nun simply waited for those maple leaves to pierce through Xie Nandu's body.

However, in an instant, she heard the sound of several swords ringing out, each distinct from the other.

Several flying swords appeared amidst the falling maple leaves.

Mountain Creek, Light Rain, Desolate North, White Deer...

Xie Nandu nurtured nine flying swords, including the First Snow. Now, five of them had appeared in the world once again. In reality, it was no different from that night; five flying swords simultaneously crisscrossing among the maple leaves, forcibly resisting the middle-aged daoist nun's killing intent.

The middle-aged daoist nun's expression turned somewhat ugly, not because she found that her casual attack could not kill Xie Nandu, but because she realized that Xie Nandu actually possessed so many lifeblood flying swords.

Most sword cultivators can only nurture one flying sword, but this young girl before her possessed so many lifeblood flying swords. What this implied needed no further explanation.

The middle-aged daoist nun narrowed her eyes again, this time with a pervasive killing intent. If before, her desire to kill the girl in front of her was merely to inflict pain upon Chen Chao. Now, she wanted to kill this girl to completely snuff out a potential sword immortal. Although the foreign cultivators were of different lineages, with different sects, and different Dao teachings, there was almost a consensus among them: none wanted to see a genius cultivator emerging in the Great Liang Dynasty, as they were unwilling to see this secular dynasty's status be elevated.

As the countless maple leaves were shattered by the five flying swords, the middle-aged daoist nun was about to make her move when a brilliant saber light rose from afar. Instantly, the ground was torn open, and a several-yard-long saber beam appeared between heaven and earth, as if this saber was aimed at cleaving apart heaven and earth.

In the blink of an eye, the saber beam had reached her. The middle-aged daoist nun's expression changed slightly, and then ripples appeared before her once again. Brilliant stars exploded in front of her, forming a light curtain that firmly blocked the saber beam before her.

Just as the momentum of the saber beam was being contained and the middle-aged daoist nun was about to breathe a sigh of relief, another saber strike from Chen Chao came.

He leaped forward, arriving before the light curtain, and with a heavy saber strike, clashed once again with the light curtain. In an instant, the light curtain constructed by the middle-aged daoist nun was filled with cracks, resembling a spider web as it scattered and dispersed.

The middle-aged daoist nun frowned slightly, feeling somewhat annoyed. The young martial artist before her had already made her look bad with various tactics during their last encounter. She had thought that this time she would quickly defeat him, but she had not expected that over the past year or two, the young martial artist before her had grown considerably stronger. He now seemed to vaguely possess the ability to contend with her.

This was something the middle-aged daoist nun found hard to accept, but no matter how unacceptable it was, she had to accept it.

She waved her whisk, and killing intent surged out from the myriad silk threads.

Chen Chao looked at those threads, choosing not to evade but to directly sending out another strike. The sharp blade of his saber cut through countless strands, and the scattered strands fell on Chen Chao like a rain of blades, tearing his black shirt apart and slicing his skin open too, with tiny droplets of blood slowly seeping out.

However, despite his body being cut by the countless threads, Chen Chao eventually arrived in front of the middle-aged daoist nun.

If was the first time the middle-aged daoist nun was looking at the young martial artist whom she hated so much from such a close distance. For a moment, she was distracted.

However, soon after she snapped back to reality, she quickly formed hand seals, conjuring a water ball out of thin air. Yet, before this water ball could be launched, Chen Chao had already punched toward it.

Struck by the force of a martial artist's overwhelming strength, the water ball instantly exploded, its scattering droplets piercing through numerous maple tree trunks like sharp swords.

Luckily, those scholars and poets were not present.. If they knew about today's battle, that most of the maple trees on the mountain would be destroyed, preventing them from enjoying the scenery in autumn, it was likely that the middle-aged daoist nun would have been written to death countless times by their brush pens. However, Chen Chao who was equally culpable would probably not be spared either.

As Chen Chao shattered the water sphere, his fist's momentum remained undiminished as he directly smashed toward the chest of the middle-aged daoist nun.

The middle-aged daoist nun's expression changed drastically, and in an instant, she spat out a mouthful of blood, and then she was sent flying backward like a kite with a broken string.

Chen Chao did not give the middle-aged daoist nun any chance to react, charging out directly, like a fierce tiger descending from the mountain; unstoppable.

However, as he rushed forward, he suddenly caught a glimpse of ridicule in the middle-aged daoist nun's eyes.

At the same time, the debris behind Chen Chao converged once again, as if a giant stone figure suddenly rose from the ground, standing behind Chen Chao. With a heavy punch, the colossal stone figure struck at Chen Chao's back. The force behind the punch was immense, if it truly hit Chen Chao, he might have perished then and there. However, moments later, that punch failed to land.

The middle-aged daoist nun's eyes were filled with anger.

At this moment, a flying sword suddenly appeared out of nowhere in front of the colossal stone figure's fist. With its blade, it forcefully withstood the punch.

The sword's body bent instantly, resembling a crescent moon, emitting a mournful cry. Xie Nandu's complexion also turned ashen white at the same time. The young sword cultivator furrowed her brows, her whole body was trembling uncontrollably.

The other five flying swords were still in the sky, entwined with the maple leaves. What appeared now was the sixth flying sword. This flying sword was a pale azure color, resembling a landscape painting.

Xie Nandu named this flying sword Heavenly Azure, and the reason behind it was self-evident.[1.]

As the stone figure exerted pressure once again, the bending of the flying sword became even greater.

Blood began to trickle from the corner of Xie Nandu's mouth. With her current cultivation level, trying to directly withstand the middle-aged daoist nun's attack was simply unrealistic, but she had no other choice now.

With Xie Nandu's flying sword helping Chen Chao through the most critical blow, Chen Chao had once again arrived in front of the middle-aged daoist nun. His broken saber swiftly descended, while the middle-aged daoist nun shot backward once more. As a Great Beyond Realm cultivator, if she were truly split in half by Chen Chao's blade, she would likely become a subject of mockery long after her death.

In the end, Chen Chao's strike only tore through the middle-aged daoist nun's clothes, and finally landed heavily on the icy surface of the ground.

But even so, Chen Chao had no intention of letting the middle-aged daoist nun in front of him off the hook. After battling to this point, he finally closed the distance and had the best opportunity to kill the middle-aged daoist nun before him. Chen Chao would not choose to give up.

Borrowing the moment, he swung his arm around and then hurled the broken saber in his hand directly toward the middle-aged daoist nun's chest at an astonishing speed.

But at this moment, the flying sword behind him could no longer hold on, being smashed into a deep pit by the colossal stone figure. Then, with a heavy step, the stone figure stomped on the flying sword again, causing Xie Nandu over there to instantly fall to the ground.

However, just as the stone figure took a big step forward, another flying sword shot towards it.

Among Xie Nandu's nine flying swords, there was one she favored the most, the one she had spent the most time nurturing with the utmost care. This flying sword was named Sweet Potato.

Now, it finally came into being!

The flying sword Sweet Potato, carrying a fierce sword aura, directly flew towards the head of the stone figure.

As the flying sword was about to approach, the stone figure suddenly turned around and delivered a heavy punch toward the flying sword.

However, as the punch came down, the flying sword Sweet Potato abruptly halted in midair, then swerved out at a sufficiently bizarre angle, evading this punch.

The stone figure that failed to land its punch did not dwell on it. Instead, after casting a glance at Xie Nandu, it decided to abandon Chen Chao and strode toward Xie Nandu in large strides.

It was controlled by the will of the middle-aged daoist nun, so now, it was the middle-aged daoist nun who was set on killing Xie Nandu.

This also sent a message to Chen Chao, presenting him with a choice: whether to choose Xie Nandu or to insist on killing her at this moment.

Chen Chao furrowed his brows slightly, feeling somewhat dissatisfied, even a bit angry.

He had long grown tired of making choices.

However, soon after, a voice sounded in his mind, "15 minutes."

It was a calm voice, indicating that the owner of the voice was very confident at this moment.