Chapter 145: The River of Time

Everyone in the world knew that the legendary female sword immortal who once shook the realms had left behind seven sword techniques, commonly referred to as the Seven Swords of the Sword Immortal in Sword Immortal City.

Four of these swords remained within Sword Immortal City, gradually evolving into the city’s supreme inherited arts, while the remaining three were acquired by the Northern Demon Territory and had never since appeared in the world.

Even less known was that these seven swords had been created three thousand years ago by the Supreme Mystic Daoist.

The sword technique Shen Yu was employing at this moment was none other than the final sword of the seven:
Slaying Demons.

Among the Seven Swords, the final three possessed the greatest and most terrifying destructive power.

A violent vibration tore through the air, resembling boiling water whipped into a furious steam, as if the spiritual energy of heaven and earth had been compressed to its absolute limit.

Shen Yu took a light step forward.

To the onlookers, Shen Yu’s figure instantly dissolved into countless afterimages.

The next moment.

Innumerable fierce sword auras erupted from all directions—vast, majestic, ethereal, and devastating—and slashed directly into the bodies of the monstrous beasts.

In the eyes of the spectators, the distant landscape suddenly transformed into a brilliant painting wherein all the fiendish entities, the earth, and the trees dissolved into dust in an instant.

Like ashes left in the wake of a raging fire, they vanished without a sound.

Annihilated.

Those colossal, arrogant, giant-pincered scorpions instantly crumbled into powder, leaving behind not a single trace of flesh and blood.

The boundless sea of scorpions that had previously filled the horizon was cleanly cleaved open with a massive gap.

Before the onlookers could recover from the shock of this spectacle, they heard Shen Yu’s calm voice.

"Let's move."

A colossal mist surged forward, corroding the tide of beasts.

With Shen Yu leading the way, the other three could only hear the faint sounds of rushing air ahead.

Catching scattered glances through the chaos, they could only see colossal scorpions disintegrating without warning into fine dust, drifting down to the earth on the breeze.

As time slowly passed, the figure ahead maintained an unwavering rhythm, showing not the slightest sign of fatigue. Under these conditions, the group advanced at an astonishing speed.

Along the way, they encountered countless ancient primordial fierce beasts, every single one of which was slain by a single sword strike from Shen Yu.

As time wore on, Shen Yu’s face grew somewhat pale, yet his eyes shone with exceptional brilliance. Torrential spiritual energy flowed at a steady rate into the blade, without a single wisp leaking outward.

One person, one sword, exuded an invincible momentum capable of holding off ten thousand foes.

...

Deep within the Jade Pool, the fierce battle continued.

The group seemed to have gained the upper hand.

The Nightmare was ruthlessly suppressed to the ground by a barrage of Daoist arts and spiritual powers; each time its massive form shook and struggled violently, it caused the entire realm to tremble.

Wind and clouds churned across the sky. True Immortal Wan Jianyi of Kunlun lived up to his reputation as a top-five contender on the Lingyun Ranking, displaying immense battle prowess. With his left hand forming incantations and his right hand guiding his immortal sword, every move and stance radiated the dignified demeanor of a sacred land, majestic and grand.

Xi Jiu of Liubo Mountain rejoined the battlefield after a brief moment of breath-adjustment.

...

He Pianpian of the Jade Pool stood behind the group, her hands held as if encompassing heaven and earth. Pure streams of spiritual energy radiated from her body, flowing ceaselessly into every person present.

In truth, the reason Wan Jianyi of Kunlun could deploy such a vast array of Daoist arts and sword techniques without restraint was entirely due to the presence of He Pianpian.

To a certain extent, He Pianpian was the most crucial figure in this minor skirmish. Earlier, those from the Thousand Rivers region had gone to great lengths to trap her within the Demon-Locking Grand Array for precisely this reason.

It was a pity that Shen Yu had appeared, resolving this deadlocked predicament in a manner both simple and uncanny.

Wan Jianyi formed incantations with his left hand, and his immortal sword soared straight up into the sky.

"Guided by my sword, descend, divine lightning of the nine heavens!"

Pointing his sword toward the heavens, Wan Jianyi unleashed a thunderous roar that echoed across the entire realm.

Majestic heavenly might descended.

The immortal sword paused ten thousand feet up in the sky, absorbing countless bolts of lightning and radiating a brilliant, dazzling radiance that thinned the dark clouds above.

Everyone lingering around the perimeter of the Nightmare quickly retreated.

"Suppress!"

With a fierce shout from Wan Jianyi, his Daoist robes fluttered without wind as his sword finger abruptly swept downward, locking onto the abdomen of the Nightmare.

A brilliant radiance, seemingly capable of annihilating all things, erupted from the immortal sword, eclipsing the previous lightning.

The next moment.

The brilliance coalesced into a pillar of light, descending alongside the immortal sword directly upon the physical body of the Nightmare on the ground.

The sound of tearing muscle echoed in everyone's ears.

The pillar of light pierced clean through the body of the Nightmare and smashed into the earth.

Time seemed to freeze.

This scene resembled an ancient giant struck down by the primordial sages of the human race using the illusory arrow of the God-Shooting Bow, brimming with an archaic and primitive aura.

Wan Jianyi slowly descended to the ground, an unmasking wave of fatigue etching itself onto his face.

The gazes of all present remained locked tightly on the body of the Nightmare.

He Pianpian walked to Wan Jianyi’s side and said, "It's over."

Wan Jianyi frowned deeply and replied, "Not yet."

The Nightmare lay flat on its back, its gray-black pupils somehow revealing a trace of mocking, sarcastic amusement.

...

The Master of the Jade Pool and two elders stood together, their expressions solemn.

"Something is amiss," an elderly woman said.

"Once the soul and body of the Nightmare merge, it is impossible for it to possess merely this level of power."

The Jade Pool Master replied indifferently, "Its soul is still hidden within its body and has not yet completely taken control."

"Then what should we do?"

"Suppress it."

The Jade Pool Master resembled a blazing sun, emitting a dazzling radiance.

"Before my fellow junior uncles of the Jade Pool return, we must not let the Nightmare take even half a step out of this realm!"

"Understood!"

...

Within the demonic heart-illusion of the Nightmare, Shen Yu led the group in a continuous, relentless slaughter.

The black tide pressing from behind was still slowly advancing.

Emerging once more from a cataclysmic sea of beasts, the group paused for a brief rest atop a low hill.

Shen Yu sat cross-legged with his wooden sword, Qingqing, inverted in the earth, absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to the utmost degree.

All four of them bore moderate injuries, yet their eyes burned with extraordinary steadfastness.

Through countless broken formations and a march spanning hundreds to thousands of li, Shen Yu had uncharacteristically abandoned his initial silence, turning out to be the most proactive member of the group.

This left the others somewhat puzzled.

The young martial artist walked up to Shen Yu, a trace of confusion in his eyes, and asked, "Who knows how much longer we'll have to go before we can get out of here?"

"In the illusion of the Nightmare, trying to escape is practically a fantasy, but... there is another way."

Shen Yu said calmly, "An illusion is an illusion precisely because it confuses the human heart. The moment one awakens from it, one can leave."

The young martial artist was stunned and asked, "How does one awaken?"

Shen Yu glanced at the three behind him and smiled, "Naturally, it is exceedingly difficult. To suddenly awaken from such a grand divine ability across the long river of time requires exceptionally high innate talent and perseverance."

Xiang Caiyun wore a blank expression.

The young martial artist frowned deeply.

"The long river of time."

Pang Zhengyuan, who carried a colossal longsword on his back, grasped the crucial point and spoke up, "What does that mean?"

The black tide behind them was already on the verge of reaching their very eyes, yet Shen Yu showed no intention of moving forward at this moment.

Shen Yu extended a single finger, tracing a line through the void from left to right. "This is a segment of the long river of time, representing time itself. The ripples emerging within it are all the people and events flowing through the ages."

"The Nightmare utilized a supreme divine ability to summon the souls and obsessions of certain entities from within its illusion, fusing them anew into a unique... person."

Saying this, Shen Yu raised his head to look at the sky and smiled, "This trick is rather interesting."

"What on earth do you mean?" The young martial artist asked, his face somewhat pale.

Without turning his head, Shen Yu sighed softly and said with utter calm, "Deluded child, why won't you wake up?"