Chapter 543 — Riding the Tiger

Abruptly, Sang Wan seemed to sense something and halted. Ahead, the demoness also sensed the peril and stopped at once. Separated by a mountain—not tall, yet steep—the two women each summoned their divine abilities, almost simultaneously unleashing them upon the ridge opposite.

Their ferocious powers clashed through the mountain, colliding deep within its body. After a brief stillness, the mountain suddenly collapsed, dust and smoke spreading like mist.

Within the haze, the runes and sigils began to crumble and disintegrate, scattering into motes of bright light like bursting fireworks. Neither woman could see the other; each whirled through the sparks, sword-pellets and saber-orbs flying from their sleeves, swirling around their graceful bodies like fireflies, tiny flying swords and curved blades dancing among their skirts.

Sang Wan had learned swordsmanship under her father, the Venerable Deity Sang Ye, while the demoness opposite was a disciple of the Demon Saber Fuluotuo, cultivating the way of the blade.

In what seemed an instant, they touched, like two butterflies in fireworks tangling and drifting. Saber-orbs and sword-pellets spun with chiming rings as tiny blades and swords collided, bursting forth strings of sparks.

"The swordsmanship of the Venerable Deity Sang Ye—you are Sang Wan!"

"The saber technique of the Demon Saber Fuluotuo—you are Bi Yi!"

The two women immediately recognized each other's swordsmanship and saber technique. Amid flashing blade-light and sword-shadows, two girls graceful as startled swans erupted with divine power at close range. Saber-light passed through the divine abilities; sword-light grazed their hair. The rolling saber-orbs and sword-pellets burst with brilliant radiance, illuminating their eyes, illuminating each other.

Though their bodies appeared slender and delicate, they harbored strength that even surpassed Shen Mu's. In the instant they saw each other, before their minds could react, their bodies had already responded—palms, elbows, shoulders, legs, knees attacking in a furious storm!

Both women grunted, each taking hits, tumbling out of the fireworks like burlap sacks rolling down a hillside, bouncing and rolling for six or seven li before finally coming to a stop.

The moment they halted, the sword-pellets and saber-orbs they had sent against each other arrived overhead. Swords and blades rained down, and in an instant hundreds of curved blades and flying swords poured from the pellets and orbs.

Rolling and tumbling, Sang Wan pulled the bow from her back, somersaulting like a wildcat—with each revolution, over a dozen arrows flew. Thirteen li opposite, Bi Yi likewise drew her demon bow and returned fire.

Behind them, blade-light and sword-light continued to fall without cease.

They circled a mountain peak, fighting across the ridge. Bowstrings thrummed, clear and sharp notes carrying across, and the peak was instantly perforated with a dozen holes.

They sprinted at top speed, dodging each other's arrows and blades. Suddenly Sang Wan spotted the massive axe-spear—they had fought their way back to where axe and spear crossed.

One woman ran up the great axe, the other leaped onto the black spear, each serpentining upward while attacking the other. When they reached the summits of the two divine weapons, they suddenly plummeted like meteors, each unleashing vicious strikes in midair.

"Aah—"

A scream rang out. Sang Wan hurried to look—Bi Yi had fallen into the trap she had left here earlier and immediately triggered the sword-pellet formation she had laid!

As the sole surviving child of the Venerable Deity Sang Ye, Sang Wan had whatever she wanted. She could not refine sword-pellets like Shen Mu's, but the sword-pellets on her person were by no means few.

She arranged seven of her sword-pellets into her Seven Stars Sword Diagram—a sword diagram of the Taihuang Heaven. The divine ability practitioners of Taihuang Heaven were too lazy to cultivate the arts of calculation, so they adopted the simplest, most straightforward method: copying the sword diagrams left by their ancestors and refining treasures according to those diagrams, saving time that could be spent on cultivation.

The Seven Stars Sword Diagram was one of these.

The Seven Stars Sword Diagram was not complex; many practitioners rigidly copied the formation diagram, and its power was not great. But with the added might of seven sword-pellets, it became something formidable indeed.

In a life-or-death struggle, even being delayed a moment could decide life and death—let alone more.

Without hesitation, Sang Wan drew her bow and loosed—swish, swish, swish—countless arrow-lights shot into the sword diagram. Bi Yi parried left and right, desperately blocking the attacks, but the next moment Sang Wan's sword-pellets shrieked forth, the flying swords within linking into a single line. The first flying sword pierced her brow; the second followed close behind, passing through her brow in succession; several hundred sword-lights flew out from the back of her head.

Bi Yi's body went rigid, then was submerged by the countless flying swords bursting from the Seven Stars Sword Diagram.

"I won?"

Sang Wan was momentarily stunned, then her confidence surged. She gathered up the Seven Stars Sword Diagram and the sword-pellets, left the place where axe and spear crossed, and searched everywhere for her opponent.

Outside the sand-table world, the Venerable Deity Sang Ye was drenched in sweat. He was a deity, his eyes sharp and experienced, and he could naturally see that his daughter's victory over Bi Yi was mere luck.

After surviving the massacre of her clan, though Sang Wan had recently cultivated diligently and endured many life-and-death battles, charging at the front, she was still a notch below a battle-hardened demon expert like Bi Yi. In the tempering of life and death, she was far inferior.

Defeating Bi Yi was already a stroke of luck, but one could not rely on luck every time. If she encountered another demon expert, would his last remaining kin be buried before his very eyes?

Suddenly, the Venerable Deity Sang Ye started slightly and surveyed the entire sand-table world.

In the sand-table world, several more battles had concluded. The number of demon experts had plummeted, leaving only two: Zhe Huali, disciple of Furi Luo, and Jiang Yi, another disciple of the True Demon Sumo.

Among the young experts of Taihuang Heaven, four remained: Shen Mu, Yu He, Sang Wan, and Shu You. Others had either perished together with their opponents, or been slain by the two great experts Yu He and Shu You with overwhelming force.

Of course, more had been killed by that grain-threshing Shen Mu.

It was precisely because Shen Mu had killed three demon experts in succession that the practitioners of Taihuang Heaven held the numerical advantage.

Jiang Yi's strength was extremely high, but he had fought his opponent head-on and suffered severe injuries; his remaining combat power was not great. Perhaps this would be Sang Wan's chance to survive.

"However, Yu He and Shu You, those two great experts, are also injured…"

The Venerable Deity Sang Ye's heart clenched again as he watched his daughter head straight toward the blacksmith boy.

At the edge of the sand-table world, Zhe Huali carried his demon saber on his back like an ascetic, walking forward step by step. He employed no divine ability; his speed was not fast. His footsteps seemed measured precisely with a ruler—each step he took was exactly the same length, not a fraction longer or shorter.

This was the discipline of his saber technique.

Demon experts were often wild and unrestrained, their moves wide and grand, unconstrained by trifles, sometimes erupting with terrifying combat power in an instant.