Destiny is ashes

Chapter 975 Quiet (Thanks to the Thousand-Faced Chaos Big Radish for being the Alliance Leader)

Upon seeing the dragon worm, the Golden-Winged Roc let out a sharp cry, clearly indicating that it was also a beast king guarding the forbidden area.

But the Xuanming Dragon Worm was completely unaware.

As the offspring of the constellation beast 'Zhenshuiyin', it has such a powerful bloodline that it has yet to awaken any intelligence.

At this moment, it instinctively wanted to attack You Ruhui, who was stirring up the earth's veins, but because it sensed that An Jing, an extremely powerful being on the surface, was a strong threat to its life, it followed the instincts of a wild beast and prioritized attacking the most powerful threat.

Suddenly, a golden dragon crashed down from the sky, and dragon worms launched a surprise attack from the ground.

An Jing didn't care about this at all.

In An Jing's view, there are many cultivators in this world who are not cultivators at all, but just ordinary people with martial arts skills, whether they are dragons, snakes or phoenixes, without exception.

Although they cultivated various supernatural abilities through the methods created by their predecessors, they always relied on the 'principles described and summarized in the classics'.

They achieve their height by standing on the shoulders of giants; they cannot observe the world and understand the underlying principles of it on their own.

This is what distinguishes the level of an 'ordinary' martial artist from that of a 'hero'. The former merely recites from the book and rarely has their own insights, while the latter can appreciate the beauty of all things, understand the same martial arts to a deeper level, and thus possess all sorts of extraordinary supernatural powers.

If that's the case, then what distinguishes 'outstanding talents' from 'prodigies'?

An Jing believes that it is probably a kind of creative and constructive ability.

By integrating the principles perceived from the primal and wild world into the martial arts one has already mastered, a simple and orderly structure can be built, which can be continuously supplemented with subsequent principles to improve oneself.

This kind of benign spiritual structure, which can almost infinitely add legal principles and maintain its own order, can almost be said to be a prototype of a 'self-world'. It can even be said that the essence of many grotto-heavens is such a spiritual structure that can infinitely improve its internal structure and legal principles.

In martial arts descriptions, this is the key to the so-called divine treasure revealing the divine, the 'true meaning of heaven and earth'.

When the pure and beautiful true meaning of heaven and earth is accepted by the Heavenly Dao of Embracing Emptiness, it can transform the microcosm into the macrocosm and then control the laws and principles of the world.

This is the 'prodigy'.

Martial artists without this ability cannot reach the levels of 'Manifestation of Sainthood' and 'Pure Yang'!
The manifestation of divinity is the most basic unit that can determine the course of this world, while the prodigy is the seed that will surely lead to the manifestation of divinity and even higher achievements.

—And what about An Jing herself?
Faced with the incoming attacks of the Calamity Gold's 'Melting Steel Impact' and the Mysterious Nether Dragon Worm's 'Weak Water Spring', An Jing could see that both of these magical principles were extremely powerful.

The 'Principles of Forging' corresponds to a collection of hundreds, thousands, or even more techniques. These techniques can transform and destroy all things, reforging all defenses and attacks into their own power. This is the essence of the 'Way of Food' after its sublimation.

The 'Principle of Erosion' corresponds to the slow and irresistible wear and erosion that occurs over the long river of time. No one is exempt; once it hits, not only armor and weapons, but also supernatural powers and spells, will be eroded, and even lifespan and fortune will be eroded.

Both the Calamity Gold and the Mysterious Nether Dragon Worm have been thoroughly understood, with almost no flaws and are perfectly perfect.

"However, there are different levels of perfection."

An Jing raised his eyes, a hint of bloodlust flashing deep within his dark pupils: "Ying Long, since you have challenged me, then I will reward you."

"I'll also draw my sword seriously."

As he said this, he actually drew his sword.

A sword rang out, shaking heaven and earth, transforming into endless killing intent.

The sword, named Killer, was forged using the supernatural power of condensing qi into weapons. It contains the principle of killing and is a dark, blood-red blade. Originally, it was dark and dull, but it became sharp the moment it appeared.

The sword seemed to have grown longer, its blade as thin as a cicada's wing, and the light flowing across its crimson body vaguely resembled the most brutal and desolate wind on a battlefield of carnage.

The surrounding world was filled with countless chilling and murderous auras, drawn by the sword. They rose from all directions, from the past and the future, from every different location, converging on his figure and forming a huge vortex that kept swirling upwards.

At the center of the vortex of murderous intent was the increasingly dark point at the tip of the sword.

In the vast天地间, it seemed as if a star named 'Autumn and Desolation' had appeared, dripping with blood, like a dying star, dim and scarlet, with sword intent spreading.

Then, the killing intent fell like blood, silently.

【Killing Sword Technique - Somber Autumn Silence】!
The sword intent had just erupted when it surged forward like a torrent of wind, leaving a trail across the heavens and earth in an instant. From sight to hearing, to touch, and even the soul... it affected everyone present, including You Ruhui who was underground, with a trembling feeling as if a sharp divine sword was pressed against their forehead.

Once you face this sword, there is nowhere to hide, nowhere to escape, nowhere to dodge, and nowhere to avoid it!
But the dragon does not avoid it!

The Calamity roared, having already raised its strength to near the 'Spirit Sacrifice' realm. It intended to use its principles of transforming all things to transform this sword energy as well!
The Xuanming Dragon Worm behind it was even more confident. Its Netherworld Weak Water was the best at countering all magic and eroding spiritual power. It was not afraid of any sword intent at all. In the past, any sword cultivators who had challenged it had been dissolved into its Weak Water without making a sound!
So they met them head-on!
boom! ! !
The sword energy that should have been silent suddenly erupted with a deafening, clanging sound that seemed capable of shattering the soul the moment it collided with the two powerful enemies!

The sword energy that had been drawn was suddenly shattered by the transformation of the calamity metal. The originally condensed sword light instantly dissipated and turned into countless solid, drifting snowflakes.

Each snowflake, sharp as a sword, leaves a sword mark as it falls to the ground.

Huo Jin succeeded; he transformed An Jing's sword energy!
Even so, the transformed sword energy was still full of killing intent. This kind of sword intent, which even the laws of heaven and earth could not shake, was something that ninety-nine percent of the hundreds of millions of sword cultivators in the world could never hope to match in their entire lives! However, after Huo Jin transformed this sword intent, he stood there dumbfounded.

The same was true for that enormous Xuanming Dragon Worm.

Seeing his sword energy transformed, An Jing paused for a moment before regretfully sheathing the Killing Sword in his hand.

For a moment, the world was silent.

"You..." After a moment, the massive dragon head of the Calamity Gold Demon struggled to raise, and asked softly, its voice filled with confusion and resentment: "...Did you draw your sword?"

"I guess so," An Jing replied earnestly. "At least, I really want to draw my sword."

As soon as he finished speaking, Huo Jin's 'molten steel armor' constructed from the principles of true spirit, its strong wings, and even its entire Yinglong body began to crumble and disintegrate.

"What a pity..." Huo Jin left behind a final trace of regret before turning into endless ashes and fragments, scattering in the wind: "Not to mention letting you use your full strength... I didn't even get to truly see your sword..."

The Xuanming Dragon Worm also perished silently; it didn't even know it was dead until its death.

boom!
At this moment, countless bottomless sword marks suddenly appeared on the earth, densely packed and crisscrossing, directly shattering the Gobi Desert within a radius of hundreds of miles, turning it into churning clouds and mist!

Seeing all this, An Jing couldn't help but fall silent for a moment, then shook his head slightly.

Just then, a shrill scream came from deep within the earth's veins.

"maze!"

The silver dragon's horrified voice rang out: "Why are there labyrinths within the ley lines?!"

With a loud bang, he burst out of the ground, covered in wounds, most of his silver scales gone, looking utterly disheveled.

At this moment, Liu Yin was no longer the composed and calm person he had been as an elite member of the Great Wilderness Dragon Clan. His body was covered in wounds, and many parts of his flesh had been scorched black by some kind of array power. Large pieces of his indestructible dragon scales had fallen off, revealing the rolled-up flesh underneath.

Most fatally, a subtle yet tenacious force of the earth veins, like a leech clinging to his bones, was constantly draining his vital energy, making even maintaining flight incredibly difficult for him.

Just now, Liu Yin burrowed into the earth's veins, thinking he could easily capture that human woman and use her as leverage to blackmail An Jing.

But to his utter surprise, the girl's ability to manipulate the earth's veins was nothing short of divine. Coupled with some strange and unbelievable otherworldly celestial cannonballs and thunder beads, she managed to twist and fold a section of the earth's veins, turning it into a death maze with no way out.

Countless directional traps, like landmines, were activated along his inevitable path. The violent power of the earth veins bombarded him, leaving him dizzy and disoriented. Flowing Silver bumped into walls everywhere, unable to escape no matter how it charged.

In the end, the woman even began to draw upon a power that seemed to be a celestial abode, manipulating the earth's veins as if they were her own flesh and blood, in an attempt to refine him alive!
If Liu Yin hadn't acted decisively, sacrificing his own life force to forcibly tear apart a ley line node, he would probably have already become nourishment for the enemy.

"Monsters! These two humans... they're monsters!"

Liu Yin roared inwardly, no longer harboring any thoughts of fighting against him, only wanting to escape as soon as possible.

However, when the mirage dragon raised its head, its blood and soul were frozen.

Not far away in mid-air, on the back of the respectful Golden-Winged Roc, An Jing was quietly pondering. He did not deliberately exude any pressure, but his very existence gave the dragon a fear akin to that of a dragon-slaying platform.

He no longer had a sword in his hand, and the culprit had vanished without a trace.

—Damn Huo Jin, could he have run away with the base's spiritual support? No wonder I haven't been able to get any support from the base!

Liu Yin's massive body froze on the spot, cursing a hundred times in his heart. He wanted to say something, but in the end, he succumbed to his instincts, crawling on the ground like an earthworm, and said obsequiously, "Your...Your Excellency! It's all a misunderstanding, we are..."

Before he could finish speaking, he was interrupted by An Jing's somewhat impatient voice.

"When I'm thinking, you people had better keep quiet..."

He slowly raised his eyelids, his gaze falling on Liu Yin, who didn't resemble a dragon at all, as if he were looking at an insect.

"Quiet."

Indifferent, cold, calm.

The Sword of Tranquility descended without question.

All of Liu Yin's actions, thoughts, and fears came to an abrupt halt at this moment.

In the dragon's eyes, the final image was An Jing withdrawing his gaze, and... a girl with dark, golden eyes slowly rising from the earth's veins.

(End of this chapter)