23: Chapter 23 That Sword

Su Chen's mind was made up, and the three-meter-tall phantom suddenly blurred.

In the next moment, the sky above Flat Gourd Pass seemed to darken.

No, it wasn't that the sky had turned dark.

It was a figure.

A white figure as towering as a mountain.

Rising from the ground, it instantly surpassed the mountains on both sides.

The shadow it cast enveloped the entire canyon.

The hundred-meter-tall Dharma Idol descended upon the world once more.

This move consumed an extreme amount of energy, so Su Chen didn't particularly like using it.

But it was indeed strong enough, very suitable for large-scale AOE attacks.

The last time he used it was at Da San Pass to eliminate the Wang family.

However, that time, he had used a spear.

Different from last time.

This time, Su Chen's Dharma Idol was more solid, its entire body like white jade, emitting a heart-palpitating aura.

His face was still shrouded in a hazy mist, making it impossible to see clearly.

"Wha... What is this thing?"

"Look at the sky."

"Holy crap, look over at the mountain. Am I hallucinating?"

It wasn't just the remaining rebels in Flat Gourd Pass who noticed Su Chen.

There were also Guo Wenzhuo's followers who were grilling meat skewers in front of Jianging City at the foot of the mountain.

They didn't even notice the skewers in their hands falling to the ground.

For a moment, the entire world fell silent.

Guo Wenzhuo, who had been calm and composed, also changed his expression.

Even with his Spirit Transformation Realm cultivation, facing the giant sword-qi titan that Su Chen had transformed into, he felt a stinging sensation as if his soul were being annihilated.

The smugness on his face instantly turned into terror.

"Quickly, everyone, retreat!"

But it was already too late.

Su Chen's hundred-meter Dharma Idol slowly raised its arm.

Just as before.

He pressed his fingers together, forming a sword hand.

There were no fancy techniques, only the purest power.

He simply pointed his fingers downward and slashed horizontally toward the bottom of Flat Gourd Pass and the front of Jianging City.

A line extended from his fingertips.

At first, it was extremely thin, like a strand of hair.

Then, it suddenly expanded.

It transformed into a curtain of light that swept across.

Along the path of the light curtain, images quietly emerged one after another.

The moment the light curtain swept past, the rebels in Flat Gourd Pass saw the past tragedies within Jianging City.

Scenes of people exchanging children to eat, fields covered in corpses, and a living hell were branded into their minds. That was the pain this city had once endured.

The light curtain swept past silently.

There were no explosions, no loud noises.

Inside Flat Gourd Pass, those five thousand elite rebels, including thirteen Spirit Transformation Realm cultivators, were also etched into the "scroll" Su Chen had created.

They became little figures with wide-open mouths, as if their voices and faces were still there.

The light curtain continued to advance, bypassing Jianging City and sweeping toward the rebel camp below it.

Guo Wenzhuo and his subordinates saw the husband-and-wife pair of defending generals.

How they had turned into a ghost domain, how they protected each other, and how they smiled at each other and departed hand-in-hand.

And Guo Wenzhuo and the others were positioned in the painting exactly where they had been attacking Jianging City.

Their expressions of extreme terror before death formed a sharp contrast with the calm demeanor of the defending general couple.

It was as if, in a non-existent parallel space-time, they were declaring a victory that belonged solely to them.

The light curtain swept past the front of Jianging City, extended a bit further forward, and finally stopped.

A complete curtain of light slowly unfurled between the valley and the plain.

On both sides of the light curtain, the vegetation remained lush and dense, and even the birds weren't disturbed in the slightest.

Only the place where the tens of thousands of rebels had been was now empty.

Su Chen's sword not only physically obliterated the rebels' bodies.

But it also branded the tragedy that occurred in Jianging City into the hearts of everyone within a hundred-mile radius who could see the light curtain, in this special form.

On the city wall, the last note of the "Ode to Liangfu" played by Zhuge Jinyu quietly faded.

Her jade fingers trembled as she put away the guqin, gazing at the light curtain that spanned most of the horizon.

And that white figure in the distance, standing tall between heaven and earth.

Within Zhuge Jinyu's line of sight, many of Jianging City's citizens and even the garrison were kneeling and bowing toward Su Chen's direction.

They revered him as a god.

Praying for longevity, praying for their dreams to come true.

Zhuge Jinyu did not kneel with them.

She moved extremely fast, leaving an afterimage in the air.

Her target was the direction of Flat Gourd Pass.

The white figure seemed to have exhausted its strength, slowly shrinking and fading.

"Mister..."

The Female Prime Minister suddenly felt that she was very, very bad.

Mister was willing to give up his life for her.

Yet she actually held a grudge against Mister over some petty romantic feelings that couldn't be brought to light.

Love requires no reward.

Just like that pair of defending generals in Jianging City, neither of them expected anything in return from the other.

But they chose to do it anyway.

So resolute, like moths to a flame.

Zhuge Jinyu knew that her love for Mister was the same.

Since he had given everything for her, she naturally had to love him without seeking anything in return.

"Mister, Xiao Yu will definitely use every means possible to break through to the Mahayana Stage and recraft a body for you..."

From hundreds of meters away, she saw Su Chen lying on the ground, having returned to his normal size.

Seeing Su Chen's weakened state, she instead trembled and didn't dare to reach out.

Afraid to touch, but even more afraid of finding nothing there.

"Xiao Yu... I still need..."

"I understand, Mister."

The Young Prime Minister gently picked up Su Chen's soul body and took out the mirror where he "lived."

She closed her eyes and leaned down.

She kissed the spot on Su Chen's face she had targeted with great intensity.

"Mmph—!"

Zhuge Jinyu's kiss was long and lingering; it was fortunate that Su Chen's soul body didn't need to breathe.

Otherwise, in his current weakened state, it was possible he would have passed out from oxygen deprivation from the Female Prime Minister's kiss.

After a long time, their lips parted.

"Mister, this should be enough, right?"

"Enough, it's enough!"

Su Chen's soul turned into a white shadow and quickly flew back into the mirror.

"As long as it's enough..."

The Female Prime Minister smiled brightly, raising her vermilion bird feather fan to hide the flush on her face.

She really liked Su Chen's appearance when he was weakened and exhausted from overexertion.

But seeing Su Chen like that always made her heart ache.

"Cultivation, I must raise my cultivation..."

Zhuge Jinyu muttered to herself as she flew down the mountain with Su Chen's mirror.

Inside the mirror, the person and the system were already arguing up a storm.

"You damn system, you lie without even blinking. Didn't you say that sword strike would only use twenty percent of my energy? Why is twenty-five percent gone?"

"I only have forty-five percent of my energy left now!"

["Damn Host, did you not kill other enemies before striking with the sword?"]

Fine...

Makes sense.

"Then why do you always lure Xiao Yu into kissing me? It could have been done with just a touch."

["Host, are you sure you didn't enjoy it?"]

"I didn't!"

"Xiao Yu is just my investment target. Right now, I'm just a mirror."

"Swear it on failing all your final exams and hitting hard pity on every banner if you're lying?"

"..."

Actually, a beautiful girl's kiss is quite sweet. Who wouldn't like it?