323: The Sword Saint has arrived! Sword Twenty-Three, capable of destroying heaven and earth!

After Frost of the Qin received his orders and departed, the World Society continued to operate as usual. Lu Jiuyuan remained high up in the Number One Tower Under Heaven, rarely showing his face, but his prestige, like an invisible net, enveloped the entire main altar.

This day, the sky was clear and bright, yet an incomparably sharp Sword Intent, as if capable of piercing the firmament, swept in from the distant horizon without any warning!

This Sword Intent was pure, vast, carrying a sense of lofty isolation and loneliness accumulated over years. Wherever it passed, clouds parted on their own, and birds plummeted to the ground in fright.

Everyone in the World Society's main altar who wore a sword felt their longswords in their scabbards hum and tremble uneasily, as if in worship, yet also in fear!

"Om—!"

A clear and prolonged sword cry, not from any physical longsword, but from the Sword Intent itself, condensed from the pervading heavens and earth, resounding in everyone's heart!

"Sword Saint! It's Sword Saint Dugu Jian!"

"He's here! The Sword Saint has come to challenge the Chief!"

The World Society immediately erupted in an uproar, countless members showing expressions of horror, rushing to the plaza, looking in the direction from which the Sword Intent came.

A figure in grey robes was seen slowly approaching, his face gaunt, his eyes indifferent, his long hair dishevelled, his steps faltering.

Aged, yet sharp!

It was Dugu Jian, the guardian deity of Peerless City, known as the "Sword Saint"!

He was too old, so old that he no longer had the strength to even climb the steps of the Number One Tower Under Heaven!

"Overlord, I have come for you. This sword, are you ready for it?"

Sword Saint Dugu Jian's voice was not loud, even carrying a hint of hoarseness from approaching death, devoid of any Internal Energy, but Lu Jiuyuan in the Number One Tower Under Heaven heard it clearly.

"Sword Saint, please draw your sword. Lu has been waiting for a long time!"

The Sword Saint nodded. He was too old, so old that it seemed a gust of wind could blow him over, and even ascending the long stone steps of the Number One Tower Under Heaven seemed incredibly difficult.

His steps faltered, each step seemingly consuming all his strength, leaving a damp, sweaty footprint on the stone steps.

However, the Sword Intent emanating from him, as he painstakingly climbed, not only did not weaken but became even purer, more condensed, and more terrifying!

It was an ultimate "Annihilation" that had abandoned all vitality, existing solely for one final strike!

The sky above him twisted, and the light around him dimmed. A sharp, sword-like phantom emerged from his old body.

The stone steps he walked on seemed to have been stripped of all color and vitality, becoming grey and lifeless.

The wind stopped, the clouds stalled, and even the heartbeats and breaths of countless people in the plaza below seemed to be choked by an invisible hand!

A power beyond ordinary comprehension erupted from the Sword Saint's aged body as its center!

Destroying Heaven and Earth! Sword Twenty-Three!

As this sword emerged, space seemed to freeze!

Wherever it passed, several elite members of the World Society maintained expressions of surprise, but their movements were completely fixed, like mosquitoes in amber.

Falling dust hung in mid-air, motionless. Light twisted, colors faded, and all things returned to stillness!

In this Domain enveloped by the Law of Sword Twenty-Three, only the Sword Saint's Primordial Spirit, elevated to its peak, and his sword representing the end, were the only "realities" that could move!

This was the Sword of Primordial Spirit! Destroying Heaven and Earth Sword Twenty-Three!

Before this sword, any defense, any evasion, lost all meaning.

The Sword Saint's Primordial Spirit was emotionless, his eyes fixed only on Lu Jiuyuan, only on this strongest sword of his martial Dao career's final moment, and now, it seemed, his strongest opponent.

He firmly believed that under this sword, all beings were equal, all returning to annihilation!

"Om—!"

A low hum, not from the ear, but from the depths of the Soul, abruptly sounded!

A majestic aura, no less inferior to the annihilating Sword Intent of Sword Twenty-Three, even more vast, more majestic, and more tyrannical, like an ancient behemoth that had slumbered for eons, awakened from within him!

"Dharma Aspect, open!"

Lu Jiuyuan silently chanted in his heart. Facing this Primordial Spirit sword that froze time and space, he finally used his strongest trump card!

"Rumble—!"

Not a real sound, but merely a concretization.

A magnificent and majestic crimson-gold Emperor phantom, whose grandeur could not be described in words, rose up behind Lu Jiuyuan!

This Dharma Aspect wore a flat Heaven-piercing crown, with dangling beaded fringes obscuring his face, only golden-red flames burning where his eyes should be.

A Dragon and Phoenix divine sword hung at his waist, and he wore an imperial robe adorned with nine Dragons, upon which patterns of the sun, moon, stars, mountains, and rivers flowed ceaselessly, as if bearing the rise and fall of a world!

To the left of the Dharma Aspect, a white Dragon coiled; to its right, a fiery Phoenix encircled.

Controlling water and fire, treading on golden lotuses!

Supreme Dharma Body!

As this Dharma Aspect appeared, the time and space forcibly solidified by Sword Twenty-Three actually emitted a "crackle, crackle" wail, unable to bear the strain!

Fine cracks began to appear in the solidified space, the frozen light began to flow again, and the World Society members below, who had been fixed in place, though still moving as slowly as snails, were no longer in absolute stillness!

The Sword Saint's invincible Primordial Spirit sword, which regarded time and space as nothing, plummeted in speed the instant it entered the Supreme Dharma Body's enveloped range!

It was as if it had fallen into an boundless, infinitely heavy amber, each inch of progress requiring unimaginable power and encountering all-encompassing resistance and repulsion from the entire "Dharma Aspect Domain"!

"What a Dharma Aspect! To think such a martial art exists in the world, such a grand ambition to change heaven and earth and suppress the universe!" The Sword Saint, whose Primordial Spirit had transformed into a sword, also exclaimed in awe.

With this sword, his lifelong Sword Intent had sublimated, leaving no regrets. To encounter power of an equivalent level brought him even greater joy; his Dao was not alone!

"What excellent swordsmanship! This swordsmanship will belong to Lu from now on!"

The Dharma Aspect spoke, and its words became Law.

It did not directly attack the slowly approaching annihilating sword Qi, but instead raised its empty, symbolic "authority" arm, and remotely clenched its hand towards the Sword Saint's Primordial Spirit.

"Om—!"

It was not a head-on destruction, but a higher-level "inclusion" and "dissolution."

The Sword Saint felt as if his Primordial Spirit sword had pierced into an boundless, yet all-encompassing Chaos.

The annihilating Sword Intent, capable of destroying heaven and earth, upon touching that empty hand, actually began to rapidly melt and decompose like ice and snow thrown into a furnace!

It was not defeated, but "understood," "absorbed," and "assimilated"!

The Sword Saint's Primordial Spirit fluctuated violently, revealing an unprecedented look of shock.

He felt that the ultimate sword Dao he had pursued his entire life, the final radiance he had unleashed by burning everything, was being "read" and "analyzed" by the opponent in a way he could not comprehend!

"No! This is my sword! A unique sword!"

The Sword Saint's Primordial Spirit let out a silent roar, and his Sword Intent surged again, attempting to break free from the embrace of the Chaos.