608: Chapter 608

A violent wind from the Heavenly Abyss whipped against their faces.

Ahead of the True Road, the man carrying a broken sword stood atop the canopy of the World Tree, his broken sword held horizontally, his Sword Intent suppressing half of the black tide.

You Chen.

It could only be You Chen.

Qin Yun did not know how far that young man, whose brilliance had outshone everyone else when they parted years ago, had eventually come.

But the sword strike before him had already provided the answer.

Qin Yun did not make a sound.

Now was not the time for a reunion.

You Chen was using his sword to protect the road.

The crisis ahead of the True Road remained unresolved.

Moreover, Qin Yun was not certain how much memory or how much of his true self this person who had stood up again still retained.

Gu Zhan stood nearby and whispered, "That person's sword shares the same origin as yours."

Chen Yang also glanced at Qin Yun. "Brother Yun, do you recognize him?"

Qin Yun did not answer.

His gaze remained fixed on You Chen.

Qin Yun suppressed the turmoil in his heart and looked up toward the depths of the false road.

The false road that Ji Wuchen had pried open had completely revealed its true nature as a seal.

Broken chains were embedded in the road surface.

Blood-colored prohibition marks lit up and shattered one by one.

That was not an Opportunity.

It was one of the chains suppressing an ancient disaster.

Now that the chain had been broken, the black tide was continuously pouring out from the crack.

What was even more troublesome was that the Fallen Beings were no longer attacking the surrounding Cultivators.

They all bypassed the crowd, bypassed the Pseudo-Immortals, and bypassed the defensive line in front, pressing only toward the True Road.

Their goal was exceptionally clear.

If the True Road were to be polluted, the consequences would not just be a catastrophe for the Nine Great Heavenly Continents.

The area behind that road would also be seized by the weirdness.

The Immortal Path would become a path of weirdness.

You Chen was clearly more aware of this than anyone else.

The World Tree sapling had taken root at the edge of the Heavenly Abyss, its tiny roots piercing into the Void Realm and the cracks of the abyss.

Its branches and leaves covered the entrance to the True Road.

It was not merely defending; it was stabilizing the road itself.

You Chen stood atop the canopy, and with every sword strike that fell, he hacked back a portion of the incoming black tide.

But the commotion from the depths of the false road was growing increasingly heavy.

Below the Heavenly Abyss, a heavy ripple surged up once again.

The black tide parted automatically.

The Fallen Beings retreated to both sides as if kneeling.

That filthy hand reached out once again from the deepest part of the false road.

This time, it was clearer than before.

Black, ominous aura dripped from its fingertips, and broken prohibition runes floated within its palm lines.

It did not reach for the crowd.

It pressed directly toward the True Road.

You Chen raised his sword.

The first sword strike slashed open the black tide.

The black tide was split in two, and large swathes of the ominous aura shattered into ash amidst the Sword Intent.

The second sword strike stabilized the cracks in the True Road.

The World Tree sapling trembled slightly, a layer of cyan-gold radiance lighting up upon its branches and leaves, forcefully pushing back the pollution at the edge of the Immortal Path.

The third sword strike slashed directly at that hand.

The broken sword fell.

The sword light spanned across the Heavenly Abyss.

The hand paused for an instant.

It was only for an instant.

The next moment, it continued forward.

You Chen's broken sword sank slightly, and the canopy was pressed down, bending a section.

Gu Zhan's expression changed.

"Its power is stronger than before."

Chen Yang gritted his teeth. "This thing is taking advantage of the damage to the false road to touch the threshold of an Immortal."

Qin Yun also saw it.

That was not complete Immortal Ascension.

But that sliver of contact was already enough to crush the current situation.

You Chen had originally thought that within this world, that Emperor would be heavily restricted.

But reality was not so.

It was using the damage to the prohibition to reach out with a wisp of higher-level power.

If it were allowed to approach the True Road, the consequences would be worse than the pollution of the black tide.

You Chen did not retreat.

The broken sword in his hand was raised again.

The World Tree sapling was also forcibly urged by him at this moment.

The originally tender sapling suddenly sublimated.

Its branches and leaves transformed into the phantom of a sky-covering divine tree, and its roots pierced through the cracks of the Heavenly Abyss and the entrance of the True Road, as if it had turned itself into an anchor for this road.

At this moment, the True Road finally stabilized.

You Chen used his broken sword as a guide and the World Tree as a Foundation to strike a sword toward the depths of the false road.

This sword strike was not to kill the enemy.

It was to sever the road.

He wanted to sever the wisp of connection that had just been established between the Emperor and the True Road.

The sword light fell.

The filthy hand was knocked aside by the strike.

The black tide rolled back.

The phantom of the World Tree shook violently, and specks of light constantly fell from its leaves.

You Chen had blocked it for an instant.

But it was only for an instant.

The hand pressed down again.

The World Tree was ultimately too young.

You Chen was not at his peak either.

He could block, but he could not block everything.

Just as that hand was about to touch the edge of the True Road again, the azure pagoda in Qin Yun's Sea of Consciousness suddenly vibrated violently.

It was not an ordinary resonance.

It was the suppression instinct being completely activated.

The next moment, the azure pagoda flew out on its own.

Azure light pressed across the Heavenly Abyss.

It did not wait for Qin Yun to urge it, rushing directly toward the filthy hand.

Boom!

The azure pagoda fell.

The black tide in the depths of the false road was forcibly pushed back a section.

That hand was also suppressed in mid-air.

The speed of the pollution in front of the True Road immediately slowed down.

The people around held their breath for a moment.

"What kind of tower is that?"

"It can actually suppress that thing?"

"What is this person's background?"

Qin Yun ignored those voices.

He stared at the azure pagoda.

The azure pagoda was very strong.

But it was not enough.

The main tower was incomplete, the branch towers had not returned, and facing that Emperor, it ultimately could not seal it completely.

As expected.

At the final moment of being suppressed by the azure pagoda, the fingertips of that hand still touched the edge of the True Road.

Just once.

But the entire world seemed to sink.

In the depths of the false road, the outline of a blurry body began to condense.

Originally, it only had will, the black tide, and the filthy hand.

Now, it had the prototype of a body.

That was not a normal Physical Body.

It was the prototype of an Immortal body.

Gu Zhan's chest heaved, and his eyes turned completely cold.

"We cannot let it take shape."

If the Emperor used the Karma of the True Road to condense a true Immortal body, the azure pagoda would not be able to suppress it, the World Tree would not be able to hold it, and even if everyone in the Nine Great Heavenly Continents joined forces, they might not be able to stop it.

You Chen was the first to move.

He stood atop the canopy of the World Tree, his broken sword held horizontally.

The sword's name, Sever Self.

This sword strike did not sever the Physical Body.

It did not sever the will.

It severed the Karmic connection that had just been established between the Emperor and the True Road.

The sword light fell.

The prototype of the Emperor's Immortal body swayed.

The fingers blurred.

The arm also faded by a section.

The pressure of the azure pagoda's suppression was alleviated accordingly.

The pollution at the edge of the True Road was shaved off a portion.

But it was still not enough.

You Chen's sword strike was extremely lethal, but what it had to sever was not ordinary Karma.

It was the root cause between the Emperor and the Immortal Path.

The sword could shake it, but it could not cut it off completely.

That crucial line was still there.

The Immortal body was still condensing.

Qin Yun finally stepped forward half a step.

Star Heavy Pupils, open.

In his eyes, the world was no longer the world.

But rather, lines of crisscrossing Karma.

There were too many lines between the Emperor and the True Road.

Void lines, false lines, pollution lines, all intertwined together, densely shocking.

If he relied only on randomly slashing with Sword Intent, he might not be able to hit the critical spot even after a hundred strikes.

There was only one true vital point.

It extended from the fingertips where the Emperor touched the True Road and pierced into the edge of the Immortal Path.

As long as this line was not broken, the Immortal body would continue to condense.

Qin Yun raised his hand.

The Python Sparrow Swallowing Dragon Record circulated.

This time, it was not to swallow luck.

But to use the understanding of fate, Karma, plunder, and counter-measures within it to lock onto that crucial Karmic line.

Heart Heavy Pupils fixed the point.

The void book laid out the momentum.

The Chaos Body served as the furnace.

The Sword Scripture served as the bones.

Qin Yun pressed his fingers together to form a sword.

The Sword Intent arose from within himself.

You Chen's sword focused more on lethality.

And this sword strike of Qin Yun's was purer.

It only severed Karma.

"Sever Self."

The sword was unleashed.

This sword strike had no grand momentum.

Nor did it have dazzling brilliance.

It was just a line so thin it was almost invisible, passing through the black tide, crossing the suppression of the azure pagoda, brushing past the branches and leaves of the World Tree, and landing precisely on that crucial Karma.

Crack.

In that instant, the prototype of the Emperor's Immortal body suddenly stalled.

The fingertips collapsed first.

Then the arm.

Then the outline of the chest.

Finally, the entire prototype of the Immortal body, which was about to solidify, collapsed back into the filthy black tide.

The azure light of the azure pagoda flared brightly.

Taking advantage of the moment the Immortal body collapsed, it pushed that will in the depths of the false road back down.

The World Tree sapling also retracted its roots, and its branches and leaves covered the True Road again, blocking the last wisp of pollution at the edge.

The True Road was not occupied.

The situation was temporarily stabilized.

The crowd had not yet recovered from this drastic change.

You Chen did not look at the false road first.

He turned his head abruptly.

The broken sword in his hand trembled slightly.

The World Tree sapling also swayed along with it.

He was looking.

Looking for the source of that sword strike just now.

That sword strike was too familiar.

Familiar to the point of being carved into his bones.

Yet it was also too strange.

He could only vibrate.

He could only search eagerly.

You Chen's gaze passed through the broken Heavenly Abyss, through the crowd, and finally landed on Qin Yun.

The two looked at each other from across the distance.