Volume Two: Travels in the State of Qi Chapter 167: Earth-shattering Battle

Dugu Bai flicked his wrist slightly, and the long cloth wrapped around his sword automatically uncoiled. The divine sword emerged into the world carrying an aura of peerless arrogance, sending an invisible, suffocating pressure washing over the entire space.

Holding the sword, Dugu Bai stood proudly, looking down at the Demon Lord with chilling indifference.

"Speak. How did you escape? Tell this Saint, and I can grant you a swift death."

Faced with a terrifying Demon powerhouse from sixty thousand years ago who possessed the power to destroy heaven and earth, even the peerless Sword Saint Dugu Bai had to treat him with utmost gravity, drawing his divine sword right from the start.

"Heh, a human powerhouse. Not bad, not bad, what a magnificent aura. Even in the era of proud prodigies sixty thousand years ago, you would still hold a prominent rank. Right now, my power has not yet recovered to its peak, so I truly might not be your match." Sensing Dugu Bai's aura, the Demon Lord could not help but offer words of praise.

"However, I come and go as I please in this realm. You cannot keep me here."

True to his title as the Sword Saint, Dugu Bai's aura alone had forced the Demon Lord to lower his posture.

"You may try." Dugu Bai's voice remained cold.

"Hahahaha! I haven't stretched my bones in tens of thousands of years. To think I would encounter such a powerhouse the moment I emerged into this world. I shall use you to test whether the human cultivators of this continent have made any progress after sixty thousand years!"

With that, the Demon Lord shook Ye Wuji's robes, and a towering demonic energy instantly flooded the space. The chilling, oppressive aura of the abyss surged forward, displaying supreme demonic might.

Seeing this, Dugu Bai let out a cold snort. The sword in his hand erupted with endless sword radiance, forming a barrier that protected everyone and blocked the demonic energy outside.

The demonic energy and the sword radiance stood evenly matched, each claiming half of the space.

After so much time, this Demon Lord had likely recovered nearly eighty percent of his strength—truly a terrifying prospect.

While Sword Saint Dugu Bai's strength could easily rank within the top ten of the entire Immortal Ascension Continent, he still could not gain the upper hand against a Demon Lord possessing only eighty percent of his power. It was no wonder that sixty thousand years ago, the Demon race had nearly destroyed this continent.

"Human powerhouse. This Saint is in a wonderful mood right now. How about we play a game?" Standing amidst the boundless demonic energy, the Demon Lord spoke casually, yet his voice carried a chilling, sinister undertone.

"What kind of game do you propose?" Dugu Bai stared coldly at the Demon Lord.

"How about..."

Before the Demon Lord could finish, he was interrupted by Zhang Heng, who was hiding behind the crowd.

Zhang Heng glanced at the Demon Lord and said indifferently, "Senior Sword Saint, that ghost has too much nonsense to spout. It's annoying me. Just make your move."

For some reason, the Demon Lord's recovery rate was accelerating, and Zhang Heng could feel his strength continuously rising. If he were allowed to recover any further, even Dugu Bai might truly find him unmanageable.

Though Dugu Bai's swordsmanship was formidable, he had only just stepped into the Tribulation Crossing realm, leaving a gap in realm compared to those peak Saint Lords.

As soon as Zhang Heng spoke, the ordinary cultivators turned pale with fright, cursing him furiously in their hearts.

You absolute moron! Wanting to act cool is understandable, but you should only do it in front of those ordinary Tianyuan powerhouses.

Now, the one standing before us is none other than Senior Sword Saint, the number one swordsman of the Immortal Ascension Continent!

Senior Sword Saint is conversing with the Demon Lord, yet a mere Qi Sea realm cultivator like you dares to interrupt? What if Senior Sword Saint gets annoyed and abandons us? What are we supposed to do then?

Even the Demon Lord flew into a rage. "Human brat, if you dare utter another word of nonsense, I will devour you first!"

However, to his utter astonishment, the human powerhouse, upon hearing the boy's words, discarded all hesitation and directly launched an attack.

The crowd no longer had the mental capacity to ponder why Dugu Bai obeyed Zhang Heng.

The battle between the peerless Sword Saint and the Demon Lord had officially begun.

Dugu Bai gripped his sword, his figure flashing as he charged straight toward the Demon Lord. His body seemed to tear through space itself, and in the blink of an eye, he appeared right before the Demon Lord, thrusting his sword forward with the ultimate essence of swordsmanship.

The Demon Lord had not expected this human powerhouse to be so volatile, and he hurriedly summoned the surrounding demonic energy to defend himself.

The divine sword slashed into the black barrier formed by the Demon Lord, instantly kicking up earth-shattering shockwaves.

Zhang Heng and the others were standing a great distance away from the Demon Lord.

Yet, the shockwave generated by the collision swept all the low-level cultivators flying, and even the older generation of powerhouses had to channel their spiritual energy to protect their bodies just to stand their ground.

Seeing Mu Wanqing being blown backward, Zhang Heng hurriedly reached out and grabbed her.

Was this what a duel between peak powerhouses looked like? Truly astounding! Zhang Heng kept his eyes locked firmly on the direction of the Sword Saint and the Demon Lord.

The sword qi failed to pierce the Demon Lord's protective barrier, merely forcing him back two steps. Dugu Bai gave the Demon Lord no time to react, raising his sword to charge again.

The Demon Lord was also enraged. As a peerless powerhouse from sixty thousand years ago, he naturally refused to be relentlessly pressured by a junior like this.

With a chant of incantation, the surrounding demonic energy converged before him, forming a massive black sword. The Demon Lord grasped the hilt, and rolling demonic might swept outward.

At that moment, Dugu Bai closed in once more.

The Demon Lord immediately raised his blade to parry.

The collision of the two swords produced a cataclysmic shockwave, forcing even someone as powerful as Dugu Bai to retreat.

"You are strong." Stabilizing his figure as he drifted back into the air, the Demon Lord coldly spat out those three words.

Dugu Bai ignored him, for he too had noticed that the Demon Lord's strength was steadily climbing.

"I suppose I shall get serious now." The Demon Lord laughed proudly. At this moment, his cultivation had recovered to ninety percent, and the return of such formidable strength gave him incomparable self-confidence.

On the other side, Dugu Bai hovered in mid-air, his long sword shifting constantly in front of him as his aura steadily rose.

Witnessing this scene, the knowledgeable Tianyuan powerhouses hurriedly drove all the juniors far away.

Emperor Qi spoke with a stern expression, "All of you, get as far back as you can. Senior Sword Saint is about to get serious."

With such earth-shattering attacks, his magnificent iron fortress would likely be blasted to pieces. Thinking of the immense mental and physical effort required to build that fortress, Emperor Qi's heart was bleeding.

"The sword follows the mind. Ten thousand swords return to the sect."

With those words spoken.

The formless sword qi surrounding Dugu Bai transformed into tangible entities. In the blink of an eye, tens of thousands of sword shadows materialized, carrying a pressure capable of destroying the heavens and the earth.

Zhang Heng had seen this move before; it was the exact technique Dugu Bai had used when enduring his fifth heavenly tribulation in the Dragon Burial Abyss.

The Demon Lord and Dugu Bai gazed at each other across the void, both wearing cold expressions.

"Senior, you can do it!"

"Senior Sword Saint, smash him to pieces!"

The low-level cultivators shouted ceaselessly to cheer Dugu Bai on.

In the next instant, the lethal techniques of both combatants suddenly materialized, hurtling toward one another at extreme speeds.

The two attacks collided in mid-air.

Just as Emperor Qi had predicted, an apocalyptic pressure abruptly materialized, tearing the very space they occupied to shreds.

The grand iron fortress, forged by the Qi Imperial Family over tens of millions of years through countless human and financial resources, proved unable to withstand the aftermath and shattered completely!

Endless shockwaves swept across the land, and everyone exerted every ounce of their strength, funneling their spiritual energy into defense.

Yet, even Zhang Heng—protected by Dugu Bai's protective heart-sword—could not withstand it and was swept far away by the blast wave.

Glancing at the others, Zhang Heng finally found some peace in his heart.

Because at that moment, everyone had been blown away, including all the Tianyuan realm powerhouses and Emperor Qi himself.

It made sense when one thought about it. A Demon Lord who had recovered eighty to ninety percent of his strength, clashing with a Dugu Bai who had comprehended the ultimate sword intent—the power of these two fighters stood at the very pinnacle of the continent.

In other words, this battle was a clash among the absolute top echelon of the entire realm.