Chapter Seventy-Six: The Diagram of Heaven and Earth

Buzz!

As Zhou Yi pondered, the battle was not yet over. The wooden sword under Mo Hu’s control attacked once more. Zhou Yi’s expression remained unchanged. With a flick of his arm and a thought, he deftly sensed the sword’s arrival. He swung his long blade, the carved world on its surface flashing faintly.

Boom!

His long blade slashed down, striking the wooden sword with full force. The instant the two met, as expected, the blade shattered at once.

The power of the wooden sword was simply overwhelming—so much so that even after Zhou Yi’s epiphany and surge in strength, he was no match for it.

Mo Hu’s face grew more sullen. His outstretched fingers froze, and the wooden sword halted as well, hovering not far before Zhou Yi.

Zhou Yi’s body shuddered as a mighty force crashed over him. He staggered back three steps. A heaviness pressed on his chest, but after a brief pause, he steadied himself. With a wave of his arm, the long blade reappeared. He looked up at Mo Hu, a hint of joy appearing on his face.

In their previous clashes, although the long blade had been shattered instantly every time, there was now a difference: under the wooden sword's assault, Zhou Yi was no longer gravely injured. He had only retreated three steps, his chest merely stifled for a moment—he hadn’t even coughed up blood.

Compared to before, when the blade’s shattering would send him tumbling with blood spraying from his lips, this time retreating three steps was a vast improvement!

Judging by this outcome, though Zhou Yi was still far from matching the wooden sword, he had made tremendous progress.

At the very least, so long as the blade’s shattering served as a buffer, Mo Hu’s wooden sword could no longer truly harm him. And from the look of things, the wooden sword was Mo Hu’s most powerful technique!

That was precisely why Mo Hu’s expression had soured and his movements ceased.

He truly had no stronger trump card—this wooden sword was his last.

Originally, the wooden sword’s might had reached the level of a false Dan, which had delighted him. He thought the matter was settled. But now, though he still held the advantage and could pummel Zhou Yi with ease—

He no longer had confidence in victory.

He could not kill Zhou Yi—at best, he could wound him. But now, he couldn’t even manage that. This was not good news at all!

Worse yet, he realized with growing terror that Zhou Yi, under his relentless assault, had not only survived but had grown stronger at a miraculous pace. Though Zhou Yi was still nothing to him for now—

This rate of improvement, coupled with a willpower so tenacious it was unsettling, left him feeling helpless and shaken.

Just where had such a monster come from?

The wooden sword hovered in midair, tethered to Mo Hu’s outstretched finger, ready to strike at a thought—but he hesitated.

His finger hovered before him, uncertain.

Had it come to this, was there any point in persisting?

Did he still stand a chance of victory?

Mo Hu desperately hoped so, but a voice within kept telling him he was deluding himself.

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Now, he could no longer harm Zhou Yi—at most, he could send him flying. The wooden sword’s power was undiminished, and he could attack endlessly, if he wished.

But his own strength had reached its limit, while Zhou Yi’s had not—or perhaps it had, but that limit kept shifting.

“Damn it, how can his will be so strong!” Mo Hu cursed inwardly, glaring at the flames and black winds swirling around Zhou Yi. For most people, not to mention this degree of pain—even a tenth or a hundredth would be enough to shatter their spirit and send them straight into unconsciousness.

But Zhou Yi had not only endured such torment, he even had the focus to fight back. Such resolve, such willpower—no ordinary mortal should possess it!

After all, the human body has its own self-preservation mechanism: when suffering pain beyond its limits, it will shut down, plunging into unconsciousness.

And this unconsciousness is not swayed by the threat of death.

After all, who has ever heard of someone knocked out cold simply waking by their own volition? Even if they do wake, there’s a buffer period. As long as there’s a moment’s gap, Mo Hu could seize it and finish Zhou Yi off.

But Zhou Yi gave him no such chance.

“How did he manage to overcome this?” Mo Hu fumed, frustration boiling within him.

“It’s time to end this,” Zhou Yi murmured softly, glancing at the long blade in his hand. He paid no heed to Mo Hu’s inner turmoil, calculating his power after the breakthrough and gaining clarity.

In the last exchange, though the wooden sword still shattered his blade instantly, the residual force was mostly neutralized. When it finally struck him, he had only been forced back three steps.

This meant the gap between them had narrowed considerably!

This battle had dragged on long enough. Zhou Yi was already weary of it, but now, bolstered by his new breakthrough, he finally had the means to finish it.

Buzz!

As he considered his next move, Zhou Yi acted. With a thought, he inscribed an image of heaven and earth onto the blade. At his urging, the long blade hummed with resonance.

Without pause, Zhou Yi channeled his inner power into the blade, etching a second world image as his cultivation method circulated.

Buzz! Buzz!

Power poured into the blade like a tidal wave, making it vibrate with ever-louder hums.

A wall of force flared around Zhou Yi, his inner strength surging until it seemed even space itself trembled.

Ten years! Twenty years! Thirty years!

Buzzzzz—

After infusing thirty years’ worth of inner power, Zhou Yi finally inscribed the second world image onto the blade. But it wasn’t enough!

To defeat Mo Hu and match the wooden sword, two layers of world images were far from sufficient.

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Ten years! Twenty! Thirty! Forty! Fifty! Sixty!

Buzzzzz—

It took a full sixty years of inner power for Zhou Yi to finish the third world image!

“As expected, each additional layer nearly doubles the difficulty,” Zhou Yi reflected as he sensed the inner power consumed for three layers.

Ten years for the first, thirty for the second, sixty for the third.

Just these three layers had cost Zhou Yi a full century’s worth of inner power!

And after the battle so far, he had only a hundred and thirty years’ worth left.

Once he finished the third world image, just thirty years of inner power remained—a considerable amount, yet not nearly enough to carve a fourth world image.

“There’s no helping it,” Zhou Yi sighed, decision firming in his eyes.

With only three world images, his blade was certainly no match for Mo Hu’s wooden sword. By his estimation, at least six layers were needed to face it head-on, seven to be safe, eight for an assured victory.

As things stood, he didn’t even have enough power left for the fourth layer—let alone seven or eight!

By his calculations, the fourth layer would require about a hundred years of inner power.

The fifth, two hundred.

The sixth, four hundred.

The seventh, eight hundred.

The eighth—one thousand eight hundred!

Altogether, seven layers would require eighteen hundred years; eight, thirty-six hundred years of inner power!

“Damn it!” At this realization, Zhou Yi’s expression darkened. Inner power measured in millennia—it was unthinkable!

Even the methods he’d previously considered were now useless. He had thought to exchange energy for inner power, but at this scale, even with his rapid energy growth, it was a fool’s hope.

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