Chapter 204: The Old Man's Mindset Perfected, Martial Emperor and Martial Emperor Have Differences! (2/4)

Not a Martial King?!" Shangguan Yuan's face darkened slightly, but as he felt the aura radiating from Elder Fu, he seemed to breathe a subtle sigh of relief. "This aura... it hasn't reached the Martial Emperor realm yet!"

Otherwise, with two Emperor-realm powerhouses to face, there would basically be no point in fighting!

"Who would have thought...! To think that Nalan Hongwu actually had a pseudo-Emperor realm powerhouse hidden right by his side!" Shangguan Yuan thought to himself. "That old fox Nalan Hongwu truly runs deeper than anyone suspects!"

"Oh no! We are no match for him!" one of the Martial King realm experts cried out in panic. "We were too careless!"

"What is there to panic about?!" Seeing that their previous stratagem had failed, Shangguan Yuan could no longer bother with disguises and barked in a deep voice, "I shall hold back that old ghost Nalan. Everyone else, use all your strength to surround and kill Lin Fu alone!"

"Master Shangguan! You..." The crowd was utterly bewildered. How could Shangguan Yuan, a mere pseudo-Emperor realm expert, possibly hold back Nalan Hongwu?!

"Shangguan Yuan! So it was you?!" Since Shangguan Yuan did not deliberately conceal his voice, Nalan Hongwu naturally recognized it instantly.

"It is indeed me!" Shangguan Yuan casually tossed the black sword onto the ground and sneered. "Since this thing is useless against you, it serves no further purpose! However..."

In that instant, his entire aura surged violently upward! It rose to a height that struck terror into the hearts of everyone present!

This suffocating, overwhelming power... this was...

"A Mar... Martial Emperor?!"

Shangguan Yuan sneered. "That brat Ji Wuyou is unreliable after all. But did you truly believe you were the only ones who could hide your true strength?!"

Seeing Shangguan Yuan display such staggering might, the crowd's morale instantly settled. "Kill Lin Fu first, then turn back to deal with Nalan Hongwu! They are dead men!"

Nalan Hongwu shifted his steps slightly, seemingly intending to walk toward the black sword resting beside Shangguan Yuan.

Shangguan Yuan immediately stepped onto the black sword, then kicked it behind him with a flick of his foot. "You want it?"

He gestured toward Nalan Hongwu. "Come and take it then."

He figured that provoking Nalan Hongwu in this manner should be enough to keep him occupied.

Yet Nalan Hongwu merely flicked his fingers into a sword-gesture!

Shangguan Yuan’s heart suddenly jolted in alarm! He felt something was amiss, yet he could not fathom what it was.

Suddenly sensing an anomaly behind him, he wrenched his body aside, only to see the sword behind him fly directly into Nalan Hongwu's hand as if possessed of its own spiritual will!

Shangguan Yuan: "!!??"

His eyes stared fixedly at Nalan Hongwu, as though he had just seen a ghost!

"What kind of martial technique is this?!"

"Master Shangguan ought to travel the world more often, rather than cooping himself up at home concocting nothing but dark schemes and conspiracies!" Nalan Hongwu gripped the black sword in his hand and gave it a casual flick. A ringing, spirited sword-cry erupted from within the blade!

This sword had been forged from a piece of stubborn iron buried deep beneath the Qilin Cliff. Unyielding and unresponsive, it had been disliked by the Fu family, yet Fu Beihai had often kept it by his side throughout his campaigns across the lands. Over time, a wisp of spirituality had actually gestured within the blade!

And now, after a span of two hundred years, this wisp of spirituality was awakened once more!

In an instant, the echoing cry of the sword shook the wilderness, powerful enough to pierce metal and shatter stone!

The sound rushed forth like a fierce tiger breaking from its cage, or a hidden dragon soaring from the abyss!

It was like a ferocious beast trapped for over two hundred years, finally bursting free from its bonds! The sword-howl resonated long and loud, refusing to die down!

Inexplicably, Nalan Hongwu felt that faint connection within the sword. Not only that, but he could also perceive that nested within this blade was a specific martial technique!

If there had been doubts and confusion before, then at this very moment, upon seeing the martial technique left within the sword, everything became crystal clear in an instant!

If one still harbored lingering regrets in one's heart, who would leave their final ultimate technique inside a sword, only to abandon it to the enemy!

"This is... the martial technique, Sword Qi Rushing the Northern Abyss!?" Nalan Hongwu's expression turned incomparably complex in an instant, his weathered face twisting as a mixture of grief, joy, bitterness, and delight—seemingly all the flavors of the world—entwined within his cloudy eyes, defying description.

In the first year of the New Martial Era of the Great Jin, Fu Beihai, the commander of Qilin Cliff, knew the grand tide had turned. After a final battle with the Jin army, he willingly laid himself to rest at Tianlao Mountain, leaving his martial legacy within his sword.

The truth of the matter had now fully come to light.

"So it was I who played the part of the petty man in vain!" Nalan Hongwu sighed deeply. Though his heart remained heavy with guilt amidst the tumultuous clash of emotions, a massive boulder weighing on his soul had finally been lifted.

His wrinkled hands gently caressed the spine of the black sword, as if reuniting with an old friend of many years. "Rest in peace now..."

Watching the aura around Nalan Hongwu fluctuate wildly, Shangguan Yuan's heart filled with suspicion and dread, knowing he could wait no longer!

Gathering the martial qi throughout his entire body, he smashed a savage punch straight toward Nalan Hongwu!

Yet before his fist could even strike Nalan Hongwu's chest, it felt as though it had slammed into a solid wall!

His fist was already firmly caught in Nalan Hongwu's right hand!

With a sudden thrust of Nalan Hongwu's palm strength, Shangguan Yuan was sent drifting backward dozens of paces!

Gripping the hilt of the sword, Nalan Hongwu's demeanor was entirely transformed from before; now, only serenity and peace remained.

"Master! We can barely hold on over here!" On Elder Fu's side, a single man was locked in a frantic, desperate struggle against seven peak Martial Kings!

"I will give you the span of a single move."

"Arrogant!" Shangguan Yuan's voice turned chillingly cold. "We are both in the Emperor realm, do you truly believe you can kill me?!"

Shangguan Yuan's entire aura billowed as the martial qi across his body surged like raging torrents and monstrous waves!

An invisible force slowly lifted him into midair, suspending him above the hundred-meter cliff behind him!

He raised his right fist with the momentum of a coiling dragon and slithering serpent. The falling rain from heaven and earth actually dissolved into fine powder the moment it drew within several yards of his body!

In the sky above, flashes of lightning crossed paths, casting his towering figure in a light that made him resemble a demon god!

By contrast, Nalan Hongwu hovered in the air as lightly as a fallen blossom or a drifting leaf, swaying gently with the wind. No imposing majesty could be seen upon his person, nor any fierce, rigid force.

As Shangguan Yuan unleashed his punch, his boundless, ferocious martial qi converged upon his knuckles like a hundred rivers returning to the sea, the raw power knotting together with the unstoppable momentum of a flood dragon!

With that single strike, the tyrannical, overbearing force of the punch seemed poised to swallow heaven and earth whole!

"Mountain Swallower!"

Simultaneously, the black sword in Nalan Hongwu's hand stirred slightly. It bore no grand momentum whatsoever; compared to Shangguan Yuan, he looked like a solitary skiff tossed upon the raging waves of a vast ocean.

Raindrops fell upon the blade, trickling down its edge, entirely unlike the rain around his opponent which shattered into mist.

But in the next instant, as the fierce wind lashed against his face and that terrifying fist-force was about to crash directly into Nalan Hongwu's countenance!

The edge of his sword slashed out, unhurried and measured!

An unrivaled, terrifying wave of sword qi rippled outward like a tidal surge!

"Sword Qi Rushing the Northern Abyss!"

Even the lightning flashing across the heavens seemed to be utterly drowned out by something in that very split second!

Blood sprayed through the air, and the hundred-meter cliff behind Shangguan Yuan was instantly split in two!

"How... how is this possible?!" The look in Shangguan Yuan's eyes shifted from utter disbelief to profound shock and terror!

"The highest good is like water, benefiting all things without contention. I have finally managed to touch a sliver of such a realm." Nalan Hongwu stroked his beard, deeply moved by the realization.

"Do you know where you failed?" Nalan Hongwu flew down to land close beside him, his lips moving slightly.

Shangguan Yuan's eyes went wide as he fell helplessly from the sky, his face frozen in an expression of sheer shock and bewilderment: "..."

He faintly thought he heard what the other man had said, but was it...?

"Did I hear wrong!!??"

...

A streak of dark light flashed across the battlefield!

Several peak Martial Kings instantly recoiled in sheer terror!

"Shangguan Yuan is dead. Name the mastermind, or die," Nalan Hongwu said composedly, stroking his beard. "That old fox Shangguan Yuan could never possess such far-reaching foresight."

Thunderous light flashed, and as everyone gazed upon Nalan Hongwu standing atop his sword like a deity or a demon, the shock in their hearts surpassed all measure!

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