Chapter 379: The Warrior's Counterattack

Within the Great Four Symbols Array, furious winds danced madly as thunder roared like dragons and fire soared like phoenixes; flying sand, hurtling rocks, gale, cloud, flood, and flame all manifested an incomparably terrifying might in an instant!

The power of this Great Four Symbols Array gathered the strength of numerous Taixi Sect disciples, its formations shifting in secret harmony with the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth, and once the array's light arose, it was enough to bury any great cultivator or warrior within.

Qing Xuzi's lips curved slightly into a cold sneer: "Let us see just how long you can hold out!"

Yet in the very next breath, his smile froze dead upon his face.

For he beheld, with the center of the array as its vortex, the surrounding wild winds suddenly solidify in midair; the spells, the spiritual light, and even the operation of the entire array ground to a halt in a single instant!

The once-rampaging thunder now hung petrified in the skies, and the sweeping, monstrous deluge, though showing no signs of freezing into ice, eerily stopped mid-torrent, perfectly motionless, neither flowing nor shedding a single droplet!

Nalan Hongwu's entire body emanated a shimmer of crystalline light, inexplicably bizarre!

It was as though the long river of time, which had rolled forward through the endless eons, had suddenly ceased its flow at this precise moment!

"This... what is this?!" If they could have spoken, they would surely have cried out in utter terror, but at this moment, it was as if their bodies were no longer under their control, rendering them unable to even part their lips!

Even the cultivators suspended in midair by virtue of spiritual essence found the energy within them had long ceased to circulate, yet they did not fall from the sky; their movements were entirely frozen in the air, stiff as stone.

Before their countenances could even register horror, they had already solidified, with only the profound, dark ash reflecting in their eyes to prove the panic in their hearts.

Watching this white-haired elder before them advance with slow, measured steps, as if strolling through a leisurely courtyard, the shock in their hearts grew beyond all measure!

Sharp sword-qi overflowed, capable of severing everything between heaven and earth, yet no blood was seen to spill.

The canopy of heaven had long since darkened, and the surroundings seemed to transform into an utterly pitch-black void.

It was as though the shadow of death hung over everyone's head!

Like the Grim Reaper ascending from hell into the mortal realm, this was the Twenty-Third Sword!

Even the audience watching from inside the shop across the massive screens could feel that terrifying sword intent, to say nothing of the cultivators before the mountain gate of the Taixi Sect!

Sky and earth seemed to hold an invisible flight of stairs; as Nalan Hongwu was seen approaching step by step, Qing Xuzi and the others wished to strike, yet found that no matter what, let alone their bodies, they could not mobilize even a fraction of the spiritual essence within them.

No one dared believe the scene before their eyes, much less imagine that this could be unleashed by a mere warrior.

But the ironclad truth lay right before them, forcing all the cultivators of the Taixi Sect to admit that the one bringing them endless dread was the very warrior they had always looked down upon!

This was the Twenty-Third Sword; once deployed, all things lost the right to survive, everything in heaven and earth was left to its mercy, and even space itself was suppressed by this terrifying, ultimate technique!

This stretch of time passed with agonizing slowness, and to everyone, it felt as though they had endured ten thousand years, reaching the very end of time.

Such a terrifying, purgatory-like world gave them the illusion that the world would perish in the very next instant.

Even Venerable Du You's eyes now held a profound chill, as if a blast of cold air had shot straight up his spine to the crown of his head!

Too terrifying, this had simply surpassed the limits of his imagination!

Was this still a warrior?!

"How can such a terrifying warrior exist in this world?!"

Right at that moment, a yellow butterfly was seen fluttering up from within Venerable Du You's robes, subsequently settling upon his shoulder.

Looking closely, this butterfly was entirely composed of yellow jade, obtained from the deepest recesses of the Cultivation Realm—one of Venerable Du You's strongest trump cards; this yellow jade butterfly was rumored to be connected to an ancient fallen immortal, and coupled with his position at the very periphery of this terrifying purgatory, he finally found a sliver of opportunity to escape!

The Twenty-Third Sword dissipated, and the disciples of the entire Taixi Sect gathered before the mountain gate, including the Great Four Symbols Array, including the four elders Xu, Chen, Cang, and Dao, and even the entire mountain gate itself, were mostly destroyed!

Before their eyes remained only a scene of absolute wreckage and ruin!

"I..." Venerable Du You stared at the sight before him in absolute horror; perhaps even a moment ago, he could never have anticipated such an ending, "Nearly half the elites of my Taixi Sect have actually perished here!"

"Quick!" Venerable Du You was like a fish out of water, gasping violently for breath, "Quick! Open the Grand Sect-Protecting Array!"

He roared frantically while hurriedly pulling out his communication jade, his terrified expression completely exposed; at this moment, where was there any trace of his prior composure.

The moment all the viewers at the Origin Internet Club saw this scene, they boiled over instantly:

"Awesome!"

"Too fierce!"

"This old man is probably scared out of his wits!"

Cultivators like Black Demon and Wang Lingxiao, who had not yet watched *Wind and Cloud*, were shaken to their very cores: "What... what kind of technique is this?!"

"Is this still a warrior?!"

Tang Yuan hastily sent a bullet comment in terror: "Are the warriors on your side all this strong?! Why are the warriors on our side so weak?!"

"I recommend you all go watch *Wind and Cloud*."

"Seconded! The old Sword Saint's Twenty-Third Sword—I didn't expect the old master to actually master it!"

Several warriors, including Ji Wu, evaluated: "It's just that the power is still a bit inferior compared to the old Sword Saint, otherwise probably not a single one of these people would leave alive."

At the same time, deep within the Taixi Sect, a pair of eyes snapped open!

This cultivator wore black robes, his entire body exuding an aura as dark as an abyss; he was precisely the tall, black-robed old man who had previously appeared by the lakeside beside Venerable Du You.

"What a terrifying sword intent!" His face darkened, "When did my Taixi Sect ever provoke such a formidable enemy?!"

He held a Bagua disk in his hands, which lit up with ripples of profound and wondrous spiritual light; simultaneously, the sky above the entire Taixi Sect seemed to surge with starlight, the operation of the array seemingly pulling at countless stars hanging high in the void, and under the array's guidance, countless beams of spiritual light transformed into grand pillars of spirit falling from the heavens, while the spiritual energy within the earth veins gathered along with it, the surging spiritual essence so vast that one could feel its raging tide in the air with every breath!

"The Grand Sect-Protecting Array?!"

"For what reason has the Grand Sect-Protecting Array been opened?!"

"What happened?!"

The area before the mountain gate had already been enveloped by a blanket of darkness, but at this moment, the Taixi Sect disciples on the other peaks saw the grand, majestic pillars of spiritual light descending from the sky within the sect: "It has been thousands of years, yet there is actually a day when the Grand Sect-Protecting Array is reopened?!"

Within the entire Taixi Sect, the eyes of everyone had already converged upon this place!

To be forced to such a point by a single warrior was something they could never have imagined before!

Clearly, the entire Taixi Sect dared not be arrogant any longer this time, instantly deploying their mightiest power!