Chapter Fifty-Two: The First Soaring Dragon? One Against Three!
Blade light surged like an ocean, and a pair of colossal palms pressed down upon heaven and earth.
The Pingxi Fiends and the Ocean-Covering Palms coordinated with perfect synergy, their combined might nothing short of terrifying.
Jiang Chen charged headfirst into the sea of blade light with an air of absolute resolve, like a moth plunging into flame.
On instinct, it seemed like he was throwing his life away.
But within that ocean of blades, a burst of sword light suddenly erupted.
The sword light rose like the moon ascending—calm, cold... yet eternal and unchanging!
It rose with steadfast resolve from the "sea," shredding the blade light to ribbons.
And those two Ocean-Covering Palms descended with savage ferocity—yet how could they contain moonlight?
The bright moon pierced through the firmament. Jiang Chen broke the palm strikes with his sword and leaped skyward.
A single strike shattered the dual-blade combination, then shattered Yan Er's palm as well.
This was no moth to flame—this was a furious dragon churning the sea!
Yan Er of the Ocean-Covering Palms was hailed as the foremost Soaring Dragon in Coastal County.
The Pingxi Fiends wielded dual blades that could cut down even Inner Palace realm cultivators, placing them among the elite of the Soaring Dragon realm in Pingxi County.
In their respective home counties, they were among the top fighters of their realm, each carrying a justified sense of pride.
Yet a mere retainer of the Chongxuan family had shattered their combined assault in an instant.
Only then did they realize—this was Linzi, the imperial capital of Great Qi, the mightiest city in the Eastern Domain. Experts fell like rain, and powerhouses crowded the clouds.
Their horizons had been blown wide open.
And Jiang Chen, still suspended in the air, moved his fingers like a butterfly threading through flowers—shifting and shifting again in the span of a heartbeat. The Thorn Crown flickered briefly above his head.
Then blossoms of every kind drifted down through the sky, floating and swaying with otherworldly grace, a breathtaking sight.
The Sea of Flameblooms unfurled!
Illusory blooms and flame flowers alternated between real and phantom—some confounding the vision, others incinerating the flesh. Empowered by the Thorn Crown, their might grew tenfold.
Yan Er had been crouched tightly while driving the carriage, his frame looking unremarkable.
Now, with a sudden outward surge, his entire body seemed to "expand." Of course, this was merely a visual illusion—but once his aura fully unfurled, people realized with a start that he was actually an eight-foot-tall giant.
Those massive knuckles, grotesquely thick, moved with deliberate slowness—as though... he were stirring the deep ocean under immense pressure.
But apart from the gatekeeper at Xiashan Manor, everyone present was a powerhouse in their own right. They could plainly see that Yan Er's hands were churning the very air, Dao essence, and even the surrounding aura within their range.
Those two hands lived up to the name Ocean-Covering Palms—undoubtedly ferocious.
The vicinity of Xiashan Manor was dotted with the private estates of the powerful, and few failed to keep an eye on Chongxuan Sheng's Xiashan Manor. As the commotion rose, onlookers gradually gathered to watch. However, once they saw the combatants were from the Bao family and the Chongxuan family, none dared approach too closely.
For these spectators, much of the battle was beyond their comprehension. But Yan Er's savage advance—like a giant tearing down city walls—was enough to make anyone's heart race.
Those colossal hands moved with deceptive slowness, "churning" the air... and then suddenly tore outward!
The sea of blossoms swayed, then split down the middle.
The Ocean-Covering Palms had torn the Sea of Flameblooms asunder.
At that very instant, from within the rift, two streams of blade light slashed out simultaneously—like silver fish leaping from water—widening the gap while lunging toward Jiang Chen.
Their coordination was seamless as a single body.
Such synergy required not only tacit understanding but also the overwhelming strength to make that synergy real.
The Pingxi Fiends' twin blades swept through the air on parallel trajectories, their arcs traced with arcane precision—two crescents of light hanging inverted in the sky.
Just two arcs of light.
This was the manifestation of blade light compressed to its absolute limit.
Concise. Lethal.
Sharp. Ruthless.
This was the entirety of their killing intent, distilled into a single moment.
After reinforcing the Sea of Flameblooms with the Thorn Crown, Jiang Chen had ample time to prepare a devastating spell—something like an Eight-Tone Flame Sparrow to end the battle.
Instead, he simply hung motionless in the sky, sword lowered.
He even closed his eyes.
As if so arrogant as to grant his opponents the first move in the heat of battle.
As if foolish enough to wait for them to breach the Sea of Flameblooms before striking back.
It was especially laughable—especially infuriating.
Bao Zhongqing watched with cold eyes, subtly positioning himself toward Chongxuan Sheng and Fourteen. If either moved to intervene, he would block them instantly.
But neither Chongxuan Sheng nor Fourteen so much as flinched.
They seemed to tacitly accept that Jiang Chen had every right to be this "arrogant."
On what grounds?
They were all in the Soaring Dragon realm. The opponents he faced were the strongest Soaring Dragon fighters in an entire county.
And he was taking on three of them at once!
Even the onlookers couldn't help but watch with a mix of anticipation—waiting to see this man suffer a spectacular fall from grace.
That mixture of indignation and expectation lasted only a brief moment.
Because the Sea of Flameblooms had already been torn open.
Because the twin arcs of light had already reached him.
Because Jiang Chen... opened his eyes!
What kind of eyes were those?
Exhausted, aged, feeble, tormented... yet resolute, blazing, uplifted, proud!
These should not have been Jiang Chen's eyes.
If Chongxuan Sheng were to name them, a single name would spring to his lips—Ji Cheng.
Cultivation was the refinement of the Dao heart. As the Dao heart grew ever clearer and firmer, the benefits manifested in every aspect.
And foremost among them was the way of the sword.
Jiang Chen had journeyed tens of thousands of li, and through his own cultivation, he had distilled the Three Swords of Heaven, Earth, and Man. This framework had secured his place among the strongest of the Heaven-Piercing realm.
The framework of these three swords was vast—and their strength lay in that vastness, and so did their weakness.
Take the Sword of the Vast Sea of Men, for instance. A single strike that encompassed the boundless sea of humanity was, of course, tinged with a sense of loss.
But how much did he truly understand of the "sea of men"? Or, going further, of "man" itself?
The myriad facets of worldly life. The millions upon millions of kinds of people.
Jiang Chen had experienced much and endured much. But he was still not yet twenty. His feet had not yet traversed every mountain and river, every lake and sea. Could he claim to have truly grasped the meaning of the word "man"?
It was only after arriving in Linzi that he glimpsed a true "mountain of men, sea of people"—and the Sword of the Vast Sea of Men had gained a sliver of progress.
It was only after much more experience that he finally saw, within this vast sea of humanity, the magnificent surge of a single drop of water.
That magnificence had always existed.
It was only after his Dao heart had been cleansed that he could reflect it fully.
Jiang Chen's sword moved.
His sword momentum could be called feeble and sluggish, yet the feeling it conveyed was one of solemn grandeur and unyielding strength!
This sword was called The Old General at Twilight!
Though the old general has aged, he can still die for his kingdom!
Grant me a great bow, and for my country... I offer this broken body!
When the kingdom fell, the old general alone held back the sky's collapse. Though the realm ultimately crumbled, the old general bore its weight unto death.
But that spirit—uplifting and magnificent—endured.
Eternal Longing approached those two incoming arcs with an almost frail demeanor.
Yet in the very instant of contact, its aura pierced the clouds and rolled like mountains and floods!
Those two blade lights, refined to their utmost essence, concentrated all their killing power into a single line. It could be called the Pingxi Fiends' pinnacle strike.
But the moment they touched, they shattered!
Like a mountain collapsing, this sword held it up.
Like a flood surging forth, this sword blocked the deluge.
At the impossible moment, achieving the impossible.
A hero in life, a hero in old age.
A hero in victory, a hero in defeat.
This sword was The Old General at Twilight, and this sword was a lifetime of heroism.
Blade light scattered. Palm strikes broke. Bodies went flying.
What of the Pingxi Fiends who could slay Inner Palace cultivators? They were clay chickens and pottery dogs, their blade light shattered by a single strike.
What of Yan Er, the foremost Soaring Dragon of Coastal County? Like an ant trying to shake a mighty tree, the sword touched him and he went flying.
Jiang Chen landed and sheathed his sword in a single motion.
All the pressure, all the light and shadow, vanished. Before the gates of Xiashan Manor, silence reigned—as if nothing had ever happened at all—if not for the three bodies lying at Bao Zhongqing's feet!