[Lu Yang]!
The name, symbolizing his [Fortune], erupted with brilliant light, degrading his aura. Immediately after, a sword light drove straight through the void, descending upon Lu Yang's face with unstoppable momentum.
"BOOM."
In the spark of a flint, Lu Yang let out a long breath and countered with the Heaven's Bane Sword, blocking the Sword Lord's strike. Her peerlessly beautiful face was mere inches away, separated only by the two clashing sword lights. For a fleeting instant, they locked eyes, the cold white glare illuminating the shifting expressions of both.
Then, the swords parted.
Lu Yang retreated into the Dark Void and swept his fingers through the air; the void, which normally lacked the concept of distance, instantly birthed a [Heavenly Chasm], isolating the two of them in separate world realms.
"A pity..."
The Sword Lord felt a twinge of regret. That strike had been long-premeditated; by suddenly invoking his [Fortune], she had intended to launch a sneak attack and secure victory in one stroke.
Yet, Lu Yang's reaction was too swift.
It seemed that even before she struck, Lu Yang had already understood the profound operation of the [Threads of Sentiment] and realized she could draw upon Cang Hao's methods.
If not for that, that sword would surely have found its mark.
'When I fought him ten years ago, he didn't possess this level of comprehension. Yet now, his Light of Wisdom has clearly undergone a bizarre surge.'
How did he do it?
The Sword Lord pondered, yet she remained composed. While holding her sword in one hand, she formed a seal with the other, pressed it to her chest, and then gently lifted it upward.
In an instant, all the injuries Lu Yang had inflicted upon her vanished. Her aura surged back to the peak state it had been in before the duel began.
Correspondingly, the previously unharmed Cang Hao suddenly turned pale. He clutched his mouth and, amidst a fit of violent coughing, spat out a mouthful of iridescent dharmic blood. It was clear that all of the Sword Lord's damage had been transferred directly to him.
Simultaneously, the Sword Lord cast a backward glance at Cang Hao.
Her cool eyes were filled with deep affection—and even sincerity—as if they could speak. Immediately after, a profound sound drifted into Cang Hao's ear:
"Do not act."
"You should understand by now, Fellow Daoist, that attacking me is meaningless. To kill me is to kill yourself. For the sake of our many years together, do not lead yourself to ruin."
Cang Hao felt a sudden tightness in his chest.
"Many years together... Haha!"
"Many years together, and this is how you treat me?"
The Dao Lord, usually low-profile and nearly without recorded deeds, laughed out of sheer anger as he looked coldly at the beautiful woman.
Before this duel, the Sword Lord and Cang Hao had shared a conversation. To an outsider, it might have seemed like they still harbored some vestige of feeling for each other. However, only Cang Hao, who was actually within this "relationship," understood that the Sword Lord had never been talking about feelings.
From start to finish, she had been issuing threats!
She had spoken of needing a Dao companion to continue walking beside her—was that a companion? No, that was a cauldron! A cauldron from which she could take and demand whatever she pleased!
She simply phrased it beautifully!
The standard of the Jade Pivot Sword Pavilion.
The ultimate Sword Bastard.
As for her claim that she would accept her fate and help him restore his cultivation if she lost, that was purely a lie used to strengthen the [Threads of Sentiment] she had planted within him.
Even at this moment.
Before his rebuking voice had fully faded, Cang Hao regretted it—not for saying it, but for playing a lute to a cow.
He could perfectly guess how the Sword Lord would respond.
It would be nothing more than that one phrase:
"Is that the same thing?"
The Sword Lord's voice carried an air of absolute entitlement as she said calmly, "It is precisely because of our many years together that I gave you my most precious [Threads of Sentiment]."
The threads are my Daoist image.
You are only losing your life and cultivation; I am losing the sincere affection I invested. Both are manifestations of the Great Dao, so naturally, they are of equal value.
"Hahaha!"
Cang Hao laughed even more joyfully. "Most precious threads? I saw you scattering them all over Fellow Daoist Lu earlier; they didn't seem very precious then."
"Enough. Talking is useless."
As his words fell, he seemed to lose all interest in conversation and his final hope in the Sword Lord. That single rebuke had exhausted all his emotions. His once-expressive face turned ice-cold, and a bizarre aura began to spread.
"...Hmm?"
The Sword Lord immediately sensed something was wrong. On the other side, Lu Yang—who had been pushed back by the Sword Lord earlier—raised his head, a look of certainty surfacing in his eyes.
'Just as I expected...'
From the beginning, the event he had anticipated was not merely Cang Hao's betrayal. That was a high-probability event that he assumed the Sword Lord would also have foreseen.
The issue was not the event itself, but the method.
'The Sword Lord is no fool. On the contrary, while she is two-faced and shameless, she is not stupid. She would definitely have guards in place against Cang Hao.'
Could Cang Hao handle those guards?
Perhaps, but Lu Yang couldn't be certain, as he knew little about Cang Hao's hidden methods. If that were his only judgment, he would never have initiated this wager.
What he wanted was certain victory.
Therefore—the real reason Lu Yang decided to wager with the Sword Lord was not Cang Hao, but another person—someone who would absolutely never fail to act.
And in that person, Lu Yang had absolute confidence.
'The Sword Lord and Cang Hao joined forces to build the [Heavenly Dao]. If no one else could interfere, could that guy really not? Given his personality of "shooting the arrow before drawing the target" and always planning far ahead, how could he not strike at the relationship between these two seemingly inseparable Dao Lords?'
Right then.
As Cang Hao's expression turned utterly frigid, the Primordial Spirit aura he had been hiding was finally revealed, causing the expressions of all the Dao Lords present to shift.
Especially the Sword Lord.
"The [Heaven-Reaching Incantation of Seven Emotions]!?"
The usually cool woman stared at Cang Hao with an unprecedented look in her eyes, but she was met only with a gaze as cold as ice.
Simultaneously, she felt the [Threads of Sentiment] she had planted deep within Cang Hao's sea of consciousness and Primordial Spirit suddenly lose their target. The profound sense no longer felt even a hint of emotion, only a hollow emptiness. The threads began to peel away from Cang Hao, piece by piece!
"You actually switched to a Primordial Spirit method?"
Among the three great Primordial Spirit methods—be it the [Method of Traversing the Mortal Dust] or the [Scripture of True Nature Seeking Immortality]—both push one's own emotions and thoughts to the extreme.
Only the one created by the Primordial Saint was different.
"Seven Emotions Reaching Heaven, the Supreme State of Forgotten Emotion."
By forging a Primordial Spirit through this method, one no longer possesses emotions or thoughts. Everything is but a hollow illusion, leaving only an essence that views all things as straw dogs.
If emotion is forgotten, what use are [Threads of Sentiment]?
In a daze, the Sword Lord seemed to see a youth with the appearance of a Heavenly Being and the name of a Primordial Beginning, looking down at her with a faint smile.
"Primordial Saint—!!!"