Translator: Larbre Studio Editor: Larbre Studio

The Seven Strokes of Heaven Interception?

Although Ren Qiushui had always been confident that her swordplay was top notch and not inferior to any martial skills throughout the ages, her heart was still shaken when she heard the mysterious man in front of her say the words Seven Strokes of Heaven Interception in a nonchalant tone.

The words Buddhism originated from Tathagata and Taoism from Heaven Interception were commonly passed down. Even if they were exaggerated — like the Sambhogakaya cultivation and Path Attainment in Dream of Amitabha had nothing to do with Tathagata. Taoism has an inheritance from The Three Pure Ones, Yuanshi, Daode and Lingbao, but they also vividly showed the status of the Buddha’s Palm and the Seven Strokes of Heaven Interception.

At least until now, there were only Gautama Buddha and the Heavenly Primogenitor who had been recognized as truly achieved transcendence and attained the Realm of Dao. Even though their deeds could no longer be examined and hadn’t appeared for a long time hence people did not believe in them, but other big shots did not even have rumors of achieving transcendence. Comparing the two, the difference was obvious.

In today’s world, Buddhism was striving and the Buddha’s Palm was always heard whereas the Seven Strokes of Heaven Interception had long been lost and not made an appearance for tens of thousands of years. Despite this, many Taoism and heretical sects had inextricable links with Heaven Interception. For example, Heaven and Earth Sword Sect’s Wuji Sword of Wilderness had always been said to be derived from the Heaven Interception. Of course, this had always been limited to rumors and never had any direct or indirect evidence.

If the green-robed man in front of her hadn’t revealed the origins and name of her swordplay directly, making one feel that he was mysterious and unpredictable, she would have taken his words on the Seven Strokes of Heaven Interception as a joke and couldn’t care less.

Ren Qiushui’s clenched right fist loosened up. With shining eyes, she suddenly let out a smile and raised her index finger.

“The Seven Strokes of Heaven Interception, huh?” she muttered and her long finger suddenly struck.

Void space turned into a sword with indiscernible implications. Meng Qi suddenly felt the surrounding things peeling off in layers and disappearing, leaving only him receiving the extrusion from all directions. If he couldn’t get out from the restraint, he would be smashed up sooner or later.

The table beside the window seemed to have isolated out of the world — its bustling surroundings remained the same and none of the guests realized anything unusual. They only felt that against the vast river, the scene of the gentle beauty in men’s attire and the slightly weary green-robed man sitting opposite each other was as beautiful as a meaningful painting.

With a strike of her finger, Ren Qiushui displayed the Celestial Slashing Sword to its fullest, leaving no space for anyone’s existence. However, she saw the green-robed man also raise his finger, striking gently likewise.

The sword beam was bright, diving into two, and then four followed by eight, filling the entire void space instantaneously, and every sword beam was of equal strength as the initial one.

They seemed to exist in different spaces and were unable to overlap directly to increase the power of the sword beam by tens of thousands of times, but seemed to be everywhere and spread all over the entire world.

The sword beams were like gorgeous lightning, bending and hitting at the same place with amazing control. Each of them were different but followed on closely, making surging tides look pale in comparison!

Bang!

Facing these tens of thousands of sword beams, the void was unable to recover or wait for help, collapsing after endless blows.

The restraint broke down by itself and the void disappeared, leaving behind the surging river and red water surface due to the sunset. Ren Qiushui’s index finger froze in front of her and she pulled it back only after a long while. Her eyes were bright as she sighed and lamented, “It is indeed a supreme swordplay that I have never seen before.”

Only a person who had personally witnessed it would understand the terror and brilliance of the swordplay. It was not below her Celestial Slashing Swordplay, and was perhaps one of the Seven Strokes of Heaven Interception.

Actually, for a swordplay that had reached this level, it was no longer important whether it was the Seven Strokes of Heaven Interception or not.

“The Celestial Slashing Swordplay also lives up to its reputation,” Meng Qi raised his teacup and toasted from a distance.

Ren Qiushui held her teacup and took a sip. Looking absentminded as though she was recollecting the swordplay earlier on, she sighed, “Your swordplay is powerful and your level is also similar to mine. Why haven’t there been any words about your achievements?”

She subconsciously asked Meng Qi his origins.

After the display of swordsmanship earlier on, Ren Qiushui realized that even if the other party wasn’t an earth immortal, he wasn’t far from it.

Meng Qi shook his head and laughed, “My origins are the same as yours, Fairy Ren.”

It was normal for a person to receive teachings of the Celestial Slashing Sword and become famous after practising hard and attaining Dharmakaya, but Ren Qiushui was already a Dharmakaya when people knew about her. Without sufficient experience and practice, it is impossible to cultivate oneself to Dharmakaya and overcome the shackles to immortality, but Ren Qiushui never had any news on her achievements in this area. Therefore, Meng Qi suspected her to be a mighty person’s successor who entered the world due to some reason and also dressed herself as such a character.

Hearing Meng Qi’s reply, Ren Qiushui raised her eyebrows and nodded while pondering, “No wonder you know the origins of my swordplay.”

Meng Qi had actually wanted to continue asking, because other than the Immortal World, only the Biyue Sword Sect had the inheritance of the four sword manuals — Slaying, Slashing, Invading, and Killing — of Hierarch Tongtian, who was also Lord Lingbao. Moreover, it also seemed to be a complete version, so he had long wanted to get to the bottom of where the Celestial Slashing Sword was inherited from. He could perhaps find out the whereabouts of Lord Lingbao from it and solve the ancient mystery, but he was still merely an acquaintance with Ren Qiushui and asking that hastily could lead to big troubles. As such, he changed the topic and smiled, “Fairy Ren, you’re not someone who is keen in philosophy of the mind and it is also not yet the time to challenge the Heart Saint, what brings you to Luocheng?”

And even stop here!

Ren Qiushui’s eyes lit up and suddenly smiled, “It’s fine to tell you about it, since I’m not afraid of it being leaked out.”

“What is it?” seeing Ren Qiushui’s attitude, Meng Qi suddenly had some interest.

Ren Qiushui played with the teacup as she said smilingly, “Have you heard of Taishang Demon Wu Daoming?”

“This matter is related to him?” Meng Qi asked back as a way of showing that he knew about this Taishang Demon.

What realm has this fifth generation successor of the Devil’s Claws attained currently?

Ren Qiushui smiled as she said, “Wu Daoming first learned from the Sage of Benevolence followed by the Heart Saint. But his thinking got more extreme and gradually went into heterodoxy before getting the Devil’s Claws recognition.”

At the mention of the Devil’s Claws, her expression subconsciously became solemn.

“The Devil’s Claws is an outstanding Heavenly Weapon, bringing bloodshed and massacre with every appearance. After Wu Daoming became its successor, he comprehended the Devil Emperor’s Nine-revolving Skill, destroyed his own body and remodelled the way into Taoism. Thereafter, he would restore his youth once every ten years by transforming into a fetus and going through a growth period of forty-nine days. His abilities remained and every restoration of his youth would make him improve tremendously. But correspondingly, the decrease in his power within the forty-nine days would also put him in great danger,” even though Ren Qiushui was aware that Meng Qi knew about Wu Daoming, she couldn’t help but say a few more sentences.

Given his wits, Meng Qi came to a realization instantly, “Taishang Demon restored his youth once again?”

“Yes. If he transforms successfully again this time, he would step into the divine immortal realm and no one would be able to restrain him. It would just be a matter of time that he creates a demonic calamity.” Ren Qiushui said, “Luckily, he created a hidden danger for himself during the Demonic Sects’ integration. Someone from the heterodox sect betrayed him and told the Sage of Benevolence his hiding place. After a fierce battle, three out of the four heavenly demons around Wu Daoming fell and the remaining one left brought along him who was still a child and escaped. It was very likely that they escaped to Luocheng. There is still eighteen days before he ends his transformation. It would be terrible if he couldn’t be stopped.”

“No wonder the Heart Saint suddenly came to Luocheng to lecture,” Meng Qi nodded slightly, finally understanding that he was indeed a troublemaker, having met with such a thing upon arriving here.

But it seems interesting!

Seeing Ren Qiushui’s worried expression, something struck Meng Qi and he asked, “Fairy Ren, you seem very worried about the matter on the Taishang Demon? Perhaps his damage to the world is still less than others, such as the Tyrant?

Ren Qiushui had wanted to laugh out loud but controlled herself. After calming herself, she said, “The Tyrant is indeed an outstanding character that is hard to come by. Acting as he wished with a tyrannical style and seeking revenge even for the smallest grievance, he had offended many people, and some of his ideas are also very extreme. But most of this is because of his outstanding abilities that caused others to be jealous, and couldn’t be considered as a heterodoxical character. Moreover, although his realm is higher than the Taishang Demon and about the same as the Heart Saint, the Devil’s Claws was a legacy of the ancient Devil Emperor and the weapon of the Demonic Lord during the era of legends. It is not something that his Invincible Blade could match. If it is not restrained, it would create a big disaster sooner or later.”

Clang!

A sound of blade suddenly rang in Meng Qi’s ears — an arrogant blade had expressed its unhappiness.

The Tyrant’s Invincible Blade is still with me? Meng Qi was a little stunned as he suddenly understood this.

There was indeed only one Tyrant’s Invincible Blade in the past and future, but it could also be everywhere in time and space. Being with the Tyrant didn’t prevent it from following him. If he really needed to use it, he totally could draw it out. But if the Tyrant discovered it and led to a change in the world line, the convergence and correction forces would affect the blade and cause it to return to the River of Time in advance. He would also be countered by this force and might be thrown back to the future without any protection, hence it was extremely dangerous.

For a person of Nirvana Realm, being one and only was through backtracking the past, possessing the future and connecting them into one line. The current Tyrant’s Invincible Blade was equal to the past Tyrant’s Invincible Blade and also the future Tyrant’s Invincible Blade. Looking down on the passing of time and the various changes, it could recognize him, and knew how to suffer less from the force of correcting the world line and also how to choose.

If he had wanted to change history, he had to bear the corresponding convergence force. The smaller the change, the smaller the force of convergence. In other words, as long as he didn’t get himself involved in any events on changing the general situation, he could still resist for now.

Meng Qi loosened up a little. Ren Qiushui’s words also meant that the Tyrant had yet to attain Legendary realm and the stage whereby the entire world was his enemy.

Luocheng was perhaps crowded with experts now, which was really interesting.