Lingyuan Immortal

Chapter 912 The best is like water
"clang--!"

The sound of metal clashing together shattered rocks and pierced the clouds. The gilded sword shadow, like a startled swan breaking through the sky, instantly traversed a distance of three hundred feet and heavily struck the Hun Tian Xuan Tie shield.

The shockwave crashed against the shore like a raging torrent, causing peach blossoms to fall in all directions. The lingering sound, carrying the sharp clang of metal striking stone, echoed for a long time among the sea of ​​clouds.

Li Mingyun breathed a sigh of relief, but before his tense nerves could fully relax, he felt an immense force in his palm.

The sudden roar in his ears was like a thunderbolt striking his head, making his seven orifices numb. He forced himself to look, and saw that spiderweb cracks had appeared on the surface of the black iron shield.

The wisps of sword energy, like silver snakes spitting their tongues, snaked their way into the gaps, tearing through the brocade robe before even touching the skin, leaving bloody gashes on the flesh.

"Liang Tianhe's sword intent has actually reached the profound level!"

At this moment, he was well aware that the gap between the two of them had widened again. He gritted his teeth and dared not think too much. He made a hand seal with his ten fingers, almost digging into his palms, and his life essence blood turned into a crimson light and poured into the shield.

However, those infiltrating sword energies were as cunning as a bone-deep ailment; if one's energy was slightly diverted, they would pierce through one's protective aura. In the blink of an eye, one's green robe was already soaked in blood, like plum blossoms blooming in the snow...

The time it takes to burn two incense sticks felt like three autumns, and Liang Tianhe's sword technique had reached its perfect state.

Without further delay, the gilded dragon-entwined sword suddenly hummed, the golden scales of the dragon on its spine stood up, and it transformed into a golden dragon, carrying thousands of sword shadows, soaring into the sky.

In an instant, the sea of ​​clouds surged, and the flying flowers within a hundred feet were reduced to dust.

"boom--!"

Li Mingyun staggered back three steps. When his vision cleared, he saw that his Hun Tian Shield had been broken in two like a brittle lotus root.

Wisps of smoke curled from the cut, and the dragon-shaped sword energy still swirled endlessly on the fragments…

Whispers arose from the spectator stands, while cultivators from different factions exchanged meaningful glances.

Both are at the peak of the Golden Core stage and wield top-grade magic treasures, yet this overwhelming force clearly demonstrates the vast difference between them...

Seeing that he had won, Liang Tianhe had a thousand thoughts in his heart about wanting to teach his opponent an "extra" lesson, but he still held back.

Although the two had agreed to fight to the death, the situation was different now. With so many powerful families watching, if he were to actually kill his opponent, it would only cause unnecessary trouble for his family.

Li Mingyun, however, did not think too much about it. Seeing that the other party had no intention of killing him, he relaxed.

His momentary relaxation made him appear somewhat lost, and it took him a while to regain his senses. As he knelt before the Li clan leader, his body stained with blood, he said, "This junior is incompetent, please punish me, clan leader."

Li Dan's expression was as calm as a lake, revealing no emotion whatsoever. He did not respond, but simply waved him away, then poured out the aroma of tea to mask the bloodstains on the ground.

The crisp sound of the white jade cup hitting the table seemed to mark the end of this contest...

Li Dan flicked his sleeves and turned to Chen Mu, his voice as cold as frost: "Now that we have determined who is superior among the juniors, would Fellow Daoist Chen be willing to discuss the Dao with me?"

Chen Muqing's loud laughter startled the copper bells on the eaves: "That is exactly what I wish for."

Two gazes clashed in mid-air, creating invisible sparks. The onlookers felt a tightness in the back of their necks and held their breath, waiting for the show to begin.

"This first bet..."

Li Dan narrowed his eyes and looked at Xuan Jizi. When the bet was set earlier, he had a sudden inspiration and said three rounds. In order to get Chen Mu to agree, he signaled to Xuan Jizi to step up and take the lead.

I initially thought there was no problem choosing him as the person for this first duel, but just now I clearly saw that his only son was hanging out with the Liang family, which makes things a bit puzzling...

If Xuanji Zi wavers between the two families and deliberately loses to the Liang family...

This is something that cannot be ignored.

Faced with Li Dan's scrutiny, Xuanji Zi felt as if he were being pricked by thorns the moment he made a move.

He was about to express his loyalty when he noticed that everyone's gaze suddenly turned to the opposite side, and even Li Dan's gaze shifted there.

He was startled and subconsciously looked over as well.

On the Liang family's side, Liang Tian's body was surging with qi, and he was about to rise into the clouds when Chen Mu pressed two fingers on his shoulder.

The two then whispered a few words to each other. Liang Tian stopped in his tracks, looking shocked. Chen Mu stepped forward, stood with his hands behind his back, and waited for their chosen representative...

Li Dan frowned immediately and asked loudly, "What is the meaning of this, Fellow Daoist Chen?"

"What is Clan Chief Li hesitating about again?"

Chen Mu laughed loudly: "Is it really that difficult to choose the people for the first round?"

Li Dan's pupils contracted sharply, as if he had suddenly realized something, and he said in a deep voice, "It seems that Fellow Daoist Chen never intended for Clan Chief Liang to participate in the battle from the beginning..."

Chen Mu remained expressionless, but his meaning was self-evident.

Everyone then understood the situation and clicked their tongues in astonishment.

If even Liang Tian doesn't participate in the three gambling matches, wouldn't that mean that Chen Mu is the only person on Liang's side?
Is this a sign of complete confidence and disregard for the Li family, or is it arrogance, ignorance, and foolishness?

Within the arched eaves, a figure in a golden robe finally opened his eyes and gave Chen Mu a meaningful look…

Li Dan remained silent for a moment, then suddenly sneered: "What an arrogant fool!"

He slowly rose and strode forward, intending to be the first to charge into battle.

He was already hesitant about whether to let Xuanjizi go on stage again, but now that the other party had no intention of delaying, he was happy to finish the battle quickly.

Even if he loses to his opponent in a best-of-three series, he can still exhaust most of the opponent's strength with his long-forged "Stone Emperor Blade".

When that time comes, and Golden Shadow True Monarch makes his move, wouldn't it be easy to win two matches in a row?
Li Dan secretly began to think. He stood opposite Chen Mu, cupped his hands in a salute, and said loudly, "In that case, I will personally experience your profound skills, fellow Daoist!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he shook his body, and streams of primordial yellow smoke gushed out from his seven orifices. In an instant, the entire area within a hundred miles became his Qiankun Dharma Image!
Xuanji Zi was still feeling guilty towards Li Dan because of his only son. However, seeing that Li Dan was completely disregarding the spiritual veins of Chuntao Mountain and recklessly manipulating his Dharma Form, causing the peach blossoms on the summit of Chuntao Mountain to fall and the spiritual energy to diminish, Xuanji Zi cursed under his breath and quickly activated the Chuntao Mountain formation to isolate the fluctuations from the outside.

Even so, as the two figures confronted each other, some parts of the mountain inevitably trembled and cracked open into spiderweb-like ravines.

Li Dan's momentum was extremely high because he did not intend to delay for too long, lest Chen Mu find a balance.

Behold, the green rock beneath his feet instantly transformed into a vortex of quicksand, and the Xuanhuang Gang Qi erupted from behind his Dharma form, with nine stone dragons bursting through the earth and soaring into the sky, their heads radiating a sharp edge that breathed out earth spirit energy.

"Fellow Daoist Chen, behold my Earth-based Orthodox Method!"

Li Dan's pupils gleamed with an ochre-colored light, and countless specks of stardust burst forth from between the stone dragon's scales.

Chen Mu's robes fluttered in the wind, and the Clear Source True Water between his fingers condensed into the character Kan in seal script. Suddenly, a mighty tide sounded behind him. When everyone looked over, they were shocked to see that the raging waves of the sea, which were some distance away, had been drawn up to the clouds and transformed into a waterfall that cascaded down from the sky.

The moment the stone dragon crashed into the water curtain, Li Dan remained completely calm. As a native of the Void, a land of abundant water, although he was not a True Lord of Water, how many water-based opponents had he encountered in his thousand-year journey?

He already had his own set of tricks for dealing with water-based opponents.

How can Kan water overcome Wu earth?

He sneered and made a hand seal, but suddenly the water droplets in the sky froze in mid-air. Each drop of water was wrapped with stardust, and instantly became heavier than a thousand pounds.

Seeing that Chen Mu was about to be devoured by his own magic, his eyes lit up. But before he could feel happy, he saw the other man's lips curl up slightly, and then the moonlight suddenly refracted from the millions of falling water droplets.

"The moon in the water, the flower in the mirror."

Chen Mu rose up on the waves, each step creating ripples in the void.

Li Dan did not want to delay, but little did he know that he wanted to finish the matter quickly. After this matter was over, he still had to plan the matter of spirit pets. Where would he have the time to get entangled with these unimportant people?

A moon, like a reflection in water, rose up, its light mingling with the sun in the sky. Water droplets, stained with stardust, blurred in the moonlight, transforming into three thousand phantoms that pierced through the stone dragon's body.

Li Dan's expression changed. Faced with the Daoist technique that made him feel a strange sense of crisis, he dared not relax his guard any longer. He quickly activated his Daoist artifact to protect himself, and the Stone Emperor Blade rang out. At the same time, he summoned a hundred-zhang rock barrier to protect himself.

Those watching gasped in astonishment. They had just been shocked by Chen Mu's unfathomable Taoist magic, and now they saw Li Yan's famous Taoist artifact, the "Stone Emperor Blade"!
Apart from the Wu, Sun, and Liu families who were feeling uneasy, everyone else, even if they didn't show it on their faces, was extremely satisfied at this moment, feeling that this show was incredibly exciting...

"Break it for me!"

Li Dan roared, and the magical power of the Dao Inquiry Realm surged out like a tidal wave. The moment he swung the Stone Emperor Blade, three pitch-black cracks were plowed into the void where the blade passed.

These spatial wounds constantly seep out stardust, which, upon landing, erodes the surrounding mountains and rocks into dust.

Chen Mu's heart skipped a beat, and he immediately retreated swiftly by controlling the water. A blade of energy grazed his hair and cleanly severed the hundred-foot peach forest behind him in two, the cut as smooth as a mirror.

"Good baby."

He praised him, but Li Dan seemed not to hear him. In the instant that the nine stone dragons came crashing down, he spun around and unleashed a ring of sword energy.

Wherever the blade passed, the suspended waterfall was cleaved into seventeen independent water clumps, each facet shimmering with an earthy yellow aura, like a river specimen cast in amber.

Chen Mu remained unmoved, using his true water to form a shield to block, but the Stone Emperor Blade suddenly pierced through the void, its tip carrying the power to crush mountains, and instantly struck him.

"Chen Zhenjun!"

The Liang family members gasped in surprise, but before their voices could even fade, Chen Mu's figure exploded into pieces, leaving only a trail of water and no other signs of injury.

"how is this possible?"

Not only Li Dan's pupils shrank, but everyone watching stared in disbelief at Chen Mu's figure, which reappeared in the water. How could he be unharmed when he was struck by the Stone Emperor Blade?
"Such a profound technique exists? Could it be some kind of legendary immortal art...?"

Just as everyone was stunned, the peach tree on the mountaintop suddenly swayed, which turned out to be the "Ling Shu Qing Yuan Zhen Shui" using the wood spirit to urge the blossoms to bloom.

Chen Mu's sword finger swept across the peach petals covering the mountain, each petal carrying the power of the tides of the four seas. The seemingly delicate flying flowers struck the rock barrier and produced a metallic clang.

Li Dan instinctively roared and swung his blade, cleaving through the void. The nine stone dragons merged into one, transforming into a giant seal that guarded the mountain!

However, the enormous seal, despite its overwhelming power, was gradually dissolved by the fine threads formed from countless moonbeams when it touched the water curtain in front of Chen Mu.

Seeing this, Li Dan forced himself to calm down, no longer comparing it with the Dao of Qiankun Evolution, but gritted his teeth and slashed with his sword, using pure, sharp light to cut it down.

The next moment, the water curtain was neatly cut open like a thin silk, and the earth elemental energy condensed at the point where the flow stopped instantly transformed into thousands of stone spikes that rolled back.

Overjoyed, he seized the opportunity to pursue, biting his tongue and spitting his blood onto the blade, instantly revealing natural mountain-like patterns on the edge.

Then, with another slash in mid-air, a slash that left a sky-piercing blade mark not only tore through the illusionary barrier, but also left a deep gorge a hundred feet deep on the main peak of Spring Peach Mountain. The rock walls on both sides were as smooth as a carefully polished jade disc, and dark golden spiritual energy could be faintly seen flowing in the stone veins...

However, the truth is always uncertain, and even if the knife marks are sharp and unparalleled, they will still fall on Chen Mu in a real way.
Having mastered the first level of "Mirror Flower Water Moon," Chen Mu was now invincible...

Looking at Chen Mu, who was still unharmed, Li Dan's eyes twitched uncontrollably, his spiritual energy was boiling, and his sword strikes became increasingly frenzied. He attacked again, refusing to believe that he was being attacked!
Wherever the blade tip passed, cracks appeared in the void, creating earth-yellow patterns—a sign that he was forcibly infusing the earth's malevolent energy into his sword intent.

The resulting ripples were immense, and several of the onlookers were seen vomiting blood and retreating, while the vegetation on the mountaintop withered and turned yellow in an instant.

"break!"

When he shattered Chen Mu's illusion for the seventh time, the Stone Emperor Blade in his hand suddenly cracked, the mountain patterns on the blade's spine broke off inch by inch, and the dark gold spiritual power soared into the sky like a trapped dragon breaking free of its shackles.

Chen Mu's true form was finally revealed, his robes fluttering and creating shimmering light, and he was actually standing on the upside-down phantom of Spring Peach Mountain.

"I see!"

Suddenly, someone in the audience slammed their fist on the jade railing, shattering it. "He's turned the entire Spirit Mountain into a water mirror!"

"What kind of magic is this, that it possesses such power..."

Before he finished speaking, the thousands of peach petals suddenly froze, each petal reflecting the image of Li Dan holding a knife, while the real Chen Mu had already merged into the moonlight covering the mountain...

Li Dan suddenly froze on the spot, realizing that the power of his seven strikes was now surging back from all directions.

The stone dragon groaned and crumbled, while the phantom of the Mountain-Suppressing Seal appeared and disappeared above its head. That was originally his innate Dao technique, which he had kept as a backup plan, but now it was reflected in the water mirror, revealing dense cracks...

Chen Mu ascended the steps bathed in moonlight, the sound of the tide behind him transforming into an ancient dragon's roar: "Fellow Daoist Li, do you know that water has three phases?"

Before he finished speaking, the pure water that had seeped into the mountain suddenly vaporized, and the entire Chuntao Mountain was instantly shrouded in mist. Li Dan was shocked to realize that the earth spirit true energy in his body was flowing away with the water vapor.

Moreover, the Stone Emperor Blade in his hand suddenly let out a mournful cry, its surface soaked with water stains, and it refused to stay there any longer. Before anyone could react, it had already transformed into a beam of dark yellow light and flown into the sky and disappeared.

Everyone was immediately taken aback. This situation clearly indicated that the artifact had been damaged and was now actively returning to its owner...

Li Dan's eyes flickered, realizing he had no chance of winning, but mindful of depleting Chen Mu's magical power, he refused to admit defeat and gritted his teeth to persevere.

Before long, the Dharma image behind him dissipated, as all his magical power had been completely consumed by the water vapor...

The room fell silent for a moment, with only a gentle breeze blowing, which swept up ten thousand peach petals wrapped in moonlight and condensed into a water sword that hung between Li Dan's brows.

Chen Mu smiled calmly, standing at the forefront of the tide, and said softly, "Steel cannot last, and softness cannot be maintained. Today, I borrow the strength of your Earth element to achieve my own way of 'the highest good is like water'..."

Under the sun and moonlight, the thousands of peach trees on Spring Peach Mountain shone brightly, and the traces of the previous battle had unknowingly transformed into sweet rain that nourished the peach grove...

……

(End of this chapter)