Da Xuan Martial Saint-Chapter 644 - 376 Various Reactions
Chapter 644: Chapter 376 Various Reactions
Cold North.
In a certain Lake Heart Island of Song State.
Surrounded by water on all sides, the center of the small island featured a serene pavilion where a figure sat motionless like a wooden statue or a stone carving. The nearby stone platforms and tables were coated with a layer of dust visible to the naked eye, indicating they had not been disturbed for a long time. However, the simple commoner’s clothes on this person’s body were spotlessly clean.
In front of him, a saber floated silently in the void, a seemingly simple and utterly quiet blade with a thick and mysterious pattern that paradoxically appeared weightless as it hovered in the air.
A martial artist who reaches the Blood Exchange Realm becomes a transcendental existence in the world, a single person equal to a force capable of supporting a sect like the Seven Profound Sect that administers a State Government Office. However, when it comes to the strongest in the world, only two people from the Cold North Eleven States are listed. One is Yuan Hong, the King of North Garrison, and the other is Gongyang Yu of the Heavenly Blade.
For these unparalleled individuals who have thoroughly understood the third step of the artistic conception and reached the Realm of Unity of Heaven and Man, it is extremely difficult to discern who is superior or inferior among them. Their rankings are not as publicly debated as those in the Wind Cloud List or the Grandmaster charts.
...
However.
There is generally still some distinction in rankings.
Whether Yuan Hong’s strength could enter the top ten in the world was a matter of some contention, with the majority believing he would not make the top twenty, let alone the top ten, but Gongyang Yu was universally acknowledged as being able to rank within the top five in the world, or even the top three!
The Heavenly Saber Faction he created represented the pinnacle of the path of the saber, collecting all saber intents of the current age and transforming them into something not inferior to the Heavenly Sword Sect’s Heavenly Sword Path, one of the very peak existences in Martial Arts.
But as for what rank he could attain, there was no consensus, nor did anyone dare to rank him.
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Suddenly.
A ripple of invisible waves emanated through the void, as if carrying some message.
Gongyang Yu, who seemed to have been sitting under the pavilion for years, finally slowly opened his eyes. His eyes were ancient and simple, and there was no saber intent leaking from him, making him seem like nothing more than a common old woodcutter.
He slowly stood up and gazed toward the direction of Ice State, a ripple of emotion appearing in his eyes.
“Tuoba Xi, my junior brother, has left,” he murmured.
The old man sighed softly.
Tuoba Xi and he were disciples of the same sect, competing against each other since childhood, insisting on determining a winner in everything. Although there were victories in other pursuits, Tuoba Xi had never surpassed him by half a step on the path of the saber and had always been a rank below.
He had never really considered Tuoba Xi as a rival and had never given any thought to any contest in the way of the saber. He was simply walking his own path, practicing his own saber.
It is said that where there is no contention, none can contend.
Tuoba Xi always had Gongyang Yu’s ‘Heavenly Blade’ in his heart, so he was never able to take that final step, hindering him at the Grandmaster level for over a hundred years, whereas Gongyang Yu had never allowed Tuoba Xi’s ‘Absolute Blade’ into his thoughts from the very beginning.
Perhaps, in his final moments, Tuoba Xi had finally understood the essence of the saber and why it commands such authority.
“Chen Mu, huh…”
The ripples in Gongyang Yu’s eyes gradually calmed, and he mentioned another name.
In this chaotic world,
indeed emerged an extraordinary individual.
Gongyang Yu gently lifted his hand and took hold of the Heavenly Blade floating in the air, which had terrified the world for over a hundred years. As the blade touched his hand, his entire demeanor underwent a sudden change.
Previously resembling a plain old woodcutter, but as he grasped the Heavenly Blade, the overflowing saber intent seemed like the Milky Way falling from the ninth heaven. Though he was merely holding the saber aloft, it gave the impression that it could cleave the very sky in two.
He looked down at the Heavenly Blade in his hand.
His saber intent was not directed at Chen Mu, for Tuoba Xi did not fall by Chen Mu’s hand, but died of natural causes, defeated by the vastness of fate and the lifespan that no mortal can defy, just as Gongyang Yu, before the passage of time, was also mortal.
Tuoba Xi had lived for 150 years, traversing the world with his Absolute Blade without ever diligently preserving his essence. Even as a peak Grandmaster, his lifespan was naturally comparable only to average Grandmasters. Gongyang Yu, having entered the Blood Exchange Realm, naturally had a much longer lifespan. However, his cultivation of the Heavenly Blade, a supremely domineering and unrivaled path, also disregarded nurturing life-force and could last at most a little over two hundred years.
“Skin Toughening, Body Refinement, Tendon Changing, Bone Tempering, Viscera Refining, Organ Tempering, Marrow Cleansing, Blood Exchange.”
“Even upon reaching the Blood Exchange Realm, it is impossible to resist the erosion of time.”
Gongyang Yu murmured to himself.
Once a martial artist steps into the Blood Exchange Realm, they can completely lock in their essence blood to prevent loss, but as long as they exist within heaven and earth, they will inevitably interact with it, unable to completely isolate themselves.
As long as one has contact with this world, as long as one still inhabits a body of flesh and blood, they will lose their vitality over time, and ultimately, like all things, come to an end when their life is exhausted.
“Martial Arts, how can it be Immortal?”
Gongyang Yu looked up at the sky.
It was a question he started pondering decades ago, or, more accurately, a question that most who have reached his level, arrived at the Unity of Heaven and Man, and come to the true end of the Martial Path, begin to explore.
The eight realms of Body Tempering Martial Arts were not achieved overnight, but were carefully discerned step by step by countless martial arts’ predecessors, a process of continuous expansion and summary until they were ultimately established.
Gongyang Yu knew that the history of the Blood Exchange Realm dated back nearly ten thousand years, while the Marrow Cleansing Realm was beyond reckoning.
