Evil Venerable of the Sword Dao-Chapter 155 - 052 Immortal Fist

The brief distance, like worlds apart.

Zhou Yan had been traveling towards the ancient city visibly close at hand for nearly two hours, yet he felt no closer to it.

The old and eerie city still stood before him.

Above the sky was a Blood Sea, overturned above the ancient city. Atop the Blood Sea there was an altar, and on the altar, an inexplicable flame danced.

That calling had always existed on the ancient altar, as if there, lay the most important thing for him.

Zhou Yan’s forward steps halted, his gaze fixed on the ancient altar. Vaguely, he could still discern an unclear, vast illusion on the altar.

And that calling originated from the illusion itself.

"It is now confirmed that what calls out to me is not related to that statue but to that illusion."

"This is a land of death, fraught with crises, where a slight misstep could lead to irreversible doom."

"There are also many yin spirits and evil spirits here; it’s not plain sailing ahead. The reason for my current safety is purely the suppression of the environment."

Zhou Yan muttered to himself, not in a trance but seeing everything incredibly clearly.

Yet, he continued moving forward, as if he had an unspeakable faith-like control over it all.

...

"Hiss—"

The blood roared, and Zhou Yan’s figure had now approached the ancient, enormous city.

Two hours ago, he was still in a distant land, but after another two hours, he seemed as though he had traversed the distance of time and space, suddenly appearing here.

This place, an immortal ancient land.

Heaven and Earth here had decayed, but this ancient city still maintained its vigorous essence.

The towering city stood like a giant between Heaven and Earth.

It was rooted deeply, soared into the skies, and pierced through the heavens and the ground, making it impossible to see its beginning and end.

Standing before such a monumental city, even a divine being would feel exceedingly insignificant, and despite Zhou Yan’s confidence in himself, he also felt his own insignificance.

He deeply experienced how minuscule he was, like an ant.

"Thinking of the vastness of Heaven and Earth, alone I choke up and tears fall."

On the ancient city, old runes carried such ancient words, filled with endless melancholy and solitude.

Zhou Yan shook all over. These words came from Earth in the Huaxia World, where his master was from; having inherited his master’s memories, he naturally recognized them.

This realization suddenly made him understand that this ancient city, the solitary flute-playing lady and his master, must have left a special story here.

He stopped guessing, because upon arriving here, like mountains and waters, resentful spirits rushed and roared at him.

An oppressive mass, extremely horrifying.

These spirits, without distinct shapes, could take any form, yet none looked pleasant.

Zhou Yan’s heart sank slightly, and at this moment, he no longer remained silent or indifferent; instead, the blood qi in his heart suddenly ignited, surrounding him with a terrifying aura of Purple Flame Breath, like the very essence of Tao rules.

Like an ancient deity, he suddenly had two special halos circling behind him.

The first halo was blood-colored, representing his Essence Blood infused with the old will, blending with the Tao around his body, manifesting anomalies.

The exterior layer, or the second layer, was enveloped in the aura of Purple Flame Thunder, the Thunder Flame Aura from the Void Thunder Tribulation. This aura encircling the outer layer of Zhou Yan’s body made him fearless against the impact of these resentful spirits.

Thunder, inherently righteous and sharp, is supremely restraining against yin and evil, and Zhou Yan’s Thunder Tribulation Qi, having previously slain formidable beings of the Shattering Void—even though the Thunder Tribulation Inheritance he had acquired was still weak—no lowly resentful spirit dared charge at such Thunder Tribulation Qi.

Indeed, upon the appearance of these halos, wherever they shone, a terrifying black mist immediately rose.

Countless resentful spirits, like evil ghosts thrown into boiling oil, struggled and roared agonizingly, their voices as grating as tearing one’s soul.

Zhou Yan ignored this noise; traversing this path, even the most ferocious spirits and evil spirits would clear a path for him directly.

Once inside the ancient city, Zhou Yan did not perceive anything within; instead, upon reaching the ancient altar below, his body suddenly shot up from the ground, relying on his physical strength, and soared.

Below, a tremendous force erupted, and the entire city, as if a bomb had been dropped suddenly, resounded with a muffled explosion, following which the ground trembled.

Now, with his physical strength alone, Zhou Yan was almost unmatched within the Sword Soul Realm, having become incredibly formidable.

Using his physical power, he leaped into the void, with one step reaching the insurmountably high ancient altar.

Upon reaching there, he didn’t continue moving, but Zhou Yan’s gaze suddenly darkened.

There, three people had arrived before him.

Among these three, one stood directly in front of the altar, another was restrained and imprisoned, and the last one remained hidden and had not appeared.

As Zhou Yan arrived, the black-clad young man standing by the altar also had a sudden stern look, and thereafter, his gaze became as vicious as a venomous snake.

"Zhou Yan! I didn’t expect you to dare show up here! Truly, heaven is helping me too!"

The young man spoke with a sinister expression that appeared even more ferocious.

"Heaven helps you too? You, a piece of trash who has been beaten by me countless times, dare to speak so boldly!"

Zhou Yan snickered coldly, and a hint of ferocity appeared on his face as he stared at the youth in black clothes.

"Young Master Zhou... you, you should go quickly, I—I still have the strength for one more strike, I’ve been saving it, I can hold him off, he’s gone mad!"

At this moment, a man in green clothes, completely immobilized, stood beside the youth in black, sending a feeble message to Zhou Yan.

This message was cleverly conveyed, so much so that it would have been hard to capture if it were not for Zhou Yan’s exceptional sensing power.

On the contrary, the youth in black seemed unaware of this, showing no sensing ability towards this scene.

"Pan Yuming, don’t worry, and don’t think that he, Ji Taichong, doesn’t know about your situation. Just wait and see. Watch how I kill this trash once again!"

Zhou Yan glanced at the man in green clothes; he recognized him at first sight—it was the missing Pan Yuming.

As for the man in black, he was the culprit behind all past troubles—Ji Taichong.

"Speak so boldly? Zhou Yan, do you think that just because you’ve achieved the Sword Spirit and could even possess the strength to break through level six, you can move against me?

Previously, it was only because I was careless and subdued by the Ancient Array that you had the opportunity. Now, Jiang Yuning has been slain by me, and her Spirit has been absorbed by me. Do you still think to challenge me? I’ll let you know what it means to be worse than—"

He didn’t finish his sentence; the word ’dead’ was not yet spoken when he had already launched an attack with his sword.

This sword was enveloped with a vast Sword Intent, which regarded all beings as mere ants!

Moreover, under this sword, an illusion of a man in black robes appeared in the Sword Soul Illusion, extending a finger and poking towards Zhou Yan.

This finger seemed to pierce through heaven and earth, penetrating the sun, moon, and the universe.

This finger seemed to pierce through the very fabric of heaven and earth.

Despite appearing slow, this finger had already struck preemptively, reaching its mark in an instant even as the other’s words were half-spoken.

Zhou Yan heard Ji Taichong’s words, mentioning Jiang Yuning’s death, and he was slightly shocked!

And it was precisely this shock that Ji Taichong used to strike!

With Ji Taichong’s strength and ability, the fact that he still needed to first unsettle Zhou Yan’s mental state before seizing the moment to strike first showed that facing Zhou Yan was definitely not as easy as he imagined.

...

This finger, from small to large, suddenly became as huge as a mountain, pressing down towards Zhou Yan’s head—a condensed mixture of Sword Spirit and ancient Sword Intent, containing the profound Secret Technique of swordsmanship treating all beings as mere ants, no less powerful than Xingyi Swordsmanship.

Zhou Yan was almost unable to defend himself.

Yet, Zhou Yan did not dodge; he roared in anger and threw a punch.

Heaven and Earth forged the Sword Dao, the sun and moon nourished the Divine Soul!

For the first time, Xingyi Fist took shape within Zhou Yan’s soul and bloodline, and then he threw out that punch.

That punch was like an Annihilation Fist, like shattering the Void - with Zhou Yan’s body even tougher than the Green Lotus Armor, it was truly a sight that changed the heavens and the earth.

A purple Thunder Flame Aura branded an extraordinary illusion, as if the Fist Intent had branded the Sword Soul.

And that bloody Blood Qi, too, seemed to have condensed into the Fist Intent.

Wind from the dragon, clouds from the tiger.

The Dragon and Tiger Fist possessed the aura that seizes everything under heaven and earth and the pose of all beasts reigning supreme.

This punch, though released after, arrived first, directly colliding with that finger.

Heaven and Earth were instantly serene.

"Chichi—"

"Crack—"

That serene moment seemed like eternity frozen in time.

Then, that finger, as if the universe itself had shattered, suddenly broke apart.

Ji Taichong almost simultaneously shrieked miserably, his body suddenly as if struck by lightning, directly flying backwards.

But this was not the end, but just the beginning.

The moment the finger shattered, the Fist Intent suddenly moved like instantaneous movement, piercing through the void, striking right into Ji Taichong’s chest.

"Puchi—"

His chest caved in.

His bones were completely pulverized!

His Spirit Armor, in that instant, turned directly into dust.

But this was just one Fist Mark.

The Dragon and Tiger combining Xingyi Fist, at this moment, had only issued a single Fist Mark.

As the shattered Sword Soul Illusion collapsed directly, Zhou Yan’s fist, after making its mark, froze the moment and then continued its course, completely unaffected by that finger.

This time, this punch, like a punch from ancient times emerging anew, struck his chest again in the moment Ji Taichong was sent flying.