“Condensing Cloud Water Formation! Activate!”

The moment Qin Fan’s snort faded, Lan Xiaosheng’s expression hardened. With a violent bellow, he unleashed the full might of a Grandmaster as terrifying Inner Strength from the Great Success of the Transformation Realm burst forth.

SIZZLE! SIZZLE! SIZZLE!

Under his vast and imposing aura, the shifting white clouds suddenly froze. In the blink of an eye, they instantaneously transformed into water. It was water that floated without falling, as if an entire river or sea existed in the void below.

“My god! This… this is one of the Divine Skills from Heavenly Master Taoism! To think the Great Success of the Transformation Realm could be so terrifying?” an old, white-haired man cried out tremblingly from the distant crowd, his mouth agape in disbelief.

Condensing clouds into water? Is this something that can be controlled within the scope of Martial Arts?

The martial artists, who had only ever known of Grandmasters by reputation and had never seen one truly display their power, were all dumbstruck. This battle was completely revolutionizing their understanding of Martial Arts. Everyone knew that Transformation Realm Grandmasters were fearsomely powerful, but no one had ever imagined a Grandmaster at the Great Success stage could be this formidable!

“Qin Fan, if you hadn’t come to this sea of clouds, perhaps you might have stood a chance! But here, this is my territory! This is Lan Xiaosheng’s domain! Today, your death is inevitable!”

Standing atop the Cloud Water, the arrogance that had previously faded from Lan Xiaosheng’s face resurfaced. The moment he finished speaking, he moved, his body instantly shifting three meters backward.

“Condense water into a sword! Sword Raising!”

As he spoke, Lan Xiaosheng stretched out both hands and swung them upward. The next moment, countless Water Swords shot up from beneath the Cloud Water, arcing toward Qin Fan in a volley of parabolic trajectories!

“Lan Xiaosheng, is this your ultimate move?” Qin Fan asked, standing nonchalantly on the water’s surface, his tone dripping with mockery.

“Ignorant whelp!”

It seemed the taunt on Qin Fan’s face had ignited a raging fire in Lan Xiaosheng’s heart.

A young brat on the verge of death still dares to mock me? Damn it! He should have died long ago!

With a furious, cold snort, Lan Xiaosheng lifted his right foot. Gathering all the Inner Strength of his Great Success state, he angrily slammed it down onto the water’s surface.

PLUNK!

The sound was as light as a single pebble dropping into water. But in the next second, within a hundred-meter radius, countless Water Swords erupted from the Cloud Water. The scene was as shockingly magnificent as a field of gushing fountains.

At the same time, Lan Xiaosheng raised both hands above his head, moving them in a Tai Chi-like rotation. “All Swords Return to the Root! Kill!”

“Here comes the ultimate attack!”

“Those Water Swords are powerful enough to pierce mountains and shatter stone! If they hit him, it’s a guaranteed death!”

“It’s over!”

“There’s no hope for him now!”

After Lan Xiaosheng shouted “All Swords Return to the Root,” how could the martial artists—who had seen a thing or two, even if they hadn’t experienced it firsthand—not understand that this was a Divine Skill for gathering all the Water Swords into one final, overwhelming assault?

Ten thousand Water Swords. Ten thousand blades, each capable of piercing mountains and splitting stone with a mere touch. How could Qin Fan possibly hope to block them? They hadn’t forgotten that Qin Fan had previously taken Lan Xiaosheng’s rain of arrows head-on with his body. And now, he faced ten thousand Water Swords, each countless times sharper than those arrows.

Could his body withstand this?

Forget Qin Fan; even if Hua Xiaotian himself were here, he wouldn’t dare face such an attack directly. Most importantly, Qin Fan had already missed his best chance to escape. Trapped within the inescapable encirclement of the All Swords Return to the Root, where could he run? He faced a desperate situation with no escape to the heavens and no path into the earth.

“Master Hua, is this the end?” a middle-aged man behind Hua Xiaotian asked, swallowing nervously. Witnessing Lan Xiaosheng’s might today had deepened his reverence for Grandmasters. For anyone who witnessed this battle, the phrase ‘A Grandmaster must not be insulted’ would be ingrained in their minds with an even deeper sense of awe and fear from this day forward. Looking at the spell-like Divine Skills both combatants had displayed, they had to ask themselves: who among them could withstand even a single one of those attacks?

“I don’t know,” Hua Xiaotian replied, his tone as indifferent as ever.

Reason told him the battle was already decided. And yet, the brazen smile on Qin Fan’s face grated on his nerves. Did that brazen smile mean he still had an ace up his sleeve?

“Young Grandmaster, it’s over!” Lan Xiaosheng sneered. With a surge of Inner Strength, he thrust his rotating hands forward.

SWOOSH! SWOOSH! SWOOSH!

SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!

At Lan Xiaosheng’s command, the ten thousand Water Swords swirled into a vortex, closing in on Qin Fan from all directions, leaving no gap. It all happened in an instant. Before the first few Water Swords Lan Xiaosheng had launched had even reached Qin Fan, the ten thousand blades were upon him.

Standing on the surface of the water and feeling the immense power of the ten thousand swords rushing toward him, Qin Fan closed his eyes. The Cangqiong Refining Body Decision cultivation technique surfaced in his sea of consciousness. In a moment of absolute clarity, it was the only thing in his mind.

Just as the ten thousand swords were about to pierce him, Qin Fan’s lips moved.

“True Yuan, solidify. Prison Suppressing Body, manifest!”

As the words were uttered, Qin Fan’s jaw clenched. One-third of the True Yuan in his Dantian surged wildly. It coursed through his meridians and bones, finally blanketing his skin. A layer of cyan light suddenly erupted, covering his entire body.

By using True Yuan as a source to forcibly strengthen the nascent Prison Suppressing Body, he could forcefully elevate its Grade. The price was the depletion of one-third of his True Yuan. If this were the Cangqiong Continent, Qin Fan would never be so reckless, as losing that much True Yuan would make it nearly impossible to survive another encounter with a powerful enemy. But here on Earth, as long as he could kill Lan Xiaosheng, exhausting all his True Yuan was a price worth paying.

As the Prison Suppressing Body’s Grade was forcibly raised, a faint, greenish-blue radiance enveloped him completely.

At that moment, the ten thousand Water Swords arrived.

Many martial artists turned their eyes away, unable to watch the gruesome scene of a body being pierced by ten thousand blades. To them, the outcome was a foregone conclusion.

“How is this possible?!”

But in the next instant, an incredulous, thunderous shout echoed between heaven and earth. The cry didn’t come from anyone nearby. It originated from far away, out in the sea of clouds beyond the Golden Summit.

SWISH!

On reflex, the martial artists who had looked away whipped their heads back around, only to see their companions staring, dumbfounded, their faces slack with utter shock.

Lifting their gazes to look into the distance, their eyes fell upon the scene in the sea of clouds, and everyone froze.

The air seemed to still. Time appeared to stop.

How is this possible! How is this POSSIBLE!

Yes, the shocked cry that had erupted from Lan Xiaosheng was exactly what they were all thinking.

There, standing calmly on the surface of the Cloud Water, was Qin Fan. An army of ten thousand Water Swords hung frozen in the air, their tips a mere three centimeters from his body.

“Lan Xiaosheng, surprised?” Qin Fan asked scornfully, a wide, arrogant grin spreading across his face.

“You, you… how did you do it?” Lan Xiaosheng’s voice trembled violently, completely unable to believe what he was seeing.

If Qin Fan had used some Divine Skill to neutralize his All Swords Return to the Root, he could have accepted it. But this situation—the ten thousand swords simply frozen in place—combined with Qin Fan’s brazen taunt, caused a sense of crisis to surge uncontrollably from the depths of his heart.

“You don’t need to know how I did it,” Qin Fan said. “Come, let’s turn your own move against you! Why don’t you have a taste of your own All Swords Return to the Root!”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep