Techniques and Dao

Chapter 77 The Academy is in peril

Mingyou reacted instantly, raising his palm towards the merged sword. The sword immediately lost speed, stopping in mid-air, unable to get any closer to Mingyou!

The Supreme Lord Xiaojun, who was enduring the burning pain, suddenly changed his expression. Fearing that he would miss the opportunity, he dared not retreat even half a step.

In the blink of an eye, a black ribbon appeared out of nowhere and pierced through his back and chest!

Tai Shang Xiao Jun was taken aback. Seeing that he was seriously injured by Ming You, he slightly moved his lips and revealed an inscrutable smile.

Then, with a snap, he and his longsword turned into a wisp of green smoke and vanished before Mingyou's eyes. Upon closer inspection, it turned out that the ribbon had been severed into just a single hair.

Tai Shang Xiao Jun had anticipated that he would be discovered and used a sleight of hand in advance!

Almost at the same time the dummy disappeared, Tai Shang Xiao Jun's figure flashed into the air to the right of Ming You, accompanied by a long sword burning fiercely as it thrust straight at him!

"Naive! A pathetic little trick!" Mingyou replied with disdain.

Although he had fallen for Tai Shang Xiao Jun's trick, he had only allowed the other party to get half a step closer. Ming You instantly turned his other palm toward the two longswords that were thrusting at him.

However, a strange thing happened: the speed of the longsword did not slow down at all, and it was about to pierce her palm in the blink of an eye!

Mingyou was shocked. She couldn't understand how she could not stop Taishang Xiaojun with her magic power. She immediately stretched out her other hand and cast a spell with both palms to protect herself.

But the speed of the sword did not decrease in the slightest!

Impossible! That sword shouldn't have gotten any closer, not even an inch!

Mingyou couldn't think of any reason why he couldn't stop the longsword. His magic power was not inferior to that of Dao Lingxingjun, so how could he not stop the magic of this mere Taishang Xiaojun!

But Mingyou watched helplessly as two longswords pierced her palms. Her heart sank.

But in an instant, she got the answer.

From the very beginning, she sensed something inexplicably amiss. It was the longsword that was thrust at her—it was clearly burning, yet it had no heat whatsoever?

It's that strange incongruity!

There was indeed an extremely high temperature coming from a distance, which caused her to misjudge the situation. But this temperature wasn't coming from her right side!

When the longsword, burning with bright white flames, pierced through his palms, Mingyou still didn't feel any heat from the sword.

It was neither hot nor cold. It was as if the sword had never existed.

So, this is an illusion!

The second Supreme Lord on the right is also fake!

In the blink of an eye, the two Supreme Lords who attacked him were one formed from hair and the other was an illusion!

Where is it really?

The entire stratosphere was illuminated, yet she couldn't find the source of the light!

When the first Supreme Lord attacked her, Mingyou clearly felt the extremely high temperature, a temperature that could still incinerate the surrounding beasts even now. There was no mistake about it.

Moreover, the Supreme Lord Xiaojun possesses an aura of immortality. Such aura cannot be concealed; he is within a few steps of one's own.

But why can't we find any trace of Taishang Xiaojun? Even if he were to use invisibility magic, Mingyou could see through it. Unless he's hiding behind something.

In this vast stratosphere, all the prayer lanterns and strange beasts have been burned to ashes, and even clouds cannot exist.

Where could the Supreme Lord Xiaojun hide?

Where is it hidden?!

Just then, Mingyou found the "thing" that the Supreme Lord was hiding behind.

The scene before her suddenly distorted in a strange way. It was like an incredibly vast scroll being instantly crushed and pierced. In the void of air, Gan Jiang and Mo Xie, wreathed in bright white flames, suddenly appeared!

It turned out that there was a huge "curtain" in front of me!

The curtain was large enough to cover everything in front of Mingyou, and its edges seamlessly connected to the larger space. All the refractions of light were cleverly calculated.

All the real sky views are projected onto the screen, except for the Supreme Lord Xiaojun.

Mingyou became the only audience member in front of this screen.

And he, Taishang Xiaojun, was hiding behind this screen.

This is why, even though she could feel the intense heat of the blazing sun and sense the immortal aura of the Supreme Lord, she couldn't find his true form!

Just as Mingyou's attention was drawn to the two false illusions, the real Supreme Lord, along with two longswords, pierced through the screen in an instant!

A sword strike wreathed in immeasurable flames was too much for Mingyou to dodge!

She immediately felt an unparalleled heat that seemed to have pierced through billions of years!

The black ribbons behind her seemed to have eyes, flying towards the two flaming swords. The first black ribbon was swiftly torn apart the moment it touched the blade.

The second black ribbon flew toward the slightly cooler hilt, attempting to wrap around it, but was still burned off by the blazing sun.

However, Tai Shang Xiao Jun could still sense an unfathomable resistance appearing before him. Ming You's body was also protected by an equally unfathomable barrier, causing Gan Jiang and Mo Xie to suddenly slow down as if plunging into quagmire. If this continued, even if they managed to pierce the Jupiter Veil, they would be at their last gasp!

Tai Shang Xiao Jun dared not be negligent. He roared and slammed his right palm into the hilt of the sword. His palm immediately hissed as he endured the excruciating pain of being burned by the high temperature of tens of millions of degrees.

Before Mingyou could react, the tip of the sword was already pressed tightly against her heart; if it moved forward even half a step, it would pierce her heart.

Finally, the blazing sun's golden rays pierced directly into the veil of Jupiter!

"Blazing sun and golden flames, burn away the veil of Jupiter!"

Tai Shang Xiao Jun used all his strength!

Mingyou hadn't anticipated the immense power of the blazing sun's golden flames. The instant she pressed her twin swords against her heart, even through the veil of the Year Star, she could feel the astonishing heat emanating from this vortex of billions of years. Moreover, the temperature was rapidly escalating.

A sense of horror flashed through her mind. Was this an astonishingly high temperature, even exceeding that of a yellow dwarf?

Mingyou always believed that the time vortex woven by the Jupiter Veil was endless. But does "endless" truly mean without end? Or is it simply that those within it cannot see the end? Are ten thousand years or a million years truly endless?

Before the raging fire that the sun has been burning for billions of years, could the veil of Jupiter really be burned through?

Once she passes through the time vortex, her future self, a thousand years from now, is utterly insignificant compared to the sun billions of years in the future! Even a tiny hole would be enough to obliterate her from the Netherworld!

Perhaps the blazing sun and golden flames can truly transcend time and burn away the self that never existed in this world!

What will become of me? What will be the fate of humanity?

Perhaps this isn't such a bad thing. Ever since the moment I was born wearing the veil of Jupiter, I've felt like an upside-down hourglass.

Born from the future and perishing in the past, isn't that a beautiful and romantic ending?

Everything in the world is subject to the whims of fate; whether good or bad, what we desire is often unattainable. Drifting along in the river of destiny, even if we want to give up, it is sometimes difficult to achieve our wishes.

It seems that Sui Xing Sha won't last much longer. Ming You is already being tightly gripped by the blazing sun and golden flames. Even if she uses the teleportation technique, she will be moved to another place along with the sword and Tai Shang Xiao Jun, making it impossible for her to escape.

The image of a wild beast devouring an infant flashed before Youming's eyes, and a trace of sorrow crossed his heart. He said softly, "We've done our best for Weiyu. There's nothing to regret..."

But at that moment, something unexpected happened!

A dark shadow appeared in front of Mingyou, separating her from the supreme heat of the blazing sun!

That was none other than the Xuanwu Spirit Serpent! The Xuanwu Spirit Serpent had transformed back into human form.

How could someone else be in between when I was clearly stabbed by Taishang Xiaojun? How could the Xuanwu Spirit Serpent push the sword away from me?

Could it be that the sword wasn't pushed away at all? Thinking of this, Mingyou grasped the arm of the Xuanwu Spirit Serpent and took a look.

Just as she had expected, the Xuanwu Spirit Serpent, after transforming into human form, enveloped the Supreme Lord Xiaojun's swords. In other words, the Xuanwu Spirit Serpent deliberately allowed the two swords to pierce its own chest!

The Xuanwu Spirit Serpent's humanoid body was scorched and curled up, letting out a terrible scream. The Gan Jiang and Mo Xie swords burned a deep red hole in his body, and the area around the hole was like a candle flame in his chest, illuminating his entire chest cavity in a blood red light.

Despite this, the Xuanwu Serpent gripped the blade tightly with both hands, its hissing sound incessant as it was burned. Its human-shaped hands instantly melted under the blade's intense heat, sticking to the sword. Its blood boiled as the golden flames of the blazing sun burned within it.

Mingyou cried out, "Spirit Serpent, you'll die!"

Boiling blood spurted from the serpent's mouth, instantly evaporating in the intense heat, the bloodstains drying at the corners of his mouth. He forced a smile: "Lord Mingyou, the serpent remembers you coming to Lingyan Tower to speak with me every day. Although the serpent has difficulty speaking, it has heard and remembered every word Lord Mingyou said. Thank you!"

"Serpent, for something so trivial! You!"

"Because only you saw...loneliness."

The solitude of thousands of years, how could the netherworld not understand? Day after day, year after year, sitting atop a skyscraper covered in ivy, watching this desolate and cruel world.

Mingyou wanted to say that the reason I was like this was simply because I saw myself in you.

"The serpent's magic to control the moon has been used; there will be no danger tonight. Take care... survive..."

"The serpent! You want it?"

Mingyou wanted to pull out the two long swords that the Xuanwu spirit snake had stuck in his chest with his bare hands.

Suddenly, the spirit serpent transformed back into its snake form, tightly coiling its body around the burning sword. With a flick of its tail, it knocked away Tai Shang Xiao Jun's hand. Then it vanished, disappearing into the air.

Tai Shang Xiao Jun was shocked, and then he saw Ming You's eyes filled with hatred.

"What Mingyou did was all to ensure the survival of humanity, to allow people to live as human beings! I only wanted to save people! But why! Why do you all have to hurt me so ruthlessly!"

In an instant, the black ribbon, like a black spear, pierced straight into Tai Shang Xiao Jun's chest, binding him firmly to the ribbon.

It was then flung a kilometer away, like a Bodhi seed tied to a long rope.

The Supreme Lord spat out immortal blood and murmured:

"This plot is really disappointing... Dean Xi is in danger..."

Tai Shang Xiao Jun desperately grabbed the black ribbon piercing his chest with both hands, attempting to escape using teleportation. However, his body was already tightly bound by the magical artifact, and he could no longer care about himself. The sudden disappearance of the spirit snake gave him an extremely ominous premonition.

Before he could finish speaking, a massive flash of light appeared in the sky above the Daoist Academy below the stratosphere. The enormous Xuanwu spirit serpent had transformed into a ball of raging flames, and burning on its body were the golden flames of the blazing sun!

"You bunch of hypocritical immortals! Taste the bitter fruit you've sown!"

A roar of the Xuanwu spirit serpent echoed from the raging flames, crashing towards the Academy of Arts and Sciences like a giant burning meteorite!

(End of this chapter)