Chapter 134: The Metal Mountain
Chapter 134: The Metal Mountain
“Who?”
“Listen. The Seven-Seven Sword Formation’s greatest transformations are ‘scattering into wholeness’ and ‘gathering into fragments.’ Try merging all your concentrated sword energies. It should be enough to split that Blood Fiend’s vital energy cocoon.” A strange voice transmitted a reminder.
There had been no prior communication, yet it gave an uncanny feeling of conviction. Lu Hangzhi acted without hesitation; with a thought, over a hundred concentrated sword energies instantly gathered.
Buzz!!
The air trembled violently.
The disturbance was even greater than when the third sword formation unfolded.
Within the war zone, every cultivator suddenly felt a chill on their scalps. Simultaneously, they felt as if needles were pricking their backs.
The two-foot-long silver sword beam grew more ferocious and brighter as it swallowed concentrated sword energies one after another!
Swish…
Swish swish swish…
Over a hundred concentrated sword energies poured into it from all directions.
Its power kept climbing!
…
The hundred-odd Soul-Concentrating Demon Beasts pushing into the war zone also noticed the silver sword beam soaring overhead, radiating a powerful sense of danger;
A series of short, fierce roars echoed from behind the beast horde.
Over a hundred Soul-Concentrating Demon Beasts quickly abandoned their immediate foes, shifting their focus to the Matrix Tower.
Elder Lu, a powerful Beast Tamer, instantly realized the roars were orders to attack the Matrix Tower. He yelled urgently:
“Protect the Matrix Tower!”
The other Spirit Coalescence Elders also noticed the shocking aura of the silver sword beam in the sky. Without a word, they threw out numerous concentrated Talismans. Defensive Barriers shimmered into existence around the Matrix Tower, accompanied by defensive Art Techniques bulging like small mountain ranges.
BOOM!
A mountain range that fell before the Matrix Tower had barely settled when it was violently shattered by a tail strike like a dragon’s. Stones went flying everywhere.
“Can’t let them break the Matrix Tower!”
“Act together!”
“Hold the line!!”
The forty newly advanced Spirit Coalescence Elders were even more desperate than Elder Lu and the others to protect the Matrix Tower. They roared and unleashed everything they could: Flying Swords, Magical Artifacts, imitation magic treasures—anything remotely useful.
These talents from major sects, capable of reaching the Core Battle Zone, were no ordinary individuals. They possessed numerous life-preserving objects.
One of them directly summoned twelve gleaming, golden puppet warriors that looked like heavenly soldiers and generals. Ten meters tall, wielding halberds, they stood imposing and majestic.
CRASH!
A newly advanced Spirit Coalescence cultivator, seeing the mountain summoned by an Elder in the neighboring zone shatter, ripped a jagged, six-zhang-tall artificial mountain straight from the earth, blocking the path before the Matrix Tower.
A colossal, overwhelming palm formed from vital energy swept towards them. The twelve puppet warriors were swatted away like flies. Yet, when it struck that seemingly flimsy artificial mountain, it didn’t budge. Instead, with a massive boom, the vital energy palm slowly dispersed.
A small chunk of rock flew off the artificial mountain, revealing a dull, sedimented, metallic sheen beneath.
Following that!
Over a dozen pulses of vital energy struck the mountain. Rocks large and small flew everywhere. Yet, the main structure stood firm, unshaken and unbroken, greatly boosting the morale of the Spirit Coalescence Elders, including Elder Lu.
“Well done!”
“Haha! That ‘mountain,’ it must be made of metal!”
“Bloody tough!”
The newly advanced Mind Focusing Cultivator who cast the Art was a tall fellow around thirty. Scratching his head, he chuckled foolishly.
Magic Artifacts on the Barbarian Continent were exceptionally precious. He had originally intended to refine various metals into a Magic Artifact of incredible hardness and weight—capable of offense and defense. But he overdid it. The combined weight of the refined metals exceeded even that of a real mountain, and the hardness after purification reached astonishing levels. Though not Magic Artifact grade, the sheer quantity overcame any lack of quality!
Dismantling this metal mountain by brute force presented a greater challenge than destroying ten Magic Artifacts.
Thus, the Matrix Tower was unexpectedly preserved.
Inside the Matrix Tower, Lu Hangzhi focused intently, pouring all his concentration into controlling and merging the sword energies… When the forty-nine concentrated sword energies from the Late Concentration Stage finally fused, the space around the silver sword beam visibly distorted slightly.
The Spiritual Vortex Storm instantly contracted ten meters!
The energy consumption from merging the sword energies was astonishingly high!
However…
Lu Hangzhi felt the cost and the power gained were directly proportional.
Though the silver sword beam appeared small and delicate, the power it contained was like a mini-nuke—all its savage and violent sharpness condensed into a mere two-foot beam. Once unleashed, its power would surely not disappoint.
At that moment!
More and more Soul-Concentrating Demon Beasts poured into the zone from the adjacent battlefields…
The beasts in the main assault also quickened their pace under the pressure from these flanks.
The artificial mountain took blow after blow!
Sparks of metal flew;
The mountain’s size constantly diminished.
All the Spirit Coalescing cultivators retreated together behind the Matrix Tower’s Defensive Barrier, protected by the artifical mountain.
If the mountain broke, if the Matrix Tower fell…
Combat Zone 618 would be finished.
And yet…
The silver sword beam couldn’t reverse the tide alone.
“Even dying in battle, it would mean I lived a life full of fire and fury,” Lu Hangzhi realized serenely. Completely at peace, his Spiritual Power Pool surged as understanding came smoothly. He advanced directly to the peak of the tenth-grade Epiphany Stage.
The silver sword beam flared intensely, its power significantly boosted!
A breakthrough in the jaws of death!
It’s hopeless.
Lu Hangzhi’s mind was as calm as still water.
Facing the beast tide surging into the war zone from three sides, he took a deep breath, cast aside all distractions, and poured his entire being into the silver sword beam hanging in the void.
“Go!”
With that light thought, the silver sword beam instantly moved.
While still, it exerted an invisible, oppressive sharpness. Now in motion, countless demon beasts instantly froze in terror…
Sharper-eyed beasts clearly saw the silver sword beam dragging a grid-like pattern of distorted cracks in its wake.
Spatial Fissures!!
They could obliterate all matter, dissolve all properties.
Unrelenting forward momentum!!
Countless demon beasts cried out in unison, their attacks instantly halted.
Everything happened with lightning speed.
BOOM!!
The silver sword aura dragged several spatial fissures behind it, and in the next moment, it lightly collided with the Qi-Blood Barrier above the heads of the Soul-Concentrating Demon Beast tide, which was focusing intently.
The thick Blood Cocoon, which even peak-level Spirit Concentration Art Techniques could not shake, offered no resistance at all against the silver sword aura.
It was like a fireball piercing through a ball of cotton…
The thick Qi-Blood Barrier all around rapidly crumbled.
The Soul-Concentrating Demon Beasts beneath the Qi-Blood Barrier bore the brunt of the attack, terrified out of their wits.
Wherever the silver sword aura touched,
Spatial fissures swept through.
Whether Early Spirit Concentration Stage or Concentrated Spirit Peak Stage, those lightly brushed by the spatial fissures lost all their Qi and Blood. Their body parts were torn apart as easily as a cloth doll.
Lu Hangzhi’s eyes lit up!
Inside the Matrix Tower, all the cultivators’ eyes sparkled.
“What kind of Art Technique is that…”
“What a terrifying sword aura!”
“Is that… the legendary spatial fissure?”
“But aren’t spatial fissures a power only Immortal Lords of the Mystic Light Stage are said to master?”
They watched as the silver sword aura directly shattered the Qi-Blood Barrier above the Beast Tide, clearing a death path several meters wide through the dense mass of Soul-Concentrating Demon Beasts.
At least a hundred Soul-Concentrating Demon Beasts were wiped out by the silver sword aura.
Everyone’s morale soared!
But everyone also noticed…
The silver Spiritual Vortex Storm was constantly shrinking.
Its diameter had reduced from the original thirty-five meters to less than twenty meters now.
Elder Lu quickly understood.
A powerful Art Technique required equally immense Magic Power support!
If he hadn’t created that astonishing Spiritual Energy Vortex earlier, Lu Hangzhi could never have fused forty-nine Late Concentration Stage sword auras, nor could he sustain the Spatial Fissure property of the silver sword aura.
…
Elder Lu guessed right.
The second floor of the Matrix Tower was bustling with activity now.
Lu Hangzhi had never expected that fusing Sword Formations would yield such shocking power—and such terrifying Magic Power consumption!
While controlling the silver sword aura to charge into the enemy formation, every second consumed the Magic Power needed to summon one second-level Sword Formation. The silver Spiritual Vortex Storm was like a punctured bag, endlessly and frantically leaking Magic Power.
All five Sword Spirit elders had stepped in, scrambling to stuff Spirit Honey, Demon Beast Inner Cores, Nectar Immortal Elixir, and various Elixirs into his mouth. Still, they couldn’t plug the huge leak or stop the Magic Power from draining away.
However…
The silver sword aura was absolutely worth the consumed Magic Power.
With one strike, it killed over a hundred Soul-Concentrating Demon Beasts. When it turned back, the beast groups from Zhao Qian’s adjacent War Zone were mostly wiped out.
The silver sword aura specifically charged into the densest clusters of Soul-Concentrating Demon Beasts!
Wherever the spatial fissures passed, Qi-Blood Barriers vanished and Demon Beast bodies crumbled.
By the time the rockery was reduced to less than half its original size, the beasts from Elder Lu’s War Zone had been mostly eliminated.
From afar came the familiar roars of furious beasts!
Countless Monster Beasts halted, gazing fearfully from a distance at the silver sword aura above the War Zone.
Casually destroying nearly a thousand Soul-Concentrating Demon Beasts!
Not even a Mystic Light Stage existence could accomplish that so easily…
To them, their leader’s earlier words were correct.
This War Zone was far too dangerous!
Seeing the Soul-Concentrating Demon Beast tide halt its assault, the surviving cultivators in the War Zone felt overjoyed, looking at each other excitedly.
“Haha!”
“We’re alive…”
“Venerable One Lu is amazing!!”
Even Elder Lu had to admit…
Lu Hangzhi, with his limited cultivation, had achieved what many peak-level Spirit Concentration cultivators could not.
The Soul Concentration Beast Tide!
This was the fiercest and most terrifying attack in the history of Two Realms Mountain.
Lu Hangzhi alone turned the tide, breaking the Monster Beasts’ assault on Combat Zone 618.
He thought he had already understood Lu Hangzhi well enough, but battle after battle, Lu Hangzhi always brought him huge surprises.
“Everyone, recover your Magic Power quickly!”
“Stay ready for battle at any moment!”
Then, Lu Hangzhi’s voice rang in everyone’s ears:
“My Art Technique’s cost is too high; I can’t sustain it for much longer.”
Sobered, they all stopped talking and immediately restocked and rested.
The distant Monster Beasts had no idea.
Their retreat gave Lu Hangzhi an extremely precious breather:
Just now, if the beasts hadn’t retreated and the silver sword aura had kept attacking, he would have been completely drained within five seconds…
Now that things had quieted down, the Magic Power drain immediately stopped, and with the help of Soul-Concentrating Demon Beast Inner Cores and Spirit Honey, his reserves rapidly refilled and even increased.
The silver Spiritual Vortex Storm quickly stopped shrinking and began slowly expanding again.
But what he most urgently wanted to know now was:
Who was the mysterious woman who had sent him that message!