Chapter 1365 — Slaying Foes in Succession

In Wendao Academy, the talented gathered like clouds: Earth Virtue Primordial Sovereign Gongsun Yan, Emperor Yunluo Wei Suifeng, Village Head Su Muzhe, and Yun Juanshu, Yu Chenzi, and others—all geniuses rarely found in the world. At this moment the Village Head was playing chess with Crown Prince Youming, discussing sword arts and divine abilities along the way, while Yu Chenzi sat to one side watching the game.

When Xiao Chujue entered, the Village Head rose, scattered the chess pieces, and said with a laugh, "Everyone, this is Xiao Chujue, a peerless genius I discovered recently—his swordsmanship is divine! " Crown Prince Youming was quite displeased and said in a muffled voice, "You—when you cannot beat me at chess, you resort to tricks. Yu Chenzi, you tell me, who won this game?

" Yu Chenzi said modestly, "My chess skill is too poor to tell. Xiao Chujue is indeed a prodigy of the sword.

He once went to pay respects to Dao Lord Lin Xuan; in half a year he comprehended our Daoist sect's Dao Sword up to the seventeenth chapter. Dao Lord Lin Xuan praised him greatly as well. " Crown Prince Youming looked Xiao Chujue up and down.

"So remarkable?

" "About the same as Jiang Baigui in his day.

" The Village Head was also very pleased with Xiao Chujue. Taking the stack of books from his hands, he said, "Chujue's aptitude and comprehension are both excellent. When Jiang Baigui studied the Dao Sword and the Buddhist Dharma, he too mastered them with ease, grasping one thing and inferring the rest—that is how he became the Sword God of his day.

" Crown Prince Youming thought of Shen Mu and asked curiously, "Comparable to Jiang Baigui—that would be the aptitude of a sage born once in five hundred years. Then how does Chujue's aptitude and comprehension compare to Heavenly Venerable Mu's? Heavenly Venerable Mu is also a genius of the sword; I have seen his swordsmanship, and it is formidable indeed. I hear Sword Eighteen and Sword Nineteen were both his creations!

" "Shen'er's aptitude and comprehension are not quite top-tier—a bit inferior to both Jiang Baigui and Chujue.

" The Village Head said, "What makes him strong is his boundless curiosity—anything unknown, he must investigate.

" He opened the books and saw that they were all his own works, writings on Sword Twenty and insights into the domain of the sword. Though Xiao Chujue was the finest genius of Jingping's younger generation, he had after all been born only recently, and Jingping's sword arts and sword dao advanced with each passing day—no sooner had one learned the old than the new appeared, so that even he could not master it all in a short time.

Especially the sword dao. Jingping's sword arts and divine abilities numbered in the countless millions, and its attainments in the sword dao were terrifying beyond measure. The most formidable among them was Su Muzhe, head of Wendao Academy, who had been Heavenly Venerable Mu's first teacher in the sword dao.

After Kaihuang traveled through Jingping and brought Sword Twenty back to Jingping, Village Head Su Muzhe's sword dao reached an unprecedented height—especially after the Dao Realm spread to Jingping as well, which elevated him enormously.

His becoming head of Wendao Academy was also because he wrote books and spread the dao; his General Explanation of Basic Sword Forms set forth Sword One through Sword Twenty with perfect clarity. Beyond that, he had also written the Sword Canon and Sword Domain, as well as, in collaboration with Zaifu and Kuisou, the Dao Realm and Dao Domain and other works.

A few decades ago, these books would have been secret manuals enough to plunge the world into chaos! Even if taken to today's Heavenly Court, they would be enough to provoke one bloody storm after another!

If they spread to all the heavens and myriad worlds, who knew what terrifying slaughter they might cause! Yet the Village Head and the others had made them public, not forbidding others to read them.

In Jingping, so long as one studied at the academies and schools and had the ability, one could enter the library pavilion to read and learn. As for whether one could master them, enter the dao and reach the Dao Realm, enter the dao through the sword, or cultivate the Dao Domain or Sword Domain—that still depended on one's own ability. This young god named Xiao Chujue had been at Wendao Academy for over a year, and his talent in the sword dao was terrifyingly high.

Yet even so, he had not mastered Sword Twenty, nor comprehended the Sword Domain—which was why he had come to ask the Village Head for guidance.

The Village Head opened the book and found Sword Twenty.

"Sword Twenty was created by Kaihuang Shen Ye; he comprehended it from Sword Eighteen and Sword Nineteen. When you learned Sword Nineteen, you should have understood—so long as one masters Sword Nineteen, one can enter the dao through the sword.

In this world, among hundreds of millions of divine ability users, only a hundred or so can master Sword Nineteen. But Sword Twenty demands more: it requires first cultivating the Sword Domain, achieving the domain of the sword dao, before Sword Twenty can be refined.

" At these words, Yu Chenzi, Crown Prince Youming, and the others could not help but look bewildered. Crown Prince Youming murmured, "Brother Su, isn't this General Explanation of Sword Forms of yours the most basic book? Why does mastering it instead require cultivating the Sword Domain?

" "Wrong! " The Village Head laughed. "To master the General Explanation of Basic Sword Forms, you must first study the book Sword Domain. To master Sword Domain, you must first study the Sword Canon. And to master the Sword Canon, you must first study one thousand two hundred and eighty-two volumes of sword dao texts. " The others were aghast.

The Village Head smiled. "But Chujue has already entered the dao through the sword; his foundations are solidly laid. What he lacks is not foundation but a deeper comprehension of the sword dao.

And that requires a top-tier grandmaster of the sword dao.

" He drew his sword and said calmly, "Xiao Chujue, let me be your whetstone, to help you advance further on the sword dao. Draw your sword! " Xiao Chujue bowed, stepped back, and boldly drew his sword!

The sword light shot straight to the clouds; his sword dao was grand and imposing, with an extraordinary bearing, as if he would reign over the world and command Tai'e!

Crown Prince Youming and Yu Chenzi cheered in unison, praising, "What a magnificent bearing! " Just then, an arrow of light flew in. Before the three powerhouses could react, it had already shattered Xiao Chujue's sword and pierced his brow!

Boom— Xiao Chujue's body exploded. Freed from the shackles of flesh, his spirit soul suddenly swelled, as if a great emperor ruling the Heavenly Emperor had descended in person!

The second, third, fourth, and fifth arrows of light followed in quick succession, so fast that one could scarcely react!

Crown Prince Youming was, after all, an existence of the earliest Imperial Throne realm. Without a word he manifested his Black Tortoise spirit soul, about to block the remaining arrows of light, but when he saw the spirit soul bursting from within Xiao Chujue, he froze and blurted, "Heavenly Emperor—" The Village Head's sword thrust straight at the second arrow of light; hearing this, he forcibly halted, shock flooding his heart.

"The Heavenly Emperor's spirit soul?

This Xiao Chujue is. .

.

" Boom, boom, boom— The other four arrows of light nailed into the Heavenly Emperor spirit soul's brow.

Four great explosions burst in succession across the sky, each farther than the last.