Chapter 531: As a Lotus Flower Breaking the Surface
Translator: Subudai11 Editor: Chrissy

The discussion by the cultivators of Spirit Sword Sect about the choice of candidates for one of the three positions within the three individual sword array had finally been settled.

In the end, it was still Zhang Sheng who was chosen to be in one of the positions within the three individual sword array. Although Zhou Ming and Fei Ying regretted that they failed to get elected, they were not unwilling.

Because in retrospect, they could not achieve as high as that of Zhang Sheng. In the past six months, Zhang Sheng’s performance had been impeccable.

Even awe-inspiring.

“Zhang Sheng, it’s actually… not necessary for you to do this far. Zhou Ming and Fei Ying are just good substitute candidates, not to compete with you.”

When the array diagram for the three individual sword array was handed over to Zhang Sheng, Ouyang Shang finally showed a disturbed look.

Toward this, Zhang Sheng merely smiled. “They are indeed very good, but they are, after all, just alternatives. Our opponent is the demon king, so everything must be the best, only by achieving the limit can we have the chance to succeed.”

“But the Emotion Sword uses emotion to drive the sword, by forcefully suppressing yourself, I’m very worried about you…”

“Big Brother, you think too much.” Zhang Sheng took the array diagram. “Love is emotion, but our brotherly affection is also emotion. Perhaps half a year ago I was still a bit confused, but when I cut out that sword, my sword intent became unprecedentedly pure, and I’m not confused anymore! For the past six months, I think I have already proven this point.”

Ouyang Shang nodded silently.

Zhang Sheng’s cultivation in the past six months was indeed enough to prove everything. Not only was he hard working, he also went all out. According to the scheduled duty turns, once every third day, he would send his primordial spirit out to kill and behead the departed spirits, tempering and refining his primordial spirit. However, since the unexpected accident six months ago, Zhang Sheng voluntarily changed the frequency to once a day, which was completely a suicide rhythm. Even Ouyang Shang expressed his opposition to this. However, Zhang Sheng was very stubborn. At least, he was completely unwilling to cooperate with the blind date program that had been prepared by Ouyang Shang for him.

“I have completely given my whole heart to the sword, I have no intention to give my feelings for a woman.”

It was hard to win other people’s trust with just words, so Zhang Sheng used his cultivation to prove everything, by going out to battle every day. After experiencing that ambush, his keen sense sharply increased. Even without the help of his Senior Brother, he could freely come and go in the black tide. At the same time, his cultivation base advancement through battles was amazingly fast.

Of course, the frequent small battles was not the key here. Under the watchful eyes of his fellow disciples, he soon met with a crucial moment in the black tide outside the Dragon Palace.

Surrounded by many spirits of the dead, he saw his two and a half years ago lover, the desert tribe’s poison extracting physician, Lu.

This time, Lu was no longer hidden in the shadow, but out in the open. She still has the same appearance as two years ago, and even the temperament was exactly the same. The appearance of Lu even caused Wang Chenye who also fell for a poison extracting physician to sink into contemplation.

The shock to Zhang Sheng whose emotion was more intense was even greater. As soon as he saw her, his eyes immediately changed.

It was just that, they became as cold as ice. Just as that demon girl, with a melancholic expression, was ready to speak, Zhang Sheng had already unsheathed his Emotion Sword.

At that time, everyone who was watching the scene from Dragon Palace through video watching spell was shocked by the decisiveness and sharpness of that sword. It was definitely the most powerful sword strike in Zhang Sheng’s life. When the sword qi slashed, even the water current was crushed. The demon girl who bore the brunt of this strike was stirred into a collection of black mist, along with the ten high rank heavy armored soldiers beside her. From the beginning to the end, Zhang Sheng didn’t even say a single word. His cold and ruthless action even made people wonder whether he was still a sword cultivator of the Emotion Sword.

“No, it’s not ruthless.” After Zhang Sheng returned, he lightly explained, “It’s just heartless.”

Zhang Sheng proved himself with unquestionable actual combat, thus Wang Lu and Ouyang Shang had nothing to say. After some discussion, they finally decided to give him the last position in the three individual sword array, which was the biggest recognition for his effort and ability. In fact, the strength of Zhang Sheng’s heartless sword strike had completely surpassed that of his other fellow disciples.

After that, the demon girl never appeared in front of Zhang Sheng. Perhaps she had already been smashed by Zhang Sheng’s heartless sword, or perhaps the demon king finally realized that this trick could not be used anymore. In short, this matter had finally come to an end.

It was just that, whenever people saw Zhang Sheng’s increasingly determined eyes, they always felt a bit sad.

——

The failure of that honey trap plan seemed to be insignificant for the demon king because he still had other plans. The poison extracting physician was only a part of the plan. After a period of time, he came up with a variety of ways, constantly infiltrating in various ways to attack, trying to obstruct the double array. This even made Ouyang Shang and Wang Lu tired of coping with it, so much that it implicated their own cultivation.

In accordance with the best expectation, after the three-year strategy, in addition to obtaining seventy-three fresh new Daoist Masters of Jindan Stage, the cultivation base of Ouyang Shang and Wang Lu would also advance by leaps and bounds, which was expected to reach peak Jindan Stage. However, in fact, because of this external affair, which involved too much energy, the two were stuck in the middle-level Jindan Stage, without any hope to go further within the next six months.

However, there was also a good side to this: by launching tricks after tricks at them, it proved that the Demon King lacked the method to deal with them in a single blow… With the strength of the Demon King, there was no need to spend so much effort for a group of cultivators whose highest cultivation base was only Jindan Stage. The only explanation to this was that the heavy loss caused by Fenrir to him was too deep, so he lacked the ability to do what he really wanted.

As long as they persisted… when they finally launched the double array, that was the time the cultivators of Spirit Sword Sect would get out of trouble in one fell swoop

Inspired by this conviction, the cultivators of Spirit Sword Sect spent the most difficult last half of the year.

——

Half a year passed by in an instant.

On this day, the Blessed Fountain Dragon Palace trembled endlessly. Dark gravels and dust fell down from above. Cracks on the dome that looked like the way of lightning strike continued to spread. At the same time, the Feng Shui lines below the Dragon Palace began to collapse, and the frenzied spiritual energy ripped the ground and spurted out from the cracks. It was like the saying the sky fell down and the earth split open.

The collapse of the Blessed Fountain Dragon Palace was very rapid, but all of this had already been expected. The cultivators of Spirit Sword Sect had been preparing for this for three years. In the mid-air in the middle of the main hall of the Dragon Palace, Wang Lu, Ouyang Shang, and Zhang Sheng stood in a triangle formation. Wang Lu, whose body was filled with the supreme spirit root of void spirit root, occupied the sky position in the center. Ouyang Shang, with his great providence, had the blessing of the land, occupied the earth position. Zhang Sheng cultivated the Emotion Sword, but emotion was the quintessence of a person, so he occupied the human position. The three of them were in their respective position and simultaneously connected their sword intent, ready to lead the overall situation.

On the ground, seventy-two disciples of Spirit Sword sect spread out, each occupying a key position in the seventy-two great killing array. In the middle of the array was Fei Ying—the beautiful girl was an expert in array apart from Ouyang Shang in the golden generation.

“Activate the array!”

As the girl shouted with her clear voice, the rest of the cultivators, in rapt attention, simultaneously opened their mouth.

“Activate the array!”

In an instant, the giant force sent by the Feng Shui line that continued to impact the ground suddenly calmed down, like being suppressed by an even larger force. The seventy-two golden cores nearly bloomed, enhancing one another.

Over the past three years, due to the situation, most of the golden cores of the cultivators of Spirit Sword Sect had various defects like lacking in luster and other things, which was enormously different than that of the top rank golden core. However, at this moment, under the influence of the great killing array, the luster from each of the golden cores merged, covering up each individual core defects, the purity of the golden core gradually becoming flawless.

The great killing array itself did not have such a wonderful ability. However, at this time, taking advantage of the collapse of the Feng Shui lines of Blessed Fountain, the essence of the whole spilled spiritual energy was absorbed into the great array, which actually catalyzed the seventy-two golden cores into their flawless form!

“Activate the array!”

In mid-air, Wang Lu let out a shout and lifted up the Sword of Mount Kun high above his head. The boundless aura of void spirit actually appeared around his earth-element based sword.

“Activate the array!”

Ouyang Shang lowered his head and roared. His personal spirit sword was pointed downward. His sword intent was pure and immovable as mountain.

“Activate the array!”

Strange light flashed through Zhang Sheng’s mind, the dozens of years of immortal cultivation coalesced into a pure sword intent, which reflected into a sword like imposing manner in his eyes.

The three individual sword array was formally activated. In an instant, the three cultivators seemed to merge into one, like a myriad incarnation. Each one was dominant, and each one was also the foundation. Then, the sword array was connected with the great killing array. Although the number of people in the three individual sword array was lesser, like it was the mind that controlled the body, it instantly took the dominant control.

The seventy-two great killing array took advantage of the power of the Feng Shui line to evolve the seventy-two crude golden cores into pure ones, providing enormous energy through the natural self-creation energy of golden cores. The three individual sword array in mid-air used their immortal level position to apply the top rank sword cultivation of immortal level method to the limit.

“Activate the array!”

This time, no one could tell who this voice belonged to. It sounded as if it came from one person, but also as if it was the unison scream of seventy-five people. The two arrays thoroughly unleashed their full power, and the Dragon Palace collapsed in an instant with this cry. The next moment, the black tide came crashing down from above, in which there were countless spirits of the dead. Together, they became a behemoth that seemed to devour everything. However, the blazing sword light immediately slashed through the darkness. The three individual sword array switched position, with Wang Lu now at the core position. Then, utilizing the enormous power provided by the seventy-two great killing array, he sent out an unprecedentedly intense primal chaos heaven splitting sword strike.

This sword strike had both invisible and tangible sword. The cultivators of Spirit Sword Sect only felt an unstoppable force that forced them to merge and reorganize. In the blink of an eye, the seventy-five people have joined together into the embodiment into an all-conquering sharp sword. Its sharp point pointed straight toward the sky, and the sword intent broke through all the obstacles.

Boom!

The primal chaos heaven splitting sword violently collided with the black tide. The momentum was terrifying.

The double array strategy was not a secret. The Demon King had expected that there would be such a decisive day. Therefore in advance, he had already laid out an impressive display of manpower in the polluted water of Blessed Fountain, among which, there was no lack of those with astonishing strength. Coupled with the highly toxic polluted water that had been brewing for three years, the obstacles in the way of the cultivators of Spirit Sword Mountain were no small matters.

However, under the impact of this primal chaos heaven splitting sword, the toxic water that had besieged the cultivators of Spirit Sword Sect for three years disappeared in the blink of an eye. The spirits of the dead hidden in the water couldn’t even resist the intense shockwave in the water and turned into fragments. The heavy water pressure of Blessed Fountain also didn’t survive under the impact of the sword qi.

At the last moment, they were still at the Dragon Palace, and the array sound still lingered in their ears.

The next moment, they crashed through the several kilometers of deep water and appeared above the Blessed Fountain, and the road ahead suddenly became wide open!