Chapter 238: Metal Escape
"Mad. That Lin Wu must have been driven insane by the Slaughter Sword Intent—he's completely lost it."
When everyone saw Gu Mo's avatar directly ignite the very core of a sword cultivator—the sword core—they were all dumbstruck.
If not for madness, who would dare burn their sword core? Once consumed, at best one's cultivation would be crippled, at worst, their very life would be forfeit.
Yet it was undeniable: with the third stage of the Heavenly Demon Disintegration, the burning of the sword core granted Gu Mo's avatar an unimaginably powerful surge of strength.
At this moment, the avatar's aura was already no weaker than that of the black-clothed Demon Lord. His physique, refined through the Spirit-Tempering Art and nourished with 4th-tier Sun Essence, had reached the Nascent Soul level. His divine soul, aided by the Spirit-Focus Technique, could also temporarily rise a full stage.
Now, with the third tier of Heavenly Demon Disintegration compensating for his lack of mana, Gu Mo's avatar had brought body, soul, and power all to the Nascent Soul level.
The sword spirit within that top-grade spirit artifact—once so resistant—perhaps moved by his sheer madness, finally displayed submission.
With the sword spirit yielding, the power of the spirit sword merged with him, causing the avatar's aura to soar once more.
From this moment,Lin Wu's battle strength completely surpassed that of the black-clothed Demon Lord. And at the same time, the Slaughter Sword Intent, which he had been unable to grasp before, began to rapidly crystallize under the sword spirit's guidance. In mere moments, Lin wu fully comprehended the Slaughter Sword Intent.
Moreover, this top-grade flying sword was of the metal element. That pure metallic force stirred a sudden insight within Gu Mo, who had already perfected Wind Escape.
It was a glimpse into the mysteries of Metal Escape—the Five Elements Escape Technique's golden branch. After Wood Escape, he now touched upon the rudiments of Metal Escape.
Though only the barest beginning, Gu Mo knew that with this insight, the probability of killing the black-clothed Demon Lord leapt from fifty percent to a full hundred.
That was the chance of killing. The chance of merely defeating him had already become absolute the moment the spirit sword recognized him as its master.
"Mhm. Time is short. Let's finish this quickly."
Feeling the sword core burn away, Gu Mo's avatar knew he had to kill the Demon Lord before it was fully consumed.
With that, he stepped out of the Nut Formation.
No attack came. The black-clothed Demon Lord only watched him with a grave expression.
He could feel the overwhelming threat from Lin Wu. If he clashed head-on now, he would surely lose. "I mustn't fight him now. Wait for the Heavenly Demon Disintegration to end—then he'll be nothing but meat on the chopping block."
Burning the sword core meant Lin Wu was destined to be crippled. He wouldn't even need to finish him off.
With this decision, the Demon Lord turned and fled.
The crowd froze. They had been waiting for a peak showdown, yet the demonic side ran first.
"Hahaha! So this is your hidden trump card? Doesn't look like much to me." The Taiqing Sect Master immediately seized the chance to mock.
"So what? Lin Wu burned his sword core. He's already finished," said the Yin Corpse Sect Master indifferently.
At that, the righteous sect leaders fell silent. True enough—this dazzling brilliance was bought with all of Lin Wu's foundation.
Such a peerless genius, now blazing with his final light… but when that brilliance burned out, there would be only endless darkness.
Unconsciously, many eyes turned to Xuan Tianhen. His whole expression seemed unfocused, his gaze adrift.
The crowd sighed inwardly. The Grand Yan Sword Sect had finally produced such a brilliant disciple, and yet… what a pity.
Of course Xuan Tianhen noticed their stares, but he ignored them. Instead, he deliberately wore the look of someone crushed by grief.
Burning the sword core—for any sword cultivator, that meant certain ruin.
But the problem was: his disciple had twelve sword cores. Burning one was hardly devastating—just a loss of some foundation.
And the foundation of eleven remaining cores was still unimaginably deep. In fact, if his disciple didn't shave away some of that excess foundation, he might even find it difficult to break into the Nascent Soul stage.
On the island.
Gu Mo's avatar looked at the fleeing Demon Lord. His Slaughter Sword Intent surged, the peerless flying sword brimming with metallic edge hovering at his side.
In the next instant, the sword turned into a golden streak and shot after the fleeing Demon Lord. Simultaneously, Gu Mo's avatar transformed into golden light and merged into the blade.
This was the Metal Escape he had just grasped. Through it, he achieved the long-sought unity of man and sword, magnifying the weapon's might yet again.
The speed of Metal Escape, combined with the sword's own speed, made this strike faster than the eye could follow. Even divine sense struggled to catch it.
"Not good!"
A sudden wave of dread struck the Demon Lord. Before he could react, a golden light pierced clean through him. In the next instant, his body was torn apart by a violent eruption of power.
From the wreckage, a Nascent Soul formed from undying force appeared, its expression twisted in terror as it sped frantically toward the island's edge.
Freed from fleshly constraints, its speed was no less than Gu Mo's sword light. This was the Nascent Soul's ultimate survival trump card.
As long as the Nascent Soul escaped, it could seize another body and be reborn.
But the panicked soul failed to notice the sword mark running across it, leaking undying power with every breath. Before it could even leave the island, the black-clothed Demon Lord's Nascent Soul dissipated entirely.
One strike. A Nascent Soul Demon Lord slain, body and soul annihilated.
This sight shook every witness to the core.
Lin Wu had burned himself to unleash such brilliance—but brilliance that would fade into endless darkness.
"Run!"
In their shock, the demonic prodigies and true disciples on the island immediately activated their identity tokens to escape. With their Demon Lord dead, their morale had shattered.
Even if Lin Wu's radiance was but a fleeting blaze, its lingering glow could still annihilate them all.
With the Demon Lord's fall, the Heavenly Chosen War was, for all purposes, over.
"We've won!"
The righteous cultivators watched the demonic disciples vanish, still dazed. They remained enthralled by the sight of Lin wu's dazzling strike.
That single sword had decided the war's outcome.
Yet while they lingered in awe, Gu Mo's true body was already at his avatar's side.
Placing a hand on his avatar's back, he summoned forth the emerald light of the Healing Technique.
To outsiders, it looked like Gu Mo of Shennong Valley was treating Lin Wu of the Grand Yan Sword Sect, but no one knew that the eleven sword-pills within the avatar had, through the contact of their palms, all entered the body of his true self.
This was only possible because the avatar and the true body shared the same origin; otherwise, such a thing as one man's golden core entering another's body would be absolutely impossible.
Just moments ago, the avatar had burned his sword-pills before everyone's eyes, and now Gu Mo's true body had transferred the eleven sword-pills out of the avatar. From the outside, no matter how it looked, Gu Mo's avatar was now nothing more than a cripple who had lost his sword-pills.
And this was exactly the act Gu Mo wanted everyone to see. His avatar had just shown off in dazzling fashion, defying a Nascent Soul cultivator while still only at the early Golden Core stage—exhilarating, yes, but enough to make the demonic sects wish they could devour his avatar alive.
So Gu Mo staged this scene: to make it appear that, in order to defeat a powerful foe, the avatar had used the third stage of the Heavenly Demon Disintegration, burning away all of his sword-pills and becoming a cripple.
This way, the demonic sects' threat evaluation of the avatar would plummet, allowing the avatar to enjoy a safe environment for cultivation.
Once the avatar broke through to Nascent Soul, he could reappear and flaunt himself again.
"I'll take care of the treatment."
At that moment, one of the orthodox true disciples stepped forward—Miao Lu of Shennong Valley, who was best at healing—ready to take over from Gu Mo's true body.
Seeing this, Gu Mo nodded and gave up his place.
"Senior Sister Ding, Senior Brother Du, now that the demonic sect's prodigies have all withdrawn, you two should hurry and plunder the remaining treasure chests," Gu Mo said as he returned to the Nut Formation and retrieved the buried nuts, while also reminding Ding Shiyan and Du Jinpeng.
This time, the orthodox side had won the Heavenly Chosen Battle, and now it was up to the remaining orthodox prodigies on the island to compete for the leftover treasure chests.
"And you, Junior Brother Gu?"
Hearing this, Ding Shiyan asked. From Gu Mo's words, it sounded like he wasn't planning to fight for the remaining chests.
"Of course I'm heading back quickly—before someone tries to steal my loot," Gu Mo said with a smile. The only two jade chests of this battle had both ended up in his hands.
Naturally, he had no intention of competing with the others for the rest.
As the light of his identity token flared, Gu Mo was transported back to the island where the Heavenly Chosen Battle had first begun.
His sudden appearance instantly drew countless gazes. After all, he was one of the two who had obtained jade chests this time.
The other was the dazzling Lin Wu.
Compared to Lin Wu, who had displayed great strength from the start, Gu Mo of Shennong Valley hadn't attracted any attention at first—until he used a special spiritual plant to blast a demonic sect prodigy to death, which earned him some notice.
But that small amount of attention was quickly drawn away by the avatar.
Only at the very end, when Gu Mo revealed the Nut Formation and used it to withstand the combined assault of dozens of demonic prodigies—and even block a strike from a Nascent Soul demonic lord—did he shock everyone present.
"This one is a threat too!"
From the demonic sect's side, Gu Mo's true body's performance in this battle immediately elevated his danger level. But treating his true body as they did the avatar was clearly unrealistic.
The avatar was a disciple of the Grand Yan Sword Sect, now little more than a declining Nascent Soul sect, easy prey for the demonic sects' infiltration.
But Gu Mo's true self was a disciple of Shennong Valley. Those three words alone were enough to make the demonic sects abandon many unrealistic schemes.
As long as Gu Mo didn't wander about recklessly, he had nothing to fear from them.
Casting his eyes around, Gu Mo soon went to stand beside the Shennong Valley master—undoubtedly the safest place. Rumor had it that the overseer for this battle was none other than Shennong Valley's own ancestor, a Spirit Severing expert.
With that in mind, Gu Mo had every confidence in his safety.
"Not bad!"
The Shennong Valley master looked at Gu Mo with undisguised satisfaction. The brightest star of this battle was, of course, Lin Wu of the Grand Yan Sword Sect, but Gu Mo was unquestionably second.
"Whoosh!"
A streak of light descended, and the eyes that had been on Gu Mo were all drawn elsewhere—his avatar had appeared.
"Disciple!"
The moment the avatar emerged, Xuan Tianhen rushed over, his face full of grief. Clearly, he too had guessed the purpose behind Gu Mo's act, and so he played along.
"Master, I have disappointed you," the avatar said, immediately stepping into the role.
"It's all right, it's all—"
Xuan Tianhen patted his shoulder, ready to offer words of comfort. But suddenly, he realized that the eleven sword-pills that should have been in his disciple's body were gone.
In that instant, Xuan Tianhen's heart sank. He didn't know what had happened, but the disappearance of his disciple's sword-pills was undeniable fact.
Seeing his reaction, Lin Wu naturally understood why. But this wasn't the time for explanations—every eye was fixed on his avatar.
Having lost his sword-pills, the avatar's ruined cultivation was obvious. No Nascent Soul elder could be deceived; all saw clearly the empty dantian within him.
"Phew~~"
Confirming that Lin Wu's cultivation was indeed destroyed, the demonic sect finally let out a long breath. Thinking of the cost they had paid to cripple him, they felt the sting of loss—it had taken three true disciples, one of them even at Nascent Soul.
Still, crippling Lin Wu was worth any price. For him to be so heaven-defying at early Golden Core—if allowed to rise further, he would only become more terrifying.
High above,
The Ten-Thousand Blood Demon Venerable withdrew his divine sense and nodded. Lin Wu was truly crippled. As a sovereign, he was confident—no one could deceive him.
Indeed, Gu Mo's method of sword-pill transfer had fooled them all.
"Demonic sect, you killed my senior disciple, and now you've ruined my younger one. I, Xuan Tianhen, will demand justice!" His voice rang out, heavy with grief and hatred.
But the demonic sect paid him no heed. What they truly feared were prodigies filled with limitless possibilities—those with the chance to reach true lord status.
As for someone like Xuan Tianhen, whose future was already set—even as a formidable Nascent Soul sword lord—the demonic sect felt no fear. A Nascent Soul sword lord, nothing more; in the eyes of the top sects, he hardly counted for anything.
(Show your support and read more chapters on my Patreon: [email protected]/psychopet. Thank you for your support!)