The thousands of silver flying swords hummed with a lethal, vibrating resonance, their tips pointed directly at the solitary youth standing on the fractured crystal pathway.
In the endless dark void, Yan Shuo looked incredibly small. He possessed only an Early Foundation Establishment aura, armed with nothing but a dull, unadorned black iron sword that looked more like a heavy iron ruler than a supreme-tier weapon.
Across the yawning spatial chasm, Tantai Zhi gripped her crimson blade so tightly her knuckles turned bone-white. Her golden eyes were wide with a frantic, terrifying desperation, her pure Yin Qi flaring wildly as she prepared to tear the void apart the moment a single sword touched him, consequences be damned.
"Let us see if the shadow bleeds," the Faceless Scholar’s voice echoed from the dark expanse.
The Starlight Execution Array activated.
It did not fall like a chaotic rain. The thousands of silver swords moved with the flawless, synchronized precision of a supreme military formation. They converged into a massive, spiraling drill of blinding sword aura, tearing through the spatial void directly toward Yan Shuo’s chest. The sheer kinetic force of the strike was enough to pulverize a Late Nascent Soul Grandmaster into cosmic dust.
Yan Shuo didn’t step back. He didn’t summon an elemental shield.
He simply raised the heavy black iron sword.
To the Faceless Scholar watching through the array, the youth’s movements seemed impossibly slow. But to a veteran of a thousand blood-soaked battlefields, it was the absolute pinnacle of martial perfection—the elimination of all wasted movement.
Yan Shuo channeled the Abyssal Star-Core in his dantian, flooding the plain iron blade with a terrifying, pitch-black gravitational density.
He didn’t swing at the incoming swords. He simply planted the tip of his black sword directly into the crystal pathway beneath his boots and twisted his wrist.
VWOOM.
The sound was not an explosion, but the terrifying groan of spatial laws violently bending.
A localized domain of absolute, crushing gravity erupted in a ten-foot radius around Yan Shuo. The air itself turned black, warping the light around him.
The massive, spiraling drill of thousand silver swords slammed into the invisible gravitational field.
They didn’t pierce it. They were violently, brutally dragged downward. The supreme-tier flying swords screeched as their flight paths were forcefully ripped out of the Scholar’s control. Hundreds of silver blades smashed into the crystal pathway at Yan Shuo’s feet, shattering into a million pieces of harmless spiritual debris. Hundreds more were caught in the gravitational orbit, swirling helplessly around Yan Shuo like leaves caught in a dark whirlpool, completely unable to touch his pristine white robes.
Across the chasm, Tantai Zhi’s frantic terror instantly vanished.
Her breath hitched, and a brilliant, mesmerized flush spread across her cheeks. She stared at the solitary figure standing untouched within a storm of shattered silver blades, his posture as relaxed and ancient as an immortal sovereign.
"My husband..." she whispered, her golden eyes sparkling with an overwhelming, obsessive awe. "He is so incredibly handsome."
Su Mei, standing behind her, just slapped a hand over her own face. We are in a lethal death trap and she is admiring his posture!
Up in the void, the Faceless Scholar’s calm composure violently shattered.
"The Abyssal Domain?!" the Scholar’s voice cracked, echoing with a sudden, uncontrollable panic. "A Foundation Establishment vessel cannot withstand that pressure! Your meridians should be tearing themselves apart!"
"A vessel cannot," Yan Shuo murmured softly, his dark eyes locking onto the highest point of the void. "But the master can."
Yan Shuo gripped the hilt of his black iron sword with both hands. He didn’t just absorb the kinetic energy of the thousand shattered swords; he channeled it directly into his heavy blade, merging the silver starlight with his pitch-black gravity.
He pulled the sword out of the crystal floor.
"It has been a century, old friend," Yan Shuo whispered, his voice completely completely devoid of warmth. "Allow me to return your greeting."
Yan Shuo swung the black iron sword upward.
Abyssal Severing Strike.
He didn’t unleash a wave of sword Qi. He unleashed a sheer, concentrated wave of spatial distortion. A massive, crescent-shaped rift of absolute blackness tore upward from his blade, violently devouring the starlight, the darkness, and the very fabric of the spatial domain.
The supreme-tier spatial array didn’t just break; it screamed.
The black rift struck the apex of the void, completely shattering the illusion. The starry sky cracked like cheap glass, exploding into a blinding flash of white light.
The spatial chasm separating Yan Shuo and Tantai Zhi violently destabilized, the crystal bridge beginning to crumble into nothingness as the domain collapsed back into the real world.
"Husband!" Tantai Zhi cried out, reaching her hand across the expanding void.
Yan Shuo didn’t hesitate. As the crystal pathway disintegrated beneath his boots, he pushed off with a burst of Foundation Establishment Qi, leaping gracefully across the collapsing chasm.
He sailed through the air, directly toward his panicked wife.
Tantai Zhi didn’t just catch his hand. She lunged forward, wrapping her arms securely around his waist, catching him perfectly in mid-air. She spun gracefully, using her own supreme cultivation to cushion their landing as the spatial domain completely faded, dumping them back into the real, dimly lit corridor of the Star-Gazing Pavilion.
They landed softly on the wooden floorboards, Yan Shuo held securely in Tantai Zhi’s arms in a flawless princess carry.
The heavy iron sword clattered to the floor beside them.
The room was completely silent, save for the settling dust of the shattered array.
Yan Shuo looked up from his wife’s arms. He cleared his throat lightly.
"Thank you, Wife," Yan Shuo smiled, perfectly maintaining his lazy, pampered facade despite having just unleashed a world-rending martial technique. "I almost slipped."
Tantai Zhi didn’t put him down. She hugged him tighter against her chest, her face buried in his neck, trembling slightly from the sheer adrenaline of the scare.
"You were amazing, Husband," she murmured, her voice thick with emotion. "Your sword technique was beautiful. But if you ever jump over a void without me holding your hand again, I will tie us together with a karmic red string so you can never leave my side."
"I think the string might clash with my white robes," Yan Shuo chuckled, gently patting her shoulder. "Can you put me down now? My wrist is a bit sore from swinging that heavy iron."
The moment he said the word "sore," the terrifying Saintess instantly shifted into full mother-hen mode. She gently set him down on his feet, immediately grabbing his right hand and inspecting his wrist with frantic, doting precision, completely ignoring the fact that they were still standing in enemy territory.
While Tantai Zhi fussed over a microscopic strain in Yan Shuo’s wrist, a far more violent scene was unfolding at the very top of the Star-Gazing Pavilion.
The Faceless Scholar sat slumped against his jade array table.
The table was completely pulverized into fine dust. The backlash of the spatial domain collapsing had struck him directly.
The Scholar coughed violently, a thick stream of blood leaking from beneath the chin of his weeping silver mask, staining his pristine white robes. His hands were shaking so violently he could barely push himself off the floor.
It wasn’t just the physical backlash that terrified him. It was the absolute, undeniable certainty of what he had just witnessed.
A vessel could not execute the Abyssal Severing Strike. An inheritor could not merge kinetic sword Qi with a gravitational core. Only one man in the entire history of the mortal realm possessed that exact, terrifying martial mastery.
The Scholar looked down at his trembling, blood-stained hands.
"He did not die," the Scholar whispered, his voice hollow, completely stripped of its arrogant composure. "The Heavens failed. The Heavenly Dao failed. The nightmare has reincarnated."
He had provoked the Demon Lord. He had tried to isolate him. And in doing so, he had confirmed to Yan Shuo exactly who was hiding behind the mask.
The Scholar struggled to his feet, ignoring the agonizing pain in his meridians. He had to leave. He had to abandon the Righteous Alliance and disappear before Yan Shuo and his unhinged Saintess climbed the stairs.