C1380 The Sadness of the Dire Bear

The Titanblade has returned to the Everlands!

This outcome was completely unexpected, catching everyone by surprise.

In the current Everlands, there were no inheritors of the Nine Celestial Slashes.

Nie Qingtian, who had once fallen, had been opposed mainly by the Sword Sect and the other four supreme forces, with the Grand Sword Immortal taking significant action.

He should have harbored enmity towards the Sword Sect and resented the other four great forces.

Yet, the Divine Sword, honoring his will and final wishes, amassed the might within the River of Swords. With a single, earth-shattering strike, it cleaved through the blockage at Wintermaw and vanished from the Everlands.

Many were left puzzled by the underlying reasons.

Aoao!

The Abyssal Leviathan, in a frenzy, blood streaming from its eyes, careened through the Infinite Galaxy.

It opened its mouth and naturally ingested the rare stone it had refined.

Within the stone lay the Embers Sea, the Ghoul King, Lin Zhuyun, and the totem-poles of the evilkind.

But even after consuming the stone, he did not regain consciousness or spiritual wisdom.

The Ghoul King and Lin Zhuyun's cries and bellows inside him seemed unheard.

Boom!

His body, darkened and rapidly healing, smashed a Frost Star with sheer brute force, its ghastly wounds absorbing the psionic power.

Remaining in a frenzy, it instinctively wreaked havoc across the Domain, using the energy within the stars to mend its injuries.

Jun Chen, Zhou You, Tian Zang, and Bai He were scattered at the four corners of the Dragon Slaying Stage beneath Yu Yuan's feet. They looked at Yu Yuan with eyes wide in astonishment.

That previous sword strike was bound for the history books, sure to draw the gaze of countless onlookers.

Most of the sword force originated from Nie Qingtian's legacy, the River of Swords.

The merging of the sword blade, sheath, and sword spirit was akin to a human cultivator fusing the Lunar Spirit, the Solar Spirit, and the Dominant Soul into one, achieving a truly complete form.

The Divine Sword, in its complete form, wielded sword force accumulated over millions of years in one decisive slash.

Yu Yuan was undoubtedly the wielder of this sword!

This fact alone was enough to ensure that Yu Yuan's name would echo throughout the extraterrestrial realms!

From this moment forward, Yu Yuan, emerging from the Everlands, would capture the attention of all high-level intelligent lifeforms. Every notable figure would come to know his name.

Because...

He wielded the Divine Sword, cleaving through the boundless darkness and bitter cold. First, he shattered the Dark Balance maintained by Blood King Sabonis, and then reduced Alonso's silver lance to fragments.

The Earth-Tethered Cage, a legacy of the Shura passed down through generations, was utterly destroyed, beyond any hope of repair.

The Divine Sword also pierced through Wintermaw, and it seemed to have briefly clashed with Gu Xingkui, the Sword of Gaia, guardian of the Everlands.

Reflecting on the earlier cataclysmic events, Jun Chen, Zhou You, and Bai He regarded Yu Yuan with newfound respect.

Only Tian Zang, privy to Yu Yuan's true origins, remained unperturbed, as if he had anticipated these feats. After all, Yu Yuan was the dragon slayer of legend, and with the Dragon Slaying Stage beneath him, such deeds were to be expected.

"That sword?"

Seated upon the Tears of the Azurefiend, Tian Zang inquired with feigned astonishment.

At that moment, the Tears of the Azurefiend shone like a flawless gemstone, radiating a deep blue glow.

Yet, when it neared the Dragon Slaying Stage, its edges began to sizzle with escaping sparks.

Tian Zang, sensing the anomaly, withdrew to a safer distance.

He had astutely realized that the Blood Altar, painstakingly forged by the Azurefiend at great expense, was being siphoned by the Dragon Slaying Stage.

It wasn't Yu Yuan's doing; rather, the enigmatic Dragon Slaying Stage naturally possessed these wondrous properties.

"The sword's will, amassed by the Grand Sword Immortal from beyond the stars, has been conveyed to the Sword Sect in the Everlands by the Divine Sword," Yu Yuan said, his voice steady.

Before the sword spirit soared towards Wintermaw, it had apologetically revealed the truth and its purpose to him.

It would honor Nie Qingtian's dying wish, escorting the profound sword arts mastered by the Grand Sword Immortal back to the Sword Cave in the Everlands.

In essence, it was a homecoming.

Yu Yuan could even sense, from afar, the Sword Cave within the Sword Sect on the continent of Euwrea in the Everlands. There, delicate sword lights danced in the heavens before plummeting earthward like bolts of lightning.

Sword lights and mysterious sword wills danced deep beneath the Sword Cave, gradually merging with its wonders. They transformed into brilliant bolts of lightning for the Sword Sect disciples to study and experience. When an individual's aura resonated with the sword light, it could evolve into a sword spell, branding itself onto the hearts and minds of the younger generation, thus identifying a new successor. In this way, the swordsmanship of those who had passed would live on.

"Nie Qingtian truly is a formidable figure," Jun Chen remarked, his sleeves shimmering with starlight as if he had condensed two galaxies into his cuffs. He offered his praise freely before his expression turned cautious, eyes scanning the distant stars. "Alonso is still out there!"

"Alonso!" The white crane and its companion flashed looks of vigilance.

"That Divine Sword should not have returned to the Everlands at this time," Tian Zang murmured somberly.

Alonso was still alive, and the Abyssal Leviathan, in its frenzied state, had not perished. Instead, it was using the frenzy of the giant beast to heal its wounds amidst the starry expanse of the Glimmerdrift Nebula. The complex situation remained unsettled.

Yu Yuan paid them no mind, his gaze slipping past Jun Chen and the white crane to rest on the snow bear, riddled with fine wounds and missing much of its white fur. "Are you alright?" he asked.

The snow bear responded with mournful growls, seemingly unable to come to terms with the Shura's betrayal.

Alonso had made it clear that he acted on Sabonis's orders when he deployed the Earth-Tethered Cage. In the snow bear's heart, Sabonis was still the same unassuming Shura youth he had always known. The image of a robust Sabonis, wielding his spear and battling alien beasts in the frigid Otherworld, only to be found and healed by the snow bear after a grave injury, felt as if it had happened just yesterday.

Moved by admiration and bound by an ancient pact with the Shura, the snow bear had aided Sabonis in overcoming his bloodline limitations and bestowed upon him the Ice Shard. Without its assistance, the Shura King might not have become the Sabonis of today.

He had never imagined that the simple and honest young man he had been nurturing and accompanying to the top would one day issue an order against him.

He felt a chill in his heart, but it was mostly sadness and disappointment that overwhelmed him.

"It's a relief that you're okay. Just be careful. After the Divine Sword departs, I have a feeling Alonso will strike again. As for the Glimmerdrift Nebula you govern..."

Watching the Abyssal Leviathan wreak havoc across the Domain, obliterating the Shura in an instant, Yu Yuan couldn't help but feel a sense of helplessness.

He knew that if the Abyssal Leviathan continued its rampage, the Glimmerdrift Nebula would inevitably become the next silent Star River.

But now, without the Titanblade in his grasp and no River of Swords suspended in the cosmos, he was unable to summon the Heaven-Opening Sword Array once more.

With the Abyssal Leviathan in a frenzy, its defenses were impenetrable, and its raw power was at its zenith, making it an incredibly formidable adversary.

"I'm curious to see if the Shura's grand commander will simply watch the Glimmerdrift Nebula's destruction with indifference."

Jun Chen's lips twisted into a sneer, his voice dripping with icy detachment, clearly indicating he didn't regard the fate of the Shura in this Astral Domain as significant.

"Alonso has some nerve to make a move on you before dealing with the Abyssal Leviathan!" Zhou You chimed in, then declared, "Xi Quan was killed by that man. The Shura must exact a price for his death!"

At the mention of this, the white crane, attuned to the power of death, let out a mournful cry.

In his demonic crane form, he had always clashed with Xi Quan, but Xi Quan's death had left him with a sense of loss.

Another of his fellow travelers was gone.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Mo Baichuan, along with the three Grand Sword Immortals from the Sword Sect, transformed into streaks of fire and light, descending upon the Frost Star near the ocean's depths where the ice had melted.

Among them, Mo Baichuan, Du Yuan, and Yue Mu gazed intently into the deep sea, as if they could see the Wintermaw itself.

They were quietly attuned to something.

Only Ji Ningshuang, the Stardust Blade, stood apart, her eyes—a pair of frosty crystal orbs—brimming with concern as she watched Yu Yuan on the Dragon Slaying Stage.

It was as though she longed to inquire about his condition.

...