Chapter 5273: Indeed a Prodigy

Bzzzzt!

Chu Feng activated the Lightning Mark, Lightning Armor, and the Four Symbols Divine Power within an instant, raising his fighting prowess by three cultivation ranks. It was only with this that he barely dodged the sword coming from behind. 

Xu Tianjian was not just any rank nine Martial Exalted level cultivator. His eyes had turned silver, and a peculiar silver pattern covered his body. On top of that, he was emanating a silver aura.  

Similar to Chu Feng, he was able to raise his fighting prowess by three cultivation ranks too. 

Not wanting to lose, he had already raised his cultivation by the time he made his move. He was planning to take down Chu Feng with this single move. 

“What a fast reaction speed. You’re indeed not to be underestimated,” Xu Tianjian remarked with a laugh. The vibe he gave off was completely different from before, almost as if he had transformed into another person. 

“Heh…” Chu Feng sneered.

Xu Tianjian didn’t make another move right after his ambush failed. Instead, he looked at Chu Feng and said, “I admit that I was despicable for ambushing you, but Chu Feng, do you think that you’re someone blessed with great fortune?”

“It’d at least be more than you,” Chu Feng replied. 

“Chu Feng, words are empty. Cultivators like us speak with our strength. Did you see the gash on that monk’s neck?” Xu Tianjian asked.

Chu Feng narrowed his eyes. “That was a fatal blow. You were planning to take his life.”

Xu Tianjian laughed. “He would have been dead by now if not for his protective treasure. There’s not a single person here who is a match for me, be it Ouyang Canjian, that little monk, or you. That’s why I’d like to ask you if you think that you’re as lucky as he is. Are you carrying a protective treasure too?”

“Stop beating around the bush and get straight to the point,” Chu Feng grunted impatiently.

It was clear to him that Xu Tianjian was a hypocrite. Despite acting like a gentleman, he was the kind of person who resorted to despicable means to achieve his goals. 

All of a sudden, the silver aura around Xu Tianjian flared with a crackling sound. The silver sword he wielded whirred in resonance, and a powerful aura gushed out from his body and flooded the tower. 

Xu Tianjian was flaunting his strength!

“I’ll give you a chance in view of how you gave me time to recuperate earlier. Admit defeat now, and I’ll spare your life,” Xu Tianjian said. 

“Are you saying that you’ll kill me if I don’t admit defeat? If I remember correctly, none of your opponents before the little monk has sustained severe injuries. I reckon that you tried to kill the little monk either because he provoked you or figured out one of your secrets. 

“You either aren’t confident of defeating me or that you would have to reveal an unsightly side of yourself to achieve victory, so you wish to convince me to surrender. You do have a reputation to uphold, after all. 

“To be honest, you’re one of the strongest peers I know, especially with your ability to raise your fighting prowess by three cultivation ranks without resorting to forbidden medicine. However, the suggestion you have made really makes me wonder if you have encountered a donkey as a child,” Chu Feng said. 

“Donkey?” Xu Tianjian had no idea what Chu Feng was driving at.

“Your head must have been kicked by an ass for you to be that dumb,” Chu Feng replied.

“You bastard! I have already given you a chance, but you refuse to grasp it. It looks like you’re really courting death!” Xu Tianjian snapped.

Clang!

But right after Xu Tianjian said those words, a cold gleam suddenly flashed across his eyes. Chu Feng was charging at Xu Tianjian with the Immemorial Hero’s Sword in hand, not utilizing any martial skills at all. 

“You wish to compete with me in terms of swordsmanship? You think too highly of yourself!”

Xu Tianjian was thrilled when he saw Chu Feng resorting to his swordsmanship instead of martial skills. Swordsmanship was his specialty, after all. 

Xu Tianjian deftly maneuvered his sword to deflect Chu Feng’s attack before counterattacking with a stab. With just a slight shake of his wrist, his silver sword multiplied into countless swords charging at Chu Feng. 

Chu Feng was no pushover either. He swiftly moved his sword to fend off Xu Tianjian’s offense, but he had to retreat in order to relieve the pressure on him. 

Clearly, Xu Tianjian had the upper hand in this clash of swordsmanship.

Xu Tianjian realized that too, and that made him even more gleeful. He thought that Chu Feng was overstated. In terms of strength, he was beneath that of the little monk. 

“Hahaha! Pitting your swordsmanship against mine? Even Ouyang Canjian would struggle to do so, and you think that you’re qualified?” Xu Tianjian scoffed.

He had been training in the way of the sword from a young age, and he had long reached the level of a master. One of his greatest satisfactions in life came from pitting his sword against sword experts and defeating them in a swordsmanship fight. 

His goal was to become the strongest sword user in not just the Totem Galaxy but the entire world of cultivation, and he was confident of pulling it off. 

Shoosh!

Blood suddenly splattered. Xu Tianjian froze in shock.

The blood was coming from his wrist. His hand had been sent flying into the air with a silver sword still firmly in its grip.

Chu Feng had severed his arm in a single slash.

How is this possible? How can Chu Feng’s sword be that fast and delicate? I have never seen such swordsmanship before!

Shoosh shoosh shoosh!

While Xu Tianjian was struggling to come to terms with the situation, the Immemorial Hero’s Sword in Chu Feng’s grasp suddenly morphed into countless blades and assaulted him in a barrage.

Pu pu pu pu!

Xu Tianjian’s body received innumerable impacts within a single second. By the time he lowered his head to take a look, there were already many bloodied gorges all over his body. Even his dantian had been impaled.

“You!!!”

Xu Tianjian stared at Chu Feng in disbelief as he fell helplessly to the ground. 

“Pitting your swordsmanship against mine… You’re the one who thinks too highly of yourself,” Chu Feng swung off the blood from his Immemorial Hero’s Sword as he spoke. 

Xu Tianjian’s swordsmanship was formidable, possibly the strongest that Chu Feng had ever seen, but Chu Feng still won with ease. 

On one hand, Chu Feng had utilized the other party’s mentality against him. Xu Tianjian had gotten complacent from having the chance to flaunt his swordsmanship that he inadvertently let his guard down, revealing an opening for Chu Feng to exploit.

But even if Xu Tianjian hadn’t underestimated Chu Feng, he still wouldn’t have stood a chance in a normal sword clash. It was just that the battle would have been much more intense, and Xu Tianjian might have resorted to other means. 

Chu Feng didn’t want to drag things out, so he went for the kill straight away.

“Despicable! You are a scum! You feigned weakness to assault me!!!” Xu Tianjian furiously roared. Indignance could be seen brimming in his eyes.

While he had been defeated, he felt that he had lost not because he was the weaker one but because he had let his guard down. That made him feel incredibly frustrated. 

“And you still wouldn’t admit that you’re a fool?” Chu Feng sneered.

He swung the Immemorial Hero’s Sword in his hand, intending to take Xu Tianjian’s life with this strike.

Clang!

However, Chu Feng felt like he had struck an indestructible object instead. He was jolted back, and his hand began bleeding from the rebound impact. 

Looking at Xu Tianjian once more, a black aura was gushing out from his dantian to fuse together with his body. His eyes had turned pitch-black, and the silver patterns covering his skin had turned purple. 

“Be careful, Chu Feng! He has cultivated a formidable demonic skill!” Eggy reminded.

“As expected of a top prodigy of the Totem Galaxy. He has plenty of tricks up his sleeves.” Chu Feng could also sense how formidable Xu Tianjian was in his current state.

Xu Tianjian’s fighting prowess had begun rising once more. At this rate, he would be four cultivation ranks above his base cultivation level of rank nine Martial Exalted level. That was something that Chu Feng wouldn’t be able to rival.

Without a doubt, Xu Tianjian was indeed a formidable opponent. 

Knowing better than to get careless, Chu Feng tightly grasped his Immemorial Hero’s Sword.

“Ki ki ki!”

Xu Tianjian laughed sinisterly as his body began floating in the air. His voice became hoarse and deep, reminiscent of a demon.  

“You’re indeed a smart one. You figured out the reason I wanted to kill the little monk. A person as smart as you should be able to figure out what’s going to happen next, right?”

Xu Tianjian looked at Chu Feng with a completely warped face, but his expression remained as gleeful as ever.

Bzzt!

Chu Feng abruptly swung his blade downward at such a fast speed that Xu Tianjian barely saw a bolt of lightning, hardly registering the motion at all. 

The attack had caught Xu Tianjian by surprise, but he wasn’t flustered at all. On the contrary, he continued laughing arrogantly.

“Ki ki ki! It’s useless! I…”

In the midst of his words, Xu Tianjian suddenly froze up. 

He lowered his head, only to see that his body was splitting into two. On top of that, his body was completely suffused with destructive lightning that devastated his vitals. The black aura shrouding his body had also begun receding. 

He was losing his strength. 

“No… How could this be possible? This is impossible!”

Xu Tianjian was still breathing at the moment, but he couldn’t accept the situation. How could he be defeated in a single strike even in this form?

Chu Feng looked at Xu Tianjian wordlessly, but moments later, he had to quickly sit on the ground and recuperate. The backlash was starting to set in. 

He had just executed the First Slash of the Heavenly Lightning Nine Slashes. 

“The backlash getting more and more difficult to deal with,” Chu Feng thought with a tight frown.

Heavenly Lightning Nine Slashes was his strongest killing move, and he had spent a lot of time and effort learning it. Yet, it had become one of his forbidden moves. 

Despite having only used the First Slash, he felt unbearable pain washing over him. His consciousness began to fade, and he felt the threat of death looming over him. 

The backlash he was suffering was a lot worse than before. 

“Damn it! Damn it!’

Xu Tianjian also noticed that Chu Feng was in a terrible condition, but he had already lost his fighting prowess. He was unable to do anything else other than speaking.

Weng!

All of a sudden, the surrounding space began to distort, and a white light surfaced. It was a spirit formation gate! 

A wisp of white aura drifted out from the spirit formation gate and seeped into Chu Feng’s body, instantaneously healing him from his backlash.

“What’s that?”

Chu Feng rose to his feet and walked toward the spirit formation gate. 

Under normal circumstances, if the battle had been decided, he should have been teleported to the peak of the tower, but a spirit formation gate appeared before him instead. 

Furthermore, there was a familiar aura coming from the spirit formation gate. It was the aura he had sensed earlier in the ancient palace where he undertook a test. 

“Is it another test?” Chu Feng murmured under his breath. 

“Don’t go, Chu Feng!” Xu Tianjian bellowed. “I’ll tell you a secret!”

“What secret?” Chu Feng thought that Xu Tianjian knew something about the ancient palace.

“My master is the demon monk,” Xu Tianjian said.

“So?” 

“My master isn’t dead yet. He’s here to exact vengeance on the Totem Dragon Clan, and everyone who is gathered here will die as a result. However, if you hand the title of the strongest to me, I’ll plead for my master to spare your life,” Xu Tianjian said. 

“Is that all you wanted to say?” Chu Feng asked.

“Is that… not enough?” Xu Tianjian asked.

“Heh.” Chu Feng laughed.

Shoosh!

The Immemorial Hero’s Sword flew out and pierced Xu Tianjian’s dantian.