Chapter 133: Mountains and Rivers Splitting Open Across a Thousand Miles, the Snow Stops, the Sixth Mountain Master Arrives

Some say the martial world is a realm forged by cultivators. In this world, the strong float upon the surface, while the weak resemble countless wandering fish that sink to the depths. Swallowed quietly by the giant fish, they leave not even a single ripple in their wake.

A peerless cultivator like the Great Yuan Emperor, however, was akin to a massive mountain crashing down into the martial world. With a mere casual shift, he would crush countless cultivators to their deaths.

Today, Zhao Huangting was like a giant fish leaping out of the martial world, cutting a deep ravine across the mountain that had crashed into it, allowing the waters of the martial world to flow backward along the trench.

Across the entire realm, countless people were watching this battle.

Their expressions were complex, their hearts pounding, filled with awe and sighing emotion.

Prior to this, the Great Yuan Emperor had sat atop the pinnacle of the world as number one for five hundred years, unshakeable by anyone. Many even believed that the Great Yuan Emperor was so invincible it was impossible for him to get hurt.

Today, Zhao Huangting used the sword in his hand to unleash an immense display of grandeur, drawing blood from the Great Yuan Emperor and telling every powerhouse in the mortal world that the Great Yuan Emperor could bleed as well.

Of course, Zhao Huangting's primary objective was to show An Le, to rouse the courage within his heart, placing high hopes on the young man who had so rarely been granted the sight of Green Mountain.

Snow began to drift across heaven and earth, as if chanting a sorrowful dirge.

The goose-feather snowflakes were dyed crimson, reflecting the brilliance of the setting sun.

A peerless powerhouse facing the twilight of his years, unwilling to wither away in idle time or vanish into silent extinction, preferred to ignite his nirvana, welcoming an ultimate grandeur and an ultimate exhilaration.

In this world, no one could attain eternal life, but a person could choose the manner of their death.

A layer of snow settled upon the ten-thousand-foot-high walls of Dadu City.

The cracked first-tier sword, Shooting the Dipper, was stabbed straight into the city wall. Though covered in fractures, it stubbornly refused to shatter, looking as proud and upright as an old man's straightened spine.

Zhao Huangting did not choose to sit in withered stillness atop the city wall awaiting death.

After a hearty, thoroughly enjoyable, and earth-shaking battle came a silent and sorrowful curtain call.

He had chosen for himself a tragic and magnificent way to conclude.

He leaped down from the city wall. With his mortal flesh now returned to ordinary status, falling from a hundred-foot city wall meant certain death.

Even if the death were ugly, even if no one collected his corpse.

Yet melting his blood into the northern soil was perhaps the death Zhao Huangting desired far more.

Zhao Huangting closed his eyes, the whistling sound of rushing wind sweeping past his ears.

The ground grew further and further away. The vital energy within his body was gone, and both his primordial spirit and spiritual awareness were melting away in the fires of nirvana.

The ground drawing closer meant death was approaching.

However, just as he was about to smash into the earth, a familiar sword hum rang out. A sword flashed violently from afar, cutting the falling snowflakes cleanly in half. The pristine snow scraped against the sword, gradually splitting apart, melted by the generated friction into liquid like a polished mirror.

Zhao Huangting opened his bleary eyes.

Within his eyes surged a hint of bewilderment, a touch of emotion, complexity, and finally... panic!

The brat An Le hadn't left yet!

Wan Jieliu hadn't taken An Le away!

Zhao Huangting had long since prepared himself for death. He had promised to bring An Le here, to let An Le see the magnificent rivers and mountains of the North, to witness the sheer exhilaration of his battle with the Great Yuan Emperor, and to let An Le experience the true three swords of the ci-poetry style so that his comprehension of sword forms might deepen.

He had never imagined that An Le would come to save him!

Where was this?

Great Yuan's Dadu! The Great Yuan Dadu, where powerhouses gathered like clouds!

He, Zhao Huangting, could cast all caution to the wind, ascend the walls of Dadu, and swing his sword for the sake of exhilaration because the worst-case scenario was simply death.

But An Le could not! An Le was still young and possessed an infinite future; how could he die in Great Yuan's Dadu today?!

At this moment, Zhao Huangting's eyelashes trembled, and panic inevitably surfaced across his aged face.

Facing the overwhelmingly powerful Great Yuan Emperor, Zhao Huangting had felt no fear. Facing death, Zhao Huangting had been utterly detached and free-flowing. Yet when Green Mountain appeared once more, he felt an uncontrollable terror.

An Le could not die here!

That bastard Wan Jieliu, could he not even manage to take An Le away?!

Hum, hum, hum...

A brilliant sword hum instantly enveloped Zhao Huangting's entire body. Sword Qi brushed past like a spring breeze, lifting his rapidly plunging body.

Finally, it safely and steadily deposited him flat upon the earth.

With his feet touching the ground and drifting snow falling upon his shoulders, Zhao Huangting's body swayed.

In the distance, a figure in white, completely bathed in a radiant white light, sped over at the utmost speed. Almost simultaneous with the appearance of Green Mountain, the figure landed by his side.

"You brat..."

Zhao Huangting's face was a mask of complexity, his chest feeling somewhat choked.

"Why didn't you leave?"

"You could have left after watching the battle!" Zhao Huangting said weakly.

He truly felt powerless. Right now, he was nothing more than an ordinary person, and his remaining lifespan was merely the thin grains of sand left in an hourglass, about to run out entirely.

He no longer possessed any strength to take An Le away from this place.

A brilliant and gentle smile appeared on An Le's handsome, refined face.

"Senior, what are you saying? This junior still has to take you home," An Le said softly, bathed in the white radiance.

"You, oh you..." Hearing the word "home," Zhao Huangting found the reprimand he wanted to utter completely stuck in his throat.

"This is going to be troublesome..." Zhao Huangting said with a headache.

Even on the verge of death, they wouldn't let him have peace, still giving him a headache.

At this moment, Wan Jieliu in the distance wore a complex expression. Letting Zhao Huangting die in Great Yuan's Dadu without a corpse left behind, his lonely body growing slowly cold and frozen...

Even just thinking about it, his heart could not bear it. Yet his clear consciousness told him he could not lose his head like An Le.

To rescue Zhao Huangting at this moment would only cost them both their lives.

Even though Wan Jieliu had to admit that he truly lacked the courage to rescue Zhao Huangting right now, lacking that courage was only natural.

After all, what they were facing at this moment was... Great Yuan's Dadu!

And that number one powerhouse in the world, the Great Yuan Emperor!

Therefore, when Wan Jieliu noticed An Le's tendency to fling out the bamboo sword at his waist, he reached out without hesitation to grab An Le, intending to bundle him up and immediately retreat from this place.

After all, their whereabouts had already been vaguely discovered.

However, to Wan Jieliu's astonishment, the hand he reached out... failed to grab hold of An Le's figure. A surging force directly repelled his palm.

This...

He, a dignified ninth-tier cultivator, couldn't even catch a fifth-tier?

The reality was precisely that. He could only watch helplessly as An Le threw the bamboo sword at his waist, his entire body crashing through the sorrowful drifting snow like an arrow released from a string, charging toward that magnificent and majestic city!

He rushed toward Zhao Huangting, who was about to plunge into the cold earth.

"Senior Wan, leave first."

An Le's voice, telling him to leave, drifted over lightly.

Following that, he saw the surging, boundless heroic spirit erupting from An Le's body, piercing straight into the clouds!

This heroic spirit made An Le's running speed faster and faster, his aura growing increasingly formidable!

Wan Jieliu took a deep breath. Recovering his senses, he felt a surge of anger. Let him escape first? Who was he looking down on?!

He, too, began to move forward instead of fleeing on his own.

The pride of a swordsman did not permit him to do such a thing.

In fact, there was even a thrill of excitement and heroism trembling in his heart.

Looking at An Le's back, Wan Jieliu's expression grew complex. He suddenly understood why An Le had been able to ring the sword bell thirty-six times...

This attitude of not showing the slightest bit of fear even when facing the world's number one Great Yuan Emperor truly commanded the respect of a ninth-tier like himself.

High up in the ten-thousand-foot sky.

The Great Yuan Emperor, standing amidst the torn sea of clouds, looked indifferently at the situation below the grand city.

He had long since noticed the two figures accompanying Zhao Huangting—one at the mid ninth tier, and the other... at the fifth.

So weak that the Great Yuan Emperor hadn't even sparked a shred of interest.

After all, with such strength, they probably didn't even have the courage to step foot into Great Yuan's Dadu.

Not everyone could come here抱ing a mortal determination like Zhao Huangting.

However, the Great Yuan Emperor did not believe these two could escape either. The current Central Plains belonged to the Great Yuan Empire; if he gave a single command, they wouldn't be able to run far.

Yet, to the Great Yuan Emperor's astonishment, the youth of mere fifth-tier cultivation did not choose to flee when Zhao Huangting plummeted from the city tower; instead, he hurled his sword and sped forward.

Wasn't... he afraid of death?

Immediately afterward, the Great Yuan Emperor sensed an earth-shattering, boundless heroic spirit rising from the youth. Surrounding the pillar of heroic spirit was an invincible momentum that transformed a white python into a heavenly dragon.

This power caused the youth's aura to instantly climb to an extremely elevated degree.

It was very peculiar, resembling the Daoist True Martial Temple's method of drawing upon the qi of heaven and man to empower oneself.

Yet, wanting to save someone with this...

It was far from enough.

The Great Yuan Emperor watched apathetically. With just this bit of strength, he thought he could rescue someone who had challenged him right out of Great Yuan's Dadu.

Without even needing the Great Yuan Emperor to speak, within Great Yuan Dadu, powerhouses had already sensed that something was amiss, releasing surging vital energy and terrifying spiritual awareness.

The primordial spirit and vital energy intertwined to form a massive Dharma idol, which crashed down with a booming sound toward An Le and Zhao Huangting at the base of the city.

The Great Yuan Emperor had granted Zhao Huangting a dignified death.

But Zhao Huangting had to die!

If someone rescued him, that would be slapping the face of the Great Yuan Empire, slapping the face of the Great Yuan Emperor!

"Zhao Huangting, die!"

"Rescuer, die!"

Deafening shockwaves exploded, and the countless snowflakes falling from the high heavens were shattered into mist in a single instant!

An Le grasped Green Mountain, swung Zhao Huangting onto his back, raised his gaze, and looked up at the terrifying, crashing power of the Dharma idol.

Surging gales blew violently, the immense force seemingly evacuating the air itself.

That was the fist strike of a peak ninth-tier, formed from the intertwining of primordial spirit and vital energy!

The massive pressure was enough to freeze the blood and stiffen the thoughts of cultivators below the ninth tier, robbing them of even the strength to twitch.

Yet as An Le raised his head, his expression was exceptionally calm.

His hair fluttered, and his white robes snapped in the wind.

Putting aside the fearless traits provided by the Fearless Heart Dao fruit, during the trial of Green Mountain's sharpening, he had faced the giant sword slashed down by an immortal without a shred of fear. How could he possibly be too terrified to move when facing the punch of a ninth-tier powerhouse of the Great Yuan Empire?

Within his chest, the heroic spirit inspired by viewing the emperor stone statues stepping and slaying immortals, coupled with the immense grandeur of seeing Zhao Huangting's peerless ci-poetry three swords make the Great Yuan Emperor bleed, caused the "Heroic Spirit Attraction" that had previously been drained dry to draw upon the heroic spirit of the world and fill up once more.

The moment it was filled, An Le squeezed it out once again.

Of course, this was not An Le's true trump card!

Since he had a trump card, why not try to bring this elder—who was both master and friend—home, sparing him from dying here without even someone to collect his corpse?

Summoning the world's great heroic spirit, daring to call upon mortals to slay ghosts and gods!

With Zhao Huangting on his back and Green Mountain in hand, the sword hummed as An Le fiercely slashed out a sword against the plunging giant fist of the peak ninth-tier.

The boundless heroic spirit gathered entirely into this single sword.

Combined with the sharpened Green Mountain, the Sword Qi gathered into this single strike became infinitely sharp.

The Sword Qi crashed head-on against the fist of the Dharma idol in a thunderous collision!

Boom!!!

At the point of impact between the sword light and the fist, an invisible ripples resembling the surface of a lake spread outward. This intense shockwave slammed against the towering city wall, causing it to tremble slightly!

The ground beneath An Le's feet instantly fractured like a spiderweb.

"Go!"

An Le took a deep breath, wrapped within the much thinner pillar of heroic spirit, and sped away toward the distance.

Atop the Dadu city wall, several ninth-tier powerhouses of the Great Yuan Empire were stunned and shocked.

Especially the powerhouse who had condensed the Dharma idol of vital energy and primordial spirit; his face was filled with utter perplexity. The Sword Qi slashed out by a fifth-tier... had blocked his punch?!

What on earth was that pillar of white light drawn down from the firmament?

Was it the power of immortals?

No, the point was... he, damn it, had actually suffered the embarrassment of being blocked by a fifth-tier!

With the aid of the Heroic Spirit Attraction's power, An Le's speed at this moment was lightning-fast.

However, the ninth-tier powerhouses in Great Yuan Dadu, having recovered their wits, were filled with shame and anger, and naturally would not let An Le leave with someone just like that.

Wan Jieliu drew the willow-branch-like sword from his waist.

He flashed to An Le's side, his expression cold and stern, though a trace of complexity lingered in his eyes.

Clearly, he had not expected An Le to be able to erupt with power capable of going toe-to-toe with the ninth tier.

Zhao Huangting did not find it particularly surprising. After all, back in Lin'an Prefecture, An Le had already displayed the Heroic Spirit Attraction once to shatter the schemes of the Zhao family's Son of Heaven.

Now, showing such methods and trump cards again was unexpected, yet within reason.

"Young Master An, your power is indeed peculiar, but... after all, this is the North, Great Yuan's Dadu." Wan Jieliu sighed softly.

This was the gathering place of Great Yuan's powerhouses.

Although many powerful ninth-tiers were at the Canglang River battlefield, the empire's capital naturally lacked no powerhouses.

An Le looked at Wan Jieliu, his expression calm, as if he still possessed a trump card. He spoke: "Senior Wan, let's separate and leave. You alone should be able to escape easily."

Hearing this, Wan Jieliu glared angrily: "Young Master An, do you look down on Wan?"

"Wan promised the senior that I would personally bring you back naturally, so I won't crawl back to Sword Pool Palace like a whipped dog. If I did that, where would Wan find the face to practice the sword, where would Wan find the spirit to forge swords?!"

Wan Jieliu's voice even carried a hint of anger.

Although he lacked the heroic and exhilarating determination to die like Zhao Huangting, he was still a swordsman.

A swordsman should possess an indomitable sharpness!

Without another word, Wan Jieliu took out the sword box strapped to his back and gently pushed open its lid.

"I thought this sword box wouldn't be used until crossing the river, but I didn't expect to have to open it now," Wan Jieliu said.

"Young Master An, you take Zhao Huangting and leave first. Later on, Wan will naturally catch up, and we will cross the river together to go home."

With those words spoken, Wan Jieliu's sword box was already open. Inside lay eighteen sword weapons, each no longer than a palm.

His fingers brushed across the eighteen sword weapons before finally flicking them with a finger.

Sword Qi soared into the sky from the box as eighteen swords whistled outward simultaneously, resembling streaks of lightning shooting forth from a sword box!

The eighteen sword weapons intertwined and combined into a massive Sword Qi killing array!

They intercepted the incoming powerhouses of the Great Yuan Empire one after another!

"The sword array of Sword Pool Palace?"

"Courting death!"

"The iron cavalry of the Great Yuan Empire will trample Sword Pool Palace sooner or later!"

Cold snorts escaped the mouths of the figures rushing forward. The next instant, an overwhelming momentum swept upward as a series of terrifying attacks slammed toward the sword array!

Wan Jieliu's face turned instantly pale. Being only at the mid ninth tier, controlling a sword array to fend off so many powerhouses was truly a formidable task!

above the sea of clouds.

The Great Yuan Emperor, whose wounds had completely healed, stood with his burly physique, looking indifferently at this scene.

His gaze locked onto An Le.

Upon this youth, he felt a rather bizarre sensation—was it... a threat?

A mere fifth-tier cultivator, how could he threaten him, a double-tenth-tier world number one?

However, the Great Yuan Emperor trusted his intuition. Moreover, what he trusted even more was... the Central Plains dragon vein that he had been absorbing.

At this moment, as An Le erupted with the power of the Heroic Spirit Attraction, the Central Plains dragon vein actually began to tremble incessantly, forcing the Great Yuan Emperor to divert more spiritual awareness to suppress it.

Therefore, the Great Yuan Emperor took a step forward.

Like a purple thunderbolt tearing through the vault of heaven, he appeared before the sword array in an instant. With a single grasp of his large hand, the sword array formed by the eighteen sword weapons instantly fell apart and snapped piece by piece!

Wan Jieliu felt a pressure like an abyss crash down upon him fiercely. With the willow-branch-like sword held horizontally before his chest, his feet plowed the ground as he was forced backward a full thousand feet.

Wan Jieliu's pupils contracted as he gasped heavily for breath.

This oppressive sense...

Only when facing it truly did one realize how terrifying it was!

Was this even human?!

And yet Zhao Huangting had actually managed to injure such a Great Yuan Emperor and make him bleed?!

The Great Yuan Emperor stood with his hands behind his back. His luxurious robes clung tightly to his body, outlining muscles as solid as rock. His vigorous hair fluttered, and purple lightning seemed to weave within his gaze.

He didn't even look at Wan Jieliu, who had been driven back by a single move.

His gaze fixed on An Le, shifting until it landed upon the Green Mountain in An Le's hand.

"So the sword was here," the Great Yuan Emperor said calmly. He had always remembered this sword.

Back when he broke through to the double-tenth tier, filled with boundless heroic spirit and invincibility across the world, he had failed to snap this sword, leaving a deep impression in his memory.

However, he did not linger long on Green Mountain. His gaze shifted horizontally and landed on An Le himself.

The pillar of light formed by the Heroic Spirit Attraction had gradually dissipated, leaving only a faint, slender white thread that continued to fade bit by bit.

Facing the Great Yuan Emperor's overwhelming pressure, which surged like a crashing ocean wave, An Le carried Zhao Huangting on his back and still stood unyieldingly, without the slightest hint of bowing his waist.

He resembled a young tiger raising its head to face a vast, surging dragon!

"Good courage, the invincible momentum of a white python turning into a heavenly dragon. Not bad."

"I should have left you for the geniuses of the Great Yuan Empire to kill, so they could claim your invincible momentum," the Great Yuan Emperor said calmly.

As if having a genius of the Great Yuan Empire kill An Le were an extremely easy and natural matter.

"However, before that, Gu needs to figure out why you were able to cause the dragon vein to churn."

The Great Yuan Emperor's purple-lightning-woven gaze was incomparably profound.

With those words spoken, the Great Yuan Emperor's palm reached out toward An Le.

A single hand was all it took to make the surrounding space feel as though it had frozen solid.

An Le took a deep breath, gripped Green Mountain tightly, and slowly unfurled the golden Sword Qi elixir within his dantian.

However, at the same time,

the yellow pear-wood sword box strapped to An Le's back suddenly emitted a soft sword hum.

Ink Pond abruptly transformed into a straight black line that shot forward, stabbing toward the Great Yuan Emperor's palm. This sword strike resembled a mantis trying to stop a chariot or a mayfly trying to shake a giant tree.

An Le was momentarily stunned.

Yet the Great Yuan Emperor's gaze shifted directly to this ink-black sword weapon.

Only a crisp, clear clang was heard.

It was as if a straight streak of sword light had parted ten thousand li of mountains and rivers in a single instant, and the drifting snow across the sky stopped abruptly!

Ink Pond vanished, replaced by...

a cool, aloof figure standing with arms crossed, green robes fluttering, and a pine-wood sword box strapped to his back.

Ten thousand li of mountains and rivers shifted in an instant!

The snow stopped.

The Sixth Mountain Lord had arrived.