Chapter 585 — The One Who Saw Through the Truth

The spectators had realized that this year's God-Conferring War was the hardest one yet to predict.

Shijin had swept through the elite rookies of the Cosmos Overlord Legion with the World-Ending Giant Dragon and the Mystic Sect Master at his side, and just when everyone thought he would be a strong contender for the crown, the World-Ending Giant Dragon was smashed to bits by the World-Purging Demon Duck, and the Mystic Sect Master was crushed beneath the Super Divine Beast...

And just as people were marveling at the might of the World-Purging Demon Duck and the Super Divine Beast, the Demon Duck met its match and surrendered outright, while the Super Divine Beast was killed in a single second!

It gave one the feeling of a battle of immortals where reversals lurked everywhere, each beast mightier than the last.

"This Canshen Di is simply beyond comprehension. I see it now—the Super Divine Beast is a Xuanwu Evolver, a turtle-serpent Xuanwu formed from two lives fusing in evolution! But the finishing move Canshen Di just used was like a Time Traceback, winding the Super Divine Beast back to before their evolution, splitting them in two and gutting their combat power!"

"On the surface, Canshen Di didn't display any especially powerful offensive means, but this is plainly more terrifying than Karn!"

A chill ran down the spectators' spines. They had completely underestimated this Canshen Di before—how could anyone possess such a horrifying skill?

"Next match... Eleven versus Crimson Pupil. Who do you think will win..."

"As things stand, Eleven's best record is defeating Karn, though it wasn't an easy win."

"And contestant Crimson Pupil's best record is slaying the Demon Emperor's Son with a single sword strike..."

"Those two were ranked first and second among the rookies by Lord Box..."

"Of course, looking at it now, Lord Box's ranking wasn't accurate. It's probably just that Eleven and Crimson Pupil had shown more of their strength before the rankings were made, which is why they took first and second... The ones ranked lower, like Canshen Di and the rest, have some terrifying hidden tricks of their own."

"But it can't be denied that Eleven and Crimson Pupil are still very strong. Eleven probably went all out against Karn, but contestant Crimson Pupil looked utterly at ease against the Demon Emperor's Son—maybe Crimson Pupil still has trump cards."

"I bet contestant Crimson Pupil wins. As long as Crimson Pupil's trump cards are strong enough, maybe they can crush Eleven!"

The spectators kept analyzing the coming fight between Eleven and Crimson Pupil. Eleven, having beaten Karn, was regarded by everyone as very strong—but no longer a mystery.

Contestant Crimson Pupil, however, was impossible to gauge from that one sword strike that slew the Demon Emperor's Son. No one knew whether it was their full power, so the outcome between the first and second rookies was still hard to call.

Still, given the reversals of the previous matches, the vast majority of spectators felt Crimson Pupil had the better odds!

For no other reason than that Crimson Pupil was more mysterious—and more beautiful—giving one the sense that they could win all the way to the end.

For this battle, the Demon Emperor's Son Tianshang, Minggu, Karn, and the others were also watching with the utmost seriousness.

Soon, the battle arena opened.

It was a forest arena, with a large clearing at the center surrounded by woods dense with natural energy. This randomly matched arena seemed to offer no advantage to either side.

As Rin had said, luck was part of strength too—the God-Conferring War's mechanisms acknowledged as much—and in the duel between Eleven and Crimson Pupil, clearly neither side had the upper hand in luck.

Eleven and Crimson Pupil slowly appeared on opposite sides of the clearing, gazing at each other.

Crimson Pupil, in Blade Maiden form, was the first to smile faintly. From the very first battle, the Death Blade Maiden Crimson Pupil had always been cold and deathly in aura—this was the first time anyone had seen her smile!

Unbelievable!

"Since my opponent is you, I won't hold back!" After that smile, Crimson Pupil opened with her strongest ultimate move!! Her final secret art!!

The Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation!

"Ying ying ying!!" Across from her, Eleven was fuming. Damn Crimson Pupil—running into her this early left Eleven thoroughly frustrated.

Because Crimson Pupil was absolutely very strong. Yes, Crimson Pupil had taken first place last time thanks to Shijin's support, but as things stood, Crimson Pupil's move set could be called the most perfect in the entire team.

Eleven felt that beating Crimson Pupil would cost her an enormous price.

"What is she doing!!" As Crimson Pupil shed her usual demeanor, the spectators were rather startled. Across from Eleven, Crimson Pupil simply released the fire-patterned black sword in her hand, sending it aloft, where it flew into the sky and vanished!

"A move we've never seen." The opponents Crimson Pupil had slain in a single strike narrowed their eyes.

The next instant, with ring after ring of heaven-shaking sword cries, everyone sensed something was wrong and stared at the sky in shock.

At some point, four colossal phantom swords had come to hang in the sky, each a thousand meters long.

They began as mere phantoms, but with the sword cries they gained divine essence one after another. One blade was silver-white with hidden purple radiance, as though in an instant it had crossed boundless space-time to descend, refracting the infinite mysteries of space. Then the spectators' vision was drowned in a flood of red light, its brilliance dazzling as the blazing sun. With a sword cry like the chirp of a sparrow, a red immortal sword emerged in grandeur, like a world-ending divine weapon.

The third immortal sword's descent came with a vast, surging tide of deathly aura, sweeping up black clouds that stretched for thousands of meters. Its black blade brimmed with the ripples of death and annihilation.

The fourth had scarcely arrived when its unstoppable metal sword aura seemed to pierce the heavens and space alike, cleaving and collapsing all in its path, and joined the other three immortal swords to form a heaven-reaching sword formation standing at the four quarters, sealing the entire small world within it beneath an awe-inspiring sword pressure.

"Impossible..." As the sword formation appeared, countless spectators cried out in shock.

Because the pressure each of these immortal swords gave off was no weaker than the strike that had slain the Demon Emperor's Son—and now there were four of them!!

They seemed to combine into a sword formation, perfectly and harmoniously becoming the ultimate secret art.

The Demon Emperor's Son Tianshang used a saber, and saber and sword were of one house. He sensed the formation's power with horror, finding it inconceivable. The Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation was formed from four attributes—space, fire, death, and metal—and had begun as merely a high-grade divine skill.

But the Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation of today no longer resembled a high-grade divine skill in the slightest. The Sword of Space contained the power of the Space Mastery divine skill Crimson Pupil commanded; the Divine Sword of Fire contained a portion of the world-ending flame power of the Vermilion Bird clone; the Divine Sword of Death contained the power of the Death Mastery divine skill Crimson Pupil commanded; and the Divine Sword of Metal was the power of Metal Mastery.

These four forces were bestowed upon the Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation by Crimson Pupil, who then used the two divine skills Crossed Swords and Ten Thousand Swords as One as the nexus, completely perfecting the ultimate Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation and fusing them flawlessly. One secret art had merged every divine skill Crimson Pupil now commanded into one.