Chapter 1463 — A Flying Sword Alone Storms the Ninefold Palace

Lord Gong took several more sword wounds; despair rose in her, and she said in a hoarse voice, "Shen Ye, why do you want to kill me? " Kaihuang gave no answer.

Of a sudden he swept the sword back into its sheath and was gone in a flash.

WHOOSH — A vast abyss of Guixu, a chasm of Returning Void, suddenly appeared where he had stood, devouring the sky and the earth there; but Kaihuang had left that spot in the very nick of time, and the abyss did not swallow the least part of him.

RUMBLE!

Again a Taiji diagram surged forth; the two qi of yin and yang, like dragons swimming fin to fin, scissored toward him — and Kaihuang walked precisely past the front of those yin-yang shears, so that the two qi cut only empty air. The Taiji diagram reared up and barred his way; Kaihuang drew his sword and thrust, splitting a great hole in the diagram, and passed through it.

Suddenly an ancient, unadorned great bell descended from the heavens, booming and quaking, its toll vast and rolling, crushing down upon him.

From above Kaihuang's head a sword qi soared skyward, rising level upon level, transforming into the thirty-fivefold heaven; at its summit was the sword domain of the Jade Purity Realm, a vast realm of rivers and mountains as if cast in jade, and it held the great bell up. The bell's toll shook and clashed, yet could not break through the thirty-fivefold heaven.

The ancient gods of Taiji, one man and one woman, following Yan the Heavenly Consort, appeared before Kaihuang.

Behind both their heads rose a Taiji sand table; they hesitated.

Kaihuang reversed the sword hilt in salute to the two; the two ancient gods returned the courtesy, and when they raised their heads his trace was already gone.

"Why did the two of you not hold him back? " asked Yan the Heavenly Consort, perplexed.

"Hold him, and we would be wounded as well.

" The ancient goddess Taiyin said, "This fellow Daoist surpasses even us in the Dao realm; it is only that his innate foundation is lacking. To force him to stay would go ill for us.

" The ancient god Taiyang said, "He is one who is about to attain the Dao.

He is to be envied.

" Yan the Heavenly Consort's heart and spirit were deeply shaken.