Eternal Swordmaster
Chapter 584 - 579: Breakthrough 5

Chapter 584: Chapter 579: Breakthrough 5

Whoosh!

Two void shadows, one above the other, were rapidly racing over the sea surface.

Lin Xin originally thought this mission would be routine—just killing demon spirits and collecting some attributes. He never expected to chance upon those spreading the breath of death.

This time, he wanted to see which organization was behind this, daring to make a move against the Lin Family.

About half an hour later, Jin Ma suddenly stopped, his speed greatly reduced, and soon he was hovering above the sea surface, turning to face the approaching Lin Xin.

"Lin Sherie, I had planned to let you off today, but you’re seeking your own death!"

His emotions were furious; he had clearly reached his limit.

Boom!

His whole body exploded with a deathly aura, compressing and blasting the surrounding seawater and air, forming a circle of white wave ripples that slowly spread out.

With a casual pull at his clothes, he revealed the pitch-black metal inner armor he wore underneath.

Lin Xin also abruptly stopped, standing on the sea surface. He spread out his senses to confirm that there was no one around.

A trace of strangeness flashed across his face.

"I thought I would need to put in some effort to lure you out, but it was so easy."

Jin Ma also felt something unusual.

He had unleashed the terrifying deathly aura of the Yuan Jing Level, yet Lin Sherie still remained calm.

He quickly reviewed everything from the beginning. It seemed that from the start, Lin Sherie had been forcing him to retreat. Rather than saying he left voluntarily, it was more like he was forced to leave.

Now, he had revealed his Yuan Jing Cultivation, but his opponent’s expression remained unchanged.

Suddenly, he felt a chill in his heart, and with a shake of his arms, he gathered the deathly aura back to his side, circling around him.

"So this is your Soul Domain Armor as a Yuan Jing?" Lin Xin looked interestedly at Jin Ma’s black inner armor.

There were no patterns on that inner armor, except for four barbs extending from the arms and legs, with three ring-shaped lines on the chest.

Jin Ma’s heart turned cold, but naturally, he wouldn’t be intimidated so easily.

"Who exactly are you?" he demanded coldly. "It seems you are not the original Lin Sherie, are you?"

He had a secret technique that allowed him to briefly control the deceased to serve him. Previously, Gongshang Wu had been such a case.

"I am Lin Sherie." Lin Xin narrowed his eyes. "However..."

Before he could finish speaking, Jin Ma suddenly lifted up a white longsword.

Around the sword, a white whirlwind quickly formed into a curved blade over ten meters long.

With a tearing sound.

The blade, shaped like a crescent moon, flew toward Lin Xin. The distance of several meters was closed in a blink.

Although much had transpired, from the creation to the launch of the white crescent blade, it all happened in the blink of an eye. The speed was astonishing.

In the Mortal Realm, where Heaven and Earth’s Elemental Energy was extremely volatile, techniques like teleport were hard to use, making even speed increase more difficult than in the Underworld.

The crescent crossed several meters in an instant, too fast for most people to react.

Without the rules of a Soul Domain, reaching this extent would be impossible.

The rotating crescent tore through the air, and just as it was about to reach Lin Xin, it suddenly exploded.

Bang!

Countless tiny swords, the size of embroidery needles and engraved with runes, swarmed out from the crescent, rushing towards the closely positioned Lin Xin.

Ding ding ding ding!

Numerous tiny swords, like countless steel needles, struck Lin Xin’s body all at once.

But a smooth, glass-like thin film blocked all the tiny swords completely.

"Boring trick."

Lin Xin stood amidst the onslaught of countless tiny swords, his expression cold.

A myriad of tiny swords fell like raindrops around him, only a finger’s width away from his body.

Yet, they couldn’t breach even that seemingly fragile distance.

Jin Ma’s face turned completely somber.

In his hand, he was secretly gripping a flashing jade talisman, which could teleport him dozens of miles away in an instant once crushed.

He too realized the peculiarity of this Lin Sherie.

His primary mission in coming here was to retrieve the treasure from Song Danhao. Although filled with rage, his mind was still somewhat clear.

’Let’s probe a bit further.’

With that thought in mind.

"Great Sun Breakthrough Slash!"

He raised his longsword once again.

Boom!

Suddenly, countless white sword blades blasted out from around the sword, swarming toward Lin Xin like the previous crescent.

The white sword blades, dense and piled together like a torrent, didn’t even look like swords anymore, resembling more a flood.

The result remained unchanged.

Numerous torrential sword blades harshly struck right front of Lin Xin but couldn’t even breach his Protective Aura.

"What kind of magical treasure is this!?" This time, Jin Ma was truly unnerved and couldn’t help exclaiming.

Unlike before, he had now truly exerted 80% of his power, yet the result was still the same!

Lin Xin grasped the sword handle.

"Colluding with demon spirits, plotting disturbances and chaos in our Extermination Assembly. Today, I will use you to make an example."

A fierce light flashed in his eyes.

"Running Thunder!"

With a low shout.

The Red Flower Sword suddenly burst out of its scabbard, and in an instant six thousand Sword Lights exploded in front of him, resembling a blood-red, brilliantly blooming flower or a startling flare lighting up the night.

The fire-like sword blades tilted forward, instantly breaking through countless white sword blades.

The red Sword Light, from below upwards, rapidly counterattacked, surging towards Jin Ma.

Jin Ma sensed a tremendous alarm, violently thinking to crush the jade talisman in his hand.

But it was already too late.

Ssh ssh ssh ssh ssh!!

Countless red lights pierced directly through him, leaving dense, closely packed wounds.

With each penetration, his entire body trembled violently.

A demonic Qi wrapped around Lin Xin as he soared into the air, landing beside him.

He reached out and firmly grasped his head.

The Soul Searching Decree unfolded instantly.

Streams of red light, like thin threads, drilled into Jin Ma’s scalp, and after dozens of red lights had penetrated, all the threads suddenly vibrated simultaneously, emitting a strange sucking noise.

Gurgle.

As if sucking the brain matter out of Jin Ma.

Ah!!!

Jin Ma screamed in agony, his only intact head held tightly in Lin Xin’s grip, leaving him completely immobile.

A mere Yuan Jing Cultivator dared to act recklessly in front of Lin Xin without even being a True Monarch. He had easily disabled him by utilizing just a fraction of his attribute strength.

Lin Xin casually made a slash, severing Jin Ma’s vocal cords in his throat, silencing him abruptly.

He closed his eyes and began to carefully inspect the man’s memories.

Scenes flooded into his mind, starting from earlier on Qingyun Island, quickly retracing.

The pursuit of Song Danhao, the bearded man, rounding up everyone on the island, interrogating, hunting, compelling. Yet, they failed to capture him.

Then a few days earlier, Jin Ma was alone in an unfamiliar sea, seemingly searching for something, to no avail.

Earlier still.

Huh!

Suddenly, his vision turned into a blur of blue and black.

His entire field of view turned blue. It seemed to be underwater.

"The decree has been issued," a somber female voice came from the depths of the water.

Lin Xin distinctly felt Jin Ma shiver all over, a wave of fear welling up inside him.

"Please instruct, Pillar Envoy."

He bowed respectfully.

"The chess piece has been set; everything is ready. You retrieve the treasure and complete the final link," the voice said.

"It will be done as instructed," Jin Ma promptly responded.

In front of him, the sea parted, and a scroll suddenly flew out, landing firmly in Jin Ma’s hands.

Lin Xin’s heart tightened; borrowing Jin Ma’s perspective, he quickly looked into the parting waters.

There, a vague human figure was barely discernible.

As he focused, the image zoomed in, and the contours of the figure became clearer.

It appeared to be a woman with a purple mole at the corner of her eyebrow.

Boom!!

Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his chest.

He abruptly awoke from the soul search, looking down to see Jin Ma’s arm forcefully imprinted on the center of his chest.

This supposedly dead man now wore a face filled with madness, his lips curled into a sinister smile.

"How... Lotus!?"

Before he could speak, Jin Ma exploded violently.

Blasted into a mass of bloody fireworks, the ferocious impact smashed directly into him.

Boom!

Lin Xin felt an intense pain throughout his body; the explosive force carried a profoundly toxic corrosiveness, treating his physical body as if it were nothing, directly shaking his soul.

He was fiercely smashed into the sea, splashing up more than ten meters of white waves.

Murkiness spread, quickly gathering.

Soon a gray silhouette appeared in mid-air, draped in a gray cloak, looking down at the water.

"Don’t blame me, if you are to blame, blame yourself for seeing what you shouldn’t have."

Behind the figure, a massive gray and white hand flashed in and out of existence. The terrible, raging aura, though only revealed for an instant, caused the surrounding air to be permeated with a thick scent of death.

He watched for a moment until he felt no more signs of life from Lin Xin, then turned and flew away.

Hum...

Suddenly, he seemed to hear a sound coming from beneath him.

"What is that sound?" The shadow paused slightly, looking downward.

Beneath, the sea surface had unexpectedly formed a huge vortex at some unknown time.

In the center of the vortex, a human figure with limbs spread out, holding a Longsword, eyes tightly closed, floated in the very center. It was unmistakably Lin Sherie.

A vast deep blue vortex circled him, the sea silent and still, yet fraught with countless undercurrents.

"This is...!" The shadow suddenly trembled in his heart.

Below, hundreds of meters of sea surface had completely sunk in, like a giant blue disc.

The surface was covered with dense, fine thunder patterns and arcs, ancient mysterious runes slowly emerging.

In the center of the hundred-meter diameter disc, Lin Xin slowly raised his sword.

"Red Flower Sword Path..."

His eyes gradually opened, revealing an expanse of white.

"Thunder Emperor!"

The disc’s surface violently shattered, and from the center of the vortex, a huge blue thunderous hand burst forth.

The hand appeared semi-transparent, its palm with six fingers, and in its center, it bore the relief-like face of a closed-eyed old man.

The hand shot straight towards the gray figure in mid-air, surrounded by countless thunderbolts, forming a massive electromagnetic field that bound everything attempting to escape.

The shadow’s eyes widened, almost reflexively; his battle-worn body instantly reacted.

"Minghu!"

He shouted explosively, and behind him, a massive gray hand also formed solidly, reaching downward.

An equally large hand formed instantly from pure gray qi, only slightly smaller than the thunderous hand, pressed down fiercely as well.

From behind, the silhouette of a nine-tailed white fox faintly appeared.

Boom!!

The two massive hands collided fiercely.

Numerous white airwaves, along with distortions, spread explosively in all directions.