SWDnovel Chapter 76 Do you think my great sword is pretty?
Chapter 76 Do you think my great sword is pretty?
In the shadows below the stage.
A dozen or so human beings were either crammed together by heavy iron chains or imprisoned individually by black iron shackles, but without exception, their eyes were filled with rage.
Among them were three men dressed in white, tight-fitting outfits with ferocious tiger heads embroidered on their chests. Although they were also wearing shackles and their clothes were torn and stained with blood, their spines were ramrod straight.
One of the young men, who looked to be in his early twenties, had his eyes blazing with fury, his whole body trembling, staring intently at the stage, his teeth grinding together.
"Uncle Chu, let me go."
The young man growled and struggled to rush out, but was held down by a middle-aged man beside him.
The middle-aged man was in his forties, with a square face and a scar on his left cheek that ran diagonally from his brow bone to his jaw, adding to his fierce appearance.
He gripped the young man's shoulder with his five fingers like iron clamps, the veins on the back of his hands bulging, and his voice was extremely low, each word seemingly squeezed out from between his teeth: "Calm down, bear with it."
"How can I bear it?!" The young man's eyes were red and his voice trembled. "That's our compatriot. Look at that beast... that beast is torturing him."
On the stage, the wolf demon lashed out again with its claws, tearing a deep gash that exposed bone into the man's thigh.
The man grunted, knelt on one knee, and almost dropped his broadsword.
"Li Gu," the middle-aged man hissed, tightening his grip, "what will you do if you rush in now? Commit suicide? So many comrades risked their lives to give us this opportunity, are you going to waste it?"
The young man shuddered, tears mixed with blood rolling down his cheeks, but he stopped struggling. He just clenched his fists tightly, his nails digging deep into his palms.
Beside him, the older man slowly opened his eyes.
His hair was gray, and his face was etched with wrinkles. When he closed his eyes, he looked like a stone statue. But now that he had opened his eyes, they were filled with a still, stagnant pool.
"Xiao Chu," the old man's voice was hoarse and calm, yet carried an undeniable force, "let him go."
The middle-aged man, Uncle Chu, was taken aback: "Master Kong?"
"Let him go." Old Kong turned his gaze to Chu He, his eyes filled with no reproach or anger, only a detached indifference that seemed to have seen through life and death. "Let him go to his death. With his impulsive and reckless manner, how can he face the White Tiger Guard brothers who died in battle?"
Li Gu was stunned, as if he had been hit on the head.
Master Kong stopped looking at him and closed his eyes again, as if the tragedy on the stage and the clamor of the demons around him had nothing to do with him. However, the slight rise and fall of his chest and the white knuckles of his fingers gripping the chains betrayed that his heart was not as calm as it appeared.
Uncle Chu slowly released his grip.
Li Gu knelt on the spot, his shoulders slumped.
He looked at his compatriots on the stage, their blood dripping and still fighting to the death, then at his comrades beside him, their wounds numerous but still striving to straighten their spines. Finally, he lowered his head and looked at his own trembling hands, stained with mud and blood.
A hot tear fell onto the back of my hand.
He buried his face in his arms, his shoulders heaving violently, but he made no more sound.
"Cry," Kong Yunlei finally spoke again, his gaze fixed on the crimson, three-headed, six-armed phantom in the distant night sky. He said calmly, "After you've cried, endure it. When they come, that's when we'll die."
Just then, the sound of footsteps approached from afar.
Gu Shiba led Xu Changqing and his party to the front of the Li residence.
Xu Changqing glanced at the various sights on the high platform and chuckled, "Hehe, it's quite lively here. I'm getting a little itchy to join in."
Looking at the fat Taoist's smiling face, Gu Shiba inexplicably felt a fierce aura emanating from beneath his bulky body.
He chuckled dryly and replied, "Please excuse my poor attempt, fellow Daoist. They're just prisoners; they're idle anyway, so let these demons have some fun. How about it, fellow Daoist, are you interested in joining in?"
"Haha..." Xu Changqing's laughter suddenly rose, his grin almost reaching his ears, revealing a set of white teeth, as if a beast had opened its eyes. "Although there are many banquets at the Prince of Jin's mansion, such wild fun is rare. Very good, very good, it truly makes this humble Taoist happy."
Before the words were finished, a subtle fluctuation suddenly came from the sky above the Minghai Sea, which only those with keen spiritual senses could detect.
Xu Changqing looked up and saw a winding dragon shadow and a phantom image of a carved pine tree and jade tablet appear out of thin air in the night sky, intertwined with each other.
The dragon's roar was deep and resonant, while the jade tablet rang out clearly. The two separated upon contact and then circled and confronted each other.
"hiss……"
Below the stage, Xu Changqing gasped and whispered, "No wonder Minghai City fell so quickly. It turns out that besides the inside help, there were also Golden Core cultivators at the third realm secretly assisting... But judging from the situation, it seems they are just holding each other back and haven't actually made a move?"
Xu Changqing squinted, feeling the chilling aftershocks of the pressure from afar, his mind racing.
"It seems that both sides' leaders are either wary or have other plans, and the current situation is just a stalemate in their discussions. The real deciding factor is probably not in the air."
Sure enough, as soon as he had this thought, several streaks of light suddenly lit up under the dark sky outside Minghai City, shooting towards the city from different directions, tearing through the night sky.
There was the clear, cool glint of a sword, and the graceful, startled movement of colorful ribbons...
The human cultivators have finally arrived.
And the crimson phantom that had been hovering high in the northwest sky above the city, like a giant pillar supporting the sky, finally moved.
With the force of scorching the heavens and boiling the seas, it crashed down towards the Li residence within the city.
Wherever the phantom passed, the air distorted and heat waves rolled in. Before it even truly arrived, the temperature around the Li residence had already soared, the tiles crackled, and the vegetation withered instantly.
"Daoguang! You wretched mudfish, you took advantage of my numbers to bully me when I was alone. I'll skin you alive and pull out your tendons right now!"
A fiery and violent sound, accompanied by scorching air currents, crashed across the night sky like a meteorite, heading straight for the Li residence.
Wherever the sound waves passed, the demons all changed color, and those with lower cultivation even bled from their ears and noses, staggering backward.
Before the voice of its owner could truly fall, a clear and melodious dragon's roar resounded from deep within the Li residence.
A slightly illusory yet equally awe-inspiring black dragon shadow soared into the sky, its tail swishing to block the blazing light.
"Li Yuanqing, you're courting death!" Zhen Daoguang's cold and sinister voice echoed from within the dragon's shadow.
Two phantoms collided high in the sky, the aftershocks sweeping across like a hurricane, causing the roof tiles of the Li family mansion to fall off and ancient trees in the courtyard to snap in half.
Gu Shiba's expression changed drastically. He no longer cared about feigning politeness with Xu Changqing. He urgently said, "Fellow Daoist, come with me quickly to see Master Man! The situation has changed; we need to discuss it immediately!"
As he spoke, he reached out to pull on Xu Changqing's sleeve.
"Fellow Daoist, don't be in a hurry. What do you think of my great sword?"
Xu Changqing chuckled, and with a seemingly casual flip of his thick hand, he moved with ghostly speed, gently placing his hand on Gu Shiba's wrist.
Immediately, the Devouring Heaven and Devouring Fortune Divine Power was activated, firmly locking down the opponent's aura.
At the same time, a crimson-gold sword light pierced straight into the heart of Gu Shiba.