328 A Very Heavy Sword

The wind was somewhat cold and hurt a little as it jabbed against his face.However, it was only a cold wind, not a mental assault from the oldzither-player. Those mountain ghosts and those misty shaman tigers seemed tohave avoided the Yellow Paper Umbrella, but how could they ever have reallyavoided it? The Yellow Paper Umbrella in Chen Changsheng's hand required countlessprecious materials used by the Tang Clan in its construction, necessitating theOld Master of the Tang clan to forge it personally. If the holder of thisumbrella possessed a high enough cultivation, this umbrella could disperse allspiritual attacks. Even if his current cultivation was not enough, it wassufficient to sever Black Robe's observations from outside the Garden of Zhou,so what did the mental attacks from zither-playing old man amount to? Yet thezither-playing old man taking action was a dangerous signal. It indicated thatNanke had ceased to stubbornly hold onto her pride. The demon experts werehighly likely to attack as one,from all sides. This truthfully made Chen Changsheng very vigilant. Teng Xiaoming and LiuWan'er, the Demon General couple, had been silently standing down the divinepath, just as inconspicuous as their names, but he had never once forgottenthem. At the lakeshore on the other side of that cliff, this Demon Generalcouple had exhibited a terrifying strength. In truth, this Demon General couplewere already true experts at the upper level of Star Condensation. Besides theFive Saints, the Eight Storms, experts like Su LI, who could easily defeatthem? Even after they entered the Garden of Zhou and forcefully suppressedtheir strength down to the upper level of Ethereal Opening, they still kepttheir combat experience and awareness. If comparing solely in terms of battleprowess, they would most likely be even stronger than Nanke. Nanke's sword energy had still not been completely slashed to pieces by hissword intent. Like a cloud of fireflies, the starlight danced on the surface ofhis umbrella. His gaze looked over the edge of the Yellow Paper Umbrella, overNanke's shoulder, and landed at the end of the divine path. His expressionabruptly turned cold. In the middle of the rainstorm, Liu Wan'er smiled at him,her expression warm and serene. She was like a mother leaning on a door,waiting for her child to come home. But that middle-aged man with the honestexpression was no longer by her side. Just where did he go? Suddenly the space above the divine path exploded with a thunderclap! The coldwind around the mausoleum seemed to freeze at this thunderclap, but the fallingrain seemed to grow even more frenzied. Chen Changsheng lifted his head upwards, but all he saw in the gloomy sky wasa black speck. The black speck fell along with the boundless torrent of rain, falling fasterand faster. In a short period of time, it had grown many times larger,gradually appearing to be a mountain before his eyes.  The twenty-fourth Demon General Teng Xiaoming had transformed into a heavymountain peak, his hands holding an unremarkable carrying pole. With a shrillwhistle that pierced through the air, he fell from the sky with the wind andrain, with an unequaled berserk power! Seeing this scene, Chen Changsheng's face suddenly paled, but his eyes werestill as calm as before. Without any fear, the dagger in his right hand piercedthrough the curtain of rain and came to meet Teng Xiaoming. The Yellow Paper Umbrella in his left hand was currently occupied withblocking Nanke's two streams of starlight and the zither-playing old man'spouncing shaman tigers, so it could not move. If he wanted to use the umbrellato block Teng Xiaoming's heavy blow, he could only move closer to the umbrella.Yet to do this would leave him with no retreat. He would only be able topassively defend, so he chose to forgo this option and instead chose to attack.In this tense moment, he did not forget to split up the sword intent in theYellow Paper Umbrella and send some into the dagger. With a massive boom, the stone platform violently shuddered. The pools ofrainwater on the ground were like a pack of frightened ghosts, tearingthemselves apart in transformation in an attempt to escape. This rainwaterturned into a cloud of mist. In the back of the mist in a corner, Xu Yourongalso suffered from the vibrations. Her face instantly turned pale and she couldno longer endure her injuries. In extreme pain, she closed her eyes and beganto adjust her breathing to resist.  The mist settled. Chen Changsheng stood in the same place, but was somewhatshorter than he used to be. Upon close examination, it was apparent that histwo legs had actually buried themselves into the firm gray stone, making itseem like he did not have knees! The heavy strike of Teng Xiaoming falling from the rain like a mountain hadtruly been too frightening. Chen Changsheng had relied on the dagger and thatsplit-off strand of sword intent to firmly receive it. Even though his body hadbeen washed in the true blood of the Black Dragon, it still felt like it wouldshatter. From his brow to his collarbone, down his spine and to his ankles,every bone in his body was wracked with an unbearable pain. His right handincessantly trembled, just like a sickened old man’s. If he did not know thathe would be dead without this dagger, his right hand would have already let goof the hilt. Teng Xiaoming stood in the rain, expressionless. His right hand held that carrying pole, but it was really an iron staff,thicker than an average person's arm. It was constructed from an alloy of theDemon Mountain's Secret Iron and two taels of the True Metal of Meteorites. Itwas incredibly firm. On the battlefield in the snowy plains, who knew how manyexperts of the Great Zhou army it had smashed to death? Now, this iron staffwas covered with several dozen deep sword marks. The upper end of the staff wasespecially affected, a chunk of it having been shorn off. The iron staff had only collided with Chen Changsheng's dagger for an instant,but it had suffered so many sword scars. It had to be said that this dagger'ssharpness had already reached an unimaginable level. That sword intent was evenmore powerful, so quick and forceful that it would cause the heart to turncold. But Teng Xiaoming had no reaction to this. He silently gazed at ChenChangsheng, just like an actual mountain. No matter how fierce the storm, itstill did not rock his body in the slightest. He exuded a particularly solemnand serene aura. This was a true expert. Chen Changsheng naturally thought this as he gazed atthis demon man standing in the rain, then he began to think about even morethings. Just as Nanke had said before, he could barely express one-thousandthof the true power of this sword intent; how could it be enough to defeat such apowerful opponent? Most importantly, with his current level of strength andcultivation, if he wanted to block and even defeat this iron staff, thecombination of this sword intent and dagger was far from enough. He needed asword that could better display the power of that sword intent. He needed a heavier sword. As he was thinking about these things, Teng Xiaoming once again lifted hisiron staff. That staff scored with sword scars seemed even more frighteningthan it was before. The rain falling around the staff suddenly parted. Athunderous sound erupted from above the divine path. The iron staff whistledthrough the air, the wind and rain making way for it. At this moment, Nanke's sword energy had finally been completely sliced apartby the sword intent emitted by the Yellow Paper Umbrella and the oldzither-player's mental attack had also been blocked. Chen Changsheng could nowtry to use the Yellow Paper Umbrella to receive that iron pole. His face wasstill pale, but it was no longer because he was tense. Rather, it was becausehe was too cold, and also because his heart was uneasy about the last idea thathad come up in his mind. He could use the Yellow Paper Umbrella to receive this iron staff, but he didnot want to. This was because he faintly sensed that the sword intent attachedto the Yellow Paper Umbrella, although strong without compare, was not the bestmethod to block the iron staff at his level of cultivation. He still felt thathe needed a heavier sword. In reality, this umbrella was his only resort, because he did not have aheavier sword. And yet… he felt that he should have a heavier sword. Just as Chen Changsheng thought of this, a change occurred at some place inthe plains south of the mausoleum. In this faraway place, the rain was much lighter than the rain around themausoleum. The surface of the water below the underbrush was lightly beat uponby the drizzle. Suddenly, for some reason, the ground began to sink. The poolsof water in the seemingly descending plains suddenly fused together with therain falling from the sky, transforming into a ball of water. They clumpedtogether, as if there was something extremely heavy in the ground that wassucking in everything around it. From deep within the dusky sky came a furious cry. This cry came from thegreat peng. Just what was about to emerge that could provoke its fury so, suchthat one could even hear its wariness and unease? The heavy iron staff split the wind and rain on the divine path and came tothe front door of the mausoleum. It was only a bit more than ten zhang awayfrom Chen Changsheng, yet he did not lift the Yellow Paper Umbrella. With aclear cry, he had even returned the dagger to its sheath. He did not know why he was doing this. Why did he need to sheath his dagger? Just at this moment, a massive rumbling came from outside the mausoleum, liketrue thunder had reached the ground. Compared to this thunder, the thunderingof the iron staff seemed like firecrackers lit by a small child for the newyear. A pitch-black object burst through the rain and arrived in front of ChenChangsheng, then sat in front of him, unmoving. It was a sword, black and cast from some unknown metal. There was no design onthe blade, and it was not very smooth. It seemed especially rough and coarse,even like it did not have an edge. It was just like a sword that had not beencompletely cast. In short, this metal sword did not have a single specialcharacteristic and emitted no Qi that would cause someone to raise theireyebrows. It was just very broad and very long, very thick and very black, soit seemed… very heavy. Chen Changsheng had wanted a heavier sword. Thus a heavy sword had appeared before him, calmly floating in the rain. The metal sword's hilt was inclined downwards. He only needed to stretch outhis hand and he would be able to very easily grasp it. The metal sword'sposture was extremely comfortable, so comfortable that without a thought, hehad lifted up his hand. His right hand passed through several seemingly unmoving curtains of rain andgrasped the hilt. The hilt of this metal sword was very rough, very thick, and very crude. Whenit seemed like his hands had completely gripped the hilt, he clearly felt asense of weight. At this moment, he also realized something else. That swordintent attached to the Yellow Paper Umbrella did not heed the commands of hisspiritual sense and use his body to enter that metal sword. Because the metalsword originally had its own sword intent, the sword intent in the Yellow PaperUmbrella felt it unworthy or did not want to compete with that powerful swordintent. With Chen Changsheng's current strength and cultivation of the sword,he could not accurately perceive the strength of that metal sword's swordintent, but he could clearly sense that the sword intent was just like thatmetal sword, incomparably heavy. He drew back his hand, taking the metal sword out of the rain. In order to remove this metal sword from the rain, he required an incredibleamount of strength. Simultaneously, this weighty sword gifted him with anincredible strength. He brandished the metal sword and chopped down at the ironstaff that was flying through the rain. The metal sword met with the iron staff in the midst of the downpour. There was an extremely brief moment of silence, then a continuous explosion ofthunderclaps. The rain was shattered into pieces, transforming into myriadwater arrows, and shooting out in a sphere at every direction. The wall of themausoleum became filled with countless deep caves and was riddled with holes. Aclear light emerged from the Tong Bow behind Xu Yourong. It protected her, butit could not protect Chen Changsheng. Chen Changsheng's clothes were riddled with tiny holes, just like a leaf thathad been snacked on by a worm. The clothes floated in the rain and his face wasdeathly pale, but his two legs were still on the firm stone. The surroundingstone was covered with a spider web of cracks, and he seemed somewhat miserable. However, he did not retreat a single step. The powerful Demon General had retreated. He had been directly pushed a bitmore than a hundred zhang away and heavily fell amidst the rain. He incessantlyspat out blood and the iron staff in his hands had been bent to a ridiculousextent.