338 True Inheritance

The Golden-winged Great Peng's shadow had paused in the air several hundred liin front of the mausoleum. The edges of its wings exuded a golden light, yet itonly brought darkness to the mausoleum. As it proceeded towards that darkness,its two eyes were like two balls of blazing divine fire. Nanke's black hairdanced around her, her petite body calmly suspended between those two balls ofdivine fire. Although she seemed relatively insignificant, she gave off thefeeling that she had already formed a link with the Golden-winged Great Pengthat was almost impossible to sever. In other words, right now, she was theGolden-winged Great Peng's divine soul. In the middle of that shining golden light, an unimaginably terrifyingpressure pressed down on the plain. Along with this pressure came a gale ofwind. Even the most frenzied winds of the South Sea were not as powerful asthis wind. The shredded grass crazily danced in the air and the foul water onthe ground was shocked into drops. There was not a single monster that couldcontinue to stand firm. One by one, they all fell down to the ground. The tenthousand broken swords around the mausoleum were buffeted up and down by thewind, just like countless boats on the expanse of the ocean, at any time atrisk of being swallowed up by a heaven-shocking wave. With a cold and arrogant cry, the Golden-winged Great Peng flapped its wingsand began to fly even faster towards the mausoleum. It felt like the sky itselfwas pressing down upon the mausoleum. The golden light at the edge of its wingsscattered and then gathered together again, just like a leaping fire, almost asif it were alive. Thus, the entire plain began to burn. Whether it was blood orwater, it all began to fiercely blaze. Atop this burning plain were the countless monsters that formed a black ocean.This black ocean also began to burn, turning into a sea of fire. From thehighest-ranked monster to a vole that had been born in the plain, they allstood in the sea of fire, filled with reverence and piety towards that pair ofwings that spanned several hundred li in the sky, and howling with an almostcrazed devotion. As the Golden-winged Great Peng approached, the blazing plains shone withlight, but the mausoleum sitting in the center of the plain grew even darker.The many swords did their utmost to resist the strong winds brought about bythose two massive wings. In quick succession, they all flew to the front of themausoleum. The densely packed damaged swords formed into a semi-circular sword array infront of the mausoleum. Chen Changsheng stood in the middle of this vast swordarray, also looking relatively insignificant; yet he was also the divine soulof this sword array. His left hand still gripped the Yellow Paper Umbrella, notletting that sword intent return from those ten thousand broken swords. Thiswas because he knew very well that after those broken swords had engaged inthat bitter battle with the monster tide, there were many swords that werealmost about to give out. If he were to withdraw that Mount Li sword intent,the Golden-winged Great Peng would not even need to do anything for the swordsto perish. Right now, he could only use the sword intent of the Dragoncry Sword. However,several hundred years had passed. Would this sword's sword intent still bestrong enough? As the Golden-winged Great Peng approached, he silently sensedthe Dragoncry Sword's pride and amiability. Yes, it was a very familiar andeven amiable sense of pride, like he had been born to use this sword. This indescribable sense of familiarity fiercely shook his mind. Just likewhenever Zhexiu fell ill, his heart began to suddenly beat several times fasterand his true essence began to move through his meridians at a much faster pace.The hand gripping the sword incessantly trembled. The trembling grewincreasingly serious until his entire body began to tremble. Even the snowy plains in his body began to tremble. That thick mantle of snow which once rested upon this snowy plain had been thefruit of several hundred nights of bitter cultivation in the Orthodox Academy.It was the purest radiance of the stars. In the Grand Examination and in thoseseveral dozen days of battle, this mantle of snow had been burned up. Now, onlya shallow layer remained. The shallow snow was easily shaken. The external shock jolted the snow intothe air and tossed it into a collision with those rays of light that werereflecting off that spherical lake. With a boom, the snow began to burn. Thestar radiance instantly melted into clear water, which turned into a mist,which transformed into the purest true essence. This true essence flooded intohis body, then it began to flow through those dry meridians of his that wereruptured like cliffs and incessantly moved forward… for Chen Changsheng, thiswas an extremely painful course of events, but he did not give off theslightest sound. He only stared at the approaching Golden-winged Great Peng,continuing to hold on. He allowed that shock to continue burning up his snowyplain and allowed that true essence to continue its progress through his body.  At some point, that true essence finally arrived at his wrist. The shock thatoriginated from his heart met with the shock that came from the sword hilt,then they melded together and transformed into an indescribable battle intent!  The Dragoncry Sword was damaged, its sword intent no longer like it was inthe past, but its battle intent still existed!  Carrying a proud and unyielding sword intent, Chen Changsheng's hand wieldedthe Dragoncry Sword and stabbed it at the Golden-winged Great Peng! A bright and ancient dragon cry, its meaning difficult to understand, roaredout before the stone platform!  A magnificent and shining sword glow carried along an almost real dragon'sbreath and flew dozens of li through the air. In the middle of the air, itchopped at the space between those two sacred balls of fire that were theGolden-winged Great Peng's eyes! Nanke was there... Compared to the sword glow of the Dragoncry Sword, she was so insignificant,just a little black dot. Yet her expression was unchanging. To that extremelybright sword light, she extended a finger. Through the Soul Wood, she and the Golden-winged Great Peng were one. She wasthe Golden-winged Great Peng, possessing the strength and spirit of the Saintrealm. She required only a finger to block the sword glow of the Dragoncry Sword. As it gazed from the plain to the mausoleum, a strange ball of black Qiappeared between the two eyes of the Golden-winged Great Peng. The ball of Qi was at Nanke's fingertip, the result of a collision between twoextremely powerful forces. In the next moment, that black ball of Qi instantly disappeared. In the air,many faint and tiny cracks appeared, indicating that even the true space wasbreaking up. Simultaneously, an enormous sound resounded above the plain, likea clap of thunder.  A berserk wind instantly came down from the sky to the ground, then swept offto a thousand li out. The stubborn grass on the face of the mausoleum was allpulled out and blown off to some place. Even the moss attached to the stones atthe bottom had been peeled off, and even the stone layer of the mausoleum wassomewhat flaky. A massive tide swept through that black ocean atop the burningplain. Under those divine flames that were the Golden-winged Great Peng's eyes,at least several hundred lower-ranked monsters had been shaken to death. As forthat sword array in front of the monster, there were also several dozen swordsthat were wavering. Chen Changsheng did not hear that thunderclap and did not pay any attention tothose previous scenes. He stared at the Dragoncry Sword, because in thatprevious moment, the Dragoncry Sword had given off an extremely light sound. It was the sound of cracking. The Dragoncry Sword was broken, the upper half of its blade falling into thepool of water before him and plopping against the floor. In Chen Changsheng's ears, this plop was truly thunder. A thunderclap exploded from the stone platform. Boom! In the middle of the frenzied wind, Chen Changsheng retreated several dozenzhang and heavily fell against the stone gate, stirring up dust. His face was pale and blood rushed up his throat, but he swallowed it backdown. He felt like all his bones were broken, but he stood back up. Becausealthough the Dragoncry Sword had been broken, its battle intent still remained.Only… Even if this battle intent was so berserk, even if it had the encouragement ofthese ten thousand swords, was it still not an opponent for the Golden-wingedGreat Peng? Chen Changsheng gazed at the broken sword and noticed that the breakpoint wasvery neat and smooth, yet it did not seem new. Then he remembered that when hehad been holding the Dragoncry Sword, he had faintly noticed a barelydiscernible line on the blade. Now he understood that the line was a blade scar. Countless years ago, Chen Xuanba had brought this sword to the Garden of Zhouand lost to Zhou Dufu's blade. Although he died, he was unwilling to fall down.This sword had clearly already been broken, but it stubbornly insisted on notletting its opponent see. Only after countless years had passed and this proudsword had once again confronted a similarly powerful opponent was it finally nolonger able to hold on. He held the broken sword and then silently and slowly walked back to the edgeof the stone platform, once more gazing at the dark sky. For some reason, that Golden-winged Great Peng needed to combine with Nanke,but it had already proved its power. Nanke had already disappeared. She had truly become one with the Great Peng.Those two divine flames were still holy and violent. They coldly looked at hisinsignificant self standing in the middle of the mausoleum as the Great Penggot closer and closer. The sky changed color as the dark clouds roiled. Countless bolts of lightningflashed like snakes, lighting up the air above the mausoleum. The Dragoncry sword was broken, so what sword should he use next? The MountainSea Sword or the temple sword? Or should all the swords attack together? Just at this moment, he suddenly felt a strand of heat from the place on hisright hand between his thumb and index finger. He still had not put down the Dragoncry Sword. That strand of heat had comefrom the remaining half of the Dragoncry Sword. It was the Dragoncry Sword'ssword intent—this proud sword intent, with a sense of broken-heartedness, leftthe body of the Dragoncry Sword. It took only an instant for that remaininghalf of the Dragoncry Sword that was still proud and unbending and incomparablybright to turn dim and lightless, as if it had died. That sword intent entered Chen Changsheng's body, then went inside the daggerat his waist. Although the heart of his sword had been perfected, he was limited by hiscultivation and his sword intent could never become complete. Thus, it was onlyby using the Yellow Paper Umbrella that he could borrow that Mount Li swordintent to command the ten thousand swords to attack the monster tide. It wasalso for this reason that his sword intent had never truly fused with hisdagger. In other words, this seemingly ordinary dagger felt that his swordintent did not match with it. Now, the sword intent of the Dragoncry Sword had arrived. The dagger was still in its sheath, but it began to hum. Chen Changsheng understood the Dragoncry Sword's meaning. This was aninheritance. He was somewhat melancholy. The Dragoncry Sword had passed the sword intent into the dagger, and then itdied, while the dagger came to life. Right now, he could only hope that this method of the Dragoncry Sword couldcontinue his own life, or perhaps his pride. Then, he had to win. He gently placed the broken Dragoncry Sword on the ground and then stood backup. Grasping the hilt of the dagger, he pulled it out. With his actions, a sun appeared in front of the main entrance of themausoleum. This sun followed the blade of the dagger. It rose up from the sheath andilluminated the gloomy mausoleum and plain. It was countless rays of golden light. It was an incomparably brilliant sword. A powerful Qi rose up with the dagger, shocking all life around the mausoleum. Silence. The sword intent of the Dragoncry Sword had perfectly fused with the dagger.It was just like when Chen Changsheng had first held that sword, like they hadbeen made for each other. But this was still not enough.