Chapter 149 - 148: The Origin of the Heart Demon
“Why doesn’t Master of Sword seek assistance from others?” Jiang Li couldn’t understand, “As far as I know, five hundred years ago, the Dao Sect already had a true lineage. The current sect master of Dao Sect, Bai Hongtu, wants to pull you out. Why don’t you tell him the truth and ask the immortal elder to come out and help?”
Master of Sword snorted coldly, “Ridiculous. As sword cultivators, why do we need the help of others?”
Jiang Li had reason to suspect that the obstinacy of the sword pavilion originated from the Master of Sword.
“So what do you want to do? Continue the stalemate until your life span is exhausted?”
A soul cannot indefinitely leave its body or take over others; otherwise, all cultivators could live forever.
The soul is also limited by the original body. Master of Sword had lived for one thousand five hundred years, his soul had been out of the body for four thousand years. A cultivator in the Transcendence Tribulation Stage can broadly live for ten thousand years. Hence, if Master of Sword continues to keep his soul out of the body for four thousand five hundred years, he will have to go to the cycle of reincarnation, and the Heart Demon will also disappear with his death.
Jiang Li didn’t think this was a good result.
Master of Sword fell silent; he, too, hadn’t thought of a good solution.
Master of Sword clenched his teeth and said, “In any case, we definitely cannot go to the third layer, otherwise, even with my help, we won’t necessarily be able to win. Worse still, the Heart Demon might take the opportunity to escape during the fight, bringing disaster upon Jiuzhou!”
Jiang Li also found it strange. Defeating Master of Sword’s Heart Demon wouldn’t be too difficult for him. What he found strange were the tasks assigned by the system.
The system would never assign him a task that he couldn’t complete five hundred years ago. Looking at the present situation, without defeating the Heart Demon, he couldn’t complete the task of “obtaining the acceptance of Master of Sword’s soul”.
The system thought that he was only at the Golden Core Stage. Could a Golden Core Stage cultivator, in addition to a Transcendence Tribulation Stage soul, defeat a Transcendence Tribulation Stage Heart Demon that possessed the flesh?
At this moment, the voice of the system sounded.
“Considering the host’s predicament, the system can temporarily enable the ‘Avoid Heart Demon’ function.”
“Friendly reminder, to dodge a Transcendence Tribulation Stage Heart Demon requires spending one hundred and fifty thousand origin points. The system can lend origin points, and the host needs to repay at an interest rate of three percent per month. ”
…Your services are quite extensive since you also lend money at high interest rates.
Jiang Li was speechless and decisively rejected the offer.
“I am Jiang Li, the current Human Emperor, at the Mahayana Realm. I can help you eliminate the Heart Demon,” Jiang Li truthfully informed Master of Sword.
However, Master of Sword simply didn’t believe that anyone could cultivate to the Mahayana Realm.
“Fellow Daoist, do not make fun of me. How could anyone on earth reach the Mahayana Realm? I think that talk of the Mahayana Realm is utterly ridiculous…”
Jiang Li found Master of Sword very hard to serve and directly drew out the Spirit Sword.
The rules of the Sword Tomb were triggered, and Jiang Li was sent to the third layer.
“Damn, how did I end up in the third layer?!” Master of Sword was shocked. He circulated the sword intent and was wary of his surroundings. “Daoist, why are you in such a hurry now? If the Heart Demon escapes from the Sword Tomb, what will we do? As the Human Emperor, how can you not consider the safety of the people?”
The third layer was completely dark, with a person sitting high on the throne, below which was a thick layer of sword blades.
“I heard that there is a trial on the third layer. I wonder what kind of trial it is?” Jiang Li asked with a smile.
The man sitting high above looked down at Jiang Li and said in an emotionless voice, “Young man, watch your language.”
Master of Sword’s Heart Demon couldn’t make out the depth of Jiang Li but guessed that he’s at the Transcendence Tribulation Stage. He was thrilled; today would be the day he escaped from the Sword Tomb.
“As your senior, let me show you what it means to break all laws with one sword!”
The Heart Demon didn’t even pay attention to Jiang Li. He was the strongest sword cultivator, invincible among his peers before the Transcendence Tribulation Stage. After achieving the Transcendence Tribulation Stage, even if he wasn’t invincible, he could still dominate over other Transcendence Tribulation Stage cultivators!
The Heart Demon drew out his sword. This blade was made by the Master of Sword, who integrated all his comprehendings about sword Dao, used star cores, sun and moon essence, water from the underworld, dragon teeth, phoenix feathers and other treasures of heaven and earth to forge it. This Spirit Sword was almost as good as an immortal artifact in quality!
A resplendent sword lit up the entire space, separating the dirty and the clean in the world. It seemed like there was only the color white left in the world. It was extremely fast and sharp, capable of annihilating both the physical body and the soul!
This sword is the fusion of the twelve sword techniques that the Sword Master had learned throughout his life, and the Heart Demon had also learned this move, so this sword also contained the Heart Sword within it.
When Jiang Li saw this sword, he felt an infinite surge of Sword Intent in his heart, as if his body was about to be divided into countless pieces.
“Dodge it quickly; this is my strongest move!”
Despite adorning arrogance, the Heart Demon did not underestimate Jiang Li; its attack was as strong as it could muster.
The Sword Master took the initiative to strike, intending to block the Heart Demon’s sword. However, only the soul remained in the end, unable to bring out all of its strength, and was swept away by the Heart Demon.
Seeing that Jiang Li stood still without intending to dodge, the Heart Demon was furious: “Ignorant junior, you dare not dodge, I want to see how you block…
Facing this earth-shattering sword, Jiang Li brought together his index and middle fingers, and lightly flicked the sword tip when it was about three inches away from his eyes, sending the Heart Demon and his sword rolling far away.
Jiang Li sighed. If this was indeed the Sword Master’s strongest move, then Bai Hongtu indeed had the qualifications to be called the number one Sword Cultivator in the Nine Provinces.
But the power of Bai Hongtu’s sword was not just this.
The Heart Demon was dumbfounded by this sudden turn of events and didn’t manage to react in time.
How could there be such a big gap between Transcendance Tribulation Phase?
Jiang Li didn’t care what the Heart Demon was thinking. He pressed his body against the Sword Master’s body, patted with one hand, effortlessly expelling the Heart Demon.
Run! I must run!
The Heart Demon was terrified. This junior’s strength completely exceeded his expectations. He had inherited the Sword Master’s memories and had seen terrifying Heavenly Demons, but they were definitely not as terrifying as this junior!
An Immortal! This is a person of Immortal-level!
The Heart Demon turned to run, Jiang Li threw the Sword Master’s body to one side, punched out like a dragon, stirring up a hurricane. This punch was imbued with the ultimate Dao of Destruction, killing the Heart Demon.
The Heart Demon plus the body of the Sword Master, equivalent to a Transcendance Tribulation phase, was easily killed by Jiang Li.
The Sword Master had seen a lot and knew a lot, but he couldn’t understand Jiang Li’s moves at all. That one palm and one punch were beyond his comprehension.
“Jiang Li, are you really in the Transcendance Tribulation phase?” The Sword Master forced a smile, not showing any arrogance.
Jiang Li did not answer, but instead asked: “Sword Master, do you know where your Heart Demon comes from?”
“Please enlighten me, Emperor.”
“It comes from pride. Breaking through the death tribulation, seeking life through death, you gained enlightenment and broke through to the Transcendance Tribulation phase in the brink of life and death. This is indeed the base of your pride. It’s normal for cultivators to be proud. It doesn’t matter if you’re at the Transcendance Tribulation phase or even at the Body Integration realm, one should be proud since they are among the best in tens of thousands of cultivators.”
“But pride is not arrogance, you have been extremely proud, leading to arrogance, not recognizing oneself due to the spiritual platform’s confusion, resulting in the birth of the Heart Demon without knowing the reason.”
“After losing to the Heart Demon, despite knowing that there was no way out, you still did not seek outside help. You were like this, and the Sword Pavilion, influenced by you, was like this too. You would rather be targeted by the Fearless Alliance than ask the Imperial Palace for help, almost leading to the end of your sect.”
“If I hadn’t stepped in, it would be a stroke of luck if your Sword Pavilion could survive a hundred years.”
The Sword Master, after all, was not heartless. He was willing to revitalize the Sword Pavilion, showing his deep feelings for the sect. He was surprised to learn that the Sword Pavilion almost became history because of him. If it weren’t for Jiang Li, even if he had defeated the Heart Demon, he would regret it for the rest of his life.
He appeared in his spiritual form and bowed deeply to Jiang Li.
“Thank you, Emperor Jiang Li, for helping the Sword Pavilion. I, Chen Jiannan, hereby swear that I will face the Heavenly Demon with the resolve to forget death and to sacrifice myself!”
Jiang Li received his salute, waved his hand and said: “You don’t need to deal with the Heavenly Demon. Now that the Nine Provinces are covered with a large formation, and I am still here, the Heavenly Demons from outside the domain are no longer a threat. But you still need to curb your arrogance, otherwise if a Heart Demon comes out again, I won’t deal with it.”
Jiang Li casually unveiled the Heavenly Demon, which had been threatening the Nine Provinces for nine thousand years, which greatly surprised the Sword Master. The Heavenly Demon is an Earth Immortal-level monster, and it wasn’t considered a threat, which gave him a new understanding of Jiang Li’s strength.
The Mahayana realm is so terrifying.
“Thank you for your guidance, Emperor.” The Sword Master bowed sincerely again..