Chapter 1657: Take Your Sword Back, I Walk My Own Dao

“You want to use me as your whetstone?” The Sea Lord recovered his composure and coalesced his true self again, showing himself as a middle aged man with a solemn face. Both his hair and beard were blue, and he wore a long cerulean robe. He wielded a frosty blue bident and was a.. mermaid instead of human.

Rather than legs, a blue fish tail waved around for his lower body. Its blue crystalline scales glistened with a glassy sheen thanks to hellfire. Each gleam of light sparkled with the glyphs of sea dao.

Endless waves rose and fell once more over the water’s surface, keeping the Sea Lord safe. His personal weapon was the bident in his hand; it was a connate treasure formed from the dao of the sea. Though the local vicinity had been isolated from the outside world, the blue bident still supplied endless power from his great dao to the Sea Lord.

“I’d like to see how strong the combat arts of your hell dao can be. If I devour your hell dao, my great dao will immediately reach the apex. I won’t even need to refine Ruina to build a world of sea dao sequence!” The Sea Lord threw his head back with hearty laughter. “My only fear is that your hell dao isn’t strong enough, that it’ll be blunted against its whetstone!”

They were in a world of immortal dao—one that had almost become a world of immortal dao sequence. Lu Yun had incorporated his hell dao into immortal dao long ago, thereby improving each dao by their association with each other. Their combined might was undefinably immense. Added to that the still growing Immortal Myriadtree which deployed the boundless power of the Six Royals, that meant the orders of the highest degree bolstered Lu Yun at the same time and raised his strength to unprecedented heights.

Of course, he still possessed a fatal weakness—his true strength was too weak. He was only a major World Manifest and thus, a gnat compared to a sequence expert like the Sea Lord. However, he was in fine fettle and manifested the combat arts of hell dao from his hand.

“Is that so?” he sneered. “In that case, eat this. Dragonrise!”

The first stroke of Dragonrise!

Aouuuuu!

A piercing dragon croon emitted from his hand. Purple Sunrise—the ultimate Hongmeng treasure that was the weapon of the king soldier—slashed down on the Sea Lord with its keen edge. The sword was an ultimate treasure, but it hadn’t been born from the current Hongmeng. It was one nurtured by the original Hongmeng and therefore many times stronger than connate treasures in the current fourth realm.

The sword dao within it had undergone an earth-shattering change. It wasn’t Lu Yun’s sword dao anymore, but sword dao of hell dao!

Just like the immortal dao, hell dao encompassed everything and could assimilate anything. It’d taken in sword dao and added it to immortal dao. Dragonrise now manifested as a demonic dragon from hell!

Rumble!

Inexhaustible hellfire wreathed around the hell dragon and pounced on the Sea Lord.

“I might be wary if it was Jian Bu’er delivering this stroke, but you? Not at all!” The Sea Lord’s metal bident twirled in the air and drew a circle, releasing myriad sea dao and expelling immortal dao, forming a circle sixty meters across that was a world of the sea. Just like the concentric world of immortal dao around it, there was nothing else in the inner circle other than sea dao!

The Sea Lord thrusted his bident at the hell dragon.

“This blow is named Myriad Sea!” roared the Sea Lord. “Of Myriad Sea Dao! This move is where Myriadsea World comes from and the combat art that I’ve created within that world!”

Rumble!!

Cerulean blue radiance circulated, manifesting a hundred million kilometers of sea that converged on the lord’s bident.

....

“Ruina!!” Dongfang Mo yelled when he saw the move. “The Sea Lord’s Myriad Sea move is an imitation of Ruina to create one himself!”

He finally understood the depths of the Sea Lord’s horrific capabilities. Though the latter hadn’t entered Ruina, seawaters formed by sea dao constantly probed the locale, attempting to discern the nature of its strength.

Of course, Dongfang Mo himself had never entered Ruina either, but he was familiar with its power. This Myriad Sea move copied roughly half of the profound meaning found within that zone. He knew that when Myriad Sea truly manifested Ruina, that would be when sea dao fully occupied Myriadsea World and turned it into one of sea dao sequence.

Lu Yun wanted to use the Sea Lord as his whetstone with which to practice the combat arts of hell dao, but so was the lord using Lu Yun to help him practice his myriad sea dao. In fact, with the Sea Lord’s experience, he’d probably guessed that the Demonic Vine was a trap to lure his primary self out, but he’d still emerged without hesitation.

Life had been too peaceful for the Sea Lord throughout all these eons. He was invincible within Myriadsea World—no one could even scratch him. He needed pressure and motivation from a strong enemy. He needed a sense of danger threatening his great dao. Thus, he’d come with all of his thoughts, will, and core essence to either capture the enemy in one fell swoop or die to their hand.

Such was the courage of leaving no potential of retreat for oneself, just as Dongfang Mo had sought to go down with the various dao beholders a few days ago.

....

Boooooom.

Dragonrise crashed viciously into Myriad Sea. The hell dragon shrieked with anguish and broke into pieces, dead on the spot. However, the terrifying sea churned forward with overwhelming sea dao and advanced on Lu Yun. It crushed immortal dao wherever it passed through, devouring the other great dao.

Overburdened groans sounded from the Immortal Myriadtree as the Sea Lord also grimaced, propelling himself through water with his fish tail.

Lu Yun’s struck a second time—Dragonsoar!

A second hell dragon appeared and soared into the heavens with unquestionable momentum. An even more expansive will blossomed from Lu Yun’s body, the imperious mandate of a liege surveying all that he ruled over.

“From dao comes one, and one begets two?” Contempt thickened on the Sea Lord’s face to see Lu Yun’s second move. “I’d thought you were an actual character of note, but you use the dao that describes the birth of life to fashion your hell dao?”

He continued with Myriad Sea, following up with a second instance before the first had faded away. Lu Yun’s Dragonsoar was likewise destroyed.

The young man struck out with a third stroke—nameless.

This move was nameless, without a surname or given name, without an end or beginning. Eternal and constant, it was the culmination of all of Lu Yun’s accomplishments, reflections, and theories of sword dao, meaning, and realm. Even some sequence experts wouldn’t be able to match Lu Yun when it came to sword dao and his accomplishments on this path.

....

“His three strokes depict the truth behind the beginning of life and the mysteries of existence. There is none other like him at these heights,” Jian Bu’er sighed with emotion.

“What a pity that he is still less than the Sea Lord,” Dongfang Mo heaved with regret. “His cultivation level and mindset is only superior compared to his peers. Among them, he is the undisputed peak. In fact, there are those higher level than him and those who’ve initially set foot into sequence who are less than him.

“But the Sea Lord still looks down at him. Prepare for action. If this is all he has, then the three of us still need to act.” Dongfang Mo gravely regarded the fight.

“But if there are no other contingencies in place.. we’ll fail as well.” Rust flaked off Jian Bu’er’s sword as the light of a sword peeked out from beneath the discoloration.

....

The nameless stroke had been destroyed and Lu Yun no longer held his sword. However, Myriad Sea had also been cut apart.

“Is that it?” The Sea Lord wasn’t smiling anymore. The last stroke had reached cultivation levels beyond the young man to hack apart Myriad Sea. It was proof that Lu Yun was an unparalleled genius. If he could improve to the Sea Lord’s level, then any one of the first three strokes would’ve killed the latter.

“Where’s the next one?” asked the Sea Lord. If a fourth stroke cut through his Myriad Sea again, it would help him identify the flaws in his move and cement hope of manifesting Ruina.

“There’s only three,” Lu Yun sighed. “My sword is no longer in my hand, so my sword dao is broken.”

“You have that right. Since you no longer hold your sword, you are unqualified to wield it or further pursue sword dao,” the Sea Lord nodded.

“Take your sword back, I walk my own dao.” Lu Yun pointed gently at Purple Sunrise hovering in the air. It rang with a reluctant note before disappearing in the void.