19 Art of The Dragon Blade

After passing through the Mountain of Heavenly Prophecies, Zhou Yan finally arrived at the abandoned plains that bordered the City of Heavenly Prophecies. After traversing through the plains, he arrived in the city. 

The Heavenly Prophecies City was a city neighbouring Canglan City. No lies were spoken in Zhou Yan's earlier statement. He had spoken the truth. 

This time, his father was not with him and the young man intended to tie up any loose ends and to do some training. 

The Xiao family in the Heavenly Prophecies City was not known to be a major family but it was not a minor one either. His father's bond with Xiao Zhan was once close, however, after leaving to a distant land, the bond they shared was completely severed.

Upon his father's return, the duo had met up to catch up. The only problem was that his father's situation had changed, and his position and powers in the Zhou family had been diminished significantly. Also, the Xiao family had to worry about conflicts, both internally and externally. Due to all that, the relationship of both families had since drifted apart. 

To Zhou Yan, the lack of interaction between his father and Xiao Zhan was never due to his father's abandonment and the lack of value towards their friendship. He knew that his father absolutely valued and loved the friendship they both shared. The lack of interaction was due to his father's concern that his fall from grace would bring great misfortune to the Xiao family.

However, Zhou Yan no longer cared about such trivial matters given the uncertainty of his father's current condition.

Thus, he inched one step forwards at a time against the strong wind through the shroud of darkness as daylight was once again approaching. Zhou Yan surrounded himself with his Blade's Essence to deter any wild beasts from approaching the young man.

The entire stretch of his journey had been calm and peaceful until he reached the heart of these abandoned plains.

Daylight came, but there was not a sign of the morning sun in the sky. The only visible light was the creeping rays of twilight through the misty shroud.

The gloomy skies were shrouded by a veil of mist. The entire plains looked the same at night even though it was completely shrouded in darkness.

Two to three rays of Blade's light coursed through the skies above occasionally. They flew past Zhou Yan, never landing at the spot he was.

Hence, Zhou Yan hastened his speed as he quickly tracked through these plains. He never flew across this long stretch on the body of Sorrow's Breaker. This was because the land in which he tread was one fraught with danger. Hence, he had to reserve every ounce of his powers to repel threats that would come his way.

A sudden drizzle fell from the heavens above. A cool breeze started to blow along with the rain, making it hard to keep his eyes open.

Zhou Yan squinted his eyes as tightly as he could, staring ahead. Step by step, he inched through these treacherous fields.

At the edge of the endless sky, two violent bolts of purple lightning collided against one another. It seemed like a brutal flashing duel between the two bolts.

Suddenly, Zhou Yan stopped moving. Standing very still, with rain pouring down on him, he focused on that scene. 

"Dragons are ascensions of the clouds, as dragons pierce the very heavens when soaring the skies above. Whenever one witnesses the reflection of the dragons within the still waters of a paddy field, that dragon would be amongst the clouds," he mumbled in a trance.

As he was in a trance, that very flash of lightning seemingly enlightened his mind. It was as if lightning had struck the deepest core of his mind. However, he instead caught that bolt of lightning with his hands.

"Even when a blow from a fist would bear remarkable results, a fist is not necessarily required. A blade itself could be an extension of the fist. Thus, there will be no need to change the form too much. Swords and fists are interchangeable! Fists can be swords, and swords are always going to remain as swords!"

As the young man focused his mind again, suddenly, without warning, he felt a violent explosion in his mind. It was as if his mind had been blown open by a bolt of lightning. At the same time, he could clearly feel every drop of his blood beginning to boil in a violent fury.

Zhou Yan felt a strong, maddening impulse to begin training his sword art.

"Bang!"

The two rays of purple Blade's Light violently clashed against each other like bolts of charged lightning. After that, it seemed as if both the heavens and earth cracked open as waves of unrelenting thunder and lightning roared in the skies above. At this moment, a figure of a person could be seen making its retreat. The figure seemed to be in a battered state.

On the other hand, the other bolt of lightning instantly vanished without a single trace.

Thus, Zhou Yan yelled out in a commanding tone as he jumped into the skies above. An overwhelmingly suffocating Blade's Essence emanated from Sorrow's Breaker that was in the very palms of his hands. While raising it high in the air, every single ounce of elemental energy from the lightning had been absorbed within his blade.

"Hiss…"

As a bolt of purple lightning ambushed him, Zhou Yan did nothing to dodge it, simply allowing the lightning to land directly on him!

It was at that very instant, Zhou Yan yelled out with a clear voice, "Blade of The Dragon's Soul!"

"Roar…"

Almost immediately, countless Blade's Essences condensed into a single concentrated sentient will. This concentrated will harbored immense, boundless energy. However, this seemingly infinite, raw power suddenly condensed once more and morphed into a silhouette of a dragon.

However, the head of the silhouette of this godly dragon, shattered after a single roar.

Suddenly, every ounce of energy was drained out of Zhou Yan's body, causing him to fall from the sky.

He never panicked. Using only the physical strength of his body, he made two flips midair before safely and firmly landing on the ground.

Both of the young man's feet were trembling as streaks of blood were trickling and dripping down his palms. This was done through an impulsive and rash act. That explosion of impulse seemingly burned and boiled every drop of blood in his body, forcing his very will to take shape and form a small part of the Art of the Dragon Blade!

At this moment, he had only succeeded in molding the shape of this very skill. However, Zhou Yan knew that the raw power this attack contained was terrifyingly powerful! Every single ounce of energy in his body had been completely drained by that single move alone. It seemed this attack was extremely devastating and destructive in nature by the sheer ferocity of its power!

This result was expected by Zhou Yan since he inherited the skills and moves from a master capable of spatial destruction. An attack like this must have been morphed and modified countless times to have such ferocious and immense power.

Zhou Yan took a deep breath and proceeded to take two Qi Infusion Pills as he gradually recovered while standing still.

It was then that he realized the terrifying recovery ability his mutated body possessed. The very moment he took those pills, they were instantly infused within the empty and drained pillar of Qi in his body, thus recovering one-fifth of his energy!

A change this drastically shocked Zhou Yan since it was clear to him that the condition of his body was extremely unique and terrifying at the same time!

Never in his life had he heard about anyone being able to instantly infuse these elixirs or pills within their body!

As he contemplated, Zhou Yan took out some crystals. To his surprise, he was able to absorb these regular, unappealing crystals within his body.

It surprised him to realize that his personal pillar of Qi itself had far surpassed any regular scholars of the blade!

After absorbing several mid-tier spirit crystals to fully recover, Zhou Yan once again resumed trekking these plains.

However, at this moment, he felt overwhelmed by a mysterious wave of energy approaching him. He experienced great fear, and he felt shivers running through his spine, and goosebumps began to form on the scalp of his head!

Without hesitation, he jumped out of the way of this wave of energy, letting it through.

The instant he jumped out of the way of that mysterious, menacing wave of energy, a flash of purple light struck the very ground where he stood just moments ago.

"Boom!"

A loud echoing rumble could be heard, as the earth beneath his feet began to quake violently. Even raindrops had been expelled outwards from those violent tremors.

A sudden, powerful rush of energy that resembled a halo expanded outwards. Shocked by the sudden ambush, Zhou Yan instantly steered Sorrow's Breaker to avoid this attack. However, he was not fast enough, and he was struck violently by this attack! Then, just like a broken kite, he was gliding uncontrollably with this wave of energy.

Calming his mind, he regained control of his body. He then grabbed a handful of the Qi Infusion Pills and tossed every single pill into his mouth, recovering his own Qi energy.

As he stood on the ground, countless webs of cracks were formed on the surface of his brand new spiritual armor. However, the upside about this armor was its innate ability to self-heal, thus saving him from exposing too much flesh.

His cold expression grew frantically unstable as he stared at the spot where the purple light landed. A bitter look could be seen on his face.

Standing on that spot was a maiden draped in a purple silk dress, completely soaked in blood. It was unclear when she actually appeared.

Both her hands were completely soaked in blood as she wielded a sword. On the body of that silvery blade were bolts of flashing purple lightning.

"Who are you? What is this place?"

She extended her blade, pointing the edge directly at Zhou Yan while she questioned him with a cold, fierce tone. Her killing intent was palpable.

The maiden that stood in the face of Zhou Yan was extremely powerful, and he found it extremely difficult to speak despite her weak, deceiving facade. However, in comparison with her prowess to the Lady of the Snow-Jade Palace herself, it seemed slightly weaker. The overwhelming pressure was not as strong and dense as when he faced the Lady of The Snow-Jade Palace.

"This is the Plains of The Heavenly Prophecies. Who I am is not important."

With a slight twitch of his arm, Sorrow's Breaker instantly fell into the grasps of his palms.

"Huh, Absolute Cold Soulblade? You have ties with the Lady of The Snow-Jade Palace? To have been graced a soulblade by the Lady of The Snow-Jade Palace herself makes you no stranger then."

A hint of curiosity and surprise flashed across the maiden's eyes. As the curious gaze slowly faded away, she seemed to relax slightly.

The instant she eased up, the injuries her body sustained seemingly overwhelmed her. She coughed up a pool of blood then instantly slumped over in the overgrown bushes of the plains.