At the same time, Xu Ran's eighth, utterly resolute sword shadow shattered completely the instant it made contact! It broke apart into the purest fragments of will, like a candle guttering in the wind, about to be snuffed out before one's eyes!
And bearing all of this… was Xu Ran's mortal body!
Pu chi! Pu chi! Pu chi!
As though some invisible force had detonated him from within!
Cracks deep enough to expose bone erupted across his whole body in an instant!
They were not blade wounds, not sword marks, but… traces of "existence" being erased!
Flesh and blood, meridians, bone… all forms of tangible matter followed the trajectory of that pitch-black sword edge and stepped into nihility!
Golden blood mingled with scarlet gore, surging out of those fissures like a fountain, only to, at the instant of touching the outside air, bizarrely turn to flying ash and vanish without a trace!
"Aaaahhhhh——!!!"
