Chapter 55: Grass-Style Sword Art
Jiang Yu withdrew his gaze, his expression dark as water.
It was tolerable that Gu Qing and Su Qingyue had seats.
But even Chu Yao, a mere inner sect disciple, had one.
The entire grand hall left him the only one standing alone, as if this so-called Saint Son were an outsider.
Such treatment was utterly humiliating.
The silent stares from everyone in the hall cut deeper than words, each glance a sharper insult.
"Damn the Star Temple, I will not stay here," Jiang Yu seethed.
He considered himself unparalleled in talent, able to sweep across his generation, backed by an immortal family.
With such a background, he need not fear lacking wealth, companions, cultivation methods, or land.
Rather than endure this humiliation, he would sever ties with the Star Temple.
A broader world awaited his conquest.
But before leaving, he intended to wash away this shame.
If the Star Temple regarded Gu Qing as more monstrous than he, then he would suppress Gu Qing with one sword before the elders' eyes and strike the face of the temple itself.
He would also reclaim the debts owed by Su Qingyue and Chu Yao to his predecessor.
"Palace Lord, this disciple has a request," Jiang Yu said coldly.
"Speak."
"This disciple asks that Saintess Su return the gifts I once gave her."
He thought his reputation might yet be salvaged. If he reclaimed those items and destroyed them in public, he could repair the image of a sycophant without dignity.
"Pah!"
Gu Qing sneered, his voice righteous.
"Saint Son Jiang, forgive my bluntness, but what you gave to another belongs to them. If you insist on reclaiming it, my junior sister is not familiar with you. She would not even give you a piece of copper."
He cut the matter off entirely, leaving Jiang Yu no way out.
"Yes," Chu Yao added.
"Our Qingyue never deceived you. It was you who begged her to accept those gifts. How could you now shamelessly ask them back?"
"Strange indeed. Has the Jiang family fallen into such poverty that their young master must beg in public?"
Elder Wang, his hair already white, spoke with a smiling squint.
The other elders twitched at the mouth. The older he grew, the more venomous his tongue became.
Jiang Yu's face turned ashen, his aura exploded, and his majestic sword intent shot skyward.
He fixed his gaze on the divine beauty seated upon the throne, speaking word by word, "Palace Lord, will you not even grant this disciple such a small request?"
"Your request is a personal matter, irrelevant to the Star Temple. Speak another."
Jiang Yu, Yu's tone was cold.
"Very well!" Jiang Yu laughed in fury.
It seemed his reputation could not be restored.
If so, he would no longer pretend.
"Then this disciple wishes to withdraw from the Star Temple. May I?"
The hall fell silent in shock.
Those who joined the Star Temple either served forever or died.
Never had one dared speak of withdrawal.
Did Jiang Yu not fear death?
Or did he believe the Jiang family could shield him?
Ridiculous.
"Ruined…"
The protector stationed outside the hall turned pale with terror.
Jiang Yu had cultivated the Sun Dao Scripture, the Star Dao Scripture, countless peerless divine arts and secret methods, and received treasures and rare materials from the temple.
How could the Star Temple ever let him leave alive?
Disaster would surely fall upon the Jiang family.
At this thought, Jiang Fangcheng felt ice seep through his veins, staring at Jiang Yu in disbelief.
Defection from a sect was the greatest taboo of the cultivation world. Violators must die.
Had Jiang Yu forgotten even such basic rules?
These were things they had long taught him.
Could he be some remnant fish that slipped the net?
Jiang Fangcheng wished he could rush in, silence Jiang Yu's mouth, and carve this knowledge into his brain.
But Jiang Yu's words had already been spoken. It was too late.
"Granted."
Jiang Yu's choice to leave the Star Temple did not surprise her.
He was nothing but an arrogant, ignorant fool.
A mere ant daring to defy the heavens. No matter what earth-shaking words he spoke, she felt no surprise.
In her eyes, he was already dead, not worth quarreling over.
"…," Jiang Fangcheng trembled as he transmitted the message back to the ancestral patriarch for judgment.
"Good."
Still unaware of his impending death, Jiang Yu clasped his hands behind his back, his cold gaze locked on Gu Qing.
"I, Jiang Yu, have one sword that sweeps invincible among my peers. Do you dare receive it?"
"…,"
"Very well, then I will send you on your way. After all, we are countrymen."
His halberd had long grown restless.
Though Gu Qing's fortune was a mere fifty-two thousand, even the smallest mosquito leg was still meat.
"Come, come, Ancestor, wake quickly to watch this fine show."
"Ancestor?"
"…,"
"Unfilial son, unfilial son…"
…
In the starry sky, Jiang Yu's expression was icy, carrying an aura of supremacy over all.
"I will suppress my realm and fight you as an equal."
He sought to crush the heir of the Star Temple with overwhelming power, to make them regret abandoning him as their gravest mistake.
A glimmer of hope flickered in Jiang Fangcheng's eyes.
If Jiang Yu defeated Gu Qing, there might yet be a sliver of life.
He transmitted his voice: "This battle allows only victory, not defeat. You must rejoin the Star Temple, or else you will surely die."
Jiang Yu frowned, then smoothed it away, unconcerned.
Though the Star Temple was deep-rooted, his Jiang family too had a Saint Realm patriarch and an ancestral artifact.
Surely they would not provoke an immortal war over so small a matter.
Besides, had not Jiang Yu already been permitted to withdraw?
"As you wish."
Gu Qing disdained to waste words on a dead man.
He immediately unleashed the Star Divine Fist, striking with a killing blow.
"What?"
As the overwhelming fist force bore down, Jiang Yu's composure vanished.
A deadly sense of crisis surged in his heart.
This punch carried the power to obliterate him?
Impossible, it had to be an illusion.
He was at the eighth level of the Void Dao Realm. Even Zhang Yang, who had swept across the cosmos undefeated, was slain by his hand.
How could Gu Qing, only at the first level of the Void Dao Realm, possibly kill him with a single punch?
As the fist imprint arrived, Jiang Yu had no time to think. A fear of death surged in his heart, and he instinctively summoned the Xuanhuang Primordial Cauldron.
This cauldron was still a Supreme Treasure, yet it held the potential to grow into an Immortal Artifact.
Thus, its defense and power far surpassed ordinary Supreme Treasures.
"Boom!"
Gu Qing's punch blasted the cauldron away.
The aftershocks also hurled Jiang Yu dozens of miles, leaving his eyes filled with disbelief.
It was not an illusion.
Had it not been for the Xuanhuang Primordial Cauldron, Gu Qing would have killed him with that single strike.
But he could not understand—how could a Void Dao Realm cultivator shake the cauldron?
Jiang Yu shook his head, unable to accept that someone could surpass him.
"Xuanhuang Primordial Cauldron…"
"How could a lower plane possess primordial energy…"
He Ni gasped aloud. "Quick, we must seize it!"
This was the root of all primordial energy.
If her child were to soak in the Xuanhuang Primordial Cauldron from birth, their physique and comprehension would be elevated.
"Good!"
Gu Qing did not need to ask. He knew at once the cauldron must have come from Jiang Yu's system.
Now, it was his.
Buzz!
A colossal palm appeared, shrouding heaven, with sun, moon, and stars revolving around it, billions of runes surging, and endless starlight converging.
The palm held sun, moon, and stars, radiant like a cosmic galaxy.
"Bang!"
The Star-Seizing Hand seized the cauldron, gripping it tightly before rapidly shrinking and storing it within the Heaven and Earth Sword.
The Star-Seizing Hand could seize sun, moon, and stars, and if one's cultivation was high enough, even capture an ancient life-bearing star.
Though the Xuanhuang Primordial Cauldron was a Supreme Treasure, its wielder was not Supreme.
No matter how mighty a treasure, its strength depended on its master.
Once the Star-Seizing Hand grasped a treasure, it severed its link to the owner.
"Pu!"
The soul mark within the cauldron was erased. Jiang Yu's soul instantly suffered, and he spat a mouthful of blood.
"Return my Xuanhuang Primordial Cauldron…"
His eyes nearly burst with rage.
That cauldron was his strongest treasure, the very artifact he intended to use for proving the Dao.
"Trash."
Even with a system, Jiang Yu remained worthless in essence. Beyond posturing, he could do nothing.
Just moments ago he had felt the might of the Star Divine Fist, yet he still divided his focus.
When the cauldron was struck away, he had not retrieved it immediately, but instead wasted time in disbelief.
His combat will and experience were as good as nothing.
Crushing weaker foes revealed little, but when faced with an equal opponent, his useless nature was exposed instantly.
Compared to Zhang Yang, Jiang Yu fell far short.
That such garbage could have killed Zhang Yang left Gu Qing feeling indignant on his behalf.
Even so, Gu Qing's hands did not stop. The Reincarnation Halberd swept across the heavens, wrapped in spatial force, annihilating all directions.
"Sword Qi Rolling Dragon Wall—where there are flood dragons, slay them…"
The void quaked, sword qi surged skyward, countless streams of sword qi roared like dragons, as if to shred the very void.
Yet under the Annihilating Eight Directions divine ability, the dragon-like sword qi was no more than tiny minnows, instantly crushed by the halberd's overwhelming might.
"This…"
Jiang Yu's mentality collapsed once more.
His Sword Qi Rolling Dragon Wall had defeated many true disciples of the Star Temple. Even Zhang Yang had to face it with all his strength.
But before Gu Qing, it was as fragile as paper, pitifully weak.
Sensing death approaching, Jiang Yu dared not hold back. He immediately unleashed the Seven-Star Sword Formation, merging all seven into one.
Boom!
One halberd strike sent him flying, shattering his heaven-tier Dao robe. His body was drenched in blood.
The seven swords were covered in cracks, quivering, their light dim.
Clearly, the seven heaven-tier treasures were gravely damaged, no longer usable.
Jiang Yu hastily swallowed several healing pills, terror filling his eyes as he looked at Gu Qing.
At this moment, he could not deny the truth—he had encountered a monster.
Never had he heard of someone in the Void Dao Realm shattering heaven-tier treasures.
Even the so-called unmatched Saint Bodies could only catch such treasures barehanded.
To actually break them apart was far beyond that.
"All is lost…"
Jiang Fangcheng's last shred of hope shattered.
Now he finally understood why the Star Temple had cast Jiang Yu aside.
Before such a peerless monster, what did Jiang Yu amount to?
Buzz!
Gu Qing, bathed in dazzling starlight, surrounded by celestial bodies, looked like a god.
Without wasting words, he unleashed the Star Battle Divine Fist, intending to finish his countryman with one blow.
"Hiss…"
Seeing the boundless might of the Star Battle Divine Fist, Jiang Yu gasped sharply and roared.
"Grass-Style Sword Art—!"
A blade of grass appeared in the starry sky, bursting forth with a world-shaking sword intent, cleaving the void, as if to split sun, moon, and stars, opening the heavens and earth.
Jiang Yu refused to believe that even this supreme art, the Grass-Style Sword Art, could not defeat Gu Qing.
He felt a surge of relief—thankfully, after ascending the Starlight Avenue, he had acquired this technique. Otherwise, today he would be doomed.
"This is Heaven-Splitting Sword Intent… something is strange."
He Ni grew wary, ready to strike at any moment.
The true terror of the Grass-Style Sword Art was not the blade of grass, but the Heaven-Splitting Sword Intent within it.
But such intent was not something the Void Dao Realm could grasp. At minimum, one needed the Divine Fire Realm to barely comprehend it.
He Ni suspected Jiang Yu must have a soul of a powerful expert assisting him in wielding the sword intent.
The patriarchs within the coffin thought the same, their divine senses discreetly scanning Jiang Yu.
Boom!
One punch shattered all laws. The Heaven-Splitting Sword Intent was ground to dust, though it consumed ninety percent of the Star Battle Divine Fist's power.
Even so, the remaining force still hurled Jiang Yu and the great royal cauldron he summoned far away.
"Cough, cough…"
"Ancestor, save me—!"
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