Chapter 309: Fireworks [PART 1]

It was when his wife passed away that Guo Zhengming woke up from the dream he had been living for over five hundred years.

He had always carried deep regret about not being able to protect his sect members when they needed him most. Even during the happy years with his wife, he had always known deep down that this day would eventually come.

He had tried everything within his power to find a cure, consulting every healer and searching through countless ancient texts, but there was simply no way to completely eliminate the immense corruption that had entered her body.

This was part of the reason he hadn’t argued with her about abandoning his pursuit of revenge. A part of him had always understood that she didn’t have much time left, and he wanted to spend every moment he could with her while she was still alive.

When she finally passed away, he didn’t even cry – he had been mentally preparing for this moment for centuries.

After her death, Zhengming took his infant son to one of his sworn brothers. “Please look after him,” he said simply, placing the baby gently in his brother’s arms. With those final words, he turned and left their home forever.

“From that day, I lived my life for just this moment,” he said, his sword growing even brighter as energy continued gathering around the weapon. Every day of cultivation, every technique he had practiced, every sacrifice he had made – it had all been building toward this single strike.

“What are you going on about? Are you having a flashback scene right now?” the buff man asked with growing irritation.

But his mocking expression quickly changed to one of alarm as he sensed the incredible power growing more and more intense within the sword that Zhengming was holding. The spiritual energy was becoming so concentrated that it was causing the space around them to tremble and distort.

“Wait, hold on a second. Let’s talk about this,” the man said in a panicked voice, finally recognizing the threat he was facing.

“Too late,” Guo Zhengming said before making a downward slash.

The sword transformed into a blinding blue light that made it seem as though the heavens were falling.

The panicked man moved quickly to intercept the attack aimed straight toward the demon lotus. At the same time, the other nine integration realm experts who had been hiding throughout the area emerged from their concealment, all of them working together to defend the lotus.

The massive beam of light struggled fiercely against the combined power of the ten integration realm experts. The two opposing forces were locked in an intense struggle for dominance that lasted several seconds.

Finally, with visible strain, the ten experts managed to barely win the battle for power. Working together, they managed to push aside the huge light beam just enough to prevent it from striking the lotus directly.

The redirected beam of light went to the side instead, striking a significant section of the demon lotus and cutting it clean off. Though the majority of the lotus remained relatively unharmed, the damage was still considerable – easily a quarter of the lotus had been destroyed in the attack.

The ten experts breathed heavily as they tried to stabilize their cultivation.

On the other hand, Guo Zhengming slowly began falling toward the ground with a resigned expression on his weathered face.

“So in the end, I couldn’t accomplish anything,” he thought bitterly.

During his years in seclusion, instead of focusing on cultivating his own power, he had dedicated absolutely every ounce of his energy and talent to perfecting this single sword strike. Day after day, month after month, year after year, he had poured more and more spiritual energy into the sword, constantly enhancing it and refining it. His goal had been to create one devastating sword strike that would end everything – a sword strike so powerful it could destroy any enemy in a single blow.

“It seems I never woke up from the dream after all”

As he slowly fell toward the ground, he suddenly noticed something that caused his eyes to widen in surprise. Then a smile gradually spread across his face.

“Maybe it’s not over after all…”

…

Li Yao was shocked at first as she witnessed the attack from the seemingly weak old man.

“Wait, this is my chance,” she thought, quickly snapping out of her amazement.

The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. While the ten integration realm experts were completely focused on struggling to fight off Zhengming’s overwhelming attack, Li Yao reached into her storage ring and retrieved ten talismans. These were the second-grade talismans her senior brother had given her.

She thought to herself that if she used them correctly and timed her attack perfectly, she might actually be able to accomplish her goal.

Li Yao drew her void sword. She then began carefully slicing openings in space. One by one, she created a total of ten spatial tears.

Her plan was simple, at the critical moment when all the experts had their complete concentration focused on deflecting the sword beam and couldn’t afford to be distracted by anything else, she would use the space openings to deliver the talismans directly onto their bodies.

These second-grade talismans were capable of seriously harming even a tribulation realm expert, which meant they would essentially be a death sentence for integration realm cultivators – especially when caught completely off guard and unable to defend themselves properly.

She just needed to place them nicely, activate them, and then dip.

She didn’t even need to personally eliminate the demons scattered throughout the area. The resulting massive explosion from ten second-grade talismans detonating at once would be sure to exterminate everything within a radius of several miles.

With her plan in mind, Li Yao patiently waited for exactly the right moment to strike. She watched intently as the experts continued their desperate struggle, competing for dominance against the sword beam. The contest of power continued for what felt like an eternity until it finally reached a critical moment.

“Now,” she thought.

She took out the first talisman and dove her hand through one of the prepared space tears. As soon as she did, she used the void sword held in her other hand to complete the spatial cut, opening the tear fully on the other side. Her hand materialized silently behind the first integration realm expert, and she lightly pressed the talisman against his back.

She quickly withdrew her hand and closed the space tear before anyone could notice the brief disturbance. Without hesitation, she immediately moved to the next target, repeating the same process. Then the third expert, then the fourth, then the fifth, continuing until she had placed talismans on all ten targets.

When she was finally done with the placement phase, Li Yao thought to herself that it was now time to activate all the talismans and get out of the area as quickly as possible. But as she prepared to trigger them, she suddenly thought of something that made her pause. She then sighed deeply and made a spatial cut with her sword.

Meanwhile, Guo Zhengming had used absolutely every ounce of power he possessed to detonate that final sword strike. All the spiritual energy he had carefully accumulated and stored within the weapon over centuries of preparation had been released in that single moment. As he watched the relatively small amount of damage his life’s work had accomplished, he wondered if he regretted his choice.

To be honest, part of him did feel regret – but not for the choice he had made. He regretted that he couldn’t protect his sect when they needed him most. He regretted that he couldn’t save his wife from the corruption that slowly killed her. He regretted that he couldn’t be there for his son.

But most of all, he regretted that he couldn’t at least take one of those central continent bastards with him to his grave. He had already killed a few in the void realm but he at least wanted to take out a high level expert.

As these thoughts filled his mind, Zhengming suddenly noticed something that made his eyes widen in surprise. He saw a hand emerging from a space crack behind one of the experts, quickly slapping a strange talisman onto the man’s back before vanishing again.

“Maybe it’s not over after all…” he thought.

But suddenly, a crack appeared before him…

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