Chapter 195: The Sword Moves (1/2)

The power of a celestial emperor! Origin dao immortal! Power sufficient to equate oneself with any emperor of the majors.

Greater clarity about the very world itself was revealing itself to Lu Yun. New understandings flowed into his mind about the laws and energies of nature. In fact, he could easily reach out and grasp any of them. They were tangible to him in more senses than one; the energies of nature—of heaven and earth—were his to command.

The battle between the Enneawyrm Coffinbearers and Nine-Phoenix Casket released enough energy to tear him apart. But at this moment, all of that packed as much of a punch as a spring breeze. Though destructive forces rioted in the firmament, they were completely unable to harm him.

……

“One hour!” Lu Yun took a deep breath. “That’s how long I’ve got with the zombie puppet’s power. Until then… I am a celestial emperor!”

Steel flashed in his eyes. He looked up at the sky where dragons and phoenix were still locked together in a maddened struggle.

“Screee—” Nine pairs of eyes from the casket trained on him with unfathomable hatred. The blood phoenix under its control had shed its shackles and become another lifeform entirely as soon as Lu Yun had appeared.

Nine phoenix heads shrieked in discordant unison, slamming the Enneawyrm Coffinbearers back with powerful beats of its black-feathered wings. It then gathered all of its strength and hurtled toward Lu Yun at top speed. Its instincts told it that killing the young human would return the blood phoenix to its clutches.

“Nine-Phoenix Casket!” Lu Yun squinted slightly. The shadow of a great pagoda erupted from his form, followed suit by razor-sharp sword qi.

The Sugato Sword.

His newfound strength gave him the ability to make use of the pagoda’s full power with trivial ease. After a hundred thousand years of being sealed away, this preeminent treasure was finally shining once more.

Countless streams of sword qi gathered into an inescapable blade, slashing down at the Nine-Phoenix Casket with sundering speed.

Boom!

A deafening explosion rang out from the collision with the avian coffinbearer’s body, sending the sword’s wielder a few steps back. Though the Sugato Sword trembled slightly, the Nine-Phoenix Casket had fared no better—the sword light had successfully repelled it. In fact, a bloody hole was visible through its chest!

Desolate birdsong filled the air and black blood rained down from the sky, gathering into an inky river below.

“The Sugato Sword!” remarked the suspended face, becoming clearer as it spoke. Lu Yun even saw the figure of a giant coalescing around it. Figure dimming, the Exalted celestial emperor’s energies seemed to be transferring to the materializing giant.

Before the Nine-Phoenix Casket could recover, the Enneawyrm Coffinbearers pounced on it to quash it for good. A bone-white skeletal arm snaked out of the black coffin, grabbing the casket in a vise grip. It wanted to rip the casket apart, though its efforts were quickly stymied by a puff of black smoke from its opponent.

Suddenly, Lu Yun picked up on a grand conviction emanating from the Enneawyrm Coffinbearers. His eyes darted back and forth in uncertainty, keeping the Sugato Sword at the ready but not wanting to act in haste.

“The Enneawyrm Coffinbearers wish for you to help defeat that which lies in the casket,” the now-visible giant suddenly said. Fully materialized, he wasn’t as absurdly large as the eyes that’d preceded him, but was still several kilometers tall in his own right. A fearsome energy rippled from his body, the same kind that had slain Dongling Yuhuang.

Lu Yun snuck a glance at the celestial emperor. The man was planted upright on the ground like an unmoving corpse, no signs of life visible in him. Clearly, the emperor was dead. Giving the urge to make the emperor one of his envoys a firm headshake of denial, he turned his attention back to the two coffins.

“Neither of them are anything good. I may as well let them duke it out.” A sinister smirk quirked Lu Yun’s lips.