Chapter 301

Chapter 301: Qingqiu!

Realm directly restored!

　　Strike again.

　　Strike until you submit!

　　In the arena, those Guanxuan Universe powerhouses who had already grown disappointed in Yang Jia suddenly became excited.

　　This was their young lord!

　　The invincible young lord!

　　Stirring and inspiring.

　　On the Guanxuan Universe side, morale soared.

　　In the shadows.

　　The real Yang Jia was also watching this scene unfold. His expression was incredibly complex — this was exactly what he had always dreamed of. What a pity.

　　Of course, what he regretted most right now was that he should never have flinched just now.

　　If he had simply set aside some of his hesitations and acted directly, as long as the opponent wasn’t truly at the Circle-Drawing realm, he actually had a very good chance of winning.

　　At the Shenlin Grounds, Cao Nian’s realm having been restored, he looked at Ye Tianming and said again, “Without this rule — is that acceptable?”

　　”Shameless!”

　　In the arena, someone immediately cursed Cao Nian furiously.

　　Ye Tianming simply smiled and said, “Sure!”

　　Cao Nian stared hard at him. “Please enlighten me.”

　　As he spoke, he suddenly stepped forward, and in an instant, a force of the Grand Dao swept in from heaven and earth.

　　Still the aura of the Circle-Drawing realm!

　　Ye Tianming stepped forward, and in an instant, his body transformed into ten thousand swords.

　　Gathered, he was a person.

　　Scattered, he was swords!

　　At the same time, those ten thousand swords condensed an overwhelming momentum, each one stronger than the last.

　　An invincible sword force.

　　Beyond that, two mysterious powers also filled heaven and earth.

　　The Sword Domain Restraint.

　　The Grand Dao Boundary!

　　And in the instant that sword strike reached Cao Nian, the sword force exploded more than tenfold in a single moment.

　　One sword to decide life and death!

　　He had fused everything he had ever learned into a single sword.

　　Just one sword!

　　That one sword came down like a force of nature, instantly shattering Cao Nian’s overwhelming and terrifying pressure.

　　Boom!

　　With a thunderous explosion, Cao Nian was blasted back several thousand zhang away. The moment he stopped, a trace of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.

　　The stretch of heaven and earth where the two had fought was now cracked into a spider-web pattern, with a terrifying sword aura permeating the surroundings.

　　After coming to a stop, Cao Nian slowly raised his head and looked toward Ye Tianming in the distance. “How is this possible!”

　　Ye Tianming said, “Your true Grand Dao is actually the Dao of True and False — true within the false, false within the true, real and unreal intertwined. Ordinary people simply cannot tell them apart, and so they are deceived by you.”

　　In truth, Yang Jia’s real strength was no worse than this Cao Nian before him.

　　But Cao Nian’s Dao of True and False was simply far too deceptive. On top of that, Cao Nian’s approach focused on breaking the opponent’s will, and Yang Jia’s state of mind already had cracks in it — so before the fight even began, Yang Jia had already lost his nerve.

　　If it had come down to a direct fight.

　　Yang Jia still had a chance of winning, because after all, Cao Nian’s true strength had not actually reached the Circle-Drawing realm.

　　Cao Nian stared hard at Ye Tianming. “How did you see through it.”

　　Ordinary people, when faced with his Grand Dao, would already have been scared out of their wits.

　　The Circle-Drawing realm!

　　Most people simply had no courage to face a powerhouse of that level. And so, over the years, Cao Nian could be said to be undefeated against anyone below the Circle-Drawing realm.

　　No one had ever seen through it.

　　Even Yang Jia earlier had genuinely believed him to be at the Circle-Drawing realm — and so had lost his nerve before the fight even started. With just a few words from Cao Nian, Yang Jia’s Dao heart had cracked directly.

　　But Ye Tianming had seen through it.

　　Ye Tianming simply smiled and offered no explanation.

　　The reason he could see through the opponent’s true and false was naturally because of his Grand Dao Boundary — the Dao he had established was to draw boundaries for all the Grand Daos in the world. Therefore, when facing Cao Nian’s Dao of True and False, his own Dao held an innate advantage.

　　True is true!

　　False is false!

　　Before him, Cao Nian simply could not pass off the false as the real.

　　Of course, the most fundamental reason was still his own power — that fused sword strike of his had already surpassed Cao Nian’s strength.

　　Ye Tianming looked at Cao Nian. “You are far too focused on the true and false, wanting to deceive your opponents, and in doing so you have neglected the essence — and the essence is core power. Once you can no longer deceive others, the weaknesses of your Grand Dao will be magnified infinitely. Do you know what core power is?”

　　Cao Nian stared at Ye Tianming. “You’re lecturing me?”

　　Ye Tianming shook his head with a smile. “You said earlier that I couldn’t see myself clearly, that I didn’t dare admit my own flaws……. aren’t you doing the same right now?”

　　”Ha ha!”

　　In the arena, all the people from Guanxuan Universe burst out laughing.

　　Cao Nian’s expression turned ugly.

　　Miss Ding watched Ye Tianming, her expression complex.

　　Unless one possessed absolute power, there was probably no one in this world who could break this Tianming’s Dao heart.

　　Cao Nian suddenly smiled. “Then please, enlighten me.”

　　As he spoke, he gave a deep bow.

　　Enlighten me!

　　The moment those words were spoken, the smiles on the faces of the Guanxuan Universe powerhouses gradually faded.

　　Able to pick it up, able to put it down.

　　A person like this was undoubtedly terrifying.

　　Ye Tianming suddenly asked, “What is the guiding principle of your Grand Dao?”

　　Cao Nian said, “To pass off the false as the real.”

　　Ye Tianming shook his head. “That guiding principle is too low.”

　　Cao Nian’s brow furrowed.

　　Ye Tianming said, “Passing off the false as the real can deceive opponents in many situations, but in the end it is still false — and what is false can never become real. Take you, for instance: every time you make a move, you project the aura of the Circle-Drawing realm, but you are not actually at the Circle-Drawing realm. So I think you should change your guiding principle.”

　　Cao Nian asked, “To what?”

　　Ye Tianming smiled. “Discard the false, keep the true!”

　　Discard the false, keep the true!

　　Cao Nian froze.

　　Ye Tianming said, “Pretending to be at the Circle-Drawing realm and actually being at the Circle-Drawing realm — those are still two different things, aren’t they?”

　　Cao Nian fell silent.

　　At this moment, he already understood what Ye Tianming meant. He had always been pursuing the ultimate in passing off the false as the real — and of course, he had achieved it.

　　Even some Circle-Drawing realm cultivators could not see through his true and false.

　　Of course, he had never actually crossed swords with a true Circle-Drawing realm powerhouse, because the moment he did, his true nature would be exposed.

　　If he did not discard the false and keep the true going forward, then the path of his Grand Dao would undoubtedly be blocked by his own hand.

　　Discard the false, keep the true!

　　Cao Nian took a deep breath and looked at Ye Tianming. “Thank you.”

　　He was a natural-born genius to begin with, so of course he understood with just a single pointer.

　　Of course, it was also because he had been defeated at this moment — if he hadn’t been defeated, then ten thousand words of reasoning wouldn’t have gotten through to him either.

　　Ye Tianming slowly raised his head and looked toward that blood-red road. Deep within the blood-red road, there was still no movement whatsoever.

　　On the Guanxuan Academy side, however, more and more powerhouses were arriving in a steady stream.

　　Clearly, the headquarters had spoken.

　　Without the headquarters speaking, the Guanxuan Academy of the real world alone would naturally not have had this kind of capability.

　　And at this moment, everyone in the arena was watching Ye Tianming.

　　Although many people were puzzled — puzzled at how the young lord had suddenly seemed like a completely different person — everyone was merely puzzled and didn’t think too much of it.

　　As long as he was invincible, that was all that mattered!

　　Who cared whether it was real or not.

　　Ye Tianming suddenly looked at Cao Nian and smiled. “This clash between my Yang family and your Shenlin Grounds is nothing more than a dispute over the Grand Dao. My original intention was that staging such a grand confrontation for a fight was really rather unnecessary — but since things have already come to this point, we might as well have a proper fight.”

　　Cao Nian looked at Ye Tianming. “Then we fight?”

　　Ye Tianming nodded. “Let your people come out.”

　　Cao Nian smiled. “Very well.”

　　With that, he stepped to one side.

　　Boom!

　　Suddenly, that blood-red road began to churn violently, like a surging sea of blood — utterly terrifying.

　　Everyone was watching that blood-red road intently. Soon, from within that sea of blood, a man slowly rose. He wore a wide white robe, with a blood-red cloak draped over his back. The cloak bore only a single large talisman, and at the top of the talisman was a Taiji diagram.

　　In the man’s right hand, he gripped a long white-bone halberd. At the tip of the halberd hung a blood-soaked severed head, and within that head, two eyes were still moving — utterly sinister.

　　The Grand Overseer!

　　Within Shenlin Grounds, he held an extraordinarily high position — second only to the civilization master of Shenlin Grounds and that one called the New God.

　　As he stepped forward, everyone in the arena felt a strange tremor, as though an invisible hand had seized their very souls.

　　Everyone was startled.

　　When Zhu Yuan saw the Grand Overseer, his expression also grew solemn. This Grand Overseer was no ordinary Circle-Drawing realm powerhouse.

　　As far back as hundreds of thousands of years ago, before Shenlin Grounds had even come into existence, this Grand Overseer had already been a Circle-Drawing realm powerhouse of what would become Shenlin Grounds.

　　Of course, it wasn’t called Shenlin Grounds back then — after all, the New God had not yet appeared at that time, and what would become Shenlin Grounds was still called Xutian. It was only later, when the divine mandate appeared in Xutian, that it was renamed Shenlin Grounds.

　　Within Shenlin Grounds, this Grand Overseer presided over life and death, and had moreover forged his own Dao of Life and Death!

　　The Dao of Life and Death!

　　Ranked fifth on the Grand Dao Rankings.

　　Everyone in the arena felt the terror of this Grand Overseer. Even the top powerhouses of Guanxuan Universe wore expressions of unprecedented gravity.

　　Although everyone present was either an Ancestor or a Dao-Establisher, there was no doubt that numbers held no meaning whatsoever before a Circle-Drawing realm powerhouse of this level.

　　Ye Tianming glanced at the Grand Overseer, his gaze lingering for a moment on the skull in the other’s hand. At this moment, the skull was also staring at him — its eyes seeming capable of piercing straight into a person’s heart, making one afraid to meet its gaze.

　　Suddenly, Ye Tianming looked toward the Grand Overseer, who was also looking at him at this moment. The Grand Overseer’s eyes were strange — white on the left, black on the right.

　　These were his two Grand Daos!

　　Life on the left, death on the right!

　　After just one exchange of glances, the Grand Overseer slowly closed both eyes.

　　On the blood-red road, no other powerhouses appeared.

　　For now, only two people had emerged from the Shenlin Grounds side.

　　Cao Nian looked toward Ye Tianming. Ye Tianming gave a slight nod, then turned to look at Miss Ding. “Miss Ding, shall we let the elder generation of my Yang family come out and show their faces?”

　　Miss Ding looked at him and said nothing.

　　Ye Tianming smiled. “Surely you don’t expect me to face all of Shenlin Grounds alone? If that’s really what you’re thinking, then that’s a bit shameless, don’t you think.”

　　Miss Ding said, “You’re the one who wants to see the elder generation of the Yang family.”

　　Ye Tianming nodded. “I am a bit curious, I’ll admit.”

　　Miss Ding said, “Who do you want to see?”

　　Ye Tianming smiled, then said, “Naturally……. that senior — Qingqiu.”

　　As he spoke, he slowly raised his head and looked deep into the void above, where a woman was slowly walking forward.