Chapter 37: Manifestation

At the very moment the members of the Anti-Heng Alliance launched their assault, the experts of the Cloud Sword Palace, who had appeared relaxed and completely off-guard, moved in perfect unison.

The experts of the Anti-Heng Alliance naturally would not underestimate the warriors of the Cloud Sword Palace. They struck together, with the three leading Grandmasters targeting Lin Heng, while the other warriors and the remaining four Grandmasters aimed for the other Cloud Sword Palace disciples. Their goal was to pin down the rest of the palace members, preventing them from reinforcing Lin Heng, thereby creating a situation where three Grandmasters could focus solely on him. In such a scenario, they could swiftly execute Lin Heng, who had only recently stepped into the Grandmaster realm, and achieve their primary objective for the day. Whether to proceed with secondary goals, such as seizing treasures or slaughtering the rest, would depend on the situation thereafter. After all, once Lin Heng was dead, the experts of the Cloud Sword Palace would surely go berserk, making survival their top priority; other things were mere trifles—nice to have, but not essential.

Yet, to the astonishment of the Anti-Heng Alliance warriors, the disciples of the Cloud Sword Palace showed no intention of aiding Lin Heng. As if they had rehearsed it beforehand, they moved with fluid grace, whisking away the low-ranking maids and servants who had been serving them their New Year's Eve dinner, and retreated from the center of the battlefield in an instant, leaving Lin Heng alone to face the full force of the encirclement.

Boom!

An earth-shattering explosion erupted. A multitude of hidden weapons, fueled by violent internal energy, descended like falling meteorites or heavy artillery fire. The ground shattered, and the pillars of the grand hall collapsed. Debris flew, and dust filled the air. Within the heart of the battlefield, only Lin Heng remained.

In the blink of an eye, the Anti-Heng Alliance warriors, who had been charging toward Lin Heng behind their barrage of projectiles, had no time to ponder why such a bizarre scene had unfolded. Following their original plan, they pushed their internal energy to its absolute limit, feeding the "Three Talents Formation" that powered the seven Grandmasters leading the charge. These seven peerless experts swung their weapons, hacking down toward Lin Heng.

"We've got him!" a flicker of joy crossed the minds of the seven Grandmasters. Even if Lin Heng was a peerless expert at the Grandmaster level and had mastered supreme arts passed down from a martial holy land, he would be instantly slain under the combined force of seven such experts bolstered by the Three Talents Formation. They had never imagined things would proceed so smoothly. Was Lin Heng not the future of the Cloud Sword Palace? How could he be so disliked that not a single fellow disciple moved to protect him?

Fists, sword energy, blade aura, and palm strikes descended. As the seven Grandmasters delivered their full-powered strikes, Lin Heng sat unmoved, calmly raising a single palm to push outward.

Seeing this, the seven Grandmasters were already certain of their victory. No one could withstand their combined assault; Lin Heng’s recently attained Grandmaster strength would be shattered on the spot. Yet, in the next instant, no joy of victory appeared on their faces; instead, their expressions shifted to one of sheer terror.

In their perception, the energy they had unleashed toward Lin Heng seemed to vanish like a stone dropped into an endless ocean, failing to stir even the slightest ripple. It felt as if they had struck nothing at all, as if their power had been completely diffused. Lin Heng, who had taken the blow head-on, showed no change in expression, nor any sign of injury.

Before the seven could even process this, a vast, ocean-like surge of fierce energy erupted from Lin Heng at the center. The ground fractured, and the tables, chairs, and pots nearest to him were ground into powder by the sheer force. The seven Grandmasters who had initiated the attack bore the brunt of it; they were struck as if by lightning, sent flying backward uncontrollably, their internal meridians jarred, blood spilling from their mouths and noses. It was as if they had just suffered the full-force impact of their own combined attacks while completely undefended.

Behind them, the other warriors linked to the seven Grandmasters via the Three Talents Formation also suffered the backlash, all vomiting blood. The formation, which they had trained with for so long and relied upon as their trump card, was shattered in a single blow. The two thousand warriors who had formed it, though none were dead, were left with shattered bones and paralyzed muscles, completely unable to move.

"No... this is impossible."

As Lin Heng ceased concealing his presence and unleashed his full power, any warrior with eyes could perceive the vast, sea-like depth of his aura. Even Hao Shuang, an elder of the Lihen Pavilion who was also a Grandmaster, felt as if her own first-tier Grandmaster cultivation was as insignificant as an ant’s before him—a sensation that even the masters of martial holy lands could not evoke in her.

"Impossible, it is absolutely impossible to be this strong."
"It's fake, it's all fake."
"Even a Supreme Grandmaster could not withstand our combined formation strike without suffering a scratch."

A Grandmaster from Frost City, who had joined the Anti-Heng Alliance under a false identity, felt his composure crumble. Each tier of a warrior's cultivation represented a qualitative leap, yet the combined strength of so many Grandmasters in formation should have been equivalent to, if not greater than, a Supreme Grandmaster. And yet, Lin Heng had absorbed it all without a single blemish. The blow to his morale was too great; it was not just his personal failure, but a declaration that their long-planned scheme—the plan to divide the world—was doomed to fail. Worse, all of them and the families behind them would now plummet into the abyss.

Because he could foresee this future, even the steady composure he had cultivated as a Grandmaster—the ability to remain calm even if Mount Tai collapsed before him—fell apart. He desperately wanted to flee, to warn the other allies who were still converging on the Cloud Sword Palace gate, to save them from the fate of walking into the abyss. But he was powerless, crippled by his severe injuries. Although a Grandmaster’s recovery rate would allow him to mend such internal trauma within a quarter of an hour, he did not have that time. The situation was deteriorating by the second.

"The Ethereal True Essence—have you never seen it before?" Lin Heng lowered his hand and spoke in a calm tone.

What he had just used was indeed the Ethereal True Essence, capable of neutralizing an enemy's attack with protective aura and even turning that power to one's own use. This supreme defensive art was a perfect match for the "Boundless Sea Divine Art" he had created. The energy from the thousands of warriors' combined strike had flowed into Lin Heng like a river into the sea; before it could unleash its destructive potential, it was neutralized and channeled by the vortexes of energy within his body, only to be redirected back at them in its entirety. Furthermore, bolstered by Lin Heng’s own internal energy, the counter-attack was even more powerful.

In essence, the Anti-Heng Alliance had just joined forces with Lin Heng to deliver a full-powered blow against themselves. The Cloud Sword Palace disciples had known of Lin Heng’s defensive prowess, which was why they were so confident in leaving him alone to face these demonic villains.

Ten years of sharpening his sword, and today was the day to show the world the edge of this divine blade.