An unknown amount of time passed when a snowflake slowly drifted onto the card Li Zhan had given him during their first meeting. The soft flake melted and entered the fine gaps within the card, before slowly disappearing.
The lines on the card moved, spreading outside the boundaries of the card, it slowly entered Ovid’s body. As the last lines on the card left, it crumbled into dust, spilling onto the snow.
For the Great Dividing Range was one of the closest points to the sky, snowfall occurs throughout the year, hiding the scars that had appeared on the range just half a year prior.
Under the grey sky, the sound of footsteps slowly approached Ovid. Carrying a calm expression, he tilted his head toward the sky.
“How bright the sun is.”
Afterwards, the person extended his hands and grabbed the sword laid in the puddle of mud. Wiping the sword on his robes, Cai Hua walked before Ovid.
---
The Great Dividing Range was almost completely void of life, creating an extremely quiet scene. Although the sun in this world was something quite absurd, it was still a beautiful thing to look at. The snow that fell on the ground was also very beautiful, and when it landed, it made not the slightest of sounds. This great scheme crafted by that certain person had involved every saint in the southern portions of the continent, even implicating other major figures such as the Pope and Cai Hua.
It would inevitably be written down in the history books. And of the two people occupying the last page on this scheme, one was calmly seated in her wooden chair some thousand miles out. The other person at the foot of the Great Dividing Range meanwhile, stood tall and firm, his whole body exuding an aura sharper than the most lethal of swords.
Cai Hua’s lips were slightly pulled up as he gripped the hilt of the sword.
Cai Hua was joyous. Though he knew it was impossible to defeat Julia simply with the sword spirit, the appearance of a sword spirit completes the formation, causing Cai Hua to grow pleased, enough for him to laugh to his heart’s content.
However, the situation was too severe. Cai Hua resisted his urge.
He then flicked his left sleeve and took a step forward onto the muddy pond. The sword in his right hand was swept behind him and then he swayed the sword toward the sky.
In the gentle snowfall, the sword screamed and the sun suddenly grew very bright. It was a stationary object in the sky, so it naturally couldn’t avoid the sword. Off in the sky, the cloud slowly gathered before the sun, as if forming a shield. With such a massive change in the world, the cutting sword approached regardless.
Cai Hua’s sword was poorly made and even in its new form, was not very sharp. But Cai Hua possessed the intent of a cutting edge.
The clouds in the sky gathered to form a barrier, but it was not a shield in the material world. It was impossible for the sword to fall on it.
The sword intent was gently absorbed by clouds before the sun.
Cai Hua withdrew the sword intent. Even now, he was still a frugal person, unwilling to exhaust mana as Ovid had against Margrethe. Still, out of his poverty, he had accomplished something extremely shocking - there was no other person who could retrieve their sword intent.
Within the blind of an eye, the next strike had already been made.
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The strike was faster than the last, faster than breathing, the frigid winds, and sound itself.
Before the clear resonance of a sword could be heard, the sword intent had already appeared.
The sword intent slashed through the clouds, falling on the surface of the sun.
The next moment, a very clear red mark appeared on the sun’s surface.
Then that part began to swell at a rate visible to the naked eye.
The sun was slapped, Julia was slapped in the face.
These clouds were by no means ordinary clouds. They were capable of stopping nearly all objects in the world.
But Cai Hua’s sword could cut through anything.
Julia was in no pain, but she was humiliated by the action.
The last time she had been slapped had been by Alexander, and even he did not do it in such a contemptuous way.
Because it reminded her of some memory, Julia could no longer sit on the wooden chair. Her figure suddenly stood upright, and then a breeze fell on her face that healed the swollen portion of her face instantly.
Cai Hua however, did not continue to attack, for he only came here to retrieve Ovid. He couldn’t defeat Julia and harming her was already an extraordinary feat.
Grabbing his disciple by the collar, Cai Hua sprang into the air and stepped on the surface of the muddy pond with his right foot. Without creating a single ripple in the pond, he retreated into the mountain.
But how could Julia have predicted his actions when he had fled from her once already?
All of a sudden, a distinct fissure appeared on the sun.
A tiny tiny object dropped down as fast as a shooting star; it was a piece of the sun falling from the sky.
A thunderous boom could be heard all over the sky, they were the result of the incredible speed the object was falling at.
Cai Hua turned around and struck down with his sword.
The piece of the sun shattered up, and the mana contained within hung over the mountain range.
Cai Hua quickly placed Ovid’s body into his minor realm, and then fell on a mountain in the distance.
The near-infinite amount of mana contained within the piece immediately pressed on Cai Hua.
The mountain beneath him suddenly crumbled into countless rubbles, and many great cracks appeared on the mountain range.
But Cai Hua’s speed did not slow down in the slightest, he quickly passed through the mountain range with blood coming out of him.
Julia grew somewhat surprised. Cai Hua had willingly withstood such a heavy injury - if he were not so set on fleeing, it was possible to intercept the destructive power within the piece of the sun.
Julia furrowed her brows, preparing to strike once more against Cai Hua.
---
Cai Hua rode upon the wind at lightning speed, arriving at the mountain at the centre of the Great Dividing Range, he opened the formation guarding the cave and got inside.
Raising his hands to suppress his strong urge of coughing out blood, Cai Hua leaned against the wall of the cave and stabbed his sword into the stone.
The gaze of Julia resting in the cave followed that sword as it entered. When it was inserted into the surface of the stone, her eyes turned a white as snowfields outside.
Cai Hua was certain that it was impossible for him to defeat Julia - even with a sword spirit, he will surely lose.
If it was in the past, he would have surely fled to another continent. This time, however, he stayed.
It had nothing to do with courage - he simply knew it was impossible to escape.
Julia was the sun. Even the most desolate corner of the world was still in her sight.
Thus, he chose the same tactics as the Pope.
Ten thousand years ago, the Pope had successfully stopped Julia at the Great Dividing Range. The holy figure then was only a thousand years old, and his actions stopping this creature who embodied the sun was nothing short of a miracle.
The foundation of his strength did not lay in his fighting prowess, intelligence, or any other attribute. It solely rested on the great formation he had that could harvest the strength of the human race.
With that, he could change the fate of the world, causing Julia’s plan to conquer the North to be postponed for a thousand years.
Very obviously, Cai Hua did not possess the power of mankind in his hand in order to create a second formation, nor could he borrow the formation from the Pope. However, he could find a source equally as strong.
Outside of the various kingdoms, empire, sects and the clergy, there was only one force in the world that possessed over five bishops.
That force was Cai Hua.
He had a total of nine wives. Eight of his wives had achieved the stage of nascent soul, the equivalent of bishophood, while one was long an immortal.
With that, he could replicate the Papacy’s formation to a certain degree.
The sword plunged into the rock trembled.
Ever since his departure in Aeon forest, he had been not only recovering his personal strength but also carving out the lines on which his formation depends on.
The location the sword was inserted in was precisely the centre of the formation.
Without any delay, an endless amount of spiritual essence turned into eight lines and flowed from the peaks of eight separate mountains. They travelled through the channels created by Cai Hua, akin to eight vast rivers.
The rivers gathered at the embedded tip of the sword spirit. Like lightning, it travelled up the sword’s body and shot into the sun.