Firmament Sword

The several hundred disciples of the Stony Sect in the valley had met with utter disaster.

In less than two hours, Xu Luo had slaughtered nearly every last one of them.

Originally, Xu Luo hadn’t wanted to be so bloody, but the scenes he witnessed had sent him into a towering rage. This was a sect rotten to its very core. From the old to the young, from men to women, not a single one of them was a good person!

Perhaps a few had been killed by mistake, but Xu Luo felt no regret. Anyone from a sect like this would surely become a scourge upon the secular world.

A mountain breeze blew past, carrying the faint scent of blood out of the valley.

The women Xu Luo had freed from the dungeons all stood there, dazed and numb. Staring at the scene before them, the more timid ones fainted from sheer terror.

Xu Luo didn’t have time to escort them out. He just had them stay temporarily in the houses that were free of blood. He believed that even if someone discovered them now, they wouldn’t be harmed. After all… these women hadn’t been brought here to be killed in the first place.

Xu Luo took one last, deep look at the valley. Then, channeling the Shaking Light Step, he sped toward the mountain behind the valley and quickly vanished from sight.

Among the group of women, a bolder one shouted at those who were crying softly, ”What are you crying for? You should be laughing, not crying! We were dragged to this hellhole, never seeing the light of day. We either had to submit to the depravity of this scum or kill ourselves. No matter what, there was no good end for us.”

The women’s sobs quieted a little. The speaker continued, ”The worst that could have happened was death. Now that we’ve been rescued, we should be happy.”

”Then… then what do we do now? We can’t possibly go home… we’d be too ashamed…” a woman said through her tears.

They were all women from respectable families, some even from wealthy households. They had all been abducted and sent to this place to serve the carnal pleasures of the Stony Sect’s upper echelons. Some had been missing for a few months, others for a year or two. If they were to suddenly return to their hometowns, the gossip and rumors alone would be unbearable, to say nothing of how their own families might treat them.

”That young man just now… he must have gone to the rear mountain to do something important. If he makes it back alive, we’ll just follow him!” The woman who had spoken before seemed to carry an air of nobility, suggesting a well-off background.

Biting her lip, she looked at the other women and said, ”We can’t go home anyway. Since he saved us, we’ll just go with him!”

”But… but would he even want a group like us?” someone asked in a small voice.

The first speaker gave a bitter smile. ”Where are your minds going? I meant we should beg that young man to give us a way to live… Become his women? You’re overthinking it!”

”...”

Xu Luo had no idea that the women he’d rescued would have such a conversation after he left. Although his actions conflicted with his original plan to infiltrate the sect quietly, he didn’t regret it. Having grown up in a high-ranking official’s family, he hadn’t known much about the suffering of the world.

Only in the last year or two had he been exposed to the outside world and learned just how difficult life was for those at the bottom of society.

’I’m not a good person, but I won’t do anything evil either!’ Xu Luo thought to himself as he accelerated toward the rear mountain of the Stony Sect.

What he had done in the Stony Sect’s Outer Sect definitely wouldn’t stay hidden for long.

This was their territory, after all. They might have already discovered it. He had to be fast. He had to eliminate everyone standing in his way with the force of a thunderbolt and then… save his brother!

The Stony Sect’s Outer Sect and the residential area for its upper echelons were not close; they were separated by dozens of li!

This was likely a major reason why those Outer Disciples dared to engage in such brazen debauchery in broad daylight.

Right now, the minds of the Stony Sect’s leadership were more… focused on the Ancient Ruins. They had little interest in managing the affairs of the Outer Sect.

Xu Luo didn’t encounter anyone along the way.

Meanwhile, the rear mountain of the Stony Sect was a scene of bustling activity.

Many of the Stony Sect’s Inner Sect Disciples had gathered in the square on the rear mountain. In the middle of the square stood a thick iron pillar, to which a young man was securely bound.

The young man appeared to be twenty-four or twenty-five years old. He had a heroic air about him, an unyielding look in his eyes. He glanced contemptuously at the people in the square before closing his eyes, his expression becoming utterly serene.

A large pile of firewood was stacked at the base of the pillar.

The sun blazed overhead, its harsh light casting a golden glow upon the young man’s face.

A woman in a long black dress was arguing heatedly with a group of people.

”Sect Leader, you can’t do this!” the woman in the black dress said loudly, her face flushed with emotion as she looked at an old man of about fifty. ”The sects and the secular world are two different worlds that should not intersect. Your actions will surely bring about dire consequences!”

”Guo Ying, that’s enough. Your sect has already given a clear answer on this matter, leaving it to our discretion. Do you intend to defy your own masters?” a middle-aged man beside the fifty-something elder said coldly. ”Besides, we’ve already been more than benevolent by not reporting your actions to your sect. Now, step aside!”

”I will not. If you want to kill him today, you’ll have to do it over my dead body!” the black-clad woman said coldly, her face a mask of defiance. ”My sect may not know much about what kind of sect the Stony Sect truly is, but I know it all too well. You people are...”