Spirit Ruin, Sword Coffin, Blind Swordsman

Seeing that Zhou Shiyu still wouldn’t budge, Gu Huai heaved a long sigh and cursed under his breath, “You ungrateful brat! Without Young Friend Li, you’d already be dead. Playing dead at a time like this. Real impressive.”

The others tried to calm him down, but Gu Huai brushed them off, his chest heaving, messy hair falling across his brows.

Gu Huai roared, “Scram! Not a single one of you has any backbone!”

Gu Huai looked at Zhou Shiyu for a long moment, then sent a voice transmission to a nearby disciple. “Later, report every detail of the Daxia Sword Sect’s battles to him, leaving nothing out.”

“Uh… Sect Master, what if Senior Brother Zhou still doesn’t stir?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Gu Huai replied irritably. “Just tell him everything, word for word. Make him listen. And when there’s nothing new to report, just stand beside him and repeat everything over and over.”

Boom!

“They’re here! They’re here! The Daxia Sword Sect’s barrier has opened!”

“Phew… The Daxia Sword Sect… they have to win! Show them our backbone!”

“That’s the Yanluo Sword Sovereign, and… so many experts!” Xi Yunhuai and the others now stood among the Daxia Sword Sect’s ranks, as did Peak Master Ji Yuchuan of Guanyun Peak. Two Combined Body Realm experts were no joke. Add Duantai Yiting, Han Chengxian, Gong Ze, Nangong Qianyan, Tu Zhongqiu, and Ji Hong, and the Illusory Refinement Realm experts numbered nearly twenty. The Divine Transformation Realm cultivators were even more numerous, too many to count.

Dense ranks of cultivators, all clad in matching sect robes, stood arrayed in neat lines. Leading them was Lu Kangnian, with Li Guanqi at his side.

Officially, Li Guanqi was only an elder, yet his status stood on par with the sect’s disciplinarian. Calling him a deputy sect master would hardly be an exaggeration. Even if he refused to acknowledge it himself, in the hearts of everyone in the Daxia Sword Sect, he was practically the deputy sect master.

Li Guanqi’s expression darkened as he cast a cold glance toward the Lu clan’s cloud boat in the distance.

At the bow of the lavish crimson cloud boat, Lu Wuhen looked down at Li Guanqi with a contemptuous smile. It wasn’t only the Lu clan; nearly all the major ancient clans had sent people.

Buzz!

Space trembled as the faint pressure of a Mahayana Stage expert spread outward. Lu Kangnian and Li Guanqi scowled.

An old man in dark-golden robes stepped slowly out of the void. He looked ancient and decrepit, his face withered and his white hair dry.

He was short and hunched, leaning on a cane, his eyes sweeping the battlefield with indifference. Wherever his gaze landed, hearts clenched as though seized by an invisible hand.

Lu Wuhen flashed over, conjured a redwood chair, and eased the old man into it with a smile. “Ancestor, you came too?”

This was the ancestor of the Lu clan, a monstrous existence at the Mahayana Stage, Lu Hengtian.

Lu Hengtian smiled faintly, seeing nothing wrong with Lu Wuhen’s actions. If anything, he found those little tricks too crude; Lu Wuhen still had much to learn.

Just as he was about to give Lu Wuhen a few instructions, two middle-aged men stepped out from behind him. Li Guanqi frowned the instant he saw them.

At the same time, the two black-robed figures hidden inside the spatial magical tool revealed themselves.

One of them struck Ye Feng, a single sword blow drawing blood. Ye Feng scowled and roared, “Damn it, Old Li! They’re not from the Lu clan!”

Li Changqing knocked the two attackers back with a single strike and moved to shield Ye Feng, his voice going cold. “I already know that. What a huge scheme… Let me think… just the two of you shouldn’t be capable of matching the Chi, Mei, Wang, or Liang.”

The two black-robed figures exchanged a glance, clearly not having expected their opponents to know so much.

Ye Feng’s eyes glinted coldly. He had glimpsed the edge of something beneath one of the black robes.

He swallowed and sent a quiet voice transmission. “On their mask… it says ‘Lower Earth’!”

Li Changqing licked the blood from the corner of his mouth and tightened his grip on his sword.

Back when Meng Wanshu ran into a Sha organization assassin in the Heavenly Massacre Sea, the man had also been a Combined Body Realm cultivator. But he had only been an Upper Black-tier assassin.

Lu Hengtian gave Lu Wuhen a long look, then turned his eyes to the two branch family heads behind him.

A faint, mysterious smile touched the corner of his mouth.

Li Guanqi’s mind was in turmoil. In full view of everyone, he pulled out a jade slip and sent a message. “Third Brother, are you certain they’re Lu clan cultivators? All eight branch family heads are here with me, and not one is missing!”

In the void, two streaks of light were racing forward when spatial ripples appeared beside them.

Cao Yan heard the message inside the slip, and his pupils dilated.

Xiao Chen frowned and asked, “What’s wrong, Third Brother?”

Cao Yan turned stiffly toward Xiao Chen and murmured, “The ones who attacked… they aren’t from the Lu clan.”

“What? They’re not?!”

“But when I called out their identities earlier, they clearly hesitated.”

Cao Yan’s expression darkened as he handed the jade slip to Xiao Chen. Li Guanqi’s message came through.

Xiao Chen swallowed hard and said in disbelief, “Could it be… that those two are from the Sha organization?”

His scalp went numb, and goosebumps rose all over his arms.

While Xiao Chen was still reeling from the revelation, Cao Yan grabbed him and shot forward at full speed. “Let’s forget it for now. I trust Second Brother! We’ll head back first and discuss later.”

Lu Hengtian made no effort to rein in his aura. Many cultivators from the Six Territories seemed to be strained.

Min Jiuzhou let out a cold snort and released his aura, enveloping the cultivators of the Six Territories. The pressure around them eased significantly.

Ji Yuchuan and Xi Yunhuai moved as well. Layers of fearsome arrays rose into the sky, while thousands of talismans bore down on the void.

Lu Kangnian’s mouth twitched. Immediately after, the demon-slaying crossbows appeared once more. Not only that. The massive sword array rose as well, pillar after pillar of light shooting skyward.

Lu Kangnian’s message was clear. If anyone broke the rules today, the Daxia Sword Sect would fight to the death.

The display drew the eyes of cultivators from both the Six Territories and the ancient clans.

Even Lu Wuhen’s mouth twitched at the sight of those crossbows. He hadn’t expected the Daxia Sword Sect’s foundation to run so deep. He even wondered whether those things had been secretly provided by cultivators who had ascended to the Immortal Realm. Crossbows that could kill Illusory Refinement Realm cultivators with ease were exceedingly rare treasures.

Zhao Xianglu and Min Jiuzhou, seated on their thrones, both frowned and quickly stood up, dispersing their thrones.

Buzz!

Every eye shot to the sky above the Daxia Sword Sect. Even Lu Hengtian narrowed his eyes, gazing intently into the distance.

A man in a flowing cyan robe stepped out of the void, hands clasped behind his back. Zhao Xianglu and Min Jiuzhou moved aside and bowed respectfully.

“Greetings, Territory Lord!”

The composed, elegant man who had stepped out of the void was Daxia Territory Lord Zhou Yunqing. On the day he’d unsealed the Cicada Sword ahead of time to face a Mahayana Stage Abyssal Demon, he had witnessed Hong Zhi slay it with one saber strike.

He would never forget her attack. It belonged to a level of combat so far beyond him that he had no right to interfere at all.