Chapter 10: The Demonic Sword Emerges

In a village of roughly a hundred people, night fell, and flames swallowed the settlement whole.

A band of mountain brigands stormed into the village, looting and killing as they pleased. Pitiful cries and desperate pleas for mercy echoed through every corner of the village.

A scrawny figure ran out of a wooden house and fled into the distance.

A brigand rushed out right after him and bared his teeth as he roared, “Don’t let that brat get away! Damn it! He actually bit me!”

A row of bloody bite marks stood out on the brigand’s arm.

At his shout, the other brigands all gave chase.

It was not long before the boy who had escaped was brought back, tightly bound.

“Weren’t you pretty capable just now? Come on, run again for me to see!” The brigand planted a foot on the boy’s face and shouted arrogantly.

The boy’s face remained expressionless. His gaze was fixed on the wooden house behind the brigand, where the corpses of his parents and elder sister lay.

“I’m going to kill you,” the boy said coldly.

The brigand froze for a moment, then threw back his head and burst into laughter.

But when he met the boy’s unchanging gaze, his laughter stopped abruptly, and a chill rose in his heart.

He did not understand why he was afraid, but he did know one thing.

When cutting the grass, one had to pull out the roots.

A vicious glint flashed through the brigand’s eyes. He raised the large saber in his hand and chopped down toward the boy’s head.

At that moment, a streak of cold light shot over from afar and pierced straight through the brigand’s palm. Crying out in pain, the brigand dropped the saber.

In the next instant, a group of soldiers clad in tiger armor appeared and surrounded the entire village. A noble-looking man in a deep-purple python robe strode over, his bearing indolent and lofty.

The man bent down and handed the boy a finely crafted dagger.

“Show me.”

The boy stared at the nobleman for a few silent seconds. Then he took the dagger and walked toward the brigand.

That night, even the boy could not remember how many times he stabbed that brigand. He only remembered that the nobleman’s laughter kept ringing in his ears the entire time.

Covered in blood, the boy stood at the entrance of the village and watched the nobleman’s departing back.

He raised the exquisite dagger and suddenly shouted, “My name is Li Xiao! I owe you my life, and I will repay it!”

At that, the man in the deep-purple python robe merely raised a hand and waved.

………………

No one had expected so many twists and turns to occur during this Sword Homage Assembly.

Only after the demonic sword and Gu Jianfeng had both left did the crowd finally come back to their senses and begin discussing it among themselves.

“What exactly is the origin of that demonic sword? Why did Sect Master Gu look so tense?”

“Who knows? But I have a feeling that something huge is about to happen to the Gujian Sect. If you don’t want to die, you’d better leave quickly!”

“You’ve got a point. Let’s hurry up and go.”

“…………”

The honored guests all rushed down the mountain without even looking back.

“What... what exactly is going on here?” Chu Jingshan stood there in utter confusion.

Now the demonic sword had flown away, and Gu Jianfeng had appeared safe and sound. Had his entire trip been for nothing?

Chu Jingshan looked at Xiao Shan with a dark expression, demanding a satisfactory explanation.

“Your Highness, you should leave at once. I will naturally give you a satisfactory answer in the future.” Xiao Shan was clearly preoccupied as well. After giving that perfunctory reply, he hurriedly flew toward the mountain peak.

“Your Highness, this place is dangerous. We need to leave immediately!” Gu Feng said, his face tense.

Chu Jingshan froze. He had never seen Gu Feng this nervous before, and at once he realized the gravity of the situation.

He nodded and quickly left the Gujian Sect together with Gu Feng.

When Gu Yueyue saw that her grandfather had appeared unharmed, her face immediately lit up with joy. She turned, wanting to speak to Su Yanran—only to discover that no one was beside her.

At some point, Chu Feng and Su Yanran had vanished without a trace.

On the mountain peak of the Gujian Sect, in the Sacrificial Forge Forbidden Zone, a blood-red sword tore across the sky, shattered dozens of seals outside the forbidden zone, and flew straight into it.

By the time Gu Jianfeng, Xiao Shan, and the other senior figures of the Gujian Sect arrived, their faces turned ugly at the sight of the shattered seals.

“So this is what you meant when you said I could leave the Sword Homage Assembly to you without worry?!” Gu Jianfeng snorted coldly as he looked at Xiao Shan.

“This...” Xiao Shan stammered for a while, then simply lowered his head and said nothing more.

“Hahaha! Sixty years! Who would have thought this old man would live to see the light of day again!”

A low voice rang out from inside the forbidden zone.

The moment the words fell, a sword intent that shot into the heavens burst out from within the forbidden zone, stabbing straight into the sky.

The expressions of everyone from the Gujian Sect changed drastically, and they all stared deep into the forbidden zone as though facing a great enemy.

A dark crimson mist spread out as a figure holding a sword slowly flew out from within the forbidden zone and came to a stop before Gu Jianfeng.

He was a gaunt old man with disheveled hair and ragged clothes. Heavy iron chains still bound his wrists and ankles.

The demonic sword now lay quietly in his hand.

“Junior Brother, it has been a long time.”

The old man looked at Gu Jianfeng and smiled faintly.

Gu Jianfeng stared at the old man before him, his expression filled with mixed emotions.

“Senior Brother, return to the forbidden zone. Do not commit more slaughter.”

At that, the old man suddenly flew into a rage.

“Slaughter? What counts as slaughter?!

“Junior Brother, sixty years have passed. How are you still as foolish as you were back then?’’

“You and I are nothing but ants. I merely wanted to cast off fate and escape. What was wrong with that?” An uncontrollable aura suddenly erupted from his body.

The entire mountain shook, and the faces of the senior figures of the Gujian Sect all turned pale, blood spilling from the corners of their mouths.

The old man caressed the demonic sword in his hand and muttered in obsession, “If not for you and Master ruining things back then, I would have escaped long ago with the help of this demonic sword.”

Those words were like a thorn, and fury immediately appeared on Gu Jianfeng’s face.

“Silence! He Yan, if you hadn’t slaughtered more than four hundred thousand innocent people for your own selfish desire, why would Master have had to take his own life to quell the public’s outrage?

“You are not worthy to mention Master’s name in front of me. Hand over the demonic sword and get back into the forbidden zone at once!”

Hearing that, He Yan showed not the slightest concern. He swept a contemptuous gaze over everyone present and sneered.

“Now that I’ve come out, I naturally won’t be going back.’’

“Gu Jianfeng, do you really take me for a fool? Even at your peak, you were no match for me, let alone now, when an exotic poison is eating away at you.”

He Yan’s eyes were sharp. He had noticed long ago that something was wrong with Gu Jianfeng.

“What I failed to accomplish back then will begin with the Gujian Sect today, sixty years later!”

The moment He Yan finished speaking, the terrifying pressure of a late-stage Innate expert erupted from his body and blanketed the entire mountain.

The red light of the demonic sword in his hand flared brilliantly, as though it thirsted for blood.

With bloodshot eyes, He Yan swung the demonic sword. A blood-red sword slash a thousand meters long, wrapped in boundless sword intent, shot straight toward Gu Jianfeng and the people of the Gujian Sect.

Under the corrosive influence of the demonic qi, the senior members of the Gujian Sect could not even steady their minds, let alone defend themselves.

At the scene, only Gu Jianfeng and Xiao Shan remained clear-headed. They hurriedly called forth their swords to block.

But in the end, neither of them was a match for He Yan.

After only a single exchange, Xiao Shan’s sword lost all its luster, and he was gravely wounded and sent crashing to the ground.

Gu Jianfeng was blasted backward thousands of meters. His body shuddered, and the Nether-Scale Soul-Scattering poison he had been suppressing within himself suddenly erupted, invading every limb and bone in his body.

A mouthful of black blood sprayed from Gu Jianfeng’s lips, and he fell from the sky, crashing heavily to the ground.