Chapter 064 - One Sword Splits the Throat, Ten Thousand Swords Pierce the Heart! (2)
"The Origin Core Realm, is this all it is?" The icy voice of the young man seemed like a ferocious wind slapping against his face. Ye Tiance hastily lifted his head, only to see an azure sword light already thrusting towards his abdomen.
"Ten-Step Scale again!" In that instant, tears surged from Ye Tiance's eyes. He knew that he couldn’t block this sword anymore! This white-robed young man, merely sixteen, had already shattered him! With the explosive noise of the Ten-Step Scale, sword after sword spiraled!
PSSHT! A stream of azure light blasted through Ye Tiance's Dantian! An Origin Core was thrust out by the sword tip of the Flying Sword, directly exploding behind Ye Tiance!
BOOM! The Origin Core burst, causing the forests of the Azure Spirit Mountain to tremble! With a miserable scream, Ye Tiance, back drenched in stagnated blood, was blown towards Yun Xiao.
"No! No!" Veins bulging, Ye Tiance’s eyeballs nearly popped out! Reaching a hand to his abdomen, he felt an empty void. Completely powerless, he was in agony, worse off than a mortal! "My Origin Core!"
Gone! Utterly obliterated! Ye Tiance felt as though thousands of swords pierced his heart! He'd felt stifled before, but never as desperate as he was at this moment. With the Origin Core shattered, there was no path to immortality, no future left!
WHOOSH! He was blown away by his own Origin Core right in front of Yun Xiao!
THUMP! The young man casually seized his neck, and, like nailing a wooden stake, slammed him into the ground with a thud!
Ye Tiance collapsed to his knees.
Yun Xiao compelled him to kneel before the mountainous expanse of the Sword Pavilion! To bow to the seven prodigies of the Sword Pavilion! To submit to Zhao Xuanran!
SWOOSH SWOOSH! With a sweep of two swords, Ye Tiance’s arms flew off, his face morphing into the color of a pig's liver!
“Aghh!” A gush of black blood erupted from his mouth.
“Bow your head!” As the dark blood hit the ground, Yun Xiao grasped his head, smashing it into the pooling liquid, forcefully making him kowtow. BANG BANG! His head was smashed against the muddy bloodied earth.
Ye Tiance’s head cracked, nose shattered, his face punctured with countless holes from the jagged rocks!
“Sword Venerable Ye, thought you were quite the powerhouse, did you? Well, how about now?” Yun Xiao ground his foot into Ye Tiance’s head, burying it in the muck!
Ye Tiance whimpered and convulsed! The once mighty tyrant, now squirmed and wailed beneath Yun Xiao’s foot like a beaten cur!
“Weren’t you proclaiming the orthodoxy of the Azure Spirit? Where’s your backbone now? Stand tall and show me, why don’t you?!”
Twitching, Ye Tiance stammered in desperation, “Yun Xiao! Let’s talk, we can talk this through!”
“To hell with talk!” Yun Xiao stomped hard. Ye Tiance’s ribs snapped with a crisp sound, his howls of pain permeating the air, “Why aren’t you threatening me with Ye Guying now? Speak, why don’t you?”
Blood kept pouring from Ye Tiance, his eyes dimming with impending doom.
“Oh, I remember now, he’s got at least eight more days of seclusion, doesn’t he? How hilarious, you, so high and mighty, yet, crumbling under my feet within two days!”
Yun Xiao stomped again!
“I told you, by the time Ye Guying returns to Azure Spirit, your Ye Family will be nothing but mountains of corpses and rivers of blood! Just ten days of seclusion, and look at you now!”
For Yun Xiao, that was more than enough!
“Your family is great, isn’t it? Your followers are numerous, right? Fine! Kneel there nicely for me, and watch as I obliterate every last one of these blind fools around you!”
Standing atop Ye Tiance’s head, he suddenly looked up.
SWOOSH! Three hundred Sword Cultivators simultaneously stepped back! With eyes wide in horror and souls practically leaping from their bodies, they stared, breathless, at this white-robed devil before them! He really was a devil!
But this young man, with his celestial countenance, even in this moment, resembled an immortal descended from the heavens to enact a massacre! Though covered in blood, an ethereal air enveloped him, making it difficult to associate him with brutality!
From the moment the sword pierced Ye Tiance's throat, the Sword Cultivators' spirits fractured, shattering into irreparable shards of disbelief and despair. Their eyes, once alight with purpose and strength, glazed over in stark astonishment. Their souls, scattered to the wind!
Particularly after Yun Xiao's diatribe, a speech of seemingly unwavering conviction. They had considered Ye Guying's position, for sure, firm in their stance. But here was the conundrum—
Eight days still stood between them and Ye Guying's arrival. Eight days that lingered like an eternity, seemingly longer than eight years. When their eyes, fraught with confusion and fear, met Yun Xiao's, now a maelstrom of sword-like piercing intensity, dread sank its claws deep into their being.
THUD THUD THUD! Knees began to hit the ground. From the first surrender, others tumbled after, kneeling in an anxious, desperate cascade before Yun Xiao. In a mere heartbeat, three hundred people, all were prostrate.
"Yun Xiao, we pledge to honor you as the new Sect Master of Azure Spirit, to lead the Sword Pavilion, to again become the rightful leader of Azure Spirit!” Their voices melded into one, foreheads beaded with sweat.
Six days! A youth, who had appeared at the Azure Spirit Sword Sect just six days prior, had managed to grind the strongest of Azure Spirit under his heel, leading the dilapidated Sword Pavilion and single-handedly slaughtering a Demon Emperor and Sword Venerables, forcing three hundred Sword Cultivators of the Divine Sea Realm to their knees!
Who would not quake inwardly at such a tale? As they knelt, despair burrowed into the hearts of Ye Tiance, Yao Manxue, and Zhang Jian, corroding all hope.
"It's over! It's all over!" Zhang Jian wailed inwardly. Indeed, their hearts still harbored thoughts of Ye Guying! But Ye Guying couldn’t come to the rescue! They were ruined! Surviving these eight days was an impossibility! In that moment, the three Sword Venerables smelt the spectral whiff of the gates of hell.
"Yun Xiao, grant us a chance! Let us fight for Azure Spirit alongside you!"
THUD THUD THUD! Three hundred Sword Cultivators, bowing their heads!
Shangguan Yu, Chen Dong, Li Chenlong, and the thousands of Sword Cultivators gathered around, at that moment, all eyes were locked onto Yun Xiao. Their eyes were already flooded with awe and shock. This, of course, included Zhao Xuanran, standing in the distance!
In the night wind, the beauty in the dark gown leaned against a tree, barely maintaining her stance.
All one could see were her reddened eyes and the shimmering hot tears within them... In her eyes, her Junior Brother Yun was a wanderer of the mortal realm, a youth of passion, fearlessness, vitality, and one who ferociously cleaved injustice!
He was unparalleled in talent! He was also driven by greed, wrath, and obsession, a mind both broad and exacting, delighting in love and vengeance! So, when these three hundred Sword Cultivators begged for mercy, what would he do? All eyes, in unison, turned toward him.
"Grant them mercy. Have them slay demons to atone..." a soft voice suggested.
"Indeed! No one is without faults except the sage!"
A collective sigh floated through the air.
The three hundred Sword Cultivators exchanged glances, hope flickering in their eyes, and they lifted their heads to gaze at Yun Xiao. However, In the eyes of the youth in white, there resided nothing but profound cruelty.
A chilling laugh suddenly escaped his lips. "You three hundred sought personal gains, betraying conscience and morality! Once you cross a line, countless more will follow!"
"Do you dare say that when Ye Guying returns, you won't become his dogs again, turning your swords on your brothers and sisters of the Azure Spirit Sword Sect?"
With these words, a shudder ran through the Sword Cultivators.
One of them proclaimed loudly, "Rest assured! We will correct our mistakes and not err again!"
"Do you take me for a three-year-old?" Yun Xiao swiftly drew his Sword Soul, pointing it at them and declared vehemently, "In this world, many mistakes can be forgiven, many have a chance to rectify their wrongs. But as a human, conspiring with demons is something I do not have the authority to forgive on behalf of those innocents harmed by the demons!
"This is an unforgivable sin. Your deaths would not be pitied!"
"Yun Xiao, you phrase it nobly, but all you desire is to monopolize Azure Spirit and eliminate dissent!" Someone stood, accusing with sorrowful anger.
No sooner had the words fallen an azure blade pierced through his mouth. With a wet thud, he flew out of the crowd, dead by the time he hit the ground.
"I will wipe them all out. Any objections?!" Yun Xiao’s gaze swept over the thousand Sword Cultivators, including Shangguan Yu.
"Slay them!!" Shangguan Yu, Chen Dong, Li Chenlong, and others drew their Sword Souls, leading the enraged Sword Cultivators into immediate action. Not a hint of hesitation was present! Right and wrong twisted, but everyone knew in their hearts what was clear, and moral condemnation alone could not blur the lines.
Justice resided in the hearts of the people! Persisting in injustice would bring about one's own demise!
The Sword Cultivators of the Azure Spirit Sword Sect finally rose, defending the dignity of this sacred demon-slaying land! Against those who lost their original hearts, they wielded their final killing sword!
Yun Xiao, holding the Heaven Burial Sword Soul, plunged into the crowd! With every rise and fall of his hand, a sword took a life! The three hundred Sword Cultivators, their momentum gone, encircled, found no way to escape! Regret and fear washed over them. But what use were these emotions now?
When Ye Tiance brought demons into the sacred land of Azure Spirit, and they still firmly stood by him, flipping right and wrong, even scoffing at the killing of Azure Spirit Sword Sect's cultivators, it constituted an irreconcilable vengeance!
"When you descend into the underworld, ask your ancestors whether your deeds today bring honor to your family or eternal shame to your forebears!
"Ask them for what cause they died, and why you basked in self-satisfaction!"
Yun Xiao, once a mortal, once a ruler of a nation, harbored a vehement hatred towards demons! One bloody demon, feasting on the common folk, leaving a city littered with desiccated corpses, creating a real-life horror story! Those haunting images, he'd carry them for life, etched permanently in the canvas of his memory.
"You all practice cultivation, not to shield the weak, not to uphold justice, but to grapple for power, to act in sheer self-interest. Tell me, how in hell is that called being an Immortal?!" He addressed them, the same as he had once addressed Ye Guying.
This was the embodiment of Yun Xiao’s deep-seated rage! He died for it! Once dead, defying the heavens to be reborn, returning to the mortal realm, he aimed to use this Creator Immortal body and his Heaven Burial Sword Soul, to seek out an answer!
Having been humble, having been ordinary, he knew the struggles of the world! With the powerful acting unjustly and the universe acting ruthlessly, who would stand and speak for the people? What did it mean to be an Immortal, anyway?
All Yun Xiao knew was, every being his sword struck down was no Immortal, they were merely the lucky ones bestowed with the talent of sword cultivation!
Lowly beings, all of them! His sword, it showed not a shred of mercy. If he could eradicate them directly, he'd not hold back even half a strike! Dressed in white, wielding his azure sword, his path was painted with rivers of blood!
Regret? It was too late for that! There lay Ye Tiance, Yao Manxue, Zhang Jian, discarded together, eyes vacant, watching as Yun Xiao severed all they had! A host of surviving members of the Ye Family wailed in disarray! They knew, their survival merely presaged a more gruesome demise to come!
When Yun Xiao first appeared, Ye Tiance's entire family was still bellowing in defiance. Unable to voice a cry, all were compelled to shout a singular word—kill! And now, they could only weep!
In the end, three hundred Sword Cultivators were all reduced to lifeless bodies! Those who remained were, for the most part, the true Swords of Azure Spirit! In the final moments, this offered Yun Xiao a consolation!
The Azure Spirit, it endured! With them, everything persisted! They rallied around Yun Xiao, eyes ablaze with fervent red, gazing at the youth who carved a bloody path before them.
Victory was theirs! It was exhilarating! But... Shangguan Yu, gazing towards the Sword Pavilion, couldn’t stave off the pain in her heart.
"It's a pity, Elder Brother Zhao will never see all this!" She spoke, a plaintive note coloring her words.
"Aunt Yu, my father isn't dead," Zhao Xuanran softly uttered.
"What?"
The entire assembly stood agape.
"But the thousand-year-old Demon Emperor..."
"Junior Brother Yun Xiao killed it," the woman in the black gown turned toward him.
HUM! The crowd erupted into uproar, gazes frozen upon Yun Xiao. Realization finally dawned. No wonder he could overcome Ye Tiance!
Even if Ye Tiance had been injured, he wasn't an easy opponent... Countless Azure Spirit Sword Cultivators felt a surge of emotion, sweeping through them like a torrent. The Sect Master wasn’t dead!
"Oh, fortunate! So fortunate! The Sword Pavilion Seven can rest in peace in the afterlife!" Tears welled up in Shangguan Yu’s eyes.
On the other hand, hearing that Yun Xiao had slain the thousand-year-old serpent Demon Emperor, Ye Tiance spilled another mouthful of blood, his gaze completely dimming. He’d utterly lost this battle. He’d underestimated Yun Xiao and the Ten-Step Scale! How would Yun Xiao deal with them?
The young man suddenly turned around, his gaze chilling as it landed on Ye Tiance and the three Sword Venerables, as well as the entire Ye Family!
"Chain them all up for me!" he ordered sharply. "I will use their lives to welcome my senior brothers and sisters home!"
With Yun Xiao’s words, the whole scene boiled over! Dark Abyss Mountain, the Bluedrop Flag! An eternal sorrow in the hearts of the Azure Spirit Sword Cultivators!
“It’s hard to calm down!!”
The Sword Pavilion Seven, who had slain twenty thousand demons and spirits! Dying in a foreign land! Their souls unable to find their way home! On the Bluedrop Flag, when would the insulted loyal souls rest in peace? When would the pain of the Azure Spirit be relieved?
"After executing the traitors, we will march north to slay demons, to decide life and death with the Northern Wasteland Demon Emperor, and lead the souls home...!"
At that moment, a fiery passion burnt in the hearts of all the Azure Spirit Sword Cultivators!
They’d waited for this day for far too long!
"Creator!" Just as they had tied up Ye Tiance and the others, Blue Star suddenly yelled sharply in his arms.
"What is it?" Yun Xiao was taken aback.
"Another one, a corpse-wrapping veil demon, is sneaking towards Grand Hall! Quick, go back!" Blue Star shouted.
The Grand Hall! Zhao Jianxing was still there!
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