Chapter 073 - Testing My Sword Soul Again?
Trapped within the Bluedrop Flag alongside demons, the situation was already grim enough. How long could it last? If Ye Tiance, Yao Manxue, Zhang Jian, and the others were to be brought back to the Azure Spirit Sword Sect, they would truly reverse honor their ancestors in the most dishonorable way. Even if their forebears were to reincarnate, they would likely shroud themselves in shame for the disgraceful descendants they begat!
But the most terrifying aspect was the eternal soul-burning flame of the Azure Spirit Cauldron! With the Bluedrop Flag present, their souls wouldn’t perish in the fire, but they would burn, enduring an eternity of torment!
Paralyzed! Utterly paralyzed! Regret and fear only dawned upon them now!
“Forgive us...” they cried with their wretched tongues.
“I’ve no authority to forgive you. Ask those whom you've killed. Why not ask the common folk of the mortal realm's thousand nations?” Yun Xiao responded.
Second to face his fate was Ye Xuanying!
“Old man, your illustrious Ye family will perpetuate for eternity within the Bluedrop Flag!” Yun Xiao declared, his voice laced with a chilling sneer.
“Ah!” The old man cried out, wailing the name, “Ye Guying.”
THUD THUD THUD! With each rise and fall of Yun Xiao’s sword, he sent the old man to his demise. Soul into the banner! Repayment in double!
The third to face doom was Yao Manxue!
“Ah! Ah! Ah!” The beauty, a Sword Venerable, devoid of limbs, lost all semblance of dignity. Once haughty, now a pitiful sight to behold! In her frantic, desperate screaming, she died.
Then came Zhang Jian, followed by each member of the Ye family. Yun Xiao spared not a single one.
“Yun Xiao, you involve innocent kin; you are not a righteous Sword Cultivator. You are a murderous demon!” The last of the Ye Family screamed, his voice steeped in misery and his tongue decayed.
"Who ever said I was a righteous Sword Cultivator? I am a murderous demon, so what? Can vile people not be killed? You’re a family of scoundrels, each one of you revels in entrapping others and takes pride in colluding with demons; your deaths are nothing short of deserved!
"As I live on this earth, why should I endure the affronts of you lowlifes? You vile beings even dare to condemn me with morality, do you deem yourself worthy?”
None would escape! All perpetrators went into the Bluedrop Flag! All of them fell into agonized wailing! In the end, only one person remained—Jiang Yue!
As Yun Xiao held her by the neck, suspending her in mid-air, the young girl’s face turned ghostly pale, sobbing miserably.
“I was wrong...” She mustered her last bit of strength to utter.
“And where, do you believe, you went wrong?” Yun Xiao gazed with a frigid look upon the girl who was once destined to become his empress.
That day, everything had changed. Fate had mocked him, converting those who should have been his closest allies into enemies. They sought his life, shamed his name, razed his nation—destroyed everything he held dear! If not for his resurrection, how many lifetimes would it take to quell such overwhelming fury?
Jiang Yue did not understand all of this. She lamented with sorrow, "I shouldn’t have opposed you. You are a devil, and I cannot defeat you." Her words came through trembling lips, her frame shaking with every utterance.
"No, Jiang Yue, that is not where you erred," Yun Xiao responded, his voice a biting cold.
"What... is it then?" Jiang Yue, perplexed, barely mustered the words.
"Your mistake lay in forging your meteoric rise into Azure Spirit, crafted with the lives of the tens of thousands of my Cloud Nation's citizens," Yun Xiao’s words seeped venomously through gritted teeth.
In that instant, Jiang Yue’s eyes bulged in horror, her body trembling violently. Her mouth agape, her face nearly tearing apart with a grotesque mix of realization and dread, she screamed, "Yun Xiao! Yun Xiao! It really is you..." Her heart exploded and shattered within her.
Three months ago, the image of a youth, standing in deathly white, finally merged with the demon before her in the present. The Heavenly Path, Sword Debate, and the Grand Conclave... all the hatred the youth held against her and Ye Guying—she finally understood it all.
The hatred from the Sword Pavilion had come later. Driving Yun Xiao to slaughter her and the First Sword Peak was a blood debt from Cloud Nation, known to none!
Jiang Yue had no idea how he came back to life... but she crumbled, thoroughly and utterly. As she gazed into the youth's icy eyes, her own eyes, dim and hazy, nearly burst from their sockets. Her scalp tingled, her spine chilled, and her entire body trembled with horror.
"Ah! Ah! Ah!" Her wails, agonizing and filled with dread, resonated as fear enveloped her. "Yun Xiao, give me a chance. I still love you; I still admire you!" She sobbed, somehow forming the words.
THRUST! The very instant after she spoke, an azure sword from Yun Xiao pierced through her face. Amidst the spray of crimson, her screaming came to an abrupt end.
"Joking, are you? Do you think you're worthy?" Yun Xiao, staring into her face, issued a cold, forest-like laugh, "I wanted you to die alongside Ye Guying. But you're really too lowly, persistently parading before me. Apologies, but I lack the patience!"
And so, the sardonic tragedy intertwined with love, betrayal, and revenge spun forward, fraying as swiftly as it wove.
"I'm not only going to kill you," Yun Xiao pronounced coldly, his eyes a void of emotion, "but I'll also make you share the same fate as Ye Tiance. Your soul will burn in the Azure Spirit Cauldron’s fire for a century, intertwined with the spirits of demons!
"Jiang Yue! Do you understand now? This damnation is called the Immortal Path!" With a sinister tearing sound, Yun Xiao, after delivering his words, extracted her soul, pressing it into the Bluedrop Flag.
“Uh-huh, Senior Brother Ye...” Jiang Yue's cries of despair were piercing, yet even at this point, she still had thoughts of Ye Guying, who would emerge from seclusion in five days. Did she truly feel regret? Clearly, she did not.
"Don't worry, Ye Guying will end up even more miserable than you!" Yun Xiao declared. After uttering the words, he sheathed his Sword Soul, grasped the Bluedrop Flag, and waved it; a hundred souls within it howled woefully.
The killing was over! The anger was vented! If it weren't for the fact that Ye Tiance's Sword Soul and Sword Aura were already inferior to his, Yun Xiao would undoubtedly find a place to suck out his marrow. However, his golden Sword Ring was taken by Yun Xiao, embedded into his own Sword Soul.
Indeed, the Heaven Burial Sword Soul could bear two Sword Rings!
"Ye Tiance's Demon Core on his sword has been there too long. It's practically bird food now," Yun Xiao observed the golden and black, thousand-year-old Sword Rings on his Sword Soul, his eyes flashing with sword rays.
The three thousand Azure Spirit Sword Cultivators wore looks of sheer satisfaction, gazing at the wailing lost souls within the Bluedrop Flag.
"Ye Tiance has finally become inseparable from the demons, intertwined through lifetimes!"
"Ha ha!"
"Those who walk the path of immorality will inevitably be condemned by the heavens. Vengeance is not forgotten. It's merely biding its time!"
"Our Junior Brother Yun, he himself is the very retribution!"
What a sheer delight! If they weren’t all riding their Sovereign Swords back to the Azure Spirit Sword Sect, they’d likely have broken out the drinks.
"Behind Dark Abyss Mountain, there should be numerous demon caves and treasures!" Zhao Xuanran suddenly spoke up, her beautiful eyes slightly luminous.
Upon hearing this, everyone cheered!
Indeed, demons plundered and looted, burning and killing as they went, seizing treasures wherever they could find them. They too needed Spirit Stones, pills and heaven and earth treasures for cultivation!
“They’re wealthier than Azure Spirit!”
“Let’s go clean them out.”
In an instant, the three thousand Azure Spirit Sword Cultivators dashed away.
"True to form, my Senior Sister Zhao, thinking of treasures at the first opportunity..." Yun Xiao cheerfully commented.
"Are you implying that I'm greedy?" Zhao Xuanran fixed him with a stern gaze, still remembering the matter of the 320,000 Spirit Stones. He gave her an interest of five Spirit Stones! It infuriated her!
"Uh! I was wrong. That's called being thrifty and housekeeping," Yun Xiao said, attempting to remedy his previous remark.
“Why don't you marry such a virtuous senior sister then?” A mischievous voice, belonging to Cai Maomao, sliced through the lingering tension.
“Step aside!” Zhao Xuanran shot him a stern glance, maintaining an outward calm. Yet, a soft blush swept over her cheeks, a delicate shade that suggested a drunkenness of sorts and betrayed her tranquility.
The surroundings reeked of death, mountains of corpses, rivers of blood, an olfactory onslaught. But amidst it all, the senior sister remained a beacon of beauty and fragrance. It wasn’t the wine that intoxicated but the person. Their eyes locked in a long, steady gaze amidst the chaos, holding a conversation silent yet potent.
“These demons sure were loaded!” someone exclaimed, breaking the silent exchange.
“Just the Spirit Stones alone are close to two million!”
“Let’s clean them out.”
Soon enough, good news fluttered back to them.
Two million? Yun Xiao’s sword-like eyebrows twitched in intrigue.
“The treasure vault's wealth is the cornerstone that the Azure Spirit Sword Sect was built on, and all Sword Cultivators have a stake in it. I have to pay it back first!” His voice carried a weight, reflecting the solemn oath within. “The demons of the Northern Wastelands may be eradicated, but numerous demons have infiltrated the mortal nations. I alone can't deal with those concealed in the mortal realm and must depend on them!”
So, despite his dire need for Spirit Stones, he could not afford to be selfish.
Azure Spirit hadn’t formally entered the mortal realm to slay demons in three years. It was a matter urgent, imperatively hanging over their heads, and it had to be done! After paying back the treasure vault, he presumed some would remain for miscellaneous use.
“We’re rich,” Yun Xiao muttered, a transient pleasure twinkling in his eyes. Poverty-stricken to affluent overnight, what a thrilling feeling! However, he also understood his need for Spirit Stones would only multiply in the adventures to come.
“Everyone, let's head home!” Swiftly, the Sword Cultivators rallied together. To escort the Seven Prodigies of the Sword Pavilion home!
Though the Northern Wastelands were distant, with their Sovereign Swords, the Sword Cultivators traversed speedily! Slaying through the Northern Wastelands and returning to the Azure Spirit Sword Sect could be done in just a day!
“Would Ye Guying, in his ten days of secluded cultivation, have foreseen me obliterating his First Sword Peak in two days and slaughtering the Northern Wastelands in another?”
Three days in-between were actually the lengthiest part due to the cultivation!
Ten days of secluded cultivation?
Too late, the opportunity had withered!
Grandeur surged in Yun Xiao’s heart as they were about to ride their swords back.
Suddenly, a graceful woman, adorned in a rich black dress, wafted down from the lofty clouds, landing gently before the three thousand Azure Spirit Sword Cultivators. She hailed from Sword Heaven in the Sea of Swords, her demeanor far too outstanding for mere Azure Spirit Sword Cultivators to compare. In her gaze resided a natural-born pride.
Upon seeing her, Yun Xiao paused for a brief moment. A woman who bore uncanny resemblance to Zhao Xuanran!
"I wondered how Senior Sister Zhao's life was so unpredictable, and her figure so tantalizingly hot... it's all in the blood," Yun Xiao muttered. Turning his head, he saw Zhao Xuanran stiffen next to him, her eyes welling with vengeful blood. She was finding it very hard not to hate!
And the most vexing part was, the black-dressed beauty gave Zhao Xuanran not even a passing glance upon landing.
“Great Sword Venerable!" Elder Wang, Shangguan Jia, and others hastily led the crowd in paying respects to this prominent figure from Sword Heaven.
"We are honored to meet the Great Sword Venerable Ning!" Chen Dong, Li Chenglong and others, leading the Azure Spirit Sword Cultivators, bowed to her, their eyes heavy with a touch of reverence. Because in their hearts, the presence of Sword Heaven was as awe-inspiring and majestic as an immortal from a heavenly palace!
Ning Yan, however, brushed her hand, not even sparing them a glance. Elder Wang and Shangguan Jia were conspicuously invisible to her. Her gaze rested solely on Yun Xiao!
Drawn in by his up-close charm, she admired the young man in white for his handsome features, his eyes as vast as galaxies, and the rarity of his world-beating looks, as if he were a heavenly immortal!
"Yun Xiao!" Ning Yan's eyebrows arched slightly, "I'd like to take you to the Sea of Swords, to further your cultivation in Sword Heaven!" Regardless of how haughty this woman was, when she made this offer, the Azure Spirit Sword Cultivators couldn't help but rejoice for Yun Xiao.
Ye Guying had the Forbidden Tower as his backing! Just by being in Azure Spirit, how could they compete with the Forbidden Tower? Even a random Sword Cultivator from the Forbidden Tower could sweep Azure Spirit completely!
Backed by no power, it would be tough! In the Sea of Swords, only Sword Heaven could barely hold its own against the Forbidden Tower, and this was Yun Xiao's opportunity!
Yun Xiao remained unperturbed! He hadn't expected this woman to come back around, again. He was not a ditherer. Indeed, it was absurd not to take advantage of what was in hand to use or borrow! However, he was concerned about Zhao Xuanran's feelings. So, to go or not to go?
"Yun Xiao, after arriving at Sword Heaven, I will arrange a Sword Soul test for you!" Ning Yan added, seeing his silence, "If your Sword Soul truly carries a heroic spirit, it will shake all of Sword Heaven, and your reputation will echo throughout the Sea of Swords!"
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