Boom!

Sleeves rolled up, Ling Daoyan steered an enormous siege crossbow with both hands. A massive golden bolt, fifteen zhang long, rested in place, mysterious patterns etched across its surface.

A dull, heavy sound echoed from one of the peaks of the Daxia Sword Sect’s Three Thousand Strange Peaks.

The bowstring snapped. The bolt shot out. Space caved in along its path, and the mountain behind it crumbled to rubble. For a full thousand zhang along its path, space itself had been ripped open and left in ruins.

Lu Tao’s heart lurched, his eyes widening. From that bolt, he sensed a genuine threat to his life.

An azure sword materialized in his palm, and he poured everything into a two-handed swing.

“Smoke Torrent Sword!”

Boom!

The bolt shredded his sword light without slowing, still bearing down on him.

Shock turned to fury. Lu Tao roared, “The Daxia Sword Sect dares try to kill me?”

Boom!

The bolt tore through what remained of the sword light. Just as it was about to punch through Lu Tao’s skull, a white-robed young man stepped into its path.

Lu Wuhen stood elegantly, dressed in white robes, effortlessly composed. A wisp of dark hair drifted across his brow as he calmly gazed at his enemies. One hand rested behind his back while the other shot out, catching the massive bolt as it tore toward him. The impact blasted him back more than a hundred zhang, yet the bolt remained firmly in his grasp.

Lu Tao stared at the sight, chest still heaving. Sweat slid down his forehead. He swallowed hard, his gaze lingering on the figure before him, and bowed. “Elder Brother...”

Li Guanqi stepped forward and placed himself in front of Lu Kangnian. The young man before him exuded a pressure and danger unlike anything he had ever felt. Lu Wuhen had done nothing, barely even revealing his aura, yet Li Guanqi still felt uneasy. The feeling unsettled him more than anything he had experienced facing Cang Lu. He even had the strange feeling that this handsome young man might be his destined rival.

As if to confirm his gut feeling, Sword Spirit’s startled voice sounded in his ear. “Be careful. This kid has an innate sword seed as well, and he may have already touched the Sword Soul Realm of sword intent.”

Li Guanqi’s heart clenched. This was the first time he had ever met someone else with an innate Sword Seed Physique. And he could sense that Lu Wuhen was not much older than him, ten years at most. Which meant he had reached the half-step Combined Body Realm before forty. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Lu Wuhen applied slight pressure with his fingers, and the enormous bolt exploded. Blood trickled from his palm, but the wound vanished instantly.

He glanced sideways at Lu Kangnian and chuckled. “The ancients had a custom of not slaying messengers. The Daxia Sword Sect’s actions today have been rather... impressive.”

Lu Kangnian looked at him with open contempt. “Not slaying messengers may be custom, but no one said a messenger could arrive here acting high and mighty.”

Lu Wuhen cast an indifferent glance at Lu Tao. Lu Wuhen’s eyes were cold, but he said nothing. Then he snorted. “I didn’t expect sects these days to have this much backbone... It seems you truly have no self-awareness at all.”

Hum!

Powerful auras erupted one after another. Silhouette after silhouette tore through the void to join the scene, each face grave, each gaze lofty and superior.

They stood on empty air, more than twenty in all, the weakest among them at the Illusory Refinement Realm. Above them, eight other cultivators higher still, gazing down with cold eyes. Each of them was a powerhouse of the Combined Body Realm.

The Daxia Sword Sect disciples sucked in sharp breaths. The silhouettes hovering in the air dropped lower and lower. Their crushing pressure blanketed the space. Within a hundred li in every direction, the pressure grew so dense it cracked the skies into jagged fissures.

The other Lu clan cultivators merely stood behind Lu Wuhen, but the pressure they exuded was beyond description.

Swish swish swish!

Ji Yuchuan and Xi Yunhuai shot out. Their faces were grave, but neither hesitated to take position behind Li Guanqi. Ji Yuchuan drew the Judgment Brush and murmured, “Convergence.”

From within the sect’s domain, hundreds of translucent, ghostly figures streaked outward. One by one, they merged into Ji Yuchuan, and his aura climbed steadily.

“Pavilion Master, if needed, I can break through to the mid Combined Body Realm at any time.”

Li Guanqi nodded slightly. “Don’t. Not unless there’s no other choice. Besides, they don’t have the guts to strike at me.”

Just then, wild laughter broke over the scene. “Hahahaha! Is that all? Hahaha! The noble ancient clans, resorting to a show of force? How laughable. How utterly laughable!”

Lu Wuhen’s expression didn’t change. He watched the man laugh, unable to understand how anyone could still laugh at a moment like this. Does he have allies on the way? Yet nothing with any real power had come within a thousand li for quite some time.

“What are you laughing at?”

Lu Wuhen had arrived with his entire entourage to intimidate the Daxia Sword Sect. But now...

Lu Kangnian stepped forward, his aura erupting around him. His hair flew loose as his gaze swept across every Lu clan cultivator.

“I’m laughing at your arrogance!”

As he spoke, Lu Kangnian flung his hand wide. Ancient jade slips of every shape rose in a dense swarm behind him. A careful count would have put them at over 2,900.

The entire back mountain of the Daxia Sword Sect, all Three Thousand Strange Peaks, trembled and rose. The void within the sect’s territory cracked open, and the spirit qi went rampant, boiling upward in a frenzy. Dazzling beams erupted from peak after peak, one pillar of light after another shooting skyward.

Boom!

Lu Kangnian’s white robes snapped in the wind. He forcibly broke through to the mid Illusory Refinement Realm. Sword qi circled around him, and his sword leaped into his hand.

He leveled his sword at every cultivator within ten zhang. His voice stayed low and even. “Care to make a bet? On whether our foundations are enough... to slaughter every last one of you.”

Boom!

Wind and clouds churned overhead. Thunder rolled for hundreds of li. Lightning twisted through the sky, crashing down everywhere.

Behind them, high in the air, Ling Daoyan threw back his head and laughed, arms flung wide, beams of spirit light radiating from his hands.

The Demon-Slaying Crossbow, spent moments before, appeared again. This time, there were a dozen of them.