Chapter 78: Calm and Collected, Successively Suppressing

Xu Xiaoshou fell back into the masked man's hands, as docile as a cat in that moment.

"Alright, please don't flatter me, I'm not that amazing!" he said weakly.

A hint of a smile appeared in the masked man's cloudy eyes. Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly coughed violently.

"Cough, cough... *Spurt!*"

Xu Xiaoshou was terrified when he heard that. With blood spraying out, what if the masked man couldn't hold him and he fell? He immediately understood why the masked man had been so weak just now; using such a powerful move must take a toll on his body.

"Was that 'All Things Are Swords' just now?" Xu Xiaoshou asked.

The masked man nodded. "The Innate-level 'All Things Are Swords'."

Xu Xiaoshou was speechless. *I don't believe a word you say! I possess Innate Sword Intent; how could I not know the extent of the Innate level? Who are you trying to fool?*

Knowing Xu Xiaoshou didn't believe him, the masked man continued, "True Sword Intent has no levels; it doesn't care about form or substance. It turns an opponent's methods against them. Once you master the true meaning of the sword, no one will dare to draw a sword against you, because..."

"Your sword is my sword?" Xu Xiaoshou interjected.

The masked man paused, neither confirming nor denying. "You could say that, but..." He paused again, his gaze returning to the ground below. "This path has been overtrodden; it's a dead end. Your Sword Intent is good, but you can abandon it early."

Xu Xiaoshou felt a sudden dizziness. "Your Sword Intent is good, but you can abandon it early..." *Listen to this nonsense!*

"My path has only just begun, and perhaps yours hasn't reached its end either," he retorted indignantly. After all, he probably wouldn't amount to anything unless he pursued this path. Given his cultivation talent, learning spirit skills would be a waste of time. At least wasting time might lead him to realize the value of cherishing every moment.

The masked man ignored him, as a commotion stirred below once more. Xiao Qixiu, gravely wounded by a single sword strike, had lost all fighting capability, stunning all the enforcers. Although Elder Sang had warned them that the intruders were quite strong, no one had anticipated they would be *this* strong. With just one strike, Xiao Qixiu, the Sword Dao Throne, was instantly incapacitated. This was excessively powerful.

Another person emerged from the forest path. The previously flustered enforcers instantly found their resolve, standing tall and glaring furiously at the two figures in the sky. The newcomer was dressed like a Taoist boy, with a white beard and hair, possessing an ethereal, immortal demeanor. The only thing that could spoil this image was probably his height. If this person stood on the ground, he would likely only reach most people's waists or slightly above. Let's just say, he was about as tall as Su Qianqian... Fortunately, he was floating.

"Ye Xiaotian..." the masked man murmured, a look of solemnity in his eyes.

Xu Xiaoshou was startled. This short man was the legendary Dean of the Inner Court?

Ye Xiaotian floated to Xiao Qixiu, examined his injuries, incidentally pulled the long sword from his body, and then vanished. Xu Xiaoshou looked up in horror; the white-haired Taoist boy had appeared right in front of them. One of his hands plunged into the void, mysterious black energy surged, and terrifying power seeped out, as if he intended to tear the sky down directly!

"This is called 'Sky-Shattering Hand,' Ye Xiaotian's ultimate technique. It can instantly tear off a large piece of spatial fragment and smash people to death," the masked man explained.

Xu Xiaoshou was utterly dumbfounded! *This... What level of bigshot is this?! Why was he caught up in this battle? Those two damned assassins, you truly deserve to die! Please come back to life, I want to tear you to pieces!*

The three floated high in the night sky, the air piercingly cold. Ye Xiaotian remained silent, his hand in the void, his gaze fixed on the masked man. As for Xu Xiaoshou, he was automatically ignored.

The masked man calmly said, "Escape is useless in front of Ye Xiaotian. Most people can only talk about their last wishes. This fellow possesses the extremely rare spatial attribute. I heard that when he first entered the Innate realm, he was already capable of fighting half-step Grandmasters."

"Not as good as you, who can slay Grandmasters at the Innate level," Ye Xiaotian finally spoke, his voice remarkably childlike.

"I don't have that ability; you've mistaken me for someone else."

"I hope so," Ye Xiaotian's childlike voice carried an incongruous coldness.

As Xu Xiaoshou listened to the two of them praising each other, he felt his vision dim and almost fell from the high altitude. *What kind of monsters are these?! He had thought that killing a Yuan Ting and a Ju Wu at Spirit Refinement Level Nine was already terrifying, but he never imagined that compared to true geniuses, he was nothing! Spatial attribute? Is that an Innate attribute power? It sounds terrifying just hearing about it! And this masked man, what kind of monster is he? The Dean is already poised for action, yet he still has the leisure to listen to him babbling nonsense here. Huh? Why is this guy explaining so much to me?*

Xu Xiaoshou's eyes darted around, and he felt a sudden sense of dread. "Dean, sir, I'm not with him! Just smash one person, please don't count me in!"

A smile played in the masked man's eyes. "Didn't you just say you wanted to join us?"

"I..." Xu Xiaoshou's expression froze, and he said, his face ashen, "Excuse me, may I take my leave? Just put me down on the ground."

Ye Xiaotian's gaze shifted from the masked man to the youth at his waist, somewhat astonished that this kid could joke so freely amidst their combined aura of power. He had a lot of guts. Indeed, he was the type to recklessly interfere with tonight's plans and even kill his own sect members.

*Crack! Crack!* Cracks spread across the night sky, as if the heavens were about to collapse at any moment. The longer the delay, the more powerful Ye Xiaotian's right hand, plunged into the void, became, and a deathly aura enveloped the two figures opposite him. The masked man looked up at the night sky. The falling rain was swallowed one by one by the black cracks, no longer reaching him.

He chuckled softly. "If you make a move, those nine guys in ambush won't survive. Hmm, add the one in your hand, that makes ten!"

Before Xu Xiaoshou could panic, several explosions occurred below, and nine towering sword energies soared straight up. Each sword energy had a white-haired old man locked in its center. Their appearance, suspended in mid-air by the sword energy, reminded him of Mo Mo on the grand finals arena that day. Exactly the same!

Xu Xiaoshou looked at the masked man in horror, that sentence echoing in his mind once more. "Your path has already been overtrodden." So, he had walked the path Xu Xiaoshou was currently on, but why was he still advising him not to? He was clearly so strong!

"All Things Are Swords?"

"Yes," the masked man nodded. "The Innate-level All Things Are Swords."

Xu Xiaoshou was speechless. Why did he have to emphasize "Innate-level"? Was it to ensure he crushed others' spirits sufficiently?

Unlike Xu Xiaoshou's astonishment, when the enforcers below saw the nine old men suspended by sword energy, their jaws dropped in disbelief.

"The Nine Elders?"

"This is impossible!"

"How could the Elders be ambushed so suddenly by that masked man? They are Elders!"

"To suspend nine Thrones using just Sword Intent... is this a dream?"

"These nine are the most senior figures in the Inner Court, above Grandmasters!"

"I'm numb, 'Holy Slaves'..."

"Are they really *that* powerful?"