Chapter 4: Extinguishing the Yunshan Sect

One sword!

Just one sword!

With a single strike, the 'Kill' character crumbled, the Azure Nether fell, and the Golden Core perished!

Liu Zhen, suspended in mid-air, had his eyes wide with disbelief.

How could a Golden Core expert die so easily? Even if their body was destroyed, their Golden Core would allow them to survive.

But Xu Yang's sword was simply too fast, so fast that Liu Zhen couldn't react. With one strike, he was split into three parts and was dead, because his Golden Core had already shattered.

Suddenly, Liu Zhen, high in the sky, plummeted to the ground, his body split into two.

Fear abruptly surged in the elder's eyes.

Terrifying. He was simply too powerful.

But why couldn't he fly?

He found it hard to comprehend; in fact, he couldn't even think straight, only feeling the imminent crisis of death.

Xu Yang's next target would undoubtedly be him.

“Seven Characters, One Kill! Seven Kills United!”

The elder roared, channeling all his Half-Nascent Soul power into the formation disk. The grand formation in the sky seemed to materialize, and an overwhelming killing intent, soaring heavenward, transformed into an incredibly massive, blood-red 'Kill' character.

When Heaven unleashes its killing intent, stars shift and constellations change!

This character seemed to embody the very killing intent of Heaven!

It was immeasurably more powerful than the first 'Kill' strike he had witnessed earlier!

Every stroke of the 'Kill' character seemed to emerge from countless mountains of corpses and seas of blood, each stroke like a celestial blade or an earthly sword, meant to annihilate all living beings as if they were mere ants!

“Young man, to die by my Seven Kills ultimate technique is enough for you to be proud. It's just a pity you were too arrogant, daring to trespass into my Cloud Mountain Sect alone, and even allowing me to calmly set up the formation disk. Now, die!”

Murderous intent gleamed in the elder's eyes. With the Seven Kills united, the ultimate technique was complete; even a Nascent Soul old monster would surely perish under this strike.

Following this, he even took out a blade.

“This blade, named the Mad Blade, was forged by my master. It consumed all the resources of the Cloud Mountain Sect and the entirety of Qi Prefecture, taking forty-nine days to complete. This blade must drink blood with every strike. Let it be your send-off!”

“Mad Blade Slash!”

The elder's white hair fluttered. Unlike Liu Zhen, he didn't follow the attack from afar; instead, he directly wielded the blade and charged to kill!

“Seven Kills.”

Xu Yang smiled. This so-called Seven Kills was, in reality, not even half as powerful as a true Seven Kills Formation.

He found that many ancient techniques were incomplete or even lost.

If he wanted to break the formation disk, it would be effortless.

But he chose not to.

“Do you know why you will die?” Xu Yang asked.

“Because you talk too much!”

“I can't fly, but I can jump!”

“Your so-called Seven Kills is just a joke.”

Xu Yang leaped, soaring several tens of feet high.

“Your cultivation methods of these past years disappoint me!”

“Extreme Life Sword!”

Xu Yang raised the sword in his hand, its tip gleaming with a contained cold light, and suddenly thrust it forward.

“A Yellow-grade, low-tier Daoist technique, Extreme Life Sword? No, this Extreme Life Sword isn't right!”

The elder's expression changed, subtly sensing that something was amiss.

Instantly, the sword clashed with the ultimate Seven Kills combined technique. Yet, the elder suddenly saw the 'Kill' character, filled with overwhelming killing intent, begin to tremble violently.

Crack!

The 'Kill' character, which had almost solidified, suddenly burst open with a fissure.

Then, it shattered like a spider's web.

Bang!

The formation disk in the sky trembled even more violently. An ultimate technique of such intensity could no longer withstand such immense power. With the Seven Kills unity broken, a backlash surged, causing it to suddenly explode and shatter into dust.

The elder's face paled in horror. This was not human; how could a person achieve such a level of power?

The blade energy he had unleashed was actually blasted apart by the mere aftermath of the so-called Extreme Life Sword.

However, Xu Yang, leveraging the force of the exploding aftermath, used it to propel himself upwards, directly confronting the Mad Blade.

But Xu Yang merely waved his longsword, and the precious blade — forged by the Cloud Mountain Sect's founder using all the resources of Qi Prefecture — shattered like paper, scattering into fragments.

It couldn't even put up a struggle.

Xu Yang's gaze fell upon the elder.

The elder felt as if he was falling into an abyss. Though the blazing sun hung high in the sky, he felt no warmth.

“He wants to kill me!”

“Escape! I must escape! Right, he can't fly, so I must flee quickly!”

“This vengeance... only when my master returns can he avenge the destruction of my Cloud Mountain Sect. Though I harbor great hatred, I must endure it!”

In an instant, the elder understood everything. Xu Yang's two sword strikes had completely overturned his understanding.

Especially the second strike, the Extreme Life Sword—it was merely a common Yellow-grade Daoist technique, focusing power at the sword tip for a mutually destructive attack.

Yet, in Xu Yang's hands, it surpassed even the ultimate Seven Kills combined technique.

At the very least, this was the power of an Earth-grade sword technique. Was this still the Extreme Life Sword he knew?

He couldn't comprehend it, and he didn't dare to think further.

The elder immediately turned, fleeing with the speed of flight.

He was a Half-Nascent Soul cultivator; if he chose to flee, Xu Yang certainly couldn't catch him.

Xu Yang watched the elder's fleeing figure, then suddenly threw the Safeguard Sword at him.

The Safeguard Sword sliced through the air, leaving several sword afterimages.

Bang!

The elder high in the distance suddenly stumbled, covered in a green light, as a figure abruptly materialized.

“Brat, how dare you destroy my Cloud Mountain Sect!”

A middle-aged man, seeing the ravaged Cloud Mountain Sect, had fire in his eyes.

“There's actually a Heaven-Cave Realm expert?”

Xu Yang was surprised. No wonder the elder could withstand one of his sword strikes, even though this was only an illusory projection of a Heaven-Cave Realm expert, and Xu Yang hadn't exerted much power.

“Today you couldn't kill my servant. One day, I will personally come to your door and kill you!”

Hearing this, the elder was overjoyed and exclaimed, “Hahaha, how pathetic for your Sky Mist Sect, enduring countless hardships only for it all to come to naught in the end! As long as my master returns, even if you flee to the ends of the earth, you will surely die!”

However, before Xu Yang could speak!

The Safeguard Sword, however, floated up on its own.

The middle-aged man immediately sensed that something was wrong. Suddenly, a flicker of shock appeared in his eyes.

“A Spirit Sword! This is a Spirit Sword!”

When a sword develops a spiritual embryo, it becomes a Spirit Sword. At its peak, a Spirit Sword can even give birth to a Sword Spirit!

This young man actually possesses a Spirit Sword.

Before he could finish speaking, the Safeguard Sword went berserk, automatically hacking fiercely at the middle-aged man enveloped in green light.

Clang, clang, clang~

The middle-aged man's face turned ashen, and the elder was so terrified his soul nearly left his body. The green light barrier before them was already covered in countless cracks.

“Run!”

The middle-aged man shouted.

But it was already too late.

Crack~

The jade pendant on the elder's chest shattered directly, and the green light barrier, along with the middle-aged man, vanished without a trace.

That middle-aged man had merely imprinted a protective spell within the elder's jade pendant. It was meant to trigger a stored mental projection of himself whenever the elder faced a life-or-death crisis.

But he never imagined that Xu Yang, who couldn't fly, would possess a Spirit Sword.

The elder turned to run, only to be instantly diced into pieces by the Safeguard Sword.

A dim Golden Core suddenly flew out, but the Safeguard Sword pierced directly into it. Light flowed, and it astonishingly absorbed all the Golden Core's power into its blade.

“The Sect Master is dead!”

“The sect-protecting Ancestor is dead! It's over! The founding patriarch didn't return!”

“It's over, all over! Our Cloud Mountain Sect has been destroyed by one person!”

The disciples of the Cloud Mountain Sect witnessed the entire battle. Though it sounds long, the total exchange of blows lasted barely a quarter of an hour. In that quarter-hour, all the sect's major foundational experts were dead.

Only Zhang Ye remained at the Foundation Establishment Realm, but Zhang Ye was a traitor.

At this moment, Zhang Ye found it even harder to suppress the shock in his heart. Although he had hoped Xu Yang would win, that was purely for his own survival. Yet, Xu Yang had actually single-handedly shattered the entire Cloud Mountain Sect.

He hadn't wanted the Cloud Mountain Sect to be destroyed!

He was utterly bewildered.

Bodies lay scattered across the mountain. The aftershocks from the battles between Golden Core and Nascent Soul realms had directly vibrated countless Cloud Mountain Sect disciples to death.

The scent of blood soared to the heavens!

Qi Prefecture's foremost sect, the Cloud Mountain Sect, was annihilated!