Thirty Years of Lingering Hatred, a Sword Thrust into the Void

Zuo Qingshuang raised an eyebrow slightly, while Xu Chongshan frowned.

What exactly was Li Nanchen planning?

Inviting guest elders had been fairly common when the Pearl Pavilion was first founded.

That was mainly because, when the faction was still small, guest elders strengthened the sect so it could deal with invading enemies.

But now, the Pearl Pavilion was already one of the seven great sects of the Eastern Region.

Its ranks were filled with talent, and its experts were as numerous as clouds.

It had long since ceased to need guest elders to bolster its strength.

Even with the Pavilion Master, whose martial arts were the strongest, and the elders all in seclusion in the Mysterious Mechanism Cave, there was no one in the Eastern Region today who would dare make trouble at the Pearl Pavilion.

Besides, the Pavilion Master and the others were only in seclusion.

It wasn't as though they were dead...

If a truly formidable enemy came, they could simply call them out.

Surely things hadn't reached the point where they needed outside help?

Although Zuo Qingshuang and Xu Chongshan instinctively felt that something was odd, this was Li Nanchen's first time exercising his authority as acting Pavilion Master. Though they stood below only one person and above ten thousand in the Pearl Pavilion, they would not lightly make him lose face.

So neither immediately spoke up in opposition.

Li Nanchen clapped his hands lightly, and a series of footsteps sounded from within the inner door.

When Zuo Qingshuang got a clear look at the group emerging behind Li Nanchen, she suddenly slammed the table, killing intent blazing on her face:

"Li Nanchen! Where did you meet this pack of wicked heretics?!"

Xu Chongshan also rose slowly to his feet, sword intent spreading all around him.

His gaze swept over the group one by one, and he spoke coldly:

"Qingyangzi, Ghost Scholar, Blissful Monk... and three more who won't show their faces?

"Why don't you show us what you really look like, so we can see who you are?"

An uproar immediately broke out among the Pearl Pavilion disciples in the hall.

Qingyangzi, Ghost Scholar!

Both were wicked heretics whose names were notorious throughout the jianghu of the Eastern Region.

They were branded wicked heretics not because they all cultivated demonic arts... but because the way they conducted themselves ran counter to the righteous path.

Qingyangzi had originally been a disciple of the Supreme Void Dao, one of the seven great sects of the Eastern Region.

What he learned was the Supreme Void Dao's orthodox Daoist martial art, [Jade Clarity Skill].

But as he cultivated, he either suffered Qi deviation or revealed his true nature.

Citing the words "Heaven and earth are heartless, treating all things as straw dogs," he slaughtered innocents at will, declaring that only thus could he draw close to the Great Dao of heaven and earth.

The Supreme Void Dao could not tolerate such a violation of its rules. Not only did it expel him, it also sent many experts to hunt him down.

Unexpectedly, after one battle after another, he not only escaped the Supreme Void Dao's efforts to clean house, but killed many of its disciples instead, making a great name for himself for a time.

After that, he appeared and vanished like a ghost, and his traces were hard to find.

Although the Supreme Void Dao never stopped hunting him, it never succeeded.

Ghost Scholar, meanwhile, had originally been a scholar.

In the world today, the dynasty was in decline and rival powers were rising.

He studied diligently for ten years, only to suffer every kind of bullying. At last, he realized with a shock that a scholar was utterly useless. After tearing up his books of sages, he gained an opportunity to learn martial arts.

Once he had mastered them, he took ruthless revenge.

Not content with wiping out everyone who had bullied him, he also flayed them and made shadow puppets from their skins.

Had that been all, it would have been no more than repaying grievances and settling old scores.

But after that, he seemed to discover the pleasure of the strong bullying the weak and began acting without restraint. Intentional or not, right or wrong, good or evil, anyone who displeased him was met with bloody slaughter. He would then flay them and make their skins into shadow puppets to perform ghost plays.

That was how he came by the name Ghost Scholar.

Yet the martial arts he cultivated had nothing to do with the demonic path... but his hands were drenched in no less blood than those of Blissful Monk, who truly did cultivate demonic martial arts.

Whichever of the three appeared in the jianghu, any member of the righteous path who saw them would cry out for their blood.

Yet who would have thought that Li Nanchen had invited them to be guest elders of the Pearl Pavilion?

It was enough to make the whole world laugh!

If this came to pass, not only would the reputation the Pearl Pavilion had built up over many years go up in flames, it would become a den of demons in the blink of an eye.

Xu Chongshan, however, stared at the last three people, whose heads and faces were covered. He kept feeling a familiar sense of revulsion from them.

It was as though they were old enemies he had not seen for many years, but with whom he shared a deep blood feud.

"Xu Chongshan, it's been years, but that dog's nose of yours is as sharp as ever!"

A chilling voice came from beneath a black hood. The man pulled it back, revealing a deathly pale face.

The instant Xu Chongshan saw his face, he could no longer control his expression.

He simply roared:

"Guan Tianyue?! Give me your life!!!"

He raised his index and middle fingers, and the longsword at his side abruptly sprang from its sheath into his hand. The sword Qi coiled around him fused into the blade in an instant, its sharp edge focused on a single point as it struck straight for the vital point in the man's chest.

Everyone in the hall was shocked at the sight.

As their senior martial uncle, Xu Chongshan had always been composed. He was also in charge of the Pearl Pavilion's Law Enforcement Hall and wore a cold face before everyone; all the Pearl Pavilion disciples feared him.

But they had rarely seen him lose his composure like this.

The rage and killing intent in his voice were unprecedented.

What they did not know was that there was a hidden story behind it.

Guan Tianyue was an expert of the Black Sha Cult. When the cult was being hunted down and exterminated years ago, he had abducted Xu Chongshan's fiancée.

By the time Xu Chongshan found her, Guan Tianyue had not only drained every drop of blood from her body, but had also violated her corpse.

They had been a loving couple, betrothed to be married, but in the blink of an eye, he was left alone.

After that, he poured all that boundless hatred into the campaign to wipe out the Black Sha Cult.

He had even struck Guan Tianyue off a cliff with his own hands.

For the past thirty years, Xu Chongshan had missed his fiancée every moment, and not a day had passed without him blaming himself. If only he had been more careful back then... even a little more careful, everything might have turned out differently.

He had even gone down the cliff where he had struck Guan Tianyue off more than once, hoping to find Guan Tianyue's corpse and grind his bones to dust.

But he had never found it.

Now Guan Tianyue had suddenly appeared before him. When enemies met, their eyes blazed red; how could he spare a thought for anything else?

Although Guan Tianyue had been allowed to cling to life for thirty years, and Xu Chongshan hated the heavens for their injustice,

this had undoubtedly given him another chance to take revenge and wash away his hatred!

Thirty years of hatred poured out in that single sword strike.

The frigid sword intent it unleashed nearly tore the great hall on the front mountain apart.

Even Guan Tianyue, with another thirty years of cultivation behind him, could not stop his eyelids from twitching wildly at that moment.

He turned both hands over, and the Black Sha True Qi around him condensed until it was almost tangible.

Hum!!!

The sword's edge reached him in an instant. The Black Sha True Qi could scarcely withstand its sharpness, and Xu Chongshan's blade pressed closer.

Hum, hum, hum!!!

Black Sha True Qi surged without cease. A flush of blood even rose to Guan Tianyue's deathly pale face as he used all his strength to resist that killing strike.

Yet he could only watch as Xu Chongshan's sword stabbed inch by inch toward the spot between his brows!