The Sword That Frosted Fourteen Provinces

The sweet fragrance of osmanthus still filled Westgate Avenue.

But the immortal who had summoned blooms across the entire street with a single sword strike had already fallen into towering flames.

Yinglai Inn, which welcomed and bid farewell to guests from all corners of the world, had now become a thing of the past.

Silver Flower Palace disciples stood atop nearby buildings or beneath the trees along the long street, their eyes fixed on the inferno. They let the officials and soldiers gather from afar while they guarded the perimeter to the death.

Over half of Silver Flower Palace's experts had hurried here over the past few days. Most had already gathered, determined to reclaim the object of their inheritance.

Inside a carriage at the corner, a woman in dark clothes stared anxiously at the blaze. "Vice Palace Master, with such a massive fire, will the Depraved Flower Immortal Scripture..."

Had they not gathered here in such numbers and paid such a great price because their lives were held in the palm of that Depraved Flower Immortal Scripture?

If that thing burned up, would they not be left with nothing but a dead end?

Only successive Palace Masters had been able to cultivate and master this item. There was only one copy in all the world.

Inside the carriage, Poison Child, the Vice Palace Master of Silver Flower Palace, gave a wicked chuckle. "The Depraved Flower Immortal Scripture is inside the Mountain River Qiankun Fan. This treasured fan can cleave gold and shatter iron; neither water nor fire can harm it."

"That so-called Sword Immortal may have turned to ashes, but not a single fan leaf of the Mountain River Qiankun Fan could possibly be damaged."

Although he had come to Great Zhou for the Depraved Flower Immortal Scripture, a large part of his purpose was also the position of Palace Master.

If the Sword Immortal died here, he would become the next Palace Master of Silver Flower Palace. He would then wield enormous power in Northern Wei as well. Silver Flower Palace was far more than merely a martial arts sect in Northern Wei.

The raging fire reflected in the dark-clothed woman's pupils. Even a man of gold would melt in such a blaze. Poison Child looked certain to become the next Palace Master of Silver Flower Palace.

At once, the woman offered a seductive smile and flattered him. "The Sword Immortal is as good as dead. Palace Master, do not forget your servant when the time comes."

As she spoke, even the word "Vice" had disappeared.

"Other than the Sword Immortal, who else in this city can stop us?" Poison Child was brimming with smug delight, as though the position of Palace Master of Silver Flower Palace were already within his grasp. He had watched Young Master Silver Flower strut about and lord it over others for so long; now, at last, it was his turn.

"Caw caw caw caw caw!" A bizarre cry rang out from within the flames, abruptly cutting off their conversation.

It also drew horrified stares from every Silver Flower Palace disciple nearby. How could anyone possibly still be alive amid such flames and explosions?

Even an iron man would have been blasted through.

Poison Child leaped down from the carriage, his beady eyes widening until they nearly split apart. "That Sword Immortal isn't dead yet?"

"There were dozens of Yu Fire Thunder bombs!" Poison Child was so agitated that his spittle sprayed everywhere.

Layer upon layer of flames parted, and a man rode through them on a donkey.

The fire soared into the sky, yet it could not ignite even a corner of his clothes. It was as though he were the master of the flames, a god of heaven and earth.

The Divine Donkey carried the Daoist priest out through the fire, scarlet light gleaming in its eyes like a peerless fiend emerging into the world.

Gao Xian's face was ice-cold. None of his usual glib banter, laughter, or curses remained.

The people of Silver Flower Palace had wanted to deliver a thunderous blow, but Gao Xian had likewise been waiting for these demons and monsters to gather in one hall.

He simply had not expected that, in order to kill him, they would even plan to burn Gongzhou City.

General Donkey beneath him, meanwhile, laughed wildly, as though this were precisely the sort of scene it loved most.

"Hahahahahaha~"

The donkey knew exactly what kind of face lay hidden beneath Gao Xian's frivolous outer skin.

That was why it had always called Kongchenzi the Great Immortal. From beginning to end, it had never believed that fellow was human. Who knew what utterly terrifying existence was hidden beneath that human skin?

The Kongchenzi of ordinary days and the man he became when enraged were entirely different people. Even it, the dignified Great Donkey Protector, dared not provoke him. These mortals truly did not know whether they lived or died.

The donkey's demon-like eyes swept across Westgate Avenue. Everyone present felt a deathly aura, as though they had fallen into hell, shroud the tops of their heads.

Yet those monstrous eyes contained only mockery.

"You truly have colossal nerve."

"Have you all ever seen Immeasurable Purgatory?"

The donkey stepped on flames and stood upon Westgate Avenue. Its terrifying aura forced everyone around it to retreat again and again.

But something even more terrifying followed. Before the eyes of thousands upon thousands, the donkey took a deep breath. The blaze illuminating the night sky and the endlessly spreading flames transformed into a fire dragon that coiled upward.

Then the donkey opened its mouth and swallowed the fire dragon spiraling through the sky in a single gulp.

Every Silver Flower Palace disciple who had come to kill the Sword Immortal sucked in a cold breath. "What... what kind of monster is that?"

The clanging gongs, shouting, and uproar that had filled the nearby parts of the city abruptly ceased.

A large number of yamen runners carrying water had rushed over to fight the fire. Before the ward gates could even be opened, they saw the distant firelight suddenly vanish. The runners were instantly dumbfounded, utterly unable to understand what had happened.

"Where's the fire?"

"How did the fire disappear?"

"Didn't they say there was a fire?"

On Westgate Avenue, the Silver Flower Palace disciples who had still harbored a trace of resistance were now so frightened that their souls nearly fled their bodies.

"Run!"

"Run!"

"Poison Child, that old bastard, actually wanted to kill a monster like this! I'm done playing!"

Dozens of formidable Northern Wei experts, who had not regarded Gongzhou City as worthy of notice, now fled in panic like rats.

But it was already too late.

"Sword, come!" Great Immortal Kongchenzi's voice was colder and sharper than winter itself, freezing the entire long street of Westgate.

The Azure Dragon roared up from the flames, its dragon cry piercing through the long street.

In an instant, corpses carpeted the entire street. Some never even saw the sword's shadow before dying beneath it. Others saw only a flash of sword light before discovering that their heads had parted from their bodies.

"Flying sword! Damn it, that really is a flying sword!" A saber wielder standing atop a rooftop clearly saw the horrifying carnage below. He leaped up and drifted toward the distance, only to be pierced by sword light midway through the air. His body fell into the street, while his head smashed into a rooftop like a stone.

"Sword Immortal... he really is an immortal." One man had been cut in half at the waist. He crawled more than thirty meters across the ground before finally breathing his last.

"To die beneath an immortal's sword, I suppose... I did not die unjustly!" At the end of the long street, a man fell to his knees. Looking at the massive hole through his chest, he wore a miserable smile.

"Go, go, go! Hurry and leave!" A burly man drove the fine horses onward.

"That... Daoist... he won't... he won't... chase after us, will he?" The woman was so terrified that she could barely speak.

Poison Child's carriage raced along the long street, but he discovered that the farther they ran, the closer they came to Westgate Avenue.

An invisible force dragged him from the street back to the burned wreckage and ruins.

The Daoist priest held the Azure Dragon Sword in his hand and rode the donkey forward step by step.

"Clop! Clop! Clop! Clop!"

The donkey's hoofbeats seemed to stomp directly upon their heartstrings, magnifying their terror to its utmost limit.

Sword light flashed. The burly man driving the carriage had his head sent flying, unable to utter even a single word before his death.

The beautiful face of the woman in dark robes was full of pleading. A sword pierced through her heart, and the light vanished from her pupils in an instant.

The Daoist priest stopped before the carriage, his eyes utterly emotionless as he looked toward Poison Child.

Poison Child was so terrified that his teeth chattered. "The elders... the elders will not let you off."

"Silver Flower Palace will not let you off!"

His cry was like an old broken bellows, its cracked sound carrying the rhythm of death.

A trace of excitement surged in the donkey's scarlet eyes. When it opened its mouth, crimson flames poured forth and became a fire dragon.

The searing blaze swallowed the vicious dwarf and the entire carriage.

Poison Child screamed wildly, but his body could not move at all. He could only endure the agony of being devoured by the raging flames.

No purgatory in the human world could be worse than this.

"Oh! There's an elder too!"

Gao Xian looked beyond the city, as though the will of heaven and earth crossed the horizon with his gaze and descended upon a desolate field of graves outside the city.

A sword streaked across the sky, piercing and tearing through the firmament.

From throughout Gongzhou City, everyone could see a streak of cold light spanning several miles, drawing an incomparably brilliant band of rosy clouds.

Far outside the city, an old man had quietly arrived, laid his plans, and waited for news from within. He had only just raised his head when a sword light split him vertically into two.

Before dying, he left behind only one sentence. "How... is this possible?"

Like that elder of Silver Flower Palace, everyone in Gongzhou City who witnessed this scene—every martial wanderer and expert—gasped as though suffocating.

Zhongxing Du had just reached the northern gate with his men when that sword passed through the sky above his head, utterly grinding away the last trace of his pride.

Zhongxing Du stood in the street, looking as though his entire person had collapsed. Only after a long while did he utter the same horrified cry as the Silver Flower Palace elder. "How is this possible?"

Xu Bayuan, who had arrived at Westgate Avenue with Lu Canghai, faced the sword that tore through the sky and suddenly sighed over his own saber practice. "The Sword-flying Technique?"

"Taking a man's head from a thousand miles away—he truly is an immortal!"

Listening to the Sword Saint Xu Bayuan's sigh and explanation beside him, Lu Canghai could not see with his eyes, yet through his sword heart, he perceived even more clearly the boundless profundity within it.

At that moment, Lu Canghai seemed to glimpse the ultimate summit of swordsmanship and the highest realm of the sword.

"Three thousand guests grow drunk as flowers fill the hall; one sword frosts the fourteen provinces."

"I never tasted the wine that intoxicated three thousand guests."

"But today, I, Lu Canghai, have seen the sword that frosted fourteen provinces."