Three Heads Hit the Ground

"What did you say?!"

The instant Chu Lu's furious shout rang out, everyone present erupted into an uproar.

Yet just as everyone turned pale with shock, Chu Lu had already charged before the three elders.

As the Sect Leader of the sword sect Inquiry Sword Sect, Luo Qingdie naturally excelled most in the sword dao. Among her sword arts, her greatest attainment was the self-created "Nine Heavenly Phoenix Swords," and the one she wielded most effortlessly was the seventh sword, Phoenix Arrives.

Thus, Chu Lu opened with Phoenix Arrives.

The three elders had already been far inferior to Chu Lu in cultivation, and they had been caught off guard. In an instant, they were defeated, long swords pressed against their necks.

Yet rather than panicking, they glared at Chu Lu in fury.

The Grand Elder roared angrily, "Luo Qingdie! What are you doing?! This violates sect rules! If you don't want your crimes to worsen, then hurry up and—"

Splurt.

Before the Grand Elder could finish, the sound of a blade slicing into flesh rang out, and a head flew into the air.

"Sect rules, sect rules—rules my ass!" Chu Lu cursed irritably, then turned to look at the other two elders.

By now, the two of them were already dumbstruck and trembling with fear. The anger on their faces had vanished completely.

But before they could beg for mercy, Chu Lu slashed twice more.

The corpses of the three elders fell together.

In a single instant, three Spirit Transformation elders had died.

Chu Lu slowly turned around and looked at the stunned crowd. "Now, who still thinks I am guilty?"

That indifferent voice echoed through the Disciplinary Hall. For a time, no one dared answer.

Liu Yan'er, who had been pretending to be pitiful, was trembling all over. She desperately lowered her head and did not dare move, terrified of being noticed.

The disciples outside were also trembling in fear, their hearts filled with confusion alongside their terror.

—Was this still their usual Sect Leader? That kind and approachable, even somewhat cowardly Sect Leader?

They did not like this—did not like it at all. Compared to the Sect Leader they could bully at will before, this Sect Leader who killed at the slightest provocation was simply too terrifying, filling them with anxiety, fear, and resistance.

—Who would do it? Who would kill her?

Everyone could not help thinking this.

At that moment, the cold-faced Xiao Yichen slowly stepped forward and said, "Luo Qingdie, you truly are imposing. First you killed your own disciple, then you killed three elders of our sect. Is there anyone in this world you would not dare kill?"

"What do you want?" Chu Lu asked, looking at him.

"I will cleanse the sect." Xiao Yichen slowly drew his sword.

Chu Lu: "..."

Chu Lu thought to himself, Luo Qingdie, your senior brother is pretty insane too. He's merely in the Spirit Transformation stage—how does he dare cleanse me, a Mahayana Stage cultivator?

Luo Qingdie: "..."

"Fine. Since you want to die, I'll grant your wish." Chu Lu walked forward with sword in hand. Killing Xiao Yichen had been part of the plan anyway.

However, at that moment, Xiao Yichen suddenly plunged his sword into the ground and shouted, "Formation, rise!"

As his voice fell, countless mysterious and intricate runes emerged across the floor of the Disciplinary Hall. Their light flickered faintly as they outlined a massive circular formation.

The space around the hall seemed to freeze solid, making movement extraordinarily difficult. At the same time, strands of spiritual energy descended from above, binding Chu Lu tightly like a spiderweb and leaving him unable to move at all.

Shock appeared on Chu Lu's face.

—The Immortal Locking Array? The formation Luo Qingdie mentioned, the one that trapped her?

It was not as though Chu Lu had not been wary of the Immortal Locking Array. The reason he had dealt with those three elders so cleanly at the start was precisely to prevent them from activating it.

But he had not expected Xiao Yichen to be able to activate this formation all by himself.

This was a formation capable of trapping a Mahayana Stage cultivator. Was its threshold really this low?

After Chu Lu was trapped, the atmosphere in the hall visibly relaxed.

Liu Yan'er stopped playing dead as well. She perked up and skipped over to Xiao Yichen's side. "Master, you're amazing!"

"It is only the formation that is powerful." Xiao Yichen shook his head.

"But Master, who can activate such a formation, is just as amazing!" Liu Yan'er's little mouth seemed dipped in honey as she ceaselessly flattered him.

Even the cold and aloof Xiao Yichen smiled faintly.

Then Liu Yan'er looked at the trapped Chu Lu and asked worriedly, "Master, how should we deal with this Sect Leader now?"

"Her crimes are too numerous to record. I will report this to the Supreme Elders and let them decide."

"There's no need for that..." Liu Yan'er said carefully.

"Hm?"

"Because... as the saying goes, a murderer must pay with their life, and a debtor must repay their debts." Liu Yan'er spoke as though it were only natural. "The Sect Leader already has the blood of four fellow sect members on her hands. If we do not kill her, who will dare join our Inquiry Sword Sect in the future? The disciples within the sect will all run away too, and our reputation on the Righteous Path will be ruined!"

Hesitation appeared on Xiao Yichen's face.

At that moment, the disciples outside the hall were still shaken. Hearing Liu Yan'er's words, they immediately became enraged.

"Junior Sister Yan'er is right, kill her! A life for a life!"

"A murderer cannot be allowed to keep living!"

"That's right, forget the Supreme Elders. Elder Xiao, kill her."

Hearing the shouts outside, Xiao Yichen finally made up his mind.

"You are right. Having committed such monstrous crimes, death is her only possible end. Rather than keeping her alive and wasting the formation's spiritual energy, it would be better to kill her now." A cold gleam appeared in Xiao Yichen's eyes.

"But simply killing her would be too wasteful. And the three elder grandfathers also mentioned the spiritual roots on her body..." Liu Yan'er suddenly added in a soft voice.

"I understand."

"And the Phoenix Bone, the Heavenly Dao Foundation..."

"I will carve them all out for you."

Liu Yan'er immediately revealed a brilliant smile and said coquettishly, "Master is the best."

A faint blush appeared on Xiao Yichen's cold face, but the next instant, he returned to being frosty as ice and walked toward Chu Lu.

Seeing this, the disciples outside the hall immediately cheered loudly, then began shouting in unison.

"Kill her! Kill her! Kill her! Kill her!"

Chu Lu watched this scene, fury rising in his heart.

—What a joke. How could I die here? Die at the hands of these idiots?!

He stirred all the magic power in his body, preparing to go all out and struggle desperately. Yet the moment he exerted force, he heard a bang, and the formation shattered.

"Huh?" Chu Lu said.

"Huh?" Xiao Yichen, who had raised his sword to strike, froze.

"Huh?" Liu Yan'er, who had been anticipating a pile of treasures, froze.

"Huh?" The shouting disciples seemed like ducks whose throats had been seized, unable to make another sound.

The formation had been broken?

It had broken just like that?!

In the end, Chu Lu was the first to react. An utterly absurd guess surfaced in his mind. With disbelief written all over his face, he asked inwardly, Could it be... that in your previous life, you could actually break free, but deliberately surrendered without resistance and obediently let them rip out your heart and lungs?

Luo Qingdie said somewhat aggrievedly, "How was I supposed to know they could truly be so ruthless? I had worked myself to the bone for the sect for so many years..."

Chu Lu: "..."

—As expected of a Female Fiction heroine. You are the most insane one of all!