Manifesting Sainthood

The instant before the Kill Heng Society Members moved, the many Cloud Sword Palace Experts—who appeared relaxed and entirely unguarded—moved as well.

The many experts of the Kill Heng Society naturally did not underestimate the Cloud Sword Palace Martial Artists. They attacked together. Aside from the three leading Great Grandmasters, who were targeting Lin Heng, the other Martial Artists and the remaining four Great Grandmasters all went after the other Cloud Sword Palace Martial Artists nearby.

Their aim was to hold these people back and prevent them from supporting Lin Heng, ultimately creating a situation where three Great Grandmasters fought Lin Heng alone.

Under such circumstances, they could swiftly kill Lin Heng, who had only just entered the Great Grandmaster Realm, and accomplish their first objective today.

After that, they would assess the situation and decide whether to carry out their secondary objectives, such as seizing treasures and killing enemies.

After all, once Lin Heng was dead, the Cloud Sword Palace experts would certainly go mad. At that point, preserving their lives would come first. Everything else was merely external possessions—good to have, but no great loss without.

Yet what astonished these Kill Heng Society Martial Artists was that the Cloud Sword Palace Martial Artists had no intention whatsoever of supporting Lin Heng.

As though they had rehearsed it beforehand, they flashed away, taking with them the maids and servants of lesser martial skill who had been serving them the New Year's Eve Dinner, and withdrew from the center of the battlefield in an instant, leaving Lin Heng alone to face the encirclement of the entire Kill Heng Society.

Rumble!

A world-shaking explosion rang out.

Countless concealed weapons, empowered by violent internal force, fell like meteors and struck like heavy artillery.

The ground shattered beneath them, and the hall's beams and pillars collapsed.

Broken stones flew everywhere as dust and smoke billowed.

At this moment, Lin Heng was the only one left on the battlefield.

In the flash of an instant, the many Kill Heng Society Martial Artists charging at Lin Heng behind the concealed weapons had no time to ponder why such a bizarre scene had unfolded before them.

Following their original plan, they pushed their internal force to the peak and fed it through the Three Talents Formation to the seven Great Grandmasters at the formation's core. These seven peerless experts swung their weapons and slashed toward Lin Heng.

It worked!

A fleeting surge of joy passed through the hearts of the seven Great Grandmasters.

Even if Lin Heng was a peerless expert at the Great Grandmaster level and had cultivated peerless divine arts passed down by a Martial Arts Holy Land, he would still be killed in an instant by the combined attack of all seven of them, bolstered by the Three Talents Formation.

They had never imagined things would proceed so smoothly.

Wasn't Lin Heng supposed to be the future of the Cloud Sword Palace?

Yet he was so unpopular that not a single fellow disciple made a move to protect him!

Fist force, sword qi, saber qi, palm power.

The full-force strike of the seven Great Grandmasters descended. Lin Heng remained seated where he was, his expression calm as he casually raised a hand and pushed out a palm.

At the sight of this, the seven Great Grandmasters were already certain of their victory.

No one could receive the combined strike of them all. With Lin Heng's strength as someone newly entered into the Great Grandmaster Realm, he would be blasted apart on the spot.

Yet in the next instant, no joy of victory appeared on their faces. Instead, their expressions changed drastically.

In their senses, the force they had blasted toward Lin Heng was like mud sinking into the sea, failing to raise even the slightest ripple.

This feeling bore no trace of having struck a target. It was as though all their force had been completely diverted away.

And Lin Heng, who had received that strike head-on, showed not the slightest change in expression, not even a hint of injury.

But before the seven could think any further—

The instant after they attacked, a vast and ferocious force, as boundless as the sea, surged forth with Lin Heng at its center.

The earth cracked apart. The tables, chairs, and soup pots closest to Lin Heng were all shattered into powder by the immense force.

The seven Great Grandmasters attacking Lin Heng bore the brunt of it. As if struck by lightning, they flew backward beyond their control. Their organs and meridians shook violently, blood spilling from their mouths and noses, as though they had taken their own full-force strikes without any defense at all.

Behind the seven, the other Martial Artists whose auras were linked to the seven Great Grandmasters through the Three Talents Formation also suffered backlash and vomited blood.

The Three Talents Formation they had trained for so long and regarded as their trump card had actually been scattered by a single blow.

Although none of the more than two thousand Martial Artists who had formed the formation had died, every one of them had been shaken until their bones went soft and their tendons numb, completely unable to move.

"N-No, impossible."

As Lin Heng stopped concealing his aura and unleashed it at full force—

Any Martial Artist with eyes could sense the vast, sea-like aura emanating from Lin Heng at this moment.

Even Li Hen Pavilion Elder Hao Shuang, who was likewise in the Great Grandmaster Realm, felt that her Great Grandmaster First Heaven cultivation was like that of an ant before him. Not even experts on the level of a Martial Arts Holy Land's sect master could give her such a feeling.

"Impossible. He absolutely cannot be this strong."

"Fake. It is all fake."

"Even a Supreme Great Grandmaster could not withstand our full-force formation strike without suffering the slightest injury."

At this moment, a Great Grandmaster from Ice Frost City who had joined the Kill Heng Society under a false identity also broke down completely.

Each advancement by one Heaven in a Martial Artist's cultivation was a qualitative transformation. Yet with so many Great Grandmasters joining hands in formation, the strength they had unleashed was already no weaker than—perhaps even greater than—that of a Supreme Great Grandmaster. And still Lin Heng had received it unscathed.

The blow was too great. This was not merely his personal failure; it also declared that their long-planned scheme, their plan of Dividing the World in Two, was doomed to fail.

What was more, all of them and the families behind them would be cast into the abyss because of it.

Because he could foresee such a future, even the composure a Great Grandmaster gained after Comprehending Artistic Conception—remaining unflinching even when Mount Tai collapsed before him—could no longer hold.

At this moment, he desperately wanted to flee and warn his fellow disciples, who were gathering at the Cloud Sword Palace Mountain Gate according to the plan, of Lin Heng's strength, saving them from the fate of stepping into the abyss.

But he could do nothing now. He was already severely injured.

With a Great Grandmaster's recovery ability, injuries from such violent internal organ tremors would recover in at most a quarter hour.

But he did not have a quarter hour now. With every passing second, the situation was worsening.

"Ethereal True Aura. Never seen it before?"

Lin Heng lowered his raised hand and spoke calmly.

What he had used just now was indeed Ethereal True Aura. It could use Body Protection Aura to dissolve an enemy's attacks and even turn them to one's own use.

When this Body Protection Divine Art was paired with the Boundless Sea Divine Art Lin Heng had created, they were a perfect match.

The force of several thousand Martial Artists attacking in formation entered Lin Heng's body like mud sinking into the sea. Before it could unleash its proper destructive power, it was dissolved and guided by the many vortices of Internal Breath within Lin Heng, then sent back exactly as it came.

Moreover, bolstered by Lin Heng's own internal force, the attack had become even stronger.

In other words, the Kill Heng Society and Lin Heng had just joined forces to deliver their own full-force strike.

The Cloud Sword Palace members knew of Lin Heng's defensive strength, which was why they had been at ease leaving him alone to face these Demonic Heretics of the Kill Heng Society.

Ten years to forge a sword; now it was time to show the world the edge of this divine blade.