Everyone Is Acting

Xiao Yi stood up and reached out to grip the hilt of the Seven Kill Sword.

The blood-colored light on the blade surged violently, like tentacles of gore coiling around his arm and burrowing into his skin.

Xiao Yi did not even frown; he simply closed his eyes and allowed that power to flood into his body.

A moment later.

He released the hilt. The vertical pupil that had awakened in the center of his forehead was now closed, leaving behind only a thin, crimson scar.

"Awakening the bloodline divine ability is only the beginning," Xiao Yi said in a cold tone. "Since the people from the Three Great Sects have already entered the city and begun breaking the formation, this play must continue to be performed for them!"

"It must indeed continue," Lin Hanyuan nodded. "The Three Great Sects believe their plan is secret and everything is under their control, yet they do not know that we have our own people within their sects. We have known their plans all along; we are merely playing along with their charade."

"Back then, when the Marquis reached the ninth level of the Grandmaster Realm, the Three Great Sects feared he would break through to the Great Grandmaster Realm of martial arts, so they conspired to ambush him. But the Marquis was far-sighted and had long since begun laying his plans."

"Over thirty years ago, he planted death-sworn spies within the three sects. He even specifically sought out a secret realm and designed it as the inheritance site of the Seven Kill Sword Venerable, secretly leaking the news that it required the Seven Kill Sword and the Marquis's bloodline to open."

"But they would never imagine that the ancestor's true inheritance is not in some secret realm," Xiao Yi took up the thread, his voice icy. "That secret realm contains some treasures hidden by my father, but the true inheritance of our ancestor relies on the bloodline, and the Seven Kill Sword is the key to unlocking that bloodline inheritance."

"Since the Three Great Sects want to open the ancestor's inheritance and demand we blood-sacrifice one hundred thousand living souls, then we shall grant their wish."

"This blood sacrifice claimed fifty or sixty thousand souls, allowing the Young Master to awaken the bloodline divine ability, the Heavenly Eye Blood Pupil. Next time, I believe you will be able to break through to the Grandmaster Realm," Lin Hanyuan said in a deep voice.

"Almost. Let us endure for now," Xiao Yi nodded, a cold glint flashing in his eyes. "When I break through to the Grandmaster Realm in the next blood sacrifice, the moment the people from the Three Great Sects return will be their death day. As for this time, we shall spare them, though we cannot let them break the formation too easily. Even if we are all acting, acting still requires people to die."

As his words fell, the thin crimson scar on Xiao Yi's forehead trembled slightly, as if something were writhing beneath it.

The Seven Kill Sword seemed to sense a summons; the blood-colored light on the blade grew even more intense, like viscous blood flowing across the steel.

Xiao Yi slowly pulled the sword from the center of the formation.

The moment the blade left the ground, the entire formation shuddered. The formation patterns drawn in blood on the ground suddenly flared, and an eerie red light stained the very sky a bloody hue.

Xiao Yi gripped the blade with his left hand, brought his right index and middle fingers together, and lightly drew them across the edge.

The sharp blade sliced his fingers, and blood welled up, but it did not drip; instead, it was absorbed by the blade.

The Seven Kill Sword emitted a low hum, as if in joy, or perhaps anticipation.

Xiao Yi moved his blood-stained fingers away from the blade and pointed into the void.

A drop of blood flew from his fingertip, hovering in the air and radiating a faint bloody glow.

Following that, a second, a third, a fourth...

Sixteen drops of blood, like sixteen crimson pearls, hovered around Xiao Yi, flickering with a sinister light under the reflection of the bloody aura.

Xiao Yi closed his eyes, and the scar on his forehead suddenly split open.

Heavenly Eye Blood Pupil.

Within the vertical pupil, a blood-colored vortex spun rapidly, and an invisible force surged out, pouring into the sixteen drops of blood.

Each drop of blood trembled violently, as if infused with life, beginning to expand and deform until they gradually condensed into the shapes of tiny swords.

Those tiny swords were only the length of a finger, entirely blood-red, with intricate runes carved into their blades, radiating an aura of the same origin as the Seven Kill Sword.

Sword Seed.

This was one of the abilities of the Seven Kill Sword: condensing a Sword Seed.

Each Sword Seed contained a wisp of the Seven Kill Sword's intent, capable of erupting with the terrifying power of the seventh level of Qi Casting in an instant.

But the price was that the person who detonated the Sword Seed would be backlashed by that power and instantly explode to death.

This was the method of the death-sworn.

Only by reaching the sixth level of Qi Casting could one withstand the power of a Sword Seed.

Sixteen Sword Seeds hovered in the air, emitting an eerie blood-red light, like sixteen crimson stars waiting to bloom.

Xiao Yi opened his eyes, looked at the Sword Seeds, and a satisfied smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

"Enough."

He raised his right hand and waved it into the void.

The sixteen Sword Seeds transformed into sixteen streaks of blood-red light, flying out of the plaza and landing before sixteen black-clad figures kneeling on one knee.

Those black-clad figures were all death-sworn of the Seven Kill Sect, their cultivation all at the ninth level of Body Tempering; using them to detonate the Sword Seeds was most appropriate.

They knelt on the ground, hands raised to catch the tiny blood-red swords hovering before their eyes, their eyes devoid of fear, filled only with fanaticism.

"Go!" Xiao Yi said indifferently. "Wait at the sixteen Formation Flag locations. When the disciples of the Three Great Sects find you, detonate the Sword Seeds."

"Yes!"

The sixteen black-clad figures replied in unison.

They merged the Sword Seeds into their foreheads, where a blood-colored sword mark immediately appeared. They then stood up, turned, and darted off in different directions, vanishing into the blood-red mist in the blink of an eye.

"Young Master, sixteen Sword Seeds... the disciples sent this time by the Guiyuan Sect, the Blood Fiend Devil Sect, and the Ten Thousand Sword Villa will likely suffer heavy casualties."

Lin Hanyuan watched the backs of the departing black-clad figures, his tone filled with irrepressible excitement.

For more than twenty years, they had been like rats in a gutter, hiding in the shadows and enduring in silence; after holding back for so long, they could finally go on a killing spree.

Last time in Tiannan Prefecture City, most of those they killed were ordinary martial artists, and the Treasure Pavilion had only lost an insignificant steward, with very few disciples from the Three Great Sects actually dying.

But this time was different.

Those who had come were all Zhuqi Realm disciples of the Three Great Sects.

The eruption of a Sword Seed possessed a sliver of the power of the seventh level of the Zhuqi Realm, and since it was a surprise sneak attack, those disciples at the second or third level of the Zhuqi Realm could not possibly survive; even if those at the fifth or sixth level were lucky enough to survive, they would inevitably be severely wounded.

"Dying for a few Zhuqi Realm disciples this time will just serve as collecting some interest," Xiao Yi said. "Next time, it will be the elders of the Three Great Sects who die. Elder Lin, go and meet with the elders of the Three Great Sects and play along with them for a while. I want to see what kind of expressions they will have when the majority of the Three Great Sects' disciples are dead or injured."

"Understood."

Lin Hanyuan bowed and turned to walk toward the edge of the plaza.

His pace was not fast, but with every step he took, his aura grew stronger; by the time he reached the edge of the plaza, he had become like a drawn sword, his killing intent soaring to the heavens.