Everyone Was Acting

Xiao Yi rose to his feet and reached out to grip the hilt of the Seven Kill Sword.

The blood-colored radiance on the blade suddenly surged, like crimson tentacles winding around his arm and burrowing into his skin.

Xiao Yi did not even furrow his brow. He merely closed his eyes and allowed that power to pour into his body.

A moment later.

He released the hilt. The vertical eye that had awakened between his brows was now closed, leaving behind only a slender streak of blood.

"Awakening a bloodline Divine Ability is only the beginning." Xiao Yi's voice was icy. "Since the people of the Three Great Sects have already entered the city and begun breaking the formation, we must continue acting this play out with them!"

"We do indeed have to keep acting." Lin Hanyuan nodded. "The Three Great Sects think their plan is secret and that everything is under their control, yet they do not know that we have people within their sects. We learned of their plan long ago; we have merely been acting along with them."

"Back when the Marquis reached the Grandmaster Ninth Layer, the Three Great Sects feared him. Afraid that he would break through into the realm of Martial High Grandmaster, they joined hands to plot against him. But the Marquis had deep foresight and had long since begun laying out his plans."

"More than thirty years ago, he planted death warriors and spies within the Three Great Sects. He also deliberately found a secret realm and fashioned it into the inheritance site of the Seven Kill Sword Venerable, secretly releasing word that the Seven Kill Sword and the Marquis's bloodline were needed to open it."

"But they would never have imagined that our ancestor's inheritance was not in some secret realm." Xiao Yi took over coldly. "That secret realm contains some treasures Father hid away, but our ancestor's true inheritance relies upon bloodline, and the Seven Kill Sword is the key to opening that bloodline inheritance."

"Since the Three Great Sects wish to open our ancestor's inheritance and have us blood-sacrifice a hundred thousand living beings, then we shall grant their wish."

"This time, we blood-sacrificed fifty or sixty thousand living beings, allowing Young Master to awaken the bloodline Divine Ability, the Heavenly Eye Blood Pupil. Next time, he should be able to break through into the Grandmaster Realm."

Lin Hanyuan spoke in a deep voice.

"More or less. We will endure for now." Xiao Yi nodded, a glint of cold light flashing through his eyes. "The next blood sacrifice will let me break through to the Grandmaster Realm. When the people of the Three Great Sects come again, it will be their day of death. As for this time, we will spare them for now. But we cannot let them break the formation too easily. Though everyone is acting, acting still requires people to die."

As his words fell, the slender bloodstain between Xiao Yi's brows trembled slightly, as though something were wriggling within it.

The Seven Kill Sword seemed to sense some kind of summons. The blood-colored glow on its blade grew richer, like viscous blood flowing across the sword.

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

The instant the blade left the ground, the entire formation shuddered. The formation patterns drawn in blood across the ground suddenly lit up, and an eerie red glow dyed even the sky blood-red.

Xiao Yi gripped the blade with his left hand, then pressed together the index and middle fingers of his right hand and lightly drew them across it.

The sharp edge sliced open his fingers. Blood spilled forth, yet did not fall. Instead, it was absorbed by the blade.

The Seven Kill Sword let out a low hum, as though rejoicing, yet also as though anticipating something.

Xiao Yi lifted his bloodstained fingers from the blade, then tapped at the void.

A drop of blood flew from his fingertip and hovered in the air, giving off a faint bloody glow.

Then came a second drop, a third, a fourth...

Sixteen drops of blood, like sixteen blood-red pearls, floated around Xiao Yi, flickering with eerie light beneath the blood glow.

Xiao Yi closed his eyes, and the bloodstain between his brows abruptly opened.

Heavenly Eye Blood Pupil.

Within the vertical eye, a blood-colored vortex spun rapidly. An invisible force surged from it and poured into the sixteen drops of blood.

Every drop shook violently, as though life had been infused into it. They began to expand and warp, gradually condensing into the shapes of tiny swords.

Those tiny swords were only finger-length, entirely blood-red, their blades engraved with dense runes. They exuded an aura sharing the same origin as the Seven Kill Sword.

Sword Seeds.

This was one of the Seven Kill Sword's abilities: condensing Sword Seeds.

Every Sword Seed contained a wisp of the Seven Kill Sword's sword intent and could erupt in an instant with the terrifying might of the Seventh Stage of Qi Casting.

But the price was that whoever detonated a Sword Seed would suffer backlash from that power and instantly explode to death.

This was a method for death warriors.

Only those who had reached the Sixth Layer of Qi Casting could withstand the power of a Sword Seed.

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

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

"Enough."

He raised his right hand and swept it through the air.

The sixteen Sword Seeds turned into sixteen streaks of blood-red light and flew beyond the plaza, landing before sixteen black-clad men kneeling on one knee.

Those black-clad men were all death warriors of the Seven Kill Sect. Their cultivation was all at the Ninth Layer of Body Tempering, making them perfectly suited to detonate the Sword Seeds.

They knelt on the ground with both hands raised, catching the blood-red tiny swords hovering before them. There was no fear in their eyes, only fanaticism.

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

"Yes!"

The sixteen black-clad men responded in unison.

They merged the Sword Seeds into their brows, where blood-red sword marks immediately appeared. Then they rose and sped off in different directions, vanishing into the blood-red mist in the blink of an eye.

"Young Master, sixteen Sword Seeds... The disciples sent by the Guiyuan Sect, the Blood Fiend Devil Sect, and Ten Thousand Sword Villa this time will likely suffer more than half their number killed or wounded."

Lin Hanyuan watched the black-clad men depart, unable to suppress the excitement in his voice.

For more than twenty years, they had been like rats in the gutter, hiding in the shadows and enduring in silence. After enduring for so long, they could finally slaughter to their hearts' content.

Last time in Tiannan Prefecture City, most of those they killed had been ordinary martial artists. Treasure Pavilion had only lost an insignificant steward, and not many disciples of the Three Great Sects had died.

But this time was different.

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

A Sword Seed's eruption carried a wisp of the power of the Seventh Stage of Qi Casting, and it would be a surprise attack. Those disciples at the Qi Casting Realm Second Layer or Third Layer had no chance of surviving. Even disciples at the Fifth or Sixth Layer of Qi Casting who survived by luck would surely be severely wounded.

"This time, only some Zhuqi Realm disciples will die. Consider it collecting a bit of interest." Xiao Yi said, "Next time, it will be the elders of the Three Great Sects who die. Elder Lin, go meet the elders of the Three Great Sects and act with them for a while. I want to see what expressions they wear when more than half of their disciples are killed or wounded."

"Yes."

Lin Hanyuan bowed, then turned and walked beyond 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 was like a sharp sword drawn from its sheath, his killing intent piercing the heavens.