Wretchedness on Mount Hua

For many ordinary people, tonight would pass after nothing more than a night's sleep. But for certain people, tonight was destined to be anything but peaceful.

The Mount Hua Sect, renowned throughout Middle-earth and wielding enormous influence in the martial world, was situated atop Heavenly Sword Peak—a fictional mountain. Heavenly Sword Peak was somewhat like Five Finger Mountain's Five Finger Peaks. However, while the Five Finger Peaks were cylindrical, Heavenly Sword Peak was flat, shaped like a colossal sword pointing straight into the heavens. Heavenly Sword Peak stood over three thousand meters high. There were only two ways up: climbing a plank path less than a meter wide, or flying on a sword.

And the first route barely counted as a route at all. Violent astral winds and turbulent currents raged around Heavenly Sword Peak, growing fiercer the higher one climbed. For ordinary people, it was simply a road to death. Only on the full-moon night that came once every ten years would the astral winds and currents vanish. That was when the Mount Hua Sect recruited disciples from the secular world. Only those who climbed to the summit of Heavenly Sword Peak with their bare hands possessed the preliminary qualifications to join the Mount Hua Sect. Every ten years, countless mortals died beneath Heavenly Sword Peak, smashed so thoroughly that not even their bones remained.

Tonight, the Mount Hua Three Heroes had finally tasted the terror of the "Mount Hua Extinction Path." Yin Kuang had destroyed all three of their storage rings. Without flying swords or message talismans, and with all three severely injured, their only way back to the Mount Hua Sect was to climb the "Mount Hua Extinction Path." After climbing for more than two hours, they had covered only one-fifth of the way. Dugu Zhong, the