Gift

Throughout the long river of history, every imperial dynasty and sect dreamed of lasting for a thousand autumns and ten thousand years, yet in the end, none could withstand time's relentless grinding, declining and falling into chaos as the years passed.

Great Yan could not escape it, nor could the sects.

A dynasty's mandate might endure for a thousand years, and countless sects had vanished soundlessly into the passage of time, but there were likewise sects that transformed amid the crises brought forth by time's flow.

Every generation brought forth its talents.

Just as Li Yaoxuan and Xu Yinhe would usher in an era of restoration for Great Yan, countless others pressed onward one after another for the rise and fall of their sects.

The Sword Sect was one of them.

Once upon a time, the Sword Sect had nearly been wiped out by internal strife and factional suppression, but now, it had already risen anew from the ashes of that calamity.

Though factional struggles inherent to a sect still remained within the Sword Sect, there was no denying the unity they had rekindled in the wake of the disaster that had nearly destroyed them.

And to protect this unity born from the calamity of annihilation, even as sect master, one could offer oneself as bait and calmly walk into a death trap in Di'an.

This was the foundation upon which the Sword Sect now stood.

They grew strong because of this unity, and because of it, they stood proudly at the pinnacle of the sects.

Therefore, even though the Sword Sect's elders had endured their chief disciple's attitude to the very limit, no one overstepped their bounds—until that news arrived from Di'an.

"E-Everyone, the Sect Master... the Sect Master is dead."

This was a pre-battle council convened by the