What Is a Separated World? The Might of One Sword, As Though a Lifetime Had Passed!

At the border of Qing Province, on a vast plain.

The Great Gan Dynasty's last 300,000 defenders had gathered there. They kept the gates shut and refused to come out, guarding the final line of defense in Qing Province.

Beyond the city walls, dark clouds pressed down over the city, and killing intent soared to the heavens. A million Qing troops stretched beyond the horizon.

On the walls, the Great Gan soldiers looked ashen, their eyes filled with despair.

They knew there was no winning this battle. They were sure to lose.

The enemy had more than three times their numbers.

Worse still were the ten figures hovering above the Qing Army's ranks, looking like Gods and Devils.

They were ten Grandmasters!

The pressure they unconsciously radiated was enough to make the defenders on the walls feel suffocated.

Even the generals at the Martial Master level couldn't help but tremble with fear beneath that aura.

Just as despair was about to swallow the morale of everyone there,

a black figure appeared without warning in the very center of the battlefield between the two armies.

He wore black, but his long hair was white, making him look rather strange.

"Th-that's... who?!"

The sudden arrival made both sides stare in astonishment.

On the city walls, the Great Gan soldiers looked at the figure standing tall as a pine before a million troops, their eyes filled with confusion.

Only the generals who were Martial Masters or above trembled slightly when they saw the figure in the air.

Clearly, they all recognized the newcomer. He was their Great Gan Dynasty's Protector Grand Master.

In the Qing Army's ranks, the ten Grandmasters' pupils all contracted the instant they saw Lin Hanzhou.

Clearly, they, too, recognized him at first glance.

How could they fail to recognize the White-Haired Sword Saint who had killed two of their elders all by himself fifty years ago?

"It's him? I can't believe the world's greatest Sword Saint is still alive!"

"Hmph. The world's greatest? He was just a useless man who relied on forbidden arts."

"Exactly. We have ten Grandmasters. Even if you use forbidden arts again, you'll only be trying to stop a chariot with your arms."

"Enough talk. Let's kill him."

"Once this State Preceptor, whom they've practically deified, dies, the blow to Great Gan will surely be devastating, won't it?"

The ten overpowering auras in the Qing Army's ranks no longer held back. They surged toward Lin Hanzhou.

The ten Grandmasters surrounded Lin Hanzhou from every direction.

Their faces were alight with madness, and they looked at him as though he were prey.

What could be more thrilling than killing a living legend?

Lin Hanzhou paid no heed to their taunts.

His gaze swept calmly over the ten Grandmasters, and a glimmer of understanding passed through his eyes.

"So that's it. They took crooked paths to force their way into a counterfeit realm."

He could clearly sense the auras of the ten Grandmasters.

Their auras were powerful, but unstable, and their foundations were clearly shaky.

They were plainly different from true Grandmasters who had reached their heights through years of painstaking cultivation.

As for the precise difference in their fighting strength, Lin Hanzhou would have to put it to the test himself.

The eleven most powerful beings alive faced off in the skies, under the gaze of countless onlookers.

The collision of their terrifying auras changed the face of the heavens. Lightning flashed and thunder roared!

Below them, the million-strong army fell utterly silent.

Everyone tilted their heads back to watch the clash between immortals, a battle that would determine the fate of two nations.

"Attack!"

The ten Grandmasters of the Qing Army exchanged glances and no longer hesitated.

They had to surround and kill him with overwhelming force as quickly as possible. Otherwise, if other Grandmasters from Great Gan arrived, things would get complicated.

They wouldn't risk adding uncertainty to a battle they were sure to win.

In an instant, ten figures transformed into streaks of light in different colors and launched their deadliest assault on Lin Hanzhou all at once.

Blades flashed, swords swept, fists roared, and palms struck...

Ten distinct Grandmaster-level martial techniques, each carrying the power to destroy heaven and earth, wove into a vast net.

The attacks blotted out the sky, leaving Lin Hanzhou nowhere to dodge.

The combined assault of ten Grandmasters was enough to flatten dozens of miles around them!

Yet, faced with an encirclement that would have driven anyone to despair,

Lin Hanzhou wore an expression of disappointment, to everyone's surprise.

"Hmm... They took crooked paths to get here, but their fighting strength really is close to that of true Grandmasters. Still, they're far too weak."

He appraised the power behind the ten attacks and shook his head lightly.

Then his terrifying aura, already at the peak of the third stage, erupted without restraint!

It was an aura far beyond that of anyone present, a terrifying pressure nearly at the fourth stage.

The moment it appeared, it swept across the entire sky and crushed the ten Grandmasters' auras beneath it.

After fifty years of accumulation, his strength had long since reached an unfathomable realm.

Even if a true fourth-stage True Origin Realm martial artist appeared, he was confident he could fight them.

How much less these ten "inferior imitations," who had reached their heights only through evil arts?

Feeling the vast aura rolling off Lin Hanzhou, the ten Grandmasters were stunned.

They couldn't understand how he could possess such a terrifying aura.

Hadn't he used forbidden arts during the battle in the Capital City all those years ago, leaving himself drained and forcing him to spend fifty years in seclusion recovering?

What? The intelligence had been false?

While they were still frozen in shock, the long sword in Lin Hanzhou's hand suddenly slid from its sheath!

The Flowing Cloud Sword Technique, perfected to the highest level, shone with a radiance never seen before.

"This sword shall be called Separated World."

Lin Hanzhou murmured softly as the spiritual energy in the golden sea of qi within him surged wildly.

A sword light that seemed utterly ordinary swept outward from him in every direction.

It was neither fast nor slow, neither domineering nor sharp.

It was like the gentlest spring breeze, brushing softly past.

When the sword light passed through the bodies of the ten Grandmasters, time seemed to freeze.

The ten Grandmasters who had just been so arrogant stiffened in midair.

The expressions on their faces remained fixed at the shock and apprehension they'd shown when they sensed Lin Hanzhou's aura.

But the light in their eyes faded at a visible speed.

The battle ended in less than the time it took to burn a stick of incense.

No—from the moment Lin Hanzhou killed them to this instant, only a single breath had passed.

What was a Separated World?

The might of one sword, as though a lifetime had passed!

"Pfft..."

A rain of blood fell from the sky.

The ten Grandmasters of the Qing Army, who had boasted that they could sweep all before them, shattered like cut porcelain, breaking into countless pieces.

The fragments tumbled down from the sky.

Ten splendid heads, trailing long streaks of blood, slammed into the ranks below.

The Great Gan soldiers on the walls and the million Qing troops outside the city were utterly petrified.

Everyone's mind went blank.

H-he'd killed them in an instant?

Ten Grandmasters, a force that could have swept across the whole world, had just been killed in a single stroke by that White-Haired Sword Saint?!

After dozens of breaths of deathly silence, the million Qing troops crumbled into panic and terror.

To them, those ten Grandmasters were gods they worshipped.

And now, the gods they worshipped were dead!

"D-demon..."

Someone let out a howl filled with bottomless terror.

The entire army erupted into chaos.

With their backbone gone, they crumbled like a landslide!

Lin Hanzhou didn't stop there.

He turned his gaze on the battlefield below, at the vast sea of Qing troops, and lifted a hand to unleash a streak of Sword Qi.

Terrifying Sword Qi swept wildly across the battlefield. One strike left the Qing Army with devastating casualties, and great swathes of soldiers dissolved into clouds of blood.

Like a god of slaughter risen from the deepest pits of hell, he continued to unleash Sword Qi and massacre the million Qing troops.

He'd heard some things about what the Qing Army had done in Great Gan.

If you liked massacring cities, then I'd massacre your million-strong army.

And so, a world-shaking decisive battle turned into a one-sided slaughter!

Lin Hanzhou chased down the million Qing troops alone, leaving a river of blood and a million corpses in his wake.

After completely annihilating the Qing Army's main force, Lin Hanzhou didn't pause for a moment.

He headed north, alone, and entered Great Qing territory.

He had only one goal: Hertu, the capital of Great Qing.

He was curious what secret Great Qing possessed that had allowed it to produce ten Grandmasters in just fifty years.