Huan, Dream, Hui

A mouth directly before the skeleton opened, releasing a soul-snaring demonic voice. "Great Dream Venerable actually stumbled at the hands of a mere child this time. How interesting! How interesting!"

The Great Dream mask trembled. Eerie red gleams seemed to shoot from the sealed eyeholes. The skeleton gave a sinister chuckle, and vicious green light shot from its bones as well. The two rays met, only to recoil at once.

"Gu Qianchen! Your cultivation has risen again!" Great Dream Venerable stared at the mountain-like skeleton. Twisted words from the 'Sage's Blood Scripture' appeared upon its bone face: 'The people are precious' was followed by 'blood is fat,' while 'the peril of mountain streams' joined 'securing the state and guarding its borders.' Tiny blood-red characters flashed into view, then vanished.

Great Dream Venerable sneered repeatedly and withdrew the red light from his eyes.

"Father, what is there to fear from a mere human? I want to go this time too!" A youth clad in bone armor emerged from behind, bowed to Great Dream Venerable, and regarded the ugly skeleton with immense reverence.

"Very well. My son's cultivation is already nearing the third realm of Qi Refinement. It is time for him to descend the mountain and gain experience!" Gu Qianchen laughed loudly, his voice like countless skeletons crashing together—piercing and unbearable.

Great Dream Venerable frowned. "Hundred-Skeleton, this mission is critical. Do not let the children get involved. We already failed once half a month ago, and both the Zhou Kingdom's upper ranks and the cult leader were furious."

"No need for concern. My son can protect himself. He will merely go together with your people." That skeleton was none other than Hundred-Skeleton Scholar, master of the Heavenly Fragrance Palace and one of the Heavenly Devil Palace's six great palace masters.

Hundred-Skeleton Scholar had cultivated formidable demonic arts, even using several thousand human skeletons to refine himself into a half-demonic body. No one saw him turn, yet like a living mountain of corpses and bones, he slowly moved away and vanished into the rear.

Shangguan Hui secretly glanced at the light screen and pleaded with Qiwu Huiming beside him, "Martial Uncle, save me!"

"What do you want?" Qiwu Huiming sneered inwardly.

"Martial Uncle, please speak up for me and have me transferred from this mission! I will never forget this great kindness. One day, I'll definitely ask my father!" Shangguan Hui kept begging. "Please!"

Qiwu Huiming nodded and smiled at the light screen. "Venerable Lord, Shangguan will be handling some matters with me over the next few days. Could the Venerable make an exception?"

"It is rare for you to make a request, sir." Great Dream Venerable nodded. Shangguan Hui felt as if he had received a pardon. "Thank you, Venerable! Thank you, sir!"

"Yan Chen, my child! With your cultivation, this journey should have been safe enough, but to ensure absolute certainty, I shall send several people with you!" Great Dream Venerable clapped lightly, and four tall, savage-looking men stepped forward.

"Cao Huan, Cao Lie, Zhao Tanlang, Qin Xiong... Palace Master, you are truly willing to send them!" Shangguan Hui exclaimed in shock.

"Third Brother died miserably at the hands of those little bastards from the Four Swords Sect. How can this hatred go unavenged?" Cao Huan's expression was calm, without a trace of killing intent. Cao Lie, however, roared furiously, "Big Brother is right! We'll go and slice that thief into a thousand pieces!"

Yan Chen frowned. "We are only killing a few brats in the first realm. Why send such a massive force?"

Qin Xiong sneered. "Yan Chen, don't think that because your father is a palace master, you can do whatever you please. We brothers have never regarded trash like you—someone whose strength was piled up to the second realm with Blood Soul Pills—as worth anything!"

"You dare!" Yan Chen flew into a rage. Bone spikes suddenly burst forth. Qin Xiong roared as the enormous phantom of a gray bear appeared behind him. Both men staggered back a step. Qin Xiong's left shoulder was injured, while Yan Chen bore only faint claw marks. Yan Chen sneered. "Didn't you say I was trash? Why can't you even defeat this piece of trash?"

"I'll cripple you right now!" Qin Xiong raged. A large hand pressed onto his shoulder, and cold sweat instantly appeared on his face. "Big Brother!"

Cao Huan patted his shoulder lightly and said in a deep voice, "The Palace Master is here. Do not act recklessly!"

Great Dream Venerable gave a few dry laughs and seized Qin Xiong and Yan Chen's hands. "You are fellow disciples. You must not slaughter one another. If I learn otherwise, I shall cast you into dreams until your killing intent has been worn away and you willingly beg forgiveness! Nephew, do not make things difficult for your uncle!"

Qin Xiong and Yan Chen both recoiled in terror. "We wouldn't dare! We wouldn't dare!"

"Go!"

Great Dream Venerable waved his hand, and more than fifty shadows flew out of the Heavenly Devil Palace!

"One at the peak of the ninth rank of the second realm, and four at the eighth rank of the second realm. Hehe, what a grand display!" Qiwu Huiming raised his thumb. Great Dream Venerable smiled, then cast a sidelong glance through the light screen at Shangguan Hui, who was kneeling on the ground opposite.

"This disciple takes his leave!"

Shangguan Hui backed away. As he closed the door, he secretly peeked inside and saw that Great Dream Venerable on the light screen had actually removed his mask.

That old bastard actually gave Martial Uncle Qiwu so much face!

Shangguan Hui did not dare linger. He hurried back to his room, shut the door, and took a pill from his robes. "Within the Nine Provinces, everyone below the third realm of Qi Refinement is weak. I must raise my strength as quickly as possible! I cannot continue wasting my days in idleness as before. A true man should roam unchecked beneath heaven!"

Shangguan Hui stared at the pill, gritted his teeth, and swallowed it. Within moments, his entire face had turned purplish red. Veins bulged across his arms, and his swollen, bloodshot eyes protruded as if they might burst at any moment!

"Hahaha, Shangguan trash! Here again to sponge a meal off my family?"

"Bastard child, your father didn't want you, and your mother ran off with another man! You still have the nerve to keep living?"

Childhood memories continually surfaced in Shangguan Hui's mind. Pain drove him to his knees upon the carpet. Clenching his teeth and fists, trembling, he drew a snake-egg-like object from his robes and crawled inside it!

Within the snake egg, the mocking laughter became a hundred times louder. Shangguan Hui laughed hideously, as though he had become that youth once more, a butcher's blade in hand, setting fire to the entire clan estate on a dark and stormy night!

"Brother Shangguan! Don't! Please don't kill me! Don't..." The steel blade fell, and blood splashed across his face and lapels. Tears and snot streamed down Shangguan Hui's face as he threw back his head and laughed, his heart filled with indescribable grief and exhilaration.

"You forced me to do this!" Shangguan Hui opened his eyes. The illusion dispersed, and the pill refined from countless blood relatives of the Shangguan Clan transformed into surging tides of blood. Heaven-shaking cries and wails rose from within them.

"Shangguan Hui! You will come to no good end!"

"Shangguan Hui! You slaughtered an entire branch of our clan! One day, heavenly lightning will strike you down!"

"Shangguan Hui! So what if you killed us? You are still a bastard in the end! A bastard! Hahahaha!"

Shangguan Hui's heart pounded vast and powerful, unmoved. Endless tides of blood wrapped around him. "When mosquitoes gather, they become thunder; when many mouths speak, they melt gold. Yet your words do me no harm—they are instead wise counsel that tempers the strength of my heart!"

The Nine-Serpent Heavenly Cocoon upon the bed occasionally emitted a blood-red glow!

Just as the demonic sect's people and the Han Court deceived one another and plotted against each other, Jie Xiao, whose cultivation had been sealed by Xiao Jinyu, sat beneath the great waterfall of Azure Peak Mountain in the Qin Empire. He had completely sealed his own power, allowing the icy water to batter his muscular body!

"That Xiao Jinyu is truly terrifying!" When Jie Xiao opened his eyes, a ring of radiance appeared within three feet of him. "I failed this mission. If I return, it will only be a dead end. Though my comprehension is still insufficient, I can still make a gamble... Hm?"

A paper crane flew toward the waterfall.

Jie Xiao closed his eyes again, and the radiance around him merged into the waterfall! His body vanished into thin air!

"Jie Xiao!" The paper crane spoke human words. It searched carefully for several miles but found no trace of him, then immediately flew back in the opposite direction!

As the paper crane crossed Azure Peak Mountain and flew eastward, its crane eyes caught sight of the Four Swords Sect party upon the official road in Guanhe Commandery of the Qin Kingdom!

"Brother Lei, you wouldn't tell me before when I asked. Why are we taking a detour, traveling west from the Han Empire into Qin Kingdom territory? Isn't that like driving south to go north?" Liu Yunshen asked.

Lei Zhaoye smiled. "I did not explain it to you in detail a few days ago because I feared someone might overhear us on the road."

"Younger Brother Liu still doesn't know, does he? Hehe, I'll tell you!" Cai Yuelin draped an arm around his shoulder, leaned close to Liu Yunshen's ear, and smiled. "The Four Swords Sect plans to establish its main headquarters within Qin Kingdom territory. So there is no need to return to the Myriad Swords Sect. Heading west is actually closer!"

"So that was it!" Liu Yunshen suddenly understood.

"The time has come. We can tell Younger Brother Liu plainly now, right?" Gong Liefeng looked toward the others. When he saw them all nod, he grinned. "Younger Brother Liu, do you know why the Four Swords Sect would rather turn from great sects into lesser sects, yet insist on leaving the Myriad Swords Sect?"

"Why?" Liu Yunshen asked.

"Because among the Myriad Swords Sect's upper ranks, there is now a group of people no different from the Heavenly Demon Sect!" Cao Langao sighed, tears appearing at the corners of her eyes.

"Why is that? How could the foremost sword sect beneath heaven associate with the demonic sects?" Liu Yunshen was stunned.

"Younger Brother, that is where you are mistaken. It is not that the Myriad Swords Sect keeps company with the demonic sects—it is even worse than that!" Lei Zhaoye sighed.

"Those old men who sit high above everyone else have all gone mad for ascension!" Gong Liefeng gritted his teeth in hatred.

"Several hundred years ago, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth had already begun to show signs of drying up and decaying. The changes have been especially drastic over the past few decades. My father, Lei Zhouyue, has a medicinal field. Fifty years ago, when my great-great-grandfather was still alive, he personally watered it every day, and it produced over a thousand spiritual plants of all kinds each year. But in recent years, that number has plummeted to barely more than three hundred!" Lei Zhaoye sighed.

"Sect Master Lei's cultivation has stagnated recently. Is that related to this medicinal field as well?" Cao Langao asked softly.

Lei Zhaoye nodded. "My father has been stuck at the seventh rank of the fourth realm of Qi Refinement for decades. Every increase in rank consumes a sea of medicinal materials, while the sect is facing a gap in generations. Most younger disciples have even remained at the initial rank of the first realm of Qi Refinement. My father is all the more reluctant to use those pills himself, and gives most of them to the disciples instead!"

"Is my father any different?" Gong Liefeng sighed. "He mastered the Gale Thirty-Six Forms long ago, but whenever he tries to go further and merge the thirty-six forms into the Eight Winds, Eight Methods, he always fails due to the limits of medicinal power!"

"Ai! My father is the same!" Cai Yuelin sighed.

"Senior Brother Gong's father, Gong Haoyue, is the master of Mount Dai Sword Pavilion. Senior Brother Lei's father, Senior Lei Zhouyue, is the master of Nine Songs Sword Court. The other two sects are Celestial Pivot Sword Hall and Frostblade Sword Alliance!" Cao Langao explained softly from the side.

"Mm, Junior Brother Cai comes from Celestial Pivot Sword Hall!" Liu Yunshen nodded inwardly. But one person is still missing!

"Younger Brother Ouyang did not come this time!" Lei Zhaoye sighed.

"That's right! If Big Brother Ouyang Qingcang had come, our group of five new-generation geniuses from the Four Great Sword Sects would have been complete!" Cai Yuelin giggled. Cao Langao covered her mouth and smiled. Before she could speak, a delicate female voice laughed, "Oh my, I'm no genius. I merely came along with Senior Brother Gong..."

Cao Langao and Gong Liefeng flew into a rage. "Cai Yuelin, get back here!"

Cai Yuelin burst into laughter. "You turn your face faster than pages in a book! I flee for my life!"

"Hey! Who said someone was still missing? This young master is here!"

The four looked up. A tall, lean, handsome youth in an outrageously flashy cloak leaped down from above and landed in the middle of the road. He stepped forward and threw his arms around them. "Brother Lei, Junior Brother Cai, Senior Brother Gong, did you miss me?"

Their faces turned pale with terror as they shouted, "Leave, quickly!"

Ouyang Qingcang was shocked and enraged. "You're driving me away the instant we meet! Are you people even brothers?"

"Ignorant brat! You can't leave now!"

Five carriages abruptly emerged from beneath the earth. A noose flew from each carriage, lashing toward Ouyang Qingcang's neck and limbs!

"Watch out!" Gong Liefeng cried in terror. He shoved Ouyang Qingcang away, but was caught by the ropes himself!

The carriages raced in five directions, like white rainbows piercing the sun and wild thunder charging forth. A ripping explosion erupted across the field!

Gong Liefeng's head and body were torn apart, his corpse dismembered on the spot!!