Night hung low, without a star or moon.
A biting wind swept through the hall, making the lamps before the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's main hall flicker.
Sword Douluo Chen Xin stood alone atop a high eave, dressed in white.
He looked down.
Once the most prosperous and powerful support sect on the continent, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect had been a place of glory.
Now it stood deserted and in disarray.
On the broad white-jade square, only a few supply wagons remained, still waiting to be hitched to horses.
And there were dozens of young Outer Sect disciples, shivering as they prepared to flee under cover of night.
Sorrow filled Chen Xin's eyes.
Emotions churned so violently in his chest that they seemed ready to tear him apart.
The mighty Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect had fallen so far that it had to slink out of Heaven Dou City in the dark like a beaten dog!
Spirit Hall was to blame for it all.
And that ruthless witch, Qian Renxue.
"Sword Douluo... will we ever come back?"
Below him,
a child of seven or eight looked up at the white-clad swordsman. The child's young voice trembled with fear in the cold night.
"..."
Chen Xin's throat tightened. He forced down the bitterness rising in it.
In a flash, he drifted down before the child and gently rested his broad palm on the child's head.
"Go. Don't look back."
"As long as you live, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect lives on."
He urged the steward overseeing the evacuation to lead these last seeds of the sect into the secret passage.
Just as the stone door was about to close,
everything changed!
The ink-thick darkness overhead was ripped apart.
Boom!
Four terrifying waves of pressure crashed down from