"Oh no, this is bad! The Sword Fiend used armor-breaking true intent to smash straight through Brother Dugu's Sword Domain!"
Liu Gu, the youth from the Xiaoyao Sect, cried out as he watched several Sword Shadows, blazing like pillars of fire, summoned by the Sword Fiend break through the chessboard sword domain Dugu Qingxiao had laid out on the Sword Platform.
Yet before anyone could react, Dugu Qingxiao's head flew from his neck amid the fierce sword light.
Then A Meng gripped the sword hilt at his waist and said gravely:
"Everyone, whoever the Sword Chief Ranking selects, please be sure to save Dugu Qingxiao!"
A Meng paused, then said solemnly once more:
"Saving him means saving ourselves!"
He said this because, in the Sword Inquiries to come, everyone present would face the situation before them.
Their only hope of surviving would be for the next person to take the stage for a Sword Inquiry to save them.
Everyone nodded in unison and stepped forward, ready to act.
Only Xu Taiping remained standing where he was, staring without blinking at Dugu Qingxiao's severed head and body on the Sword Platform.
"Thud!"
Just then, Dugu Qingxiao's head struck the ground heavily.
The scene was almost identical to when the Sword Fiend had beheaded Qi Po, the Yellow Maple Valley disciple.
The difference was that, even after Dugu Qingxiao's head hit the ground, the Sword Chief Ranking above the Sword Platform still had not announced the next Sword Inquiry cultivator from True Martial Heaven.
"Clang!"
Just as A Meng and the others were puzzling over this, another sword cry rang out. A streak of sword light shaped like blazing flames broke through the clouds above the Sword Platform and plunged straight toward the spot where Dugu Qingxiao's physical body and primordial spirit