Over the Eastern Sea, dark clouds massed overhead, and towering waves battered the reefs scattered like stars across the water.
On the distant island, the Unknown Island Fiends sensed danger. Jabbering in an incomprehensible language, they began to panic like a swarm of bees whose hive had been struck.
Never in their wildest dreams had they imagined that the Vertical Sword Sect would find them, hidden so deep within the sea.
They usually went ashore to burn, kill, and plunder, ravaging the common people. If they encountered the Vertical Sword Sect or another powerful sect they could not defeat, they fled, then waited for a chance to find their next target.
Clad in black, every one of them was bloodthirsty and brutal, coming and going like the wind. With the coastline stretching a thousand miles, there was no way to mount an effective defense against them. The people along the Eastern Yang Kingdom's coast had suffered terribly, and their numbers had dwindled.
Across the sea, twelve ironclad warships of the Vertical Sword Sect cut through the waves. Crimson sword banners snapped at their bows, the four gold-embroidered words "Piercing heaven and earth" flickering in and out of sight in the gale.
More than a dozen warships of varying sizes stretched out in a line, while countless cultivators flew on swords overhead. From afar, they resembled dark clouds bearing down upon a stronghold, their momentum magnificent.
Xiao Buyi, an elder of the Vertical Sword Sect, stood atop the flagship's mast. The three-foot blade in his hand suddenly left its sheath, and Sword Qi transformed into a thousand-foot azure beam that pierced the heavens. This was the signal to attack. Behind Elder Shao Qingyan, three hundred Vertical Sword Sect disciples drew their swords in unison. Their Sword Qi stirred silver-scaled ripples across