The young master of the Liu Household in Green Mountain County was Bai Nishang's husband.
He was a cultivator with decent talent, and his marriage to Bai Nishang was purely an alliance between lineages.
His father hoped to use him to curry favor with the White Household, so he was marrying Bai Nishang despite her lack of cultivation talent.
But events were spiraling out of control.
Although no one had told him outright, he keenly realized that the wife he was about to bring home had some formidable connections!
As a first-layer Foundation Establishment cultivator, he had sensed unsettling auras within the wedding procession.
Nearly two hundred people had arrived in a grand, sweeping procession.
Just as he received Bai Nishang and all the guests gathered to see the bride off-
"Found you!"
The next instant, a piercing sword cry rang out:
Clang!
Li Yang drew his sword.
He had been roaming through the wedding procession and had finally discovered someone leaking faint threads of killing intent toward him.
It was a mortal.
But why would a mortal show killing intent toward him?
There was no discussion, not even a moment's hesitation.
Li Yang moved to a safe distance from the man, then suddenly struck.
His sword came out too swiftly for the man to react.
Shhk!
Someone had been killed!
The man was split in two down the middle, sending the nearby members of the wedding procession into terrified screams.
Su Hen and the other five Sword Cultivators immediately gathered around.
"A Baleful Demon! A Heretic Cultivators with a Dao Alliance bounty!" Su Hen recognized him.
Killing a Heretic Cultivators hiding in the crowd should have been a good thing.
But this was a wedding day, when bloodshed and killing were strictly taboo.
The White Household patriarch's expression turned utterly ugly.
He approached, visibly displeased. "Why didn't you report it? We could have surrounded and captured him. Today is my daughter's wedding day. Surely you know that bloodshed clashes with wedding blessings? Even the animals for the banquet were slaughtered beforehand."
Su Hen hurried to speak up for Li Yang. "Please don't take offense, Patriarch Bai. He was merely too eager."
But Li Yang looked the patriarch straight in the eye.
"I came here to slay fiends and uphold the Dao. What's wrong with killing a Heretic Cultivators to liven things up for you?"
Li Yang's forceful response left the White Household patriarch choking on his words.
He also feared the powerful backing behind Li Yang.
He could only invoke Bai Nishang. "Even if you won't do it for my sake, surely you should do it for Nishang's?"
He refused to believe Li Yang would dare deny his daughter that courtesy.
But-
Li Yang's voice was indifferent. "I came to slay fiends and uphold the Dao. How many times do you need me to say it?"
Those words chilled the atmosphere throughout the gathering.
Beneath her red bridal veil, Bai Nishang's pretty face twisted with anger.
Even the Liu Household's young master, Liu Hao, said nothing, but Xuan Shi stepped forward.
"How dare you! You-"
"Shut up!" Li Yang cut him off coldly. "Once we leave the city, I'll cut you down!"
Seeing the situation threaten to escalate further, the White Household patriarch hurried to smooth things over.
"Let it go, let it go. This young friend only meant well for my daughter. Slaying fiends and upholding the Dao is a fine thing. As he said, killing an Evil Fiend livens things up for everyone."
There was nothing else he could do.
Li Yang was too arrogant to give anyone face.
But that only suggested his backing was all the more terrifying.
Ning Xinyao, standing nearby, had already grown numb to it.
The longer she spent with this junior brother, the more she experienced the pleasures of a life in which one never swallowed even the slightest loss.
Yet if someone called him cold and unapproachable, he could chat with a maidservant all night.
The wedding ceremony proceeded as normal.
Soon, the appointed hour arrived, and after collecting the bride, the wedding procession set off.
As a cultivator, Liu Hao summoned a massive flying boat, with more than enough room for several hundred people.
He had borrowed it from a senior in his sect, and it made a suitably grand display.
Liu Hao was handsome and reasonably talented.
But he could clearly feel that his wife-to-be treated him very coldly.
That was only natural.
He looked at the so-called guards on the deck, especially Xuan Shi, the Golden Eyes male cultivator, and the male cultivator in a feathered crown and brocade robes, and could not help feeling ashamed of his own inferiority.
The flying boat left Yongning Commandery.
Li Yang drew his sword and pointed it at Xuan Shi, his voice icy.
"I told you I'd cut down your true body too! Do you dare step outside and fight me to the death?"
Xuan Shi's brows knitted together.
"Reckless!" He snorted coldly. "I can't be bothered to waste my strength on you. This is when we guards need to do our part. I must preserve my strength to face any danger that arises and protect Miss Nishang."
In truth, he had no confidence.
This sword maniac was terrifying.
Although his cultivation was low, an opponent with terrifying offensive power and ample combat experience was more than capable of threatening his life.
Li Yang sheathed his sword without pressing further or trying to goad him.
Xuan Shi deserved death, but he was not a Heretic Cultivators, after all. Li Yang needed to conserve his strength.
Yongning Commandery was two to three hundred li from Green Mountain County. Flying on his sword, Li Yang could have covered the distance in less than two hours.
But the enormous flying boat would take at least four hours.
It was just as Li Yang had expected.
As they passed over a desolate mountain range, he sensed a sudden surge of killing intent.
Within the mountain forests, evil fiend auras revealed themselves one after another.
Between the mountains, a massive formation lit up with glaring, blood-red spiritual light.
Boom!
The formation thundered, firing an enormous blood-red beam of devastating power.
"Damn it! How did they know we'd take this route?!" Xuan Shi gritted his teeth.
"Only Miss Nishang and the White Household patriarch knew the route. Even the groom, Liu Hao, was simply following the planned map."
"A Blood Spirit Array this massive couldn't have been set up overnight. With such precise calculations, could it be...?"
As Ning Xinyao and the other cultivators sprang into action, the mysterious male cultivator in the feathered crown and brocade robes seized the opportunity to rush straight toward Bai Nishang's room on the flying boat's top level.
Bai Nishang seemed to have been ready for some time.
The mysterious cultivator did not even need to snatch her; she leaped into his arms herself.
At the sight, Li Yang narrowed his eyes, and terrifying killing intent instantly spread around him.
"We've all been duped! Run! Don't try to withstand it!" Someone was the first to flee the flying boat.
"Damn it! That bastard had already won Miss Nishang over. He actually pulled it off!"
"What about these mortals?"
"Forget them! This Blood Spirit Slaughtering Array can blast even a Golden Core cultivator to death. If we withstand it head-on, we'll still have to deal with these Evil Fiends afterward!"
Li Yang had no interest in how the mysterious cultivator had won Bai Nishang over.
From that scene, he deduced two important things.
First, the mysterious cultivator was undoubtedly in league with the attacking Evil Fiends. He might even be their leader.
He deserved death!
Second, Bai Nishang had privately pledged herself to him and leaked their route, allowing him to spend days preparing this slaughtering array and condemn hundreds of people.
She deserved death too!
"Junior brother, what do we do?" Ning Xinyao asked through gritted teeth.
Despite being at the Foundation Establishment Seventh Layer, she instinctively turned to Li Yang when faced with such danger.
Li Yang immediately shouted, "Abandon the flying boat! Everyone, take the mortals with you and get out of here!"
The cultivators who had yet to leave hesitated at his words.
"But what about these Evil Fiends? How can we fight them while carrying mortals?"
Li Yang drew his Spirit Sword.
His gaze turned to Su Hen and the other five sword envoys of the Sword Alliance.
"Leave them all to us! We Sword Cultivators came here to slay fiends and uphold the Dao!"
For some reason-
Li Yang's words seemed to contain a strange power that made those who heard him obey instinctively.
Perhaps it was the strength he had displayed.
Or perhaps his tone was so resolute that people instinctively followed him.
"Do you have a Formation Plate?" Li Yang asked.
Su Hen brought forth a ritual wheel engraved with a seven-star pattern. It was a Formation Plate that could create a formation in midair when activated.
"This is the Seven-Star Sword Formation-fellow Daoist, please enter!"
Li Yang stepped into the formation, and the seven of them instantly united as one.
They charged straight out of the flying boat.
With Su Hen guiding the formation, he led Li Yang and the other five Sword Cultivators into the ranks of the Evil Fiends.
There were more than thirty Evil Fiends, and they immediately came under a coordinated assault.
Ning Xinyao and the other cultivators seized the opportunity to bring out their Magic Treasures and flee the Flying Boat with the mortals in tow.
Rumble!
The Blood Spirit Slaughtering Array blasted the flying boat into fragments, like a brilliant firework.
Liu Hao sighed as he looked in the direction Bai Nishang had gone.
What had he done to deserve this?
His fiancée had run off with another man.
The massive flying boat he had borrowed from a senior had been destroyed too.
Even he himself now faced the threat of the Evil Fiends...
Wait!
Why were those Evil Fiends fleeing in rout?
Before you continue