Everyone was shaken to the core.
Even with the sword spirits dormant and their baleful radiance withdrawn, the vicious yin and yang aura rooted deep in the swords' marrow through a thousand years of blood sacrifices still seeped out in wisps like an invisible, chilling wind. It faintly resonated with the killing intent lingering on Xiao Zhu, and its presence was identical to that of the sword light that had soared from Changlong Workshop last night and fled far to the northwest!
Taken together with the terrifying clashes of sword qi they had dimly sensed within the seal...
And Xiao Zhu's bizarre, half-male, half-female state at the end...
No further words were needed. The truth struck every Swordforging City disciple's heart like a thunderbolt!
Xiao Jueyan swayed violently, as though he had aged ten years in an instant.
He stared fixedly at his unconscious niece on the ground, then looked at the two evil swords. His lips quivered, and his voice trembled with disbelief, grief, and indignation. "Zhu... she... she was the one..."
Facing everyone's astonished, suspicious, and furious gazes, Lu Changfeng slowly nodded and gave a concise account of his conversation with "Xiao Zhu" inside the Violet Star Sealing Boundary.
Matter by matter, deed by deed, he peeled away the tangled threads, revealing a horrifying truth.
As Lu Changfeng spoke, Xiao Jueyan and Xiao Juelan grew increasingly pale. The shock in their eyes gradually gave way to overwhelming grief, anger, and even a trace of disbelief at the absurdity of it all.
"A woman... she was actually a woman..."
Xiao Juelan murmured, the muscles in his face twitching. "Our eldest brother kept this from us for so many years... If it was to secure the position of city lord, that would have been one thing. But he had already