It must have come from a roadside wildflower; it was tiny.
Besides, he had raced a thousand miles overnight in such haste that he had failed to notice it.
He picked up the petal.
He strolled outside and tossed it into a clump of red flowers.
Dust to dust, earth to earth.
He checked his blue-green robe several more times, making sure no trace of dirt remained.
Only then did he breathe a little easier and continue honing his sword heart.
Until...
Footsteps rang out.
[A teacher for a day is a father for life. Only filial devotion that has gone astray is good filial devotion. You discover that your eldest disciple before you is a beauty among ten thousand, listed on the Rouge Ranking. Moreover, the sword can hum softly, adding to the pleasure. Evil thoughts immediately rise within you...]
Accompanied by the narration, Fang Yang stepped into the great hall.
At a glance, he spotted the aloof figure.
Then he met a pair of eyes.
Clear, fathomless, sharp.
At that very first glance.
He felt as though a sword had torn heaven and earth apart.
And slashed straight at him.
The sword was blue-green, like clear water, moving very slowly.
Yet there was nowhere to dodge.
It nearly drove him to collapse.
Until... a dark golden light flashed within his mind.
Only then did he fully regain his senses.
His heart crawled with dread.
As expected of the eldest disciple he had personally trained.
Ninth on the heavenly ranking!
Truly terrifying!
Fortunately, the Demon Venerable had already reached the four-leaf dharmakaya realm.
His spiritual sense had been tempered along with it.
Even with all his cultivation dispersed.
He still retained some ability to protect himself.
But he was still deeply shaken.
He could sense that his disciple had not deliberately tested him.
He had merely been tempering his sword heart.
When he opened his eyes, a wisp of Sword Qi had naturally escaped.
Yet even that had almost been too much for Fang Yang to withstand.
Had his disciple truly meant to test him, he would already have been lying on the floor.
The greater the danger, the greater the madness!
The greater the madness, the greater the calm!
Fang Yang quickly suppressed his shock.
Following the Demon Venerable's usual behavior as recorded in the diary, he walked toward his disciple with a dark expression.
An overbearing aura of disdain for all beneath heaven still clung to him.
When he reached his disciple, he curled his lips.
Revealing a savage smile.
"My dear disciple, you truly are devoted."
"I hear you raced a thousand miles back to the sect after learning I had spent a month in closed-door seclusion."
"As your master, I am truly touched."
As he spoke, he reached out to slip an arm around his disciple's waist.
He intended to keep up the act.
But in the next instant...
Hum, hum, hum!
A waterlike longsword abruptly left its sheath.
Its keen radiance almost lit up the entire hall.
And stabbed straight toward the point between his brows!
Chapter 4: Lie Face Down There!
Sword light suffused the air, clear waters rippling.
At that moment, Fang Yang's mind went utterly blank. He felt that of everything in the world, only this one sword remained.
It sealed off every avenue of retreat.
And so he stood rooted to the spot like a tree stump.
His hands were clasped behind his back.
His black robe, woven from celestial silkworm silk, billowed in the wind.
Together with the cold, cruel expression still frozen on his face.
He looked utterly domineering.
Hum!
The sword's humming gradually faded.
The blue-green longsword returned to its sheath, and Ye Qinghong stood there in a daze.
He looked at Fang Yang, who was staring at him indifferently, his expression utterly unchanged.
He gently bit his crimson lip.
He had raced a thousand miles solely to slay his master!
He had returned this time to probe his master's true condition, then betray his teacher and destroy his lineage!
The world knew only that the fiend had five great disciples.
Each was stunningly gifted and renowned throughout a region.
What no one knew was that these five disciples hated the fiend to their very bones, to the point that only death could end their feud.
They had all been raised and trained by the fiend himself.
They had endured endless torment, beaten and berated at the slightest provocation.
Their sole purpose in living was to kill-to kill for the fiend!
At first, they could still bear it.
They had even accepted it willingly.
After all, the fiend was their master.
Until they learned a hidden secret.
The reason the fiend had taken them as disciples and painstakingly taught them peerless divine arts.
Was merely that he coveted their special physiques and wanted to refine them into puppets.
The stronger they became, the stronger the puppets would be.
From beginning to end, they had been nothing more than tools. There had never been any bond between master and disciple.
Moreover, to prevent them from betraying him.
The fiend had even secretly uncovered their families' whereabouts.
And brought them under his control in secret.
Over the years, to escape the fiend.
The five of them had racked their brains for every possible scheme and attempted to assassinate him several times.
Yet not one attempt had succeeded.
Most of those supposed opportunities had been openings the fiend deliberately exposed.
To test them and put them in their place.
All these years, the fiend had understood their intentions perfectly, yet treated them with utter disdain.
Because his strength was enough to sweep aside everything and crush any rebellious intent.
But even so...
They had never lost heart. Whenever they seized even the slightest opportunity, they would risk everything to try.
Just as this time, after learning that the fiend had been in seclusion for a month and might well have suffered cultivation deviation, Ye Qinghong had hurried back.
Hoping to assassinate him!
In the end, this was still his master's trap.
That gaze, as fathomless as an abyss,
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