The whispering autumn rain turned heaven and earth a misty blue-black.
Waves battered the edge of the thousand-zhang stone terrace again and again. Hundreds of boats rose and fell with the swell, and the entire lake sank into deathly silence.
Under ten thousand watching eyes, a grizzled old man in an armored skirt, his powerful upper body bare, walked toward the towering, inscriptionless stele with steps as weighty as mountains. His expression showed neither pleasure nor anger, but the fierce-eyed qilin ornament at his waist seemed like an enormous beast coiled around him, gazing down at the countless ants below the terrace.
Those who had come to Junshan Terrace to watch the spectacle were not merely lowly wanderers of the martial world. Drawn by Qiu Tianhe's reputation, practically all the heroes of Zezhou and even the surrounding regions had come.
On the nearest large ferries were martial heroes from Thousand Crane Manor in Tuzhou, Jiangzhou Xiaoshan Fort, and even Southern Heaven. Had Wu Prefecture not just suffered a major upheaval and been struggling to protect itself, probably half the leaders of the Twelve Gates of Wu Prefecture would have come.
As Xuanyuan Chao, who had occupied the position of Blade Overlord for nearly fifty years, appeared, everyone emerged from the cabin buildings. Greetings rose one after another:
"Hero Xuanyuan..."
"It's been several years, but the Divine Marquis is as magnificent as ever..."
Xuanyuan Chao's long hair stirred in the wind. He did not respond to the younger martial artists, whether he knew them or not. His hawklike eyes merely fixed on the little black-canopied boat wedged among the others.
On the boat, Qiu Tianhe ignored the shocked looks of the little bastards and stood calmly at the bow:
"Xuanyuan Chao, last year your son bribed disciples of the Sky-Pacifying