A crushing sword strike blasted forth, and just as the Spirit Jade Sect's sect master had feared, no one had the strength to contend with it.
Under that sword strike, several King Realm elders spat blood on the spot. The sect master himself suffered grievous injuries, half his arm sheared away as he collapsed, vomiting blood repeatedly. The inanimate grounds of the Spirit Jade Sect fared even worse...
All around, as far as the eye could see, more than half the once-rich and prosperous Spirit Jade Sect grounds had become rubble. Countless disciples caught in the aftermath of the sword technique fled in panic. Blood and screams were everywhere, and the survivors fell to their knees, kowtowing without cease.
"Senior, spare us! Senior, please spare us!"
"We know we were wrong, Senior! Please stop! This has nothing to do with us!"
The Spirit Jade Sect's square lay in utter disarray.
Looking at it all, Lin Xuan found it laughable.
These people truly had not taken his earlier words seriously...
Had he not given these people time to leave?
The Spirit Jade Sect's sect master stuffed a Flesh-Regrowing, Bone-Mending Pill into his mouth. Fighting through the pain, he stood and demanded in anguish.
"Senior! You slaughter our Spirit Jade Sect and wantonly pile up sins of killing. Aren't you afraid the fellow cultivators of the seven nations will call you to account?"
"Do you have no sense of right and wrong in your heart, no distinction between good and evil?"
He accused him indignantly, "Yes, I resented your disciple for killing my son, but your disciple killed my son first! I only wanted justice."
Lin Xuan nearly laughed at his words, then felt bored and sick of them.
Now he wanted to discuss right and wrong with him. When he had sent people to seize his disciple that day, had he ever considered whether he was right or wrong, or whether he had reason on his side?
Everything he was saying now was utter nonsense!
So-called reason had always rested on one's fists. The harder the fist, the stronger the argument.
Lin Xuan had realized that long ago.
The Spirit Jade Sect's sect master was merely putting on a reasonable front now because he knew he could not win by force. Had Lin Xuan's sword not been sharp enough today, the sect master would never have given him a chance to explain, even if he had a thousand, ten thousand reasons on his side.
Just then, the Spirit Jade Sect's sect master, his face a picture of grief and indignation, suddenly revealed cruel delight and excitement in his eyes, believing he had concealed them well.
Behind Lin Xuan, a white-haired elder with a youthful complexion and a gaunt face appeared soundlessly, reaching for the back of Lin Xuan's head.
His hand resembled an eagle's talon, a trace of uncanny power clinging to it. As it drew closer inch by inch, the watching sect master's nostrils flared with excitement.
Ancestor-!
The wind stirred without a sound.
No one saw how Lin Xuan moved. In the blink of an eye, he appeared a short distance away, while the elder standing behind his former position...
A round head rolled to the Spirit Jade Sect's sect master's feet. A sinister smile of a successful scheme still lingered on that aged face, yet it was forever frozen in terror, eyes wide in death.
"Ancestor!!!"
Overcome with grief, the Spirit Jade Sect's sect master let out a wretched scream and nearly fainted on the spot.
That was their sect's ancestor, an existence at the King Realm fifth level!
He had actually... actually died just like that?
Not only was the Spirit Jade Sect's sect master heartbroken, even the other disciples and elders who remained conscious were struck speechless with shock.
This was their sect's ancestor, the source of their confidence.
Yet he had been...
Killed with a single stroke?
Was this a dream?
"The ancestor was... was beheaded... with one stroke?"
Someone murmured that despairing truth in a dreamlike voice, and those words instantly broke the utter silence.
Shock! Terror! Both descended at once, leaving every disciple as grief-stricken as if they had lost their parents, and trembling with fear.
"Run... run!!!"
Another unknown voice spoke, setting the chaos in motion.
Once one person fled for their life, ten followed, then a hundred.
Countless disciples no longer cared about their sect's honor. Thinking only of their lives, they scattered, fleeing wretchedly with blood covering their heads and faces.
The farther they fled, the better. The Spirit Jade Sect was certain to fall today!
Countless disciples wiped away tears and looked back, staring blankly at their former sect, only to see a field of ruins...
Who could have imagined that the Spirit Jade Sect, so prosperous not long ago and ranked among the Dawn Empire's first-rate sects, would be razed on the spot by a mysterious sword cultivator-one man, one sword...
Gazing at the figure standing amid the ruins, many disciples shuddered. A bone-piercing chill filled their hearts, and they fled even faster.
This scene, this man, would undoubtedly cast a shadow over the rest of their lives. It might even become a heart demon!
And Lin Xuan... did not care at all!
He paid no mind to the ordinary disciples fleeing, but none of those he had set his sights on would survive by luck.
"Senior, I..."
Alarm bells exploded in the Spirit Jade Sect's sect master's mind when Lin Xuan looked over. He instinctively tried to say something, hoping to buy himself another moment of life.
"Noisy."
Lin Xuan had no wish to hear the final ramblings of a doomed man.
Without hesitation, he struck. His sword intent was razor-sharp as he severed the sect master's head, sending him to reunite with his ancestor in the underworld.
Then the wind ceased, and the sword stopped.
Many elders sighed in relief, secretly wiping away cold sweat.
The chief culprit was dead. Surely this god of slaughter would stop now?
The elders who had shared the sect master's hatred and cursed Wang Yan as a little bastard forgot everything they had said earlier. They ceaselessly cursed the deceased sect master for bringing such a god of slaughter upon the Spirit Jade Sect.
But their relief did not last long.
The sword hovering beside Lin Xuan moved again.
By the time everyone realized it, it was too late.
The fierce sword light erupted, engulfing the entire Spirit Jade Sect in an instant. Everyone who had not stepped beyond its grounds fell into eternal silence.
A moment, an eternity.
The sword light dispersed, gradually revealing the Spirit Jade Sect's grounds.
Everyone who witnessed it drew a sharp breath.
"Hiss..."
The Spirit Jade Sect's gates... were gone!
The entire entrance, along with the mission hall behind it, the outer disciples' peak... everything, absolutely everything, was gone!
Amid the suffocating ruins, the most striking figure was that sword immortal in white.
Still untouched by a speck of dust, he strolled through the rubble and drifted away...
The sword immortal in white departed lightly, yet not one witness dared forget his figure...
No.
It could even be called a sight they would never forget for as long as they lived.
One man, one sword, had wiped out a force ranked among the Dawn Empire's first-rate sects?
Amid dust and mournful silence, someone swallowed cautiously and shakily took a voice transmission talisman from a Storage Bag.
"It's me..."
"Big news, absolutely huge news!"
"The Dawn Empire's Spirit Jade Sect is gone! Gone..."
"No one knows who that man was."
"All we know is... one man, one sword, he razed the Spirit Jade Sect, like..."
"A sword immortal!"