A mighty slash through Mount Mangdang, Myriad Karma Dao-Severing

Wangjiang City, Great Yu Dynasty.

At that moment, the streets of this important frontier city in southern Great Yu stood empty.

Countless commoners and cultivators had almost all crowded onto the city walls, craning their necks to gaze north toward distant Mount Mangdang, their faces filled with shock and awe.

"Good heavens! What overwhelming might!"

"Is this Her Highness Qi Zhaoyue, eldest princess of the Great Yu Dynasty, sword immortal, and the youngest Eleventh-Realm Celestial Person in the thirty thousand years since our dynasty's founding?"

"I originally thought that, since Her Highness reached the Celestial Person realm in just ten short years, she must have piled up her cultivation by swallowing vast quantities of heavenly materials and earthly treasures. Her foundation was bound to be hopelessly unstable.

"But now it seems...

"She truly deserves to be named Great Yu's third female sword immortal by the Star-Picking Tower, and ranked first on the Heavenly Pride Heaven Ranking!

"This single strike could cleave the azure heavens!"

"Tsk, tsk. Who knows how the Holy Sect of the Nether Night offended this god of slaughter? That sword coming down is probably going to hurt a wee bit~"

"They say the Divine Maiden Sect Her Highness founded selects disciples without regard for background or bloodline, recognizing only talent.

"Even ordinary people at the very bottom have a chance to turn their lives around.

"Her first disciple was just an ordinary little beggar in the Capital before joining the Divine Maiden Sect.

"Looking at it that way, perhaps Her Highness Qi Zhaoyue saw how the Holy Sect of the Nether Night had perverted justice and oppressed the common people all these years, and decided to rid them of this scourge?"

"Hah! Do you believe that? She's royalty of Great Yu, a descendant of the imperial line, someone who stood on the mountaintop from birth..."

"Ah, if they would only throw open the gates of the immortal sects, our Great Yu's national strength would surely climb several more steps. But those aristocratic clans and immortal sects..."

"This world belongs to cultivators in the end. As long as that Thirteenth Realm Emperor Tianqi is around, national strength?

"They're merely commoners. If some die, they die. What important figure would care?"

"If it isn't for the ordinary people, then she's most likely targeting Princess Consort Jing, who supports the ninth princess.

"After all, the Holy Sect of the Nether Night is one of Princess Consort Jing's most capable forces."

"Hey, have you heard? Princess Consort Jing seems to have been searching the entire country for men with pure Yang physiques lately..."

And just as everyone atop Wangjiang City's walls was deep in discussion.

Above Youye Plateau, one of Mount Mangdang's main peaks, the wind and clouds changed color.

The densely overcast sky abruptly split open...

Then an illusory, silvery-white heavenly sword, a hundred zhang tall, emerged from the clouds.

Its sword intent was holy and majestic.

Intricate white lotus patterns adorned its blade; as it plunged swiftly through the air, flames wreathed and enveloped its edge.

One breath later.

With one strike, the White Lotus Heavenly Heart cleaved mightily through Mount Mangdang!

Clang-!

That single strike sheared a full third off Youye Plateau, one of Mount Mangdang's sixteen main peaks!

The enormous severed mountainside slowly tilted and slid, unleashing an unending series of deafening booms.

At last, the severed portion of Youye Plateau crashed into the earth.

Endless dust billowed skyward, a mushroom cloud blotting out the sky and sun. Birds and beasts throughout the mountain shrieked in terror and fled in every direction.

High above Youye Plateau, Qi Zhaoyue cradled the returned White Lotus Heavenly Heart in one arm, her golden high heels resting on a blooming white lotus. Her bearing was elegant, cool, and weary of the world...

The hem of her moon-white gown fluttered in the fierce wind, like an immortal maiden above the nine heavens, untouched by mortal dust.

"Pfft-!"

Amid the ruins of the Holy Sect of the Nether Night, an old man in black-and-purple Daoist robes suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood and dropped to one knee.

His hair was disheveled, blood stained the corners of his mouth, and his eyes brimmed with fury and unwillingness as he stared fixedly at Qi Zhaoyue, who stood high in the sky like a deity.

"Your Highness Qi Zhaoyue!"

The old man raised his face to the sky and roared furiously, "Without a single word, you came here and destroyed my Nether Night Sect's thousand-year foundation!"

"Don't you know that my Nether Night Sect is subordinate to Her Highness Princess Consort Jing? Do you not intend to give Her Highness an explanation?!"

Qi Zhaoyue's expression did not change in the slightest at his words.

She merely raised a hand slightly...

In an instant, a slender Tang-style straight saber with a vast, ancient, and sinister presence flew out of the ancestral hall deep within the Holy Sect of the Nether Night.

It was none other than the third of Great Yu's ten renowned sabers-Myriad Karma Dao-Severing!

As Myriad Karma Dao-Severing landed in her hand, a trace of pleasure finally appeared on Qi Zhaoyue's face.

But it was faint and fleeting. In the blink of an eye, she returned to that peerless image of cool indifference.

Watching this, the old man froze slightly.

Ten thousand grass-mud horses practically thundered through his mind.

Wait... are you sick in the head?!

You came to my Nether Night Sect and destroyed its thousand-year foundation with one strike, just for this Dao Slaying?!

You should have said so earlier!

If you'd said earlier that you wanted this Myriad Karma Dao-Severing, would we have dared refuse, faced with your might?!

Why didn't you say so earlier?

"However..."

"Since a grudge has already been formed, I must cut the grass and pull out the roots!"

Only then did Qi Zhaoyue speak for the first time.

Her voice was cool as water and very pleasant to hear, yet it instantly made the old man opposite her feel as though he had fallen into an ice cavern, his hands and feet turning cold.

The next second, the White Lotus Heavenly Heart in Qi Zhaoyue's hand slid three inches out of its sheath.

There were no elaborate movements, nor any earth-shaking phenomena. A barely perceptible streak of white sword light flashed past.

Squelch-!

The old man's head flew straight into the air, blood gushing out.

Even at the moment of his death, his eyes remained wide, his face filled with bewilderment and unwillingness.

Even in death, he did not understand.

Just for a saber?

Although this Dao Slaying truly is a supreme treasure, did you have to slaughter my entire sect for it?

Surely it couldn't really be because my Nether Night Sect oppressed the common people?!

Wangjiang City.

In a waterside pavilion within an exceedingly luxurious princely residence that occupied an enormous expanse of land.

A little girl in a black qipao, with a black trench coat wrapped tightly around her so that not a sliver showed, stood quietly by the window, gazing toward Mount Mangdang.

She was only about a meter and a half tall, her skin fair and her features as exquisite as a porcelain doll's.

Yet her full bust and slender waist traced an extremely alluring silhouette, creating a stark contrast.

She was Pei Ying, principal consort of Prince Jing of the Great Yu Dynasty.

"Well played, Qi Zhaoyue," Pei Ying said mildly, her voice soft and sweet, yet carrying a trace of unquestionable authority.

"Yu Kingdom has a phoenix that alighted in the royal court, neither flying nor calling for twenty-eight years."

"When she does not fly, she stays still; once she flies, she soars into the heavens."

"When she does not call, she stays silent; once she calls, she startles the world!"

"From today onward, no one will dare think she is merely a 'medicine jar' with cultivation but no strength to match..."

At that moment, a white-robed cultivator behind Pei Ying frowned slightly and bowed.

"Your Highness, in her first move in twenty-eight years, Qi Zhaoyue used your forces to intimidate the world. Isn't she afraid of offending you?"

"What exactly is her objective?"

"Could it be..."

"That it really was just for that Myriad Karma Dao-Severing?!"