When Qinghe had ascended, the Gujian Sect Master and elders immediately detected the anomaly, so they acted at once to block that walking mass of demonic malicious qi.

Qinghe, at that time, had lost his sanity. To anyone who obstructed his approach to the sacrificial offering, he responded with the same method.

Slash! One sword strike to cut a bloody path.

Therefore, those few powerful figures of the Gujian Sect were all severely injured, with the Sect Master even perishing. Yi Lian was wounded more lightly, so he had just been serving as the sword formation’s pivot, bearing most of the pressure.

Sect battles relied on the confrontation of the strong. Even though the Gujian Sect still had many living disciples now, they weren’t a match for those demonic cultivators. One Nascent Soul stage could easily slaughter hundreds or thousands of Golden Core cultivators.

So now they could only defend and wait for rescue.

However, now some disciples from other peaks had been captured by the demonic cultivators.

“I heard that fellow surnamed Duan died?”

“Who’s in charge of you now?” The demonic cultivator holding the large saber pointed its tip at Yi Lian. “Since you’re all cowering inside and won’t come out, I’ll kill you one by one!” He casually grabbed a female disciple, directly tearing her clothes, then threw her toward a thinner demonic cultivator beside him. “I know you like women. This one’s for you.”

That demonic cultivator didn’t even catch her, instead staring intently at Su Zhuyi on Luoxue Peak with gleaming eyes, smacking his lips and saying, “I’ve spotted a treasure. Save that life for me—nobody competes with me!”

…

Su Zhuyi was still some distance away from there, yet she felt a disgusting gaze sticking tightly to her body.

She recognized that demonic cultivator—a lustful scoundrel with mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivation who most loved to rape righteous female cultivators, his methods extremely cruel.

“Little Skull, find a way to stop them.”

“Okay, but I don’t have much spiritual energy left, Miss.” He could return to the little gourd to replenish spiritual energy, but there wasn’t enough time. Using spiritual energy to restrain the demonic cultivator who wanted to kill, Little Skull was very anxious, thinking in his heart—how had he done it before?

No one had taught him to kill, nor did he understand any cultivation methods.

At that time, charging forward in anger, the flame seemed to expand, which was how he had crushed that person. But the next time, he hadn’t crushed anyone. How could he drive away all these bad people? Little Skull looked at his hands, grasped the Zhuying Sword, then gritted his teeth and executed the first level of Tianxuan Sword Technique.

Previously, many disciples had felt shock and panic seeing Little Skull, but now, seeing such a tiny Little Skull helping them and even executing the Tianxuan Nine Swords, everyone didn’t seem so afraid anymore. Among them, a little girl’s voice came from the center of the crowd: “Amazing little skull! It’s the Tianxuan Nine Swords—I haven’t even learned it yet!”

This was the little girl brought from the mortal village last time. Little Skull had secretly gone to see her before, resulting in her startling awake, thinking she’d had a nightmare. Now seeing Little Skull, she said again, “Oh my, I dreamed about him.”

“Is he, is he protecting us?”

Little Skull had been somewhat afraid originally. His hearing was very keen, and his divine consciousness even stronger—he could hear all the surrounding movements. Now his hands stopped shaking, too. When his sword thrust out, just as it was about to pierce that demonic cultivator, a black shadow rushed up to block it. It was a zombie controlled by the demonic cultivator. The zombie blocked the attack from the saber-wielding demonic cultivator. Though pierced through by Little Skull’s sword, being a zombie, it felt no pain and didn’t dodge. Instead, it directly punched Little Skull.

Little Skull had distributed his spiritual energy to others, so his spiritual energy was extremely thin. This punch sent him flying directly. He didn’t shatter, but instead that zombie’s fist turned to powder.

“That skull is strange!”

Several demonic great powers said in deep voices, “His spiritual energy is insufficient. Though his defensive power is strong, his attack power is very weak. Attack together—let’s see which side he can manage!”

…

On the other side, Su Zhuyi bent down to pick up the Broken Sword. She was very weak now, but couldn’t wait for death.

The Broken Sword only had a hilt and a short stub of blade remaining. It was unusable now and needed careful nurturing. She thought of the Songfeng Sword again. She couldn’t be without a weapon in hand right now. Su Zhuyi rallied her spirits and moved beneath the pine tree, seeing Qin Jianglan’s stone tablet. She found it somewhat strange—had her brain been faulty before, setting up a monument for an enemy and even hanging a portrait on the tree?

He looked quite presentable, though.

The moment her hand touched the Songfeng Sword, Su Zhuyi’s heart suddenly ached sharply. Then she discovered thunder crashing overhead. The next moment, her heart bled as if someone had forcibly carved out a piece of flesh from her heart. Yet even so, it didn’t hurt much.

It just felt somewhat empty, making her spirit dazed. Though there was almost no divine consciousness in her sea of consciousness, it still trembled slightly.

The Liuguang Mirror!

The Liuguang Mirror suddenly flew out from within her body. The moment it shot into the sky, lightning struck down from above. Golden lightning was like an arrow shot by Heaven, whistling forth with flames burning at its tail, leaving a red glow in the air. But just as it was about to strike the Liuguang Mirror, an earth-shaking sword qi appeared out of nowhere between heaven and earth.

That sword light split the entire sky canopy. The snowflakes drifting over Luoxue Peak were directly shredded by the sword qi. A blue-robed figure descended from the sky, standing in mid-air with robes fluttering in the wind. He reached out into the void and uprooted the large pine tree at the entrance.

The pine tree was originally transformed from the Songfeng Sword. Dragged by tremendous force, it fell into the black shadow’s hand and instantly transformed into a sword.

That sword scattered the lightning in the sky.

That sword split open the heavy, oppressive dark clouds above.

That sword was earth-shaking, drawing everyone’s gaze. No one had expected someone to suddenly appear here and astound the world with one sword.

The pine tree was uprooted, and the portrait hanging on it swayed and fell. Su Zhuyi stared blankly at that portrait, looking at the person in the portrait, then raised her head to look at the sky…

She murmured, “Qin Jianglan.”

He reached out and grasped that suspended precious mirror in his hand, then turned his head to look back, glancing at Su Zhuyi.

Those were dark red eyes.

His gaze appeared very demonic.

The Songfeng Sword in his hand was trembling and wailing, as if unwilling to be held by him.

Qin Jianglan?

Had he entered the demonic path?

But even having entered the demonic path, he didn’t have the fierce, malevolent qi and bloody aura like Qinghe. He looked clean and pure, yet very cold, cold as if he could freeze one’s bones to ice.

His body was clean and clear like frost, snow, and ice rivers, but that ancient bronze mirror faintly leaked black qi. The Liuguang Mirror—had it become a demonic artifact?

But the next moment, suddenly a disciple shouted, “It’s, it’s that Sword Venerable!”

Song Shangzhi was so excited that tears fell.

He never imagined that the Sword Venerable he worshipped day and night would suddenly appear. Had he come to save the Gujian Sect?

“Worship the Sword, Venerable, achieve great accomplishment in the sword dao!”