Before Feng Yunhong could answer, Ling Luo had already replied with contempt: “You shut up. Stop asking nonsense. Wind Sect Master doesn’t deserve to have a daughter, and I would never want someone like Feng Yunhong as my father.”

She walked toward Feng Yunhong, her sword technique both swift and fierce. They clashed again.

Ling Luo said, “A coward like you, who’s lived his entire life in his sister’s shadow, who hates and fears women learning swordsmanship—you think you deserve to be my father?!”

Feng Yunhong’s gaze turned cold. With his sword carrying supreme pressure, he shattered the bone cage, neither avoiding nor retreating. He collided with Ling Luo’s Sui Wu, sweeping across the entire mountaintop, causing the mountain to collapse and the earth to split.

Dragon howls roared as neither yielded to the other.

“It seems that not allowing you to learn swordsmanship made you very angry,” Feng Yunhong said flatly. “Since you wanted to be my daughter, you couldn’t learn the Divine Technique Sword Intent. I warned both you and your mother back then.”

Killing intent surfaced in Ling Luo’s eyes.

“Girls can’t learn it, but sons can? Even if it’s the son you despise most—one born from a lowly, despicable brothel courtesan!” Ling Luo mocked with a smile. “Wind Sect Master, won’t you admit that even now, you still haven’t escaped from Left Bai’s shadow?”

Feng Yunhong has always been competitive since childhood.

He loved cultivation and swordsmanship, and the previous family head demanded that he become the most powerful among all.

Pampered since childhood, he never lost himself, but because of excessive pride, he couldn’t accept failure.

His first failure in life was his half-sister from the same father but a different mother.

When Feng Yunhong was diligently comprehending the Divine Technique of Sword Intent, he saw a girl in the courtyard forming sword seals with her hands. Golden light rose from around her, and the sword intent, which he still found difficult to understand, gently and actively approached the girl.

This scene planted a seed in his heart, slowly germinating and growing, deeply rooted in his life.

By the age of twenty, Feng Yunhong was already the leader of the Feng family. He was powerful and calculating.

All his life, he pursued supreme strength and ascension to the great Dao.

Even though he knew that woman was his sister’s close friend, which displeased him, he still rescued her because her family was the oldest Curse Ritual Immortal lineage in the world.

He told the woman: “From now on, follow me, and I can protect your clan’s remaining bloodline. I can also settle your grievances with the mortal world.”

This clan only practiced curse rituals. The woman’s brother broke the rules by participating in mortal conflicts, cursing a concubine and a general to death. The emperor was furious and vowed to fight the clan to the death.

At first, Feng Yunhong only wanted her family’s curse rituals and had no intention of marriage. But later, when the clan urged him to marry, and he had no interest in such matters when the urging became annoying, he married the woman.

Because of her identity as an enemy of the mortal emperor, the marriage was low-key. Even though the elders unanimously opposed it, he insisted on marrying her.

On their wedding night, the woman asked him: “Don’t you regret it? What if someday you meet a woman you like…”

“That won’t happen,” he answered before she could finish.

The woman paused slightly, seeming to smile while pursing her lips: “Then will you like me?”

Feng Yunhong stared at her steadily, reaching out to gently pinch her chin, lifting her face, and gazing into those beautiful eyes.

He didn’t answer.

But he thought he could try.

Between him and the woman, there seemed to have been beautiful memories once.

Feng Yunhong never disguised his good or evil in front of women; all his ambitions were exposed.

When he learned that his wife had given birth to a girl, Feng Yunhong smiled with pursed lips.

At that time, he hadn’t yet been completely engulfed by the shadow rooted in his heart.

Until he saw his one-year-old daughter surrounded by golden firefly light as she slept—the Divine Technique Sword Intent he knew all too well.

Feng Yunhong stood expressionless at the doorway, engulfed by shadow.

His daughter’s talent was exceptional, chosen by the Divine Technique Sword Intent at just one-year-old—the first in thousands of years of family history.

From that day on, the darkness in Feng Yunhong’s heart gradually spread, growing larger until it completely consumed him.

Feng Yunhong told the woman: “Have another child.”

The woman initially thought he just wanted another child, but as her due date approached, she realized that he wanted not just any child, but a boy.

When he learned of his second daughter’s birth, Feng Yunhong didn’t smile.

He stood outside the door for a moment, then turned and left, not returning all night.

The once-improving relationship between him and the woman gradually fractured, becoming rigid and strange.

Feng Yunhong said: “Seal her spiritual veins. She cannot learn this sword intent.”

The woman was stunned.

“You know I hate that person the most.” The disgust in his eyes made the woman’s heart tremble.

She lowered her head and softly said, “Fine.”

As his daughter with sealed spiritual veins grew day by day, when there was no aura of Divine Technique Sword Intent on her, Feng Yunhong could persuade himself to face her.

This was his daughter, not that one-eyed woman.

But eventually, this girl picked up a sword. Her small body wielding the long sword, bringing a burst of golden fireflies, the dragon’s cry was faint but already taking form.

The girl smiled at him and called out, “Father, I’ve learned this sword technique!”

In his rage, he broke the sword in her hand. Through his daughter’s eyes, he saw his sister, and coldly said: “You’re just a useless person who can’t even hold a sword.”

Feng Yunhong’s attitude toward the child caused him and the woman to gradually grow apart.

One day, the woman came to question him with red eyes: “Was it you who forced Left Bai to marry?”

Feng Yunhong remained silent.

The woman rarely showed anger: “Was it?!”

“So what if it was?” Feng Yunhong looked at her coldly.

“I know you hate her because of the Divine Technique Sword Intent, but she’s already lost her spiritual veins. Isn’t that enough? Why do you still treat her like this? You made her marry a man who hates her, and she even had her eyes gouged out and hands cut off—” As the woman spoke, she saw his indifferent face and felt utterly disheartened.

Nothing she said would help.

The woman laughed through tears: “Would you do the same to your daughter?”

Feng Yunhong frowned at her: “As long as she doesn’t learn the Divine Technique Sword Intent.”

The woman staggered back a step, covering her eyes and laughing: “How dare I… how dare I still have expectations of you…”

The next day, the woman asked for a divorce.

Feng Yunhong laughed in extreme anger: “Divorce? Where can you go after leaving me? Where in this world can you find shelter?”

“Back to where I came from,” the woman said calmly. “I no longer need your protection.”

Feng Yunhong felt he had indulged her too much over the years, making her forget the fear of being cornered from the past, so he signed the divorce papers.

He wanted to see how long this woman could last.

When the woman left, she said: “At the beginning of the year, someone sent a message asking to meet me in Nanshan City.”

Feng Yunhong watched her coldly.

The woman continued: “She was a woman from the Western Old Pleasure House, saying she had given birth to a child of the Feng family.”

It was the only time he had gone carousing with friends, the night he learned of his second daughter’s birth, his heart shrouded in gloom.

In front of the woman, Feng Yunhong ordered his subordinate: “Go kill them all.”

But the woman smiled and said: “It’s a boy.”

Feng Yunhong paused slightly, furrowing his brows, and his subordinate stopped.

The woman had cut off her retreat, extinguishing all hope, and left him with her two daughters.

On the day she met with the pleasure house woman, she almost used lethal force to kill both mother and son.

Feng Yunhong believed the woman would return, and he waited patiently. During this time, seeing that child gradually made him forget about waiting.

This child was just right in his eyes.

The boy’s existence was very much like his and his sister’s in the past.

Feng Tianrao also had a sister, a sister with great talent who could use the Divine Technique Sword Intent at one year old.

Feng Yunhong told himself that this time, he would not lose.

So he forgot about the woman’s existence.

The woman who returned to the secluded palace had to deal with troubles from the mortal world every day, as well as revenge from demons and monsters who had grudges against Nanshan Snow River.

While people talked about how the Nanshan Snow River Sect Master had fallen in love with a pleasure house woman and made her his wife, the secluded palace was trampled by demons and cultivators, destroyed, and ruined.

Ling Luo began wandering the mortal world from the night the secluded palace was consumed by fire.

She had thought about finding her father.

But each time she decided to swallow her pride and beg, she couldn’t accept hearing people talk about how the Wind Sect Master cherished his wife and children.

She just couldn’t do it.

Even when she was chased and beaten for stealing a bun, living worse than a dog, she still couldn’t bring herself to beg the Nanshan Snow River Sect Master.

Now she once again stood before Feng Yunhong with a sword in hand.

She no longer needed to seek help from anyone.

The sword energy sweeping across the mountaintop grew increasingly fierce, with higher frequency. The sect disciples climbing halfway up the slope gradually sensed something was wrong.

“This doesn’t look like fighting against a demon… it’s more like two people with Divine Technique Sword Intent fighting each other,” Zi Xiu panted. “How can this demon’s lair have such a high mountain? This is simply unreasonable!”

Chu Yi frowned: “Besides Wind Sect Master and Feng Tianrao, who else knows the Divine Technique Sword Intent?”

Yu Cang shook his head repeatedly: “It can’t be that Sect Master is fighting Young Master, right?”

Zi Xiu wiped his sweat and said: “Your Young Master’s Divine Technique Sword Intent probably isn’t this masterful.”

After speaking, he looked around, “Where’s the fastest runner among us?”

Song Yuanyuan shouted: “He flew on his sword!”

Zi Xiu: “…”

Chu Yi said angrily: “If you can fly on a sword, why didn’t you say so earlier!”

Even though they could fly on swords, the heavy demonic aura here slowed their speed considerably.

Today, Ling Luo wanted to ensure Feng Yunhong would not return alive, using her full strength from the start.

While Feng Yunhong was amazed by her sword skills, the gloom in his heart grew even more, making it harder to accept Ling Luo’s existence.

“Since you’ve already sent people to monitor me and attempt assassination, why pretend to be kind?” Ling Luo smiled. “Wind Sect Master, if you don’t use your full strength, you’ll die.”

Feng Yunhong’s face darkened: “You want to kill me? With Divine Technique Sword Intent?”

“Whether it’s with Divine Technique Sword Intent or other sword intents, you must die.” Ling Luo formed a seal with one hand, curse markings appeared beneath her feet and spread outward.

She glanced at Feng Tianrao, who had been standing still since earlier, and Feng Yunhong immediately moved to cut off the spreading curse markings.

Ling Luo couldn’t help but laugh: “You two truly have a deep father-son bond. Don’t worry, Wind Sect Master, I tortured him severely in the last life, but in this life, I don’t have much patience.”

“You think you can kill me with your current abilities?” Feng Yunhong remained arrogantly indifferent and cold. When he looked at Ling Luo, he projected his inner demon.

What he saw wasn’t his daughter, but the shadow looming over him—his sister.

Every deadly sword strike from Ling Luo was neutralized by the Divine Protection Barrier in front of Feng Yunhong.

“Divine Protection Barrier, all cultivators’ sword intents in the world cannot kill you,” Ling Luo tightened her grip on the sword. “It’s the strongest protection bestowed upon humans by heaven and earth, but the Heavenly Dao was blind to give it to someone like you.”

Feng Yunhong said flatly: “I told you, you can’t kill me. Seal the Divine Technique Sword Intent and return to your master. I can pretend nothing happened today.”

“After the Divine Protection Barrier breaks, will you still have the courage to stand and talk to me?” Ling Luo raised an eyebrow and smiled.

Feng Yunhong didn’t think much about it; he was confident and proud: “You can’t do it.”

Ling Luo looked at him, and the traces of demonic aura in her heart were rapidly spreading and dissipating. Sui Wu dispersed, and through the thin white mist, faint traces of demonic aura seeped through.

In an instant, the surging black demonic aura-like cloud waves covered this part of heaven and earth.

Cultivators couldn’t break the Divine Protection Barrier, but demons could.

When she decided to kill Feng Yunhong back then, Ling Luo’s fall into demonhood was inevitable.

Feng Tianrao looked at Ling Luo surrounded by black energy, unable to believe: “You…”

Feng Yunhong frowned, also somewhat astonished as he looked toward Ling Luo, even feeling a bit confused.

Something wasn’t right.

That woman, even if she died, would never allow herself to become a demon!

“What I once accomplished, I’m merely doing again now.”

Ling Luo laughed softly, but in her clear black pupils, a dim red light was faintly visible. Sui Wu shrieked—what power would the world’s strongest sword intentionally have when wielded in a demon’s form?

The black dragon roared, lightning flashed, heaven collapsed, and earth split.

That strongest defense bestowed upon humans by heaven and earth, the Divine Protection Barrier, broke.

The sect disciples who arrived were stunned by the surging demonic aura and black dragon at the mountaintop.

“Divine Technique Sword Intent… why is it black?” Song Yuanyuan exclaimed in shock.

Zi Xiu also froze: “Is that demonic aura? The Bone Demon isn’t dead?”

Just as Yue Liangze landed, he heard Feng Tianrao cry out miserably: “Father!”

Feng Yunhong never expected Ling Luo’s sword to cut through the Divine Protection Barrier. That sharp and tyrannical sword energy slashed toward him, breaking skin and flesh, cutting through bone, and spattering blood, yet the transparent long sword stained with blood didn’t stop.

Blood droplets flew, some flowing along the Sui Wu sword.

Feng Yunhong was lifted into the void, his mind affected by Sui Wu during the sword confrontation. Ling Luo saw scenes reflected on the sword blade.

A spirited young man walking the world, eliminating demons, and upholding justice.

A young adult rescuing a woman on a night of raging fire.

Like in her previous life, with each sword strike, Ling Luo asked him: “Do you have any regrets?”

Feng Yunhong was injured by the sword energy, blood seeping through his clothes, and groaning in pain. As the next sword came before him: “Do you have any regret for her?”

“Stop!” Feng Tianrao, collapsing, hacked at the barrier with his sword, “Stop immediately!”

But Feng Yunhong’s barrier blocked him.

Yue Liangze was slightly stunned, watching Ling Luo in the void, controlled by slaughter and violence, seeing no one in her eyes.

Ling Luo knocked Feng Yunhong from the void to the ground, creating a large crater with the crisp sound of breaking bones.

The beautiful long sword reflected the man’s blood-stained, wretched appearance.

Holding her sword pointed at Feng Yunhong, Ling Luo said: “Wind Sect Master, pick up your sword!”

Feng Tianrao collapsed to his knees: “Ling Luo! I beg you, I’m begging you!”

“Look clearly, the one suppressing you now is not the sister you killed, but the daughter you abandoned because of your cowardice.” Yet Ling Luo only stared at Feng Yunhong, once again savoring this moment of rare pleasure. “Grandmother Yu always said I resembled Mother more than Yu Zhi did. Looking at my face, can you still remember what Mother looked like?”

The sword blade pinned down his limbs, crushing the Divine Technique Sword Intent that tried to protect its master. Ling Luo thrust her long sword into Feng Yunhong’s chest, ignoring Feng Tianrao’s wailing, bent down close to Feng Yunhong and said: “When Yu Zhi was taken from the brothel right in front of you when she tried to beg you for help, you ignored her and left. What’s wrong? Was it because Yu Zhi didn’t look much like Mother, so you didn’t recognize your daughter? Wind. Sect. Master.”

This was something Ling Luo could never forgive Feng Yunhong for.

She dared not face the memories in the Jade Spirit Pearl.

Even though the Jade Spirit Pearl preserved Yu Zhi’s image and voice, she dared not look at it even once.

Because Yu Zhi had seen Feng Yunhong that day.

And Feng Yunhong had seen her too.

But he remained unmoved and walked past Yu Zhi.

More and more people arrived at the mountaintop.

People looked at the scene before them, all in disbelief.

“Ling… Ling Luo?” Song Yuanyuan felt her heart clench as she watched Ling Luo stab Feng Yunhong with her sword.

“Sect Master!”

“Young Master!”

The disciples of Nanshan Snow River were devastated by what they saw.

Ling Luo no longer cared about Feng Yunhong’s answer. She stared at his gradually dimming gaze.

Feng Yunhong had no strength to speak or spiritual energy to survive; he could only take one last look at the mortal world.

She had truly grown up.

Like her mother.

In the final moment of his life, Feng Yunhong finally remembered the woman from years ago, the one he thought would return.

Ling Luo straightened up with an indifferent expression, resolutely and ruthlessly pulling out the long sword. The fresh blood on the sword splattered in front of Feng Tianrao.

“Sect Master!”

“Wind Sect Master!”

She ignored the disciples’ shocked cries of grief. Ling Luo walked straight to Left Bai and took the Flying Thunder Pearl from her hand.

The Death Mist Gate opened before her, and Ling Luo walked in without looking back.

She heard Chu Yi angrily calling her name, along with the familiar sword intent on pursuing her, but she still didn’t turn around.