The wind and snow above the Heavenly Sword Sect seemed to stagnate for a fleeting moment.
As the umbilical cord was severed by a single sword strike, the Buddhist light dissipated. The rotting demon wolves that had been rampaging through the blizzard suddenly seemed as though their consciousness had been drained away.
"Opportunity! The source of those beasts' power is cut!"
Above Broken Sword Peak, a steady and powerful voice pierced through the wind and snow.
Although the giant umbilical cord had snapped, many figures were still hanging from the severed end.
Jiang Ziang gripped the severed wall of the umbilical cord, using it as a pivot to slide down at high speed.
Immediately following him was a chorus of chirping exclamations.
"Charge! Show the fellow Daoists of the Heavenly Sword Sect our craftsmanship!"
"Do we kill monsters first or save people first?"
"I want revenge first! Where's that woman who stabbed me in the kidney just now? Come out and apologize to me right now!"
Then, the group of paper people simply curled themselves into balls and used their gravitational potential energy to dive down wildly.
They didn't look like they were here to risk their lives; they looked like they were here for a team-building exercise.
The moment Jiang Ziang landed, he used a clay jar to summon a black coffin, smashing it directly onto the ground. A giant blue-black hand reached out from within, crushing two demon wolves that tried to ambush him.
"Form up, Corpse Ghost Mountain-Moving!" Jiang Ziang shouted in a low voice.
"Acknowledged!" Though the junior brothers and sisters behind him were still chatting away, their movements were perfectly synchronized.
Dozens of coffins landed, and yin baleful qi soared into the sky, instantly clearing an open space on the Heavenly Sword Sect's plaza.
The paper people sighed in admiration. Following the lord was truly great; with just a bit of casual training, their cultivation soared. They could even summon black coffins now.
Back then, the Sect Master was a peerless talent, yet he had only reached the fifth-stage after a hundred years.
Now, every one of them could be considered a peerless talent.
Sigh, they should burn more paper money for the old Sect Master when they got back.
"Corpse Soul Sect, hear my command! Summon the malevolent ghosts and pin down all those demon wolves for me!"
"Acknowledged!"
In an instant, the yin wind howled as hundreds of green-faced, fanged malevolent ghosts whistled out. Coordinating with the remaining sword array of the Heavenly Sword Sect, they pinned countless demon wolves onto the ruins.
At this time, the Heavenly Sword Sect was already a Shura purgatory.
A thick scent of blood was mixed into the wind and snow.
Most of the original Heavenly Sword Sect disciples now had gray-black wolf fur growing on their bodies. Some even had half their faces demonized, dripping with saliva.
They were struggling bitterly amidst the mutation, fighting not only the external enemies but also the demon blood frantically proliferating within them.
"Kill..."
A Heavenly Sword Sect disciple mechanically swung a broken sword. His left arm had been torn by a demon wolf until only white bone remained, but he seemed unable to feel the pain, instinctively guarding the mountain-gate array behind him.
He continued until a paper hand pressed onto his shoulder.
"Fellow Daoist, take a rest."
Jiang Ziang's voice sounded in his ear. "Leave the rest to us."
The disciple's eyes moved, seeing the group of ghostly paper people before him. The tension he held finally broke, and his body went limp as he collapsed into the snow.
The battle ended faster than expected.
Without the power supply from the Ksitigarbha of Great Vows, the bodies of the demon wolves rapidly collapsed under the biting of the malevolent ghosts and the sword qi of the Heavenly Sword Sect disciples, melting into the white snow.
The wind and snow continued to blow.
Inside the Heavenly Sword Sect, only heavy breathing remained.
Most of the surviving Heavenly Sword Sect disciples were wounded.
They had long lost their human forms. They silently put away their swords and silently helped up their fallen fellow disciples. Some even knelt in the snow, cradling a broken sword and weeping silently.
Jiang Ziang silently withdrew the malevolent ghosts, a complex emotion flashing in his eyes.
As the chief disciple of the Corpse Soul Sect, Jiang Ziang had seen countless corpses and deaths.
When the Corpse Soul Sect encountered its great catastrophe, almost the entire sect had been wiped out. People like them had crawled out from a corpse pit.
"This world..." Jiang Ziang sighed softly, brushing the snowflakes off his paper clothes. "It's not much better than our time."
"Senior Brother, this guy's leg can't be reattached. Is it okay if I give him a corpse guard's leg?" A junior sister crouched beside an unconscious Heavenly Sword disciple, holding a needle and thread, asking with a serious face. "It's a bit ugly, but it's sturdy. It really hurts when you kick someone with it."
"Don't fool around." Jiang Ziang walked over, glared at her, and then crouched down, skillfully tending to the disciple's wound.
"Seal the wound first with the herbs given by Lady Su Xue."
"Oh." The junior sister stuck out her tongue and nimbly began applying the medicine.
After finishing one, she looked at another.
"Hey, wolf brother over there!"
The paper junior sister hopped over, holding a leg bone she had just dismantled from a demon, and handed it to a silent, one-eyed giant wolf.
"Want to grind your teeth? This is top-quality demon bone."
The one-eyed giant wolf looked up, slightly dazed.
"Don't be so depressed." Another Corpse Soul Sect disciple with only one arm leaned over, casually patting the giant wolf's front leg.
"Look at me. My arm is gone. I'm someone who's died once, and now aren't I alive and kicking?"
"What's wrong with turning into a wolf? Turning into a wolf is majestic!"
"If I could grow a coat of fur like this, my junior brothers would be so envious of me."
"Exactly, exactly. We are paper people, and you are demons. We make a perfect pair; nobody should look down on anyone else."
"In the future, our two sects can have joint activities. You'll be responsible for biting people, and we'll be responsible for burying them. A match made in heaven!"
The disciples of the Corpse Soul Sect chirped away, using the most irreverent words to try and dispel the grief permeating the air.
They were people who had died once, so they knew better than anyone how to find a shred of absurd joy within despair.
But the one-eyed giant wolf's eyes were hollow. "But... the First Senior Brother and First Senior Sister... they're both gone."
As soon as these words were spoken, the surrounding atmosphere instantly froze.
All the surviving Heavenly Sword Sect disciples looked up in unison toward the summit of Broken Sword Peak, which towered into the clouds.
That was where the umbilical cord of the Ksitigarbha of Great Vows had been severed.
The wind and snow were immense, obscuring their vision.
In the sky full of flying snow, two blurry figures could vaguely be seen.
That was their First Senior Sister, who had sacrificed herself to the sword to sever the umbilical cord.
That was their First Senior Brother, who had sacrificed himself to the Dao to protect the mountain gate.
They walked side by side without looking back, stepping one pace at a time into the depths of the endless wind and snow.
Everyone fell silent.
Jiang Ziang stood up and brushed the snow off himself.
He didn't know what words of comfort to say, because in the face of sacrifice, any words seemed pale.
"People of the immortal sects, born into the turbid world, were always acting against the heavens." Jiang Ziang's voice wasn't loud, but it carried far across the ruins.
"We once thought the Corpse Soul Sect was gone. We once thought we were just lonely ghosts barely surviving in the world."
"But as long as there is still one person who remembers the name of the sect, the heritage will not be broken."
Hearing this, the one-eyed giant wolf supported by the paper junior sister suddenly let out a long howl toward the sky, his voice desolate.
"Awoo—"
Then came a second cry, a third...
"All those of the Heavenly Sword Sect, send off First Senior Sister and First Senior Brother—on their journey!!"
"Send off Senior Sister! Send off Senior Brother!!"
Hundreds and thousands of wolf howls gathered above the Heavenly Sword Sect, shaking and dispersing the clouds of gloom.
It was the roar of beasts, and also the send-off of sword cultivators.
Jiang Ziang led the group of paper people and also bowed deeply toward the direction where the umbilical cord had been severed.
"Farewell, fellow Daoists."
Was the Heavenly Sword Sect dead?
Look at these giant wolves howling at the sky; look at the countless broken swords stuck in the ground that still hummed despite their masters' deaths.
Jiang Ziang knew it wasn't.
As long as the sword remained and the spirit remained, the Heavenly Sword Sect would always exist.
The heritage of an immortal sect never lay in grand halls or a flourishing population.
It lay in the fact that when the fiend calamity arrived, when the eternal night fell, there would always be someone willing to become a torch, lighting themselves to tell those who followed—
The path is here.
Though the turbid world was filled with despair, there were always some things more resilient than death.
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