On the day the five saints passed away and the eight swords returned to the peak, the bell at the mountain gate of the Wendao Sword Sect tolled nearly a hundred times.
In a very short time, the news spread throughout all of Fanzhou.
Everyone said that the Sword Ancestor and the four patriarchs, who had been traveling abroad, had all fallen.
The sect-protecting sword formation of the Wendao Sword Sect had collapsed.
Beyond the East Desolation, the cries of myriad beasts could be heard constantly, restless and agitated.
Along the shores of the North Sea, great demons appeared frequently, stepping across the borders.
In the mountains and forests, the cliff spirits and peerless monsters who had been defeated by the Sword Ancestor and forced into seclusion appeared one after another.
Even by the East Sea, the evil cultivators of the Twelve Immortal Demon Caves were making a comeback.
In the Central Plains, the thousand sects and ten thousand clans naturally received the news. They knew full well that a catastrophe was about to erupt in the Northern Borders, and the Wendao Sword Sect was destined to be drenched in blood...
Now, hidden forces were gathering, and old monsters were meeting. Time was running out.
Mortal dynasties, small families, and minor sects—those who had sent their children across vast distances to cultivate at the Wendao Sword Sect—now all emerged.
They wanted to take their juniors away from the Wendao Sword Sect, far from this place of conflict.
Within the Wendao Sword Sect, there were countless geniuses, including princes, holy maidens, descendants of nobility, and scions of great clans...
Even the 108 cities of the Northern Borders reacted urgently upon hearing the news. Some of them couldn't wait to immediately distance themselves from the Wendao Sword Sect.
In Fanzhou, many people actually knew some of the inside story. Especially recently, rumors from unknown sources had been spreading wildly across the world.
They said the Sky Gate of Fanzhou was sealed beneath the Wendao Sword Sect. As long as the Sky Gate did not appear, no one in Fanzhou could become an immortal.
It was also said that Li Taibai and his four saint disciples had fallen suddenly because they had severed the immortal path of Fanzhou for ten thousand years, suffering the reckoning and backlash of the Great Dao.
The Wendao Sword Sect had always been an outlier in Fanzhou, with many enemies. Once such claims were made, it became a public enemy of the entire world.
Those in the know fanned the flames in secret. Those who didn't know blindly followed the trend, joining the heated debate.
When they learned that the Wendao Sword Sect was evacuating the common people within a thousand miles of the mountain gate, they naturally understood that a world-spanning war to attack the sect was inevitable and about to begin.
So, they came. They arrived on cloud boats to take back their juniors.
The high-level leadership of the Wendao Sword Sect chose to permit this. This battle was, after all, a fight for the sect's survival.
The opponents facing the Wendao Sword Sect were the Three Sects, the Six Schools, the Hundred Schools, the Twelve Immortal Demon Caves, the remnants of the East Desolation, and the demons of the North Sea.
And those hidden experts, peerless monsters, and landscape spirits who had concealed themselves in the mountains and wilds years ago...
Among them, there were many saints and no fewer than a hundred in the ninth stage. Those in the eighth and seventh stages were as numerous as the hairs on an ox.
Ordinary disciples couldn't help anyway. If they stayed and the sect won, it would be fine. But if it lost, they would surely be wiped out, root and branch.
Leaving now was still an option.
However, for ten days, cloud boats came and went at the mountain gate, yet among the hundred thousand disciples, not a single one chose to leave. They all stayed.
They either flatly refused, hid themselves away, or, in many cases, ran out to perform missions.
...
“Qianqian, come back with me, I beg you,” Lin Qianqian’s mother pleaded.
Lin Qianqian refused. “Mother, I’m not leaving.”
...
“A'Yang, you’re driving me to my death! You’re the only seedling of our Zhang family. If something happens to you, how can I face our ancestors?” Zhang Yang’s father cried.
Zhang Yang said earnestly, “Father, this is a Great Tonic Pill. Take it and go back, then quickly have another child. Just act as if you never had me as a son.”
“You unfilial brat...”
...
“You’re really not leaving?”
“No!”
“Aren’t you afraid of death?”
“I have received the sect’s grace; how can I betray my duty? The sect needs me.”
...
“Ancestor, can you take action?”
“Heh... you think too highly of your ancestor. You have no idea what kind of monsters the Wendao Sword Sect is facing this time...”
Scene after scene played out outside the mountain gate of the Wendao Sword Sect—severing robes to end friendships, cutting off fingers to repay kindness, and fathers and sons turning against each other.
Some returned home dejectedly, forced to compromise. They could only pray silently that the Wendao Sword Sect would win, just as it had ten thousand years ago.
But ten thousand years ago, there was the Green Lotus Sword Immortal. Today... what does the Wendao Sword Sect have?
Ten thousand years ago, the Three Sects, the Six Schools, and the Hundred Schools stood behind him. Today... they all stood on the opposite side of the Wendao Sword Sect.
How could they win? The sword formation was gone. They truly couldn't imagine how the Wendao Sword Sect would resolve this crisis...
Some stayed behind, observing from the shadows or watching from the distant sky. They wanted to witness this chaos, perhaps hoping to profit from it, or at the very least, to protect their own juniors at the critical moment.
Each had their own ulterior motives and secret thoughts.
As time passed, familiar figures appeared one after another in the mountains and wilds around the Northern Borders of the Wendao Sword Sect. In the secret nights, the roar of distant mountains could often be heard.
Ear-splitting bangs, piercing winds, and churning mists—figures collided in the clouds, playing out battle after battle, leaving behind cracked earth and collapsed mountains...
Those were the old monsters who had awakened from their slumber. They took a dislike to each other and privately stretched their limbs by engaging in fights.
However, these were merely probes. They didn't risk their lives, and no powerhouses fell.
After all, they had more important things to do now, and they shared a common goal: to flatten the Wendao Sword Sect, seize its foundation, and bring back the Sky Gate. They wanted to trigger the Lightning Tribulation and become True Immortals.
Before this shared goal, any grievances could be set aside, and even racial prejudices could be ignored.
For these old fogies, nothing was more important than becoming an immortal. To live. They only wanted to live—to live in a more glorious way.
...
Within the Wendao Sword Sect, people were uneasy, as if a dark cloud loomed over the sect day and night. Yet the powerhouses of the sect remained exceptionally calm.
Jiang Wanyin presided over the Ancestral Peak, constantly monitoring the strange movements outside the mountains. The two Guest Elders at the ninth stage of tribulation transcendence stood at the head of the Longevity Bridge, silent all day.
Li Qingshan had been grinding his sword at the Zuiwan Residence for many days, while Xia Chu Yi and Lin Qianqian remained uninvolved, cultivating in seclusion within the Ancestral Peak. It was as if someone were deliberately keeping them in the dark.
Ye Xianyu found Jiang Wanyin to report. She said, “Senior Sister, the common people within a thousand miles of the mountain gate have all been evacuated.”
Jiang Wanyin asked, “What about the formation?”
Ye Xianyu replied, “It's been set up. Ordinary eighth-stage cultivators can't get in, and it can hold off those in the ninth stage for a while...”
“That's good,” Jiang Wanyin said.
Ye Xianyu continued, “The teleportation formations within the sect have all been built. If we can't hold them off, all the sect's disciples can be teleported out of the Northern Borders within the time it takes to drink a cup of tea...”
Circumstances are unpredictable, and nothing is absolute. They had to prepare for both outcomes. If they couldn't win, the Wendao Sword Sect had to leave some seeds behind.
Those people were coming for the Sky Gate; they wouldn't necessarily hunt down every last disciple. Jiang Wanyin said with relief, “You've done well.”
Ye Xianyu hesitated, then couldn't help but ask, “Is a fight truly unavoidable?” She thought there might still be room for compromise...
A sharp light flickered in Jiang Wanyin's eyes. Beyond the clouds and mountains, overbearing auras loomed, watching like tigers.
The great monster Heaven-Swallowing Sparrow, the great spirit Azure Flood Dragon, the God of the Three Rivers, the Spirit of the Cave Marshes, the Book Immortal of Confucianism, the Golden Cicada of Buddhism, the Thunder and Rain Celestial Master of Daoism...
And many others whose names she couldn't call, some known and some unknown, those who should have come and those who shouldn't—they had all arrived... Even those three old fogies had come out of seclusion.
She gave a bitter smile and narrowed her eyes slightly. “They have waited for this day for a very long time. How could they possibly stop now?”
Ye Xianyu fell silent. Indeed, they had been waiting for nearly ten thousand years. She asked softly, “Then... can we win?”
Jiang Wanyin answered with something else. “The far north... the fighting has started.”
Ye Xianyu slowly looked up, her divine sense piercing through thousands of miles... At a glance, she saw that to the north of the Wendao Sword Sect, in the far north, demon qi was soaring to the heavens!
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