A moment later...
Ten thousand swords fell as a great gale howled. Li Qingshan ignored the bird feather piercing his chest.
He rose in a hurry. The sword cultivator who prided himself on being a once-in-a-millennium genius was now stumbling and crawling in a panic.
His inseparable Azure Mountain Sword lay abandoned in the waste...
"Mas... Master!"
Beneath the sky where screens of various colored lights interlaced, a graceful figure knelt on one knee, supporting herself with her sword.
Her abdomen was pierced by several longswords. Bright red blood dripped from the blades.
The one who had struck her had already swaggered off and was now bombarding the mountain gate.
Li Qingshan's pupils shrank, his face filled with disbelief.
He knelt before the blood-stained woman, at a total loss for what to do.
His heart was filled with terror, and his voice trembled.
"How could this be..."
Ye Xianyu gripped her sword hilt tightly, forcing her head up to offer a strained smile.
Her gaze was a mixture of reluctance, helplessness, and apology...
Her crimson lips moved, whispering, "Little Qingshan... from now on... no one will be around to trick you anymore."
Li Qingshan's hands shook, the corners of his lips twitching.
Ye Xianyu spat out a mouthful of blood. Her face was contorted in pain, yet she continued to smile. "Master... can't protect you anymore, either."
"Nothing's going to happen. I won't let you die."
Li Qingshan was deaf to her words, shaking his head incessantly and shouting like a madman.
Ye Xianyu let go of the sword blade and reached out to caress Li Qingshan's face.
The tenderness and affection in her eyes bloomed, dispelling the panic brought by death.
She said softly, "My Little Qingshan is still so handsome."
Li Qingshan was completely unraveled, his thoughts a tangled mess.
He pressed her hand against his face, still struggling, his eyes darting and his words incoherent.
"Nothing's going to happen. I'll save you right now."
Ye Xianyu was very weak. Her eyelids slowly drooped until, finally, she slumped forward.
She whispered into Li Qingshan's ear, her voice breaking, "Don't cry... I don't want people to laugh at you..."
Before she could finish, her hand slipped away from Li Qingshan's face. As the wind blew past, her blood-stained cheek felt piercingly cold...
Li Qingshan was stunned, his mind a total blank.
"Mas... Master!"
He called out softly, but he received no response.
Even if...
...he could not accept it...
...Ye Xianyu was dead.
She had died right in his arms.
He sat paralyzed on the ground, letting Ye Xianyu's body rest against his shoulder, feeling the icy chill replace the last of her warmth...
Time seemed to slow down. All sound faded into a deathly silence.
The young man's face was numb, his eyes vacant...
A long, long time passed.
It was as if he had forgotten the world, and just as at this moment, the world was forgetting him.
In his mind...
...scenes from the past flashed by at high speed. Everything...
A familiar voice seemed to ring in his ears again.
"What's your name?"
"From now on, you're my disciple. I've got your back."
"Little Qingshan, want to make a bet?"
"Little Qingshan, did you steal my wine again?"
"Little Qingshan, when are you going to start a family?"
"Little Qingshan, hurry up and transcend your tribulation. Otherwise, who's going to take over for me..."
"Little Qingshan..."
"Little Qingshan..."
"Little Qingshan..."
One call after another, until a certain moment when these voices were once again drowned out by the chaos around him.
Shouts,
Screams,
Roars,
Booms.
Mountains collapsed, rivers were severed, thunder rose and fell, and flames ignited and died...
He was dragged back to reality.
He had no choice but to accept it.
Pain,
Despair,
Hatred,
Sorrow.
They swelled infinitely within his chest. Light returned to his eyes, but it was not a bright light—it was a blood-red glare...
He looked up, glancing back at the mountain gate behind him, then at the world before him...
The broken Longevity Bridge.
The smoke-shrouded mountain gate.
Ruan Hao swinging his massive hammer, Han Yi whose breath had ceased, the pale-faced Elder Yao...
Yuren's broken sword.
Qiaofu's severed arm.
And those sickening faces, those figures slaughtering at will.
He woke up.
And he was furious.
"It's all of you."
"It's all your fault."
"You all deserve to die..."
"Every single one of you deserves to die..."
He was unnervingly calm, yet he muttered to himself in a manic tone.
He gently pushed Ye Xianyu away, laying her down softly, and slowly stood up.
He raised his hand.
Bit by bit, he pulled out the feathered arrow that had pierced his chest.
"Ah!"
The arrow came out inch by inch, blood gushing forth. His screams grew louder, his eyes redder.
Hysterical,
Tears and snot streaming down his face.
It seemed he was using this to mask his grief and helplessness.
He cried.
He screamed.
He wept.
Simply because pulling out the arrow was painful.
He pulled the arrow out and snapped it. He turned and walked forward step by step until he picked up the Heaven Sword, Qingshan.
Qingshan gripped the Azure Mountain Sword, his blood-red eyes seemingly dripping with gore.
"I'll kill you all."
"I'll kill every last one of you."
At that moment, he made his decision. Without any further hesitation, on the eve of dawn, he took the initiative to break the shackles he had placed upon himself.
The aura of tribulation transcendence spread out.
From high above...
...there came a response.
The might of the Heavenly Dao spread for ten miles, twenty miles, thirty miles... nearly a hundred miles...
Boom!
Rumble!
The twilight clouds hung heavy, black clouds piling upon one another, with purple lightning snaking through them.
It tore through the firmament, pierced the horizon, and illuminated the world of men.
Everyone was drawn to the sight, involuntarily peering at the sky.
Then, following the direction of the lightning vortex, they looked toward the earth.
They saw him.
Amidst the ruins of the mountains, a figure stood tall with a sword.
At first they were dazed, then bewildered, and finally astonished, filled with disbelief.
"Has he gone mad?"
Yes.
Only one thought occupied their minds: this man had gone mad.
Not because of the gathering lightning above, nor because someone was about to advance to tribulation transcendence.
It was because...
...he actually chose to face the heavenly thunder under these circumstances.
That was heavenly thunder.
One slip-up meant the end of his life and path.
When ordinary people underwent tribulation, who didn't make exhaustive preparations?
Never mind that the current environment was so chaotic—after fighting a bitter battle for two days and exhausting himself so much...
...to undergo tribulation at a time like this.
If he wasn't mad...
...then they were the ones who were mad.
Someone asked, "What's his name?"
Someone answered, "Li Qingshan."
Another asked, "He doesn't seem to be a thousand years old yet, does he?"
Another replied, "Not even five hundred..."
"He was hiding so deep..."
"With this aura of his, he must have been able to draw down the lightning tribulation long ago, right?"
The powerful experts discussed in low voices, their confusion remaining.
While those of the Wendao Sword Sect were shocked, they also broke into a cold sweat for him.
In this state and at this time, drawing down the Triple Lightning Tribulation—would he still have a life left?
The answer...
...was almost certainly no!
The Daoist on the distant mountain shook his wine gourd and chuckled. "The people of the Wendao Sword Sect really are interesting. He didn't transcend earlier or later, but chose to do it now. It seems he really has been driven mad..."
The eyes of the world converged on one spot; the clamor of the heavens focused on one man.
Li Qingshan...
...didn't care at all.
He stared fixedly at the lightning tribulation gathering strength in the sky. There was no fear in his eyes, only a grim resolve to face death.
Undergoing tribulation?
He had touched the threshold as early as a hundred years ago.
At the time...
...he was just over four hundred years old.
It was slower than Martial Uncle Jiang's three hundred years, but twice as fast as his master's eight hundred.
It was just that...
...in the past century, he had never once thought of calling down this lightning tribulation.
His master had asked him how long he was going to wait.
He only replied that he wasn't stable enough yet and needed to further solidify his foundation...
These...
...were all lies, of course.
The only reason he didn't undergo the lightning tribulation was simply that he was afraid of dying under it.
Since ancient times...
...many reached great ascension, but few transcended the tribulation.
Countless geniuses had died under the lightning tribulation; there were no small number of such records in the Wendao Sword Sect.
Li Qingshan wasn't afraid of death.
He was just afraid...
...of dying in a way that lacked dignity.
He felt that dying under a lightning tribulation and being reduced to ash was too embarrassing.
Whenever he thought of the future, with people saying that the genius sword cultivator Li Qingshan had died while transcending his tribulation, how humiliating would that be...
So...
...he kept stalling.
It sounded ridiculous, but Li Qingshan was originally a very conflicted person.
It was just his personality...
But today, that master who had spent her whole life tricking him...
...was dead!
Dignity?
Hah!
He swallowed a mouthful of blood and looked at the sky, murmuring.
"Come!"
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