“Master, he escaped! What should we do? He will definitely spread the news of your falling realm. It’s over, it’s all over... The Wendao Sword Sect is really in big trouble now...”
The little book spirit circled anxiously in the air, its mouth never ceasing its worried chatter.
Xu Xian, however, remained motionless.
“Master, aren’t you worried?”
Worried?
Would it be of any use?
Xu Xian gave a bitter smile in his heart.
In his current state, he could not stop the remnant soul from leaving. What was the use of being afraid?
“What must come, will eventually come,” he said.
His voice was laced with profound helplessness.
The little book spirit let out a frustrated sigh.
“Sigh!”
...
“Hey, have you heard? The Eleventh Grand-Ancestor of the Wendao Sword Sect, Xu Xian, has seen his realm fall to the nascent soul stage.”
“What? You mean the Xu Xian who challenged the whole world with his sword?”
“Exactly him.”
“How did this happen?”
“I heard that a year ago, he tried to ascend to the Immortal Realm in the far north, but he failed...”
“What a pity. The leader of the sword dao of his generation has seen his curtain fall just like that.”
“Sigh, isn’t that the truth? The world is about to fall into chaos again.”
“...”
The Twilight Emperor’s remnant soul had departed.
No one knew what methods he had used, but the news of Xu Xian’s realm falling to the nascent soul stage had truly spread throughout the entire world.
In an instant, rumors were everywhere, and the mortal realm was in an uproar.
The one who once challenged the world with his sword,
The strongest expert in Fanzhou,
The leader of the sword dao, Xu Xian,
His realm had fallen to the nascent soul stage.
The Four Seas and Eight Desolations were shaken.
To ordinary commoners and cultivators, whether it was true or false was just something to gossip about.
After all,
Such a figure had always been extremely distant from them, a presence from myths and legends. Now, it was merely the end of a legend.
They still had no way of reaching him.
However, for the experts of the four regions beyond the Northern Borders, it was a different story.
They would decide for themselves whether it was true or false.
Several months ago,
They had personally witnessed the three-thousand-mile lightning curtain ravaging the world after the far north was cleared.
At that time,
They had watched Xu Xian leave.
Afterward,
Similar suspicions had already begun to take root.
Xu Xian had failed his tribulation, and his realm was damaged.
In recent days,
They had not been idle. they had been secretly gathering information and even performing divinations on the future. They had even instructed the younger generations of their sects and families to repeatedly probe the Wendao Sword Sect.
And these probes grew more frequent.
Now,
The news that matched their suspicions had suddenly appeared and spread throughout the world. Naturally, they felt no surprise at all.
Furthermore,
They became even more certain.
The facts were as they appeared.
A failed tribulation,
A falling realm.
It was perfectly logical.
Such things had happened more than once in the history of Fanzhou; it was just that those were usually tribulation transcendence failures rather than immortal tribulations.
But in essence, there was no difference between the two.
That day,
The three thousand miles of thunder had been a cataclysmic force capable of destroying heaven and earth.
Xu Xian had lost,
And that was only natural.
If he had succeeded,
That would have been the truly strange thing.
However, out of caution and their wariness of the Wendao Sword Sect—fearing a repeat of the crushing defeat from five hundred years ago—even with the news spreading everywhere,
The East Desolation, the Central Plains, and the North Sea maintained their restraint.
They were waiting.
They would let things play out for a while longer.
They increased the intensity of their probes, continuously creating friction in the border regions, and frantically challenged the Wendao Sword Sect’s bottom line within a controllable range.
Another year passed in this manner.
At the Sword Qi Great Wall, the shores of the North Sea, and outside Broken Sword Mountain, battles between various races and the Wendao Sword Sect broke out from time to time.
Inside the Wendao Sword Sect, high-level missions increased drastically, and the entire Zhijian Hall was deployed.
From time to time, spirit smoke drifted back,
And spirit swords returned to their peaks.
The mortal realm was in turmoil, and the entire sect was busy.
Throughout this entire process, Xu Xian never showed his face in public.
The answer,
Seemed to be more than obvious now.
The rumors were not false; the time had come.
The high-level experts of the Central Plains, the North Sea, the East Desolation, and even the Demon Abyss began to secretly contact one another.
The surviving spirit old monsters of the past awakened once more.
Through lengthy discussions, they reached a unanimous decision.
They would take this opportunity,
To annihilate the Wendao Sword Sect.
Every race and sect would carve up the Northern Borders and redefine the structure of the mortal realm.
Throughout this entire process, although the Twilight Emperor did not show his face, he was silently pushing things from the shadows.
Until a certain autumn night, when the time was ripe.
The North Sea,
The East Desolation,
The Central Plains,
And the Demon Abyss.
The experts set out in full force. Under the cover of the moonlight, they gathered countless combat forces from all directions and marched their armies forward.
“Destroy the Wendao Sword Sect!”
“The time has come! Set out with me...”
“Clansmen, the humiliation of ten thousand years shall be settled today! Take up your weapons and follow me to trample the Northern Borders!”
“Kill!”
“Kill!!”
“Kill!!!”
The cries of slaughter echoed in every corner of the four regions.
At the Blazing Fortress of the Demon Abyss,
The twelve demon gods gathered in one place, with two demon dragons leading the way. One hundred thousand demon guards set out, as demon boats and demon falcons crossed the Black Sand Sea, venturing far to the east...
At the head of a war boat, Chi Ming, who also knew the truth, asked Jin Qing, “Must we really do this?”
Jin Qing said solemnly, “We have no choice.”
“But... you promised him. Have you forgotten?” Chi Ming tried to remind her.
Jin Qing gave a self-deprecating laugh. “Heh...”
“What are you laughing at?”
Jin Qing gazed into the distance, her eyes dark and heavy. She said meaningfully, “If there is a sin, then let it fall upon me alone...”
Chi Ming looked deeply at Jin Qing.
In the end, he said nothing more.
A promise?
Before the general trend of the world, it was simply not worth mentioning.
Although Chi Ming felt this was dishonorable,
As the leader of a race and the one making the decisions, Jin Qing’s choice was the right one.
The world was a bustling place, all for the sake of profit.
The situation of the world was already set. Whether Xu Xian was still Bai Mang was now a thing of the past.
The colossus known as the Wendao Sword Sect had reached the end of its life. It was like a whale in the deep sea, about to fall.
And when a whale falls, ten thousand things flourish.
At such a time,
There was no reason for the Demon Abyss not to take a share of the spoils.
This was a turning point of fate, deciding the future of the entire Demon Abyss.
If he were in her place,
He would have done the same.
As for the promise?
As for Bai Mang?
They could only let nature take its course.
...
Several days later,
Outside the Wendao Sword Sect, cloud boats were as numerous as the sea, and battle flags were like clouds. Cultivators stood in ranks, blotting out the sun.
The beasts of the East Desolation,
The demons of the North Sea,
The devils of the west,
The humans of the Central Plains,
And the spirits of the mortal realm.
They gathered in one place, arrayed across the Northern Borders, completely surrounding the mountain gate of the Wendao Sword Sect.
Swords were drawn,
And their momentum pierced the heavens.
A sect-extermination war, gathering the strength of the entire mortal realm, was about to begin at any moment.
Inside the Wendao Sword Sect.
The Seven Star Sword Array was activated once more as the entire sect prepared for battle. Atop One Sword Gorge, the light of the array shimmered, the array patterns surged, and sword intent howled faintly.
The two sides confronted each other in silence.
Li Qingshan arrived.
The three Guest Elders arrived.
The four members of the Golden Generation arrived.
The five patriarchs of the Wendao Sword Sect also emerged from seclusion.
Only,
The Grand-Ancestor Xu Xian had yet to appear.
This made the people of the world even more certain that the rumors were true, giving them even more confidence for this battle.
The disciples of the Wendao Sword Sect had naturally heard the rumors as well, and many of them knew the truth of the matter.
But even so,
They remained unafraid,
Standing with their swords, seeking life through death.
If they must fight,
Then they would fight,
Until the very end!
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