Xu Xian rose from his small boat and stepped out. In a single stride, he traveled thousands of miles and came to a halt directly before the assembled demons, his gaze slowly sweeping across them.
His brow furrowed.
The demons were mostly confused.
Xu Xian said, "There are some missing..."
Ao Tian was stunned and asked in confusion, "What?"
Xu Xian said leisurely, "I must ask you all to wait for me for two days."
With that, he bypassed the demons and headed toward the depths of the North Sea.
"Where are you going?"
Xu Xian replied lazily, "Some people didn't show up. I have to make a trip myself..."
As soon as he finished speaking, his figure vanished from the demons' sight.
Xu Xian was gone.
He was heading back the way they had come.
The group of great demons looked at each other in bewilderment, then turned their collective gaze toward the nine demon immortals...
They understood what Xu Xian meant.
The numbers weren't complete.
But how did he know exactly how many great demons were in the North Sea?
That was a question even they couldn't answer.
The North Sea was so vast—how long would he be gone?
Tu Sisi took the initiative to speak, breaking the awkward silence. "It seems this little fellow did quite a bit of homework before coming here..."
Qingluan said nonchalantly, "Then we wait."
Ao Ba crossed his arms and grumbled, "I don't believe it. Can he really turn the North Sea upside down and find every single one without missing a soul?"
The others remained silent, watching to see what would happen.
What they didn't know was that during that Heart Demon Dream, under the guidance of the Twilight Emperor, Xu Xian had spent decades treading upon every inch of Fanzhou's land.
He knew exactly how many ninth stage experts there were in the world.
He had always emphasized to the little book spirit that it wasn't just a heart demon illusion, nor was it merely a dream.
Everything in it had a basis in reality.
One day passed...
The demons grew somewhat restless.
Two days passed...
The demons gradually lost their patience.
On the morning of the third day, amid the complaints and grumbling of some demons, Xu Xian returned.
He had left alone, but he did not return alone.
He held a chain in his hand, and tied to it were over a dozen great demons, each of them gasping for breath and looking utterly wretched.
They looked like a pack of stray dogs.
In contrast, Xu Xian's sword robes were pristine, and his hair flowed elegantly. A faint smile played on his face, which could just barely be described as handsome.
It was the posture of a victor.
Upon seeing this, everyone held their breath and fell silent.
Three days.
He had captured over a dozen great demons from the North Sea without even getting a speck of dust on his clothes.
Xu Xian's strength was now on full display.
At the same time, it sounded a warning bell in their hearts.
There was nowhere to hide in the vast North Sea. Resistance was nothing more than seeking death.
Looking at those pathetic great demons, while they felt a sense of schadenfreude, they also felt a sense of relief and luck.
They couldn't help but think that it was a good thing they had come voluntarily.
Otherwise, their fate would have been the same.
Upon his return, Xu Xian politely apologized to the crowd. "My apologies, everyone, for making you wait so long. The North Sea is too large, so I was delayed on the road..."
The implication was clear: it took three days only because the North Sea was too big and travel took time.
Dealing with them had taken no time at all.
The dozen or so great demons hung their heads, their eyes still filled with deep terror.
Recalling the moment they were captured, they still hadn't quite recovered from the shock.
One move.
Just one move.
This sword cultivator hadn't even drawn his sword from beginning to end, and they had been flattened.
They had no power to fight back at all.
They could even clearly sense that this sword immortal had held back. Otherwise, he would have been dragging back cold corpses.
The dozen beast gods said nothing, but their reactions told the other demons everything. The crowd silently moved aside, and even the demon immortals went quiet.
Ao Tian cast aside all his pride and cupped his hands in a salute. "Please!"
Xu Xian nodded and smiled slightly.
"Very well."
He walked through the crowd and handed the chain to Tu Sisi, saying courteously, "Immortal Tu, I'll trouble you to watch them for a moment."
Tu Sisi replied graciously, "I would be happy to help."
After handing the chain to Tu Sisi, Xu Xian stepped before the invisible boundary wall.
The demons watched silently, their expressions complex and their hearts racing.
Can he really cleave it open?
Even now, they still had their doubts.
One must realize that this invisible boundary wall had blocked the North Sea for endless years—so long that they themselves couldn't remember exactly how long it had been.
In the beginning, their powerful ancestors had struck it repeatedly, trying to shatter it.
But every attempt ended in failure.
Eventually, they gave up.
In the years that followed, generations of descendants inherited their ancestors' will and constantly ventured into the Central Plains, trying to find a way to break it on that continent.
The outcome was always the same.
Yet they never gave up. The war four hundred years ago was the proof of that.
It was just that they had lost once again to this human youth.
Today, he intended to ascend to the heavens and recreate the path to immortality. He had promised the North Sea that he could slash through the boundary wall.
That was why they had come.
They stood here at this very moment to witness the youth draw his sword with their own eyes.
Xu Xian reached out to touch the boundary wall, his thoughts equally complex. This was the brand left by the Li Clan ancestors. Although he was not a member of the Li Clan by blood, he had solved the endgame, comprehended the sword stele, commanded the Sword Mound, and forged the Sword Tower.
Furthermore, he had accepted the gift of life from the five people, including Li Taibai.
He had naturally inherited the Li Clan's will and had essentially become a member of the Li Clan.
Today, as the successor of the Li Clan's will, he was about to personally slash through the restriction left by his ancestors. How could he not have any feelings about it?
And it went beyond that.
He had also reached a consensus with the Twilight Emperor.
He was letting Him go back.
Xu Xian didn't know if this counted as a betrayal of the Li Clan ancestors.
He only knew that he had no choice.
For Fanzhou, and for the people he cared about.
He had to do this.
"If the ancestors have knowledge in the afterlife, surely they won't resent me for doing this for the sake of all living beings..."
He whispered to himself in a low voice.
He glanced back at the crowd behind him.
The demons' gazes were intense and sharp.
He smiled calmly, feigning a carefree air.
He withdrew his gaze, cleared his thoughts, and raised his hand. Sword Spirit Qing, transformed from The Living Flora, turned into a green longsword and fell precisely into the youth's hand.
Xu Xian gripped the hilt.
The blade radiated a green glow.
Xu Xian channeled his energy into his arm and circulated the Nameless Sword Scripture in his heart. The blade traced a semicircle at his side before he raised it high above his head.
Finally, under the watchful eyes of the demons, he swung it down violently!
With a sharp clang, the hum of the sword rang out.
The sword fell from above, and a hazy green sword intent surged forth like an overwhelming wave, venting outward.
Its momentum weighed ten thousand tons, like a flood bursting through a dam.
Thousands of miles of the sky collapsed inch by inch, revealing glimpses of the void scenery.
The sword qi stretched for three thousand miles.
The white clouds were scattered, and the wind wailed.
The invisible boundary wall shattered with a roar.
The spiritual energy of Fanzhou poured into the North Sea amid the raging sword qi.
A great wind swept across the sky, the blue waves rippled, and the demons' clothes and hair fluttered wildly.
They either stared with wide eyes, knitted their brows, or swallowed hard, unable to speak.
But they knew that the boundary wall was broken.
Shattered by a single strike from the youth.
A simple and unadorned strike, yet a divine and breathtaking one.
"So strong!"
"What a sword!"
"It's terrifyingly powerful..."
Amid the raging sword qi, the youth looked back. Standing like a refined gentleman, peerless and independent, he said softly:
"Everyone, please..."
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