Chapter 2 - An Ominous Night.

Judging by the clothes on this person, it was clearly a disciple of their Sword Hall. When Xu Xuan's gaze fell upon the sword the person was wearing, he finally confirmed who this person was.

"Junior Brother Jianxing!!" Seeing the long sword on the person's back, Xu Xuan finally recognized the identity of this headless figure. After all, in the entire Sword Hall, every junior and senior brother wielded a unique long sword. For instance, Xu Xuan's name in the sect was Jianxuan, and his sword was called Qingxuan Sword.

The sword on the back of this headless corpse was called Luoxing Sword, and the person himself was named Jianxing.

If Xu Xuan remembered correctly, Junior Brother Jianxing should have descended the mountain yesterday. It seemed that yesterday, some townspeople from the foot of the mountain had come up to report signs of demons appearing down below. So Martial Uncle Yezi took a group of disciples to Jianmen Town at the foot of the mountain. Junior Brother Jianxing appeared to be among them.

Thinking of this, Xu Xuan did not act rashly. Heaven knew what was wrong with this headless corpse in front of him. If he acted rashly, he might not be able to defeat it. At such a time, it was naturally more reliable to find a master to deal with it.

With this thought, Xu Xuan ignored the headless corpse that was still knocking on the door and rushed into the mountain gate. Soon, almost all the remaining disciples of the Sword Hall, including Master Ouzi, gathered at the Sword Hall's mountain gate. Listening to the sounds of knocking, the expressions of the disciples present ranged from solemn to terrified.

For a moment, no one dared to open the mountain gate.

"Go, open the mountain gate. If we don't open it, Jianxing probably won't stop." Finally, Master Ouzi was the first to speak from the crowd. As Ouzi's words fell, two disciples bravely approached the mountain gate and pushed open the Sword Hall's gate once more.

At this moment, everyone present clearly saw the headless figure standing under the blood-red moon, continuously knocking on the door.

Under the crimson moonlight, the scene before them appeared exceptionally eerie.

Suddenly, the sound of swords being drawn among the surrounding disciples became a continuous rustle. It was as if the headless corpse would be hacked to death by a flurry of swords if it made the slightest move.

However, what everyone present did not expect was that the headless corpse had no aggressive tendencies at all. It simply clasped its hands together, bowed towards Ouzi's location, and then fell straight down.

"Master, what exactly is going on?" Seeing this scene, Xu Xuan asked Ouzi with some confusion.

"It's an obsession. He held onto a shred of obsession to return to the mountain gate and report. Now that the mountain gate is open and everyone is here, his purpose is fulfilled, and the obsession naturally dispersed. Don't worry, he won't harm us. Two people, carry Jianxing's body to the main hall. We'll find a place to bury him tomorrow." Looking at Jianxing's body, Ouzi sighed, then looked at the many disciples beside him: "Everyone, tonight's actions must ensure at least five people move together. Do not act alone. Go to various parts of the Sword Hall and retrieve the mountain-guarding treasures. Tonight, we will activate the mountain protection array."

"Master, are there enemies?"

"Yes! If I'm not mistaken, malevolent spirits must have entered our Sword Hall! Your Martial Uncle Yezi and his group are surely in grave danger. Otherwise, there wouldn't be a headless corpse returning to report such news." Ouzi said with a solemn expression: "Clearly, the demons from down the mountain are targeting our Sword Hall. Tonight, our Sword Hall is already a place of great peril!! Everyone, after activating the array for protection, gather in the main hall of the mountain gate. Survive tonight. Tomorrow, all of us will leave Hidden Sword Mountain together."

"Master, are the enemies that strong?" A disciple beside him swallowed hard and asked tremblingly.

"Your Master Yezi and the disciples he took down the mountain seem to have met a terrible fate." Ouzi sighed: "Alright!! Hurry up and act!!"

Hearing Ouzi's words, the Sword Hall disciples present immediately sprang into action. Xu Xuan also followed several senior and junior brothers towards the vegetable garden behind the mountain. There was a rusty ancient sword there, which itself was one of the Sword Hall's mountain protection arrays.

"Huh? Where's Junior Brother Jianshan?" When the group arrived beside the ancient sword, one of the junior brothers suddenly spoke. Xu Xuan then noticed that at some point, their small group of five had become four.

"Oh no, Junior Brother Jianshan has fallen behind!!" A disciple named Jianyu said in an anxious tone. He usually had a good relationship with Jianshan in the sect. Naturally, he was more anxious. Xu Xuan, on the other hand, didn't have many friends in the sect. After all, he was a bit socially anxious. Most of the time, he preferred to stay alone in the mountains. Over time, he became less familiar with the other junior and senior brothers in the sect.

"Ah! I see him, Junior Brother Jianshan is over there!!" As everyone looked around, they noticed Junior Brother Jianshan, carrying his long sword, standing in the middle of the vegetable patch, staring straight at them. Seeing this, Jianyu rushed over immediately. Xu Xuan and the other two disciples could only follow quickly.

"What's wrong with you? Why are you standing here?" Jianyu asked Jianshan.

"Senior Brother, I feel a bit unwell, it feels very strange." Hearing Jianyu's words, Jianshan suddenly spoke.

The three, including Xu Xuan, who followed behind, immediately drew their long swords the moment they saw Jianshan's appearance. Because Jianshan's toes were not pointing forward, but backward. If they looked closely, his clothes were also completely inside out. Earlier, because the vegetables in the patch obstructed their view, they couldn't see clearly from a distance. But as they got closer, Xu Xuan's cold sweat immediately broke out.

At this moment, Jianyu had already reached his side. Compared to Xu Xuan, Jianyu saw even more clearly. But it was too late. Under everyone's gaze, Jianshan directly reached out and grabbed Jianyu's arms. He gave Jianyu no chance to react. His head split open from the back of his skull, the split extending all the way to his navel. Right before their eyes, two rows of teeth grew from the split sides.

Between the two rows of teeth, two tentacle-like things grew out from the middle, and at the front of the fleshy walls were a pair of small, child-like hands. The two hands, one on the left and one on the right, embraced Jianyu's head, pulling it towards the gaping maw. The immense strength gave Jianyu no chance to react. In an instant, Jianyu's head was bitten by the giant mouth.

As the monster's body twisted with immense force, Jianyu's head was actually ripped off his neck, along with a string of his spine.

Seeing such a gruesome scene, Xu Xuan felt a long-lost wave of nausea. But at this moment, he and the other two disciples simultaneously drew their swords. Three long swords cut through the night sky, simultaneously striking the monster's body.

"Ahhhhh! It hurts so much!! Senior Brothers, what are you doing!! Why are you hurting me, I'm Jianshan." A painful shriek came from the monster's mouth. While chewing on a senior brother's head, the monster could simultaneously scream in Jianshan's voice. Read at Novels Haven (novelshaven.com)

Seeing this, Xu Xuan held his sword in a hand seal, and the long sword flew back into his hand. The other two disciples made similar movements. One disciple rushed to the monster and horizontally slashed its back with a sword. The other junior brother stabbed the monster's body with a sword.

"It hurts so much!! Are you trying to kill me?" Jianshan's voice rang out from the monster's mouth once more. Immediately after, the split opened again, and two tentacles simultaneously extended, grabbing towards the two disciples. Seeing this, Xu Xuan quickly stepped forward and slashed with his sword, cutting off both of the monster's tentacles cleanly.

Before the monster could make any more moves, the three people's sword attacks rained down on its body like a fierce storm. In an instant, dozens of sword wounds were left on the monster's body.

Finally, Xu Xuan's long sword got stuck in the gap between two teeth in the monster's split mouth. It was actually bitten off by the monster. Fortunately, the long swords of the other two senior brothers struck different locations. With their combined efforts, they managed to cut the monster that Jianshan had become in half at the waist.

The monster thrashed on the ground for a while before finally becoming still.

Only then did the three of them relax. One of the disciples couldn't help but lean over and vomit violently. The scene he had just witnessed was simply too impactful for him.

At this moment, Xu Xuan noticed that several long swords had already flown into the sky. Clearly, some senior and junior brothers had already activated the ancient swords of the mountain gate. Seeing this, the three senior and junior brothers didn't waste any more words. Following the method recorded in the sect, they simultaneously injected their Qi into the ancient sword by the vegetable patch. Accompanied by a flash of sword light, that ancient sword flew upwards.

"Let's go back quickly!" After a simple remark, Xu Xuan and the other two ran towards the main hall of the mountain gate.

Along the way, Xu Xuan seemed to hear the cries for help from other senior and junior brothers. One junior brother wanted to go help, but was pulled back by Xu Xuan and another junior brother. After all, in their direction, there should only be their small team.

Finally, after ignoring other miscellaneous sounds, Xu Xuan and the others finally returned to the main hall of the Sword Hall. At this moment, the entire Hidden Sword Peak was enveloped in a thick fog. Walking into the room, Xu Xuan looked back out the hall door and could only see dense fog and blood-red moonlight.

In the main hall of the Sword Hall, there was a large cauldron, with flames burning inside, and a long sword was plunged into the flames.

After a while, disciples returned to the main hall one after another, but the number of people present was significantly less than those who had initially gathered at the entrance. When all the disciples had returned, Xu Xuan was surprised to find that nearly half of the dozens of disciples were missing, and many of the remaining disciples were wounded.

Among them, Xu Xuan could clearly see that two junior brothers had lost their eyes. Now they could only cover their eyes with cloth. And when Master Ouzi walked into the hall from the mist, everyone was shocked to discover that Master Ouzi had lost an arm.

"Those who could return have returned." Ouzi glanced at the remaining people in the hall, said a sentence, then with a wave of his hand, all the doors and windows of the entire hall closed completely.