Rumble!!
That spear was too fast—so fast that even if he reacted in time, he had no way of dodging it!
Yet right at that very moment—
Clang!!!
A flying sword abruptly slammed into the silver spear!!
Clang!!
In an instant, the two weapons unleashed a violent shockwave, sending Li Guanqi hurtling back dozens of zhang!
Simultaneously, a pitch-black rift spanning ten zhang suddenly tore open barely a zhang in front of Li Guanqi!
Clad in sect robes, Lu Kangnian and the others stepped slowly out of the rift!
The moment they appeared, an unparalleled, terrifying pressure erupted from them all!!
Ten full Nascent Soul realm cultivators!!
Seeing this, Li Guanqi could not help lowering his head in silence, his disheveled hair obscuring his face.
Just then, Li Nanting and Ye Feng arrived as well.
The gathered onlookers could not help crying out in shock at the sight.
"Did the Great Xia Sword Sect just bring all of their peak masters?!"
*Gulp*... "Are they really about to go to war?"
"Have the people from the Great Xia Sword Sect lost their minds? Are they openly declaring war on Ziyang Palace?"
The surrounding cultivators burst into hushed, frantic murmurs.
With flying swords circling around him, Lu Kangnian took a slight step forward and stood before everyone, his hands clasped behind his back.
Not far off, Miao Chuanjiang's face turned frighteningly grim at the sight.
Taking a violent step forward, the surge of origin power around him shattered the drifting snow across the sky!
Miao Chuanjiang tossed the unconscious Zhao Beichen behind him. No matter what, Zhao Beichen had at least survived his Core Formation Tribulation.
The old man said coldly, "Lu Kangnian, judging by this, you're dead set on shielding that bastard?"
Lu Kangnian narrowed his eyes, a sneer tugging at the corner of his lips. "Shielding him? He is a disciple of my sect. Of course I will protect him!"
A commotion rippled through the onlookers at those words!
Anyone could see that the tension between the two sects had reached a razor-thin brink.
Yet even so, Lu Kangnian had immediately shut down any possibility of reconciliation!
At this moment, the onlookers' impression of the Great Xia Sword Sect grew even deeper.
It seemed the disciples of the Great Xia Sword Sect were not the only ones ready to fight and kill; even the sect itself was fiercely protective of its own.
The old man took a deep breath, and as he looked at Lu Kangnian and the elders behind him, a chilly glint flickered in his narrowed eyes.
"Lu Kangnian!!"
"Do you have any idea what you're saying?"
The man let out a casual laugh and said softly, "Of course I know what I'm saying, and I know what I'm doing.
"It is true that my Great Xia Sword Sect disciple Li Guanqi killed disciples of your Ziyang Palace, but won't you tell everyone why?"
With that, Li Nanting retrieved a jade slip from his robes and tossed it toward Lu Kangnian.
Before Li Guanqi had shattered his own sect jade slip, he had transmitted the scenes recorded within the shadow-casting stone to Li Nanting.
Catching the jade slip, Lu Kangnian said in a voice cold and harsh with fury:
"As disciples of Ziyang Palace, they bullied the weak and tormented my Great Xia Sword Sect's disciple Yu Sui'an for an entire night!!"
Boom!!!
With a grim expression, Lu Kangnian crushed the jade slip, channeling his vast origin power into it.
A projection spanning a hundred zhang across suddenly manifested in the sky!
Instantly, scene after scene from the jade slip unfolded with crystal clarity before everyone's eyes!
In the projection, the Ziyang Palace disciples who had originally entered the Hundred Sects Tournament were gathered in a dark alleyway.
Curled into a ball on the ground was a little girl, constantly begging for mercy.
Yet she was already drenched in blood, her red floral coat torn to shreds.
Even when the crowd stopped their beating, the little girl remained on the ground, still pleading for mercy.
Only her voice grew weaker and weaker.
Suddenly!
In the projection, Li Hua handed the shadow-casting stone to another person, crouched down, grabbed the little girl by her hair, and hauled her into the air.
In the recording, Yu Sui'an's eyes were so swollen she could no longer see.
Yet her lips still trembled, whispering something.
Watching this from within the crowd, Li Guanqi clenched his fists tightly, lowering his head, unable to keep watching.
Tears welled in his eyes, which were bloodshot and filled with irrepressible murderous intent.
Seeing this, a wave of fury washed over all the onlookers!
"Dammit! No matter what she did, how could they be so vicious?!"
"Watching this makes my blood boil!"
"This is what Ziyang Palace disciples are like?!"
Miao Chuanjiang's frigid gaze swept the surroundings, and he roared, "Enough!!"
Lu Kangnian snapped back, "Enough? It's far from enough!!"
Boom!!!
The projection in the sky abruptly expanded to more than two hundred zhang across!
A projection so vast was clearly visible even to cultivators a thousand zhang away.
In the projection, Li Hua suddenly moved!
With a twisted grin, he sneered, "Brat, you're still defending that dead blind man?
"He only got this far by sheer dumb luck. Did you really think he could beat us?"
The moment his words fell, the little girl, who had just been begging for mercy, strained with all her might to open her eyes.
Her voice was childish yet brimming with unyielding resolve as she looked at Li Hua and said, "You're all cowards! He will definitely defeat every one of you!"
Smack!
Smack, smack, smack!!
A barrage of crisp slaps echoed far and wide, and every blow struck squarely against the hearts of the Great Xia Sword Sect's elders!
Who in the Great Xia Sword Sect had not seen that little girl running like the wind?
In the dining hall, who had not seen Yu Sui'an standing on tiptoe to ask for two meat buns?
In an instant, murderous intent flashed in the eyes of every peak master.
In the projection, Li Hua stopped his hand and muttered with a savage grimace,
"You've got quite a mouth on you..."
With that, he shoved his fingers directly into her mouth and tore the corners of her lips wide open!!
Then, he began snapping her limbs, bone by bone!
For a time, the little girl's agonizing screams echoed endlessly in the projection as stark white bones pierced through her flesh.
Dripping with blood, she passed out from the excruciating pain, only for him to forcibly revive her with origin power!!
Then, tossing her aside, he kicked her hard in the chest.
Crack! Crack!!
The sickening sound of shattering bone was so clear that it sent a shiver down everyone's spine, making them shudder.
The little girl's body was kicked around beneath their feet like an object, lasting a full six or seven shichen!
By this point in the projection, the onlookers had grown to several thousand.
Yet the sky above the entire Fuyou Mountain Range fell as silent as a graveyard.
Only the faint, muffled whimpers that occasionally escaped the little girl in the projection drifted far and wide on the wind.
Watching this, Lu Kangnian's eyes were already crimson, veiled in a layer of mist.
Clang!!
In an instant, the man gripped the longsword beside him, the blade trembling as it let out a sharp, resonant hum.
"Miao Chuanjiang! You tell me—did those my Great Xia Sword Sect killed deserve to die?!"
Chapter 160