Whoever Offends Our Great Xia Shall Be Slain, No Matter How Far!

Exploding firelight dyed the heavens a brilliant crimson! At the same time, a figure abruptly appeared behind Han Tiange. By the time he realized it, turning his sword around was already impossible. An earthy-yellow radiance rippled outward in all directions, and Han Tiange felt an overwhelming weight, as if a hundred-zhang mountain were crashing down upon him! *Boom!!* *Swish!!* A flash of cold gleam, and Han Tiange's left arm was severed, flying into the air! Borrowing the momentum, he erupted with tremendous power and fled several hundred zhang away. Drenched in blood, the flesh on Lu Kangnian's face had been torn open to reveal raw sinew, making him look utterly terrifying. Though grievously wounded, he clamped onto Han Tiange like a god of slaughter, refusing to let him go! The thunderous blasts of detonating cloud boats rang incessantly. Panic had finally seized Han Tiange's heart. When he saw the disciples of Ziyang Palace fleeing frantically in all directions, he could no longer maintain his lofty pride and roared in sheer desperation, "Disciples of Ziyang Palace, hear my command... Retreat!!" With that single order, every airborne disciple pulled back wildly toward the rear! Han Tiange glared venomously at the charging man. Clenching his teeth in bitter reluctance, he formed hand seals as a mist of blood erupted from his body. His figure instantly turned into a bloody streak of light, teleporting several thousand zhang away! Having put distance between them, Han Tiange produced several formation plates that flickered with purple light. The jade slips at the waists of all the Ziyang Palace disciples burst with dazzling brilliance, enveloping them completely. *Swish!!!* The people of Ziyang Palace vanished from the sky in the blink of an eye. Only then did the spectating onlookers dare to exhale. Shock and sheer astonishment filled every set of eyes! Ye Shaozhen no longer even held up his delicate orchid fingers. Looking at the two towering figures in the distance, he said in a solemn voice, "The sky of the Northern Region has changed!" The masters of Qinglong Island, the Ten Thousand Immortals Sword Sect, and the other sects who had previously clashed with the Great Xia Sword Sect all wore grim, unsightly expressions. Only Shen Ye moved, immediately taking to the air and rushing toward the Great Xia Sword Sect's grounds! There were easily eight to ten thousand cultivators watching this battle. Though they stood at least three thousand zhang from the battlefield, they had all clearly seen the shattered cloud boats and the routed forces of Ziyang Palace. Those with sharp eyes had even noticed that Han Tiange, Palace Master of Ziyang Palace, seemed to have lost an arm. Everyone swallowed hard in succession, lips tightly shut, their eyes flickering with uncontainable agitation. In the blink of an eye, news of what had happened here spread across the entire Northern Region! By now, Lu Kangnian's aura had begun to plummet rapidly. With a deathly pale face, the man swayed slightly in midair. Yet the very next moment, a figure carrying a sword casket appeared beside Lu Kangnian and supported him. Li Guanqi said nothing, only holding Lu Kangnian steady and slowly helping him stand straight! He knew that saying the eyes of the entire Northern Region were fixed on Lu Kangnian at this very moment was no exaggeration! Lu Kangnian could not fall right now—at least not under the watchful gaze of so many! Lu Kangnian glanced at the youth, saying nothing. Yet Li Guanqi could clearly feel the man straining with everything he had to keep his spine straight! It was as if he were trying to shatter the reputation of cowardice that had weighed upon him for thousands of years. Lu Kangnian's vision was already growing hazy, yet he held his posture as straight and unyielding as a sword. Slowly raising his blade, his sharp gaze swept across the surrounding void. The dense crowd of onlookers felt their hearts clench at the sight. Lu Kangnian's chest rose and fell faintly. Laced with origin energy, his resonant, booming voice carried tens of millions of zhang across the heavens! "From this day forth!" "Whoever offends our Great Xia shall be slain, no matter how far!!" His voice rang with thunderous conviction, roaring into the open sky! In an instant, every disciple of the Great Xia Sword Sect who had fought in this bloody battle soared into the air! Unleashing their auras without restraint, they leveled their swords toward the void and shouted in unison: "Whoever offends our Great Xia shall be slain, no matter how far!!" "Whoever offends our Great Xia shall be slain, no matter how far!!" The unified shout seemed ready to tear the night apart. The roar of thousands shook the soul like an unstoppable army of tens of thousands of charging cavalry! Tears welled uncontrollably in the eyes of the disciples who had yet to reach Foundation Establishment, overwhelmed by emotion. Their fists were clenched so tight that their nails dug deep into their palms without their noticing. A distinct, fervent emotion began to take root in their hearts. Lu Kangnian gently pushed Li Guanqi aside, slowly flew down toward the front of the sect's main hall, pushed open the great doors, and stepped inside. *Hum!!* The moment Lu Kangnian touched down, Ling Daoyan swept his broad sleeve, instantly laying down a vast curtain of heavenly fire!! Having finished this, the old man flashed forward and shoved open the hall's doors. Inside, Lu Kangnian lay flat on the ground, completely motionless, having fallen into a deep coma. Though invoking an immortal's name could draw down the blessed might of an ancestor from the Immortal Realm, that power lasted only a brief moment and came with immense backlash. For at least three days, Lu Kangnian would be unable to move an inch. In an instant, Ling Daoyan took charge of the entire Great Xia Sword Sect. Shen Ye arrived as well. While racing against time to treat Lu Kangnian's injuries, Ling Daoyan used origin energy to dispatch one order after another! Without a word, Shen Ye began assisting in treating the wounded disciples of the Great Xia Sword Sect. Many of the Core Formation disciples who could still move, including Li Guanqi, were sent out on patrol. After all, if Ziyang Palace were to mount a surprise counterattack at this moment, the Great Xia Sword Sect would be hard-pressed to withstand it. Li Guanqi was exhausted to his absolute limit, yet he continued ferrying injured disciples toward Tianshui Peak without pause. Watching corpse after corpse carried into the Sect Cemetery, the sorrow in Li Guanqi's eyes gave way to a deeper, smoldering rage. In this battle, nearly sixty-seven members of the Great Xia Sword Sect had fallen! Forty-two of them were Core Formation disciples! As for why the casualties among Core Formation disciples were over one and a half times those of Foundation Establishment disciples... On one hand, Ziyang Palace possessed an overwhelming number of Core Formation disciples, forcing nearly every Great Xia Sword Sect cultivator to confront two or more opponents of the same realm at once. On the other hand... The Core Formation cultivators of Ziyang Palace had deliberately targeted the Foundation Establishment disciples of the Great Xia Sword Sect, forcing their seniors to step in and shield them... And this had been Ziyang Palace's prearranged plan all along!! Was it vicious? Vicious indeed. Yet Li Guanqi believed that not a single disciple of the Great Xia Sword Sect would ever regret what they had done. Only after everything was settled did Li Guanqi finally lean against a shattered boulder to bandage his own wounds. Ye Feng dragged his exhausted body over and slowly sat beside him. After a long silence, he spoke in a low, fragile voice. "Senior Sister Lan He is dead." "I carried her myself." Li Guanqi's breath hitched, and he snapped his head toward Ye Feng! Ye Feng buried his head between his knees, his shoulders trembling faintly. In a voice thick with choked sobs, he murmured, "How... how could she be dead...?" "I haven't even broken through to Core Formation yet!" "I didn't even get the chance to tell her... that I loved her..." Li Guanqi parted his lips, utterly at a loss for how to comfort him. No one had known about this. Not even he had realized that Ye Feng harbored feelings for Lan He. Suddenly! Ling Daoyan's voice resounded through the Great Xia Sword Sect, shaking the air! "All disciples, hear my command! Assemble at the Sect Cemetery in a quarter of an hour to offer incense!" "Two hours from now, our swords will point at Ziyang Palace!!"