Sunlight cascaded across the earth, illuminating nothing but ruined debris and crumbling walls.
The blood was blindingly glaring; everywhere the eye could see lay mangled, shattered corpses.
By now, Han Tiange's face was ashen as death, while Ye Shaozhen, Qinglong Island's Master Yu He, and the others trembled uncontrollably from head to toe.
Hanging their heads, none of them dared utter a single word, burying their faces in mortal dread of being noticed.
The elderly man who had arrived last merely swept a glance downward before slowly raising a withered hand.
Han Tiange's expression warped in horror. Before everyone's shocked eyes, a burst of blood mist erupted around him, and he transformed into a crimson streak of light, instantly tearing through the void to flee!!
The elder named Kong Yan kept his eyes cast downward, his expression devoid of joy or sorrow.
He spoke softly in a low voice: "Seal."
Boom!!!
A spiritual seal abruptly shot from the elder's palm and vanished into the void!
In an instant, a shrill, agonizing scream pierced the heavens!
With a single tug of his hand, the elder dragged Han Tiange's contorted form bodily out of thin air!
Holding the lacerated, blood-drenched Han Tiange by the collar, the elder bowed slightly toward Lu Kangnian.
"Sect Master, how shall we dispose of this man?"
At that moment, all eyes turned to Lu Kangnian!
With a face pale as death and utterly devoid of color, Han Tiange stared at Lu Kangnian with pleading eyes.
Lu Kangnian did not look well either, but as his gaze swept across the faces of his disciples, his eyes hardened with unyielding resolve!
Reaching out, he drew Han Tiange into his grip. A cold glint flashed as he raised his hand!
A massive head flew high into the air!
A blast of sword qi tore Han Tiange's origin spirit to shreds. Lu Kangnian hoisted the severed head and roared to the heavens:
"After today, Ziyang shall exist no more!!"
A smile of satisfaction touched the elder's face. Crooking a finger, he said in a deep voice,
"Slay everyone in Ziyang at or above the Nascent Soul realm!"
"The same goes for the three sects that took part in the siege!"
Boom!!!
Ye Shaozhen slumped ashen-faced in midair, his eyes hollow as he muttered,
"It's over..."
Boom!!
In an instant, streaks of light soared across the heavens as sword rays flared in all directions.
Terrifying pressure raged through the void, yet Li Guanqi and the others no longer needed to lift a finger.
A rain of blood drifted down from the sky, accompanied by an endless barrage of deafening self-detonations.
By this point, the disciples of the three sects, including the Qixian Sect, had lost every shred of will to resist.
They could only watch helplessly as their sect masters and elders were slaughtered like cattle.
Terror spread rampantly through the hearts of every last one of them!!
None knew how the iron-blooded Lu Kangnian would deal with them...
From the moment Lu Kangnian decided to counterattack Ziyang Palace, he had hardened his resolve, refusing to remain a mere defender of the walls!
Cold glints flickering in his eyes, he bellowed in a stern voice: "Ziyang Palace! Qixian Sect! Qinglong Island! Zixiao Pavilion!"
"Shatter the dantian of every disciple from all four sects to eradicate future trouble!!"
Instantly, many onlookers in the surrounding area drew in sharp breaths of cold air!
Ruthless!
Utterly ruthless!
Yet upon further reflection, it was entirely understandable. No one had expected this sect war to be so catastrophic.
There was not the slightest possibility of reconciliation between the two sides, not to mention the Great Xia Sword Sect having summoned so many powerhouses!
Just Soul Formation Realm experts alone numbered three!
And there were as many as fifty or sixty Nascent Soul cultivators!
With dozens of Nascent Soul cultivators striking together, the Nascent Soul elders of the four sects had no power to resist whatsoever.
To say nothing of the three Soul Formation cultivators suppressing the field.
Soon, every surviving disciple of Ziyang Palace had their dantian shattered!!
Lu Kangnian had given the command, but when it was all carried out, those watching from hiding still felt a chill seep into the depths of their hearts.
An overwhelming realization dawned upon them all:
'From this day forth, no one in the Northern Region will dare provoke the Great Xia Sword Sect!'
Even if the three paramount sects wished to act, they would have to weigh whether they could withstand this pack of madmen!
Perhaps once word of this spread, no one would believe that the fuse for everything had simply been a six-year-old girl.
After sweeping the battlefield, the crowd plundered all of Ziyang Palace.
They even peeled off the glazed golden tiles from the roofs and pried up the white jade flagstones from the hall floor.
One could say the entire Ziyang Palace had been stripped bare several times over by a band of bandits.
The sect treasury and the spiritual veins beneath the mountain were naturally not spared, and they even pried open the Scripture Pavilion and carried away the bookshelves along with the books.
Having finished all this, Lu Kangnian stepped on the void and bowed deeply to everyone who had rushed back to aid them!
Those who had remained in the sect bowed alongside him.
All those who had returned bowed solemnly in return!
Lu Kangnian said in a heavy voice, "I, Lu Kangnian, am incompetent to have had to summon all of you back..."
Kong Yan looked at him and smiled. "You did very well. Who would have thought the little boy who used to play in the mud now carries the true aura of a sect master!"
"Though we left the sect, our hearts have always remained with it!"
"For what we did today, we share in the honor!"
At that moment, smiles broke across the faces of all the returned disciples.
Indeed, they too had believed the Great Xia Sword Sect should not stop here.
Now, the sect showed signs of resurgence; they trusted that under Lu Kangnian's leadership, it would only grow stronger in the days ahead!
The man clad in golden armor threw an arm around Lu Kangnian and laughed. "Kangnian, I never expected you to have such grit!"
"I knew making you sect master back then was the right call!"
Lu Kangnian also laughed, punching him in the shoulder.
"Back then the old sect master wanted you to take it, but look at you—you ran off in the middle of the night and dumped this whole mess onto me!"
With that, Lu Kangnian looked toward the woman nearby and said softly, "Sister Tu..."
The woman in the ice-blue robe gazed at him with gentle warmth, nodding with a smile.
"You did well. Very well."
"You'll have your hands full after this, so we'll be taking our leave."
"If anything comes up, just send word to us later."
As she spoke, she waved her hand, and light flared beside her—unexpectedly revealing an entire low-grade spiritual vein!!
"Having been away for so many years, I don't have much worthy to offer."
"Take this spiritual vein as a small token of my regard."
The golden-armored man named Cui Quan chuckled as well. With a wave of his hand, he likewise presented a low-grade spiritual vein!
"An immortal sect ought to carry some grandeur!"
"It's not much, but take it."
Seeing this, the elder beside them gave a wry shake of his head. Pointing at the two of them, he could not help saying,
"You two brats are clearly roasting this old man over the fire."
Tu Shan and Cui Quan exchanged a glance and smiled knowingly.
The elder said with a beaming smile,
"Ah, forget it, forget it."
"After all these years, it's high time the Great Xia Sword Sect flourished!"
Buzz!!!
In an instant, two pitch-black spatial fissures tore open beside the elder!!
Two medium-grade spiritual veins, each fully a hundred zhang long, soared forth!
With a wave of his sleeve, dozens of cultivation manuals and secret scriptures hovered in midair.
On top of that, there were hundreds of low-tier magic treasures of every kind!
Pointing toward the fluttering sect banner below, the elder instructed in a solemn voice: "Kangnian, the Great Xia Sword Sect of the future... ought to be like this!!"
Chapter 181