This clash erupted without the slightest warning, yet it was as if Lu Kangnian had been prepared for this from the very start!
Not just him, but every disciple of the Great Xia Sword Sect as well.
They threw up their arms with thunderous shouts and strode through the air!
Their soaring momentum was like ten thousand armies charging into battle, sweeping forward with matchless force.
It was as though everyone had long been waiting for this day to come.
Their spirits rose like a brilliant rainbow, and the powerful auras erupting from every single one of them left the spectating crowd utterly stunned.
Among the thousand or so who surged out, there were hundreds of Core Formation disciples alone!
Furthermore, the number of Nascent Soul cultivators far exceeded that of the Mo Family!
A sharp glint flashed through Shen Ye's eyes. He had never imagined the overall strength of the Great Xia Sword Sect had reached such a terrifying level!
Such immense might was enough to make all other sects in the Northern Region shrink back!
Who could have thought that the Great Xia Sword Sect, closed off from the world, had quietly grown into such a colossal behemoth?
Boom, boom, boom! Boom, boom!
In an instant, streams of multi-colored spell-light flashed across the sky in rapid succession, while the gleam of blades and shadows of swords merged into a single battlefield!
With a single stride, Lu Kangnian stepped directly into the barrier formed by Mo Zhiyuan and that other man.
Immediately after, the crushing pressure of a boundless, majestic momentum erupted, crashing down upon the two of them like mountain upon mountain stacked high!
In an instant, both felt as though a great mountain weighed heavily on their chests, making even breathing an impossible luxury.
Their bodies bent involuntarily, and that slight buckle caused them to be forced progressively lower!
Lu Kangnian stood holding his sword, his eyes half-lidded as he looked down at them.
His voice rang out indifferent and calm: "The Great Xia Sword Sect of today is not something just anyone can push around."
Lu Kangnian's voice was utterly placid, as though simply stating a plain fact.
The onlookers witnessed this scene and dared not even breathe aloud.
The impression Lu Kangnian gave everyone right now was that of a decisive, ruthless sect master—
and no longer the Lu Kangnian of old, who greeted everyone with a smiling face and clung strictly to convention.
Qin Xian and Ling Daoyan brushed past Lu Kangnian in succession without exchanging a word.
Each chose an opponent and dragged them straight into their domain barriers to do battle!
Everything unfolded without the slightest hesitation or delay, as though from the moment the Great Xia Sword Sect's barrier shattered, Lu Kangnian had already prepared to bare the sect's ferocious fangs to the entire world.
And the enemy those bared fangs sought to tear apart was the Mo Family, one of the foremost powers in the Eastern Domain!
Mo Zhiyuan's mind was like mush for a time, as though he had temporarily lost the ability to think.
Gripping his sword with his back hunched, he looked up at Lu Kangnian with immense difficulty.
His already sinister eyes were now thoroughly bloodshot.
A mere sword sect of the Northern Region—before coming here, he had not held them in the least regard.
Even if the Great Xia Sword Sect had once shown the unyielding spirit of bamboo when their swords rose against Ziyang Palace, in his eyes it had only been because Lu Kangnian had gotten lucky, and because Ziyang Palace had lacked sufficient strength and ruthlessness back then.
Yet now...
A nameless fury surged within him, and the mocking gazes of the onlookers made his face burn with stinging humiliation.
Humiliation, rage!
Clatter!
With bloodshot eyes, Mo Zhiyuan's body trembled slightly as he slowly straightened.
Light flowed across his silver armor, its runic patterns shining brightly, radiating an extraordinary pressure that resisted the power of Lu Kangnian's barrier.
As Mo Zhiyuan straightened his back, a monstrously powerful aura erupted from within him!
"Great Xia Sword Sect?"
"Today, I shall obliterate your entire sect!"
Boom!
In an instant, the aura around Mo Zhiyuan began to skyrocket frantically.
Lu Kangnian narrowed his eyes, a flicker of gravity entering his gaze as he looked at Mo Zhiyuan.
Yet right at that moment, Lu Kangnian slowly raised his left hand and hooked a finger.
Immediately, Tu Kui, who had been hidden among the crowd wearing white robes embroidered with gold patterns, teleported into view!
He seized the man behind Mo Zhiyuan by the neck, flung him more than a hundred zhang away, and roared with laughter. "Come on! Laozi will play with you!"
Tu Kui had now stepped into the Soul Formation Realm, showing no fear whatsoever before a man who had cultivated for hundreds of years longer than him.
His tone was overbearing to the extreme!
Tu Kui was so fast that even Mo Zhiyuan only sensed a dark shadow flicker beside him!
The fleeting silhouette had hurled his close friend over a hundred zhang away. Mo Zhiyuan had to admit he had severely underestimated the Great Xia Sword Sect's strength.
The intelligence in his hands reflected only the sect's strength from two and a half years ago.
The Great Xia Sword Sect had secluded itself from the world for two and a half years; even the Tianji Pavilion had no way of knowing their current strength.
With a flash of light from his raised hand, a jade case carved from high-grade spirit stone appeared in his palm.
A sharp glint flashed in Mo Zhiyuan's eyes, and golden light flared beneath his feet as he instantly retreated over a hundred zhang!
At the same time, he crushed the jade case and moved to swallow the pale blue medicinal pill inside.
Yet the instant he moved, the pressure within the earthy-yellow domain spiked abruptly!
Mo Zhiyuan's heart seized violently; his raised hand slowed to a crawl.
Feeling this pressure, Mo Zhiyuan cursed inwardly.
"A gravity domain!"
"How could he have comprehended such a top-tier domain ability?!"
Whoosh!
Lu Kangnian vanished from his spot in a flash and slashed several sword strikes toward Mo Zhiyuan!
He certainly wasn't going to sit back and watch the man swallow a pill right in front of him.
"Hmph!"
Mo Zhiyuan knew his opponent would never grant him that chance. Terrifying primal energy surged through his body, relentlessly battering against the threshold of a higher realm.
"Has Mo Zhiyuan lost his mind?! He's actually choosing to break through right now!"
"Tsk, tsk. Breaking through in a battle of this caliber—I don't know whether to call it supreme confidence or seeking his own death!"
"Heh, you're looking at it the wrong way. As things stand, the Mo Family is being completely suppressed by the Great Xia Sword Sect."
"If he doesn't break through right now, he probably won't stand a chance at all."
"True. If the Mo Family came with such fanfare and stirred up such a storm, only to flee with their tails between their legs, it would be utterly humiliating..."
The onlookers whispered among themselves in scattered discussion.
Each word felt like a slap across Mo Zhiyuan's face.
Clang, clang! Clang, boom!
Power surged through Mo Zhiyuan as he channeled his domain to its limits, fighting against Lu Kangnian's gravity domain.
For a time, the two figures continually teleported, their clashes in midair reaching a fever pitch.
Both possessed profound attainments in the way of the sword, locking themselves in an intense, deadlocked battle.
Meanwhile, the disciples of the Great Xia Sword Sect, inspired by Li Guanqi's shadow-casting stone for two and a half years, were wildly energized, each fighting as though fueled by pure fervor.
Yet they kept the sect elders' instructions firmly in mind: the moment they were injured, they immediately retreated into the sect.
Blood rained from the sky, and the Mo Family disciples were thoroughly intimidated by the sheer ferocity radiating from the disciples of the Great Xia Sword Sect.
Chapter 371