Kneeling on the ground, Wu Dingwen felt a chill in his heart. He pressed desperately, "Granduncle, I have served the sect diligently for decades. Even if I have no great achievements to boast of, my tireless labor counts for something! Must it truly come to..."
Wu Xuefeng put on a look of regret. "Since you are the sect master, you should naturally know that the continuation of the sect is far more important than any of our individual lives."
Hearing this, Wu Dingwen wanted nothing more than to curse aloud. *If the sect's survival is more important than an individual's life, why don't you die instead of making me die?!*
His mind raced, and he blurted out, "Granduncle, we truly don't need to go that far! Huang Tian is an official of the imperial court; he must abide by the rules. Without evidence, how can he wipe out multiple sects? If he acts like that, wouldn't he become no different from a fiend of the Demonic Cult?"
Wu Xuefeng shook his head and sighed. "Who says he was the one who destroyed the Feihong Sect? It was clearly destroyed by the Demonic Cult! Upon hearing the news, he rushed up to the Feihong Sect and slaughtered countless demonic scoundrels. Not only is he innocent of any crime, he has rendered meritorious service!"
Wu Dingwen stared wide-eyed. "How could such a claim fool the world?"
"Dingwen, you have been sect master for over ten years; how can you not understand even this?"
Wu Xuefeng said, "In ordinary times, of course it would be impossible. Neither the authorities nor the major sect factions would allow him to do so. But now, Qin Province and Yong Province are in turmoil, with demonic scoundrels running rampant across the land. The situation is utterly chaotic. What is so strange about one or two sects falling? It can easily be blamed on the Demonic Cult. More importantly, which of the great factions throughout Kunyun Commandery doesn't know that we allied with the Feihong Sect to hire Thousand Faces Old Ghost to assassinate Huang Tian? Even though we weren't the chief instigators behind it, it is only natural and justified for him to take his revenge now. Few people would be willing to stick their necks out for us."
Indeed. If Huang Tian were slaughtering the innocent, the sects and powers of Qin Province might step forward to speak up for justice or even intervene. But under the present circumstances, they were the ones who had struck first to kill him, so they could hardly blame him for retaliating now.
"Besides, even if you could temporarily restrain Huang Tian with rules and laws, his strength is there for all to see. Sooner or later, he would find a way to avenge himself. At worst, he could disguise his face and mask himself one day to storm our sect—who could stop him then?"
Wu Xuefeng closed his eyes. "Have you thought it through? If you have, then do it yourself, so that an old man like me won't have to take action and damage our bond as elder and kin."
Wu Dingwen lay prostrate on the ground, trembling all over.
*Damage our bond as kin?*
*Do you even have the right to say those words?*
He gritted his teeth in a final struggle. "Granduncle, could I not fake my death?"
"Do you take Huang Tian for a fool?"
The icy words rang out, piercing his last shred of hope.
Shuddering, he raised his right palm, true qi churning within it, and tremblingly moved to strike his own skull.
*Bang!*
His right palm slammed violently into the ground! His kneeling body darted backward in an instant, twisting as he shot out of the courtyard like a loosed arrow.
He did not want to die!
Yet he did not dare strike Wu Xuefeng!
His only choice was to flee with all his might...
Unfortunately.
The moment his body shot out of the courtyard, a massive sonic boom ripped through the air beside his ears. A figure even swifter than him swept overhead like an eagle swooping through the sky. Then, razor-sharp eagle claws tore through the air with sharp pops, locking straight onto his head!
"Granduncle, spare—"
Before he could finish, the eagle claws twisted with immense force. With a loud crack, Wu Dingwen's neck snapped.
At the same time, fierce true qi surged into his body like blades and swords, shredding his internal organs.
"Urgh..."
With a muffled cry of agony, the light faded from Wu Dingwen's eyes, and his body slumped limply to the ground.
*Step, step...*
Hearing the commotion, over a dozen sect disciples armed with sabers and swords rushed over, led by an elder surnamed Wu.
Upon reaching the scene, everyone froze.
Supreme Elder Wu Xuefeng stood tall with an indifferent expression, while Sect Master Wu Dingwen's limp corpse lay at his feet. Wu Dingwen's features were twisted in a grimace, his dim, lifeless eyes still tinged with fury, terror, and resentment.
As for whom his fury and resentment were directed at...
Everyone swallowed hard in unison.
In such a scene, anyone could deduce what had just occurred. The Supreme Elder had undoubtedly slain the Sect Master with his own hands...
Wu Xuefeng's cold gaze swept over the crowd, coming to rest on the face of the Wu elder.
"Jiamin. The Sect Master suffered a deviation during cultivation, falling into demonic madness and attempting to slaughter our disciples. I had no choice but to bear the heartache and strike him down. You have arrived at just the right time. Take his body away and arrange a grand burial. Ensure that all elders, deacons, and disciples see his corpse. Do you understand?"
Wu Jiamin shuddered.
*A cultivation deviation?*
*Attempting to slaughter disciples?*
*What kind of joke was this!*
Earlier today, he had spoken with the Sect Master. At that time, the Sect Master's true qi was placid, his speech coherent, and his mind as lucid as could be. How could he have suddenly fallen into demonic madness the moment he came here!
Clearly, you killed him yourself...
His thoughts raced, and he quickly understood why Wu Xuefeng had killed the Sect Master. He felt both sorrow and injustice on the Sect Master's behalf, yet also a slight secret relief that a great catastrophe might have been averted from the sect.
*Thinking like this... am I even human?!*
Casting aside his fleeting sense of relief, he replied in a subdued voice, "Yes, Granduncle!"
Though the Guiyuan Sect was called a sect, its family clan faction was immense. Many elders and deacons were members of the Wu family, virtually all belonging to Wu Xuefeng's grandson generation.
Wu Jiamin waved his hand, and several disciples behind him steeled themselves, stepped up to Sect Master Wu Dingwen's corpse, and lifted it.
As if recalling something, Wu Xuefeng suddenly spoke: "Jiamin. A country cannot go a day without a ruler, nor can a sect go without a sect master. Now that Dingwen is dead, you shall succeed him as the new sect master and oversee our affairs."
Wu Jiamin's eyes widened, caught completely unprepared by the sudden turn. "Th-this... Granduncle, should we not discuss this with the other elders first?"
Wu Xuefeng's frigid gaze bore into him. Wu Jiamin's heart skipped a beat, and he forced himself to say, "Yes! Yes! Your grandnephew is willing to serve as sect master!"
Taking on the position of sect master at this moment—he truly did not know whether it was a blessing or a curse. In ordinary times, it would undoubtedly be a tremendous stroke of fortune. A sect master stood beneath one and above tens of thousands, capable of mobilizing vast resources to aid his own cultivation, wielding immense authority, and commanding reverence and fear throughout Kunyun.
But now, the previous sect master had just died—slain by their own Supreme Elder!
And outside, that lethal fiend still lurked. Becoming sect master, who knew if he might be thrown out next to take the blame?
Trembling with trepidation, Wu Jiamin had no choice but to accept this hot potato. Otherwise, he feared that before that lethal fiend even came knocking, he would meet his end first and join Wu Dingwen in death.
Watching Wu Dingwen's corpse being carried away, Wu Xuefeng sighed softly. "Jiamin, be sure to give him a grand funeral."
"Yes, your grandnephew understands."
Bowing low, Wu Jiamin took his leave.
Returning alone to the small courtyard with his hands clasped behind his back, Wu Xuefeng gazed at the slender bamboo in the yard and listened to the gentle breeze, his heart churning with indescribable emotions.
Humiliation, anxiety, regret, dread... a tangled mess of feelings.
After a long time, a quiet murmur drifted into the wind: "Worldly affairs are fickle, storms hard to foresee. May you find peace on your journey to the underworld..."
...
Several days passed in the blink of an eye.
Feihong Sect, Scripture Pavilion.
By now, Huang Tian had reached the third floor. Setting down the final martial manual on the third floor, he felt a faint stirring in his heart.
Sitting cross-legged on a prayer mat, his mind entered an ethereal state of profound clarity. In his consciousness surfaced the thousands of martial arts techniques he had read and mastered.
The lightning-fast and perilous Drawing Slash that descended like a thunderbolt; the Astral-Piercing Force specifically designed to shatter true qi and astral qi; the Shadow-Parting Radiant Sword that could branch into hundreds or thousands of sword qi bursts with a single thrust...
And the "Heaven-Opening Staff Strike" he had learned from Ke Rujing and refined himself!
That single staff strike had given him immense inspiration. No, to be precise, it was the very core of his inspiration!
At a certain moment.
Huang Tian suddenly opened his eyes. Within the depths of his gaze, tens of thousands of chill blades and swords seemed concealed, erupting with a soul-stirring, frigid light.
Without haste, he walked down from the third floor, stepped out of the Scripture Pavilion, and emerged outside.
The guards waiting outside moved to salute him, but stopped dead in their tracks. From Huang Tian's body, a terrifyingly immense, biting aura erupted.
True qi surged like a howling tornado; qi and blood boiled like a blazing furnace, a volcanic eruption. The fierce wind scraped against their faces like chilling yet scorching blades, forcing them to retreat in terror.
Standing in the distance, the guards whispered among themselves with lingering fear.
"Just now, the Battalion Commander's eruption of qi and blood nearly blasted me away. It was terrifyingly violent!"
"Standing beside him, I felt like blades were slicing across my face, wanting to shave the flesh off my bones piece by piece. Hiss—"
"Has the Battalion Commander entered an epiphany? Did he comprehend something extraordinary?"
"It must be so! Fortunately, none of us spoke to disturb him, or it would have been a monstrous crime..."
"Back away further, back away further!"
"Someone go report to Boss Tie! Say the Battalion Commander has come out of the Scripture Pavilion and appears to have entered an epiphany..."
"..."
One guard sprinted swiftly toward the bluestone square, while the rest vigilantly scanned the surroundings, terrified that someone lacking eyes might barge in and disrupt Huang Tian's epiphany.
On the flat ground outside the Scripture Pavilion, Huang Tian stood with closed eyes and focused mind, allowing his qi, blood, and true qi to circulate freely through his meridians, releasing his vast might without restraint.
Whoosh, whoosh—
Fierce winds radiated outward with Huang Tian at the center, sending dust and fallen leaves whirling into the air.
Soon, this airflow turned swift and razor-sharp, condensing as if into physical blades.
*Chhh! Chhh!*
Streaks of pure white airflow swirled rapidly around him, transforming into hundreds and thousands of visible blades of astral wind!
These wind blades shrieked, slicing through the air with terrifying, high-pitched howls!
As the razor-sharp astral wind scraped across the hard bluestone ground, it carved hundreds of crisscrossing, deep furrows. A half-man-tall stone tablet in the distance was clipped by just a few stray wisps of astral wind; in an instant, it was cleaved neatly into several pieces, the cross-sections smooth as mirrors.
Small pebbles on the ground were pulverized into powder under the sweep of the wind blades, swirling into the air and forming a grayish whirlwind of powdered bluestone and dust that rolled through a radius of several zhang around Huang Tian!
"Th-this is too..."
Tie Chong, having rushed over upon hearing the news, watched Huang Tian from afar within the grayish-white hurricane, his heart seized with shock.
Even across several dozen zhang, he could feel the biting chill washing over him. He had a distinct feeling that if he were caught in those streams of astral wind, he would be shredded into minced meat in an instant!
At that thought, he shuddered and backed away another dozen-odd zhang.
"Sabers, swords, thunder, astral-shattering, sharpness, severing..."
Thousands of martial techniques rose and fell in Huang Tian's mind, fusing and evolving alongside numerous profound martial intents.
His breathing grew exceptionally slow and heavy, waves surging across the lake of his inspiration.
Abruptly, the intent of that "Heaven-Opening Staff Strike" plunged into the lake of inspiration.
The myriad imagery seemed to find their guiding core at once, converging toward the intent of that staff strike.
From his body, a grand, overbearing aura erupted!
At this moment, it was as if he were the center of heaven and earth, the sovereign who held all creation in his grasp!
A single phrase exploded in his mind:
*I am Heaven!!*
All stray thoughts faded away; ten thousand methods returned to a single stream.
In a trance, he saw an intangible, formless "wondrous entity" taking shape.
It was not a staff, nor a saber, nor a sword.
It was no weapon known to the mortal realm, yet it seemed to be the synthesis of all weapons.
Blessed by sudden enlightenment, Huang Tian slowly raised his palm upright.
The true qi, qi and blood, and spiritual will within him resonated at a singular frequency, converging in a torrential rush toward his palm.
Suddenly, a pure white, blazing golden radiance erupted from his palm!
This light carried an ultimate sharpness capable of severing all things and passing judgment upon creation!
At this moment, Huang Tian's black hair danced wildly. In his eyes, humanity seemed to have completely vanished.
Instead, they were as lofty and distant as the firmament!
As ruthless and severe as thunder!
*Buzz—*
Along the edge of his right palm, pure white light imbued with incandescent gold rolled like tens of thousands of lightning serpents. A terrifying aura that tore through the sky and judged all living things erupted!
*Boom!!*
His right palm chopped downward toward the distance!
The instant it fell, a hundred-zhang-long blade of white-gold light, condensed into physical substance, tore through the sky!
As the light blade howled, it unleashed a low, majestic rumble that shook the very soul!
This sound was like the trumpeting roar of a primordial divine elephant to the heavens, or the furious thunderbolt struck down by the Thunder God of the Nine Heavens!
In the eyes of Tie Chong and the others, they seemed to see a distant, mysterious celestial vault. Within a heavenly realm of ten thousand palaces, jade pillars, golden beams, and soaring dragons and phoenixes, a towering figure ten thousand zhang tall stood with hands clasped behind his back, radiating boundless majesty.
That figure was like an Immortal Emperor, a Divine Sovereign, looking down upon all living beings and speaking impassively:
"Execute!"
Decreeing heaven's law with every word!
Passing judgment upon all living beings!
Thousands of apocalyptic thunderbolts crashed down in response!
Seeing countless lightning dragons and electric serpents hurtling madly toward them, Tie Chong and the others jolted awake in utter terror.
Only then did they see clearly: between heaven and earth, there was no Divine Sovereign, nor any lingering thunder. Across the open sky, there was only a dragon-like roar of blade astral qi carrying the destructive fury of thunder, carving a terrifying trench a hundred zhang long and several zhang deep into the hard bluestone ground!
A palm struck forth, like a celestial blade!
*This is... Metal Phase, Lingxiao Heaven!*
The moment the strike landed, Huang Tian attained clear comprehension.
Yet in his heart, there still remained many regrets.
Because...
*It is not yet perfect, not yet complete!*
In the eyes of Tie Chong and the others, this strike of Lingxiao Heaven might seem incomparably ferocious, godlike and demonic. But Huang Tian clearly sensed that its full power had not been entirely unleashed.
That figure within the celestial palaces had not yet become distinct and clear.
When the day came that the figure of the Divine Sovereign revealed Huang Tian's own face—
Commanding the will of heaven with his own will—
Only then would this technique be truly flawless.
*I need martial techniques! More of them! Boundless and endless!!*
Chapter 111