Immortal of the Ages

Ink-black was the night over the Sword Pavilion. Yun Xiao and Zhao Xuanran, together, returned to the Grand Hall. In front of the hall, members of the Ye Family, chained and hunched, remained tethered to the Azure Spirit Cauldron, under the wary gaze of three elder swordsmen from the Sword Pavilion.

These captives, tongues severed yet obstinate, stared at Yun Xiao with a defiance that scraped against mortality itself! Especially Ye Xuanying, his eyes ablaze with a ferocity unbridled!

His gaze whispered malevolence to Yun Xiao, asserting that even in his demise, with Ye Tiance and Ye Guying around, the Ye lineage would persist, while the Sword Pavilion was doomed to crumble into a pitiful tale, infamous through eternity!

"You dare to glare at me?" Yun Xiao, nonchalant, extended a finger. Two verdant sword rays pierced Ye Xuanying’s eyes, which burst promptly.

Ye Xuanying, muffling his cries, retracted his neck and, with a scramble and a roll, sought refuge amid the crowd.

"Who else?" Yun Xiao’s eyes, cold and disinterested, swept over the Ye Family members, who just moments before had dared to meet his gaze. Now, all whimpered, their heads bowed low.

"Elder Wang, your labor is appreciated," Zhao Xuanran handed a letter to the rotund, shorter elder.

"This might be our last hope for the Sword Pavilion," Elder Zhou sighed at the side.

"Don’t worry. Even if I must grovel and throw tantrums, this letter will reach Sword Heaven!" Elder Wang declared through gritted teeth. Those who stayed behind at the Sword Pavilion, naturally, wouldn’t sit and wait for doom. With these captives, they could hold on for a few more days!

"Old Wang, just introduce Yun Xiao’s Sword Soul talent to the people of Sword Heaven, and keep mum about our grudges with the Ye Family. If Sword Heaven fears Ye Guying’s talent and the Forbidden Tower, they might not send help," Elder Zheng said somberly.

"That shouldn't happen! Sword Heaven, after all, is a sacred place of swordsmanship, famed for its integrity..." Elder Wang countered.

"In these times, nothing is certain." Elder Zheng sighed.

"Fine! Then, I must take my leave, take care, everyone!" Elder Wang cusped his hands and bowed before departing.

"Take care!" Yun Xiao responded.

Against the night sky, Elder Wang rode his sword low, leaving Azure Spirit like a smooth-swimming fish, wavering into the distance. All watched him depart!

"If it were not an absolute necessity, your father would never wish for us to seek help from Sword Heaven," Grandpa Qin commented, shaking his head at the entrance.

"Seek help? It’s merely a recommendation of a talent to them. If they treat Yun Xiao well, will he not reciprocate in the future?" Zhao Xuanran responded, her tone light.

"True!" Grandpa Qin nodded.

Next, they waited. Zhao Xuanran entered the Grand Hall, joining a gathering of Sword Pavilion disciples.

"Thank you, elders, for your hard work. I’ll take over the watch," Yun Xiao, who had practiced swordplay today, thanked them for initially guarding the prisoners.

"Stay safe! Ye Tiance will not let matters rest. He will surely seek a rescue plan," Elder Zhou warned.

"Worry not," Yun Xiao smiled, for he was now even mightier than the two elders.

A gentle night breeze caressed the scene! Yun Xiao sat atop the Azure Spirit Cauldron while others sought shelter within the Grand Hall, where safety was somewhat more assured.

"So close!" Even after Red Moon consumed those thirty Dragon Spring Pills, it still wasn’t enough to catapult Yun Xiao into the Perfect Divine Sea Realm. "To establish the fourth Divine Sea, even more magic power is needed."

In short, Yun Xiao was completely broke. The earlier windfall of 320,000 Spirit Stones was all but a memory, spent to the last stone.

"Right!" Blue Star, with a chilly sneer, proposed, “Instead of sitting here awaiting doom, why not take the initiative? Hand the prisoners to Zhao Xuanran and, firstly, go slay Yao Manxue and Zhang Jian, those two Sword Venerables!”

“They already know about Wu Wu's fate. So, they'll absolutely be on guard and won't leave Ye Tiance’s side,” Yun Xiao responded coldly. Otherwise, he would have set out to kill them long ago!

In a blink, it was 4 o'clock at night. Yun Xiao seized the moment to practice the First Sword of Azure Spirit atop the Azure Spirit Cauldron.

“As for magic power, my Primordial Void Technique is comparable to the Establishment Divine Sea Realm. Regarding the quality of my Sword Soul, I'm certainly stronger than Ye Tiance, and I'm just a smidge away in Sword Aura and Sword Ring! In terms of swordsmanship, I surpass him!” Yun Xiao's eyes radiated an intense, frosty light.

The murderous intent in his heart escalated incessantly!

“For every inch they push me, I'll retaliate tenfold! Simply ruining his family and disgracing his ancestral temple isn’t enough...” Yun Xiao glanced at the expansive Grand Hall, then toward the seven distant graves. How to settle this score?

Under the nocturnal wind, he practiced his sword again and again. Simultaneously, his eyes swept the horizon. That night, dark clouds loomed overhead!

From the darkness ahead, waves of black fog surged toward the Sword Pavilion, the wind whistling with eerie, spectral overtones. Among the forest, it seemed like something unusual was stirring, a malignant aura gradually sprawling towards the Sword Pavilion.

"Hm?" Yun Xiao sensed something was awry. “Demonic energy?!” He had encountered demons before! During his reign as Emperor, he loathed demons to the bone.

The common folks suffered, their blood staining the rivers, all due to incessant demonic calamities! This deep-seated hatred, even in a new life, flared explosively in a flash when the demonic fog obscured his vision, unleashing a torrent of murderous intent!

The fog cascaded towards the Azure Spirit Cauldron!

WHOOSH! Suddenly, a delicate snowy figure darted out from the forest, frantic, rushing towards Yun Xiao.

“Yun Xiao, there are demons in Azure Spirit, save me quickly...” Her eyes, aglow with a pink luminescence, were filled with crystalline tears, woefully enchanting. Her dress hung loose and disheveled.

“Jiang Yue?” Yun Xiao was slightly taken aback. How did she come here all alone? “You just said there are demons in Azure Spirit?!” While there had always been demons in Azure Spirit, they were imprisoned and executed! Not like now, with the demonic energy in the surroundings skyrocketing!

“Save me!” Jiang Yue, her eyes clouded and dreamy, had already reached Yun Xiao.

“Get lost!” Yun Xiao, without looking at her, focused on the dark fog ahead, prepared to draw his sword and engage.

“Yun Xiao, how can you bear to...” the soft, whimpering voice of Jiang Yue emanated from beside him.

“Hmm?” Only then did Yun Xiao realize something was amiss with her! Just as he turned around, a surge of pink mist abruptly enveloped his face. A beguiling fragrance of enchantment!

In Yun Xiao's eyes, Jiang Yue shimmered with a pinkish glow, something about her features seeming to shift, especially those eyes, shy yet obsessively charming, irresistibly enchanting.

“This isn't Jiang Yue!” Yun Xiao’s face altered, “She's possessed by a fox demon!” By the time he realized the issue, it was already a tad late!

Jiang Yue was nearby, the bewitching mist emanating from her delicate frame, was undeniably a method of the fox demon. Assaulting the heart, bewildering the soul! The most terrifying aspect of demons was their magic. Countless demonic magics, endlessly harmful!

"Yun Xiao, why must we live our lives in constant strife and battle? Isn’t it more beautiful to let love overflow under the moon and among the flowers?” Jiang Yue whispered with a delicate giggle, ribbons of red silk emanated from her, twining towards Yun Xiao, who already enshrouded in the pinkish demonic mist, found his eyes tinted in pink, momentarily standing there, befuddled and motionless.

“Hehe…” Soft, coquettish laughter echoed around him! Simultaneously, a wave of white mist suddenly burst from the forest! Within the mist, a giant white cloth eerily streaked through the woods as though alive! It was distinctly a white cloth, yet it resembled a chillingly stark, massive white maw!

GULP! It soared above the Grand Hall, opening wide and swallowing the almost hundred members of the Ye Family whole!

After engulfing the screaming Ye Family members, the cloth formed a giant white cocoon. Like the stomach of some creature, it charged into the forest with its human cargo, toppling numerous green pines before making its departure!

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Outside the Sword Pavilion, Ye Tiance, Yao Manxue, and Zhang Jian anxiously waited.

“The Veil Demon is here!” Ye Tiance’s eyes brightened, gazing towards the direction of the Sword Pavilion. Where his gaze landed, a white giant cocoon, like a squirming worm, scraped across the land and forest, edging closer.

“This Veil Demon has been cultivating for eight hundred years. It’s stronger than me!” Yao Manxue spoke, her voice somewhat hoarse, eyes reflecting a certain reverence.

“A funeral veil absorbing grudges and turning into a demon, the Northern Wastelands has only this one!” Zhang Jian remarked with a sigh.

Similar to Blood Demons, the Veil Demon also belonged to the tainted demon category, lacking a demonic bone but possessing even more bizarre demonic magics!

The Veil Demon, birthed from wrapping corpses, favored entombing people within itself, smothering them alive.

“Zhang Jian! You can call for help now!” Ye Tiance, his eyes brilliantly alight, was awash with killing intent.

“Yes!” Zhang Jian hurriedly departed.

HUM! The white giant cocoon had now reached Ye Tiance! It opened wide, regurgitating each of the Ye Family members right back beside him!

“Hehe!” The Veil Demon contracted its body, astonishingly transforming into a pallid-skinned youth right before Ye Tiance!

It sneered at Ye Tiance, stating, “How embarrassing for you. Such a dignified Origin Core Realm Sword Cultivator, and yet a mere child has brought such humiliation upon your family.”

Faced with the mockery, Ye Tiance could only accept it!

“Father!” He helped up his father, Ye Xuanying, only to see his father's eyes, mouth, Dantian, and abdomen all stained with blood, a man already mostly ruined, and instantly rage surged through him.

Blood seeped from the eye sockets of Ye Tiance’s family members, mirroring the hatred that steeped in their veins.

“Yun Xiao, Sword Pavilion!” Ye Tiance spat every word with venom, directing his wrath towards the direction of the Sword Pavilion. “Today, my family members are saved, and you have lost your leverage. I swear to immerse you in the deepest abyss of mortal torment!”

Turning to the ghostly pale youth beside him, he inquired, “May I ask, Veil Demon King, where are Moon Fairy and the others?”

“She’s entranced the child. The other Demon Kings, in accordance with our pact, will assist you in obliterating the Sword Pavilion. By now, most of those Sword Pavilion folks have probably met their demise.” The Veil Demon King smirked, eyebrows low and mischievous.

“Just like that?” Ye Tiance was momentarily stunned.

“What else? A skin-and-bones Sword Pavilion overturning the heavens? Impossible, no?” The Veil Demon scoffed, shoulders shrugging, a teasing lilt in his voice as he gazed at Ye Tiance.

“Splendid!” A surge of exhilaration rushed through Ye Tiance. “Please inform Moon Fairy that, after she has drained Yun Xiao to a mere husk, I wish to deal with him personally. I must sever his tongue, disable his Dantian, gouge his eyes, and annihilate his lineage!”

“Enough with your prattling,” the Veil Demon, turning away, inquired, “Apart from him and Zhao Xuanran, all others are to be killed?”

“A bunch of old, frail, and infirm! They’ve deserved death for a long time now. Dispose of them as you wish!” Ye Tiance replied with a chilling smile.

“Although weak, they are still of the Sword Pavilion, and their ancestors, who have slaughtered my kinsmen by the thousands, after death, shall have their souls confined to Dark Abyss Mountain and the Bluedrop Flag, eternally tormented, forever disgraced!” With a ferocious grin, the Veil Demon evaporated into a white mist, vanishing into the thickets.

“Not the Bluedrop Flag again!” Yao Manxue’s complexion paled.

“What’s there to fear? This is what happens when one opposes me! We have Ye Guying, and these demons and devils have been terrified into aiding us!” Ye Tiance chuckled darkly.

“It’s over,” Yao Manxue gazed towards the Sword Pavilion.

“Yes, it should have ended long ago!” Ye Tiance surveyed his kinsfolk, his heart dripping with a torrential internal bleeding.

At this moment, the Seventh Sword Venerable, Zhang Jian, had gathered all core Sword Cultivators who had followed the trio. Over three hundred souls! All at the Divine Sea Realm!

These individuals, with hearts steeled, stood firmly beside Ye Tiance! They knew of the presence aiding them this evening. The Northern Wastelands demons! So, under such circumstances, continuing to support Ye Tiance displayed a grotesquely twisted Sword Dao in their hearts.

“Such dense demonic aura...” As these Sword Cultivators gathered, glancing towards the skies above the Sword Pavilion, their brows knitted ever so slightly. That place was where the righteous path of the Azure Spirit resided! Where the souls of Azure Spirit ancestors returned! And it was the forbidden death ground for all manners of demons and ghosts!

Yet now, a colossal, monstrous cloud, like a gaping maw drenched in blood, devoured it whole, swaggering insouciantly, coming and going as it pleased! Who paved the way for them? Naturally, it was the First Sword Venerable, Ye Tiance!

“Someone’s coming!” Not much time had passed before Sword Cultivators from all directions soared towards them on their Sovereign Swords.

“Shangguan Yu, Chen Dong, Li Chenlong! They’re all there!” Zhang Jian pointed.

“Stop them!” Ye Tiance commanded with a cold smirk.

With three hundred elite Sword Cultivators, they ascended on their Sovereign Swords, positioning themselves before the Sword Pavilion, barricading the path of Shangguan Yu and the other Sword Venerables!

“What is this madness?” Shangguan Yu was frantic, entirely unprepared for these obstructers.

“Sword Venerable Ye, demons have invaded Azure Spirit, attacking the Sword Pavilion! We should stand united in the face of a common enemy!” Li Chenlong bellowed.

"Stay your hands, all of you, lest we fall into a sinister trap!" Ye Tiance warned with a solemn tone.

"What do you mean?" Shangguan Yu coldly inquired.

"As we all know, Azure Spirit is forbidden to demons. How could they be so bold without someone leading them astray?" Ye Tiance declared, his voice robust and piercing through the gathering tumult.

More and more Sword Cultivators, arriving astride their Sovereign Swords, swelled the already tense congregation.

Ye Tiance blocked them all! Sweeping his gaze across the crowd, he pointed toward the Sword Pavilion, stating, "In my view, these demons were brought here by the Sword Pavilion! They collude with the demons, faking conflict while actually setting a trap. Should we charge headlong, we may well be utterly ensnared!"

Upon hearing this, Shangguan Yu and others nearly choked on their own indignation.

"You distort truth and virtue, shifting the blame! Do you even have a shred of dignity left in your lifelong existence?" Shangguan Yu spat back furiously.

"What do you mean?" Ye Tiance’s eyes simmered with a lethal seriousness as he gazed at her. "A mere Divine Sea Realm cultivator speaks too much. Believe it or not, I can silence you with a single stroke of my sword."

With a subtle flick of his finger, a murderous aura menacingly unveiled itself.

"For a sacred place of a sect, demons run rampant, a shame that will haunt Azure Spirit for millennia!" Shangguan Yu uttered sorrowfully.

“Too talkative, aren't you?” Ye Tiance’s sword unsheathed in an instant! Fortunately, at that moment, several dozen Sword Cultivators interposed themselves between him and Shangguan Yu.

"Sword Venerable Ye, quell your anger!" No matter how sorrowful and outraged one’s heart might be, after Zhao Jianxing was injured, Azure Spirit had only Ye Tiance, a Origin Core Realm cultivator, who had long overshadowed everyone else.

"I will make myself clear! Today, I forbid everyone from entering the Sword Pavilion not because I want to be oppressive, but to prevent you from blindly walking into a trap and meeting your demise! Whoever wishes to perish, I shall send them on their way first to spare them from dying at the hands of these demons and tarnishing the name of our Azure Spirit!" Ye Tiance bellowed, his voice reverberating throughout.

"Is it clear now? The Sword Pavilion is in cahoots with the demons, scheming to harm us all. They are the true disgrace of the Azure Spirit!" Yao Manxue coldly laughed.

Before them, everyone seethed with agitation. Quite a few, upon witnessing the salvation of the Ye Family, could piece together the entirety of the events. Had Ye Tiance been capable of rescuing his family earlier, why would he have swallowed such indignity until now?

Shangguan Yu stared at the multitude with eyes brimming with sorrow and wrath.

"Three years ago! Ye Tiance colluded with demons, caused the Sect Master’s sword to shatter, and the tragic death of the seven prodigies! Today, he leads demons into the Azure Spirit and seeks to annihilate the Sword Pavilion utterly! Are we merely to stand by and watch as such a despicable, immoral, and lowly person does as he pleases?!"

"Wait for more people before shouting out!" Chen Dong spoke in a hushed, firm voice.

Indeed! They had arrived too hastily. Many Sword Cultivators from the seven major Sword Peaks were still en route. With their present company of just over a hundred, still fewer than Ye Tiance’s trusted associates, how were they to fight? It was undoubtedly a suicide mission!

"This Ye Tiance has openly collaborated with demons, bringing them into the Azure Spirit to harm people! With his arrogance reaching such heights, I refuse to believe that many will continue to support him!"

"Azure Spirit Sword Cultivators have never bowed to demons!"

"For three years, Azure Spirit has owed the Sword Pavilion justice! If we do not stand forth today, your swords will be forever shamed!"

"How can we, the illustrious Sword Cultivators of Azure Spirit, be oppressed by such a petty man?!!!"

"Do you remember the vow you made in front of the Sword Ancestor in your youth? Why does one cultivate the sword? To slay demons, punish the wicked, and protect the way for all beings..."

The truth was known, crystal clear. And yet, a villain could still turn black into white!

"Summon the men!" Li Chenlong bellowed.

Indeed, they feared death! They feared being slain by Ye Tiance! However, when their bottom line was ruthlessly trampled once again, when their faith was stepped on and humiliated, even those who cherished their lives couldn't control the surging rage within their hearts. What was the bottom line for the Azure Spirit?

"This land has been defended with the blood and souls of our ancestors. How could we allow demonic beings to trample upon our heads and kill our people!" The roar of the Sword Cultivators could be heard from afar. More and more people converged. These faces, bathed in blood and resolve, took Ye Tiance somewhat aback.

"Really not afraid to die, huh? Even now, you can't see the reality, insisting on opposing me, is that it?" Ye Tiance, his face cold and indifferent, pointed his sword skywards, "I'll say it once more, anyone who wants to cross my sword, leave your head behind!"

He thought he could frighten them, but instead was met with eyes bubbling with fervent blood and spirit.

"The head can stay, but the sword, it must go through!"

"Forward!"

Under the night sky, everyone raised their swords!

"Ye Tiance, I am not afraid to die! For I was born a human! Standing from the standpoint of a human, I shall not share the sky with demonic calamities!"

"Whoever conspires with demons shall be the mortal enemy of Azure Spirit!" Shangguan Yu’s voice was stern, his eyes ablaze.

"In the span of a hundred years of human life, why should we Sword Cultivators fear death!"

"Charge!"

JL's Thoughts