Volcanic Age

Twenty masters surrounded the Evil Valley Master—the greatest experts of Evil Valley.

"Pfft!"

A laugh escaped Evil Valley Master's mouth. He was clearly kicking them.

"Seeing how you all cower, I can't help but laugh. Good, good, are you all really so scared of me that you have to come out all together?"

Although the Evil Valley Master openly provoked them, none of them fell for it. They were all on guard and didn't move.

"That's why you should have held back a little," a middle-aged man whose aura was as sharp as a well-honed blade said.

Judging by the lines on his face, he was nearing the end of middle age, almost crossing into old age.

He was Twin Saber Gate Master Ge Hongxi. [1]

"The old generation will disappear, and the Evil Valley will take a new path forward."

The Neidan Sword Gate Master, Tiemu Minghuan, laughed eerily.[2] He was one of the younger Gate Masters.

His skin was healthy and tanned, and his hair was short and spiky like grass, making him stand out.

"I elevated you into the Eight Gates because I thought you were strong, but to think you would bare your fangs without knowing your own place."

The Evil Valley Master laughed as if he didn't have a care in the world.

After the Flowing Waterfall Saber Gate had been annihilated, the final winner of the power vacuum left behind was the Neidan Sword Gate.

"Fine then, come. I'll make each and every one of you regret this," the Evil Valley Master said with a cold, angry laugh. The air around him changed suddenly.

It wasn't the overwhelming momentum of an absolute master, but an explicit change in the physical sense.

The hair on their bodies stood on end. Their bodies felt heavy as if they were wearing several layers of armor. Something was pressing down hard on their shoulders.

The strange phenomenon didn't stop there, as it also affected the meridians that were responsible for the circulation of their qi. The flow of their qi slowed, as if impurities had accumulated and were blocking it.

"Ugh!"

The masters groaned.

"Hegemon… Edict… Art…!"

While it had a name that sounded like a martial art that could be ridiculed, its power was actually closer to that of divine art.

True to its name, this martial art suppressed and trampled everything in its path. Mastering it meant gaining the ability to dominate anything within a certain radius.

Looking at its principle or structure, it was simple.

It released a large amount of qi that was accumulated inside the body directly outside, controlling the very atmosphere to strengthen one's own body and weaken opponents.

"Ugh…!"

Ren Chaojian struggled as he recalled bad memories from his past. He absolutely hated this feeling of losing control of his body.

"Is this the Hegemon Edict Art I've only ever heard of…?!"

Ge Hongxi let out a startled exclamation. Even in the face of his opponent, he couldn't hide his surprise as a martial artist.

"Ugh—!"

A person—no, a monster close to a natural disaster, attacked.

Meanwhile, in the outer chamber, not the inner chamber, hundreds of people were fighting without pause.

At first, the Evil Valley Master's side was at a clear disadvantage. Despite their ferocious attack, their morale was low. But that quickly changed with the arrival of the Phantom Bow Swordsman.

"A master of the Harmony Realm? Even so, he's still some brat without a reputation!" Yi Changdao shouted as if he found it ridiculous.

"Twin Wolf Fang Squadron!"

Woosh!

Ten experts lined up behind Yi Changdao. They were the elites of the Twin Saber Gate, consisting of their best experts.

Not only were they skilled in cultivation, but they had also survived countless life-or-death battles.

"Even if some geezer at the Harmony Realm were to come, he wouldn't be able to defeat the Twin Wolf Fang Squadron. I'll tear him to pieces with these canines."

The Twin Wolf Fang Squadron…

It wasn't strange that Yi Changdao was so confident. The Twin Wolf Fang Squadron's reputation had been legendary in both his past and present lifetimes.

I'll have to put a bit of a show on.

This was already a difficult battle, even if he could have used his original techniques. To make matters worse, he had to pretend to be the Phantom Bow Swordsman.

He was a little nervous since he wasn't able to use the sword techniques of the Mount Hua Sect but instead, he had to defeat them all with only the Ten Thousand Jin Sword.

However, he still spoke confidently, trying to make the anxious people behind him look unconcerned.

"The Twin Wolf Fang Squadron? They aren't enough to be my opponents."

"Now that I look at him, he's just some brat with a big mouth!" Yi Changdao shouted before lunging forward. After that, he was followed by the ten members of the Twin Wolf Fang Squadron.

At first glance, it seemed like they were rushing in randomly, but that wasn't the case at all. If one looked closely, they had positioned themselves appropriately in a manner that they could link up.

Swish, swish, swish!

Yi Changdao's twin sabers rained down, leaving afterimages in the air. The sabers were flying in all directions, but—

Boom!

With one powerful swing of his iron sword, Zhou Xuchuan carved a semicircle through the battlefield. Half of the Twin Wolf Fang Squadron fell instantly, blood spraying across the ground.

No!

The other half quickly took up a defensive stance. As expected, they weren't elites for nothing. Their judgment was accurate and swift.

"Ugh!"

"Mmph!"

They had narrowly avoided getting fatal wounds, only feeling a slight pain in their dantians after receiving the full impact of the heavy sword.

The Twin Wolf Fang Squadron members who were actually hit by the sword struggled to stop the blood gushing from their necks and chests.

"As expected of the Twin Equivalency Saber!"

Zhou Xuchuan adjusted his grip on the sword he had just swung with both hands.

Most of the martial arts of the Evil Faction were aggressive. However, the Twin Equivalency Saber of the Twin Saber Gate was a bit different.

Regardless of whether one uses their right or left saber, one side would always take the offensive while the other the defensive, alternating between attack and defense. It was an incredibly stable saber technique.

"However!"

Zhou Xuchuan's heavy sword wasn't something they could defend against so easily.

The attack was nearly impossible to block, even with both hands on a single saber. Trying to defend with two sabers, spreading their strength thin, was futile.

Zhou Xuchuan stepped forward with his left foot, drawing his shoulders and arms back as he gripped the iron sword tightly.

He didn't pull his iron sword back all the way, though. He didn't change his stance, either. After twisting his waist halfway, he swung his iron sword with all his might.

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!

The air seemed to explode, the atmosphere splitting apart under the weight of his strike. Like a massive ship crashing down, the overwhelming force consumed everything in its path.

"Ugh!"

While one of the squadron members tried to defend with their saber qi, it was useless. Although he succeeded in blocking Zhou Xuchuan's blow, his body was blasted away along with his twin sabers.

The Twin Wolf Fang Squadron members next to him and behind him were the same. They were blasted away together as if they weren't just members of the same unit but members of the same fate.

Crack.

The squadron member tried to brace himself and somehow hold on, but he couldn't do anything. He could even hear the sound of his own spine snapping.

"Agh!"

The remaining squadron members who had survived the first blow also collapsed. They rolled miserably across the ground, stirring up a cloud of dust.

"What kind of savage shit…!"

Luo Jiao's jaw dropped when he saw that. He had never heard of such a martial art before.

In the midst of his surprise, Zhou Xuchuan adjusted his grip on his iron sword, leaped high enough into the air to block out the sun, and swung his sword down.

BOOM!

Using the Ten Thousand Jin Sword, he descended at incredible speed. He didn't seem like a person anymore but an iron hammer.

The moment the iron sword struck the ground, the ground flipped and the boulders below shattered. A web of cracks formed around the place where he landed.

Before any of them could scream, they were struck by the falling sword and were killed.

"That, that…"

Crack, crack, crack!

Yi Changdao's pupils shook violently as if an earthquake had occurred.[3] His jaw dropped wide open without the thought of closing.

The fingers holding his saber loosened and his legs trembled as if they were growing numb.

The Twin Wolf Fang Squadron.

The elites that he had been so proud of had been annihilated in the blink of an eye. Worse yet, they were annihilated before they could cause any damage.

Yi Changdao knew that the Phantom Bow Swordsman was a master, but he never could have imagined that he would be this strong.

"Huh…"

A stunned sound escaped someone's lips. It grew into a roar that shook the heavens and the earth.

"ROAR!!!!"

"Phantom Bow Swordsman! Phantom Bow Swordsman!"

"Long live the Phantom Bow Swordsman! Long live the Evil Valley Master!"

Zhou Xuchuan's allies cheered while his enemies sank deeper into despair.

"Let's go! Let's use this momentum to drive the enemies away!"

Seizing the moment, Zhou Xuchuan flew forward to surprise Yi Changdao, who was standing in front of him and struck him with a single blow.

"UGH!"

Although Zhou Xuchuan didn't use all his strength as a Harmony Realm Master, he still put an incredible amount of force into it. There was no way Yi Changdao could properly block the blow while he was terrified.

The enemy troops, seeing the Twin Saber Gate's elder get defeated so effortlessly, shrank back and retreated while the friendly troops pushed forward.

The battlefield was turned upside down in an instant.

"Follow the hero of the Evil Faction!"

When someone shouted, the word 'Follow!' echoed across the battlefield.

Zhou Xuchuan put away his sword for a moment as if he wanted to become a symbol, nocking an arrow on his bow and releasing it.

1. The second character of Hongxi's name, Xi, is actually a native Korean character and had to be replaced with a similar Chinese one. His name translates to "To cleave forcefully in red," or to chop someone in half lmao. ☜

2. His name means to command strength. ☜

3. It literally just did. ☜