Facing a combined assault that would have forced even an ordinary mid-stage Heavenly Immortal cultivator to meet a bitter end, Chen Ping merely raised the Dragon-Slaying Sword in his hand at a leisurely pace.
“Mayflies shaking a tree.”
He softly uttered four words. The five-elements origin power, now recovered by more than half, erupted with a thunderous roar and poured into the sword body. At the same time, a ripple of the laws of time spread outwards.
“Cut!”
A plain, unadorned five-coloured sword qi, yet containing the might to split heaven and earth, tore through the gigantic ghostly face formation as easily as ripping cloth.
The sword qi did not slow in the slightest, brushing past the shrieking old woman.
The ferocious expression on the old woman’s face froze in an instant. Together with the magical artefact in her hand, she was silently cleaved in two.
“What?”
Old Ancestor Xuan Sha and the remaining elders were horrified, never imagining that Chen Ping’s strength could be this terrifying.
“Quick! Activate the sect-protecting grand array!” Old Ancestor Xuan Sha shouted in panic.
Yet it was already too late.
Chen Ping’s figure moved like a wraith. Under the acceleration of time, his speed surpassed what their divine sense could track.
Each flash of sword light claimed the life of an elder.
“No! Senior, spare me! It was that bitch Little Zi who offended you, it has nothing to do with rest of us!”
One elder broke down and begged for mercy.
Chen Ping’s gaze remained ice-cold, without the slightest ripple. Sword light flashed, and the pleading stopped abruptly.
In the blink of an eye, only Old Ancestor Xuan Sha remained in the field.
He trembled all over, staring at Chen Ping who resembled a god of slaughter. Endless regret and terror filled his heart.
Never in his wildest dreams had he thought that a sect passed down for over a thousand years would face utter annihilation today, all because of the callous words of one inner disciple.
“W… why…”
He asked hoarsely, still finding it hard to believe.
Chen Ping looked at him and spoke calmly, “If parents fail to raise their child properly, blame lies with the father. If a master fails to discipline strictly, the fault is the master’s laziness. Your Xuan Yin Sha Sect is crooked at the top, so the bottom follows suit. This outcome is well deserved.”
Before the words fully left his mouth, the Dragon-Slaying Sword had already turned into a streak of startling light and pierced through the centre of Old Ancestor Xuan Sha’s forehead.
Old Ancestor Xuan Sha’s eyes widened. His corpse slowly toppled backwards. The final image in his eyes was Chen Ping indifferently sheathing his sword, and those words echoing in his mind.
Only at the moment of death did he understand that the root cause of the sect’s destruction lay in the daily indulgence he and the elders had shown towards the disciples’ character, and in their own improper conduct.
Chen Ping did not spare a glance at the corpses littering the ground. His divine sense swept through the entire Xuan Yin Sha Sect and plundered clean the resource treasury it had accumulated over hundreds of years.
Having finished, he turned and left without hesitation, his figure vanishing into the vast horizon.
Behind him remained only a Xuan Yin Sha Sect soaked in blood and fallen completely silent.
Even the ancestral spirits of the Xuan Yin Sha Sect watching from the heavens would never have imagined that the sect’s downfall would begin with a few venomous mockery uttered by an inner disciple they had regarded as a pride, directed at a “meddlesome passer-by”.
“Kid, where to next?” asked the Scarlet Cloud Demon Lord.
“Naturally, back to Yama Heaven Sect to absorb and refine these resources first…”
Chen Ping finished speaking and headed towards Yama Heaven Sect.
Yet he had flown only a short distance when a sudden palpitation struck his heart. Immediately afterwards, the dragon crystal of Cen Biqing within his body began to flicker with light.
Chen Ping froze, then boundless excitement burst forth in his eyes.
“The Demon-Suppressing Tower, the Demon-Suppressing Tower has appeared in the Ninth Heaven…”
With that, Chen Ping followed the aura from the dragon crystal and raced straight towards the Demon-Suppressing Tower.
Guided by the increasingly scorching light and ever-clearer sensation from the dragon crystal at his chest, Chen Ping once more locked onto that treasure pagoda which filled him with both longing and wariness, deep within a perilous region of the Ninth Heaven known as the Void Rift Valley: the Demon-Suppressing Tower!
The pagoda body remained majestic, towering into the clouds as though linking heaven and earth.
At the four corners of its base, the four stone lions carved with intricate Heavenly Venerable symbols appeared, compared to the last time he saw them, to have gained an additional trace of vitality and ferocious aura.
