Autumn winds blew, carrying a biting chill.

The Wumian Sword Sect members were arranged to stay in a small group of guest buildings surrounding the Yuheng Sect.

Row upon row of light red buildings stood close together, separated and secured by faint, translucent light screens.

Due to their lukewarm relationship with the Yuheng Sect, or even a slightly cold one, Elder Yun Ling of the Wumian Sword Sect didn't engage much with them. She merely gathered everyone, gave a few instructions, and then retreated to her own building to rest.

As night fell, the Qingmu Sword Sect also arrived. Unlike the Wumian Sword Sect, they embodied the standard swordsman style, each person riding their own flying sword, their bodies covered in True Essence light.

Unlike the Wumian Sword Sect, which purely cultivated intent and primordial spirit, the Qingmu Sword Sect followed a balanced path, emphasizing offense, defense, and recovery.

Therefore, their foundational Qinghe Heavenly Fortune Art was also known as the All-Encompassing Sword Technique, meaning it had a little bit of everything.

It even had the effects of nourishing life and prolonging lifespan, focusing on thoroughness, safety, moderation, and peace.

However, contrary to the original intention of the technique, precisely because it was all-encompassing and didn't go to extremes, the Qingmu Sword Sect developed far better than the other three sects. It also absorbed disciples of better quality, resulting in a virtuous cycle of faster growth.

Its strength rapidly expanded, and as a result, a faint sense of superiority began to seep out.

Late at night, one could hear the Yuheng Sect members grumbling and complaining on the way back from picking up the Qingmu Sword Sect members.

"In this day and age, only Brother Huo of the Wumian Sword Sect can be mentioned in the same breath as me. The rest are all ants."

In the middle of the night, Li Cheng Yi was awakened by a drawn-out chant, his sweet sleep interrupted by a self-satisfied voice.

Speechless, he turned over and got out of bed. With a flash of his shadow, he instantly appeared outside the door, standing in the corridor and looking out at the night sky.

In the distant night sky, two bright, candle-like lights floated, like two giant light bulbs.

One light bulb was fiery red, burning with the Yuheng Sect's unique bright life flame.

Inside the flame was a beautiful woman with a delicate face, but short hair that revealed anger and shame in her eyes.

Inside the other blue light bulb was a long-haired man with an elegant figure, wearing a deep blue Daoist robe.

The man held the same crimson long sword, its blade pointing diagonally downwards, his face bearing an undisguised expression of composure.

A candid disdain, a candid contempt.

This clear look was displayed without any concealment in the man's eyes.

"Ding Zou!!!"

The woman faced this discrimination, her chest rising and falling rapidly, practically exploding with anger.

"Ah!! I'm going to kill you!!!" The life flame on her body soared into the sky, instantly growing from a few meters to over ten meters.

She immediately raised her long sword to slash at the other party.

Buzz!

Suddenly, a transparent light screen blocked the two of them, dividing the entire night sky into two.

"Before the Grand Competition, private duels are not allowed."

A cold female voice faintly floated from below.

"Chong Xin Yao, come back." The female voice disappeared.

The red light bulb woman in mid-air turned red, roaring again and pointing at Ding Zou.

"You wait!! Tomorrow, I'll let you know why blood is so red!!"

With a whoosh, she turned and flew away, leaving the night sky.

Ding Zou smiled slightly, his gaze downwards, as if looking at the Wumian Sword Sect's residential area.

Then, he also turned and transformed into a blue light, disappearing into the Qingmu Sword Sect's residential area.

"Where's Senior Brother?" Many Wumian Sword Sect disciples were awakened, and a voice whispered from afar.

"Don't know, probably resting. The isolation formation is up, so the sound probably didn't reach him."

"That's Ding Zou... really arrogant."

"If Senior Brother were here, heh..."

Mixed in with the chaotic voices were sounds of yawning. Li Cheng Yi returned to his room speechlessly.

He remembered in his previous life, people often let out long howls at the slightest provocation. That was fine in the wilderness, but howling in the sect was practically asking to be beaten.

No matter how much enlightenment you gained in the middle of the night, howling would still offend everyone.

Now that he had actually encountered someone howling in the middle of the night, Li Cheng Yi only felt embarrassed, extremely embarrassed.

It was like someone dancing square dance in a bus, twisting and turning, and then asking everyone after finishing, "Today, only so-and-so on this bus can be compared to me, the rest are trash."

Most people would probably laugh to death if they encountered that.

'But... Senior Brother didn't react at all. Did he really not hear it, or...'

His eyes narrowed slightly, and combined with the slight unease he felt during the day, he became thoughtful.

*

*

*

Beneath the night sky, deep within the cliff, was a sea of forests.

Moving away from the sea of forests, several thousand miles away from the Yuheng Sect, in a black-green pine forest as tall as a hundred meters.

White mist swirled, and faint phosphorescence flickered intermittently between the trees.

Huo Qing Kong slowly paced forward, walking through the forest.

He held the sword hilt, his face calm, as if pondering something, or perhaps recalling something.

Suddenly, he stopped.

"People from Anxiang?"

His deep voice suddenly echoed in the forest.

Chi chi chi!!

Three soft sounds rang out in succession, and three black figures appeared beside him, surrounding him on three sides.

They were three black-clothed figures wearing bizarre golden masks.

All three held curved black blades, their auras flickering. If one didn't sense them carefully, they wouldn't even notice they were there.

"Huo Qing Kong truly deserves to be called the Wumian Sword Sect's once-in-a-millennium top genius."

One of them said softly, a distinctly female voice.

"We have come to sincerely invite you to join Anxiang and conspire together to achieve great things." The woman continued before Huo Qing Kong could reply.

"Don't rush to refuse. Do you know why we formed Anxiang, why we are willing to join it?"

"Oh?" Huo Qing Kong was about to attack, but stopped upon hearing this.

He had heard of the Anxiang organization for a long time, but he really didn't know the reason for their formation.

"First, let me introduce myself. My name is Chun Shiqi (Spring Seventeen). Within Anxiang, we are divided into seasons, and each member's codename is based on their ranking when they joined." The woman took a step forward.

"Most of us are elites from within the various sects. In terms of identity and status, we really don't need to do such things that could lead to our families being exterminated. But why do we still do it?" She sighed.

"Could you speak faster? I have a naturally short temper." Huo Qing Kong's expression gradually cooled.

"Alright, long story short, Huo Qing Kong, are you aware that each of the four sects has an ancestor-level figure who once achieved transcendence?" the woman asked again.

"I know. So?"

"Then do you know that, as experts of that level, they wouldn't be aware that the techniques they left behind are flawed?"

".!?" Huo Qing Kong was silent.

He had actually suspected this for a long time. Figures at the transcendence level had extremely high insight. Would they not notice the hidden dangers within the techniques?

No one would believe it if he said it.

"But why don't they care?" Anxiang's Chun Shiqi asked.

"Yes... why don't they care? Why do they allow future generations to continue along the wrong path, continuing to move forward?" Huo Qing Kong lowered his head. "Do you know the answer?"

"If you want the answer... come to Yan Yun Mountains. Whenever you dare to come, we will give you the truth you desire." Chun Shiqi said softly.

Clang!!

In an instant, a blue light illuminated the surrounding darkness.

The azure sword light erupted from behind Huo Qing Kong, instantly transforming into three terrifying spikes, crossing more than ten meters in an unimaginable, terrifying speed, and landed on the three people.

The azure halo illuminated everything, like lightning in the night sky, flashing past.

A moment later, the halo flowed and flew back.

The entire process was like an azure whip, flying out, dividing into three, then merging again and returning.

Everything returned to calm.

Chun Shiqi and the other two stood there blankly. She opened her mouth, muttering, wanting to make a sound again.

But it was too late.

"Instant Prison..." She squeezed out two words with difficulty. "Why..."

"Boring." Huo Qing Kong released the hand holding the sword hilt and turned to leave.

"I gave you time to speak, but unfortunately, you didn't cherish it."

With a flash of azure light, he had already disappeared.

Leaving behind the three people, the primordial imprints on their chests shone, revealing two three-imprint and one five-imprint.

Especially the five-imprint; this level was enough to hold a high-level duty within the four sects.

Silently, the flesh inside the three people's clothes quickly dissolved, turning into strands of colored clouds, scattering and flying away.

In the blink of an eye, only three sets of clothes and weapons remained on the spot.

Before long, a figure silently appeared here, squatting down to examine the original position of the three.

"Such heavy killing intent... What a pity, Chun Shiqi..."

"Just how strong is Huo Qing Kong? He can instantly kill even Chun Shiqi. That requires at least three levels higher than her." Another eerie voice came from the forest.

"Chun Shiqi's primordial imprints were almost entirely focused on defense. To instantly kill a five-imprint level person with that much defense requires at least an eight-imprint pure attack-oriented imprint." The figure sighed.

"...There's another possibility... a composite primordial imprint." The voice deep in the forest said in a heavy tone.

"Regardless, the negotiation has broken down. Prepare to take action to completely eliminate him." The figure said.

"It's difficult. He must have some life-saving item given by that old Sacred Spirit of the Wumian Sword Sect."

"We'll join hands then; we can't give him any more time to grow. Since we can't pull him over, we'll just dispose of him."

"Alright."

Chiii!!

Just then, an azure light, like lightning, instantly crossed hundreds of meters, erupting from the distant forest.

The azure light was too fast, far too fast. It wasn't purely about speed, but rather a strange acceleration of time within the two people's consciousness.

They had only just seen the azure light light up, and in the next instant, it was already in front of them.

'Instant Prison!!? Huo Qing Kong didn't leave!!?'

Boom!!

Suddenly, azure and red light shone in the pine forest, colliding fiercely.

A dozen seconds later.

Huo Qing Kong had a calm expression as he slowly walked out of the pine forest, as if nothing had happened. He took to the air and flew toward the Yuheng Sect.

Behind him, deep in the pine forest, were two more mysterious humanoid black-robed figures.

*

*

*

The next morning, very early.

Participants from the four sects had already arrived at the arena.

Li Cheng Yi followed Bai He, who was wide awake and full of excitement, to the Grand Competition arena – the Linquan Palace.

The Yuheng Sect's Linquan Palace was a combat arena used for internal conflict resolution.

Layer upon layer of circular defensive fire walls formed an extremely strong multi-layered composite formation.

On the circular gray-white arena, after everyone had arrived, the Yuheng Sect Leader emerged to speak first.

The Sect Leader was a beautiful and cold woman with long white hair, whose appearance still resembled that of a young woman in her twenties.

Like Wumian, regardless of what one's previous name was, after becoming Sect Leader, one had to use a fixed title to refer to oneself.

Therefore, the Sect Leader's title was also Yuheng.

(End of Chapter)