“I heard that one of your great-great-grandsons is a little genius. Yes, Bai Quanshui is quite something. He’s of your lineage. Leaving your sect in his hands, its future is promising.” The old man nodded.

“You old die-hard, you fought today for the sake of posterity, wasn’t it? Sooner or later, Song Que will assume leadership of the Blue Cloud Sect. You sacrificed your life to remove obstacles for him, so as to allow him a smooth transition. Your descendants should be safe for the next 500 years.” The old warrior from the Extermination Swordsmanship Sect also sighed.

They were both eminent talents of their generation when young, and competed with each other. They had once found the other objectionable, and fought several times in great combats. As peerless warriors dominating the Northern Region, they had shone as resplendently as the sun. A pity that most of their erstwhile friends were now dead. Now they, too, were so old that almost all their teeth had fallen out. Like decomposed wood, they could finally stand beside each other and speak their minds, intimately and calmly.

“We shall do our best, but the rest depends on Heaven. Were a Holy War to break out, no one would survive. It’s hard to predict the future.” The old man sighed with deep emotion.

The moment he uttered the words “Holy War”, a dark veil drew over the heavens and earth, as though bleak premonition was in the air.

As the two spoke, the breathing of the elder from the Blue Cloud Sect became weaker and weaker.

His eyes returned to Ding Hao, looking thoughtful. In the end he said, “Boy, I have dominated the Northern Region my entire life, and encountered countless heroes and gallant fighters. Yet I have never seen anyone as obsessed with martial arts as you. You should have plundered the treasure trove in that 10,000-year-old library of the Heaven-Splitting Swordsmanship Sect. Instead, you chose to suffer here. Do you think you can experience the revelation at Sage level so easily?”

Ding Hao laughed and said nothing.

“Such a pity. If you were from a major sect, your achievements would be even greater.” The old man sighed and then said, “I have spent all my life perfecting my swordsmanship. I made a vow, that I would revive that mythic massacre technique called the Great Body Extension Swordsmanship. I have made a little headway by now. But I can’t go on. Since you are a martial arts addict, and also a swordsman, I would like to gift you this imperfect swordsmanship of mine.”

“Huh?” Ding Hao was startled. He had not expected the elder to suddenly say this to him.

Before he could react, he saw a flash of brilliance before his eyes. The old man had stuffed a white nephrite jade tablet into his hand.

“This sword manual has been completed until the sixth level. You can go ahead and practice it without worry. The final three levels are incomplete. That is the flaw of this technique. You can choose whether to practice them or not. Haha, I’m leaving. Boy, if you achieve something in the future, I hope you can help my descendants when they encounter any trouble.”

Before his voice died away—

The old man’s body emitted a ball of resplendent brilliance.

In the end, he melted into a shower of light and into the heavens and the earth, disappearing before Ding Hao’s sight.

The complete demise of a Martial Sage expert.

“You old die-hard, you have foresight indeed.” The old man from the Extermination Swordsmanship Sect spoke desolately. His last friend and opponent of the same era had just died, vanishing before his eyes. Bleak solitude instantly overwhelmed him.

“Senior, your injuries aren’t serious, are they?” Ding Hao saw his wounds gushing with blood. He could not help asking this in concern, since he saw that the old man’s wounds could not close and heal by themselves.

The old man started guffawing and waved his hand. He turned around and took steps into the distance.

His figure whizzed with each successive step, advancing several hundred meters each time.

“Hahaha, the moon is like a sickle amidst the bloodbaths of the martial arts world. The heavens and clouds extend for ten thousand miles. When can I wipe my sword and howl at the heavens, and dare ask the blue firmament about who’s the most unconventional… the most unconventional…” He guffawed aloud in a grief-stricken, bleak tone, as laughter resounded from this silhouetted hunchback weeping blood. In the blink of an eye, the old man had completely vanished into the horizon of the distant skies.

Ding Hao watched his departing silhouette quietly, at a total loss for words.

“There are dangers everywhere in the martial arts world. No matter how highly skilled you are, once you tread on this path, you can’t go back. Young fellow, the way ahead is long. Be very careful…” The old man’s words rang out in the wind.

A piece of shocking, sensational news reached everyone in Sword Province and the Northern Region.

The Heaven-Splitting Swordsmanship Sect had been eliminated.

As a sword practitioner Sect with a lineage of several thousand years, the Heaven-Splitting Swordsmanship Sect had always been a powerful sect, one of the few supreme sects of Sword Province with vast influence and power. They had so many highly skilled experts, and had always been an imperious presence. Over these years, they seemed to be on the rise, dominating the Heaven-Splitting Mountain Range, and could be considered a tyrannical sect in Sword Province. Its potential was great. Few dared to provoke the sect, since they had Martial Sage experts in command.

This sect had stood for millenniums amidst the chaos of the age. Yet it had been destroyed in a day.

The news spread quickly like a whirlwind.

At first, some did not believe it. They thought it too absurd—how could anyone destroy a large sect like the Heaven-Splitting Swordsmanship Sect within a day?

So a few visited the Heaven-Splitting Mountain Range on purpose to investigate. Yet when they appeared on the rim of the mountain range and saw everything from a distance. they were stunned.

Everyone was completely flabbergasted.

The formerly dark and grim black mountain range, with all its imposing halls and buildings, was completely gone. It was replaced by a ravaged, potholed black desert with crumbled peaks. The granite ranges which solidified from lava emerging from the bowels of the earth, were like grotesque, ugly giant pythons slithering in the desert. There was horrific remnant Qi energy in the air, making one’s heart palpitate.

Everything had been destroyed.

That major sect which once stood here seemed not have existed at all. It had vanished without a trace.

The Heaven-Splitting Swordsmanship Sect had truly been eliminated.

Completely wiped out from the face of this earth.

Someone barged into the battlefield and could still vaguely make out the presence of broken bricks and shattered tiles, as well as a great quantity of splintered weapons. The luckier ones discovered magical weapons, elixirs, and scriptures in the ruins. This resulted in a mad scramble. Many more warriors started to visit this site to excavate the earth madly. And they did unearth many treasures in the desert.

And there were rumors about that largest, thousand-year-old treasure trove amassed by the Heaven-Splitting Swordsmanship Sect. They claimed that it had not been plundered. In the last moments, its sword practitioners fought with their lives to preserve it, and buried it deep in the sands. Only a few were fated to unearth it.

All sorts of rumors started to spread like the plague.

What kind of power could have annihilated such a supreme force like the Heaven-Splitting Swordsmanship Sect within a day? It was incredible. Many started investigating, and slowly, the truth emerged.

“So the Blue Cloud Sect and the Extermination Swordsmanship Sect had an alliance… no wonder… those two supreme sects. Even if one of them wanted to eliminate the Heaven-Splitting Swordsmanship Sect, they would have overwhelmed them. The Heaven-Splitting Swordsmanship Sect stood no chance at all against their alliance.”

“The Heaven-Splitting Swordsmanship Sect is quite pitiful. They shouldn’t have provoked two supreme sects at the same time!”

“Pitiful? Ptooey! What a big joke to call them pitiful. They have eliminated many sects themselves over the years, and committed so many hateful atrocities, both openly and on the sly! Well, I would call it retribution. The sect had been too tyrannical. That was why they suffered this calamity. Serves them right for getting eliminated.”

“Haha, you’re right. Such sects are like cancerous tumors among humanity. They ought to have been destroyed long ago.”

“Boohoo, Father, did your spirit in heaven hear that? The Heaven-Splitting Swordsmanship Sect has finally been destroyed. Someone has finally avenged the bloody feud of our Abstruse Spirit Sect. You, Mother, and all the disciples massacred by the Heaven-Splitting Swordsmanship Sect, rest in peace in Hades! I will follow your will and live incognito as an ordinary man. I won’t be a martial artist again!”

There were all sorts of reactions once news of the Heaven-Splitting Swordsmanship Sect’s destruction spread.

It became the hottest, most sensational news of the day. Almost everyone in Sword Province was discussing and making conjectures.

More and more news started to spread.

“Hey, haven’t you heard? The Heaven-Splitting Swordsmanship Sect’s destruction has something to do with the Saber and Sword Addict.”

“The Saber and Sword Addict? You mean that teenage genius from Snow Province they were raving about lately? Come on, he’s just a junior. Before supreme forces like the Heaven-Splitting Swordsmanship Sect, the Blue Cloud Sect and the Extermination Swordsmanship Sect, he’s not worth even a speck of dust. How could he have anything to do with such a super event?”

“Bah, you don’t know, do you? They say that Ding Hao, the Extermination Swordsmanship Sect’s Monster, and that Fatso Devil Song Que of the Blue Cloud Sect, are bosom friends. And those two sects attacked the Heaven-Splitting Swordsmanship Sect because they offended Ding Hao…”

“Baseless rumors! Feuds between such sects are very serious. How could they have invaded another sect just because of some private amity?”

“Well, that’s what I heard. You can choose to believe it or not. Moreover, some time ago, the Extermination Swordsmanship Sect’s Monster, Bai Quanshui, received a great personage at space gate square. They say it was Ding Hao…”

Within every restaurant in Sword City, customers were enjoying their meals and discussing the hottest topics of the day.

There were all sorts of rumors.

On the second floor of the restaurant, a slim, elegant figure was sitting quietly by the window at a large mahogany table. She was listening to their discussions, a faint, troubled expression on her face. Her appearance seemed to provoke much pity and she looked even more attractive for that. Resembling a fairy lost on earth, she was staring blankly, and no one was able to read her mind.

“It must be him. It must have something to do with him. He said that he’s here in Sword Province to do something important. Now he has done it. Even a supreme force like the Heaven-Splitting Swordsmanship Sect has vanished like scattered ashes and dispersed smoke before his face…”

The girl kept thinking in a daze.

Two bone spears were propped against the table corner beside her, as fair and luscious as jade. They seemed to hailed from antiquity, although they did not look that special.

“I have almost bought all the Sword Heart Herb I need. Haha, with the help of the Extermination Swordsmanship Sect, I will surely reap a handsome profit! Within a couple of days, I should be able to return to Ice Province. Then I will never be able to see him again… Should I check my wayward thoughts and infatuation?”

Every time she thought of that smiling face and that figure from the back, the girl felt her heart twisted by a knife.

She had been a bossy, domineering girl for years. “So this is how it’s like to be in love with a man!”

In the span of a few days, she had become like another girl—pessimistic, melancholic, without the decisive forthrightness of the past.

As she stared in a daze, someone suddenly touched her lightly on the back.