128: Hidden Sword Peak's Secret

"This sword strike... is this a Human Race Sword Immortal? How is this possible?!"

Under Candle Heaven's astonished gaze, the sword light sliced through space, instantly tearing open the black sky, cutting down the crimson Dragon and the Demons near Candle Heaven all at once.

*Screeeech!*

The space seemed to be ripped apart, emitting a piercing sound, and a massive rift appeared, like a mirror neatly cut in two.

Dazzling golden light scattered down.

The darkness was dispelled, and the terrifying, eerie mist was scorched, vanishing instantly.

The sun returned to the world.

Candle Heaven's body, which was like a small mountain, was shattered by the sword strike, and even his Primordial Spirit Light failed to escape.

Killed in a single strike.

Furthermore, the three great Demons at Returning to Origin Peak next to Candle Heaven were also affected by this sword strike, instantly turning into dust, their forms and spirits annihilated.

"We won?" The Yuxu Academy Disciples stared blankly at the sky, their eyes filled with disbelief.

"That sword strike just now..."

"Did the Academy's Sword Immortal make a move?"

"The Academy actually has a Sword Immortal?"

"How is this possible?"

"Am I dreaming?"

The situation instantly reversed. They suspected they were dreaming, wondering if they were hallucinating.

"Run! The Human Race powerhouses are too terrifying!"

After a long time, the startled Demons regained their senses and fled in all directions.

"All Yuxu Academy Disciples, heed my command! Those above the Transcendent realm! Pursue the Demon Race forces! Show no mercy!"

The Sunset Glow Peak Elder was the first to fly out in pursuit.

"Pursue the Demon Race forces! Show no mercy!"

"Pursue the Demon Race forces! Show no mercy!"

At this moment, everyone finally recovered their senses. Morale instantly soared to the Peak. Transcendent Secret Energy circulated as they shot into the sky, chasing the Demon Race remnants.

*Whoosh!*

Another streak of sword light flew out from Hidden Sword Peak, brilliant as a shooting star, tracing a graceful arc and arriving instantly.

With a *hiss*, the sword light, while still mid-air, Incarnated into hundreds of thousands of threads of Sword Intent, slashing toward the Demons fleeing in all directions.

In an instant, Demon blood sprayed everywhere, and great Demons fell one after another.

Seizing this opportunity, Sect Master also reluctantly activated the Ancient Seal again, bursting forth with thousands of rays of light, instantly locking down the surrounding space to prevent the Demon Race from escaping.

Seeing this scene, the Yuxu Academy Disciples instantly erupted in excitement.

"The Sword Immortal is eternally divine!"

"The Sword Immortal is eternally divine!"

"The Sect Head is eternally divine!"

The sound echoed across the sky, and morale reached its Peak.

Candle Heaven was slain, and the Demon Race army's morale was shattered; they only cared about fleeing in panic.

Coupled with the invincible Sword Intent that could take a Demon's life at any moment, the Demon Race forces had long lost the will to resist.

As a result, the situation became completely one-sided.

At the same time, the Rising Sun Peak Master killed a Returning to Origin great Demon with a single strike, his gaze narrowing as he locked onto the Demon Race Sacred Artifact, the saint slaying spear, which had fallen halfway up the mountain.

His expression determined, he flew toward the saint slaying spear.

This was Yuxu Academy's spoils of war.

If they collected the saint slaying spear, it would undoubtedly be a severe blow to the Demon Race's prestige.

With the loss of a Sacred Artifact, the Demon Lord's strength would drop a notch. For the Human Race, this was undoubtedly good news.

However, before the Rising Sun Peak Master could approach the saint slaying spear, the sky suddenly darkened.

With a muffled *rumble*, lightning abruptly appeared.

In an instant, a colossal demonic claw, emitting endless sinister light, ripped through space and fiercely reached out.

A terrifying pressure descended, instantly making everyone gasp for breath.

"This pressure is even stronger than the previous great Demon—"

Seeing this scene, everyone was startled, their expressions changing drastically.

"H-how is this possible? Another great Demon?"

The remaining Demon Race forces were overjoyed.

"Reinforcements are here? We don't have to die?! Hahaha—"

However, before they could finish celebrating.

Before the Yuxu Academy Disciples could finish worrying, the demonic claw quickly grabbed the dull saint slaying spear, retreated rapidly into the spatial rift, and vanished instantly.

Then, the spatial rift quickly healed, as if it had never appeared.

Demon Race forces: "???"

Yuxu Academy personnel: "???"

Seeing this scene, everyone present was dumbfounded.

They had originally intended to fight to the death again, but they hadn't expected... "Damn it! The saint slaying spear was snatched away!"

"The Demon Race is truly shameless!"

"You bastards! Damn Demon Race! You lost the fight and still have the nerve to come and grab the weapon! Trash!"

"Hmph! The saint slaying spear was defeated by a single sword strike from the Sword Pavilion Elder! Its spirituality is probably less than ten percent intact. It's just junk, let them take it."

The Rising Sun Peak Master spat, gritting his teeth as he comforted everyone, and himself.

"Continue slaughtering the Demons! Don't let them escape!" the Rising Sun Peak Master shouted, gripping his great saber as he rushed toward the fleeing Demons.

"Continue slaughtering the Demons!"

"Continue slaughtering the Demons!"

Everyone quickly followed suit.

With the cooperation of the Elders from various Peaks and the many Transcendent Disciples, in less than half an hour, all three thousand Demon Race elites were executed, and over a hundred Demons were captured.

Watching the dust settle.

Sect Master, who had remained motionless atop Yuxu Peak, finally showed a faint smile before his vision went black, and he slowly collapsed onto the ground.

"Master—" The Disciple Song Yu quickly stepped forward to support Sect Master, his eyes filled with worry.

After a careful check, Song Yu breathed a sigh of relief upon realizing that Sect Master had only fainted from exhaustion. He quickly pulled out a precious healing Medicinal Pill and placed it in Sect Master's mouth, circulating Transcendent Secret Energy to heal him.

"Master... we won, we actually won! The Demon Race suffered a huge defeat this time. Junior Martial Uncle Liu's sword strike was too cool. I... I want to go to the Sword Pavilion too!"

Just as Song Yu's excited voice rang out, Sect Master opened his eyes and said with difficulty:

"No, absolutely not. You belong to Yuxu Peak in life, and you are its ghost in death. You cannot go anywhere else."

Song Yu: "?"

...Hidden Sword Peak.

Liu Xiyan sat cross-legged on the ground, her face pale. Her aura was extremely weak, as if she might die at any moment.

"Elder—" Mo Fan started to speak but stopped, unsure what to say, feeling utterly distraught.

"It's nothing, just a minor injury."

Liu Xiyan forced open her eyes and managed a faint smile:

"Thank you, Mo Fan. You saved Yuxu Academy, and you saved us."

Mo Fan shook his head, his eyes swirling with deep complexity.

In his line of sight, a sapphire blue virtual panel appeared that only he could see.

[Liu Xiyan, Sword Pavilion Elder of Yuxu Academy, Guiyuan First Level cultivation. She entered the Sword Pavilion ninety-nine years ago and comprehended the complete Sword Nurturing Art. She only needs to nurture her sword for another half a year to gain battle strength comparable to a Supreme powerhouse.

[Unfortunately, forcibly condensing the Sword Momentum consumed all the Sword Intent she had nurtured for ninety-nine years. Without other fortuitous encounters, she will never again be able to condense Sword Momentum and become a Sword Immortal in this lifetime.]

Noticing Mo Fan's troubled emotions, Liu Xiyan shook her head and said softly:

"Don't blame yourself. You did well enough.

"Even if I had Cultivated the complete Sword Nurturing Art from the beginning, the situation wouldn't have been any better than it is now."

Hearing this, Mo Fan couldn't help but be stunned.

Liu Xiyan smiled and continued:

"The complete Sword Nurturing Art merely resolved the hidden danger of Sword Intent harming the body.

"It doesn't help much with the life-or-death hurdles at each stage."

As if afraid Mo Fan wouldn't understand, Liu Xiyan explained:

"The life-or-death hurdles at each stage are a process of forcibly controlling the Sword Intent to undergo Fusion and transformation.

"If successful, the transformed Sword Intent will feed back into the self, strengthening all aspects of the body and greatly increasing cultivation.

"If it fails, the Sword Intent nurtured within the body will instantly lose control.

"Uncontrolled Sword Intent possesses unbelievable destructive power, which a mere mortal body cannot resist."

Speaking of this, Liu Xiyan looked up at the sky, which had returned to brightness, and said slowly:

"The Sword Intent within my body had already condensed to its limit. The hundred-year mark was the point in time to condense all that Sword Intent into Sword Momentum.

"It was predictable that, given my Aptitude, the probability of failure would be as high as ninety percent."

"If the Sword Intent nurtured for a hundred years went out of control, I'm afraid only Supreme Beings could suppress it..."

Saying this, Liu Xiyan smiled, reached out, and ruffled Mo Fan's hair:

"This is already the best outcome.

"Using this opportunity, I dispersed the Sword Intent within my body.

"In this way, the hundred-year life-and-death hurdle naturally ceased to exist.

"Although I can no longer nurture my sword, at least I don't have to die.

"It's great. This result, being alive, is already very good."

"But Sword Immortal—" Mo Fan frowned.

"Sword Immortal? My Aptitude was still insufficient. Fortunately, Jingjing appeared. Let the mission of becoming a Sword Immortal be passed on to her."

Saying this, Liu Xiyan smiled contentedly.

"Jingjing's talent exceeded my expectations. In a hundred years, she has a high chance of crossing the life-and-death hurdle and achieving the Sword Immortal status.

"Moreover, she Cultivated the complete Sword Nurturing Art, so even if she becomes a Sword Immortal, her lifespan won't be shortened.

"There are rumors that the lifespan of normal Supreme Beings can reach five thousand years.

"In this way, Jingjing will become the longest-lived Sword Immortal in history."

At the end of her speech, a brilliant smile blossomed on Liu Xiyan's face.

"Mhm." Mo Fan nodded, yet he couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

Although Liu Xiyan seemed very carefree, and her smile was sincere.

Mo Fan could tell.

She was not truly happy.

A person who pursued the Sword Dao her entire life.

Now her Sword Dao cultivation was crippled, and her path was broken.

Could she really let go so easily?

Mo Fan shook his head.

Mo Fan understood Liu Xiyan's personality somewhat.

She was clearly the type of person who would never abandon the Sword Dao, even if she knew she would die.

Life is like summer flowers.

This is exactly the kind of person she was.

But now—

Mo Fan looked up at the still somewhat hazy sky.

Was Liu Xiyan, who could no longer Cultivate the Sword Dao, still Liu Xiyan?

"It's very good, truly. You don't need to worry about me or feel sad for me. Being alive is a great fortune. It's also nice to stay in the Sword Pavilion to retire and watch Jingjing gradually grow up."

Liu Xiyan ruffled Mo Fan's head again, comforting him.

Mo Fan covered his forehead and quickly batted Liu Xiyan's hand away: "Don't do that, I'm not a child."

"In front of me, aren't you just a child?" Liu Xiyan laughed.

Mo Fan rolled his eyes at her.

Forget it, as long as you're happy.

After laughing for a while, Liu Xiyan inexplicably sighed again:

"The only pity is that after dispersing my Sword Intent, my strength is less than ten percent of what it was. There isn't much more I can do for you, especially since I still owe you a favor."

"It's fine." Mo Fan shook his head.

After thinking for a moment, Mo Fan asked, "What exactly did the Demon Race intend to do by coming to Yuxu Academy?"

Liu Xiyan paused, then shook her head: "I don't know, but I suspect it's related to Hidden Sword Peak."

Hearing this, Mo Fan also nodded.

He remembered that the last time those two Returning to Origin great Demons infiltrated Yuxu Academy, their target was Hidden Sword Peak.

"Hidden Sword Peak might hold some secret we don't know about. They seem to have captured some prisoners this time, so perhaps we can find out something from them.

"Of course, this is just my guess. Perhaps their target wasn't Hidden Sword Peak."

Speaking of this, Liu Xiyan looked seriously at Mo Fan and said:

"If it truly is related to Hidden Sword Peak, the secret might be in the back mountain. If you have time, you could go check it out more often, and let me know immediately if you find anything."

"Alright, I will." Mo Fan nodded.

In fact, he had already carefully investigated the Sword Pavilion's back mountain using the Appraisal Technique.

Unfortunately, he found nothing.

Seeming to notice the lingering worry in Mo Fan's eyes, Liu Xiyan couldn't help but say:

"You don't need to worry too much. This incident was just an accident.

"In the future, the Human Race's defenses will be much stricter. At the very least, they will invite those few Supreme powerhouses out of seclusion to carve new Spatial Runes onto the Martial Dao Great Wall.

"After this, the Demon Race will definitely be unable to silently tear space and enter Human Race territory.

"Furthermore, I also suggested to the Sect Head that we thoroughly investigate the Academy and root out all the Heavenly Demon Cult spies.

"After this incident, I believe the Sect Head will also implement the spy eradication plan as soon as possible.

"Alright, just focus on Cultivating peacefully in the Academy. With your talent, you will grow quickly. Don't worry too much."

"Thank you, I understand." Mo Fan nodded.

Before long, Xu Jing and Chu Qian walked over.

"Master, are you alright?" Seeing Liu Xiyan's paper-white face, Chu Qian's heart leaped to her throat, and she rushed over.

"Your Master is fine. I just need a few days of rest."

"Master..." Xu Jing also walked over with her head bowed, her eyes full of worry.