A new skill!?
I can learn a new skill now!?
"Let me take a look," Ye Fan exclaimed excitedly.
The new skill was revealed as:
[Underworld Flame Soul Slash]: Your slash summons an immensely powerful flame from the underworld, dealing intense fire attribute damage.
Skill cost: 10,000 evolution points.
"Ten thousand evolution points!?" Ye Fan cursed under his breath, feeling the sting of such a steep price.
After considering it, Ye Fan decided to use the evolution points to unlock the skill. After all, a new skill would greatly enhance the sword's power.
Once the 10,000 points were deducted, Ye Fan felt a painful pang of loss, but soon, the new skill appeared in the weapon's attribute panel.
"Phew, finally," Lin San said as he emerged from the forest.
His storage ring was now filled with countless beast crystals! Over this period, he had also broken through from the third to the fourth stage!
"I'll head back to the sect," Lin San decided, gripping his Demon-Slaying Sword and making his way back to Tianqiong Sect.
But as he walked, something felt wrong. His brow furrowed.
"What's going on?" he muttered.
Along the path, Lin San spotted several bodies—dressed in the robes of Tianqiong Sect disciples!
His expression darkened, and he quickened his pace toward the sect.
"This…"
As he reached the foot of the mountain, Lin San was greeted by the sight of the sect engulfed in roaring flames!
His eyes widened in shock, and without a moment of hesitation, he sprinted up the mountain.
Corpses littered the stone steps, all Tianqiong Sect disciples. Their bodies were riddled with gaping wounds.
"Sword wounds… They were all cut down by blades," Lin San muttered, examining the mutilated bodies.
The sight of such brutality was too horrifying to bear.
"A blade… Could it have been Tang Shiwu?" Lin San pondered. Within the sect, few people used blades. During the sect competition, Tang Shiwu had been the only one wielding a sword against him. Could he have gone mad and slaughtered everyone after recovering from his injuries?
No, that wasn't possible. Tang Shiwu didn't have the strength to accomplish something like this!
Lin San suppressed his thoughts and hurried up the mountain. The sight of fallen disciples along the stone steps was gut-wrenching.
As he neared the summit, a body stopped him in his tracks.
Tang Shiwu.
His head had been severed, his lifeless eyes wide open in terror. His previously severed right arm had been reattached, but it didn't matter anymore.
"So, it wasn't Tang Shiwu," Lin San realized with a sinking heart.
Could it be that someone else had wiped out Tianqiong Sect?
Even though he had suffered years of disdain at the sect, Lin San couldn't believe the entire sect had been annihilated like this!
He raced to the mountaintop.
The Martial Arts Pavilion had been burned to the ground. The flames raged across the sect buildings, still burning fiercely.
"Who did this!?" Lin San shouted in anguish.
The entire sect had been massacred! Even the elders and protectors, powerful fifth-stage warriors, weren't spared!
"Where is the Sect Master!?" Lin San gripped the hilt of the Demon-Slaying Sword, his eyes scanning the area in a frenzy.
"The Tianqiong Sect has been completely destroyed?" Ye Fan was equally shocked. How could such a tragedy occur in just a few days?
"Could it be that Tianqiong Sect provoked some unfathomable enemy? Otherwise, a sect of this size couldn't have been eradicated so easily."
As Lin San frantically searched for the sect master, a group of people was fast approaching from behind.
He could hear the footsteps. When he turned, he saw none other than Ren Xing leading a group of unfamiliar warriors toward the summit.
"Ren Xing!?"
Lin San's expression shifted when he saw Ren Xing and his group.
"Lin San!?" Ren Xing was equally surprised to see him here.
"What happened to the sect! Why are you here with these men?" Lin San demanded, noticing that Ren Xing's group did not belong to Tianqiong Sect.
Almost everyone else in the sect was dead—so why was Ren Xing still alive?
"Heh, Lin San, I didn't expect you to survive," Ren Xing sneered, an eerie smile creeping onto his face. "You were conveniently absent from the sect, lucky for you. But today, your luck has run out."
"What did you do?" Lin San's voice turned cold, his hand tightening around the hilt of his sword.
"Me? You think I have the power to pull this off?" Ren Xing shrugged, his smile widening.
"Believe it or not, this was all the sect master's doing," Ren Xing said darkly.
As he spoke, his face twisted in discomfort, recalling the horrors he had witnessed. Only a few had managed to escape the carnage, and he was one of them.
"Impossible!" Lin San shouted, shaking his head.
Zhang Tiancong, the sect master, would never commit such an atrocity!
"I'm telling you the truth!" Ren Xing roared back. "Zhang Tiancong has gone mad—he's become a demon!"
Lin San's expression remained one of disbelief.
"I'm just here to collect what's left of the sect's resources," Ren Xing continued, sneering at Lin San's reaction.
The disbelief was still etched on Lin San's face. Why would the sect master slaughter his own people?
"This story has taken a wild turn," Ye Fan muttered, bewildered by the revelation.
Could Zhang Tiancong truly have gone mad, slaughtering his entire sect? It seemed implausible, given how composed the sect master had been just a few days prior.
Wait… it was after Zhang Tiancong had taken Tang Shiwu's demonic sword. Could the sword have driven him insane?
That was a possibility.
"Believe what you want. Either way, you won't be leaving here alive!" Ren Xing's eyes gleamed with malice as he fixed his gaze on Lin San.
"What do you mean by that?" Lin San narrowed his eyes, sensing Ren Xing's murderous intent.
"It's simple. There's no need to wait for our one-month duel—you'll die here and now!" Ren Xing shouted, lunging at Lin San with deadly speed.