As the **Blue Lotus Sword Soul** bit into the snake monster's heart, it worked with a chilling relentlessness, draining blood, corroding tissue, spreading a dark energy that could not be contained. The snake monster's blood poured out in bursts, its strength fading along with its life force.
"Do you understand now?" Yun Xiao sneered. "It's too late."
Taking advantage of its weakening state, Yun Xiao hammered his fists repeatedly into the snake's scaled body. Each blow caused the snake to screech as its massive eyeballs bulged and burst.
*Bang! Bang! Bang!*
With an unyielding grip, Yun Xiao grabbed the snake by its tail and swung it around, smashing it against the ground. Blood splattered with each impact, staining the earth and underscoring the intensity of his rage.
"You dared to harm my Senior Sister Zhao?" His voice boomed with fury as he continued the onslaught, bones snapping beneath his relentless assault.
The snake monster, desperate, spat out words between gasps, "You... do you know who I am? I'm the adopted son of the Great Famine Lord!"
Hearing this, a ripple of alarm spread through the elders watching from afar—mention of the Great Famine Lord, a monstrous figure even the Taboo Tower feared, was no small matter.
"Adopted son?" Yun Xiao's voice was like ice as he dug his sword deeper into the creature's flesh, finding its spine. "Even if you were his blood child, I would still make sure you don't leave here alive."
The snake monster's body convulsed, its spine snapping, every nerve wracked with searing pain as the Sword Soul began devouring its bones. This was no ordinary death—this was agony beyond endurance, a punishment for its wickedness.
"Stop... please!" The snake monster's voice wavered, breaking into pleas, but Yun Xiao was unmoved.
"You ask for mercy now?" Yun Xiao sneered, pressing the sword in deeper. "Do you think your death will ever be enough to repay for my Senior Sister?"
Stepping on the creature's abdomen, Yun Xiao drove his sword down and slashed open the monster's belly. Amid the bloody mass, a small black pill—its **monster pill**—gleamed darkly, radiating immense power despite its size.
"My... my pill…" the monster wailed, voice fading as life slipped away. It had only recently formed this monster pill, a core of immense power. Now, it was dying—without its life source, without redemption.
The snake monster's voice dwindled to silence, as Yun Xiao held its monster pill in hand, a final testament to the fury that had fueled his every strike.
*Bang!*
Yun Xiao brought down his sword one final time, severing the snake monster's spine and crushing it beneath his foot. His face was cold, his voice a fierce declaration: "Who here is but an insect? Whose life is so short?" His eyes flared as he delivered his next words, "Today, you die—and I live. My father was a Creator Immortal. What are you?"
With ten swift, brutal strikes, Yun Xiao reduced the monster's once-proud form to a bloodied mass. The snake's life ebbed away in horror, a once-mighty sovereign slain by a mere sixteen-year-old. Its last thought, filled with disbelief: *I do not believe this...*
Watching this spectacle, Jiang Yue, who had once harbored hopes for Yun Xiao's defeat, was struck with terror. She could barely believe this young man was the same person.Yun Xiao no longer cared about her, finding her utterly beneath him. She had become a hollow figure—a mere puppet, stripped of all her former glory.
Yun Xiao's attention turned to those who truly mattered to him: his brothers and sisters from the Sword Pavilion, the teachers and elders who were his chosen family. He looked up toward the palace where Senior Sister Zhao, cloaked in a black skirt, gazed down at him with tear-filled eyes.
As the Sword Pavilion elders spoke of his unprecedented feats, of the legendary **Eleven-Strike Sword** that he had wielded against the snake monster, Yun Xiao's focus remained sharp. He quickly absorbed the energy from the three lesser monster bones, each providing another Sword Gang to his arsenal. His power now reached twenty-nine Sword Gangs, surpassing even his master's achievements.
Then, holding the millennium snake's monster pill in his hands, Yun Xiao fused it with his Heaven-Burying Sword Soul, creating a **Sword Ring** infused with powerful, death-like energy. The new Sword Ring wrapped around the Sword Soul like a dark aura, carrying both poison and sorcery, an ominous enhancement to his lethal powers. The pavilion elders marveled as Yun Xiao's strength continued to climb, sensing his position now among the top swordsmen in Blue Soul's history.
"Yun Xiao, is not weak in anything!" Grandpa Qin shouted with pride.
Finally, Yun Xiao approached Senior Sister Zhao. She led him into the palace to where his master lay—weak, his Sword Soul shattered, his body barely hanging on. "Master's condition is dire," she said softly, pain lacing her words. "There is a way to save him," she continued, though with only a month left for a cure, time was against them.
Yun Xiao's gaze was resolute. "I will do whatever it takes."
The Blue Soul was now in turmoil. Outside the Sword Pavilion, Ye Tiance, alongside his disciples and a battalion of three hundred sword cultivators, gathered in defiance of the uprising. His golden Sword Soul shimmered ominously, surrounded by a glimmering Sword Ring and twenty-four golden Sword Gangs.
"Are you, a mere group of rejects, trying to save the vile beasts from Sword Pavilion and oppose me?" Ye Tiance sneered, his voice cutting through the air filled with tension.
"Sword Pavilion conspired with demons to trap and destroy our loyal Blue Soul allies. Now they dare to play innocent and falsely accuse us! Such hypocrisy is intolerable!"
He scoffed at the crowd, his laughter dark and mocking. Yao Manxue and Zhang Jian, along with three hundred sword cultivators, joined in, their derisive laughter echoing through the air.
"Look at you, furious and helpless!" Yao Manxue jeered, shaking her head. "If you want to live, kneel before Lord Jian, otherwise..." Zhang Jian sneered, his gaze piercing.
Before them stood Shangguan Yu, Chen Dong, Li Chenlong, and others, all brimming with anger and defiance. They held their weapons tightly, rage and frustration coursing through them. Helpless against Ye Tiance's manipulative scheme, they could do nothing but stand their ground, though already weakened by his relentless assault.
Ye Tiance smiled with satisfaction, relishing the thought that Yun Xiao was defeated. In his mind, he taunted his rival Zhao Jianxing: "You outshined me all your life, but with a bit of cunning, I've trampled you beneath me! Does it sting, Zhao?"
His gaze fixed on Shangguan Yu, a woman cloaked in blue. "The one you admire is dead, yet you still stand defiant? Do you wish to follow him?" He taunted, his eyes gleaming with malice as he brandished his sword, channeling a dark power towards her.
"Despicable villain!" Shangguan Yu spat, fury and sorrow in her eyes as she heard the sounds of struggle and weeping from Sword Pavilion. Even as her realm was a level lower than his, she clutched her sword, her spirit undeterred, prepared to fight to her last breath.
"Our duty as sword cultivators is to defend the world from such evil, no matter the cost," she declared, eyes blazing. She raised her sword, advancing on Ye Tiance.
Ye Tiance surged forward like a golden eagle, his sword radiating immense power, pressing down on Shangguan Yu with overwhelming force. His supernatural prowess in the Source Pill Realm was unparalleled, and she knew she couldn't match him in sheer power. His sword aimed straight for her throat, a deadly strike.
But in that very instant, an azure whirlwind of light shot through the night, aiming directly at Ye Tiance. The shock made him recoil, quickly diverting his sword to counter the sudden attack.
His face twisted in rage. "Who dares to interfere?!"