Volcanic Age

The sects of the Evil Faction, unlike the Righteous Faction, generally chose their leaders through their fists. The Miao Family Sword Gate was no different.[1]

Miao Zhenpei was their Vice Gate Master, while their leader was naturally their strongest, Gate Master Miao Zhenge.

However, even though he was the strongest, that didn't mean he could just recklessly join the front lines.

His title as the strongest in the Miao Family Sword Gate came second to his role as the foundation of the Sword Gate—their patriarch.

If he were to go out and get surrounded and killed, the resulting damage and chaos to the Gate would be unimaginable.

While he couldn't shirk his responsibility and had to participate in the war, a war large enough to determine the fate of both Gates, it was sufficient for him to command his forces from a distance.

"Gasp… cough, cough! Urgent… Urgent news!" a messenger shouted, his face pale.

"What happened?! Tell me!" Miao Zhenge demanded urgently.

"The—the Vice Gate Master! They say he died!"

Miao Zhenpei had taken his elites to raid the camp at the top of the hill through a detour. However, Ju Zhong had anticipated his plans and set a trap for him. While Miao Zhenpei and his elites tried to survive till the bitter end, except for a few who were able to escape, the rest were all slaughtered.

In the end, Miao Zhenpei was beheaded.

"It was reported by the few warriors who were able to escape. Unfortunately…"

"AGH!!!! JU ZHONG! JU ZHONG, YOU BASTARD!"

Miao Zhenge vehemently cursed.

His eyes turned bloodshot, veins bulging as his face flushed red, then paled with rage.

He screamed incomprehensibly, overcome with grief and anger at the slaughter of his own blood.

"I'll kill you! I'll kill you with my very hands!"

"Gate—Gate Master! Calm down!"

"That's right! You have to calm down first!"

The elders who were assisting him tried to assuage Miao Zhenge.

After losing their Vice Gate Master, the situation on the battlefield was almost unrecoverable. If Miao Zhenge went insane, too, it would signal their end.

"Calm down? My brother was just murdered, and you want me to calm down?"

"I know how you feel, but if you lose control like this, you won't be able to avenge him."

The elders tried their best to comfort and soothe Miao Zhenge.

Miao Zhenge wasn't stupid. He knew that allowing himself to be consumed by vengeance and anger in the midst of this battle was exactly what Ju Zhong wanted.

Crack!!

"... is there anything else for you to report?"

The messenger, having been cut off mid-report by Miao Zhenge's outburst, continued with a face full of despair.

"Im—Impossible!"

The despair quickly spread to everyone in the room.

"Aura? You're saying Ju Zhong used saber aura?"

"T—that's right."

Miao Zhenge's face, which had been flushed with anger, suddenly grew cold at the aura.

This was a serious matter.

The Evil Faction’s cultivation techniques allow for faster progress within each level of a realm. However, when it comes to advancing to a new realm, the barriers are much tougher, making it more difficult compared to the Righteous Faction's techniques.

This was why there were fewer masters in the Evil Faction compared to the Righteous Faction.

Masters in the Harmony Realm were already rare within the Righteous Faction, and even rarer within the Evil Faction's ranks.

Unfortunately, there were no masters at the Harmony Realm in the Miao Family Sword Gate.

Even their strongest expert, Miao Zhenge, was only a Transcendent.

Miao Zhenge's shoulders shook violently. He bit his lip so hard that he drew blood.

"Gate Master," an elder called out in concern.

"I know!"

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What would happen at the front lines was obvious.

There were no experts of the main force at the front lines anymore. Most of the elites had been assigned to the special ambush force and had followed Miao Zhenpei.

In contrast, the opposing camp was said to have sent the Four Dogs of the Flashing Waterfall. To make matters worse, the special ambush force, including Miao Zhenpei, had been annihilated, leaving no one to support the front lines.

Miao Zhenge knew that the morale of the front lines must have plummeted upon hearing the news. He didn't even want to imagine what must have happened after the deaths of Miao Zhenpei and the others was announced.

He jumped up from his seat, walked past the table with a map, and headed outside the barracks to issue an order.

"Retreat immediately, and pass on my…. order…?"

"...?"

The elders were puzzled when his voice trailed off. They quickly followed him outside and were shocked by what they saw.

"Huh?!"

"What on earth is going on over there?"

Not long ago, they had clearly been fighting fiercely to gain ground, barely making it halfway up the hill, let alone its peak.

However… what?

The main force, which should have lost its morale and been faltering, had already reached the hill's summit.

***

The main force of the Miao Family Sword Gate advanced with great momentum.

ROAR!!!

"Strike!"

When attacking the enemy, take out their leader first!

With the Four Dogs dead, the Flashing Waterfall Saber Gate fell into chaos.

Most of the elite warriors of the Flashing Waterfall Saber Gate were stationed at the camp on the hill's peak. As a result, the front line's defense was severely weakened without the Four Dogs.

With the falling of their commanders and experts, only Third Class and Second Class soldiers remained.

The main force of the Miao Family Sword Gate, whose morale was soaring, noticed this and charged excitedly.

As a result, they were already face to face with the front lines when Ju Zhong appeared with Miao Zhenpei's severed head.

"Zhou Xuchuan! Zhou Xuchuan! Zhou Xuchuan!"

Ju Zhong was quite flustered.

His enemy, instead of despairing, was chanting a name he had never heard before.

"Gate Master! The enemy has surrounded us!" a scout shouted urgently from afar.

"What? Surrounded?"

Ju Zhong was dumbfounded by the situation in front of him, which was in complete contrast to what he had just done to Miao Zhenpei.

"Who on earth is Zhou Xuchuan? Where are my children, and what the hell are they doing that they let these bastards get this far?!"

"Oh, your sons? They're right here!"

BOOM!

The gate was shattered alongside someone's shout.

The shattered fragments tumbled across the ground with a cloud of dust, obscuring whoever was outside the gate.

"Who the hell is this?" Ju Zhong demanded, frowning as he swung his saber, sending out a saber wind that cleared the dust.

A figure emerged.

"It's good to meet you! I'm Zhou Xuchuan from Mount Hua!" Zhou Xuchuan replied, corpses draped over his shoulder.

"You—YOU BASTARD!" Ju Zhong roared the moment he saw the bodies.

His voice reverberated through the air, powerful enough that those with weaker cultivation felt their eardrums rupture.

"Don't be so upset. Your sons tried to kill me first; I was just fighting back in self-defense." Zhou Xuchuan replied calmly, dropping the lifeless bodies of First Dog and Second Dog to the ground.

"AGHH!!"

Ju Zhong looked at the corpses First Dog and Second Dog and was filled with grief.

While it was impossible to measure the grief a parent would endure when they lost their children, it certainly couldn't be insignificant.

Found it.

Zhou Xuchuan's gaze shifted to Ju Zhong's left middle finger.

That's definitely it!

An artifact of the murim, the Mind Qi Separator!

A treasure with the same ability as the Duality Divine Art of the Wudang Sect's Three Divine Cultivation Arts was right in front of him.

This has saved me a lot of trouble.

There was no need for him to break all the way into the Gate's compound.

All he had to do now was defeat the Flashing Waterfall Saber Gate Master.

I've met an annoying opponent.

Colossal Saber Ju Zhong.

A name he had heard not only in this life but also in his previous one.

History seems to have been changed again because of my intervention.

He glanced at the head lying at Ju Zhong's feet. It was unmistakably Miao Zhenpei.

If I remember correctly, Miao Zhenpei isn't supposed to die here.

The conflict between the Miao Family Sword Gate and the Flashing Waterfall Saber Gate had been infamous in his previous life and was something that he knew well. Both Gates were so involved in their own dispute that neither participated in the Seven Swords War nor showed any interest. Their conflict had dragged on until just before the Great War of Good and Evil.

In the end, they had only fought a boring war of attrition with each other and were eventually ordered to ceasefire by the Evil Valley as the Great War of Good and Evil broke out.

Then, through the Great War of Good and Evil, they finally were able to reconcile.

Back then, it wasn't the time for the Evil Faction to fight among themselves.

The two sects, impatient to kill each other, eventually fought a common enemy together and reconciled.

However, Zhou Xuchuan's actions had changed history.

Originally, they should have continued their war of attrition while waiting for an opportunity that never came. However, Miao Zhenpei had changed his mind with Zhou Xuchuan's appearance.

Blinded by greed, he had sent the newly renowned expert, the Resonating Death Bow, as bait while forming a separate attack force.

Although he had tried to attack from behind by taking a detour around the front lines, Ju Zhong had seen through his plans and defeated him effortlessly.

Now that Miao Zhenge had lost not just anyone but his own blood brother, even if the two Gates had to cooperate and fight together in the Great War of Good and Evil, that grudge would never be forgotten and would remain forever.

Moreover, from Ju Zhong's perspective, although his main enemy was Zhou Xuchuan since he had lost all of his sons in the war with the Miao Family Sword Gate, it was clear that he would also never forget what had happened today.

For the sake of what I have to do in the future, I have to kill Ju Zhong.

Zhou Xuchuan had become the enemy of one of the Eight Gates of the Evil Dao.

The world of the murim was one that revolved around repayment. Having killed the sons of the Gate Master, his future was easy to see.

If he ran, they would chase him.

If he hid, they would find him.

It was obvious that the grudge would inevitably extend to those around him. He couldn't just leave this unresolved.

"Zhou Xuchuan? Zhou Xuchuan! ZHOU XUCHUAAAAAAAAAN!!"

The father who had lost his children screamed his enemy's name.

"YOU WON'T DIE EASILY!"

His eyes were fixed solely on Zhou Xuchuan. He didn't care about anyone else around them.

"AGH!!!!"

The qi cultivation methods of the Righteous Faction were slow but stable.

The qi cultivation methods of the Evil Faction were fast but unstable.

In this moment, the unstable points of the Evil Faction's qi cultivation methods were fully exposed with the deaths of Ju Zhong's children.

Not even a master was immune to the possibility of cultivation deviation or internal injuries.

Ju Zhong, overwhelmed by grief, roared with bulging eyes, the capillaries bursting and causing tears of blood to stream down his face

The loss of his sons was such a mental shock that he couldn't avoid cultivation deviation in the end. It was as if his world had ended.

BOOM!

An explosion erupted right where Ju Zhong stood.

As the explosion spread, Ju Zhong's body tensed before flying into the air, swinging his saber.

"Oh dear!"

Zhou Xuchuan leaped sideways, rolling on the ground just as the saber crashed into the spot where he had been standing.

BOOM!

The saber qi now displayed a power far beyond what had been shown before. Prior to this, the saber qi had been focused on its cutting power, but now it looked as if he was swinging a hammer. The ground was dented in an arc, cracked like a spider web.

Zhou Xuchuan clicked his tongue at the power, which seemed beyond the capabilities of a human.

"Is this really a saber technique?"

Who would have thought that a Harmony Realm Master who had mastered the Flashing Waterfall Saber Technique would be this terrifying?!

"ATTACK!"

"THE GATE MASTER IS NOW THE SABER KING!"

Flashing Waterfall Saber Gate members quickly grew excited.

"Saber… saber aura?"

"He's reached the Harmony Realm!"

On the other hand, the morale on the Miao Family Sword Gate side was not good. After barely rising, it had quickly hit rock bottom again.

The word Harmony wasn't something to be thrown around lightly. It was like a saving grace for one's allies but the epitome of horror for the enemy.

The momentum they had just gained, which seemed unshakeable even against the Ten Empyrean Overlords, vanished as the Hundred Man Regiment faltered.

"Hah!"[2]

Zhou Xuchuan shouted with all his might, imbuing his roar with qi.

The pure qi unique to Daoist Arts penetrated the minds of the Evil Faction members.

If they were of the Demonic Path, Zhou Xuchuan's shout would have been like poison to them due to the conflicting natures of the qi. However, the Daoist qi didn't have such problematic effects on the Evil Faction members.

"I'll handle the Colossal Saber!"

He pointed his sword at Ju Zhong.

"Who am I?!"

His allies stirred.

"The… the Resonating Death Bow?"

"Yes! The Resonating Death Bow!"

Zhou Xuchuan nodded while holding his sword.

"The Colossal Saber has suffered cultivation deviation, so he can't exert his full strength!"

His shout resonated through all his allies.

"Our victory is in sight! Fight!"

ROAR!!!

The first to react was the Hundred Man Regiment under his command.

They trusted him, having witnessed his skills firsthand.

While it was uncertain if Zhou Xuchuan's skills would work on someone of the Harmony Realm, a strange excitement filled their minds, pushing such thoughts aside.

"RAGHHH!"

"Ugh!"

The Flashing Waterfall Saber Gate members, now in high spirits, screamed.

"Die!"

1. Which is funny, because it's called family, but I digress. ☜

2. Gal, or rebuke, is a shout that martial artists use to dispel mental states. Often attributed to Buddhism and Daoism. ☜