"Boom!"

The Lu Family’s Second Realm Great Cultivator crashed to the ground,

The air was still saturated with terrifying Sword Intent,

The Patriarch Lu and the other two Great Cultivators were all shocked.

In that instant,

All three of them were stunned,

"Impossible!"

Terror suddenly surged in their hearts,

They had miscalculated,

In that moment, they all realized that from start to finish, they had miscalculated,

They thought they already had Gu Zhan figured out, but they’d never heard that Gu Zhan possessed such profound attainments in the Sword Dao, and even more unexpected—Gu Zhan’s swordsmanship was actually the absolute technique of the Lingxi Sword Sect’s inheritance!

With the Lu Family’s Second Realm Great Cultivator falling,

All of them felt a chill run down their spines.

"Retreat!"

No longer daring to fight, they had no idea how many cards Gu Zhan still had left, or how much strength he still possessed. Maybe Gu Zhan really was a spent force at this point—but none of them dared take that gamble.

"Retreat!"

The Patriarch Lu roared, then dashed straight into the melee, and the other two Great Cultivators didn’t hesitate for a second, turning around and running as well!

And as they ran,

The whole plaza, already a chaotic battlefield, fell into utter disorder. The disciples of the various Pingyang sects, who just a moment ago were dominating, were dumbfounded in an instant,

They hadn’t even had time to react,

Before the situation in the arena inverted in a flash,

Even Gu Fengwei and Gu Mo were left dazed. The two of them had joined hands but had been suppressed by the enemy’s three Great Cultivators, while both the Gu Family disciples and the Embroidered Uniform Guard suffered heavy casualties. Whether in terms of top-tier strength or sheer numbers, the gap was too great—a brutal battle fought to the bone,

But suddenly,

All the Great Cultivators ran away,

When they looked towards the other end of the plaza, they found it hard to believe,

So many Great Cultivators had died,

Seven Great Cultivators had encircled Gu Zhan—several of them were even Second Realm Great Cultivators—yet Gu Zhan had turned the tables and slain so many of them.

At this moment, chaos reigned across the plaza,

All the Great Cultivators ignored everything else and charged into the crowd to escape; all the Pingyang Martial World sects were left in a stupor. Two to three thousand people scattered in a panic, fleeing down the mountain!

"Hmph!"

Gu Zhan gave a cold snort and called out in a clear voice: "Come as you please, go as you wish—in this world, there’s no such bargain!"

Without hesitation, he hurled a sword,

The swordlight, surging with Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi, trailing a long jet of white turbulence, wove through the crowds, bypassed the chaos, and struck squarely at the escaping Patriarch Lu. With a miserable scream, Patriarch Lu crashed forward, life snuffed out instantly.

At the same time,

Gu Zhan leapt up onto a warhorse, forming spell seals with his hands. He beckoned over a dozen weapons off the ground, hurtling them one after another into the fleeing crowd,

Screams were cut short one after another, 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

"Hyah!"

Gu Zhan gripped a saber in each hand, spurred his horse down the slope—in a flash, heads flew, and blood sprayed like rain.

The Lingxi Sword Sect’s Heaven-Reaching Stone Steps were built grand and wide, two to three zhang across, climbing from the foot of the mountain all the way to the summit,

Now, the martial artists from the Pingyang Martial World—thousands in all—were all fleeing like madmen down the mountain,

Gu Zhan charged on horseback,

Both sabers mowing through the crowd like harvesting rice stalks in autumn, hacking wildly. One head after another flew and tumbled down, rolling endlessly along the long stone steps.

An endless wail of terror and agony blanketed Lingxi Mountain,

This mountain, since last night,

Had echoed with the howls of countless lost souls,

And now,

A new massacre had begun once more,

"Rumble..."

Soon after, dozens more Embroidered Uniform Guard cavalrymen charged after Gu Zhan, cutting their way through the fleeing mob,

Blood splattered everywhere, severed limbs and broken arms flying,

Crying and screaming,

Bodies flying and smashing down all around,

The blood flowed like rain after a storm, cascades of it washing down the mountain—instead of muddy water, today the streams were thick with blood.

On the midslope plaza,

Gu Fengwei watched the scene, feeling a chill throughout his entire body,

Many of the Gu Family disciples looked on in horror—their faces ashen,

Even when they were just fighting for their lives, they weren’t this afraid,

The slaughter at the Lingxi Sword Sect last night, they’d only seen the aftermath, so it hadn’t left such an impression. But now, witnessing such a massacre with their own eyes, the shock made them realize just how dreadful this legendary God of Slaughter truly was—how terrifying, how chilling to the marrow!

...

All the way through the carnage,

Gu Zhan had changed horses several times. He fought from the mountainside to the foot of the mountain, slaughtered his way at the base, then charged back up, and then down again,

As for how many were killed, even he didn’t know,

Those Martial World men, whether ordinary henchmen or local overlords, all fled desperately, many jumping into the great river at the foot of Lingxi Mountain,

That day,

Gu Zhan, wielding sabers in both hands, forced nearly a thousand people—many powerful Martial World figures—into the raging river. Gone was their usual arrogance; fearing Gu Zhan would pursue them even into the water, they even wrecked the boats, clinging to planks and letting the current take them away.

After a long pursuit,

Gu Zhan stood by the riverbank, slowly letting the two sabers drop to the ground. All around, corpses lay strewn, and on the Heaven-Reaching Stone Steps of Lingxi Mountain, rivers of blood poured downward, with severed heads still tumbling.

Some lightly wounded Embroidered Uniform Guards stood silently at the riverbank.

Having followed Gu Zhan through so many bloody battles, these Embroidered Uniform Guards had each become true, cold-blooded killers.

"Brother Gu!"

Mo Beiyan, his face pale, walked to the riverbank, pulled out a handkerchief, dipped it in water, and handed it to Gu Zhan, saying, "Wipe yourself off."

Gu Zhan accepted the cloth and began to clean himself, slow and deliberate,

His body bore many wounds, especially from Yu Fengxing’s last strike, which had nearly shattered his Creation Golden Body, leaving scars everywhere.

Mo Beiyan opened some vials and jars, pouring out medicinal powder onto Gu Zhan’s wounds, softly saying, "After today, Brother Gu, you will truly become renowned throughout Canglan Dao—even all of Yunxi. You will surely earn a place on the Yunzhou Celestial Pride List!"

The medicinal powder burned his wounds with sharp pain, but Gu Zhan seemed not to care, replying calmly, "Brother Mo, the promise to ride with you across the Martial World can begin now."

Mo Beiyan paused, then asked, "Brother Gu, what do you plan to do?"

Gu Mo said coldly, "This is only the beginning. Since the fight has started, we must see it through. Brother Mo, immediately order all Embroidered Uniform Guards to closely monitor the movements of the Five Great Sects. At the same time, make it public—the Five Sects have colluded with the Mang Mountain Thieves, covered up their crimes, and gathered the Pingyang sects to besiege the Embroidered Uniform Guard. For such a crime, their sects must be exterminated!"