Chương 261: The Might of a Grandmaster

Although the White Lotus Cult had already made its move on this side, the people of the Sword Forging Villa on the other side weren't completely unprepared for this sudden incident.

"Bitch, you court death!" Accompanied by a furious shout, an azure sword light abruptly soared from a mountain peak behind the Villa, piercing the heavens and touching the earth as it ruthlessly crashed toward the White Lotus Holy Mother. Another Grandmaster! Boom! The space vibrated and trembled incessantly. Even from a distance, Song Que and the others felt an oppressive rumbling pressure transmitting through the air, suffocating everyone.

"Giggle... You bull-nosed Daoist, Jade Emptiness! It seems you care quite a bit about this Divine Weapon!" So her opponent was the Master of the Jade Mountain Daoist Temple, Perfected Jade Emptiness! At this moment, the White Lotus Holy Mother's sword momentum was blocked, and she was forced back several dozen meters, but she remained largely unharmed. Tapping the empty air a few times, she playfully teased him and continued forward to entangle her opponent.

"Today, I will slay you, demonic woman, to eliminate a menace for the people!"

"Giggle... I'm so scared!" Boom... boom... boom... Earth-shattering explosions continuously echoed in the sky. Shockwaves rippled through the air, causing the trees and grass on the ground to sway violently. Having no time to continue watching these immortals duel, Master Song only managed to enviously admire them for a few glances before burying his head and following that dog, the Blood Robe, charging into the Sword Forging Villa.

There, quite a few martial artists had already been hastily assembled and were waiting in strict formation.

"Fire!" Welcoming them was an overwhelming rain of arrows. One by one, crossbow bolts as thick as a baby's wrist rained down densely upon them. Clang clang... clang...

"Ahhh... ahhhhh!" The arrows were too dense. Even though the people on this side immediately brandished their sabers and swords to protect themselves, quite a few were still struck in that single volley, pinned to the ground like hedgehogs as they rolled around in agony. Top-tier experts like Song Que were naturally unharmed. Ignoring the wails of their companions, they all erupted with Qi, accelerating their speed to charge forward even faster.

"Kill!" The distance wasn't far. Before the crossbowmen could launch a second volley, the two sides engaged in close-quarters combat; weapons clashed. The sound of clashing blades and spears mixed with screams and wails of agony echoed everywhere. A beautiful night instantly transformed into an asura hell. Corpses piled up on the streets, and blood flowed in rivulets like streams.

The Jade Mountain Daoist Temple had previously anticipated the White Lotus Cult's invasion and had made preparations, but they truly never expected the attack to happen a day early. Unlike the White Lotus evildoers, their prestigious and orthodox factions had clear, established locations. They couldn't just leave their homes empty and risk the enemy taking advantage of it. Therefore, Perfected Jade Emptiness only dared to bring half of the experts from his sect to assist the Sword Forging Villa.

Furthermore, they had sent invitations to fellow martial artists from all directions. This force should have been enough to guarantee their safety without worry. If lucky, they might have even been able to counterattack and teach those demonic evildoers a tragic lesson. Unfortunately, they guessed the beginning but didn't predict the ending. As for their martial world friends coming to attend the ceremony?

Either they hadn't arrived yet, or they had arrived but were resting inside Sword Forging City, waiting for tomorrow. Right now, at the Villa, aside from the people of the Jade Mountain Daoist Temple and the Sword Forging Villa itself, only their closest friends were allowed to stay overnight. With just this meager strength, it was impossible to resist the tiger- and wolf-like villains. Perfected Jade Emptiness continuously observed the situation below. Seeing his men being madly slaughtered left his heart aching.

Anxiously realizing he couldn't offer any assistance, he gritted his teeth and made a decisive call:"Everyone fall back! Retreat toward Sword Forging City!" The people below were already spent arrows at the end of their flight. Hearing the order, they all let out sighs of relief. Under the protection of a few experts, they gradually converged and slowly retreated toward the south. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"Destroy the earth veins of the Sword Tomb for me!" The Villa Master, Mo Yu, was still worried about the unbirthed Divine Weapon. He didn't forget to shout, reminding his men below to destroy the formations and interrupt the sword spirit's gestation process. However, having plotted this for so long, how could the White Lotus Cult overlook such details? Several experts had secretly lurked near the Dragon-Severing Stone at some unknown time and were already waiting, immediately moving to intercept and hinder them.

"The Sword Tomb is open! Hurry inside and seize the opportunity!" Someone loudly shouted. The people on the White Lotus side completely abandoned pursuing the enemy. With bloodshot eyes, they all rushed madly toward a ravine in the distance—the entrance to the Sword Tomb—shoving each other as they swarmed inside.

Grandee Song originally wanted to lift his feet and follow, but at that moment, Lightning, who had been observing the situation, noticed that the hemp-clothed White Lotus Cultists below remained completely still, as if by prior agreement. The ones charging forward most fiercely were actually the motley crew of the allied forces. Glancing over and seeing the dog Blood Robe acting similarly indifferent, Song Que immediately shivered and sobered up. It's a trap! As expected! Boom!!!

Accompanied by an earth-shattering explosion, countless pillars of magma erupted from the Sword Tomb like a volcanic eruption. In an instant, it spread everywhere, illuminating a massive patch of the sky. How could human flesh withstand the heat of magma? The group of people blinded by greed suffered disastrous casualties in the sudden turn of events; less than twenty percent survived.

The rest didn't even have time to scream before they were swept away by the flames, leaving only lingering wails and the faint smell of burnt flesh in the air.

"Jade Emptiness, good calculations! Unfortunately, when it comes to intellect, this Holy Mother is a hundred—no, a thousand times smarter than you, bull-nosed Daoist! Whatever backup plans you have left, bring them all out!" Floating in mid-air, the White Lotus Holy Mother sneered at the people from the Sword Forging Villa.

Secretly observing the current situation, Jade Emptiness saw that the White Lotus Cultists were completely intact, without a single casualty; the ones who died were all a motley crew of miscellaneous cannon fodder. He hated it inwardly but also knew that the momentum was lost and there was nothing he could do. As long as the green mountains remain, one doesn't need to worry about firewood. He cast a cold glance at the White Lotus Holy Mother one last time before decisively retreating.

"Go!" The people of the Sword Forging Villa, supporting the old and the young, the healthy carrying the wounded, helped each other retreat back to Sword Forging City. Fortunately, having anticipated a brutal battle, they had already relocated most of the children and female family members to the city beforehand, so the retreat wasn't overly cumbersome. With a Grandmaster and dozens of First-Tier experts protecting them, the people from the White Lotus camp didn't dare press too closely.

Moreover, this wasn't their true objective anyway. After a few perfunctory attacks to drive them away, they simply let the enemy retreat. The battle erupted quickly and ended just as fast, but that didn't make it any less perilous. In truth, swift, decisive battles like this were far more brutal than drawn-out wars of attrition. The slaughtering between the two sides only lasted about half an hour.

Yet, in that short amount of time, Song Que roughly counted that the Sword Forging Villa had left behind over four hundred lives. Every single one was a martial artist with some level of cultivation. Saying that the blood Qi here soared to the heavens wouldn't be an exaggeration.

"Hurry up! Gather all the corpses and throw them into the Sword Tomb!" Following a loud command, a group of White Lotus disciples moved nimbly, going around to collect the bodies. Song Que ignored this. He stuck closely to the Blood Robe and followed a group of high-ranking White Lotus members, hurriedly running toward the Sword Tomb. This dog clearly knew the entire plan but didn't give him a single warning. It seemed he had already developed the intention to eliminate him.

With the situation still unclear, following these people was the safest option........ Even though Lightning had scanned this place countless times, seeing the so-called Sword Tomb with his own eyes still left Song Que awestruck by its sheer scale. The entrance was an artificial ravine excavated by human labor. Magma had just erupted from here, and the ground was still scorching hot. They had to hug the two walls, carefully executing their movement techniques to pass through.

Once inside, the true Sword Tomb resembled a massive, terraced funnel, thousands of feet deep. At the very bottom was a boiling lake of magma, billowing green smoke. The faint smell of sulfur hung in the air, sickening the nose. From top to bottom, eight trenches—each about three meters wide—were carved into the walls, running straight down to the magma lake.

By some unknown mechanism, scorching magma was currently pouring out from the tops of the trenches, flowing down in massive torrents, as if a high-powered pump was sucking it up and spewing it out like waterfalls of fire. Each terrace was dozens of feet high. Magma still splattered across the walkways, and several blackened, human-shaped lumps of charcoal were still sizzling and burning incessantly. The scene was quite chilling.

The people of the Sword Forging Villa had hollowed out the insides of the terraces to build rooms. Counting the dark cave entrances, there were hundreds of rooms here. They were likely used for forging; no normal person would ever think of living here. In front of the doors of every room, and all along the paths, countless sabers, swords, and weapons were planted. No one knew how long they had been stuck there, left to face the wind and rain day and night, ignored even as they rusted and mottled.

Now, having been swept over by the magma, many blades couldn't withstand the devastation and had snapped, floating adrift in the streams of molten rock. Floating in the center of the magma lake was a stone pillar. Planted atop it was a single sword. This was undoubtedly the objective of tonight's trip: the Divine Sword. However, exactly as the rumors stated, it seemed to still lack a certain sentience, making even a layman like Song Que feel it was incomplete and imperfect.

Just as Song Que was busy evaluating his surroundings, the Blood Robe approached him, tilted his chin toward the weapons on the terraces, and whispered a reminder:"Aside from the one down in the magma lake—which you are absolutely not to approach—the weapons down there can be considered your reward. Take whatever you want; how much you get depends entirely on your own ability. But remember this one thing: if you meet someone, kill them. Don't bother figuring out who they are—just kill them immediately!

If you don't kill them, they will kill you. Once you're done, find your own way back. Brat, pray for your own good fortune!" Dropping those words, the old dog paid him no further attention. He leaped down, joining a group of First-Tier experts to form a circle surrounding the magma lake. Using some unknown method, a bright red Qi barrier—like a net of flames—suddenly appeared out of thin air, enclosing all of them and the Divine Weapon in the center. Those outside couldn't observe any movements within.

This action served as a signal. The crowd around them, including people like Song Que, instantly dispersed with a whoosh, sprinting toward the rooms around the terraces to seek their own fortuitous encounters. Pondering and observing for a moment, Grandee Song didn't act out of the ordinary. He quickly picked the terraces closest to the magma lake and dashed down.