At those words, the short old man shook his head firmly, his face darkening as he spoke with righteous indignation, "These two unworthy disciples went out and caused trouble, bringing such disaster upon the sect. If they are not properly punished, how do I answer to everyone here?"
As he spoke, the short old man reached out and produced a long whip from somewhere, then sent it cracking through the air directly down toward the bound and kneeling Shangguan Qingqing and Qin Hao.
At the same time, as the sharp whistle of the whip cutting through the air reached him, Qin Hao's ears twitched. He quietly passed a message to Shangguan Qingqing beside him, "Didn't Master say this was just a performance? Why is he going through with it for real?"
At those words, Shangguan Qingqing kept her head down and her eyes straight ahead, and passed back, "I don't know. He didn't say anything beforehand about actually taking the pain."
Qin Hao breathed out through his teeth, a disgruntled look flashing in his eyes, "He said we'd finish the act quickly and then go give those Alliance Under Heaven people a good fight. Now with these lashes, won't this waste a lot of time?"
But right at that moment, just as Bai Zihua's whip was about to reach the two of them, it was cut to nothing by an invisible surge of blade energy.
"Bai Zihua, are you actually going through with it? Does even my word as Sect Leader count for nothing anymore?"
The Celestial River Blade Sect leader's eye twitched slightly. After flicking his finger to destroy the whip, he drew his hand through the air and sliced through the ropes binding Shangguan Qingqing and Qin Hao in one clean pass.
Then he looked at Bai Zihua with a less than pleased expression, "You have the nerve to come back here and punish two young disciples. Why not go up front and trade a few hundred exchanges with the Alliance Under Heaven people instead?"
Bai Zihua, however, gave a cold snort, clasped his hands toward the Celestial River Blade Sect leader, and said, "There is no need for the Sect Leader to worry on my account. My disciple is mine to discipline, and the Alliance Under Heaven people are mine to kill."
"A teacher who does not teach strictly is at fault for what the student becomes. The trouble these two unworthy disciples brought upon us is a consequence of my past wrongs as their master, and I will answer for it myself."
With that, Bai Zihua turned and shot a sharp look at Shangguan Qingqing and Qin Hao, barking, "Unworthy disciples!"
And yet in the same breath, he quietly passed a message to the two of them, "Performance is over. Your master goes first. You two remember to follow."
The moment he finished, he turned directly around. His stout figure shifted and became a fierce gust of blade wind that shot straight toward the front of the sect.
Watching this, Shangguan Qingqing and Qin Hao exchanged a barely perceptible glance, both of their faces showing a trace of shame.
Not long before this, after they had acted to destroy the White Sand Gang, the two of them had raced back to the sect without stopping.
The first thing they had done was tell their master the terrible news that they had provoked the Alliance Under Heaven.
The expression on Bai Zihua's face at that moment was something both of them still remembered vividly.
How to describe it? He had seemed both completely caught off guard and faintly relieved. Both anxious and unmistakably eager to get into a fight.
They naturally understood their master had long since grown tired of the Alliance Under Heaven's behavior.
The Alliance had been making things quietly difficult for the Celestial River Blade Sect in all sorts of ways ever since the sect had refused to join, and the Celestial River Blade Sect had been bowing its head and enduring it every time, simply because the Alliance Under Heaven was one of the four great top-tier forces of the martial world, something far beyond the Celestial River Blade Sect's ability to provoke.
So when Bai Zihua heard that Shangguan Qingqing and Qin Hao had actually provoked the Alliance Under Heaven, he had shown not the slightest real anger toward them. If anything, there was quite a sense that he was relishing the chance to finally have it out with the Alliance Under Heaven in a proper bloody fight.
The Alliance Under Heaven was undeniably powerful, but the Celestial River Blade Sect had never been the sort of place that bred cowards. Compared to keeping their heads down and eating insults, they much preferred settling things with their blades regardless of the outcome.
And so when Bai Zihua relayed the news from Shangguan Qingqing and Qin Hao to the Sect Leader and the elders, not a single one of them had blamed the two disciples. In fact, quite a few elders had praised them for doing the right thing.
Even so, while the Celestial River Blade Sect met the situation with a fighting spirit, they were not reckless or arrogant about it.
On the contrary, the people of the Celestial River Blade Sect, for all their loyalty and fearlessness, were very clear on the gap between themselves and the Alliance Under Heaven.
And so before the Alliance Under Heaven came knocking, the entire sect had taken precautions and prepared extensively, setting up defensive measures and mechanism formation arrays throughout. They were not simply charging head-on into a brawl with the Alliance Under Heaven.
This was also why the Alliance Under Heaven, despite having the sect surrounded for several days, had been unable to take it.
"Master really does know how to put on a show. He found himself such a perfect reason to make his move."
At that, Shangguan Qingqing collected her thoughts and sent a quiet message to Qin Hao beside her.
It would be impossible to say she felt no guilt for having brought the threat of annihilation down upon the sect.
But if she were given the chance to choose again, she would still help Qin Hao destroy the White Sand Gang.
And so, ashamed as she was, she did not regret it.
Qin Hao felt exactly the same. He let out a barely audible sigh and said, "What comes next is up to us. Since we are the ones who caused this, we have to be the first to die out there. And we need to take as many down with us as we can."
At those words, Shangguan Qingqing gave a small nod and said, "Fortunately, all the elders and junior and senior sect siblings are still here with us. I have no ties that hold me back, and no regrets in dying."
But at those words, Qin Hao furrowed his brow slightly and looked at Shangguan Qingqing, "Junior Sister, have you forgotten someone important?"
He had seen it with his own eyes not so long ago, the tenderness between Shangguan Qingqing and Li Musheng in that small-town tavern.
But since returning to the sect, Qin Hao had not heard her mention Li Musheng once.
Of course he understood that, given the situation she and he were in right now, there was genuinely no spare thought to give to anything else.
But seeing Shangguan Qingqing still working to suppress the feelings in her heart as they were about to walk to their deaths, Qin Hao could not help feeling a pang for her.
At that, upon hearing Qin Hao's sudden words, Shangguan Qingqing's mind did immediately call up Li Musheng's face.
After all, she genuinely admired and looked up to Li Musheng as the greatest person in the world.
And beyond that, Li Musheng practiced the way of the blade. He was the hope she had for one day reaching the very top of the martial world in the blade path she loved so deeply.
He had also saved her life and Qin Hao's life. He was her savior.
"What a pity. I can only repay Your Highness's kindness in another life. I will not live to see the day Your Highness shakes the entire martial world and becomes its acknowledged greatest in this life."
Shangguan Qingqing said this with sadness on her face.
But then a thought stirred in her mind, and she instinctively reached into her robe.
Right at that moment, just as Bai Zihua made his furious exit, the Celestial River Blade Sect leader, who had been standing with his feet on blade light, suddenly lost his balance. Blood spilled from the corner of his mouth, and he plunged abruptly from the air.
At the sight, every elder changed expression at once, and the tall thin elder who had been trying to reason with Bai Zihua immediately sprang from the ground and caught the Sect Leader as he fell.
"Sect Leader, are you all right?"
The tall thin elder descended to the ground with the Sect Leader, and a crowd of people immediately pressed in around them with urgent concern.
The Celestial River Blade Sect leader's face was pale. He raised a hand to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth, then waved off the alarmed elder, "It is nothing. The Fifth Deputy Leader of the Alliance Under Heaven truly lives up to his name as a once-in-a-century martial prodigy of the Great Li martial world. Even with the advantage of fighting alongside the Golden Armor Gate leader, his martial cultivation is genuinely exceptional."
"He struck me with one palm, and at the time I barely felt it. But the power hidden within it just erupted out of nowhere a moment ago and caught me off guard. The injury is not light."
At those words, the surrounding elders and disciples all showed expressions of concern, though at the same time a trace of despair flickered through their eyes.
It was clear to everyone that even the Sect Leader, the strongest martial artist in the sect, had sustained serious injury. The fall of the sect was now only a matter of when.
The Celestial River Blade Sect leader read the expressions on everyone's faces and said, "Do not worry just yet. Though Huo Linfei's palm struck me, he also took a full hit from my Celestial River Three Thousand Zhang in return, and that was not easy on him either. He should be in the Alliance Under Heaven's camp recovering at this very moment."
As expected, those words brought some color back to the faces around him. The tall thin elder immediately spoke up, "Sect Leader, please rest and tend to your injury for now. Leave the fight against the Alliance Under Heaven to us from here. We will take some heads back for everyone to feel better about."
With that, the tall thin elder called out to a few of the elders and hall masters, leaving some to guard the back mountain while everyone else moved toward the front of the sect.
But right at that moment, in a corner that no one had been paying attention to, a young man in blue robes of apparent age no greater than thirty sat alone beside the massive blade stele.
He sat with his eyes closed, facing the stele directly, as though straining with every ounce of his focus to comprehend something.
Then, without warning, the blade stele that had been completely still began to tremble slightly. The trembling grew stronger and stronger by the moment.
With a resonant crack, it drew the attention of every person at the back mountain instantly.
And in the next instant, everyone watched in extreme shock.
A vast and domineering surge of terrifying blade intent erupted from the cracks splitting through the stele, shooting skyward and directly tearing through the cloud and mist wreathing the silver waterfall above, as though it intended to cleave open the entire sky above the Celestial River Blade Sect.
"This is... the Celestial River Blade Intent from within the Celestial River Blade Stele?"
The tall thin elder stopped in his tracks, his gaze fixed hard on the blade stele in front of the silver waterfall.
"The Celestial River Blade Intent. It has not appeared in over a hundred years!"
An elder in the Celestial River Blade Sect exclaimed, his voice carrying even the faintest trace of a tremor.
At the same time, the Celestial River Blade Sect leader had already moved, appearing before the cross-legged young man at some unknown moment, his voice startled and sharp, "You have comprehended the blade intent within the Celestial River Blade Stele?"
At those words, the young man in blue robes, Linghu Yue, slowly opened his eyes. He looked at the blade intent shooting straight to the sky from the cracks in the stele before him, then gave a calm nod, "Yes, Sect Leader. I just comprehended the Celestial River Blade Intent moments ago."
As he spoke, he simply raised a hand. The blade intent that had erupted from the cracks in the Celestial River Blade Stele descended in an instant as though it had substance, and flew into Linghu Yue's hand, becoming a brilliant blade shadow like a meandering great river.
At the sight, every person in the Celestial River Blade Sect on the back mountain was shaken to their core.
For over a hundred years, countless elders and martial prodigies of the sect had tried to comprehend the blade intent concealed within the Celestial River Blade Stele. Even three Sect Leaders including the current one had failed. And now an unknown disciple had managed it?
One had to understand that the Celestial River Blade Stele was the treasure that anchored the entire Celestial River Blade Sect, its lineage stretching back over a thousand years.
A thousand years ago, the founding ancestor of the Celestial River Blade Sect had practiced the blade against this very stele, and had left behind the blade intent distilled from a lifetime of understanding for those who came after.
And since then, every person who succeeded in drawing the Celestial River Blade Intent from the stele had without exception gone on to be known throughout the martial world as a Blade Saint.
Over the following thousand years, every Blade Saint who had comprehended blade intent from the Celestial River Blade Stele had, in their final years, condensed the blade intent they had cultivated over a lifetime into the stele, replenishing and expanding the Celestial River Blade Intent within.
Before this, the reason the Celestial River Blade Sect members had gathered on the back mountain was not only because Bai Zihua was punishing Shangguan Qingqing and Qin Hao.
Everyone had also come with the hope of trying to comprehend the Celestial River Blade Stele.
The sect's standing legacy held that in a time of great calamity, the Celestial River Blade Intent within the stele could be invoked to repel enemies and protect the sect.
But to command the stele's immense blade intent, one first had to comprehend the stele.
Unfortunately, no one in the current generation of the Celestial River Blade Sect had been able to do so.
And so everyone had already given up on the idea of using the stele to save the sect.
None of them had expected that Linghu Yue would comprehend it now, in this desperate moment.
This was, without question, a sight that gave those who had believed the Celestial River Blade Sect's destruction was inevitable their first real glimpse of hope for turning the tide.
"Excellent. Well done. You are the entire Celestial River Blade Sect's savior right now."
The tall thin elder, along with several elders and hall masters who had been on the verge of leaving, all moved to Linghu Yue's side at once.
Everyone looked at the blade shadow condensed from blade intent in his hand, and one by one their faces lit with joy. Though none of them had yet witnessed the true power of the Celestial River Blade Intent, they trusted that their sect's predecessors would not have told them false things.
And beyond that, every elder present had gone deep into the way of the blade and possessed considerable expertise. They could all sense that the blade intent carried within it an aura so terrifying it set even their hearts quaking.
At the same time, the Celestial River Blade Sect leader also showed an expression of genuine relief. The brow that had been tightly knit from the Alliance Under Heaven's siege eased somewhat, and he looked at Linghu Yue gravely, "Well done. The life and death of the Celestial River Blade Sect now rests with you."
At that, Linghu Yue looked down at the blade intent in his hand, then was quiet for a moment before speaking, "Sect Leader, with the Alliance Under Heaven it is nine deaths to one chance of survival. I will not risk my life for that odds. Unless..."
He raised his head to look at the Celestial River Blade Sect leader, and narrowed his eyes, "You pass the position of Sect Leader to me."