At those words, everyone on the Celestial River Blade Sect's back mountain went quiet.
The elders and hall masters who had been overjoyed moments before all looked toward Linghu Yue, puzzlement spreading across their faces.
The tall thin elder studied Linghu Yue carefully for a moment, then suddenly asked, "What relation is Linghu Zhen to you?"
At those words, Linghu Yue turned to look at the tall thin elder, narrowing his eyes, "So someone still remembers my father."
At the sound of the name Linghu Zhen, the faces of several of the surrounding elders and hall masters shifted, and someone spoke up with sudden understanding, "No wonder you want the position of Sect Leader. This is about your father."
The Celestial River Blade Sect leader, who had initially shown an unusual expression, now appeared quite calm, and said to Linghu Yue, "That you want the position of Sect Leader is perfectly understandable. As long as you help the sect resolve its current crisis, I will willingly step aside and hand you the Sect Leader's position afterward."
The tall thin elder, however, looked at Linghu Yue and shook his head, "The position of Sect Leader goes to the worthy, and being able to comprehend the Celestial River Blade Intent certainly qualifies you to compete for it. However..."
At those words, the tall thin elder's tone shifted, "You should not be making this demand now, in this moment. To do so is to take advantage of a desperate situation, and even if the Sect Leader agrees to it, none of us will recognize you in that position."
At those words, several of the surrounding elders and hall masters nodded. One of them said coldly, "The Celestial River Blade Sect does not need a Sect Leader of impure character. Nor do we need someone like that to save us. We have long since made our peace with whatever end comes."
"Now you hang the same words on me. Very well. Let us see what becomes of all of you without Linghu Yue."
At that, the Celestial River Blade Sect leader furrowed his brow slightly, looked at Linghu Yue, and let out a quiet sigh, "You have actually misunderstood. Your father did make a mistake. He had considerable natural gifts, but at one moment he strayed onto the wrong path, and during a sect competition he resorted to underhanded means to ambush a fellow disciple, nearly costing that disciple their life."
"By all rights he should have been severely punished and expelled from the sect, but the elders at the time took into account it was a first offense, and only demoted him to errand disciple. But his character was too weak, and he was ultimately unable to get past his own inner obstacle. He died young, having sunk into despair."
"Enough!"
But Linghu Yue refused to hear the Sect Leader out, his face twisting into something savage, the blade shadow in his hand pointing directly at the leader, "I have no desire to listen to your justifications, you sanctimonious lot. You either agree to my terms and hand me the Sect Leader's position this instant."
"Or you go quietly to your deaths and let the Alliance Under Heaven bury the Celestial River Blade Sect, and become the true villains who destroyed it."
As he said this, a mocking cold smile rose on Linghu Yue's young face, "I want to make every one of you kneel down and beg me, this person of impure character, for help. Otherwise you have only one road."
At those words, everyone around him fell silent. No one spoke.
Then one disciple, without a word, turned around quietly and walked away from the back mountain toward the front of the sect.
Then a second disciple turned and followed without speaking.
Then a third, a fourth...
Every person was turning away. Not a single one went to beg Linghu Yue. Every one of them chose to walk calmly toward whatever end awaited them.
Several of the sect's elders and hall masters shook their heads, stopped looking at Linghu Yue and his Celestial River Blade Intent, and likewise began to turn and leave.
The Celestial River Blade Sect leader looked at Linghu Yue before him, wanting to say something. But as his eye caught the retreating figures of the disciples leaving, he ultimately said nothing at all.
He simply turned slowly around and watched with quiet pride and warmth as these young people who could not match Linghu Yue, who had not comprehended the Celestial River Blade Stele, walked away without looking back.
"Fine, fine. None of you are afraid to die. Then just wait and see the look on your faces when you watch your friends and disciples fall one by one. What kind of regret is that going to be?"
Linghu Yue watched this unfold, and began screaming with unhinged fury, his entire face twisting into something that looked like a hate-consumed demon.
The Celestial River Blade Sect leader standing nearby had already turned completely away from Linghu Yue, and quietly let out a sigh.
His sigh was not for Linghu Yue. It was for the disciples in the distance.
...
Right at the moment Linghu Yue was comprehending the Celestial River Blade Stele, Shangguan Qingqing and Qin Hao, whose bindings had been cut by the Sect Leader himself, had long since quietly slipped away from the back mountain.
Their figures moved quickly through the buildings and mountain forests, hearts set entirely on catching up with their master Bai Zihua and getting into a proper fight with the invading Alliance Under Heaven.
But right then, the blade intent that Linghu Yue had just comprehended shot to the sky and drew both their gazes back.
"What was that? What incredible blade intent!"
Qin Hao looked startled, clearly having no idea what had happened on the back mountain to produce such an overwhelming surge of blade intent.
Shangguan Qingqing furrowed her brow slightly, glanced at the blade intent shooting to the heavens, then drew her eyes back and said, "Probably the Sect Leader or one of the elders in closed-door cultivation, attempting a breakthrough to fight for the sect. If so, we cannot drag them down. We need to give everything we have when we go in, and as long as there is breath in us, we will not fall."
Qin Hao nodded in strong agreement.
Before long, the two of them arrived at the mountainside of the sect, where a vast open platform lay, the training ground where the sect's disciples normally practiced their blade work.
The Alliance Under Heaven had besieged the Celestial River Blade Sect for days without breaking through, and not long ago had hit upon the idea of facing the sect's disciples in paired combat.
The Celestial River Blade Sect was not the sort of place that produced cowards, and no one had any intention of hiding behind walls.
Everyone in the sect was tired of taking insults and wanted a real fight, and so they had all agreed to the Fifth Deputy Leader's proposal.
Several of the stronger elders held the mechanism formation arrays, sending the sect's capable fighters out to engage the Alliance Under Heaven one by one, with both sides fighting to the death.
Even the Celestial River Blade Sect leader himself had not been able to sit still, and personally gone out to exchange several hundred exchanges with the Fifth Deputy Leader and the Golden Armor Gate leader.
By the time Shangguan Qingqing and Qin Hao arrived at the training ground and looked around, they were shocked to see that the vast stretch of mountainside below the training ground platform had been almost completely leveled.
"The Sect Leader is something else. I remember there being a hundred-zhang boulder over there. Now it's been cut clean in half. That's the Sect Leader's work for sure."
Qin Hao exclaimed in admiration. In truth they had barely ever seen the Sect Leader fight before. It was only in a situation like this that they were finally getting a sense of just how powerful their Sect Leader truly was.
"Stop admiring things. We need to get out there first."
Shangguan Qingqing drew her gaze back, then went directly to the formation-guarding elder and asked them to open the mechanism stones and let the two of them out to engage the Alliance Under Heaven.
The Celestial River Blade Sect's sect-protection formation was called the Celestial Blade Thousand Mountain Formation, formed by combining the mysterious Bagua formation and the Craftsman Temple mechanism arts. After hundreds of years of maintenance and refinement, its defensive power was still considerable.
It had no trouble holding the Alliance Under Heaven's capable fighters at bay for the time being, though the Alliance had been working hard to break through it, and it was not realistic for the Celestial River Blade Sect to hold out indefinitely through the formation alone.
As it happened, Falling God Peak had also had a sect-protection formation. But Falling God Peak had dominated the martial world for years and assumed no one would dare invade its main stronghold. It had also not thought a mere Tianjin Guards was enough to require invoking the formation.
And so Falling God Peak had never activated its formation. By the time the situation had turned so drastically, with the grandmaster and four honored elders already dead, there was no more need for the formation either. Those who could flee had fled, and those who chose to had surrendered.
Of course, even if Falling God Peak had eventually activated its formation, it naturally could not have stopped Li Musheng, who had single-handedly cut down the Falling God Peak grandmaster and four honored elders.
At that point, the formation-guarding elder heard that Shangguan Qingqing and Qin Hao wanted to go out, and gave them a look with furrowed brows.
But in the end the elder did not stop them, simply pulling open a narrow gap between several rows of black iron pillars, just wide enough for two people to pass through.
"Thank you, Elder."
The two of them clasped their hands in thanks, then immediately moved toward the gap.
The formation-guarding elder watched their retreating backs and let out a quiet sigh, "You need not blame yourselves. The situation the sect faces today has nothing to do with you. It is a choice everyone in the sect made together."
The formation-guarding elder had naturally recognized the two who had made such a name for themselves throughout the Celestial River Blade Sect, and knew full well that once they passed through the formation, there was no coming back.
And so he had wanted to ease their hearts one last time, so they could walk to their end without the weight of guilt.
At that, as the formation-guarding elder's voice reached Shangguan Qingqing and Qin Hao, both continued walking without breaking stride, yet the expressions on their faces gradually fell into shadow.
"Junior Sister, do you think we were wrong to do it?"
Qin Hao stepped through the gap between the iron pillars, and for the first time felt doubt about his decision to act against the White Sand Gang.
Before this, he had not feared death, and he believed the sect did not fear it either. And so he had set his heart on avenging his junior sect siblings and destroyed the White Sand Gang.
But now, seeing the Celestial River Blade Sect on the verge of destruction because of him, a great wave of anguish and regret rose in him suddenly.
At those words, Shangguan Qingqing said nothing. She reached into her robes and drew out a token, looked at the characters for "Tianjin Guards" on its face, and let out a slow breath, "We were not wrong. The Alliance Under Heaven was wrong. They were the ones who killed indiscriminately. They were the ones who killed our junior sect siblings."
She reached out and gave Qin Hao a firm pat on the shoulder, "Senior Brother, no matter how slim the chance, I will do everything I can think of to save the sect."
Then Shangguan Qingqing gripped the token in her hand and headed toward the training ground platform below.
At that moment, out on the training ground, more than ten Celestial River Blade Sect disciples were already locked in one-on-one combat with Alliance Under Heaven members, every sword and every blade strike aimed to kill.
And blood was everywhere on the training ground, with the bloodied bodies of fallen disciples and alliance members alike lying in rows across both sides.
Just as Shangguan Qingqing and Qin Hao arrived, their master Bai Zihua was already engaged in fierce combat with an Alliance Under Heaven fighter.
Terrifying blade light and a sky full of palm prints collided back and forth, the devastating aftershock scraping away another thick layer of earth from the forest around them, which had already been leveled flat.
In an instant, the ground cracked and dirt flew everywhere, and the earth itself trembled violently.
With a flash, a blazing blade light suddenly swept through the air. A moment later, a heart-rending shriek of agony rang out from within the swirling clouds of dirt.
The Alliance Under Heaven fighter who had been trading blows with Bai Zihua had one arm severed by a streak of blade light like a bolt of lightning, the arm spinning high through the air as crimson blood sprayed across the sky.
Bai Zihua then pressed the advantage ruthlessly, driving forward to strike while the man was down, preparing to take his head with one more slash.
But right at that moment, a figure shrouded in golden true qi erupted from the other side of the training ground without warning, sending a massive golden palm print several zhang across crashing toward Bai Zihua.
"Shameless!"
Bai Zihua's eyes shrank instantly. He could feel the terrifying force of that strike, and immediately pulled his blade back, twisting to dodge the golden palm print tearing through the air.
The Alliance Under Heaven fighter with the severed arm escaped with his life because of this, hastily retreating to take shelter behind the golden-shrouded figure and bow his head, "Thank you for saving me, Gate Leader."
The Golden Armor Gate leader waved a hand, "Go down and tend your injury. You are no match for this man."
He then narrowed his eyes and looked across the training ground at Bai Zihua.
By that point Bai Zihua had already retreated back immediately after dodging the palm print.
Shangguan Qingqing and Qin Hao, having just witnessed the whole thing, both felt a cold sweat on their master's behalf, and quickly moved to his side to check on him.
Bai Zihua shook his head, indicating he was fine, then fixed his gaze on the Golden Armor Gate leader and called out directly, "The Alliance Under Heaven truly are a shameless lot. You said this was a fair duel to the death, yet a Gate Leader of your standing has no shame about launching a sneak attack. Are you not afraid word will get out and the entire martial world will laugh at you?"
At those words, the Golden Armor Gate leader's face darkened, and he was about to speak.
At that moment, a young figure with a full head of silver hair, appearing to be around thirty, shot upward from below the mountain and arrived in an instant at the Golden Armor Gate leader's side, standing in the air.
The silver-haired youth's eyes were arrogant and unconstrained. He glanced at Bai Zihua across from him and laughed, "Gate Leader, do not worry. As long as we kill every last person in the Celestial River Blade Sect, this news will never get out."
At those words, the Golden Armor Gate leader turned and looked at the arriving Huo Linfei, the dark look on his face dispersing immediately, replaced by a smile as he clasped his hands and said, "Deputy Alliance Leader's words are exactly right!"