Chapter 74 - 72: Celestial Sword Sect’s Fury

Chapter 74: Chapter 72: Celestial Sword Sect’s Fury

"What did you say?"

"Jiang Hao?"

BOOM!

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone felt as if they had been struck by lightning. Lin Chen’s expression froze, his eyes filled with disbelief.

However, the breathing of that peerless genius quickened. It was as if he couldn’t believe it himself, yet his tone remained incredibly firm. "That’s right, it’s him! It has to be him! I visited Xingyue City’s Earth Realm back then and saw him in a life-and-death arena. He... he is Jiang Hao."

GASP!

As soon as those words fell, a dead silence washed over the entire ancient sect ruins.

Jiang Hao. Few had never heard that name. He was the newly risen peerless genius from Xingyue City’s Earth Realm four years ago. Endless ripples surged in the heart of the person who had spoken. The moment he had seen the figure in white, he felt a sense of familiarity. It wasn’t until he saw the youth’s eyes that the memory was completely awakened. The look in his eyes right now was exactly the same as when he had slain the Qi Family’s Qilin Child with a single sword strike.

Lin Chen and his group weren’t the only ones who felt struck by lightning. For the Cultivators of Qin City, it was a bolt out of the blue.

"Jiang... Jiang Hao?" Qin Ye muttered to himself, his eyes brimming with absolute disbelief.

Qin Xiangyuan’s slender body trembled violently. Her beautiful eyes were filled with endless shock, surprise, and an adamant refusal to believe it.

"Qin Fan...?" The spiritually graceful and delicate young girl hesitated to speak, clearly unable to accept this sudden turn of events. How could her Qin Fan possibly be Jiang Hao?

Even Lin Chen and his group found it hard to swallow. Staring fixedly at the figure in white with eyes full of astonishment, Lin Chen demanded, "You... you’re not a direct descendant of the Qin family?"

They had pursued him across endless territories, living in fear and unease for so long, only to realize that the white-clad youth everyone dreaded wasn’t even a child of the Qin family? However, whether he was a Qin family descendant or not no longer mattered. What mattered was that both sides were now locked in a situation where only one could survive.

"Jiang Hao? Impossible! How is that possible? How could you be Jiang Hao?" Lin Chen shook his head frantically, refusing to accept the truth. They had already paid a heavy price to hunt him down. If he had truly been a direct descendant of the Qin family, at least the losses wouldn’t have completely outweighed the gains. But this outcome was the last thing they wanted to see.

Facing Lin Chen’s questioning, Jiang Hao gave no response, clearly choosing to tacitly admit it.

This silent admission was like a massive boulder plunging from a towering height into the deep sea, instantly stirring up monstrous waves among the people of Qin City.

"No, this isn’t true! Qin Fan, you aren’t Jiang Hao. You’re Yuan’Er’s Qin Fan! Qin Fan, hurry up and tell them! Tell them you’re Yuan’Er’s Qin Fan!"

At this moment, Qin Xiangyuan’s heart was in absolute turmoil. This drastic change had happened too fast, leaving her no time to process it. She refused to believe that the youth she had spent day and night with for over three years wasn’t her real brother. The memory of Qin Shiming insisting on a blood test to recognize his kin three years ago still echoed in her mind. She had long since regarded Jiang Hao as her own flesh and blood.

Watching the Qin family suffer such a heavy blow, Jiang Hao sighed helplessly. He knew this day would come eventually. He just hadn’t expected to reveal it to everyone in this manner.

With no time to explain things to Qin Xiangyuan and the others, Jiang Hao locked his gaze onto Lin Chen’s group.

"Since things have come to this, there’s nothing more to say. Everyone, you only have yourselves to blame for pushing things to the absolute limit. There is no way I, Jiang Hao, can spare any of you now.

"Gentlemen, have a good journey to the afterlife!"

BOOM!

The moment Jiang Hao finished speaking, he raised his brows and instantly turned into a blur, taking the initiative to charge at Lin Chen’s trio. Wielding his three-foot Qingfeng sword, a single strike shattered the universe. Endless Sword Qi severed the void and swept forward.

"Dammit, he’s too strong! Run!"

The moment the Sword Qi first materialized, Lin Chen’s expression drastically changed. He immediately turned around and fled without even trying to fight. Only at this moment did everyone realize just how vast the gap was between them and that figure. A True Dragon Martial Soul Awakener who had suppressed his cultivation for so long was not a peerless genius in the same echelon as them at all.

However, it was already too late.

The moment Lin Chen turned, the terrifying Sword Qi had already reached him. He was forced to whip back around and unleash a full-powered sword strike. But the instant the two streams of Sword Qi collided, Lin Chen’s formidable counterattack was instantly reduced to nothingness. A flash of clear light swept past, and his body abruptly stiffened.

When everyone looked again, the figure in white had already appeared behind Lin Chen.

"Peer... Peerless mon... ster!"

Slowly spitting out those few words, a peerless genius of his generation suddenly met his end, his life force gradually fading away.

Seeing this, the other two Spirit Transformation Realm Powerhouses were frightened out of their wits. They turned and fled for their lives. But it was too late. Jiang Hao’s figure flickered again. He pierced one person’s heart with a single thrust, then delivered a backhand slash that directly executed the third person in midair.

"What?!"

"What terrifying Spirit Transformation power! How is this possible?"

"We’re doomed! He isn’t a peerless genius; he’s a peerless monster! We’ve run into a peerless monster rarely seen in eons!"

"Run! Flee!"

In an instant, all the Cultivators who had accompanied Lin Chen and the others were struck with absolute terror. Their eyes were filled with extreme horror as they all turned to scatter into the distance. But Jiang Hao was already consumed by killing intent. How could he possibly show mercy now?

"No! No!"

"Young Master Jiang, our grudge is only with the Qin family! We have no intention of making an enemy out of you..."

"You can’t kill me! I am the seventh son of Wu City’s City Lord! Surnamed Jiang, if you kill me, the Wu Family won’t let you off... Ahh!"

For a time, desperate screams echoed incessantly. The countless proud sons and daughters of Qin City watched the scene unfold, completely petrified. He was too strong. They weren’t beings on the same level at all.

This was the gap between a peerless monster and a peerless genius. It wasn’t just a disparity born of talent and potential, but a chasm between the Awakeners of different Martial Souls. And this chasm would be displayed to its fullest extent after reaching the Spirit Transformation Realm. This was exactly why everyone on the Celestial Sword Sect’s Endless Ark had been so dismissive of Jiang Hao back then. Because in the eyes of the world, he was merely a peerless genius from Xingyue City’s Earth Realm who had awakened a Ninth-Grade Celestial Tier Martial Soul. He wasn’t in the same echelon as them at all.

Only now did Qin Ye and the others realize what a massive joke everyone had made of themselves.

"Jiang Hao, I was wrong! Please don’t kill me! I know I was wrong! I beg you, Young Master Jiang, please spare my life! As long as you don’t kill me, I’ll do anything you want! I can serve you!" In midair, a young girl at the Peak of Unity Realm pleaded bitterly, her slender body trembling uncontrollably.

Jiang Hao simply shook his head slightly. "You don’t know you were wrong. You just know you’re about to die."

Raising his sword and bringing it down, the strike was clean and decisive. In just a few dozen breaths of time, every single enemy was utterly slaughtered by the figure in white.

Watching this scene, the people of Qin City breathed heavily, rooted to the spot in absolute shock.

"Heavens... Is this the strength of a peerless monster? The astonishing existence of the second echelon in the Celestial Pride Battle?"

"He... He’s a peerless monster?"

The Celestial Pride Battle was divided into three main echelons. Even a heaven-chosen girl like Qin Xiangyuan would, at best, be placed in the third echelon, earning a spot on the Eastern Domain’s Celestial Pride List in the future. The second echelon consisted of those who had awakened a Saint Tier Martial Soul or higher, known as peerless monsters. Only those above the Saint Tier could enter the first echelon. Those in the first echelon were the true supreme children with limitless potential, rarities that wouldn’t be seen in the same region for a million years.

After slaughtering all his enemies, Jiang Hao slowly walked over to Qin Xiangyuan. He opened his mouth to say something but held back. Thousands of words eventually boiled down to a single sentence.

"It’s not safe to stay here for long. Everyone, you should leave quickly."

Hearing Jiang Hao’s deeply apologetic tone, Qin Xiangyuan remained frozen in place, unable to snap out of it for a long time. Her intelligent, beautiful eyes stared blankly ahead. Clearly, she had suffered a tremendous blow. The people of Qin City stood equally stiff and motionless. Only after a long while did they subconsciously turn and leave.

Just a few hours after they departed, an Endless Ark appeared above the ruins. The first to arrive were the people from the Celestial Sword Sect.

"Senior Brother Mo Yan, it’s Senior Brother Sword Unrivaled!"

A Celestial Sword Sect disciple, looking at Sword Unrivaled’s already cold corpse, instantly paled in shock and shouted toward the Endless Ark. As soon as he spoke, the entire ark was instantly shaken.

"What did you say? Junior Brother Wushuang? How is that possible?"

Not long after, countless Celestial Sword Sect disciples gathered around the familiar figure on the ground, their eyes filled with unmitigated shock.

"Junior Brother Wushuang is actually dead? Who did this? Who has the ability to kill him?"

"Impossible! Senior Brother Wushuang is a peerless monster in the second echelon. Even if he suppressed his cultivation and hadn’t broken through, there’s no way anyone could have killed him."

Looking at the fallen Sword Unrivaled, the countless Celestial Sword Sect disciples couldn’t accept it. He was one of the thirty-six sequence Sword Cultivators of the Celestial Sword Sect! He was a terrifying existence who had slaughtered his way to the top among endless Sword Cultivators. How could he have perished on the outskirts of the ancient ruins?

"What terrifying Sword Intent! Who did this? The Profound Sword Sect? The Divine Void Sect? Or the Wuya Sect?" Mo Yan asked in alarm as he looked at the youth examining the sword scar between Sword Unrivaled’s eyebrows.

Strikingly, all of these astonishing sects were enemy factions of the Celestial Sword Sect. As powerful as the Celestial Sword Sect was, it was not invincible; it had its own enemies.

However, the more the youth looked, the faster his breathing became. After a moment, he lifted his head, his eyes full of astonishment. "It’s an extremely unfamiliar aura. It doesn’t belong to any of the peerless monsters recorded in the Celestial Sword Sect’s registry."

Right after he spoke, a different answer rang out from the other side.

"It’s him!"

SWISH!

The moment these words were spoken, everyone’s gaze shifted toward that figure. Even Ye Xiaotian and the others on the ark couldn’t help but look over. Ye Xiaotian, Wang Jiang, and the other proud sons and daughters of Xingyue City’s Earth Realm couldn’t fathom who would dare deal a lethal blow to a Sword Cultivator sequence of the Celestial Sword Sect’s second echelon. This was undoubtedly a declaration of a fight to the bitter end with the Celestial Sword Sect.

However, after inspecting the wounds on Lin Chen and his group, as well as the residual aura left by their opponent, the person who had spoken was filled with utter disbelief. He slowly spat out two words.

"Jiang... Hao!"

BOOM!

As soon as those words were uttered, even the dozens of terrifying Spirit Transformation Realm figures on the ark, who had been as immovable as mountains, suddenly snapped their eyes open, endless ripples surging within their gazes.

"What did you say? Jiang Hao? The Jiang Hao from Xingyue City’s Earth Realm?"

"It’s him. I encountered this aura during that battle in Xingyue City years ago. It is undoubtedly his aura."

Receiving the firm reply from that peerless genius, countless figures aboard the Celestial Sword Sect’s Endless Ark shuddered violently all at once. Ye Xiaotian and the others paled in shock, a billion bolts of lightning flashing through their eyes.

A peerless monster of the Celestial Sword Sect furrowed his brows deeply. Surprised, he thought in utter bewilderment, "How strange. He could have easily erased the aura from the wounds, so why did he deliberately leave it behind?"

Little did they know, this was exactly what Jiang Hao had intentionally left behind. He did this to tell everyone that these people had been killed by him, Jiang Hao. His goal was to shift the Celestial Sword Sect’s attention entirely onto himself, rather than letting them lock onto the Qin family’s team of geniuses.

However, in the eyes of the Celestial Sword Sect’s members, this act became a silent provocation.

"He’s declaring war on us. He’s telling us that he killed them, and mocking us to see what we can do about it."

"Hmph! Reckless fool! Does he think that just because he killed Sword Unrivaled, he can make an enemy of the entire Celestial Sword Sect?"

"Full speed ahead! Chase him down! A mere clown dares to be so arrogant!"

In a flash, countless arks followed the Celestial Sword Sect’s ark, giving chase into the depths of the ancient ruins. Meanwhile, an incredibly subtle change had taken place within the Qin Family’s Fifth Camp.

Three days later, in a certain ancient mountain range.

"Why? Why were all of you lying to me?"

Qin Xiangyuan sat alone on a cliff. Her beautiful eyes were dejected, brimming with disappointment and sorrow.