Firmament Sword

RUMBLE!

A terrifying power blasted the middle-aged man, surging like a blocked flood that had found a breach, crashing down with the force of a tidal wave!

The body of this High-tier Great Sword Master instantly twisted, like a small dough figurine being pulled apart by a naughty child...

RIP!

His body was torn to shreds by this terrifying, surging power!

The last look the middle-aged man left in this world was one of utter shock and horror!

A fear so deep it penetrated his very soul, making him forget everything else.

Blood sprayed from Xu Luo’s mouth. The instant he saw the middle-aged man’s body torn to pieces, he fainted in satisfaction.

”Xu Luo! Xu Luo!” Miaomiao rushed over in the blink of an eye. Seeing Xu Luo collapsed on the ground, Miaomiao let out a mournful cry, then transformed into a yellow whirlwind and vanished into thin air.

Shortly after, Little Fatty Liu Feng was the first to arrive. He ran to Xu Luo’s side and stood guard.

Huangfu Chongzhi followed close behind. He checked Xu Luo’s pulse, then took out a jade bottle, shook out a few Elixirs, and fed them into Xu Luo’s mouth.

Seeing Little Fatty’s eyes turning red, Huangfu Chongzhi comforted him, ”Don’t worry, he’s fine. He just passed out. I don’t know who his opponent was to have pushed him this far.”

At this moment, the others began to gather. The several hundred Yan Army soldiers in the village had now all been slain!

”What’s wrong with the Boss?”

”Gods, who was the Boss’s opponent?”

”That guy must have been a monster. No wonder the Boss fought him to the death. Look, he killed this whole family!”

As the group gathered and saw the tragic scene inside the house, they couldn’t help but feel a shared sorrow.

”Is the Boss okay?” Li Hong walked over, a look of anxiety on his face as he saw Xu Luo unconscious on the ground, blood still trickling from the corner of his mouth.

Xu Luo was now the heart and soul of the Martial Soul Squad. Almost every plan revolved around him. Having been through life and death together several times, everyone was willing to follow his orders. Seeing him fall now gave them all a sense of panic.

”He should be fine. He’s just unconscious and will probably wake up in a little while,” Huangfu Chongzhi said.

”By the way, who was it that helped us kill so many Yan Army soldiers? They had several experts at the Great Sword Master Realm. Without that help, I think we would have been in real danger this time!” Xu Jie frowned. Having just escaped death, he was desperate to know who had saved him.

”No idea. I just saw a yellow shadow. It must be related to the Boss!” Li Hong said.

The members of the Martial Soul Squad had firsthand experience with Xu Luo’s many mysteries. He had effortlessly completed many missions that seemed impossible.

This time, entering the village and furiously slaughtering the Yan Army soldiers who had brutalized the villagers after their own narrow escape, had shown them Xu Luo’s power even more clearly.

Huangfu Chongzhi raised an eyebrow. ’I have a bold guess,’ he thought, but he didn’t say it out loud.

After all, it concerned Xu Luo. Unless Xu Luo was willing to share it himself, he wouldn’t voice his suspicions.

”Whoever it was, they helped us. Otherwise, we all might have died here today,” Liang Ziyi said, then grit his teeth. ”These Yan Traitors are worse than animals! They just escaped death themselves, and the first thing they do is attack unarmed, innocent villagers. I’m starting to regret not dropping a few more stones on them when we trapped them in One-Line Heaven!”

”Yeah, the Boss was right. We should have set a fire before the storm hit and burned those bastards to death!” Ling Luoxi seethed.

”Thinking back on how we acted that day, it was truly misplaced compassion. These people are nothing but beasts. Showing them mercy was a disgrace!” Xiahou Xian said coldly.

It was the first time these youths had witnessed such a dark side of humanity. One by one, they recalled the guilt they’d felt after trapping and killing those Yan Army soldiers, and they burned with shame and anger.

”Alright, what’s past is past. Now we know what to do in the future,” Li Hong said in a low voice. ”To our own people, we must be as warm as a spring breeze. To our enemies, as harsh as a winter frost!”

At that moment, some of the surviving villagers began to gather nearby. They watched the group of youths from a distance, wary.

The fear hadn’t yet faded from many of their eyes, but it was overshadowed by gratitude toward these youths, who seemed like Divine Soldiers sent from heaven!

Finally, a trembling, elderly man leaning on a cane walked over.

He bowed deeply to the members of the Martial Soul Squad. ”Young Generals, on behalf of everyone in the village, young and old, I thank you for your help. If not for you, I fear no one in our village would have survived.”

”Please, old sir, don’t do that. When we encounter something like this, we can’t just stand by and do nothing,” Li Hong said, walking over to help the old man up, his face filled with shame.

The other members of the Martial Soul Squad also looked ashamed. They couldn’t bring themselves to tell these kind people of the Cao Kingdom: ’Actually, the Yan Army only came here... because of us...’

If they hadn’t planned the ambush of the Yan Army’s supply convoy in One-Line Heaven Gorge, those soldiers, no matter how beastly they were at heart, probably wouldn’t have dared to openly defy military orders and commit such atrocities in the villages along their path.

It was precisely because the Martial Soul Squad had crushed them so miserably that these Yan Army soldiers no longer dared to return and report to their superiors. From the looks of it, they clearly intended to burn, murder, and plunder their way across the land, just like Mo Yun’s remnant forces, and become bandits in the Cao Kingdom.

Although the Martial Soul Squad wasn’t directly responsible for their rampage in the village, there was an indirect causal link.

But the villagers knew nothing of this. All they knew was that when their lives were threatened, these young people had descended from the heavens and saved them!

A debt for saving one’s life is like that to one’s own parents. Their gratitude toward the Martial Soul Squad was endless!

Just then, a heart-wrenching cry of anguish erupted from behind them.

The woman whose entire family had been killed, who was the sole survivor, and who had been raped... had finally woken up. She threw herself onto her family’s bodies, her sobs so violent she almost fainted again.

”Sigh... I’m sorry, old sir. I have some silver here. Please take it and distribute it among the villagers who lost their loved ones,” Li Hong said, taking out the several hundred taels of silver he had on him and handing it to the old man.

Huangfu Chongzhi, Xu Jie, and all the others opened their purses, leaving behind almost all the silver coins they had.

When they left the village, all the surviving villagers escorted them for a long distance.

The village receded into the distance behind them. With Xu Jie carrying Xu Luo on his back, the group walked in silence.

With so many Yan Army soldiers dead there, the village would surely attract the attention of the higher-ups. The villagers could no longer stay in the place their ancestors had lived for generations.

This was why they had given them so much silver. Even though it might cause some conflict later over uneven distribution, the members of the Martial Soul Squad had no regrets.

They felt guilty about this affair, feeling they had wronged the people of that small village. The sight of the raped woman waking and collapsing on her family’s bodies, wailing in grief, had deeply pierced the heart of every member of the Martial Soul Squad.

”War... I fucking hate war!” Liang Ziyi grumbled. ”Even though war can bring me military honors and make me a noble... I still fucking hate it!”

”I hate it too. I’m actually starting to miss our days at the True Martial Academy,” Ling Luoxi said softly, his gaze distant. ”Especially with all those pretty junior sisters. Sigh... when will this war ever end!”

”We are the ones pushing the war toward its end,” Li Hong said. ”Nobody likes war! But unfortunately, none of us can escape it. Only by beating the invaders until they truly feel the pain will we earn the right to enjoy peace again.”

”That’s right! From this day forward, call Master Fatty the Blood-handed Butcher!” Little Fatty Liu Feng said with a smug look. ”Don’t you guys think that name is awesome?”

”Idiot,” Liang Ziyi said, rolling his eyes.

”Flower Fool,” Sui Yan said emotionlessly as he walked past.

Little Fatty looked indignant. ”Master Fatty will fight you to the death!”

...

”AAAAAAAHHHHHH! DAMN IT! BASTARDS! YOU DARE MESS WITH MASTER MAO’S FOOD SOURCE?! MASTER MAO HAS REACHED HIS LIMIT! MASTER MAO IS GOING TO CHEW YOU DAMNED HUMANS UP, BITE BY BITE BY BITE BY BITE, AND THEN TURN YOU INTO MASTER MAO’S POOP, PIECE BY PIECE BY PIECE!”

Miaomiao’s body... shot across the sky, his furious roar echoing through the air.

As his rage intensified, Miaomiao’s body... also began to grow!

By the time he reached the airspace above One-Line Heaven Gorge, Miaomiao’s body had returned to its original form!

It was a creature with two sharply pointed ears standing tall, a body like a fierce tiger, and a pair of eyes the size of bronze bells that glowed with an eerie, cold blue light. It hovered in the air, gazing down coldly at the Yan Army soldiers still climbing up through One-Line Heaven Gorge.

”We have to get out of here alive! As soon as we find a village, we’ll charge in, burn it all, kill them all, and take everything! Then, we brothers can just go be fucking mountain kings!”

”That’s right! There’s no way we can go back to the barracks! After a fuck-up this big, the higher-ups will never forgive us, no matter the reason!”

”Might as well go all in! With the Cao Kingdom in chaos, we can take a few towns and snatch all the pretty women! Then, we brothers will have all the women and wealth we could want. That’s the fucking life!”

”HAHAHAHA, now that’s the greatest joy in life!”

This group of surviving Yan Army soldiers wasn’t as strong as the previous batch, but they were by no means weak. They were slowly climbing up the pile of giant rocks that had collapsed that day, blocking the supply route.

Just then, someone suddenly looked up at the sky and cried out, ”Gods, the sky... look at the sky... What... what is that thing!”

”A big tiger flying in the sky? Am I seeing things? What the hell is going on?”

”I think it’s a... a Spirit... a Spirit Beast!” someone finally stammered, guessing the truth.

ROAR!

The Tier Nine Spirit Beast in the sky let out a roar that could swallow mountains and rivers, unleashing an aura of absolute dominance over the world!

This was a true Tier Nine Spirit Beast!