King of Ten Thousand Years

”Luo Tian! We’ve done as you asked. Now let the Seventh Prince go!”

The bald Elder Xie and about six or seven others stood together, thirty meters away.

”Release the Seventh Prince! If you flee now, you might still have a chance to live.”

The servant guard’s eyes flickered.

At this moment, the members of the Pro-Emperor Faction were on high alert, secretly gathering their strength.

The moment Luo Tian released the Seventh Prince, they would strike like lightning.

Luo Tian ignored them, his mocking gaze fixed on the Seventh Prince.

”Your Highness, do you remember who saved your life in the Royal Secret Garden?”

One of Luo Tian’s hands slowly toyed with the hilt of the Red Lotus Sword.

”Urgh... Luo Tian, I was wrong! I owe you my life. I shouldn’t have been so ungrateful.”

The Seventh Prince’s face was a mask of desperation.

”Spare me, and I guarantee you’ll be able to leave safely.”

”Fine! I’ll give you one last chance.”

With a sudden burst of strength, Luo Tian threw the Seventh Prince toward the gathered enemies of the Pro-Emperor Faction.

WHOOSH!

The Seventh Prince was thrown ten or twenty meters. While still in mid-air, he was overcome with ecstasy.

He was actually alive!

Luo Tian hadn’t delivered the killing blow?

’This is great! That idiot Luo Tian!’

The bald Elder Xie and the others were stunned, finding it hard to believe.

They never expected Luo Tian to release the Seventh Prince so easily.

”Protect the Prince!”

The servant guard flew forward to catch the Seventh Prince.

”Capture Luo Tian alive! I want to make him wish he were dead! Then I’ll present him to my father the Emperor for merit.”

The Seventh Prince’s expression turned vicious, and he shot a derisive look at Luo Tian.

”Hahaha! Junior, surrender now!”

The bald Elder Xie and the others revealed cruel smiles as they flew toward Luo Tian to kill him.

Suddenly, the clear ring of a sword sounded.

CLANG! SHING!

Luo Tian drew the Red Lotus Sword. A crystalline Treasure Sword with a crimson lotus pattern appeared, blooming with the red glow of a lotus.

’That sword...’

The bald elder’s heart skipped a beat, filled with a strange sense of unease.

”It’s over!”

The True Qi in Luo Tian’s Qi Sea surged wildly as he unleashed a slash of his sword!

WUUUM!

The Red Lotus Sword slashed out, creating a dazzling Red Mist Sword Lotus. It bloomed in magnificent splendor, exuding a terrifying aura that seemed capable of incinerating all of existence.

In an instant, a section of the night sky was dyed by the magnificent red lotus Sword Light, resembling a fiery sunset cloud.

”This sword strike! Oh no—”

The bald elder, the Seventh Prince, and the others wore expressions of terror.

Under the pressure of its Flame Power, everyone felt suffocated. Circulating their True Qi and even moving their bodies became incredibly difficult.

”Block it!”

The members of the Royalist Faction roared. They unleashed bursts of True Qi or executed Secret Techniques, which erupted in dazzling light.

SWISH!

The splendor of the Red Mist Sword Lotus swept past.

PFFT! PFFT! SQUELCH!

Everyone’s various defensive measures shattered like paper.

”Ahhh...”

The servant guard and two Mentors protecting the Seventh Prince were instantly turned to ash.

”No—”

The Seventh Prince let out a hysterical scream. The shimmering light of the Treasure Armor on his body was extinguished in the blink of an eye, turning to charred ash.

AH!

Filled with despair and regret, the Seventh Prince let out one last wretched scream before being swallowed by the Red Mist Sword Lotus’s radiance and completely dissolved.

In just half a breath’s time, all the Master Level experts on the scene had been reduced to dust.

Because they were all standing together and couldn’t dodge in time, they were wiped out in one fell swoop.

”You... How do you possess such a powerful Divine Soldier!”

The bald elder’s face was filled with terror. A vast, cloud-like expanse of dark mist erupted from his body.

However, he only managed to hold on for one more breath before he was incinerated by the red lotus Sword Light, reduced to a pile of charred bone fragments.

FWOOSH!

In the night sky, the blooming Red Mist Sword Lotus quickly dissipated.

In its place, a scorching, crimson crater remained, molten rock flowing within it in the shape of a lotus flower.

The eight experts of the Pro-Emperor Faction, including one Holy Mansion Elder, were all dead.

HUFF!

Luo Tian’s face was pale, his breathing was ragged, and he could barely stand.

Activating the Red Lotus Sword this time had consumed far more energy than the last.

Even after advancing to the Spirit Sea Realm, he could only use it for a single strike.

Back at the Red Lotus Cave Mansion, he’d had the home-field advantage. The boost from the Flame Power within the mansion had made the attack more powerful and its cost far smaller.

Fortunately, Luo Tian had used the Seventh Prince to lure the Pro-Emperor Faction’s experts to gather thirty meters away, within the attack’s optimal range, allowing him to annihilate them all with a single strike.

If they had been scattered, Luo Tian, with only one strike available, would not have been able to catch them all in one net.

’I can’t stay here for long!’

Luo Tian swallowed a few recovery Elixir Pills. He paused only briefly to recover ten or twenty percent of his True Qi before quickly departing.

The spectacle from the Red Lotus Sword’s power was too conspicuous in the night sky and would easily attract attention.

Not long after Luo Tian left, two Golden-Winged Eagles tore through the air and landed at the scene.

WHOOSH! FLAP!

On each Golden-Winged Eagle sat an Elder, accompanied by several Master Level experts.

”What terrifying destructive power!”

Nangong Elder sucked in a cold breath, staring at the lotus-shaped crimson crater where the very rock had been melted.

Not a single complete corpse could be found at the scene.

”Elder Lin, could it be that your student has an expert backing him?”

Nangong Elder looked toward Lin Dongfeng, who was on the other eagle.

”It’s hard to say.”

Lin Dongfeng was still shaken and found it hard to believe.

Even with his current strength, it would be difficult for him to cause this level of destruction, even if he were to crush an ordinary Holy Mansion Elder.

The two Elders didn’t stay long. They soon took their men and split up to search.

...

Under the cover of night, Luo Tian moved at a steady pace, continuously distancing himself from the Sun Chasing Holy Mansion.

His True Qi was depleted, so he could only maintain the speed of an ordinary Spirit Sea First Layer cultivator.

After traveling another two hundred li, a sliver of light, like a fish’s pale belly, appeared on the horizon. The curtain of night had receded.

Luo Tian was exhausted in both body and mind, his True Qi once again completely spent.

He found a hill and, using the cover of the trees, sat down cross-legged to regulate his breathing.

「An hour later.」

Luo Tian had recovered forty to fifty percent of his True Qi and was about to set off.

Just then, the sound of something tearing through the air came from the horizon, and a Golden-Winged Eagle came into view.

Luo Tian’s heart tightened. It was no longer night, so he couldn’t activate the Invisibility effect of his Dark Night Cloak.

”Let’s go down and rest for a bit.”

The Golden-Winged Eagle slowly descended, and a familiar, aged voice drifted down from it.

Eh!

He saw Lin Dongfeng, along with a few Mentors from the Holy Mansion, setting up camp nearby.

A strange look appeared on Luo Tian’s face. He immediately activated his Spiritual Sense, spreading it out to cover a radius of over a hundred meters.

After confirming it was indeed Lin Dongfeng and not someone in disguise, a voice resounded in Lin Dongfeng’s mind.

”Mentor.”

Luo Tian wasn’t using a True Qi voice transmission, but the more advanced Spiritual Sense transmission.

After sending the message, Luo Tian immediately left.

Lin Dongfeng’s brow twitched. He ordered the few Mentors to stay put and then left alone.

「A few moments later.」

Before a broken cliff face, Lin Dongfeng saw the figure of a cloaked youth.

”Good kid! I knew you wouldn’t die so easily.”

Lin Dongfeng looked as if a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders, a smile appearing on his face.

”Mentor, I can no longer stay in the Azure Cloud Kingdom. Where should I go now?”

Luo Tian asked, his face filled with confusion.

He felt a murderous rage toward the Azure Cloud Royal Family, but without enough strength, he could only leave his home behind.

”It seems this is the will of heaven.”

Lin Dongfeng sighed with deep emotion.

’The will of heaven?’

Luo Tian was taken aback. He suddenly remembered that Lin Dongfeng had once told him to seek him out again after advancing to the Spirit Sea Realm.

”After the last Sect gathering, your Grand-master left an opportunity for you.”

Lin Dongfeng took out a letter and a Token.

These two items were precisely what Hermit Hidden Dragon had given him.

”Mentor, please explain.”

Luo Tian was curious about what his Mentor’s worries and this opportunity were.

”First, let me ask you a question.”

”In your mind, what is the most powerful force on the Continent?”

Lin Dongfeng asked.

”It should be a Dynasty, like the Chilong Dynasty, or perhaps one of the Ten Hidden Families of the Continent.”

Luo Tian pondered.

A power as great as the Chilong Dynasty has territory over a hundred times larger than the Azure Cloud Kingdom. It rules more than twenty vassal states, and hundreds of countries pay it tribute every year.

A single Prince from the Dynasty can strike terror into the heart of a kingdom’s Royal Family.

”Hehe, a Dynasty can only be considered one of the strongest secular powers.”

Lin Dongfeng shook his head and smiled.

”On this Continent, the true rulers are the Four Major Sects!”

Lin Dongfeng’s expression grew solemn.

”The Four Major Sects? Even more powerful than a Dynasty?”

Luo Tian’s gaze sharpened.

In his eyes, a Prince from a Dynasty already wielded immense, world-changing power.

The full might of a Dynasty, with its countless experts and forces, was unimaginable.

”The Four Major Sects are established in the four domains—east, south, west, and north. They transcend the secular world and stand above everything else.”

A look of solemn reverence appeared on Lin Dongfeng’s face.

”The Chilong Dynasty, the hegemon of the Eastern Domain, must offer a vast amount of resources as tribute to the ’Yunxiao Sect’ every year.”

”The Chilong Dynasty has to pay tribute too?”

Shocking waves surged in Luo Tian’s heart.

The Chilong Dynasty ruled the Eastern Domain, a superpower to which hundreds of nations paid tribute.

Yet such a power had to pay tribute to a Sect.

”The Chilong Dynasty, at best, can be considered the Yunxiao Sect’s representative for controlling the secular world. With a single thought, the Yunxiao Sect could replace the Dynasty’s ruler.”

Lin Dongfeng said with a smile.

”To command a Dynasty at will... that Sect is too terrifying.”

Luo Tian was thoroughly shocked.

”The Sects pursue the ultimate pinnacle of Martial Arts. They have no interest in participating in the power struggles of the secular world.”

”In the last few hundred years on the Continent, the last known traces of Celestial Level Martial Artists have all been within the Four Major Sects.”

Lin Dongfeng narrated, his own heart far from calm.

”Mentor, is the opportunity you mentioned related to the Sects?”

Luo Tian’s eyes lit up.

The idea of a Sect that pursued the ultimate Martial Arts and looked down upon all worldly matters filled him with longing.

”That’s right!”

Lin Dongfeng nodded.

”In three months, the Yunxiao Sect, one of the Four Major Sects, will be recruiting disciples and holding its triennial entrance examination.”

”As long as you pass the examination and become a disciple of the Yunxiao Sect, your status will transcend the secular world. Neither the Royal Family nor Prince Zheng would ever dare to threaten you openly.”

Lin Dongfeng said.

”This is wonderful. To think such an opportunity exists.”

Luo Tian was overjoyed.

”Take this letter of recommendation and this Token. They will grant you the qualification to participate in the entrance examination.”

Lin Dongfeng’s hands trembled as he passed the letter and Token to Luo Tian.

”Mentor?”

Luo Tian took the items and noticed the conflicted expression on Lin Dongfeng’s face. His hands were shaking.

”The Sect’s entrance examination is extremely cruel. The mortality rate is as high as seventy percent.”

Lin Dongfeng took a deep breath.

”And even if you pass the exam, the competition within the Sect is incredibly fierce.”

”Back then, I was lucky enough to pass the examination and enter the Yunxiao Sect, but... I was beaten by someone to the point that my foundation was damaged and my Cultivation regressed.”

What!

Hearing this, Luo Tian was so shocked he was at a loss for words.

Lin Dongfeng’s damaged foundation, which had caused him to stagnate for thirty years, was actually related to this transcendent Sect.

”I believe that with your talent, you have a high chance of passing the Sect’s examination. However, my old enemy is also in the Yunxiao Sect. It’s impossible to say whether this will be a blessing or a curse for you.”

Lin Dongfeng gave a bitter smile.

’So that’s how it is!’

Luo Tian’s heart trembled as he understood the reason for Lin Dongfeng’s inner conflict.

Lin Dongfeng was worried that Luo Tian would repeat his tragedy.