Eternal Swordmaster
Chapter 134 - 129: Killing Intent - Part 1

Chapter 134: Chapter 129: Killing Intent - Part 1

Fishing Village

A group of bandits were smashing doors house by house, searching inside. A bald man with copper hoop earrings, holding a Ghost Head Knife, stood in the middle of the village, looking around. His ears twitched subtly, as if he was listening to something.

"Damn it! Called me to such a godforsaken place in the dead of night, nothing to eat, drink, or play with!" the bald man spat on the ground and swung his knife around.

"I guessed that Huangshan must have run away long ago," said a pale-faced scholar dressed as a military advisor softly.

"The sir really keeps his cool. They sent us to supervise these minions, but who knows what they’re planning," said the bald man impatiently. "Do they really think these trash mortals can find anything of value?"

"You’d be surprised. These bandits might know tricks far better than us, who spend all day in cultivation practice," the scholar said with a smile.

Bang!

Before he finished speaking, two bandit corpses flew out of a small fishing village hut, breaking through the house.

The remaining one crawled out wailing, covered in blood.

A middle-aged man with a pale face appeared before them.

He was well-proportioned and exuded a simple and stable air, the very Huangshan who had been hiding.

"It really is... it really is you!" the bald man’s eyes lit up as he locked eyes with Huangshan.

****************

Shh!

A man in black slashed a bandit across the waist with his sword, blood sprayed out, nearly cutting him in two.

Outside the fishing village, figures in black rapidly charged toward the inside of the village.

Bang!

A muffled boom suddenly resounded from within the village, and the ground trembled slightly.

"There’s an expert fighting!" the leader of the men in black deepened his gaze, "Liu Zong, Liu Yuan, follow me!"

He led two of his strongest men in black leaping towards the village.

As the bandits around the village realized they were being attacked, they rushed out drawing their swords to fight, but one by one the bandits fell, while the men in black continued their rapid advance, almost a one-sided slaughter.

The villagers scrambled to hide inside their houses.

The sky was dim, barely revealing the faces of the people.

Lin Xin slowly walked toward the direction of the noise from the fishing village, the searing air currents distorting the air around him, rendering his form obscure. This was an eerie phenomenon only seen at the highest realm of the Flameless Swordsmanship; beyond this was the complete form of the Four Spirits Chongyang Sword, but Lin Xin had chosen to base his foundation on the Flameless Swordsmanship instead.

Surrounded by him, one by one the bandits were slain, bleeding and falling, as the men in black swiftly passed by.

Before long, they reached the heart of the village where the fighting was fiercest.

The men in black, along with two disciples, were coordinating an attack against two figures emitting a soft purple light.

The two purple figures, one wielding a Ghost Head Knife with a sturdy bald build, and the other dressed as a scholar with flowing beard, radiated purple light that not only transformed into specks of light to block incoming sword attacks but also, upon contact, would send the attacker reeling as if struck by lightning, completely numb.

The three experts from Radiant Sun Sect would have been severely injured in an instant if not for their rich combat experience. Their Sect had lost the transmission of its cultivation techniques, possessing only the techniques for offense, without light-body or defensive skills, rendering their current attacks limited and restrained.

Lin Xin, seeing the battle from a distance, noted that the surrounding bandits were nearly eradicated, with the men in black finishing off those attempting to flee.

He took out a mask, put it on, and held the Crimson Sword Hilt, walking slowly toward the two purple figures.

His steps began slow but composed.

"Ha ha ha, a bunch of kids, you think you can surround and defeat me with just Innate Layer skills!" the bald man roared with laughter. A flash of purple, the Ghost Head Knife harshly slashed down, repelling the three attackers.

The scholar also smiled, scattering a large amount of purple powder from his hands into the wind, his cultivation much weaker, not yet at Qi Cultivation.

Watching the two laughing from a distance, Lin Xin stepped past the encircling men in black, coming to a sudden stop.

Sss...

The red blade of his sword slowly emerged from its sheath, reflecting a flash of red light that passed through the bald man’s eyes.

Boom!!

A fierce burst of red light erupted, and Lin Xin suddenly accelerated from slow to fast, instantly appearing in front of the bald man.

A sword stroke from above!

Bang!

Without any preparatory pause, just a great blinding burst of light that vanished in the blink of an eye, the golden yellow glow lingering in the eyes of onlookers one moment, seemed like an illusion the next.

Lin Xin slowly sheathed his sword, appearing a few meters behind the bald man.

The bald man froze in place, his Ghost Head Knife still hanging in mid-air, as if about to chop down.

Whoosh!

He instantly burst into flames, collapsing into ashes within seconds.

Lin Xin’s right sleeve also abruptly burned up, revealing a charred arm.

The scholar by his side and the people from Radiant Sun Sect were stunned.

A Qi Cultivation Fourth Layer expert was wiped out like dry twigs and dead leaves in an instant, haughty laughter one moment, and ashes the next.

The entire fishing village fell into a moment of stillness.

"You...." Huangshan, too, was stunned for a moment, covering his wounded shoulder, staring blankly at him.

"Take him away."

Lin Xin said indifferently.

The people from Radiant Sun Sect then reacted, rushing forward to support Huangshan.

"And those two!" Huangshan did not forget about the father and daughter from the village who had saved him.

Two men in black stepped forward, each carrying one of the unconscious pair. At this moment, including the leader of Radiant Sun Sect, everyone’s eyes were faintly fanatic, Lin Xin’s instant action had far surpassed any strength they had imagined. Spirit Heart Villa’s Villa Master’s hidden strength was shockingly beyond, from the Inner Family Seventh Layer to the Qi Cultivation Realm, such a leap....

Lin Xin silently watched the weary and severely injured man in yellow.

"Senior Brother, let me handle what comes next."

The man in yellow, seeing the look in his eyes, suddenly felt an ominous sense of foreboding.

"Junior Brother, don’t..."

Bang.

A man in black took advantage of his unpreparedness, knocked him unconscious, and then carried him on his back.

Lin Xin slightly closed his eyes, and after a moment, reopened them, now cold and unfamiliar.

"In this village, I wish to see no living person."

The people from Radiant Sun Sect, having struggled out of massacres, were completely convinced by Lin Xin and didn’t dare to oppose such an order.

No one who saw what happened here could be allowed to live, for if the skilled members of the Sect discovered them, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Even though he had made every preparation and the people involved were not from his own faction, he couldn’t afford to take the slightest risk.

"A woman’s kindness cannot accomplish great things." The leader of Radiant Sun Sect stood next to Lin Xin, somewhat fanatically saying, "The Sect Master has endured for many years, one day he will surely shock the heavens and crush all obstacles!"

"Perhaps," Lin Xin responded indifferently, then turned and walked in the direction he had come from.

For a long time, Pine Forest Sword Sect had been weakening. Sword Hall overwhelmingly dominated, its power far surpassing the other five halls. Driven by the need for combat and slaughter, their murderous intent was fierce, considering only their supremacy in both power and strength. It was not easy to change this adversity.

Approaching the rocky beach, he faintly heard waves of screams behind him – those were the lingering deaths of the villagers. As for that scholar, if the people from Radiant Sun Sect couldn’t handle even him, then they were of no use.

Perhaps the old him would have felt guilty about those villagers, but now, somehow...

Cough cough cough...

He suddenly covered his mouth, his fingers faintly stained with threads of blood.

*********************

In a dark underground palace.

A tall, fierce black statue stood silently at the center of the underground palace, depicting a gender-neutral figure with four arms and a vertical eye on the forehead.

Beneath the statue, a circle of white candles was arranged, their light flickering slightly.

Lin Xin stood in the candlelight, many experts from Radiant Sun Sect behind him.

"From this moment onward, I, Lin Xin, embrace the Taoist lineage of Radiant Sun Sect, swearing by my blood." Lin Xin let a drop of blood fall onto the altar in front of the statue.

"I, Liu Yang."

"I, Liu Zong (Liu Yuan)!"

The three major chiefs simultaneously knelt on one knee, deeply bowing their heads.

"We will assist the Sect Master, revitalizing our sect, shining upon our ancestral grounds!"

The other ten-plus experts knelt down one after another, some emotionally stirred, some even with tears in their eyes. The Radiant Sun Sect had nearly faced destruction; their enemy sects surrounded and attacked them relentlessly, and many of their cultivation techniques had been lost. Only the Offensive Swordsmanship and the Yang Polarity Mental Method remained, the other three True Skills had all been lost, reducing what was once a historic sect to such wretchedness. They didn’t even have a single expert in the Qi Refinement Realm.

After the courtesies, the former Sect Master Liu Yang personally presented the sect’s secret scrolls to Lin Xin.

A blood oath might not be the most effective constraint since, without forming a spiritual foundation, the bond from a blood oath was somewhat weaker. Those with higher cultivation valued the purity of their soul more; their promises must be fulfilled.

However, having killed the external pawns of Pine Forest Sword Sect and the Qi Cultivation experts placed by the Sword Hall was different.

Everyone now shared a secret: if it was leaked, they would all have no ground for burial. Pine Forest Sword Sect, unlike ordinary small sects, was a massive sect capable of ruling a nation. Its strength was so immense that deploying a few Foundation Establishment experts was treated like a game.

"Sect Master, these are our sect’s secret scrolls, the Extreme Yang Scroll, and the sect’s secret manual, the Stunning Hand Notes," Liu Yang carefully offered the two scrolls in a dish to Lin Xin.

Picking up one of the scrolls.

Lin Xin gently unfolded it. Blocks of black text on a yellow background paired with illustrations appeared before his eyes.

The Extreme Yang Scroll was entirely written in ghost Yi script. Lin Xin read just a short part and felt a chill in his heart.

The entire scroll described something inexplicable known as the emitting Yang energy.

According to the scroll, this was a mysterious breath from the void, one of many Yin Yang breaths, discovered by ancestors of the Radiant Sun Sect as an energy that could merge with the human body to enhance it.

It then detailed various methods for cultivating with the emitting Yang energy.

The scroll was divided into ten layers, each centered around the condensation of a Yang Polarity Pill. Completing all ten layers implied achieving the strength to annihilate anything in one’s path.

"Yang Polarity Pill... Liu Yang, have you managed to condense even one Yang Polarity Pill?" Lin Xin asked the former Sect Master and others.

Liu Yang’s expression darkened.

"Replying to the Sect Master, thus far, I have not been able to condense a single Yang Polarity Pill..."

Lin Xin looked at the others who all showed the same, their faces tinged with shame. These people, though ruthless and living in the shadows, were the ones who truly stayed because of their pure intentions and profound faith in the sect.

In a sense, they were also simple people.

"Not even one?" Lin Xin felt disappointed; it meant he almost had no basis to rely on.

The silence from everyone was the only answer he needed.

Continuing to read through the Extreme Yang Scroll, he quickly skimmed through the specific cultivation parts, directly brows...