Eternal Swordmaster
Chapter 511 - 505: Surging Waves 10

Chapter 511: Chapter 505: Surging Waves 10

Nan Shunqing also sighed at this time.

"There’s no way left," he said softly.

But Yun’er seemed as if she hadn’t heard, continuing to kowtow frantically towards Lin Xin. Her forehead soon bled from the impact, yet she felt nothing.

Thud.

The man suddenly collapsed to the ground, eyes closed, unknowingly having breathed his last.

With tears streaming down her face, Yun’er’s forehead struck deeply against the floor one last time. Hearing the sound, she slightly turned her face and saw her father’s gentle visage.

Tears immediately filled her eyes to the brim, and she could see nothing else in her vision. Her head just remained bowed on the ground, motionless, her whole body trembling.

"Alas..." Nan Shunqing heaved another long sigh.

"The joys and sorrows of the world, the vicissitudes of life, they are all but natural," Lin Xin said quietly as he sipped a cup of wine. "Had I taken action a moment earlier, perhaps he could have been saved, but it is such a fleeting moment that sets apart life and eternal separation."

He looked into his disciple’s eyes.

"Such is fate."

"Fate..." Nan Shunqing murmured softly.

"Why...."

Suddenly, he heard Yun’er beside him muttering something softly.

"Why..."

Nan Shunqing followed the voice and saw Yun’er slowly lifting her head, her eyes bloodshot, the depths filled with intense hatred and resentment, looking towards her teacher, Lin Xin.

"Why didn’t you save my father earlier!?" she exclaimed loudly.

Nan Shunqing was suddenly taken aback.

"If you had acted sooner, my father wouldn’t have to die... wouldn’t have to die...!!!" Yun’er’s eyes were bloodshot, and her face was contorted by hatred.

"Is this the outcome you wanted?"

Lin Xin asked, smiling.

Nan Shunqing looked closely at Yun’er’s face and fell silent.

In the second floor, only the sound of the young girl’s crying and the soft voices of the two equally shocked tables of people could be heard.

After a long while, he finally replied slowly.

"I don’t know."

His answer was somewhat helpless, tinged with bitterness.

Thump.

A dull sound rang out as Yun’er was knocked unconscious by a blast of Vigor Qi.

It was Lin Xin who had flicked his finger to knock her out.

"Do you still wish to save her now?"

"Of course," Nan Shunqing said earnestly, "I save her not for her sake, but because I promised that man."

Lin Xin laughed heartily, seemingly pleased.

Whoosh!

At that moment, the sound of galloping horses came from the streets outside.

A large group of people arrived, a band of men and women dressed in green clothes and armed with swords and blades.

"Disciple!!" The leader was a white-bearded old man of venerable age; he caught sight of Zhao Jun’s body lying on the ground and his eyes instantly reddened with anger.

"Who dares to kill my disciple!! I will have his life!!" he roared furiously.

The group of green-clothed men and women behind him also rushed forward to check the body, hoping to find a survivor.

But regrettably, there were no survivors.

"Who is it!! Who is so cruel! To kill my disciple and the twenty-four others with him!!" The elder’s tiger eyes scanned the surroundings, his Inner Qi profoundly robust, making the tavern shake with the reverberation of his voice.

Lin Xin sat on the second floor, unfazed. He casually threw a red Talisman Paper.

Hiss!

A flash of fire erupted, sending a red streak flying out.

It was merely the most basic Rune for illumination, but in his hands it was as powerful as a High Level Talisman Paper, unleashing terrifying force.

Enhanced by the attributes of Lin Xin, the speed and power of the red streak reached unimaginable levels.

In the blink of an eye, it pierced through the old man’s chest.

Boom!

The red streak exploded, engulfing all the people behind the elder in flames, spreading over the street like a red lotus blossoming.

Before even a scream could be heard, the new arrivals, along with their horses, were instantly consumed by the fire.

A fireball, towering over ten meters high, appeared and lingered for several breaths before dissipating, leaving nothing but a pile of ash.

"That... That was Gu Changming... an Elder Retainer and expert of the Qingxiu Sect..." a trembling voice emerged from the two remaining tables of people.

"Just like that... he’s gone?"

"It can’t be real...?"

The rest of the patrons from the two other tables dared not stay any longer and promptly got up to leave.

"Take the people and leave." Lin Xin said without glancing at the ashes of the corpse below, "The person we’ve been waiting for has arrived."

Nan Shunqing looked at him with confusion but saw Lin Xin’s gaze fix on the empty space outside the tavern.

There, at some unknown time, a mass of black clouds and mist had appeared.

The mist slowly dissipated, revealing a group of black-clad monks standing on black stones.

The stones under their feet were mostly round or oval, resembling oversized pebbles, yet they managed to support a group of people floating in mid-air.

The man leading them had a sullen face, appearing to be in his forties or fifties, yet his eyes were filled with a contradictory gentle smile.

But his face was as still as a wax figure’s, fixed and immobile, as if he wore a mask.

"Crown Prince graces us with his presence, we failed to receive you from afar, please forgive our oversight."

The man bowed deeply as he spoke.

"I am Gongyang Zizhu, the Suppressor stationed in this city. I apologize for making Crown Prince wait."

"Gongyang Zizhu?" Lin Xin had never seen this man before, but he had heard of him. It seemed he was the Second Grand Steward of the Yuan Dou Demon Palace, working alongside the Grand Steward to manage the internal and external affairs of the entire Yuan Dou Demon Sect.

He stood up. "I thought the Grand Steward would be the one to come."

"The Grand Steward is currently at Wuding Mountain. The Sect Master and the Elders have heard of your arrival in the main city and are waiting at the Demon Palace."

"My teacher is already waiting for me?" Lin Xin smiled. "Then lead the way."

"Yes."

Gongyang Zizhu said respectfully.

Lin Xin’s blatant appearance, coupled with the fact that this tavern was under the managing property of the Grand Steward of Yuan Dou Demon Sect,

would surely convey his intentions if the Yuan Dou Demon Sect’s people still could not comprehend, they would have long deserved death.

From the window of the tavern, Lin Xin waved his sleeve and released Demonic Qi, lifting Nan Shunqing and Yun’er into the air. They landed on a stone created by Gongyang Zizhu.

Being so close to the Third Crown Prince, a man he had long admired, Gongyang Zizhu also felt a tremor in his heart.

Rumors said that Crown Prince had been effectively expelled from the Sect by the Sect Master, and now he had cultivated the Yuan Dou Demonic Technique to an exceedingly high level. He was able to return to Wuding Mountain’s headquarters openly and grandly, compelling the Sect Master and Elders to receive him with great solemnity.

This was equivalent to a blatant slap in the face of the Sect Master.

Clearly, his strength had reached an unimaginable level.

Not just him, the other elite monks of the Yuan Dou Demon Sect welcomed troop were also secretly sizing up Lin Xin.

They felt his body was filled with an aura like viscous dark red plasma, his face seemed gentle, but his eyes glinted with a profound meaning that was incomprehensible.

Gongyang Zizhu had a faint premonition that this Crown Prince’s return to the Sect would likely trigger a swirling upheaval, a significant change within the Demon Sect.

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

Wuding Mountain.

In the opulent grand hall adorned in a primary palette of black and gold,

Huang Yuan, the True Monarch, wore a towering crown on his head, his figure lean and tall, yet his eyes betrayed a ferocious glint.

"He, Lin Xin, has some nerve, doesn’t he? Daring to make a public appearance in the main city—is this a challenge to our Sect?"

Since his weak youth, Huang Yuan had fought against both heavens and earth, journeying through a path of insane slaughter. Now, as an elder, was he actually being threatened by a disciple he had taken in?

It was utterly ridiculous!

Standing below were nine Elders with varying demeanors, all from the Yuan Jing, secluded Elders of the Demon Sect, summoned from the depths of Wuding Mountain to address the matter of Lin Xin, the Third Crown Prince.

Among them was an elderly man with not an ounce of flesh on his body, just skin and bones, his eyes sunken as if he were a millennia-old mummy freshly arisen from a coffin. His skin, too, was a dark gray.

It was none other than Guan Mingyue, the Yuan Jing Elder whom Lin Xin had met previously.

He, along with the other eight Elders, all belonged to the Demon Sect’s secluded cultivation Elders.

"What does Lin Xin mean by this? I believe everyone here understands that one needs the Demon God Pool for the Great Achievement of Demonic Arts, so he had no choice but to return," said Huang Yuan, the True Monarch, with a piercing gaze as he surveyed the nine Elders below.

"Back then, he secretly intercepted the Evil God’s Yuan Embryo and greedily kept it to himself without informing the Sect. Afterwards, his actions invited external forces to intervene, applying pressure on our Sect. As his master, not personally expelling him from our Sect was already merciful beyond duty.

And now he has the face to return to the Sect?"

"Sect Master, your words are not quite fair," stated an Elder slowly, "With the situation in the Central Prefecture drastically changed and the Immortal Demon Alliance virtually nonexistent, shouldn’t our Yuan Dou Demon Sect be willing to cast aside previous grievances and unite for the prosperity of our Sect, especially when we can gain an individual from the Heavenly List?"

This Elder’s expression was as wooden as his cultivation practice, which primarily revolved around the Yuan Dou Demonic Technique, supplemented by the Divine Wood Demonic Technique, leading to a naturally expressionless face and even a monotone voice devoid of any inflection, which sounded quite strange. He was known within the Sect as Elder Mu.

"Elder Mu speaks wisely," said Guan Mingyue, his gaze steady, "In times of danger to our Sect, we should prioritize preserving our strength. Lin Xin, the Crown Prince, achieving such great accomplishments in mere decades, is clearly a prodigy. Everyone else would yearn for as many geniuses as possible, so why does our Sect seem to want to push him away instead?"

"Huang Yuan, are you perhaps afraid?"

One of the two oldest Elders, Bai Suozi, who had once competed against Huang Yuan for the position of Sect Master, now spoke with a hint of mockery.

Bai Suozi appeared as withered as an old crone in her eighties or nineties, dressed in an oversized gray robe covered in patches. Her eyes rolled white, and she supported herself on a Dragon Head Iron Staff.

"If Elder Brother Huang Yuan were afraid, he would not have held back during the trials," another Elder remarked with a sneer. "Elder Sister Bai Suozi, after so many years, have you reached the Ninth Layer of the Yuan Dou Demonic Technique? Why do you speak with such grandiosity as soon as you open your mouth?"

This Elder, named Yin Pengzi, was a staunch supporter of Huang Yuan, backing him as he ascended to the position of Sect Master.

"Heh, Yin Pengzi, lay off the sarcasm. This is a major matter for the prosperity of our Sect, not something to be addressed with petty sentiments," retorted Bai Suozi with a cold laugh.

Among the nine present Elders, both she and Yin Pengzi were True Monarchs, top-class experts who had reached the Eighth Layer of Demonic Arts, and among the truly hidden depths of strength of the Yuan Dou Demon Sect.

"Enough bickering!" Huang Yuan, growing impatient, interjected. "Elder Sister Bai Suozi, the rules of our Sect have always stood. If you can beat me, the position of Sect Master is yours! Cut out these senseless tricks!"

"Both of us at the Eighth Layer, heh, I can’t withstand your Desolate Vault’s Extinguishing Star Hand. But your disciple... he comes with ill-intent; if he were well-intentioned, he would not be coming..." Bai Suozi chuckled ’heh heh’, then fell silent.

"Fine, let’s see just how strong my disciple really is, the one capable of repelling the Demonic Star Maiden," smirked Huang Yuan, sitting upright on the Sect Master’s throne. As his eyes opened and closed, golden runes flickered in his gaze.

Behind him, the ghostly image of a massive yellow ape flickered in and out of visibility.