One black, one white, two figures stood facing each other in the dark emerald bamboo grove.

The one who moved first was Ding Qiu.

A low, guttural roar erupted from his throat. The heavy, profound black greatsword in his hand was not swung, but rather hurled directly toward Li Haowen's position.

The massive blade tore through the air, accompanied by a terrifying surge of true qi. The sharp, keening sound of the sword's edge grinding against the atmosphere was like a mournful wail.

Li Haowen raised the Yuanji Sword in his right hand.

Against the backdrop of Ding Qiu's profound black greatsword, the Yuanji Sword in Li Haowen's hand seemed as slender as a needle.

Yet, at the precise moment the black greatsword crashed down upon the Yuanji Sword, Ding Qiu's massive blade was violently flung backward in an exaggerated arc.

Even though the quality of the Yuanji Sword in Li Haowen's hand was undoubtedly far superior to Ding Qiu's greatsword, the outcome of this clash was not due to a disparity in weapons.

It was because of true qi.

The capacity of Li Haowen's Martial Spring, both in terms of the sheer volume and the degree of condensation of his true qi, far surpassed that of Ding Qiu.

Standing to the side, Chen Yan watched this life-and-death struggle between two Passable God Realm cultivators with his hands clasped behind his back.

From the very beginning, the outcome of this duel had already been predetermined.

Ding Qiu's pupils contracted. He gritted his teeth, mustering every ounce of his strength to swing his greatsword in a massive, sweeping arc through the air. It traced a crescent moon shape, whipping up fallen leaves, broken branches, and soil from the ground. His vast true qi transformed into a turbid, black torrent, which he then savagely slashed toward Li Haowen.

The sword's edge had yet to touch, but its intent had already manifested.

Li Haowen leveled the Xiaohua Sword held in his left hand. All the withered leaves drifting in the air instantly ignited as they fell, and then—

"Brilliant Sun and Moon!"

The sword formula chanted by Li Haowen echoed forth.

A dazzling, coronal blaze of fire erupted from the bamboo grove. Following that, a violent, sky-devouring, earth-consuming inferno, like a breached dam of molten gold and crimson, roared forward in a torrent. It instantly swallowed the black torrent unleashed by Ding Qiu, and then it swallowed Ding Qiu himself.

Chen Yan gazed at Li Haowen's figure. For a fleeting moment, his silhouette overlapped with that of the youth who had once stood atop Heavenly Summit Mountain, holding the Xiaohua Sword.

However, the might of the Brilliant Sun and Moon unleashed by Li Haowen at the Passable God Realm was a hundred times, if not more, grander and more imposing than that of Lin Xinyang on Heavenly Summit Mountain back then.

The blazing, magnificent power came swiftly and vanished just as quickly.

As the flames dissipated, a vast, fan-shaped expanse of scorched earth replaced the once-lush bamboo grove. The ground was covered in dark red embers, and the air was filled with the remnants of carbonized bamboo.

Ding Qiu, still gripping his profound black greatsword, stood within the charred wasteland.

His rough robe had turned to ash, revealing a horrifying body covered in scars.

Ding Qiu was breathing with visible difficulty, and he coughed laboriously several times. The beads of blood seeping from his skin evaporated instantly upon contact with the still-scorching air.

Even though they were both Passable God Realm cultivators, the gap between them was simply too vast.

"I can offer you a path to life."

Li Haowen flicked away the crystalline, ice-like flames clinging to the Xiaohua Sword in his left hand, then spoke slowly:

"Come back to Kongshan Sect with me. Kneel before the sect's mountain gate for three months, and your life will be spared."

As a Passable God Realm cultivator in the northwestern region of the Chenping Continent, Ding Qiu was like a spiritual leader to many cultivators and sects who harbored grievances against Kongshan Sect.

Forcing Ding Qiu to kneel before Kongshan Sect's mountain gate would be far more useful than killing him.

"Pah! Li Dog."

Ding Qiu revealed a ferocious grin. He spat a mouthful of bloody phlegm, glaring furiously at the Yuanhua Mountain cultivator standing before him, who held a sword in each hand.

"Do you still remember a young man in his twenties?"

Li Haowen remained silent, not betraying a single shred of emotion at the derogatory name Ding Qiu had used.

"If those are your last words, then continue."

After a few moments of silence, Li Haowen spoke.

"His name was Ding Wu, Li Dog!"

Ding Qiu roared.

"You, this vicious dog, knew him! You knew his hands had never been stained with blood! You knew he once... Xiao Wu, he once...! And yet you—!"

"How many of the Kongshan Sect disciples you killed were innocent?"

Li Haowen's voice was icy.

"Hahahahaha! And what exactly did the Immortal Gambling Den in Taiyun City ever do to offend Kongshan Sect? What heavenly law did my entire family violate?"

A cycle of vengeance.

Eyes wide with rage, Ding Qiu raised his hand and snapped the hilt of his profound black greatsword. From within, he retrieved a crimson pill and shoved it into his mouth.

Blood-Melting Life-Extinguishing Pill.

The refinement process for this pill was not particularly complex, and it was often sold in various black markets across the Chenping Continent.

Its effect was to drastically widen the meridians and stimulate the Martial Spring, temporarily multiplying one's strength severalfold, even over tenfold.

The side effect was simple.

Once the pill passed the throat, life was already forfeit.

From the moment Ding Qiu consumed that pill, it signified his life had irrevocably entered its final countdown.

And he had only one target. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

"Give me your life, Li Dog!"

The skin on Ding Qiu's body, already cracked and scorched by the sword formula unleashed from Li Haowen's Xiaohua Sword, now began to slough off in large patches, revealing the muscle and sinew beneath.

The boiling true qi raging through his meridians ran rampant, compressing every inch of his muscle, every inch of his bone.

Visible to the naked eye, a bloody, scarlet heat haze distorted the surrounding air. The scorched earth beneath his feet was forcibly depressed by several inches under the sudden, explosive pressure of his aura.

"Crack! Crack!"

Ding Qiu seemed to want to shout something more, his throat working, but his vocal cords had been completely destroyed by the rampant true qi within him, unable to produce any coherent sound.

He snatched up the greatsword with its broken hilt. The tombstone-like heavy blade seemed to have no weight as he hurled it toward Li Haowen.

There was no technique, no probing.

This was the most primitive, most savage desire for destruction.

Li Haowen sidestepped, evading the profound black greatsword Ding Qiu had thrown at him.

Ding Qiu's figure then transformed into a scarlet afterimage that tore through the air, pouncing toward Li Haowen.

Li Haowen remained motionless, looking up at the frenzied figure in mid-air as if confirming something.

Then, he raised the Yuanji Sword. The tip of the sword pointed directly at that scarlet afterimage.

"Eternal Silence Like an Abyss."

The low chant of the sword formula rose from his lips. Instantly, the temperature across the entire bamboo grove plummeted. Even the embers on the ground frosted over.

It was as if all the heat in the world had been devoured in an instant by the Yuanji Sword in Li Haowen's hand.

The one most severely affected was Ding Qiu, suspended in mid-air.

This Passable God Realm cultivator, who had traded his life for a brief surge of true qi, began to emit a series of crisp, crystalline cracking sounds all over his body.

His blood, his muscles, his bones—all of them froze into solid ice the moment Li Haowen's sword formula took effect.

Ding Qiu's life force, like the heat, was swallowed by the Yuanji Sword in Li Haowen's hand.

Then, frost rapidly coated his ravaged body, and fissure-like cracks spread across its surface.

"Crash!"

A sharp, shattering sound echoed. Shards of ice mingled with chunks of flesh and blood scattered across the ground.