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...

Countless people were pushing toward Sect Leader Mo. Lin Hao, seeing how things were going, had already slipped to one side.

Lin Hao watched the scene, a little stunned himself.

Although he knew these factions would be participating, Lin Hao hadn’t expected them to be this crazed.

Poverty in a bustling city goes unnoticed, but wealth in the deep mountains attracts distant kin.

That saying was just as fitting for sects.

A third-rate sect, no matter how prime its location, would be left completely alone.

But for a major sect like the Misty Palace, no matter where they went, their every call was met with a chorus of responses. People would fight tooth and nail just to establish a connection with them.

’I wonder if the Holy Lands and Esoteric Sects from Chu Tiandu’s era still exist.’

At this sight, Lin Hao’s mind suddenly wandered elsewhere.

In Chu Tiandu’s era, the Celestial Yang Continent was far more resplendent than it is now. Back then, the five great sects were merely on par with the four major sects of today’s Southern Border Prefecture.

The continent was then dominated by the successors of various Holy Lands and Esoteric Sects.

Of course, there were also the extremely rare Alien Races.

Such as the Celestial Roc Race and the Saint Ape Race...

As he thought of that glorious era, the scene before him suddenly felt dull and uninteresting.

Without disturbing anyone else, Lin Hao quietly slipped away.

He hadn’t yet reached his courtyard when he stopped in his tracks, his eyes narrowing.

He saw that leaves were fluttering down from a large tree up ahead, but not a single one touched the ground; they all disintegrated into dust in mid-air.

Beneath the tree stood a tall, slender man, cradling a sword.

His aura was remarkably similar to that of Sword Nine and Sword Eight.

It was clear a Sword Attendant from Mingjian Manor had arrived.

"Sword Seven. I have come to ask Young Master Lin for the Evil-Slaying Sword." The man looked up, his eyes as cold as a blade.

Lin Hao stood his ground and smiled faintly. "And what if I say no?"

"Then I will have no choice but to draw my sword."

Before the word "sword" even left his lips, the countless leaves on the tree above them transformed into sharp blades, swarming toward Lin Hao in an overwhelming torrent.

At the same time, with a resonant SHING, he unsheathed his longsword.

It was a greatsword, more than twice as wide as a normal longsword.

A flash of light appeared in Lin Hao’s hand, and the Evil-Slaying Sword shot forward in a direct thrust.

The blade-like leaves vanished one by one. The next moment, the tip of Lin Hao’s Evil-Slaying Sword met the tip of Sword Seven’s greatsword.

A move of peak perfection.

CLANG!

Sword Seven’s greatsword emitted a soft click, and in the next instant, it abruptly split down the middle.

With a twist of his wrist, a channel opened in the center of the greatsword, trapping the Evil-Slaying Sword within it.

The next moment, he swung his hand sideways, and the greatsword slid along the trapped blade, sending sparks flying.

At this point, Sword Seven was only an arm’s length away from Lin Hao.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Sword Seven struck out at Lin Hao’s body with his left palm.

Calm and unhurried, Lin Hao raised his own palm to meet the attack.

BOOM!

When their palms met, Lin Hao found that this Sword Seven’s True Essence was incomparably potent.

Taking a slight step back, in the next moment, the Evil-Slaying Sword was knocked from his hand.

Lin Hao’s expression turned grim. He had been disarmed by Sword Seven in what was practically a single move.

"Sword Nine and Sword Eight were both defeated at your hand. I thought you would be a worthy opponent. It seems now that you have disappointed me."

Sword Seven stood with his hands clasped behind his back.

In his hands behind his back, he held the greatsword. Without any visible motion from him, the Evil-Slaying Sword, still trapped within the greatsword, began to spin at high speed. It formed a massive, whistling halo of light that generated a strong wind.

"Is that so?" The corner of Lin Hao’s mouth suddenly lifted.

Sword Seven’s vision blurred. By the time he could focus his eyes again, the Evil-Slaying Sword was back in Lin Hao’s hand.

The tables had turned with stunning speed. Sword Seven froze for a second, then his killing intent erupted.

"I took the Evil-Slaying Sword from you once, and I can do it again!"

Sword Seven declared, attacking once more.

Countless leaves sliced through the air with a series of sharp WHIZZES, creating an even more breathtaking spectacle than before.

But Sword Seven did something unexpected.

With a flick of his wrist, he plunged the greatsword straight into the earth.

At the same time, a cold voice uttered the name of the technique: "Cage of Earth!"

The power unleashed by this simple sword thrust was astonishing.

The countless leaves in mid-air split in two, then four, until they swarmed like locusts.

The ground trembled, closing in around Lin Hao.

Sword Qi erupted from the earth in a circle, spreading toward Lin Hao in successive waves, each more powerful than the last.

The speed was incredible.

Lin Hao’s Evil-Slaying Sword moved, unleashing the Phantom Kill technique he had learned from Sword Eight.

The tip of his sword trembled, sending out countless streams of Sword Qi to meet the leaves that had become sharp blades.

At the same time, he stomped his foot.

In the air, the leaves turned to dust.

On the ground, the advancing Sword Qi was brought to a dead stop three feet away from him.

A flicker of surprise passed through Sword Seven’s eyes.

Before coming here, he had learned of Sword Nine and Sword Eight’s failures and knew that Lin Hao could replicate sword techniques.

Thus, he wasn’t the least bit surprised that Lin Hao could use Phantom Kill to break the assault of the leaf-blades. The real killing move of Cage of Earth came from beneath the ground.

Ten years ago, when the nine Sword Attendants guarded Mingjian Manor, Sword Seven’s Cage of Earth and Sword Eight’s Phantom Kill had felled countless powerful experts.

Sword Seven’s Cage of Earth, in particular, was at least as powerful as Sword Eight’s Phantom Kill, if not more so.

At the time, Sword Seven’s cultivation was at the Third Layer of the Elemental Realm. When he unleashed Cage of Earth, dozens of people were sliced in half from below by the Sword Qi.

Even a Martial Artist at the Fifth Layer of the Elemental Realm could not escape it, as the technique was so bizarre it was impossible to defend against.

Right now, even though Sword Seven had suppressed his cultivation to the peak of the Blood Coagulation Realm, he had already mastered this sword technique to perfection. He believed that dealing with Lin Hao, who was also at the Blood Coagulation Realm, would be effortless.

But Lin Hao, with just a single stomp of his foot, had actually managed to halt the invading Sword Qi. This both surprised and utterly shocked Sword Seven.

But his shock lasted only for a very brief moment.

As a Sword Attendant, Sword Seven’s combat awareness was strong. After his brief stupor, he drove his greatsword another inch deeper into the ground and began to rotate it fiercely.

The underground Sword Qi spread with extreme speed. In the blink of an eye, Sword Seven had advanced the Sword Qi to within a foot of Lin Hao.

The ground around Lin昊 was riddled with holes. Only the small circle of earth directly beneath his feet remained intact.

The clothes he had just changed into were whipped about by the fierce wind. Wherever they touched the Sword Qi, they turned to dust, and now a long section of his robe was missing.

"Hand over the Evil-Slaying Sword!" Sword Seven demanded coldly, staring at Lin Hao from the side.

His response was a thrust of a sword.

Lin Hao stared at Sword Seven, his eyes shining with a dazzling light. Then, he thrust his own sword straight into the ground.

RUMBLE!

The next moment, the two currents of Sword Qi collided, triggering a massive explosion in the space between them.

"This is impossible!"

Sword Seven stared fixedly at Lin Hao and cried out in shock.

Lin Hao’s technique was identical to his—it was clearly Cage of Earth.

In such a short amount of time, his signature technique had been perfectly replicated by Lin Hao. Sword Seven was shocked beyond measure, completely unable to believe his eyes.

"I am Lin Hao. With me, anything is possible!" Lin Hao retorted. He drove the Evil-Slaying Sword another three inches into the ground and began to rotate it fiercely.

SPURT!

The next moment, Sword Seven flew backward, blood spraying from his body.

When he steadied himself, he saw that the front of his robes had been torn open by Sword Qi. A visible, bloody gash ran down the center of his chest, streaming blood.

There was even a shallow cut across the bridge of his nose.

Sword Seven’s eyes widened abruptly, and cold sweat poured down his face.

If he had retreated even a step slower, his fate would have been the same as the Martial Artists who died by his hand—bisected by the Sword Qi.

At the same realm, Lin Hao had completely bested him.

"I’ve studied the sword for more than twenty years, and yet I’m no match for you. What use is this sword to me!" With his bare hands, Sword Seven broke his greatsword and left, utterly dejected.

Lin Hao opened his mouth to speak but ultimately said nothing.

’A person who lacks even the courage to accept defeat is not worthy of being a proper Martial Artist.’

Putting away his sword, Lin Hao stared in the direction Sword Seven had disappeared and began to feel a sense of anticipation. Three of the nine Sword Attendants had come. Six remained.

The cultivation of the remaining six would only be more terrifying, which was precisely what Lin Hao hoped for.

Ever since discovering that he could see his opponents’ techniques more clearly by channeling the Emperor Art into his eyes, Lin Hao had been hoping to face even more experts.

’To him, no matter how powerful the enemy, they were merely a tool for him to learn new techniques.’

Lin Hao stood motionless and closed his eyes.

After fighting three Sword Attendants, he realized their sword techniques all shared the same underlying principles and were extremely similar to the first form of Zuo Yi’s Evil-slaying Sword Skill.

He mentally replayed the three Sword Attendants’ techniques, verifying them against the first form of the Evil-slaying Sword Skill. In his hand, the Evil-Slaying Sword began to move unconsciously...

He remained standing like that for several hours.

During this time, Sect Leader Mo visited, as did Master Shan Dan and Meng Qing.

Eventually, they all left, and no one else came to disturb Lin Hao.

An unknown amount of time passed. When Lin Hao opened his eyes again, the sky was pitch-black, but a brilliant light flashed within his eyes before disappearing.

It was fleeting, yet it seemed to tear through the night sky.

The next moment, Lin Hao abruptly thrust the Evil-Slaying Sword forward.

Nothing unusual happened.

Lin Hao walked past the large tree and headed toward his courtyard.

Just as he stepped into the courtyard, the leaves of the large tree began to RUSTLE.

At that moment, a woman in yellow robes appeared silently beneath the tree.

She stretched out her hand, and a leaf from the great tree fell directly into it.

She lifted it up and saw a small, round hole in the leaf, about the size of a broad bean.

The woman reached out again, and several more leaves fluttered down. Without exception, each one bore a hole of the exact same size.

The woman raised her head to stare at the great tree, and it was a long moment before she came back to her senses.

"’The first form of the Evil-slaying Sword Skill, Sword Manifests a Myriad... Even if Zuo Wuque himself were to perform it, I doubt it would be any better than this,’ she murmured, her eyes filled with undisguised amazement."

After standing there in a daze for another moment, her figure flickered and vanished from beneath the tree.

Back in his room, Lin Hao had just finished washing up when his body suddenly froze, his muscles tensing in an instant.

Just then, a voice echoed in Lin Hao’s ear: "In a quarter of an hour. Sword comprehension... at the Ice and Fire Pool. Let’s see who’s superior."

Lin Hao’s body instantly relaxed.

It was clearly the voice of the woman he had encountered at the Ice and Fire Pool last night.

’Is she crazy? Why does she want to duel me?’ Lin Hao was thoroughly bewildered.

Although the woman hadn’t attacked him, Lin Hao knew her cultivation was immeasurably higher than his own.

’Dueling her? Isn’t that just asking to die?’

’Women hold grudges. I saw something I shouldn’t have... Could it be that she’s planning to settle the score from last night?’

The thought flashed through Lin Hao’s mind.

But he immediately shook his head. ’If that woman had truly wanted him dead, he would already be a corpse.’

In the end, Lin Hao still decided to go to the meeting.