Chapter 428: “Aren’t you afraid I’ll kill you?”

A figure in a blood-soaked robe — the Demon-Suppressing True Person — descended the mountain.

And Lü Yang trailed directly behind, manipulating a sword-dao clone as if he were a young attendant bearing a sword, both hands holding that same scarlet, blood-red 【Sword of No Killing】.

In an instant, countless people felt a ripple in their hearts.

How many years had it been.

Except for a few Foundation-Establishment True Persons of great seniority and long life, many people could not even remember when the Demon-Suppressing True Person had last left Jiangnan.

Of course, the southern border did not count.

After all, in the Sword Pavilion’s eyes, the southern border had no True Lord stationed there and lay just south of Jiangnan, so it was practically their back garden. In other places — north of the river, Jiangxi, Jiangdong, even overseas — True Lords were stationed. Those places the Demon-Suppressing True Person could not go.

It was not that they feared the Demon-Suppressing True Person would die.

Rather, they feared that if he attained the 【Sword Dao Fruitional Rank】 outside the Sword Pavilion — if his 【Sword Dao Fruitional Rank】 were not formed inside the Pavilion and a True Lord set his sights on it — there would be all kinds of people in the world thinking wicked thoughts.

Especially the rival Holy Sect over there.

Any so-called Sword Pavilion founder or True Lord of the Holy Sect would not care about scruples — they would seize first and ask questions later. If you had a backer, didn’t they also have theirs?

Thus the Demon-Suppressing True Person had not left Jiangnan for a very long time.

Yet this time he openly walked through the Sword Pavilion’s mountain gate as if he intended to leave Jiangnan — how could people accept that?

“Stop him!”

The Evil-Banishing True Person rose to his feet at once, teeth clenched: “An ungrateful wretch. The sect raised him; yet when the time came to use him he shirked his duty in every way, and in the end so heedless of gratitude as to attempt to depart and bring shame upon the sect. He must not. He must not—”

—must he not obediently go die?

The Evil-Banishing True Person had already chosen someone to take the blame; he had even slipped the evidence of Mo Shiyuan’s collusion with Jiangbei’s demonic path into the treasury of 【Jimó City】.

Once the Demon-Suppressing True Person died and proved the 【Sword Dao Fruitional Rank】 with his life,

he would immediately appear, set right the chaos, eulogize the greatest Foundation-Establishment True Person in the Sword Pavilion’s history, and declare eternal enmity with the demonic path that had murdered him.

What a perfect script.

The Sword Pavilion benefited, he benefited, even the Ye family benefited — they had all contributed greatly this time, and he planned to reward them handsomely; after all, the Demon-Suppressing True Person had no heirs, so rewarding his family would count as rewarding him. No one would lose out. Yet such a perfect script was being ruined by the Demon-Suppressing True Person.

He simply refused to die!

And now he wanted to leave Jiangnan for other regions; if the 【Sword Dao Fruitional Rank】 ultimately ended up in another faction’s hands…

Ten lives would not be enough to compensate!

Thinking this, the Evil-Banishing True Person could no longer hold back. He rose and rode a fleeing light, dashing toward the Sword Pavilion’s mountain gate.

At the same time.

“Āmítuófó!”

With a Buddha-name, a ray of Buddhist light streaked toward the path of the Demon-Suppressing True Person and Lü Yang, coming to rest before them.

Pure Land — Vima-motto Venerable (Vimotuo Venerable).

This late Foundation-establishment arhat wore a bitter expression. As soon as he appeared he bowed his head and said, “This monk Vimotuo, by the command of the Buddhists, pays respects to the Demon-Suppressing True Person.”

“Chēng!” (a sword-ring sound)

The response was a ring of swordlight.

The next second, the Venerable Vimotuo’s head separated from his body; he had not even reacted to being struck — he was still attempting polite phrases.

Only when the world spun before his eyes did he belatedly realize: “Ah?”

“Boom!”

After the muffled crash, the Buddhist radiance glittered and the golden body collapsed. Vimotuo did not survive as those previously beheaded by the Demon-Suppressing True Person had; he died on the spot. A soul escaped, and Pure Land light gently awaited to guide it back to rebirth.

But at that moment —

“Crack!”

A crisp tearing sound split Vimotuo’s bewildered soul. The Pure Land light descended like water trying to pass through a basket full of holes.

What fell was lost.

“Shoo-shoo!”

The next second the wind blew and Vimotuo’s soul scattered to the winds, leaving the Pure Land’s guiding light lingering in place, plunged into a certain stillness.

On the other side, Lü Yang watched in terror.

Although he could accomplish the same trick, he relied upon the miraculous severing of causality known as the 【Tribulation-Pass Wave】 to make the Pure Land’s guiding light lose its target.

In essence, that was a clever shortcut. But the Demon-Suppressing True Person’s method was different: his means were unbearably fierce. The instant Vimotuo was struck by his sword, both form and spirit were utterly extinguished. It was only that Vimotuo’s consciousness had not yet registered it — hence the Pure Land light’s guidance was utterly useless!

“From ‘No-Kill’ to ‘Kill’ — what a consummate transformation!”

“But why? Why, even though the intent of the 【Sword of No Killing】 was shattered, could such a terrible sword-intent still evolve, its power rising even higher?”

Lü Yang pondered inwardly.

At that moment, within the Buddhist light there faintly appeared a majestic dharma-form, hands joined, and with a distant sigh:

“Āmítuófó. Benefactor, why go so far?”

It was Bodhisattva Guangming.

“Friend Dao, please do not walk about.” The Demon-Suppressing True Person’s face was calm as he said lightly, “On this journey I intend to go to the Pure Land; please hear the ringing of my sword.”

“.”

The Buddhist light suddenly extinguished.

But before the Demon-Suppressing True Person could move again, another fleeing light appeared, racing over — it was the furious Evil-Banishing True Person.

“Stop!”

He stood midair, his gaze fixed unwaveringly on the Demon-Suppressing True Person. His mastery of 【Sword Intent】 exceeded Lü Yang’s, so he saw more — and the more he saw, the more shocked he became: “One sword-intent shows signs of inner-outer alternation — how did you do this!?”

“This is the sword.”

The Demon-Suppressing True Person smiled faintly: “A sword may hide its edge within a scabbard or display its blade to the world; there is naturally an inner and an outer. 【Sword Intent】 should be the same.”

As his words fell, the Demon-Suppressing True Person’s brand-new 【Sword Intent】 exploded.

If heaven had life, that sword could cut it!

If earth had life, that sword could cut it!

If the Dao or law had life, that sword could cut it!

It was extreme to the utmost, the polar opposite of 【No-Kill】. This sword-intent meant only annihilation, to reduce everything to nothing!

Observing with divine sense, Lü Yang and the Evil-Banishing True Person both instinctively grasped its name:

“【All-Slay】.”

Hidden within the scabbard, it was 【No-Kill】.

Displayed to the outside, it was 【All-Slay】!

“No — no, that can’t be!”

The Evil-Banishing True Person wore a horrified expression: “This is not a single sword-intent. Scabbard and blade are merely your way of unifying them.”

“In essence these are two sword-intents!”

Saying this, even the Evil-Banishing True Person doubted his own judgement.

For sword-intent was the culmination of an obsession, entwined with a life; in some sense it even paralleled innate nature.

If so, how could one person possess two sword-intents?

“Which one is yours?”

The Evil-Banishing True Person’s eyes shone as he questioned the Demon-Suppressing True Person, who only shook his head and showed an ineffable puzzlement.

“Que Xie friend, why have you come to seek me?”

“...Naturally to bring you back to the sect.”

The Evil-Banishing True Person furrowed his brow, answering as if it were obvious: “The True Lord previously issued an oral command — to prevent loss to the 【Sword Dao】, you must not leave without permission.”

“An oral command from the True Lord?”

The Demon-Suppressing True Person glanced around: “Where is the True Lord?”

At these words the Evil-Banishing True Person’s face instantly darkened: “Ye Guangji, you have been willful enough this time — do not act so headstrong!”

“Headstrong?”

The Demon-Suppressing True Person looked at him, eyes deep: “I am curious.”

“You incited Shiyuan, causing him to die and secretly ruining my 【Sword Intent】 — you are the friend who did that. Yet now you come to me and tell me to return and wait obediently for death?”

“And you take the Sword Pavilion’s presumptions for granted; I have long failed to understand that.”

“Aren’t you afraid I’ll kill you?”

Around ten o’clock there will be one more update