Sa Luan shouted, “Can you hear me?! Sir! Come save me!”
Xiao Kun reached out and grasped the air. “What Spell are you casting?! Let go!”
Sa Luan refused to release it, but it was futile. Xiao Kun pulled hard. Sa Luan’s fingers, gripping the blade, were sliced open, blood spurting suddenly.
Black gas erupted with a boom! Xiao Kun flung the dagger aside and rushed to Sa Luan, trying to shield him. But behind Sa Luan, a black cloud burst forth abruptly, enveloping him and yanking him backward. A hoarse, mad laugh issued from the black cloud!
Xiao Kun did not recklessly charge at Sa Luan again. The intuition honed at the brink of life and death prompted him to make a precise judgment: he had to defeat the opponent before him first and could not afford to underestimate it.
Xiao Kun retreated a few steps, pressed his left hand on the Tang Dao, and drew it with his right!
He shot toward the mass of black qi like an arrow, while Sa Luan had already taken cover behind it, shouting, “Everyone, stand down! He’s one of us!”
The Tang Dao in Xiao Kun’s hand flickered with blue light as he rushed at the black qi. A surge of qi rolled up from the flat ground. In an instant, the scattered rocks on the plain, driven by the black qi, formed a meteor shower-like barrage that hurtled toward him.
Xiao Kun held the Tang Dao horizontally and let out an angry roar. Gripping it with both hands, he slashed downward. A streak of indigo saber light formed a crescent moon and exploded outward with a boom. A nearby stone mountain cracked and collapsed.
“Wait! Wait a second!” Sa Luan shouted desperately. “Master! Hear me out!”
The black qi coalesced into a humanoid shape, and a tall man finally emerged. He stepped forward, raised his hand, and the dagger flew up from the ground into his grasp. He then turned and handed the dagger back to Sa Luan.
“He’s Mr. Ying,” Sa Luan said. “He’s here to help me!”
Xiao Kun eyed the man who had stepped out from the black qi and said gravely, “Demonic Qi. You’re a demon?”
The tall middle-aged man known as Mr. Ying wore a hooded cloak that obscured his face, but his burly build exuded an air of dominance. He stood ramrod straight, carried no visible weapons, and his left arm bore a massive Bronze Kui-shaped Armguard that made it appear thick and heavy.
The black qi swirling around him dissipated and was drawn back in.
“Senluo Wanxiang, the legendary divine blade from Kunlun,” Mr. Ying said. “You have only one half. Where’s the other?”
Xiao Kun’s gaze shifted to his Tang Dao, then lifted to Sa Luan.
Sa Luan was extremely tense as he said, “Xiao Kun, you should go. No need to serve the Yelu Family anymore. From now on, you’re free.”
Xiao Kun said nothing, but the hand gripping his saber trembled incessantly.
“Mr. Ying will help me restore the kingdom,” Sa Luan continued. “He has many capable subordinates, and he doesn’t hold back on killing. You don’t need to keep dragging around a burden like me. These past days, I’ve caused you no end of trouble. Thanks, Master. You’re a good man.”
But Xiao Kun said, “Come back, Sa Luan. Come back!”
Sa Luan suddenly shouted, “No! My mind is made up!”
Mr. Ying said gravely, “You’re still young and don’t understand the ways of the mortal world. From the fall of nations and the destruction of families on the grand scale, to the life and death of ants on the small—everything has long been inscribed on the wheel of fate.”
Xiao Kun’s aura surged abruptly. He turned sideways, gripped the hilt of the Tang Dao tightly with his right hand, and pressed his left on the blade. Azure-blue flames ignited across his body, their brilliance climbing higher and higher, like a blazing sun on the verge of incinerating him completely.
“…No matter your heaven-defying might, you cannot change it.”
“But the Heavenly Demon Palace can.” Mr. Ying’s light, indifferent voice drifted from the black qi.
With a heaven-shaking roar, indigo blood burst from Xiao Kun’s left hand the moment he swung the saber. Under the Blood Sacrifice, the Tang Dao transformed into a massive bolt of lightning that tore through the night sky!
That slash nearly rent space itself. Mr. Ying was in the midst of unleashing black qi to sweep Sa Luan away when the saber qi followed, booming as it tore open a rift that revealed the dark depths of the underworld.
Mr. Ying’s expression changed. A black vortex swirled up, but Xiao Kun was already upon him in an instant. Sa Luan let out a great shout and spread his arms to block the black qi vortex. If Xiao Kun didn’t pull back, that slash would cleave Sa Luan in two.
In that brief moment, the black qi vortex rolled outward with an explosive shockwave that hurled Xiao Kun to the ground. Everything in the air vanished abruptly.
Clang. The Tang Dao fell to his side.
Xiao Kun spat out a mouthful of blood and knelt on the ground, staring at his own saber.
The sun rose in the eastern sky, its myriad rays illuminating the barren plain and gently falling on Xiao Kun. In the vast wilderness, only his furious, hoarse roar echoed.
