Volcanic Age

“Get back!” someone shouted, and all twenty of them retreated.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Zhou Xuchuan turned toward the voice, his expression a mix of shock and disbelief at their audacity.

The man dressed in black to the southwest hurriedly tried to adjust his stance when he saw Zhou Xuchuan approaching. But before he could react, a sword had already pierced his forehead like the wind, creating a large, gaping hole.

"How…"

"喝!"

Just as they were about to panic, someone shouted loudly as if urging them to come to their senses. It was a sound art unique to Daoist cultivation methods.

The Dark Heavens Association’s spies quickly set aside their surprise and focused on the situation at hand. They needed to concentrate fully on capturing Zhou Xuchuan.

Ting, ting, ting, ting!

As the black-clad men regained their composure, their sword techniques rained down like a relentless storm. There wasn’t a single opening, as if they were going for the kill.

Clang, clang, clang, clang!

Not even a Transcendent would have lasted more than a few seconds under such a storm of attacks. Unfortunately, their opponent was a Harmony Realm Master. Zhou Xuchuan ignored the storm and countered everything with his sword, almost as if he already knew where each attack would land.

Metal clashed with metal, sparks flew, and the grating sound of steel sliding against steel filled the air.

In the darkness, where clouds obscured the moonlight, the faint flashes of sword lights illuminated the surroundings.

The Dark Heavens Association spies fought with everything they had, attacking ferociously. They made sure not to deliver any fatal blows since they wanted to capture him alive.

However, it was actually much more challenging to subdue than it was to kill. Not to mention, their opponent was much stronger than them, forcing them to consume considerable strength and stamina.

Before long, several of the attackers' breathing became irregular, and that irregularity soon became an opening.

Although the opening lasted for only a moment, Zhou Xuchuan didn't miss the timing, seizing it like a demon and digging in.

"Ugh!"

Zhou Xuchuan's sword pierced a lung, the body on the other end stiffening with its final breath.

Swish!

As his sword was stuck in the body, a black-clad mole next to him swung his sword straight down with all his might, aiming for Zhou Xuchuan's shoulder.

Instead of pulling his sword out, Zhou Xuchuan slashed diagonally toward the upper right. His blade cut through flesh and bone as if it were tofu, knocking away the black-clad mole's sword.

“What!”

The black-clad man, who had been moments away from severing Zhou Xuchuan's arm and shoulder, was shocked.

Cutting through flesh and bone required an incredible amount of force. Moreover, since it also created more friction, Zhou Xuchuan's sword should have moved more slowly. It shouldn't have been as fast as a sword swung freely through the air.

However, Zhou Xuchuan ignored all of those factors and effortlessly knocked away a sword that a Peak expert had swung with all his might. It was a jaw-dropping sight.

Zhou Xuchuan stretched out his left hand and grabbed the stunned black-clad mole’s nape.

“Ugh!”

Crunch!

The mole's vertebrae shattered, under Zhou Xuchuan's grip. The light in his eyes was tainted with fear before it slowly faded into darkness. Almost instantly, the black-clad spy went limp, sagging like a lifeless mollusk in Zhou Xuchuan's hand.

Swish!

As the black-clad mole died, another attack came barreling toward Zhou Xuchuan. The sword left a long afterimage like a meteor's trail, aiming straight for Zhou Xuchuan's back.

Zhou Xuchuan shifted to the side, using the black-clad mole in his grip as a shield.

There were seventeen spies left.

Although there were still quite a few of them, they weren't that difficult to deal with.

Each of them had attacked with all their power, so they had used up a large amount of qi. While their expressions were hidden by their masks, it was still obvious that they were exhausted.

Zhou Xuchuan's sword flickered, severing the head of the mole who had tried to attack him as the mole's sword punctured Zhou Xuchuan's human shield.

"Now sixteen."

In an instant, he had killed four of them.

The remaining sixteen didn't dare approach Zhou Xuchuan but instead retreated while maintaining the encirclement.

"You bastard… just who the hell are you?" One of the moles asked.

"YoU bAstArDs… JusT wHO thE HeLl aRe yOu?" Zhou Xuchuan muttered, mocking them.

Then he raised his sword, pointing it forward.

"You've probably heard that dozens, no, hundreds of times."

The Dark Heavens Association had remained hidden in the shadows until it finally revealed itself to the world ten years later.

Everyone who had encountered them before that point had asked the same questions.

Where did a force with such power come from?

Who were they?

The Dark Heaven's Association's answer to the questions was always the same.

“You don’t need to know.”

Zhou Xuchuan’s body suddenly vanished.

He hadn't actually disappeared, it only just seemed that way because he was moving so fast.

"AGH!!"

The mole who had asked the question collapsed, blood spattering everywhere.

Fifteen people remained.

'As expected.'

With this, Zhou Xuchuan was able to confirm that there was no one among the moles who could be called the leader.

He had been targeting anyone that sounded like they were giving orders or seemed to be leading the group. However, they never wavered even after he killed the suspected leaders.

"We're changing our methods."

The voice was sharp with alertness.

"From this point on, it doesn't matter if he dies. Don't hold back."

"We won't be able to win if things keep going like this. Let's kill him first and examine his body."

"I understand."

It seemed they were all equal in hierarchy, and each of them appeared to be acting under separate orders.

As soon as they made their decision, the fifteen of them rushed Zhou Xuchuan at once. Unlike before, their bloodlust was so intense that it made his hair stand on end.

“Come!”

Zhou Xuchuan responded with the Twenty-four Sword Forms of the Plum Blossom.

From the first form, Roadside Plum Blossom, to the eighth form, Plum Blossom Blood Rain, he showcased his magnificent sword techniques, each flowing together like water.

Three of the moles in front were caught by Zhou Xuchuan's sword and died without even a scream, their blood spraying into the air.

"What?! That's Mount Hua's sword technique! And it's not just any technique, but the Twenty-four Sword Forms of the Plum Blossom!”

As soon as the group reduced from fifteen to twelve, a few of the remaining moles recognized Zhou Xuchuan's sword technique.

They were all members of the Righteous Faction. Moreover, they were all Peak Realm spies. So, it wasn't strange for them to be able to recognize the Twenty-four Sword Forms of the Plum Blossom.

"A Plum Blossom Swordsman!”

As the exposed skin around his eyes had no wrinkles, it was clear that the intruder was young. From that alone, they could tell he wasn't a second-generation disciple, but at least a third. The moles could also tell that he was an active Plum Blossom Swordsman based on the clues they had gathered.

"That said, you all come from everywhere, don't you?"

Zhou Xuchuan's mask was dented in right in front of his mouth. The moles could definitely see that he was smirking under his mask.

“Kunlun’s Thirteen Swords of the Dragon in the Clouds (雲龍十三劍).”

A few of the black-clad men flinched.

“Mount Tai’s Glowing Sunset Nine-Nine Sword Form (落霞九九劍), Mount Song’s Nine Valleys Sword Technique (九谷劍法), even Mount Heng’s One Pine Sword Technique (一松劍法)!”

Zhou Xuchuan not only knew Mount Hua's techniques, he could also recognize the Righteous Faction, Evil Faction, even the Demonic Path's techniques.

Even if he had only survived through luck and fortune, he had witnessed a considerable amount of techniques just from the sheer amount of battlefields he had been a part of.

“How could a Plum Blossom Swordsman come out alone?”

The moles simply couldn't understand what was going on. They weren't trying to buy time, it was a genuine question.

The twenty-four Plum Blossom Swordsman never acted alone. At the very least, they always moved in pairs.

“No, more importantly, are you really a Plum Blossom Swordsman?”

As elites of Mount Hua, the Plum Blossom Swordsmen were closely monitored. Things may have been different if it was any other disciple of Mount Hua, but the Dark Heavens Association would have definitely noticed if a Plum Blossom Swordsman had left Mount Hua.

“A Plum Blossom Swordsman…"

Zhou Xuchuan tightened his grip on his sword.

“Is that the conclusion you reached?”

Qi flowed through his meridians and toward his sword. His qi wasn't the usual blue.

Gulp.

Someone swallowed nervously. Their faces all hardened with tension.

“Really?”

Swish!!

As soon as he finished soeaking, the sword wind from his blade turned into waves that covered the area. The black-clad moles were unable to evade the sudden attack and could only swing their swords in a desperate attempt to block it.

"Ha…"

The black-clad mole in front sighed. Even though only the area around his eyes was exposed because of his mask, his skin was pale.

Cough, cough!

Four of the black-clad men fell to their knees, vomiting blood.

Their faces darkened, and one of them even began bleeding from his eyes.

The fifteen had become twelve with the Twenty-four Sword Forms of the Plum Blossom just moments ago, and now, the sword wind had further reduced that number to eight.

They had lost another four.

"Poison…?"

The moles had tried to block the sword wind with their blades. However, that wasn't all there was to Zhou Xuchuan's attack.

The wind they thought was a sword wind turned out to be a poison wind.

It wasn't carelessness or arrogance.

Their opponent was a sword master who had just taken down eight of their members in the blink of an eye. They never could have imagined that he would use poison. It was only natural for them to think it had been a pure sword wind.

If they had known Zhou Xuchuan was a Poison Master, they would have prepared in advance. None of them took poison lightly.

Just like the saying, when something seemed too ordinary, it was too good to be true.

"Just who the hell…"

Poison arts, like sword arts, had levels.

The basic stage of poison arts was external application, used by secretly feeding it to someone, sprinkling it around in powder form, or applying it to a weapon. If one cultivated their poison arts further, they could use poison as a form of qi, freely handling it and applying it to techniques, such as the Poison Palm.

Once a Poison Master reached a certain level, at least the First Class, they could manifest it externally through their qi, like the poison wind Zhou Xuchuan had just used.

That level of mastery in poison arts was rare. Moreover, it was used by a sword expert who could even use the Twenty-four Sword Forms of the Plum Blossom.

There was no such person in the Mount Hua Sect.

In fact, no such person had ever existed in the history of the Mount Hua Sect.

An impossible identity.

Zhou Xuchuan's very existence made no sense.

No matter how hard they tried to understand it, they just couldn't wrap their heads around it.

“I understand that feeling better than anyone," Zhou Xuchuan said.

He remembered how the murim had reacted when the Dark Heavens Association Leader showed his divine power with Ten Thousand Convergence Art.

It was etched into his brain, likely no different from the reactions of the black-clad moles before him.

Zhou Xuchuan snickered as he imbued qi into his sword. This time, it had a pure and clear blue glow.

Crackle.

The threadlike qi tangled together and eventually gathered in one place. What had once been rippling like water gradually solidified and took shape.

"You want to know who I am?"

Chatter, chatter.

Their jaws chattered, and their bodies trembled like aspen trees.

Their fighting spirit fell into the abyss.

"We're giving up on both capture and killing."

THUD THUD THUD!

Their hearts pounded like raging bulls. No matter what they did, they couldn’t get them to slow down.

"It doesn't matter which one of us it is."

The composure they had learned was useless. The phenomenon before their very eyes was akin to despair itself, defying all common sense.

"We have to escape immediately and report this to the Association."

Gulp.

"Report that, even though we don't know who it is, there's a monster hunting us."

Boom!

As soon as the mole finished speaking, the eight of them ran in different directions. They were moving as fast as they could.

"You want to know who I am?"

They ran until it felt like their feet were on fire, until their Yongquan point was about to rupture from excessive qi circulation.[1]

“I am.”

Zhou Xuchuan bent his knees. The qi that surged from his dantian circulated through his meridians and strengthened his body.

“The Mount Hua Sect’s…"

His thigh muscles contracted once and then relaxed. The moment they contracted again, the ground beneath him exploded.

"Zhou Xuchuan.”

Zhou Xuchuan, a Harmony Realm Master and the owner of a monstrous reserve of qi unleashed his lightness technique at full strength. There was no way the moles could escape.

Squelch!

When one of the moles felt something approaching from behind, his vision suddenly spun, and he saw a decapitated body collapse to the ground.

The other seven met the same fate.

By running in different directions, they hoped Zhou Xuchuan would have to chase just one of them, giving the others time to escape.

"Agh!!"

However, they were all caught in the blink of an eye. There was nothing they could do since they died without even being able to counterattack properly.

"Ugh!"

In hindsight, it had actually been a mistake to flee. Things may have been different if they had resisted even a little.

But because they ran without looking back, none of the moles could avoid Zhou Xuchuan's sword aura, losing their lives in a single blow.

In the end, six of them became cold corpses without even reaching the Martial Alliance camp.

"Ugh…"

The death god finally lowered his sword. The last remaining mole hung from his grasp, looking down at Zhou Xuchuan with pain-filled eyes and a faint smile.

"Even… if… you torture me… there's… nothing I can… tell…"

Crunch!

“I know.”

1. The opposing acupoint to the Baihui point at the crown of the head, this is the lowest acupoint in the human body, at the balls of one's feet. ☜

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