A Sword to Slay the Dragon

As the barrier shattered with a deafening roar, tens of thousands of sword cultivators flooded into Mirror Lake like a bursting dam.

However, what greeted them was not a land littered with rare treasures, but a scene of absolute devastation.

Renowned figures like Pei Yuzhi and the madman Tantai Jue were lying on the ground, heavily injured like dead dogs.

And sitting high upon the ruined throne, dressed in white as pure as snow and completely unharmed, was none other than Ye Xuan—the very man labeled a toy boy by the entire cultivation world!

The entire area fell into a deathly silence; everyone's minds went blank.

"My God... Even Tantai Jue was defeated?"

"The Holy Maiden of the Ruthless Sword Pavilion has fallen too? What about the Young Pavilion Master of the Thunder Sound Pavilion? Could it be..."

Amidst the deathly silence, Ye Xuan slowly stood up.

He gently pressed the frightened Ying'er down onto the throne, then paced alone to the edge of the throne with his hands behind his back.

The cold wind swept by, making his white robes flutter and snap in the air.

Looking down from his high vantage point at these tens of thousands of sword cultivators who called themselves chosen geniuses, his eyes held not a shred of reverence, only the playful amusement of a spectator.

"I am Ye Xuan."

"Today, right here, I have slain the lingering phantom of the Sword Emperor, inherited his eternal legacy, and seized his heaven-defying fortune!"

He paused for a moment, his gaze sweeping across the crowd like lightning. Looking at those faces intertwined with shock, jealousy, and greed, the corners of Ye Xuan's mouth curled into an extremely unbridled, wild smile:

"I know that every single one of you here looks down on me."

"You think that I, Ye Xuan, am just a kept man, a piece of trash who only knows how to hide behind women."

"That does not matter."

Ye Xuan suddenly lifted his foot and stomped heavily on the cracked ground beneath him, unleashing a heart-stopping boom:

"The fortune is right here! The legacy is with me!"

"Today, I, Ye Xuan, will test my sword against the world!"

"Whether you are from righteous orthodox sects or giant demonic factions! Whether you want a one-on-one duel or wish to attack me all at once!"

"Whoever is unconvinced, step forward!"

"Defeat me, and I, Ye Xuan, will offer the Sword Emperor's legacy with both hands! But if you lose..."

A cold glint flashed in his eyes, radiating chilling killing intent: "Then leave your lives here in Broken Sword Gorge!"

As his voice faded, the entire crowd broke into an uproar!

Too arrogant!

This was no longer just being dismissive of everyone; this was simply rubbing the dignity of the entire younger generation of the cultivation world into the dirt!

"Ignorant brat, what arrogant boasting!"

Right at that moment, a ball of blazing fire violently exploded from the crowd, and an old man wearing crimson Taoist robes stepped out into the air.

The terrifying coercion of the late Deity Transformation stage swept across the scene like a storm, and a giant flaming sword in his hand pointed directly at Ye Xuan.

"I am the Grand Elder of the Crimson Fire Sect! Ye Xuan, you little brat, you merely got lucky and picked up the scraps. Do you really think you are invincible in this world? Others might fear the female emperors behind you, but I do not! Hand over the legacy, and I will leave your corpse intact!"

This old man had just arrived and had never seen the terrifying sight of Ye Xuan slaying the Sword Emperor's avatar earlier. He merely thought the youth was bluffing.

Seeing someone take the lead, countless surrounding cultivators also grew restless, the fires of greed burning fiercely in their eyes.

However, facing the aggressively imposing late Deity Transformation mighty figure, Ye Xuan did not even bat an eyelid.

He did not even draw his sword.

"Noisy."

Ye Xuan simply raised his right hand casually, formed his fingers into a sword, and aimed at the old man, making a careless, light downward slash through the air.

There was no dazzling sword energy, no earth-shattering explosion.

But at this very instant, the swords hanging at the waists of the tens of thousands of sword cultivators present let out a shrill, mournful wail simultaneously!

The old man, who was charging in mid-air, suddenly froze.

His eyes bulged as he stared fixedly at Ye Xuan, the original greed in his gaze instantly swallowed by endless horror.

"What... what kind of sword is this..."

Before his voice could fade.

An extremely thin line of blood extended straight down from the top of his skull all the way to his crotch.

"Pfft!"

His entire body, along with the supreme-grade spiritual weapon flaming giant sword in his hands, was instantly split into two!

The cut was as smooth as a mirror. Even the Nascent Soul within his body was instantly obliterated by the invisible, annihilating sword intent of that strike, his soul scattering into nothingness!

Heaven and earth are ruthless; all things shall be severed!

One finger, and a late Deity Transformation expert was instantly killed!

The mangled corpse plummeted, and a rain of blood drifted down.

The tens of thousands of people who had been restless and clamoring seemed as though an invisible primordial beast had tightly gripped their necks. All their greed and disdain instantly turned into a bone-chilling cold.

"Who else?"

Ye Xuan slowly retracted his hand, his indifferent gaze sweeping across the crowd as if looking at ants.

This time, no one dared to make a single sound; no one dared to meet those eyes.

Those cultivators who had harbored wishful thinking were now trembling madly like quails, lowering their arrogant heads.

How was this a kept man?

This was clearly a peerless genius wearing the skin of a youth!

"Such a monster... I am afraid only an old monster at the Void Refinement stage coming in person could suppress him, right?" The heavily injured Pei Yuzhi gave a miserable laugh, her Dao heart completely collapsing.

Just as Ye Xuan was suppressing the entire scene with his might.

"Crack! Crack!"

A series of teeth-aching cracking sounds came from the subterranean abyss. The originally dead-silent Mirror Lake churned violently like boiling ink, emitting a nauseating stench of rot and death energy.

The entirety of Broken Sword Gorge quaked as mountains collapsed and the earth split. A fluctuation hundreds of times more terrifying than the Sword Emperor's coercion, brimming with a tyrannical and destructive aura, shot up into the sky like an erupting volcano!

A shrill dragon roar forcefully shattered the boundless flowing clouds in the firmament!

"What is that?"

Under countless gazes of extreme terror, a rotting dragon claw the size of a mountain abruptly thrust out of the water, tightly gripping the bedrock beneath the throne.

Immediately after, an ancient corpse dragon over a thousand fathoms long, its entire body exuding eerie green ghost fire and foul-smelling sludge, crawled out from the abyss!

"It is the ancient evil dragon! The world-destroying evil dragon that was slain and sealed here by the Sword Emperor back then!"

Mo Qixing's face was ashen, and he roared in shock: "It actually used the opportunity of the legacy opening to revive its corpse demon body!"

"Tribulation Transcendence stage... This is the physical strength of the Tribulation Transcendence stage!"

"We are doomed! Flee!"

The tens of thousands of sword cultivators instantly collapsed in panic.

Under the coercion of the Tribulation Transcendence stage, those at the Deity Transformation stage did not even have the right to resist. Just a single breath of corpse poison miasma it exhaled instantly turned countless low-level cultivators into pools of blood.

Inside the void palace, the three high and mighty female emperors abruptly stood up, their beautiful faces paling in shock.

"Oh no! It is the corpse puppet of that vile beast." Wu Lingxiao cried out sharply: "That is a Tribulation Transcendence stage physical body. No matter how monstrous Ye Xuan is, it is impossible for him to cross three major cultivation realms to stop it!"

"Hurry! Forcibly activate the cross-realm teleportation!" Xia Lengyue frantically channeled the array formation disk. For the first time, genuine panic appeared on her usually ice-cold face: "He absolutely cannot die! He is mine!"

"I will go save him! Even if my origin is damaged, I will drag him back!" Zi Yao even directly summoned her natal magical treasure, attempting to tear through the void.

In their eyes, this was an absolute dead end with zero chance of survival.

"Ye Xuan, hold on... As long as you survive, I will agree to whatever you want from now on!"

Xia Lengyue stared fixedly at the Water Moon Mirror, praying madly in her heart. It was not until she faced the fear of forever losing her true love that she realized this man, whom she had once treated as a plaything, had already been etched deeply into her soul.

However, inside Broken Sword Gorge.

Facing the thousand-fathom corpse dragon that blotted out the sky and spewed destructive dragon breath, Ye Xuan did not take a single step back.

He merely gently patted the trembling Ying'er in his arms, and then slowly straightened his spine.

He tilted his head back, looking at that insufferably arrogant behemoth. There was no fear in his clear eyes, only a thoroughly ignited, unrestrained battle intent!

"A stinking loach dead for ten thousand years dares to bare its fangs and brandish its claws before me?"

Ye Xuan laughed out loud, his laughter growing louder and louder until it resounded through the clouds!

"That finger strike just now was too fast, no one saw it clearly."

"Now, I will use this stupid dragon to properly demonstrate to the people of this world what the absolute pinnacle of the Sword Dao is!"

With a tap of his toes, Ye Xuan turned into an incredibly dazzling golden meteor, charging upward against the world-destroying dragon breath! He hovered tens of thousands of feet in the sky!

In front of the thousand-foot giant dragon, he was as insignificant as dust; but the light erupting from his body was so blinding that even the heavens paled in comparison!

Ye Xuan took a deep breath and opened his arms. His phenomenon erupted without reservation, and the phantom of an indomitable golden Sword God condensed with a boom behind him!

He looked down at the tens of thousands of cultivators fleeing in panic below and let out an explosive shout, his voice like the divine thunder of the nine heavens:

"Gentlemen, hold your steps!"

This fierce shout, carrying an irresistible and majestic heavenly might, actually caused all the fleeing cultivators to subconsciously stop in their tracks.

Ye Xuan's gaze was fanatical and domineering. That was the solitary courage of one who viewed death as a return home, and even more so, the posture of a deity controlling all creation!

He faced this realm, faced those countless trembling spirit swords, and issued an edict from the depths of his soul:

"Today, I shall slay a dragon!"

"I have no sword in my hand, but the myriad swords of this world are all for my use!"

"Lend me the three-foot green blades in your hands!"

"Swords, come!"

As the words "Swords, come" exploded, the swords in the entire Sword Emperor tomb went mad!

First it was Pei Yuzhi's soft sword, Mo Qixing's ebony sword, and the natal flying swords in the hands of tens of thousands of sword cultivators...

All of them flew out of their hands uncontrollably, letting out fanatical sword cries akin to a pilgrimage!

Immediately after, a massive cracking sound spread across the earth. The millions of broken swords, ruined swords, and ancient divine swords buried deep beneath Broken Sword Gorge for ten thousand years heard the monarch's horn like a slumbering army, and all broke through the soil!

Densely packed, they blotted out the sky and the sun!

There were no more clouds in the sky, no more wind, only swords! Endless swords!

Millions of flying swords converged into a mighty river of steel, flowing upward and frantically spiraling around Ye Xuan, forming an apocalyptic blade storm that covered a radius of a hundred miles!

"Ten thousand... Ten Thousand Swords Returning to the Origin! It really is Ten Thousand Swords Returning to the Origin!"

The blind Mo Qixing fell to his knees, old tears streaming down his face. "If one hears the Dao in the morning, one may die content in the evening! To see such a miracle, this old man dies with no regrets!"

Inside the void palace, the three female emperors were completely petrified.

They stared blankly at the white-clad youth surrounded by billions of divine swords in the image, feeling their pride being smashed to pieces in this moment.

"A Soul Formation cultivator slaying a Tribulation Transcendence being?"

At the center of the storm, Ye Xuan's eyes were as cold as a blade.

He grasped the empty air with both hands, as if he held the power of life and death over the entire world.

Billions of flying swords frantically compressed and fused with his movements, eventually turning into a brilliant sword of light that was tens of thousands of feet long, spanning across heaven and earth!

The wild laughter at the corners of his mouth shattered the void:

"Why not?"

"Slash for me!!"

Ye Xuan's hands violently chopped downward through the air!

The colossal sword of light crashed down with world-splitting momentum!

Heaven and earth lost all sound and color, leaving only this streak of absolute white light.

There were no screams, no resistance.

This seemingly invincible Tribulation Transcendence stage corpse dragon, facing this strike that gathered the sentient beings and eternal sword intent, was like melting snow under a scorching sun. Its scales shattered, and its bones vaporized!

Along with its remaining evil will, it was completely erased by this supremely rigid and yang sword qi, turning into ashes and annihilating!

One sword.

Just one sword.

Slay the god, execute the demon, destroy the dragon!