As Huo Zhan Bai led the group, following Xu Zhong Hua's swift pace, he couldn’t help but glance back at him. Xu Zhong Hua now wielded his sword with his left hand, and his once jet-black hair now carried streaks of white. The once confident and youthful young man had aged, yet had his ambitions changed?
The fire of ambition still burned within him—the same drive to gain power and prestige, the refusal to bow to anyone. He had always sought to become a dominant force in the martial world, no matter the cost.
Xu Zhong Hua hadn’t even asked a single question about his wife.
A surge of anger welled up within Huo Zhan Bai—a rare moment of emotion, especially in the midst of a life-or-death situation.
“Qiu Shui Yin…” He couldn't hold back and began to speak, wanting to tell Xu Zhong Hua about what had happened to his wife and child in all these years.
Xu Zhong Hua, who had left the Central Plains so long ago, didn’t even know he would never see his son again.
But Xu Zhong Hua furrowed his brow and stopped him, saying firmly, “We’ll discuss that later.”
Huo Zhan Bai felt a chill in his heart, but before he could say anything more, a large group of the palace’s disciples appeared before them. The leader, the Holy Maiden of the Stars, Saro, was frantically searching for the Grand Light Palace’s king or the remaining elders, but the palace was eerily empty. Not a single leader remained.
The disciples had been preparing to search the Asura Field when they spotted the intruders approaching from the mountains.
“Miao Kong!” Saro gasped, covering her mouth in shock.
The last surviving elder of the Five had betrayed them, leading the Central Plains martial sects straight into the heart of the Grand Light Palace!
A sheltered princess of the Uyghurs, Saro had never witnessed such chaos and danger.
The Eight Swords scattered, cutting into the enemy like thunderbolts.
They were the new strength of the Central Plains martial world. Once reunited, their power was unstoppable, far beyond what the leaderless disciples of the Grand Light Palace could withstand.
In the blink of an eye, the battle turned into a massacre.
“She’s escaping!” Xia Qian Yu suddenly called out as he saw Saro stumbling away, fleeing between the grand towers and pavilions.
“After her!” Xu Zhong Hua ordered sharply, taking the lead as he vanished into the distance with a few quick strides.
The other swordsmen exchanged glances before withdrawing their blades and swiftly following.
Huo Zhan Bai hesitated for a moment.
“Feng Xing,” he whispered to his comrade, “have you noticed? We haven’t encountered anyone from the Asura Field along the way.”
Wei Feng Xing, taken aback, replied, “You’re right.”
After a brief pause, he added, “Maybe after Tong’s rebellion, the Grand Light Palace king purged the entire Asura Field?”
Saro ran frantically, her face full of terror and frustration.
Her sister was dead… the king was dead… the Five Elders were dead… All those who had held her back were finally gone. The Grand Light Palace was about to be hers. Yet, at this critical moment, the martial sects from the Central Plains had arrived!
They had come to destroy everything!
She stumbled towards her residence, hearing the footsteps of her pursuers closing in.
Turning her head, she saw a gleaming sword blocking her path—Miao Kong, smirking coldly, stood before her.
“No!” she screamed, realizing it was too late to flee back to her residence. Instead, she turned and ran down another path—blindly rushing without recognizing that it led to the Asura Field.
She dashed forward only to find herself at a dead end.
The Eight Swords were right behind her, terror filling her heart as she burst through an iron door, desperate for escape. A chilling air met her as she stumbled into the dark and icy dungeon. The Snow Prison was shrouded in darkness, with only a few scattered torches dimly lighting the way, causing her vision to blur.
“Heh...” A cold laugh echoed in the shadows. “Finally, they’ve all come, haven’t they?”
In an instant, she was lifted and thrown viciously to the icy ground, pain searing through her body.
“Yes, Master Tong.” She heard someone answer, their voice laced with amusement. “This woman led them right to us.”
That voice… It was Miao Kong, the one who had followed her!
What was he saying? Master Tong?
She froze, unbelieving, and slowly raised her head. “Tong?!”
In the darkness, she saw a pair of strange, gleaming eyes, glowing with a faint blue and deep black, as dazzling as stars.
“T-Tong! You’re not dead?!” she screamed in shock, staring at the man who had been imprisoned in the Snow Prison by the Grand Light Palace King days before. He had failed in his rebellion and had been poisoned with the lethal Seven-Star Begonia poison. How could he still be alive? And why was the Snow Prison, which had held such a high-profile traitor, wide open?
Could it be that within just a single day of the king’s disappearance, Tong had already seized control of the Asura Field?
“Yes, I’m still alive.” In the darkness, those strange eyes smiled, mesmerizing without even needing to use the full force of his hypnotic powers. Tong leaned down, gripping the Uyghur princess’s chin tightly. “Surprised?”
In the cold, dark Snow Prison, shadowy figures moved, ghostly and barely visible, like demons lurking in the depths.
The Star Saintess, Saro, felt a chill run down her spine: Tong, who had controlled the Asura Field for so long, had nurtured a loyal following. Now, the elite assassins of the Asura Field had all gathered here without a sound.
In this brief span of a single day, what kind of secret pact had Tong and Miao Kong formed?
“Miao Kong, you gathered the Asura Field’s assassins and led those people here,” said Tong as he gave a cold smile in the dark. Miao Kong, once again wearing his bronze mask, nodded with a fleeting cruel smirk.
“Yes, now it’s up to you,” Miao Kong said in a whisper.
“I understand,” Tong’s eerie eyes glowed in the darkness. “Let’s get this done quickly.”
Footsteps approached, barely a yard from the door. The shadows around Tong raised their hands as if receiving a silent command, and all the figures vanished into the blackness of the Snow Prison.
Miao Kong’s form disappeared with a swift motion at the door.
“Sixth Brother!” Zhou Xing Zhi was the first to rush through the entrance. His eyes widened in shock as he entered.
“Swoosh!” As he stepped forward, an unseen light seemed to envelop him. Involuntarily, he turned his head and was met with a pair of mesmerizing eyes glowing in the darkness—hypnotic, otherworldly eyes that could drown anyone in their depths.
In that instant, he was utterly frozen, unable to move.
As Zhou Xing Zhi fell under the thrall of Tong’s hypnotic gaze, a silent thread of light whipped out from the darkness, coiling around his throat.
Without even a chance to cry out, Zhou Xing Zhi was hoisted from the ground, his body swiftly pulled toward the high ceiling of the Snow Prison. He struggled in vain, his sword slipping from his grasp as his hands clawed at the silver cord choking him, his throat rasping as he fought for breath.
“Well done,” Miao Kong chuckled, flying forward to catch the sword that had fallen from his comrade’s hand. Without hesitation, he reversed the grip and slashed, severing the tendons in Zhou Xing Zhi’s right thumb.
“The first sword, Mohun,” Miao Kong said with a cold laugh, throwing the sword into the rafters. With a loud clang, it embedded itself into the beams.
As he turned, two more swordsmen arrived together, rushing to rescue Zhou Xing Zhi when they saw him hanging from the ceiling. But they too were caught off guard and fell prey to Tong’s hypnotic eyes, unable to move as the elite assassins of the Asura Field silently attacked them.
Silver cords lashed out from the darkness, pulling the immobilized swordsmen toward the ceiling.
“The second sword, Liuguang. The third sword, Zhuanpo,” Miao Kong continued, his voice filled with icy amusement, as he tossed more swords into the rafters.
“Zhong… Hua? You… you…” one of the captured swordsmen croaked out, his voice weak with disbelief as he recognized the bronze mask. His face twisted in pain, unable to comprehend how his former comrade, Xu Zhong Hua—once one of the Eight Swords of Dingjian Pavilion—had betrayed them.
Was he a double agent all along?
Xu Zhong Hua simply sneered, the bronze mask concealing his expression.
Once he donned the mask of Miao Kong, he became Miao Kong once again.
Fools! Did they really think that after enduring so much humiliation for years, sacrificing everything, even his family, he had done it all just to destroy the Grand Light Palace on behalf of the Central Plains martial world? Ridiculous! The ideals of “righteousness triumphing over evil,” the mission of “exterminating demons to defend the martial world”—those were nothing but empty rhetoric. What he truly sought was power, to claim the position of leader of Dingjian Pavilion and dominate the martial world of the Central Plains!
For that, he had been willing to endure any hardship, to use any method—he had even allied with an assassin like Tong.
He would leave the throne of the Grand Light Palace to Tong, while Tong helped him eliminate the remaining Seven Swords, clearing his path to become the leader of Dingjian Pavilion. As for his comrades, especially the Seven Swords, they were merely obstacles on the road to his ultimate goal. Now, with the perfect opportunity in front of him, he would eliminate them all.
With swift and decisive movements, he severed the tendons of his former comrades without hesitation. Once he had accomplished such a great feat, with no formidable opponents left to challenge him, Dingjian Pavilion and the martial world would finally be his to control.
“Clang, clang, clang,” the sound of swords being embedded in the beams echoed continuously as three more swords were thrown up.
But the last to enter, Xia Qian Yu, was more skilled and alert than his predecessors. Though he fell under Tong’s hypnotic power, he managed to turn his head just in time to avoid the silver cord meant for his throat, letting out a desperate shout, “Watch out! It’s Tong’s hypnosis!”
In that moment, four more silver cords flew from the darkness, wrapping around his neck and lifting him into the air.
“Damn it,” Miao Kong muttered in frustration—the ambush had been revealed, and the two most formidable opponents had not yet been caught!
Indeed, Xia Qian Yu’s warning was crucial. Huo Zhan Bai and Wei Feng Xing, who had just arrived at the door, immediately stopped in their tracks. Alarmed, they looked toward the source of the voice and cried out in shock!
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