Nightfall

There in the front yard of Peach Mountain, thousands of swords of light were roaring around the middle-aged man while his thin sword flickered seamlessly around him. Many were thinking that this man might be able to hold up and eventually strike back. But Zhao Nanhai had become worried and frowned, saying, “Creating a cage of swords?”

No wonder he was the strongest from the South Sea branch. He had figured out Ye Hongyu’s true strike behind the thousands of swords. During their fight in the Verdant Canyon, even Jun Mo was trapped by Ye Hongyu’s tens of thousands of swords, not to mention this middle-aged man. The second ranking among the South Sea group was a tall and thin elderly man. He realized how fierce the storm of swords would become and stepped out from behind Zhao Nanhai. He reached out his right hand and shot out a strand of Haotian’s Divine Flame, trying to shield the middle-aged man from the storm of swords.

The middle-aged man had also sensed the killing intent in the storm of swords. He shouted out, integrated all the power of his cultivation base into his unpredictable sword and shot it directly at the sacred sedan. With protection from the willowy senior fellow, he tried to step back swiftly to survive.

The swimming sword pierced directly through the blood-colored gauze, into the sacred sedan and pointed at Ye Hongyu between her eyebrows.

When the second ranking senior stepped out to help, Ye Hongyu already opened her eyes which were already glowing brightly with starry lights. She could not help becoming irritated because someone was trying to stop her from killing that middle-aged man. She was very displeased.

When the middle-aged man’ sword stabbed into the sacred sedan, her eyes shone even brighter as they reflected the gleam of light from the sword. Instead of holding up her natal sword, she lifted her left hand.

Though the thin sword was swimming through the air like a fish, it was immediately caught when Ye Hongyu reached out her fingers.

The radiating sword trembled between her fingers like a fish struggling on land, swishing its tail. Her slender fingers seemed to be glowing as they clamped onto the sword.

Clang. All of a sudden, the sword started emitting green smoke, and Ye Hongyu flung it aside. She had crushed it into useless scrap metal, and it was now like a dead fish which could no longer struggle.

The middle-aged man was retreating when he sensed the loss of his natal sword. Feeling both fear and fury, he vomited a mouthful of blood. He had integrated the divine skills of West-Hill into his swordsmanship and created his unique sword style. It was indeed outstanding and was able to stab through Ye Hongyu’s sacred sedan in the beginning. However, when Ye Hongyu had figured out his technique, he was helpless.

Her specialty was West-Hill Divine Skills. As for swimming, her name bore the meaning of fish and she had once defeated Ning Que and Mo Shanshan by Daming Lake in the Wilderness using her swimming sword. Being the Great Divine Priest of Judgement, how could she possibly be hurt by this level of sword intent?

Furthermore, she could not tolerate that the man’s sword had pierced into her sedan and pointed directly at her. After she got the letter from Liu Bai years ago, no one would have dared to place a sword in front of her.

Although others from the South Sea had interfered, Ye Hongyu had destroyed the middle-aged man’ natal sword and wounded him seriously. To everyone else, she had won an absolute victory.

But she did not want to stop there. Whoever dared to challenge the head of Judicial Department must die. There was never another option. She had created the cage of swords just to kill that man.

Even though the extremely powerful willowy old man was still holding up against her swords storm, she was no less determined to proceed.

No one could stop her.

…

The storm of swords was continuing while the willowy old man was holding his right hand high to keep the cage from being completed. The middle-aged man would survive if he could retreat a few more paces.

Zhao Nanhai was no longer worried, and the willowy old man felt somewhat relieved.

Right there, in a breath of time, a ghost like figure rushed out of the Sacred Sedan of Judgment covered by blood-colored gauze, flying over the willowy old man and arriving before the middle-aged man.

That was Ye Hongyu, wielding her natal sword. She directly stabbed towards the man.

People cried out in shock, in the front yard of Peach Mountain.

No one expected that Ye Hongyu would leave her sacred sedan and risk a close-ranged battle. In the cultivation world, only the martial art masters and those from the Devil’s Doctrine would opt for close-range battles. Even masters from the Sword Garret of South Jin Kingdom would never come that close.

But Ye Hongyu had come out prepared.

She had been used to close battles since childhood. Although their divine swords flew swiftly, nothing was quicker than a sword stabbed at point-blank range. And it was far better to make sure the enemy was dead right in front of her. Later on, from her several encounters with Ning Que, she had learnt from him the skills of close battles as well. Though she was not practicing the Haoran Qi, nor did she possessed a strong and fearless body trained by the Devil’s Doctrine, she had learnt enough from Liu Bai’ sword.

Liu Bai’ sword was all about one fatal strike. As long as he stabbed the enemies within inches, there was no chance for them to survive.

What if the enemy was standing at a distance? Well, he would simply go right in front of the enemy to deal his fatal strike.

…

Being the closest to her sword, the middle-aged man could definitely feel her killing intent. He sensed profound fear and death.

With his natal sword destroyed, there would be no way for him to escape. He tried to use divine skills of West-Hill to condense a flaming light ball in front of him, so as to stop the horrifying sword.

The willowy old man was holding up against the storm of swords. Upon seeing his junior forced into a hopeless situation, his expression turned serious as he pointed his left hand toward Ye Hongyu.

It was not a simple move. From the tip of his finger emerged a flaming flower emitting a blinding light. The flower rushed towards Ye Hongyu’s back, and it almost seemed to hit her despite the distance between them.

Ye Hongyu sensed the attack coming from behind but nonetheless continued stabbing toward the middle-aged man. Her sword broke through the flaming ball of light without slowing down.

She chose to ignore the attack from behind because she was determined not to give her prey a chance to flee. If she had hesitated for even a single second, that would have given Zhao Nanhai enough time to rescue him.

She was determined to kill him, no matter what. It was for the simple reason that anyone who dared to challenge the Great Divine Priest of Judgement was doomed to die.

…

Ye Hongyu’ sword had stabbed into his chest and heart. People in the front yard of Peach Mountain could almost hear the sound of that heart being stabbed through.

The man screamed and fell onto the ground. His blood splattered.

Zhao Nanhai shouted furiously, while the willowy old man’s expression turned even darker. The old man pulled back his right hand and committed himself to a all-out strike at Ye Hongyu, disregarding the incoming rain of swords from the sky.

The tip of his finger was about to hit Ye Hongyu’s back with the majestic divine flame.

Ye Hongyu could not turn or react in time. Just then, when everyone present thought that she was about to be hit, a golden flower bloomed on her back!

It was right at the spot where the finger was pointing at!

The pure and golden flower was created from her divine skills and divine flame. Only that could have defended against the old man’s hit which utilized an equally powerful divine flame. Upon crashing into each other, the divine flames created dazzling fireworks in the front yard.

Ranking high among the divine priests from South Sea and only second to Zhao Nanhai, the willowy old man was definitely better than Ye Hongyu in his practice of West-Hill’s divine skills. It was not long before the dazzling fireworks from their divine flames died out. And thus, he gained the upper hand in this exchange.

People from the Divine Halls of West-Hill cried out in shock and looked toward the highest sacred sedan, hoping that the Hierarch could save Ye Hongyu at this crucial moment.

But what happened next was something none of them expected.

The willowy man’s fingertip broke through the golden flower, piercing through her blood-colored Gown of Judgment and continued into her flesh.

Yet, all of a sudden, a golden thread appeared at the spot where she was pierced.

That golden thread appeared to be as light as air and fast as lightning. It traced the old man’s divine flame all the way back to its source, the old man himself.

It was traveling so fast that it brought with it an immense sense of destruction.

The willowy man yelled in alarm. He pulled back his Haotian Divine Flame as fast as he could in an attempt to get away from the golden thread. However, his actions were in vain. Not only was the mysterious thread not afraid of the power of the divine flame, it did not seem to slow down even the slightest. Upon reaching the bottom of his finger, the thread started wrapping round the finger and constricting itself.

Without a single sound, that finger fell onto the ground.

No blood came out of his wound as it was wrapped up in the divine flame. In truth, however, had the old man been any slower to react, he would have lost his whole hand.

The Qi of Heaven and Earth echoed slightly while Ye Hongyu drifted back to her sacred sedan like a piece of red maple leaf.

She gave Zhao Nanhai a glance when she passed him by, without showing any particular emotion.

It was as silent as grave in the front yard of Peach Mountain.

The willowy man looked at his broken finger in silence.

Zhao Nanhai looked down at peach petals by his side, similarly not saying anything.

The rest of the people from the South Sea gathered around their dead member, solemn.

The girl from the South Sea turned pale, not believing what she had just seen.

Two light coughs broke the silence.

It was then followed by the sound of the Sword of Judgement being returned to its sheath.

Inside the blood-colored sacred sedan, Ye Hongyu closed her eyes again, resting her cheek on her hand. She seemed to be feeling a bit worn out.

…