Chapter 115: Beat Them into Submission

The words of Zhou Qian and Zhang Zai reached the ears of the challengers, and the crowd of hundreds instantly erupted.

"Too arrogant! Challenging a hundred of us alone—do they really think that just because they made the Heaven's Pride Ranking, they are invincible?"

"Utterly infuriating! Don't any of you fight me for them; I want to beat them to death!"

"Since they dare to look down on us so much, fine! Let’s grant their wish. Everyone, attack together!"

"All together now!"

"Charge!"

The presiding elder, seeing the crowd’s fury and fearing a massive disaster, prepared to reactivate the protective array to separate them.

"Elder, no need to be nervous. We brothers can handle this," Zhang Zai said, stopping him. "They are just a bunch of motley fools. You don't need to worry; we won't deliver any fatal blows."

The presiding elder stared at them, dumbfounded. *Is that what I meant? I was doing this for your own good! Even if you are capable, facing hundreds of experts at the same level is no small feat. Why can’t you appreciate kindness?*

Before he could speak, he heard Zhou Qian shout, "Senior brother, let’s finish this quickly so Ling Xiao and the others can take over tomorrow!"

"Agreed!" Zhang Zai replied and charged straight into the surging crowd. "A bunch of idiots! Today, I’ll show you the gap between you and true Heaven’s Pride geniuses!"

Zhou Qian didn't even use his "Grand Void Art." Instead, he shouldered his "door-slab" weapon and waded into the fray, knocking down three or four people with every swing, as easily as chopping melons and vegetables.

Zhang Zai was even more ferocious. He didn't even bother drawing his sword, using only his fists and feet to unleash a flurry of attacks, laying out over a dozen people in a single breath.

Though they appeared to be fighting independently, they were actually moving in a perfect pincer formation. Regardless of whose challenger stood before them, they coordinated seamlessly from left to right, tearing through the ranks without meeting a single enemy capable of lasting more than one exchange.

Within half a cup of tea’s time, the ground in front of the Pure Yang Temple’s mountain gate was littered with bodies. Groans and cries of pain filled the air.

***

Conflicts continued to escalate, and one year later, the first large-scale clash between cultivators erupted, triggering a series of tragic sect exterminations.

The initial major conflict broke out between the once-obscure Five Willows Sect and the Yuzhang Sect, which dominated the Northern Frontier.

The Five Willows Sect had gradually risen to fame in the cultivation world because of Wuliu Zhengying, a genius at the Spirit Transformation stage who ranked twenty-first on the Heaven's Pride Ranking. Countless young cultivators flocked to the sect. While they dared not challenge Wuliu Zhengying, many hoped to join the sect. The Five Willows Sect, struggling to recruit enough disciples, did not turn them away and accepted many talented newcomers.

Originally, the recruitment of the Five Willows Sect was no one else's business; who would care about a small sect of a hundred people? The problem was that they were located in the Northern Frontier, sharing space with an unscrupulous neighbor: the Yuzhang Sect.

The Yuzhang Sect was large, established over 150,000 years ago. In terms of seniority, it surpassed even several super-sects and possessed profound foundations, including three Earth Immortal-stage experts and one True Immortal. They had gradually become the arbiters of the Northern Frontier. Even super-sects like the Pure Yang Temple and the Heaven-Suppressing City had to rely on their influence when operating in the region. They were, in effect, the uncrowned kings of the North.

However, the Yuzhang Sect acted in both righteous and sinister ways, surviving by playing both sides of the righteous and demonic factions. Both sides gave them face, allowing them to act with extreme tyranny in the North.

Because the Five Willows Sect produced Wuliu Zhengying while the Yuzhang Sect had no disciples on the Heaven's Pride Ranking, they felt deeply resentful. Furthermore, Wuliu Zhengying had consecutively defeated over twenty of the Yuzhang Sect’s geniuses and elder-level experts, causing the sect to lose face. They grew to hate the "insignificant" Five Willows Sect and constantly sought an excuse to crush them.

As fate would have it, a Golden Core-stage cultivator who had been expelled by the Yuzhang Sect joined the Five Willows Sect during their recruitment drive. The Yuzhang Sect used this as a pretext to launch an assault.

The outer gate of the Five Willows Sect, which had barely been established, was razed to the ground—a "lesson" from the Yuzhang Sect.

Knowing they could not afford to provoke the Yuzhang Sect, the Five Willows Sect chose to swallow their pride. Then, a more unfortunate event occurred: Wuliu Zhengying’s father, unable to bear the destruction of the sect's hard work, got into a dispute with members of the Yuzhang Sect. During the altercation, his father’s Nascent Soul was shattered on the spot, and he died before he could return to the sect.

At this, Wuliu Zhengying could no longer endure it.

He disbanded the core disciples of the Five Willows Sect, then single-handedly marched upon the Yuzhang Sect. With his overwhelming combat power, he completely destroyed their mountain gate.

The Yuzhang Sect had never suffered such a humiliation. Every expert they had was mobilized, vowing to kill Wuliu Zhengying and eradicate the Five Willows Sect's lineage.

Wuliu Zhengying was fierce; he fought while fleeing, killing over twenty of the Yuzhang Sect’s Spirit Transformation and Tribulation Transcendence-stage experts. The sect was severely weakened, and their two Earth Immortal ancestors finally intervened to eliminate this grave threat, yet Wuliu Zhengying still managed to escape.

Six months later, he reappeared.

By then, Wuliu Zhengying had changed his name to "Blood Hand," and his cultivation had broken through to the Tribulation Transcendence stage.

Wielding an unknown, precious sword, he attacked the Yuzhang Sect once more. After killing three Earth Immortal-stage experts, he vanished into the shadows once again.