Death… and me

"Who are you? What great grudges do you have towards our Xiao clan? Why did you lay such evil hands?!" Xiao Yucheng's teeth chattered as he spoke.

It's common to see battling in this martial world.

It's not frightening to see people putting up a fight angrily!

But this man in black remained thoroughly composed and his voice remained gentle all along, as if he was attending a feast and not killing people.

Not only Xiao Yucheng was afraid, but the other eight were also no exceptions.

This person didn't seem to be cold-blooded and cruel, but instead, he carried with him a strange free attitude of having seen through the life and understood the essence of life.

"Lay such evil hands?" that man in black seemed to have smiled.

Strangely, he was obviously wearing a mask. But everyone felt that he was smiling.

"Is it evil?" the man in black asked softly. As he said, he moved forward, with his clothes fluttering in the air. Then he said slowly, "Compared to your Xiao clan who tried to end the posterity of other clans, my hands are really too gentle!"

As he spoke, he was already less than 100 feet from the nine people.

Then he said softly while frowning, "You're standing too highly. I don't feel good raising my head to talk to you."

Then, he extended his right hand and pressed it down softly. Then swept it to one side.

With a loud bang, Xiao Yucheng and the others suddenly realized that they were standing on the flat ground!

That 18 flights of stairs had vanished into the thin air!

Aside, 200 feet away, the 18 flights of stairs were standing alone. There wasn't any big hall or house behind the stairs.

With just a shift of his palm, the stairs had shifted away! Shifted away from the feet of nine people who were standing above it!

The nine people were Martial Emperors. Yet they felt that they were dreaming!

Such skill seemed to them to only appear in fairy tales.

"Now it's better to speak like this. At least I don't need to raise my neck. That would be too tiring," the man in black said coldly, "What do you think?"

Xiao Yucheng's heart started to beat more wildly, and he said, "This elder, there must have been some misunderstanding…"

"Oh, that's definitely not a misunderstanding!" The man in black was exactly the sword spirit. He laughed, "How can ending other clan's posterity be a misunderstanding?"

Xiao Yucheng said hurriedly, "I've never heard of it before. As one of the nine great clans domineering over the Nine Heavens, our Xiao clan would definitely not do that sorts of cruel things!"

The sword spirit smiled strangely, saying, "You're not qualified to know."

He pulsed for a while and said bleakly, "You only need to know that I'm very contented with the killing today! Very satisfying! And it has wrecked my vengeance! You only need to know just so will do."

His eyes cast a faint spell of death and he said, "Wait till the members of the Xiao clan all got to hell, help me to bring a message to Xiao Se; Just say that for all the things that his descendants and he did to others, I've done the same to the Xiao clan!"

Xiao Yucheng was taken aback. He said, "Elder! Elder…"

The sword spirit rose his body straightly into the air. Extending his hands and with a 'clang', a sword appeared in his hands out of thin air. It was as if the sword was hidden within his body, and by exercising his thought, the sword had passed through his skin.

Then, he took a step out and slid through 100 feet in the air. He said coldly, "This place will be the first burial hall of the Xiao clan. There will then be the second and third…"

The sword turned into a sun in the air.

Then it crashed down!

This show of aggressiveness had already caused the few people to frighten out their wits!

The nine people shouted at the same time and began their counterattack!

But Xiao Yucheng threw off his sword. And with a movement in his body, he ran off in the opposite direction!

The sword spirit snorted, "Although I want you to be alive to spread my message, you shouldn't be so anxious!"

He flipped his left palm then extended it.

At the same time, his sword contacted with the weapons of the eight Martial Emperors.

With a soft clanging sound, the sword broke.

The sword of the sword spirit didn't stop, and continued to cut the neck of the Martial Emperor. His head flew up. At the same time, the sword had already broken the second person's dagger, then it rose to cut the second person's neck.

Then the third person's sword, his neck… the fifth person…

Just by wielding the sword flatly, every ingenious move in front of it would also become snowflakes under the scorching sun, melting and evaporating without a trace.

Each of the eight persons' sword and body broke into two pieces.

Meanwhile, Xiao Yucheng, who had already rushed away for 300 feet, felt that his body was slammed heavily down by a 10 000 pound-hammer. His body suddenly turned soft and fell to the ground like a puddle of mud.

Motionless.

The sword spirit flew towards him.

Xiao Yucheng's bones were already completely shattered by the sword spirit's through-the-air slap.

Xiao Yucheng's only use now was to say a few words!

"Don't forget to tell your Xiao clan members, that there'll be retribution for ending other clan's posterity!" the sword spirit said coldly.

Then he lifted his body gently. With a flash on the roof and a tremble on his two hands, a few sparks of fire flew out. This entire house of the Xiao clan began to burn with raging fire.

In the fire, the black figure flashed and vanished without a trace.

Leaving a ground of corpses, a pool of blood, and a half-dead Xiao Yucheng!

The sword spirit seemed to have forgotten that Xiao Yucheng couldn't move at all. This fire would burn Xiao Yucheng alive. That would lose Xiao Yucheng's purpose of conveying the sword spirit's message…

Shortly after the sword spirit vanished, several figures rushed back; These people came at an extremely fast speed. Their cultivations were much higher…

"Who had laid such evil hands?!" the first person had thin eyes, a pair of brows that looked like daggers. He had a long body, just like a sharp sword hidden in a sheath. Although he hadn't exposed his ability, he looked dangerous! As his eyes swept around, it seemed that there was also a beam of sword light shooting out from his eyes!

He was a second stage Sword Sovereign!

A sword practitioner would firstly become a Sword Emperor. His entire body would shine like a sword, just as if a great sword had just been created, and it couldn't wait to prove to the whole world that it's unmatched!

Domineering and sharp! Whoever blocked his way should be killed! He should be respected like a king!

But at the second stage, the acuteness of the sword aura would restrain. Although he would still be aggressive, he could cover up some of his aura.

This was the Sword Monarch.

It's commonly known as the Sovereign of swords!

At this moment, he would no longer act arbitrarily, but with concerns and thoughts. In other words, he had grown mature.

The third stage would be the Imperial of swords. Only then would the sword practitioner take on an imperial presence.

At the fourth stage, the acuteness of the sword aura would further restrain itself… As such, as one practiced further, his sword aura would reduce until the practitioner looked exactly like the ordinary people! That would be the highest stage of cultivation! Return to the original state of oneself!

By that time, everything on Earth could act as a sword!

This man in black who had just come was a true Sovereign of swords!

"There's no one alive," the duo whom he had brought here reached this conclusion after they walked around the corpses.

This man in black raised his brows. As if a sword had shot out of his body, he also made a rapid circuit around the corpses, and his eyes flashed like two beams of sword light, "Good sword!"

The other two asked, "Seventh master, this person… practices sword?"

"Yes! Practices sword! Although his cultivation isn't as pure as mine, his power is far above mine!" This person was Seventh Master Xiao, a genius in sword from the Xiao clan!

Such a tremendous accident had happened in this Flat Mountain Ridge that even Xiao Yucheng was killed. How could the Xiao clan not send people here? With the Xiao clan's cautiousness, how could they really allow Xiao Yucheng to take charge of this entire Xiao clan branch in the Flat Mountain Ridge?

He's only a puppet.

But Seventh Master Xiao had come late.

"The 17 people at the gate were killed with one stab of sword respectively," Seventh Xiao Master looked at the corpses and paid attention to the directions from which the corpses had fallen, the distances and directions from which blood had splattered out, and the concentration of blood nearest to the corpses. He didn't let go of any detail. Then, he said, "This person could wield his sword in whatever way he likes."

"There are more than 60 people who died near the gate. Obviously, that person had stayed there for a while and was besieged. He shouldn't have stopped. From his ability, these people couldn't stop him. So why did he stop?"

Seventh Master Xiao looked at the clear wounds on every corpse and frowned as he thought bitterly, "Unless… he was deliberately waiting to be besieged, so that he could kill more people in one shot!"

"When he arrived here, he obviously found his target. So, the 113 people here were killed at their waists at one shot with his sword!"

"At one shot? Kill 113 people at the same time?" The other two raised their heads in shock.

"Yes."

Seventh Master Xiao was standing exactly on the same position at which the sword spirit wielded his sword. Looking at the corpses surrounding neatly around him, his face was solemn. He pulled out his sword and wielded it.

He closed his eyes, seeming to be appreciating and imitating the movements of the sword spirit. After a long time, he shook his head disappointedly, saying, "I can't do it!"

He sighed, and said, "This person's ability in using sword is enigmatic. He's cruel and kills people in a way as though all of them are worthless. This is rarely seen in the world."

Then he saw the 18 flights of stairs standing alone, as well as the eight corpses and broken weapons that were scattered all over the floor. His eyes became murderous and he muttered, "Good martial arts! Good sword!"

"If I can have a fight with this person…" Seventh Master Xiao raised his face. His brows creased and his eyes turned deep.

A soft and low moaning sound was heard nearby.

"There's one still alive… Xiao Yucheng!" One exclaimed as he hurried over and looked down, "All his bones have turned into powder… He can't move even by a bit. Seventh master, if you want to ask him something, you can only ask him this way. If you touch him, he'll die!"

Seventh Master Xiao strode forward, and lowered his head to look at Xiao Yucheng, "Xiao Yucheng?"

"Seventh… Seventh master…" Xiao Yucheng moaned feebly.

"What happened?" Seventh Master Xiao asked.

…