On a peak, several li away from the narrow valley where a fierce battle was raging.
An old man in a purple robe stood straight in the rain.
Rainwater flowed down to the hem of his long robe, deepening its purple hue, and his white eyebrows caught the rain above his white hair that flowed down his back.
Also, a sword tied with a purple cord at his side rested quietly on a fold of his robe.
Purple Emptiness True Person.
The old Taoist priest who wore the deepest purple among the seven elders of the Great Emptiness Dao Palace.
The tale of how, in his youth, he had subdued three masters of the Unorthodox Faction from the lands north of the river in a single clash was still spoken of among the juniors of the Orthodox Faction.
Allowing not a single shred of personal feeling when judging right from wrong, it was said that at one martial arts tournament, he had personally executed a junior from his own Taoist path for dabbling in the Unorthodox Path, and had not even batted an eyebrow.
A renowned master of the orthodox Taoist path.
He was a respected senior of the Orthodox Faction, whose name was untarnished in the Jianghu.
However.
"..."
For over a decade, he had stood before a wall.
He had devoted his life to the Taoist path, accumulating Daoist power, but at some point, he realized his Dantian was no longer filling.
There was an old Taoist saying that emptying was filling, yet whenever he looked into his Dantian, which no longer filled, he always felt a sense of helplessness.
Even after more than a decade of seclusion, that wall had not budged an inch.
Then, not long ago, a rumor drifted in from beyond the Mountain Gate.
A Qilin has appeared at the Windshear Cliffs!
The moment the two words 'Qilin' reached the depths of the Dao Palace, Purple Emptiness True Person's white eyebrows trembled as if struck by lightning.
A Spirit Creature.
A treasure among treasures, one of the Four Divine Beasts.
And what if he could freely consume its flesh?
The capacity of his Dantian, which was so full it could hold no more, might dramatically increase.
And so, for the first time in a long while, he pushed open the heavy stone door of the Profound Emptiness Cave.
Now, in the middle of the narrow valley where he had arrived, was the beast, just as the rumors had described.
A colossal beast with the head of a lion, the body of a deer, and hooves whiter than snow, upon whose back five-colored scales flowed, each one shimmering with brilliance even in the rain.
A massive horn rose from the crown of its head, parting the dreary rain.
The gaze of Purple Emptiness True Person slowly swept over it.
The brilliance condensed at the horn's tip seemed deeper than the purple Aura at his own sword's tip, and each and every five-colored scale stood out like an elixir that could replenish a lifetime of Daoist power and internal energy.
How should one view a member of the Orthodox Faction coveting a Spirit Creature?
The old question arose once more from the depths of his heart.
Without answering the question, he raised his True Qi and lightly dried the hem of his purple robe.
From that moment, not a single drop of rain could touch his clothes.
He had long grown accustomed to postponing the answer, just like that.
No, standing in a place where rain and blood mingled, one could say the answer had already been given.
If the hundreds of neatly sliced corpses lying fallen around him were not the answer, what was?
There was one whose head had been severed from his shoulders and was now buried in the mud.
There was another whose chest had been split open diagonally, its insides washed pale by the rain.
A severed arm lay in the mud a few paces from its owner, its fingers frozen as if still trying to grasp something.
The rain drew out dark red streams of blood and released them throughout the mire, and the blood slowly spread out in all directions from his feet.
The Martial Artists who had entered the Windshear Cliffs seeking the Qilin.
They were the ones Purple Emptiness True Person had cut down on his way to the valley for the sole reason that they were in his way.
In the midst of it all, the old Taoist priest stood straight in his immaculate robe, unsplattered by a single drop of blood.
Though blood pooled at his feet, his shoes remained dry.
In the midst of the slaughter wrought by the hand that had pursued the pinnacle of the Taoist path his entire life, he was utterly composed, not disturbed in the slightest.
To him, everything he had done to get here was a 'righteous' deed, done to break down or overcome his wall.
The minor incidents in the process were merely stepping stones for the greater justice to come.
Having come this far, his true question lay elsewhere entirely.
"…Who in the world is that person?"
A man in a black robe stood still in the rain, directly in front of the beast.
He held two swords crossed diagonally in his hands.
A cross-shaped black Aura, devoid of any light and holding only darkness, emanated from the two crossed blades, directly confronting the beast.
The man's feet were planted firmly in the mud, unmoving.
He had spent his entire life in the Jianghu, yet this was a quality unlike any martial art he had ever seen.
It had no light to be called an Aura, and no form to be called a martial art.
Just two black lines directly met the beast's dazzling Aura, sucking it in strand by strand.
The Qilin's five-colored vortex.
The Five Directions Divine Light.
A great power that gathered the five brilliances of Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, and Metal into a single point at its horn's tip and shot it out in a straight line.
Now, that entire bundle was being sucked beyond the black cross, strand by strand.
Sshwaaaaaaaaaaaaa—
The five colors disappeared one by one beyond the point of intersection.
Red, blue, green, yellow, and white were successively absorbed beyond the black lines, and the beam of light between the beast's horn and the cross gradually condensed into a single point of deep darkness.
In that brief moment, the intersection of the cross began to shrink further and collapse.
The mass that had absorbed all five colors, unable to bear its own weight, was quietly drawn in, condensing into a small point, then an even smaller point, until the vertex itself finally collapsed under its own weight.
Kwadudududududuk—
A great void materialized in an instant at a point in front of the man in the shape of a hemispherical Qi wave, and all currents from every direction were instantly sucked toward it.
The air between the beast's horn and the void bent violently, and the rain falling between the peaks abruptly changed its downward course and was pulled in.
Jjeooooooooooooooooooooooooong—!
And then, the translucent void, no longer able to bear its own weight, exploded all at once.
Light and sound ceased for an instant, then, as that instant ended, they were released in all directions at once.
The five condensed colors erupted from the epicenter, spreading in all directions in a flash.
Kwadudududuk—!
Kwadudududuk—!
Kwadudududuk—!
The two peaks beside the one Purple Emptiness True Person was standing on, and another peak beyond them, were all sheared off at once.
Earth and rock crumbled at once like a cracked dam, pouring down in heaps far beyond the valley.
The hem of Purple Emptiness True Person's robe fluttered violently in a gust of wind released from the epicenter.
"…Hah."
An astonishing sight, the likes of which he had never seen in his entire life.
He had not just received the vortex of five-colored Aura head-on, but had turned the Qilin's ferocious attack back on itself, causing an explosion that scorched the surrounding land.
Moreover, the man in the black robe, standing at the center of the explosion, had not moved an inch from his stance with the two swords crossed before his chest.
"Is he an Immortal… or a descended being…"
But before that question could even be completed.
Duung—.
It was neither a sound nor words.
Not the sound of a bell, nor a wind chime, nor the falling rain, but something that poured into his mind from all directions, struck his consciousness once, and then vanished.
G▒ds of R▒a▒ms
F▒▒ld L▒rd K▒r▒n — Ph▒se 2 ▒niti▒t▒d
Afterward, an incomprehensible tone rang out quietly from somewhere.
At that, his white eyebrows narrowed slightly.
'Luminous Heart's Voice Transmission!?'
No, it was different.
Similar, but distinctly different… that thing, which he could not even discern as writing or sound, lingered for a moment in the center of Purple Emptiness True Person's consciousness before vanishing.
A martial art untaught in any Taoist scripture or martial manual.
A branch he had never even heard of in any secret art left by the Taoist masters of old.
It was not of Buddha, not of the Jianghu, not of the Demonic Path, not even of the Immortal Realm; it was a form of sound or sound art he was experiencing for the very first time.
If it was not of man, nor of any immortal house, then only one answer remained.
A revelation sent down by the heavens themselves, or at least a will from Beyond the Heavens that could not be deciphered by any human martial scripture.
As was fitting for one who had spent his life pondering the principles of the heavens, he accepted the message with reverence.
The tips of Purple Emptiness True Person's fingers, wrapped around his sword hilt, twitched lightly.
Did that tone come from the man?
Or was it released by the Spirit Creature?
Or perhaps both?
He could not guess.
However, there was one thing he could confirm.
The Qilin.
Though its power had been mercilessly repelled by the recent clash, it was once again planting its hooves to face the man.
The rain that had seeped into its mane began to evaporate again, raising a thick fog, and brilliance began to rise anew from its five-colored scales.
It had been pushed back, but it seemed it had not taken any damage.
On the other hand, the man at the very center of the explosion remained in his initial stance, the two dark swords crossed before his chest.
'Yes, for now… it's fine.'
No matter that the Qilin was a Spirit Creature among Spirit Creatures, one of the Four Divine Beasts, it was still just a beast.
It could be no match for that man, who was displaying a realm akin to a god of martial arts.
Fortunately, the man's attacks and defenses did not seem to affect the 'quality' of the Qilin.
Its scales were still scales, its horn was still a horn, and the Spiritual Energy deep within it was also preserved.
Good, very good.
What was his remained intact.
The gaze of Purple Emptiness True Person slowly settled on the beast once more.
The brilliance condensed at the horn's tip looked even deeper than when he had first seen it.
Perhaps because it had scattered in the clash and then refilled, its five-colored light filled his eyes, looking like the very elixir that would replenish a lifetime of Daoist and internal energy.
He had to have it.
That strand of brilliance, that bundle of Spiritual Energy, that mighty horn, and each and every one of its scales.
Come to think of it, it was his duty as one dedicated to the Taoist path to have spent his entire life subduing the evil qi of a twisted world.
If an old man who had fulfilled his duty received a piece of the Spirit Creature's flesh, would even the heavens blame him?
It was not greed, but a deserved reward.
The problem, as expected, was that man.
'…Should I strike now?'
His fingertips, wrapped around the sword hilt, twitched lightly once more.
Even if he, who had dedicated his life to the Taoist path with a single sword, were to clash head-on, he could not guarantee he could overcome that unknown black Aura by even a single inch.
He had no idea who the man was, but judging by the recent battle with the Qilin, he was powerful enough to contend for the title of Number One Under Heaven.
'Or should I wait?'
If that man faced the beast alone, it would not be long before its massive body fell to the mud.
However, if that happened, the Spirit Creature's horn, the brilliance in its mane, and every single one of its prominent scales would all belong to that man.
Not a single wisp of Spiritual Energy would reach the Dantian that could break his wall.
Or…
The white eyebrows of Purple Emptiness True Person narrowed slightly more as his gaze shifted to his upper right.
On the opposite peak across the valley, another group had taken position.
A man in a gray martial robe stood composed on the mountainside, and below him, a group of men swung their blades, leaving bloody heaps in the mud.
The backs of the Martial Artists fleeing down the mountain were being cut down, and severed heads and limbs were piling up in the mud.
The Heaven-Slicing Saber Sect.
A renowned family of the saber, founded by martial artists with military backgrounds and known for their ferocity even among the Ten Great Sects of the Orthodox Faction.
A disposition to cut down anyone who got in their way, regardless of whether they were Orthodox, Unorthodox, or Demonic, was firmly ingrained in their sect's tradition.
To them, who intended to monopolize the Qilin, the other Martial Artists who entered the Windshear Cliffs were nothing more than small fry to be trampled underfoot.
Only the man on the mountainside did not personally take part in the slaughter, standing erect.
He was tall, nearly six feet, and his long black hair, braided and tied atop his head, was soaked with rain and flowed down his shoulders.
Blood still dripped down to the back of the hand resting on his saber.
It was bloodshed by his own saber, but for now, his saber was still.
Like him, his gaze was also fixed on the center of the valley, on the massive beast and the man who stood before it.
'The Heaven-Slicing Saber Emperor…'
The new Sect Leader of the Heaven-Slicing Saber Sect, who had ascended to the position after subduing seven of his peers in a single day at the Saber Emperor Candidate Martial Tournament.
The gazes of Purple Emptiness True Person and the Heaven-Slicing Saber Emperor met once between the peaks before settling back on the beast.
No words were exchanged.
There was no formal agreement.
It was simply that in order to claim the same prize, rather than competing…
A silent agreement was reached that something else had to come first.
No matter how powerful that man was, he would surely be exhausted after the fight with the Qilin.
'If we both strike at that moment… There is a chance of victory.'
The butchering and distribution could be handled properly after the hunt was well and truly over.