Library of Heaven's Path

Hong long!

Shortly after those words were spoken, the crowd suddenly felt a heavy pressure from the sky pushing down on them. Following which, a middle-aged lady flew straight over with a sword in hand.

Before she even arrived, the crowd could already feel the sharpness of her sword qi. It felt almost as if their flesh was being torn to shreds.

The First Elder felt his goosebumps rising, and he hurriedly clasped his fist. "Meng Sword Saint…"

But before he could finish speaking, the sharp glint of a sword was already flying straight toward him.

Peng!

The First Elder was immediately sent flying before tumbling along the ground. At the same time, a bloodied wound appeared on his chest.

"You!" Not expecting the Meng Sword Saint to make a move on him without any hesitation right after returning, the First Elder was so furious that he nearly exploded on the spot.

He struggled to his feet agitatedly, and flicking his wrist, he whipped out a sword before charging right at the Meng Sword Saint.

"Zhang Wuheng, are you challenging me to a fight? It has just been a few days since we last met, but it seems like your guts have grown quite a bit!" The Meng Sword Saint harrumphed coldly as she gracefully flicked the sword in her hand.

Tzzzzzz!

The next instant, the First Elder suddenly found himself turning uncontrollably on the spot, as if he was trapped in a vortex. Sword punctures swiftly appeared all over his body, and crimson blood spurted from each of those punctures.

The First Elder was one of the top experts on the Master Teacher Continent, but he was still rendered completely helpless against the Meng Sword Saint's swordsmanship.

Peng!

The next instant, the First Elder found himself crashing into a heap of rubble, and he coughed up large mouthfuls of blood.

After all he had gone through earlier, he was already severely injured. Thus, when the Meng Sword Saint launched an assault on him, he felt his entire body going entirely limp, devoid of the slightest strength.

"Cough cough!" Awkward coughing echoed across the air, and a middle-aged man descended from the sky. "My wife, why don't you listen to the First Elder's words first?"

"Clan head!"

Upon seeing the middle-aged man, the elders in the area hurriedly clasped their fists and bowed deeply.

The head of the Zhang Clan, the father of the famed young prodigy, the Xing Sword Saint.

Upon learning that Zhang Xuan was currently in the Zhang Clan, they had rushed back as fast as they could, so they had been able to return within a relatively short period of time. However, it seemed like they were still too late.

"Listen to his words? What else is there to listen to? Didn't you hear the decree he made earlier?" the Meng Sword Saint bellowed with a dark look on her face.

"It's precisely because I heard it that I didn't stop you from making a move on him earlier! But look at the state he's in… If you continue hitting him, he really might lose his life! Why don't we first calm down and listen to the full story before deciding on what to do?" Xing Sword Saint said as he stroked his wife's back to calm her down.

Meng Sword Saint shot the First Elder a wintry glare before flinging her sleeves furiously. "Humph!"

Seeing that his wife had stopped her attacks for the time being, the Xing Sword Saint secretly heaved a sigh of relief before turning his gaze toward the First Elder. With an authoritative voice, he questioned, "What happened? Why did you issue a decree ordering for Zhang Xuan's death?"

"Clan head!" Zhang Wuchen quickly stepped forward and said, "That Zhang Xuan has been willfully destroying everything that he set his eyes upon after coming to the Zhang Clan. It was only after being left with no choice that the First Elder issued such a decree!"

"Willfully destroying everything?" The Xing Sword Saint raised his eyebrows. "Are you saying that all of this rubble is his doing?"

He had been rather perplexed to see the state that the Zhang Clan was in, but who could have thought that it would actually be Zhang Xuan's doing!

"Indeed, he's the culprit behind this!" Zhang Wuchen spat with gritted teeth. "Look at what he has done to our many millenniums of heritage!"

"This…" The Xing Sword Saint was visibly dazed for a moment. He subconsciously turned to his wife and muttered, "That really resembles you…"

His wife was a walking wrecking ball, often causing destruction wherever she went. Her rampages had not stopped even after marrying into the Zhang Clan, and it was to the point that the elders often kept a close eye on her in order to keep her in check. Who would have thought that Zhang Xuan's prowess in destruction would actually be a level above hers?

"Isn't it just a couple of buildings? To kill a person over a couple of rocks and stones… is this the magnanimity that you should have as elders of the Zhang Clan? If you are that afraid of your buildings being torn down, why don't I just help you demolish your ancestral hall so that you don't have to worry about it anymore?" Meng Sword Saint harrumphed as she wrapped her sword qi around her body, seemingly showing the members of the Zhang Clan that she was not joking around.

What the heck is this?

You are going to kill my son over just a couple of collapsed building?

Very well, just watch as I dig up the tombs of your ancestors then!

"It's not just about the buildings…" The First Elder's deep voice sounded.

At this point, he had finally managed to recuperate enough to talk. He knew that the Meng Sword Saint was a lunatic who would not hesitate to destroy their ancestral hall, so with a flushed face, he hurriedly spoke up to stop her.

"What else is it then?" The Meng Sword Saint glanced down at the First Elder with narrowed eyes.

"I know what you're thinking. You must be suspecting that Zhang Xuan is him… but I can tell you for certain he isn't! I have already tested his bloodline and soul, and it's been proven that he doesn't have the slightest hint of a relationship with the Zhang Clan!" the First Elder quickly said.

"Bloodline? How can you have the cheek to talk about bloodline before me?" The Meng Sword Saint widened her eyes in agitation as she shouted furiously.

"Fine! Putting that aside, I sensed traces of a soul oracle in his Primordial Spirit, and he even brought out an artifact of the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe! This should show that there's a very high chance that he isn't a human but an Otherworldly Demon in disguise!" The First Elder quickly changed his words.

"Soul oracle?"

"Artifact of the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe?"

The Xing Sword Saint and Meng Sword Saint were taken aback upon hearing those words, and they swiftly exchanged glances with one another.

They had suspected that Zhang Xuan might be their missing child, but if he was a soul oracle…

"Indeed! I believe I need not say more about the depraved arts that soul oracles practice. I'm very certain that his Primordial Spirit is not one of an ordinary cultivator but that of a soul oracle. Even if you doubt me on that, there's no questioning that the artifact he used to attack me is one of the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe. The pit over there was caused by that artifact, and the killing intent of the Otherworldly Demons is still lingering!" the First Elder said as he pointed in a certain direction.

The Xing Sword Saint and Meng Sword Saint turned their gazes over.

The pit was roughly several dozen meters deep, and while it appeared ordinary at first glance, with their sharp eye of discernment, they were still able to sense the faint aura of an Otherworldly Demon lingering within it.

The artifacts of the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe could only be driven using the Zhenqi of Slaughter, which only Otherworldly Demons possessed, so it was impossible for a human to activate it. Could Zhang Xuan really not be their child but an Otherworldly Demon in disguise?

"It's indeed the aura of an Otherworldly Demon." The Xing Sword Saint nodded in confirmation before asking the First Elder. "What happened?"

"It's like this…"

The First Elder quickly explained the swordsmanship duel, the sudden breakthrough, and the cultivation ordeal in detail.

"A Phantasmal Space Ordeal that brought a lightning tribulation even stronger than a Macrocosm Ascendancy Ordeal?" Upon hearing the full story, the Xing Sword Saint quickly looked at the marks of lightning strikes all around him before falling into deep thought.

There was no doubt that his child would have achieved great things if he was still alive, but to draw in such a powerful lightning tribulation in his Phantasmal Space Ordeal, not to mention successfully clearing it… this was something that he simply could not fathom even with the wildest of imagination.

Could the other party really be an Otherworldly Demon in disguise, just as the First Elder had said?

The Meng Sword Saint harrumphed. "Isn't he Yang shi's student? We should be able to uncover the truth by asking him!"

"Indeed, we will know the truth just by asking him about him." The Xing Sword Saint nodded. "However, Yang shi is currently still in seclusion, so it isn't a good time to disturb him…"

Hong long!

Before he could finish his words, an overpowering aura gushed into the clouds. It emanated such a powerful pressure that it immediately silenced the entire surroundings.

"Yang shi is out…"

Upon feeling this aura, everyone's eyes immediately lit up. The Xing Sword Saint and the others quickly headed off in a certain direction, and the other elders followed suit.

Soon, they saw an old man floating in midair. The energy in his body was fluctuating greatly, making it hard to determine his current level of cultivation.

"Yang shi!"

The crowd quickly clasped their fists upon seeing the old man.

"Un." Yang shi nodded with a faint smile.

After trading some pleasantries, the First Elder got to the matter at hand.

"Yang shi, pardon me, but there's a question that I have to ask you. There's a young man going by the name of Zhang Xuan who claims to be your student. May I know if that's true?"