A single move that annihilated over a dozen people was enough to strike fear into the other three clans.
Ji Fu was squatting in front of the two Ji brothers. Although their injuries were severe, they were not fatal. After examining their wounds, she stood up like a tigress, her eyes flashing with furious rage.
"Oh? This must be the eldest daughter of the Ji clan, Ji Fu," the Sect Master said with a dismissive cold snort. "Originally, your Ji clan and the Dongfang clan could have benefited from the protection of the Chi Xiao Sect. It's a shame that you killed my senior disciple together, which is equivalent to pushing your clan into a fiery abyss. What a pity."
A retainer behind Ji Fu tugged at her clothes, but could not stop her. He could only watch as she walked step by step onto the altar.
"Miss's special abilities have just awakened, and she already possesses such courage. How can we, as retainers of the Ji clan, let Miss face that monster alone?"
Seven or eight retainers strode forward, placing themselves in front of Ji Fu, forming a human wall.
"Don't be in such a hurry to die. As the two great families of the Dongfang and Ji clans, your bloodlines are quite powerful, and every daughter you have is of unparalleled beauty. I would be reluctant to kill you all. After all, in this world, beauties are sometimes as important as money and power, or even more so. Think of the princesses sent to the Western Regions, how meaningful they were."
The Sect Master spread his arms as if embracing the world!
"Look again, on the third wooden pillar, isn't that our Chi Xiao Sect's quasi-sage? I don't know what's gotten into you. You don't care for the supreme honor, yet you pine for a rustic life, defecting from the sect. And in the end, you're still involved with these few flies, opposing our entire sect. My good disciples, do you think such a person deserves to be our Saintess?"
The Sect Master pointed at Liu Fuqu, who was unconscious, and with a wave of his left hand, his disciples all shouted in unison, "She does not!"
"Then should such a traitor to the sect be killed?"
"She should be killed!"
"I can't hear you!"
"She should be killed!"
The Sect Master laughed wildly, his laughter shaking Ji Fu and the others, making their minds feel as though thousands of flies were swarming chaotically.
Dongfang Jing seemed to have lost her soul, collapsing to the ground, her mind a blur, as if she had returned to the amniotic fluid, the place where life began, and death was like a long sleep, eventually returning to nothingness.
"Very good," the Sect Master seemed very pleased with his disciples' answers. With a sweep of his sleeve, he declared, "You are witnesses to the history of our sect. In the future records and archives, you and I will surely be the most vividly written pages. I will lead you into the bustling mortal world, where there will be greater room for development. In such a dirty environment, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth is already far from sufficient, and cultivating the Dao can no longer keep up with the torrent of the times. Not keeping up with the times means being eliminated!"
"We don't want to be eliminated!"
The disciples cheered with raised arms, their expressions like those of devoted pilgrims.
"Excellent! Then, tonight, we shall use the blood of this defector to commemorate the new chapter about to be opened by our Chi Xiao Sect!"
"Kill, kill, kill!"
The disciples seemed to have fallen into a state of frenzied, supreme reverence. Their Sect Master had now transformed into their god. The Chi Xiao Sect, which once respected heaven and earth, had now completely fallen into the grip of individual heroism.
"What a bunch of lunatics."
The elites of the Xia and Ouyang families were already surrounded by the frenzied disciples.
Like African natives, they danced around the invaders, performing extremely strange dances or adopting peculiar combat stances. Above, dark clouds pressed down, and a giant vortex spat out brilliant lightning, as if to level the entire Chi Xiao Sect.
"Good disciples, do not make a move. Now, we can give the invaders from the Xia and Ouyang families another chance to atone," the Sect Master stood with his hands behind his back, seemingly having calmed down from his near-maniacal state. "These people were merely incited. I believe you are not fools either, and you must have seen an obvious truth."
The Sect Master flicked his toes and moved as lightly as a flying swallow, landing directly on the pillar where Liu Fuqu was bound.
"Now, I will give you a chance, your only chance." The Sect Master pointed at the dry wood beneath the pillar, then at the scattered fire seeds. "If you want to survive, light this pile of fire. I will give you a final bit of time. There are exactly nineteen of you, so I will give you nineteen seconds, and for every second that passes, one of you will die."
The Sect Master extended his fingers.
"One."
The two families, lacking their family pillars, upon hearing this, actually felt a flicker of unease. These people whispered to each other, looking around, as if dreading which unknown death would befall them.
"Two!"
As soon as the words fell, the Sect Master flicked a silver needle from his sleeve, which pierced directly through the chest of one of the men. Blood mist splattered. The man seemed not to have realized he was about to die, still twisting his head as if looking to see which unlucky person would die first. Only when he lowered his head sharply and saw his own hot blood gushing from his chest did his eyes immediately lose their life, and he fell backward.
Such a bizarre way to die, everyone feared they would be the next, and began to panic.
"Let's do it. We have no chance of winning anyway. Rather than dying here, we might as well surrender to them, and perhaps we can still keep our lives and go down the mountain."
"Yeah, my cherished wife at home is waiting for me. I can't..."
As the man spoke, the Sect Master had already counted to three!
A faint whistling sound, like that of a bullet in flight, was heard as another silver needle pierced the man's chest. The man instantly fell backward, his cherished wife at home becoming a widow.
The crowd finally began to stir.
These individuals pushed their way through the Chi Xiao Sect disciples. The first man to leap onto the altar first glanced at Dongfang Jing and Ji Fu, let out a sigh, and with his severed arm hanging limply, he turned to the base of Liu Fuqu's pillar and was about to light the fire when he was killed by a silver needle from the Sect Master!
His body flew back seven or eight meters, crashing heavily before everyone, his dead, ashen eyes still open.
"With only one hand, what is the point of living? My Chi Xiao Sect does not nurture such weaklings."
With these words, the remaining sixteen people were stunned by the Sect Master's unpredictable killing method and froze in place, hesitant to move.
"Don't worry, I don't kill those with arms and legs. What, are you scared now?"