83: Who said I don’t have any witnesses?

On the stone platform of the Sword Mound, the backlash from the shattered formation caused all twenty-eight disciples to spit out fresh blood.

They looked at Chu Feng, who stood with his sword, and their eyes were filled with boundless fear.

Chu Feng, holding the Holy Sword, walked forward step by step, his footsteps clearly audible on the deathly silent platform.

The twenty-eight disciples had long lost all will to resist.

They slumped to the ground, scattered and disoriented, looking at Chu Feng, who approached with the Holy Sword, like the King of Hell.

"Senior Brother Chu... Chu!"

Li Hao could no longer care about dignity; he scrambled forward a few steps, tears and snot streaming down his face.

"Mercy! Senior Brother Chu, have mercy!"

With him leading the way, pleas for mercy immediately surged forth.

"We were forced too! That old scoundrel Ling Xiaotian made us do it!"

"He did give each of us five thousand high-grade spirit stones, but if we didn't comply, he would have killed us!"

"Senior Sister Liu Xuan merely refused to participate in this matter and had her Dantian crippled by him."

They spoke over each other, pushing all the blame onto Ling Xiaotian, even trying to use Liu Xuan's tragic state to gain Chu Feng's sympathy.

However, as Chu Feng listened to these noisy pleas, the frost on his face not only didn't melt, but his brows furrowed even tighter.

He stopped his steps, his gaze sweeping over the unsightly faces before him.

"Liu Xuan?"

Just two words, yet all the pleas for mercy abruptly ceased.

Everyone's hearts tightened, as if an invisible hand had clutched their throats.

From Chu Feng's tone, they heard not sympathy, but a suppressed rage.

Li Hao trembled all over and quickly rushed to explain.

"Senior Sister Liu Xuan, she refused to obey Elder Ling's orders, and was... was crippled on the spot!"

"Elder Ling also forced all of us to stab her with a sword, or else he would kill us. We were forced, to survive, that's why..."

"Please, for the sake of fellow disciples, spare our dog lives! We are willing to work like oxen and horses to repay your kindness!"

From the mouths of the crowd, Chu Feng already understood the whole story.

That Heaven Sword Sect disciple he had never met, a disciple named Liu Xuan, had died at the hands of that old thief Ling and these people, all because of him.

"To survive?"

He kept repeating these four words, his voice devoid of any emotion, but the surrounding air seemed to solidify slightly because of it.

These were the coerced individuals who had chosen to compromise under Ling Xiaotian's tyranny and plunged their blades into an innocent person.

Under the illumination of the Crystal Heart of Sword, he could clearly feel that the fear in their words was real, but the selfishness, and even a hint of lucky, hidden beneath that fear, was equally clear.

They might indeed have been coerced, but the moment they raised their swords and stabbed Liu Xuan, they had already made their choice.

Chu Feng slowly raised the Holy Sword in his hand, its tip pointing towards the twenty-eight people sprawled on the ground.

Behind him, the myriad sword master phantoms, which were about to dissipate, seemed to solidify slightly again, sensing the fierce resolve in his heart.

"If I do not kill you, how can I comfort Senior Sister Liu Xuan's spirit in heaven?"

Hearing these words, everyone was utterly terrified.

They had originally intended to gain Chu Feng's sympathy, but now they had only made him angrier.

"No—"

"Chu Feng, I am a direct disciple of the Heaven Sword Sect, you cannot!"

"We truly know we were wrong! Have mercy!"

Their last hope shattered, and extreme fear turned into desperate wails.

Li Hao struggled to his feet and tried to escape, but in the face of absolute power, it was all in vain.

Chu Feng said no more; he simply swung the Holy Sword in his hand.

A sword light, embodying the intent of separating yin and yang, swept across the area like mercury flowing across the ground, swift and decisive.

Wherever the sword light passed, space seemed to be silently cut open.

The terror and distortion on Li Hao's face instantly froze; he opened his mouth, seemingly wanting to say something, but his consciousness had completely plunged into darkness.

His last thought was regret, regretting why he was the first to step forward and be Ling Xiaotian's dog, regretting why he had struck that first sword.

Zhao Hu trembled slightly as he knelt on the ground. He lowered his head and saw a thin line of blood appear on his chest, his life force rapidly draining away.

If only I had known, I would have just... Sun Miao's tears had not yet dried when the sword light swept past; she only felt a chill on her neck, and her vision began to spin.

Before her consciousness dissipated, she seemed to see Senior Sister Liu Xuan's desperate and hollow eyes again.

The sword light dissipated.

Twenty-eight figures stiffened in place, and then, their bodies began to disintegrate inch by inch from where the sword light had passed, turning into dust that fell rustlingly.

Twenty-eight disciples, who could be considered the backbone of the Heaven Sword Sect, were utterly annihilated with a single swing of the Holy Sword, leaving no trace of their bodies or spirits.

The moment these twenty-eight people were completely annihilated, the myriad sword master phantoms behind Chu Feng transformed into streams of sword intent and surged into the Holy Sword.

Hum—

The Holy Sword glowed brightly, as if infused with powerful spirituality, radiating a warm, lustrous treasure light.

A vast aura, a convergence of the wills of countless sword path experts throughout the ages, emanated from the sword body.

Artifact spirit!

Chu Feng had never seen a composite artifact spirit formed by the collective will of myriad sword masters.

He could clearly feel that the Holy Sword now seemed to possess its own soul.

It was no longer just a powerful weapon, but more like a sword kingdom carrying the history of the sword path.

This feeling was exceptionally profound; he had never encountered it in any recorded texts.

"A single sword can accommodate so many artifact spirits."

Chu Feng's gaze swept over the twenty-eight slightly bulging storage bags on the stone platform, and the scattered fragments of the formation disks.

He reached out and grabbed them, and those storage bags all flew into his hand.

Inside each storage bag, five thousand high-grade spirit stones, imbued with rich spiritual energy, were neatly stacked.

Adding them up, it was a staggering one hundred and forty thousand high-grade spirit stones, a massive fortune that could even move a Nascent Soul Stage cultivator.

"Ling Xiaotian truly spared no expense to kill me."

Chu Feng expressionlessly collected all the spirit stones along with the discarded formation disk fragments. Since Ling Xiaotian had sent him such a grand gift, he naturally couldn't refuse it.

His figure transformed into a stream of light, speeding towards the exit of the Sword Mound.

Outside the Sword Mound, there were still grudges to settle... At the entrance of the Sword Mound.

Sect Leader Xiao Yibai and the elders had not left but were waiting here for the final outcome.

Many disciples also gathered in the distance, eagerly looking forward and discussing what kind of sword Chu Feng would obtain from the Sword Mound this time.

According to past experience, when the Sword Mound opened for three days, most disciples would stay until the last moment, striving to find opportunities.

However, less than a day had passed when the silent mountain wall once again rippled like water, and the space in the center slightly twisted.

"Someone came out?"

"So fast, how long has it been?"

"Did they encounter danger inside and were forced to withdraw?"

"Impossible, it's only the first day, and besides, what danger could there be in the Sword Mound?"

Under the surprised and uncertain gazes of the crowd, a figure stepped out from the rippling light gate; it was Chu Feng.

In an instant, the entire back mountain fell into an eerie silence, where a pin drop could be heard.

Everyone's eyes widened, looking at that figure in disbelief.

Too fast!

This exceeded everyone's understanding!

Even those exceptionally talented individuals in history took at least two days or more after entering the Sword Mound to obtain a sword.

When everyone's gaze focused on the long sword in his hand, they all gasped in unison.

"What is that in his hand?"

"The Holy Sword! It's definitely the Holy Sword meteor!"

"My heavens, he actually pulled out the Holy Sword, and in less than a day!"

"The Holy Sword, which no one could shake for ten thousand years, was taken by him?"

"Is this the power of the Crystal Heart of Sword? Even the Holy Sword recognizes him as its master."

Everyone's faces were filled with horror, and their gazes towards Chu Feng were full of disbelief.

Ascending the Heavenly Ladder, having a Crystal Heart of Sword, Nascent Soul Stage cultivation... all these miracles combined could not compare to the impact brought by the Holy Sword in his hand at this moment.

Whoosh!

A figure, as fast as lightning, appeared before Chu Feng almost instantly.

Sect Leader Xiao Yibai could not hide his excitement, his eyes burning as he stared intently at the Holy Sword in Chu Feng's hand.

"Good! Good! Good!"

He said "good" three times, his voice carrying a subtle tremor.

He reached out his hand, seemingly wanting to touch it, but then stopped in mid-air with a sense of reverence.

"It is indeed the meteor. I didn't expect my Heaven Sword Sect to wait for ten thousand years, finally waiting for someone who could bring it out of the Sword Mound."

He knew better than anyone the difficulty of pulling out this Holy Sword. Back then, he was also a prodigy of the sect, entering the Sword Mound full of vigor, and had tried to conquer this sword, but failed to even make it resonate slightly.

In the end, he could only settle for the next best thing, choosing another powerful ancient sword.

Seeing Chu Feng succeed now, he was overjoyed and couldn't help but be filled with emotion.

However, among the elders, one person's face was terrifyingly gloomy.

The moment Chu Feng's figure appeared, Ling Xiaotian felt as if he had been struck by a bolt of lightning from the nine heavens.

The muscles on his face instantly stiffened, and he stared intently at Chu Feng and the Holy Sword in his hand, which should absolutely not have been there.

"No, impossible... How could he come out alive?"

According to his calculations, with twenty-eight people holding the Minor Heavenly Cycle Star Dou Array, Chu Feng was certain to die.

However, in the end, Chu Feng survived.

Countless thoughts flashed through his mind: Was the formation disk destroyed? Did those disciples betray him? Or had Chu Feng's strength become so powerful that even the Minor Heavenly Cycle Star Dou Array couldn't harm him?

Regardless of the possibility, it sent chills down his spine.

Chu Feng coming out alive meant that his meticulously planned revenge had completely failed.

It also meant that his private coercion of disciples to harm fellow sect members was likely exposed.

He looked at Chu Feng, who was surrounded by everyone, and finally couldn't help but question him sharply.

"Chu Feng!"

He stared intently at Chu Feng, squeezing out his question word by word through gritted teeth.

"Where are the other twenty-eight disciples who entered the Sword Mound with you now?"

Initially, no one paid much attention, as it was impossible for others to come out as quickly as Chu Feng.

They would never have imagined that those twenty-eight people had already become souls under Chu Feng's sword.

Chu Feng slowly raised his head, his gaze calmly meeting Ling Xiaotian's, which wished to devour him whole, and said indifferently.

"They are all dead."

As soon as these words were uttered, the previously noisy scene instantly fell silent.

"What? All dead?"

"Twenty-eight people... all dead?"

"How is this possible!"

A single stone stirred up a thousand ripples!

Chu Feng's words were like a giant stone thrown into a calm lake, instantly causing massive waves.

An uproar suddenly erupted, even more intense than when they saw the Holy Sword earlier.

All the elders showed expressions of disbelief, wondering if they had misheard.

Elder Yan Lie, with his fiery temper, stepped forward, his voice like a booming bell, filled with shock and anger.

"Chu Feng, what exactly happened?"

His personal disciple, Zhao Hu, was also among those twenty-eight, a body-refining prodigy he valued greatly.

Although the Sword Tomb presented challenges, rarely did disciples die within it, let alone twenty-eight people perishing simultaneously.

This is absolutely impossible!

Elder Mu was already unsettled due to the disappearance of her beloved disciple, Liu Xuan.

Hearing that all twenty-eight had been annihilated, her delicate body trembled slightly, and her aquamarine eyes filled with shock.

"Chu Feng, what exactly happened inside the Sword Tomb?"

A gaunt Elder suddenly tugged at his beard.

His surname was Sun, and he was Wang Kun's master.

"Chu Feng, these twenty-eight people were all the cream of the crop among the sect's disciples; how could they have died in the Sword Tomb?"

In an instant, several Elders who had lost their beloved disciples stepped forward, surrounding Chu Feng.

Even Sect Leader Xiao Yibai's brow was tightly furrowed, and he looked at Chu Feng with a grave expression, awaiting his explanation.

The simultaneous loss of so many elite disciples in the Sword Tomb was an unbearable blow to the Heaven Sword Sect.

Facing the Elders' interrogation, Chu Feng's expression remained unchanged.

He seemed to be at the center of a storm, yet possessed an unshakeable calm.

"I killed them."

Silence.

A deathly silence!

If the announcement of the twenty-eight deaths was like dropping a boulder, then this sentence was like dragging the entire sky down, crashing it onto everyone's hearts.

Everyone froze, their expressions instantly solidifying; they even wondered if there was something wrong with their ears.

Chu Feng killed those twenty-eight people?

Hahahahaha!

In this deathly silence, Ling Xiaotian suddenly burst into a maniacal laugh.

He laughed so hard he bent over backward, as if he had heard the funniest joke in the world.

"Did you hear that? Did you all hear that?"

Ling Xiaotian stopped laughing and pointed at Chu Feng.

"He admitted it! He admitted it himself! Chu Feng killed your disciples!"

He abruptly turned to Sect Leader Xiao Yibai and said sharply.

"Sect Master, our Heaven Sword Sect allowed this child to participate in the Sword Dao Assembly, but we never expected him to be so vicious, acting recklessly and harming so many of our sect's disciples simply because of his extraordinary talent.

If this fiend is not brought to justice today, how can we console the spirits of those unjustly deceased disciples? How can we convince the masses?"

Those Elders, already overcome with grief and indignation from losing their beloved disciples, were completely ignited by these words.

Elder Yan Lie's hair stood on end, and scorching flame spiritual power erupted from his body, like a furious lion.

"You little beast, how dare you kill my disciple!"

Elder Sun Buyu's eyes were sinister, and chilling sword qi radiated from his body.

"Such an act is abhorrent to both gods and men, unforgivable by heaven and earth!"

Elder Zhou Yun was even in tears, sobbing.

"Sect Master, my nephew Zhou Yi was pure by nature, yet he met such a cruel end. You must uphold justice for us!"

"Kill him! Avenge the deceased disciples!"

"If this child is not eliminated, our Heaven Sword Sect will never know peace!"

"Sect Master, please enforce justice impartially!"

In an instant, emotions ran high, and shouts of killing shook the heavens.

Dozens of Elders simultaneously unleashed powerful spiritual energy fluctuations, pressing down on Chu Feng, who stood isolated in the field.

The temperature in the entire back mountain plummeted, and tension was palpable.

The joy from the Holy Sword's emergence vanished, replaced by an imminent bloody reckoning.

All the pressure converged on Sect Leader Xiao Yibai.

He looked at Chu Feng, whose face was calm, even with a hint of mockery in his eyes, and then at the many Elders around him, whose killing intent was boiling.

He was immediately caught in an extremely difficult dilemma.

On one hand, the demise of twenty-eight elite disciples was the greatest loss the Heaven Sword Sect had suffered in nearly a thousand years.

These disciples, though perhaps not as talented as Chu Feng, were the backbone of the sect, cultivated with vast resources, and one of the foundational pillars for the sect's future.

Many of them were direct disciples of various Elders, and now all had died at Chu Feng's hands. Regardless of the reason, he had to provide an explanation to everyone.

Otherwise, the sect's rules would be rendered meaningless, morale would crumble, and where would his authority as Sect Master be?

Those twenty or so grieving Elders would never let it go.

For both public and private reasons, he seemed to have to apprehend Chu Feng and punish him severely.

However, a thought concerning the sect's future lingered in his mind—Chu Feng could not die!

Ascending the Heavenly Ladder, Crystal Heart of Sword, Nascent Soul Stage at a young age, recognition by the Holy Sword... The numerous accolades gathered upon Chu Feng, any one of which, on an ordinary disciple, would be enough to create a prodigy of an era.

And now, all these miracles converged on one person.

What terrifying talent and fortune was this?

This was simply a chosen son bestowed by heaven upon the Heaven Sword Sect, destined to lead the sect to unprecedented glory.

The deceased disciples were indeed a pity, but they were already dead.

The dead cannot be brought back to life, but Chu Feng was still alive.

Was it truly worth it to personally stifle this monstrous talent, who had the potential to lead the Heaven Sword Sect to its peak, just to avenge the dead disciples?

Among the younger generation of prodigies, Ling Qianche had already been lost in the previous assessment. If Chu Feng were also killed, there would be a terrifying gap in the Heaven Sword Sect's younger generation.

This difficult choice, like two colossal mountains, weighed heavily on Sect Leader Xiao Yibai's heart.

Just as Sect Leader Xiao Yibai was internally conflicted, Chu Feng spoke again.

He did not look at the Elders brimming with killing intent, but instead turned his gaze back to Ling Xiaotian.

"Why did they die? Elder Ling, don't you know?"

Ling Xiaotian's eyelids twitched violently, and the ominous premonition in his heart suddenly intensified, but he forced himself to remain calm, even squeezing out a hint of indignant anger at being slandered.

"Chu Feng, don't you dare slander me! How would I know why they died?"

"Oh?"

Chu Feng's lips curled into a mocking arc. With a casual wave of his hand, twenty-eight bulging Qiankun bags floated in front of him in mid-air.

"Each of these twenty-eight Qiankun bags contains five thousand high-grade spirit stones.

Together, that's one hundred and forty thousand high-grade spirit stones.

Elder Ling, what a grand gesture, using one hundred and forty thousand high-grade spirit stones to bribe these twenty-eight people to buy my head."

These words immediately caused an uproar.

"What?"

"One hundred and forty thousand high-grade spirit stones?"

"Elder Ling hired assassins?"

Chu Feng's words were like another bombshell, exploding loudly in the crowd.

Everyone's gaze instantly shifted from Chu Feng to the ashen-faced Ling Xiaotian.

"Elder Ling, is what Chu Feng said true?"

Elder Yan Lie, with his explosive temper, immediately turned to Ling Xiaotian and questioned him angrily.

If the death of his disciple, Zhao Hu, was indeed orchestrated by Ling Xiaotian, then the nature of the matter would be entirely different.

The disciples below were also discussing animatedly, their voices like a tide.

"My heavens, one hundred and forty thousand high-grade spirit stones! Elder Ling really went all out to kill Chu Feng!"

"No wonder those twenty-eight dared to attack Senior Brother Chu; it turns out they received an enormous bounty!"

"But Senior Brother Chu is in the Nascent Soul Stage! No matter how much Elder Ling hates him, he wouldn't send a group of Golden Core and even Foundation Establishment disciples to their deaths, would he?"

Hearing the discussions, especially the last few questioning remarks, Ling Xiaotian seemed to grasp at a life-saving straw.

He suppressed the panic in his heart, a look of indignant grief on his face.

"That's utter nonsense!" He pointed at Chu Feng, his voice stern, "Don't you dare confuse the public and slander me here!"

After a slight pause, he spoke, using retreat as a means to advance.

"I admit that I harbor resentment towards you because of Che'er.

But no matter what, you are a Nascent Soul Stage cultivator.

No matter how foolish I am, I should know that sending those twenty-eight people to kill you would be equivalent to sending them to their deaths for nothing."

These words immediately sobered up many Elders.

Chu Feng being in the Nascent Soul Stage was common knowledge.

Sending twenty-eight Golden Core disciples to besiege and kill a Nascent Soul Stage prodigy indeed seemed like suicide. As an Elder of the Enforcement Hall, Ling Xiaotian could not possibly be so unwise.

"Elder Ling's words are not without reason."

Seeing that public opinion seemed to be shifting back, Ling Xiaotian's heart relaxed slightly.

However, Chu Feng's face seemed to have already anticipated Ling Xiaotian's sophistry.

"Throwing an egg at a rock?"

With a wave of his hand, a pile of fragments, devoid of spiritual energy, floated up and appeared next to the twenty-eight Qiankun bags.

Immediately after, these fragments pieced together into the original form of a formation plate.

"What if those twenty-eight people, holding the Lesser Zhou Tian Star Dou Formation Plates, set up an ultimate formation capable of trapping and killing a Nascent Soul Stage Great Perfection cultivator?"

Formation plate fragments!

The Elders proficient in formations immediately understood.

"This formation is immensely powerful. With twenty-eight people forming it, trapping and killing a Nascent Soul Stage Great Perfection cultivator is certainly not difficult."

Ling Xiaotian's face, at this moment, turned completely ashen white like paper.

His greatest reliance and trump card had been exposed by Chu Feng in such a shattered form.

How on earth did this guy do it?

Chu Feng no longer gave him any opportunity to argue. His gaze swept over the shocked crowd, and he began to recount what had happened inside the Sword Tomb.

Upon hearing of Liu Xuan's crippled state and the tragic plight of being forced to fight fellow disciples, Elder Mu trembled all over.

The other Elders' faces also became extremely grim.

If Chu Feng's words were true, then these twenty-eight people did not die innocent deaths.

And the mastermind behind all of this was the seemingly virtuous Elder of the Enforcement Hall, Ling Xiaotian.

Chu Feng looked coldly at Ling Xiaotian.

"I was merely defending myself. If not for Elder Ling's coercion, how would we have turned our weapons on each other?"

All eyes once again focused on Ling Xiaotian, but this time, the meaning in their gaze had shifted from previous suspicion to towering rage.

The situation instantly reversed.

However, after his initial panic, Ling Xiaotian once again forced himself to calm down.

He knew that as long as he vehemently denied it, relying solely on Chu Feng's one-sided account and the material evidence that couldn't directly point to him, he might still be able to turn the tables.

With this thought, he stiffened his neck, a wronged expression on his face.

"Don't you dare slander me! Who can prove that those spirit stones and formation plates were given by me?"

"Everyone is already dead, so naturally, you can say whatever you want.

Everyone, are you going to condemn me based solely on the word of this murderer?"

No witnesses!

Although shameless, it caused some Elders with reservations to fall silent.

The most crucial witnesses were dead, and based solely on Chu Feng's statement and the silent material evidence, it was simply impossible to convict.

Seeing this, Ling Xiaotian's heart settled slightly, and a hint of cold satisfaction even flashed in his eyes.

As long as he weathered this storm, there would always be a way to deal with Chu Feng in the future.

Om—

Just then, the Holy Sword, which had been silent in Chu Feng's hand, suddenly let out a faint hum.

Chu Feng seemed to sense something. He looked down at the humming Holy Sword in his hand, then raised his eyes to look at Ling Xiaotian.

"Who said I have no witnesses?"