177: Chapter 177 Everyone was stunned, Xiao Nianyin's greed arose

"Pfft—!"

Lin Feng knelt on one knee, his broken cyan-grey longsword stuck deep into the ground, barely supporting his crumbling body.

Blood gushed from the corner of his mouth, dripping down his arm and blooming into an eye-catching red on the shattered flagstones of the Law Execution Platform.

He raised his head and looked at the green-robed figure standing firmly three zhang away. His eyes surged with shock, unwillingness, confusion, and a hint of something he was unwilling to admit even to himself... awe.

"Junior Brother Xu..." Lin Feng's voice was hoarse, each word squeezed from his torn throat. "That sword strike of yours just now... that Sword Intent... it was the 'One Sword of Emotional Heaven', wasn't it? The non-transferable ultimate technique of our Sect's founder, the Hehuan Old Ancestor?"

Xu Ruyu slowly withdrew his sword finger.

The drop of blood congealed between his brows finally slid down, leaving a winding trail on his pale cheek, like a tear stain, or perhaps some ancient rune.

He was silent for a moment before answering truthfully, "I do not know if that was the One Sword of Emotional Heaven. I simply... had some images flash through my mind, fragments of memory that seemed to belong to me and yet did not. Then, following that feeling, I swung my sword."

"Followed a feeling... and swung your sword?"

Lin Feng repeated this sentence and suddenly let out a low laugh.

The laughter was dry, hoarse, and filled with self-mockery and bitterness.

"Junior Brother Xu, do you know that if these words were to spread, it would be enough to cause the Dao Heart of every Cultivator in the world who has studied the sword path for hundreds of years to collapse? We exhaust our entire lives comprehending sword logic and honing our Sword Intent, only to be outdone by you 'swinging a sword based on a feeling'?"

Xu Ruyu did not answer.

He truly did not know how to answer.

He was just an ordinary person who had accidentally experienced Transmigration to this place, forced into this world where the weak are prey to the strong.

He did not understand what the supreme Realm of the sword path was, nor did he understand the significance of the Legacy; he only knew—if he did not fight with his life, the one lying in a pool of blood right now would be him.

"Senior Brother Lin," Xu Ruyu took a deep breath, suppressing the roiling Qi and blood within his body. "Shall we continue?"

Lin Feng stared at him, his eagle-sharp eyes now veiled with a layer of grey defeat.

After a long while, he exhaled a long breath smelling of blood and slowly shook his head.

"No need." He stood up with difficulty and gestured to the five Junior Brothers behind him. "Withdraw the array. This battle... we have lost."

"Senior Brother!" Chen Yun in the black robe said urgently, his eyes filled with unwillingness. "But the Sect Master's order..."

"The Sect Master's order was to execute Xu Ruyu." Lin Feng interrupted him, his voice filled with undeniable exhaustion. "But we cannot kill him. Not only can we not kill him, but if we continue to force the issue, at least half of us will be lost here today."

He turned around, his gaze sweeping over Chen Yun, Fang Yue, and the others, before finally landing on Xu Ruyu again. "Junior Brother Xu, my 'Azure Void-Breaking Slash' just now was my final trump card, pouring in seventy percent of my Origin Sword Intent. And that sword strike of yours... it was far from your full strength, wasn't it?"

Xu Ruyu was silent for a moment, then nodded.

That sword strike just now was indeed merely a crude imitation of the first form of the "One Sword of Emotional Heaven", "Entangling Emotional Threads", from the fragmented memories in his mind.

He had not even grasped the true essence of that form; he had simply used his perception of the nature of energy from the "True Explanation of Taixu Source Energy" to forcefully simulate the flow of the "Entangling Emotional Threads" Sword Intent.

If given time to comprehend it carefully, the power of this sword strike could be increased by at least three times.

"As expected." Lin Feng smiled bitterly, his expression full of complex emotions. "Forget it. Junior Brothers, stand down. If the Sect Master has any punishment, I will bear it alone."

Chen Yun, Fang Yue, and the others looked at each other, and finally, under Lin Feng's firm gaze, slowly withdrew the battle array.

The six sky-piercing beams of light gradually dimmed and dissipated, and the heart-palpitating six-colored light wheel shattered like a bubble, turning into specks of spiritual light that drifted away.

The six of them retreated to the edge of the Law Execution Platform, completely clearing the central area.

After a brief silence, the clamor below the platform erupted like a volcano!

"He won?! Xu Ruyu actually won?!"

"Six Late Golden Core Stage Senior Brothers joined forces to set up the Six Harmonies Immortal Slaying Array, and they actually lost to someone in the Qi Refinement Stage?!"

"The One Sword of Emotional Heaven... that is the ultimate technique of our Hehuan Sect's Ancestral Master! It has been lost for three hundred years!"

"No wonder the Sect Master insisted on taking him as a Disciple... no wonder he was able to live in Ningyin Hall! So he had obtained the Ancestral Master's Legacy!"

"But what Senior Sister Leng said just now..."

"Hush! Watch your words! This matter is likely not that simple..."

Discussions, exclamations, incredulous screams, and gasps of cold air intertwined, sweeping across the entire Law Execution Platform area like a tide.

The Disciples' expressions varied—there was shock, fanaticism, jealousy, and deep confusion and unease.

Zhao Yan sat on the ground with a thud, breathing heavily, but a smile of survival appeared on his face.

Qingyan had long since become a tear-stained mess, though this time she was weeping with joy.

The hand with which Ning Caihe tightly gripped his longsword finally relaxed, yet his eyes remained fixed on the figure on the platform.

However—

Inside the suspended pavilion high above, Xiao Nianyin slowly closed her ice-blue eyes.

Three breaths.

Just three breaths later, when she opened her eyes again, all the emotions in her gaze—anger, shame, killing intent, and even the complexity that had flashed by earlier—had vanished without a trace.

In their place was a coldness of near-absolute rationality, like ten-thousand-year black ice, bottomless and freezing to the Divine Soul.

Her gaze swept over the seething crowd below the platform, over Leng Ningshuang who was kneeling at the edge of the platform and breathing her last, and over the six injured Disciples including Lin Feng, finally settling on Xu Ruyu.

"One Sword of Emotional Heaven..."

Xiao Nianyin's red lips parted slightly, her voice so low that only she could hear it.

Her fingertips tapped rhythmically against the window lattice, emitting a rhythmic sound.

Each tap seemed to strike some invisible rule, causing the surrounding Spiritual Qi to vibrate slightly.

"If it were before yesterday, knowing you possessed such a Legacy, this Seat might have considered sparing your life and planning slowly."

A glimmer of dark light flashed in Xiao Nianyin's ice-blue pupils. "But now... that idiot Leng Ningshuang spoke of that matter in public. Even if it is just groundless speculation, it is enough to shake my prestige within the Sect, and even more likely to invite endless speculation from the outside world."

"Therefore..." Her gaze suddenly became as sharp as a knife. "Everyone present today must 'forget' what they should not remember. And you, Xu Ruyu—you must die. Although I do not know where you obtained the One Sword of Emotional Heaven, this Seat will personally extract our Hehuan Sect's supreme Legacy, which has been lost for many years, from your corpse."

With her resolution made, Xiao Nianyin did not hesitate.

She took a step forward, and her figure vanished from the pavilion out of thin air.