600: Chapter 600 They really came for me! Fairy Luyao was deeply moved!

Lu Yao's tears slid down silently, dripping onto her knees and soaking a small patch of her clothes.

Just then, the sound of a warning bell rang out from outside.

The sound was dull and urgent, like someone pounding on a broken drum with their fist.

This was followed by the sounds of chaotic footsteps, shouting, and the clashing of weapons, as if the entire Taixu Sect had been disturbed by something.

She forced herself to look up, peering through the crack in the door. She saw Disciples running through the corridors; someone shouted "Hehuan Sect is here," while another yelled "Activate the Mountain Protection Array!" The scene was a complete mess.

The Hehuan Sect is here?

Lu Yao's heart skipped a beat.

She struggled to stand up, but her hands and feet were tied too tightly, making it impossible.

She could only kneel on the ground, using her shoulder to push aside a nearby wooden table. She shuffled her body toward the door and pressed her ear against the wood, listening desperately.

She heard Sect Leader Qing Fengzi's voice from a distance, yet it was clear—"I don't believe they'd dare to force their way through the Taixu Sect's Mountain Protection Array!"

Then she heard Elder Liu's laughter, the mockery of the Disciples, and the voices ridiculing the Hehuan Sect's weapons.

What were they laughing at? Laughing at the Hehuan Sect's iron lumps? They didn't know the power of those "iron lumps," but she did.

She had seen with her own eyes at the Hehuan Sect how Zhao Yan used the Thunder Roar Cannon to shatter the stone walls of the Martial Arts Arena, and how Zhou Daniu used a qi-breaking gun to pierce through an iron-rock target the width of two men.

Those things weren't scrap metal; they were super weapons created by Xu Ruyu himself—war machines that even those in the Saint Realm couldn't withstand.

But they were still laughing. Laughing so loudly, so smugly, and so arrogantly.

Then, she heard that voice.

The voice wasn't loud, but every word felt as if it had traveled across thousands of mountains and rivers, through layers of walls, and through the thick shell around her heart to strike directly at her softest spot.

"Listen up, people inside. I am Xu Ruyu, the Sect Master of Hehuan Sect. You have captured one of my Hehuan Sect's people, named Lu Yao.

Now, immediately, release her."

One of my Hehuan Sect's people. Named Lu Yao.

Lu Yao's tears suddenly flooded out.

These weren't silent tears; they were unstoppable. All the grievances, fear, and despair she had suppressed for a day and a night transformed into tears in that instant.

Her lips were trembling, her shoulders were trembling—her entire being was trembling.

She knelt on the floor, her forehead against the door, weeping until her whole body shook.

She had heard the term "one of us" far too few times.

In the twenty years she spent at the Taixu Sect, she thought she was one of them. In the end, they drove her out, calling her a traitor, a witch, and a lowly thing.

She thought she was just a bargaining chip—a chip to redeem the Sect Head and Elders, a hostage to trade for Spirit Stones, to be discarded once used, with no one caring.

But now, Xu Ruyu called her "one of my Hehuan Sect's people."

It wasn't just a phrase or a polite formality. He had brought three hundred people, City-Breaker Cannons, Xiao Nianyin, and all his assets to blockade the Taixu Sect's mountain gate, pointing his cannons at them to say it.

She had been the Saintess of the Taixu Sect for twenty years, and no one had ever done such a thing for her.

The Sect Head hadn't, her Junior Martial Uncles hadn't, and those she had called brothers for twenty years hadn't.

Not a single person came to save her; not a single person spoke a word on her behalf.

And now, a Sect she had only stayed at for a month, a Sect where she thought she was an outsider, a Sect she had almost sold herself to, had mobilized in full force to the Taixu Sect's gate to demand her return.

"And then pay thirty million Spirit Stones as compensation for mental distress."

As Lu Yao cried, she suddenly let out a small laugh.

The laughter was mixed with tears, sounding messy, but it was a genuine smile—thirty million Spirit Stones for "mental distress," only Xu Ruyu could come up with such an outrageous price.

She remembered the first time she went to the Hehuan Sect to redeem people. When she didn't have enough Spirit Stones, she offered her jade pendant as collateral.

Xu Ruyu took one look at it and gave it back, saying, "It was left to you by your mother; don't just give it away to anyone."

She remembered what the Grand Elder said when he took her to the small eastern courtyard—"The Sect Master said to add a few extra dishes for you. After traveling for so many days, you haven't even had a hot meal."

She remembered Sun Xiaohua and Zhou Xiaolian teaching her to identify the Hehuan Sect's unique Spiritual Plants in the herb garden, and Zhou Daniu squatting by the Martial Arts Arena saying, "Sister Lu Yao, you just stay here. If anyone dares to bully you, I'll blast them with my gun."

She remembered those people, those faces, and the words and actions she thought were just polite gestures—they weren't.

They were real.

They had treated her as one of their own from the very first day.

She was the only one who didn't realize it.

"So you don't consider yourself one of us?"

She seemed to hear Xu Ruyu's voice in her heart, speaking with that lazy, slightly teasing tone—

"What kind of place do you think my Hehuan Sect is? That we took you in out of pity? Our Hehuan Sect isn't that bored.

We took you in because you are worth it.

You carried the affairs of an entire Sect on your own and almost sold yourself. In our place, that kind of character is called a 'Heroine'.

A Heroine shouldn't be failed, and certainly shouldn't be abandoned by her own Sect.

You are one of my Hehuan Sect's people now. If anyone dares to touch you, I'll blow up their mountain gate.

It's as simple as that."

Lu Yao cried until she could barely breathe.

She buried her face in her knees, her tears soaking a large portion of her robes.

She wasn't crying because of her grievances, but because of something she couldn't quite put into words.

In her twenty-two years of life, she felt for the first time that she wasn't alone.

Outside the mountain gate, Xu Ruyu had waited long enough.

He glanced at the Taixu Sect Disciples who were still laughing inside, then at Zhao Yan—who had already aimed the City-Breaker Cannon at the gate, his finger poised on the firing formation seal, looking as excited as a hunting dog finally being unleashed.

Zhao Tiezhu carried the Thunder Roar Cannon, spat into his palms, rubbed them together, and shouldered it firmly.

Li Ergou crouched by a rock, the muzzle of his Chuanyang Gun perfectly still, locked onto the position of the Formation Eye.

Zhou Daniu gripped his qi-breaking gun, his eyes like those of an enraged bull, waiting for the signal to charge.

"Everyone ready?"

Xu Ruyu asked.

"Ready!"

The voices of the three hundred people were in perfect unison, making the valley hum.

Xu Ruyu turned around, facing the Taixu Sect's mountain gate, and held up one finger.

"One."

The laughter inside the gate quieted slightly, but it continued.

Elder Liu's face was red from laughing. He pointed at Xu Ruyu's finger and said to the Disciples nearby, "He's actually counting? This old man is dying of laughter. Who does he think he is?"

"Hey!" Ma Ping stood inside the array with his hands on his hips, shouting to Li Ergou outside, "Why are you crouching so far away? Who can you hit with that iron pipe? Do you want me to take a few steps forward so you can try?"

Li Ergou didn't speak. His finger remained steady on the trigger, but the corner of his mouth curved slightly.

It was a faint smile—you laugh now, I'll shoot later.

"Two."

The laughter grew even quieter.

A few of the more experienced Disciples stopped laughing. They saw the expressions of the Hehuan Sect members—they weren't joking, nor were they enraged by the mockery.

They were just very quiet. Quietly holding those iron lumps, their muzzles aimed steadily at the mountain gate, creating a suffocating silence like the calm before a storm.

Sect Leader Qing Fengzi's brow furrowed slightly.

He suddenly noticed a detail—the position that the Hehuan Sect's iron lump was aimed at was exactly the direction of the Grand Array's Formation Eye.

Was it a coincidence? Before he could think further, Sun Quan beside him tugged at his sleeve and whispered, "Sect Head Senior Martial Uncle, they seem... they aren't joking."

"What's the panic?" Sect Leader Qing Fengzi glared at him. "We have the Grand Array protecting us, what is there to fear? Let them come and try!"

"Three."

Xu Ruyu finished counting, lowered his hand, and turned to look at Zhao Yan.

That look contained a smile, but also a sharpness that was cold to the bone.

"Zhao Yan, blast it open."

Zhao Yan grinned, revealing a row of white teeth.

He licked his lips and triggered the firing formation seal.

"City-Breaker Cannon—Fire!"

All the Array Pattern on the barrel lit up simultaneously. Golden light spread from the breech to the muzzle, and the entire barrel began to hum.

Then, a golden pillar of light, twice as thick as the Thunder Roar Cannon's, erupted from the muzzle. With a deafening roar, it shot out like a golden Dragon, crashing violently into the Taixu Sect's Mountain Protection Array.