Chapter Eleven: Entering Devilry, Four Peaks Arrive Simultaneously

  "He's possessed! He's possessed!" It was unclear who was the first to notice something was amiss and shouted out loud.

  In an instant, a powerful Xuanwu sword aura burst out from Gong Yangyu's body again. However, the Xuanwu sword aura surrounding him this time was different from before, and had turned into a deep purple-red color. The sword aura emitted a strong, frenzied aura.

  "Go to hell!" A crazed killing intent flashed in his eyes, Gong Yangyu gazed at the incoming purple sun, and with a swift movement of the Flame Cloud Sword, a nine-inch-long purple-red sword energy shot out. At this moment, Gong Yangyu's cultivation had strangely risen to the level of a Great Heavenly Sword Master.

  Boom!

  The sword energy fiercely chopped onto the purple sun, a mournful wail sounded, and a circle of surging air waves spread out from the center of the sword platform. The purple sun and Gong Yangyu's purple-red sword energy were at a stalemate for a moment before being completely dispersed.

  In the center of the sword platform, as if a large stone had fallen into the water, it smashed out a large depression on the surface of the water. The central area was several feet in diameter and tens of black iron swords could not withstand this explosive sword energy, being instantly blasted into shattered iron, scattered debris, and fell to the ground.

  His face changed, looking at the majestic and ferocious Gong Yangyu in front of him, Duan Qingyun felt a chill rising up in his heart. Those blood-red eyes revealed a fierce intent to tear people apart, making Duan Qingyun feel somewhat uneasy. It wasn't until a disciple shouted from below that he suddenly came to a realization.

  This ram's feather actually went crazy all of a sudden!

  It was almost at the moment when Gong Yangyu's sword shattered the Qingyun Xu Ri Dongsheng that Xuanqing suddenly disappeared from under the stage and reappeared beside Gong Yangyu, with his finger pointing like a sword at his neck, and a purple-red sword aura pierced into Gong Yangyu's side neck.

  Facing Xuan Qing, Gong Yangyu had no resistance at all, and was sealed by Xuan Qing's powerful sword aura in the dantian qihai, unable to move his whole body, only a pair of blood-colored eyes still emitting a chilling killing intent.

  "Foolish child, don't you wake up yet!" Xuan Qing suddenly let out a loud shout, his voice like thunder on a clear day, ringing in everyone's ears, making their hearts skip a beat. At the same time, the inner sect disciples who had reached the level of Jian Yuan realm, including the six guardians, felt a strong pressure coming from the soul through that voice, piercing straight into their hearts.

  Lingyun jue hurriedly turned, Lu Qing's eyebrows furrowed, and it took him more than ten breaths to calm down. When he looked at Gong Yangyu again, he was still being held by Xuanqing on the stage. At this moment, Gong Yangyu had a bewildered expression, looking at Xuanqing in front of him, then glancing around, only to find that everyone's gaze was fixed on him, which made him extremely puzzled.

  "Master, I just—"

  He looked at Gong Yangyu deeply, and Xuan Qing said: "The heart of a swordsman must contain all things. A person with a narrow mind can never walk on the great road of swordsmanship, even if he forces himself to step on it, he will not achieve anything. I hope you take care of yourself."

  Gong Yangyu was taken aback, and his face immediately turned pale. It was clear that he knew Master Xuanqing had already seen through his previous intentions, but Xuanqing didn't pursue the matter, which made him breathe a sigh of relief.

  "Disciple understands." Gong Yangyu hastily replied with a bow.

  He nodded and said, "I have just sealed your dantian qihai. It will unseal itself after an hour. At that time, you can go to Chaoyang Cave for closed cultivation. If the suppressed injury is delayed for too long, it will damage your dantian."

  Gong Yang's mind was momentarily stunned, and then he calmed down and felt the faint pain coming from his dantian and qihai. He was startled in his heart, although he didn't know why, but he roughly guessed that it had something to do with the changes before. Now he only vaguely remembered the scene of facing Duan Qingyun when the sun rose in the east, as for what happened later, he didn't have any impression at all.

  "The disciple took his leave." Gong Yangyu didn't dare stay any longer, bowed to Xuancheng and left directly.

  Duan Qingyun was also eliminated due to Gong Yangyu's possession and ultimately ranked 15th.

  However, under the sword platform, there were also discussions and speculations. After listening for a while, Lu Qing roughly understood the reason for this demonization.

  Entering madness is triggered by the seven emotions and six desires in a swordsman's heart. Once one of those emotions reaches its peak, it's possible to enter a state of madness. When a swordsman enters madness, they lose their sense of self, leaving only simple desire and emotion, which evolves into endless frenzy. Especially at the moment a swordsman enters madness, they usually experience a rapid increase in cultivation realm within a short period of time.

  Among them, the lesser ones broke through a heavenly rank, and the more powerful ones could even temporarily raise a title by one rank. If not for Xu Qing's timely intervention, Gong Yangyu would have been able to temporarily open the Baihui acupoint and step into the Sword Guest rank.

  Of course, the consequences are also very serious. The higher the cultivation is improved, the greater the physical damage will be after regaining consciousness. There have even been cases where a swordsman has entered madness at a critical moment of life and death, advancing by one small heavenly rank, only to instantly age and die from exhaustion of their lifespan after slaughtering all their enemies, and then dying from physical pain in less than a day.

  So if it wasn't for Xuan Qing's timely intervention, Gong Yang Yu might have become a cripple because of this, and would have died in endless agony not long after.

  Then, Duan Qingyun stepped down from the sword platform. Due to Gong Yangyu's exceptionally great strength, he actually merged the four styles of purple energy and came from the east. As a result, Duan Qingyun had no choice but to use his ultimate move ahead of time. At this moment, there were less than two layers of sword yuan left in his body.

  Although, everyone also recognized his strength, the swordsmanship realm of lifting heavy as light, the cultivation of the great heaven position of the sword, plus the complete understanding of the thirteen swords of the rising sun, now Duan Qingyun already has the strength to compete for the first place in the inner sect sword ranking, which is the twelfth position.

  Next was a duel between two disciples of the Protectors, Yan Yuanyi and Lin Kun. Among them, Yan Yuanyi was someone Lu Qing remembered, the same Senior Brother Yan who had warned him with words back then, and also the current disciple of Protector Luo Chengyu.

  The two of them had obviously discussed this beforehand and didn't use their full strength, casually exchanging dozens of moves. However, the people below the stage could also see that both of their cultivation levels were at the Sword Master's Grand Heaven Rank, and they had both grasped the swordsmanship realm of "lifting heavy as light". If neither of them had any trump cards up their sleeves, continuing this way would only lead to a mutually destructive outcome. Even if one side managed to win by luck, it would be a miserable victory, and they might even suffer severe injuries. This already went against the original intention of the grand competition and wouldn't benefit their future cultivation progress in the Sword Pool.

  So after dozens of moves, Yan Yuanyi's single move "Cui Yun Po Xiao" cut Lin E off the sword stage with a heavy but effortless strike. Although he was only passively defending, it was clear that Yan Yuanyi had not used even three tenths of his true strength, and Lin E did not suffer a single injury. The two then clasped their fists together in a smile before returning to the ranks of the inner sect disciples.

  Later, the twelfth-ranked inner disciple who possessed the Sword Emperor's great position automatically gave up the opportunity to challenge, but no one said anything. Challenging the Sword Guest stage from the Sword Emperor stage was not a wise thing to do, so at his ranking, unless he could advance to the Sword Guest stage, he could only stay in place.

  At this moment, the real big battle is about to begin, because the remaining ones, including the twelve Lu Qing who have not yet taken the challenge, are all above the sword guest level of cultivation. Such a big battle, for every major comparison, is an important highlight.

  Especially this time's big comparison, all the outer door disciples and even the inner sect disciples are looking forward to it. At this moment, everyone's eyes involuntarily looked at Lu Qing, Zhao Qianye, and Nie Qingtian. These three names, currently ranked in the top ten of the young generation of Zixia Sect, their great battle is really an exciting thing for people.

  Just as the great battle of Jiankejie was about to begin, a outer sect disciple suddenly walked up to Xuanclear and whispered a few words in his ear. Xuanclear's eyebrows rose slightly, but soon relaxed again, saying: "Let them come over."

  At this moment, under the gaze of many people's surprise, a large number of disciples from other four peaks came in from the direction of Chaoyang Palace Gate, about 400 people, but most of them were some outer door disciples, and the inner sect disciples were not many. This is something that has never happened before. Obviously, these people are all rushing to Lu Qing and Zhao Qianye, because as soon as they appeared on the square, their eyes locked onto Lu Qing who carried the Lianxin Sword and Zhao Qianye who stood in second place.

  On the contrary, Nie Qingtian was someone they had known for a long time, so they didn't pay much attention to him.

  By this time, everyone also knew the reason. Indeed, within half a year, two top ten Dragon and Phoenix Lists were born in Chaoyang Peak, which was an astonishing thing. This peak has three top tens, except for the main peak of Zixia Peak, where there have been two generations before, and the other four peaks are now only Chaoyang Peak.

  So after the Grand Competition began, some outer disciples from each peak successively gathered at Purple Mist Peak, entering directly from Sword Bridge to Morning Sun Peak. Some inner disciples with lower rankings from each peak also rushed over after giving up their challenges or completing them, and there were disciples from all four peaks, especially a group of female disciples from Cloudy Peak who were either heroic and refreshing or gentle and charming, totaling more than 50 people, surrounded by over 300 male disciples in the middle.

  The newcomers are guests, so at this time the outer door disciples surrounding the sword platform let out a gap and then enlarged the circle to accommodate these incoming disciples. Among them, nearly a hundred inner sect disciples walked to Lu Qing's side and divided into four peaks, each standing in two rows.

  The number of people in each column varies, with the most being Zixia Peak's disciples, with over thirty people, while the fewest are the female disciples of Xuanxian Peak, with only twenty people. Among them, Lu Qing discovered that Ming Xue'er was also among them. At this time, she wore a bright green martial arts uniform, with the Blue Jade Sword on her back, and a pair of bright big eyes curved into a crescent shape, constantly looking around, with an excited expression on her face.