Having said that, she formed a sword technique, preparing to cut through the void and forcefully open the door to the Secret Realm!
"Chief Xiao! This is a betrayal of teachers and ancestors!" a Supreme Elder with a profound aura and a crane-like figure scolded angrily.
"Betrayal of teachers and ancestors?" Xiao Hongling lowered her phoenix eyes, a slight curve playing on her red lips. "Elder Qi, you put it so well. Remember this: betraying teachers and ancestors? I, Xiao Hongling, have done it before. Don't force me to do it a second time."
Instantly, the entire venue fell deathly silent!
None of the Chairmen, the Sect Leader, nor the dozens of powerful Elders and Supreme Elders with profound cultivation and deep foundations present dared to utter a word of opposition!
For a moment, everyone was once again reminded of the incident from several years ago: an eighteen-year-old girl who, when her Master tried to excavate her Immortal Bone because she refused to succumb to demonic cultivation, rose up in defiance. She personally slew her Master and, with her strength alone, slaughtered dozens of demonized elders on Divine Phoenix Peak!
Such was the temperament and audacity of the fiercely unrestrained 'Fairy Hongling'!
She... She was truly capable of such acts!
"Junior Sister, how about I accompany you?"
Just then, a female voice called out.
Xiao Hongling glanced sideways, her phoenix eyes landing on her senior martial sister, a beauty whose looks were in no way inferior to her own.
"I think Wanning..." Su Mei said, her gaze filled with emotion, "...must be eagerly awaiting her Master's arrival right now."
「Sword Tomb, First Level, Ten Thousand Treasures Sword Cave.」
Two beautiful figures with powerful auras emerged from the void, landing on the ground!
It was the beautiful Chairmen of the Fengming and Divine Phoenix lineages, who had forcefully broken into the Secret Realm with their remaining elite disciples!
The Secret Realm seemed unable to withstand the pressure from these two peak experts; the void itself roiled and took a long time to calm.
"The Spirit Iron on the first level has been completely plundered. This indicates that the disciples of the Four Branches have all successfully cleared it and moved to the next level!" Xiao Hongling observed for a moment, her willow brows tightly furrowed.
"Indeed," Su Mei mused, her own brows knitting slightly. "Does this mean the anomaly in the Sword Tomb is still within what these young disciples can handle?"
"Not necessarily," Xiao Hongling said. "Among the chief disciples of the Four Branches who entered the Sword Tomb, aside from my two Direct Disciples, I find it hard to imagine anyone else capable of defeating the monster beasts that have broken their seals here relying solely on their own strength."
"Hmm? Junior Sister, aren't those words a tad arrogant?"
Upon hearing this, Su Mei was clearly displeased. "My dear disciple Wanning is acknowledged by Sect Leader Senior Brother and all the Elders as the most gifted. As for why she was regrettably eliminated from the Five Branches Martial Competition, you know the reason well—she wasn't even using her full strength!"
"Heh," Xiao Hongling chuckled. "Senior Sister, we've bickered for over a hundred years, with wins and losses on both sides. But today, you're destined to lose."
Xiao Hongling seemed to have discovered something, a knowing smile touching her vermillion lips.
"Hmph! Then prove it to this Seat!" Su Mei's stunningly beautiful face instantly turned grim.
With a flicker of her silhouette, Xiao Hongling appeared before a stone wall.
At her feet lay the corpse of a colossal monster beast.
"This is... a monster beast at the peak of the Dharma Appearance stage—the Three-eyed Demon Wolf!" Su Mei's eyes flashed, her heart growing heavier. "Damn it! This anomaly in the Sword Tomb... it's likely far more dangerous than we imagined!"
"What kind of monster beast it is isn't important. What's important is how it was killed."
Xiao Hongling extended a jade-like hand, her slender index finger pointing towards the wound on the corpse's head from a distance.
A barely perceptible white gleam, as if guided, was drawn out from her fingertip!
"Do you sense it, Senior Sister? This potent, colorless, and formless Sword Intent."
"Others might not perceive it, but you, with your Spirit Sword Body, should be able to sense it." Xiao Hongling raised an eyebrow.
"This... this is the Sword Qi of the Formless Sword Body!" Su Mei's phoenix eyes widened in astonishment. "It was really your eldest apprentice... If I recall correctly, he's only at the mid-stage of the Dharma Appearance realm, isn't he?"
"To behead a Three-eyed Demon Wolf with a single strike while also at the Dharma Appearance realm... he truly has some skill."
"Well, Senior Sister? It seems this Seat has won after all, hasn't she?" A cold smirk played on Xiao Hongling's lips.
This Lin Xiao, who defies fate, defeated Ye Chen, and rewrote the script... he's truly extraordinary! Su Mei thought, biting her vermillion lip. I must poach this boy from Junior Sister, no matter what it takes! Her resolve hardened.
Meanwhile, as Xiao Hongling calmed, the smile on her face gradually faded...
Xiao'er, you must hold on! Your Master is coming! she thought. Next... even if this Master has to overturn this entire Sword Tomb, I will bring you back to Divine Phoenix Peak!
She gripped her Azure Phoenix Immortal Sword tightly, her phoenix eyes resolute. Follow current novᴇls on novel-fire.net
Wait, that's not right. Yurong is in here too. Why wasn't I worried about them at all just now?
「Third Level, Soul Sword Prison.」
With the disappearance of Zhu Wanning, Lin Xiao, and Ye Chen—three of the chief disciples from the Five Branches—the scene descended into panic and helplessness.
Wang Wu, the chief disciple of Red Cloud Peak, was naturally introverted and unassuming. With such a major catastrophe, he too was hesitant to make any decisions for the moment.
The responsibility for maintaining order on site now rested entirely on the shoulders of Xu Zhengqing, the chief disciple of Dragon Head Peak.
Just as sorrowful cries filled the air, two figures suddenly materialized in the teleportation array at the rear!
"It's Chief Xiao and Chief Su!"
"We pay our respects to our two Martial Aunts!"
Witnessing the arrival of Qinglan Sect's two top powerhouses, the disciples of the Five Branches finally saw a glimmer of hope and tearfully prostrated themselves.
Upon seeing her Master, Guo Yourong's tears also streamed down her face, and she stepped forward.
After hearing the disciples' accounts, the expressions of the two beautiful Chairmen changed drastically!
"The Ancestral Master's Glaze Heavenly Python?!"