Immortal Road.

The Shangxiao Sword Sect is located in the northern part of the continent and is a sacred place truly built on a group of floating islands in the sky.

Nestled amidst layers of clouds, untouched by worldly concerns, countless sword cultivators cultivate by absorbing the essence of the rising sun, finding sustenance in the spiritual fields atop the clouds.

Below is the largest primeval sword forest in this world. Every piece of sword wood growing there is excellent material for making swords. It is forbidden for outsiders to cut down or mine it, and it has long been the exclusive property of this sacred place.

The floating islands in the sky were all shaped like horizontal swords, and they drifted in the wind every day with the Cloud Sword Formation, as if the entire holy land was flying in the air on swords!

Adrift with the wind, wandering in this vast and boundless primeval sword forest.

When Lin Shan actually set foot here, he couldn't help but be stunned!
Well, since the Shangxiao Sword Sect wasn't built on the earth, it wasn't subject to the control of the earth's veins, thus eliminating the hidden dangers at their root.

Even if he brought his own territory to Zangkun, he couldn't do anything about it!

A sacred land in the heavens?

Watching the sword islands slowly move above the clouds, he knew that it was because of the distance that they seemed slow; in reality, their speed was almost close to the sound barrier.

Don't the disciples of the Sword Sect get dizzy from their daily cultivation and routines?

Fortunately, this was not a problem for him. The virtual star chart was not like the hidden earth chart. In addition to manipulating the earth veins, it could also guide the celestial phenomena.

Do you think we can't do anything to you just because you've hidden in the sky?

Lin Shan waited until nightfall, when the stars were shining brightest, and then he suddenly activated the Virtual Star Disc. The power of 108,000 stars in the sky poured down like a meteor shower with no end in sight.

A curtain of stars hung in the sky, a waterfall of arches cascaded down, and countless bright and dark stars crashed heavily into the various floating islands of the Shangxiao Sword Sect!

"Oh no, someone is attacking! Watch out from above!"

Immediately, the duty elders sounded the alarm, and cultivators from all the islands took to the air like locusts. This shows that the disciples of the Shangxiao Sword Sect reacted a level higher than those of the Haoran Holy Land when faced with danger.

However, after looking around, they found no target.

They had expected a massive enemy army to be on their way, but there wasn't a single person in sight, as if the enemy was playing a joke on them.

But at the same time, a second meteor shower covered the area again!

Unable to withstand the onslaught, the disciples fell like birds with broken wings, creating utter chaos amidst shouts and screams.

"Where's the island's protective formation? Why isn't it activated?"

The large formations on each island were put into operation one after another, but they found that many of the formations not only failed to protect them, but instead began to attack their own people!
A series of star patterns flowed across the array, and star power surged into it, forcibly reversing and manipulating the array, bombarding the island wildly, causing chaos and disorder.

The unrest in various places lasted for a full quarter of an hour before a huge spatial vortex appeared in the sky, from which came an old voice.

"Who is causing trouble at my Shangxiao Sword Sect?"

Two sword lights rushed forward from below, belonging to powerful cultivators who were unable to clean up the mess. At this moment, they were completely overwhelmed.

"Elder, please come back quickly! Someone is using the power of the stars to commit atrocities, and we can't hold on much longer!"

"Damn it, we haven't been able to find anyone for so long, what are you guys doing?"

The sound was deafening from the other side of the spatial rift, but the original swordsman could only hear the sound but not see the person, as he seemed unable to get away for the time being.

Seeing this scene, Lin Shan, who was secretly observing, couldn't help but start to make plans.

The whereabouts of the original Sword Daoist are unknown. One of his Yuan Nian avatars was killed by his own actions at the Yuxi Ruins, and another one was sent to Blackwater Cliff. Considering that veteran Yuan Shen cultivators typically have three Yuan Nian avatars, there should still be one left to guard the home.

Why is there no one guarding the Shangxiao Sword Sect's base?

What did he go do?!
The commotion lasted for a full half hour, and the first attempt of the day finally came to an end.

Lin Shan knew when to stop. After getting a general idea of ​​the situation, he didn't linger and calmly withdrew to wait for the next opportunity. However, even after he finished his attack, Yuan Jian Dao Ren did not appear.

This is utterly baffling!
Inside the Shangxiao Sword Sect, there was widespread devastation. The various floating islands suffered heavy losses. The deaths and injuries of the cultivators were secondary; the various buildings and facilities on them were the real culprits.

"Elder Wang, Elder Wu, the statistics are not yet available. All the islands have been attacked to varying degrees. This operation was clearly premeditated. The enemy is in the shadows while we are in the open. If he doesn't leave but returns, the consequences will be unimaginable!"

Someone came up to report the results, and the two powerful individuals exchanged a glance and frowned.

"The person who came must be a Nascent Soul expert. Even if the two of us go out, we are no match for him. We can only temporarily close off the islands and order our disciples not to go out and to take good care of themselves as much as possible."

"Should we activate the Cloud Sword Formation, which encompasses the entire Holy Land, first?"

"The Cloud Sword Formation was recently damaged, and the eighteen central swords have only been repaired and are still in the process of being nurtured. Let's avoid activating it if possible."

They were all very frustrated about this.

As a sacred place of swordsmanship, Shangxiao Sword Sect naturally has its own exclusive protective sword formation, which is incomparable to those ordinary island protection formations.

Unfortunately, in order to deal with a sword cultivator, they gathered the strength of the entire Holy Land, but in the end, not only was their sect-protecting sword formation broken, but even the Tongtian Spiritual Treasure Nine Revolutions Primordial Furnace was damaged!
The current period of vulnerability in defense has given Lin Shan a perfect opportunity.

"When will the Holy Lord and the Supreme Elder return?"

"It's hard to say. They've been chasing that person for half a century and haven't been able to get away. We should try not to cause any trouble."

"But what if the attacker gets carried away and tries to cause trouble again?"

"Let's take it one step at a time. It should be over there soon. I heard that the Supreme Elder had the spare capacity to spare a Yuan Nian avatar to send to reinforce the Pure Lotus Hermit's camp on the southwestern border. This means that sword cultivator is about to die."

During their casual conversation, the two instructed the Nascent Soul stage cultivators to organize the aftermath.

Clearly, they were hoping for a lucky break, and they must have received instructions from the original swordsman to hold onto the holy land for now, given the tense situation on all sides.

Lin Shan spent a day observing the primeval sword forest.

It seems that the Upper Night Sword Sect has really come along at the right time!

There were no Nascent Soul stage cultivators inside the gate, and no one knew where they had all gone. There were only two powerful cultivators guarding the gate. They were really careless!
Even the Ghost Valley Holy Land itself is not at ease. In addition to Mu Yan and Qian Bu, they also have to leave the Rhinoceros Demon to guard it. Your Shangxiao Sword Sect only left two Great Divine Powers.
In this light, it seems to pose far less of a threat than the Sacred Land of Vastness.

So the following night, he continued his fierce attack on the Shangxiao Sword Sect!

This time, it wasn't just a simple probe; it was a focused attack on several weakly defended outlying islands. Using the Heavenly Treasure and the divine essence of the Nascent Soul stage cultivators, they were gradually putting pressure on the Shangxiao Sword Sect. The sword lineages on these islands weren't very strong; the highest-ranking cultivators were only at the Nascent Soul stage, and the islands had an estimated thousand disciples. They simply couldn't withstand his serious approach.

While the entire Shangxiao Sword Sect was preoccupied with its own problems, several earth-shattering explosions were heard from the outer perimeter, and the raging flames illuminated the eyes of the Sword Sect disciples on other islands.

"Oh no, look!"

Several islands suddenly exploded from within, and then countless boulders spread out like fireworks, falling in scattered fragments into the primeval sword forest below, which then ignited a series of fires.

The surviving monks on the island fled on their swords like flies, filled with fear and dread. To this day, they still don't know who attacked them.

Fueled by the night wind, the fire burned ever brighter. The two powerful cultivators who remained behind looked down at the raging fire that had spread for dozens of miles, their hands and feet turning ice-cold!

It's not a big deal if a few floating islands are destroyed; it's not difficult to rebuild a few later with some investment.

However, the primeval sword forest below contains countless ancient trees that have been around for many years. It is an important resource for sword cultivators to forge swords. Once it is burned down, it will be like cutting off their lifeline!
But now that it was dark outside, they dared not go out to face the unknown enemy, lest they get themselves killed. So they had no choice but to report to the Supreme Elder again.

"What do you want? Don't you know we're at a critical juncture and can't afford to worry about you?"

From inside came the furious roar of the Sword Master, along with some strange sounds, as if they were holding their breath and struggling.

"Elder, something terrible has happened! The person who attacked us last night is back! This time, they've smashed and sunk several of our islands and even burned down the primeval sword forest below!"

"what?"

On the other side, Yuan Jiandao was furious and gave them both a thorough dressing-down.

"Who have you offended? Who is this person?"

The two men could only smile helplessly as they watched the stars sway in the sky, the Milky Way shimmering with starlight, and pillars of star power descending from the heavens.

"It seems to be a powerful Star Cultivator. Judging from his appearance, he is very strong. The key is that he is also a Grandmaster of Formations. Our island protection formation has been infiltrated by him without us even realizing it."

"If you can't beat them, then talk! Send people out to negotiate and ask them what their demands are. There's always a reason why they're causing trouble. Why should they stop if you don't talk?"

That hit the nail on the head, and the two of them suddenly understood.

They were so frightened by the attack that they could only hide and dare not fight back. They forgot to go out and negotiate. Perhaps the other party really had some purpose, and the issue could be resolved with a little negotiation.

Soon after, loudspeaker announcements came from all the islands of the Shangxiao Sword Sect.

"Who is this fellow Daoist outside? May I ask what brings you to my Shangxiao Sword Sect? May we discuss this further?"

They called out hundreds of times, but there was no response in the darkness; the only reply was the endless starlight.

No one slept that night; the Shangxiao Sword Sect had suffered a devastating blow!

Lin Shan was shocked even in the shadows. What was going on?
The top sword sects in this world seem to be inferior to the Ghost Valley Holy Land. They were so easily subdued by me, without even the strength to resist.

Despite the fact that the original swordsman led the main force to victory in the Blackwater Cliff in the southwest and was invincible, his base was actually weak inside and had no decent defense. It was full of loopholes!
In fact, the Xiaojian Sect did not expect that someone would actually dare to come to their door to cause trouble.

Lin Shan just happened to stumble upon it by sheer coincidence!

The fire in the primeval sword forest below burned from night to day, and then from day to night again, spreading like wildfire across the land. It burned for three days and three nights, burning all the sword trees to ashes and turning the surrounding area into scorched earth. The Shangxiao Sword Sect remained unmoved.

Even if Lin Shan were slow-witted, he could guess it now.

The Upper Night Sword Sect must be in deep trouble!

This left the original Sword Daoist with no time to spare, allowing him to run rampant in his own lair, and that matter might be even more important than the incident at the Holy Land.

"Where exactly did Yuan Jian Dao Ren go? Why would he rather abandon the sect's sacred ground than return?"

He inadvertently revealed a big secret, and after careful consideration, he decided to add fuel to the fire!
Every night thereafter, they would launch an offensive, each time with a larger scale than the last.

Later, a third of the floating island of the Shangxiao Sword Sect was destroyed, and people on the mainland noticed something was wrong. The cultivation world began to report and spread the news.

Lin Shan acted as if he hadn't heard, continuing to hide in the shadows, never showing himself, just to keep putting pressure on them.

The rumors and gossip spread rapidly and quickly reached the southwestern front.

Yuan Jiandao was leading his army in a standoff with the Black Lotus Sect, waiting for the final person, Jushi Jinglian, to give the order for a general attack, but his disciples were not having it!
Those of their own cultivators who were fighting abroad all demanded to return, because if they didn't go back soon, the Shangxiao Sword Sect would be wiped out.

"Elder, someone attacked our holy land half a month ago, but you kept quiet about it. Now we hear that 30% of our homeland has fallen. If we don't do something about it, our rear will be gone!"

Inside the tent, everyone pleaded and begged. The other Nascent Soul stage cultivators had different expressions. They had all heard about it these past few days and couldn't understand why the fire had suddenly broken out in the rear when the fighting on the front lines was so intense.

"Brother Yuan Jian, I remember you had three Yuan Nian avatars and one sword dao clone! Where did you send them all? You can't even take care of your family?"

The Holy Lord of Haoran was also present. Back then, his Haoran Holy Land was attacked and he was in a state of panic, unable to attend to everything. Now, the Shangxiao Sword Sect was also in trouble.

Moreover, in some aspects, the other party also doesn't negotiate conditions or reason; they just mindlessly sabotage from the rear, which can be said to be quite similar.

Therefore, the Holy Lord Haoran is now more inclined to believe that the Black Lotus Sect is up to no good in order to force them to recall from the front lines and weaken their power!

"Oh, don't even mention it. If I had any free time, I certainly wouldn't have ignored it. It's just that..."

The Sword Master couldn't finish his sentence and could only sigh in regret. But the elders under his command were not happy and demanded to go back to guard their home.

After all, it is the root of the Shangxiao Sword Sect, the place where they were born and raised. They have been cultivating in the Sword Sect since childhood, and their feelings for it have been integrated into their bones.

Seeing that he couldn't suppress the situation, Yuan Jian Dao Ren could only promise that he would find a way.

The Holy Lord of Vastness sighed deeply:
"The Black Lotus Sect knows they can't defeat us, so they resort to underhanded tactics to harass our rear. What a despicable scheme! It's a pity that the Scattered Demon Old Ghost, the Qinghe River Demon, and others are all lone wolves with no weaknesses for us to capture. Otherwise, we would have made them taste the pain of an eye for an eye!"

Someone in the audience immediately spoke up.

"The Scattered Demon Old Ghost and the Qinghe River Demon are indeed lone wolves, but there is also the Ancient Seeking Cult Leader, who has considerable power!"

"The leader of the Seeking Ancient Sect has been making a name for himself lately thanks to the Heavenly Treasure, and he is now considered the third most powerful external support expert in the Black Lotus camp."

"Should we retaliate in kind and send people to the rear of the mainland to cause trouble for the Xun Gu Sect?" (End of Chapter)