Starting as a Grandmaster, all of my cultivation techniques are at max level.

Ye Sanshu sneered, his already manic expression turning even more sinister: "It seems you alien races haven't completely forgotten me."

"What a pity, they remembered the name but not the lesson."

He moved his wrist slightly.

The other person slowly split apart in the middle and fell to both sides.

Before this leader of the zombies, who was at the first level of the Great Power Realm, could react, his life ended under Ye Sanshu's sword.

Ye San lowered his arm, and the slender sword trembled slightly in his palm, causing the remaining purplish-black blood droplets on the blade to fall off and then disappear into his sleeve like a fish.

He turned his head and called out into the shadows behind him.

"Big Tiger, if you're not dead, come over here right now!"

Under a large tree, Da Hu lay on the ground, his hands supporting him, still in the same position he had been thrown out.

His gaze was fixed straight ahead; his mind was numb.

He had witnessed the entire scene of Old Ye slaughtering those alien races. Who would have thought that the alien races who could easily crush him would be like ants in front of Old Ye, an old man who usually seemed harmless?

"Big Tiger?" Ye Sanshu called out again, his brows furrowing slightly. "You really want me to kick you a couple of times before you'll move?"

Da Hu suddenly came to his senses and staggered a couple of steps before regaining his balance.

But when he walked up to the other person, he acted as if he didn't recognize them, staring straight at them.

Ye Sanshu rolled his eyes in annoyance after being looked up and down like that several times.

"What? Are you scared stiff?"

Da Hu opened his mouth, and after several breaths, he managed to choke out a sentence: "Old Ye, you...you're so strong, why have I never seen you make a move?"

"I've known you for almost twenty years, a full twenty years, and I've never even seen you exert any strength while chopping wood! Every time I ask you to help carry a rice bin, you make excuses about your back hurting!"

Ye Sanshu shook his head and let out a long sigh.

He paused for a moment before slowly speaking, "You're only thirty, but I've lived in this 'Lishui Town' for fifty years. It's normal that you haven't seen me make a move."

"Back then, when I failed to break through to a higher realm, my soul almost shattered. I was lucky to survive, so I found this remote place to live in seclusion and sealed my cultivation."

"I had planned to live out the rest of my days peacefully in Lishui Town, never to lift a finger again until my death. If it weren't for these alien races, I wouldn't have been able to break that seal today."

Ye Sanshu gave a wry smile.

"This forced breaking of the seal, coupled with the injuries I sustained previously, means I fear my remaining lifespan will not exceed one year."

Old Ye's words sent a chill down Da Hu's spine.

"What?!" He grabbed Ye Sanshu's arm tightly. "You, you won't live more than a year?! What will I do if you die? Won't I have no family left?!"

When Da Hu uttered the last word, his voice was already trembling with sobs.

Ye Sanshu was pulled and swayed twice, but he couldn't break free.

He just watched quietly as Da Hu's face was streaked with tears, and then suddenly smiled.

He raised his hand and gently patted Big Tiger's head, asking, "Want to learn swordsmanship?"

Da Hu paused for a moment, then unexpectedly shook his head: "Old Ye, if even you die, what's the point of me learning swordsmanship?"

Ye Sanshu looked at him for a long time, then sighed softly, "Foolish child."

As the word "idiot" landed, Ye Sanshu suddenly raised his right hand and pressed it against Da Hu's forehead.

Da Hu felt a warm touch between his eyebrows, and his eyelids felt as heavy as if they were filled with lead. His body went limp and he fell backward, but Ye Sanshu reached out and caught him, gently laying him flat on the ground.

A layer of white light shone from the palm of Ye Sanshu that was pressing on Da Hu's forehead, and it slowly faded away after ten breaths.

He withdrew his hand, looked down at the sleeping tiger on the ground, and gently waved his right hand to lay it flat on a boulder.

Having done all that, he straightened up and turned to look at the mountain of corpses piled up on the slope.

Those faces he had seen for fifty years, those neighbors who had greeted him with nods at dawn and dusk.

"Rest in peace, everyone!!"

Ye Sanshu raised his right hand, and the slender sword reappeared in his palm. With a flash of sword light, a straight, deep canal appeared in front of the mountain of corpses.

With another wave of his hand, a gentle wave of air pushed forward, and the piled-up corpses were lifted up by an invisible force, falling one after another into the deep ditch, arranged neatly from head to toe.

As the last body was laid to rest, Ye Sanshu raised his longsword and made a feinting slash at the side wall of the deep canal. The earthen walls on both sides then collapsed, burying all the figures underground.

"Due to limitations, we cannot erect individual tombstones for each of you!"

"If we meet again in the afterlife, I hope you will not blame this old man!"

After sighing, Ye Sanshu glanced around.

They quickly located a huge bluestone.

"You're perfect! You're just the right size for a tombstone!!"

With a flick of his wrist, several sword energies flashed, and in just a few breaths, a stone tablet inscribed with "Tomb of the Residents of Lishui Town" was erected in front of him.

Ye Sanshu sheathed his sword and put it in his sleeve. He took a half-worn leather wine pouch from his waist, uncorked it, and tilted his head back to take a big gulp.

He slowly poured the remaining wine from the wine flask onto the ground in front of the stone tablet.

"Aunt Zhou, Uncle Wang, and fellow neighbors."

"Don't worry. I'll settle this score."

He stood silently for a long time, even closing his eyes in the breeze.

A full hour later, Ye Sanshu finally opened his eyes.

The moment he opened his eyes, his aura changed.

The sword intent that had been suppressed for fifty years surged out of his body like a beast breaking free of its cage.

The distant mountain peaks stood silently, as if cleaved into pieces by an invisible giant blade.

"He only has one year left to live."

"Since that's the case, then this old man will... take action once more for this Mirage Realm."

As soon as he finished speaking, his figure transformed into a beam of sword light and soared into the sky.

It was this sword light that illuminated more than half of the night sky in Xuanyou Prefecture as bright as day.

Almost at the same moment, more than half of the people in Xuanyou Prefecture looked up and saw the sword light.

Similarly, outside the Mirage Realm, in that vast and boundless void of outer space, a warship is quietly suspended among the stars.

On the warship, a figure shrouded in black robes burst into laughter.

"This sword intent..."

"Looks like I've found you! That human sword-wielding madman!"

"I wonder if you are truly as rumored, invincible below the Saint Realm, and capable of one-for-one combat above the Saint Realm!! I, the King, am very much looking forward to fighting you."