Raise a sword!

In the sky, a stern-faced man in a long robe held a sword in one hand, his cold gaze sweeping over the entire valley.

"How dare you slander my Jade Pavilion Sword Pavilion for secretly ambushing and killing your Cangshan Sect disciples outside this damned black market?!"

"What a joke! If we wanted to kill, we would kill openly and honestly!"

"You've sent messages repeatedly, do you really think we sword cultivators have no temper? This time, your Cangshan Sect will see clearly how the grandfathers of the Jade Pavilion Sword Pavilion kill people!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the cold-faced man raised his sword.

But after the sword light appeared, it began to expand continuously, eventually transforming into a wide sword aura more than ten feet long, which fell into the black market and crushed a row of shops into dust.

Even after that, the sword light did not weaken and continued to advance, eventually turning the entire street into ruins before finally dissipating.

"Li Xiangui of Jade Pavilion Sword Pavilion?! You're courting death!"

Finally, an aged voice echoed from the depths of the valley.

He was an elderly man with white hair and beard.

As soon as the old man appeared, dozens of talismans flew out. These talismans were interconnected and eventually formed a huge barrier that protected the entire valley, replacing the damaged formation.

With the blessing of such a talisman array, the cultivators who were originally in a terrible state in the valley finally regained their spirits and quickly gathered together to wipe out and counterattack the monsters in the valley.

"A rune array? That's interesting." The cold-faced man, Li Xiangui, looked at the old man opposite him with considerable surprise.

He didn't know the other person, but the other person immediately knew his name.

"Who are you, and how do you recognize me?" Li Xiangui asked with a hint of curiosity.

The old man took a deep breath.

"I am Zhang Qing. Thirty years ago, I represented the Cangshan Sect at the Jade Pavilion Sword Pavilion. At that time, you were the one who received me before I had even established my foundation."

Upon hearing this, Li Xiangui pondered for a long time, but ultimately shook his head.

"I can't remember, but it's not my fault. It's probably because you old codger aren't very good enough to leave your mark on my heart."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Qing's face turned bright red, but he was unable to utter a word in rebuttal.

He himself was only at the early stage of Foundation Establishment, and even after Foundation Establishment, he quickly resigned from his position as an elder of the Cangshan Sect and instead started running his family business in the market.

The Zhang family is one of the families behind the black market. Recently, it was the Zhang family's turn to send people to guard the area, so he, a Foundation Establishment cultivator with no future, came to this remote valley.

Otherwise, no Foundation Establishment cultivator would be willing to stay here.

But Li Xiangui in front of us is different.

Approaching one hundred years old, his cultivation had reached the fourth level of Foundation Establishment.

This was a person who was expected to reach the Golden Core stage, and was very famous in this area at the northern foot of the Earthly Roaring Mountains, so Zhang Qing recognized him at a glance.

Perhaps because he knew he was no match for them, Zhang Qing's tone softened slightly, and he forcefully dragged Cangshan Sect into the conversation.

"Does the Jade Pavilion Sword Pavilion intend to wage a full-scale war against my sect? How dare you collude with demonic beasts and allow them to harm innocent rogue cultivators?"

Li Xiangui wore a mocking expression and said, "Old man, you know better than I why the beast tide started. To brazenly pin this label on me like this, I'm ashamed for you!"

"As for harming the innocent... the strongest of those demonic beasts is only at the mid-stage of the first rank. I kill any that are even slightly outstanding. This is already out of compassion, as I don't want to commit unnecessary killings."

"Those cultivators in the valley who have any sense know that as long as they work together to resist, they can at least protect themselves, if not win the battle."

Li Xiangui pointed to the cultivators fleeing in all directions below.

"They can't even save their own lives, they have no fighting spirit whatsoever, this is their fate to suffer this calamity."

"I only wanted to destroy this black market in the valley, but I never expected things to turn out this way."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Qing immediately said, "In that case, let's join forces and kill those demonic beasts..."

Swah——

A sword light flew past, which Zhang Qing narrowly dodged.

Zhang Qing glared angrily at Li Xiangui, only to see Li Xiangui's face full of sarcasm.

"I only said it wasn't my intention, but I never said I regretted it even a little! Join forces with you? You old fool, I still want to kill you!"

As soon as they finished speaking, the two Foundation Establishment cultivators exchanged a glance, and the next moment, they simultaneously unleashed their techniques and began to fight.

...

Behind the valley.

Jiang Peng put away the two mid-stage first-tier demon cores.

"No wonder we couldn't find a late-stage Tier 1 demonic beast after searching for so long. So that sword cultivator surnamed Li was still merciful and afraid that the demonic beast he drove away was too powerful, right?"

The two Foundation Establishment cultivators in the distance did not lower their voices, so Jiang Peng, through deliberate probing, was able to hear their conversation clearly.

Jiang Peng's heart was filled with complex emotions at this moment.

He never imagined that the grand scene before him was, in essence, an aftershock of the incident where he fought back and killed someone outside the black market.

It's been years already, is this never going to end?

Perhaps because cultivators live for over a hundred years, Jiang Peng realized that she might need to slightly change her concept of time.

In Jiang Peng's view, a cold case that had remained unsolved for three to five years should have been closed by now.

It wasn't anyone important who died. In the cultivation world where people die unnatural deaths every day, is this even a big deal?

As it turned out, this was indeed a troublesome matter.

Whether it's the Jade Pavilion Sword Pavilion or the Cangshan Sect, if they want to take action against each other, they can bring up this old matter again, and it doesn't matter how many times they bring it up.

The matter itself is not important; what matters is that it's a suitable excuse.

Until a more suitable excuse emerges, and before the two sides completely break off relations, this matter will likely be brought up again every time a conflict occurs, from various angles.

Feeling the aftershocks of the battle between Foundation Establishment cultivators in the distance, Jiang Peng was secretly astonished.

On one side were sword cultivators, whose sword light continuously slashed through the sky, displaying terrifying power.

On the other side was a veteran Foundation Establishment cultivator from the Cangshan Sect, whose accumulated power was countless. With a wave of his hand, he could form countless talismans into a talisman array, which was quite remarkable.

For a time, it seemed like the outcome was evenly matched.

Just as Jiang Peng was about to hunt down some demonic beasts because she couldn't understand it,

Suddenly, a loud fighting noise came from the nearby woods.

After a brief investigation, Jiang Peng discovered that two Qi Refining cultivators were fighting, one at the mid-stage of Qi Refining and the other at the late-stage.

"Huh? This place isn't close to Black Market Valley; it's far behind the market, away from the beast tide. How did these two get here?"

Jiang Peng deliberately took a long detour to select small groups of beast demons to kill in order to collect materials. What was the reason for this?

But when Jiang Peng got a little closer, a look of surprise appeared on his face.

It was quite a coincidence that one of the two fighting men was someone he knew.

"Lan Yingying? How is it her?"