Starting as the heir of a marquis's mansion, I gained access to a summoning system.

Just as the punch was about to be unleashed, a sword light pierced through the air from the back mountain.

That sword light was too fast. So fast that even someone with Li Chenzhou's cultivation level could only sense its trajectory and couldn't completely avoid it. The sword light had already reached Li Chenzhou's face almost before the sound of it cutting through the air arrived, and the piercing sword intent caused a drop of blood to seep from between his eyebrows even from three feet away.

Li Chenzhou's eyes sharpened, and he swept his right fist horizontally, no longer aiming at Qingxuan Zhenren, but instead meeting the sword light head-on.

The moment the fist collided with the sword light, the entire stone platform trembled. After the loud bang, Li Chenzhou took half a step back, and a crater three zhang wide blasted open in the ground, sending rubble and dust flying into the sky.

The aftershocks of the collision, carrying rubble and dust, cascaded down the mountain path like a furious, gray-yellow dragon. People on the wasteland instinctively raised their hands to shield their faces, as rubble pelted their vehicles and weapons—this was the very shockwave they had sensed earlier.

After the shockwave subsided, the wasteland was quiet for a moment.

Then, an even more terrifying aura exploded from the top of Qingmu Peak.

That aura was completely different from the previous sword energy—if Qingxuan Zhenren's sword intent was a rushing river, then this aura was a bottomless ocean. Ancient, vast, and carrying a chilling, decaying aura, it was like an ancient ferocious beast crawling out of a grave.

Grandmaster Level 5.

More than two thousand people on the wasteland turned pale at the same time.

Inside the carriage at Chaotian Palace, Ling Xuzi abruptly stood up, his head hitting the roof, but he seemed oblivious. For the first time, a look of disbelief appeared on his face, and his voice trembled: "Qing Yuanzi! The old monster of the previous generation of the Qingmu Sword Sect! He's still alive?!"

Iron Hand Luo Xiao's fist clenched so tightly it cracked, and a bloody gash appeared at the base of his thumb—not from an injury, but from using too much force and digging his nails into his palm. His face was ashen, and for the first time, a clear unease appeared between his brows. Grandmaster level five—that was an existence he couldn't even begin to fathom.

Yin Wuxue took a step back.

The Blood Demon Sect's Grand Protector, a blood-refining maniac who killed without hesitation, instinctively took a step back the instant he sensed the fifth level of a Grandmaster's sword intent. His blood-red cloak fluttered in the still air, and a trace of human emotion finally appeared on his pale face—fear. The white-robed youth shrank behind him, not daring to even raise his head.

The Imperial Guard Ling Yunzhi loosened his hand from the hilt of his sword. Not out of relaxation, but because he knew that when facing a Grandmaster at the fifth level, drawing his sword made no difference. His hand fell to his sides, his fingertips slightly cold.

Shen Jinghong stopped folding his fan. For the first time, the smile on his face froze, and his gaze became unusually grave. He looked towards Qingmu Peak, his lips moved, but he ultimately uttered only two words: "...What a pity."

What was the pity? He didn't say. But everyone around him understood—it was a pity that Li Chenzhou was going to die.

The wasteland was deathly silent. Everyone had reached a consensus: Li Chenzhou was finished.

As the sword light dissipated, an old man with white hair landed in the center of the stone platform, blocking Li Chenzhou and Qingxuan Zhenren.

His beard and hair were as white as silver, and his face was covered with wrinkles, each one seemingly bearing the marks of time. His eyes shone with a captivating light, and the sword intent surrounding him was concentrated yet restrained. The air that approached his body was silently sliced ​​apart—not by the outward release of sword energy, but by the very existence of him that naturally severed everything around him.

Grandmaster Level 5.

"Master Qingyuanzi!" Master Qingsong's voice trembled, and his lips were shaking.

All the elders and disciples present knelt down. A mass of kneeling figures collapsed on the stone platform, even Qingxuan Zhenren barely managed to bow his head amidst the pool of blood.

"This disciple is incompetent... I have alarmed my master..." Master Qingxuan's voice was full of shame and resentment.

Qing Yuanzi did not turn around. His gaze remained fixed on Li Chenzhou.

"Of course you're incompetent." Qing Yuanzi's voice was as cold as a sword. "A Grandmaster at the third level, beaten like this by a junior, you've completely disgraced the Qingmu Sword Sect."

Master Qingxuan trembled and prostrated himself on the ground, daring not to speak again.

Qing Yuanzi—the last surviving old monster of the previous generation of the Qingmu Sword Sect, and the junior brother of the previous sect leader. Due to his impending death, he was sealed away in the back mountains and slumbered for decades, suppressing his life force with a sword formation, all so that he could leave behind one last sword strike when the sect faced imminent death. Now, with Qingxuan Zhenren about to be killed, he has no choice but to awaken.

The price of waking up was the irreversible burning of his lifespan—from that moment on, his life entered an irreversible countdown. Every inch of time burned to ashes in his meridians, and he could feel his vitality rapidly slipping away like sand in an hourglass.

But he doesn't care.

"Azure Dragon Society. Four Dragon Leaders." He spoke slowly, each word like a sword blade scraping across ice, carrying an ancient and decaying aura. "You are the first to kill the leader of the Azure Wood Sword Sect on Azure Wood Peak."

Li Chenzhou looked at him, the blood still seeping from the scratch on his shoulder caused by the sword light. His expression remained unchanged, and the corners of his mouth even turned up slightly—not a smile, but a condescending composure.

"He wants to kill the leader of the Azure Dragon Society, so I'll kill him," Li Chenzhou said, his voice as calm as if stating a fact. "If you try to stop me, I'll kill you too."

Qing Yuanzi was slightly taken aback, then smiled.

That smile held no warmth, only the chill of a sword.

"Alright. I've lived for 370 years, and you're the first young person who dares to speak to me like that."

He slowly raised his fingers and pointed them into the shape of a sword.

The sword intent of a Grandmaster at the fifth level was finally released without reservation. The entire stone platform trembled, and those among the thousand disciples whose cultivation was slightly weaker were directly forced to their knees by this oppressive force, coughing up mouthfuls of blood. Pine trees on Greenwood Peak snapped in large numbers, and rubble tumbled down from the mountaintop, as if the entire mountain was wailing.

"Grandmaster Uncle, please calm down!" an elder exclaimed.

Qing Yuanzi paid no heed. The sword energy emanating from his fingertips was sharper than any divine weapon, and the edges of the sword energy gleamed with a faint white light—the marks of space being torn apart.

"This sword strike is called 'Return to the Void'," Qing Yuanzi's voice was old and calm. "I have only used it three times in my life. The first two times, my opponents were dead."

Li Chenzhou's expression finally turned serious for a moment.

"I'm really looking forward to being the third one."

Qing Yuanzi stopped speaking.

As the sword was thrust out, the heavens and earth simultaneously fell into darkness.

It was as if all the light had been absorbed by this sword. The people on the stone platform felt a sudden darkness before their eyes, with only the sword light—bright enough to split the heavens and earth in two—drawing a deadly arc in the darkness.

Li Chenzhou did not back down.

His fist intent was also pushed to its limit, and an overbearing aura of dominance erupted from his body like a volcanic eruption, causing his black robe to flutter in the wind. He did not choose to dodge or fight evasively, but instead faced the sword energy head-on.

"Reign supreme!" he hissed.

One punch, and the world trembled.

The sword energy and the fist intent collided right in the center of the stone platform.

There was no sound—because the sound was shattered before the explosion occurred. The air was blown into a vacuum, and all the debris within a radius of twenty feet was sucked back towards the center of the explosion, forming a huge spherical vacuum zone, before the deafening roar.

The shockwave spread in all directions, and it took several Sword Pavilion elders working together to protect their disciples. A full foot of the stone slab was sheared away, revealing the bluish-gray rock base beneath.

The aftershocks of this attack were far more powerful than any before. The shockwave swept down from the mountaintop, shearing off an entire pine forest halfway up the mountain, snapping hundreds of ancient pines in half and sending them tumbling down the slope with a deafening roar.

On the wasteland, everyone had been waiting for this moment. Then they heard—not the force of fists, not the clang of swords, but a suffocating silence.

After the loud noise, Qingxuan Zhenren's aura disappeared.

It wasn't a weakening, nor a contraction; it was a complete and utter disappearance, like a lamp being suddenly blown out. Everyone in the wasteland with sufficiently strong perception simultaneously noticed this change, and the same thought arose in their minds at the same time—Master Qingxuan is dead.

Iron Hand Luo Xiao abruptly turned to look at Yin Wuxue. Yin Wuxue also looked at him. The two early-stage Grandmasters exchanged a glance, both seeing the same thing in each other's eyes: disbelief and deep apprehension.

Despite Qing Yuanzi drawing his sword, Li Chenzhou still managed to kill Qingxuan Zhenren.

What does this mean? It means that Li Chenzhou's strength far exceeds that of a Grandmaster in the early stage; it means that his fighting spirit is so strong that he can ignore the threat of a Grandmaster at the fifth level; it means—he came down the mountain alive?

On the stone platform atop the mountain, the truth behind that punch was far more shocking than the people in the wasteland could have imagined.

The fist's intent shattered inch by inch under the sword's energy, but each shattering consumed the sword's power. The sword's energy was deflected, grazing Li Chenzhou's cheek and leaving a shallow bloodstain on his face—this was the second injury Li Chenzhou had suffered today.

The injury came from a Grandmaster at the fifth level.

Li Chenzhou took a second step back. A trace of blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.

But Qing Yuanzi's expression also changed.

Because he discovered that Li Chenzhou's retreat trajectory was calculated—the direction he retreated was precisely the direction in which Qingxuan Zhenren knelt.

"Not good!" A warning screamed in Qing Yuanzi's mind.

Then Li Chenzhou made a decision that no one in the Qingmu Sword Sect had anticipated.

He did not continue fighting Qing Yuanzi.

He moved with lightning speed, his black robe leaving a trail of afterimages in the air, and he bypassed Qing Yuanzi like a black lightning bolt. Qing Yuanzi was sheathing his sword and changing his move; no matter how fast he moved, he couldn't outrun a Grandmaster who deliberately used movement techniques—Li Chenzhou had already circled around to his side.

"How dare you, you brat!" Qing Yuanzi's expression changed drastically, and he turned around to stab Li Chenzhou in the back with his sword.

The sword was as fast as lightning.

But the speed of a punch is faster than the speed of a sword.

Li Chenzhou completely ignored the deadly sword behind him. His entire focus was on this punch.

Shattered Mountain.

This punch was unrestrained, leaving no room for error; it was a completely lethal strike. As the fist struck, Li Chenzhou's sleeves were shattered by the force of the impact, revealing his muscular arms. His voice was low and calm, as if he were saying something utterly ordinary:

"I told you, he's going to die."

The force of the punch struck Qingxuan Zhenren squarely in the chest.

The sound of bones cracking exploded on the stone slab, clear as if a pile of dry firewood had been crushed, and continuous like a barrage of firecrackers—it was the sound of the sternum, ribs, and spine breaking one after another.

Master Qingxuan's eyes widened, his pupils dilating and then dilating in an instant. His lips moved as if he wanted to say something, but no sound came out.

He was slammed into the ground by the punch, creating a deep, human-shaped crater half a meter deep in the rocky foundation. Blood gushed from his mouth, nose, and ears, pooling into a small, crimson puddle at the bottom of the crater. His body was still convulsing, but the light in his eyes had gone out.

Grandmaster Level 3. Killed with a single punch.

Qing Yuanzi's sword followed.

The sword energy pierced through Li Chenzhou's left shoulder from behind, penetrating his entire scapula, and a half-foot-long blade of light emanated from the front. Blood spurted out along the trajectory of the sword energy, splashing onto the ground three feet in front of Li Chenzhou.

Li Chenzhou groaned, his body swayed slightly, but he did not fall down or even bend over.

Blood gushed from his shoulder, dripping down his arm and onto the ground with a soft, rhythmic sound.

"You—" Qing Yuanzi's voice trembled, not from fear, but from rage—a bone-chilling, irrational rage. The Sword Sect Leader had been killed before his very eyes, by his sword. A Grandmaster at the fifth level, protected by his sword, had been killed by a junior with a single punch right before his eyes.

"You're courting death!" Qing Yuanzi roared, his sword energy surging, about to pierce through Li Chenzhou completely.

Shangguan Jin Hong and Jing Wuming stepped forward simultaneously, their hands already on their weapons. Jing Wuming's sword was half an inch out, while Shangguan Jin Hong's fist was already clenched.

But Li Chenzhou raised his right hand, which was still dripping blood.

They stopped them.

He turned around.

The sword aura of Qing Yuanzi was still embedded in his shoulder, a half-foot-long blade of light emanating from it, blood trickling down his face. He turned around with that sword still embedded in his shoulder, looking at Qing Yuanzi with an unchanging expression, his gaze as calm as if he were looking at an empty mountain.

"I've memorized that sword strike," Li Chenzhou said, his voice still steady, without even the slightest tremor from the penetrating wound in his shoulder. "But do you have enough lifespan to unleash a second strike?"