Xuanjian: I am the tenth son of Zhenchi, and I plot to seize the throne from Zhenlong.

On the 25th of June, the Qin army arrived in an instant. A fire broke out in a valley at the border between Xu and Zhao. The spiritual light from the shattered magic array scattered, and the Su family was destroyed.

In the face of the momentous event of the [Moon Sword] slaying the Wrathful Maha, the destruction of a minor Qi Refining clan was nothing more than a pebble thrown into a large lake, leaving no trace in an instant.

Su Ming quietly observed from a dense forest. Surprisingly, he felt no anger or resentment. That's just how the world is; if you kill me, I can kill you too.

If his family and the Qin family were in different situations, he would be the one to go to the Qin family and slaughter them to the point of bloodshed today.

"A stray dog, this is my... fate." A sudden realization welled up in Su Ming's heart. He nodded and turned to walk into the forest.

------

Lixia County, Xianyou Peak.

Xiao Chuting pursued the scattered destinies of Maha for many days before finally returning with a full load.

"Gulp~"

As the fishhook entered the water, he was about to retrieve his destiny and carefully study it to improve his life's supernatural abilities when he suddenly froze.

Before he knew it, the fishing rod in his hand had been taken by someone else. The person was dressed in a white robe, and his features were not visible. He was constantly adjusting the fishing rod with great interest, trying to catch something.

Xiao Chuting carefully examined the man; his aura was that of an ordinary person, and he had no face.

He had concealed his cultivation under the rule of the Qingchi Sect for over three hundred years, yet he had never experienced such a sense of dread. It took him a long while to regain his senses, and he cleared his throat: "My lord..."

"Splash!"

An ordinary grass carp was caught, and the man chuckled: "Xiao Chuting, you catch all sorts of strange and unusual things, but I've never seen you catch a fresh fish."

Xiao Chuting didn't know how to answer him. He was fishing on the lake, using his life-force to manipulate fate as bait. What he caught were all sorts of spiritual objects and magical artifacts, all for the purpose of increasing his aura. How could he possibly catch ordinary fresh fish?

He couldn't understand how this person had so easily taken the fishing rod from his hand, and he didn't dare to use his supernatural powers, yet this person actually managed to catch a fresh fish.

Seeing the man stuff fresh fish into the fish basket at his waist, he could only force a dry smile and say, "Sir... please don't play tricks on me."

The man ignored him, simply casting his fishing hook back into the lake and whispering, "Do you want to become a Golden Core cultivator?"

Without any beating around the bush, this person said this as casually as asking him what he wanted to eat for dinner.

"My lord... who wouldn't want to attain enlightenment?" Xiao Chuting went through all the Golden Cores he could think of in his mind, but he didn't know who this person was, so he could only answer honestly.

"Are you willing to give everything?"

The old man fell silent, then smiled freely: "My brothers have all become the foundation of my path. This time, I am doing this for the Xiao family and for the path of cultivation. What is there that I cannot give up..."

"In the past, I always did things by being told what to do by the adults and figuring it out on my own. I never thought that Xiao Chuting would be worth the adults making a special trip for me."

The fishing rod was tossed back into his hand. The man stood up, stretched, and said with certainty, "You will die, and then you will achieve something."

Xiao Chuting felt the fresh fish in the fish basket at his waist suddenly stop jumping. He took it out, and the bluefish had already turned into a pill.

He pondered for a moment, and was about to eat it when the man raised his hand to stop him. With a flick of his hand, Dan transformed back into a blue fish and jumped into his fish basket: "It's not time yet."

The man's figure began to blur, and Xiao Chuting only felt a moment of white light before his eyes. A soft voice came to his ear: "When you get to that point, you will understand."

When he came to his senses, he was sitting upright on the rock, holding a ball of golden light in his hand.

He was secretly pleased: "This Maha Destiny is truly miraculous. I only studied a little bit of it, but it made me feel dazed for a moment."

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

The desert, with its rolling yellow sand.

Several sword energies suddenly flew past, breaking through a barrier of black smoke and severing the arm of a demonic cultivator. Blood splattered, but the arm was burned to ashes before it even hit the ground.

The demonic cultivator, his spell broken, coughed up a mouthful of blood, clutched his charred severed arm, and howled in agony, staggering as he tried to escape.

Several more sword energies struck, and before he could even cry out, his head flew off, and his body was cut into several pieces, falling to the ground. His corpse spontaneously combusted with gray-red flames.

"Gulp~"

Standing in different positions, surrounded by the gray-robed cultivator in the center, Zhou Yan swallowed hard, feeling his legs trembling slightly.

He was originally a lazy man from an unknown village in the desert. He unexpectedly obtained a martial arts manual. Overjoyed, he tried it and actually succeeded. So he stormed into the village chief's house, killed the old man, took the beautiful woman as his own, and acted like a tyrant for quite some time.

It wasn't until this group of demonic cultivators passed by, beat him up, and massacred his village that he learned there was such a valuable thing as blood essence. He immediately joined their group, and the four of them roamed around, burning, killing, and looting for several years, living a very happy life.

A few days ago, I found this lone gray-robed man in the desert. After observing him for a while and not seeing anyone else, I assumed he was some rogue cultivator.

They were just about to use the same trick again to beat him up and recruit him, but before they knew it, the third brother, who was the best at defense among the five, was killed by several swords in the face of direct confrontation.

"What kind of sorcery is this person using?"

Zhou Yan's usually proud longsword gave him no courage whatsoever. He couldn't understand how this person could emit that grayish-red aura with just a light wave of his longsword.

"Aren't these tools meant for killing people? How come they're being used for sorcery?"

He moved stiffly, wanting only to get as far away from this man as possible; he didn't care about the lives of his other brothers.

"kill!"

The hotheaded fourth brother roared, his armor gleaming with black light, and he charged straight forward with a cleaver in hand.

The second brother, who was his own brother, immediately waved his hand and made a hand seal, releasing bursts of black mist that enveloped the gray-robed man.

"This should stop him, right?" Zhou Yan was overjoyed. He hesitated whether to go up and help when he suddenly caught a glimpse of his older brother, whose face was covered in sweat, slowly backing away.

His face stiffened, and he quickly dismissed the idea, turning to flee.

Zhou Yan observed that the reason why the leader was the leader was not only because he was strong, but more importantly because he was clever. That's why he was able to survive and outlive the previous two leaders. Following him was definitely the right thing to do.

Just as he was thinking about where to escape, a sword aura flew past, and his head fell to the ground, landing on the yellow sand.

Before he was completely dead after falling to the ground, he just stared blankly as his boss was also beheaded with two or three sword strikes, cursing in his mind, "Those two pieces of trash died so quickly?"

Su Ming took the storage bag from the last person, casually scanned it with his spiritual sense, and frowned. The demonic cultivators rampaging in this desert were all penniless bastards.

He killed two or three waves, but found nothing of value in their bags except for blood, food, and other valuables.

"Oh?"

He raised an eyebrow, took out a copy of the "Blood Magic Book" from his bag, and began to read it with great interest.