Deacon Feng Lie's command, sharp and cold as a winter wind, sliced through the sudden, shocked silence of the Dragon's Maw.
"Kill the escorts! Take the cargo!"
His voice was the signal. The dam of civility, fragile as it was between the great sects, broke completely, unleashing a tidal wave of violence.
The battle began not as a duel, but as a slaughter.
From the high cliffs, the disciples of the Azure Sword Clan acted as one. Their movements were a symphony of deadly, synchronized grace.
"Skyfall Sword Net!" a leading inner sect disciple roared.
Dozens of them raised their spirit swords in unison. A brilliant, azure light erupted from their blades, their individual Sword Qi weaving together in the air above the canyon. The light coalesced, forming a massive, shimmering net of pure, cutting energy that descended upon the trapped caravan like the judgment of a wrathful sky god.
