The crowd watching from afar felt their blood ignite at the young man's righteous fury.
"Did you hear that? He's doing this for those missing girls!"
"A Mid-Stage Foundation Establishment daring to challenge four Peak Foundation Establishment cultivators… this is real courage!"
"He's risking his life for justice… how can we stay silent?!"
A few emotional sword cultivators even drew their swords and shouted,
"You bastards! Do you even have hearts?!"
"Four against one… how shameless can you be?!"
"Do you think we're here just to watch the show?!"
"We are sword cultivators, and we stand for justice!"
They charged forward toward Su Wen and Young Master K, ready to stand beside them and deliver justice.
Su Wen raised his hand toward the crowd and shouted, his voice filled with emotion,
"Everyone…!"
His eyes reddened slightly as he spoke righteously,
"Leave that Young Scum Lord to me! I'll leave the other three pieces of trash to you!"
He clenched his fists and added with suppressed fury,
"Don't forget how much those innocent girls must have suffered under the hands of these devils… show them no mercy!"
The ten cultivators rushing toward Su Wen felt their blood boil when they heard his words. Their eyes turned even more resolute, killing intent surging.
The crowd behind them also began to move forward toward the basement, step by step, like a rising tide of righteous anger.
Lu Yang's expression darkened like a storm cloud as his gaze locked onto Su Wen. With a furious roar, he surged forward, intent on striking him down in a single blow.
But before he could even close the distance, a shadow flickered in his vision.
Young Master K stepped forward, his presence cutting through the tension like a drawn blade.
"Y-You…" Lu Yang snarled, his voice trembling with rage. "I… I will kill you! Because of you… all my plans are ruined! Now I'll be forced to live like a fugitive!"
Young Master K's eyes narrowed slightly, his tone calm and cold.
"Don't worry. You won't live like a fugitive," he said lightly, as if stating an obvious fact.
"I won't let you leave this place alive."
The two moved at the same time.
Young Master K's sword erupted with tyrannical Grade 3 Sword Intent, moon-white light wrapping around the blade. Lu Yang's sword answered with its own Grade 3 Sword Intent, dark and violent.
Their blades collided.
Boom!
A violent shockwave exploded outward, ripping through the ground and hurling dust, stone, and broken tiles into the air. The surrounding rubble was swept away like dry leaves in a storm.
Lu Yang was forced back several steps, his feet carving deep grooves into the ground. Meanwhile, Young Master K remained standing in place, robes fluttering calmly as if the clash had never happened.
Without giving him a moment to recover, Young Master K slashed upward from below, his blade carrying a sharp, rising arc of sword qi.
Lu Yang gritted his teeth and brought his sword down in a heavy overhead strike, barely blocking the attack.
Clang!
The collision sent violent tremors through Lu Yang's arms. His wrists shook uncontrollably, numbness spreading through his palms.
Young Master K did not miss that opening.
His right fist, coated in dense Yin Vital Qi, shot forward like a falling star and slammed brutally into Lu Yang's abdomen.
"Gah…!"
Lu Yang spat out a mouthful of blood as his body was launched backward. The impact hurled him through the air before he crashed into the ground with bone-shattering force, blood spraying across the rubble like a crimson arc.
He struggled to rise, hands trembling, eyes wide with disbelief as he stared at Young Master K.
"Y-You… you're a Body Cultivator… and a Spirit Cultivator…" he gasped weakly, his voice filled with shock and fear.
Young Master K didn't speak. He moved with the grace of a predator, his every step measured and deliberate. It was as if time itself slowed around him.
He took out another Grade 3 Sword, which flew away close to Su Wen unnoticed by everyone.
On the other side, Su Wen faced off against Lu Tang, his dark-tanned, scarred face curling into a sinister smile.
For some reason, Lu Tang felt a shiver run down his spine at that expression. Instinctively, he glanced at the three black-robed cultivators and hurriedly moved with them to surround Su Wen.
Su Wen reached for the axe on his back, but it felt awkward in his grip, so he slipped it back behind him.
Behind him, about ten sword-wielding cultivators immediately closed in, each with a sword hanging at their waist.
The other three black-robed cultivators tried to act, but they were intercepted by this group. The sword cultivators moved with terrifying coordination and precision, circling the three of them like wolves closing in on prey. Escape was impossible.
One of the black-robed cultivators whispered to the others through Spiritual Sense, "Don't worry… hold on for a moment. Senior Mo will come to our aid."
The other two nodded, their weapons emanating black, impure qi as they readied themselves.
Just as Su Wen prepared to intercept Lu Tang, a black needle wrapped in evil, impure qi shot toward his head from an unknown angle at lightning speed. Even with his Peak Soul Awakening, he couldn't dodge it in time.
But before it could strike, a sword descended into its path, shattering the needle into two pieces with a metallic clink. The sword then flew back up as if nothing had happened.
Su Wen's heart froze. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead, and a chill ran down his spine. This was the first time in both his lives that death had come so close.
He glanced at the broken needle radiating wicked qi, then followed the sword's flight. His eyes then drifted to the heroic Young Master K hovering a little ways off, looking ahead, not even sparing him a glance.
'Is she trying to act all cool…?' he thought, wiping the sweat from his brow. A wide, relieved smile spread across his face.
Young Master K hovered in the air and slowly turned his gaze to the side.Not far away stood a man in his mid‑twenties, dressed in grey robes, his hands resting calmly behind his back. A black, serrated dagger was held loosely in one hand, yet thick, impure evil qi coiled around it like living smoke, twisting and writhing in the air.
"Not bad…" the man said with an amused yet cold smile. "You not only detected me, but even managed to save him. You're not a simple person."
It was Mo Xuan.
Young Master K's eyes narrowed. His expression remained calm, but his aura changed completely.
"Do you know," he said slowly, his voice turning chillingly cold, "that I'm going to cut you into a thousand pieces for daring to attack my man?"
His gaze was like frozen blades, and his tone carried a murderous intent so dense it felt like the voice of a devil emerging from the abyss.
For the first time since disguising himself, Young Master K's true killing intent was fully revealed.