I don't want to be trained by my senior sister!

Lu Mingxuan laughed wildly, his blood-fiend spiritual power burning like flames.

With a single grab, a blood-red, grotesquely shaped demon-head broadsword appeared in his hand.

The blade was wreathed in a blood-red aura resembling that of a vengeful spirit.

"Fang Xuan! Prepare to die!"

With a single step, the blue bricks on the ground shattered, and he charged towards Fang Xuan like a blood-red meteor.

He raised the blood-red blade high above his head, and a crimson blade aura, over ten feet long, slashed down!

This strike was as powerful as thunder; it was clearly Lu Mingxuan's all-out attack, intended to kill Fang Xuan instantly.

.......

"clang--!!!!!"

A deafening roar, as if two mountains had collided.

The violent shockwave rippled outwards from the two people, shattering all the remaining artificial hills and withered trees around them, and carving deep furrows into the ground.

The anticipated scene of the black sword breaking and Fang Xuan being cleaved in two did not occur.

The terrifying crimson blade energy, upon contacting the dark sword, shattered as if it had struck an unshakeable barrier of divine iron, and finally dissipated into countless crimson specks of light.

Lu Mingxuan was so shocked that he was sent flying backwards.

"Bang!!! Crash—"

He slammed hard into a thick palace wall a hundred meters away, creating a huge crater in the wall, from which spiderweb-like cracks spread out.

He was embedded in the wall, covered in dust, his head buzzing.

He was completely dumbfounded.

His full-force strike, infused with the blood and spiritual energy of many fellow disciples he had plundered, was so powerful that even those at the early Golden Core stage would have to temporarily evade its edge... Yet, he was sent flying by a mere, unsheathed, broken sword that was simply blocked by the opponent.

How could it be so hard?!

.......

Lu Mingxuan shook his head, dislodging the brick dust from his hair, and his spiritual energy circulated wildly within his body, forcibly suppressing the churning blood and qi.

He roared, reached out and summoned the blood-stained blade back into his hand.

A ruthless glint flashed in his eyes. This time, he held nothing back. His crimson spiritual power burned to its limit, and he slashed wildly at Fang Xuan.

Fang Xuan did not dodge, but simply took a step forward.

A sword aura struck first, even though it was launched later.

Lu Mingxuan felt as if his blade had struck empty air, and a sharp force surged upwards along the blade, instantly slashing his arm in several bloody gashes.

Too fast! Too precise!

Alarm bells rang in his mind, and he retreated, trying to create distance and regroup.

But Fang Xuan's sword was faster than his.

The black sword, like a leech, followed closely behind.

The sword techniques are no longer limited to the basic Azure Cloud Sword Technique, but have become agile and unpredictable.

He combined the Canglan Sword Technique passed down from the Fang family with the chilling sword aura he himself had comprehended.

Lu Mingxuan could only frantically swing his blood-red blade, desperately trying to block.

But the more he fought, the more frightened and desperate he became.

Fang Xuan's spiritual power clearly only appeared to be at the mid-stage of the Void Core realm, but its total amount far exceeded the massive amount of spiritual power he had plundered.

Each sword strike was as heavy as a thousand pounds, causing his blood and qi to surge, and his tiger's mouth was already a bloody mess!

"Ah—!! Get out of my way!"

Forced into a corner, Lu Mingxuan recklessly burned his life essence to detonate the plundered spiritual power all at once, which temporarily forced Fang Xuan back a few steps.

He took advantage of this moment, panting heavily, staring at the other party with venomous eyes, and had no choice but to use a forbidden technique that would kill him!

But at that moment, several more extreme sword intents attacked.

He couldn't dodge in time; the sword intent pierced through his left shoulder, leaving a gaping, bloody hole...

"Ugh!" Lu Mingxuan groaned, half of his body went numb instantly, and his movements froze again.

Fang Xuan seized the opportunity, and the sword aura condensed on the black sword reached its peak.

He suddenly remembered that he seemed to have a Heaven-rank sword technique that he had practiced at the Fang family.

The vast spiritual energy was poured into the sword, and the black sword fell silently.

But in Lu Mingxuan's eyes, it was as if he saw an endless raging wave carrying immense thunder, transforming into a giant blade that could cleave the heavens and earth, pressing down on him.

Between heaven and earth, there is only this one sword.

"ah--!!!"

He mustered his last strength to hold the blood-stained blade horizontally above his head.

"Snap!"

The blood-stained blade snapped in two.

The sword's momentum didn't stop; it sliced ​​through his body, across the palace wall behind him, and across the vast ruins of the palaces further behind...

A bottomless, enormous ravine appeared instantly on the courtyard floor.

And it spreads forward, dividing the entire backyard area of ​​Xuanli Palace in two!

The smoke and dust slowly dissipated.

Lu Mingxuan has also turned to ashes.

Fang Xuan slowly sheathed his sword, the black blade returning to its original position.

He exhaled a breath of stale air, feeling a surge of spiritual energy flowing into his body.

He reached the late stage of the Void Core realm and succeeded.

He turned to look at Ning Qian.

Ning Qian was also looking at him, and a fleeting emotion seemed to flash across her cool eyes, so fast that it was impossible to catch it.

She lowered her fingers, and the faint blue sword energy at her fingertips quietly dissipated.

In that instant, Fang Xuan unleashed his full power, revealing the characteristics of the Fang family sword technique.

With Ning Qian's keen eyesight and knowledge, she naturally recognized it at a glance.

Just as she had guessed, it was... someone from the Fang family.

Moreover, judging from the purity of his swordsmanship, it is definitely not something that a disciple from a collateral branch could cultivate.

But if he were a direct descendant of the Fang family, why would he come to the Qingyun Sect and be so... intimate with a cripple like himself?

Was he ousted due to internal strife within the Fang family?

Or perhaps he was the illegitimate son of an elder in an awkward position, highly talented but neglected and even secretly abandoned, which led him to end up here...

Numerous guesses flashed through Ning Qian's mind in an instant.

She looked at Fang Xuan's handsome profile, which still had a youthful air about it, and remembered his words about being punished by being sent to the kitchen for slacking off during his childhood training.

Talent doesn't lie. He's only seventeen, with such great talent, he should have been nurtured in a place like the Fang family.

And now that we're here, we still have to go through all this...

She felt a pang of sympathy.

.......

However, if Fang Xuan could hear Ning Qian's thoughts at this moment, he would probably sigh to the heavens.

He simply ran away from home; it has nothing to do with being an illegitimate child or being abandoned.

He secretly smashed the life lamp himself, ran away in the dark, and took all the good stuff with him.

......

"Senior Sister, are you alright?" Fang Xuan withdrew his spiritual power and walked to Ning Qian's side to ask.

Ning Qian snapped out of her thoughts and gently shook her head: "It's nothing."

But his gaze remained fixed on Fang Xuan's hand as he sheathed his sword, and the terrifying sword mark on the ground...