Heaven rewards diligence, but there are always fairies plotting against me.

Several days later, a shocking piece of news spread like wildfire across the entire territory of the Divine Sword Sect, covering thousands of miles, at an incredible speed.

Someone secretly made dozens of copies of the dungeon's image stone, as well as the confessions and signatures of Xiao He's subordinates, and spread them like rain across various cultivation markets, restaurants, and the residences of various cultivation families.

Public opinion was in an uproar!

"Xiao He, the top genius of the Divine Sword Sect's inner sect, is actually an accomplice of demonic cultivators who secretly colludes with the demonic path and traffics female cultivators!"

"Among the imprisoned women, there were not only rogue cultivators, but also daughters of noble families from Qingzhou's Wu and Wang families, and even several concubines from powerful families of the Great Yuan Dynasty!"

"The 'Wealthy Pavilion' established by the Xiao family in Qing Shi Town is nominally a den of iniquity, but in reality, it serves as a liaison point for the Blood Fiend Sect, a demonic sect, specifically providing pure Yin furnaces for demonic cultivators!"

These messages, like a series of bombshells, stirred up huge waves in the peaceful world of cultivation.

Those families and forces that were previously kept in the dark were enraged upon seeing the overwhelming evidence.

Especially those cultivation families with missing daughters or nieces, who were still searching desperately, now learned the truth that the Xiao family was behind it all, and that their methods were so cruel and despicable. Suddenly, both old and new grudges surged into their hearts.

"The Xiao family must give us an explanation!"

"Indeed! A dignified master of immortal cultivation has committed such a beastly act!"

However, when questioned by outsiders, the Xiao family adopted a policy of keeping their gates closed and refusing to acknowledge the allegations.

Some members of the Xiao family even claimed that this was a malicious smear campaign, and that anyone who dared to provoke the Xiao family on this matter would be making an enemy of the Xiao family's patriarch.

The Xiao family's toughness and arrogance thoroughly enraged everyone.

Just as the situation reached a stalemate, a mysterious rumor began to circulate in the martial arts world.

"It is rumored that the reason the Xiao family protected Xiao He, and even secretly condoned this, is because some high-ranking members of the Xiao family had already secretly switched to cultivating demonic techniques! The reason the Xiao family patriarch was able to attempt to break through to the mid-stage of the Purple Mansion Realm was because he relied on the essence and yin of a large number of female cultivators as a catalyst!"

"This demonic sect is the Blood Fiend Sect!!"

The rumor had no direct evidence, but its appearance at this critical juncture was like a deadly blade, directly piercing the Xiao family's Achilles' heel.

In the cultivation world, colluding with demonic cultivators is a public enemy, but if an entire family falls into demonic possession, then they are an outcast that everyone should kill!

Furthermore, a mysterious "declaration of condemnation against Xiao" circulated in various taverns and teahouses:

"The Xiao clan, protected by the Divine Sword Sect and enjoying its patronage, has shown no gratitude, instead harboring filth and evil. The traitor Xiao He has harmed his fellow disciples and plundered innocent families—an act against all reason! The Xiao family's protection of villains even suggests they have fallen into demonic possession. Now, fellow practitioners of the martial world have suffered under the Xiao family's rule for far too long. All those with a sense of righteousness should raise the banner of justice, storm the Xiao family, save innocent lives, and restore order to the world!"

The signature of this manifesto is extremely mysterious, consisting only of an emblem composed of a longsword and scales. But anyone with discerning eyes can see that there must be a mastermind behind it, using the prevailing trend to direct the anger of all the victims to a single outlet.

…………

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Qingzhou, Lieyang City.

This is a large cultivation city not far from the Divine Sword Sect, and it is also the place where the victim families are most concentrated.

Inside the largest inn in the city, "Tianxianglou," a place teeming with cultivators of all kinds, people were gathered together.

Among these people were family elders dressed in fine clothes, wandering cultivators with cold faces, and many young cultivators with murderous intent.

In the center of the hall, a huge wooden plaque bore four large, blood-red characters: "The Annihilation of Xiao Conference."

"Please be quiet, everyone!"

A burly, dignified middle-aged man stepped onto the high platform. He was Wu Zhan, the head of the Wu family in Qingzhou, and his niece was one of the victims who had been captured and tortured by Xiao He in the dungeon, nearly losing all her cultivation.

Wu Zhan slammed his palm on the ironwood table beside him, shattering it to pieces. His voice boomed like thunder, "My poor niece is still lying in bed, delirious, calling out 'demon'! It's bad enough that the Xiao family, relying on the power of the Divine Sword Sect, has been running rampant in Qingzhou, but now they've committed such demonic acts! If we continue to swallow our anger, tomorrow it might be our daughter, our Daoist partner, who will be captured and used as a furnace!"

"Patriarch Wu is right! Destroy the Xiao family!"

"Without eliminating the Xiao family, Qingzhou will never have peace!"

The cultivators below were filled with righteous indignation and roared in anger.

"However," an old rogue cultivator stepped forward and said with some worry, "the Xiao family has a Purple Mansion Realm ancestor in charge. Although we have many people and great power, if we don't have top-notch combat power to restrain us, we're probably just going to our deaths."

"There's no need for anyone to worry about that."

At this moment, a man wearing a straw hat, whose face was obscured, slowly stood up from the corner.

His aura was restrained, but the occasional glimpse of oppressive power he exuded sent a chill down the spines of everyone present.

This person was none other than Chu Chang in disguise.

Chu Chang spoke in a hoarse yet extremely resolute voice: "The Xiao family patriarch is currently in seclusion at a crucial moment. If he forcibly emerges, he will inevitably suffer a backlash. Moreover, the Divine Sword Sect is not a monolithic entity. Under pressure from public opinion, the sect's higher-ups have clearly stated that this battle is a personal grudge and a feud within the martial world, and the Divine Sword Sect will absolutely not interfere!"

Upon hearing the words "the Divine Sword Sect will not interfere," everyone present immediately felt reassured.

"Not only that," Chu Chang continued, "several reclusive Purple Mansion Realm cultivators have heard of the Xiao family's collusion with the demonic path and are extremely furious. They have promised to secretly intervene and restrain the Xiao family patriarch. All we need to do is breach the Xiao family's mountain gate and drag out those hidden demonic cultivators and Xiao He's remnants to sacrifice to the heavens!"

"good!"

"Everything is ready; today we will march on the Xiao family!"

Wu Zhan drew his broadsword from his waist, pointing it diagonally to the sky: "Fellow practitioners, follow me! Three days later, at the foot of Green Stone Mountain, we will raze the Xiao family to the ground!"

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

The deafening shouts echoed throughout Tianxiang Tower.

With Chu Chang's covert coordination and instigation, a violent storm targeting the Xiao family has been fully brewing.

Driven by hatred and a sense of justice, countless cultivators began to converge on Qing Shi Mountain, the ancestral home of the Xiao family, from all directions.

Meanwhile, the Xiao family compound remained deathly silent. The members of the Xiao family were unaware that a net of evil they themselves had sown had completely enveloped them.

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Qingshi Mountain is steep and shrouded in clouds and mist all year round.

This is the ancestral home of the Xiao family, a prominent cultivation clan in Qingzhou, which has thrived for hundreds of years.

The once bustling Xiao family ancestral home, where cranes once danced in the air, is now shrouded in a suffocating atmosphere of death.

The spiritual energy barrier that originally maintained the operation of the mountain-protecting formation has been fully activated, transforming into a thick layer of earth-yellow mystic light that covers the entire mountain upside down.

At the foot of the mountain, banners blotted out the sky, and weapons were everywhere.

"You old scoundrel Xiao family, you colluded with the demonic path and harmed your fellow disciples. Today is the day your entire clan will be exterminated!"

Wu Zhan, the head of the Wu family, roared like thunder, wielding a crimson nine-ringed broadsword, his true energy surging wildly as he roared at the foot of the mountain.

Behind him stood a densely packed array of forces from all sides of Qingzhou.

The Wu family, the Wang family, the Zhao family, and several major cultivation families of the Great Yuan Dynasty in the area together have nearly a thousand cultivators.

Surrounding these legitimate aristocratic alliances, tens of thousands of independent cultivators have gathered across the mountains and plains.

These rogue cultivators were dressed in various styles and wielded all sorts of weapons. Some were filled with righteous indignation, but most of them had a greedy and cunning glint in their eyes.

Who in the cultivation world doesn't know that the Xiao family is wealthy? They have accumulated spirit stones, pills, cultivation manuals, and a medicinal garden rumored to be full of rare flowers and herbs over hundreds of years.

Normally, the Xiao family is powerful and the rogue cultivators can only look up to them. Now that the Xiao family has become a demonic ally that "everyone has the right to kill," who wouldn't want to get a share of this huge advantage?

"Stubborn fools! Fellow cultivators, follow me to break this formation!"

Seeing no movement from inside the mountain gate, Wu Zhan immediately roared and took the initiative to attack.

He swung his nine-ringed broadsword out, and a crimson blade beam tens of feet long tore through the void, slamming into the Xiao family's protective mountain formation.

boom!!!!

The deafening roar was like a thunderclap in spring, and the yellowish-brown light curtain trembled violently, rippling outwards in terrifying energy waves.

"Let's do it!"

As Wu Zhan made his move, several powerful figures from the Great Yuan Dynasty, including the head of the Wang family and other late-stage Foundation Condensation Realm experts, unleashed their magical treasures.

In an instant, the colorful light of magical artifacts in the sky blocked out the sunlight, and flying swords, thunder seals, fire talismans, and wind blades poured down like a torrential rain, frantically smashing into the light barrier.

"BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!"

Under the relentless bombardment, the light barrier of the array began to crack, emitting a creaking sound as it struggled to withstand the pressure.

Inside the mountain gate, the members of the Xiao family were deathly pale.

Standing before the main hall plaza, Xiao Wanshan, the patriarch of the Xiao family, stared at the crumbling array and roared through gritted teeth, "Where are the reinforcements from the Divine Sword Sect? Has the Ancestor not emerged from seclusion yet?!"

"Patriarch, the Divine Sword Sect... The Divine Sword Sect has not responded at all. Their gates are tightly closed, and they have declared that they will not interfere in the family's private feuds!" an elder reported in a panic.

"Damn it! These opportunistic scoundrels!" Xiao Wanshan nearly spat out a mouthful of blood. He turned to look at the forbidden area behind the mountain, a resolute glint in his eyes. "Since they won't give us a way out, then don't blame the Xiao family for being ruthless! Send down the order: awaken the 'Blood Slaves' and prepare for battle!"

…………

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Click!

With a crisp cracking sound, the "Xuanwu Yutian Formation," which had protected the Xiao family for hundreds of years, finally collapsed completely under the combined attack of dozens of Foundation Condensation Realm cultivators.

"The formation has been broken! Charge in!"

"Grab the spirit stones! Charge!"

The moment the great formation shattered, the first to move were not the allied forces of Wu Zhan and other aristocratic families, but the countless independent cultivators on the periphery who had been unable to restrain themselves for so long.

Like bloodthirsty locusts, they transformed into countless streams of light, surging overwhelmingly towards the Xiao family's mountain gate.

"kill!"

Inside the Xiao family, countless Xiao family members, who had been waiting for their chance, also turned red with rage and each used their flying swords and magical treasures to meet the attack.

The two torrents collided violently at the gate of Qingshi Mountain. In an instant, the light of magic, the sound of magical artifacts colliding, severed limbs and splattered blood transformed this sacred immortal land into a living hell.

A disciple of the Xiao family, who was at the late stage of the Qi Refining Realm, had just killed a rogue cultivator with his flying sword. Before he could even retrieve his sword, a calloused black hand suddenly reached out from his side and delivered a vicious "Bone-Shattering Palm" that shattered his skull. The rogue cultivator didn't even bother to pick up his Qiankun bag from the ground before rushing impatiently toward the pavilion ahead.

"Mine! This mid-grade flying sword is mine!"

"Get out of my way! I saw this fifty-year-old Blood Essence Grass first!"

Chaos, utter chaos.

The rogue cultivators had absolutely no discipline. After entering the Xiao family, they quickly dispersed and swarmed into every room, every side hall, and even the servants' quarters like locusts.

Whenever they see something valuable, they engage in a frenzied looting, sometimes even fighting and killing each other over a single spirit stone.

Meanwhile, the allied forces of the Wu and Wang families had a clear objective: to head straight for the core area of ​​the Xiao family, including the Sutra Repository, the Treasure Pavilion, and the main hall of the Xiao family.

"Xiao Wanshan, prepare to die!"

Wu Zhan was covered in blood, his crimson blade flashing wildly, each swing taking the lives of several Xiao family guards, heading straight for the Xiao family patriarch.