Luo Tian stared at Lu Yang for several breaths of time before finally withdrawing his gaze.
It was only an illusion.
There was no reason for him to feel this way otherwise.
Luo Tian had never even known that there was such a outer disciple known as Lu Yang at the Ninth Stage of Body Tempering Realm in the Azure Spirit Sect.
Top ten outer disciples?
What a joke!
To him back then, they were nothing.
As the personal disciple of the Grand Elder and a genius destined to enter the Essence Gathering Realm, he had never paid attention to those people.
Even if he had some impression, he had probably forgotten about a minor character such as him long ago.
Besides, Lu Yang’s appearance had undergone significant changes after reincarnation, so the Lu Yang of the past life could not be associated with the Lu Yang of the present life at all.
Luo Tian shook his head slightly and put those thoughts aside.
He looked at Lu Yang again, and this time, there was only indifference in his eyes.
"Lu Yang."
His voice was calm as he spoke.
"If you tell me the whereabouts of your clan’s cultivation technique, I can spare the Lu Family."
Lu Yang’s expression did not change as Luo Tian continued.
"That cultivation technique is an important part of my Azure Spirit Sect’s inheritance. Your Lu Family should not possess it. If you are willing to hand it over, the Lu Family can become an affiliated force of the Azure Spirit Sect. From now on, no one will trouble you."
Lu Yang listened quietly but sneered inwardly.
What a familiar method of the cultivation world.
Give someone a seemingly reasonable choice, offer them a path to survival, then make them believe that surrendering would allow everything to end peacefully.
But Lu Yang knew very well that even if the Lu Family handed over the Azure Moon Spirit Water Technique, there was no guarantee that the Azure Spirit Sect would let them live.
The secret had already been exposed and the Azure Spirit Sect had already come this far.
Most importantly, the deaths of Lu Qingxue and Bai Qinglan had already happened.
There was no longer anything worth negotiating.
Lu Yang slowly raised his eyes, his voice extremely calm as he spoke.
"Everyone knows that you won’t let us go, so why continue this charade?"
Luo Tian’s eyebrows rose slightly, "Charade?"
Lu Yang’s hand rested upon the hilt of his sword.
"Since you’ve already come here, then fight, there is no need to say anything else."
Hearing these words, Luo Tian’s patience had already ran thin, a trace of displeasure appearing on his aged face.
"How arrogant."
He slowly shook his head.
"An ant at the Spirit Awakening Realm dares to speak like this before us? Do you truly think that being at the Ninth Stage of Spirit Awakening Realm makes you qualified to compete with the Essence Gathering Realm?"
Lu Yang did not answer, instead, his Divine Sense quietly spread outward.
He silently calculated for a moment before his voice suddenly sounded inside the minds of Lu Tianhe and the other Lu Family cultivators within his Divine Sense range.
"Retreat."
Lu Tianhe was startled hearing the voice transmission.
"Immediately take everyone with you and retreat several thousand meters."
Lu Tianhe’s expression changed slightly.
He didn’t understand what Lu Yang intended to do, but after a moment of hesitation, he gritted his teeth.
"Go!"
The remaining Lu Family cultivators quickly began retreating.
Some of the older cultivators were too slow, so the stronger ones immediately carried them.
The opposing army naturally noticed the movement as several Spirit Awakening cultivators stepped forward.
"Stop them!"
But before they could move any further, a terrifying pressure suddenly erupted from Lu Yang’s body.
*Boom!*
The surrounding rain seemed to freeze for an instant.
The ground beneath his feet cracked into fissures as his white robes fluttered violently.
Although Lu Yang had not yet reached the absolute pinnacle of the Ninth Stage Spirit Awakening Realm, his combat strength had long since surpassed ordinary cultivators of the same realm.
At this moment, he no longer concealed anything, the oppressive force of a peak level Spirit Awakening cultivator erupting without reservation.
The expressions of the surrounding Spirit Awakening cultivators changed.
Their bodies became heavy, and their breathing became difficult.
Some of the weaker Body Tempering cultivators even staggered backward.
There were only a few Ninth Stage Spirit Awakening cultivators within the enormous army, after all. As for absolute pinnacle Ninth Stage Spirit Awakening cultivators, there were basically none.
Lu Yang stood alone before the army, and for a moment, it was as if he was facing them all alone.
The time he had given them allowed the Lu Family cultivators to escape to a thousand meters away at full speed.
From there, some Lu Family cultivators turned their heads, their eyes trembling with reverence.
That figure... was still the same as before.
That was the Supreme Elder of their Lu Family, the man who had once suppressed an entire generation alone and the pillar that had protected the clan for decades.
Luo Tian’s expression darkened.
He released his own aura.
*Boom!*
A much, much more terrifying pressure instantly descended, lifting Lu Yang’s suppressive force.
"Enough."
His voice contained a trace of coldness.
"Don’t play any tricks. Answer me."
Hearing his words, Lu Yang was silent for a moment before a smile spread across his face, and then he suddenly erupted into laughter.
It was a low laugh at first, but slowly became louder and louder.
"Hah... ahahahaha...!"
His laughter echoed through the rain, but there was no joy in it, only a chilling madness and exhaustion.
"What is the point anymore?"
His eyes became increasingly cold as he gazed up at those few figures looking like heavenly gods.
"My daughter is dead, my wife is dead, my family is about to be scattered, and my life has already reached this point."
He slowly stepped forward.
"So... what is the point of caring about anything else!?"
*Boom!*
The moment his foot landed, the entire world seemed to tremble!
An incomparably terrifying pressure erupted from his body, no longer merely the pressure of the Ninth Stage of Spirit Awakening Realm, but a force that completely surpassed the limits of what his current cultivation should have been capable of!
His Divine Sense expanded violently.
Forty meters, fifty meters, sixty, seventy, one hundred meters!
The rain within his Divine Sense range seemed to be crushed by an invisible force, and the weaker Body Tempering cultivators couldn’t even stand, their bones cracking and blood spraying from their mouths.
Some of them even died instantly.
The stronger ones collapsed onto the ground, unable to move even the slightest, as if carrying Mount Tai on their backs.
Even many Spirit Awakening cultivators felt their bodies become unbearably heavy, barely able to move.
The army descended into chaos.
"What’s happening?!"
"His pressure..."
"Impossible!"
"It is above Spirit Awakening!"
At the front, the four Essence Gathering cultivators finally realized that something was wrong.
Luo Tian’s expression changed drastically.
"Secret technique! He’s using a secret method to temporarily elevate his cultivation realm!"
Before his voice had even finished, Lu Yang disappeared from his original spot.
*Boom!*
He appeared directly before Luo Tian, striking forward with his fist, causing the air to crack and explode around his arm.
There was no exquisite martial technique or combat art, only a pure, overbearing power terrifying to the extreme!
*Bang!*
The punch landed directly on Luo Tian’s face.
The old man’s body was sent flying like a cannonball, crashed through one building after another, flung hundreds of meters away as dust and rain exploded into the air.
The remaining three Essence Gathering cultivators reacted immediately, surrounding Lu Yang as their Essence Qi erupted outward.
Lu Yang’s body flashed, his figure moving through them like a ghost.
He threw fists, palms, kicks, every attack being brutally simple, yet every single strike contained enough power to severely injure an ordinary Essence Gathering First Stage cultivator.
*Boom!*
One Essence Gathering cultivator was smashed into the ground while another was forced backward dozens of meters in the air.
Lu Yang’s body was already covered in wounds, blood flowing from the corner of his mouth, but he didn’t stop, not even for a moment.
Whenever he found an opening, his attack would suddenly turn downward.
*Boom!*
A terrifying palm struck the fleeing, scattered army as hundreds of cultivators were swept away.
Another punch descended, Essence Qi collapsing the ground, sending dozens of Spirit Awakening cultivators flying.
Lu Yang was not just trying to kill the four Essence Gathering cultivators, he wanted to sever the future of these factions.
Among these Spirit Awakening and Body Tempering cultivators were the disciples and descendents of the factions these four came from.
He wanted to absolute destroy them, cut off their inheritances, their bloodlines, their foundations, everything. He wanted to leave nothing behind.
He was just that petty.
Right?
Wrong?
The distinction mattered no more, as the person rampaging right now was no longer the Supreme Elder of the Lu Family, but a father and a husband.
So what if these cultivators were innocent?
Was his daughter not innocent?
Was his wife not innocent?
Since the cultivation world has always been like this... then see it through to the end!
The four Essence Gathering cultivators finally understood this, their expressions becoming ugly.
"Stop him!"
But Lu Yang had already become completely fearless
He no longer cared about injuries, his cultivation foundation, or the future.
The hastily compressed Essence Qi within his body was rapidly tearing apart his meridians, and his dantian, which had been forcibly blasted open, was collapsing. Even his life force was burning, and yet, he still laughed wildly.
He could finally fight without thinking about tomorrow.
"Come!"
His roar shook the heavens.
The four Essence Gathering cultivators attacked simultaneously, forcing Lu Yang back step by step.
Blood sprayed from his mouth, and his body was almost torn apart, but his eyes remained terrifyingly calm as he looked towards Luo Tian.
The old man’s aura was frightening, clearly approaching the Fourth Stage of Essence Gathering Realm.
Among these four, he was the strongest.
Lu Yang understood that if Luo Tian wasn’t suppressed, he would not be able to accomplish anything.
His eyes slowly became cold, a trace of extreme ruthlessness flashing through his pupils.
*Boom!*
The Blood Burning Essence Combustion Art erupted without reservation, pushed to its absolute limit.
The remaining vitality within Lu Yang’s body was ignited like a blazing fire.
Whether it be his Blood Qi, his foundation, his potential, and even his very life, everything was used as charcoal to fuel those flames that seemed to burn from within his flesh.
Lu Yang’s aura rose again, causing the dark sky to brighten as the thunderclouds above were violently torn apart under this blazing aura.
A terrifying radiance spread outward from his body, from hundreds of meters to thousands of meters.
It was as if a second sun had appeared beneath the primordial skies.
Far away, Lu Tianhe stared blankly.
His hands trembled slightly.
He understood what Lu Yang was doing.
"Lu Yang..."
His voice was incomparably hoarse.
At this moment, Lu Yang’s figure floated into the sky, his white hair dancing wildly.
At the same time, countless images flashed through his mind.
Seeing his parents for the first time, the mortal branch of the Lu Family, his arrival at the main branch, becoming a genius, his rivalry with Lu Tianhe and Lu Qingyu, the assassination attempts, meeting Fang Chen, taking revenge for his parents, entering the Spirit Awakening Realm, bringing glory to the Lu Family, marrying Bai Qinglan, becoming the Supreme Elder, having Lu Qingxue, seeing the Internal Affairs Grand Elder leave, watching Lu Qingxue grow up, seeing her hand him the Qi Transformation Heart-Protecting Pill, and finally...
Bai Qinglan dying in his arms.
Lu Yang closed his eyes.
His entire body was burning, but his aura continued to rise.
The power contained within him had already far exceeded the limits of the Spirit Awakening Realm, the limits of what his body could bear.
If one had to compare his current strength to the stages of Essence Gathering, then he could be roughly compared to the Fourth Stage of Essence Gathering Realm.
Lu Yang slowly raised his hand, the surrounding flames gathering around him.
The heavens trembled as his whole body gradually transformed into the silhouette of a gigantic sword more than ten meters in length.
The massive sword continued to rise, its blade piercing through the clouds.
The dark clouds that had covered the sky for more than a day were directly dispersed across thousands of meters.
Yet even after the clouds were scattered, the giant sword still hung in the sky like a second sun, its radiance undiminished.
It was a sword that blotted out the sun.
The terrifying Sword Intent spread across the heavens.
Lu Yang’s sword technique was called the Blazing Sun Sword Art, but it had never reached such a level before.
Perhaps, this was the transcendent realm of the Blazing Sun Sword Art.
Luo Tian stared at that figure.
For the first time, his expression became filled with genuine fear.
He poured every wisp of Essence Qi within his body into his defense, and the other three Essence Gathering cultivators did the same.
However, Lu Yang simply looked down at them.
At this moment, his expression was strangely peaceful.
He thought of Lu Qingxue, of Bai Qinglan, of everyone he had failed to protect in this lifetime.
His voice was almost inaudible as he spoke.
"This sword... is for everyone I failed in this life."
The giant sword descended like a heavenly sun crashing down.
*Boom!*
The heavens shattered, a terrifying radiance erupting as raging flames spread across more than a thousand meters.
Buildings, streets, trees, bodies, cultivators, everything was swallowed by the descending sword.
The four Essence Gathering cultivators unleashed their strongest powers, but in front of that sword, it all appeared so meaningless, like a sheet of paper, collapsing at a touch.
The sword fell, and everything vanished in its wake.
The earth trembled violently, a massive crater appearing where the army had once stood, the flames continuing to burn.
Lu Yang’s consciousness had already begun to fade.
His body, flesh, bones, Blood Qi, everything was slowly dissipating.
He could no longer see the outcome, and he did not know whether Luo Tian had died or not.
He couldn’t even tell whether he was still alive.
But strangely enough, at this final moment, his Dao Heart became clearer than it had ever been before.
A faint thought appeared within his mind.
Madam Shu... you were still wrong.
We always have a choice.
Sometimes the world doesn’t allow us to choose everything, perhaps fate can take away the people we love, and maybe there are always countless things we can never change. But...
There is always one choice that belongs to us.
Lu Yang’s consciousness gradually disappeared.
This was my choice, and...
I will accept it with my entire Dao Heart.