Chapter 568: Shen Anyu Wins Without Lifting a Finger! A Demonic Sword Demands a Dutiful Son!
The Martial God Hall is a colossal behemoth in the international Dark World, with five Heavenly Human Giants at its Peak. The Hall Master of the Martial God Hall was an existence close to a Land Immortal. How many good things did it possess? The Tianshi Sect has been the dominant force in Yanxia's magical arts world for a thousand years, with Celestial Masters emerging continuously. How many good things did it possess? Thinking of these, Young Master Shen almost lost his composure.
'Composure, I must maintain my composure,' Shen Anyu chided himself, a faint, predatory smile touching his lips. He wasn't some graceless fool. 'I must not be like Ji Xiaolin, that big clumsy girl with her long legs, slender waist, and high ponytail.' His mind briefly conjured an image of her, all flustered energy and naive intensity, and the smile widened. Such simple creatures were amusing, but their lack of self-control was a fatal flaw.
Shen Anyu's eyes flickered slightly as he settled back into his thoughts, his mind a razor-sharp instrument dissecting the future.
At its peak, the Martial God Hall had been a true titan, boasting five Heavenly Human Giants. It was a force that could have reshaped the power balance of the entire globe. But their ambition had outstripped their foresight. Three of them, including the much-feared Sea Dragon King Zhang Hailong and the infamous Left and Right Protectors, had foolishly accepted a contract to assassinate him. He hadn't even needed to act personally. Susan had handled it. The intelligence report was beautifully concise: three Heavenly Human experts, annihilated. Not just killed, but utterly erased from existence, leaving no bones, no blood, not even a lingering trace of their spiritual energy. It was a demonstration of overwhelming, absolute power—a message sent and received.
Now, the once-mighty Martial God Hall was a wounded beast, left with only two Heavenly Human experts to guard its crumbling prestige. But wounded beasts were often the most dangerous. According to the whispers from Black Widow Scarlett—his beautiful, cunning pawn embedded deep within their hierarchy—the Hall Master was on the verge of a breakthrough. After decades of seclusion, he was about to touch the threshold of the Land Immortal stage.
Once that happened, a reckoning was inevitable. The Hall Master would emerge from his cocoon of meditation, his power magnified, his rage incandescent. He would have to act. Vengeance for his three fallen giants would demand a river of blood. Furthermore, his ambition would be stoked. The intelligence also mentioned his designs on Fairy Pei, the Senior Sister of the Sword God Ye Linyuan. Her unique physique was a priceless treasure, a perfect cauldron for a dual cultivator seeking to consolidate a new level of power. Both paths—vengeance and ambition—led directly to Yanxia. Directly to his doorstep.
Shen Anyu didn't need to act for now; he just needed to wait for the treasures to deliver themselves.
'Land Immortal, heh~'
A sliver of pure, undiluted mockery flashed in Shen Anyu's eyes. The image was almost pitiable. The Hall Master, a man who had isolated himself from the world for twenty long years, finally achieving a Major Achievement in his Divine Power. He would emerge, drunk on his newfound strength, believing himself to be an unstoppable god, ready to sweep through Yanxia and assert his dominance. But the world he had left was not the world he was returning to. He would charge into Yanxia expecting to be a tempest, only to find he was a raindrop falling into the abyss. He would discover, in the most final way imaginable, that a Land Immortal was nothing before Shen Anyu.
With Shen Anyu's foundation, the chasm between them was absolute. It wasn't a matter of cultivation level; it was a matter of quality, of essence. The Hall Master's power would be a raging, uncontrolled fire. Shen Anyu's was a block of solid ice forged in the absolute zero of the void—infinitely denser, colder, and utterly unbreakable. If they were to clash, Shen Anyu could shatter the man's spirit without even drawing a weapon.
Speaking of which, a flicker of genuine warmth, a rare commodity for him, surfaced as he thought of Scarlett. He genuinely missed that stunning blonde, blue-eyed beauty. The memory was vivid: the scent of her expensive perfume, the calculated danger in her gaze, the cool professionalism that barely concealed a searing ambition he found so very appealing. He looked forward to her next report.
In fact, Shen Anyu found himself almost anticipating the Martial God Hall Master's breakthrough. He hoped the man would hurry. The moment he stepped foot in Yanxia, a cascade of opportunities would unlock. Shen Anyu already had a dozen intricate schemes spinning in his mind, webs of intrigue designed to not only neutralize the Martial God Hall but also to use the ensuing chaos to finally take down the aloof Fairy Pei. And of course, to completely and utterly exploit the remaining value of Ye Linyuan, that troublesome Child of Destiny with his seven goddess-like Senior Sisters.
'As for the Tianshi Sect~'
Shen Anyu chuckled softly, a low, menacing sound that barely disturbed the air in the room. He idly played with a fist-sized, inky-black crystal in his hand. Though it was no larger than his palm, it was unnaturally heavy, weighing nearly ten catties. Cold radiated from it, a profound chill that seemed to drink the warmth from its surroundings. This was a High-Grade Supreme Yin Crystal, one of the rarest treasures he had plundered from the Wan Fa Sect's collection.
With this chilling artifact as the core material, the Yin Corpse Devil Sword Embryo could be forged.
This was a generous, custom-made gift Shen Anyu was preparing for Zhang Zhiyun, the favored Child of Destiny who had descended from the Tianshi Sect.
The forging process for the Yin Corpse Devil Sword, as detailed in the forbidden texts of the Two-Aspects Life-Death Medical Scripture, was not a matter of fire and steel, but of blood and despair. For the demonic sword to manifest its true power, its wielder must personally slaughter their closest kin, their most beloved friends, their most respected mentors. The blade had to be quenched in the tears of betrayal and tempered by the agony of a shattered soul. Only through the crucible of extreme pain and the birth of a truly demonic will could the sword be born.
Furthermore, the scripture was clear: only an individual blessed with immense Luck and fortified by an unbreakably strong mental energy could even survive the forging process. Anyone lesser would simply be consumed, their soul devoured by the nascent weapon.
When the Yin Corpse Devil Sword reached Major Achievement, it contained a power that defied conventional cultivation. A single scratch from its edge was a death sentence. It didn't just wound; it unmade. The victim's body would instantly corrupt, flesh and bone dissolving into a slurry of pus and blood. Even the soul was not spared; it would be liquefied, its essence devoured by the blade. The sword's most terrifying quality was its semi-ethereal nature. It existed between the planes of reality and illusion, allowing it to phase through most physical defenses and energy shields to inflict its horrific, true damage directly upon the target. It was a weapon of pure, unadulterated terror.
What made it even more remarkable was that the Yin Corpse Devil Sword was a growth-type demonic artifact. At its birth, it was merely equivalent to a Spiritual Artifact of the Foundation Establishment Stage. But as it fed on death, despair, and the wielder's own corruption, it would grow. If it reached its theoretical peak, it would become a demonic treasure of such terrifying might that even Nascent Soul stage cultivators would flee from its presence.
With a weapon like this, Shen Anyu would possess a powerful, obvious trump card even within the Foundation Establishment Stage.
But Shen Anyu himself, of course, would never forge such a thing. He held the Supreme Yin Crystal, feeling its deathly cold, and smiled. He was a loving son, with kind and doting parents and a harmonious family. He was exceptionally good to his women and unfailingly generous to his subordinates. He would never dream of using those he cared about as mere materials to forge the Yin Corpse Devil Sword.
But having someone else forge it for him? That was another matter entirely.
'Tianshi Sect... I'll leave it to you, Zhang Zhiyun, to handle personally. Forge the Yin Corpse Devil Sword well; don't you dare disappoint my expectations.'
A dark, abyssal glow surged in Shen Anyu's eyes, a pressure so intense that Du Zhao, who had been bowing and reporting nearby, felt an involuntary shiver crawl up his spine, as if a predator had just glanced his way.
Shen Anyu waved his hand dismissively. Du Zhao offered a respectful salute, his head bowed low, and quietly retreated, eager to escape the suffocating aura.
Now was certainly not the time to give the sword embryo to Zhang Zhiyun. The boy wasn't insane. As he was now, full of righteous arrogance and the backing of his sect, why would he ever attack his relatives, friends, and esteemed elders?
But... what if the world as he knew it was systematically dismantled before his very eyes? What if Zhang Zhiyun were to discover that his fiancée, the beautiful Ji Xiaolin whom he fell for at first sight, and his only living relative, his precious younger sister Zhang Yaqian, had both fallen into the arms of the same man? Willingly. Happily.
And what if, after this soul-crushing revelation, he was utterly defeated and humiliated by that very same man? Stripped of his pride, his strength, his very reason for being?
At that moment, when he was at his lowest, broken and filled with a despair so profound it blackened his soul—that would be the perfect opportunity. A desperate man will grasp at any lifeline. And when that man is Zhang Zhiyun, Shen Anyu would be there to offer him not a lifeline, but a blade. It would be the perfect moment for him to turn dark, to embrace the demonic path, to pick up the Yin Corpse Devil Sword and begin his bloody work.
'Shadows obscure the sun, ravens swallow the sky, black wings cover the clouds, heavenly fire annihilates...' A line from a dark scripture surfaced in his mind.
'Unfortunately, Zhang Zhiyun can't be a great filial son anymore, since his parents are long gone. But a Master... a Master is like a father. So it's the same, really.'
Shen Anyu smiled coldly. It wasn't that he was cruel, he reasoned with perfect clarity. It was simple pragmatism. A Child of Destiny possessed an almost supernatural charisma, an aura of Luck that inspired unwavering loyalty. The people around them very, very rarely betrayed them. Coercion was useless. Temptation was ineffective.
He had learned this lesson with Ye Yan, the protagonist who had descended from the mountains. His Master, Tian Yunzi, and the vast majority of the powerhouses in the Netherworld Palace were all fiercely, suicidally loyal. They would never surrender. They would never stand on Shen Anyu's side. There were exceptions, of course, but they were vanishingly few.
Since that was the case, then let them all die together. Let them be fertilizer for Zhang Zhiyun's new demonic sword. It was better than leaving them alive to fester, to plot, to inevitably cause trouble for him down the line. If he let them go, who knew when they might come crawling back to seek revenge.
It was always better to cut the grass and pull out the roots. To solve the problem once and for all.
Zhang Tianen, Ji Xiaolin's father, was a different case. His relationship with Zhang Zhiyun was more distant, more political. He could still be reasoned with, could still analyze the pros and cons. When Zhang Zhiyun was on the verge of being crippled by the Myriad Curses Sword, Zhang Tianen had seriously considered breaking off the engagement to prevent his precious daughter from becoming a living widow. He was a practical man.
But the Master of the Tianshi Sect and the other elders? They were too deeply entangled in Zhang Zhiyun's Luck, blinded by their loyalty. It would be nearly impossible to sway them.
It was better for them to be all together...
"Achoo..."
On the other side, Zhang Zhiyun, who had just descended the mountain again, suddenly sneezed. A profound chill ran through him, a deep-seated unease that whispered of impending disaster. If he could see the metaphysical world, he would surely notice the golden cloud of Luck hovering above his head shaking violently, flickering like a candle in a hurricane, desperately trying to warn him. But he couldn't see it. However, Zhang Zhiyun also frowned tightly and began to divine with his fingers: "Something's not right, very, very wrong." "Is someone plotting against me?" "Could it be the remnants of the Wan Fa Sect? Are there still powerhouses in the Wan Fa Sect?" Zhang Zhiyun frowned deeply. Besides the Wan Fa Sect, with whom he had a grudge, he couldn't think of anyone else who would plot against him.
However, even though he was skilled in divination, he felt that the heavenly secrets were hazy and he couldn't divine clearly. Shen An'yu, known as the Great Villain of Destiny, had blocked all divination of himself and everything around him. This blocking wasn't a void, which would be too obvious, but rather a normal state, showing no abnormalities. Let alone Zhang Zhiyun, even those great Divine Ability users of the immortal Dao couldn't divine Shen An'yu's abnormalities. "Hmph, what if the remnants of the Wan Fa Sect are plotting against me? The Master of Myriad Dharma Sect has already been killed by my uncle. The remaining remnants of the Wan Fa Sect are nothing but ants." Zhang Zhiyun scoffed. He had almost recovered from his injuries and regained his strength. With his Half-Step Celestial Master strength, proficient in various magical arts, he could easily fight several ordinary Half-Step Celestial Masters, and even contend with Celestial Master powerhouses
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