"All that's left is you now," Chu Kuangren said to the Sima Clan Leader.
"Hold on. The Sima clan has ties with the Sword Tribe. They'll come for you if you kill me."
The Sima Clan Leader said. He was trying to threaten Chu Kuangren with the Sword Tribe's influence.
To his surprise, Chu Kuangren sneered at his threat instead. "Sword Tribe! What do you think will happen when I meet the Sword Daoist?"
Upon hearing this, the Sima Clan Leader could not answer.
Chu Kuangren possessed the Exquisite Nine Orifices Sword Heart, the same physique that resided within the Sword Daoist.
However, judging by the Sword Daoist's personality, he would not tolerate another person possessing the same physique as him. The duo was bound to have a battle when they would eventually meet.
Chu Kuangren was destined to become the Sword Daoist's nemesis.
If such was Chu Kuangren's fate, why would he even care about the Sima Clan Leader's threat?
The Sima Clan Leader was getting desperate now.
"Run!"
Since his threat had yielded nothing in return, the Sima Clan Leader immediately made his attempt at escaping.
Alas, if the Boundary Emperors before him had failed to escape, what were the odds for him?
A Spatial Cessation Rune descended from the sky and crashed onto the Sima Clan Leader.
The Sima Clan Leader's entire body froze in motion while he was still in mid-air.
Subsequently, a stream of magnificent purple sword rays unleashed towards him.
Utterly defenseless, the Sima Clan Leader was sliced into halves by the sword qi and perished immediately!
None of the four Boundary Emperors were spared!
There was only dead silence outside the Heavenly Pool Mountain.
The observers fixated their sight onto Chu Kuangren, all of them overwhelmed by a deep sense of fear and disbelief.
This battle was all it took for Chu Kuangren's reputation to soar within the Emperor Road!
"Why do I feel like Chu Kuangren's combat strengths are far stronger than the outlawed sky-pride?"
"Indeed. It seems like another monster has appeared in the Emperor Road. Only the heavens know who will eventually ascend into the Emperor Throne."
The Sages discussed outside the Heavenly Pool Mountain.
After slaying the Boundary Emperors, Chu Kuangren began looting their Yin and Yang Rings.
He activated his spiritual thoughts and noticed a chunk of decent items within them.
Other than the Emperor Weapon that the Sima Clan Leader contributed, the other orthodoxy leaders had left a decent amount of soul emblems behind that weighed several tonnes in total. It was equivalent to a few billion top-tier soul stones in the outside world — a level of wealth that was deemed unfathomable by many orthodoxies.
"Just as I expected, these past ancient orthodoxies are filthy rich."
Chu Kuangren smacked his lips as his eyes glimmered with excitement.
At the side, Shang Qingxue looked at Chu Kuangren strangely and asked, "Sect Leader, did you purposely let the orthodoxy members go to bait their leaders here? Just so you can obtain more treasures?"
"What did you say? Do I look that evil?" Chu Kuangren kept the items and said nonchalantly.
'One hundred percent!'
Shang Qingxue thought to herself.
"We're done here. Let's go."
Chu Kuangren collected his thoughts and left the Heavenly Pool Mountain.
...
In an ancestral shrine of the Sima clan.
One of the altars in the ancestral shrine was arranged with dozens of wooden tablets, each tablet representing a member of the Sima clan.
On this day, the top-most tablet suddenly shattered into pieces!
A disciple, who was guarding the ancestral shrine, was mortified by the scattering splinters. "Something's happened to our leader! His tablet is broken!"
The disciple's face turned white and immediately hurried out of the shrine to announce the news.
Soon, the Sima clan was clouded with the presence of several distinct Boundary Emperors' Auras. Each came from a strong cultivator of the Sima Clan.
"Who? Who has the guts to kill our leader?!"
"Our leader was killed at the Heavenly Pool Mountain. He'd gone there to deal with an outside world sky-pride, but how could he fall so suddenly? Is an outside world sky-pride capable of such a feat?"
"Hurry up and investigate the issue!"
The Boundary Emperors' voices echoed throughout the clan.
The Sima Clan Leader's intelligence division immediately got into motion and conducted a thorough investigation of the incident in Heavenly Pool Mountain.
"According to the fallen sky-pride, Wang Tianteng, the name of the outside world's sky-pride is Chu Kuangren. He possesses an impeccable set of combat strengths."
"He's capable of slaying Boundary Emperors and is armed with Emperor Weapons. He has even taken the Sima Clan's Emperor Weapon away."
"Exquisite Nine Orifices Sword Heart... I didn't think there would be another one after the Sword Daoist."
"What should we do now?"
The Boundary Emperors were in a meeting.
Judging from Chu Kuangren's combat strengths, they determined that Chu Kuangren could not be defeated by the average Boundary Emperor. Besides, he was armed with an Emperor Weapon. The Sima Clan may be a past ancient orthodoxy, but they did not dare fathom the cost it would take to defeat their enemy.
Not only were the Sima clan's disciples dead, but their clan leader was too. Now, even their Emperor Weapon is gone...
If they suffered further losses, their status would not be able to handle it.
However, it would be impossible for them to cancel the thought of avenging their fallen members.
After all, who could easily forgive such an atrocity committed against them?
"Send Chu Kuangren's information to the Sword Tribe and inform them about his Exquisite Nine Orifices Sword Heart. I'm sure the Sword Daoist will not just sit idly by."
One of the Boundary Emperors proposed.
The rest was immediately in favor of the idea.
Letting the Sword Tribe deal with Chu Kuangren was not a bad choice.
"Alright. Let the Sword Tribe deal with Chu Kuangren. We'll assist from our side."
"We must find a chance to take back our Emperor Weapon."
Once the Boundary Emperors concluded their meetings, they sent a message to the Sword Tribe.
A day later, millions of kilometers away.
In the Sword Tribe's territory.
The Sword Tribe Leader was handling some internal affairs.
At that instance, a stream of golden sword rays arrived from afar and manifested into a golden dagger before him.
"Oh, it's a message from the Sima clan."
Although the Sima clan and the Sword Tribe were separated by millions of kilometers in distance, the orthodoxies were both powerhouses skilled in Sword Dao and had always kept close contact with one another.
As a matter of fact, the Sima Clan was considered the Sword Tribe's affiliated force.
Due to the sheer distance between them, the communication compass was no longer practical. As a result, the orthodoxies had developed a specific method of communication.
The Sword Tribe Leader gripped onto the dagger, and an array of messages was displayed before him.
He was surprised by the information. "An Exquisite Nine Orifices Sword Heart host who's armed with Emperor Weapon and is capable of killing Boundary Emperors... Who would've thought an outside world sky-pride like that existed?"
He then proceeded to share the information with the Sword Daoist.
Soon, an ethereal figure swooped over.
It was the spiritual thought manifestation of a handsome-looking young man.
"This person's my enemy. My Divine Emerald Lamp is in his possession. He must not be spared!"
The Sword Daoist spoke with a cold murder intent.
The Sword Tribe Leader grinned and replied, "Such a shame. The Exquisite Nine Orifices Sword Heart would've been of great use to my tribe if he's willing."
"Only one Exquisite Nine Orifices Sword Heart can exist in this world!"
"Only I can stand at the pinnacle of Sword Dao!"
The Sword Daoist uttered before he vanished on the spot.
The Sword Tribe Leader chuckled faintly and spoke into the empty space. "Are the Shadow Swordsmen here?"
Shuffles...
Dozens of shadows congregated from the corners and manifested into three peculiar swordsmen who were dressed in black robes.
The Shadow Swordsmen was one of the most mysterious divisions in the Sword Tribe.
Their main specialty was... assassination!