Chapter 318: Path to Destruction (2nd Update)

"Heavens, this, this, this—how could this have happened?"

"Who on earth did this?"

When Yan Yangtian and Lingyun Sect's strongest elites rushed back and saw what had become of Lingyun Sect, their faces turned deathly pale, their eyes filled with both fury and grief.

Because while Lingyun Sect hadn't been razed to the ground, saying it had been utterly destroyed would be no exaggeration. The Core Area, the most lavish and heavily invested part, had been devastated beyond recognition.

The corpses of Core Disciples and Core Elders lay scattered everywhere, each one a gruesome sight. The Martial Arts Library, the cultivation halls—all had been thoroughly demolished. Every single martial art manual had been burned to ash, and all cultivation resources had been destroyed.

Although few Inner Disciples and Outer Disciples had been killed or injured, they were terrified. Many had fled Lingyun Sect, afraid of being dragged into whatever nightmare this was. Those who remained were being led by the elders in urgent recovery efforts.

"Quick—save people, save people!!!" It took Yan Yangtian a long moment to snap out of his daze before he bellowed those words.

After that, the elites atop the white-headed eagles swooped down below and began rescuing those who had not yet died.

However, while ordering others to carry out the rescue, Yan Yangtian slowly descended from the sky, landing upon a stretch of rubble. He stood there in silence, saying nothing, lost in a stupor.

"Sect Master, it's terrible! Over half of our elite disciples and elite elders have died, and the treasury has been looted clean—nothing is left!" Several protectors rushed over, their faces panicked. Even they could not keep their composure.

The losses this time were simply too great. The outstanding disciples and elders cultivated over many years had been nearly all slaughtered, and the treasury accumulated over years of painstaking effort had been emptied. The high-quality martial art manuals—all of them burned.

Lingyun Sect, the foremost sect of all Qingzhou, had been reduced to this state by someone's hand. Never mind the catastrophic losses and grievous damage to their vitality—if word got out, it would become the laughingstock of the entire Qingzhou.

"Who is it—who did this?! I will flay his skin and rip out his tendons!" Yan Yangtian suddenly roared in rage, his voice carrying a hundred li. Everyone could feel the inferno of his fury.

"Sect Master, Sect Master—we know who did it, we know who did it!" Suddenly, several Core Disciples ran over in a panic, carrying a person on a stretcher. It was a relatively well-known elder from the Core Area.

However, this elder was now gravely injured, his cultivation in peril, his life hanging by a thread—though he still retained consciousness.

"Elder Liu, who did this?" Before Yan Yangtian could even speak, the protectors rushed forward and pressed for answers.

"It was… Chu… Chu Feng!" Elder Liu spoke the name in an extremely feeble voice.

"What?! Chu Feng—it was him?!" At the sound of that name, every person present changed color. One of the protectors hurriedly asked again: "Was anyone else with Chu Feng? Was Qi Fengyang there? Was Qi Fengyang also present?"

"No… no one else. Only Chu Feng. Run—all of you—run. He's a demon, the most terrifying person I've ever encountered."

"He'll come back. When that happens, no one… will… be… able… to escape." With those final words, Elder Liu's head slumped to the side, his body went limp, and he breathed his last.

*Thud, thud, thud…*

At that moment, everyone stumbled back several steps, too shocked to keep their footing. Two of the protectors' legs gave out entirely, and they crumpled to the ground with a thud, their faces contorted with indescribable terror.

A moment passed before people recovered from the devastating news. Every pair of eyes turned to Yan Yangtian—the Sect Master of Lingyun Sect, the pillar they all relied upon.

"Heh… a great enemy left uneliminated, an endless legacy of disaster. I, Yan Yangtian, made a colossal mistake. I should never have offended Chu Feng…"

"My Lingyun Sect is ruined. Ruined at my own hands. I, Yan Yangtian, am finished—I have personally destroyed my own future."

Yet even as he spoke, Yan Yangtian's face had gone ashen, a bitter smile on his lips as he murmured to himself. Then he began to walk slowly toward the outskirts of Lingyun Sect.

"Sect Master! Sect Master, what's wrong with you?"

Seeing this, everyone was terrified. They could all tell that Yan Yangtian was not in his right mind. But Yan Yangtian was the Sect Master of Lingyun Sect—their pillar, their anchor. If even he collapsed now, who would take charge? What were they supposed to do? Who would clean up this mess?

But Yan Yangtian paid no attention to the growing crowd of elders and disciples trailing behind him. He simply walked westward until he had passed beyond the sect gates, where he suddenly stopped and spoke to those behind him:

"All of you—leave. Sever your ties with Lingyun Sect. Otherwise he will return, and when that happens, no one will be able to stop him, no one will survive. Lingyun Sect will be completely annihilated, and even your families will be implicated."

With that, Yan Yangtian launched himself into the air and shot toward the western horizon. No matter how the protectors, elders, and disciples of Lingyun Sect called out after him, he did not so much as turn his head.

News of that day's events spread across all of Qingzhou in no time, becoming the most sensational piece of gossip the land had ever seen.

Lingyun Sect had been destroyed. Destroyed by a youth—and that youth was none other than the same Chu Feng who had recently slain Dugu Aoyun, claimed the title of strongest sect master at the Hundred Sects Assembly, and just days ago, single-handedly rescued Qi Fengyang from the Qilin Prince's Manor's execution grounds.

Chu Feng had dismantled Qingzhou's greatest sect all by himself. Countless elite disciples and elders were dead. Lingyun Sect's centuries-old foundation had been shaken to its core. Even the sect's own master, Yan Yangtian, had departed without a trace.

The foremost sect of Qingzhou was suddenly leaderless, descending into utter chaos. Many disciples and elders began to defect, joining other sects—and they told everyone it was Yan Yangtian's parting instruction: sever all ties with Lingyun Sect, or face certain annihilation in the future.

The news was earth-shattering, but for the other sects, it was nothing but good news. A hegemon-level sect's foundation had been destroyed, and a Heaven Martial Realm sect master had abandoned his own sect and fled. This was a rare opportunity for every other first-tier sect.

Although some within Lingyun Sect chose to stay, the majority had left, and with all their cultivation resources destroyed, any hope of a comeback was utterly impossible. For the myriad sects of Qingzhou, this marked the dawn of a new era—an era of competition for the title of greatest sect.

But no one would ever forget: the one who created that era was a youth named Chu Feng. And the one who had destroyed Lingyun Sect was also a youth named Chu Feng.

Lingyun Sect—the foremost sect that had stood tall in Qingzhou for centuries—had, for no other reason than having crossed a youth named Chu Feng, hurtled at breakneck speed down the road to destruction.