Chapter 71: So What if I am Xue Taiyang?
Reon slowly lifted his head, his expression eerily calm, yet beneath that stillness lay a chilling, bone-deep coldness.
His grip on his sword tightened slightly as he prepared to set his plan into motion.
"So what if I am Xue Taiyang?" he said, his voice steady and piercing as he locked eyes with the leader of the group.
"What will you do about it?"
The leader's lips curled into a sneer, his eyes narrowing with triumph.
"So you admit it!" he barked.
"Xue Taiyang, you bastard! We've been looking for you for a month, and now—at last—we have you."
Malice dripped from his voice like venom.
"Of course, you won't leave this place alive. It's the will of Young Master Niu. He ordered your death for defying him—for your betrayal."
Reon's gaze didn't waver, his lips curving into a faint, humorless smile.
"I see. So you're the dogs of that spoiled brat, Niu Ling."
The leader's face twisted with fury.
"Watch your mouth!" he snapped.
"Don't insult Young Master Niu! Do you think you stand a chance against us? Just because your Mist Cloud Fox defeated a few Outer Sect trash, you think you're invincible?"
Reon tilted his head slightly, his voice calm, yet carrying an undertone of quiet menace.
"You're not wrong."
The smirk on his lips deepened, sending an unsettling chill through the air.
"Cloudia wouldn't have stood a chance against you before… that is, if she were still in her previous state. But things have changed."
His voice dropped to a murmur. "You'll find out soon enough."
The leader opened his mouth to respond.
"What do you mea—"
Before he could finish, Reon's voice cut through the air, cold and sharp as a blade.
"Before we go any further, answer me this."
His gaze darkened, his voice lowering to a chilling whisper.
"Were you the ones who injured her—my little cat?"
For a moment, silence.
Then, the leader let out a low, dark chuckle.
"Since you won't be leaving here alive, I suppose there's no harm in telling you."
He sneered.
"Yes. It was us."
His voice carried the smug satisfaction of a predator toying with its prey.
"That beast was nothing more than a stepping stone to our glory, but it dared to resist."
He clicked his tongue in mock disappointment.
"A creature with a Legendary Lineage like that can't be bound by force into a contract, so we had no choice but to break it. Injure it. Subdue it with a Slave Collar."
"It was meant to serve Young Master Niu, whether it liked it or not."
The sneer barely had time to settle on his face before something changed.
The moment the words left his mouth, the temperature seemed to plummet.
The wind stilled.
The world hushed.
Reon didn't explode in rage.
He didn't yell.
He didn't curse.
Instead, he simply stared at them—his expression unreadable, his eyes twin voids of quiet, bottomless fury.
That silence was more terrifying than any outburst.
Then—
A sound.
A soft hum, low and ominous.
The Dark Blue Moonlit Fang in Reon's grasp trembled faintly, its surface rippling like liquid shadow before being swallowed whole by an Inky-Black Aura.
Dark. Unnatural.
Alive.
The shift was instant.
The oppressive weight of his presence crashed down like an unseen tidal wave.
The group of cultivators stiffened.
Their leader faltered, his sneer wavering, his bravado cracking as he felt it.
The suffocating force of something beyond the ordinary.
"I-is that… Sword Aura?" he stammered, his voice breaking.
"But… it's black? That's impossible! And how in world... did it cover his sword so fast? It should take at least... two minutes to fully manifest!"
His mind reeled.
Even the most gifted Heavenly Geniuses, those who awakened Golden Sword Aura, needed thirty to forty seconds to fully form it.
But Xue Taiyang?
Not even ten seconds.
"And this pressure…" Another disciple trembled, his voice quivering with barely contained panic.
"Big Brother… this isn't ordinary Sword Aura. This is…"
His words stuck in his throat, choked by fear.
"It's far stronger than even... Young Master Niu's Sword Aura!"
"Shut up!" the leader snapped, but his voice lacked its former strength.
"It must be some kind of forbidden item, imbued with Death Qi. There's no way a Black Sword Aura actually exists!"
One of his subordinates—Yin Shan—shook his head violently.
He swallowed hard, glancing nervously at the leader.
"Big Brother, it's not just the color… Look at the intensity!" He stepped back involuntarily, his breath coming in short gasps.
"This isn't just Sword Aura—this is Pinnacle-Stage Sword Aura!"
"Enough!" the leader roared, his voice shaking slightly as he forced himself to stand his ground.
"Stop panicking like cowards! He's just using some lowly, forbidden artifact to create an illusion of power!"
He drew his sword with a swift, commanding motion, desperately clinging to control.
"It may look intimidating, but don't be deceived! We have the advantage—numbers, higher cultivation and years of experience!
His sneer returned, but it was thinner now, forced.
"We are Inner Disciples, the elite of the sect, while he is nothing more than a frail weakling who couldn't even stand against a sect newcomer."
"Surround him! Now!"
"Yes, Big Brother!" The others echoed his command, their voices filled with forced confidence.
But their eyes? Their eyes betrayed them.
Fear still lingered beneath the surface, gnawing at them like a festering wound.
The leader gripped his blade tightly, channeling energy into it.
The faint hum of Mastery-Stage Sky-Blue Color Sword Aura began to emanate from its surface.
"I'll put an end to this farce myself!" he declared, a sharp edge of determination in his voice.
He braced himself, ready to unleash his full strength.
But then—
Reon took a single step forward.
One.
The black aura around his sword flared—twisting, writhing, a living entity of shadows and death.
And then—
He spoke.
Soft. Cold. Final.
"Activate your Sword Aura?"
His eyes, filled with quiet certainty, locked onto the leader.
His lips curled into a whisper of a smirk.
"You won't have the chance."