Different Year, Same Thing (Part 13)

Xuanyuan Scarlet Sword was a moniker attached to Xuanyun Sanctuary's leader, Ling Xuezhao, a man in his twenties often dismissed upon first impression due to his thin physique and pale face. The "scarlet sword" part in his moniker was a reference to him having killed enough unorthodox sects' members to build a big sect out of. Folks claimed they could smell blood coming from his sword at all times. Therefore, they, and factually, didn't classify him as a heroic swordsman. Ever since he peaked as a swordsman at twenty-five years of age, they called him "Exterminator" in reference to the corpses littering the world in his wake. Some straight up called him "Slaughter Demon".

Ling Xuezhao's definition of swordsmanship was to purge evil, shedding blood every time he unsheathed his sword. When it came to swordplay, he cared naught for aesthetics, power, pragmatism or agility; his sole focus was, "It's good as long as the means are achieved." He deemed all other components to be superfluous, much to the chagrin of other swordsman who pursued a different ideal of swordsmanship.

During the battle at Lawless Cliff, Ling Xuezhao single-handedly cut down three of Demon Sect's great guardians and over a hundred others, hence his promotion to Xuanyuan Sanctuary's leader, one of the youngest men to ever be instated as a sanctuary leader in Mount Lu Sword Sanctuary's history.

By no means was Ling Xuezhao the first to pursue a path of bloody swordsmanship or the last, but he was the only current one. Regardless of the comments surrounding him or the fact that he would never be viewed as a true swordsman - not that he cared - nobody could deny that he was the greatest genius swordsman Mount Lu Sword Sanctuary had seen in the last decade.

Give him a sword, and he would learn how to wield it in no time. As a matter of act, he never learnt from any renowned mentor or concerned himself with learning lauded swordplays. Give him an opponent, and he would instinctively figure out how to kill them.

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In terms of creativity within Mount Lu Sword Sanctuary, nobody came close to Heavenly Realisation Sanctuary's leader, Ling Cong, a youth who carried the "Ling" surname, yet never learnt a single technique from Mount Lu Sword Sanctuary's styles.

Twenty-five years ago, Ling Clan didn't favour elder children over younger children. Thanks to the stipulation that only disciples quali